19. Viktor
Viktor
It didn’t surprise me at all that Cash was the one most angry.
Cash had found his confidence in the last year, and now, here he was, in front of the personification of the one living entity that had hurt Aleks.
No, Daire himself hadn’t done it, but everyone in the pack thought what Grant had done with Aleks, making him sleep with witches without his permission, was one of the most horrible things they could think of.
But Grant was dead and the witches weren’t here.
Aleks was less concerned with having been pressed to have sex with strangers, which was actually the thing that made me think maybe the pack were right.
Yes, I’d been through worse, and I thought Aleks had too, but also, I suspected that he and I were prone to ignore injustices done to us in favor of worrying about bad things done to others.
I had also learned in my years in the US that sometimes, physical abuse, the beatings and other injuries, were somehow less overall affecting than the mental ones.
Grant implying Cash’s carpentry skills were useless for years, for instance.
That had hurt him more than any beating had ever hurt me, because bruises and lacerations healed in hours or days.
The belief that you were worthless? That didn’t just get better on its own, and sometimes it didn’t get better at all.
Drew circled around behind me, so he could get to Daire, and hugged him tight. “It’ll be okay. We’re safe now.”
The look on Daire’s face said he didn’t remotely believe that, and I wanted to laugh.
Drew. The one who’d spent years as a raccoon, who should be completely terrified of a wolf pack, had lost all worry the moment we’d stepped into the clearing.
Drew was a shifter. I almost chuckled to myself, because that guy was never leaving the pack’s sightline again, and I hoped he knew it. He was about to be adopted, permanently, by my brother. It had been bad enough when he’d been a raccoon who seemed to like human company—and more important, food.
Evie bounded into the square, shifting in an instant from wolf to girl, grabbing a shirt from where she’d clearly left it on a sagging porch, and tossed it over her head. “They’ve fully retreated.”
“For now,” I qualified. That, finally, got everyone’s gaze back on me, rather than Daire or Evie, and Aleks did look like he wanted to fuss over her for having followed the witches.
He of all people should know Evie was one of the best qualified wolves in the pack to take care of herself, fourteen or not.
The girl was special. When I was sure they were all looking at me, I motioned to Daire, without pulling him from behind me.
“As he said, she started a spell and didn’t finish it.
To finish it, I think she needs to kill us both. ”
“To take the wolf and the magic for herself,” said a soft voice, a new person joining us.
I didn’t recognize the voice at first because I’d never heard Tristan so thoughtful.
He looked at me, and at the top of Daire’s head over my shoulder, then shuddered.
“I knew . . . I knew Ermengarde was ambitious, but that’s horrific.
She was going to kill you both to get her witchwolf. No, to make herself a witchwolf.”
He wrapped his arms around himself and looked positively sick. Hadn’t he met the woman? I hadn’t even paid attention to her name before the last twenty-four hours, and I wasn’t surprised at all.
Aleks huffed, clearly a little annoyed by having a whole conversation in the middle of the old square, and shook his head. He looked at Cash. “You know what we need? A community meeting building. Let’s discuss that sometime, yes?”
Clever Aleks. That distracted Cash from glaring at Daire for a moment, as he cocked his head in the curious puppy way, considering.
“For now,” he went on after a moment of silence, since Cash didn’t turn back, “let’s go up to Mama’s house. She’ll make some sandwiches and tea, and we can eat and talk about what happens next. If the witches are likely to return, we need to have a plan for that. And for . . . other things.”
He glanced behind me at Daire, and I didn’t much like that.
Suddenly, I was quite sympathetic with how Leo had felt when he’d brought Altair home. And I’d been an ass to him. To both of them.
Altair, meanwhile, wasn’t interested in evening the score at all.
I wasn’t sure how a person got as resilient as him.
He’d bounced back from literal centuries of abuse, and was one of the sweetest people in the pack.
He sauntered right over to where Daire stood behind me, smiling.
“You’re not too much bigger than me. You’ll probably fit into some of my clothes.
At worst, I suppose you could borrow some sweatpants from Leo or Viktor. ”
“We should find Drew some clothes too,” Leo said, staring at his adorable raccoon friend with an expression that said he wanted to pull him into his arms and hug the stuffing out of him, but he wasn’t sure that was allowed.
Drew ducked his head. “Oh, you don’t need to—”
Altair scoffed as he poked his head around me and Daire, smiling. “I don’t think you understand, dear,” he said, giving voice to my thoughts. “You’re one of us now. You’ll be lucky if Leo doesn’t wrap you up in a crocheted blanket and hide you under the bed.”
Leo frowned and hissed at Altair. “It was one time. I thought maybe the shutter had a gap in it, and I didn’t want you hurt.”
I rolled my eyes but turned and nodded to Altair. “You’re right. Clothes. A bath is a good idea too.” I glanced at Daire, slightly concerned he’d think we were backwoods dwellers with no modern conveniences, because . . . well, in some ways we were. “Do you mind bathing in the river? It’s easiest.”
“M-me too?” a tiny voice asked. Drew. He’d come up beside us, and he was looking very young and nervous, and—fuck, Leo had been calling him Drew because it sounded vaguely like “friend” in Russian.
“Of course you too,” I agreed, and I glanced at Altair. “Could you bring clothes?”
“No problem,” he said.
Then I turned back to Drew, laying a hand on his very thin shoulder. Mama was going to feed him up so much he might pop. “I am sorry for not knowing, but . . . Leo named you Drew. What is your name, really? I hate to call you anything you don’t like.”
He smiled, bright and happy again in an instant.
“Oh I don’t mind Drew,” he answered, and then looked to Daire.
“Or Buddy. They’re both great. Before you and Leo I didn’t even remember I was supposed to have a name.
I don’t . . . that is, it’s been a while.
Years. Maybe . . . maybe a lot of them. I don’t remember what my parents called me. ”
Well fuck. And fuck Ermengarde. I was going to make her suffer before I killed her.
Around me, there were a few gasps, and a sniffle or two, and Evie was there looking like she was ready to go to war with the witches.
If I’d thought Drew was about to be in for coddling before, I’d been underestimating things.
Maybe Leo would wrap him in a blanket and hide him away.