“The White Wolf walks among us.” The wind picked up. Her hair whipped around her shoulders like a silvery cape. Her eyes were still alight. Steady and certain. So was her voice. “He has before, and now, he does again. It has been told. It was set in motion a long time ago.”
She paused, looking at each pack member in turn. Each one nodded and bowed their head. Each one knew what the next words from her both would be. Each one accepted the gravity of her words before she spoke.
“Now it is done.”
Those were the last words I heard before the world went black.
21
Myeyesflutteredinvain. My eyelids felt as if they were weighted. It wasn’t the only weight I was aware of. There was a weight on my chest. It wasn’t the magickal weight of my bond with Jules; it was an actual weight. I was pinned down. I inhaled before I had time to panic. My nostrils filled with the sweet smell of baked goods. Cheesecake, brownies, apple pie, and, if I wasn’t mistaken, Mrs. O’Malley’s famous carrot cake. For some mysterious reason, our pack had a tradition of bringing baked goods and sweet treats around whenever anything very good or very bad happened to a member of our pack. My childhood was filled with memories of eating entire plates of dessert for dinner whenever anything particularly memorable happened to me. The overpoweringly sweet smell gave me an inkling of where I was. I inhaled again and caught a deeper, more complex scent. Tree bark, fresh moss, and newly lit campfires: things that belonged in the woods. I breathed in again and caught a light note of sex and a deep, intense note of everything good in the world. I knew instantly where I was and who I was under.
“Jules, honey, are you sure you shouldn’t get off him? Are you sure you aren’t crushing him?” It was Jules’s mom, Tess.
The second I heard her voice breaking through the fog in my brain, my body reacted. I clenched my arms around Jules and even though I still hadn’t managed to open my eyes, I croaked the word, “No!”
The weight on me shifted. Jules must have lifted his head.
“Sully! I’m going to get your mom. Don’t move him, Jules. Don’t do anything. Stay right where you are." She sounded borderline hysterical. “Stella! Stella, Mark! Get in here! Sully’s awake.”
“Sully,” whispered Jules. “Are you okay? A-are you still you?”
I pried my eyelids open and looked straight into the beautiful eyes of my mate. “Yes,” I managed.
“But, but, how do I know? How do I know you haven’t changed? You were badly hurt. The shaman said you might not be the same.”
“You know ’cause I’m your Sully and you’re my Jules. You’re my mate. My first and best friend. You’re the thing I love more than anything else in the world.”
His eyes filled with tears that quickly spilled down his cheeks. “Well, if you only remember one thing, that’s not a bad place to start.”
“Are you okay?”
“AmIokay? Are you kidding me? You almost died, Sully.”
“I know, but you were so scared. I could feel it through the bond. Are you okay?”
His eyes softened and new tears filled them. “I am now.” He leaned over and kissed me softly. First on the forehead, then on the tip of my nose, and then on my lips. “Don’t youeverlet anyone hit you on the head with a metal pipe again, d’you hear me, Sully Cleary?”
I could tell from his voice that he was far from okay. “Sorry, Jules. I didn’t mean to scare you. I won’t let anyone do that again, okay?”
“I want you to swear it.”
“I swear I won’t let anyone hit me on the head with a metal pipe again.”
“Actually, don’t let anyone hit you on the head with anything, okay? I think that’s the main thing. More important than the weapon, all right?”
I nodded.
“Do you remember what happened?”
“Yeah, I remember it all. The Brothers. Dalton. My mom. I even remember some weird shit she was saying about the White Wolf,” I said.
Jules eyed me strangely. He’d stopped crying, but his eyes were still red.
“How long was I out for?”
“You’ve been asleep for twenty-seven and a half hours.”
“Jeez, what did I miss?”
