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He grinned. “The Wolf. He wanted me to tell you… well, he sends his thanks. He is glad that the Mother granted you a way to carry on here. Oh, and something about your children being gifted. I suppose they will be the first hybrids, after all.”
I blinked at him in astonishment, lost for words as he breathed another laugh and reached forward to pat my hand. Standing, he gave me a short bow, his hand over his heart.
“Anyway, this is goodbye, little one. And good luck. We will be watching.”
With those final words, he turned and walked away, disappearing into the darkness without glancing back. Moments later, a small tray of shots was set on the table beside me, the vibrant colours the same as those that Saffy had forced on us at my first pack gathering.
Noah was glancing around in confusion. “What happened?”
I looked back towards the shadowed forest and shrugged lightly. “He’s gone. We won’t see him again.”
Without another word, he reached down and handed me a shot, taking his own as he sat back down beside me. With a clink that was inaudible over the music around us, we tapped our glasses together before downing the vibrant liquid with a disgusted grimace.
“Why, exactly, did you choose these?” I groused as I slammed the glass back down onto the tray with a shudder.
“Because they might be gross, but they pack one hell of a punch and I figured we might need the buzz after that revelation,” he explained with a shrug.
I chuckled and leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder as I looked out at the dancers around the fire. “I swear, if there are any more surprises after this my brain might melt out of my ears.”
He laughed and wrapped his arms around me, pressing a kiss to my temple. “Fingers crossed not, then, because that would not be pretty.”
“Mmm, you smell good, you know. Very manly.”
Zeke shoved Noah’s face out of his armpit, cursing at him as a laugh bubbled out of me at the slurred words. The idiot was totally hammered, having polished off every other shot of filth on the tray before moving on to others. I had refused any more of them, going back to my water before dancing again and spending time with Liam and Zeke, but when we had found Noah trying to make conversation with a young pine tree, we had decided to call it a night.
He was now leaning heavily on Zeke as we slowly made our way back to our cabin, with me and Liam hanging back and watching in great amusement. Liam grabbed my hand as we walked, his large palm making mine look small as he intertwined our fingers.
“You can’t deny that you’re a little bit sweet, you know,” I teased.
He rolled his eyes at me but kept hold of my hand. “I am not sweet.”
I breathed a laugh. “Sure you are. You know, in all those moments between being an asshole.”
A low laugh rumbled out of his chest as I grinned up at him. “All those many moments.”
“I’m hungry!”
Zeke grunted as Noah began to topple forward, clearly unable to yell and stay upright. Taking a deep breath, he continued to guide him towards the lights of the house.
“Well there’s food at the house, ok? So let’s just get there first,” he coaxed patiently.
“Just drop him, he can sleep out here,” Liam called, flinching as I slapped his arm.
“No he can’t!”
“Seriously, Princess?” he asked with a disbelieving shake of his head. “You can leave me tied to a chair for the night, but you can’t let the drunk idiot spend one more night outside?”
I smirked at that memory before levelling him with a look that brooked no argument. He sighed defeatedly and jogged forwards, grabbing Noah’s other arm just as said idiot gave a loud hiccup and then passed out cold.
I couldn’t help but laugh again as they dragged him towards the porch steps, his feet trailing uselessly across the ground. I followed a few paces behind, but as they began to carry him up to the house a sudden flash of movement caught my eye.
I heard the heavy cabin door push open as I turned toward the forest, the guys manoeuvring Noah inside as I hung back and searched the dark trees for whatever had grasped my attention. After long minutes of seeing nothing but blackness, I wrinkled my nose and decided that I had been imagining things before turning back towards the cabin.
A low chuff sounded as I lifted my foot towards the first step of the porch, making me freeze and slowly turn once more. I gasped loudly at the sight of a magnificent white wolf standing at the edge of the forest, it’s fur as bright as moonlight as it stood and watched me, taller than any shifter I had ever seen.
As we stood in a silent standoff, a wisp of a memory tugged at me and I was suddenly aware that this was not our first meeting.
“I remember you,” I murmured, somehow knowing that the wolf could hear me. “You were the first shifter I ever met.”
