Page 25 of The Sacred Wolf

She grinned. “I’m not surprised that you’ve figured out who we are. You must have heard of us, I assume from Mateo?”

“I’d say ‘heard of you’ is a bit of a stretch, but I know of your existence.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

“I saw you in a photograph that he gave me,” I explained. “A photograph that included you, him, several others, and… and my mother.”

At this, Sebastian seemed to breathe in a little of his drink and sputtered, but again, he was kind enough not to interrupt, which I appreciated.

“Yes, your mother was a part of our group, praise her,” Ayla murmured, eliciting “Praise her,” repetitions from Jasper and Monty.

I sighed. I had only thought I was exhausted before, but now I stood corrected. This was truly exhausting.

“To put it simply, we are loyal to the prophecy of Chann and Marrak, committed to restoring power to their descendants. A few weeks ago, our leader had a vision of a young, white, female wolf who bore the mark of Chann on her left collar when in her human form, and who would restore the power of creation to our kind.”

Suddenly uncomfortable with the hint of my clavicle peeking up from beneath Sebastian’s jacket, I pulled the shoulders tighter around me. “And you think that’s me?”

I knew damn well it was me, but how did they?

“We feel fairly certain. The uproar around your packs aside, we’ve been following you since the blasphemy in the park this afternoon, and there have been some… indications.”

I frowned, confused. How could following me today have given them any indication of what I’d done to Evan? How did they even know I was my mother’s daughter, for that matter? We bore a close resemblance, sure, but I’d been wearing my shades until it got too dark.

“What kind of indications?” I asked, genuinely curious.

Ayla smiled. “Our leader told us that this female had an overwhelming love of human movies in her vision. I heard your conversation about Spider-Man, and found it rather convincing.”

My mouth dropped open, and I sat in silence, at a loss for words. Spider-Man was my giveaway?

Didn’t see that coming.

“Were there any other indications? Maybe I’m just one of many movie-loving, uh,” I looked around, but no one was close enough to hear me, “wolves?”

“Well.” Ayla tipped her head demurely. “I don’t mean to be rude, seeing as you seem intent on hiding it, but you have the mark of Chann plain as day, right there on your left collarbone. And I assume your twin sister has the Mark of Marrak on her right?”

Could a mouth drop open any farther? Because I felt like my jaw had detached at this point. Sebastian nudged my drink toward me as if fearing my tongue would dry out before we ever shared a second kiss, which was something that had previously seemed possible this evening, but not so much anymore.

“Our leader saw both of you in the vision,” she added. “And the Goddess Leto. She got only bits and pieces, but it was clear what we needed to do.”

“And what was that?” I murmured, rocked by the idea that anyone else could have seen our meeting with Leto. I hardly believed it had happened myself. If not for the Evan-dence, as my tired brain now thought of him, I would have been sure that I’d been hallucinating. Confirmation from Kiana didn’t seem like it was coming.

“We needed to find you and protect you, of course. To ensure that you were returned to your rightful place at the head of our kind. You and your sister.”

“Head of our kind?!” I shook my head and slapped both hands on the table. “Leto just said we have to get along. I don’t even know if I want to be an Alpha.”

“Elyse,” Sebastian interjected softly, “I don’t know about any vision, but I know about Evan. Something important is happening here, and if these shifters can help us understand it, maybe it’s a good thing they’re here.”

Ayla looked at me pointedly. “Who’s Evan?”

Chapter Twelve

We rode in the car Sebastian had ordered in silence—a request I’d made of the Children because the combination of their syrupy voices and the subservient smell was simply too much all at once. Maybe handling the weirdness of the odor was part of proper Alpha training, but in my experience, Blaze’s five pups showed me less submission when I used to play with them.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only smell. My wolf kept twitching beneath my skin, not as if she sensed danger, but as if she wanted to sneeze, and I didn’t blame her. The Children seemed to carry their own cloud of patchouli and sage wherever they went. I wasn’t so sure it hadn’t just melded onto their pheromones.

I shifted in my seat, the discomfort stemming more from my companions than the plush leather. I wished Sebastian had been a little less forthcoming with the Children, but he hadn’t realized they didn’t know about Evan. Now that they did, whatever level of worship I’d thought they were exhibiting before paled in comparison. I was pretty sure that if I let them, they’d carry me around on a litter like Cleopatra. It was humiliating.

Somewhere between Midtown and the Plaza, I’d have to impress upon them the need for secrecy and discretion. Implying that others finding out about Evan could put me in danger seemed to have shut them down for the moment, but at this very second, Ayla was mumbling something that sounded like a wolfy “Hail Mary.” The words were inaudible, but the lyrical repetition marked them as prayer—that and the way she kept waving one of her necklace pendants around me in circles.

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