Page 96 of Wolf's Providence

Eamon’s lips twitched. “Does she know?”

“Not all of it.”

His look was one of exasperation. “You are in so much shit.” He turned away from me, his attention back on the hall. “Here was me thinking you’d turned a corner.”

“I have.” I came and stood beside him, and we stayed like that, both staring at the hall as I thought about all of the things that had led me here. “I’m having a crazy thought,” I said, breaking the silence quietly.

“That you need to tell her what you’ve done? I agree,” he snapped. When he saw that wasn’t what I meant, his head tilted to the side. “Do I need to run for cover?” he asked me with a slight touch of familiar lightness.

“No.” Turning towards him, I waited until he looked at me. “Let’s burn it.”

Eamon’s eyes widened. “The community hall?” He looked between me and it. “Your father’s father’s something-or-other father built this.”

“My great-great-grandfather, you mean?” I asked him dryly. “So? Let’s burn it.”

“Why?”

“I want to purge my packlands of the death here,” I told him honestly. “This…” I shook my head. “I thought it was a memorial to the dead.” Licking my lips, I chose my words carefully. “It is, but it’s not a memorial toourdead.” I considered the imposing structure. “It’s always been gloomy. Now, looking at it reminds me of what I did, and I don’t need a cabin to remind me of that. I carry that with me, I always will.” I looked back at Eamon. “You in?”

He considered me for a long moment, and then a wide grin spread across his face. “Hell yeah.”

Willow found us a few hours later, sitting in the middle of the clearing, the snow melted from the burning blaze that lit the afternoon sky.

“Oh my God, what have you done?” she exclaimed, eyes wide.

“We’re saying goodbye to the past,” I told her, pulling her into my side and planting a kiss on the top of her head. “You’re cold,” I murmured. “We’ll move closer to keep you warm.”

“Won’t you get into trouble?”

Eamon laughed, taking a pull from a bottle of whiskey he found in a cabin. “He’s the alpha, this is his packland, and no one can stop him.”

She looked up at me, and I nodded. “This is still my territory. If I want to burn it all to the ground, I can.” Eamon handed me the bottle, and I took a drink. I held it out to Willow, who looked between me, the bottle, and Eamon.

“Are you both drunk?”

“Nah.”

“Maybe.”

Eamon rolled his eyes at mymaybe. “Never could hold your booze,” he muttered.

“I’m making you both food,” Willow scolded us. “Burning buildings is not how we move on with our grief.” When we bothjust looked at each other and swapped the bottle between us, she stormed off, muttering about men being idiots.

“I like her.” Eamon didn’t look at me as he spoke. “She’s got spunk for someone so skinny.”

“I love her,” I told him smugly, laughing when he snatched the bottle from my hand. I watched the flames climb higher into the sky.

“Now, if you can keep that woman of yours from knocking sense into you before I do, maybe we’ll all finally find some peace.”

His tone was flippant, but I heard the seriousness underneath. I felt it too. It had been ten years since we last felt at peace.

The crackling wood drew my attention back to the hall. It felt good seeing it burn. It felt right. I could feel the chains of the past burning from me, no longer tying me down.

A flare of fire whooshed up and Eamon and I both jumped back. “Maybe we should have made sure it was contained,” Eamon murmured.

I shook my head. “No, this is a cleansing fire. Luna is watching over it.”

“No more whiskey for you,” he said under his breath, but I still saw him lift his eyes to the sky and dip his head.

---