Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
RAMONA
O llie happily clung to the oversized long-sleeve shirt I’d put on this evening for the pack meeting, and Sylvie worked on carefully carrying the key lime pies she’d made for everyone. My brother crouched behind Dahlia, trying to calm her high-pitched concerns.
“Daddy, you gotta fix it!”
I slung the backpack they brought with them that had all the kid-type stuff while O unraveled one of the twists he’d put in my niece’s hair before we left the house. He used his tawny claws to comb through the large twist that Dahlia had somehow destroyed on the ten minute ride to Vera’s house. “I’m fixing it, darlin’,” he tied off the end with a hair tie and the green hair bobble that matched her overalls and complemented her red hair. “There.” He kissed her cheek, and the impending meltdown cleared as fast as it’d come on.
O held his hands at his sides, fingers moving restlessly while Dahlia clung to his pant leg. Though he was surprisingly good at doing Dahlia’s hair, the sensation of hair product on his hands, I knew, made his skin crawl. When we stepped inside Vera’s house, he promptly headed toward the bathroom to wash his hands, and I took the babies with me through the house and out into the backyard.
It wasn’t as extravagant as Tina’s, or as expansive as Orion and Sylvie’s, but it was curated with personality and care. More hydrangea bushes bordered the small, fenced-in property, and delicate wind chimes and stain glass hangings decorated the porch. Enough seats had been set out around a fire pit that I hadn’t seen before in my sessions here, and a few other members were already setting up.
There was a little pond in the corner, and as soon as they saw it, both Ollie and Dahlia squealed to join the other Wolf pup that was peering into the water. With her hand in mine, I took them both over there and left the setting up to the actual adults.
I sat cross-legged and monitored the kids’ marveling and splashing at the water, like they weren’t used to living with an actual lake in their backyard. A pup whose name I couldn’t remember babbled and waved their arms excitedly, ramping up the playtime to ear-splitting levels. I tried my best to shush and focus their energy on being quiet for the little fish that darted anxiously under the surface, but it was only halfway successful.
While I kept them occupied, more members arrived, but the atmosphere was noticeably more somber, like the last meeting I’d gone to. This was the second meeting since the Wolf named Jasper had been killed by the Serafim Group. The pack members paid special attention to the murdered Wolf’s parents, and even I mustered small, encouraging smiles whenever they glanced my way.
As the time for the meeting drew nearer, I caught the creamsicle scent of my friend before he made his way onto the porch, and my shoulders perked up while his surprisingly quiet gait headed straight toward me.
“Hey Ramona!” His blond hair was damp and looked more brown today. The t-shirt, shorts, and converse were all color coordinated, and he didn’t hesitate to plop down cross-legged beside me.
I accepted his request of outstretched arms, our side hug quick but warm. “Mr. Delaney!” Dahlia screamed, to which Delaney chuckled and waved. Ollie and the other pup grinned gummy smiles and happily returned to taking Dahlia’s lead in their play around the pond.
“What’s up with you?” I asked, itching at my sleeves but keeping them pulled down. My mind kept warring between the safe yet stifled sense I got while wearing them.
Before I’d… tried to kill myself, I largely felt comfortable in my own skin. Especially in the summer time, I wore tank tops like a uniform. Back when I competed, shorts and sports bras were the norm.
And , I thought tentatively, maybe I can get back to that . Now that my Jaguar and closest family knew, it didn’t seem so impossible. The last time I’d seen Delaney, shortly after I started coming over here to Vera’s, I purposely pushed my sleeves to my elbows during one of me and my friend’s regular coffee excursions. He was the sweet spot of familiar enough to where I felt I could be a smidge more vulnerable, but also new to my life enough that I wasn’t frozen in terror at the idea of him rejecting me.
Just as I’d predicted—other than him just not noticing, which would have been fine, too—he eyed them for a stilted moment, and I tracked the subsequent comprehension that swept his features. I was kinda used to him being very easily reduced to tears, now, so when his eyes shimmered, and he grabbed my hands, I was prepared for that, too. He’d held them for nearly the whole time we sat together, but the benefit to him knowing was far greater than the apprehension I’d trembled with beforehand. Number Eight was no longer a hug from a stranger but the support from a true friend.
Now, Delaney sighed a fulfilled noise, brown eyes sparkling. “I’m good! My grades this past semester were good, and I’m excited to start the next one in a few weeks. I think having such a nicer pack to lean on has helped. Working for Lauren has been so amazing. Remind me to thank Sylvie and Leader for connecting us again!” He’d needed a summer job with his scholarship stipends only depositing during the school year. Luckily, Lauren needed barista help at the coffee shop she owned downtown.
Now, the scent of coffee beans also trailed along with him, but it was a homey smell. I snickered a little, “Not so afraid of him now, I hope?”
Delaney shook his head, still smiling sweetly. “No! You were right, he’s not scary! I’ll admit, I was shakin’ in my boots when he wanted to ask me about my old pack, but he said it was really helpful information, and he got me a job!”
Dahlia proved to have the ears of a true Wolf pup, because she interrupted her directing of her baby pup followers to giggle over at us. “Daddy’s not scary!”
We both chuckled at that, and I didn’t miss the flush on Delaney’s face from being called out by a toddler. I nudged his arm with my elbow, “So, what’s this about your other pack?” He’d alluded to it a little bit. But nothing more than it becoming a really bad situation. “Where are they?”
“Were,” he chewed on the edge of a fingernail. “I was born near Huntsville, but stuff with Howl’s Fury got really,” he glanced toward the kids and lowered his voice, “scary. I don’t like to think about it, but your brother said what I’d told him was really helpful. Bad memories.”
“Shit,” I muttered in sympathy. He looked truly afraid even saying that much, so I couldn’t imagine what he’d witnessed to cause such a reaction. “Well, I’m glad you’re here, then.”
That quick, his face changed to a beaming grin, and he gave me another side hug, “Me too!”
We chatted a little more until the meeting started with the general updates around the fire pit. Harrison, the adolescent pup that always seemed in a cheery mood, volunteered to watch the pups as they wandered about the yard, so I was able to pay full attention to O and the elders leading the meeting.
They still didn’t have any concrete news about the fucking shifter mafia trying to move in, but I also knew how much my brother was agonizing over it. He hid his emotions fairly well, but I knew him and knew how to track the nuance of his scent. I’d never seen him this stressed in all my life.
But, as Leader, he kept his posture and appearance strong while being honest about the danger we all faced with a promise to lead us to the best of his ability. He’d increased sweeps of the land perimeter, directing none of us to travel alone for the time being. The Mountain’s Peak pack to the north had agreed to lend assistance whenever we needed, and he and the elders were continuing to meet and discuss ways to covertly attack the Serafim Group. They’d already gotten their business licenses rejected and were working on taking the bureaurocratic way to kick them out of town, though I could tell that some were itching for blood. When a few members asked about staging an all-out attack, O calmly stated his reasonings, wary of the size of their retaliation should we avenge Jasper in such a way.
The elders and most of the pack backed him up with head nods and relaxing back in their seats, but the whole thing had everyone on edge. Even me. It wasn’t like there was too much I could do, but I would help as much as I could. And if that meant making other areas of my brother’s life easier, I’d continue trying my damndest.
An hour and a half later, the formal part of the meeting came to an end, and one or two Wolves hung back to speak more privately with Orion. Sylvie made her rounds as his mate, with Dahlia and Ollie now hanging onto her. Bugs buzzed around the lights set around Vera and Lauren’s yard, the smoke of the fire trailed up toward the black sky that was churning with collecting storm clouds. A few pack members were gathering stuff, feeling the rain coming on, but I wasn’t super concerned.
I checked my phone, expecting a text from Río but seeing none so far. I fought back the anxiety since we’d already planned for me to spend the night after the pack meeting and sent a quick heads up that I’d be leaving for his apartment soon.
“All right, I’m ‘bout to head out. I’ll see you later,” I said to Delaney who’d just finished a round of small talk with the mate of one of the Wolves.
He glanced toward my brother and sister-in-law. “Do you need a ride?”
I shrugged, “Nah, I was gonna grab my stuff from O’s car and walk. I’m going to…” I took a breath and remembered that last time I was there, he’d given me a key to his apartment, for god’s sake. “My boyfriend’s house.”
Delaney sputtered and did a little dance of excitement. I’d mentioned I was seeing someone, but this was the first time I’d called him anything specific. Even though the label didn’t feel whole enough. “I’ll drive you!”
“Oh, ah, no, it’s?—”
“Please, let me do this for you! You heard Leader—I can’t let you go alone!” He gasped, “And do you think your boyfriend can introduce me to someone?”
“Um, well, I can as?—”
“Even if he can’t! I can’t let you walk when it’s about to downpour, and I know you don’t wanna wait around for Leader and Sylvie. But anyone worth your time must have some friends that’d be worth my time, right? Ugh, what I wouldn’t give for a nice boy for once.”
I got swept up in the airy flurry that was my giant friend—Oh, god, was he my best friend? Besides Río and Sylvie, it was looking like, yes—and let him lead me to the cars. I got my overnight bag out of Orion’s car, returned his keys to him with a grunt of thanks, and let Delaney drive me away from Vera’s.
His little car was probably about two decades old, but it was clean with only a few random things making it slightly messy. A few drawings that looked to be from his students at the school, his hat from the coffee shop, a hot pink keychain.
I directed him to Río’s apartment, and when the sky opened up and dumped buckets on Antler Pointe, I was grateful that he’d offered to drive. Not that I wouldn’t have been fine on my walk, even in the dark, but it was definitely preferable to arriving completely soaked.
“Thanks for convincing me to take the ride,” I unbuckled and gathered my bag in my hands.
Delaney smiled and nodded toward the building, “I’ll watch you go up to make sure you get in there okay.”
I nodded and braced myself for the run to Río’s apartment. From here, the rain made it too difficult to scent whether he was inside or not, but my heart picked up speed in anticipation. My family and friend were… safe, but I was really starting to view anywhere with him as home.
RíO
I easily lifted the garbage bags from inside and pushed my way out of the back door. While I went to the dumpster, the heavy door cracked against the can of tomatoes that propped it open, but it wasn’t the loud noise that had my hackles raising.
Mierda . I tossed the trash into the dumpster and called out into the night. “What do you want, Mara.”
My sister rounded the darkened corner of the building like she wasn’t just spying on me not a minute before. Her pinstripe vest and pants looked pressed and impeccable, so unlike the rumpled and ripped clothes I wore. Today had been another double shift, and more callouts had caused me to work register and back of house all damn day. These were my last duties, and I just wanted to go home to my princess. Good thing I’d given her a key, cause no telling what bullshit my sister would spit today. Was she finally here to kill me? Or worse—drag me back to our father?
She pouted and did a dramatic turn around, as if there was something to see back here beside the old brick facade of Vinny’s and the dumpster. The very top of the black dragon tattooed on her back was visible and a perfect match for mine.
I wanted to shake the sixteen-year-old me who’d spent that year trying to accept and truly settle into life with my father and sisters. One thing Mara and Cata could never talk shit about was my art, and when we got high one night off our own supply, they’d convinced me to make some sort of design for the three of us to get together.
Drawing my own interpretation of Kukulkan, the Mayan winged serpent deity, had seemed like a cool idea at the time, and my sisters, in the haze of enhanced marijuana, thought the sketches looked ‘badass’. Reading and drawing and drugs had been my escape in those days, when time to climb and explore had been scarce, and I’d been fixated on indigenous mythology from our mother’s homeland at the time.
I still wasn’t sure they knew the significance of the artwork, but it was a nod to our mother that they couldn’t reject. The enchanted ink that outlasted our healing abilities made sure of that.
“I can’t just wanna see you again, Yoyo?”
“No. I’m busy, if you haven’t noticed. And I have nothing to say to you, so if you’re not here to kill me or take me back, I’d appreciate it if these ambushes stopped.”
She cackled into the air, slight frame shaking without any consideration of how much she could fuck up what little life I’d scraped together for myself. “If this is an ambush, maybe you need to be reminded of what it’s like to be hunted.”
“? Ya párale! All of you tortured me for years . I got out, and I’m done , Mara. I thought you understood that.”
Her laughter died as suddenly as it’d come on, and she stared into my eyes with no expression at all. I smelled the coming drops of rain a few minutes before they started hitting the top of my head, dotting my work shirt. Mara’s short, black waves twitched with the warm breeze that cycled around us, and my muscles reacted automatically to this side of her. How she’d looked before she became what truly haunted my nightmares. As a boy, I used to think of this version of her as Xiomara. My father’s most valuable and secret weapon .
Mara, who I’d once happily had in my blunt rotation, would disappear whenever the change took over. Hell, I didn’t even know if she truly realized how terrifying it was. Even though she’d eventually become Mara again and take care of me after fucking me up, she was never safe .
“Sim. Você fugiu.” She spun on her spiky heel and stalked into the night, back toward the main road as a distant roll of thunder sounded across the sky.
I wanted to hit something, maybe punch a hole in the dumpster, but I just pivoted in the other direction, back into Vinny’s to lock up and get the fuck home to the only one that truly mattered.