“Do I?”
“Well, maybe you would if you got out once in a while. You don’t go to pack cookouts, you rarely run with them on the full moon. It’s like you’re keeping yourself separate from them for some reason.”
I opened my mouth to respond but shut it just as quickly.
He was right.
I did keep myself apart from them. It was an old habit I’d picked up in our last pack. Instead of giving these wolves the opportunity to reject me, I just kept my distance. If I didn’t let them in, they couldn’t hurt me. They couldn’t deny me because I was half human.
I’d been doing the same thing here and hadn’t even realized it. I guess it was so ingrained in me at that point that it was second nature.
Maybe that’s what I was doing with Callie too. Running away from her before she had a chance to run from me. It’d make sense considering my history.
“If you don’t want to tell the whole pack right now, I get it. But we have to start letting some people in, Wy. Even just a few. We have to start trusting our pack if we want them to ever trust us.”
I knew he was right, but the thought of exposing our mom like that made my insides go cold. I wanted nothing more than to keep her protected and I didn’t know if I could do that if everyone knew she was a human. So far, keeping her isolated and hidden has worked for us, and if I had my way, I’d keep this up forever.
I looked over Wes’ shoulder toward the house where I knew Mom was sitting by herself reading a book. Although I was keeping her safe, I knew she wasn’t happy. She didn’t go out. She didn’t speak to anyone but us, the doc, and Abraham and Bea. Maybe I was keeping her alive, but she wasn’t living.
“Okay,” I said with a sigh. “We can start telling some of our packmates. But not until after the full moon. We’ll wait until they run off their pent-up energy so they’re nice and docile when we break it to them.”
My brother chuckled and shook his head. “They’re werewolves, not puppies.”
I shrugged. “Same difference to me. They’re just as volatile before the full moon.”
Wes clapped me on the shoulder. “Okay, man. We’ll do this your way. Now, what are you going to do about the alpha’s sister?”
“Nothing. She’s not for me,” I spat out. The words tasted awful in my mouth and sounded worse out loud.
It wasn’t like I didn’t want something more with Callie. Or to even have the ability to explore what was clearly between us, I just couldn’t afford it. I had my mom to take care of and that had to be my number one priority.
Besides, if she knew who I really was–what I really was–she wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me either. I was saving us both the trouble of her telling me to go take a hike.
It might not be easy to keep my distance when we were a part of the same pack, but I’d been doing an okay job of it until today. And the last full moon. But besides those two instances, I’d been making it work.
I’d just have to be more diligent.
No more running with the pack if she was around.
No more taking her to the lab.
No more going into the lodge at all if I didn’t have to. It just wasn’t worth the risk of running into her.
When it came to Callie, I was like an addict. The more I got, the more I wanted. If you put my drug of choice in front of me, I’d have no choice but to take a hit. But if I stayed away entirely, I had a chance at remaining sober.
“Are you sure, Wyatt? I’ve never heard of you caring about any woman. If you really like this one, maybe it’s worth giving it a shot.”
I shook my head and walked past him toward the house. “That’s all right, man. I know the deal well enough to know I need to leave her alone.”
“Maybe it’s not like that,” he said softly.
I held back a sigh and shrugged instead. “It’s always like that and you know it.”
My usually smiling brother sobered up fast and gave me a nod.
He’d lived with being a half-breed just as long as I had so he knew the drill. He knew we were good enough for some things, but not for others, and one of those was dating the alpha’s sister. Hopefully now that I’d laid it out for him in terms he’d understand, he’d drop this whole mess. He needed to forget about Callie McCoy as much as I did. I just hoped it would be as easy to do as it was to say.
Chapter 16
Callie
“That’s it,” I growled at my ceiling before kicking the covers off my legs.
I’d officially had enough.
Ever since the kissing incident with Wyatt two days ago, I’d been left simmering with all these emotions and absolutely no outlet.
I was shocked.
I was confused.
I was angry.
I was defiant.
I was just looking for an excuse to dump all this mess on Wyatt’s head since it was his fault I felt this way to begin with. Problem with that was, I hadn’t seen him since he’d kissed me silly and then drove off right after. The bigger problem was, I didn’t even have anyone I could confide in.
Sure, there were my sisters, but I knew any one of them would make this into a much bigger deal than it was. They were constantly pestering me about my non-existent dating life, and if they got wind of
