Angus holds up his totem, which features a woodsy scene with colorful leaves embroidered into a triangle of leather. Marco’s has a blue sky with white clouds and a beam of yellow sun. Van’s features a river burbling along the edge of a reeded bank. In each of them there is a raven, wings outstretched, watching over them.
Angus pulls his over his head and looks down at it hanging from his neck. “I love it.”
“It’s gorgeous. You’ve got wicked talent,” Marco says.
Van doesn’t say anything. He just stares at the leather in his hand as if he’s at a loss for words.
“I made them so they can stay on when you shift. I didn’t know that was possible, but I found this spell online. How come you guys don’t do that with your clothing? Has to be easier than being naked all the time.”
Angus laughs. “You’ll have to talk to Van about that.”
“Or maybe not,” Van says. He scowls, but unlike most of the time he scowls, it’s lacking in the heat of his anger.
“Oh, come on. If you don’t tell her I will,” Marco says.
Van just shakes his head. “Not going to happen. And I forbid either of you from telling her.”
I swallow hard. “The totems have been imbued with protection magic and I know it isn’t much, but with everything that’s happened… and after what Kate said, it would mean a lot to me if you would wear them.”
“Wait, what did Kate say?” Marco asks.
And here it comes. I have to tell them everything. “You know that guy who attacked me. The one I smashed with the rock?”
Marco nods. “Yeah?”
“He’s telling everyone that he was attacked by a wolf shifter.”
“Why would he be doing that?” Van asks, his scowl is back and the anger coming off him is stronger than ever.
I look at Marco and Angus and try to lock in the way they are looking at me. This is the before moment. Once I tell them who I am, they will know and I will know by their eyes if they no longer want me.
Van scoffs and shakes his head as if he knew this was coming. “Here we are again. Are you going to tell us what you’re so afraid of?” Van asks, though his tone isn’t curious, it’s almost accusatory. The softness I saw a moment ago is gone.
I close my eyes and tell them everything. “His name is Porter Allbright, and he is my father.”
By the time I finish telling them everything, I am fighting back tears. This doesn’t feel good and I don’t know what I am going to do if they decide to kick me out.
Van looks pleased.
Marco looks angry.
Angus looks confused. He shakes his head. “I don’t get it. It sounds like Allbright didn’t see Marco at all. That’s good, no?”
“But what if he did see him? I mean, I didn’t check to see if he was unconscious. I thought he was dead. He could have seen your face, Marco.”
Van leans back in this chair. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”
Under his gaze I feel like I am on trial. “When my mother found out, she called me a stranger. She said that she didn’t know who I was. That I wasn’t her daughter.” I am not going to cry. I am not going to cry. I am not going to cry.
“And?” Angus urges me on.
“And I feel like I’m holding a bomb in my hands that is just waiting to explode, and when it does, when everyone finds out what happened, who I really am, nobody is going to want me. I don’t want that to happen with you. With us.” I reach out and touch Marco and Angus’s hands. Then I look at Van. “With any of us. I feel like… I feel like we are starting something here. Something amazing and I can’t bear the thought of losing that.”
Marco comes over and sits next to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. “You have nothing to worry about.”
I shake my head. “You don’t understand. I’m not who you think I am.”
“Of course you are. It doesn’t matter what your last name is or who your parents are. You are still you.”
“I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t have a family. My real father tried to kill me because he’s afraid I am going to ruin his son’s life. Why would he even think that? I have nothing against Sebastian. And my parents… my mother couldn’t even look at me. I have nobody. I belong to no one.”
Angus crosses his arms and leans against the counter. “Our families were slaughtered when we were kids. We were kept as slaves for twenty-five years, stuck in our wolf forms and unable to do anything expect be monsters performing for that vampire. It was only after we found Salma that we started to feel like we could live in the world again. As men. When we found Salma, we were wild. We had no idea what it meant to be what we are. She taught us about the history of dire wolves and what it meant to carry that legacy. She taught us how to deal with the curse of immortality we brought on by devouring those vampires. When we met you, we knew that you were special.” He eyes Van. “We all knew it. It was instant and instinct and it defied explanation. I just knew. We just knew. And now that we know it, there isn’t anything you can tell us that could make us turn you away.”
Van pulls the totem over his neck. “He’s right. You’re stuck with us.”
All at once, the kitchen fills with the sounds of text messages pinging. We all reach for our phones.
Marco reads his aloud. “All members required to attend emergency meeting of the Society of Ancient Magic. Arrive promptly at 12:00 p.m. tomorrow. We send you season’s
