Verity (20 page)

“Touché. Come on, I’ll walk you home.” He helped me up, but I couldn’t resist sliding my arms around his neck, one last time.

On the way home, we walked side by side, as close as we dared. Despite the blissful mood, I felt like I had to talk about werewolves.

“Will Amelia change? It happens when you’re sixteen, right?”

“I have no idea. I didn’t think
I
would, so anything can happen. She’d like it though, the weirdo.”

“She is a little bit obsessed,” I said, thinking hard. “You know, it felt like those other werewolves were coming after us last night. Didn’t you think so?” He glanced at me, looking a little sick. “I felt like they were going after you, not me. Maybe Byron is right, maybe it was a coincidence.”

“This is a tiny place, why would two separate groups of werewolves suddenly turn up at the same time? It’s a little convenient, no?”

“He wants to avoid any confrontations. I mean, those were the first ones I’ve seen, aside from my family, I mean. My cousin, Jeremy, he’s come across others, but we all avoid them. We move, just to keep out of their way, or rather, to keep Amelia out of their way. I don’t know why really, I mean, nothing’s happened to us.”

“Funny timing. Right when we kiss, they show up.”

“Suppose. Maybe you really should take Cúchulain.”

“He’d pine for home,” I scoffed. “Besides, remember my Dad? Big man who says no?”

“He’d say yes for me,” Nathan said with a grin. “Cú is protective of you now, he’ll do his job, no matter what.”

“Would he obey me?”

“Sure. Perdita, what’s the story with us? What are we going to tell people?”

“Do we have to tell them anything?” I looked up at him hopefully.

“Depends on if there is anything to tell, right? I mean, if we’re just friends then....”

I laughed out loud at the look on his face. “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t really care as long as you’re nearby, to be honest.” He stopped and put his hands on my shoulders. “It was okay before, you know, I could tell myself I was protecting you, that it was for your own good. But now I’ve gotten a taste... it’s harder to let go.”

I was shocked by the intensity behind his words; he let me feel his emotions, and they made me want to take him by the hand and run away with him.

“I don’t know what to do,” I said. “I mean, we both agreed, we don’t want a kid, and we definitely don’t want a curse telling us what to do. I’m cool, sort of, with the werewolf thing, but I don’t want to be the tragic ending. So how do we beat it?”

“We’ll figure something out. I promise. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. As for the other stuff, we don’t have to... do anything, don’t worry. I still want to fight the curse, but I feel like I’m stronger when you’re with me so that’s a bit of a contradiction, right?”

“We’ll fix it,” I said, and we both ignored the obvious. We didn’t have a clue how to fix anything.

That night, I lay on my bed, thinking hard. Everything was changing so fast, I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. Nathan. Werewolf. His family. Werewolves. Me. His soul-mate? It sounded like something out of a cheesy novel, but there I was, living it. The weirdest part was how much sense it made to me, like I already knew it and had just forgotten.

My biggest question turned out to be why me? Of everyone in the world, why was I the one he was cursed to look for? It made no sense. He ended up in the tiny little place I lived. I was his sister’s best friend. I had felt a connection to both of them straight away. But why?

I pondered this question more than any other. I found I had no trouble believing in werewolves, but believing myself to be the soul-mate was something else altogether. If I had a child with him, it would be a werewolf. How was that possible? Did I have some weird genetic disposition that made me susceptible? What was it that picked
me
?

I tormented myself way into the night but came up with no answers. So I moved on to how things would change between us. Being alone together had been electrifying. I wondered how much of that was the curse, rather than our real feelings. I couldn’t even trust my own body anymore. I never worried in the heat of the moment, but later on, alone and cold, I couldn’t help the doubts that flooded my mind.

The following morning, he and I were alone together on the bus. At first I felt shy but, ever so slowly, I got the sense that he was mine, and as he already knew I was supposed to have feelings for him, it didn’t seem so bad. There was no point feeling awkward now everything was out in the open.

“How are you?” he said, looking at me with something akin to fear in his eyes. I squeezed his hand and liked that he didn’t pull away.

“Still trying to make sense of stuff. You?”

He looked surprised. “I feel good, actually. Didn’t think I would. We can’t really talk much. In public, I mean. About... stuff. But I wanted to tell you, if you want to walk away, I’ll understand. This stuff is crazy, I get that, and I don’t expect you to just jump into anything because we told you that you have no choice.” I couldn’t help smiling at him. “We talked about this yesterday. No big decisions, just taking it slow. And trying to figure out a loophole or something. Maybe we can figure out what Amelia is supposed to do.”

“And if we can’t?” He raised an eyebrow.

“We’ll deal with it when we’re old enough for it to be a problem.”

For some reason that made him grin. “What?” I said, shy again.

“You’re already bossing me around,” he teased, squeezing my knee.

I pushed him away, laughing. “You’re lucky Cú isn’t around.”

“The traitor. Wanna do something later?”

That cheered me up. “Of course.”

“How about I call for you after school?”

I agreed, and we spent the rest of the journey acting like there were no werewolves at all.

***

“Where’s Amelia?” Tammie’s tone was a little snappy at lunch-time.

“Still sick,” I said, looking around for Nathan.

“Did you have a good time on Saturday?” Joey kept fidgeting with his watch, unusually restless.

“It was... interesting,” I said, not referring to the party at all.

“Yeah, well,
we
had a great time, didn’t we Joe?” Tammie pushed her chair closer to his. He didn’t look as enthusiastic.

“Good,” I said, wondering why she was glaring at me. Nathan sat next to me and rested his arm around the back of my chair. He didn’t touch me, but we both grinned at each other like he was. It was such a relief now I didn’t have to worry if he liked me or if I was just imagining it. I had to thank the curse for that one thing.

Nathan and Joey chatted together pleasantly enough, but Tammie had a face like thunder.

“Are you okay?” I asked after a couple of minutes of watching her glare in our direction.

“You two together?” she snapped.

Nathan and I looked at each other, both speechless and unsure of how to answer.

“Because if you are, we got there first.”

All three of us stared at Tammie in disbelief. “Um,” I said. “What?”

“Don’t think you can copy us. I mean it.” She stood and stalked off.

“Joey?” I said. “What was that about?” I was getting very tired of Tammie’s irrational mood-swings.

He shook his head wearily. “I have no idea.” Then his expression turned stern. “
Are
you with each other now?” I looked at Nathan again. “We’re just... taking it slow, getting to know each other. You?”

Joey shrugged. “Ask the boss lady.”

I laughed, but all of a sudden I didn’t find anything funny.

I forgot about Tammie’s weird attitude for the last few classes because I spent my time wondering what Nathan and I were going to do later on. He sat next to me most of the day, and I could see Dawn getting more and more annoyed, but I was too excited to care. For once, everything seemed exciting.

After school, I walked from the bus-stop to my house, feeling good. But as I approached my own home, I noticed two figures loitering outside. Getting closer, I recognised them both. The red-haired man with amber eyes leaned against my wall; the blonde woman stood close by, glaring in my direction.

I moved closer, my pulse quickening. Her hair colour was pretty similar to one of the wolves. His resembled the wolf I had seen outside my house. So where was the third?

The way the man looked at me made my skin crawl, and the hatred in the woman’s eyes terrified me. It was wild and barely controlled, and I had no idea what I had done to make her mad.

The closer I got, the more I realised they were trying to scare me... or something. He was bad enough, that smug smirk on his lips made me want to slap him. The woman, on the other hand, reminded me of something. The same look that was in the wolf’s eye, the look that made me feel threatened, hunted...
warned
.

I closed the gate behind me, never taking my eyes off them. “Can I help you?” I said to the man, my voice as steady as I could manage.

“Not yet,” he said with a grin.

I hurried to my front door and opened it before getting annoyed at the way they tried to intimidate me.

“I know what you are,” I called out, feeling brave and taking a chance. By the way the man started, I had my answer. Definitely werewolves. I watched through the window and saw the man try to push the woman. She slapped his hand away and strode on ahead of him. He ran his fingers through his hair and took one last look at my house, his shoulders slumped.

By the time Nathan turned up, I was more angry than scared. I tried to explain it to him on the way to his house, but I might have been a little over-excited. He held my hand, and I felt calmer. Calm enough to speak slowly in front of Nathan’s family.

“Hold on, you think these people are werewolves?” Byron’s eyes narrowed.

“Yes!” I said for at least the third time. “They’ve been following us around, I swear it. I’ve seen the man a couple of times, and I saw the woman staring at Nathan and Dawn one day. Think about it! Dawn said she saw a wolf—so did I! There was a dead animal on both of our doorsteps. The expression on that man’s face today, it was obvious!” Byron still looked sceptical. “You can’t just go around accusing strangers of being werewolves. Why would they follow you around? More importantly, why this Dawn girl?” I frowned, I hadn’t figured that one out yet.

“I believe you,” Lia said.

“No,” Jakob said firmly.

“But you must remember, this is so familiar,” she insisted, but his scowl made me shiver.

“Coincidence,” he said. “That’s all. The child is excitable; she just found out about us.”

I snorted. “I am
not
excitable. Those wolves came after
me
the other night, not Nathan.”

“They didn’t actually hurt you. Those people today didn’t actually threaten you,” Byron reminded me. “And your school friend has no part in any of this.”

“Maybe they don’t like this soul-mate thing,” I said, thinking hard. “Other wolves want Nathan to be with a werewolf, right?” I looked at him for confirmation.

“This is true,” Lia said, ignoring her husband’s glare.

“Well, maybe they weren’t sure who his soul-mate was.”

Jakob scoffed, but Nathan’s face brightened. “She’s right. Dawn’s always hugging me and stuff, but Perdita keeps her distance. If a stranger was watching, they might get the wrong idea.”

“So they threatened both girls with a blood sacrifice,” Lia said, her voice sounding distant. “And waited to see which one he would protect. Except he doesn’t know the ways. He didn’t see the danger. Then they watched. She’s right, they didn’t know and took their chances on both girls. Until they saw Nathan with one of them for sure.”

“That’s enough,” Jakob said. “Enough of this. We will search for them, yes. But there is no need for this panic. Do not worry the children; history never has to repeat itself.” He and Lia left the room, arguing in hushed tones. Byron looked thoughtful but not altogether worried. “As my father said, we’ll take a look around. Chances are they scented us, were curious and have now been chased off. I don’t see any imminent danger. No more talk of this unless something else happens, and don’t scare Amelia with your stories.” He left the room, leaving me bewildered. Nathan gripped my hand.

“What’s a blood sacrifice,” I asked him.

“I’ve no idea.”

For some reason, him not knowing the answer to everything made my chin tremble.

“It’s okay,” he said. “They won’t touch you, it’s too late now. We’ve already met, they can’t stop it. If they’re sticking around, we’ll know.”

“Why is your family acting like this?”

“I don’t know. I hate how cautious they are. I mean, it’s not like I want everyone to know about us, but we’re handicapped for stuff like this. We don’t know how to track, or even how to defend ourselves. I need to know what’s going on.”

He paced up and down the room. “It’s head-wrecking. If I step out of line here, Byron will forbid me from doing something, and then I’ll be useless to you.”

“Forbid you?”

“Yeah, like I’ll physically be unable to do what I want. He has the strongest will, so what he says goes. As soon as I’m old enough to be stronger than him, I’m totally taking the alpha from him.” I burst out laughing. “Sorry, sorry! That’s just... not what I expected you to say.”

He grinned back at me. “You just wait. Seriously though, it’s frustrating. He’s so bloody careful about everything, and I can’t do a thing about it. It was okay before, but now it involves you, and I feel like I
have
to do something about it.”

“He’s just trying to take care of you,” I said, but really I thought Byron was too civilised to be a werewolf. Thinking that other werewolves acted the same way was a mistake. I saw the look in that woman’s eyes—she meant me harm. I was mentally preparing myself to be attacked, for real this time. If they moved around to keep Amelia out of the path of werewolves, then they should be preparing themselves for the worst at all times.

“Maybe I should go. Tell Amelia I was here, okay?” I said, preparing myself to leave.

“I will, but don’t go yet. We can go outside, or back to that house if you want, just... hang out for a bit?” Lia followed us outside, gesturing for us to move away from the house. “Walk with me.”