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Charlie was hugging my waist, and I knew I should get him out of here, but I couldn’t move. All I could do was watch the flames eat away the life we’d started to rebuild.
“Charlie, come on. Come with me,” Buddie said.
“Yeah, Charlie, we’ve got something cool to show you,” Trevor said. I hadn’t even realized he was here, although where else would he be? The whole pack was watching my home burn down.
Slowly I felt Charlie letting go of me as they lured him away from the fire, as I should’ve done.
“That’s what happens when you leave a wooden broom leaning against a burning stove,” Groza said.
“I didn’t leave the broom on the stove,” I shot back. She wanted the whole pack to think this was my fault, when it was her goons.
She was actively trying to not smile. I could see her fighting it as she said, “Gillian saw it. She thought she smelled smoke and looked in the window. The broom burned a trail right up the wall. She called for help, but it was too late. Old wood like this goes up like kindling.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to get you in trouble,” Gillian said, coming over.
“It’s not your fault that this happened,” Groza said, laying a comforting hand on her arm. “Piper has been warned about this in the past. This is on her.”
Gillian might’ve seen a broom, but I hadn’t been the one to leave it there—not that anyone would believe me. It was the perfect thing to use against me because I had done it before, for a few seconds in front of Duncan. Groza had to have found out about that from him.
“We’ll find somewhere else for you to go, even though we have people bunking up with each other. We’ll do what we have to. I can only hope you’ll be more careful with the next place. If the trees and other cottages had been closer, you could’ve burned down this entire village, so I do hope you’ve learned your lesson.”
The entire pack listened as she handed down this lecture, and there was nothing to do but take it. Duncan walked over, surely having heard all of it.
My gut told me to let it go, not to bother denying it to him. I could see the way he ran his gaze over me, as if he really thought this was my fault. It wasn’t a harsh look, more like he was pitying me. That was too much to stomach.
“Duncan, I—”
“It’s loud here. Follow me.”
He nodded off across the way. I followed him after only a quick glance over at Groza, who for once didn’t seem to care that he wanted a private word with me. Why would she? She had him convinced I was an idiot.
“Duncan, I know we have our problems, but please believe me. I didn’t leave the broom there. I wouldn’t have been that careless,” I said, trying to keep my voice low enough that the entire pack wouldn’t hear me.
“Look, I know you would never do it on purpose. But accidents happen.” I was still too speechless to reply when he added, “No one will hold this against you.”
He was so blind that he didn’t see what Groza had done. That her goons were constantly setting me up.
“I’m telling you, I didn’t leave the broom there. I need you to believe me. It matters.” I was in a pack where most of the people wanted me only because of some superstitious need. There were two alphas, one trying to off me and the other trying to keep me neatly in my place. If I lost the confidence of Duncan, what did I have left here? How was I going to wake up every day when absolutely no one had my back?
“Sometimes we do things without realizing it.”
“But I—”
“Piper, it happened. Maybe Charlie did it. I’ve seen him playing with the broom, pretending it was a dragon.”
“He won’t go near the wood stove. He knows he’s not allowed to.”
He was shaking his head before I finished speaking. I might as well be talking to a mountain, as much as I was going to move him.
“Look, I know what you’re trying to imply, but there is one thing Groza wouldn’t do, and that’s burn down her village. It’s done. It doesn’t matter how it happened.”
He could say that because everyone in the pack revered him. He’d never had to prove himself. When he said something, it was automatically skewed toward unquestioning truth. That wasn’t my reality, and he was a point in case.
“Can’t you even give it a few seconds’ thought that it was her people? Maybe she burned the cottage down to drive me out? But you can’t see it. You dismiss it out of hand.”
“Everyone here is her people. She would never put this place in jeopardy. I know you two don’t get along, but she wouldn’t do that. You need to let it go.”
Everyone was looking at me, listening. Not a single one of them believed me. I could see it in the way they stared, as if I were showing my colors but continuing to deny it and not own up to my mistake. I might be the guide, but I was also a young human, and that didn’t rank high around here.
