“Nothing good.” Unfortunately, my mind had been racing with nothing but doom and gloom since we’d hit the road. It seemed as if no matter where I went or how many times I tried to reinvent myself, I’d never get out from under William’s shadow. If I wanted any kind of future, I had to figure out a way.
We’d crossed into Oklahoma half an hour earlier, and I could see the dark circles deepening under Jo Jo’s eyes. “You need more sleep.”
“I’ll sleep when William’s dead.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut for a second. “The nap was good. I feel better now.”
“Liar,” I said. “Luckily, we’re almost there.” Chavvah had texted an address for a cabin on Wolf Creek at Grand Lake for all of us and had sent us the address. I checked the GPS on my phone. “After we check-in, you can get a little more rest.”
He nodded. “Your dad will be glad to see you. Billy Bob, I mean,” he added. “I know he and Chav have missed you.”
The idea of facing them after so long apart made my stomach clench. “They have their family. I’m just a reminder of things I’m sure both of them want to forget.” I knew I wanted to forget. Unfortunately, the memories stared me in the face every time I looked in the mirror.
“You’re also their family,” he said firmly. “There are a lot of people in Peculiar that care about you.”
I flipped the blinker on and turned off 59 Highway onto the 16thStreet exit toward Wolf Creek Park. “Can we talk about something else?”
“Sure.” Jo Jo grinned at me. “But I don’t know that we have the time or the privacy for a proper conversation.”
I smacked his arm playfully. “Smart alec.” I turned left onto a road lined with cabins.
He scanned the rustic structures. “What’s the number again?”
“We’re in the Timber House,” I answered.
Jo Jo arched a brow as we drove past Gray, Arctic, Great Plains, and Tundra Houses. Timber was the last one, its right side and back butting up to the edge of a thicket of trees. “I think they took the whole wolf theme a little far. The only thing missing is a Steppen house.”
I laughed as I parked near the curb outside the cabin. “Otherwise known as the Born to Be Wild cabin.”
“That’s a place I’d want to stay.” He reached out and put his hand on mine as Doc and Chavvah opened the front door and walked out. Without thinking, I pulled away from him and got out of the truck.
“Hi.” My father had the same silver hair as me, but his gray eyes were a few shades lighter. It contrasted with his golden skin and made him look ethereal. I didn’t know how anyone could take one look at him and not instantly see how much power he possessed.
Chavvah held out her arms. “Come here, you,” she said, drawing me into a hug. “It’s so good to see you.” She leaned back to get a good look at me. “I don’t know how it’s possible, but you just keep getting prettier. That bruise on your cheek looks like it smarts, though. Are you okay?”
Chav, a tall brunette with narrow, fine-boned features and bright blue eyes, was a coyote-wolf shifter. She was a triple spirit, a very rare occurrence, and she had a direct link to Brother Wolf. Where Doc was a spirit talker, someone who could reach out to the spirits for guidance, Chav was what our kind called a spirit walker, someone who didn’t need to pray or do any rituals to get Brother Wolf’s attention. When she wanted him, he was there. I’d seen him use her as his vehicle once, turning her into a black wolf the size of a horse. It had scared the bluster out of William. I’ll admit I might have peed a little as well.
“It’s better than what it was,” I answered. Thanks to Brother Wolf, the cut had healed along with my broken back and the concussion Pete had given me. “You guys didn’t have to come.”
“Yes, we did.” Doc’s voice was low and gravelly by nature. The kind of voice that reminded you of old cowboys and mountain men. His lips thinned as he took me in. “This is my fight as much as it is yours. I won’t let William harm you. Not again.”
His protective tone made me apprehensive. I hated that my first reaction to a caring gesture was suspicion and anxiety, but the way I grew up, kindness and love were weapons of manipulation. I knew in my brain that Billy Bob and Chav weren’t like William, but my heart had trouble believing they could love me.
I changed the subject. “Did you bring Rory?” I shook my head. “Of course, you didn’t. It’s way too dangerous for him,” I said before they could answer. “I hope you at least brought some pictures.”
“You know I did,” Chavvah said with a grin. “He’s sprouting like a weed.”
Jo Jo grabbed my bag and the two sacks of clothes we’d quickly bought for him before leaving Warrensburg from the back of the truck and took them inside. My sweatpants weren’t going to cut it for him. He gave Chav a kiss on her offered cheek when he passed her by.
Chavvah had been a surrogate mother for Jo Jo, along with several of the women in Peculiar. What had Brother Wolf said?Learn from the mother.Maybe Chav was the mother of whom he spoke. She was, after all, a spirit walker. She could go to the ethereal plane with him. Maybe that’s why I’d jumped out of my body when Pete attacked me. Had my soul been trying to reach the ethereal?
“You have something on your mind?” Chav asked.
All this hokum was beyond anything I’d grown up with. Because William was in the skipped generation of shamans, he forbade the practice of praying to Brother Wolf. Until the wedding, I hadn’t believed the old spirit had even existed. The two people in front of me were the closest thing to experts in shifter magic. My anxiety level dropped a hair. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that they were here.
“A lot has happened since last night,” I said. “And I want to tell you all of it.”
“Starting with?” Doc asked.
“Starting with the fact that I am no longer a lycanthrope. Or, at least, I can’t access my wolf anymore.”
