The totem was welcoming me. The magic was testing me.
How was this possible?
How was any of this possible?
Somehow, this felt a thousand times crazier than the fact that I could shift into a wolf.
And that was the only way I could describe how awestruck I was.
I gulped when Austin tugged me deeper into the circle, and when he stopped us beside the totem where Eli had come to a standstill, the pack, a group of people I didn’t recognize, but whose numbers floored me, settled into place around us too. I got the feeling that the closer you were to the totem, the more power you had in the pack.
It made sense when this was the center of their community, and what a community. Because I made it a habit to study people, to watch their features, to take note of their expressions and to read their auras, I noticed the instant someone walked into the invisible circle.
And it was invisible.
That I couldn’t see.
But I knew from their response when it happened. They all froze for a split second, then they shuddered as they moved in.
It was strange, like the magic was…scanning them as well?
If they were of the pack, then why did they freeze for that split second?
I knew my mates had to be hearing my thoughts, because, for whatever reason, I couldn’t shut them off, but they didn’t answer, and I figured these were more questions that would receive a response when I was claimed.
Kali Sara, I was looking forward to that moment, just for this instantaneous knowledge I was about to receive.
It felt like I was on the brink of opening Pandora’s box, but instead of all the evils in the world, I’d be gaining a universe worth of information.
Eli jerked me from my dazed thoughts as he stepped forward.
The clearing itself was around eighty feet wide, and now that I was here, I could see how there was a natural decline on the ground.
It was so slight that when you walked upon it, you didn’t feel it, but it meant that the people at the back were on higher ground than we were.
Which, I registered, also meant that the totem was taller than my initial impression had allowed me to believe.
People gathered around like the old-fashioned amphitheaters of the Roman era, and as they froze at Eli’s movement, I realized they were all tied to him in some way.
Did he talk to them mentally?
Or was it something the magic did?
Was there a magical loudspeaker or something?
Before I could wonder much longer, he called out, “Beta Brandon Wright is here today to fight the challenge from Ethan Carter. This fight will be until first blood. If either competitor takes it beyond that, then it will be until death.”
My mouth dropped open at that horrendous declaration, and when I flinched in Austin’s hold, he hushed me, and I noticed everyone else looked just as surprised.
Brandon Wright too.
Eli arched a brow at him, and the beta hunched his shoulders, ducking his head slightly, and I figured out what was happening.
My mate was shrewd.
He knew Brandon was going to lose. He knew pride would cause Brandon to carry on fighting when he should stop, and this was a means of discouraging the challenge from devolving.
Eli was, essentially, preventing Brandon’s child from losing its father.
Of course, it could go wrong, but I knew why Eli had done as he had.
I couldn’t say I loved my mates. I didn’t know them well enough. This claiming was going to be phenomenal, and I couldn’t wait for the union to deepen, but at that moment?
I knew loving them would be easy.
A man like Eli, so strong, so powerful, so proud, and yet so thoughtful. Protecting a child from a man’s ego.
Unlike Brandon, Ethan appeared neither pleased nor displeased by the alpha’s announcement.
Maybe he knew that was going to happen, or maybe he was just unaffected.
Of them all, even Eli, Ethan had the best poker face. I just wasn’t sure what he was hiding.
Maybe he was hiding a flood of emotions, or maybe he was just cold.
Like he heard my thoughts, he turned his expressionless face to me, and when our gazes clashed and held?
Kali Sara!
My body turned molten at the heat blazing in his eyes.
No way was this man cold.
Dear Lord!
I gulped, staggered back at the sight, and was grateful when Austin was there to catch me. He tucked me closer into my side, and in my