My eyes glowed again that night. I found myself staring in the mirror, watching the blue glow radiate around me. I had been hot all night. It had woken me up in a hug of sheets sticking to my dewy skin. A symptom that was “normal,” according to Derek. Werewolves’ body temperatures ran warmer than humans.
The next morning, the smell of coffee pulled me stumbling into the kitchen. Pancake batter was sitting in a bowl on the counter and bacon was crackling in a pan, but no one was tending the kitchen.
A shout caught my ears. I turned my head toward the front window that the dining table sat in front of.
Derek was outside standing across from Levi, who had his back turned to the house. I stepped closer to the window and peeked around the curtain. Carefully, I unlatched the glass frame and cracked it open enough to listen.
“You cannot just avoid this responsibility!” Derek stated.
“You can’t lock it away like you did yourself. This affects all of us! Not just you!”
“You don’t think I don’t know that?!” Levi growled back.
“You think I want the council up my ass?”
“It’s not just your ass!” another voice snapped. I craned my head to look but only saw Derek, Levi, and the stone column. The same column that matched the others that surrounded the house. “If you don’t want to deal with her, turn her over to us,” the voice stated.
Levi was looking at the forest, beyond the column. As was Derek. I turned my head more to see who it was but couldn’t get a decent angle.
“She doesn’t want to. She’s not ready,” Derek calmly explained. “Look, she was beat up—I think running from someone. It’s going to be a lot for her to be around people, and she’s already in a delicate state. She needs some time.”
“She doesn’t have that,” Levi snapped. “Why the fuck do you care anyhow?”
Derek hissed. “Because I remember what it’s like to have your choice taken away. Because I think that innocents like her deserve a chance. At one point you thought the same.
Remember?”
Levi crossed his arms, his back tensing so tightly I thought it would rip his shirt.
“Why do you care?” Derek asked. He cocked his head, body shifting until he’d squared off with Levi. “You could have dragged her off to the pack already.”
“Could have.”
“You haven’t.”
“Seems like you would have thrown a fit.”
“Like that ever bothered you before.” Levi’s teeth showed a heinous smile that forced the breath in my throat to catch.
He licked his lips while Derek shook his head. “Admit it. You care. I was there with you when we rescued her. You carried her home. You.”
Levi looked up at the sky then back at Derek. “She was about to bleed out. I was taking her to the closest place so we could help her.” He shook his head, spitting on the ground next to him. “I may be a piece of shit, but I ain’t about to let a woman get raped on my land, or leave her to die.”
Derek sighed. His eyes were hard, resolve firm.
“Enough,” the voice said. “Are you going to bring it up, or am I?” Derek sighed, his gaze slightly softening as he eyed Levi expectantly. “The rogues.”
A growl vibrated off Levi that was so cold it felt as if the columns shook. I found myself stepping back, grabbing the ledge of the windowsill as my heart raced.
“They weren’t normal,” Derek said. “She told me they didn’t seem crazy. Levi—”
“We should have kept one alive,” Levi said, so calmly that it sent a chill down my spine.
“Are you sure it was rogues?” the voice asked.
“Their eyes,” Levi snarled, another growl vibrating off him, causing the limbs around the trees to shake.
“If that’s the only symptom how do we know it’s not something else?” the voice asked.
“For fuck’s sake!” Levi barked. “I know a rogue when I goddamned see one! You would do well to remember that they don’t always seem out of it, or have you gotten lazy over these last few years?”
“Don’t lecture me!” The voice shot like a bullet right to the gut. “I was there that day. I remember the rogues. You weren’t the only one who witnessed it.”
“I wasn’t, was I?” Levi spat next to him.
“Why are you so against helping her?” Derek sighed tiredly. “What’s it going to hurt?”
“There’s no use committing to something living in the land of maybes,” Levi answered, stepping toward the other side of the lawn.
Derek shook his head. “Levi, you bastard—you’re the only one in this pack who has helped a human before.”
“She was bit by a rogue,” Levi countered. “She can’t go with the pack.”
“We could contain her?” the voice offered.
Levi looked down at his feet with a bitter laugh. “No, you couldn’t.” He looked up, silver eyes blazing into the forest. “And we both know you couldn’t pull the trigger and put a bullet in her even if she begged you.” He paused, nostrils flaring as the wind breezed through the yard. “I may not give a shit about her but I’m not about to let some wild rogue pup loose on my pack,” he finished, then turned and stalked across the yard.
“Your pack?!” the voice barked.
I cocked my head, holding my breath as Levi stilled.
He looked over his shoulder and muttered something that made Derek cringe, as if the thought pained him.
He disappeared into the forest, into darkness, as Derek stayed rooted in his place. I released my breath and tried to quietly step away from the window, but my foot caught on a chair.
It slammed into the table with a groan. My head snapped up to find Derek staring at me through the window.
“Shit,” I whispered to myself.
