I slammed the door behind me, the cabin shaking behind me as I stomped away. I couldn’t believe I had shouted that at Owen, I couldn’t believe that he wouldn’t tell me sooner, I couldn’t believe he would keep talking to Horus about everything that was happening between us. There were so many things I couldn’t wrap my head around I needed to get away. I needed to get away before I did something stupid.

I climbed into my Jeep and drove away, looking back for just a second to see Owen’s face at the window watching me go, which only succeeded in making me feel worse. I think he knew it would make me feel that way.

I drove high up into the forest, far away from my cabin, far away from the campsite, somewhere I could be alone, somewhere I could scream into the forest and not feel like everyone’s eyes were on me.

This wasn’t what was supposed to happen, not like this. We were supposed to be a partnership and it was supposed to be loving and romantic, not a point for us to argue over.

I stopped the car at the same stopping point where I’d asked Owen to go on a date with me, even just to torture myself further. I sat in the car and I screamed and I cried and I beat the steering wheel. I wished my father were here to tell me what to do. I wished I could have gone to speak to Horus but I’d barely spoken to him over the past month and with Owen seeing him constantly, using him for advice, for information about me, I could shake the feeling that it would get back to Owen one way or another. How could I be the alpha of this pack and feel simultaneously utterly alone? It hurt so much. Everything hurt so much.

I watched the sun go down behind the trees, the orange glow it set on the world turned to that purple dusk. Would Owen be wondering where I was or would he be talking to Horus about it?

“What the fuck am I supposed to do?” I asked the world, but nothing came back to me. Why would it?

I turned the Jeep back on, thinking I should probably get back. There was someone out walking late and I slowed down, thinking I’d better warn them about being out in the wilderness so late. But when she turned stepped out of the path of the Jeep, turning to face me, my headlights lit up a face I recognized. I did a double take. I knew that face.

I pulled over, getting out of the car.

“Mrs Smith?” I said cautiously.

She blinked at me, recognition crossing her face. Would she even remember my name? “I know you,” she said carefully. “Don’t I?”

“My name is Dante,” I said. “I was at the Howl a few months back I…” I trailed off, the words dying on my tongue as I thought of Owen. “I won your son, Owen.”

It sounded so sordid when it was put like that, so much more like trafficking, which so wasn’t the case.

Her face brightened a touch. “Ah yes, Dante, I remember now. Please don’t call me Mrs Smith, Talissa is more than fine.”

“Have you spoken to him much?” I said, knowing full well that he hadn’t.

“No, there isn’t really time for idle chit chat between packs, I’m sure you understand that,” she said. Her eyes looked like they were getting wet, tears filling them. “Don’t let me keep you from your evening, Dante, please. I’m all right.”

“You don’t seem all right” I said, stepping a little closer to her. “Do you want to talk perhaps? We can sit in the Jeep. Have you walked all the way from Lakeshore? You must be exhausted.”

And before I truly knew what was happening, Talissa had launched herself forward and wrapped her arms around me, heaving sobs wracking her body. This wasn’t the mother that Owen had described to me, not by a long way. He’d told me of someone devoid of all emotion and here she was crying on my shoulder.

“Come on, Talissa,” I said. “Sit in the Jeep, you can tell me what’s going on.”

She let me guide her to the Jeep and she sat down, taking a few deep breaths to steady herself. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not normally like this. It’s been an awfully long day.”

“Have you really walked all the way from Lakeshore?” I asked. “That’s an awfully long way.”

“I didn’t have any choice,” she said darkly.

I sighed. “Talissa, what’s happened?”

“I’ve been exiled,” she said.

I blinked. She’d what?

“You’re joking.” I felt suddenly weary in this car with her. “What happened? Is everything okay at Lakeshore?”

She scoffed. “Everything at Lakeshore is fine,” she said. “Raymond is convinced that I’m the reason we keep getting attacked. He’s spread rumors that I am cursed, that I am the reason that the humans came for us the first time and they will come again if I stay.”

It was a disgusting way to treat someone in your pack. How could he be so heartless?

“So they sent you away? No one stood up for you?” I shook my head. “The two of you seemed quite close at the Howl, I thought…” I trailed off. I couldn’t imagine what I was about to say would ease her pain in any way. “I thought the two of you were together, or at the very least on the road to being together.”

She scoffed again. “It’s funny how things work out isn’t it?”

“How do you mean?”

“I have never been interested in Raymond,” she said, the poison firing off her tongue. “But he didn’t want to hear it. Why would he? He thought I could be convinced. So he persisted. He was so willing to let Owen go so now even Owen couldn’t get in the way of us being together. I rejected him time and time again and he must have gotten tired. Now here I am, vilified and exiled.” She started crying again, great big tears rolling down her face as she tried to force more words out. I reached out a hand and took hers in mine. She squeezed it tightly. “I’m so sorry to burden you with all of this, Dante.”

“Please don’t apologize,” I said. “After everything that’s happened today, I’m happy to be dealing with someone else’s problems.” I tried a smile but I couldn’t hold it for very long.

There was a pause, a silence creeping its way between us. It wasn’t comfortable. I sort of wanted to say more but, given how distant her and Owen had become, I didn’t know how much she would want to hear.

“How is my boy, Dante?” she said softly. “How is… How is everything?”

I chuckled a little. “There’s an awful lot of everything to get through, Talissa, if you don’t mind me saying.”

She shrugged. “We seem to have time. How is he?”

“He’s well,” I said. “He’s settled in incredibly well. Everyone seems to like him and enjoy his company. He’s a beautiful person, inside and out,” I added, the melancholy creeping into my voice.

“That’s a very sweet answer,” she said. “But how about you tell me how things really are?”

I sighed. “Things are difficult at the moment. Everything I said already is true but it is also true that things between the two of us are a little complicated at the moment.”

“How so?”

“Well, Owen hasn’t exactly been honest with me,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

Tears pricked my eyes. “I was under the impression that Owen was falling for me the same way I was falling for him. But then I heard that he’s been taking tips from someone in the village on how to win me over, on how to woo me and keep me sweet.”

“What for?”

“To keep his place in the pack, to make sure everyone in Lakeshore gets to keep the money I paid for him, so many reasons but none of them amount to anything that isn’t deeply upsetting.”

Talissa “hmmed”, turning her gaze out the car window and to the darkening forest. Her face was twisted in thought.

“I don’t believe for one second my son would do something like that,” she said. “Maybe it’s true that he asked for advice but if Owen seems like he’s falling for you, he’s falling for you.” She sighed. “When he came here he was certain he would be used to make pups and not much else. Owen might try to hide his feelings like everyone else at Lakeshore but he’s got a warmth about him that you could never put out. If it seems like he’s falling for you, then he is. I know that boy so well, Dante, please believe me.”

I tried to hear what she was saying, tried to believe that Owen wouldn’t do that to me, but what Lesander had said made so much sense. And I’d seen him going to speak to Horus myself. Lesander had no reason to lie to me. Not really.

“I appreciate you saying so Talissa,” I said. “Where were you walking to?”

She shrugged. “Nowhere really. I just needed to get away.”

“Strap yourself in,” I said with a smile. “You’re one of us now.”

“Oh Dante, you really don’t–”

“I know I don’t have to, I want to,” I said. “My home is your home. And I’m sure Owen would be pleased to see you anyway.”

She scoffed. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”

I didn’t respond, turning the key in the car and setting off for the campsite. We had a lot to talk about Owen and I. Maybe I needed to confront him about it. All of this secrecy was driving me insane.