in his gaze.
“Sable Maddock,” I supply. I can’t see any benefit to trying to keep my identity a secret from these people. The situation has spiraled so far out of my control that questions of whether they’ll call the cops or alert my uncle seem almost like the least of my worries now.
“We need your help determining whether Sable is a shifter,” Ridge continues. “We believe she is, but it would be helpful to know for certain.”
“Well, nothing in life is ever certain, Alpha.” The little man chuckles. “You know that. But I’ll do what I can. Come in, come in.”
By the time we’ve gained entrance to Elder Jihoon’s hut and are scattered around the living room, the first elder—Elder Barton, I deduce from conversation—has caught the older man up on the high drama we seem to have built on the council floor.
Elder Jihoon stares at me for a very long, very uncomfortable moment, his fingers stroking his short, scruffy beard.
“Quite interesting. You know nothing of any of this?” He directs the question at me, leaning forward as if he wants to hear me better.
I jolt, unprepared to be put on the spot like this. Then I swallow and shrug helplessly. “No, sir. I grew up in a small town. I’m not a shifter or a witch. There’s nothing special about me.”
“I’d hardly say that,” Ridge offers with a little smile.
Elder Jihoon stares at me for a long moment, barely seeming to notice that Ridge has spoken. Finally, he gets to his feet and shuffles away, disappearing through the only other open door in the shack. He reappears a moment later carrying two metal rods.
“Stand, please,” he says, motioning at me with one of the rods.
I do as he asks, though I’m wary of the tools in his hands. Elder Jihoon is so calm and unassuming, just being in his presence has calmed me after the spectacle in the barn. His peaceful demeanor doesn’t exactly make me amenable to being within reach of those metal rods though. I stiffen and keep my hands loose, ready to bat the things away if they get too close.
Both metal rods are thin and taper to sharp points. Elder Jihoon holds them by wooden handles that are separate from that actual metal and curve downward at a ninety-degree angle. When I glance at Ridge, he just gives me an encouraging nod that isn’t really helpful against the terror I’m struggling to hold back.
Elder Jihoon walks around me with the rods pointing straight at my body. He moves slowly, gently lowering and raising the rods from my head to my abdomen as he walks. I watch with a sense of odd detachment as the rods dangle and shift seemingly on their own.
How the hell did I come to be here? Standing in this musty shed, smothered by the scent of a strong, heady incense as a strange old man waves sticks at me and three wolf shifters declare I belong to each of them.
How is this even real life?
But if I’m truly honest with myself, I’d rather be here amidst this chaos and insanity than back at Uncle Clint’s house worried about whether I’d end the day in blood and pain. This isn’t at all what I expected when I threw myself out of his car that night—hell, I’m not sure I expected anything; I certainly had no solid plan—but at least I’m still alive.
I stand stock still for so long in the drifting incense smoke that I lose all track of time or self. Is this really happening? Or is it happening to someone else and I’m already dead? Maybe I died at the bottom of the ravine and everything else has been some weird fever dream in the afterlife.
Finally, the old man steps away and lowers his metal sticks.
“The dowsing rods do not lie,” he intones. “Though we cannot be sure until she manifests, I do believe there is a wolf inside this woman.”
13
Sable
The elder’s words send a rush of surprise through me, and I blink away some of the daze.
There’s a wolf in me?
Looking around at the men who are watching me, I try to work through the detachment I feel. Ridge, Trystan, Archer, even the two elders, these men are all wolves.
Wolf shifters, specifically.
Part man, part animal.
I was able to work through the initial shock when Ridge revealed the truth to me while we sat on his bed this morning. It still sounded bat shit crazy, but I saw that man