Page 9 of A Wolf in the Garden

“She’s fine.” I take a deep breath, pulling my gaze away from Ellie’s concerned face. Sometimes it’s easier to say things when you’re staring into nothing. “My father and I physically fought. Fists first, then as wolves. I broke off from the pack at that point. I would have been what you would call alone wolfbut Lacey immediately joined me — it’s hard to explain…”

“Is it a mental bond, you’re talking about. Magic based?”

“Yes. Yes it is. Have you heard about it, somewhere?”

“I read something online a while back. So does that make you…”

“The alpha of a new pack, yeah. It’s just myself, Lacey, and her boys.”

“She’shere?” Ellie doesn’t bother to hide the shock on her face, though I can tell from the look in her eye that she’s excited at the prospect of seeing Lacey again. I’m glad.

“She lands in two weeks. I had to come over first and get things set up. One of the reasons I chose Lost Moon is for the living arrangements — there’s two houses on it, and there’s enough distance between them that we’re not going to be tripping over each other.”

Ellie’s hand lands on my arm, giving it a gentle squeeze as she peers up at me from under the brim of her hat. “You’re a good big brother.”

I grimace. I’m really not. I still feel responsible for Jenny’s death, and when I split the pack, my younger brother Seth stayed with my parents. I haven’t heard from him since. I hope, one day, our family can reconcile enough to be in the same room together. We’ll never be one pack again, but I would like a relationship with my brother, my mother, and even my father.

“You are.” Ellie repeats. “You always were.”

“No. No I’m not.” My father’s voice echoes through my mind.“She’s dead because of you!”

Ellie’s lips press into a straight line, but she doesn’t push it any further. Instead she sighs, pocketing her garden clippers, the white fabric of her dress now marked with various smudges of dirt and green, the odd leaf clinging to her skirt. It’s endearing as fuck and something I always appreciated about her; like so many Kiwis, she spent every summer living in flip flops or bare feet, her beach hair smelling of salt from the ocean, sand forever stuck to her legs. She loved the outdoors just as much as I always have, our days spent climbing around the rocks and finding hidden sea caves to sneak into — innocently back when we were kids, not so innocently when I returned after a few years away at college — and following the steep path up to the lookout at the top of the southern cliff, where you could see the amazing views out across the neighbouring bays of the Tutukaka coastline.

I’m not a fool. I know there will be plenty of ways in which we have both changed significantly since we last saw each other — at eighteen and twenty-one, we were practically babies, after all. It’s nice, though, to be reminded of how things were, back when — for the briefest time — my life felt perfect.

“How ’bout I go get my keys, and I can drive you home. Or to Cam’s, if you prefer, and you can pick up your car from him? I’m still shocked that we both know him so well, it’s a small world.”

It’s fate, my wolves insist. I ignore them. “Cam’s sounds good. Thank you.”

“No worries. I’ll meet you down at the car.” She nods in the direction of her surprisingly large SUV, parked just inside her fence line on a small patch of gravel that serves as an ad-hoc driveway.

“Sure.”

I watch her disappear into her house, and it’s tempting to follow her and ask for a look inside her tiny home, but I know that would be a step too far. Instead I turn and walk towards her car. I’m weaving between her flower beds when a sickly-sweet scent hits my nose.

Fae.

It’s faint but it’s there; I’m almost certain of it, and my hackles rise.What the fuck.

I set down the basket I’m holding and stalk up and down the rows of flowers, trying to pick up the scent further, but the wind shifts, the smell dissipating into thin air.

“Van?”

I whirl around at the sound of Ellie’s voice.

“Did anyone else non-human visit here today?”

She takes a step back, brown eyes wide and startled.

“Not that I’m aware of. Yesterday there was a family of rabbit-people; the kids found my strawberry patch while I was busy chatting to their parents, and next minute they’d cleared it out entirely. Why?”

I shake my head, tracing my footsteps once again, nostrils flaring as I try to pick up the scent. I brush past Ellie and she sets a hand on the centre of my chest, stepping so close that I can feel the heat of her against me.

“Van, you’re beginning to freak me out.” There’s a tremble in her voice.Didn’t take long.

“I thought I smelled something, that’s all.”

“Something or someone?” Her heart rate — which had eventually calmed down over the course of this afternoon — has picked up again, and I feel like a monster for scaring her.

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