Ravensong (Green Creek 2)

He shrugged. “Just… way to be romantic, you know? I don’t know why I’m so surprised that you tell him you care about him by threatening him. You guys are ridiculous.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’ll learn about it soon enough.

”

His brow furrowed. “What? What are you talking about? I’m going to learn about what soon enough?”

I ignored him.

Mark took a step toward me.

I waited.

He tilted his head back toward the ceiling, exposing the raven. His nostrils flared as he tried to catch my scent through the silver. The violet in his eyes pulsed. He reached up and pressed his hand against the barrier.

“Gordo,” he said, voice a deep rumble.

I smiled sadly at him. “Yeah. It’s me.”

“Gordo. Gordo. Gordo.”

And deep in my head, along the frayed thread that stretched between us, I heard a wolf howling a song of the lost, trying to find his way home.

IT WAS late in the afternoon when Ox sat on the floor in front of me in the basement of the house at the end of the lane. Behind him sat our pack, though we were down two members. Joe was immediately behind Ox, head bowed, forehead pressed against the back of Ox’s neck. Behind him were Rico and Jessie, each with a hand on his shoulder. Elizabeth, Kelly, and Robbie sat closest to the wolves behind the lines of silver, each of them touching the humans in some way.

Mark was agitated, moving back and forth.

Carter still sat against the timber wolf, struggling to control his breathing.

Pappas was snarling, angrier than I’d ever seen him. I wondered if he was already too far gone to save.

My knees bumped against those of my Alpha.

It hadn’t been like this when we’d shut the door and locked it. It’d been only the Alphas and me. I’d kept the others away because I didn’t want the distraction.

I needed them now.

I needed all of them.

I took his hands in mine. He watched me carefully, always trusting. He wasn’t that kid who’d never had a root beer before. He was my Alpha.

My brother.

My friend.

My tether.

He was afraid, though. It was small, and well hidden, but it was there. It was you’re gonna get shit for the rest of your life. It was you’re not good enough. It was you’re not strong enough.

It was ghosts. It always came back to ghosts.

They don’t love you. They need you. They use you. The magic in you is a lie.

And maybe they would always haunt us. Maybe we would never truly be free.

But their words were buried under the call of packpackpack.

I turned his hands over, palms up.