“Hi, Harlow,” Ben said as Sam straightened from kissing me and headed upstairs. I reminded myself that it had just been a kiss on the forehead, not on the mouth, no reason to panic, no reason for Ben to be mad.
He didn’t look mad, thoug
Ben led me out to the woods on the other side of his house. I hadn’t ever been out here. The energy was slightly different, as if we were getting closer to a foreign forest, one that was not ours.He looked unbelievably hot in a blue T-shirt that made his eyes sparkle and a pair of jeans that fit him perfectly. It was almost enough to make me forget how sexy Sam was.
Spending the rest of the day kissing Ben seemed like a good idea, but I had more questions. Some, I was hoping he would answer for me. Others, he’d already deferred to my grandma. It was time she started giving me some solid answers, especially when it came to my father. If she didn’t Mom had better. It was clear to me now that the story we’d been told about how Dad had died wasn’t true. It was clear a lot of stories we’d been told weren’t ture.
Listening to Ben attempting to explain to me that Raven had romantic feelings for me was hard to hear. From the sound of it, she was just confused because I was her mage, and it was normal for wolves to have those sorts of feelings for the person in command of them, but because we were both girls, she wasn’t sure how to handle it.“So… it wasn&rsqu
I didn’t see the point in asking Ben to come into the house with me. It was enough that he’d spent so much time answering my questions and then walked me home. Now, I needed to speak to my grandmother. It was time that the rest of the story was told, and since my grandma and mom were the ones that knew first hand what had happened to my dad and to Grandma herself, Ben was right in suggesting I ask them for the rest of the story.
Grandma’s room was dark. The heavy curtains were pulled tight over the windows, and even with the door open, not much light filtered to her bed. It was a bit creepy to walk in and here her raspy breathing. For a moment, I was reminded of that fairy tale where the girl walks into her grandmother’s house only to find that grandmother has been eaten by none other than the Big Bad Wolf. I remembered Grandma singing that song the other day, and even though that was from a different fairy tale, it seemed fitting.
Grandma’s words echoed around in my mind for a few moments as I looked at the red cloak spread across her blanketed legs. “Little Red Riding Hood was real?” I asked. I’m not sure why that would be hard to believe considering everything else that had been revealed to me recently, but this last piece of information seemed to be just a little too much for me to accept. “She wasn’t just… a fairy tale?”
“Grayson is gone?” I repeated, not sure I’d heard my mom correctly. “What do you mean she’s gone?” I asked, thinking there was a good chance she’d just gone downstairs to the kitchen or something without being loud enough to let us know with Grandma’s bedroom door closed.“I mean… she’s not here,” Mom
I tossed the keys to Ben, and he rushed to the passenger side door to open it for me, still a gentleman even though we were in a huge hurry. I climbed inside and hurried a thanks to him as he hustled around to the driver’s side. I barely had my seatbelt on before he started backing out.Ben turned the truck and headed down the drive toward the road, Mom and Max