Slate’s mere presence was enough to drive Jack insane, but the moment that he was alone in Margot’s living room with the Nachtwolf, Jack was ready to toss him out on his haunches.
When Slate started telling him how wrong he was for doubting Everly when she said that her mother was there, Jack wasn’t about to listen to him spouting off for more than half a second.Now, the two of them were squaring off against one another in Margot’s back yard.At least they’d managed to wait until they’d gotten outside to shift so they hadn’t torn up the old woman’s house.As much as Slate wanted to pretend that he was the perfect young man with the nice manners and Jack was the bad guy, that was all a bunch of bullshit, and eventually, he thought Everly’s mother and everyone else would see right through it. He’d wanted to fight Jack in the living room.In their wolf forms, Jack and Slate squared off against one ano“We can call Jim from my house,” Everly’s mom said. “You may as well just come home with me and let those guys sort everything else out while we’re gone.“But they might be worried about me,” Everly argued.Chelsea shrugged. “You can mind-link Jack and tell him where you’re going, can’t you?”“That’s true,” Everly said. Not that she should’ve even been concerned about what they thought after the shit they’d just pulled.“Margot will keep them in line. Don’t worry about that,” Chelsea promised her. “My house isn’t too far away from here. Just a little over half a mile.”“Okay,” Everly agreed. It wouldn’t take them too long to walk there, even through the deep snow, not since they were wolves. “By the way, your wolf is very impressive. I couldn’t believe how huge she is. Are all werewolves that big?&r
“What did your dad say when you called him?” Jack asked as he drove the borrowed pickup truck from the neighbor’s house to the closest town, which was really more like a village. When they arrived there, Jack only saw a general store and a handful of houses, as well as a restaurant and gas station.That was pretty much it.They were early because Jim had a lot further to come. It was fine with Jack because he wanted to talk to Everly, and so far, every time he tried to talk to her, she dodged the question.“He said he’d be here as soon as he could get here.” Everly turned and looked out the window, her eyes focused on the front of the store across the street from where Jack had pulled in the faded red pickup truck.“Can we talk about a few things?” He’d asked earlier, and she’d mumbled that it wasn’t a good time.He heard her sigh, but she didn’t turn her head. “What?&rdq
Everly’s stomach was in her throat as they pulled into the small drive outside of her mother’s cabin. None of this was going to be easy. She was going to have to be careful not to scare the shit out of her dad when he saw Jack shift, and then, when he saw her mom for the first time, she was going to have to give them time to talk to one another while she and Jack went off to check in with Slate and Jack’s family to see if they’d gotten everything sorted out.Before they got out of the truck, Jack leaned over her and said, “Are you all right?”“I am right now, but I’m nervous as hell. What if he freaks out? Or what if he doesn’t forgive her?”“I don’t think there’s much of a chance of him not forgiving her, but I do think that he will freak out when he sees me shift. There’s not much chance of that not happening.”Her dad was already out of his truck and headed over to her si
Jack wrapped his arm around Everly, and she leaned back against him as she watched her father’s face. She didn’t know what he was going to do—have a heart attack, fall down into the snow, burst into tears.“Ch-Chelsea?” he asked, like he wasn’t sure it was his wife he was seeing walking toward him.“Hi, Jimmy,” she said, stopping a bit short of him. She also seemed unsure of exactly what he might do. “How are you?”“Is it really you?” he asked, his hand reaching for her, as if it did so of its own accord, but he didn’t trust his own eyes. “Are you really alive? And here?”She nodded. “It’s really me. I’m alive. And I’m here. I have a lot to tell you. But, yeah, it’s me.”“H-how… are you… here?” Everly’s dad had tears running down his face, and she didn’t know if she should leave and give
“So… how did it go?” Slate asked as Everly and Jack came back into Margot’s house.“It was… really weird,” Everly admitted, slumping down onto the couch. Jack sat down next to her and took her hand, but he didn’t say anything. Slate didn’t stir from his perch on the chair.She’d had some time to think about it. Everly had driven her dad’s truck behind Jack as he’d taken her mom’s friend’s truck back to him. After they’d dropped it off, she’d slid over to the passenger side and let Jack drive back to her mom’s cabin. The whole way, all she kept thinking about was how shocked her dad was and how he hadn’t reacted the way she’d expected him to when he’d seen her mom.But then… her mom hadn’t exactly come running with open arms either.None of it was what she had imagined it would be.“What do you mean by weird, E
By the look on Slate’s face, it seemed evident to Everly that he was about to disagree with what Jack was going to say. So it didn’t surprise her when he shook his head and said, “I really don’t think that the mages are going to be a problem, Jack.”“Why do you say that?” Jack asked. “They’re already working with the Council, clearly. Or at the very least, they’re on their side. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have tipped them off that we knew about them being there when Mrs. Harrison was injured.”Slate was shaking his head for most of the time that Jack was speaking, his dirty blond hair shaking around his shoulders. “But that was all petty stuff from a high school girl with a crush who was trying to get back at you for not going to a dance with her, right? So… there’s no reason to think that she has any way of organizing a clan of witches against us. They’d be stupid to organize ag
Everly felt a cold chill go down her spine at just the mention of Maura’s name. “What do you mean, Jack?” she asked, picking up a dishtowel off of the counter and drying her hands. The lunch dishes would have to wait until later because she needed to hear what he had to say.He took a deep breath and leaned back against the wall near the wall, folding his arms. “That was Alyson,” he began. “She said… about thirty minutes ago, Maura showed up at our house, looking for me. My mom told her that I wasn’t there, and she said that we had a school project we were supposed to be working on, and that the school sent her to come and check on me. Mom said that I was at a doctor’s appointment or something like that, but Maura spent a good five or ten minutes talking to my mom about where I was and what was going on. I don’t know, but as she was leaving, the alarm sounded from the prison that the Council members had somehow manage
“What does the book say?” Everly asked Margot, afraid to hear what the older woman might have to say.Margot turned and looked at her, pulling her eyes away from Slate. “I don’t know,” she said.“What do you mean you don’t know?” Slate asked, making Margot swivel back around to look at him.“I don’t know what it says, but I’m sure that if it says that you can fix her, it also says how to undo it. If the book was worth taking from you, I guarantee that there’s a reason they wanted it, and if it was Maura who led the charge to get it, you have to think about why she would want it. What does Maura want more than anything?”“That’s easy enough,” Everly said, folding her arms as she pursed her lips together. She dropped her eyes to Jack’s shoes and then slowly raised them to his head. He shrugged. “She wants Jack.”“So… there has to be so