“Aren’t you still yourselves? Don’t you retain your reason, memories, personalities?”
“Sure, but a dead wolf doesn’t change back to human form. Easy-peasy disposal later, get it?”
She was shaking. Her skin felt scorched while her blood felt like pumping ice water. A careful arm wrapped around her shoulders, and Kelsey scooted closer.
“Hey,” Kelsey said quietly. “It’s okay. You’re safe here from those wolves. Shoot, with Malachi you’re safe from everything. Can you feel that yet?”
“Feelit?” As if that could be relied on.
“It might take a little while, but you will eventually.”
April couldn’t find a word in response. Kelsey clearly meant well. She just didn’t understand. When the silence became awkward, she retreated to the other chair.
“Sorry,” Kelsey said at last. “I think I’ve officially botched the welcome.”
“It isn’t your fault. I just—I’m not in a position to rely on my feelings right now.” Or ever again.
“But you do feel safe with Mal?”
Terrifyingly safe. She bit her lip. Admitting this might not be a great way to rein in Kelsey’s enthusiasm.
“Sorry. No more grilling. Only tell me what you want to.” Kelsey surged to her feet as if a couch spring had launched her. “I brought you a whole lot of other stuff too, not just the clothes. Come pick what you want, as much as you want.”
April stood to follow, but then Kelsey looked past her to the window and smiled.
“There they are.”
April turned. Malachi approached the cabin from the direction of the woods. Beside him walked a man with stylishly mussed, dark-blond hair. Compared to Malachi he was leaner and a few inches shorter, yet he was still built of solid muscle. While April and Kelsey watched, the men spoke back and forth, the topic clearly serious. Then Malachi said something else, and the other man threw his head back to laugh. The sound reached them faintly, a sound like the bark of a large dog. He clapped Malachi on the back as he laughed. Kelsey giggled.
“That’s Trevor,” she said needlessly, then equally needlessly and with quiet pride, “my wolf.”
Trevor gripped Malachi’s shoulder and kept his hand there as they resumed their path to the cabin. Malachi let him, seemed not to mind his underling’s casual contact. Drew, on the other hand, would have broken Trevor’s hand for the infraction.
Half of April hoped Trevor would stay outside, but he strode into the cabin behind Malachi minutes later. Kelsey launched herself into his arms and nestled against his chest as though April weren’t standing here.
“Good wolf chat?” Kelsey said.
Trevor answered with a low rumble from his chest that Kelsey seemed to understand as clearly as words.
“I’m so glad,” she said. Then she let go of her wolf and threw her arms around Malachi instead—this time with a friendly squeeze rather than an intimate one.
Physical contact from a submissive wolf was shocking enough, but this—a human, a woman, another wolf’s mate had just touched the alpha. And Malachi returned it with one arm around her shoulders, a half-embrace that swallowed her. And Trevor stood smiling at his mate and his alpha…hugging. April’s breath caught as her throat tightened.
Malachi’s gaze shot to hers. Trevor took a step back as though worried he had frightened her, while Kelsey released Malachi and pivoted to face her too. April bit her lip as heat infused her face.
“Sorry,” she said, though she didn’t know for what. “Sorry, I…I just didn’t expect…um, platonic physical contact…in a wolf pack.”
“It’s a daily occurrence around here,” Trevor said, his voice rich and warm.
His eyes were incredibly blue, but April snapped her gaze away from his face after a quick glance. He rumbled, low in his chest. The sound wasn’t threatening—she knew a wolf threat when she heard one—yet her body stiffened in response.
“You can look at me,” Trevor said. “I’m shielding for you.”
April shook her head. Not worth the risk he was baiting her. But Malachi had said… And she didn’t want to be a coward. She braved a look upward and met Trevor’s eyes. Nothing happened. No terror. No rush to grab her, lift her off her feet, force her with a hand under her jaw not to look away from him. Nothing, only his kind eyes.
“You don’t force acclimation,” she said.
Trevor and Kelsey both stared at her, mirroring each other’s horror.
