She considered the question for a moment then gave up, pushing out a sigh of surrender.
‘Maybe we start with the ice cream and go from there.’
‘I’ve certainly heard worse plans,’ I agreed as she picked up her pace and rode on ahead.
When I walked over to the picnic bench where Wyn was waiting, the twins were both at the counter, still sampling flavours though the server had lost patience with them at least six wooden sporks ago. I sat down across from him, knee to knee, nursing a cup of chocolate mint chip.
‘How is it?’ I asked.
‘It’s good,’ he replied after taking a lick of his strawberry cone. ‘But it’s no Leopold’s.’
‘Hard to beat the best.’ I nodded in agreement then tasted my ice cream. ‘But they’re in the game.’
His eyes flicked over my shoulder but I could still hear Lydia and Jackson bickering. There was no need for a visual check on their location.
‘None of the other packs in our region have reported a lone wolf,’ he said in a low voice. ‘Mom might not have believed me but Gramps thought it was worth calling around, just in case.’
‘But no one knows anything?’
He shook his head and I frowned.
‘Is that good or bad?’
‘I don’t know. Could be a Were from some other part of the country, up north or out west. If they were exiled by their family, it’s possible they’ll try to join ours.’
‘There are only three packs in the whole country?’ I asked, dividing up a map of America in my mind. ‘North, south and west?’
‘It’s a little more complicated than that.’ He looked off in the opposite direction, leaving his answer vague. ‘Gramps said he’d reach out, find out what he can. He’ll call if he has news, but there are still three and a half weeks until the next full moon. At least we don’t have to worry about a wolf attack, even if they’re tracking you the regular way.’
The thought hadn’t occurred to me. Outside of the full moon, I had no way of telling if someone was or wasn’t a Were. At least, not as far as I knew.
‘They could be anyone,’ I said, suddenly on high alert. ‘You really think they’re following me?’
‘I would.’
It was not a reassuring answer.
‘Every pack has connections, however loose. It’s possible someone heard about Cole and came down to Savannah looking for an explanation.’
‘And found one.’ I pushed away my dessert, barely touched. ‘But how?’
‘That’s what I can’t figure out,’ Wyn said grimly. ‘There’s no way they happened to run into you by chance. No wolf would risk a public confrontation like that unless they were completely sure.’
‘But no one knows it was me,’ I replied in a small voice. ‘No one except you.’
‘And I haven’t told a soul.’
He rested his ice cream cone in my cup and took my handsin his, his skin warm and sticky. ‘My mom felt your grandmother’s power rising and sent Cole to hunt it down, we can’t have been the only ones who knew something was happening down here. If they were inside the city limits when they phased, any Were would be drawn to your magic. Could be they figured out the rest for themselves. It’s almost impossible to kill a Were if you don’t know how. Even if they couldn’t confirm you as Cole’s killer, the heart of a witch would be considered a nice gift to certain packs.’
‘Your pack?’
He flinched but didn’t let go of my hand.
‘They don’t know you,’ he said. ‘They think all witches are alike.’
It cut deeper than he meant it to. Another reminder that all the important people in his life didn’t even know I existed. In the back of my mind, I heard Jackson’s words from the dance. Someone who could be with me all the time, someone who yelled about me from the rooftops and didn’t have to hide the truth from his family. I could have all those things with almost anyone else in the world but the only one I wanted was Wyn.
Chapter Twenty-Three
