Page 40 of Mated By the Pack
If they’re his brothers, they don’t want to eat us. Well, they don’t want to eat me. My companions, I’m not sure about. As soon as Fiona, Tansy, and Brenna are inside, I grab Nara’s arm.
“I’m going to try to talk to them,” I whisper. “Keep the others inside. Don’t let anyone come out here, no matter what happens.”
“Are you crazy?” Nara looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “They’re wolves! Those are animals—and they’re not like the dogs the ladies in the Upper District have. They’re savages.”
“I don’t have time to explain it, and you’ll think I’m even crazier than you already do if I try,” I mutter, glancing back atthe looming beasts. “Just trust me. You’ve trusted me this far, right?”
“We wouldn’t havemadeit this far if it wasn’t for you,” Nara sighs, casting one last anxious glance at the wolves. “Okay, I’ll keep the others inside.”
I wait until they’ve disappeared into the corridor, their footsteps fading into the silence. They don’t have my bracelet to light their way, so they’re walking blind—scared and vulnerable. Just like me.
Then I turn back to the wolves. Five hulking silhouettes. They haven’t moved an inch. Still as statues in the moonlight, their golden eyes burning like fire behind glass, but some have flickers of other colors woven into their irises. They don’t blink. Don’t twitch. They just watch. So intensely my legs threaten to give out beneath me.
I swallow hard and take a cautious step forward. Not one of them flinches.
They all have distinct shades, but now that I’m closer, I can see the differences between them. The one in front is the largest; his fur is radiant gold, just like his eyes. Beside him is another with a similar hue, but his coat is deeper—more like muted amber than gold.
To their right stands the broadest of the group. His body is thick with muscle, platinum fur etched with scars that run along his jaw and vanish into his ruff. On the left, a smaller wolf, lean and sharp-eyed, with a coat the color of mossy brown earth. Where the others look pristine despite The Tangle, this one wears bits of the wild like a badge. Leaves and debris are tangled in his fur and dirty paws rest on the ground.
And behind them all, shadowed but unmistakable, looms the last. Onyx-furred. Smaller than Silas, but hauntingly similar. The same piercing eyes. The same weight in his gaze. The resemblance is so strong it steals the breath right out of me. I swallow hard to push down a lump rising in my throat.
“I know you can transform,” I say, my voice quieter than I intend. It lacks the confidence I tried to summon, but I continue. “You’re not just wolves.”
The golden one steps forward. His upper lip twitches, flashing a line of sharp teeth, but he doesn’t growl. His head lowers slightly, eyes scanning left, then right, as he looks at the others.
Then, without warning, he shifts.
It’s not like the slow, pulsing shimmer I saw in The Aether with Silas. There’s no glow. No mystical haze. One second, he’s all fur and fang. The next, there’s a man standing in his place.
A man with wild golden hair that spills around his shoulders, streaked with darker shades near the roots. Wisps cling to the edge of a thick beard. Moonlight glints off his skin. He’s naked, sculpted, and far too real to be a dream. Broad chest, muscled arms, and a body that seems to radiate—or maybe I’m the one feeling the heat.
He’sbeautiful. Terrifying, but beautiful. A soft breath escapes before I can stop it. I lick my lips without meaning to, catching a bead of saliva before it slips.
I don’t feel so brave anymore.
“I’m Gideon,” he says, then he gestures to the others. “These are my brothers. We’ve been waiting a long time for you, Calla.”
“You know my name,” I murmur. I mean it to be a question, but it comes out soft and uncertain. Like I’ve already accepted something I haven’t fully processed.
Part of me wants to say more, but I’m cautious. If these are Silas’s brothers, I have to keep my wits. I don’t know if I can trust them. I don’t even know if I can trust Silas.
“Yes, we know a lot more than your name,” Gideon says, his eyes drinking me in like he’s as thirsty as I am, except his thirst isn’t for water. “We’ve been following you. Protecting you. Since the first night you were brought into The Tangle.”
“Protecting me?” I scoff, realizing I might have said it too harshly when Gideon’s lip twitches, so I relax my tone. “You haven’t done a great job. I’ve been kidnapped, drugged, and if it wasn’t for the women with me, I would’ve never escaped the slavers.”
“You have no idea what we’ve done for you,” Gideon growls, his voice edged like a sharp blade. “How many bodies we’ve left in pieces across The Tangle. How much blood we’ve spilled, just to make sure you made it this far.”
My breath catches. Because I think he’s telling the truth.
My thoughts flash back—howls in the night. Crashes of violence echoing through the trees. The sharp crack and agonizing wails of death. Every day. Every night. There were moments when the chaos felt endless.
Was it them? These monsters in the moonlight, trailing just far enough behind us to remain unseen? Were they watching us the entire time? Guarding us in The Tangle like Silas seemed to guard me in my dreams? It doesn’t make sense, but little has made sense since I left Haven North. Surviving this long in TheTangle certainly doesn’t. The predators should have finished us off long ago, The Tangle feasting on what was left of our flesh.
I don’t want to ask this question, but I have to.
“Then why reveal yourselves now?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at the golden-haired brute.
“Because, Calla,” he rasps, taking another step forward. “You’re finallyhome.”
