Page 93 of Awakened
Good boy.
Sarah knocked into my hip and barked. Pushing into the mind link, she delivered a second warning. “Play nice. He’s a pup.”
I huffed, giving Michael’s nose a quick lick.
When I became beta, it got harder to control my dominance, especially in wolf form. The physical training I put myself through only served to increase my strength, speed, and confidence. Marie joked she would need to watch her back, or I’d unseat her. While my vanity loved the compliment, I knew she was one wolf I would never best, which made me even more loyal to her.
The alphas present went to the head of the pack. We betas followed, with Michael and Sarah holding the honorary position between alphas and betas. Marie and Alpha Bennett howled, and we all joined in. Then we were off, a stampede of wolves tearing through the underbrush.
Over the course of a couple of hours, we covered most of the property and then returned to the clearing, where the human partygoers were already dancing. Sarah and Michael hung back. His shift was sure to be taxing, and the couple needed some time alone.
Zach and I emerged from the woods, and he led me onto the makeshift dance floor as Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” started to play.
“You look beautiful tonight.”
“I have twigs stuck in my hair. I look feral,” I deadpanned.
“I happen to like my women au naturel.” He inspected my face as he picked a leaf from my hair.
I flushed under his pointed gaze. Patting his shoulder roughly, I said, “Uh, you did a great job with Michael. That was the easiest shift I’ve ever seen.”
“It was all him. I just told him to focus on why he was changing.”
“Sarah.”
Zach nodded. “Sarah.” He leaned forward and gave me a gentle kiss. “Love is worth sacrifice.” Turning us, he led me to the edge of the dance floor. “I know we’re taking things slow, but I needed you to know I love you, Sunshine.”
For the second time that night, breathing was a chore. He loved me. I knew I loved him, but what kind of love was still unclear. My concept of romantic love was so fucked, that I wasn’t sure if I even knew what it was anymore. I enjoyed him physically, loved his company, and trusted him, but it was so hard for me to define . . . this. I felt like a bitch. He was the only man to never jerk me around, and I was too messed up to know what level of love I had for him.
“I love you too, Zach.” And I honestly did. It wasn’t the passionate love of forever like Michael and Sarah’s, but honestly, I didn’t care. Love that was grown was just as beautiful as the all-consuming love that had burned me in the past. I was going to do my damnedest to protect our growing love. I was going to give it my all.
NINETEEN
Marie scowled at me, something she’d done a lot since she invited me into her secret club five months earlier.
“So, you’re going alone. What happened to taking four or five Amazons?”
We’d been over it a million fucking times. I didn’t know why she was causing trouble the day before Zach and I left for The Gathering.
“I’m not going alone. Zach and six of his pack are coming.”
She tried to interrupt, but I raised my hand to stop her. Her flat expression told me I was two seconds away from losing the appendage, so I quickly put it behind my back. “I don’t feel comfortable bringing any Amazons to the meat market. I’m trying to be inconspicuous, and I don’t think rolling in with half a dozen badass bitches would accomplish that. You know one wrong word from an Old Church Pack, and there would be blood.”
“Like you’re so fucking peaceful.”
You break one wrist and a few assholes’ hands, and suddenly, you can’t be trusted to keep your cool.
“I’ll be fine. I’ve been working on my angermanagement.” Marie snorted, and I narrowed my eyes. “Fine, don’t trust me, trust Zach. He can handle me.”
“You know I love the boy, but you can take him in a second.” Marie smiled at me like a proud momma bear.
“How about this? There’ll be an extra pair of eyes on me the whole time.”
The Howlers had proven to be piss-poor communicators. Outside of a few snarky texts outlining a training program that had turned me into a beast, providing a list of attendees I could trust, and files magically showing up on my hard drive, I had heard bupkis. The Howler files gave me a short list of murder suspects to check out at The Gathering.
Explaining the new files to Zach and Brandon was easier than I expected, as neither was particularly tech-savvy. I just told them that Dad had mislabeled some stuff. Of course, they believed me. They had no idea I was in cahoots with a shadow group. Guilt ate away at me every time I opened those files.
So many times, I wanted to tell Zach about the Howlers, but right when I was close to cracking, the Howlers would reach out with a crumb of information. To be fair, besides knowing about their existence, I was as much in the dark as Zach.
