Brothersong (Green Creek #4) - T.J. Klune Page 0,45
me.
“I’m going to find out. You know I will.”
Nothing.
“Whatever.” I reached back and grabbed the blanket from the bed and pulled it down and over me. I lay down on the floor, the fire warm against my chilled skin. His back paws pressed against my legs, and I waited for him to move them, to put more space between us.
He didn’t.
The sky was just beginning to lighten when I fell asleep.
HUMAN EYES STARED DOWN at me when I awoke.
He looked away quickly, turning to feed the fire.
He was wearing my shorts again.
“What time is it?” I asked as I rubbed my eyes.
He didn’t answer.
“Oh, that’s right. You don’t have a clock. And my phone is broken. I don’t even know why I’m asking.”
“You still did,” he grunted. “Mouth always open. Always moving.”
“Maybe don’t focus on my mouth so much.”
He stiffened.
I sighed. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“The witch,” he said. “The witch told you.”
It took me a moment to figure out what he was talking about. The woman in Kentucky who’d given me his note. The witch who’d rushed out after me before I left, telling me she knew who I was looking for. And where to look. “She… recognized you. Said it came to her later.”
He nodded tightly. “Mistake.”
“What is?”
He waved his hand jerkily. “This. Everything. All of it. Should have known. Should have seen.” He tapped the side of his head. “I… got lost. In here. Foggy. Heavy.”
I pushed myself up, the blanket sliding to the floor. I was stiff and sore, and my jeans felt rough against my legs. I didn’t have anything to change into. “Because you’re an Omega.”
His face twisted painfully. He sneered at the fire. “Yes. Omega. Bad wolf. Big bad wolf.”
“I get it, man. I was there too.” Understatement. Though it’d scared the shit out of me, I’d trusted Gordo when he said I needed to give in to it. That I needed to let it consume me. It’d been easier than I expected. I was holding it back, and once I let go, once I let the Omega rise, Kelly’s tears stinging my nostrils, I had time to wonder why I’d fought it at all. There was rage, sure, a furious storm that almost obliterated everything else, my humanity falling away into nothing. But it’d felt comforting, almost seductive. The tendrils of violet that wrapped themselves around my head and heart were strong and thick. I gave in to the animal underneath, and I knew that fog Gavin spoke of. I’d lived it.
And yet, through it came a bright and shining light, a beacon in the dark.
Ox.
Gavin said, “Not like you were. Magic broke. It’s different. You feel it now?”
Not like it used to be. But it was closer than I cared to admit. “No.”
“You lie. Smell different. Not Omega. But not Beta.”
“You don’t know what I was like before. You weren’t there. You only came when shit went crazy. When that hunter chick dragged—”
He whirled on me, hand raised, claws out.
I didn’t flinch.
He did. He stared at his hand in horror, claws receding. He slid away from me, putting space between us. “No. Don’t. Don’t talk about. About her. It’s not. It’s not. Don’t.”
I held up my hands. “Okay.”
“You need pack,” he said, curling in on himself. “You need home. Go. Before you can’t.”
I shook my head. “I told you, I’m not going to leave here without you.”
“I’m not going.”
“Then I guess we’re stuck here. You think you’re stubborn? Man, you haven’t seen anything yet. Where did you go last night? What happened to you?”
“Stop talking.”
“Fuck you. Did you go to Livingstone? Is he doing something to you?”
“Stop. Talking.”
“Make me.”
He said, “I heard you. Talking. To your brother. To Kelly. He’s not here.”
I recoiled. “That’s not…. It wasn’t anything. It’s—”
“You left him.”
Anger, bright and hot. “You left—”
Me.
I couldn’t get the word out.
“Make things worse,” he said, and I knew then what he was doing. What he was trying to force. “Robbie gone. Kelly sad. Robbie comes back. Kelly happy. Then you leave. Break him again. And now he’s ghost. In your head. I know ghosts. I see ghosts.”
Are you… are you real?
I felt cold. “What ghosts? Who do you see?”
He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. You hurt him. You hurt Kelly. Go home. Make him better. Make yourself better. Find pack.”
It dawned on me then what this meant. The hidden meaning behind his words, a gift I didn’t think he meant to give. “You remember.”