Werewolf. I recalled those men as they sat at the dinner table, ate, and eyed me hungrily. The details of my past four years scared me.
Emmitt continued a quiet litany of his characteristics unaware of my train of thought.
“We change when we want to, mostly as a defense, not because of the moon. We eat like everyone else. Pancakes rank as my favorite food in case you haven’t noticed. We’re the same as humans, but enhanced. I hear better, see better, can move faster, am stronger, and heal rapidly. And I’m not an organ donor for obvious reasons.”
I blinked as I remembered I’d noted that fact when I’d looked at his driver’s license. Did he see everything? He watched me closely, now.
I hated not knowing what to do. A premonition about his alliance, or lack thereof, to Blake would have been better than the soap opera I’d witnessed.
Behind me, I heard Aden softly call my name.
“It’s supposed to rain today,” Emmitt said quietly. “I pulled a few more games from the basement if you want me to bring them up.”
I shook my head. I wanted nothing from any of them, not now, maybe not ever. He gave me one last look then left, closing the door softly.
Rubbing my puffy eyes, I contemplated the closed door. Did the premonition change my determination to leave? No. Maybe. The way he acted confused me. I sighed and turned to look at Aden who hovered in the hallway.
“I’m hungry. Can we go by Jim’s?” he asked hopefully.
“Not today, buddy. Let’s eat breakfast up here.” So I can plan a way out for all of us.
Liam stumbled into the kitchen as I poured cereal into two bowls. While they crunched, I dressed and cautiously slipped through the French doors onto the porch.
Rain fell lightly on the roof. Dry under its protection, I leaned over the railing to look for my truck. It sat next to Nana’s car. So tempting, yet not. Emmitt’s secret terrified me, but he didn’t. Why did he have to be one of them? I was either living in the safest place or the second most dangerous. If they truly didn’t know about Blake, who better to help me? Emmitt’s litany of strengths rang in my ears. And if they did know about Blake, or were working with him, this was still better than Richard’s house.
Still looking at the truck, I frowned. Jim should have taken it to work already.
“I wouldn’t have told you,” Jim said softly, walking around the corner of the house.
Startled, I whirled to face him. He wore a sad smile. Seeing him didn’t send a shock of fear through me as it should have. It was hard to fear someone who always teased or laughed.
“I would have waited for the fear in your eyes to leave. I would have given you a chance to know me better.” He leaned on the rail beside me looking out at the yard. “But not telling you felt like a lie to him. And he couldn’t stand lying to you.”
I looked at Jim then glanced at both ends of the porch, wondering who else hid just around the corners.
“It’s just me,” he assured me. He nodded toward the garage below. “He’s in there.”
The door gaped open, but I couldn’t see anything within the shadowed interior. It didn’t matter, though. I knew whom he meant.
“So, are you going to stay?” he asked bluntly.
I thought about asking for the keys. “Why should I?” I said instead.
“Because whoever you’re running from is still out there. Here, you’re safe, whether you believe it now or not. Because we care about you… he cares about you.”
A part of me did a tiny little cheer hearing that. Still, I worried what it meant.
Jim straightened to his full height and looked me in the eye with a stern and serious expression. “Can I have some cereal, too?”
Through the doors, Aden shouted his approval. I slowly nodded, coming to terms with several facts.
First, Blake did still lurk out there somewhere.
Second, the actions of an individual or even a handful of individuals within a race… er, species… shouldn’t be used to pass judgement on the entire species. That didn’t mean I was willing to risk the safety of my brothers by trusting Emmitt, Jim, and Nana. Yet, I couldn’t ignore the fact that they’d given me no reason not to trust them other than showing me they grow fur, too. Blake, on the other hand, had given me so many reasons not to trust him. And, that was before he had even shown me his fur.
If Blake and the people here were the same, would it be wise to pass up the opportunity to learn about their kind while we were still relatively safe? Between the opportunity to learn more, the potential protection they could offer, and the way we’d been treated so far, the reasons to stay outweighed the reasons to leave. But, not by much.
Lastly, maybe I wanted to stay because I was curious about Emmitt and the vision.
I joined the boys inside and watched them laugh when Jim fished out a mixing bowl as his cereal bowl.
He stayed with us for the rest of the morning, acting as an indoor jungle gym. The boys climbed all over him, used him as a horse, had him hold blankets while they built a fort, fed him, of course, then settled down to watch fuzzy cartoons with him. The rain continued to fall. Without Jim, I would have gone crazy with their energy.
I watched how he interacted and reacted to the boys’ antics. In his eyes, I saw the typical amusement but also concern when Liam accidently rolled into Aden, causing Aden to cry. He acted nothing like Blake. Heck, he acted nothing like David who was human. It helped further ease my concern about my lost determination to leave.
Before lunch, Jim apologized and said he needed to go back downstairs. With sad eyes, we all watched him go. Werewolf or not, I was glad he’d spoken to me, and I was glad he’d stayed.
The afternoon progressed slowly with Aden and Liam requiring all of my time and attention. My annoyance with them bubbled to the surface again, as it had the day before.
They fought, whined, and pouted their way to just before dinnertime when it finally stopped raining. Not caring about wet grass or mud, I nodded when Aden asked to go outside then sat in the middle of the retired warzone. Lunch shrapnel still stuck to the counters. Overturned stools blocked the hallway to the bedrooms. Cushions from the sofa littered the floor.
Jim found me in the same spot fifteen minutes later.
“Rough afternoon?” he asked grinning.
“I think I’m ready to start drinking,” I tiredly joked as I threw a cushion closer to its home.
“I’ll make you a deal. You cook me something, and I’ll watch the kids for you.”
“Deal.” I didn’t care if I just made a deal with the devil. I’d lock Aden in a room myself if I had to spend another ten minutes with him. As soon as I had that thought, I felt horrible.
Jim ducked back into the hall and bellowed downstairs that I would make dinner. Then, he disappeared, leaving me with my guilty thoughts. Outside, I heard faint, childish cheering. I drifted to the porch and watched Jim run out the door and chase Aden and Liam around the swing set. Jim’s low laugh reached me on the third story. It didn’t feel fake. He enjoyed spending time with them. These people seemed so real. Please let them be just as they seem. Please don’t let them turn out to be like Blake. I turned away from their play, an act of trust that filled me with apprehension.
After straightening the apartment back to its original state, I went to the refrigerator to examine the ingredients. Whatever I made, I needed a lot of it. I wondered if Jim’s and Emmitt’s appetites had to do with what they were.
For dinners with Blake, he’d always provided me with a strict menu along with the required quantities, expecting me to cook it all. The largess made more sense now as did his pickiness. I’d learned to hone my cooking skills after he’d criticized my first few attempts. He’d smelled the hint of scorch on a batch of biscuits even though I’d thrown away the burnt ones.
I opened the freezer and pulled out the five-pound package of ground beef to start it defrosting.
“Can I help?” Emmitt asked from the door.
My stomach flipped with joy at the sound of his voice. I glanced at him. He casually leaned against the wall just inside the door, watching me with a wary, yet hopeful, gaze.
My heart hammered, and I frowned. It was easier dealing with Jim because I had no particular reaction to him. Emmitt divided me. He pulled me in too close without even trying and that scared me as much as it thrilled me. Avoiding him would be safer. At least, until I sorted out my reactions to him and gave the vision of us more thought. It hadn’t exactly enforced his claim that he just wanted to be friends.
As I took a breath to politely decline, he held up a bottle that he’d held half-hidden behind his leg.
“I also brought up wine. Jim said you needed it.”
“One glass,” Nana called loudly up the stairs.
Emmitt grinned at me and winked. His boyish smile and dimple disarmed me, and I found myself nodding. He didn’t hesitate. He left the door open and joined me in the kitchen. Darn it! Why had I nodded?
He found the biggest glass in the cupboard and filled it to the top with wine.
“You don’t have to drink any,” he said when he caught my look.
I picked up the glass and took a large swallow. It wasn’t my first glass of wine. Blake had insisted on wine at the table and me drinking it. I didn’t mind the taste or the mellow feeling that followed after a few sips. But I knew better than to drink the whole thing. I couldn’t afford the resulting dull senses.
The microwave beeped. I turned the meat, removed the thawed pieces, and put them into a large bowl. Then, I washed my hands and tossed Emmitt an onion with a request to chop it.
We worked together to assemble meatloaf. Eggs, oats, spices, ketchup, onion, and brown sugar crowded in the bowl along with a growing pile of meat. Emmitt mixed while I dug out a pan.
Each time I came back to the counter, I took another sip.