Free Clarity by Claire Farrell Page B

to the spot. I stared at him in horror. “Take that back.”
    He shook his head, not even bothering to answer me properly.
    “You… you can’t do that. Why would you do that? Opa , please!”
    “Trust your elders,” he said.
    Byron stared at me, looking as horrified as I felt.
    “Do something,” I urged him, knowing he could if he tried. He looked away, and I felt even more helpless than ever. No wonder Perdita hated us. We as good as attacked her father ourselves. “If she gets hurt, I’ll never forgive you,” I managed to hiss at my grandfather.
    “She won’t,” he said. But he had no way of knowing that.
    “What am I supposed to do?” I heard the pleading in my voice, but he didn’t even react.
    Jeremy spoke up instead. “Run with the pack. Take them down. Then everything goes back to normal.”
    “So you’re ready to make murderers out of the whole family?” Byron asked.
    Jeremy opened his mouth to answer, but my grandfather spoke instead, his eyes glittering with anger. “We do what has to be done. We’re too weak. That’s going to change. Before we lose another member.”
    “As if you’d care.” I stormed out of the room, ignoring Amelia’s tear-filled eyes.
    I tried to call Perdita again. No answer. Frustrated beyond belief, I stomped outside and caught her scent. I saw her dad’s blood on the ground. A broken mobile phone lay next to it. Perdita’s . At least that gave me a little bit of hope that she wasn’t ignoring me.
    I found the female’s scent close by, and anger surged through me as I came across her clothing. She had walked among us in human form and was rubbing our faces in what she had accomplished. Where had she gone? Did she have a hiding place? Clothes hidden nearby?
    I let out a sound that was more animal than human, stripped off my clothes without even checking to see if anyone was around, and phased. Then I ran, following the female werewolf’s scent. I heard a bark; Cú followed me. I kept running, trying to find a strong trail. She’d backtracked a few times, and that confused me. I was useless at tracking anything smarter than a deer, and that made me even angrier.
    I sprinted through the streets, startling quite a few people and not giving a crap about being seen. I made my way toward the hospital, but something stopped me. It was less of a barrier, and more to do with my body completely shutting down at an attempt to disobey the alpha.
    Useless and unable to do a thing, I ran home with my tail literally between my legs.
     
    ***
     
    At home, hours later, I still hadn’t calmed down. I wanted to hurt someone, just to feel as though I was doing something.
    “You need to settle down. You’re even provoking my wolf,” Byron said after knocking on my bedroom door.
    I grunted in answer, unable to stop my heart from racing. The wolf wanted out; the wolf wanted action. I didn’t even want to stop him anymore. My natural instincts didn’t include sitting at home waiting for instructions.
    “We’ll get through this. I promise you.”
    I glared at him. “And what about Perdita ? Her dad?”
    He lowered his voice. “I’m going to take care of it, Nathan. I’ll keep an eye on them as much as I can. We’ll talk some sense into Dad eventually. Did you catch anything out there?”
    I shook my head, ashamed. “Kept catching her scent, but she was covering her trail. I couldn’t figure it out. I’m a crap werewolf, Byron.”
    “You haven’t been taught. That’s all. Jeremy’s been running with wolves. He can help. But try not to antagonise your grandfather anymore. He’s not thinking straight right now. We don’t need him making any more orders, okay?”
    I knew he was right, but keeping quiet in the face of pure insanity was going to be hard. “I tried going to her. I couldn’t move until I decided to turn back. It felt like crap. I need to talk to her. I need to see her.”
    “I know. I’ll talk to him. I’ll try to fix this. We spoke more about his