Page 71 of Found Objects

“He’s the alpha.” Cole nodded at Abel.

“No. He’s the second-born, and weak. We’ve seen a lot of alphas, Mere and I,” she told him. “And yes, in a few rare packs, there has been a second-born, a beta, who has stepped up and been fair and kind and a fine leader.”

Cole was listening intently to her.

“But not many. Betas are meant only to help a pack transition from one alpha to another, as you know but pretend not to.”

“Yes, but⁠—”

“I don’t know why you would ever even argue the point with Mere—he’s positively ancient, and he knows of what he speaks.”

Cole turned around to face me.

“I—”

She huffed out an exasperated breath. “If you think you can go even a moment more and not show this man what you really are, Merritt Baker, you’re a fool. You’ve let it go on too long as it is.”

“I need to explain first that⁠—”

“This is what happens when you stay in this human suit of yours too long. You forget that in your true form, everything is primal and you’re utterly present in every moment. You can’t feel what this man is to you right now because the part of you that’s feral—and carnal, I might add—has been repressed for an age.”

“You’re not helping.”

“I am, though. I am always in touch with my true nature, whereas you, my love, are not.”

“I had to change Friday night to kill two wolves, so I was in touch a very short time ago,” I pointed out.

“And I suppose he was standing right next to you when that happened?”

“No.”

She rolled her eyes. “Then you couldn’t very well have sensed the truth if he wasn’t with you,” she snapped at me. “Why are you arguing with me when you know I’m right?”

I was just as bad as Cole, postponing the inevitable. He was putting off challenging his uncle to be alpha because he feared the change and what it would mean for his life. I was afraid of what I could have if only I was brave.

“Please, Mere,” Cole murmured, his eyes as beseeching as his voice. “Show me.”

I took a couple steps back from him.

“Wait till you see, Cole,” Ondine said with a sigh. “He’s glorious.”

I shot her a look.

“What? You are. I thought so when I first spied you on the rocks above me as I lay spent, nearly drowned on the sandy shore.”

“Your retelling of that night gets more colorful each time,” I grumbled.

“So many men followed me from the ship, but that was of no consequence to you. Even now I can recall every moment of your great bloodstained jaws closing around my waist with more care than I ever remembered experiencing before that day.”

“That sounds like a good story,” Cole told her.

“It is,” she assured him, her impish smile making her eyes glow a bewitching sapphire.

“Watch the boy, in case he wakes,” I told her.

“He won’t. I can feel his exhaustion from here.”

I was ready.