Jeremy leaned forward, and the tension racketed upward. “Whose side are you on anyway?”
“My side,” Ryan said. “My daughters’ side. Anyone who shares the same enemy as I do. This is about survival. It’s not a pissing contest, pup. It’s about time you took this seriously.”
Jeremy leapt to his feet, Ryan following less than a second later.
“That’s enough,” Byron bellowed. “Nathan, deal with Jeremy.”
“Nathan?” Jeremy gasped as Byron led Ryan away. “Nathan… deal with me?”
Byron fixed a chilly stare at his only son. “You heard me. Remember who’s in charge here, son. And remember what we’re all here for. It’s not to tear each other apart.”
Byron turned his back on Jeremy, and I jumped in the way to block Jeremy’s lunge.
“What the hell are you doing?” I hissed as he slammed me against the wall.
Opa walked out of the room as if nothing was happening. Amelia stood at the door, and I wanted to tell her to run, but I had to remember to stop treating her like something delicate that needed to be protected.
Jeremy pressed his thick forearm against my throat, and I pushed back until I had him backed up against the fridge. Jeremy was strong and angry, and it was all I could do to keep him in the room.
“You need to calm the hell down,” I said when he finally stopped struggling.
“Because you say so?” he spat bitterly. His blue eyes were cold and cruel, and I remembered how he had acted in the mountains.
“Because your alpha says so,” Amelia said quietly. She pressed her hand against his shoulder, and he relaxed almost instantly. “Look at the bigger picture, Jeremy,” she said, still in that soft voice. “Byron’s right. You know this. We can’t afford to turn on each other. We need to protect the pack. How are we supposed to do that if we can’t even be in a room with each other for more than five minutes?”
Jeremy pushed us both away from him and sat down to eat his food as if he hadn’t been about to go wolf on us. “I’m just frustrated. I can’t stand having to come back here and wait around to be attacked again. I can’t stand not knowing what happened to Willow. And every time I come home, everything’s changed again. I have no place here. That man can call me son all he likes, but he’s never been a father to me.”
“You go,” Amelia whispered to me. “I want to talk to him for a bit.”
As I left the room, I heard Amelia speak to Jeremy in that same hypnotic tone of voice again. I went straight outside to the back garden where Byron and Ryan were having a discussion. They got quiet when they saw me.
“Amelia calmed him down properly,” I explained. “I think you might be right about this omega thing, Ryan. It’s bizarre, but she definitely had some kind of effect on him.”
Ryan nodded, a muscle ticking in his jaw, and I wished she would come outside and do the same thing to him.
“So she’s basically a werewolf whisperer,” I said.
Ryan laughed, the tension falling from his shoulders. “Pretty much. But she can’t make Jeremy accept me.”
“He’ll come around,” Byron said.
“I’m not so sure, to be honest. He’s… he’s not like us.” I scratched my head, unsure if I should continue. “Things got a bit out of hand when we were away together.”
Byron clenched his jaw. “What do you mean?”
“One of the last places we went to, well, it got rough. Opa and Willow were acting weird, so Jeremy and I went for a run. He took me far out, and we ended up running close to a place we’d been turned away from, a hut in the mountains. I… we… like I said, it got out of hand.
“I ended up fighting the werewolf who lived there, but then… then I realised Jeremy was running after the humans—an old man and the wolf’s mate. Jeremy tried to… I stopped him. Nothing happened in the end, not really, but it could have.” I inhaled sharply as I recalled the scene. “It could have been a lot worse. I thought… I didn’t know what to do. Put it this way: he hasn’t been happy with me since then, so that probably didn’t help back there.”
Bryon turned away and stalked up and down the garden.
“Give him a minute,” Ryan advised, putting a hand on my shoulder.
“Have you really been watching out for her?” I asked.
“Who? Oh. We can’t just leave her running around alone. Luckily, her father has made our job a lot easier.” He gave me a rare smile. “I owe that girl a lot. Did you really think I would let her get into trouble?”
“I didn’t think. I mean, you’re kinda still the wolf I saw about to attack her in the woods.”
His face fell. “I know. If I could change what happened… but I can’t. My daughters’ lives are in your family’s hands. If it’s any consolation, I can’t find a moment’s peace.”
“It is, actually.” But I shook his hand. “Welcome to the pack.”
Byron joined us again. “It’s my fault. If I had been more of a father to you kids, everything would be different. When all of this is over, when we’ve won, we’re going to be the family my mother always wanted us to be.”
I saw how determined he was, and I understood. I had my own promises to keep.
Chapter Eleven
Perdita
Amelia whispered the gossip to me as we read through the same books again on my lunch break.
“So even though Opa and Jeremy are home, we’re none the wiser really. We’re back to waiting for Vin to make a move, if he ever does. I mean, now that the curse is broken, he might just give up, right?”
“Yeah, but will your grandfather?” I asked.
“Probably not.” She bit her lip. “Ryan thinks Vin will want me. They tried to take my mother, and they meant to take Mémère before she died. What if they come for me?”
“Nobody’s going to let them near you.”
“Yeah, but what if I go willingly?”
I slammed the book shut. “Don’t even joke about that, Amelia.”
“I mean it, though. What if that would end everything? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.”
“Are you freaking kidding me right now? Haven’t you heard Ryan talk about those people?”
She blew out a breath. “I know, but—”
“But nothing. That would be idiotic. Never even think anything like that again.”
“Never think what?”
Both of us jumped at the sound of Joey’s voice behind us.
“Seriously,” I whispered to Amelia. “Use your nose every now and then.” She made a face, and we both turned to greet my cousin.
“What are you doing here?” I said as brightly as I could manage.
“It’s the library. What do you think?” He shrugged. “What are you two up to?” He reached to pick up the book I had been reading. “Werewolf legends? What’s this about, then?”
“Uh, a school project,” Amelia said quickly.
“In the summer?”
Amelia rubbed the back of her head. “It’s… I missed a lot of school and stuff, so…”
He frowned. “A school project, in the summer, on werewolf legends. That’s the best you can do?”
“It’s not just werewolf legends,” I said. “It’s about Romani gypsy… culture and… and…”
“The Ukraine,” Amelia added. “In the eighteenth century. And mass hysteria and a whole lot of other stuff.”
I rolled my eyes at her.
“Then why aren’t you looking in the historical section?” he asked.
I looked back at him. “Um, what?”
He sighed. “It sounds like you would be better off looking in the historical section rather than the mythology section.”
“That might be a good idea, actually,” I said to Amelia.
“Ridiculous,” Joey said.
“We can’t all be natural-born geniuses, Joe,” I said, stretching.
“I’m not a genius. I work my arse off to learn whatever I can. It’s called hard work. It’s not like somebody beams shit into my brain while I
sleep.”
I smirked. “Settle down.”
“Wreck the head. Wait here.” He was back within five minutes with a huge pile of books. “We can order in some books because there isn’t that great of a selection here, but there are some decent websites that might have the kind of information we’re looking for.”
“Hold on a second.” I held up my hands. “We?”
“Oh, yeah,” Joey said. “You can lie to me all you want, Perdy Rivers, but I’m your cousin, and I’m going to find out what’s going on whether you like it or not.”
“Nothing’s going on,” I said, flustered.
“Great, then you’ll have no problem letting me help.”
“I, um, I don’t think…”
“Good,” Amelia said. “Should get this project finished a lot quicker. You could email us those websites you were on about. What did you mean about ordering in books?”
“Mrs. Reed will order in books we need. She still has all of her budget for the year left.”
“Mrs. Reed knows the word yes?”
“Ha, ha. Not. Watch and learn, girls.” Joey sidled up to the counter to charm Mrs. Reed.
I watched in surprise, and with a little terror, as a beaming smile lit up her expression. She appeared to write down a list, and she patted Joey’s hand before he rejoined us.
“What the hell was that?” I blurted.
“She likes me. I’m here a lot. Sometimes Mam bakes cookies and stuff for her. I buy her chocolates on special occasions. We’re friends.”
I narrowed my eyes. “That’s unbelievably creepy.”
“And yet useful. We might be related, but I’m not her arch-enemy’s grandchild.”
“I knew she hated me!”
He laughed. “She told me you look like Ruth did back in the day, right around the time she stole her boyfriend. Sorry about that.”
“Did she say that before or after you roped me into work experience here?”
He grinned, and I glared right back at him.
“Um, okay,” Amelia said. “Back to the books. Is she going to order them?”
“I gave her some keywords, so she’s going to see what she can find. She’s quite the googler.”
“That sounds so very wrong,” I said. “Joe, are you coming to that party with me or not?”
“Oh, yeah,” Amelia said. “You should totally go.”
“You’re just saying that because Perdy can’t if I don’t.”
She smiled at him. “I would never be so sly and manipulative.”
He studied the book in front of him. “Only if Tammie can come.”
Amelia and I exchanged a glance.
“Oh, don’t be so bitchy,” he said, looking up. “She’s been through a lot lately, and she’s tried to say sorry to you, Perdy. Give her a chance.”
“What’s she been going through?” I asked.
“Thought you didn’t care about her anymore.” He smiled as if he had won something.
“Shut up. Bring her, then. So I can tell Dad we’re going?”
“Go on then. But it better be good.” He eyed Amelia. “And warn your annoying friend not to bother me.”
She looked at him blankly.
“You know,” he said. “The loud, excitable one I keep seeing you hanging around with.”
“Julie? Oh, don’t be so bitchy,” she mocked.
He grinned and took a seat. “Might as well get started now. Prepare yourselves for some serious research, ladies.”
“Yeah, well, my lunch is nearly over,” I said.
“You can bring books home with you, then,” he said. “So what exactly are we looking for?”
Amelia passed him our list of search words.
“Chovihani, gaje, gypsy magic, werewolf curses, omega? What the hell kind of—”
“Just read,” I snapped, opening a book and widening my eyes to ensure I didn’t fall asleep out of boredom. Research was not my strong suit.
“Wait a second,” he said and disappeared behind the stacks again. He threw a book in front of me.
I checked out the cover. “Wolves?”
“Look up omega in the index,” he said before promptly diving into another book.
I read an entire chapter on wolf hierarchy. “So it talks about alphas and omegas, but I don’t know if it’s right. I mean, if it applies to werewolves. Or the legends, rather,” I said, my cheeks heating up.
“What does it say?” Amelia asked.
“Okay, it says that there’s a dominant couple who are the alphas, and then there’s a beta. The beta is like, second-in-command and the next alpha. The rest of the pack are subordinates, except for the omega.”
She arched a brow. “And?”
“Well, it says the omega is basically picked on by the rest of the pack. They take their tension and aggression out on the omega, and it keeps the pack peaceful. If an omega dies, the rest of the pack can get depressed for a while.”
Her face paled, and I slammed the book shut.
“Wolves aren’t werewolves,” I said softly.
She nodded, but any time I glanced at her after that, she was busy staring into space with a frown creasing her forehead. The pair of them read through books past my lunch break and until closing. We walked home together as they discussed what they had found.
“There’s not a whole lot on gypsy culture,” Joey said, “at least not the Romani kind. But there was a really interesting section on their beliefs. They believed the dead would taint them. They apparently had this big thing about cleanliness.”
“Yeah, they had marime taboos, like the women would be in trouble if a man touched her skirts even.” Amelia sounded extremely excited.
“I think I read some of that. The stuff about the dead though… they believed the dead could basically come back if they buried them, and that was why bodies were burned. They believed in hell and all kinds of monsters being able to escape from there.”
“Oh,” Amelia said, “Perdita read something about the gypsies believing in white werewolves protecting them from the dead. I mean, if they believed the dead came back, then obviously, werewolves would be valuable.”
I zoned out from the conversation, but they seemed really into it. With Joey’s help, we might actually get somewhere on the research. We had already found way more than we had without him, and maybe the websites he mentioned would be more interesting than a couple of dusty old books.
I watched them stroll away from my house, still chatting animatedly together.
Dad opened the door. “Was that Amelia with Joey?”
“Yeah.” I yawned. “He’s helping her with a project. They were in the library for a few hours.”
“Oh? What kind of project?”
“Some kind of history thing. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention. Too busy working.”
He smiled. “Ah, is this part of the guilt trip effect in order to persuade me about that party?”
I stuck my tongue out at him. “Nope. Joey’s going, so now I am, too. Just like you said.”
“You need to stop bullying your cousin into doing whatever you want.”
“What are family for? Anyway, he and Tammie are going to go. Reluctantly, yes, but we’re calling it an early birthday celebration.”
“Maybe next year, on your eighteenth, we could do something special.”
“What, like a party?”
“Maybe. I could DJ for you.”
“Tempting, but no. Thanks, though.”
He chuckled. “You know, David and I used to be in a band. Maybe we could get the whole gang back together for the night.”
“Dad, you’re scaring me. It’s bad enough to find out my cousin regularly flirts with the octogenarian librarian without you donning a bass guitar.”
“I was on drums, I’ll have you know.”
“So weird.”
“You’re fine with your grandmother being a club singer, but your dad can’t have had a life ever?”
I giggled. “Gran is cooler than y
ou.”
He held his chest as if struck through the heart. “Harsh.”
“I like you better when you’re not trying to be down with the kids.”
“Go to your room.”
“That’s more like it.”
We laughed together until Gran came home, and when she saw us, her face lit up. We were definitely going to be okay.
Chapter Twelve
Nathan
Amelia ate dinner with her nose in a book.
“Interesting reading?” Byron asked.
She laid it down, her eyes shining. “Yes, actually. We’ve been looking for something that might help me figure out Kali’s power. And the omega thing.”
“We?”
“Yeah.” She glanced at her food. “Me and some friends.”
“You told them?” Opa asked in a shocked voice.
“Of course not! I said it’s for a school project.” She shrugged. “I just want to know more about our heritage, and who knows? Maybe I’ll find something that will help us. There’s still the fact that Perdita’s dad is ill to deal with, remember?”
“We’ll deal with that when the time is right,” Opa said impatiently. “There are more important things than books right now, Amelia.”
“But there could be something useful. The omega thing—”
“Ryan, stop filling her head with nonsense,” Opa said. “It’s a myth; that’s all.”
“I believe in it,” I said, harsher than I intended, but that was because of the mention of Perdita’s dad.
“You’re a child—” Opa began.
But Byron interrupted him. “I think it’s important. Keep looking, Amelia. We need all of the help we can get.”
She grinned and turned back to the book, but Opa looked absolutely disgusted.
“Maybe I can help,” I said to my sister as we cleaned up after dinner.
“Would you?”
“Yeah, why not? I saw you with Jeremy, how you calmed him down.”
She hesitated, twisting her bracelet around her arm. “The omega in a wolf pack is the lowest-ranking member, the one who gets picked on.”
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