Page 5 of The Stars of the Pack

Ray sighed, remembering his sister. “I think we better go back, I’m hoping to get some answers. Rain check on the film?”

“Any time next week.” It was a sensible counteroffer given how busy their lives could get. Josh wouldn’t push it if it couldn’t be done, of course, but Ray needed to be asked when it was important.

“You got it,” Ray told him, pushing back his chair.

***

THE DRIVE BACK WASalmost relaxing, if not for the sense of growing anticipation. He’d let his awareness of his children fade from the forefront of his mind, but from time to time when his thoughts turned to them, he could feel them clearly again.

Next, he tested it with Alec, who was most certainly either visiting a werewolf patient in their birth pack or working at the closest human hospital—in either case, outside their land. The second, it turned out, if Ray could judge by the sense of barely controlled chaos he got from his alpha. Was there no limits to his range? He remembered when he’d lost the connection years back, had that just been because he’dbelievedhe would? Or was this some new ability he hadn’t had back then?

Josh had been silent, but as the road took them closer to their turn he said, “What do you feel?”

It wasn’t a question he often asked anymore, when Ray had bitten himbackto mark him as his First Alpha, it’d created a pretty intense feedback loop between them. They could both pull back from it to an extent, but they rarely did. At the moment,Raywasn’t so sure what he was feeling, though. He took a moment to consider the land itself, the trees, the snow, the soil, the plants, every thing that lived in it and on it. It was a bit like a song, with a number of elements that harmonised. And that could easily be thrown into disarray, too.

But right now it was just singing, louder to his ears the closer they got. It couldn’t be due to the actual distance; this wasn’t soundwaves travelling through air... No, it was travelling through the ground, through hisbody, which was connected to the territory no matter how far Ray was.

Suddenly it made perfect sense, every member of the pack had been adopted into the land and Ray had been the link, the one who’d welcomed them into it. First, he’d literally taken his alphas inside his body right there on the ground, spilling his own seed on it as they took turns mounting him, and then he’d given birth on the same soil to his children. For the betas, he’d just had words, but words were enough because he’dpaidin blood and sweat and tears first. Except it wasn’t exactly a transaction, it was the flow of life—it’d cost him nothing to spill the life blood that had fed his babies into the ground beneath instead of sending it down the drain. If you thought it cost the land nothing to grow plants for them to eat.

The idea of his territory having absorbed parts of his body wasn’t all that romantic, but he supposed it was fair enough since he’d been fed and housed by it. He wasn’t sure why it’d had to be him, why it took an omega to start a pack, but the land, like the pack, wasn’t justtaking. It’d give too. It’d reached for him when the trees had been threatened, but it would tell him what the trees knew in turn.

The elders had got it backwards, the First Omega wasn’t the last line of defence of any territory, they were thefirst.

Unless said First Omega had been convinced he was powerless, in one way or many, that he was just a sacrifice, a body to be used.

He’d never been trapped in his territory by anything except his own belief that he was, the ideas he’d been sold about omegas by those who sought to control them. Those who perhaps simply feared them.

Crossing the boundary was nearly unnoticeable this time around. He’d been waiting to feel relief, but why would he? He’d never beenout, not really. There was no out, the world was as much his land as this particular piece of territory.

Of course he loved it and he didn’t want to leave it for long, but he didn’t have to feel ill at ease when he visited a different place, whether it was under the protection of another werewolf or not.

Not unless that place was suffering. Because that part of what he knew as well, that the land would ail if its aid wasn’t honoured in turn. There was no harvest without seeds, sun and rain. And sweat, of course.

“Ray?” Josh had just opened the passenger door for him. “Are you okay?”

He’d never answered, Ray realised. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed. He nodded, keeping his gaze on Josh’s as an anchor. “I... I’m feeling a lot of things. Nothing bad, just... it’s a lot of information. I’m... I’m understanding a lot.”

Josh nodded back, then offered a strong elbow for Ray to take as a handhold to get down. That he felt, the twin joys of Josh’s body and his feet on the ground that was his. He found himself grinning and seeking his mate’s eyes. “Do you feel it too?”

His alpha paused, standing still next to him. “I feel your joy,” he said at last with a little apologetic shrug.

But it was more than enough, of course. “Good,” Ray told him. “Because I don’t think I can feel it all on my own.” To his surprise, he found his eyes were filling with tears, the land was singing a welcome made of wind and distant bird cries, crunched snow and even doors closing and opening all the way back in the house.

Josh stepped right into it, turning so they were facing each other and pressing their foreheads together, sharing his warmth and giving Ray a steady point to which he could hold on as the symphony crested and fell again, then turned soft and melodic.

A call.

The cadence of the wind wasn’t anything new, he knew that too. It was just something that suddenly made sense to his ears, like he’d learned its language in the last few hours outside. He straightened and Josh’s grip on his arms tightened for a second, seeking stability.

But there was nothing to fear.

He grabbed for his alpha’s hand, not needing to look to find it, and turned away from him, leading the way. “Come.”

The sound of his boots crushing the thick fresh snow reverberated in the wide open space, like drums announcing their arrival. He had no idea where he was going, except of course he did; he was being called and he was answering.

All he had to do to find the path was trust. He glanced up, finding the gibbous moon to his left and smiling a silent greeting to the Goddess. It was impossible, but he felt an echo that he thought was her response, a distracted caress of heavenly attention dispensed on his small self.

Only of course he wasn’t small, he was as much part of the universe as anything else—that was the key of it all. He wasn’t alone because he couldn’t be alone, no one was.

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