When he removed his suit jacket and his hackles stood straight, I didn’t wait. I ran as fast as I could down the hall.
The walk home was hazy, dim streetlamps casting strange shadows just outside of my vision, turning every small tree into Mosavi, waiting to snatch me up. He’d almost come across as reasonable earlier, but I’d never seen or felt that kind of aggression in my life. I was worried about Austin and Roscoe, as well as Adam, who was likely still sleeping off his poor choices. If we lost our werewolves, and if Mosavi locked me up, too, what was Adam going to do?
I couldn’t blame them for this one. They weren’t the only ones that broke the law. Before meeting Roscoe, I had never even stepped foot in a jail before. Back in the city after changing, I was treated like a criminal, and it seemed nothing was all that different in Norwich.
As I approached the driveway, I looked out at the woods behind the house. Part of me wanted to just run away and disappear, but the rest was terrified by what else might be out there. Those werewolves seemed really friendly, but there was something wrong with them. They were more wolf than man.Was Mosavi scared of them, or were they scared of Mosavi? There was obviously a lot more to this than I was being told.
The door clicked open and I sauntered inside, my stomach still twisted. What made me sicker was not knowing when I’d be dragged away. Would he do it himself or would he send the deputies?
I stopped by Adam’s room to check on him, but his bed was empty.
“Adam?”
No answer. I looked over at the wall clock. Seven past three, so he couldn’t have gone back out to the bar. My steps quickened down the hall. I glanced into mine and Roscoe’s bedroom, but there was no one. However, I did see an orange glow behind the closed curtain coming from outside.
I pulled open the back door and stepped out into the yard as Adam poked at the fire in the pit.
“What are you doing?”
“Everyone was gone.” He quickly wiped his face with his shirt and looked away. “So I decided to make a fire.”
“Are you okay?” I sat on the chair next to him, but he didn’t look at me. “Were you crying?”
“No!” He pushed me away. “I don’t cry.”
It was obviously a lie, but I nodded anyway. “Okay. Should I get some marshmallows?”
“Roscoe ate them yesterday.”
“Of course he did.” I leaned back in the chair. A chilly breeze buffeted the flames before calming. “I had fun tonight.”
“No, you didn’t. You couldn’t wait to get out of there.”
“That’s not true.”
He finally looked back at me, his eyes watering.
“It wasn’t you, okay? I don’t like bars, and I was really just hoping we could talk. Alone.”
He sniffed once more before narrowing his eyes. “Why?”
“Because we don’t talk. At all. We just argue and ignore each other. I feel like I’m always in some weird competition with you, and I don’t even want to be.”
“Where’s Austin and Roscoe?”
“Jail.”
Adam jumped to his feet. “What did they do?”
“It seems Austin has a lot of secret skills. They got piss drunk and did some… stuff.”
“Did you get them out? Are they inside?”
“No. The mayor’s pretty pissed, so I can’t even steal Austin’s stash of cash to make bail.”
Adam sat back down. “How long do you think they’ll be in there?”
I looked over at Adam and shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything, really. I keep trying to hold us together, but you guys keep doing everything you can to pull us apart. I just wanted us all to live a quiet, normal life.”
