“Yes, you were.” She drops her fork on her plate and turns to look me in the eye. “Even when everything was going down with Jasper you were thinking about other people, and about how you could help people.”
“It took a second to get there,” I say. “And plus, the whole blood-wolf thing makes it difficult not to consider the thoughts of other people.”
“Maybe, but Max, maybe you were chosen to be the blood wolf because of how much you care.”
I swallow the last remnants of the food in my mouth and rest my fork on the side of my plate. “Maybe,” I say. “I guess I never really thought about it.”
“I think ...” Katie says, turning back to look at the wolves in front of us and nodding like she’s confirmed something to herself. “I think I’d like to do more. I think I’d like to help too.”
With tears just brimming in her eyes she turns back to me, and I smile.
“Super cool.”
Done with our breakfasts, we decide to go for a walk while we digest. I’m not needed for anything, and Jasper will be occupied all day so we take a stroll down to the lake. We stand on the pebbles and look out over the water. On the other side is the canoe shed where I distinctly remember capsizing my and Jasper’s boat.
“Remember that time I dunked Jasper in the river all because of a tiny spider?”
“Oh I remember,” she says. “I was so pissed at you and seeing both of you all wet and grumpy was so satisfying.”
“Evil,” I joke, then take a breath. “Hey, can we make a promise?”
“Sure,” she says, eyeing me curiously. “What is it?”
“No matter what happens, whether I piss you off or you get busy with your double mates, or if tomorrow the world is torn apart, no matter where life takes us, we’ll always stay in touch and we’ll always be there for each other.”
She rolls her eyes but smiles. “Well, duh, I thought that was already the case.”
“Oh it is, I just want it in writing, because you’re never getting away from me.”
“Fine.” She does something so un-Katie-like and spits in her palm, then holds it out for me to shake. “Promise?”
I hock up some saliva then spit it into my hand, grabbing Katie’s and letting our wet palms smack together. “Promise.”
“Come here.” She pulls me into the best best-friend hug of all time. “We’re getting through this,” she says into my chest. “That’s the real promise.”
“Hey, you two,” I hear Omar say, and when I leave Katie’s warm arms, I find him coming down from the camp to join us.
“Omar, this is Katie,” I say, realizing I’m not sure if they’ve ever properly met.
“Pleasure,” he says and Katie waves back.
“I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Man, this place is just reeking of macho pack-wolf energy.”
“Omar is pretty tuned in to lunar energy,” I explain to Katie.
“Yeah, and it’s on another level here,” he says. “I get why you send all your randy teens here. It would be pretty hard to ignore your mate bond with this level of intensity.”
“We were just going for a walk,” I say. “You want to join? See some of the woods?”
“Sounds great,” Omar says. “If that’s cool.”
“Of course,” Katie says, happy to welcome Omar into our fold.
We walk for a while, exploring the grounds where we played capture the flag and found our mates, and even encountered our first rogue. Somewhere near the ridge where I very nearly fell to my death, I wonder who that rogue was, and what in his life led him to become so angry and vicious. I wonder how much of it was the fault of the pack system and, if I’d known better back then, if I could have done more to help, instead of running scared.
Katie and Omar hit it off and by the time we return to camp it feels like the three of us have been friends forever.
