Page 90 of Flock Around and Find Out

Knot set a hand on my arm. “He’s feral. Maybe don’t cuddle up with him?”

I knocked his hand free. “I’ll be fine. He wouldn’t hurt me.”

I believed it, too. Even like this, even if he lost every sense of himself, he wouldn’t hurt me. I knew it, a truth that ran deeper than anything else. He was lost to his instincts, to the wolf that lived inside his body, and that wolf wouldn’t do a thing to harm me. So I crossed the rest of the distance until I kneeled right there with him.

“What if it hurts you?” he asked in a small voice.

“It’s a part of you, right? Your wolf came from it. Your wolf isn’t so bad, so I don’t think it will be.”

Knot snorted loudly behind me, but I ignored him.

“You don’t know that,” he pled. “What if you’re wrong? You don’t know that side of me, don’t know what it’s capable of. What if I sacrifice you and everything else just to try to save myself? To save my clan? What if the world is better off without us?” He paused, then lifted his gaze to me. “You asked me a long time ago what any of this meant. Why did things happen the way they did? I gave you some answer to make you feel better, but I thought about it after that. What if we met and I was human? What if I wasn’t a Were, wasn’t alpha. Maybe I would have been better off, and maybe the world is better off without us.” His voice cracked, words that I had a feeling he never would have dared admit any other time. It went to show how close to broken he was.

“He’s got a point,” Kelvin said softly. “None of us want to see what will happen to the Weres at this rate, but we might be doing something right now we can’t take back. If anyone understands what that’s like, I do. I almost saw you die because of my choices, because of plans that I ended up unable to control. This is Galen’s choice, at the end of the day.”

“We can help the Weres as they go through this, to ease the burden. Maybe that is the kindest thing we can do,” Porter said. “I can assure you that there are things here we don’t want to find. If the dangerous things here are only tiny examples, then none of us may survive a run in with something as powerful as this god sounds. We have more to think about than just us.”

I shook my head, refusing to listen to them.

No. I couldn’t stand the idea of just losing him, of losing them all.

Galen reached out and set both his hands on my cheeks, pulling me in so his forehead was pressed to mine. “It’s okay. I’m sorry that I didn’t get more time with you, that I’m not going to get to keep seeing you grow into the person you’re becoming, but that’s all right. I got to save you once before and I can’t see a better thing to do than save you now, again.” He tipped his head slightly and brushed his lips to mine, the kiss sweet and sad and enough to make my eyes water.

It was a goodbye—no two ways to think about it. He was telling me it was okay, that he was okay with this, that he accepted it. He kissed me like a sorry for the end, like it was more about reassuring me than what he wanted.

Hands pulled me back, but I wiggled free of them, throwing myself forward.

Until Knot himself grabbed me. That was different, stronger, and no matter how I yanked, I couldn’t get free.

“I’m sorry,” Knot whispered into my ear, pulling me backward, toward the door of the cave. “He’ll stay here—it’ll be better that way. This place will feel like home to him. Once we’re out of this cave, I’ll be able to use my powers to bring us back home.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head.

Galen stared back at me, still crouched on the ground, as though he wanted to see me for every last moment he could.

It took me back to that first time I met him, when I’d had no idea what he was, who he was, nothing. I’d been lost, frightened, alone, and he had managed to not let me feel that way. In a world that felt so large, so different, he’d always given me a place I could go.

He’d always given me what I really needed, no matter what it meant to him, no matter the risk. Even when his own world was heavy, when it seemed to fall apart, he never wavered.

He’d been there for me every bit, always willing to step up when I needed it.

I’m going to do the fucking same now.

If I’d learned something, it was that sacrificing some for others wasneverthe right choice. Even if it was easier or safer, it wasn’t right.

My crow squawked in my head, enraged at the idea ofanyoneholding her back—even the one who made her.

I didn’t care if he was a god, if he’d created me, none of it. I shoved him, a rush through me as my power—my inability to be trapped—kicked in. He caught his foot on, well, nothing physical I could see, and he tumbled backward.

I rushed forward, not toward Galen, not toward any of them. Instead, I hurled myself toward the doorway at the back.

“Grey!” Knot shouted my real name, not what he called me, but I ignored it. The other noises didn’t matter, either. I had a goal, and that goal was saving Galen and the Weres.

The doorway wasn’t solid but it wasn’t empty, either. Instead, it was like throwing myself through water. I passed through it, tripping at the other side to find myself in a strange space. The doorway closed behind me, solidifying into solid rock. There was no wall, just a sheer cliff that overlooked the valley. It was lovely, a sight that people would have traveled across the world to witness.

I swallowed. I wasn’t a huge fan of the heights, especially after my last disaster at flying, and when my arm still ached.

When I turned, I found a man asleep on a stone slab. He had long, wild hair and wore nothing.

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