I watched the doorway where Bea disappeared from for a long time as the conversation continued around me. I wasn’t sure what had set her off like that and I wanted to go after her, but I couldn’t walk away from what was going on at the table.
It was family dinner night with Nana, and someone had invited the original werewolf to join us. Little did anyone know the kind of bomb he was going to drop in the middle of our Sunday night supper.
I finally tuned back into the conversation as Will looked at Ellie and said, “I don’t think. I know. You’re one of my descendants. I thought you knew.”
It hit me just as hard as the first time he’d said it.
Ellie was descended from the original werewolf. Not in the sense that we were, but an actual blood relative. Somewhere along the line, he’d procreated with one of her ancestors and she was his many times over great-granddaughter.
It was unbelievable.
When my curiosity became too much to contain, I piped up with a question of my own. “How do you know she’s a descendant? Have you kept track of them over the years?” If there was some kind of family tree of his out there, I needed to get my hands on it.
Will shook his head and my hopes came crashing down. “That would be impossible since there’s no way to accurately tell paternity,” he explained. “I suppose I could have followed the women of my line, and I have in the past, but after a few centuries, it becomes complicated and convoluted.”
Yeah, I’d imagine following the bloodlines of thousands of descendants wouldn’t be easy. But oh, how I wish he had.
After that, dinner was a quieter affair as everyone at the table worked to wrap their minds around the information Will had sprung on us. I was sure Ellie and Abraham had their minds spinning the fastest. She’d just learned how it was possible to be fated to a werewolf when she’d been born a human, and he’d just learned she’d been questioning Will about it. I bet they were going to have a long talk about that later, and I was glad I wouldn’t be there for it.
But speaking of talks, I needed to have one with my sister. She’d leant me her ear often enough in the past couple of months, and now it was my turn to return the favor.
When dinner finally wrapped up, I went looking for Bea, and unsurprisingly, found her out on the training grounds running suicide sprints by herself. I watched from the sidelines for a little while until she’d made me tired with her back and forth.
“Bea, shift back. I want to talk to you.”
She continued her sprints, and the only reason I knew she’d heard me was the soft grunt she’d released at my request.
I sighed and tried again. “If you don’t want to talk to me, I can send Abey out. And you know how he gets.”
Nosey, intolerable, and bossy were the first few words that came to mind. I knew she wanted him in her business about as much as I did, so I wasn’t surprised when she shifted back a few minutes later.
I looked away to give her some privacy as she pulled her clothes on. When she walked over to me, she was still panting from her exertion, the sweat making her short hair stick to her neck.
“Wanna sit on the dock?” I asked.
She shrugged but took off in that direction and I hurried to keep up with her. She was storming toward the lake so fast I thought she might just walk off the end of the dock, but at the last minute, she stopped short and plopped down, letting her bare feet dip into the water beneath us.
I took a tentative seat next to her, and the second my butt hit the planks, she let loose exactly what was on her mind.
“I’m so sick of it, you know? He’s like a million years old and yet has the emotional maturity of a teenager. Sleeping with half the female population. What was he thinking?!”
I frowned in her direction, completely taken aback at the turn this conversation had taken. “It doesn’t sound like he just got them pregnant and took off. He had relationships with these women. Would you have expected him to remain single and celibate all those years?”
“Yes.” She sighed, her shoulders drooping. “No. I guess not.”
I watched my sister for a moment, seeing her in a new light. Bea was the fiercest, most self-assured woman I’d ever known, but there she was, shoulders hunched, head down, and fingers pulling at a thread in her shorts. I couldn’t help but wonder why.
“What’s going on, Bea? Why is this upsetting you so much? Who cares who Will’s slept with?”
She blew out a deep breath and leaned back on her hands. “I guess I care. I’ve tried not to. But I do. A lot.”
I sat there, just as confused as ever. Did Beatrice actually–
“And no. I don’t wanna talk about it,” she said, cutting off my thoughts before they could fully form. I thought she was done, but when she turned to me, her icy blue eyes watery, I knew she had a whole lot more to say. I also knew that despite that, she’d keep most of it to herself.
“Just, do me a favor, Callie. Don’t wait, okay? Don’t play games and don’t be stupid. If you love someone, make sure they know it. If you want someone, don’t let anything stand in your way. Not the past, and not the future. Because you can’t erase the past and you can’t predict the future. All
