“But you are a witch. You’re my daughter. You can do this. The coven will send others to assist in a few days, but in the meantime, what is most important is finding out who is still alive, who is still there, and connecting the pack to the outside world.”
“No, mom. The most important thing is finding therapists. This town has been traumatized by loss and death and—”
“What, do you want to connect the pack with counselors? You know wolves, dear. They don’t understand things like feelings and intentions. All they care about is the strength of the pack, physically.”
“Maybe the old pack, Mom, but when I say everyone is dead... Mom, they’ve been trapped here for fifteen years, which, what the hell did you do?”
The line was quiet, silence settling between them. The lack of words, the open air...
Questions, questions, always questions, never an answer...
“And what happened between you and Mr. Reeve that you just... left in the middle of a disaster.”
Her mom cleared her throat, and Violet waited for an excuse, or a lie, or just... something. Some sort of answer. Some sort of...
What was going on?
“I’ll tell Harriet to connect you with some therapists, and explain to them what we know of Garoureve. Once you have an internet connection, we can establish telehealth meetings. It’s a very new human thing. You see, you talk to a specialist through the screen about your problems, and—”
“Are you not going to answer me? What happened?”
She could feel the fire, feel it inside of her, ready to explode.
“I love you, Violet, but I can’t explain everything to you. Some things don’t have an answer, but as far as what happened between myself and Broderick, it was a difference of opinion. Some things, he was very wrong about, including his opinion of you. He was wrong, but I made the mistake of listening to him, only to make things worse. Other things, he was right about, but I didn’t believe him. No one did. And the pack paid for it.”
Violet let out a long breath, and shook her head. “What did he think of me? And what was he right about?”
“The past is the past, Violet. Fix the town line. Become the Garoureve witch. Mate with your wolf. And stop worrying about what happened.”
“I can’t just ignore what happened here. Not when the scars of the fire are still so obvious. And I’m not the town witch. I’m not a witch at all.”
“You’re a witch, Violet. You just have to believe that for yourself.”
The line went quiet, telling her that her mother had placed her on hold, without even giving her a real answer. Why all of the cryptic talk? Why not just spell it out? What had happened?
She didn’t want to start assuming or try to piece things together, but—
“Good afternoon, Violet. I’ve been instructed to assist you in whatever way necessary. I have a list of contacts here for you, but of course, I can go ahead and start work from here. Now, we already have the ability to send in contractors, of course, but you will have to manage them locally, in conjunction with your town Alpha. If you’re ready for the phone numbers, then—”
Scarlett looked around on the floor for the journal she had dropped earlier, and flipped to one of the back pages. Right. Phone numbers.
“Yes, I’m ready,” Violet said with a sigh. “But you should know that the most important thing this town needs is therapists. Make sure they know about wolves and pack dynamics.”
“Of course, Violet. Now, let’s get started on who we’ll need to contact to bring Garoureve into the modern age.”
Chapter 19
“DoyouknowwhatI hate most?” Violet whispered into the darkness, her voice only slightly muffled by Henrik’s shirt.
“Sleepin’ with all of our clothes on just so we can lay curled up with each other?”
Violet pinched him on his arm and scoffed, ignoring the pain in her heart. She did hate that, but that wasn’t exactly new. They both hated this, sleeping covered from toe to fingertip up to their necks. It was weird, to wear so many layers, but it was for the best, just in case.
She didn’t want to burn his Gran’s house to the ground just because they were cuddling.
“I hate that I don’t know who is actually to blame. I mean... My mother isn’t innocent. She made bad choices. I don’t even think she can disagree with that. What she did... And she admitted that Mr. Reeve was right all along, at least about some things.”
“He wasn’t right about you, no matter what he said,” Henrik insisted. He squeezed her a little tighter, holding her body closer, and she closed her eyes, breathing him in. “You know, the thing about people is, most folk, they do a lot of dumb things and stupid things and make bad decisions, but they can also do smart things and make good decisions. No one is inherently one side or the other. They could both be wrong and both be right.”