Had he heard her too?
What in the Mother’s name was happening here?
Austin recovered first, and he padded through the trees, no longer trying to be stealthy, rushing over to Eli’s and the she-wolf’s sides.
He butted into Eli until the alpha grunted and rubbed his hand over his ears before scratching them. I huffed when the she-wolf did the same, mimicking Austin, butting her snout against Eli’s other hand until he scratched her too. When the alpha laughed, my heart stuttered a little. He did that so rarely, and on the morning after we’d lost his mother? The omega? The natural balance in the pack? It came as more of a surprise.
Cautiously, I stepped forward, not wanting to intrude, but also feeling a need to be a part of something I didn’t understand. I didn’t want to be on the outside looking in. Austin and I existed on the outside, and it was a cold and lonely place to be. Here, in this small circle, I knew there was no cold.
Only warmth.
When I pressed against the she-wolf, she grunted slightly, twisting until her hindquarters rubbed against mine.
Eli muttered, “What the hell is going on?” even as he patted me on the head too.
Why I wanted that, to be treated like a damn dog, I had no clue, but to be included felt like heaven. Christ, it felt like a kiss straight from the Mother’s lips.
My throat almost closed at that, and because it was too weird, too powerful, and made me feel raw inside, I shifted. It put me in close proximity to Eli, but he didn’t mind. Neither did I. We were pack. We were used to being this close and being naked at the same time. The she-wolf? Not so much.
The pair of us laughed as she sprang up, jolting with her surprise at the speed of my shift, before landing. Badly. She tumbled back onto her rear with an inelegance that really didn’t suit her.
Every inch of her was elegant. She oozed it, just like Eli oozed power. But her lack of dexterity wasn’t unusual, not so close to her transformation.
When Austin shifted back too, the three of us sat around in a circle with her.
“I’m surprised she hasn’t shifted back.” Being around powerful shifters triggered the change in weaker wolves.
Eli cast me a look. “She’s my mate. She’s strong in her own way.”
My throat closed at his statement. Austin’s, on the other hand, didn’t. “What? She’s your mate?”
Eli reached up and rubbed his chest like there was an ache there. “Yeah. She is.” He blew out a breath, and I got the feeling his next words pained him to say them.
When he uttered them, I totally understood why.
Eli
“Is she your mate too?”
I couldn’t look at them, couldn’t take them in when I was feeling this fucking vulnerable.
I was alpha, not just the alpha, but alpha to my marrow. Right in my very soul, I was dominant. Being vulnerable wasn’t something I did on the regular, not at all, but fuck me, I knew my life was changing, and not just by my mother dying yesterday either.
I could feel my world shaking from the inside out, and even though I hated change with a passion, how could I hate it when this beautiful she-wolf was a part of the transformation?
Neither Austin nor Ethan put me out of my misery. Instead, Ethan—ever the clinical bastard and always the fucking thinker—muttered, “Only omegas have multiple mates.”
I bit my bottom lip to stop myself from snapping at him. Instead, I glowered, and his eyes widened as he muttered, “Oh. Of course.”
“Oh, what?” Austin questioned. Unlike his brother, he was as slow as fucking frozen maple syrup some days.
“Oh, he thinks she’s the next omega, dumbass.”
Austin’s mouth worked. “Omegas are always naturals.”
He wasn’t wrong. “I know. But she’s mine. I can feel it. She’s my mate, which means she has to be the omega. She’s different than I expected though.”
“More ways than one,” Austin mumbled.
“Well, that’s just rude.”
The three of us froze, and I knew the twins had heard that too.
“Am I losing my fucking mind?”
The boys cut each other looks before, slowly, Ethan murmured, “No, I heard that too.”
Licking my lips, I focused on the she-wolf, and questioned, “How are you doing that?”
“I don’t know.”
Austin snorted. “Least she’s honest.”
The she-wolf grunted at that, then butted his arm with her nose.
However I’d anticipated spending the morning after my mother’s passing last night, this wasn’t it, and yet, I couldn’t complain.
My mate was here.
And the men who’d always had my back were too.
Brow puckering, I asked the one question that plagued me. “What’s your name?”
She tilted her head to the side, those glacial blue eyes glinting like frozen stalactites in the sun. “Sabina.”
Austin and Ethan shot each other looks, and though I was accustomed to seeing those glances, ones that were a silent communication, it pinged into my head like a true eureka moment. “You’ve always been able to communicate this way, haven’t you?”
Ethan’s eyes widened, but Austin answered with a shrug. “Since we were kids.”
Shit. For so long?
I frowned at Sabina, who whined and pressed her face into my chest again, not stopping until her nose was tucked under my arm. My lips twitched as her breath huffed into my armpit, but I understood. In her wolf form, not only was she seeking and offering comfort, but to her senses, that part of me was the most powerful. Loaded down with all my pheromones.
And she was my mate, after all.
Even if she didn’t know what that meant. Or the repercussions that came with not only being newly transformed, but also with her position as my other half.
Or was she?
Maybe half wasn’t the right word.
I dug my hands through the thick fur on her head, stroking her, gentling her, then addressed the twins. “Tell me the truth.”
“I feel a connection to her,” Ethan muttered, not beating around the bush. But that was his way. He wasn’t curt, just abrupt. Which might be synonyms, but there was a difference. He wasn’t rude, just quick to get to the point, and in my position, I appreciated that. The council was made up of wafflers. All of them. They used words as weapons and as a means to inveigle their way into my inner circle.
Truth was, the only people who’d been in that were the twins and my parents—neither of whom I’d seen eye to eye with most of the time.
I’d lost two of my confidantes, but the twins were still here. I knew they always would be as well.
“I feel something tying me to her,” Austin confirmed, sighing as he rubbed a hand over her flank. “Mother help me, she’s pretty. I’ve never seen a human with this coloring.”
“I’ve never seen a natural with that coloring either,” Ethan stated firmly, and in his eyes, I saw a question he wasn’t voicing.
“What is it?” I prodded, wanting to know. They were smart, both of them. Even if Ethan did get a little arrogant from time to time. Austin was smart in his own way. It wasn’t all about books, but Ethan had a habit of forgetting that.
“There has to be a reason she’s like this, that’s all.”
I shrugged. “You know what it means to be omega.”
“I know that omegas are naturals. Not transformed. I know that—”
“Nothing about this is usual. You know I didn’t have a mate. I wasn’t blessed that way.”
Ethan tensed. “True.”
“Merinda sacrificed herself last night to the Mother.”
Austin gaped at me, his body twisting so he could face me fully. “That’s what the council meeting was about?”
It always galled me that, because their positions weren’t official, they had no right to attend the meetings.
“Yes. She’d found some piece of nonsense in a tome or other.” I blew out a breath. “Only, it was
n’t nonsense. She believed in it, and she was right to.”
Ethan gulped. “What happened?”
“Exactly what I said. She gave the Mother a sacrifice, and the Mother answered.” My fingers tightened briefly in Sabina’s fur. “A mate. An omega to replace her. A future for the pack.” I blew out a breath. “I just never thought—”
Austin reached over and squeezed my shoulder. “We know to expect the loss of our parents, but we can never anticipate it or how we’ll deal with their passing.”
Surprised by such a serious and somber response from Austin, who was usually the more lighthearted of the two, I nodded. “Thanks.”
He shrugged. “It’s true.” He speared the she-wolf with a look. “Now what do we do? This is unprecedented.”
It was, and in all honesty, I should involve my beta, Brandon Wright, in the discussion, considering my mate was the new omega of the pack, but somehow, I couldn’t find it in myself to even think about that.
“We just have to wait until she’s ready to shift back.”
Ethan’s brows rose. “Don’t you think we should try to force the shift?”
“Why force it? She’s on this path for a reason. And now that we can communicate with her, even if it isn’t perfect, we can make sure we start on the things that really matter.”
Austin frowned. “What’s that?”
“Finding the son of a bitch who thought it was okay to transform a woman at a carnival.”
Rage swirled through me at the thought.
“There aren’t any other alphas in the pack.”
“No. Not except for you two.” I scrubbed my chin. “You know the council is going to point fingers at you, don’t you?”
They tensed beside me, and I shot Austin then Ethan a glance. “You know I don’t think you did it, right?”
Ethan frowned. “Why don’t you?”
“Because you’re not that way. Plus, you’re loyal and, as far as I can see, have no inclinations to be the leader of the pack.”
Austin snorted. “Fuck that.”
Ethan simply quirked a brow. “They wouldn’t answer to us anyway.”
There was that.
The pack was incredibly shortsighted where litters were concerned.
They treated Ethan and Austin like they were the second coming of Satan, not a pair of boys who’d been cosseted in the same womb at the same time.
“Appreciate your faith in us though,” Ethan said gruffly.
“Me too,” Austin chimed in. “Brandon wouldn’t have believed us.”
I grunted. “Might be time for a new beta.”
Ethan’s eyes flared wide. “Why would you say that?”
“His prejudices are starting to piss me off.” And that was no goddamn lie. He was also a superstitious motherfucker, which drove me insane.
We had our customs, and I was fine with following them, even if, sometimes, they felt a little crazy to me—case in point, last night, which, fuck me, had worked—but Brandon always wanted to take it to the extreme.
There were some progressive thinkers like me, who didn’t need to go to the totem every time they couldn’t decide whether to go for a shit or to take a leak.
“Been thinking about it for a while,” I told them. Had been thinking, in truth, of making one of them beta, and leaving the other as my enforcer, which wasn’t an official role, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make it one.
For the past two years, I’d tried to follow in my father’s footsteps, wanting the transition to be easy on everyone, my mother included. With her gone, I could do whatever the fuck I wanted without fear of besmirching my father’s memory in her eyes.
I loved him, and he was a great dad, but as an alpha? He’d been fire and brimstone. That wasn’t my style.
“What do you remember of the attack, Sabina?” I asked softly, rupturing my own thoughts, which were painful. Memories and grief swirled together to form a clusterfuck that made me want to go to bed and just sleep for a week.
Instead, I had someone posturing on my territory. But this level of posturing far outweighed a challenge.
It spoke of an alpha who knew he couldn’t best me in a fight. Which made him a Mother-damned coward.
“It was dark. I didn’t see them.” The reception was spotty, and I knew that phrasing was crazy, but it was how it was. I felt like I wanted to turn up the volume in my head.
“It wasn’t a ‘them,’” Sabina,” Ethan pointed out softly. “It was a wolf.”
She shook her head. “No. There were two.”
Austin groaned. “Motherfucker. They’re really going to think it’s us now. We were the first on the scene, and I know Annalyn and Jessalyn knew we were at the carnival because they asked me about it at the diner yesterday when they served me breakfast.”
I pulled a face. “Think they’re trying to frame you?”
Ethan raised his brows. “Could be.”
Austin grumbled, “Wouldn’t put anything past the council.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“You’ll want to smack the shit out of me for this, but I’d prefer this to be a challenge over you than my position.”
Ethan grunted. “Thanks.”
My lips twitched. “The former is easier to handle.”
“Your hold on the pack is absolute,” Austin stated with confidence.
“I thought as much to be honest, that’s why this came as a surprise.”
Ethan dipped his chin. “If they are trying to frame us—”
Before he could say another word, I muttered, “Who have you pissed off lately? More than most, I mean?”
Austin hummed under his breath. “You know that’s our job, right? To piss people off on your behalf?”
He didn’t sound too upset about that.
“True. So, who have I sent you after of late that would be willing to go to these extremes and who’s powerful enough to transform someone?”
“The old Rainford alpha would have, but we all know what happened to him. Other than that bastard though, I don’t know anyone in the pack who’d want to go up against you.”
As I pondered that, Sabina shivered. My attention immediately reverted to her.
“Are you okay?”
“C-Cold.”
I frowned but said, “We’re about a mile away from my home. Can you walk it? It will warm you up.”
She shivered harder.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
Austin’s dry remark had Ethan snorting. For me, I wasn’t altogether shocked. Just walking across the clearing had been hard enough, but women liked to be asked, didn’t they? So I’d oblige. Especially when it came to an unclaimed mate…
Just the prospect of her rejecting the bond made cold sweat bead down the length of my spine.
I straightened and muttered, “This might be uncomfortable.”
“K-K-Kay.”
Wincing at just how damn cold she sounded, and the deep shudders that racked her small form, I reached for her and hefted her into my arms. The second she was settled, I sucked in a breath, asked the Mother to make this easy on my woman, and set off for home.
Three
Austin
When Sabina didn’t puke all over Eli, I had to applaud her, even if it was only silently. If a wolf could look green around the edges, she did, and when he put her on the floor in the house, she trembled so fiercely, it made me feel dizzy just watching her.
“Is she just trembling because of the run or because she’s cold?” Ethan asked, addressing no one in particular.
I rolled my eyes. “Could you sound any more like an asshole?”
“N-N-No.”
Unable to help myself, I laughed at Sabina’s insertion, then crouched down on my knees and said, “Ignore Ethan. He can be a stickler, a pain in the ass, and a dick, but he’s good people.”
“You’d never tell from that description of me,” was my brother’s droll retort.
I ignored him and focused on the she-wolf. She nuzzled into
me, and I knew why. Warmth, plus I was solid ground she could use as support.
“Why’s she so cold?” I demanded, even though I knew they were in the dark as much as I was.
“The fire will be roaring in my office,” Eli stated. “I should have taken her straight in there, but I wanted to be able to dash out in case she felt like puking.”
Not waiting on him to agree, I hauled her up into my arms, ignoring her whine of distress, before I elbowed into the council room and over to the hearth.
This room was, technically, Eli’s office, but it was also where the council met, hence the name.
There were a few remnants from last night’s party, proof that the staff hadn’t come in yet, but I ignored it all to head over to the fire.
The room was elegant, exactly the opposite of what a room like this should be. But I got it. Different times and all that. We were no longer focused on survival of the fittest, just obsessed with maintaining our wealth because, in this world, money afforded the most protection.
We owned most of the town for a reason—and that meant our territory was safe. We’d always have land to roam around on, woods and forests to run over. Our land also enabled us to have a twin pack in the city. Double the protection. Double the territory.
The council room consisted of a three hundred square foot space. With an oversize hearth at one end, Eli’s desk—four times the width of him—was an imposing statement beside the fireplace. The wooden mantel had wolves carved into it, so the Chinese-style desk looked all the plainer for it, and yet its size and the throne-like chair were a statement no one could deny.
Along the length of the room, which was like a tunnel and utterly lacking in character, there were overlarge, overstuffed sofas that ran parallel to the walls. They weren’t shitty sofas either. Down stuffed and with a price tag that went above my pay grade, it was more indication of the level of snobbery the council was capable of. What with the antique cabinets that also took up the space, loaded down with pack treasures, and fancy ornaments here and there…it was a room I’d never been comfortable in.
It probably had something to do with the fact that this was where Paul, Eli’s father, had reamed us a new asshole when we were kids.
WOLF CHILD: A PNR RH Romance (The Year of the Wolf Book 1) Page 7
