I pressed hard on it, but not too hard, trying to calm my panicked thoughts so I could focus on just one.
“It was…” His side heaved while he tried to get his breathing under control. "It was during that wolf fight."
The heavy note in his voice, the slight hesitation—he was telling me something important. In the back of my mind, maybe it had already been forming, but I refused to believe it. Because it couldn't be. Still, the pieces snapped together, faster and faster until a wild from the Crimson Forest stared back. He and Grady were taking care of a wolf pup, were strangely protective of her, and…I could see through wolves’ eyes.Theireyes, as wolves.
I shook my head hard. Things like this didn't happen. They weren't supposed to happen. Archer was a man, not a wolf.
"Aika,” he breathed. “Why didn't you tell us you were blind?"
I frowned down at my hands, still pressed to Archer's heated skin. He’d obviously sensed my blindness was an easier topic to talk about, though not by much.
“It's not something you just announce upon meeting people," I admitted.
"Why not?" He shifted on the couch and groaned.
“You didn’t tell me all your secrets when you first met me either.”
He blew out a slow breath. “That’s fair.”
Grady burst in then from the hallway, limping as swiftly as he could. Soon, the smell of antiseptic stung my nose."Had to restock the bandages because someone got carried away and wanted to wrap Aika up like a mummy."
"Worth it," Archer hissed. "She saved our asses today with her arrow."
A heavy silence hung in the room while Grady pressed in closer with the antiseptic.
"The wolves..." I began, since no one else would.
"They weren’t from the Crimson Forest," Archer said. “Not the ones who kicked us out. They were part of another pack, starving and searching for food.”
Another wolf pack… Were they people too? Or how about the wolves who’d attacked me?
"How?" Such a simple word when said, but I wasn't sure I was prepared for what was sure to be a complex answer.
"I take it you know," Grady said, and from the tone of his voice, he didn’t sound happy about it.
When had he gotten back anyway?
I shook my head as he moved my bloodied hands away from Archer. "That's about as far from the truth as I could ever be. I don't know anything anymore."
Archer yelped. “Fuck, Grady. A little warning next time?”
“No time for warnings,” Grady muttered, and it sounded like his head was bowed over Archer’s wound. “Besides, you were distracted by Little Miss Sure Shot. You gonna tell us how you got that son of a bitch through the eye without being able to see it? Yeah, I know now too. I heard Archer a little bit ago.”
Archer panted and hissed while Grady cleaned him up. “I saw you, Aika. I saw you walk right past me without a word when you went to open the door to Hellbreath. I was right here on the couch.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake.” I pulled sharply away from them both, a roiling heat simmering in my gut. “Okay. Congratulations. Now you both know. Why are you making such a fucking big deal over it? I don’t.”
“Relax, woman, will you?” Grady snapped. “We’re surprised is all. Just like I’m sure you’re surprised that we’re wolves.”
“You’remen,” I corrected.
“We’re wolf shifters,” Archer breathed.
I backed away a step, shaking my head, because this was the most insane thing I’d heard in my entire life. Men didn’t change into wolves that changed back into men. I’d thought I was hallucinating when I saw through wolves’ eyes, but this entire situation was just a giant fever dream of fantastical nonsense.
A sudden tremor ripped up my spine. What if I’d shaken something loose inside my head in the Crimson Forest? Because that was what it felt like—like reality was slipping.
“Are you gonna pass out?” Grady demanded.
