She blinked up at me. "Mother?"
"The moon. She watches over us, cares for us. She gave us the power to be of Her kind, of paw and claw, fang and fur. I don't know if I'd call it worship so much as it's just werewolf culture. It's what we're raised with. It's so embedded in who we are that we don't really think twice about it."
"Like everyone referring to Christmas as a named day instead of December 25th."
I nodded. "Exactly like that."
She took a breath and held it, sighed, and ran her fingers absently over the pale pink scar on the side of her neck. I knew Hudson's bite well. I'd taken it a few times. It just didn't leave a mark on another alpha. "So, I need to talk about the moon and puppies and... what else? To prove to this Meet that I'm right for the pack?"
"It's probably better if you don't talk at all. Since we're the accused party, we'll do what we can to protect you. We don't get someone on the judgment staff because we'd be bias. They're shapeshifters, all of them. Dragon, griffin, unicorn, and one of the big cat shifters. They're likely to be in their animal bodies to try to frighten you. But we can prepare you for that."
There was steel in her gaze when she looked up at me. She nodded, chewed her upper lip with her bottom teeth, and tightened her hold on me. "Teach me everything I need to know. I'll do everything I can to stay with the pack. I know it sounds crazy but I feel like I belong here."
I pressed my forehead to hers and gave her a gentle, chaste kiss. "It doesn't sound crazy at all."
Chapter 11
Sadie
I spent the night in Hudson's arms. Leo slept in the same bed as us, but he wasn't much of a cuddler. It turned out that he preferred to sleep at the foot of the bed in the shape of a wolf, just in case anyone broke down the door or something.
After all, Gabe and Xavion had never turned back up.
They also weren't answering their phones, which was just as worrisome. Hudson had called Tommy's aunt, the one who had summoned the Meet in the first place, but to no avail. Leo had assured me that kidnapping wasn't a common issue in the supernatural community, even when the Fae were involved in disappearances. It was much more likely that Gabe and Xav had simply been caught in another dumping of snow.
My cell phone only got enough signal to show us that there was possibly some truth to it. After all, the weather radar showed snow in the general area of the city. They'd gone back to put things in order for my packmates to take the rest of the month off. Collectively, they wanted to teach me how things worked and the whys of their culture.
Beyond that, I think they wanted to be sure that I was real. These men, these incredible werewolves, could have had anyone they wanted.
But they wanted me. Just me, plain old Sadie. And sometimes, I had trouble believing that I wasn't in a dream.
I awoke just after dawn, expecting to find myself in my old bed and at the beck and call of someone who'd found opossums under their porch and needed help getting them out. That, or another person who'd come across an entire den of rattlesnakes in their shed for the winter. My answer to that call had been to seek professional snake assistance. I wasn't about to tangle with venom-mouthed animals that didn't understand I was trying to help them.
Sliding out of the bed was difficult. Hudson didn't seem to want to let me go until I pulled his finger apart myself. Poor guy. I kissed his cheek and headed off to check on Tommy. The kid was still fast asleep, his blankets over his head. I noted that he didn't have a crib at the cabin, it was more of a cave. There was a heap of blankets, a thick mattress on the ground, and a curtain hanging over the whole thing. The windows were covered in the room, the sliders nailed shut. I didn't blame them one bit. He had a talent for escaping, obviously, and a tumble down the second-story roof wouldn't have been pretty.
It wasn't until I was halfway downstairs that I smelled the trappings of breakfast: pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Someone had brought real syrup, the kind that you get when you tap a tree, not a corn stalk. I hurried down the rest of those stairs and ran into the kitchen to find Gabe and Xavion in yesterday's clothes, completely safe and sound.
I flung myself into Xavion's arms, deftly aware of the hot, greasy skillet Gabe had his hands on. Xavion picked me up and gave me a gentle twirl around the kitchen. "Missed you, too. Stopped in to check on your little animal shelter, you know. You wanna see?"
That caught my attention. He put me down and pulled out his phone as Gabe turned and kissed me. I kissed right back, only to break away as Xavion flipped through his photo album.
There, among all the trappings and work I'd put into the rescue, was an entire army of staff. I counted at least six people playing with individual dogs, each working to make them as happy as they could. And gosh, the dogs! Bosco raced across the open acreage, his tail a blur as he chased some fluffy looking ball. Carrie Ann was fast asleep on someone else's lap,
