“Betsy, princess.” He sat down next to her and took her hand. “Can you hear me?”
Her eyes fluttered open. Her gaze appeared glazed, but she smiled at him. “We could hear you. Loud and clear.”
“We?” She was really out of it. Did she even know what she said? “Who’s we?” He didn’t care what she said. Just the fact that she could say anything at all meant the world to him.
“Lucian, me, the entire group of wolves standing at the gate.” She closed her eyes and then opened them again. “You sounded so sad to me. Some of the others heard anger, but Lucian and I could hear the sadness. He says you won’t always feel this way, that they’ll be a time you’ll know the moon again in your soul and that the moon still knows you. You’re an Alpha wolf, chosen by the moon, given to me. She loves you.”
He took her small hands in his. “Sounds like you had quite the dream.”
“You would say that.” She squeezed his fingers. “I still don’t like what Lucian did, taking your choices away at such a young age, but he did love you. Told me you scarred him once during a training exercise. Left him a permanent mark across his chest from his shoulder to his belly button. On a full moon, before you could totally control yourself. He stood as a human, and you launched at him.”
“How the hell could you know that, princess?” He never talked about it. It was one of the humiliations of his training. Alpha werewolves didn’t go around attacking without thinking. The ability to remain human in his mind while looking like a wolf helped determine the power of the Alpha.
“Guess I must have had a hell of a dream.”
He kissed her knuckles, his heart in his throat. It was hard for him to believe, hard for him to choose a life where someone other than him had set everything in motion. The implications of all of the wolf myths being true were hard to take. .
It didn’t make sense. How could the moon have turned three wolves into werewolves? How could it all have started there? A wish and a moon and now they all had a destiny.
“Betsy.” He needed to say what was in his heart. “I would have chosen you, so you know that. If it hadn’t been anything to do with a true mating, with scenting you in a Starbucks, I would have still picked you. If we were two humans on the street, I would have crossed it to talk to you.”
“That’s sweet, Cyrus. I would have picked you too, but I would have been part of a crowd, I think. Rich businessman in New York City? I don’t know that I would have gotten close enough to you for us to make a decision like that. Thank goodness for true mating.”
“No. I think you don’t understand how observant and determined I would have been as a human.” It mattered that she understood this. “I would have found you. I would have picked you because you’re smart, funny, loyal, and beautiful. Because you have freckles over your nose. Because—”
“Cyrus, you must have been scared to death I was going to die. I’m so sorry you went through that.” She paused. “I love you. I don’t care what brought us together, okay? Fate or the moon or good luck.” She yawned. “I think I need a nap. But you have to do something for me.”
“Anything.” He’d move the mountains away if she wanted it.
“I want you to give this,” she tugged at the necklace he’d given her with female werewolf on it, “to your sister. She’s going to need it now.”
“I tried to give it to her once. She wouldn’t take it. The necklace was meant for you.”
“It was.” Her voice sounded husky. “But now she’ll take it. She needs it now.”
He took it from her hand. “I’ll give it to her if that’s what you want.”
“I’m going to sleep now. I’m sorry. I really want to talk more.”
“That’s okay, baby.” He had tears in his eyes. Shit, was he actually crying? He wiped them away. “You sleep. I’m going to watch over you. Always.”
****
“I don’t control the full moon any more than you do.” Beaux shook his head. “I’m sorry you’re still stuck here, but you’re going to have to shift with us. If Lake says she can’t be moved yet, then she can’t be moved.”
“What is going on with you and my sister?” It might have taken him longer than it should have to notice, but he had finally clued in. Every time his sister was in the same room with Beaux, one of the two ran away. That kind of uncomfortable didn’t happen out of nowhere.
“I think that is between me and your sister.”