Mateo Santiago novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Hers

I walked back across the grass with my father's blood still wet on the stone behind me.

Mateo opened the truck door and I climbed in, and he drove a mile before he said a word.

"I heard him," he said.

"I know."

"I heard you stand up."

"I felt that," I said.

"I felt it stand, Mateo."

He nodded, with both hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road.

I stared at the dashboard and made myself ask the question out loud.

"Did my wolf kill my mother?"

"I don't know," he said.

It was the most honest thing anyone had said to me in thirteen years, and I wanted to scream.

"You heard it for a month," I said.

"What is it?"

"Frightened," said Mateo.

"Old, and strong, and tired of waiting."

"It never growled at me, and it never moved toward anyone but you."

"But I wasn't in that kitchen."

"Then tell me what to do."

"No," he said.

It was soft, and it was not a refusal this time.

"He wants me to say take his offer, and he wants me to say refuse it, because either way he can say I steered you."

"I won't, Sofia."

"I'll be next to you on whichever road you take."

"I'll stand there on the fourth if you choose his voice again, and I'll stand there if you choose the moon."

"The choice has to be yours, or it's his."

I turned that over for the rest of the drive.

It was almost dark when we got back.

I walked straight out to the barn without waiting for him.

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