Page 42 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

Even though I’d fought him on it, Jared left a hefty stack of twenties in the drawer in the kitchen. For necessities, he’d said.

I wouldn’t be touching a cent of it.

After work I planned to hit up the small grocery at the edge of town and get my old staples. Apples. Oats. Ramen. You’d be surprised just how long a person can live on those three things.

There was enough left in the fridge and cupboards still that Clay would be alright for at least a few days.

But we really had no idea how long Jared would be gone for.

A few days for sure, though he’d warned this morning before he left that it could be closer to a week.

Even more if his uncle didn’t get the message out that the Forest Grove pack wouldn’t tolerate rogue wolves on their lands.

It all seemed a little silly to me, but then, I wasn’t born into this life like Jared was. I was snatched away from my mortality—my normalcy—and thrown into it.

“Hey,” Layla snapped in front of my eyes. “Where’s your man friend today? You guys have been joined at the hip since you came back to school, I thought maybe…” Layla trailed off, brushing her long near- black hair away from her face to hang down her back.

“What?” I asked, trying to get back to the conversation at the lunch table and having a hard time focusing. Without Jared with me at school, I was walking on eggshells. I’d been doing alright so far, but I had a feeling it was only because I’d run a good twenty miles after Jared left this morning.

I would run the same or more every day that he was gone to placate my wolf.

“Jared,” Layla repeated, saying his name slowly as though speaking to a deaf person. “Where is he?”

“Oh, um…he’s helping his uncle with something. He won’t be back for a little while.”

I bit my lower lip after I said it, hoping that was alright to say. I had no idea what was safe to say to people and what wasn’t anymore.

“So, he’s just going to miss school?”

Quinn saved me from having to come up with a reply when he set his lunch tray on our table, the plastic clattering against the chipped enamel. I winced. I didn’t know which was worse between the cafeteria at lunch time or the halls between classes…

Both were on the verge of making my ears bleed, or at least, that’s what it felt like.

Yet another thing to get used to.

Quinn slid into the seat next to Layla and bumped her shoulder. “Hey,” he said, glancing around the table at Layla first, with a smile, and then Vivian, who stopped scrolling on her phone to raise a brow at him, and then to me.

“Um, what are you doing?” Viv asked, eyeing Quinn with unconcealed disdain.

Layla went scarlet.

I turned in my seat. Quinn was almost pressed against Layla they were sitting so close.

His dark flop of hair looked like it had some gel in it.

The bruising around his eyes and mouth from what Devin had done to him looked to have mostly faded.

And though the cut in his eyebrow from where the asshole had ripped Quinn’s eyebrow ring out was mostly healed, he wouldn’t be able to put a new ring in there any time soon.

But he had a shiny new piercing. A simple silver lip ring on the left side of his mouth. It suited him.

“Hey Quinn,” I said, trying to soften Vivian’s blow. Quinn and I were back on relative speaking terms,

though I didn’t think we’d ever get back to our easy banter in culinary class ever again. Even if Devin was gone for good.

“Hey Allie.”

“Did I stutter?” Vivan prodded, cocking her head at Quinn.

Layla rolled her eyes. “Oh, calm down, Vivian,” she chastised. “I invited him.”

Vivian’s eyebrows shot to her hairline. She turned her light brown eyes to me, a question in them. She was wondering if I knew what the hell was going on. I shrugged.

It seemed a lot could happen in a week away from school.

“I can leave,” Quinn offered with a one-shoulder shrug, trying for nonchalance even though it was clear Viv had made him uncomfortable. His throat bobbed with a deep swallow.

Layla placed a delicate hand on his arm to stop him, her painted black nails denting the fabric of Quinn’s long sleeve band tee. “No,” she said. “Stay.”

Then she turned to Viv. “Allie broke the rules first,” she added with a little smirk. “So, I figured the no-boys-at-the-lunch-table rule didn’t apply anymore.”

“You had a no-boys rule?” Quinn asked, clearly amused.

Layla swatted him. “We were thirteen when we made that rule,” she pointed out.

Vivian sighed. “It’s the beginning of the end,” she said dramatically, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back in her chair to push her tray away.

I reached over and stole her chocolate milk and the rest of her uneaten mac and cheese. She shook her head at me. “At least some things never change.”

I dodged another of Vivian’s attempts to get us all together this weekend, but only barely. I wasn’t going to be able to keep turning her down or giving excuses for much longer without her thinking something was up.

But knowing what needed to be done and actually doing it were two completely different things.

If I could just grow the kahunas to shift again, I could start to get control of myself.

Or, I guess, to become one with my wolf, which should make her more malleable to my human will. Or…something like that.

With Jared gone though, well, I wasn’t sure if I could do it alone. Asking Clay for help was definitely out of the question. He’d stayed out in his shop all night last night and only came inside after Jared left. “Want me to drive you to school?” he’d grunted as he poured himself a coffee.

I’d said no and he hadn’t said another word.

He didn’t offer to run with me, even though running in the dark alone until sunrise had almost sent me spiraling into a panic attack at six am, but I’d caught his scent on the way back to the cabin.

Somehow knowing he’d been following me made me feel both relieved and violated at the same time.

“Where are you going?” Viv asked as I peeled off from our group after lunch, heading in the direction of the main office.

I spun, walking backwards in the crush of students rushing to their lockers before class started again. “Dane wants to see me,” I replied.

Viv stuck a finger in her mouth and pretended to gag, illustrating her sympathy.

I didn’t think anyone at Forest Grove actually liked Vice Principal Dane.

Except maybe Stella Baker, but she was widely known as all the teachers’ pet.

There was even a rumor last year that she got with Mr. Cavelli—the math teacher.

Apparently, there was no other possible way she could have gotten a ninety-seven percent in that class.

The girl didn’t even know her basic timetables.

But who knows, maybe her rich mom and pop had shelled out for a private tutor. You really never know what’s going on in other people’s lives. Which is why I try not to judge or listen to the churning small town gossip mill.

I shouldered the office door open and stepped inside.

“I need his goddamned transcript. Christ, I’ve been standing here for twenty minutes. I have court in less than an hour and need to let the movers into the house. I don’t have time for this shit.”

Mr. Wright was standing over Susan, the tiny office admin at the front counter, his wide fingers splayed over the glass top.

“I-It’ll just be a moment, Mr. Wright,” Susan stammered, backing away from the counter. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting.”

I craned my neck to look around, my heart in my throat.

There was no shock of dark hair. No steely green eyes watching me. Devin wasn’t there.

“If you’d like to have a seat,” Susan gestured to the short row of plastic bucket seats along the wall next to where I was standing.

Mr. Wright loosed an exasperated sigh and turned. I backed toward the door to leave but wasn’t fast enough.

His speckled green eyes found mine and he straightened to his full height. A few inches taller than his son, Mr. Wright was a goddamned giant. With wide shoulders and a lanky frame.

Dark pepper hair salted with strands of silver and cropped short framed his square face.

The lines around his bloodshot green eyes deepened. His upper lip curled up at the sight of me and I didn’t have to guess to know that Devin had blamed me for whatever story he must’ve told his father about why he needed to leave town.

I could tell straight away Mr. Wright was human. I didn’t know whether or not he knew what his son was, but regardless, it was clear who he blamed.

I didn’t have to wonder anymore why Devin went to seven different schools growing up. When he told me, I assumed it was his father moving them around for work or something like that. I’d felt sorry for him. That he wasn’t able to grow up in one place, make lasting friendships.

But now I knew the truth. It wasn’t his father.

It was Devin running from his mistakes and dragging his father into his messes with him.

Though Mr. Wright was definitely guilty of feeding into it.

Being a judge, he probably got his son out of trouble more often than trouble caught up with them.

The perks of being son to a powerful and complaisant father.

I pitied the man.

My mouth opened as if to speak, but I really didn’t know what to say. My wolf was snarling inside, and I averted my stare in case my eyes betrayed the truth of what lay within.

“I hope you’re happy,” Mr. Wright growled and when I chanced a glance at him, my heart stopped. With the light directly over his head, casting his face in shadow, I didn’t see him.

I saw Devin.

A sound something like a whimper clawed up my throat and my wolf launched to the surface. A bone in my hand popped and I cried out.

“Dear?” Susan called from behind her computer screen. “Are you alright?”

“You little bitch,” Mr. Wright whispered low enough that no one else would hear.

Another bone snapped audibly, and my knees weakened.

He sounded so much like his son when he whispered like that.