But Elizabeth didn’t let me go.
And I knew what she was trying to do.
She whispered, PackSonLove.
She whispered, you belong to us.
She whispered, we belong to you.
She whispered, i feel your pain. i feel your grief. we have lost. i have lost. but so have you.
She whispered, please do not blame us. please do not hate us.
She whispered, she should not have been taken from you. and he shouldn’t have been taken from us.
I let her pull me. I let her words flow over me through the threads. Through the bonds. The others heard her too. They heard what she spoke. Even Gordo, who raised his head in surprise, staring at Elizabeth as she tugged me closer. Somehow, he’d become part of this. Of us.
She reached her sons and her husband, her back legs bumping into Kelly, who didn’t open his eyes. She tightened her bite just slightly before she let go of my hand.
I heard the telltale signs of a shift, and Mark made his way over. Elizabeth sat near her husband’s head, leaning down and licking away the blood from his face. Mark sat next to her, his wolf large and imposing, the biggest out of all of them.
At least for now.
Because even though it’d only been a short time, Thomas looked smaller than he’d ever been in life. I didn’t know if it was death or the fact that he’d died a Beta, but he was diminished now. Less substantial.
Joe didn’t look different, aside from the way his eyes looked as if they filled were with blood.
But he felt different.
There was something radiating off him, something larger than he’d ever been before. I didn’t understand what it meant to be an Alpha. I didn’t understand what it meant to be wolf. To be connected to the territory like he was now.
I wanted to touch him.
But I couldn’t raise my arm.
He hadn’t yet moved away from his father.
Carter and Kelly lifted themselves up from Thomas. They stayed shifted and moved until they sat as Mark did, looming over Thomas. Mark sat at his left side. Carter and Kelly sat near his feet.
Elizabeth pulled away from her husband’s face and sat near his head, her leg pressed against his cheek.
Joe stayed at his right side.
They were deliberately placed around him based on their position in the pack.
They waited.
I didn’t know for what.
Until they all looked at me.
Except for Joe.
I thought about running away.
Disappearing into the trees.
Finding my mother’s body and lying next to her. I would close my eyes and sleep and when I awoke, this would all have been a dream. Even though there was pain, even though I could feel everything, this would be a dream because it couldn’t be real.