Page 13 of The Alpha's Seer
“Leon, don’t do anything stupid,” I warn, knowing it’s a pointless exercise. Maybe Aunt Ray can talk some sense into him.
I doubt it.
When we lost our parents, we both changed. It was inevitable; I was only twelve years old, and Leon was fifteen. Aunt Ray was a godsend, but Leon had a temper he couldn’t control. He eventually calmed down when he started working at the garage, spending all hours working on cars and doing his apprenticeship.
But then he started drinking.
“I’m gonna leave you at Aunt Ray’s,” Leon mutters. “Just until I’ve sorted these fuckers out. Can’t have you in the town with them around.”
“Leon,” I say with an eye roll, “I’m twenty-three years old. You can’t make me stay out here. I’ve got my job to think of.”
“I don’t care how old you are, Blair,” Leon snaps, slamming his hand against the steering wheel. “You’re all I’ve got, do you hear me? You’re everything to me, and I let you down.”
A lump fills my throat, and tears slip free from my eyes at his words. My brother feels like he let me down because I got attacked. Just like he feels guilty for not saving Mom or Dad.
“No,” I disagree, shaking my head. “This isn’t your fault.”
“What stopped them?” Leon asks suddenly, flipping the bird at a driver approaching us before glaring at him. “Did someone interrupt them, or…”
I don’t know whether what I’m about to say will make him think I’m concussed, but it’s all I have.
“There was a howling, and then a wolf came,” I respond, frowning. “I don’t know what happened, but I think the wolf scared them off.”
Leon is silent, his gaze unflinching as he stares ahead.
“I know it sounds stupid, but the wolf didn’t leave until you got there,” I admit, wincing when I chuckle. My cheek still hurts from the harsh slap I had earlier, but I don’t want Leon to know that. He’d skin Billy and his friends alive.
“A wolf saved you?” Leon says, finally slowing the truck enough to look at me properly. “What color?”
I laugh. “What color? Why, is there more than one wolf in our town? Come on, Leon…”
But Leon doesn’t laugh. He looks back at me questioningly.
He’s serious.
“Okay, like a silver-grey.” I frown. “I think. It was big anyway.”
He nods and relaxes back into his seat, anger seeping from his pores as he slows the truck down to take another turn.
This one is winding and narrow, and I know we are close to Aunt Ray’s.
We lived with her until my brother turned eighteen and could legally look after me, and of course, legally own Mom and Dad’s house. But we always used to come back here, to her home.
Leon pulls into her driveway, and I smile at the fond memories.
How long has it been since I was last here?
I can’t remember,I think guiltily. I call her when I can, and we always see her on the holidays… Well… maybe noteveryholiday, but that’s Leon’s fault really—he’s always too drunk on the holidays.
Not that I blame him, but I don’t want Aunt Ray to think she fucked up in any way with us, because she did her best. She’d lost her sister too, and the way she smokes about a million cigarettes a day makes me wonder how she’s still alive. I didn’t want to add to her worry.
The driveway curves in front of a cute house, a little two up, two down number with red bricks and a bright yellow door that needed repainting.
“We’re here,” Leon mutters, like I can’t see that for myself. He gets out begrudgingly and walks to my side before I can open the door. “You okay? Can you walk okay?”
I give him a warm smile and nod, hating how he stares at my bruised, barely dressed body.
“I’m fine, Leon. Stop?—”
