Johnny grinned, pressing the tip of his tongue to the corner of his mouth. “You could just say the kids are driving you mad.”
Maman let out an exasperated laugh. “They are driving me absolutely bananas.”
CHAPTER 3
BELL LANE
Johnny
“No, that’s my bucket!”Gabriella yelled, smacking the container out of Clementine’s hand and sending blackberries tumbling into the grass verge.
Johnny turned, causing Marty to pull his hair as he overbalanced on his shoulders.
“Hey! I almost had them!” Marty cried, trying again to reach the fruit at the top of the bramble bush.
“Hey, you stinking mutt, they were mine!” Clementine growled.
“Girls,” Johnny sighed, tugging his T-shirt away from his clammy chest. He loved his siblings, he really did, butJesusthey were infuriating.
“You are so annoying, Clem! No wonder you don’t have any friends.”
“Girls! Stop pulling each other’s hair! And, Gabby, put your fangs away, for heaven’s sake!”
Johnny jogged over to pull them apart.
“Right!” he said, swinging Marty off his shoulders and placing him on the ground. “Put the buckets down. We’re going for a run to burn off some of this excess energy.”
Marty squealed. “Really, JP? Oh my God, it’s been ages!” He gripped Johnny’s shirt, beaming up at him.
Johnny ruffled his hair. “Yes, but no running off this time. Maman will have my guts for the pigs if we lose you again.”
“Hey! I wasn’t lost;youwere just really bad at hide and seek.”
Gabriella rolled her eyes. “You were the only one playing, Martin.”
They ambled down the road, cutting left through a hole in the hedge and jumping the stile. The cut corn stalks crunched beneath their feet, acorn husks popping under Johnny’s trainers. The ground was hard from the long, humid British summer, but the world turned cool as they crossed the tree-line into the surrounding woods,
When they were a few metres in Johnny slowed to an almost stop, tilted his ear up to the canopy above and listened. The breeze moved between the branches with a dry rasp, the lobed edges of the great oak leaves beginning to turn yellow at the tips. It was a quiet part of the woodland, with other shifters tending to stay on the opposite side of the river. It looped around the house like a lasso, giving a clear boundary of pack lines.
Giving the kids a small smile, he began peeling off his sweat-damp clothes.
“Um,” Gabriella said, poking his arm. She pointed towards a wide tree trunk. “You should probably get undressed over there.”
Johnny cocked an eyebrow. “Why?”
The girls glanced at one another before Clementine stepped forward with a hand covering her mouth. “We don’t mind,” she whispered, glancing around, “but if someone sees you taking offyour clothes near us they might think you’re a…” She dropped her voice even lower. “A pee-doe.”
Johnny was about to laugh, but the mirth died away when he saw that the girls were dead serious.
Clementine nodded gravely. “They told us at school.”
“Told you what?”
“Not to trust alphas that aren’t our pack. Because they might be pae-do-phi-les. Said they might try and kidnap us, sell us to someone in Romania.”
“W-we don’t think that about you,” Gabriella said, pushing past Clementine and hugging his arm. “Just that someone might think that. If they saw you.”
Johnny clenched his teeth. “But wearepack.”
