Free Feral by Anne Berkeley

quickly.
    “You’re damn right it is,” Icarus agreed.  “But it’s my problem now, isn’t it?  What if someone sees her with us?  Do you know what kind of trouble it would cause?”
    Guiltily, m y eyes dropped to the ground.  As did the Wonder Twin’s, evidentially, because Icarus pinched his eyes shut, infuriated.  “Someone saw you.”
    “The police,” Caius answered.  “They were patrolling.  But maybe they didn’t notice her.  He was turning the corner.  He might not have gotten a good look.”
    Icarus scoffed.  “Not notice Thaleia?”
    “What’s the difference?” I rebutted.  “Jack saw us together this morning.”
    “Because Jack won’t talk!” Icarus roared, veins popping out along his neck and forehead.  The last time I saw anyone this angry, my father was chastising Bennie and me for gouging the paint of his beamer.  We were having a water fight with the super soakers and accidentally knocked over the bicycle, which in turn upended the rack holding the rakes and shovels.  My father never hit us, but if there was ever a time I thought he might, it was then.
    “You can’t go home, Thaleia.  You do understand that, don’t you?”
    Nodding, my eyes brimmed with tears.  I couldn’t take the chance of harming Bennie or my parents.  Still, this was all confusing and overwhelming to me.  Instead of explaining things, he growled at me, and when he wasn’t growling, he disappeared entirely, leaving me in the dark.
    “Stop yelling at her,” Caius growled.  “You’re scaring her.”
    “Would you rather I shout at you?  I should’ve ended this last night, but against my better judgment, I listened to you and brought her home!  Now look at the trouble she’s caused!  The police have seen her with us when she should’ve disappeared entirely!  Who do you think they’re going to come to when her parents report her missing?”
    Bacchus crossed his arms over his chest, his jaw set obstinately.  “You don’t want her around, we’ll leave.”
    “She goes, we go,” Caius agreed.  “We’re not abandoning her.”
    “I wasn’t talking about abandoning her.”
    Snarling, the wonder twins stepped in front of me, blocking Icarus’s line of sight.  A shiver rolled down my spine.  Was Icarus threatening to kill me?  Were the twins actually willing to fight him over me?  Could I let them do that—pit brother against brother?  They weren’t technically brothers, but they were blood.  Icarus raised them, forming a bond if not stronger than kinship.  For all intents and purposes, he was much more than a brother to them.
    “I’m not here to break up anyone’s family,” I said, stepping around Bacchus’s side.  “If you don’t want me around, I’ll go to Marcus for help.  This was his fault anyway.  He owes me.”
    “No!” Bacchus growled, grabbing my arm in a bruising vise.  “Are you insane, Thale?  You can’t trust him!  He left you there for dead!”
    “Did he?” I countered.  “Or did he leave because he was outnumbered by six?”
    “Bacchus is right,” Icarus said resignedly.  “He’s a rogue.  He’s already proven how dangerous he is.”
    “I dated him for over a year and he never lifted a finger to me, and you agreed with Hailey that he only attacked me because I ran.”
    “And his dick accidentally slipped into your friend,” Caius said with a smirk.
    I didn’t dignify that with a response.  He was hitting below the belt.  I was sure that I could trust Marcus enough to help me.  He’d never forced himself on me in the year we were together.  If I said stop, he stopped.  He sulked afterwards, but show me a boy who didn’t.
    “Unless you’re going to forbid me to leave with your imperious voice trick, I’m going.  You obviously have your own issues and I don’t want to be the center of them.”
    Disconsolate, I trudged through the park ignoring the argument behind me.  Part of me hoped Icarus would jump me from behind and