I turned my head. Mark Bennett was walking toward us, a determined expression on his face. Ever since the day he’d followed me into Marty’s, things had been… less weird. He was still a little creepy, and I told him over and over again that I didn’t need him to protect me, but he wasn’t as bad as I thought he’d been. He was… nice. And he seemed to like me a whole hell of a lot for reasons I didn’t quite understand.
“Thomas,” Mark said, sounding slightly strangled.
“Mark,” Thomas replied, sounding amused. “Nice tie. Isn’t it a little warm for that?”
He blushed, the red crawling up his neck to his cheeks. “It’s not—I’m trying—god, would you just—”
“I think I’ll go dance with Elizabeth,” Thomas said, patting me on the shoulder. “It’d be a shame to let a moment go to waste. Don’t you think, brother?”
“Why are you dressed like that?” I asked him. He was wearing a red tie over a white dress shirt and slacks. He was barefoot, and I couldn’t remember if I’d ever seen his toes before. They curled into the grass, the green bright against his skin.
“I’m not, it’s just—” He shook his head. “I wanted to, okay?”
I frowned. “O-kay. But aren’t you hot?”
“No.”
“You’re sweating.”
“It’s not because I’m hot.”
“Oh. Are you nervous?”
“What? No. No. I’m not nervous. Why would I be nervous?”
I squinted at him. “Are you sick?”
He growled at me.
I grinned at him.
“Look,” he said gruffly. “I wanted to. Okay. Can I….”
“Can you….”
He looked like he was about to explode. “Do you know how to dance?” he blurted out.
I stared at him.
“Because if you did, and if you wanted to, we could—I mean, it’s fine, right? It’s fine. We can just stand here. Or whatever. That’s fine too.” He fidgeted, tugging at the end of his tie. He looked at me, then away, then back at me.
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” I admitted.
He sighed. “I know. I’m just….”
“Sweating.”
“Would you stop saying that?”
“But. You are.”
“God, you’re such a dick.”
I laughed at him. “Hey, I’m just pointing out—”
“Gordo!”
I turned.
My mother. She beckoned me toward her. Father had said she’d been sick again, that she wouldn’t be coming. He’d dropped me off, saying he’d return later, that he had business to attend to before he would return. I didn’t ask what that business was.
And now she was here, and she had a frail smile on her face. Her hair looked unkempt, and she was wringing her hands.
“Is she okay?” Mark asked. “She’s—”
“I don’t know,” I said. “She wasn’t feeling well earlier and—I’ll go see what she wants. Hold on, okay? I’ll be right back. And maybe you can tell me why you’re in a tie.”
Before I could walk away, he grabbed my hand. I looked back at him. “Be careful, okay?”
“It’s just my mom.”
He let me go.
“Hi,” she said when I reached her. “Hi, sweetheart. Hi, baby. Come here. Can I talk to you? Come here.”
I went, because she was my mother, and I would do anything for her.
She took me by the hand and pulled me around the house. “Where are we—”
“Quiet,” she said. “Hold on. They’ll hear.”
The wolves. “But—”
“Gordo. Please. Trust me.”
She’d never said that to me before.
I did as she asked.
We went around the house to the driveway. I saw her car parked behind all the others. She led me to it and opened the passenger door, motioning for me to get in. I hesitated, glancing back over my shoulder. Mark was there, standing next to the house, watching us. He took a step toward me, but my mother pushed me into the car.
She was around the front and inside before I could turn myself over in the seat.
There were two suitcases in the back seat.
I said, “What’s happening?”
She said, “It’s time.”
Dirt flew up as she reversed in the driveway, nearly hitting another car.
I said, “Why are you—”
She put the car in drive and we flew down the lane. I looked in the side mirror at the houses behind us. Mark was gone.
ON MY twelfth birthday, there was a party.
Many people came.
Most were wolves.
Some were not.
Tanner and Chris and Rico got dropped off by their parents. It was the first time they’d been to the houses at the end of the lane, and their eyes were wide.
“Dios mío,” Rico breathed. “You didn’t say you were rich, papi.”
“This isn’t my house,” I reminded him. “You’ve been to my house.”
“It’s pretty much the same thing,” Rico said.
“Oh man,” Chris said, looking down at the badly wrapped gift in his hand. “I got you a gift at the dollar store.”
“I didn’t even get you a gift,” Tanner said, staring at the streamers and balloons and the tables filled with food.
“You can go in on mine,” Chris told him. “It was only a dollar.”
“How many bathrooms does that house have?” Rico demanded. “Three? Four?”
“Six,” I muttered.
“Whoa,” Chris and Tanner and Rico whispered.
“It’s not my house!”
“We only have one,” Rico said. “And everyone has to share.”
I loved them, but they were a pain in my ass. “I only have one at my house—”
“You don’t even have to wait to shit,” Tanner said.
“I hate when I have to wait to shit,” Chris said.
They looked at me expectantly.
I sighed. “I don’t even know why I invited you.”
“Are there three cakes?” Rico said, voice high-pitched.
“It’s a pop gun,” Chris said, shoving the present into my hands.
“It’s from the both of us,” Tanner said.
“You owe me fifty cents,” Chris told him.
“You have burgers and hot dogs and lasagna?” Rico asked. “Mierda. What kind of white nonsense is this?”
The Bennetts had gone overboard. They always did. They were powerful and rich, and people respected them. Green Creek survived because of them. They donated money and time, and even though townies still sometimes whispered cult, they were an oddity beloved.
And I was part of their pack. I heard their songs in my head, the voices connecting me to the wolves. I had ink driven into my skin, binding me to them. I was them and they were me.
So of course they did this for me.
Yes, there were three cakes. And burgers and hot dogs and lasagna. There was also a pile of presents almost as tall as I was, and the wolves would touch my shoulder and hair and cheeks, covering me in their scent. I was ingrained in them, in the earth around us. The sky above was blue, but I could feel the hidden moon calling for the sun. There was a clearing far off in the woods where I had run with beasts as large as horses.