By the time I remembered why I shouldn't do it, what it meant, it was already too late.
Magic burned through me, following the path of that bit of flesh--and I cried out as it tried to make me other than I was, less or more.
Pack.
I felt them all through Adam's touch and Adam's blood.
His to protect to govern.
All of them were mine now, too--and I theirs.
Panting, I licked my lips and stared at Adam.
He let me go, coming to his feet and taking two steps away from me where I lay against the side of the old car.
He'd bitten his forearm savagely.
"He can't have you," he told me, his gold eyes telling me the wolf was still speaking.
"Not now.
Not ever.
I don't owe him that." Belatedly, I realized what had happened.
I wiped my mouth with my wrist to give myself time to think.
My wrist was pink with Adam's blood.
Stefan was awake ...
and somehow he'd invaded my mind.
It had been his panic attack I'd felt.
All dead...
I had a sick, sick feeling that I knew who he meant.
I'd met some of the people, human people who fed Stefan.
Had learned how horribly vulnerable they were if something happened to the vampire who fed off them and protected them.
I glanced at the setting sun.
"It's a little early for a vampire to be up, isn't it?" I asked.
Time for everyone to calm down.
Me, included.
My sense of the pack was fading, but it would never completely go away.
Not now that Adam had made me pack.
It was more usual to do it in a full pack meeting, but the pack wasn't required.
Just a bit of the Alpha's flesh and blood and an exchange of vows.