Chapter 13 #3
Krys walked through the swing doors and entered a dark kitchen. After washing his hand in the sink, he decided to skip the ice and wrap it up with a napkin. On his way back out, he glanced into the dimly lit hallway and spotted Virgil leaning against the wall by Calvin’s office.
“You’re not one to hide,” he remarked while swaggering up to his packmate.
Virgil didn’t budge. His legs were stretched forward to anchor his back to the wall. “Sometimes a man needs a little quiet.”
Yeah, that didn’t sound right. “Ghosts?”
Virgil’s eyes flicked up. “Why do you say that?”
“Because you see shit nobody else can.”
Virgil turned his gaze downward. “What happened to your hand?”
“Nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing. Let me see.”
Krys stepped closer and anchored his left hand against the wall while Virgil peered beneath the bloody napkin.
“Someone was talking shit about Cleo,” he explained.
“Always the protector.” Virgil untied the knot and examined the nasty gash across his swollen knuckles. He folded the napkin and retied it carefully around Krys’s hand.
The energy changed when a familiar song hit the jukebox. It was the song that played the night they kissed, and every time Krys had heard it since, he thought of that night.
Like a psycho. Who dwelled on a kiss? Virgil had probably long forgotten about it.
Krys backed up. “So, what’s up with you?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t bullshit me. We’re friends, right?”
Virgil folded his arms, his disheveled hair obscuring half his face. “I’m not sure if I’m cut out for a pack.”
That admission felt like a gut punch. “Why do you say that?”
“I’m not like everyone else.”
Krys chuckled. “Like who? Atticus the Vamp? Quinn the crossbreed? Or do you mean—”
“It’s not the same, and you know it. Nobody likes a Gravewalker unless they need something from us.”
“You’re still half wolf.”
“Story of my life. Half but not whole. Half crazy. Half—”
“Cut that shit out.” Krys didn’t like hearing self-deprecating talk coming from the most confident man in the pack. “Did one of those assholes out there say something to you?” he asked, his voice low and dangerous.
Virgil flicked his eyes up. “What are you gonna do about it? Fight them?”
That suggestion was definitely on the table.
Virgil bit his lip. “Maybe I’m not cut out for pack life and I’ve been fooling myself.”
Krys hadn’t noticed Virgil drinking tonight, so it wasn’t alcohol or sensory magic talking. Calvin’s house special always put Virgil in a pleasant mood.
“You should tell all the spooks to fuck off,” he suggested.
Virgil snorted. “If only.”
Krys erased the distance between them and anchored his forearm against the wall.
They were roughly the same height, give or take an inch, so he leveled him with his eyes.
“Don’t pussy out on me. If you leave this pack, you’re telling all your friends and family you don’t give a shit about them.
I don’t know what you’re going through, but it won’t get better if you’re alone.
Archer had to drag my ass here, but I’m glad he did.
I like having brothers and sisters, but I also like having friends I can count on. Friends who don’t ditch you.”
Virgil swept his hair away from his eyes and held an intimate stare. “I want to be the fun guy, not the crazy guy.”
Krys chuckled darkly. “That ship has sailed. You do handstands on the roof. Why are you such a daredevil?”
“Because you never feel more alive than when you flirt with death.”
“Yeah. I feel that.”
Virgil sighed. “The family’s only getting bigger, and now we have kids. That’s a lot of responsibility. Maybe I didn’t think it through.”
“Embrace your crazy. It’s not a negative.”
“Says the man who comes with a warning label.”
Krys shrugged and stood beside him, back to the wall. “Guys like me need a warning label. I told Archer for years to get over his trauma drama. You can’t change the past, but the past can change you. If you let it.”
Virgil faced him and crossed his arms. “It’s not my past that’s the problem. Some of us can’t escape who we are.”
Krys sat with that thought. “No, we can’t.
” He stepped away and briefly cast his eyes up to a cobweb dangling from a vent.
What could he say to convince Virgil to stay?
“I wake up each day knowing my wolf could end everything. I can’t control him.
I can force him down, but that never ends well.
If you think being yourself will scare us off, you don’t trust us very much. So talk to me.”
“Hey, guys,” Lakota called out from the swing doors. “Come quick.”
Striding toward him, Krys’s pulse spiked. “What’s up? Is it Cleo?”
“Yeah.”
“Who messed with her?”
Lakota pinned him to the wall. “Nobody. Now take a deep breath and chill out.” Lakota took his own advice before continuing. “Montana just received a message about her family.”
Krys stood thunderstruck when he realized it wasn’t a joke. “What did he say?”
“I don’t know. Montana’s talking with Tak, but I overheard them when I was leaving the table to find you.” Lakota stepped back and crossed his arms, his tone as somber as a funeral. “They found her mother.”