Time Mends(11)
Crap. Now I was going to have to chase after the little monster.
It quickly became evident the good people at Bose were geniuses and the sound-proofed headphones were worth every single penny. They had managed to completely block out the sound of twenty Shifters and two Seers engaged in a shouting match.
“And I’m telling you, nice little girls don’t just up and turn into Shifters,” Uncle Charles was saying. For once, his face was red from emotion rather than a few dozen too many drinks. “That thing is an abomination. A monster.”
He was calling me a monster? That was rich coming from a man who liked to use his son as a punching bag.
“She’s not a ‘thing’.” Talley’s eyes glowed with a manic rage. It was the first time for me to see her truly angry in nearly eighteen years. “She has a name, or is your memory slipping along with your ability to Shift?”
I saw Uncle Charles’s hand ball into a fist, but was too shocked to do anything. Luckily, Jase wasn’t frozen to the spot. He grabbed the older man’s elbow and jerked him back before he could swing.
“Call my sister names or even think about touching Talley again, and I’ll end your miserable life. Do you understand me?”
“She isn’t your sister, whelp. The sooner you remember that, the better off you’ll be.”
“Enough,” Toby said, taking a single step towards his father and cousin, but that was all it took. Jase went back to leaning on the counter while Uncle Charles retreated to the leather Lazy Boy recliner. “We’re not going to go around accusing anyone of anything until we have proof,” the Pack Leader said, leveling Uncle Charles with his eyes. “And we’re to respect our elder Pack members,” he said to both Jase and Talley.
If I were Toby, Jase would have been strangled over his salute. The arrogant Pack Leader merely nodded as if he was truly a commanding officer and Jase didn’t reek of sarcasm.
“Listen, Toby, it doesn’t matter if she’s a saint or a demon. The fact is, an arctic wolf is going to attract a lot of a attention around here,” one of Jase’s older distant cousins chimed in. “Especially after what your boys pulled last month. Every redneck with a gun thinks it’s open season on coyotes. Add a dangerous non-indigenous wolf to the mix and they’ll be shooting at anything that moves.”
The boy sitting on the couch was the one person in the room I should have made every effort to avoid, but I felt myself pulled towards the only one not in the middle of a what-are-we-going-to-do-about-Scout discussion.
“I’m an arctic wolf?”
Charlie nodded, his eyes focused on his brother.
Toby is the kind of guy who demands attention. He has rock-star looks and an attitude to match. Yet, in the presence of his Pack, he became something more. Even I could acknowledge that. He was a leader, although a very exasperated one at the moment. “What am I supposed to do? Force her to leave town? This isn’t some random lone wolf who wandered into our area. And we can’t ignore the fact that some members of this Pack may have had some role in this happening.”
Jase’s head whipped up. “You don’t really think —”
“That’s ridiculous,” Talley’s mother said. “Jase and Charlie had nothing to do with this. You can’t make Shifters. And she’s turning into a wolf, not a coyote.”
“You have to look at the facts, Vera,” Toby said, becoming the first person to ever use Mrs. Matthews’s first name in conversation. “One month she gets ripped in half by a Shifter, and the next full moon she’s sprouting fur and fangs. There has to be a connection.”
“It’s not some sort of infection you can get from a scratch or a little bit of blood, Tobian. You know as well as I do that being a Shifter is part of your DNA.”
Toby raked his hand through his hair. “Well, if anyone has any better theories, I’m willing to listen.”
Fifteen voices started yelling at once, most of them not painting a very kindly picture of me and demanding my immediate removal from Pack territory. It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing a person wants to sit around and listen to.
“This is fun,” I muttered under my breath.
“Come on.” Charlie stood up and extended his hand towards me. I followed him off the couch, ignoring the offered assistance. “I’ll take you home.”
No one seemed to notice us as we made our way to the door, Charlie stopping to lift some keys out of Talley’s purse.
The morning sun had burned all the dew off the ground. I could hear farm equipment churning miles down the road, the smell of the freshly turned dirt working more effectively than any anti-anxiety medication. I was in awe of how alive the world was. My ears picked up even the faintest of sounds and layers upon layers of smells filled my nose.