“What?” Ruger’s brows shoot up as a tattooed hand comes up to swipe the humidity beading on his brow from the shower. “That’s not possi—”
“She booted him out of her head like he was nothing more than a pesky fly. Alpha implied she had no connection to Pack Arcan despite our mate claim running. That should have created a tether to the pack. It didn’t,” I interrupt him, waving off his disbelief, because improbable and impossible are very different things. “Whoever she’s related to was no joke, and there’s something seriously fucked going on here.”
“Was?” Ruger asks. Of course, focusing on that insignificant detail instead of everything else I just pointed out.
“If she’s a naif, they’re obviously dead. Even the worst of our kind wouldn’t let their kid run around with no idea about what’s lurking in their veins,” I say, explaining things that really should be utterly obvious as I walk to the second sink, on Ruger’s left side, and grab my toothbrush.
Wolf shifting sometimes leaves a disgusting film on the tongue after the fact—probably because it’s hanging out in the air half the time. I slather on as much toothpaste as I can fit onto the bristles and start vigorously brushing while Perth and Ruger stare at me, unfazed.
I take a break to spit and add, “We just destroyed everything she’s ever known. She’s lived her entire life as a human. She’s going to reject our claim—”
“Whoa!” Perth holds up a hand and gets the calm voice, the one he uses for his students, the one that annoys the absolute shit out of me. “You’re jumping to all kinds of fucked-up conclusions. You don’t know that.”
“She is,” I assert, giving him a hard look.
“A mate bond would give her stability though. Protection. She’ll feel the connection.” He’s so superior but screw him.
I can logic with the best of them, but I can also absolutely see the abyss where logic falls away and emotion runs rampant. That woman? She’s in the freaking abyss right now.
I rinse my mouth and wipe my chin as I glance between my denmates, taking in Ruger’s green eyes and Perth’s golden-brown gaze. Both of them are so damn hopeful it makes my throat tighten uncomfortably. But they need to face what’s coming. They were born and raised here in Howling Rapids. They haven’t known anything else. I have. I’ve seen shifters who can’t handle the truth and run out into traffic or off a cliff. I’ve seen others reject the pack and try to go lone wolf.
If the panic is too strong when a shifter’s senses awaken…sometimes they can’t break free of the fear, they can’t bond with a pack properly, let alone accept a mate claim.
Noah’s future?
Finding out about shifter life when you aren’t born into it is like tossing a penny down a well. Foolishly optimistic people—those who haven’t lived through the experience—smile as they tell the new person about eeries, naively believing happy wishes and dreams come true will emerge from that moment. But the reality is that tossing a coin into a well does jack shit other than destroy the coin. It gets a green patina and crusts over and transforms in order to continue to exist in the water at all. If it tries to leave the water? It will corrode. Its reality has changed forever.
“I know you’ve been through some shit,” Ruger interjects, his gaze overflowing with a tenderness and empathy I don’t want aimed at me right now because it makes my skin prickle uncomfortably. “But you can’t write her off after just twenty minutes. You witnessed what has to be one of the hardest moments of her life. She reacted badly, okay? Not everyone is team fucking Jacob. That doesn’t mean crap. She deserves our help, our support. She needs all our faith and patience.”
I’m about to snarl at him and ask what goddamned inspirational poster he stole that bullshit from, but both of their phones ping with a text alert. That’s when I realize my phone is still in the pocket of my shredded jeans on the floor in Ellery’s office. Great.
Perth pulls his phone from a pocket and glances at the screen, his forehead freckles sliding upward as his eyebrows rise at whatever message he’s gotten. Ruger continues to stare at me, his unwavering regard imploring me to change my position, to look at things the way he does. But I can’t. If he’d been in that room with her, he’d know I’m right.
“Ellery needs us to bring food to the inn; he’s getting Noah settled there and she needs to eat,” Perth pointedly announces, moving for the door.
When I don’t follow, he pauses at the threshold and glares over at me.
“All of us,” Perth orders.
I glower at his stubborn compliance. Such a fucking Boy Scout. “You’re setting yourself up. That’s your choice, but I’m not a masochist,” I warn him.
How do they not see it? Ellery’s putting her up in a hotel? She doesn’t want anything to do with us. If they show up all moon-eyed and hopeful, it’s just going to freak her out even more.
Ruger looks like I just stole his favorite spatula. For such an intimidating bastard, he’s perfected the kicked puppy look, those green eyes big and blinking beseechingly as he says, “Don’t do this, Gan. Don’t give up before we’ve—”
“You don’t get it,” I snap at him, fuming. My chest heaves with angry, shallow breaths, and I study first Ruger and then Perth, beyond frustrated that they aren’t hearing me, trusting me.
What’s worse than watching a train speeding closer, knowing it’s about to crush you? Watching it speed toward your family and knowing there’s nothing you can do to stop it from crushing them.
This girl is going to annihilate them. Decimate us.
They’re going to go to her with open arms and just stand there until she mows down every hope for the future they’ve ever had.
“Fuck this.” I throw up my hands one second before shifting back into a wolf and darting from the room. I should have gone for a longer run.
Ruger and Perth don’t want to hear the truth. They can’t see past their own blind optimism and eagerness. But I’m not going to sit around and watch the train wreck. I can’t.
I exit the house the same way I came in, using the panel, ignoring my shifter brothers as they call after me. I run until their voices are drowned in distance, until the air grows thinner and crisper and my thoughts are lost to the exertion of my wolf. I run until I can’t run anymore, but there’s no outrunning what’s coming for us. No matter how much I wish there was.
11
NOAH