Page 46 of Howl Will I Know

“Hiding in plain sight,” I murmur, almost to myself.

Hewit heaves a sigh. “Yeah. Couldn’t bring myself to leave completely. So I kept to myself and tried to bury the wolf as deep as I could.”

I think of the enormous white wolf outside my window that night. I recognized Hewit in those amber eyes, in the way he watched me so cautiously, wanting to come closer but holding himself back. Hewit talks about the wolf as though he’s someone else entirely, but to me, they didn’t feel like two separate beings.

I want to tell him that, but he’s finally opening up to me, and I don’t want to interrupt. Instead, I squeeze his hand. “What happened to Reid?”

“He left. He was scared of hurting someone too. Went into Fable Forest and disappeared.”

I think about the irony of that, of Reid vanishing into a forest while Hewit stayed in a town full of people and somehow made himself invisible anyway.

I slide my chair closer. “But Reid kept looking?”

Hewit’s eyes flicker with pain. “Yeah. Told me today he looked for years. Came back here. Asked around. Even went to Karloff.”

“But surely Karloff knew where you were.” I frown. “And he didn’t tell Reid?”

Hewit shakes his head. “I made him promise not to, and I wasn’t very polite about it back then. I was angry. Told him I blamed him for the change, and he owed me his silence. But he never held it against me. Even helped me when I was learning to control the shifts. He wouldn’t give me up without my permission, not even to my brother, though he’s tried to persuade me to reach out to Reid more than once.”

I look at him for a moment. “You really didn’t want to be found.”

“No. The change made it easier. I had dark hair and blue eyes. Wasn’t nearly this big. Gained inches all over. Someone looking for the man I used to be wouldn’t have recognized me.” He glances down at his scarred hand in mine. “Still, I stayed out of pictures, kept my name off anything public, took casual work. Made sure no one had anything useful to give Reid.”

I struggle to picture him with dark hair and blue eyes, shorter and less broad than the man sitting beside me. I’ve only known Hewit as he is now. He might look different, but I don’t think the change took away nearly as much of him as he believes.

Still, my heart aches for the time he’s lost with his brother.

“What did you think would happen if Reid found you?”

Hewit blows out a heavy breath. “That he’d look at me and see what was left.”

I inhale slowly. He wasn’t afraid that Reid would hate him. He was afraid that Reid would pity him. Afraid that the brother who knew him before would see everything that came after and think Hewit had somehow become less.

“What happened when he saw you?”

One corner of Hewit’s mouth quirks. “He called me an asshole.”

I laugh before I can stop myself. “Sounds promising.”

He finally smiles. “It was.”

“So he didn’t look at you and see what was left.”

“No.”

“What did he see?”

Hewit’s gaze lifts to mine again. “His brother.”

I tighten my fingers around his, blinking back tears. For a moment, neither of us speaks, and I’m content to simply hold his hand and enjoy the knowledge that he has his brother back.

Then a question occurs to me. “How did he find you today, after all this time?”

“Caught my scent.”

I shake my head. “But… that doesn’t make sense. He’s been here before. Why hasn’t he picked it up until now?”

Hewit’s gaze meets mine with an intensity that steals my breath. “Because the wolf is closer to the surface. My scent is stronger.”