Chapter 8 #2
“In fact, I should sit with him to make sure he’s comfortable.” If he changes in the pens with the guards there to see him, if the moon madness really does take him, we’re done.
I’m done.
My wound prickles underneath the gauze and the ring of marks from his teeth throb with their own heartbeat. By tomorrow morning it should be entirely healed and any evidence of Grayson’s loss of control gone with it.
We’re balancing on a knife’s edge.
“Absolutely not. Your mother is frantic and you belong at home with us.” Dad stares sideways at me, regal, powerful. My pack leader instead of my father. “Your little friend will be fine until the morning and then we’ll reassess the situation. This is for his own good.”
The argument is finished before it begins.
Jrue falls away with the rest of the search party and their orders. His attention burns a hole between my shoulder blades before Dad turns us up the front walkway toward the house.
The moment the door closes, the mask comes off. His eyes gleam as he pulls me in for another hug.
“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” he grumbles. Then, louder, “Laura! Holly! We’re home. We found her.”
A stampede sounds from the kitchen before my mother and younger sister make the turn through the arched doorway. Another round of hard hugs and tears later, I’m being passed between them like I’m being checked for ticks.
My tongue knots itself again, untimely and inconvenient, before Mom shepherds me into the dining room and the spread waiting there.
“I knew they’d find you,” she says, more for herself than for me. “I knew Jrue was the best person to lead the party. What happened, Mandi? Where did you go?”
I open my mouth to answer as Dad chimes in.
“She was wandering in the woods. The vampires had a hold on her, if Jrue’s to be believed. He said they hurt your arm?”
I tuck my arm onto my lap. “Grayson is the one who saved me.”
Mom claps her hands together. “He’s such a good man. Isn’t he a good man? I’m sure he showed those vampires what it means to mess with the Ironwood pack.”
She means Jrue. My words have fallen into the same chasm they always do when I say something they don’t like or aren’t ready to hear.
I might as well not exist.
“Jrue had nothing to do with it. Grayson was the one who came out of nowhere and made sure I was okay. He’s the one who saved me—”
“The bitten boy,” Dad clarifies for Mom’s benefit.
Holly sits through the entire conversation and watches the back and forth like she’s got front row seats at Wimbledon.
Anything I might have said to gain Grayson some respect falls on deaf ears. There are no points awarded for him tonight. There are no points awarded to anyone.
Except Jrue, by merit of his breeding alone.
Mom’s lips screw up in a purse. The veal on her fork might as well be lemon. “Oh. Yes.”
“He has a name. Grayson Larimore is a good person. It’s not his fault he was attacked. Right outside our gates, I might add.”
I point in the general direction amidst the leers and the delicately cleared throat Mom thinks is better than an opinion.
The Ironwood distaste for anything they don’t understand has only gotten worse with the losses suffered. Out of all the packs, before our move, we’ve suffered the most loss from the moon-mad. They wanted to be safer here.
They were. Until now.
“Yes, poor thing.” Dad is quick to brush my statement under the rug. “We’ll figure out what to do with him in the morning. Right now, my concern is you. You’re not eating.”
I push the plate a few inches away until it knocks against the salt and pepper shakers. “I’m not hungry.”
I’m starving. But not for veal.
“Do we need to have Doc Adams come and check you?” Mom’s concern is suffocating.
Doc Adams has been with the pack forever. I’m fairly certain she delivered me and my sister.
“I’m fine.”
No one cares. I might as well say I’ve turned with the moon but into a ferret instead of a wolf. My parent’s voices mingle in a constant stream of worry and misguided normalcy.
Everything about this is normal, so separate from the chaos of the moon-mad wolves and the vampire’s involvement. Far from my secrets and my shame. I tune out until Jrue’s name linked with mine lands with a wet plop in the bowl of mashed potatoes.
I jerk up. “What about Jrue?”
“The mating ceremony, of course. We’ve decided to hold it with the next full moon,” Mom replies. “There’s no sense in dragging this out any longer.”
Dad drags his knife through his meat, screeching against the plate. “It’s time.”
“We’re hopeful it will trigger your shift, Mandi. And it gives you plenty of time to recover from whatever happened to you.” The thing you won’t tell us about.
Mom is nothing if not determined, but there are some things it’s not safe to share. No matter how many of my secrets she thinks she knows.
They’ve shoved me under the rug too. Everything I am or want to be.
“Jrue’s family is getting antsy to see this match be made. I don’t want his father to think we’re alienating them for any particular reason.”
I grip the edges of the table, my stomach shrinking further. “You’re the alpha, Dad. Hold them off. I’m not ready.”
Pressure won’t change anything.
“It’s done,” he assures me in a tone saying I’ll be happier because of his influence. “Don’t worry about a thing. Now eat.”
Eat. Smile. Marry.
Mate.
My parents don’t care how a sheen of goosebumps covers my skin. They only care how much noise I make when I push away from the table with enough force to send my chair against the wall. It clatters to its side and Holly’s jaw drops with it.
I scrub my hands over my biceps, shivering, before I grab the chair. “Sorry. I’m not hungry. I can’t do this right now.”
My parents’ voices lift, more concern, but they won’t follow me.
Tears scald every part of me and trail acid down my cheeks as I take the stairs two at a time. Muscles throbbing, I push into my bedroom, but there’s no slamming door. There’s no raging or punches thrown.
Because I’ve always been a good girl. Even if I’m going moon-mad.