saw him. He was sitting there like he was waiting on us.
Maybe he was.
My throat grew thick at the sight of Eli in his shifted form. He was the only member of the pack who spent the least amount of time as a wolf, so whenever you saw him, it was always impressive.
Shifters were always bigger than their natural twins. We weighed three times as much as a regular wolf, for example, but Eli? He was five times heavier, and that much longer, stronger, and ferocious too.
But at the moment, he was quiet. Pain dulled him, I supposed. I could see the glint of grief in his eyes, saw it in the slow steps he took toward us. I didn’t feel threatened, there was only curiosity as to the she-wolf in my arms, and slowly, I crouched down, keeping hold of her but tilting her so he could scent her.
She looked small in comparison to the alpha, making me realize she was smaller than a regular she-wolf, but her silver-white coloring, with the golden tips that I knew would make her look blonde in the sunlight, contrasted sharply with the alpha’s pitch-black fur.
The pair of them were a sight to behold, and when Eli nuzzled into the female, I somehow wasn’t surprised when her breathing calmed, and her eyes sleepily opened to investigate who was touching her.
When Eli licked at her mouth, snout, and even her eyes, and began snuffling at her, running his nose down her body to comfort her, she let him. All the while, through heavily slitted eyes, she watched him, then, when he yipped at her, the noise almost a demand, she released a big sigh and slumped in my arms.
For a second, I thought the worst, but the heavy, dull pounding of her heart reassured me that she lived—she was sleeping once more.
I wasn’t startled when Eli shifted in the next instant, his naked body gleaming in the moonlight. Nor was I taken aback at his harsh command of, “Explain.”
Straightening my shoulders, I muttered, “We found her bleeding out at the carnival.”
“Someone bit her?” he growled, his eyes widening since it was forbidden for anyone other than Eli to transform a human. Essentially, this abomination, proof of mutiny in the ranks, was a challenge to his leadership.
“Yes. She was dying, and we feared the carnage when she shifted.” Ethan licked his lips. “But she never even ran. She started dozing almost immediately after the shift.”
Eli’s jaw clenched. “She’s—”
When he fell silent, I didn’t prompt him, instead, I whispered, “Is it true? About the omega? We feel her absence in our souls.”
He tensed. “Yes. My mother’s dead.”
“I’m so sorry, Eli,” Ethan and I muttered at the same time. “Anything we can do, just ask.”
The look he shot us was surprisingly wry. “Thank you, boys.”
I rolled my eyes at that. We’d been called ‘boys’ since we were children. Didn’t matter that we were turning thirty-nine soon, we’d always be the ‘boys.’
Either that or trouble.
Clearing his throat, Ethan muttered, “What do we do with her?”
“We’ll take her to the house. I’ll say I found her. The council would prefer to think you were involved.” That he believed us was something I didn’t question. He trusted us as much as we trusted him. It had always been the way of it. When he beckoned with his hands for her, dread filled me. It deepened when he stated, “I’ll take her.”
Everything inside me clamored to refuse, but I couldn’t disobey him. It hurt me, physically pained me to let the she-wolf go, to shift her in my hold, and when I did, I felt the loss of the omega more keenly than when she had passed over earlier that evening. How had she died? Though we were important to Eli, we weren’t council, so we weren’t privy to any information until it was pack knowledge, but the grief inside me was like a brewing storm. When the she-wolf was in my arms, it had been kept at bay.
Now? I felt faintly adrift. A little lost.
Maybe Eli saw that, or maybe he sensed it, because he gave us a purpose.
As he so often did.
“Return to the carnival,” he ordered, his gaze on the she-wolf. “Find the scent of her attacker. When you find them, don’t kill them. Leave that to me.”
Eli
The bundle of femininity in my arms was something I’d never anticipated dropping into my lap tonight.
After losing my mother, even with her promises of finding my mate ringing in my