Chapter 10

MARGE 

Ryan didn’t stop apologizing for whatever it was that happened out there. He kept trying to explain to me the reasons why people do certain things, yet as he spoke, my mind kept reeling through the words of the woman. 

Why exactly would she call me someone else? And what happened in the fire? 

I stopped walking to give Ryan ears for the first time. “What did she mean by the fire? What fire?” 

His expression shifted almost immediately. I caught it before he hid it away. 

“You’re gonna keep things from me now?” 

“No. No,” he muttered, scratching his head. “It’s just…certain things have happened in our pack. And most of us…aren’t allowed to speak about it,”

“Even you?”

“Not even me,” he answered, continuing our walk. “Speaking about them feels like inviting a curse in. And once bad things start to happen, one way or the other, the curse finds its bringer, and attaches itself on it,” 

“Ohh,” I exhaled. 

“I’m not saying it’s a curse entirely. I’m just saying…” he stopped, looked around, scratched his head again and pocketed his hands. I could tell how uneasy he felt about the question, so I thought of changing the topic. 

“You know what…” I cut in. “Let’s…”

“I’ll show you instead,” he interrupted. 

We stared at  each other for a while, as if he’d just blown a whistle to shut me out. “Really?” I asked, and he nodded. 

“Yeah. This way,” he gestured his head towards the same path we were going. “We’ll need to make a stop at the house first,”

*************

I paraded the entire space downstairs while waiting for Ryan. From one frame to another, one table to the next, one artifact to another. Just something to pass time while waiting. 

During my little walk, Alpha Garret walked in from outside. He paused the moment he sighted me and smiled. 

“Margaret,” he called with ease. With a flick of his wrist, he dismissed the wolves who were beside him. “This should be the first time we’re running into each other ever since you got here,” 

“Yeah,” I muttered quietly with a bow. 

“You don’t have to do that with me,” he said while closing the space between us. “My son takes you as a friend. So you should see me as a father as well. Or a friend's father.” He laughed. 

For no particular reason, I laughed with him. It was short. Nothing deep or too serious. 

“I’m actually waiting for Ryan,”

“Ohh…I see. Where are you two off to?” 

I was about to give an answer to a question I had no answer to when Ryan's voice interrupted. 

“Sight seeing,” he announced, running down the stairs with a bag hanging over his shoulders. “We haven’t seen most of the city,” 

“You know it’s not safe out there for someone like her.” Garrett’s attention drifted from me. “She’s a wolf…”

“She’s a wolf who has a Lycan by her side,” Ryan said. He stole a glance at me before his father again. “Don’t worry dad. She’s safe in my hands. Trust me,” 

Garret didn’t respond. But his eyes were making so many excuses not to have me walk out that door with Ryan. Ryan ignored him. He locked his hands with mine and looked into my eyes. 

“Common,” 

I almost pulled my hands off his, but his eyes…they were…compelling. So instead, I tightened his grip and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s go.” 

As we walked out, I could still feel Garret’s eyes on us, piercing deep into our skin. 

We left the city behind us, and the road slowly turned into a narrow dirt path, with the houses disappearing one after another until there were only tall, quiet trees on both sides. Ryan never let go of my hand, and I never asked him to.

"There it is," he finally said, pointing at a building that stood alone at the end of the path. It was made of black stone, with only half of its roof left, and its windows had no glass in them, so they looked like empty eyes staring at us.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"It's what is left of the old pack house," he said, pushing the broken door open until it groaned loudly. "Come in."

Inside, the air was cold and it still smelled of ash, even after so many years, and the walls were burned black from the floor all the way to the ceiling. Ryan dropped his bag on the ground and stood in the middle of the room, looking around like he could still see everything that had happened there.

"Twenty-two years ago, this house was full of people," he said slowly. "There were wolves and Lycans, families and children, and the whole pack had gathered here for the winter feast."

"And the fire?" I asked.

"It started at midnight, and nobody knows how it began," he said, and his jaw tightened. "The doors would not open, because someone had locked them from the outside."

My stomach dropped, and I could hardly ask my next question. "How many people died?"

"Hundreds," he said, and his voice cracked on the word. "Some people say the screams could be heard from miles away, and my father was the one who dragged out the few who survived."

I looked at the walls again, and this time I noticed the dark stains that were clearly not just from the smoke.

"Nobody was ever punished for it," he added quietly, "and that is why no one talks about it, because people believe that whoever speaks about it too loudly will die."

I swallowed hard, and then I asked the question I had been holding in since the moment the woman called me by that name. "Ryan, who is Selene?"

He didn't flinch, and he didn't even blink. "I don't know any Selene," he said.

"The woman called me that, and she said it twice."

"She's old and confused," he said with a small shrug, "and I don't know who she is."

The answer came too quickly and too smoothly, and something in my chest told me he was lying, but I decided to let it go for now.

I walked over to a cracked window and stared at the trees outside, and then I said, "Why does everyone look at me like I'm a problem?"

"Because of what you are," he said, coming to stand right behind me. "Wolves and Lycans are not supposed to mix, Marge, and that is the oldest law we have."

"So what does the law say?"

"It says a wolf can serve a Lycan, work for them, and even live under their roof," he explained, "but a wolf can never be with a Lycan, not openly and not ever."

"And if they are?" I asked.

"Then the wolf is cast out," he said in a lower voice, "and sometimes something much worse happens."

I turned around, and I realized he was standing much closer than I had expected. "Then why are you holding my hand?" I whispered.

"Because I'm tired of obeying that law," he said.

My heart was beating so loudly that I was sure he could hear it, and when his eyes dropped to my lips and then came slowly back up to meet mine, I forgot how to breathe.

"Tell me to stop," he said softly.

I didn't say a word.

He leaned in and kissed me, gently at first, like he was afraid I might break, but then my fingers curled into his shirt and he pulled me closer, and the kiss became warm and hungry, until the ash, the fire, and the law all went quiet around us.

When we finally pulled apart, we were both breathing hard, and he rested his forehead against mine and laughed under his breath. "Well, that is one law broken," he said.

I smiled at him, but then my eyes drifted past his shoulder, and the smile died on my face.

On the burned wall behind him, half hidden under the soot, something had been carved deep into the stone, and the edges of the letters were still sharp, as if they had been cut only a short while ago. It was a name, SELENE, and right beneath it, in smaller letters, was a line that made my blood run cold: She's coming back.

Ryan felt me go stiff in his arms and turned around to see what I was looking at, and the moment he read it, every drop of color drained from his face.