Chapter 2
Dorian
On the way home, Amelia looked pleased with herself, humming under her breath. The smug aura around her aggravated me.
“Aren’t you worried about Margo?” I demanded. “She looks terrible.”
“She’s tired,” she said breezily. “Tapping into power takes it out of you, trust me.”
“It takes a price, too.”
“Where did you hear that?” She shot a sharp glance in my direction. “Spying again?”
“I can’t help it if people forget I’m there,” I protested.
“Sometimes I wonder,” she murmured. “Anyway, that’s different. What I’ve done is…. It’s different, okay?”
“What have you done?” I couldn’t resist asking.
She fell silent for so long that I regretted bringing it up.
Eventually, she sighed. “Look, there’s nothing dark or dangerous about what Margo’s doing. She’s helping people, saving lives, pure and simple.”
While I believed that, some of the pack were still convinced that Margo was drawing death to her like a beacon rather than being a warning sign. There wasn’t a safe way to test out that theory, but I remained sure of Margo and her intentions. The only thing I wasn’t sure about was the effect on Margo’s health. “She’s helping people but hurting herself. She’s not like us. She can’t recover so quickly. You need to slow down.”
“She’ll be fine once she builds up her stamina.” Her dismissive expression set off my wolf. She didn’t seem to notice, but I found it harder to keep still. “You’re overreacting,” she continued in a patronising tone. “It’s a wolf thing. Nathan does it all the time and drives Perdita mad. It’s normal to worry, but Margo’s a big girl. She’ll tell us if something’s wrong.”
Amelia was pushy enough to make me doubt the truth of that statement. Margo was no pushover, but it was easy to get dragged along for the ride when somebody as enthusiastic as Amelia came along.
“I promise I’ll take good care of her,” Amelia continued. “I see a lot of potential in her. I’m not going to waste it.”
There was little point in me trying to argue. She was all in, convinced I was being a suffocating werewolf only able to think about my need to protect Margo. Was I was wrong? Maybe I was seeing danger where none existed. Except my wolf didn’t agree with Amelia. It was hard to know whom to listen to sometimes, especially when everyone else seemed to think I was wrong.
I leaned against the wall outside the row of houses our pack lived in and waited for Nathan to return. Music and cooking smells came from the open windows behind me. I tried to relax, but that hadn’t been easy lately. The day’s events hadn’t exactly eased any of my doubts.
Margo had been able to warn us about the crash in time to help Adam’s family. That was amazing, except she had looked so wiped afterwards that I couldn’t help but worry. Amelia seemed thrilled that the work she’d done with her little protegé had paid off, but the whole thing made me uncomfortable. Nathan’s sister had been all too eager to “train” Margo to control her abilities. I got the feeling she hadn’t considered the consequences, that she wasn’t even open to the possibility of their existence.
Even so far from the crash site, the air remained smoke-scented, making my nose itch. Nathan and I had been fortunately close when Margo called. The memory of her panicked voice made my insides twist with apprehension. The drive to the scene had been brief, but each second of the journey had felt unbearably long. Margo had looked so fragile when we found her that my stomach had instantly dropped.
The wolfhound at my feet whined, impatient to move on.
“You already had your walk,” I told him.
He chewed on my shoelace until I told him to stop. He was young, barely more than a pup in training. He’d learn patience. Maybe I would, too.
A group of young pack members approached from my right, sauntering home together. I wondered where they had been. Now Mara was gone, nobody thought to invite me. I wouldn’t have gone anyway, but I still felt a pang of loneliness when I saw them. I missed my best friend terribly. If it hadn’t been for Margo and my guardians, I would have felt completely alone.
As the other teens closed in, I made an effort to stop fidgeting and relax my breathing to avoid drawing attention to myself. The other werewolves had more respect for me since I’d fought off a dominant traitor and helped save an important human member of the pack. Still, old habits died hard. Besides, Perdita had been taking care of me for the last six years. I would have died for her. I hadn’t been brave; I couldn’t afford to lose her.
Victor, another young wolf close to my age, led the group. He used to torment me a lot, but he had been pretty subdued since Mara’s murder. Some people had even believed he’d killed her at one point. He wasn’t as brash or cocky anymore, maybe because he was no longer showing off for Mara’s benefit. Perhaps he’d finally realised that some things were more important than dominating others.
Victor stepped ahead of the group, veering towards me. I held my breath, waiting for everything to go back to normal. Normal hadn’t been perfect, but it was better than the anticipation of waiting for something worse to happen.
“Hey,” he said warily. “We heard there was a car crash.”
I nodded. “Adam and his parents were in the car.”
He sniffed the air, twitching his nose in discomfort. “Was it bad?”