Seconds later, a slender man with shoulder-length brown hair and chocolate brown eyes sits before me, sucking in deep breaths. Thankfully, he shifted back with some clothes on. I’m not sure what kind of reaction my mates would show if I was in the presence of a naked man other than one of them. The wolves around us make hesitant movements to inspect their Alpha. I know the same steps will need to be taken to help them all shift. Once the man calms down, he moves to give me a hug, but before he can move more than two inches, there’s a sword in his face.
Without making a sound, Marcus crosses the distance, ensuring I’m not touched, not ready to trust a strange shifter. I want to be upset because my subject has been through enough, but honestly, after everything I’ve been through, I’m grateful for his overprotective action. Thankfully, the shifter pauses before the sword can touch his skin, and I immediately begin damage control.
“Whoa, easy there. I appreciate you wanting to show thankfulness, but it’s probably best you rest up for now. Let me help your friends, and we can talk about what happened.” He bows his head in submission and backs up a few paces allowing another wolf to take his place before me. Knowing they’ll all be depleted in magic, I reach for the bottle again.
“Absolutely not, Angel. We can do it. No way am I watching someone else lick you before I can.” Alex winks at me,dirty little fucker, and a wave of my own jealousy crashes into me. Ihatethe thought of someone drinking water from any of their hands. Is this how they felt too?
“Negative, nope, nuh-uh! I don’t think so!” I say, immediately rejecting his suggestion, and Alex smirks at my reaction.
“Why not, Angel? Don’t like the idea of someone else’s tongue on me, do you? No need to be jealous, I’ll let you lick me anytime you want!” His words cause the image of his shirtless torso to pop into my mind. Yeah, I sure could enjoy tracing each one of his perfect abs with my tongue... shit, not the time to be thinking about this. Damn it, Alex!
“You best believe my tongue will be the only one touching you, Alex. You’re mine.” Shit, I didn’t mean to say that out loud. A fire lights in his eyes with my admission, and he takes a step toward me. Marcus’ arm shoots out to stop him, making me crash down to reality... forgot we weren’t alone. Oops, they all heard us. Fucking awkward.
Ignoring the blush creeping up my neck, I mull over the possible solutions to our problem. I don’t think we have any bowls for them to drink out of. Slapping a hand to my forehead, the obvious answer comes to mind. Stupid. Blinded by a flirtatious mate... “Derrick, would you mind helping them find some fairy pools to drink from?”
“Of course, Precious. Anything you need.” He walks toward the closest trees in search of some pools, and I direct all of the wolves to follow him. There are eleven of them, the Alpha making an even dozen. Such a perfect number, it makes me think his pack is made up of more, and they were just a protection party.
“Fairy pool? Don’t tell me you’re talking about the dirty water you were trying to drink from the knot in the tree root?” Marcus says with a scrunched up nose. His disdain for me drinking what he thinks of as gross water, is clear in his tone once again. I know we’re both thinking about how he stopped me from drinking it the other day. The only response I offer him is a wink.
Klaus catches my eye, and he has a proud expression on his face. Giving him a smile, I give my attention back to the Alpha. Crouching down, I hold out my hand and say, “I’m Cecily, what’s your name?”
He gives me a shake as he says, “The name is Adam. Thank you for helping me with my pack. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to shift. I know my pack will be grateful as well.”
“Is it just the twelve of you, or are there more?” Marcus asks him. Seems like he picked up on the same thought I had.
Shaking his head, Adam speaks up, “There’s a couple hundred of us. I only took a party out to investigate the sounds we heard, of what I assume is the castle being built.” Losing my footing, I tumble over in shock. Two hundred shifters stuck in wolf form, here in the woods surrounding us? I assumed he had a larger pack, but not by that many.
I knew the castle has always acted like a haven for our people; I just didn’t realize it would call to them, even if it wasn’t here anymore. “Don’t worry, Adam, we’ll help your pack get all sorted out.”
Chapter 18
Klaus
Present
With a lot of teamwork, we get through helping each member of Adam’s pack into shifting back to their human forms. Cecily had to ask the butterflies constantly fluttering near her, to help refill the fairy pools. Otherwise, there wasn’t enough to give the shifters the boost they needed in their magic to perform the shift.
Having observed her coach the wolves through restoring their magic again, we were all able to help her get through everyone else. Here and there, we came across someone who was more difficult to help, and Cecily was able to take over and help them. Unsurprisingly, everyone was too nervous to shift back into their wolf form to sleep in the dens they’ve been living in since forming this pack.
The connection our souls share, reveals Cecily’s lack of self-confidence in being a Queen to her people. Each time she’s mentioned being Queen she is overcome with awkwardness, it’s clear she doesn’t believe she’s ready for the position. But I observe someone who’s showing me just how ready she is, in every action she takes.
Immediately upon hearing their fears about shifting, she demanded they all stay in her castle, claiming that’s what it’s here for. Right now, she’s helping them all find rooms in the castle to sleep in. Even though nothing is furnished, her subjects are thankful to enjoy a roof over their heads and walls around them. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be trapped in wolf form for years. The thought alone makes me shudder.
After helping everyone for so long, I’m anxious with nothing to do. Pacing the hall seems like the best way to get rid of my excess energy as I wait for Cecily to finish. In fact, we’re all hovering in some way, waiting for her after she gave us a death glare and asked for some space.
It seems like there’s way too much on our plates right now to accomplish. We still need to find the bear shifter before the situation can spiral out of control. Then we’re supposed to bring in the feral wolf, but all signs point to him having come here. Cecily won’t be on board with us finding him and dragging him with us to Silas.
As if that wasn’t enough, there’s everything going on with Cecily, and her having more than one mate. Since my mark showed up, I’ve felt the urge to seal the bond. A necessity to be with her, in her. The problem is, I can’t bring myself to try and push her toward that goal. I’ve always felt a connection to her soul, even when she was wiped from my memory and she was in her coma. Speaking of, we still have so many things we need to talk to her about, like what happened to her.
Reaching the end of the hall, I turn around to pace in the other direction. All of the shifters wanted to try and stay in the same room, wanting protection in numbers, having just gone through such a change in life. Marcus is standing, with his arms crossed, outside the doorway to the receiving room where she’s helping them set up.
Alex is checking on the programs he has running to wipe all traces of the bear shifter from the internet. He’s sitting on the ground, absorbed in his phone like his world hasn’t completely changed. Derrick is sitting, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. He appears asleep aside from his fingers tapping together, a sign he’s connecting details the rest of us would find irrelevant.
Opening his eyes as I walk past, Derrick says, “Do you guys remember all of those ferals we never ended up finding? I’m fairly certain I recognize several of the shifters we helped today as those who escaped our capture. It makes sense they would be here, all drawn by their failing magic to one place where they could expect to get help.”
“Yeah, I noticed some of the ones we missed as well, and a few who looked just like the ones we turned in, which has me puzzled,” Marcus grunts out, not wanting to give this conversation much of his attention when he’s trying to keep an eye on Cecily.
Derrick mulls over this new little tidbit he hadn’t considered. “What do you think Silas has been doing with the people we’ve been bringing to him all this time, and more importantly why haven’t we asked him?”
