Native American, weren’t they? All these folks were whiter than sheep.
With Conrad and Larissa, the soon to be ex-leaders of the council, the last ones to leave, Eli moved with them, not stopping until he shut the door behind them.
When he stepped away, I arched a brow. “Don’t you lock the doors here?”
“Sign of his strength,” Ethan instructed. “He needs no locks to protect him.”
“Or his mate,” Austin tacked on.
“Plus,” Eli inserted, “the theory is that my door is always open to any wolf who wishes to speak with me.”
I frowned at that. “Doesn’t sound like you get much of a break.”
Austin snorted. “He doesn’t. But mostly, everyone is too scared of him to approach him.”
“That’s the difference between having a pack with an alpha who is mated to the omega, and an alpha who is only related to her,” Eli concurred with a sigh, reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck, like the tension was too much to bear.
I blinked. “What’s the difference?”
“They work as a unit, a team. You can’t do that so well when you’re not boning each other.”
My lips twitched at Austin’s response. “Really?”
“Really.” His tone was cheerful, and I had to laugh at his irreverence.
Ethan rolled his eyes, but I knew he was pleased by my amusement.
He was an odd man. Cut off from even Austin, even though he was close as could be to his twin. It was like he kept a barrier up between them, which, to be honest, saddened me.
No one should be alone, and as far as I could see, those two had been alone for a good long while.
I fiddled with my earring, trying to assimilate everything I knew, but to be honest, it was topsy-turvy.
In the hallway to the grand house, a house that I could never have anticipated living in, I asked, “Do you guys have a minute?”
“For you? We have hours,” Eli told me, and he wasn’t joking.
I wasn’t sure he ever joked.
He was worse than Ethan for being somber, but I figured that had to do with his mom too.
I reached for his hand, threaded my fingers through it, and whispered, “Thank you.”
His earnestness deserved an earnest reply.
“Can we go somewhere more comfortable? Somewhere that’s not your office?”
Austin’s lips twitched. “You mean, you want to see more of the big house? How adventurous of you, Sabina. I don’t think we’ve seen more than a couple of rooms ourselves.”
My brows lifted, but Eli shrugged. “Alphas welcome the pack through those doors, but it’s still our home too. The public is allowed in only a few rooms.
“And, as we’ve been dealing with the aftermath of your transformation, it’s been easier to be in the office.” He tugged me forward. “I’ll show you around the place.”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll wander through it tomorrow.”
He blinked at me. “Are you sure?”
“It’s my home too now, isn’t it?”
His smile appeared, and it was like being hit straight in the solar plexus.
Sweet Kali Sara, he packed a punch with that smile.
I gulped as he whispered, “Of course. Every inch of this place belongs to you now too.”
“Whether you’d want the molding old pile is another matter entirely,” Ethan said drolly, earning himself a glare from Eli.
“We got the mold under control last year, Ethan.”
“We’d know.” Austin elbowed his twin in the side. “We did most of the work.”
“Most of it? All of it.” Ethan rolled his eyes.
“Are you contractors too?” I asked, confused.
“No. We do everything that nobody else will do.”
“Not a lie,” Eli admitted wryly.
“Then why don’t people like you?” I frowned. “That was one of the biggest vibes I picked up on in there.”
Eli tipped his head down to me. “You got a vibe?”
His eagerness was cute. “I’ve been getting them for a while,” I disclosed. “Pretty much since that first day. It’s like I can read a room. I’ve always been good at reading people, their auras, you know?”
“Auras?” Ethan inquired, his brows high and his dubiousness evident.
“Not a believer? When you’re proof that there are weird things in the world that can’t be explained?” I replied softly.
“That’s you, Ethan,” Austin said cheerfully. “One-hundred-percent weird.”
“Thanks.”
My lips twitched. “I didn’t mean it that way, and you know it.”
Ethan’s smile was in his eyes as he murmured, “I know what you meant.”
My cheeks burned. “Anyway, why don’t they like you?”
Austin’s nose crinkled. “That answer needs to be given when we’re all seated.”
Kali Sara, that bad?
Eli guided us down the hall, and my feet sank into the rich, royal blue carpet