28

28
My heart practically shot out of my chest. “He’s here?”

“He insisted on staying after bringing you home,” Dad explained, still staring out the window with increasing interest. “I’d actually like him in here, Aurora. I need to check on something.”

“Check on s—!” I bit back a swear as Dad slipped a black, chunky-looking gun out from his coat pocket. “Dad, Jesus! Why do you—is that always just in there?”

He didn’t offer a response, instead pushing my window open before hopping out. I stared, blinking furiously, before glancing at Nurse Aurora to make sure she’d seen the same thing.

“I am sure he will be fine,” Nurse Aurora reassured me. “He has been, understandably, on guard since you came home.” My window swung shut with a wave of her hand as she started back to my door. “I will go tell Aiden you are ready for him, yes?”

God, I wasn’t sure I was ready for anything anymore.

While my dad had nearly broken my door down, Aiden quite literally came close to ripping it off its hinges. I don’t think Nurse Aurora had even been gone a minute when Aiden came charging in, barely catching the door before it slammed into the wall. Sharp claws dug into the side as he stumbled forward, tearing chunks out of the wood and scattering pieces across the ground.

“Aiden, s-seriously?”

He glanced at his arm, as if only now realizing it had shifted into something a bit more lethal. With a grunt, Aiden waved it quickly, seemingly shaking the werewolf off before glancing back my way. God, but his eyes were so red, so puffy; had he been crying the entire two days?

“I’m okay,” I reassured him. “Thanks to you, I mean.”

Aiden took a shaky step forward, hesitating when he got about halfway across my room. “I’m—” His voice caught, brain visibly stuttering as his face twisted up. He glanced at his once-clawed hand, sticking it in his pocket before taking a step backward.

“Hey, come on.” I sat up slightly in bed, somewhat taken aback by how truly stuck in place my arm was. It was a weird feeling, almost as if I didn’t have an arm at all. “Don’t leave. Please?”

Aiden froze in place, staring at me like a deer in headlights.

“I—Dad sort of talked me through it all.” It wasn’t a lie, per se, but it didn’t seem like a great idea to throw Clyde into the mix just yet. “If it’s any consolation, you looked very handsome, covered in all that hair.”

Thank God that got a weak chuckle out of him. “Aria…”

I just patted my bedside, feeling a smile spread across my face. After another beat of hesitation, Aiden took me up on my offer, taking an uncomfortably stiff sit-down. In fairness to him, Clyde had been just as twitchy when I found out. Part of me wondered if he was afraid he’d hurt me.

“If you’re feeling guilty about keeping this a secret,” I began, “I totally get your reason why, and I won’t pry if you don’t want me to. Dad just gave me the quick rundown of it all.”

Aiden shook his head, folding one leg over the other as he leaned back slightly. “I mean, I can’t exactly put the cat back in the bag, can I?”

The temptation to correct him to “dog” was almost too much to handle, but I managed to contain myself.

“So, I might as well just tell you as much as I can.” Aiden sighed heavily, rolling his neck slowly as he continued. “I mean, if you knew about all this beforehand, maybe I could’ve avoided all this.”

I grimaced slightly. “I don’t think knowledge would’ve suddenly given me superhuman strength.”

“But you’ve been seen around me, and that’s inherently dangerous,” Aiden insisted. “My family’s not just unpopular with Clyde; there’s a whole pack’s worth of folks who’d happily see the Lowell family in ruins.”

“Well, what’s done is done,” I replied matter-of-factly. “Besides, Dad inadvertently put a target on my back already, what with hunting this kind of stuff in the past and all.” It only occurred to me now that Dad’s old job was what originally riled up Clyde so much. God, I felt so stupid. “What matters is you’re on my side.”

A soft smile crossed Aiden’s face. His hand slipped across the covers, myself reaching for my good hand as our fingers interlocked. “So, I’m—m-my family, that is—we’re all lycanthrope. My mom, my dad, aunts and uncles; it’s rare for one of us to be skipped over.”

God, that was a weird image in my head. To think that chipper, sociable woman was a growling wolf-person, it almost seemed too much to believe. “So, I’m gonna be okay? I’m not just gonna wake up with hair all over my face, am I?”

“You make that sound like it’s a bad thing,” Aiden teased. “But no. Lycanthropy’s genetic, so you have nothing to worry about.”

Dad had mentioned Mom died of natural causes… still, I couldn’t help but let the thought briefly run through my mind. “You mentioned your family had enemies. A whole pack’s worth?”

Aiden visibly bit his lip. “Yeah, we… I mean, there would be certain people who…” He paused, as if hesitant to continue.

“I can kind of guess Clyde’s a lycanthrope at this point, Aiden.” It felt a bit scummy to phrase it like that, but I really didn’t think he’d react well knowing the truth. “So, does the mayor just double-up as pack leader, then?”

“Something like that, yeah,” Aiden said. “Being mayor sort of helped Dad’s case for being the new leader. But, of course, to the other Duskfall members, it looked a bit… suspicious.” I felt his hand squeeze around mine, though he pulled free just as quickly. “I just can’t believe Clyde would take things this far.”

That caught me completely off-guard. But before I could ask any further, a loud pop cracked off, echoing off the house with a terrible tremble. Fur practically sprang up across Aiden’s skin as he stood rigid, shifting arm easily covering my body as a low snarl rumbled from deep inside his chest.

That’s when Clyde football-tackled through my window.

Shards of glass went flying every which way, most of which caught against Aiden. My hands squeezed around my blankets, pulling it up against my chest with a startled yelp. “C-Clyde!”

His face was stuck between wolf and human, pointed ears and sparkling eyes a strange contrast to his perfectly dulled teeth. Whatever pained expression he had quickly lightened upon seeing me, only for him to let out a growl himself at the sight of Aiden.

In a flash, Aiden was as wolf-like as he could get, lunging at Clyde’s throat with a horrible shriek. Clyde’s arm caught underneath his chest, redirecting his momentum forward before slamming him into my dresser. Wood splintered outward as Clyde’s body covered in dark fur, and he threw himself free from Aiden as the two squared off.

“Aria!” Dad’s face flashed across the window, gun raised and aimed at the circling pair of wolves. “Close your eyes!”

“Dad!” Instinct pulled me to my feet as I stepped in front of the window, blocking the boys from his barrel. “Stop, it’s Clyde!”

“I know who that is!” Dad snapped. “Aiden told me all about it, and my loyalty doesn’t stretch to violence against my daughter!”

“Aiden told you—?” My head spun around at the first pained howl.

Aiden had taken initiative, teeth snapping around Clyde’s arm as he staggered forward, pulling and shoving in retaliation. Memories of the basketball practice flashed across, followed with the realization as to how violent this really could get.

“Knock it off!”

I barely had time to blink before I found myself between the two. They were both frozen, mid-lunge, as if someone had hit the pause button. It almost looked unnatural, but as far as I knew, lycanthropes just had improved dexterity or something. The world seemed to hold its breath as all eyes fell to me, waiting for whatever I was supposed to do next.

“I…” I took a deep breath, gesturing with my one good hand for the pair to step away from each other. “I’d better not see you two take that look again in this house. Otherwise, I have no problem letting my dad shoot you.”

Aiden’s voice crackled with a deep rage. “But he’s the reason—!”