Page 82 of Fangs
Apple turned her head toward Mac, and he focused on her with a smile.
“You find a baby squirrel?” Mac asked out loud, reaching out to gently tug on one of Apple’s pigtails.
She giggled tearfully and swatted at him, and he surprised me by playfully pretending to be knocked backward. It made the lump in my throat worse.
Following the line inside the canteen, I gathered my courage and asked Mac,“Earlier…did…did you hear Wolf’s thoughts?”
He tensed beside me.“Yeah.”
I glanced at him, trying to keep my face impassive, but he looked ahead of us into the canteen.“Mac, I think…I think this isyourpower.”
He finally looked at me, and the discomfort in his eyes made me feel even worse.
“Let’s talk about this later.”
I chewed on my cheek but replied,“Okay.”
“Hi, Bones!” Neena smiled at me as we reached the counter and held out a mug of broth. “You want anything with this or just broth tonight?”
“Just broth,” I said, touched.
“It’s really good to see you,” Neena added as she handed the mug over.
My face felt flushed again, but I managed a small smile. As Neena moved on to give Mac his and Apple’s rations, I noticed she was missing her ring finger on her right hand. I hadn’t paid much attention before, but it looked a couple of years old, and I wondered how it happened. I followed Mac to their table, realizing this was the first time I’d ever sat with my own crew. Granted, I hadn’t eaten at the canteen often, but the large room felt different. Someone had hung up a long garland made from what looked like colorful fabric scraps. It draped from the beams in the vaulted ceiling, stretching across the room. It looked cleaner inside, the worn wood floor practically shining. Old tin cans sat on the long wooden tables full of little bouquets of evergreen branches. The entire room seemed brighter and warmer somehow.
Apart from the canteen’s appearance, the atmosphere was the most significant difference. Before, the room had been mostly quiet. People kept their heads down and ate quickly before leaving. The loggers and Madame’s guards had been loud but in a rough, aggressive way. Now, the room was full of people talking and laughing. Nemo was moving between the tables, talking to people. The kids had their own shorter table now, and they were all sitting at it, giggling and making silly faces as Leda passed out their rations. I glanced at the logger’s table. It was pretty empty, with only a handful of people, but Marsh and Silver had taken a seat, and they both smiled and waved when they noticed me. I was glad they hadn’t taken Madame’s side during the rebellion. They’d always been kind to me.
I sat beside Mac, with Apple still clinging to my neck. “You wanna sit with the kids or with me?” I murmured.
“With you,” she mumbled tearfully, finally releasing my neck and clambering to sit beside me on the bench. Griz sat next to her. I started fixing her disheveled pigtails when someone sat directly across from me. I glanced up, and my stomach flipped as I met my brother’s eyes. He settled himself on the bench and dropped his gaze to his food. I focused on Apple’s hair, registering out of the corner of my eye that Lee and Sable settled on either side of Wolf, and the rest of the pack joined as well. The silence made me want to get the hell out?—
“So, where are the rest of you from?” Mac suddenly asked.
I glanced up at him, surprised. His voice sounded strained, but his expression was as friendly as I’d ever seen.
Lee answered, and the rest followed suit. Sable said he was from a town I didn’t recognize, and I guessed that was before the slavers took him. I still couldn’t look at him. Griz picked up the conversation after that, asking questions and keeping it flowing with help from Sam. I sipped my broth and carefully kept my eyes away from Wolf’s side of the table. Apple ate her food while pressed into my side, one hand fisted in my shirt. When I glanced at her, I realized she was scowling fiercely at Wolf and had to fight the urge to smile.
“Bones!”
I looked up to see an older woman whose name I couldn’t remember. She stood behind Wolf, beaming at me.
“It’s so good to see you out and about,” she said with a kind smile.
A shy, answering smile curled over my lips and surprised me. As though the woman had broken some sort of spell, for the rest of dinner, there was a steady stream of people coming over to say hello and ask how I was doing. I couldn’t decide if it was nice or uncomfortable. Wolf and his crew seemed to note every interaction carefully, making nerves flutter in my stomach. Did Mac tell people to do this?—
“I didn’t tell them to do this,”Mac immediately replied in my head.“They’re comin’ over to say hello and see how you are because they care about you.”
Gods, I forgot he could hear me.
“So, Wolf said they don’t burn people alive?”he added.
“I don’t know what to believe,”I admitted, hiding my face behind my mug as I took a slow drink of broth.“Dune never lied to me before, and I don’t know why he would ever lie about that.”
Mac ate a bite of his food and chewed for a few seconds before asking,“Could Wolf be lying?”
“I don’t think so,”I replied.“I mean, I don’t know, but it didn’t seem like he was lying.”
“Would they accept your powers?”
