Page 106 of Raised By Wolves

“Don’t worry,” Adkins says as we break for lunch. “You have to think about a court case like a basketball game. You’re down in the first half, but you come back in the second.”

“We’d better,” the chief says darkly.

Arlene Pettibon passes by him. “Lovely day, isn’t it, Chief Greene,” she trills.

Why can’t he arrest her for her stupid, simpering smile? I can’t stand Arlene Pettibon, and I can’t stand being in this courthouse any longer. Mumbling “I’ll be back” to Wendy, I practically run outside, where the sun’s shining and the birds are chirping and it looks like any other stupid beautiful spring morning.

I want to kick something and scream at someone. Instead I collapse down onto a bench and dig my fists into my eye sockets.

All of this is my fault.

“Hey you,” says a low, gentle voice.

I look up, blinking and squinting against the sun. It’s Waylon Eugene Meloy, wearing a pair of new Levi’s and a sport coat that looks like it’s been kept in a trunk for forty years.

I try to unclench my fists. “Came to watch the show, huh?” I ask flatly.

“I came to see you,” he says. “You haven’t been in school.”

I nod. Shrug. I hadn’t gone back to Kokanee Creek High School after the dance. I couldn’t see any reason to.

“I guess I wasn’t feeling much like a Cougar,” I say.

Waylon sits down on the bench next to me. “That’s because you’re really more of a wolf,” he says, taking my hand. He brings my fingers to his lips and kisses them.

A sob I can’t let out lodges painfully in my throat. Waylon doesn’t know what happened with Beast and her family.Myfamily. Waylon doesn’t understand what’s at stake for all of us.

I can’t be the one to tell him.

Oh, Beast—Bim—Ben—Harriet—I miss you.

Why didn’t we follow you? Why didn’t we run when we had the chance?

I know the answer to that, of course: Because we trusted the chief when he said that everything was going to be okay.

Waylon digs the scuffed toe of his boot into the sidewalk. “School’s not nearly as fun without you,” he says.

I push thoughts of Beast and her pups from my mind. Fake a small, wry smile. “Are you having trouble finding someone to pass annoying notes to in ELA?”

Waylon nods. “Yes. It’s very depressing. But on the bright side, I’m pleased to report that, thanks to you, Mac Hardy has two extremely black eyes.”

“Good.” I wish I’d knocked his eyeballs right out of his head.

Waylon kisses my fingers again and desire fills me—desire mixed with fear and grief. I pull my hand away.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “It’s too much.”

“You’re smart enough you could go straight to college. You know that, right?” Waylon says, with a sudden urgency in his voice. “You could take a test. Get your GED this summer. You could go to the University of Idaho, too.”

“Uh-huh,” I say, as if this is a possibility, which it isn’t. I don’t even know if I would want it to be. Right now I don’t know anything at all.

Waylon says, “You don’t mean that, I can tell.”

I twist the silver bracelet that Lacey fastened onto my wrist this morning. “Who’s to say what’ll happen? It feels like eversince I came out of the woods, everything in my entire life has been a surprise.” I look up at him. I feel suddenly shy. “Especially meeting you.”

Waylon grins. “Yeah, well, I certainly didn’t expect to meet a feral hottie with a bunch of canid siblings—”

I put my finger over his lips to shush him. I know he’s just trying to lighten the mood, but I realize that I have something serious to say to him. “Shut up and listen,” I say. “Because right now I need to thank you.”

---