Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 68913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
“First by blood
And then by flame
We claim you now
You bear our name.
Nevermore to be alone
You bear our name
We are your home.”
Then my father lifted Delilah’s chin and looked at her seriously.
“You’re ours now, Delilah. You have the protection of the Blackburn name and of our family and of our Pack. You’re our little girl and we’ll keep you safe.”
Delilah had looked up at him with those big, mismatched eyes and nodded silently as my mom bandaged her finger and handed me a bandage as well.
My new little sister didn’t say a word and I wasn’t sure if she really understood what had just happened. She hadn’t just been adopted into our family—the ritual was stronger than that. She was now my little sister by blood, even though we didn’t have the same parents. I was sworn to protect her for the rest of her life—even though at that point, I didn’t even really know her.
All of that flashed through my mind as I stood in her doorway, watching her weep. I came further into the room and dared to lean over her bed and lay a hand on her shoulder.
“Delilah?” I said again, making her name a question.
She turned over at last and I could see by the moonlight shining in through the window that her mismatched eyes were filled with tears. The sight touched something deep inside me and I found myself sitting on the side of her narrow twin bed.
“Hey, you all right?” I asked her, even though it was clear she wasn’t.
“I…I’m trying to be,” she said in a soft voice, barely more than a whisper. She sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes with the back of her arm. “I…I’m sorry if I woke you up.”
“Nah, don’t worry about that.” I shrugged, still feeling a bit awkward. I was trying to figure out what to do—how to comfort her. I’d seen the way my dad acted when my mom was upset—he was always calm and quiet. He’d told me once that women don’t always want you to try and fix their problems.
“Sometimes they just need to talk,” he’d said. “And you’ve got to be willing to listen. That’s what a good mate does—a good Packmaster too.”
Life was a series of teachable moments for my dad—he was always trying to get me ready to be Packmaster in his place. I often resented it, but this time I was glad.
“Want to talk about it?” I asked my new little sister.
She shook her head, looking down at her hands, which were twisting in her lap. But then she said,
“They’re really gone.”
“Who?” I asked stupidly, but then I got it. “Oh—your parents?”
“Yes.” She nodded, still looking down. “I…I’ve been trying to pretend they’re just on a trip—they used to go away sometimes and I would stay at my grandma’s house before she died. So that’s what I’ve been pretending—that they’re just gone away for a little while and soon they’ll be back. But…” She glanced up at me and back down again. “But we had that…the thing with the candle today where we all had to prick our fingers with a needle.”
“The adoption ceremony,” I agreed. “That’s very serious, you know,” I added, hoping to make her feel better. “It means my mom and dad are your mom and dad and that I’m your big brother for life.”
“I know,” she whispered. “And that’s so nice—all of you are so nice to me. But it…it also means that…that they’re really gone and they’re not coming back! I belong to a whole new family now because my family is…is…dead!”
Her face scrunched up on the last word, the way it does when you’re trying not to cry and she wrapped her arms around her skinny little body as though she might fly apart into a million pieces if she didn’t hold herself together.
I felt my heart clench when I saw my new little sister’s misery.
“Hey,” I said, patting her shoulder awkwardly. “I can’t even imagine how tough that must be. I’m so sorry, Delilah.”
“Lilah,” she said in a low, choked voice. “That’s what Daddy called me—I was always just his ‘Lilah.’”
“Okay, Liliah,” I agreed.
“It’s my fault they’re dead,” she said abruptly, which really surprised me.
“How can that be?” I asked, frowning.
“I…I left the door unlocked,” she whispered, as though making a terrible confession. “At least, I think I did. I was looking for our cat, Dinky. He goes out during the day and then sometimes he doesn’t come in ‘till late, you know?”
I nodded silently, waiting for her to go on.
“So I was looking for him and I think I left it unlocked,” she said, staring down at her hands again. “And that’s how the bad men got in. I…I heard the sound when they shot my mom and dad,” she went on, shocking me. I hadn’t known the details of her parents’ murder up until then.