Liam’s jaw set a little tightly. Wasn’t he happy to see his friend? His brother?
“Give me a second.” I pried Liam’s rigid fingers from my waist, then walked toward August who seemed to burrow deeper into the wall behind him. “You came back!”
He palmed his buzzed hair, muscles twisting beneath his dark-copper forearms. “Yeah, but just for the ceremony. I deploy in a few hours.” His green irises eddied. “So you and Liam, huh?”
I looked behind me. Saw Liam staring at us, shoulders squared, expression stern. Was he still mad at August for having assumed he’d been involved in Heath’s death? Or was Liam jealous?
I took a small step back but felt a hard tug forward that destabilized me. I checked August’s hands, assuming he’d held me back, but his hands were shoved deep inside the pockets of his army fatigues.
Frank clapped, and I jumped. “We are all here, so let’s begin.”
A circle formed around Lucas.
August walked off first, and I felt him distancing himself from me like a mooring line stretching tight. What the hell? I returned toward Liam slowly, palm pressed against my navel.
Liam watched August, who’d situated himself across from us, arms crossed firmly, gaze sunk on Lucas.
“Are you okay?” Liam asked me.
I nodded, then added a smile when I noticed my nod hadn’t seemed to reassure him.
Lucas slashed one of his wrists. Crimson ribbons of blood leaked down the inside of his forearm.
“Your chest, son,” Frank said. “You have to slice here.” He tapped two fingers against his heart.
But Lucas disregarded his instruction. He walked over to Liam. “Take off your shirt, Kolane.”
A deep groove appeared between Liam’s eyebrows. “What are you doing?”
“I’m not taking this from you.”
“Lucas, I don’t-”
“Shut the fuck up and strip, man.” Under his breath, Lucas added, “Never thought I’d say that to you, huh?”
When Liam didn’t pull his shirt off, Lucas said, “Hope you weren’t too attached to this thing.” He yanked on Liam’s shirt and sliced through it with the razor blade and then shoved the limp material aside and carved a narrow slit over Liam’s heart.
I gasped.
Lucas pressed his wrist to Liam’s wound and then kneeled before his friend. “I pledge myself to thee, Liam Kolane, for as long as I shall walk the world in fur. Long may you live and rule.”
For a moment no one moved, and then everyone moved at once. Even though men shoved me to get close to Liam, to swap blood with their new leader, he held on tight to my hand, anchoring me at his side.
When it was Augusts’s turn, a hush fell over the room. He slashed his wrist, then pressed it to Liam’s rising chest. Rivulets of red ran down the carved planes of his stomach, absorbed into the waistband of his jeans, tinting the blue a dark crimson. August didn’t speak any words. I supposed words weren’t necessary for the magic to bind them together.
He tipped his head toward Liam and then left without so much as a passing glance at me. And again, I felt something tighten behind my belly-button, stretch thinly, coming close to snapping when his pick-up’s taillights vanished past the rusted fence.
“May you lead us well, son,” Frank said, gripping Liam’s shoulder and giving it a short squeeze.
The ceremony took almost an hour for everyone to pledge themselves. When it was Jeb’s turn, my uncle walked over, eyes and cheeks more sunken than I’d ever seen them. He shot me a pained look, then, trembling, he sliced his wrist and touched his blood to Liam’s.
“Thank you, Jeb,” Liam said.
Jeb’s lips quavered, and then his shoulders hunched and he retreated to the back of the room. Frank went to him. I watched them talk, watched my uncle cry as he nursed a reddened tissue around his wrist.
And then I stared back at Liam and pried the razor blade from his grip. He looked at me, at my fingers guiding the blade over my wrist. When blood beaded there, wonder shimmered in his umber eyes.
I pressed my wound to his slashed skin. His chest pumped harder as I spoke my own version of the pledge. “In fur and in skin, I belong to you, Liam Kolane.”
He didn’t smile, but he caught my wrist in his hand and held it there, against his heart. Something palpitated inside my chest, but it wasn’t my heart. It felt as though a link were clicking into place, fastening me to my Alpha.
He raised my wrist to his lips and kissed it. When he brought it back down, his curved lips red with my blood, I heard words in my head, As I to you
I blinked back tears. “I heard you,” I whispered hoarsely. “I heard you.”
His smile grew and grew, as did the noise level around us. The air vibrated with the thrill and significance of the moment we had all just shared.
My uncle’s soft wail snapped me out of my enchantment. I retracted my arm that was still stretched toward Liam and went to Jeb.
“Did you know what Lucy and Everest had planned?” I asked him.
“No.” The word came out garbled. “I swear I didn’t, Ness.”
Suddenly he hugged me, and I let him. I even patted his bowed back.
“I’m so sorry. So sorry,” he kept repeating.
And I believed he was.
“I’m so ashamed of what was done to you.”
Frank placed a hand on Jeb’s shoulder and squeezed. “You’re getting blood all over her pretty top.” The elder’s smile deepened his crow’s feet.
Jeb jerked away from me.
“Don’t worry. Evelyn taught me a foolproof way to wash blood out of clothing,” I said.
“Meat tenderizer mixed with water,” Frank said.
His answer had me gaping, until I remembered Evelyn’s earlier confession.
“Thank you for putting her in my life,” I told him.
Jeb frowned so hard his brow scrunched up. “Evelyn?”
“Mr. McNamara sent her to watch over me and Mom.”
“What?” Jeb gaped at Frank.