The Mates of Monsters

Chapter 19

The sound of the door has me up on my feet like a dog. Lindsey and Helena watch as I hurry to the archway and peer into the hall. David is at the end in the foyer, closing and locking the door behind him. He's home earlier than usual, and I couldn't have hoped for more.

"David," I breathe and rush over, "what happened with the man? He's dead, isn't he? Do you know why she did it?"

"How do you know about that?" He asks, taken-back.

"Lindsey and I were there."

"Why were you there? Were you looking for the scene?" He questions.

"No, we weren't. We were just walking to the gardens, and we saw it happen. W-We left right after and ran back home."

If anything, this makes him feel worse. I didn't go looking for danger; I stumbled upon it on my way to pick berries. It was thrown at me like a child approached by a stranger while playing outside. I can see the thoughts swimming in his head: she's not safe; she's going to get hurt; I can't leave her side; someone will take her. This is his pack—these are his people—and they are dangerous.

"It was random, right?" I ask. David frowns, blaming himself. "It won't happen again. It was just some crazy woman and now she's gone. She can't hurt anyone else, right? It's fine. It's been taken care of, and now everyone is fine."

David's eyes squeeze for a moment as his hand raises. "Brigette, hang on."

"It's just—I've never seen anything like that. It was so crazy, I still can't believe it. She did it so fast like she didn't even have to think about—"

"How close were you? Were you seen?"

I cross my arms and guess, "I don't think they saw us. Why?"

"Don't do that anymore."

"Go outside?"

He watches me. "I don't like what happened out there, okay? And I really don't like that you were there."

"Well, it's not like I knew—"

"I know. Believe me, I know."

I let my arms fall to my sides. "Okay then what was it?"

David walks and I follow. "She was upset."

"I know that, but was there a reason? Did he do something to her? I mean, it was gruesome; it was feral."

"What would you have done if she came at you?"

"What?"

He stops. "If she attacked you next, what would you have done?"

My brow furrows and I stutter, "I-I don't know. I would have tried to shift like the man did, I guess."

"She killed the man."

My eyes gaze into his. "Why are you asking me that anyway? I don't want to think about that anymore. I just managed to move on from it, actually, because it's all I could think about as I waited for you; what if she got me too."

David looks away.

"You shouldn't prompt scenarios you don't want to think about," I tell him. "Because she would have killed me for sure."

"Alright. Enough."

I take a quick step to catch up as he continues down the hall.  "So what was she upset about? What did he do?"