Shadow of the Day (Wolf Moon Sequel)

Chapter 50: Questions

Ivy POV

Lila was a werewolf. A werewolf. She turned into a wolf. Somehow. I didn't understand it, even after witnessing it. Even the nonstop mental replay didn't clarify things. It looked so fundamentally wrong I had to close my eyes, but hearing her in so much pain was just as bad. I held it together until school the next day, but seeing her and her friends walk to class together was so jarring.

It just didn't make any sense at all, but how could I deny what I'd seen? And didn't it explain some things that had happened the last few months? Her weird moods, the way she kept disappearing, all the times she lied and hid things from me?

She was a werewolf. But she was my sister. Walking to class with her friends like it was a normal day in a normal life. Did they know? Any of them? They couldn't, could they? 

"Ivy? What are you doing here?" Joe asked, so surprised it knocked some of his usual gruffness away.

I wasn't entirely sure myself to be honest. After Lila's announcement and demonstration the other day, it had been hard to think of anything but getting out of the house and putting distance between us, at least until I figured out what all this meant. 

But one thing that kept coming back to me, over and over again, was the phone call where Joe had asked me about Devin and whether Lila had heard from him or if she knew anything. That Caleb and her had had a fight, a big one. Joe knew more than what he was letting on and I wasn't sure I could stand to talk to Lila right now, not when she had spent so long lying to me about so many things. How could I trust her to tell me the truth now? She felt like a stranger wearing my sister's face.

After spending time with Dom, I'd felt better, at least until it came time to go back home. I really didn't want to go back home. What if Lila decided to tell me something else? What if she was easing me in to telling me something worse? And if she didn't, she'd keep hovering around me anyway. 

So I asked Dom to bring me here instead. Didn't even ask Joe if it was okay or if he was home. Just showed up on his doorstep, hoping for the best, because anything was better than going back to that house with Lila.

"Can I stay with you?" I blurted out. It was not at all why I had come here, I'd only wanted answers, but the second the words came out the more relieved I was. I wasn't comfortable around Joe yet, we were still getting to know each other and there were so many things unspoken, but I couldn't sleep at night knowing Lila was right down the hall, watching my every move and hovering over me ever since she told me her secret. 

"'Course," he said, stepping aside even though there was confusion on his face as he let me in. It was a dark little house, all wood paneling and stinking of cigarette smoke, secluded in the trees. The space was impersonal and dingy, but decently furnished and at least it was warmer than it was outside. I was honestly kind of surprised Joe could afford a place like this, especially as he didn't work at the moment. Then again, I didn't really know much about him, did I? "Is something wrong?"

"What happened to Caleb?" 

Again, words came flying out without any thought. I'd fought to keep a lid on all the millions of questions I'd been dying to ask since Lila had revealed herself, but I wasn't sure I wanted the answers anymore. I had a feeling knowing would ruin everything even more than Lila being a werewolf had.

His mouth fell open. Silence stretched between us, just his wide eyed stare and raspy breathing as his response.

"Joe? What happened to him?" I asked again, crossing my arms over my chest to hide how my hands were shaking, try to act firm and not like I was terrified of finding out that the traitorous thoughts about Lila that kept sneaking in were right.

"I don't know," he said, turning on his heel as he hurried through to the sparse kitchen. I followed at his heels.

"Dom said that Wyatt and Lila ganged up on him and things weren't pretty. What did he mean by that?"