“Of course I’m ready,” I said with a forced smile.
He laughed and guided me through the threshold, resting a hand on the small of my back.
The instant I was on the deck, about eighty pairs of eyes landed on me, and not all were friendly. What was the weight limit for this wraparound deck? Because I think we’d reached it.
“Wolves…” Brock said in a firm voice that easily carried across the crowd. “Thank you for coming. I want to officially introduce you to Evie, the newest member of our pack and the mother of my unborn child.”
Not even a whisper met his announcement. Brock had made it clear I was the mother of his child and they owed me respect for that fact alone. Even if they didn’t want to give it.
I shifted on my feet.
“She isn’t a werewolf, but another kind of shifter.” His voice continued to project across the open space.
I raised my eyebrows at his purposeful vagueness. Didn’t he trust his wolves? “Please make her feel welcome.” The last bit was voiced as a command, which meant his wolves would behave no matter how they really felt about me.
Ray and a few other wolves moved toward us.
Brock motioned to Ray. “Evie, you’ve met Ray, my second. And this is Dane, Chad, and Goose.”
“I’ve met Dane and Goose before, though not formally,” I said, giving the boys a wave. Brock’s eyes clouded over as he remembered he’d sent Dane—Blondie—and Goose—Ginger—to chop wood in prime view of Gran’s cabin. I hadn’t fallen for the distraction of the lumberjack hunks, but I’d distracted them plenty. I bit on the inside of my lip to keep from letting the victory of that memory appear on my face. I couldn’t take any more of Brock’s stormy moods today.
“Nice to meet you all,” I said diplomatically. Dane and Goose trained their eyes on the wood planks of the deck while mumbling their greetings. Their sense of self-preservation was obviously intact.
Brock guided me to the others right away, Ray the only one to walk with us. He’d clearly just remembered how I’d met Dane and Goose.
There were so many wolves there that I registered only a few of the names, mostly the ones who made direct eye contact with me and offered me genuine smiles, and the women who trailed jealous looks down Brock’s body before giving me a catty, fake-as-shit smile. Brock didn’t seem to notice, but I sure as hell did. For once I didn’t object to him toting me around like I’d hurt myself if I stood more than five feet away from him.
By the time the smell of food on the grill wafted into the crisp air around us, Brock and I had settled at a bench table surrounded by Ray, Sabine, and several of the more dominant wolves in his pack.
I was happily listening to Ray’s story about how Brock had made two of his male wolves— who hadn’t shown sufficient respect to some of the females in the pack—walk through the middle of town naked, when a rush of power surged through me, making my body tense enough that Brock noticed.
He pinned alert eyes on me as another wave rocked through me, making me flush at the intensity of it. Right away, Ray’s story was forgotten and Brock was in my personal space.
‘What is it?’he asked using our telepathic link, cluing me in to the fact that he didn’t want his wolves to be aware of all that was happening with me.
‘I don’t kno—’I broke off with a groan of pain that I couldn’t keep silent. Many of the nearby wolves turned to face our direction as another fierce wave of magical power ripped through me. That one was enough to make me queasy, and I had to swallow down the bile that threatened to rise up my throat.
What the ever-loving fuck was going on?
Brock’s entire body was tensed and ready for battle while mine struggled to contain whatever was happening.‘You need to tell me what’s happening right now.’
His words were less the command of an alpha as they were the words of a concerned lover.
I gasped as the pain abated for a few moments.‘I really don’t know. Waves of pain. Magic. Power, I guess.’
‘Yours?’
I shook my head, ignoring the many sets of eyes on me.‘I can’t tell.’I swallowed a big gulp of air as a wave of ... whatever it was raced through me again, leaving every nerve in my body on edge.
Brock jumped from his seat, where he hovered behind me, searching for how to help me I assumed.‘Can Cass help figure it out? Or Tianna?’
I nodded absently, my mind and eyes starting to glaze over.‘Cass?’I whimpered.
‘Evie. What is it?’he answered right away.
‘I don’t know. Some energy is rushing through me, and it hurts.’I grunted, gritting my teeth at a new wave of pain.
Couldn’t a girl get even half a day off from the shitstorm that had been my life lately? Yeah, apparently not. I grimaced.‘It’s magic. Ask Tianna.’
