Le clan Bennett, tome 2 : Le chant du corbeau

Il est parfait, parce qu'il est imparfait. Comme toi. Comme Gordo. Comme nous tous. Il est parfait à cause de l'intention. De ce qu'il signifie. Il comprendra, Mark. Je te promets qu'il comprendra.

Alors, je pleurai. Pour la première fois ce jour-là. Une main remplie de pain au chocolat et entouré de mes meilleurs amis, je pleurai.

Once, the moon had loved the sun.
Once, there was a boy.
Once, there was a wolf.
He had sat with his back against a tree.
His bare feet were in the grass.
The boy leaned forward and kissed the wolf.
And knew then that nothing would ever be the same.
An unkindness of ravens swirled around me, feathers rustling.
The air was redolent of roses.
And I gave everything I could. For him.
For my wolf.

“You can have me. Right now. Here. Choose me. Mark. Choose me. Stay here. Or don't. We can go anywhere you want. We can leave right now. You and me. Fuck everything else. No packs, no Alphas. No wolves. Just... us."

"We need to talk. Man-to-man."

That sounded good to me. I nodded. "I agree. Time to talk man-to-man.”

“I'm glad to hear that. What are your intentions with my brother?"

"Gordo," Abel said. "You must rise. For your pack. For us. I must ask you to become the witch to the wolves."

My mother's heart had been broken long before I knew what to look for.
My father's heart had been broken by the death of his tether, but I never saw it before he exploded in a furious burst of rage and magic.
This was the first time I'd ever witnessed a heart breaking up close.
And the fact that it was my Alpha's heart made it that much worse.

“The meeting to get Gordo laid can now commence."

[...]

"Okay. Based upon our criteria of being hairy and big and wolfish and knowing about how Gordo uses Force lightning because he's pretty much a Jedi-"

I furiously choked down foam.

"-that leaves us with two choices for Gordo to get laid."

"Awesome," Rico said. "That makes our job so much easier. Who are they?"

"Carter or Mark Bennett."

Once, the moon had loved the sun.
Once, there was a boy who had loved a wolf.
Once, an old witch had spoken of choice, of truth and prophecy.
And it was blue, so much of it was blue, but I was tired of it. I was tired of feeling this way, of being alone, of being scared, of thinking that I couldn't have what I wanted more than anything in this world.
And so I made my choice.
I chose the wolf.

I took three steps forward, my hands going up to Mark Bennett's face. He flinched, eyes flaring, but it was already too late to stop it.
I kissed him. There, in the darkened room while snow fell outside.
At first he didn't respond, and I thought I'd misunderstood. That I was too late. That the gulf between us was too wide to ever be crossed.
But then he sighed and slumped against me, his hands on my hips, the raven still clutched between his fingers. I felt the sharp press of its wooden wing against my side. He sang a song in my head of gordo love mate please love, and though it was tinged with blue and blue and blue, there was a thread of green shot right through the middle, of relief and hope. It was like I was young again and there was this boy, this tall, gangly boy sitting against a tree in summer, his feet bare in the green, green grass, and he was my shadow, following me everywhere, telling me he was trying to keep me safe from bad guys. I'd sat up on my knees and kissed him because it felt like the right thing to do. Everything about Mark Bennett had felt right, even then in the summer when we hadn't known just how sharp teeth could be.

We weren't young anymore.
But it still felt like we could be.
It still felt like this could be a first time.

"It doesn't have to be this way."

"You tell Thomas," I said, struggling to get the words out while I still could. "You tell him I don't want anything to do with him. That I don't want to see him again. You tell him to stay out of Green Creek."

Mark looked shocked. "Or what?"

"Or he won't like what I'll do."