unable to get out.
The notion had my eyes popping wide open, making me realize I’d closed them without even having known it.
“You need to let go,” I whispered, my voice low and husky as I sensed Sabina’s spirit rattling around inside her. “She isn’t as weak as you think.”
“What do you mean? Let her go?” Austin snapped, and that was the first time I’d heard him be anything other than cordial to me, so I knew to tread lightly.
Thus far, Sabina’s most easygoing of mates had treated me with a lot more levity than the others. The last thing I needed was to have him turn against me. I was here on Sabina’s request. Eli and Ethan were dubious, and Austin trusted Sabina to the point where she could lead him into hell and he’d hold her hand for the ride.
That wasn’t because he was weak.
That was because he had faith.
And that level of faith was enough to suck the breath from my lungs.
“You’ve bound her up so tight in whatever makes your wolves so powerful, hers can’t get out.”
“She needs to shift?” Eli barked desperately.
I knew it must take a hell of a lot to get a man like Eli to sound that way, and once again, toxic feelings overwhelmed me.
They were unhealthy and ridiculous, but I’d never experienced anything as strong as this before. I’d dealt with murderers and narcissists and desperate mothers with sick children, everyone and everything from all walks of life, but nothing compared to this.
Nothing.
“I think that might be the solution,” I confirmed softly, not wanting to get their hopes up, but I could sense how tightly confined Sabina’s inner spirit was and I knew she needed to be let out.
“How do we do that?” Ethan asked, tone gruff.
“Maybe if we shift too, it will trigger hers?”
Austin’s suggestion had Eli’s brows lowering. “Maybe. But she’s strong. You know she’s strong enough to stay human.”
“But she’s at her weakest now,” Austin muttered.
Eli sighed. “Might as well try it.”
“Maybe do it in tandem? Will that help?” I suggested, even though I had zero idea what was actually happening. I mean, I wasn’t even a fan of Supernatural, and if the Winchester brothers couldn’t get me excited about all things paranormal, then there was just no hope for me.
The brothers shared a glance, then shrugged, but it was Austin who clarified, “We’ve done this before, and it never affects her.”
The inference being that it should.
I hummed at the thought, packed it away in my head for a later date, then gasped as all three timed it and turned from very handsome men into very large, overly large—hellishly large, in fact—wolves.
Gulping at the sight, especially when, with a shriek, Daniel morphed into a smaller wolf too, I nearly backed up into the wall. Which was ridiculous. These creatures meant me no harm, and I knew that. Rationally. Of course, rationale had flown out the window.
Sure, I knew that the things that went bump in the night were true—I had powers that most people would claim didn’t exist, so why shouldn’t there be other things out there?
But there was being able to get a read on someone’s mood, even the strange peculiarity I now knew was being able to sense if someone was a shifter or not, then there was this.
Physical, undeniable, indefatigable proof that humans could turn into animals.
It was enough to bring on a heart attack.
Gulping some more, it took me a few more minutes to process that there was a fifth wolf in the room.
This one was a bright one, and she was panting on the bed, but, thank Kali Sara, she was awake.
The other four bounded over to her, leaping onto the bed in a way that made my nose crinkle because it seemed kind of gross to have so many wild animals on a mattress—but who the hell was I to judge?—and they proceeded to nuzzle into her, lick and groom and do all the stuff I’d seen my momma’s pet chihuahua do to her pups when they’d been born.
It was affection at its most innocent. Most loving. Most true.
It nearly broke my heart.
I sucked in a breath, so overjoyed to see even more confirmation that my sister was adored, but before it could twist again—prove that I was a bitch once more—there was another flurry of howls outside.
The males, all dark in tone, strangely jewel-like with it, reared up as one. Snarls snapped through the room as their obsidian and onyx-hued hides bristled