Sara sighs, looking up at me. “This is her worst nightmare coming true. Talon is dead—killed by the rival pack. Now you’ve come to conquer and rule. It’s everything our ancestors warned us about.”
I stare at her for a moment, trying to hide my disbelief. “We can’t really be your enemies. We didn’t even know you were up here!”
Sara shrugs. “I find that difficult to believe. We’ve all been raised on stories of how dangerous the Eccles pack is.”
A few conflicting ideas tumble through my mind. All of them seem to come back to the snake, but I don’t want to throw that down on the table just yet.
“I haven’t been in Eccles that long,” I say carefully, not wanting to reveal too much. “But I know about the history.”
“Oh?”
“Well…it hasn’t always been a nice place to live, apparently. Rose Hollow has a real sense of community where they care for each other, and Eccles has been under a stricter rule.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Sara blinks her big, brown eyes at me, her face almost blank. I know she deserves some information, but I don’t know what to tell her without revealing too much.
I don’t even know if I’m supposed to be talking about the fucking snake. The last thing we want is some power-hungry dude going out there and stirring shit up.
“Okay,” I say with a sigh. “Recently, there was a guy in charge who only cared about his own power. The class divide, which had always been pretty steep, got far worse. He did some really selfish things that put the pack at risk. My friend Rex, who had just been appointed alpha of Rose Hollow, managed to swing the situation around and put Brad in the alpha position. Since then, the place has evened out a lot.”
“But not entirely?”
“No. There are still some higher families who don’t like the new way of doing things. We’re keeping an eye on it.”
“But whatcanyou do about it?”
“All we can do is make sure they don’t try to oppress and hurt anyone else. Rose Hollow has flourished by supporting every single member of the pack, and Rex wants to bring that philosophy to everyone.”
“Sounds nice,” Sara chuckles. “But also, kind of like a fairy tale.”
“Rose Hollow looks like one,” I say, smiling. “I can’t wait to show it to you.”
Suddenly, Sara’s face goes white, and her eyes widen in fear.
The rule about leaving this place is so ingrained, I can’t even mention it without freaking her out.
“Sara,” I say, very softly. “Why are you so afraid of leaving Clover?”
“We all are,” she breathes. “You don’t understand—we’re told from the moment we can hear that leaving the town is death. It’s been passed down for generations that our pack was almost destroyed by a wave of fire. Nothing could stand against it. People were incinerated to ash before it even reached them. The earth trembled, and people were swallowed up as cracks split the mountains. Here, we are safe.”
It definitely sounds like an incursion.
“And you say Eccles has always been your enemy?” I ask carefully.
She nods. “They were responsible, we know that much. Our parents were not as afraid as the previous generation, so the stories aren’t as vivid, but Talon remembered them, and so does Leah. Eccles sent the fire after us.”
I doubt that. You were collateral damage, not the target.
Even though I want to ask directly about the event and the ingrained fear of Eccles, I want her to keep talking, and I know questioning her could make her clam up.
This sucks. I don’t want to interrogate her, I want to get to know her.
“So, this was Talon’s house?” I ask, trying for a gentle tone.
She nods.
“What can you tell me about him?”
