“He’s right over there; go ask him.”
“While he’s grilling?” Ezra grinned. Grilling was an all-but-sacred activity for Malachi.
Off by himself on the covered deck, the alpha had commandeered Cassius’s grill. He flipped burgers with precision, delivered them to plates, and personalized toppings for every adult in the pack. Somehow he had to ask a person’s preferences only once. Ezra shook his head while he watched his friend wield the steel spatula. Grill master of the pack—that was Mal.
He looked back to his brother. “I’ll talk to him later. But yeah, Willow’s got to have an invitation, Trev. For the pack’s privacy and safety.”
“You miss her,” Trevor said, his mouth turning up.
No sense in denying it. He cleared his throat. “Uh, is my scent still…?”
“Reeking of true love? You bet.”
Ezra growled and threw a bag of chips at his brother. Trevor caught it, laughing, and pitched it back with harder force. If they didn’t knock it off, they’d break the bag. Ezra tucked it under his camping chair.
Hours later the cookout wound down. He helped his sister and brother-in-law clean up the yard and load the dishwasher with various pots and pans. One by one families, couples, and singles took their leave. Ezra stuck around, needing to ponder aloud, not ready yet to do so within earshot of every wolf he knew. He thought he’d have only Cassius for a sounding board, but Trevor lingered too…just as Ezra would do, if his brother smelled not quite settled about something.
While Kelsey and Sydney chatted away indoors, Ezra, Trevor, and Cassius wordlessly returned to the low-banked bonfire. The camping chairs had been put away, but a log-seat stretched on one side. Together they sat gazing past the embers into the night. Unlike humans, a wolf could see out there—the trees, most nearly bare now, poking and skeletal. A bat swooping in the deep dark, away from the floodlights of the garage.
“Can I ask y’all something?” Ezra said.
Cassius nodded. Trevor perked up, shifted his seat to meet Ezra’s eyes, and waited.
The enthusiasm with which Trevor wore him out sometimes soothed him at times like this, times he needed to be heard and advised. His chest filled up for a moment with the fondness he’d harbored deep down since he and Trevor were pups. And with the depth of how he had failed Trevor, failed him big time for years.
“Let it go, Ez.” The words were quiet.
“I’m not ready yet,” Ezra said.
“It’s my responsibility, not yours. You didn’t miss it; I hid it on purpose.”
But a good brother would have seen, smelled the pain Trevor was in, regardless how Trevor hid it. Wouldn’t he?
“Let it go, I’m telling you. Please.”
Ezra tried often to put it away for good. So far he managed to put it away for periods of time. He laced his fingers together and dangled his hands between his knees. When he looked up, his brother’s electric blue eyes were on him, steady and accepting.
“You’ll get there, bro. For tonight ask your question.” Trevor’s mouth curved with mischief. “We’re here to advise you in the ways of fate.”
Ezra rolled his eyes, but his chest was still swamped with all the things his brother meant to him. On his other side, Cassius nudged him, shoulder to shoulder.
Right. Time to talk. “When wolves talk about the protective drive, I just thought they meant…you know…keep her safe. Watch out for her. Guard her from threats.”
“Well, yeah,” Trevor said.
“That’s how mated wolves talk about it. But that’s not all it is. Not for me.”
“What else is it?”
Ezra rubbed his palm over his hair. He didn’t have words for the raging wildfire that had burst throughout his body when Keith’s scent spiked with fear of him. “When that jerk took off running, it was all I could do not to chase him and rip his arms off.”
“Whoa,” Trevor said.
“Yeah. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”
“Well, it kind of fits.”
“Fits with what?”
