Moon Child (The Year of the Wolf #2) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,33

her to feel it so that she’d know she could open up to Austin, Ethan, and Eli, so she’d know they were family too and that they’d protect her like they’d protect me and Knight.

She stared at me a second before she graced me with a hesitant smile. Her hand reached out, and she traced my lips, traced my happiness, and whispered, “I can see your she-wolf. She’s silver, isn’t she? Or silvery-white. Bright blue eyes.”

I tensed at that, before I gawked at her some more. “How do you see that?”

She released a shaky breath. “Do you remember the spirits—?”

When her words broke off, I got it.

“Oh my god, Lara. Oh my god! You could see their animals? They were the spirits you saw?”

She gulped, nodded. “I just never understood it. Never—” Her hands came up to cup her face, and when she rubbed her eyes, I got it.

Totally.

All her life, she’d felt sure she was losing it, and when she’d told me why, I’d understood. But now, it was rammed home to me just how strong her gift was.

Especially when she turned to my mates and correctly identified their coloring, from their fur to their eyes, and when she turned to Berry, she did the opposite.

Only, I didn’t recognize the description she gave me.

My men, on the other hand, did.

And when Lara finished, Berry howled, but she didn’t move over to me. Didn’t move away, just stood in the circle with the twins, and her family came from out of the woods. Not the pack, just the male who I knew was her mate, who I’d nicknamed Silver, and the elder pup, Lucky, who was fully matured now.

When she stared at us from the circle of her family, Eli rasped, “How can this be?”

Austin and Ethan were just as somber, but it was Ethan who whispered, “They’re us.”

“This is impossible,” Austin rasped, but Berry howled. Then, with a yip, like they were bored, the two twins…twins—sweet lord—started bouncing around, teasing, nipping at their heels, and enticing the other males to play.

We watched them do just that, until another howl from the forest had them dashing off, back to where they belonged now.

Only, Berry stood up, her head turned back to us as she watched us watch her.

I gulped, then did the only thing I could do, “Go and be with them, Berry,” I told her, even though her name was Merinda.

I felt the instant fear that I’d never see her again, but she looked to her sons, then yipped, and responded to another howl I knew came from her elder son.

The wolf equivalent of Eli.

As she left, I felt my mates sagging around me. Not only with confusion but with distress.

I got it.

I did.

And whatever the Mother’s game was, I was pissed.

And I had no compunction in telling Her that. Even if She wouldn’t answer. Even if She was only going to ignore me, I had to figure out what the hell was going on, and only the Mother had the answers I needed.

Six

Austin

When Sabina stormed off, heading into the forest, the four of us hovered in shock, letting her go. I knew I, for one, was at a loss, and it figured that even my know-it-all brother was too, because he was just as still, just as stoic as he processed what we’d learned, thanks to our sister-in-law’s uncanny ability to see us for what we were.

I wasn’t sure why that was something anyone would be gifted by a deity, but who the hell was I to question why?

Was I even grateful that she’d somehow identified Merinda in a wolf’s body? A supernatural she-wolf at that?

For some reason, the thought put me on edge, and I swallowed before rasping, “Lara, if you’ll excuse us, we need to go and check on our mate.”

She hummed, but as I made to move past her, she grabbed my hand and forced me to look at her. “What is it? Where’s she going?”

“There’s a place in the woods that is special to us. We go there to commune.”

She showed no signs of disdain at what, to a human, might sound like a weirdass bullshit excuse, merely nodded her understanding—even though she couldn’t possibly understand the importance of the totem—and told me, “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I know you didn’t,” I told her, and Ethan repeated that sentiment too.

“It just came as a shock is all,” Eli countered before he started after Sabina, who was across the way by now, heading toward