He slowly turned his head to look in the corner, but of course even his keen lupine senses couldn’t see anything there.
He finally forced himself to tap deeper into Tully’s mind despite the pain it caused him, to let him see what she was seeing.
His throat went dry. Duncan struggled not to rip his hand from Tully’s or break the connection he had with her. But faintly, despite her pain and the haze of morphine, he could make out a shape there was no way in hell Tully could have known about.
Much less the details.
“Did she say anything else?” he forced out.
“Thank you.” She weakly smiled. “And that you still have that same shine. The light on the loch.”
Dale and Raina walked in then, followed by Efa and Lowri.
Tully’s breathing was starting to weaken. “Get everyone up here,” he quietly told Lowri. “Now.” He didn’t need to clarify. She turned and darted from the room.
He leaned in. “It’s been a pleasure knowing you, Tully,” Duncan said
She smiled. “You, too. You old wolf.” She managed what he suspected was supposed to be a wink and Efa’s soft gasp was hopefully disguised by Raina’s sob as she moved around to the other side of the bed with Dale to say their last good-byes.
* * *
An hour later,Duncan sat outside in the backyard with Aaron and stared up at the dark sky. They both held tall glasses full of straight bourbon. With their Alpha wolf constitutions the alcohol wouldn’t have much more effect on them than one or two beers would the average human.
Inside, the family was still gathered around her body, awaiting the undertaker to come for her.
Aaron and Duncan had literally known Tully exactly the same amount of time, met her together a few weeks earlier, on the day Duncan had flown up to help sort out the trouble for the family once Aaron had neutralized the immediate threat.
“Thanks,” Aaron hoarsely said. “I cannot thank you enough.”
Duncan slowly nodded. “No memorial, then?”
“She didn’t want one. Dale wants to keep her ashes.”
“And the other thing?”
“I’ll run over to their place in the morning with Amstel and help him deal with it. It’ll be completely destroyed before dark.”
“Before I leave, I’ll make sure I tell Gareth to forget everything about the grow operation. So there’s no issues.”
“Thanks.Again.” Aaron heavily sighed. “I appreciate everything you’ve done, Sir. I mean it. I know you would have been perfectly within your rights to evict them from the property, and…” Another sigh. “Thank you.”
Duncan nodded, sipping his bourbon. Then he held up his glass as he finally placed that melancholy humming he’d first heard so long ago.
Aaron held his glass up, too.
Duncan softly sang. “But since it falls unto my lot, That I should rise and you should not.”
Aaron joined him for the rest. “I gently rise and softly call, Good night and joy be to you all.”
They clinked glasses, sipped, and then each poured a little out onto the ground for Tully.
“I remember my mom singing that,” Aaron said. “I haven’t heard it in years.”
Duncan stared up at the stars and sighed. “Neither have I.”
CHAPTEREIGHT
DUNCAN
