Page 18 of Planet Wolf

He was right, and something deep inside me knew it. I forced myself to swallow. “I gave you guys fake names in my head and… I’ve been feeling really lost… lonely, without you.”

Alfie’s gentle hold tightened a bit then he pulled me up against him, chest-to-chest. “Oh, Esther. Me too. So much. I’m the one who lost you. Not on purpose. I thought they were going to help you, and then you were gone. I’ve been the same as you. Lost. Lonely. Not okay. Not until right now.” He pressed his forehead to mine in a familiar manner. “What did you call me, out of curiosity?”

I closed my eyes and just breathed him in. Being his mate was ridiculous, wasn’t it? “Doctor. Or Doc, sometimes, for short. Are you that?”

“We’d say Healer, but yes. It’s close. Thatiswhat I am.” He took an audible breath. “And your scent is getting stronger by the minute. You’ve worn yourself out. Somehow you were stronger when we were in the middle of nowhere. Interesting. What is it that’s wrong with you? I couldn’t ever really tell.”

I shook my head. “Can that wait? It’s such a long answer. And this is so nice.”

He pressed my head against his chest. “Absolutely.”

6

It was funny, really, and not in a ha-ha way, which of his words sunk in and which ones still floated around in the stratosphere of confusion for me. I did, however, hold onto his proclamation that he missed me, too.

Somehow, that made what I’d been feeling so much easier to take. “You’re here.”

He hugged me tighter. “I’ve got you.”

“Hey, you two.” Hunter—Carl—came back over to us. “You okay? How did you get lost? Nose failing you, Cousin?”

Alfie groaned. “Very funny. Just talking for a minute. Don’t be jealous because I’m getting a longer hug than you got.”

“Oh, I’m going to get another hug. I’m going to get the longest hug of anyone. You wait.” He laughed. “Come on. Jadon might kill your cousin, Esther. Is he really running for office to lead?”

“He is.”

I was suddenly then in the middle of Alfie and Carl, each one on a side of me, and it was almost as though their energy gave me some, too. I sped up my walk a bit to keep up with them, and it wasn’t even hard.

“He has no business in leadership.”

That seemed like a funny thing to say. “How would you know that? He’s bright and brilliant. He’d be better than the Union.” That was when another truth hit me. “But you guys are aligned with the Union.”

“No,” Alfie interrupted. “We’re not. We were there to gather intel for leadership, for Jadon’s father at his behest. We do not align with the Union, though others on our planet do. They are traitorous pacts, and they are being dealt with, but they are not us.”

I let out the breath I was holding. “I’m so relieved.”

“I understand.” Carl grinned. “We thought we might have to convince you to switch alliances when we thought you were Union, too. And I’m sure your cousin is all those things, but he isn’t going to overthrow the Union. You don’t take down an entity like that with words and money. You take it down because that is what you do.”

That made no sense whatsoever. “I don’t think what you’re describing is possible. Of course you need to have speeches and words.”

“Maybe. But you really just need to have the will to do it.” Carl shrugged. “Trust me.”

“What was his name in your head?” Alfie asked me. “Carl’s? How did you label him?”

We arrived at a large house then which was near the governor’s mansion. Every light in the house was on, and we stopped outside of it. Were they staying nearby? I’d never noticed it before, but it was lovely—white siding and old Earth style. Beautiful, really.

“Um… Hunter. Because he was always getting the food.”

He touched his chest. “Is that how you thought of me? It fits.”

“He is what we would call an Enforcer. He makes sure what the Alpha ordered is done to standard. He runs any battles or violence that has to occur within the pack.”

I smiled. “The pack?”

“Our group,” Carl supplied with a half shrug. “Our family. For us, our roles in the pack aren’t just titles. We might all have jobs—like, in addition to being the Enforcer, I’m also an attorney. But the Enforcer is who I am. It helps define me. It’s part of my soul.”

I had to wrap my head around the concepts, and it was foreign.

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