Page 18 of Pucking Feral: Part Two

He glances back at me, hesitating again. "You're our scent match," he says. "And we're yours. However those bonds end up looking, whatever form they take… the bonds don't lie."

I look at Wraith, still lost in his dissociative state, my scarf fallen away from his face. Even in the eerie green light of the glowsticks, even with his sharp teeth exposed in that permanent skeletal grin that makes my inner omega whimper, all I see is mine.

"Good," I mumble. "Because I don't think I could leave even if I wanted to anymore."

"That's the thing about pack bonds," Thane says softly, shifting to spread more dry blankets around us. "Once they take root, they're almost impossible to break. They just grow deeper, stronger, until you can't imagine life without feeling that pull toward each other."

Pack bonds.

And love, I think, but I don't say it. Not yet.

Thunder rolls overhead, louder and closer, and I press closer to both alphas, shivering. I'm suddenly cold as fuck.

"Thank you," I murmur as Thane tucks blankets around me. "For finding us."

"Always," he says simply, flashing an exhausted smile. "That's what pack does."

Pack.

I roll the word around in my mouth, tasting it.

"Fuck," Thane mutters, drawing my attention back to him. There's so much pain in that single word, somehow. "He's really gone, isn't he? He's not even trying to cover his face."

His hand moves toward Wraith like he's considering trying to help, but Wraith lets out a dangerous rumbling growl. Thane backs off, settling in on my other side instead.

"Okay. So you're the only one allowed near him, I take it," Thane sighs.

"Yeah. He isn't doing well," I murmur. "Claire attacked him and tore his mask off. And he just... shut down."

Thane's jaw tightens. He's quiet for a long time again, then he starts unpacking more dry clothes and blankets from his bag. He spreads them around us, building a messy but functional alpha version of a nest. He reminds me of a gigantic, overly serious eagle with no sense of structure or design.

At all.

"Do you know why he looks like that?" he asks finally, not looking at me.

"A little, but not really," I admit.

"His stepfather attacked him, with acid," Thane says, voice carefully neutral. "Without lips or cheeks to keep food in his mouth anymore, they had to..." He trails off, gesturing vaguely. "They shaped his teeth so he could tear and gnash food instead of chewing it. Think he would've rather been stuck with smoothies, but he was just a kid. He didn't exactly have agency. And… he went feral, because of the abuse, and neglect, and all the trauma. Feral alphas have sharper teeth than usual as it is. So."

"Oh." I swallow hard. Every new detail I learn makes the horror of his suffering even worse. "Has he been in a state like this before?"

"Yeah," Thane says, dragging a hand through his drenched hair, pushing it back from his face. "Sometimes it lasts a few days. He always snaps out of it when there's a game. Hockey brings him back. It's our anchor. But with half the team in Canada and Valek having some kind of emergency… who the fuck knows what's happening with the game next week."

"That's your happy place, isn't it?" I ask. "As a team, I mean."

Thane chuckles, the sound rumbling through his chest. "Yeah. The ice makes sense when nothing else does."

I press closer to Wraith and his arms tighten slightly around me, just enough to know some part of him is still aware. Still fighting to come back to me.

"Speaking of Canada… have you heard from Plague and Whiskey?" I ask. "I have absolutely zero signal out here."

"Nope," Thane mutters. "Last I heard, they were stalking Valek at the hospital. Knowing those two prideful assholes, silence means something went sideways and they're figuring out a way to tell me without getting reamed out."

I swallow hard. "By 'sideways,' do you mean…?"

"Dead?" He manages a rough laugh. "Nah. I'd feel that through our bonds. Even when we hate each other, we're all connected. But they definitely fucked something up."

I know what he means. I really can feel it too, although not as much as he seems to be able to.