103
Lucy
I didn’t know the song, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves and the food was really good. David had at least six tacos, and I split several pieces of chocolate cake. Before anyone could protest, David had swiped the bill and paid for it before ushering us back to the car with food for the road.
Sarah, Amy, and Duke chatted in the back seat over the quiet tones of the radio as David drove us away from the diner. The sunset slowly until the sky turned dark and the stars came out. When it was dark, David opened the windows and the sunroof so the fresh wind rushed through the car.
I could smell a bit of salt on the wind as we reached a section of cliffs that overlooked the sea.
“It’s beautiful,” I said looking out into the night. “Could we go down there from here?”
David chuckled. “You could, but good luck doing it safely, let along getting back up. The locals call this cliff Dragon’s Teeth.”
I frowned and looked at him. His eyebrows jumped. Sarah stood up and took pictures from the sunroof as we drove along the coast. It seemed we were driving up a hill rather than getting closer to the beach.
Eventually, he turned down a paved road and started to slow. We rounded a large group of trees and a large house appeared.
“Holy shit, David!”
The house was huge and well lit. It looked more like a compound than a house. A pair of people came out to greet us as David slowed the car down.
“Welcome,” they said. “We’ve had everything prepared as you asked.”
The man grinned and offered David a box. “And happy birthday from the rest of the staff.”
David’s lips trembled and he took the box. “Thanks, Thomas, Uma. You two are the best.”
Thomas looked at me and nodded. “Miss Lucy, a pleasure to meet you.”
David introduced everyone else before Thomas went to get out bags from the car. Uma walked us into the house and I gasped. The whole back of the house was made of glass. I could look out onto the water to where a part of the backyard met the sea.
David led us outside and set up a fire for us to sit by. Sarah lounged on one of the chairs. Duke took off his shoes and shuffled to the edge of the water to stick his feet in the water. I went over to join him as David did something with the speakers.
Duke lay back with a sigh. “I think I’ll sleep here tonight.”
I looked over at him. “You really don’t want a bed?”
“We’ll be here all weekend,” he said. “And I doubt I’m getting much sleep tonight.”
Soon, the sound of the music playing mingled with the sound of the ocean washing against the shore. I heard Sarah and Amy’s sleepy murmuring as David came to sit beside me.
“So much for not sleeping,” David said.
I looked over and realized that Duke had fallen asleep. I shook my head.
“He probably needs it… He said he hadn’t slept.”
David pulled out a blanket from one of the seats and lay it over him before grabbing another and draping it over my shoulders.
“Did you really spend every weekend here?”
He chuckled. “Sometimes during the week too… When he was having a fit, I’d get my trainer to bring me out here.”
I swallowed. “Your father?”
He nodded. “It was hard to tell which way his mood would swing sometimes, but I could always count on coming here… It was my mother’s property apparently.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “We should talk about something happier.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “It seems like every time I come here I think of them both.”
I leaned on his shoulder. “Do you… want to talk about it?”
He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and leaned against me. “Not much to say. My father was the leader of the Blood Moon Pack. While he wasn’t as off the rails as the former alpha of the Blue Moon Pack, he was an alcoholic and had some troubling beliefs. Some days were better than others.”
I nudged him. “You don’t… have to go into details if you don’t want.”
His lips twitched. “He was a storm: destructive at times, calm at others. I saw a lot of things that no one, let alone a child should ever see. I recognize that I could have ended up like him very easily, but I didn’t want to let my anger control me… I don’t want to.”
My heart ached for him. "How did you cope with all of that?"
He hummed and shifted beside me. "I threw myself into my studies, my training. I figured that the harder I worked the sooner it would be that I would be able to challenge him and win. I planned to be a better leader than him and his contemporaries… So much of his anger was fear turned outward against everyone.”
“F-Fear of what?”
“The world around us. Humans. Other supernatural races… The werewolf community isn’t what it once was.”
“Did you have to challenge him?” I frowned. “What does that mean?”
“Officially, it means I’m calling him out for not being a good enough leader for the pack. And I didn’t… he died the very same day I was going to challenge him.” He shook his head. “It almost felt planned.”
“Did no one help you?” I fiddled with the blanket. “It seems like… there should have been someone.”
“The pack cared for me. Trent looked after me most of all. It wasn’t at all like what you experienced.”
I swallowed. “But it wasn’t better.”
“I couldn’t say,” he said. “Though, it’s made me into who I am… and who you are in some ways.”
“I don’t know if I like that idea.”
“I think it explains why you’re drawn to enforcement. You’ve seen the worst of the world on both sides in some ways, and you’re strong enough to want to fight it.”
“I… don’t know about that.”
He squeezed me close. “I do. And I know that there are a lot of people who think that there are easier ways to make it happen. My father thought that unifying the packs and taking over the supernatural world, and eventually the human world, would solve everything.”
I flinched. “I… He couldn’t be serious.”
“He was, and he worked very hard to make me see it his way, but I've learned too much about the world to think that it’s that simple.” He looked at me. “Real, lasting changes start at the source, from the ground up, not in grand sweeping take overs. We have to change how werewolves are seen at large and how we interact with each other in order to start recovering what we once had.”
His lips twitched. “Ironically, Tony brought up a Council for the werewolf community, but from everything that he’s said over the years… it’s hard to guess whether or not he would actually operate with a real Council.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The Supernatural Council as it stands right now has no werewolf representatives because the werewolf community isn’t… cohesive enough to elect representatives for the most part.” His lips twitched. “There are the alphas of the three largest packs, but we can’t represent the interests of the werewolves who don’t have a pack and don’t want a pack. We can’t even really represent the interests of our own packs well as we’re so steeped in tradition and… antiquated ways of thinking.”
I thought back to those women, the lunas, which had come to the Estate to tell me what my place was.
“Is it normal that… lunas don’t do much of anything?”
He scoffed. “Don’t get me started on the was female werewolves are treated. It’s… a history lesson better left for another time… That’s one of the main reasons that we have such a bad name for ourselves its rare anyone wants anything to do with us.” He shook his head. “The shifter community at large has a lot of disdain for us. The rest… Well, they’re just waiting for us to die out or kill ourselves in another war.”
“Is… that likely? Another war?”
“If the Council doesn’t start acting the way it should? If we can’t start to break free of all the things that make us feel better and start thinking about what’s true and what’s best for us as a community? Yeah.”
I shuddered. “I’d… rather not see another war… Do you think there’s hope that it won’t come to that?”
“That’s what I’d like to work towards.” He chuckled. “But let’s get off politics, hm? Find something happier to talk about. Do you know how to swim?”
I shook my head. “I… don’t even have a swimsuit.”
He let out a low whistle. “Well, we’re going to have to fix that first thing in the morning.”
“Okay, but before that, I have something to give you.”
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