Dare’s arm snakes around Trystan to brush over my hair. “We’ll stick it out together.”
I smile at him, surprised by the force of the conviction in his tone, and earn a dazzling, scruffy grin in return. I’m used to Archer and Trystan going above and beyond to reaffirm their commitment to me, but it’s nice to see Dare making an effort too. His entire pack was murdered by witches, so the grudge he carries has been a little hard for him to control.
Ridge appears in the doorway a moment later, a sheen of perspiration on his skin and his t-shirt in his hand. He wipes his forehead, his gaze finding mine in between the other men.
His lips turn down into a frown as he looks at the four of us. “Why does it feel so heavy in here?”
I slide out from the protective, comforting touch of my mates and set my feet to the cold hardwood floor. “If you make pancakes for breakfast, I’ll tell you.”
“That, I can do,” he says with a grin.
While we mix pancake batter, I tell Ridge what I told the rest of the guys about the strange thing that happened when I woke up. Like Archer, he takes a pragmatic approach to it.
“I think we should prepare for certain manifestations that we can’t explain,” he says. “We’re in new territory here, so we should expect the unexpected when it comes to your power. But no matter what happens, we’ll deal with it. We’ll get through as a team.”
I lean into his arm. “Thank you.”
Abandoning the batter, he turns toward me, tugging me against his chest as his fingers curl into my hair and tilt my face up toward his.
“There’s nothing to thank me for, little wolf,” he says, his voice a low rumble against me. “I’d do anything for you. Face anything with you. We all would.”
Then he kisses me, slow and steady. It’s comforting and sweet, but with an undercurrent of heat that promises a whole lot more where that came from.
I want more. I want so much more. My body and mind have been through a lot in the past twenty-four hours, but I can still feel a pleasant soreness between my legs from when my mates and I all cemented our bond last night.
I cling to those remembered images and sensations as I press up onto my tiptoes to deepen our kiss a little. No matter what happened afterward, up to and including burying a dead body, I refuse to let any of it ruin the memory of that perfect moment.
Finally, Ridge breaks the connection of our lips with a soft growl, pressing his forehead to mine. He takes a deep breath as if he’s gathering my essence from the air, claiming even my scent as his own. Then he kisses my temple before we reluctantly break apart and turn back to the kitchen counter.
“W
hat were you doing out this morning?” I ask as he resumes the task of making pancakes. My voice is a little husky, but I clear my throat and pretend I can’t hear it.
He pours a ladleful of batter into the sizzling pan. “I needed to think, and I do it best when I’m running.”
“Think about what?”
It’s a stupid question, given everything that’s happened recently. But I just want him to keep talking. I like standing over the stove with him, helping him cook breakfast while my other mates drink coffee at the table and talk amongst themselves. It feels like home.
“Lots of things. Most importantly, how to handle the pack’s misgivings,” Ridge says, his voice serious. “I think our best bet is to head things off before they can start to cause us problems.”
“How so?”
“Ultimately, we’ll need to have a summit and invite all the packs in for a dialogue. But for now, a North Pack meeting to discuss this situation could be the best place to start.” Ridge slides the spatula under a bubbling pancake and flips it expertly. The butter coating the pan starts to sizzle in earnest as fresh batter hits the hot surface. “In the midst of Lawson’s challenge wasn’t a great time or place for the truth about your powers to come out. We’ll need to do some damage control and tell it to the pack straight. The less we withhold, the better.”
I nod, thinking how his own thoughts are mirroring the way I talked myself out of lying to my mates. Lies are so messy and hard to hold on to. Ridge is right—we have to be open and honest if I’m going to have a life here among these people.
I can only hope they give me that chance.
Ridge picks a time after lunch, swearing that recently fed shifters are easier to talk to than shifters who are called into a mandatory meeting without a chance to fill their stomachs beforehand.
He shifts to wolf form on his front lawn after giving me his clothes to carry, and then the five of us head down the road toward the council meeting house. Every few feet, Ridge lets out a piercing howl with three short, sharp notes to it. A signal, I guess, and find myself proven correct as shifters begin to leave their homes and join us on our walk.
In the barn, I hand off his clothes so he can re-dress and then join Archer, Dare, and Trystan in the corner while Ridge stays front and center, greeting the members of his pack as they arrive.
Before long, the barn is packed to the rafters. The few times I’ve seen a meeting take place here, there wasn’t even half this size crowd—not even at the all-pack summit Lawson dragged me into the first day I woke up in Ridge’s house. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that every single pack member has shown up for this. Word of what happened during the challenge has spread far and wide, and even those who weren’t present to see me use witch magic and then shift into a wolf were clamoring for answers.
“Looks like everyone but Lawson and the men guarding his cell is here,” Ridge murmurs under his breath to us. “Never seen the place so full.”