I had never eaten at the "cool kids" table. In fact, after the age of fourteen, I didn't eat at any occupied table. The first few days were a nightmare. The cantina was the purest expression of fear. Some people feared the dentist—others feared school. This cantina was my fear.

I had too many memories. It was hard to disassociate the place from working under Jody and the torment I faced there. It was impossible to forget Damien's tender moment getting me a pear smoothie. I had such high hopes back then. Little did I know that Damien was actually a manipulative maniac.

So, I never sat at the "cool kids" table. However, now I sat with Elijah, Roger, Pam (Roger's wife), Daniel, Reid, and Baker. Smith had left a few days after I arrived, disillusioned with the whole werewolf society. He, with Elijah's approval, went off into the human world.

I hope he was okay.

The cantina was still full of fears, but Elijah refused to let me live with the fear. As long as I was at Redwood, I would be eating in the cantina. And I wasn't allowed to not eat (not for lack of trying).

Most of the meal, I had Elijah's hand in an iron grip under the table. Every noise made me jump and strange things would trigger memories. Strawberry yogurt. Yellow dishrags. And eggs.

I hated eggs.

Elijah was my anchor during meals and I excuse myself as soon as possible. I hated it, but it was working. Roger was spearheading the assault on Damien's castle, and Elijah worked closely with him. He refused to tell me any of the details and I didn't ask. This wasn't my fight anymore.

"—flew?"

I jerked back into the moment. The soft lull of conversation floated around me and there was sunlight pouring into the window beside us.

"Sorry. What?"

"You and your apologies," Elijah muttered. "When is the last time you flew? As werewolves, we shift every week at least to keep the process painless. I'd imagine you need to fly every so often, but I haven't seen you do it yet."

I blinked. "I haven't."

Elijah nodded. "You should go today. It's been a few weeks. It'll be good for you."

I nodded and looked down at the chicken in front of me. It was strange. For the first time in my life, I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted. I could have flown anytime I wanted. There was no restriction on what I could do. Freedom.

But it was freedom tinged with fear. Every morning, I woke up in terror. Elijah had asked me if I wanted to talk about it and I was honest—I didn't. I didn't want him to see that side of me.

Despite the fear, I did want to fly.

"I know a good takeoff place," Elijah mused. "I would love to show you if you're free after lunch."

"Our meeting's at three," Roger reminded Elijah. "Daria from Joshua is visiting."

My ears perked. Daria? I don't know why I thought Daria would be on Damien's side. I guess Damien had lost a lot of friends and family along the way. A small part of me felt bad for Damien. I didn't trust him—at all. But, I wanted him to be redeemed. I wanted him to go back to the tender, intentional man that I knew when we first met. I wanted him to be the man I met, not to lunatic I left.

"And my sister hates when people are late," Daniel mused. I studied him. The last time I saw him, he was furiously kicking me out of the Joshua pack. Now, he was despondent. I think he had believed that his brother might turn around; now he knew Damien had gone too far to ever come back. Damien had reached the point that he didn't want redemption. As much hope as I had, you can't come back from that.

"I will be back in time, Roger. Naomi, do you want to go now?"

I nodded, anxious to leave this horrible place and grateful that he was willing to leave earlier. I quickly unclenched his hand from mine. "Can I grab your plate?" I asked. He nodded and let me take it.

"Thanks, Nao."

He waited for me at the door of the cantina. I wanted to grab his hand again but thought better of it. After all, we were just friends.

"Walk or drive?' he asked as I met with him.

"Umm...how far?"

He smiled. "Half hour walk, ten minute drive. We'll have more time if we drive."

I nodded. "We can drive."

He nodded and we began down the hill.

It's weird being back.

"How so?" Elijah asked.

"Did I say that out loud?" I asked. He nodded, a light smile on his lips.

"Oh. I mean, I grew up here. I have so many good memories of this place. My aunties would take me to the general store every month or so to get toiletries. I could always get them to buy me a Hubba Bubba. I think it was their excuse to also buy candy. They always got some sort of chocolate, so I grew up thinking that chocolate was an adult candy. Kids ate the non-chocolate stuff. Berry and I went to school together here. She was so good at math and I just couldn't multiply to save my life. We would place four square and every time I got out, she would ask me a multiplication question. After a while, I got really good at multiplication because I was really bad to Four Square. For a year, we didn't have any balls to play with so we would play with an invisible ball. It was ridiculous, but so much fun. Try telling someone that they're out when you're playing with an invisible ball. The power plays were...hilarious for a bunch of eight-year-olds," I mused, staring at the gray sky.

"But there is also a lot of hurt here. My aunties. Helen, Mama May, Margie, Sarah Beth, and Carol. When I was fourteen, they...kicked me out. They said that they didn't want my non-shifting to impact their grandkids. I lived by myself for a really long time. Berry was the only one who was still my friend." I took a deep breath. "I learned how to survive on my own really quickly, which was good. But once I got older, our alpha started taking notice of me. I know now that the Wereking knew about me and had a plan with him to sell me off once I shifted. Honestly, it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but...whatever." I turned to Elijah.

"That was a lot," I joked. "Sorry."

Elijah shook his head. "No. Thank you. I never knew my father was such a...horrible man. But every day, I am learning more and more that I hate. I am eternally grateful for Roger. That's all I can say." We walked in silence, finally arriving at one of the cars. We both slid in and Elijah pulled the keys from the center console, turning the engine. "Do you blame yourself?"

I knew the answer was yes. But, I had to ask. "For what?"

"For your aunts. Do you think they abandoned you because of something you did?"

I scoffed. "It was because of something I did. I didn't shift. So...yes. What do you mean?"

Elijah shook his head. "But, that wasn't your fault. You're not a regular werewolf. You shifted exactly when you were supposed to."

"No one knew that."

"Yeah," he said, "but even if you never shifted, that didn't mean you were broken. It's not like being a human is a bad thing. Being a human is a wonderful thing; it's just different."

"Yes, well, here in Redwood, different was always bad."

The expression on his face was unreadable as we drove up the curving mountain path.

"What about you?" I asked.

"What about me?"

"You grew up in your uncle's house?"

Elijah nodded. "I knew the king was my dad, but he was never really interested in a kid. My mom passed away when I was born, so my uncle and aunt took over raising me."

"They did a good job," I said. The compliment was out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

A ghost of a smile passed his face. "I appreciate that. Although they instilled a love for socks and sandals that I have not been able to overcome."

"Why would you wear socks with sandals? You wear sandals to expose your feet. Why cover them up with socks? What about the beach? You wear socks to the beach?" I asked incredulously.

Elijah laughed. "Not to the beach. But I cannot pretend socks and sandals isn't comfortable." He had a wonderful laugh. It was full. It made my chest flutter—

Just friends, Naomi. Remember the last guy you got romantically involved with? He turned out to be a psycho. Stop. Just friends.

"So they raised me. I went to a boarding school in Massachusetts of all places, so I was only home for holidays and summer until high school. Then, I came back and studied online with Roger and Pam."

We talked for the rest of the ride about boarding school, which was a strange new idea to me. Why would you leave home to go to school? School was an addition to life, not the other way around.

Finally, Elijah pulled the car off onto an outlet and I looked out the window. No way.

I pulled the door open and ran over to the clearing. This was my favorite spot. I remember how I would visit whenever I could after my shift.

My wings began to ache and I looked at the two mountain peeks in the distance. Oh, how long I've wanted to fly between them. I didn't wait for Elijah. I unfurled my wings and sprinted toward the edge.

Then, I was flying. Sweet, sweet freedom.

I had always watched birds dancing in the sky from that clearing. Now, I was one of them.