I cleared my throat and tried to look positive as the women approached, but I didn’t see what all the fuss with the ley lines was about when the elderly butler had marched us all out here, hemming and hawing as we walked for quite some time until Kane had declared thatthis was the spot.
I closed my eyes for a moment, focusing on my wolf.
Can you tell anything different about this place?
Yes.
With a sigh, I reopened my eyes. He wasn’t feeling chatty today. Which was fine. We weren’t on our home turf, our mate was about to go into heat, and oh yeah, there was an impendingthreat to everyone’s safety. Brielle’s failing shield potion was basically a ticking time bomb, set to explode when we least expected it.
No biggie.
My wolf growled his annoyance into my mind before curling up and intentionally turning his back on me.
I stifled a chuckle at his annoyance as the other mates greeted one another, happy to be reunited even after only a short time apart. Elodie kept her distance, but the simple nod of acknowledgment she sent my way felt like a victory.
Tiny steps. Tiny steps were still progress.
I lifted my chin too, holding her gaze until the pack began to circle up and I had to move to join them.
Did I linger and let Elodie get into place first so I could slip in beside her? Yes, yes, I did.
Did I regret my subterfuge as I got the first sweet whiff of her mate scent? Never. Vanilla and warm, sweet hazelnut filled my lungs, and I reveled in the fact that it was all for me. A little bit of proof that she was mine, and I was hers.
She stiffened when my arm brushed hers, eyes narrowed as she glared at me. “What are you doing?” she hissed under her breath.
“Standing next to my mate, like everybody else.” I leaned down to her ear, whispering so softly, the others shouldn’t have been able to pick it up over the rustling leaves. I resisted the urge to run my fingertips over her back, knowing she wanted to keep things professional. A desire I would always honor, even if it ran exactly opposite to my own.
But I could be as professional standing next to her as I could across the circle. So I straightened and focused on Kane and Brielle and the mottled stone she held between her palms. It glowed softly, the gentle blue marred by sharp red lines.
“What do we do?” the omega asked, her worry evident from her stiff stance to her furrowed eyebrows.
Kane shrugged. “The intersection of the ley lines is below us, which means the earth’s magic is more easily accessible here. Or… that there’s more of it here?” He tilted his head to one side in a very canine gesture. Perhaps his wolf was correcting him.
“Either way, I think you and I pour energy into it, the same as we did when the red first appeared. Our wolves should do the rest.”
“And the rest of us?” Dirge asked, arms crossed. His skeptical expression made me feel slightly better about my own inability to sense anything special about this particular patch of trees.
“There’s power in pack. Your presence is enough.” Kane’s smile was genuine as he made eye contact with each and every person who’d come to support them. For the most powerful wolf in the world, he had stayed remarkably grounded.
Kane placed his hands over Brielle’s on the stone, and both of them shut their eyes.
We waited.
And we waited.
The stone flickered, shafts of light burning through the deepening twilight before quickly fading away. But the stubborn red lines didn’t budge a centimeter, no matter how much power they funneled into the stone.
A low growl filled the clearing, and to my surprise, it came from the little omega. Her eyes flew open, shining frosty brown with her wolf’s influence. “Nothing is happening. The stone is resisting. I don’t know why, but it’s the stone itself pushing back, as if we’re stretching a rubber band to its limit before it snaps back into place. It’s like itwantswhatever is happening.” Frustration colored her tone as she looked down at the stone they’d worked so hard for with equal parts despair and fury.
Quiet chatter rose around the circle, everyone offering suggestions and opinions.
Well, almost everyone. Elodie stood silent as a statue by my side, her face a mask of tortured indecision.
She knows something.
I’d no sooner had the thought than I nudged her, tipping my head to the side, silently asking her to step away from the group with me.
She nodded, and the two of us slipped deeper into the forest, out of earshot of the increasingly frustrated and noisy wolves, sheltered further by the soft darkness.
