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Ashe shuffled on his feet, hands tucking into the pockets of his jeans as the shifters around him nodded their agreement.
"Well, in that case," Auren said dryly, "I'll go ahead and put you and your friends up in one of our guest houses for the night. Sariel, it's the yellow one across from you and Aria; mind showing them the way?"
My brother looked at me, ever the mystery behind those dark lenses, and I nodded.
"We'll talk more tomorrow, Elias,” he continued. “Everyone's jumpy after the day we've had."
Pack Olskin gathered after Elias nodded to Auren, and the latter joined Aria and me with a grimace. Then, flicking his shades up, he looked between the two of us seriously.
"Be careful. They've always been friendly before, but there's no telling if they'll stay that way. Things have been messy recently, and the last thing I want is the two of you getting hurt."
With that, he dropped his aviators back over his eyes and headed back down the path.
Aria and I shared a look before turning to Elias and his family.
Remind me to be mad at him for this tomorrow,she said. Her discomfort with being made the tour guide was palpable, and I stifled my chuckles.
Get in line, pup.
We led Pack Olskin up towards the designated house, our friends at our backs. Neo decided to bring up the rear—I could feel his stare cutting through each of the other wolves.
"It's this one. We're across the street, and Neo is next door," Aria explained, looking flustered. "Make yourselves at home."
They thanked us before filing inside. Soon after, she sighed in relief that we were alone.
"This is going to be interesting," Marilyn commented as Johnny slung an arm around her shoulders.
"Messy," Neo corrected, then stalked back toward his own place.
He wasn't wrong, as the very next day was a heated debate about the best time and place to release the information that Elias had gone rogue. Jack had joined him, chipping in when the larger man grumbled rather than communicated.
Their dynamic was… odd. Almost as if Elias would rather be doing anything other than leading, while Jack was eager to pick up the slack. I could only imagine this was what it had looked like when they’d been working on the Council together, too. After seeing them in action, how anyone had missed that they were lovers was beyond me.
It was a solid distraction from the mayhem that my mate and I had been involved in prior. The trauma ofthatwas clawing its way out of me, only being successful in the night. Aria rarely managed to sleep through it, feeling my panic and terror rattle the bond in a desperate attempt to make sure she was at the other end of it.
Some days, I was even half-convinced that my rescue was an elaborate vision conjured up by Lucifer. Aria always tried to soothe those feelings of disconnect.
"It's weird having them around, huh?" Johnny asked, eyeing the other blessed-blood wolves with a slight frown.
"Very," I agreed. "I don't know if I really trust them."
He hummed in acknowledgment as we watched the small group run through their own training regime. The average wolf in the States didn’t need to be taught how to fight off an enemy, but they did it regardless, especially in packs. Johnny had been my best friend for years; even in his family, they'd been adamant about at least knowing self-defense. It had been the origin of my own training.
"I think we can, it's just weird seeing Elias Olskin roaming around like he hasn't spent years acting like the Upper Council was justified."
"I never thought they were justified," Elias interrupted, obviously eavesdropping. "And I don't think I acted like it, either."
Johnny scoffed while I pointed out, "You definitely did. You sat through the whole speech about what a safety hazard me and my mate were and everything."
He sighed like the weight of the world had dropped onto his shoulders, then headed toward us. His packmates continued what they were doing, obviously unbothered by his deviation from their plans.
"Never gonna let me live that down?" he asked.
"No chance."
"I figured."
The two of us shared an uncomfortable moment of silence before Johnny started chuckling, shaking his head. "You two should just have it out and move past it."
