Free Cry Wolf by Aurelia T. Evans

Leslie. It’s always been me and Max and then Jake and Britt and Renee. He’s just not a pack kind of guy.”
    “He’s more pack than you think he is,” Kelly said. “Maybe more pack than he thought he was. Do you know where he was before he came here?”
    Kelly had seen glimpses of Malcolm’s past before the sanctuary, but it was buried deep within him in places he kept locked. Most of the time people’s thoughts and memories and wishes just came to her. She rarely sought them out—she didn’t like to pry.
    “No, not really,” Ki said, brow furrowing. “He talks about his childhood. He was raised in the city, New York City, so this is kind of a big change for him. After that, when he left home, he doesn’t really talk about that. I’m not sure if it was traumatising or he got in over his head or something. But I do know ours was his first pack. Knowing he was always so alone, that’s what I don’t want for him now.”
    “And it’s what he doesn’t want to return to,” Kelly mused. Her vision blinked, a momentary blackness, but it may have just been the lights flickering—hopefully without her influence. She wasn’t particularly stressed at the moment.
    “You’ve trusted me so far to take care of Malcolm and help him,” Kelly said.
    Ki nodded.
    “Then trust me now. I don’t think you’ll need the silver, but it can only help.”
    Ki sighed. “I’ll ask Renee whether she has any jewellery. I don’t want to carry around her knife. And just between us, I don’t think she wants me to carry it either. She’s been keeping it under her pillow. I saw it one day when I was doing the linen laundry. There it was under her pillow, even though half the time she sleeps with Britt.”
    “Why do you think she does that?” Kelly asked, although she knew why. She didn’t even have to read Renee’s mind for it, but Ki seemed to be more concerned than she needed to be.
    “Well, with Malcolm angry at her, I told Max she keeps it with her in case Malcolm tries to kill her in her sleep. She probably doesn’t do it because of you. We can all tell she likes you,” Ki said.
    Kelly smiled a little and inspected her pale fingernails. It was no secret in the sanctuary that Renee had a bit of a crush on her. Neither Britt nor Jake minded, and neither did Kelly. It was a minor infatuation, nothing more.
    “No, the knife isn’t for me. But if you, Max and Malcolm need reassurance, it’s not because of Malcolm either.”
    “Then why?” Ki asked.
    “It’s to do with Grant.”
    Ki looked confused. “Grant’s dead. She killed him. Why would she still be afraid of him?”
    Kelly shook her head. “That’s not for me to say. It’s for her to figure out.”
    She understood the compulsion to keep a weapon, to remember old blood drawn. Kelly couldn’t get rid of her own weapon. Her weapon was herself, her wolf. She could never throw it in a river.
    But as soon as the detective had returned the knife to Renee as a personal effect—no charges filed—Renee had kept it as a reminder not just of her own vulnerability or her ability to overcome it, something which Kelly knew was important to Renee. But Renee also kept it to remember what she was capable of, because that was enough to give anyone nightmares if one had even a smidgeon of conscience.
    “I don’t think Renee owns much jewellery,” Ki said, getting up again to start cleaning the dishes.
    “Ask her if her mother left anything.”
    Ki turned around, disquieted by Kelly’s suggestion. “I don’t know if I could do that. I mean, it’s her mother.”
    “Give it a try,” Kelly said with absolute confidence.
    “You know, you get really weird when you do that,” Ki said. “When you talk like you know things before they happen. It’s eerie.”
    “I’ve been told that,” Kelly replied. “I’m just used to it, the precognition. It’s always there, more or less.”
    “What’s it like to know things most people don’t get to know?” Ki asked over