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feed you at home?" He kept his eyes turned to the ocean.
    Rafe was already flushed from the run, but Finn thought he might have gotten redder. Still, he didn't sound too hostile when he answered. "No."
    "Sucks."
    "Yeah. Pretty much." Rafe ran a hand through his sweaty hair, slicking it back away from his face. The white scars were evident. "So that girl that was here when I first came--who was she?"
    Finn's head whipped around and now he did look at the werehyena. He didn't like Rafe asking about Laila. Not that she needed his or anyone's protection, but he still felt a streak of it when Rafe mentioned her. Rafe's face was relaxed, almost mild. Finn tried not to be paranoid, but he had to admit that he didn't trust the werehyena completely and agreed with Mac that they needed to be careful around him.
    "Why do you want to know?" He let a little of his suspicion color his voice.
    Rafe held his hands up in a gesture clearly meant to placate the werewolf. "She's awesome in a fight—I got to see a little bit at the nightclub. I'm pretty sure my sister hates her." Finn tried to hide a smile of pure pride. That was his girl right there. Rafe continued thoughtfully. "I bet my mother does too." Finn remembered that Laila had smarted off to Samara during the meeting that had ended with Rafe becoming a permanent addition. He imagined that Samara wasn't used to many people talking back to her.
    Finn grinned hugely. "That would be Laila." He had a hard time keeping the pride from his voice. "She has that effect on a lot of people."
    "She your girlfriend?"
    Finn stopped jogging and looked at Rafe carefully. He wasn't sure where the kid was going with this. When Finn took a while to answer, Rafe said, "Look, I'm just making conversation. We can go back to staring straight ahead and randomly grunting at each other if that's more your speed."
    Finn began jogging again, and Rafe followed along beside him. "Why are you still here?" Finn asked. It had been bothering him since the very beginning. Why would you knowingly stay in the house of your enemy unless you were a spy? Why wouldn't you leave if you had the chance? It didn't make sense to him.
    Rafe startled at the question. His eyes shifted to look at the sea for a second, then danced back to Finn. "What do you mean?" was his cautious reply.
    "Why. Are. You. Still. Here?" Finn punctuated each word with a footfall. "Kess said you didn't have to stay—that you could go home at any time, right? So why haven’t you left? I wouldn't think you'd be too comfortable staying with your mom's enemy."
    Rafe looked like he'd he tasted something foul. He was silent for a few moments. When he spoke, his words held a kind of angry finality. "I can't go home."
    Finn cocked a brow at him. The boy's face was a hard mask, his jaw clenched tightly and his eyes narrowed. Finn pushed a bit more. "You still don't have to stay here."
    Finn could read the tension in him, the muscles bunched beneath pale, scarred skin. He knew it wasn't easy for a pack were to be solitary. It was a dangerous existence. Kess had been lucky when she'd been on the run.
    Rafe, his voice heavy with sarcasm, said, "Let's just go back to the whole manly silence thing."
    Finn snorted out a laugh. "Fair enough." There was a pause. In a needling voice, he observed, "Your mom is pretty hot."
    Rafe made a choking sound. He stared at Finn, shock and disgust written plain on his face. "That's gross, man. She's my mom!"
    Finn laughed again. He'd finally gotten what he thought was an honest reaction out of the kid. He filed it away to compare with other reactions later. "Alright, alright. Don't get your knickers in a bunch, sweetheart."
    "You're the one who won't talk about your girlfriend, princess." Rafe's voice held the faintest hint of mockery.
    Finn could appreciate a good comeback and liked someone who could give as good as they got. It was a survival skill in his family. "Because I'm not a gigantic girl. What, you want to braid each other's