“I’m sorry for getting mad,” Zackary answered.
“I’m sorry for not discussing things with you both.” Their father studied them before pointing to the sofa. “Sit, Eva, then we can talk while I fix you up.”
Obeying, Eva took a seat, her stomach in knots; there was something about her father’s tone that reminded her of the day she’d come home from college for the weekend to find her parents waiting anxiously. They’d delivered the news of her mother’s cancer that day, and today, her father had more bad news for them. She could feel it.
“What’s going on, Dad?” Zackary asked as soon as their father had rolled up Eva’s leggings and started to wipe the graze clean. “I can tell somethings wrong. Your scent’s off and your heart rate has increased.”
Looking up, their father smiled briefly. “Have I ever told you how cool that is?”
“Yeah, Zac, you’re like a superhero now,” Eva teased.
“Yeah, yeah.” Zackary waved them off. “Spill it, Dad.”
With a sigh, he answered, his words forlorn and heavy. “The truth is, guys, I don’t really want to sell the house. My memories live there too, but we can’t afford to keep it and live here. I haven’t been working with everything that’s happened, and we need to decide what we want to do soon, before the bank takes the house.”
“It’s that bad?” Eva breathed. There were times she felt like an adult, but then something like this would happen and Eva was straight back to being a child, looking to her parents to fix it. Only now, there was one parent left. She’d felt like a little girl the day they’d broken the news of the cancer. She’d cried and begged her mother to get better, because how was she going to get through the rest of her life without her mom to guide her?
“It’s been bad since your mother fell ill. Cancer is expensive. The insurance didn’t cover all of her treatments and that left me with costs I’m struggling to pay.”
“We’ll go home then,” Zackary announced, getting to his feet. “Our home’s there, and so is your business. I’ll have to deal.”
“Will you though?” Eva pushed gently. She didn’t think he would, and it had nothing to do with his temper; her brother wasn’t human anymore. A part of him was an animal, and that animal needed a pack. What would happen to a lone wolf with no real space to run?
Zackary paced the room, but it wasn’t anger chasing him but heartbreak. He was just a kid—too young to have lost his mom, to have been changed fundamentally against his will, and too young to take this burden on his shoulders as well.
“I won’t be the reason we lose our home. Kat helped me change back. That’s why we came here, so let’s go home, I’ve got a handle on the wolf now.”
Eva hissed out a breath as her father rubbed too hard on her other knee. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “Zac, whatever we decide, none of it is your fault. Maybe a fresh start will be good for all of us. You’re happy here. You’ve made friends, and I think it’s what’s best.”
“What about, Ev?” he argued, flinging an arm her way. “Where does that leave her?”
Her father looked up from putting gauze over her knee, his gaze expectant. “What? You want me to answer right now? I’ve no idea what tomorrow looks like, let alone next week.”
“Are you happy here?” her father prompted.
Tipping her head back, Eva gazed at the ceiling. “Am I happy?” she asked the wooden beams above her. “No,” she finally answered, looking her dad in the eyes. “No, I’m not happy, but that has nothing to do with being in Dark Shadow.”
“None of us are freaking happy. Mom’s dead,” Zackary snapped. “This isn’t about being happy.”
“It is, Zac,” their father murmured. “Happiness will come again.”
“Fuck happiness,” he swore. “Fuck everything.” Storming out the room, Zackary’s footsteps were heavy. Eva and her father watched him leave as they’d done time after time in the months after her mothers’ death. When things became too hard, Zackary ran.
“We should go after him,” Eva noted.
“You’re not going anywhere,” John ordered, coming out of the bathroom. “I’ll text Bass. He’ll find him.” Coming into the room, John’s gaze remained firmly on her. He perched on the arm of the sofa beside her and looked at her dad. “How’s the patient?”
“She’ll live,” he answered as he applied the last dressing to the palm of her hand.
“I couldn’t help overhearing what you guys were saying,” John began, sounding a little guilty. “And I need to say that Zac won’t cope alone. He wasn’t born with this gift, and lone wolves tend to be more aggressive and have a higher possibility of going rogue.”
“Rogue?” Eva questioned.
“It’s where the human half is buried by the wolf, never to resurface again. Effectively, he’d become like a wild wolf, only far more dangerous.”
Her father nodded. “I’ve discussed the issues already with Bass. Moving him here is what’s best, but we’ve got to make Zac understand. Without him taking on the guilt that leaving the house he grew up in will cause.”
“There is my college fund,” Eva offered.
His eyes narrowed. “Eva, that money is for your future, and all it would effectively do is put a Band-Aid on the problem. Zac needs a pack. Therefore, I need to live and work near the pack.”
“Bass would take him,” John added.
Her father smiled tightly. “While it is honorable that Dark Shadow would take on a teenager as their own, I’ve already lost my wife, John. I don’t plan on losing my son too.”
“I didn’t mean permanently. You could visit,” John offered.
“And live in
