On reflection, proposing the possibility of Rye joining the pack in front of Rye was perhaps not the best idea. She shouldn’t have given Rye that hope, but if he thought they would kill him then he could turn tail and leave before she got everything she needed from him. So she gave him hope, cruel selfish hope, but hope nevertheless. 

It also had the unfortunate effect of making Walter’s eyes bulge out of his head at the statement. 

“I’m sorry you want to do what?” He looks like he wants to shout, but can’t not with the human nearby so he is reduced to a hissing sound. “Have you gone mental? The only way into our pack is through blood or marriage and you are jolly well not marrying him.” 

“Bloody hell of course I’m not! But I think he could be useful to us, look at him he’s a young lone wolf and has the control and has the control of a pack elder. Don’t you think that’s worth investigating.” She wants to say he could be useful to her, to make her into the pack leader Walter deserves one day. Everyone in the pack knows it should have been him, he should be the next alpha. Fate had crueller ideas. 

“Look if I just leave now you two can pretend you never saw me-”

“That’s illegal.” Said Walter. “Lone wolves are too much of a danger, moreover if it ever got out our alpha let a lone wolf on her territory and she didn’t kill it our pack would lose all credibility. Our alpha would be humiliated.” Tessa bristled at the thought. 

He should be running. Thought Tessa. Running for his life, not calmly waiting for them to finish debating his fate. A cold thought struck her - maybe there’s nothing left for him to run for. 

“Look Walter, I know you are obsessed with all the mechanics of being a werewolf. You spend hours in the den reading those dusty old books, everything from Romulus and Remus to the Council’s yearly reports on the bite. He’s an anomaly, you love anomalies.”

“Still not your science experiment.” Rye frowns. 

“Still trying to save your life here.” Biting her lip, she throws down her best cards. “Besides, half the school and village have already seen him. And he’s a minor and if he goes missing there will be half the county’s police force in the woods looking for him. What if they get a little too close to the den? Find the bodies buried by the far shed? Everyone will go to jail, including you, your over eighteen and know about the bodies. And I’ll be put in foster care or juvie. In my opinion we don’t really have a choice but to let him stay.”

Walter’s frown deepens. Rubs his thumb over his collarbone, beneath his shirt and tie is his pack necklace. He thinks too hard with his head, she thinks too long with her gut. That’s what their mum says. She hopes Walter can be selfish like her. 

“You will have to take him to mum, let her decide. I am not initiating a wolf without the expressed permission of the alpha and neither are you.” It should be a relief, a weight of her chest that she has got her way. However, she knows she’s only climbed the first ridge and the rest of the mountain is waiting for her. By taking Rye to her alpha she is throwing all her chips on the table with only half a hand. “Take him to the den tonight. Let the alpha decide his fate.”

“Thank you.” She lets out a breath. It’s not a breath of relief, or thanks because she doesn’t feel any of those things. It’s a breath forced out by the worry knitting in her stomach and compressing her lungs. The battle has only begun. 

“Walter! Tessa?” The shout echoes through the trees and is accompanied by someone crashing through the undergrowth. No, two people, the second set of thrashing footsteps accompanied by a string of curses. 

“Rye get in the cave, they can’t see you up here. Too many questions.” Walter hisses, then his voice darkens and it makes Tessa take a step back, wolf with its tail between its legs. “If you try to skip out on our alpha tonight, we will find you and there will be no choice about your fate. No mercy either. Got it?” 

“Yes.” Rye says ducking into the cave. He merges into the inkinesss seamlessly. If she couldn’t hear the gentle patter of his heart she wouldn’t know he was there at all. 

“Tessa, Walter!” Simone, Otto and Keri crash through the undergrowth rosy cheeked and panting. 

“Where have you guys been? We were supposed to meet ten minutes ago, we are going to be late for maths.” Asked Otto, “I can’t get a detention on the first day, Ma will skin me alive then feed me to the dogs.”

“Sorry,” The desire to peek at the cave was crippling Tessa, but she couldn’t look. It would only draw more attention to it. “I needed Walter’s help to look round here, you know how I am with heights. I couldn’t get within two metres of the edge.”  

“You poor thing,” Otto loops his arms around their shoulders, his cheek mushing into Walter’s collarbone before he straightens. With a grin she noticed his knee had miraculously recovered. She knew it was all a ploy to get Walter to carry him around, it always was. “Hey, you found the camera.” 

“Seriously?” A flurry of flapping accompanied Keri’s squeal as the crows evacuated. “Thank you so much, does it work? Are there any photos? Have you seen the beast?” 

Keri flung herself around Walter’s neck making him stagger backward with a grunt as her feet came off the floor. The others laughed. Except for Simone. She hung around the undergrowth watching them, half of her face eclipsed by the shadows. Tessa frowned, a quiet Simone gave her the chills. 

“I don’t know, I’ve not even tried to turn it on yet.” 

“Give it here.” Keri snatched it from Walter, almost taking his fingernail with it, and flipped through the pictures. “No! No! It was here, I swear it was here! What happened?” 

“What happened,” Simone stalked into the clearing, her charcoal eyes a portal into the pits of hell, “Is you wasted all our time hunting for your imaginary monsters! Again! And you almost broke my camera! We only ever do what is important to you and your delusions. I can’t believe you Keri, sometimes you are so selfish.” 

“I’m not!” Tears blob onto her plump cheeks, “I know it’s real. I had the proof. I don’t understand what happened!” 

“Do us a favour Keri? Next time you want to cry wolf, go do it to someone else. I’m done caring about this stuff and I’m done being a laughing stock because of you.”