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“Do they know your plan?”
“They know we have plans,” Levi said with a side-eye at Kane, unspoken words heavy around us.
“They know it’s time for a shakeup,” Kane said. “They’re loyal.”
“To you.” Because, let’s be honest here… No wolf pack, not even the rogues I trained for my uncle were one hundred percent on board with a female leader. It still baffled me that those guys had been willing to stand with me against my uncle. What I’d done to inspire such loyalty, I’d never understood.
“They’ll be loyal to you as well,” Kane said, and I could tell he meant it, but I also saw the strings attached.
“If I let you mark me.” I shook my head. “Nah-uh, they’ll need proof that I can lead on my own, or they’ll never respect me as alpha.”
“You’ll be able to connect with their minds, just like what you did with your uncle’s pack,” Levi said. “Your abilities will be all the proof they need.”
“I don’t know how I managed to connect with my uncle’s rogues. I didn’t do it intentionally. There’s a lot I don’t know about my abilities—a lot of things that the masters could never help me figure out.” Like my werebeast. It was so typical that a bunch of male masters had no idea how to properly train the female werewolf in me. Every single time they came up against a wall that they couldn’t move beyond—and that wall was my very essence as a female—they retreated then tried a different route. They didn’t understand my werebeast in particular, but also my wolf, so they helped me find ways to separate then cage each entity so they wouldn’t meld into one unstoppable monster. They helped me learn how to maintain control over the uncontrollable. “And I need to understand how I was able to pull you into my dreams.”
“I can help with that,” Levi said. “I’ve been researching, and there’s a legacy of females like you, the strong ones who are able to do spectacular things.”
Like the ones in the stories my father used to tell. I doubted we’d learn much from a bunch of fairy tales.
I closed my eyes, blew out a long breath and when I opened them again, I nodded. “So, we slow things down enough for me to learn what I need to learn about myself.” I scanned the room. “And about each of you. My trust doesn’t come easily. I’m sure you know why.”
Kane lifted his chin as if to acknowledge my words.
“We’ll prove ourselves to you,” Levi said with a nod to his brothers, his hope almost painful to witness.
“With pleasure.” Johnny grinned, and I couldn’t help thinking that I so badly wanted to kiss him and his damn smile. I’d done it so many times in my head that I wanted to know if reality matched my dreams.
But my gut was telling me to take it slow—very slow, actually, full stop—because once I crossed that line with these guys, I knew my heart would sink into the muck of something I wasn’t prepared to handle.
“We’ll follow your lead, Charlie,” Kane said, and by the look in his eyes, I knew he meant it. Or at least, part of him did… His wolf, that primal beast lurking just below the surface? It wasn’t so sure.
No matter. The fact remained that the next move was mine.
