balls.
Even crazier?
I could sense the bitch back in town.
She was there too. The whispers back in the grocery store—all from my pack.
I froze a little, taken aback to note this was how I could help people. Would every person I met who was pack become a part of my little cluster?
The biggest difference between the pack and my mates were size and color. My men were larger presences in my soul, and oddly enough, I noticed they were at the bottom, closest to me. Almost as though…
They were keeping the hordes from me.
They were my barrier.
They kept the pack apart from me.
Relief whispered through me, even as I focused on Austin’s and Ethan’s spirits and tried to calm them down.
Of course, trying to calm someone down wasn’t as easy as it was in real life. Telling them to breathe or to think happy thoughts wasn’t going to work in this medium, so I did the equivalent of petting them.
Well, as much as I could when I wasn’t able to use my hands during this exercise.
This was a whole other ball of wax.
I hummed under my breath and jerked back into Eli’s hold when I felt how they responded to that.
Instantly, they calmed.
It was like I’d pushed a button or something.
Insane.
But brilliant.
A laugh escaped me, and that?
Had the power of a tidal wave.
The energy reacted to sound!
Oh man, I could handle that.
The laughter didn’t just affect Ethan and Austin, I felt it change Eli’s mood too. It even slipped into the other people in my care, mellowing them out.
My happiness or joy spread into them the second I focused on them.
Interesting!
I hummed again to soothe them, and when I opened my eyes, I saw Frank was staring at me with curiosity.
“Been a long time since I felt an omega as powerful as you,” he mused the second our gazes connected. “In fact, that was a mighty impressive show. I could feel you, even though I’m not in your pack.” He cut Eli a look. “She’ll need guarding.”
A snap came from behind me, and Frank’s lips twitched as the bitch slinked in, rumbling all the while, her shoulders hunched, head low, sporting a menacing glare. When she brushed up against me, her head butting my hand, I speared my fingers into the thick fur, and murmured, “I have my own guard.”
“I can see that.” He laughed a little. “Never seen a she-wolf taken with a transformed female before. Why, you do things differently up here in the North, don’t you?”
Eli cleared his throat. “Some things we do, sure. But other things, no.”
The curve of Frank’s mouth flatlined at that. “Yeah. I feel that. Well, I brought him here for you. A sacrifice, even though he’s hurt my family, but my omega confirmed he won’t leave your lady alone. Not until he’s seen through his task.”
“He almost killed her,” Ethan snarled, and I twisted around and saw that he was standing there, back in his half-shredded clothes, glowering at Cyrilo.
Austin stood in front of him, evidently trying to hold him back, and I could confirm that he needed to.
I had never, not in the time we’d been together, seen him so angry.
So uncontrolled.
It was almost a turn-on.
At the start of our relationship, things had been so unpassionate, so clinical, that I’d been concerned. I was getting all the passion now in spades.
Which made me a very happy bunny.
The thought had my lips twisting into a smile as I asked, “What will you do with him? Do you have jails?”
“For what he did, he won’t go to jail, sweetheart,” Austin replied, and a satisfied rumble escaped Ethan.
“You’ll kill him?” I inquired flatly, and even though I knew I should feel badly about that, I didn’t have it in me to do so.
I couldn’t feel anything other than relief to know that Cyrilo was going to die, not when he was the one who’d ripped my life out from under me.
Twice.
I sucked in a breath, and questioned, “Father’s dead, isn’t he?”
That had to be why Cyrilo had upset the apple cart the way he had.
Everything about this way of life was mahrime to our kind. Dogs and cats were pets we were forbidden from owning. We loved horses as a result, because, to my people, they were the noblest of breeds. First, Cyrilo would never have allowed himself to be transformed if father was alive. Second, father would never have accepted Cyrilo’s methods as justifiable.
Even that car crash wasn’t how the family did things.
A knife