The thought that it all came down to the next half hour made her more afraid than anything ever had before in her life.
Part Three
Thy life is thine to make or mar,
To flicker feebly, or to soar, a star;
It lies with thee—the choice is thine, is thine,
I answered Her: The choice is mine—ah, no!
We all were made or marred long, long ago.
The parts are written; hear the super waiclass="underline"
“Who is stage-managing this cosmic show?”
“Quatrains ”—Robert Service
Chapter Eighteen
He stood on her doorstep, the world totally changed from the last time he’d waited for her to answer the door.
This was it. This conversation was either going to break him or turn things around.
The door opened, and Amy stuck her head around the corner. Her big eyes were as mesmerizing as before, but she had dark shadows under them, and everything in him hated the thought he was responsible.
“You have a key,” she murmured.
“I didn’t want to take anything for granted.” He paced past her as she swung the door open and made room.
It was like walking on eggshells, and that was the last thing Evan wanted. “I know you said we should talk. I have some important things to say as well.”
She headed into the living room, tucking herself away in a chair that was too small for him to join her.
How had things come so far, so wrong?
He ignored all the other places in the room he could have sat, instead choosing to kneel at her feet.
Moisture filled her eyes, and she swallowed hard. “Please, don’t.”
He reached for her hands, tangling their fingers. “Don’t what, Amy?”
The utter misery on her face was breaking his heart. “Don’t make this even harder than it’s going to be.”
“What’s so difficult you needed to tell me?”
Amy’s voice shook when she finally got the words out. “I came here for all the wrong reasons. My search for revenge has only brought pain to the packs, and it’s hurt you. I’m so sorry we started all of this wrong because of me and my assumptions.”
He wasn’t going to mess this up like he had done their other conversations. He listened to what she said. “Thank you, and I accept your apology. But we need to get past the mistakes. I’m more to blame than you are. I’m stubborn, and far too focused on what’s obvious, when I should be thinking about more than what’s right in front of my face.”
Amy nodded. “So, we put the past behind us.”
“We have to, which means one more secret needs to come out. I’m sorry I didn’t share with you earlier. You need to know everything. About your brother.”
She stared at the ceiling, blinking hard as if to stop tears. “I’d like to know. I don’t want to, in a way, but I need to put it behind me and stop letting my imagination torment me.”
Evan understood. “I have nightmares about it, sometimes.”
Stillness grew between them, this time connecting more than dividing. Amy stroked his cheek. “I heard you that night, when you were having a nightmare.”
He stood, their hands still joined. “Come sit beside me. I need you in my arms if I’m going to face this again.”
When she didn’t deny him, a flicker of hope flared.
He settled on the couch, and when she would’ve sat beside him, he directed her straight into his lap so he could physically close her in his embrace. She leaned her head against his chest, and for a couple of minutes they didn’t say anything. Just sat and breathed together.
“Hudson Bay pack is smack dab in the middle of some of the best hunting territory in the world. Expeditions had always contributed to the pack finances. Only at some point, and I’m not sure exactly why it happened, Kirk Gatlann crossed a line that should never be crossed.” Evan stroked her head and shoulders, drawing strength from the contact. “Instead of caring for the pack, Kirk did the unthinkable.”
Amy leaned back, one hand resting on his shoulder as she met his gaze.
Evan took a deep breath. “One time the hunting party went to the airport and picked up visiting clients, took them on the hunt, then returned them to the airport.”
She frowned. “That seems perfectly normal.”
“It does, except afterward, one of the pack went missing. They announced he’d decided to move away, and there was no further contact. It was as if he had vanished. A young man in his late teens. It’s not uncommon for people that age to leave the North and head into Toronto or Montréal, but they usually kept in contact. He simply vanished.”
“Something bad happened?”
Evan couldn’t say this while he was looking at her. “He was dead. I found him. There was a set of subterranean caves on pack land. They were useful for many things—that’s where the moonshine still was hidden. Youth used the side passages as places to fool around. The younger ones played hide and seek. Dan was in the caves, in his wolf, and he’d been shot.”
A gasp escaped her.
“The fact Kirk wasn’t more upset with what I found made me suspicious, so I went snooping. The last hunting party he’d led had a special request. They wanted to hunt wolf.”
She quivered in his arms.
“After I finished getting sick, I didn’t even think about it. I went and challenged Kirk.”
Her fingers tightened on his shoulders. “You were young.”
“Too young to challenge an Alpha and win. The only good part of it was there were no more mysterious disappearances for a while, and then it started again.
“I was older now, and in contact with more pack. Nothing was being said in public, but you could tell things were going wrong on the inside. Those who were part of Kirk’s inner circle felt overconfident, those who weren’t in on the secret knew they were in trouble, but saw no way out.”
“That’s sickening.” Amy’s fingers stroked his face. “You challenged him again?”
Evan nodded. “There’d been three more disappear, this time a family. I still wasn’t successful in getting rid of Kirk, but more people knew things were bad. We just didn’t know how to get rid of the sickness.”
He held her close so he could finish.
“Did Kirk hunt down my brother?” she whispered.
Pain struck again. “Kirk came for me.”
She froze.
No matter how much Evan wanted to stop now, he couldn’t. “I’d already set a trap. I’d figured out how to blow up the still, and I was determined to take Kirk out when he was alone and running in his wolf. It was a simple plan, and the only one who’d be hurt was an animal that desperately needed killing.
“Only before I could act, he came for me. Told me to take my chances running in the hunt, or he’d shoot me where I stood. I had no choice. Philip must have seen me leaving with Kirk and guessed something was wrong. He followed us.
“There was a fair-sized group, all laughing and getting their guns ready. Kirk grabbed Philip and told him he was part of the hunting party and to act as a guide. I had everything in position to get rid of Kirk, but suddenly Philip was there as well.”
The utter frustration of that day came raging back, and Evan shook his head.
“I led them to where I had set up the booby trap, the entire time debating what to do. No one knew what I had prepared, and maybe I could have waited for another day. But there were no guarantees, and when I got the chance I took it. While they were directly above the caves, I snuck down a side tunnel, shifted and lit the moonshine still to blow. I made it to the surface just in time for the explosion to go off and see the entire tabletop collapse. All the leadership, the group of hunters who had arranged the illegal hunt—the entire group fell in. Trapped or dead.