Page 3 of The Sacred Wolf

“You stop it!”

“Stop what?!” I pushed my hands into my hair, slicking it over my ears to throw it back into a messy bun. “I’m not doing anything!”

“Not now.” Evan sat back on his human haunches. “But you were doing your tennis ball eyes. Which is fine. I’m used to it after all these years. But the smile was creepy.”

I paused with my hair bunched over my head. “My tennis what now?”

“You know. This business.” Evan darted his eyes rapidly back and forth. “Like you’re following a conversation I can’t hear. Between two people I can’t see.” He gasped and touched one hand to his heart. “Holy shift. Elyse. Do you see dead people?”

I rolled my eyes and finished my bun. ‘Holy shift’ was Evan’s catchphrase now, borrowed from the girl on Alma Mater Animalis, a show Evan swore he’d never watched but sure knew an awful lot about… So I wasn’t sure if the question about dead people was him once again suggesting I could see things with my nose like the girl on the show, or if he was just referencing The Sixth Sense. Although I guess seeing things with one’s nose would be considered a sixth sense. I sadly didn’t possess one because it would’ve come in handy for finding Damian and rescuing Yara.

If she’s still alive.

She’s still alive!

“There!” Evan jammed a finger at the bridge of my nose. “You did it again.”

“It’s nothing.” I jerked away from him and jumped to my feet. “Just a twitch.”

I had learned a long time ago not to tell anyone about my conversations with my wolf. Either every other shifter I’d ever met was too embarrassed to admit it, or they really didn’t hear their wolf speak to them with human words in a growly inner voice. I had wondered if Evan might have had a similar experience, but he hadn’t asked about it, so I was pretty sure he hadn’t. He asked about everything.

“A twitch, huh?” He eyed me suspiciously as he joined me on two legs. “Well, you know what causes that, don’t you? Stress. I think you might need to relax.”

“Good idea,” I said quickly, moving toward the door. “What should we order and what should we watch?”

“I don’t know.” Evan fell in step beside me. “I was thinking we could go out…”

I groaned. “You know we can’t. Max says it’s not safe—”

“Well, Pack Daddy won’t be here this afternoon.” Evan pursed his lips playfully the way he always did when he spoke of our handsome Alpha, who was just one of many shifter males my friend liked to objectify behind closed doors. “And neither will Lil Pack Daddy.”

I closed my eyes. “Please stop calling him that…”

“Soooo, I was thinking. While they’re off at the All Pack Daddies meeting this afternoon, maybe you and I could—” He walked two fingers across my shoulders until his whole arm rested there. “—go see Jayla?”

“No.” I shoved his arm off and kept walking. “We can’t do that.”

“Elyse!” Evan spun in front of me, blocking the door. “What we can’t do is just never check up on her! She probably thinks you and your boyfriend ate me!”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” I shouted. “And that’s obviously what I’m afraid of!”

“So let’s go show her it’s not true!” Evan grabbed my hands and made his eyes pup-sized saucers. “Please. I miss her. And I want to show her my new coat.” He waggled his brow and mimed wagging his tail.

“Absolutely not!” I dropped his hands, shaking my head in disbelief. “She can never know what I did! Max doesn’t even know what I did! What if she panicked and told someone shifters were biting and turning people now? They would hunt down every last one of us and wear our fur like… like that monster—” I broke off in a sob that took us both by surprise.

“Whoa! Hey, hey now, shhh…” Evan soothed, pulling me into his arms, which I could feel trembling with his own memories of the man in the wolfskin cape. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scratch the scab off. You’re not ready today. Some other time...”

I pressed my ear against his chest, focusing on the steady thump of his heart to ground myself in the here and now. It was so easy to fall back into that subway car and get stuck to the blood-covered floor.

“I miss her too.” I hugged him around the waist until he grunted. “Every day. All the time. And I always will. But we have to let her move on with her life. We have to accept that we can’t be in it. For her sake.”

“Nope.” Evan squeezed me tighter, gently shaking me from side to side. “Uh-uh. No way. Transaction declined. I don’t accept that. And I’m not letting you.”

“I already did.” I clenched my jaw to hold back another sob. “Look, I get that you’re going to need more time, but relationships end every day, Evan. Things happen that people can’t get past, so they become each other’s past, and it sucks, but it can’t be changed.”

“Yeah, I get all that,” Evan snapped, pushing me back a little. “Believe me. But we’re not talking about our shitty families here, Elyse. We’re talking about Jayla.”

The door burst open before I could reply, and instead of remembering to jump away from Evan, the instant shot of adrenaline threw me up against him even as his strong arms yanked me there himself. And so it was that Sebastian found me all sweaty and rumpled with my heaving breasts smashed up against my handsome best friend’s rippling pecs, locked in place by his rock hard biceps. A mortifying situation for anyone whose ex couldn’t seem to grasp the concept of a male whose entire identity wasn’t wrapped up in possessing a female, but one that was made a million times worse for the three of us by the fact that Sebastian wasn’t wearing a shirt.

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