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Ezra’s eyes darted toward the dance floor, then he cursed under his breath and led her into the crowd.
Brielle effortlessly picked up the beat, swaying and shimmying around Ezra. My breath caught in my throat as I watched her lift his arms and hook them over her shoulders. She placed her hands on his hips and forced him to wiggle until he had no choice but to crack a smile.
“Shit, I think we just entered an alternate universe,” Valor said as we watched Ezra grin at Brielle.
“Don’t let him hear you say that, or he’ll scowl all night just to keep up pretenses,” I joked.
Slowly, Ezra began to loosen up. Once he was nice and pliant, Brielle turned and summoned us with one curled finger.
Valor and I moved through the crowd like magnets drawn to metal.
The music thrummed through the air like a heartbeat as Brielle swayed in the center of our unit.
All four of us moved instinctively, giving and taking, pushing and pulling as the melody ebbed and flowed around us. The murmurs of the pack faded, and the bond hummed in my chest like a living, breathing thing. The bright, unbending strength of her thread slammed into me like an anchor. Her walls lifted, and a piece of her soul slipped between my ribs as silence enveloped us.
We were finally whole.
The world fell away as we became one, and I prayed to the Goddess that we would feel this way for the rest of our lives.
Chapter 21
Brielle
It was strange to have Erza beside me without any of our previous awkwardness. Maybe it was our time as wolves or the confession about my past, but something had finally loosened, and the analytical look in his eyes had softened into something more familiar and trusting.
The crunch of leaves punctuated our stroll toward the carpentry building. Feeling the weight of his stare, I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, an easy smile already curling my lips.
“What?”
He glanced away, color rising on his face.
Ezra wasn’t prone to blushing, and the sight stroked my ego. It did something to me to know I could make a man like him nervous.
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry. About your sister,” Ezra said, keeping his eyes on the path ahead.
“It’s fine. You don’t have to keep apologizing. If I’m being honest with myself, I’d ask the same question in your position.”
I hoped he would drop the subject. Yes, thinking of Blythe was hard, but I was still keeping secrets. I tried to put it all out there, but I couldn’t tell them about the carvings—about the birds that led . . . Goddess, I hoped they would still lead me to her.
The words burned my tongue and turned to ash in my mouth.
“I’m not great at apologies,” Ezra said. “But I also don’t want unspoken things between us, Brielle. I’m just asking you to hear me out.”
Confused, I replied, “Okay.”
He blew out a frustrated breath. “I know I wasn’t the most welcoming mate. And honestly, I didn’t trust you. I knew you were hiding something from us, and I wasn’t sure what it was or what it could do to us. But after the Alpha’s questioning, it made more sense to me. You were afraid for your sister, and I can’t fault you for that any more than I can fault you for not giving us your truth when we were still strangers.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, and his genuine remorse pinched my gut. I took his hand, threading my fingers through his much larger ones. “It’s all forgiven, Ez. No worries.”
He brought my hand up to his mouth and kissed my knuckles so softly I could have imagined it. “I hate secrets, Brielle. And knowing you were keeping something from us triggered my defenses. In my mind, I couldn’t risk allowing my emotions to distract me from a possible threat. I couldn’t be fooled by someone I trusted again.”
“Who?” I whispered. Ezra had never been this open with me, and it might have been selfish, but I wanted more. “Who broke your trust?”
“What do you know about Hidden Creek before Wynn challenged his father for Alpha?”
“I know it was hell for everyone. The only ones safe from the fire were the males kissing the Alpha’s ass.”
“That pretty much sums it up.” He took a deep breath. “My father was one of those ass-kissers. I didn’t know it at the time—no one did. The Alpha wanted it that way, so he had a spy to report intel on the pack. In public, my father acted like he hated the Alpha. He raised me to believe that what was happening was wrong, and he protected my mother from most of the ugliness. I never questioned him. Even when his words didn’t match his actions, even when I caught him in lies, I believed him.” His scowl was so deep I thought it would leave permanent lines in his face. “When Wynn gathered those loyal to him and set the plan to expose his father in motion, I made a mistake. Something in my gut told me not to trust my father. I didn’t listen to my instincts and informed him of the plan. By the time we returned, all of the Omegas had been incinerated.”
