not. I know the alpha is hitting her and…” I trailed off. I didn’t want to say what else the alpha might be doing to her.
The alpha’s wife had died a year and half ago, and he hadn’t wasted any time moving in on my teenage sister, that was for sure.
“We’ve got rope in the trunk,” Penn told me.
“You wouldn’t force your sister,” I said. I’d always known there was no way to force her to come to the academy, as much as I wished she would.
He snorted. “My sister is not in deathly danger. She’s in danger of sleeping with hackeysack players, thinking California-style pizza is normal, forgetting she’s a wolf. Yeah, I’m worried about what happens to a wolf shifter that far from home if she runs into another pack or something but… it should be fine. She’s a big girl.”
“You’ve been telling yourself that a lot?”
“Oh yes. But your situation with Rosemary is very, very different.”
“She’s always refused to go with me before.” But before was different. The day Maddie and I raced out of here, I’d hated leaving Rosemary behind, but I knew it was wrong to force her. “I just want to do the right thing.”
But I was afraid that leaving Rosemary to make her own decision about whether to leave or not, might mean that I never saw my sister again.
“You will,” Penn said. “You always do.”
That meant a lot to me, coming from Penn. Despite his laidback attitude, he didn’t miss much, and he was quite smart. Dangerously smart, Rafe had muttered more than once. To the point of being stupid.
I decided to believe Rafe was wrong on that count, given that we were going back to the pack that had tried to murder me when I was a kid, I hadn’t really improved my standing with them since then, and Penn was my only backup. I hadn’t even asked Chase; I didn’t want him to feel torn between us and looking after Blake and Skyla. Besides, they still needed enough folks back at the academy to provide defense. I glanced at the clock, wondering if the Northsea pack had reached them yet. They were taking a risk by going; they owned an island, they could batten down the hatches there and ride out the shifter storm.
But if they did that, Tyson, Maddie, and the others might have no place safe to come home to.
“One crisis at a time, Lex,” Penn said.
“Freaking me out,” I muttered. “Can you read my mind now?”
“I just know the look on your face when you’re worrying about Maddie,” he said. “I’ve seen it a lot.”
“Yeah. I can see that.”
I pulled the car down my old driveway and did a quick turn, positioning it for a hasty departure. I wasn’t sure if she would be here, or at the alpha’s house. The thought of her being trapped there made me tense with fury.
I didn’t want to go back to that house, either. The memory of being staked outside like an animal, lashed by the wind and the rain, covered in my own blood…
I shook it off. “Last time I was here, it got violent.”
“I would hate for us to resort to fisticuffs,” Penn said, getting out of the car. He clipped his holster onto the back of his belt and pulled his jacket to cover it in one smooth motion. On my side, I did the same.
“I wish you wouldn’t say fisticuffs. It makes me worry about the fact that it’s just the two of us.”
“There’s not just about it,” Penn assured me.
We headed up the porch steps. The porch was full of greenery and blooms from my mother’s many potted plants, and she swung the door open before we reached it.
“Jacob,” she said, frowning. “What are you doing here?”
I guessed we weren’t even pretending anymore that I might visit. We used to at least pretend to be a functional family.
“I’m here to see Rosemary,” I said, flashing her a smile, no matter how hard it was. “I was worried about her.”
“She’s fine. You hurt your father the last time you were here, Jacob. You have to go.”
She started to close the door, but Penn was faster; he slammed his shoulder into the door, knocking my mother back across the room so that she fell on her ass in the living room. I couldn’t have done that, but I definitely didn’t mind that Penn did.
“He hurt me last time I was here,” I reminded her. “And a whole