Wolf Bonded (Wolfish 1)

“C’mon, let’s go get some fresh air.”

“No,” I say. “Wait, I want to hear this.”

I pull my hand from his, but Kaleb is already trying to do the same on my other side. When I try to tug my hand from his too, he just bends down and tries to scoop me up off the ground.

Whatever it is Lydia’s trying to tell me, they really don’t want me to know.

I scramble away, lunging towards Lydia before it’s too late. Rory reaches for me, trying to stop me, but he’s even deeper in the wine than I am, and his reflexes have slowed.

I know what they’re doing, but I need to know. I have to know.

I repeat my question, this time, forcing myself in front of Lydia so she has to look at me.

“What’s a shame? Tell me.”

Her face turns to me, but it still has that far-off look when she finally finishes what she started out to say.

“That you and my sons—Rory, Marlowe, and Kaleb—you can never be together.”

26

Sabrina

“Tell me, Rory! I deserve to know what she meant back there when she said we couldn’t be together.”

I could cut the air with a knife, and this time, it wouldn’t even need to be magical.

Not one of them will look at me.

They finally managed to drag me out of the living room, out past the winding tree staircase in the foyer and out into the cold night air. It feels shockingly cold now, far colder than it was when I arrived not too long ago.

Now, here with these three avoiding answering me, it’s positively frigid.

“Marlowe? Kaleb?”

I’ve let a lot of things go, waited patiently for answers in the past. This is not one of those times.

When the three of them still don’t leap to answer me, I throw my hands up in the air in a show of dramatics.

“Fine then, if you aren’t going to tell me …”

I start towards the front door again, catching a glimpse of Romulus and Lydia in some kind of heated discussion themselves through a sliver of the doorway on the other side of the glass. I don’t get close enough to make out what they’re saying, however, before three pairs of arms reach out instinctively towards me.

I shrink back, just out of reach, and cross my arms in front of my chest.

“Well then?”

I glare at each of them in turn, watching as they squirm under my gaze. I finally settle back on Rory.

“Is it because I’m a human and you’re not?”

Even though the other two, Marlowe and Kaleb, still look like they’d rather take off into the surrounding forest and wait this whole thing over, Rory finally nods at me and lets out a sigh.

“Yes.”

“But, I mean, we’re not really all that different, are we?”

I feel a lump rising in the back of my throat, and I try as hard as I can to force it back down. Now isn’t the time for tears. If I break out bawling, I know I’ll never get a straight answer.