But Mason was out of my life for good—I’d never have to see him again, see Honeycreek again, and I’d protect Cassie with my life. It was funny how I’d made those same promises the first time I had left town.
“Will he come to visit us, too, when Uncle Jackson comes? He said he would look after us.”
And he did the exact opposite, I thought bitterly, turning away from my daughter so she wouldn’t see the truth in my eyes.
“Maybe,” I said, non-committal. Tears stung my eyes, and I sniffed. “Hey, Cassie, you want to play a game? In this backpack, I want you to pack everything you see of yours that’s green or purple, okay? Comics, a game, clothes, and shoes. Anything you can. When you run out of space, put it in my bag, all right?”
Cassie stared at me as if she knew what I was doing, and the look was so like Mason’s, one of contempt, that it floored me.Over and over, I realized just how much of him in her there was. A small, scared part wondered if I was doing the wrong thing.
No, I resolved. The wrong thing would be staying and only letting Mason hurt us again.
“Sure, Mommy,” Cassie eventually said, sliding off the bed and rubbing at her sleep-heavy eyes. “But I’ll miss it here.”
“I know, baby,” I whispered.A part of me might miss it, too.
***
Less than half an hour later, I was in the car with Cassie, a couple of our bags packed and thrown in the trunk. If Jackson was truly out with a girl, then he wouldn’t miss his car, and I tried not to feel extra guilt for using it to drive away from him once again.
God, I hated Mason for this.
Once again, he was pushing me away from not just him but a life. My brother, my best friend, my daughter’s peace.
I told myselfI’m just borrowing the car, trying to ease my breathing as I pulled out of the pack compound. I wanted to search the shadows for them—for those ever-evasive wolves that melted into the woods so easily, or merged with the townfolk, always watching. I convinced myself they’d always be waiting to say something else to me.
My knuckles were white with how hard I gripped the steering wheel as I turned onto Main Street, hoping nobody would see me. There was a turn-off for the woods up ahead. I’d cut through there, take the road through the trees, and be back on the highway and headed towards White Bay soon enough.
The damage to my former home had been awful, and I knew the wreckage wouldn’t have gotten any better with me being gone, but I could fix it up.
“We couldn’t stay in Uncle Jackson’s forever, right?” I said aloud, hoping to swing Cassie to my side. She was looking out of the window, her knees pulled to her chest. I noticed they were dirty, and I wondered if she and June had ventured into the woods at some point yesterday while I’d been with Mason in the cave. If the woods felt like home to her as they had done for me the day before.
That was it, I deduced. The run through the woods. It had loosened me up, made me think Mason was a good guy. I’d seen him be kind, stand up for me, do things he would never have dreamed of doing in years past. But he had ruined the slowly built, new image I had of him by doing the very thing Iknewhe was capable of.
My heart ached at the soul-crushing rejection. Again.
Something in me tightened, and I fought back tears as I passed the museum. I thought of June and swore a silent apology and promise to her in my head. It wouldn’t be total silence, not like last time. She knew the situation; she’d keep me safe from Mason if he pressed her.But it shouldn’t be her burden to bear.
It shouldn’t have been anyone’s but my own.
That was when the striking thought hit me, and I squealed on the street, pulling up at a red light I hadn’t seen. Jackson was up ahead, completely lost in his own world, head bent to look at his phone. He didn’t see me or his car. Cassie was too busy staring out of her own window to notice, and I didn’t alert her in fear of our escape being stalled.
I felt terrible, and I wondered if this guilt and anger combination would ever ease.
As I looked at my brother, I noticed how much tension was on his face.
Did he know that Mason knew? I couldn’t help questioning it again. And then another thought hit me, hard enough to make me gasp.
Had he stayed out the night before because he was angry with me? He’d always told me that Mason would have needed to know one day about Cassie, that sooner or later, I’d needed to face up to that conversation, whether it came from Mason somehow finding out, or Cassie growing old enough to find out herself.
You can’t have me lie to him, Bryce, he’d said the night I left.
Please. Please, Jackson. Don’t hate him for what’s happened. Both he and I had a part in this. If you hate him for it, then hate me too, for choosing that. I… I love him, but I can’t be in his life. You’ll visit us whenever you want to, just please—please. As your sister, I’m begging you. He can never know. Not from you.
Jackson smiled sadly, helping me load my bags into the trunk of his car.
Now, his warning had caught up to me, and I’d put him right in the middle of it, forcing him to choose between his loyalty to his alpha and his sister. Family didn’t always win over the pack, but I had begged Jackson not to make that choice. He knew how the pack treated me, and he’d sworn to make them all better, to change them—to change Mason.
I could only hope he could still do that one day.
