‘I want to,’ I assured him. ‘You wanted to know more about my dad?’
‘Absolutely.’
I told Aster the highlights. Dad’s love of cooking, which he’d passed down to me. The quiet way he defused fights between me and my sisters. How he’d listen to our problems and never dismissed anything as childish or silly. His gentle humour, which loosened Mum up when she came home wound tight by the persistent pettiness of some islanders.
‘How did Bonnie get the mayor job after your mum died? It was rigged, right?’
Aster was close to the truth. Something in people, even those who didn’t know werewolves existed, responded to the authority of an Alpha. My mum had run unopposed as mayor until she died, and people had barely blinked when Bonnie took up the role.
‘It helped that no one else wanted the job,’ Ideflected.
‘Please tell me she doesn’t have supreme power.’ Aster recoiled in mock horror, his hand tugging at mine but not letting go. ‘There has to be someone on this island who keeps her in check.’
‘There’s a committee.’
I bit my lip. Like he could sense the darkness rushing up inside me, Aster’s expression morphed to gentle concern.
‘Remember, we’re only talking about what you want to.’
‘I want to talk about this.’ I needed to. It had taken too long for the floodgates to open. I didn’t want them to slam shut before I said the things that were really important. The things that needed to be exhumed and brought out into the air.
‘George White was on the committee when my mum was mayor,’ I said in a rush. ‘The Whites had always lived on the island. They owned the brewery before Joshua’s family moved here. Growing up, me and my sisters were friends with George’s granddaughter.’
My throat closed up when I tried to say her name. I squeezed my eyes shut and tightened my grip on Aster’s hand.
‘Do you want me to say it?’ he asked, confirming he’d gone snooping. I didn’t mind. It meant he could help me now.
I nodded, hitching my shoulders up around my ears.
‘Naomi.’
I breathed out in an explosive gasp. Not quite a sob, but it drew unplumbed sadness up through my chest. Ever since the court case, I’d not said her name. I’d not even heard it.
I opened my eyes and looked into Aster’s deep brown ones. His thumb stroked back and forth across my knuckles.
He shuffled forwards so that his knees perched on top of my thigh. ‘She was your friend?’
‘On the island, there wasn’t much choice of who to play with as a child.’ Not that I would have decided any differently. With her blonde pigtails and blue eyes, Naomi had fascinated me. ‘She was the same age as me so she played with my sisters as well, but she was my friend.’
A line formed between Aster’s eyebrows. ‘What happened?’
How did someone go from being my best friend to murdering my whole family?
‘She found out something about me and my family. I told her a secret.’
This was why the blame for the majority of the people I’d loved dying could be laid at my feet. I’d gotten too close to someone I didn’t recognise as a monster, and I’d told them the one thing that would make them turn.
‘What was the secret?’ Aster asked.
I opened my mouth, then slammed it shut. Aster slapped himself on the forehead with his free hand.
‘Stupid question. Of course you’re not going to tell me something that turned your bestie into a crazed maniac. Please proceed as though I hadn’t proven, yet again, that I’m the world’s biggest moron.’
‘You’re not a moron, Aster.’ I frowned. ‘But I’m not going to tell you.’
Aster wasn’t Naomi. I’d been transfixed with her, so I hadn’t spotted the mean streak running a mile wide through all her words and actions. I might be captivated by Aster, but I prided myself on seeing things a little clearer. Aster was bright and beautiful and talked a mile a minute, and he was anything but mean.
But I couldn’t tell him my secret. My pack’s secret. It wasn’t something I’d ever share again unless I absolutely had to.
