City of Blood

18

Callum doesn't fully agree with my plan to stalk Dad and figure out who's supplying him with the vitamins. He thinks I should go to the werewolf pack and ask them to confirm what the one pill I have is, as opposed to my initial plan to ask Joseph to test it since he works with medicine.

I suppose Callum's right; Joseph works closely with Dad and as much as I love and trust Joseph, I don't know if he knows where I really came from. It certainly wasn't abandonment on the edge of pack grounds, though. If I'm right about these pills and Joseph knows, he'll probably lie to me. I could text Raina and ask her, but I'm still upset and don't want to talk to her right now.

No one in my so-called family has had any right to lie to me about this, and the fact that Raina is close with my biological family and never told me anything? I think I deserve to be upset about it. I'm not an angry person; stubborn, yes, but I am not angry for no reason.

I think I deserve to be angry right now.

"Ow, okay, your brooding is hurting my hand," Callum says, and I immediately loosen my grip on his hand.

We're sitting in his car with all of the lights off near the entrance to my driveway so we can successfully and discreetly follow Dad once he leaves. I'm bundled up in one of Callum's sweaters and I was apparently holding his hand pretty tightly because of how annoyed I am with my family.

"I'm sorry," I say, shaking my head. "Are you okay?"

Callum nods, squeezing my hand softly. "Yep, all good. I told you we should talk about something else in order to keep your mind off of everything."

"So, about human trafficking..."

"Something not associated with anyone in your family."

"How can I be sure that I'll pick a topic not associated with them? If there's anything I've learned in the last month and a half is that they're keeping all sorts of secrets from me," I say, crossing my arms over my chest like a pouty child.

Callum is frowning, but it's a pity frown and not an annoyance frown. "That's fair... do you celebrate Christmas?"

"Yeah, not in the religious way, though."

"How about we go on a trip for Christmas?" Callum asks me. "We could go up to Mount Hood? Stay up in a cabin and have our own holiday?"

That actually sounds really fun, honestly. I haven't been to Mount Hood, since we didn't really go on trips when I was growing up, but I love when it snows. We don't get much snow down in the valley and it usually melts really quickly, so going somewhere that's bound to be snowier sounds fun.

Plus, I don't know how things are going to go down here with my family, but I don't really want to spend the holiday with them. The one person I can fully trust is Callum and spending more time with him is the only thing I want.

"That sounds fun," I say, opening my phone and googling Mount Hood. "Government Camp has cabins and it's already snowy up there, so hopefully it'll be snowy during Christmas."

"We can search for a place online when we get back, but I think that'll be fun for us," he says, putting his feet on the dashboard. "What do you want for Christmas?"

I shrug. "I don't know. Tell me what you want and then I'll copy you."

"Shit, I don't know either. Why do you think I asked you first?"

"Did you have Christmas with your family before you were turned?"

Callum nods, and there's both nostalgia and sadness in his eyes. He kind of misses the life he had before because even though he wasn't happy, it was his and he was the person he was born as. After the turn, he was bombarded with information about supernaturals and he was expected to catch up with the new world he was launched into.