‘We have a name,’ I said, excited. ‘That’s a start.’
Wyn didn’t seem to agree. When I turned back to him, his stance was stiff and unyielding, his hands curling into fists.
‘This is all amazing,’ I said to Jackson. ‘Why don’t you get off home and rest? You must be exhausted. And I think there’s some stuff you need to discuss with your grandmother.’
‘I’d rather be here with you,’ he replied, and Wyn’s fists clenched tighter. ‘You need me, Em.’
‘What I need is all of y’all out of here,’ Ashley said, leaving her safe spot by the sink to waft a dishcloth in Jackson’sdirection. ‘I don’t know who it is but someone smells worse than the northbound end of a southbound mule.’
Jackson took a surreptitious sniff of his T-shirt and grimaced. ‘Maybe I could run home and shower.’
‘Fast as you can, if not faster,’ Ashley agreed. ‘World’ll still be turning when you’re done. At least in theory.’
‘If I hear anything else, I’ll come right back,’ he promised. ‘We’ll get to the bottom of this before the next full moon. I won’t let another wolf lay a finger on you.’
When he passed through the back door, leaving it open behind him, Wyn was practically growling.
‘That boy is getting spicy,’ Ashley said, tossing her dishcloth in the air for Wyn to snatch up in his left hand. ‘Nothing like a little healthy competition, huh, Fido? Now get out of my kitchen before I kick both your asses.’
Anyone caught out in the rain might not have been thrilled about Lydia’s natural disaster temper tantrum but my garden was thrilled. We hadn’t had a shower since the night of the full moon and it was parched. Everything was thriving now. The leaves unfurled to meet the sun with new enthusiasm, every blossom tilted up to the sky, the trees stretching out their limbs like they’d just woken from a deep sleep. And right in the middle of all their beauty was one very angry-looking Wyn.
‘It’s not like I don’t know he has feelings for you,’ he began, striding up and down the garden, stomping his feet so heavily that the fish in the koi pond all darted off to the furthest corner. ‘But he’s not even trying to hide it now, is he? And don’t tell me I’m being crazy, because we both know I’m not.’
‘What I was going to say’ – I gave him a look as I placed our glasses of lemonade on the glass top of the table – ‘is that it doesn’t matter how Jackson feels about anything. What matters is that I love you.’
He glared at me, those impossible eyes, green and grey with flecks of bronze and gold. ‘You have no feelings for him whatsoever?’
‘He’s my friend,’ I replied, a strand of hair falling from a hastily secured claw clip. ‘That’s all.’
‘I get it. He’s here all the time, I’m not.’ Wyn carried on talking as though I hadn’t uttered a single word. ‘Your families have known each other for ever. On paper, he’s the right pick. He’s smart and funny, and I know he’s a good guy, he would take good care of you.’
‘Can you hear yourself?’ I whirled around so quickly, my hair clip came undone and flew across the garden, landing in a small patch of primroses. ‘Because right now it sounds like you want to date him. What exactly are you trying to do?’
‘I’m trying to make it easier,’ he yelled. ‘Because when you choose him in the end, it’s going to kill me.’
‘What are you talking about?’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. ‘There’s no choosing, there’s no choice. At the beginning, at the end, it’s you, Wyn, it’s always and only ever you.’
‘Today it’s only me,’ he said, screwing his eyes shut. ‘You don’t know what’s coming tomorrow.’
Fighting the urge to scream, I wrapped my arms around his neck, my soft cheek against his granite chest, and listened for the sound of his heartbeat, confirmation that this was still my Wyn and not some jealous lookalike.
‘If you race to the end,’ I said, still holding on to him. ‘You miss all the story.’
A sigh raised his chest then he yielded into me, his arms slipping around my back and cradling my head closer to him.
‘If it isn’t a happy ending, I don’t know if I want to read the rest of the book.’
I pulled back to see his forehead creased with anguish. ‘What happened to “this is meant to be”?’
‘I don’t doubt it for a second,’ Wyn said. ‘But what if “meant to be” isn’t “meant to be forever”?’
It sounded a lot like giving up and I wasn’t ready to do that, not yet.
‘It’s whatever we make it,’ I said. ‘We’re agreed, I love you and you love me. Aren’t we supposed to be heading out to a drive-in movie right now?’
‘Right now we’re supposed to be protecting you from a lone wolf,’ he amended, and while he wasn’t ready to lighten up completely, I felt the shift in him as he blocked out the future and came back to the present. ‘If it is Astrid and she’s injured, it’s going to take longer for her to heal while the moon is waning. Still another nine days until the new moon.’
‘Maybe that’s why the Wilcuma takes place on the new moon,’ I wondered aloud. ‘If that’s the safest time, while the wolves are most vulnerable?’
