Page 53 of Wolf Cursed
“That’s what they all said too.”
“Look, I don’t know who you think I am. But—”
“Not who. What.”
“Excuse me?”
“We all want to knowwhatyou are.”
“I guess I’m like you,” I said uncertainly.
He shook his head. “Walks like a human. Smells like a human. Except…not quite.”
He cocked his head, the friendly expression suddenly wiped clean from his face. Instead, he looked calculating. Suspicious.
“What are you, Ash Lawson? My guess is the rumors were true about your old man and you’re working for the hexerei. And that makes you the enemy. Or didn’t Cohen explain all this?”
Frustration bubbled to the surface, and I glared at him. My patience was sitting at a negative number right now. After the last twenty-four hours, being accused of…whatever this was…definitely wouldn’t end well for him. What the hell was a hexerei anyway? And why did people keep accusing me of working with this Cohen person? And now there were rumors about my dad? That was the last straw.
“Listen, Drake. I’ve had a fucking day, so why don’t you just take this fake friend, fishing for gossip bull shit act of yours and shove it up your—”
His expression twisted, and his eyes flashed as he stepped close enough that I drew back out of reflex. “If you have magic, they’ll know,” he hissed. “And if you lie about it, they’ll kill you. And not even Kai fucking Stone will be able to stop them.”
He turned on his heel and slipped into the shadows.
Rattled, I didn’t wait to hear the door shut behind him before I hurried from the garage and up to the apartment. I had no idea what half of his accusations even meant. Cohen. Magic. Rumors about my father. It was all foreign to me. But the look in his eyes and the threat in his body language was clear. And it felt different from Kai or the others. Crueler. With a sharper edge to it.
I found myself actually scared of whatever he was alluding to. Maybe being confined to these walls for the foreseeable future wasn’t such a terrible plan after all. Ridley Falls just kept getting weirder and weirder.
Chapter Twelve
By Friday, my bruises were completely healed. Or, at least, the ones anyone could see. I’d spent the last three days playing the role of obedient niece and avoiding anything remotely real with Kai Stone—who honestly just kept getting sexier the longer he pretended I didn’t exist.
What was it with me and assholes?
Why couldn’t I have gone for the Momma’s boy who loved holding doors for me and reciting turn-of-the-century poetry?
Oh, because those kinds of guys didn’t exist in this town. Literally, every male resident, and honestly the females too, were all pretty short on patience and kindness.
It was weird.
Oscar was surprisingly attentive, though. Every night after the shop closed, he’d head upstairs and help me with dinner. Then, we’d do the dishes and watch TV together until bedtime.
He never asked or pushed me for information about Dad or what I thought about the wolves. Or Kai. Especially Kai, actually.
If anything, he seemed content to avoid conversation beyond small talk and chores. But he was present. And it was nice to have someone there who didn’t spend their waking hours watching for ghosts or drinking until they didn’t feel watched all the time.
Oscar was sane, and he was nice to me.
It was the best living arrangement I’d ever had, which only made me feel more like shit about what had happened to Dad in the end. And it kept me from mentioning my run-in with Drake. The last thing I wanted to do was admit one of his employees had it out for me. Or worse, force him to choose a side. I couldn’t be sure he’d pick me, and why should he?
Drake had been here for years. I’d shown up mere days ago with a sob story and a broken face. I was a burden with baggage that dragged on the floor behind me. And everyone had a line on what they could handle. I didn’t want to find Oscar’s.
I did wonder about the rumors Drake mentioned. And about my dad being alpha. What had made him leave? And did it have something to do with whatever we’d been running from all of those years?
Was someone in this town the reason my dad had pulled up stakes and ghosted his own family? If so, Oscar didn’t seem aware of it. He seemed just as mystified as me about what had driven my father away.
On Friday, just after closing, a familiar Mustang pulled up out front, and judging from the way the tires screeched to a stop, I knew it had to be Idrissa behind the wheel. Sure enough, I watched her climb out and march inside to where I waited behind the counter.
