“Alicia?” I ask.
“Hmm?” She’s resting beside me, her head on my shoulder, her eyes closed. I’m alternately watching her and staring up through the leaves of the tree above us. I don’t know when in my life I’ve felt this relaxed. Maybe never.
Alicia is what’s always been missing.
“I meant what I said,” I tell her. “I don’t want you to go back to your human life.”
She doesn’t react defensively or angrily this time. She doesn’t even sigh at me. “What’s the alternative?”
It sounds like she’s really asking. Like there’s an answer she’d accept.
So I try. “Stay here,” I say. “Stay here with me. With the pack. With your father and your sisters.”
“And Lonnie?”