Chapter 19
Boris
I growl and turn on Zahrah. "This is your fault!"
She winces. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry? My mate just broke up with me because I'm here with you." Claws form on my hands without my permission.
"I didn't think he'd react this way. Normal people don't react like that."
"He's not normal! He's human."
She flinches. "Yeah...didn't think about that."
I throw my clothes into my bag.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm leaving. I have to go to Simon."
She frowns. "Now? You can't go now. Maia is coming in the morning. I'm gonna snap some photos of the two of you."
I snarl at her, all my teeth on display, and she scrunches her nose. "Boris, calm down."
Calm down? Is she insane? Simon believes he has to protect himself from me.
He believes I'll cause him pain. It's not rational, but part of me understands it.
All his life, he's done what he can to protect himself.
It's all he knows, and I haven't been in his life long enough to show him there is another way to live.
"You heard him."
"Yeah, but...do you think you coming charging into his home in the middle of the night will make things better? Let's stay and do what we set out to do, then you can smooth things over tomorrow afternoon when we get back."
I glare at her. "I'm going. If you don't drive me, I'll run to Mom's and borrow her car. Maybe she can come in the morning as you planned."
"Boris."
"No, Zahrah. I listened to you--"
She cuts me off with a huff. "A few hours won't make a difference. He's already upset, and--"
"It will. It'll show him I'm willing to change my plans to make him feel better."
She flattens her lips and breathes in noisily through her nose. "Fine." She starts packing her things.
Half an hour later, we're walking. It'll take some time before we're at Mom's, but at least we're on our way. I grab my phone and type a text.
Boris: On my way home.
I want to write something else, beg him to let me in when I arrive, but Zahrah is right. We'll arrive around two A.M., and I'm sure Simon will be asleep by then. He should be asleep. He needs his rest.
When there is no reply for several minutes, I pocket my phone. Zahrah is taking the lead. The frost-covered leaves rustle underneath our feet, but otherwise it's silent. We don't utter a single word, and my gut is churning.
When Zahrah speaks, some ten minutes later, I jump.
"You need to tell him."
"Tell him what?"
"That the wolves in Rutchester aren't normal wolves."
I hum, but I have no idea how to tell him.
"He texted you because he was worried."
I nod.
"I thought it was a good thing, but maybe his reaction is...not logical, but explainable."
"How do you mean?"
"I believed him worrying about you was a good thing, but I think it tipped over into fear. I made him think we'd be gone for two days. On the evening of the second day, he started to worry."
I nod again.
"He was already worked up, right? Ira was most likely asleep already, and maybe he, too, has been waiting for us all day.
He was excited, so he might have been looking forward to us coming home.
So Ira is wondering where we are, along with his worry about you not arriving when I said we would, and then you argue about wolves. "
I wince. It was stupid to argue about wolves.
"He realizes both Ira and he will be devastated if something were to happen to you, and you come across as irresponsible because you don't come home when you said you'd come home--"
"It's what I told you when--"
"I know. This is on me, and I'm sorry. But he might see it as you not keeping your word, and then you downplay the danger of wolves, something he fears after your little stunt back in June. You have to have noticed the way he tenses every time someone mentions wolves."
I groan. I don't know what else to do.
"So you have to tell him. You have to make him understand you're not in any danger, Ira isn't in any danger, and Simon never was in any danger back in June either."
"I don't think he can take any more revelations right now."
"I didn't mean you should wake him up and shift on his doorstep, but soon. It has to be soon."
I nod. I don't know how to tell him, but she's right. I can't continue to lie to my mate.
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