Quinn had his snout to the sky and let out two long, loud howls. Every wolf stopped, frozen where they stood. I looked around, my eyes narrowed, unsure what was happening.
“They are submitting to him,” Annabelle said, from behind me,startling me.
I spun around on my feet to stare at her.
“You live,” she said.
“I do.”
She nodded slowly.
I turned back around to watch Quinn, to watch the other wolves. All of them crawled toward Quinn, front legs lowered. Did this mean Quinn was now the leader? The Novo?
“You know, to be Novo, he has to be married… I wonder who he would marry,” Annabelle snarkily said.
“Hmm,” I said. I hadn’t known that, but I didn’t want to give her that satisfaction.
“When did you and him… become a thing… while he was your guard?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
“I might not be able to shift, but my senses are still top-notch. I can smell him all over you,” she said.
“Well, we have been living together since the end of September,” I said, dismissing her.
“Yeah… I’m sure that’s all,” she said.
“Can you speak to them while they are in wolf form?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, no,” she said.
It felt like forever before Quinn finally started walking back toward the porch. Five other wolves followed him. Callie stood out with her white fur, but the rest of them were varying shades of grey to black. There was another almost solid black wolf, not quite as sleek black as Quinn’s fur, almost a muted black. He was right next to Quinn as they approached.
The rest of the wolves took off into the woods. Quinn’s truck was on the tree line, still smoldering away. Instead of walking onto the porch, the six of them went toward the back of the house. I tilted my head to the side.
“There is a small shed in the back that has clothing, unless you prefer to see all of them in their glory,” she snickered.
“I don’t even know who all of them are,” I said.
“Well, as you know, the darkest black one is Quinn, the lighter black one is Benji, the darkest grey one is Daxyn, the lightest one is Raph, the other grey is Hyder, and the white one is Callie,” she said.
“Oh,” I said. My stomach instantly lurched into my chest. Daxyn was here. Benji was here. I killed their father. Not Quinn. Me. I drove the knife into his chest. Panic started settling in. I’d taken a life. Part of me didn’t care a single bit, but I didn’t want to cause pain to my friends. Were they my friends, though? Benji did help Quinn get me out of there, but not before it was too late.
All six of them walked from behind the house to the front, sporting clothing. I wondered if it was like a lending closet of clothes. Did it have multiple sizes? Or did each person have their own set of clothes in there? Those weren’t important questions right now, Zalayuh.
I stared at all of them and they looked back at me. Daxyn and Benji’s eyes lowered from mine to their father, who laid dead on the porch behind me. I dropped my head, looking to the ground.
“Don’t feel bad,” Benji said, breaking the silence.
“But he was your father,” I muttered.
“He was, and I’ll be sad about him leaving… but he was also a piece of shit whose time needed to come,” Benji said.
Daxyn had tears roll down his face, but nothing came out of his lips. He walked onto the porch and knelt to him. He pushed his eyes closed, kissed his two fingers, and placed them on his forehead.
“For your sins have caught up to you. I’m not sure you deserve heaven, but wherever you go, let your lessons be learned,” Daxyn said.
My eyes opened wide. I wasn’t quite expecting that. The tears that rolled down his face said something completely different than the words that escaped his mouth. He stood back up, wiping his palms on his jeans.