“Ouch,” he muttered, but his lips twisted into a wry smile.
My nose crinkled. “You heard that too?”
His grin was sheepish. “Yeah, I heard that too.”
“I need to figure out how to switch this off and on.”
“Things will make more sense when you’re claimed. Your she-wolf will be calmer.”
“Is it this way for all newly turned shifters?” I inquired after I half gnawed my lip off.
Austin nodded. “It is. They’re only supposed to be transformed because they have a mate to anchor them.” He squeezed my hand. “Everything will make sense shortly.”
I gulped, relieved by the thought of having more control over this beast inside me whose power was brewing—deep in my being, I could feel how strong she was—and then, my mind was swept clean of all concern when I saw it.
The totem.
Dear Lord, it was massive.
As massive as…
I saw with my own two eyes how this was magical. That magic truly existed, because there was no way something that was essentially a stick could be thrust out of the ground with nothing tying it in place, yet it was able to stand there, so proud, protruding hundreds of feet into the sky like some kind of wooden skyscraper.
I gulped, suddenly overwhelmed and overawed at the sight.
Maybe my mates sensed it, because everyone stopped.
We were at the head of a conga line, dozens of people behind us, who’d apparently heard about the beta challenge and wanted to witness it.
While it seemed gory to me, to want to watch two animals fight it out, I came from a background where humans did the same so, in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t unsettle my stomach that much.
However, what did?
That totem.
It was majestic.
Incredible.
Awe-inspiring.
Even from this far away, I could see the level of detail in the carvings. I figured that was a mixture of my newly attuned senses, but also a testament to the majesty of the monument before me.
Wolves’ heads, at least four of them, decorated the totem, each of them in a different pose. Snarling, calm, ears alert, head tipped down… Different shades of fur, different emotions conveyed.
Epic.
Absolutely epic.
How hadn’t this been found and captured on Instagram? Hell, why weren’t there a million tourists jostling into me as I took in the majesty of this incredible obelisk?
“Mate?”
I blinked at Eli, who’d turned around to look at me. “Yes?”
“Are you okay to move forward? The pack is growing restless.”
I couldn’t hear a word of dissent, but that Eli could, and that Austin gently nudged me into moving told me he sensed it too.
What could they hear?
Were people just rustling around or complaining about the abrupt standstill?
Embarrassed, I shuffled forward, and even though I had questions, I didn’t let them slip out, because there was no need.
I knew, instinctively, that there were no answers to my questions.
How could there be?
This was divine.
This was goddess gifted.
Something merely to accept and appreciate, rather than to question and query.
The height of a sequoia tree, even as the others around it swayed as the wind whipped around us, it remained still.
Frozen.
In both time and place.
The air around it was different, like it was turbocharged. Hot and cold, all at the same time, scenting of the ozone and earth, throbbing with a power that was anything but of this world.
We approached, edging ever closer, and as we did, my heart began to pound. I almost wanted to stand back again, to stop before I moved any closer to the overwhelming monolith, but just as I felt the deepest urge to run, to get away from this place, something snapped into being.
Kali Sara!
It was like…
“Your she-wolf is responding,” Austin told me quickly, his hand moving to my lower back. “The disturbance in the air is for those who do not belong to the pack,” he rumbled, the whisper of his breath dancing over my ear as he kept me in the loop.
“I’m not pack yet,” I rasped.
“And that’s why you felt the disturbance.” His lips brushed over my temple, loading me with warmth. “All will be well.”
His sudden formality made sense as the sheer power of the moment had us both responding. There was a gravitas in this place, that was for sure.
I could feel the magic sliding through my body, penetrating me almost.
I felt—
It was strange. But it was like the time when I’d lost my virginity.
Something alien, not of me, had thrust into me, causing me pain but pleasure at the same time.