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The others formed around us. Carter and the timber wolf sat near Kelly. Carter put his hand on Kelly’s knee, and the timber wolf laid his gigantic head in Carter’s lap. Elizabeth sat on the other side of Kelly, laying her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes. Joe knelt behind them, hands in Kelly’s hair.
I tilted my head back when heavy hands fell on my shoulders. Ox looked down at me, and he was the biggest man in the entire world. His head was surrounded with a halo of stars. He looked like a god.
I was distracted from this thought when Gordo crouched next to me. His tattoos glowed fiercely, and the raven in the roses jerked its head from side to side. He reached up and delicately wrapped his hand around Mark’s throat. The wings of the raven twin fluttered.
“Where’d your other hand go?” I asked sadly, looking down at the stump pressed against my knee. “You lost it.”
Gordo grunted. “Long story, kid.”
“Do you miss it?”
He sighed. “We’ll talk about it later.”
“Okay. Oh, hey, Tanner.”
Tanner grinned at me as he leaned against me. “Hey, Robbie.”
“Sorry I almost murdered you.”
“Um. Thank you?”
I nodded. “I don’t know you either, but you seem like a nice guy. I wouldn’t hurt you unless you were trying to hurt me. You too, Chris.”
Chris shook his head from the other side of Tanner. “It was magic, man. We get that.”
“Rico doesn’t think so. But don’t tell him I said that. He’s standing right there.”
Rico glared at me as he stood behind Tanner. Jessie rolled her eyes and pulled him to the ground. She held her brother’s hand, and Rico grumbled under his breath as he hooked his chin over Tanner’s shoulder. “At least we’re not all naked this time.”
That sounded like a good idea, but Ox stopped me before I could take off my clothes. I looked back up again, and I swore he was the center of the entire universe. His face was the moon, and I wanted to howl for him to hear me.
“Alpha,” I whispered to him.
He brushed a lock of my hair off my forehead. “Little wolf.”
Aileen and Patrice circled around us. Patrice’s lips were moving, but no sound came out. He was bathed in a white light that seemed to emanate from within. The rusty freckles on his face swirled on his cheeks.
“This isn’t going to be easy,” Aileen said. “Not after everything you’ve been through. I can’t promise anything will come of this. You’re fractured. There are cracks. Unless you believe in one another, believe in your pack, it will remain that way.”
Rico opened his mouth as if to speak but snapped it closed. He shook his head instead.
I startled when Kelly took my hands in his. He was watching me with those blue, blue eyes. Something stirred deep within me, something primal and brutal. I wanted to tear apart everything that would ever hurt him. It was grass and lake water and sunshine.
I said, “I’m sorry.”
He said, “For what?”
I said, “I don’t know.”
He said, “That’s okay.”
Before I could tell him it wasn’t okay, that I wished I could be the man he needed me to be, the man he remembered, that I didn’t think anyone had ever looked at me the way he was now, Aileen said, “It begins.”
And I—
—am alone.
(not alone here we’re here we’re)
