“Give me a hand.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. Not able to resist, even given the circumstances, he pulled her strong body up against his own. Maybe he needed reassurance she breathed, maybe he simply needed to feel her. Either way, she didn’t seem to begrudge him the moment.
Finally, he let her go.
“We need to get to Tristan.”
Parker took her shoulders. “No. You need to tell me what happened to you. A white light exploded out of the box and unless I’m imagining things it went right into your body. Are you okay?
Explain what’s going on.”
“I can’t, Parker. I’m asking you to trust me. Can you do that?”
He ran a hand through his hair. The woman was going to be his undoing. When this was over he was getting a whole new slew of tattoos to remind himself to be patient. “For now.”
She brushed her lips against his. “Thank you.”
Then she was running. He had to give Angel credit, when she was on a mission, she moved fast.
He caught up with her as she reached Tristan.
“Little sister, I realize this has been a terrible time for you to join the pack. But I’m afraid this is our life. We are always under attack. I need you to get yourself back to the mansion with the women and children.”
Angel shook her head. “You can ask Parker. I’m not really a stay-in-the-mansion kind of girl. But that’s not why I’m here.” She took a deep breath. “I opened the box.”
“You did what?”
Parker took a step forward to be closer to Angel. He knew Tristan was okay but he didn’t want him yelling at her.
“I had to. Tristan, this whole thing—leaving New Orleans, running away, finding Parker, coming here—it’s been like chaos for me. Only Parker was peace for me.”
He felt the same way about her. In the stream of endless mess, Angel was a bright and shiny existence.
“That’s nice, sister, but I’m afraid that I’m a little busy…”
She held up her hand. “Let me finish. Then I got hit with this bright light when I opened the box.
Suddenly everything made sense. I could see all of it. Dad is making his miscreant wolves using what is now inside of me. Mom hid it from him in the lake but he managed to get some of whatever it is before she could. But now it’s in me and it’s my gift to you. It’s how you’ll beat him.”
“Angel, I don’t want that responsibility. What if I do something really bad with it?”
Parker had to speak. “She’s right. It’s because you don’t want it that you should have it.”
“Give me your hand, Tristan. Our ancestors want this done. It’s enough already.
When Dad comes back—when he comes himself—you’ll finally be able to beat him.”
Tristan blinked and Parker wondered if he was still going to refuse. At last, he held out his hand to Angel.
“Parker, you too. You’re my mate, part of me. I need you for this.”
Parker stepped forward. Even when he’d lived on Westervelt, they hadn’t been royalty. It seemed a little bit strange to be part of some mystic ceremony involving the Kanes now.
Tristan regarded him silently. “I don’t hold to ceremony, Parker. Every member of my pack is as equally important to me as any other member. The days of my father’s rankings are long behind us.”
He placed his hand on top of Angel and Tristan’s. “Can you read minds too, my Alpha?”
“I wish. Then I would at least know what Cullen talked about most of the time.”
The laughter in Parker’s soul stopped abruptly as a slew of images he’d never seen before crossed before his eyes. Generations of wolves crossed before his vision like they were really there with them. He gasped as one woman stared at him with what he would swear were his mothers eyes.
All of them turned to look as they crossed in front of them.
“What’s…”Parker barely got the word out before the scene changed. As the world revolved around them, it felt like Parker, Angel, and Tristan stood still. Voices that sounded like whispers bled into his ears. He couldn’t make out one word from another.
“It’s going to happen now. The power is going to transfer from me to you, Tristan.
With Parker as my strength, I’ll be able to handle the task.”
The first thing Parker realized was his hands burned. He looked down at them as he tried to make sense of what happened. For a person who hated the mystics, he was rapidly approaching his limit. But he would handle anything that Angel needed and that included this craziness.
Tristan gasped, his wolf eyes getting huge. “Wow. I can feel the entire pack and I mean the entire pack. The ones who have passed, it’s like part of them is now inside of me. I can feel the members of the pack who are still lost to us, who haven’t come home yet. I don’t know them but I can feel their souls reaching out to me.”
“Tristan!” A yell sounded, pulling all of them back into the here and now. Angel staggered as she let go of Tristan’s hands.
Parker caught her before she fell, pulling her against him until their bodies were pressed into one another.
“You okay?”
“I think the magic really sucked the heck out of my energy.” She blinked a few times. “But the good news is that whatever mojo was happening with that box has left me now. I’ve officially transferred it to Tristan where it belonged.”
He sighed, as he stroked her dark hair. “Good.”
“I don’t think I could have gotten through this without you.”
He leaned down to kiss her forehead. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m never leaving, isn’t it?”
Angel blinked a few times again. He really needed to get her back to where she could get some rest. Unfortunately, the scream that had jerked them back from magic reality to the present continued.
There were strange looking wolves everywhere. They didn’t smell right and the Westervelt wolves were battling them.
“Come on sweetheart, I’m taking you somewhere safe.”
If such a place existed. He wasn’t sure it did anymore.
“I’ll go anywhere you want, Parker, but I don’t think we can leave Westervelt. We belong here; you can feel it, like I can, can’t you?”
His wolf smiled. He could feel it. And once he got his mate away from all the action she was too drained to handle, he was going to enjoy shifting and showing these funny smelling wolves what he thought about them messing up his newly rediscovered home.
In two swift moves, he scooped Angel up in his arms.
“I’m your wolf, Angel. Wherever you want to go, I’ll go. But, yes, I can feel it. We belong here.
We belong in this fight.”
He was Parker Liberty and he’d finally come home.
Chapter Thirteen
Angel stepped into the truck stop diner feeling quite differently about it than she had the first time she’d arrived. It was technically closed for the night but Parker still had a key so they were able to get inside.
She grinned at her mate, who stood so tall and proud next to her. He’d come a long way since the last time he’d been here.
“Are you planning on showing Bob your newfound voice while we’re here?”
He shook his head. “I think it might freak him out too much and after everything he’s been through, I think its best we leave well enough alone.”
Angel had called Bob the day before to tell Parker’s former employer they’d be coming back to pick up his things. After that, it was a quick trip down to New Orleans to get what remained of her stuff out of storage. Then they were going back to their pack in Maine. It had only been one day since they’d left them and already it felt like a gaping hole in her soul to be away from her family. How had she thought she could be pack-less?