in his living room shift into a wolf. Seeing is believing, right?
But… me? I can’t even process the possibility. I’m just a girl. A girl with an uncle who’s been vicious, cruel… and inhuman.
The thought jogs my brain and shakes away the last of the cobwebs. Could Clint be a shifter, too? Were my parents? They must’ve been, if I am.
“How?” The word comes out choked and almost too low to be decipherable. “Wouldn’t I know? I’ve… I’ve never shifted in my life.”
Elder Jihoon places his metal rods on the table and sits on the couch with the stiff movements of a man with aching joints. He taps his chest with a single arthritic finger. “That’s not surprising. Your wolf lives inside you. If a shifter is not raised to embrace the wolf from the beginning, the beast will wait until you are ready before emerging.”
Maybe his words are meant to be reassuring, but if they are, they miss the mark. Then again, I’m not sure there’s much that could reassure me right now.
I sink down to the scratchy couch cushions beside the elder, my head feeling light and airy.
“Why wouldn’t my uncle have told me?” I ask, horrified to find my voice still isn’t cooperating. The detachment is trying to creep back in, and I’m fighting the urge to rip Elder Jihoon’s incense burner off the wall and chuck it out the window. I’m suffocating under the thick smoke as yet another panic attack tries to manifest inside me.
But Ridge is apparently getting a handle on the “Sable is on the verge of disintegrating” mumble. He puts a soft hand on my shoulder, letting its weight rest there without holding on to me. His expression softens as he murmurs, “It’s not outside the realm of possibility that your uncle has no pack. Even your parents might not have had a pack.”
Archer, who’s leaning against the arm of the couch, nods his agreement. “With the way packs have splintered in recent years, we’ve seen an uptick in lone wolves. Shifters who think they’ll be safer alone. So there are plenty of solitary wolves out there.”
Trystan scoffs and rolls his eyes. He’s the farthest from the couch, standing near the wall by the front door as if he’s wary about stepping farther into the elder’s house. Despite his obvious disregard for what Archer said, he doesn’t elaborate on his disagreement. Whatever history the two have, and whatever the backstory there is to the “lone wolves” they’re talking about, I honestly can’t fathom adding either to my current list of things to deal with.
“So where do we go from here?” Elder Barton asks, his brow wrinkling. “The girl is a shifter, so obviously she’s welcome on our lands. But the mating situation is… problematic.”
“Perhaps two of you are mistaken?” Elder Jihoon asks, squinting at the three men.
Too late, he realizes what a Pandora’s box he’s opened. Arguments and insistences start flying at a volume level way too high for such a small house. I collapse back against the couch cushions and do my best to shut out the sound, closing my eyes. I don’t want to sit here and listen to them argue yet again, no matter how “strongly” they “feel the bond.” I don’t want to watch them hurl insults at one another because they don’t believe they can all be mated to one woman.
I didn’t ask for any of this. All I wanted to do was find a way to be free of Uncle Clint. Somehow, I managed to get myself caught up in a different kind of prison.
“Gentlemen!” Elder Jihoon booms in a voice much stronger than I ever expected out of his mouth. The man is small and lithe, so withered a brisk wind could probably knock him off balance. Yet his boom nearly shakes the walls.
My eyes blink open and I gape at the old man in the sudden silence. He hasn’t moved—hasn’t even lifted a hand—but all three shifters have stopped speaking over one another. This man is an elder for a reason more than just his age, apparently. All the men seem to have great respect for both elders, and so did the people back at the barn. They must carry a special status amongst the pack.
“Ultimately,” Elder Jihoon says firmly, “Sable’s wolf will be the one to decide which of you she forms her bond with. When her wolf is ready to come out, she will make her choice.”
“Is there a way to bring