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My coven had tried to discourage me from showing my wolf except in most dire of cases, and yes, being in my animal form amongst so many strange people would make me uncomfortable and anxious, but what was a little anxiety compared to saving thousands and thousands of innocents from the onslaught of war?
“All right, then. I’ll shift.”
“You don’t have to do a thing he asks,” Kai snarled. Goodness, it was so incredibly sweet that he’d defend me so, but I was surprised to find I actually wanted to. After everything I’d been through, what was shifting in front of potential allies?
“I know, but it’s all right. I promise.”
So, though it was uncomfortable, I closed my eyes and let myself shift. It didn’t come easily, and my inner wolf resisted in a way I wasn’t used to, but I managed to push through. Fur began to spread over my skin, my skeleton grew until, in a crack of smoke, I stepped forward in my wolf form.
I lifted my head high, my muzzle wanting to pull back in a snarl, but I managed to keep it fairly steady. It felt like there were hundreds of eyes on me even though there were no more than ten people in the room. But I made sure to lock eyes with Oliver since he’d been so damn insistent I slip into my animal form.
I’d been anticipating a lot of different ways the older fae would react, but none of them involved him looking like he saw a ghost, his pallor growing quite pale while his eyes went wide.
“I don’t believe it,” I heard him breathe, barely audible even to my shifter ears. “Calia was telling the truth.”
What?
Once more, I found myself suddenly swamped with far too many questions in too few seconds, but I couldn’t ask any of them in the form I was in. I knew something significant was going on in that head of his, but I had no idea what.
“We have much to discuss,” Oliver blurted out before the silence could grow far too painful. “In private.”
Just like that, without so much as an objection, the elders all hurried out of the room, leaving Kai, Aodin, and me standing there.
I was confused, that was an understatement, and I looked to my mate and my friend with bafflement clear across my features. At least I thought it was clear until I realized I was a wolf, and I rapidly slid back into my regular body.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked, trying not to sound more than miffed.
“My deepest apologies,” Aodin rushed to say. “I swear, I’ve never seen Oliver act in such a way.”
“Well, my mate was not the person to pull that out on,” Kai groused. His temper had clearly abated, but there was still plenty of angry alpha rumble within it.
Then I belatedly recognized something. I’d been so blindsided by everything, I hadn’t caught on right away. But I knew the name Calia. I knew it well.
“I wonder…” I mused before trailing off. I hadn’t really talked about my coven since it’d been massacred, and I found my throat constricting with unshed tears when I thought back to them.
“You wonder what?” Kai said, closing the distance between us as he pulled me into a hug. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. It’s just, uh, he whispered a name to himself, and it could be a coincidence, but I don’t think it is.”
“He did?” Aodin asked, also crossing over to us, but thankfully not trying to join in our hug. “I trust this is something your shifter hearing picked up on.”
“Yeah.”
“What was the name, my love?”
“Calia. It’s not exactly the most common name, and it is Camdarian.”
“Who’s the Calia you know, then?”
“She used to be a member of our coven, but from what I understand, she left soon after I went missing. I wasn’t exactly able to stay connected, so to me, she’d disappeared from the face of the earth.”
“I’m so sorry, Ayla. Were you two close?”
“No, not really, and I have no idea if he’s actually talking about the same person. Seems astronomical.”
“Stranger things have happened.”
“I suppose, but even if he means her, I don’t understand why he had such a bizarre reaction to me.”
