The Year of the Horse (Book two of the Almair Series) (Completed)

Chapter 20 (Edited)

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"Thanks for the night out," I said, getting out of the car. I leaned against it and grinned at Mal, glad that he did take me out. "I really needed it."

"No problem," Mal said as I closed the door. He saluted and drove away, making me feel sad, because that was probably the last time I was going to see him in a while.

"That was a nice time," Julie said. There was a smile on her face, and a bit of love filled her eyes. I knew that the reason was because she was definitely in love with Mal. A frown appeared on her face, while she looked towards the house, where I was looking. "Are you sure that it was Mr. Walker you saw on the way towards our house?" She raised an eyebrow, probably hoping that I would change my answer.

"For the billionth time, yes, I am sure that it was him." I shook my head and started to walk towards the house. I knew that something mad would happen, even though it wasn't my fault.

Dread nipped at my heels, wanting me to just run away then. However, I knew that I couldn't, because I had a job to do and that job was to make sure that the whole clans were safe. It didn't matter about my feelings at all, if it would cause everyone to get hurt.

"You didn't tell anything to Ava?" She caught up with me, wanting to drill me as I would be drilled when I got into the house. I knew that she was trying to help me, but all ti did was making me feel worse, as if this had just been a stupid idea.

"Nothing that happens in the backyard and about us... I did talk to her about some stuff, since I wasn't going to sit there like a stick in the mud."

"What did you talk about?"

"We talked about school and basketball. We talked about who looked good with who, something that almost all the teens at our school do. We, also, talk about boys." A grin appeared on my face, and I shrugged my shoulder. "We talked mostly about boys."

Julie nodded her head and looked at me. She raised an eyebrow and cocked her head. "What are we going to say?"

"If I know Randi, she is going to say that I told Ava about... you know... and Faolon believes her, then... I'll take the punishment." I bit back a sigh, hoping that the punishment would be bad. I knew that Faolon would mean well, but he had to take care of the pack first and not me, so whatever was going to happen, I would suffer silently.

Julie looked at me, her face pale. Shock filled her eyes, as if she didn't know why I was saying what I was saying. "But, Martha-"

"Don't, Julie." I glanced at her, my eyes filled with begging. I didn't want her to get hurt, even though she had been a pain in my ass growing up. "They're going to ask you to go upstairs. Don't say anything but 'yes' and go. Promise me this, please."

Julie shook her head, her lips going into a thin line. "I can't promise that."

"Promise me." My eyes held so much begging, that I was surprised that they didn't start to tear up. I never begged this bad, but I didn't want to get Julie into trouble. It was bad enough that I was going to get into trouble.

She held her head in defeat. Her eyes were downcast, and it looked like that she was about to cry, also. Finally, she nodded her head, agreeing with me. "Alright, I promise."

I sighed and looked at the door, dreading the fact that I was going to have to face the music alone. I just hoped that I wouldn't be kicked out, however, I knew that was a possibility because Randi had it out for me.

Finally, I took a deep breath to calm my frayed nerves and nodded my head. I reached for the door and opened it. "Well, here goes nothing."

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