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"Can you read that?" Eloise asks, interest in her voice. "Very few shifters can ever read the old texts. They say your ancestors have to gift you the ability. Though, I've never actually met anyone who could read them, so I'm sure that's just an old wolves' tale."
“Uh…” I flip open the book, not expecting all that much. Surely it’s just a coincidence, her theory plus my own ancestral visitation. I look down at the first page in front of me.
I can read the words clearly.
“I think my heart just stopped,” I mutter to myself.
“Oh my Goddess. Youcanread it, can’t you?” Eloise shuffles closer to look at the book, though her eyes roam over it the way mine did the first time. Confused. Not understanding. I can read it, but she can’t; it’s not the book that’s changed, it’s me.
The first page is an introduction, a convoluted opening story about a lost wolf pup. I don’t really want to read it now. I pick up the book and clutch it close to my chest.
“Are we allowed to take books out of here?” I ask.
Eloise gives me a peculiar look. “Everything here belongs to you now, Tess. You can take whatever you want.”
“Right.” That’s going to take some getting used to. “I’m going to head back upstairs. If you’ll excuse me.”
“Of course. I hope you get back to sleep okay,” she tells me, misunderstanding my intent.
I am going back upstairs, yes, but not back to bed. I follow the same path that I took on my way to the books, but this time when I reach the hall that houses my bedroom with Dominic, I turn the opposite direction. I’m half expecting someone to appear from nowhere to stop me, but no one does.
I make it to the last door and clutch the book tighter to my chest. “Here goes nothing,” I whisper to myself.
I knock firmly on the door and then stand, waiting patiently, until I hear movement from the other side. Dimitri opens the door with bleary eyes. “Tess?” He blinks like he can’t believe I’m standing in front of him.
“Hi, I’m sorry to wake you up.” Patience clearly isn’t my strong suit.
“Don’t worry about it,” he tells me easily. “You’re a pack hero. The least I can do is wake up when you come calling.” He grins good-naturedly. For someone who hasn’t had a true parent figure in many years, his ready acceptance of me cracks something open in my chest.
Remembering why I came, I tell him, “I need a favor.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Dominic
It’s broad daylight out when I jerk awake, immediately aware that the bed beside me is empty. Cold fury sweeps through me knowing Tess would dare leave this bed without me after yesterday. Now I know how she felt waking up alone after I marked her. Fuck.
She’s close, my wolf reassures me.
Not close enough.I can’t take another day of her fluttering around the pack house caring for everyone else. Maybe I’ll drag her to the office for a few hours, if only to get her to settle down in one place long enough for me to get my bearings again.
I dress quickly and brush my teeth, forgoing the rest of my morning routine so I can figure out where the hell my mate has gone.
Wandering the pack house does me no good, though. A few of the pack saw her early this morning, before dawn, but each swears she went back to bed hours ago. None of them have seen her since. I end up following her scent instead, a faint trail of it still lingers, but not enough for her to have been through recently.
I follow it to the room with the ancient books, then I follow it back upstairs, just like the pack said. Except when I reach our hall, the stronger trail leads the opposite direction of our bedroom. And there’s only one person she would ever think to visit there.
“Fuck,” I curse when I push my father’s door open to reveal an empty room and an open window. Of course, he’s one of the few pack members who has a second exit from his bedroom. Which means wherever Tess went with him, no one would have seen them. Which means they didn’t want anyone to see them.
I need eyes or nose on the Luna right now, I tell the pack since my efforts to reach Tess keep going unanswered.
No one answers right away, but then there’s a response.I haven’t seen her, but I think her smell is carrying over from the training grounds, one of my wolves offers. It doesn’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense for her to be down there, but I thank him anyway and take the lead.
It’s a bit of a run to the training circle on pack grounds. The bigger facilities are further away to keep outside trainees from being in the center of our territory. When I get downstairs, I shed my clothes and shift, knowing I’m faster on four legs than two. I want to see exactly what my mate’s managed to get herself into now. She’s a fucking handful.
I sprint all the way there until the training circle actually comes within view. Then I slow, startled by the sight that greets me.
Tess and my father are training. He’s saying something that I can’t hear from here as she directs that weird glowing orb stuff of hers around her. She strikes out with it a few times, manipulating the earth in a stunning way. The ground shifts and moves around her, rising, cracking open, and closing again. All at the will of her hands, from what I can see.
