“I hope so too. But if not, I’ll be here.”
When Malachi reentered the living room, only two people remained, and his heart gave a pang of pure emotion that startled him. Arlo and Rebecca sat together at the card table, playing a round of Go Fish. Immediately they set their cards aside.
“Please come sit, Malachi,” Rebecca said in the tone of invitation she had always used with him.
Never had he been ordered by his surrogate folks. When Malachi was eleven years old, Arlo and Robert hadn’t been able to tell him what to do, only to request and suggest, and Rebecca had taken it as an example she should honor. Ann had resisted the example somewhat,“for the pup’s own sake,”he’d overheard her say once. But over time she had adopted it too. From the day he stepped foot on Lunar Lane, it was the biological recognition of every wolf in the pack, including William, that Malachi was alpha. He’d been powerless to curb it just as the other wolves had been unable to ignore it.
He limped to the table and eased into a chair across from Arlo and next to Rebecca.
Rebecca wasted no time with hedging. “How are you really, alpha pup? You know you can still talk to these two old folks anytime.”
Malachi clenched his jaw and blinked a few times. He swiped a hand under his eyes as a memory flooded back into him—body aching and heavy and cold, eyesight blurring, thoughts going blank, and then Rebecca’s warbling little voice nearby, calling him the nickname she’d started using the year he turned sixteen.“You’re too young for this, alpha pup. … Please stay with us a long time.”
“You brought my strength back,” he said. “When I was dying, yours was one of the voices that called me back.”
She nodded, her eyes bright.
“Thank you.”
“My old heart nearly got broken this morning.”
He squeezed her hand with the slightest pressure. “I’m all right.” He looked from Rebecca to Arlo when the elder wolf gave a rumble. “Maybe conflicted.”
“About your mate?” Arlo said.
Rebecca sat back in her chair as though preparing to lecture a pup. “Where’s the conflict there, Malachi? She’s wonderful.”
“April isn’t the problem,” he growled quietly.
“So it’s alpha burdens worrying you?”
Malachi tried to find an answer, but before he could, Arlo nodded. “Your situation is unique in the pack, it’s true. Being someone’s wolf while also being alpha. But is that the trouble inside you, or is it something else?”
He met Arlo’s wise gray eyes. “I’m weak. My wolf is pressing me…harder than usual. The threat to my pack and my mate is still out there. And I don’t have an easy solution for any of it.”
Rebecca took hold of his hand and squeezed with all her strength. “You don’t need solutions tonight. You can rest your mind tonight and work on solutions tomorrow.”
“You know me better than that.” He gave her hand the slightest squeeze in return.
Rebecca sighed. “Your mind mulls until it finds the solution, andthenyou rest.”
“Correct.” He had to smile at her reproving look.
“There’s one solution that seems obvious to us,” Arlo said, and Rebecca nodded. “You were only briefly in wolf form. We think you ought to change again tonight and stay that way. There’s a good chance you’ll be healed in the morning.”
The thought sent his wolf to the end of the leash again, lunging. He stayed motionless in the chair, and after a moment, this time the wolf gave up with a pitiful howl. Arlo was watching him, clearly sensing his inner battle.
“No,” Malachi said.
“Why not, Malachi?” Rebecca said quietly. “Is it something the lore doesn’t allow?”
“Nothing about this situation is included in the lore. Nothing even similar.”
“Then why?”
“Because I won’t do it, Rebecca. It’s not a safe solution, and I won’t do it.” He couldn’t explain further, but he didn’t have to. The authority in his tone would end the topic.
Arlo bowed his head for a moment, acknowledging that authority. Then he lifted his head. “You want frankness here?”
