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She wasn’t going to answer my questions, so I walked outside onto the front porch. I heard her scrambling behind me. When she came out, hopping on one foot to slip her shoe on, I was already halfway across the yard. Usually, our fighters would stage before they went into battle outside the command center, which was across from our house. Stone must have them somewhere else for my sake.
It was obvious my brother loved me, in his own stupid way. It was touching, despite the brutish way he so often acted.
“Liam, where are you going?”
“They’re going to attack the Longroad pack.”
Karissa didn’t try to argue with me. “That doesn’t answer my question.”
“This isn’t what Brennan would want.”
Karissa chewed her lower lip, as if she were choosing her words carefully. “I think he would have. If someone had hurt you or Stone or Shaw or me, Brennan would have gotten revenge. Besides, all the packs will know that, sooner or later, we’ll come for revenge. That helps keep our people safe.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Which part?”
I rested my palm lightly on top of her head. “Everything. But I love you, anyway.”
She stared at me. “Great.Allmy brothers are condescending jerks.”
“I’ll tell Stone the same thing if he’ll face me.”
“Liam, he just doesn’t want to upset you.”
“I don’t get upset.”
She let out a soft, disbelieving huff, but restrained herself from pointing out all the times I woke up screaming or wolfed out for days.
She matched my stride, the two of us covering the ground until we emerged through the forest onto the road on the other side of our home. A line of vehicles snaked down the road, with Stone’s bulletproof SUV at the front.
Teresa and Cole were deep in conversation, and Teresa saw us first, abruptly stopping Cole with her hand on his arm.
“I expected better from you,” I told her as I headed past them for that lead vehicle. I didn’t, really; Teresa didn’t hesitate to put Stone in check, but she shared his taste for blood and vengeance.
“What’s he doing here?” Cole asked Karissa impatiently.
“He can hear you,” Karissa scolded him. “Don’t talk like he’s an animal.”
Cole snorted. “Animals have sense. Pacifists don’t.”
Stone got out of the car. He wore a chest harness with a gun tucked into the side, his eyes hard in that unyielding face.
Sometimes, the past came up so strongly, it blurred the present moment. For a second, I saw Stone at five, tears sliding down his cheeks as he pushed at our father’s legs, trying to hold our father back from reaching me. He was my little brother, but he’d never stopped trying to protect me. I felt a rush of warm affection for him, as strong now as when we were little.
“Go home, Liam,” Stone said, his voice quiet.
That affection lasted until he opened his mouth.
Stone never cried now. He’d been better when he was five years old.
“If you insist on being a fool, I’m going with you.”
“You’ll be a liability out there,” he replied stoically. “Won’t carry a gun. Won’t fight. Won’t watch our backs.”
“Does it get tiring for you to say so many stupid things all in a row? Because it’s tiring to listen to you.” I climbed into the passenger seat.
Stone’s face was furious, and he crossed his arms over his chest, but I knew he wouldn’t pry me out.
