Drawing my consciousness back to my body, I open my eyes to the gates of the packlands.
"We're home," Wes murmurs as he shuts off the vehicle in the garage.
"Let's get to work," I answer with determination.
Drayton pinches the bridge of his nose for the fifth time in the last hour. Every piece of information we go through seems to stress him out more and more. Alaric has his arm firmly around my waist, holding me on his lap securely, or I would go try to ease some of that stress for my alpha mate.
"I know it's a lot," I murmur to Dray. "We were picked by the goddess herself to do this though. We can, and will, get through this."
"I know, baby. I'm just trying to work through it in my head," Drayton answers with a tight smile. "In all of this," he motions to the piles of letters in front of us, "there's nothing I can find about how we are supposed to go about awakening the dormant energy."
"I mean the rest of yours woke up after mating with Tal," Alaric grumbles behind me.
"What?"
I echo Drayton's what and see all of my mates turn to Alaric in confusion.
"The runes on your wolf form," Alaric says like it explains everything. "You have glowing teal runes. I thought we all knew this and that's why no one was commenting on it."
Alaric shrugs with the shoulder not attached to me and I can't help the laugh that comes out at his observant, yet oblivious observations. He really thought we all knew and just decided it wasn't worth talking about. I--what?
Penn immediately moves to the open area behind the couch and shifts into his wolf form. Sure enough, there's glowing teal runes on his wolf as well.
"See?" Alaric smugly grins and grips my hip tighter. "I bet all of you have the same markings. I don't know what they mean, but I'm betting money it will have something to do with awakening this dormant magic."
All the blood drains from my face as I try to work out how this would help awaken all the magic.
"I am not sleeping with all of the shifters," I immediately interject with a vehement shake of my head. "Absolutely not."
Alaric growls beneath me and the rest of my mates join in, including the wolf Penn, his hackles now raised.
"That's not at all what I meant," Alaric growls, tightening his arm around me. "I think the runes that come with the mating are the key to it. So, that would mean mating with all of us and then doing something with that."
Wes claps his hands. "That may just be it!"
He moves over to the pile we set aside that was confusing and pulls out a small notebook from the pile. Flipping through the pages, he searches for whatever clicked in his genius brain about what to do.
I squirm against Alaric, the thought of mating with him filling most of my thoughts at this point. He's the only one of my mates I haven't completed the act with and I am far too eager to go and do just that.
Having sex with my mates to free the dormant magic of all shifter kind? Hell fucking yes. The goddess is going to get a high five for that one. I will have sex to save the shifter world, no questions asked.
"Here it is!" Wes jumps up and flips the books to all of us. "These runes look like the ones that were on Penn. It shows a circle of them with a flame in the middle. I think once all therunes are unlocked, we should recreate this emblem with Talia as the flame then have her recite the words on this page."
"It looks legit to me," Forr grumbles with a shrug. "I say we give it a go."
Drayton nods his head and glances at Alaric and I, causing me to wiggle again with arousal. "We won't put pressure on the two of you for this," he assures us. "Do it in your own time and once his runes are activated, we can give this a go."
"I'm good whenever," I say far too quickly and too enthusiastically. My mates chuckle as I look back at Alaric with flushed cheeks. "Whenever you're ready though."
"Oh, I'm ready, sunshine. But," he adds quickly with a smirk. "I have plans for you and how this is going to happen. Tomorrow night, you're mine."
Penn coughs, breaking the locked gaze between Alaric and I. I didn't even know he had shifted back.
Oops.
"Okay, so we have a plan. Or at least, the start of one," Wes says, bringing everyone's attention back to the matter of it all.
"I think we should give the other leaders a heads up that we have the information and we’re trying it before we do so they can be prepared,” Drayton explains. “If this works, it’s going to be quite the shock to everyone’s systems.”