Was that an offer or a command? Liam just chuckled. “I always want cookies.”
“They’re good for the soul. Get some rest. I know you’re exhausted from carrying Theo down the mountain. I’m glad you found him. I know you’ve wanted to go up there for so long.” Those strange, silvery eyes watched him with calm, serious care.
That made his heart hurt, and Liam put his hand on his chest to try to tamp it down. “I have, and I feel like I’ve let him down. I feel like he was stuck up there all winter with nothing to eat, and it was my fault.”
“Oh, honey, if that was the case, the baby wouldn’t be alive. So he couldn’t have been up there that long. I imagine that what you felt was him crossing the mountains, trying to get here, like Fen did, and he finally just stopped at the dragon encampment because he was so worn down.”
What he said made Liam pause, and he wanted to ask a very specific question, because if anybody was gonna be the person to talk to about this, it was gonna be Niall. He wasn’t only a healer, he was a shaman, a seer. “He said something to me when I first found him about him knowing I would come, but then he said alpha, so was he talking to Kee?”
Niall tilted his head, hair sweeping his shoulders. “Perhaps he meant to say mate?”
“Why does everybody think I’m his mate?” Liam waved his hands in the air. “Rory is the wolf, not me. The rest of us talked about it, and we’ve never had even a little bit of wolfish tendencies. I mean how long have we known you guys? It can’t be that I’m a wolf.”
“I think the universe gives you what you need when you need it, Liam. Don’t look a gift wolf in the mouth. Now why don’t you lay down and get some sleep? You can have a shower when you get up too.”
He threw his hands to the sides. “Oh, you’re as bad as Adrienne used to be.” Adrienne had been the seer before Niall. She’d been the shaman for a really long time, and he had met her more than once. She’d been a very vague old lady, always speaking in riddles, and the older Niall got, the more he was like her. Maybe it was like a shaman thing, something they learned from each other or that they sucked out of the air this way of speaking in riddles and prophecies.
He’d watched that Matrix movie with his brothers once. Niall was like the oracle lady.
But Niall left him there, so he turned back toward Gael and Theo, who slept on, not even twitching as he and Niall had that conversation. So after he changed clothes, sniffing his pits in the process, he stepped around the little bed holding the baby and lifted the covers so he could climb in next to Theo. He was just not going to think about it right now. He was going to sit down here, or rather lie down he guessed, and rest with the goal of keeping his—whatever Theo was—warm.
He would worry about the rest when he woke up.
Chapter
Four
Theo woke up feeling warm and safe. It was such a strange feeling that for a minute he thought he was still asleep and dreaming. But then he understood he was cradled in a pair of strong arms, and that he could hear snoring.
He didn’t figure he would dream about snoring, so he opened his eyes, trying to see through the gloom. Then he realized it was the alpha, who had found him on the top of the mountain, holding him. How wonderful. Theo relaxed. This was the one he’d known would come for him and Gael, and he understood now that it was his mate.
There was just enough light coming through the covered window for him to have a look at the man holding him. He had a strong jaw and sharp cheekbones. Dark lashes fanned his cheeks, and really dark hair fell over his forehead. He was glorious, his muscles corded underneath the skin of his neck and on his arms, where the sleeves of the sweater were pushed up. His shoulders were super broad, and the rest of him felt trim and hard and very alpha like, honestly.
Theo couldn’t believe he was so lucky, and he figured he would have to work to get back to being healthy, because hismate deserved someone who was whole and able to keep up with him.
He heard the tiny little sniffling sounds that Gael made. He opened his eyes. The son of his heart wore clean, soft clothes, and was bundled up in a blanket. And was staring at him. Uh, right.
Sitting in the little bassinet next to the bed was a bottle. Theo imagined someone had come in to bring the bottle, and that was what had actually woken him up. Still, the fact that someone could come in without throwing him into a panic meant that he knew he was safe here. There was a sense of peace that hung around everything in this place, and it screamed of a shaman.
He smiled at himself as he sat up and grabbed the bottle so that he could feed Gael. Could something as peaceful as a shaman screamshaman? He wasn’t sure, butwhisperedshaman just wasn’t quite right. Maybe,echoedshaman. Gael rooted for the bottle, refusing to let him forget why he was here, which was obviously to feed this baby.
“All right, little one,” he whispered. “Look at this yummy bottle. Someone’s taking good care of us, aren’t they?”
“I would hope so. These are good people.”
Theo blinked over and offered Liam a smile. “Alpha.”
“Oh, honey, I’m not a wolf. I don’t know that I can be, but whatever this is, I’m right here, and we’re going to make sure that you and the baby are all right.”
Not a wolf. That was ridiculous. Of course, this alpha was a wolf. Theo could smell it.
So Liam had been hiding and having to pretend he was not a wolf. But if so, why would he be so relaxed here? Obviously, these people were pack.
“He already looks better.”
He nodded, happy to see it. “I think so too. It was hard for him, being so hungry all the time. I’m glad you came and found us. I was wishing for you.”Falling for you?
“I know. I could hear you. Which, let me tell you, isn’t the slightest bit unnerving, dreaming about you over and over and over again.”
