Page 72 of Such a Feral Little Lamb
Mason nods. He comes closer, and when he reaches for me, I tug him into my arms. “Not as much as the rest of us. The younger we were, the stronger we became. Some ran because of us. They didn’t like what we’d become.”
“They ran.”
“We ran some out,” he admits. “They were a threat, but no point in killing them.”
“Fuck.” I turn my head and kiss his temple. “I’m sorry.”
“What happened to you?”
I huff a laugh and step back, running a hand through my hair. “I was only seven. I remember… chaos. My mum got us out of there. I mean, my dad too, but she was always more level-headed.”
“What happened to them?”
The next breath I take hurts. I’m always surprised by the pain of remembering because it’s been long enough that I think I shouldn’t feel that anymore.
“My mum signed up to hunt when the Citadel first asked for it. God, I would have been… twelve? Thirteen? It was only a few years after, and there were still so many survivors and zombies running around—” I sag back against the wall. “She died on her tenth mission out. I was thirteen then, for sure. My dad… It broke him. He lasted another two years before he…”
I can’t say it. I still can’t say it. It’s been twelve years, so he’s been gone from my life for almost the same amount of time he was in it, but I can’t get those words out.
Mason moves closer and when I don’t shy away, he rests his head on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Isaac.”
I swallow around the lump in my throat. Somehow, the use of my name makes it more real. One tear escapes, but I brush it quickly away.
Of course the movement doesn’t go unnoticed. Mason lifts his head, eyes searching my face. “You’ve been alone all this time, haven’t you?”
I open my mouth. Only a whimper escapes and Mason moves so he’s standing in front of me, no room at all between us. He strokes his thumb over my cheekbone, other hand moving to grip my hip.
“I’d never leave you,” he says, and I know he means it.
“You might not have a choice. We live in a dangerous world.”
“And who’s to say I’m not the most dangerous person in it?” He kisses me so softly that the lump in my throat almost hurts, tears stinging behind my closed eyelids.
“Come on,” he says when we part. “Let’s find your team.”
We head back out, frustration growing with each building we enter that turns up nothing. Blake is more openly annoyed than I am, but for once I share his feelings—this makes no sense. I’m sure no one in this town took them, and I trust that Mason’s telling the truth about that.
He seems just as confused as the rest of us, is the thing. We meet up with Blake and Sal at the end of one street, and I shove one hand into my pocket when an icy wind curls around us.
“Where the fuck could he be?” Blake asks, but even though the words are harsh, they contain none of the usual heat. “We’ve searched everywhere.”
“Sewers?” I ask. “Tunnels?”
“Callum and Emma took those,” Sal replies. “Nothing down there either. They can tell.”
Blake sneers and looks away, down the empty street. Maybe they’re not in the town at all. We haven’t searched the woods, and I don’t know what we’d find beyond the town’s limits.
“He’s been gone too long,” I murmur. “We still have his pack.”
Blake frowns. “What?”
“If he’s not here, he’s not here. The woods.”
“The forest is full of zombies,” Mason says. “Our boundaries are at the edge of it. We can’t cover all that land.”
“We should check there anyway,” Blake says.
I don’t want to argue with him about it. I want to find Otto’s body. I know he wants to find Dane. And if there are zombies there… That’s where we should be anyway. That’s what we should have been doing all along.
