“How is it your fault?” Despite everything, he kept it gentle because Justin looked like he was about to shatter into pieces, and he couldn’t believe someone who was as good as Justin seemed could have deliberately set out to hurt Jesse’s pack.
Justin swallowed several times before he managed to get any words out.
“I toldhim”—he nodded toward Dave’s phone—“where they were. And the next thing I knew, he didn’t turn up for our date, and when I—I went to see, they were…” He trailed off, throat working.
Remembering the sights he’d seen at Cale’s compound, Dave wasn’t surprised he couldn’t find the words to describe the horror of it.
“You want to start from the beginning?” he asked.
Justin looked at him, pale and wretched. “No,” he said bluntly. “I’ve tried—God, all these years I’ve tried to forget, butI…”
Dave’s heart twisted at just how desperately miserable Justin looked. Forcing him to relive what had happened was cruel and went against every compassionate instinct Dave possessed. But he couldn’t come so close and not find out. Jesse needed to know.
“Maybe it’ll help you live with it if you tell someone,” he said.
Justin barked a harsh laugh.
“The more you can tell me, the more likely we’ll be able to stop them doing it to anyone else,” Dave said firmly.
Justin flinched away from him. He’d expected more kindness from Dave, it seemed, but however miserable Justin was, he wasn’t Dave’s first concern.
“Jess—my friend deserves to know.”
Justin nodded, his eyes screwed closed and his fingers plucking at his jeans.
“Please,” Dave said, reaching out and touching Justin’s arm. Justin huddled even further into himself, so Dave drew his hand back.
“I was fifteen,” Justin said at last in a low voice. “I knew—I mean, weallknew there was a pack up there on the cliffs, but there was some sort of agreement that kept our pack and them apart. Being young and brainless, Kyle and I snuck up there, just to say we’d done it. Kyle wanted to impress this girl, and I just—well, Kyle and I did everything together, so I just…” He sighed heavily.
Dave nodded encouragingly, though really, he wanted to shake Justin to get him to hurry up and reach the important bit.
“We ran into a sentry before we got to the pack itself. What was weird was, they were in human form. He saw us and we ran, then spent the next week terrified someone would find out.”
He gave a ghost of a laugh. “But no one did. Maybe they had, if we’d been punished for it, I wouldn’t have told Duane.”
“The man in the photo?”
Justin nodded, and the words tumbled out. “He came into town from nowhere, and I thought—well, hell, when you’re that age and you get hard at a passing breeze and this hot stranger turns up, what else are you gonna do? I made a pass at him and instead of laughing at me, he seemed interested. He wanted to know about me,and so I told him all about our pack, and I don’t know how it happened, Dave, I swear, but I told him about the night me and Kyle had snuck up there to spy on that pack. I guess I wanted to impress him, you know?”
He broke off, his throat working before continuing, the words wet and choked.
“And then the next night, he was supposed to meet me, and he didn’t show. I never saw him again. So when Kyle wanted to sneak up there again, I went with him. I wanted to do something, to forget about the whole date that wasn’t.”
He took a harsh, painful breath. “But I can never forget what we found.”
His eyes were wet as he looked out over the abandoned pool and the rusty iron fence that surrounded it.
“They were dead. All of them, just left there.”
Dave reached out a careful hand to Justin’s shoulder, not sure if he was welcome but wanting to offer comfort.
“The first time we went up there,” Justin said, “I saw a ghost in the trees. A wolf’s ghost, shining under the moon. And now I know why.”
He was shaking. “I killed them, Dave. I told myself it wasn’t Duane, that it was a coincidence. But it wasn’t. They’re dead because of me.”
Dave’s hand closed around Justin’s shoulder and he hauled him close, feeling the shudders that ripped through him.
“Hey,” he said, but he couldn’t say anything more. Couldn’t say it was okay, because it wasn’t. If Justin had just kept his bigmouth shut… Except, even through his helpless, sick anger, Dave could see it wasn’t that simple.
