"See, you already know most of us," Adam said.
"And Ben adores you.
He doesn't quite know how to deal with it yet.
He's not used to liking anyone ...
and liking a woman ..." "Ish," I said, deadpan.
"Let's try again," he suggested, and put out his hand.
This time when I touched him, all I felt was skin and calluses, no warmth, no magic.
He tilted his head and evaluated me sternly.
"It's hard to argue with instinct, even with reason and logic, isn't it? May I knock?" "What?" "May I see if I can touch you first? Maybe that'll allow you to open to the pack." It sounded harmless enough.
Warily, I nodded ...
and I felt him, felt his spirit or something, touch me.
It wasn't like when I'd called Stefan.
That had been as intimate as talking was--not very much.
Adam's touch reminded me more of the presence I felt sometimes in church--but this was unmistakably Adam and not God.
And because it was Adam, I let him in, accepting him into my secret heart.
Something settled into place with a rightness that rang in my soul.
Then the floodgates opened.
THE NEXT TIME I WAS CONSCIOUS OF ANYTHING REAL, I was back in Adam's lap but on his bedroom floor instead of in the bathroom.
A number of the pack surrounded us and stood with their hands linked.
My head hurt like the one and only time I'd gotten truly drunk, only much worse.
"We're going to have to work on your filtering skills, Mercy," said Adam, his voice sounding a little rough.
As if that was a signal, the pack broke apart and became individuals again--though I hadn't been aware they were anything else until it was gone.
Something stopped, and my head didn't hurt so much.
Uncomfortable at being on the floor when everyone else was on their feet, I rolled forward and tried to use my hands to get leverage so I could stand.
"Not so fast," Samuel murmured.
He hadn't been one of the circle, I'd have noticed him, but he pushed his way through to the front of the line.
He gave me a hand and pulled until I was on my feet.
"I'm sorry," I told Adam, knowing something bad had happened, but I couldn't quite focus on what it had been.
"Nothing to be sorry for, Mercy," Samuel assured me with a little edge to his voice.
"Adam is old enough to know better than to draw his mate into the pack at the same time as he seals your mate bond.