Page 67 of Same One
“I’ve been here for years. I’m not going anywhere.”
“And when my mom shows up? And takes me away?”
“Do you want to be taken away?” Tru asked, releasing him from that one-sided hug.
“I…” He frowned and glanced at Tabian, and around camp. “I don’t know.”
“When you figure it out, you tell me. And if the answer is no, you don’t want to be taken away, then I will fight to keep you.”
Bay’s face crumpled for a split second. She saw the emotion flicker through his expression before he dropped his gaze to the ground.
“What power would you have against my parents?”
And she understood. He wanted reassurance that she was in this. Reassurance that he wasn’t just some burden on her life.
“I think between the two of us, we make a good team.”
He huffed a sarcastic sound and sat in his chair, shaking his head. “Disagree.”
“You haven’t bitten anyone,” Tabian pointed out.
“What?” Bay asked.
“Tru has been raising a hurt, cornered, adolescent werewolf in human society and you’re going to public school. You haven’t lost it on anyone, and that’s with no guidance from a Pack, or an Alpha. She keeps you fed, right?”
He nodded.
“She hasn’t dropped you off at a pancake breakfast or on the side of the road, has she?”
He shook his head.
“She makes wishes on shooting stars for you.”
Bay ghosted her with a wide-eyed glance and then looked back down where he was wringing his hands together.
“When you graduate high school in a couple of years, I will tell you what will happen. Tru will be sitting in those stands, with no support from your parents, prouder than any parent in there because she knows what the two of you went through to get you to that day. You’re holding back from her and keeping your distance because why?”
Bay shrugged.
“Man up and answer it. Why are you keeping her pushed away from you?”
“Because no one stays steady in my life and I don’t want it to hurt when she leaves.”
Oooh, her heart. Tru’s eyes prickled with tears.
“You’re a werewolf and grown enough to hear the truth in a tone, right?” Tabian asked.
“Yes.”
“Tru, will you leave him?”
“Never,” she answered.
Bay didn’t look at her, but she saw his bottom lip tremble.
“Never,” she said again. It was the easiest answer.
He sat in the camp chair frozen.
