Page 14 of Cage Me

I lean into her touch. “I won’t be alone. I’ll have you and Peter.”

“Until I die and Peter finds his own way in this world,” Mom says, seeming unyielding in her opinions. “And then what? I want more for you than I could have ever dreamed of. Don’t let the past dictate your future.”

Her words are a punch to the gut, but not in the way I expect. I want to believe her. I want to allow myself to accept Drake. After all these years, to have someone I can trust and depend on who isn’t myself? The idea seems so unreal that I can’t even imagine what that would feel like.

Yet, it’s right there inside the house I grew up in, and I’m still standing out here, keeping a distance.

“This day is completely fu—screwed,” I say defeatedly. “Can we just burn the body and get out of here? We don’t need the alpha showing up if he happens to sense one of his wolves is dead.”

Our alpha is kind, but almost stupid, in my opinion. My father had him wrapped around his finger, which was how I got banished so easily three years ago after stabbing my father in the chest. During one of his rages much like today, he’d threatened Peter’s life because he wouldn’t stop crying after having fallen out of a tree and breaking his arm. It was a line I couldn’t let Samuel cross, no matter the consequences.

“Jameson is up north,” Mom says about the alpha. “He was asked to sit in with another alpha while Kinsley and Grayson check out the portal you somehow haven’t told me a single thing about.”

The accusation in her tone isn’t missed, but talking about the portal now will only lead to more talk about Drake, and I can’t do that. Not yet.

“I’ll find a gas can,” I tell her, but she grabs my wrist and shakes her head.

“You’re not the only one who saw Drake with Peter,” she replies. “I think your mate was on to something. Let’s bury Samuel. For Peter’s sake.”

I can’t believe the words I’m hearing, but also, I shouldn’t be surprised. He was her mate, and Peter might have been smart enough to kill the bastard, but it could be years before my baby brother truly understands what happened today. Drake and Mom are right. Peter should be able to look back on today and have no regrets.

“Fine,” I say, doing my best to hide my annoyance. “Tell Drake that he can finish digging the hole then, but don’t cover it up before I’m back. I’ll put a cloaking spell over the body so that none of the other wolves can scent him. For all they need to know, Samuel ran away.”

Her shoulders droop, but Mom at least nods as I move past her, headed toward the trees. “Where are you going?” she asks.

Without turning around, I reply, “Away.”

It’s time I had a moment with my wolf, without the world feeling as if it’s pressing down on me.

The sun is almost setting out here, and as I walk farther from the house, I double-check the ring on my right hand, rubbing my thumb over the fire opal stone. Faint power slithers along my skin there, and I sigh contentedly. At least something is still going my way today.

Thanks to my imbued ring, I can shift with my clothes on, and they’ll return to my body just as they are now as soon as I go back to my human form. I only just traded for it six months ago, and have no idea why I waited so long.

Not that I have an issue with being naked, but the inconvenience of having to either strip down with every shift or continually source new clothes was getting old.

As soon as I can sense Drake again—just the fact that I can do that now makes my stomach flip-flop—I call my wolf forward, and her energy crackles along my skin before my body feels as though it’s exploding into a mixture of fur and bones that quickly snap back together, creating my second form.

She shakes out her coat, double-checking as we’ve grown so accustomed to that it’s the dull brown we claimed as our own when I was only a pup. Well, with my mom’s help.

My wolf stretches her chest and tilts her head toward the twilight sky. A deep rumble begins to build, and she lets out the most sorrowful howl that I’ve ever heard.

The sound has my own heart feeling as if it’s been literally crushed.

But it isn’t all sorrow that I sense. There’s relief and hope mixed in there. The latter being the one that concerns me most.

Hope has the power to destroy us.

While we can’t communicate verbally, she seems to have no problem understanding my words and my previous thought has her body stiffening and a growl reverberating from deep within.

She turns on a dime and before I know what’s happening, my wolf is running back toward the house.

What do you think you’re doing? I demand even though I know I won’t get a response. Stop!

She doesn’t even flinch, overpowering my command—something that doesn’t happen often.

My wolf goes right for the house, but instead of going inside, she heads around the side, confusing the hell out of me.

Instead of fighting against her, I try to understand what has her acting so insane, but it isn’t until she stops in front of the kitchen window and looks toward the hallway that things start to make sense.

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