mean?”
Like he was ashamed of the admission, his shoulders wriggled as he begrudgingly divulged, “Sometimes, She won’t let me into the sacred circle if She knows what I want to talk about.”
I gaped at him. “She won’t let you in at all?”
“No.”
Ethan’s brows lowered. “Is this new?”
“Since Sabina.”
She sniffed, but Ethan mused, “That’s interesting.”
“Is it?” Eli retorted shortly. “It’s pretty fucking annoying.”
“Yes. But it’s proof She’s hiding things from us. There’s a whole game at play, with rules and laws and things we’re not privy to.” His eyes turned pensive. “Interesting.”
“Only to you,” I groused.
Sabina muttered, “I want to give Her a piece of my mind.” Her hands balled into fists at her side. “Even if She doesn’t reply, I can still shout at Her.”
“I’m sure you want that,” Ethan soothed, but I could see his mind was still away with the fairies as he tried to figure out a goddess’ game theory. “But what’s the point? You can do that here. And nothing has changed. I have to believe that Merinda would have shifted by now if she could. Her spirit is still strong inside her, enough for Lara to see, because she’s Merinda but not.” He reached up and rubbed his chin. “I wonder if the deal was for Merinda to have a second chance. We all know how devoted Berry is to those twins, and it’s quite clear the pups are—” He blew out a breath. “—incredible as it may be, us.”
“Who do you think her mate is? The male with the silver stripe?” I queried softly.
Eli cleared his throat. “I’d hazard a guess and say your father.”
I tensed at that. “What makes you say that? Why not Paul reincarnate?”
“Back at the clearing, after you claimed Sabina and dealt with the wolf attack, I scented my father. I think he was the alpha you killed.”
My mouth dropped open. “You’re shitting me.”
“No. I’m not,” he said with a tired sigh as he scraped a hand through his hair and used that as an excuse to rub the back of his neck.
I couldn’t blame him.
This conversation made me want to take a nap too.
“Shit,” I rasped, then guilt surged inside me. “I’m sorry, Eli.”
That had him snorting. “Don’t be. It wasn’t my father. It was, but it wasn’t.” He grimaced. “That makes no sense, but it makes perfect sense too.”
Ethan cleared his throat. “So Berry’s mate is our father. I wonder if Lara could see spirits inside the other wolves, or if it was just Merinda?”
“We can ask her.” Eli held out his hand. “Come, mate, we don’t need to go to the totem for this.”
She heaved a sigh. “Why are you trying to keep me from there?”
“Because she can smite us.”
Sabina’s jaw dropped open at that. “She can what?” Then, she raised a hand. “Is this like that whole invoking the spirit shit you decided not to tell me about until it was too late to back the hell away from all of you?”
I snorted at that, and though Ethan merely rolled his eyes, Eli’s response wasn’t as amused. His hackles were pricked, and he snarled at her, a snarl that was pure alpha. That, had we been anything other than alphas, would have had Ethan and I nose deep in the grass as we fell to our knees in submission.
As it was, I felt the frickin’ tingles of his dominance, and I knew his wolf was well and truly roused.
“Probably not the best thing to joke about, Sabina,” Ethan muttered. “Not when things are so testy right now.”
She glared at him. “I’ll say what I want. Invoking spirits makes it sound like you guys get possessed—am I in a reboot of The Exorcist? What with Seth as well? Kali Sara.”
“Only if you want to be,” I tried to tease, and decided to call it a win when her lips twitched and she shot me a glower that was half-amused, half-annoyed. “We can make our own film.”
“And upload it to PornTube?” She arched a brow. “No. Thanks, but no thanks.”
“Shame,” I chivvied, grinning at her when she crinkled her nose.
“Shut up, you!” she wailed. “I have a right to be mad!”
“You do,” I agreed. “But why piss off Eli when he’s trying to help?”
And it was very clear to see that Eli was beyond mad.
His wolf was quite clearly engaged, his hands balled into fists, and I just knew that his claws would be poking into his palms from his ill-temper.
I got it. I did. Her even joking