by Naomi Clark
“We’re not done talking yet,” he said.
“Yes we are.” I gripped the cup hard, resisting the urge to throw it at his head.
He stood, raising his hands in a pacifying gesture. “For now then. But we’re going after this feral whether you come or not. And if you don’t want to help, well… You know.”
The ceramic cracked in my hands, jagged shards hitting the tiles, my temper getting the better of me. “I know.”
I waited until I heard the front door slam behind Eddie before I let loose the scream that had been building inside me for the past hour. A short, shrill scream of pure frustration that left my throat burning and raw. “Fuck!” I kicked the pieces of broken cup across the kitchen floor. “Fuck!”
“Ayla!” Vince rested his hands on my shoulders, pulling me back against him. “Calm down.”
“You calm down,” I said stupidly, wriggling free of him to scoop up the mess I’d made. “I can’t believe that just happened. I can’t believe that old bastard walked in here and tried to blackmail me!”
Vince knelt to help me, picking a few smaller pieces out from under the table. “He won’t really do anything, you know that,” he said. “It’s all talk to bully you into doing what he wants.”
“Yeah?” I glanced up, meeting his eyes. He didn’t look too sure. “They’ve kicked other wolves out for less than this, haven’t they? I don’t know why I bloody came back.”
Vince shook his head. “They won’t make you outcast for this. How can they? Eddie just sat there and said the alphas were planning to kill this feral. If they make you outcast, what’s to stop you telling the whole world about it? That would do Alpha Humans all sorts of favors, wouldn’t it?”
I grunted, not any more convinced than Vince sounded.
Soft footsteps made me look up. Shannon leaned in the doorway, watching me and Vince scramble around under the table on our hands and knees. “That was Tina,” she said. “She wants us to go round.”
“Is Molly okay?” I sat up quickly, banging my head on the underside of the table. I hissed and rubbed my head, scooting backwards across the tiles so I could sit up properly. “What’s it about?”
“She didn’t say. Just said she wanted us to come over.” Shannon sat down, her pretty face anxious. “I heard…everything.”
“I thought you would.” I leaned against the dishwasher, closing my eyes. “What do you think?”
“I had no idea Pack politics got so…Machiavellian,” she replied. “You told me Hesketh and Kinsey were kicked out of the city.”
“They were,” Vince said grimly. “Nobody laid a finger on them inside the city.”
She blanched. “I had no idea,” she murmured.
I opened my eyes to meet hers, my insides a knot of temper and worry. Would she hate me now, knowing I knew about Hesketh and Kinsey? Would she think me an animal, savage and inhuman? I truly believed they’d got what they deserved. This feral though…I wasn’t sure it was the same kind of thing. Eddie had been talking cold-blooded murder and I didn’t - couldn’t - believe that was the solution to the Silver Kiss problem.
Shannon sighed and shook her head. “How many other people have they done this to? How many humans and wolves have gone missing at the Pack’s command?”
Vince and I both shrugged. I’d been out of town too long to know if Hesketh and Kinsey were the rule or the exception. And Vince wasn’t part of the Pack’s upper echelons. Neither of us was privy to the alphas’ secrets.
“Jesus Christ,” Shannon said. Then she stood and moved to where I sat, offering me a hand up. “Let’s go and see Tina.”
FIFTEEN
Tina met us on the doorstep, a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and shadows under her eyes. It was immediately clear why she’d called us. Her front door was tagged with the same graffiti as ours: the Alpha Humans symbol and the word abomination scrawled underneath. That was bad enough by itself, but above the symbol was the sinister message we’re watching you.
My heart flipped. “My God.”
“Tina, are you okay? Is Molly okay?” Shannon hurried to her side, catching her arm.
“She’s fine. We’re fine,” Tina assured her. “Just a bit shaken. Molly won’t come out of her room.” She turned to stare at the graffiti, lip curled in a snarl. “Bastards. They must have done it last night. Who the fuck do they think they are?”
“Have you called the police?” Shannon asked.
“What good would that do? They didn’t help when Molly was missing.” Tina pushed the door open and pushed us through to the kitchen. “Molly hasn’t said anything, but I think this is something to do with when she was gone,” she told us, voice hushed. “I think she got herself in some real trouble—you saw the state she was in. Beaten black and blue.” She closed her eyes for a second as if picturing Molly’s wounds. I know I was. “What if some Alpha Human thugs got to her?” She opened her eyes and gazed at me, intense and demanding.
I opened my mouth to tell her we’d had the same graffiti. That probably loads of wolves across the city had and it didn’t mean Molly was in danger. But Tina caught my hand, digging her nails into my wrist and silencing me.
“What if it’s like your cousin?” she whispered. “What if they kill her?”
I blanched, my throat going dry. I couldn’t have answered her even if I’d wanted to. I dropped my gaze from hers; hoping Shannon would fill the sudden, tense silence.
She did.
“Molly still hasn’t told you what happened to her, I take it?” she asked Tina.
Tina shook her head. “She won’t talk to me at all.” Her eyes gleamed. “What could have been so bad that she won’t talk to her own mum about it?”
“I’m sure it’s not personal, Tina,” Shannon assured her. “Molly’s been through a lot and she probably doesn’t want to worry you anymore.”
“Her keeping secrets from me worries me,” Tina spat. “We might not be in this situation now if she hadn’t kept so many secrets from me.”
Shannon gave her a brittle smile. “Well, that’s what you wolves do, isn’t it? Keep secrets.”
Her comment hung in the air between Tina and me, icy and cruel. It was such a non-Shannon thing to say, she might as well have slapped us both. The unspoken message—you wolves are different from us humans—was such a physical blow anyway I think I’d rather she had just hit me.
I cleared my throat, trying to shake off the chill her words gave me. “Maybe we should speak to Molly?” I asked. “She might talk to us.” I looked to Shannon for confirmation and she nodded, suddenly on my side again.
“It’s worth a try.” She stood, pressing her hand to Tina’s shoulder. “We’ve been hit by graffiti artists too,” she told her. “I’m sure it’s nothing to do with Molly, it’s just those sick bastards having their fun.”
Tina shook her head. “Maybe. I hope so. I can’t take anything else, I swear…” She ran her hands through her hair, looking fragile and defeated. “Go on, go and talk to her. She won’t tell you anything.” She nodded towards the stairs.
We went up, leaving Tina lighting up another cigarette. Molly’s room was dark and smelled stale, like the windows hadn’t been opened for a while. Posters of bands and film stars lined the walls; the carpet was littered with clothes and shoes. A typical teenage girl’s room, I supposed. Molly was in bed, almost lost under a massive duvet. Her dark hair was a tangled snarl around her narrow face and her eyes gleamed in the darkness, too bright, too wary.
“Hi Molly,” Shannon said, closing the bedroom door after me. “How are you feeling?”
“Shit,” Molly replied, voice raspy.
“You look shit,” I agreed, finding a clear space on the floor to sit. Molly frowned at me.
“Didn’t you have a lip ring before?” she asked.
I touched my lip with a grimace. “It got ripped out.”
She shivered. Shannon perched on the edge of the bed, resting her hand on Molly’s hair, stroking the knotted mess soothingly.
She did the same thing to me to calm me down. I looked away, wishing I still had a piercing to chew on.
“So, you’ve seen the graffiti?” Shannon asked, taking a no-nonsense approach.
Molly grimaced. “Yeah, so?”
“So your mum thinks you might be in trouble,” Shannon said. “You don’t know why Alpha Humans have tagged your front door, do you?”
“No.”
“It’s nothing to do with where you were when you ran away?” Shannon persisted, gentle but determined. I thought she might have met her match in Molly, though. The girl shrugged and burrowed deeper into her duvet.
“I’m not telling you anything. I don’t have to.”
“We’ve been tagged too,” I said, hoping the common ground might draw her out.
“Yeah?” She glanced at me through her mane of matted hair. “Well, you’re a couple of dykes, aren’t you? Alpha Humans probably hate dykes as much as wolves, fuckers.”
Shannon blinked and I growled softly. Molly just kept staring at me, a challenge in her eyes. Whatever she’d been through, it was far worse than me, those eyes told me. There was no threat I could make that would match it.
Shannon stood. “I guess we’re wasting our time here,” she said.
“Piss off then.” Looking drained, Molly sank back under her covers. She yawned and rolled over away from us. We were dismissed.
I stalked from the room, Shannon in tow. “Waste of time,” I muttered.
“She’s still hurting,” Shannon said. “Still afraid.”
“Well she’s going to stay afraid if she doesn’t tell someone what happened! How many other wolves are going to be hurt and afraid because of this Silver Kiss shit?” I bunched my hands into fists, wishing I had something to hit. I just kept hearing Eddie’s words, over and over. He could make life difficult for us. Molly could make life easier. All she had to do was open her mouth and tell us what had happened to her. I knew it was tied into Sly and his drug dealing. If Molly spoke up, gave a statement to the police, all this could be over and Eddie could fuck off.
“Come on,” Shannon said, taking my hand and leading me downstairs. “We’re not getting anything done here.”
Tina peered round the kitchen door as we entered the hall. “Well?” Shannon shook her head. I just grunted. Tina’s shoulders slumped. “I knew she wouldn’t say anything. Alpha Humans will be bashing in our door and killing us in our sleep before she says anything.”
“Call the police,” Shannon advised her as she opened the door. I ground my teeth at the graffiti, the nasty paintwork dull in the dying afternoon light. “It can’t hurt, Tina.”
It was her turn to grunt. “It can’t help either.”
***
“We’re watching you.” Shannon said it as if tasting the words. She frowned at me. “What do you think?”
We were stuck in traffic on the way home; dusk falling around us, a solid line of cars in front of us. I fiddled with the radio, trying to find something other than sports to listen to. “I think Molly needs a good slap,” I muttered, not meaning it.
“What do you really think?” Shannon asked, grabbing my hand to pry it away from the radio. “Leave the news on.”
I leaned back in my seat, listening to the news while I thought about my reply. The newsreader was droning on about the weather in Scotland, her tone monotonous and dry. “I’m scared for her,” I said finally. “What if Tina was right and it is the same gang that went after Adam?”
“It can’t be.”
“It could be, though.”
“No.” Shannon shook her head. “You said it yourself—it’s something to do with Silver Kiss. Molly had to be getting hers from Sly. If she would just talk to us…” She bit her lip in frustration. “We could get Eddie off our backs.”
I nodded, trying not to picture Molly bloodied and broken, like Adam. It was impossible. “I don’t know what to do,” I confessed, misery crawling through me. Shannon shook her head again. I suppose she didn’t know either.
We crept along in silence after that, the traffic moving slowly through the city. In the growing dark, in the hot, close interior of the car, I felt trapped. Caught between loyalty to the Pack and fear for myself and my mate.
Needing to do something, I reached for the radio again, just as the newsreader dropped a bombshell in her robotic voice.
“… to recap our top story, the dead werewolf found yesterday morning in Moreland Park has been identified as fifteen-year-old Seth Walters. A post-mortem showed Walters died of internal injuries with large traces of narcotics in his system. Police are keen to question—”
I flipped the radio off, blood rushing to my face in a hot swell. “Shit.”
“Oh God,” Shannon said. “Poor kid.”
I pressed my hands to my face. There was no reason to think it was the wolf I’d seen with Sly the first night I’d met him. No reason in the world except the sick lurch in my gut and the burning in my head. “I saw him,” I whispered.
Shannon slammed on the handbrake as we hit a red light. “What?”
“The night I saw Sly, I saw that cub, I’m sure. I’m sure it was him.”
“Did you know him? Had you seen him before?”
“No, but I’m sure. It was Seth Walters.” I gripped my knees, digging my nails in through my jeans to my flesh. “I just know it.”
“Animal instinct?” There was no bite in her voice, just concern. I looked up at her.
“We have to go back to Molly.”
“Ayla, you don’t know that this kid is the same one you saw. And even if it is—”
“Narcotics, Shannon. You heard!” I pointed at the radio. “He was found with narcotics in his system. We have to go back to Molly. She knows what’s going on and we have to make her tell us.” My vision slipped, the world turning sepia as my wolf clawed to the surface.
“Okay,” Shannon said. “Okay, calm down. We can’t go rushing in without the facts and start bullying her. We’ll go home—”
“No. We’re going back now. Turn around.” I slapped my hand down on the dashboard hard enough to rattle the rearview mirror. “Now, Shannon.”
She stared at me, wetting her lips, eyes wide. I was scaring her. I couldn’t help it. I was so sure. So sure I’d seen Seth Walters that night and let him run off, Sly on his tail, without giving him another thought. And now he was dead. “Turn around,” I said again, closing my eyes and breathing deeply. When I opened them again, color had returned and Shannon was looking for a place to turn the car around.
***
Tina looked surprised to see us again, but didn’t say anything when I barged past and ran up to Molly’s room, Shannon hot on my heels.
“Ayla, calm down!” She grabbed the back of my jacket, jerking me to a halt on the landing. “Do you really think Molly will talk to you when you’re like this?”
She was right. I forced myself to stop for a second and compose myself. Or I tried to. The landing was in darkness, the only light coming from a street lamp outside, seeping in through drawn curtains. In the darkness it was harder to think human. Night was the wolf’s realm and she was panicked and angry.
I swallowed it down, pushed her back and knocked on Molly’s bedroom door. There was no answer, but I went in anyway, flipping on the light. Molly hadn’t moved since we left about an hour earlier. She was still curled up under her duvet, face screwed up against the sudden invasion of light.
“What?” she mumbled, sitting up and rubbing her bleary eyes. “What d’you want now?”
“Did you know Seth Walters?” I demanded, my wolf springing right back into my throat again.
Shannon pushed in front of me, shooting me a warning look. “Molly, we need your help,” she said, kneeling down to get on eye level with the girl. “You’re the only person who can help us.”
Molly had paled at Seth’s name, unmistakably. I itched to leap in and demand answers, but I held myself back, restraining myself with all the control I could muster. Shannon was bett
er at this than me. Much better.
Molly stared at the carpet, then the ceiling. For a second I thought she’d just tell us to get lost and I didn’t know if my nerves could take that.
“Molly, you’re not in trouble and you’re not in danger,” Shannon said. “Nobody’s going to hurt you for talking to us.”
“I know Seth,” she said, tossing her hair. “So what?” Still trying for bravado.
“Seth is dead,” I said bluntly. I couldn’t help myself. Molly flinched again, thin shoulders shaking.
“No. No way. No.”
Shannon reached for her, closing her hand over Molly’s. “Molly, is it something to do with Silver Kiss? With Sly?”
She flinched, telling us far more with that single reaction than any words could have. Her lips trembled and her eyes sparkled with tears.
Shannon brushed her cheek, sweeping lank hair away from her face. “Tell us, sweetie,” she coaxed.
“Oh God. Oh God, I didn’t think I was going to get out,” Molly said. She sat up suddenly, shoving the duvet aside. “I wasn’t going to say anything, coz I just want to forget it all, yeah? But Seth… If Seth is dead…” She trailed off, wiping her eyes and her nose on her pajama sleeve.
I bit my tongue; not wanting to scare her off now she was about to tell us what had happened. I just nodded, hoping Tina wouldn’t barge in and send Molly back into silence.
“Don’t be afraid to tell us, Molly,” Shannon said when Molly didn’t say anything else. “Anything you tell us is confidential—nobody else ever has to know.”
“No, but that’s the point. If Seth is dead, other people have to know, don’t they? But I don’t want Sly to know. That I told you, I mean,” Molly added, face flushed with fear. “I don’t want him coming after me again.”
“Sly will never know we spoke to you,” Shannon promised. “Go on, Molly. When you’re ready.” She squeezed the girl’s hand and Molly squeezed back. A little too hard judging from Shannon’s expression.