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Not typical alpha behavior when they’re around someone like Charlotte.
“Oh my God,” he says. “It’s you.”
Charlotte’s eyes go wide and she looks from me to the newcomer.
“How do you know her?” I ask, summoning the will to step in front of her. The others snarl at me, but I don’t back down. Still, another wolf shifts—this one into a rangy female with silver-blonde, short hair.
“Get the fuck away from her,” she says. “We don’t know you, and this omega is one of ours.”
“I don’t belong to you,” Charlotte hisses, baring her teeth. They’re sharp now, gleaming in the light.
“Easy, both of you,” the first man says. He looks to the blonde woman, who doesn’t seem nearly as shy about her nudity—or as nice. “Arden, he’s protecting her. We can work this out.”
“But Reyes—”
“I saidstop,” the first guy—Reyes, I guess—says.
Arden immediately backs down, proving his power as their leader.
We stay locked at an impasse for a moment, the other two wolves remaining in their lycan forms—one so dark as to be almost blue-black, and the other with a thick red mane. Both male, I think. And Reyes isn’t acting like he’s a threat, but I don’t trust that when they were intent on killing me to get to Charlotte.
I shift as I grow weaker, my wounds making me see spots. Charlotte grasps my shoulder, her eyes filling with tears. “Elijah!”
“If you let us pick him up, we can get him down the hill and to our truck,” Reyes says. “Our medic is down there with supplies.”
“You expect me to trust you when you were the one who did this to him?” Charlotte demands. “I still don’t even know how you know me!”
“You can trust me,” Reyes says.
“Why?”
“Because your grandparents are waiting at our den,” he says. “And because…well, because you’re my brother’s kid.”
Charlotte blinks in confusion, but for me, the pieces are already starting to click together. I can scent the familial connection now, and it’s obvious why they were after her, why the knew her—and of course, why he’s so embarrassed.
“I’m…what?” she says. “How does…”
She trails off, but then she squeezes my shoulder tightly.
“Get him help, and then we can talk,” she says.
Reyes nods.
“Of course,” he says. “Let’s go; I think it’s high time for a family reunion.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
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CHARLOTTE
The pack takes us back to their den—which it turns out isn’t a den at all, and is in fact a system of caves around a natural spring outside the old, ruined city of Austin. We drive—in a real, rumblingcar—across the hill country and further south, until we see the peaks of old skyscrapers crumbling to the earth.
Before we reach the city, we veer right, the car taking us down an old asphalt road and past a fence, then past a broken down sign reading “Inner Space Caverns.” The surrounding area waves with tall grasses, but at its center is the entrance to the cave, along with what looks like it could be an old, one story farmhouse. People mill around the building, some coming out to peer at us in curiosity. I catch different scents through the open car window, quickly realizing something strange.
These people are all lycan.
And I’m one of them.
