Chapter Eighteen Welcome
Chapter Eighteen
Welcome
ELI
There are certain moments in life that push at the boundaries of established reality. That make you question what you thought was real and what was actually a construct of a broken mind.
Sometimes these moments sneak up on people, like dementia and Alzheimer’s, slowly chipping away at their mental fortitude, reshaping and destroying brain function over a torturous number of years.
Other times, these moments hit you over the head like a bag of bricks, leaving you with a ringing sound in your ears and a feeling of shock that’s difficult to comprehend as you struggle to rationalize why a UFO just landed on your farm.
This was one of those bag-of-bricks holy-shit-it’s-a-UFO moments.
There was no time to sit in the shock or process any of the hundreds of questions that exploded in my head. All I saw was the blood oozing from the nasty bite wound on Gabe’s chest, his skin hanging off him in tattered strips. My stomach clenched as it tried to empty itself.
I swallowed down my fear and clicked into “game” mode. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.” I said it like some kind of religious mantra. I yanked my shirt over my head and kneeled down next to Gabe. Something wet soaked through my jeans.
Blood.
“Holy shit.” I pressed my shirt down on the wound.
Gabe winced and gritted his teeth. “It’s okay. I’m going to be okay.”
“I… you… holy shit. I need to call the police.”
“No,” Gabe said, the word forceful.
“But you’re bleeding. You were bit by a wolf. You were a—holy shit, holy shit.”
Gabe grabbed my hand, the one holding the bloody T-shirt, and squeezed it.
“Look at me, Eli. Breathe. I will explain everything, but for now, know that I will be okay. What you can do for me is run and go get either Emmy, Dylan, or Chris. Any of them. All of them. Tell them what happened. They’ll know what to do. ”
“I don’t want to leave you here like this.” My voice shook. I looked out into the trees. What had appeared so relaxing now took on an extremely ominous edge. “What if it comes back?”
“He won’t,” Gabe answered, sounding confident. A thin crimson trail of blood continued to trickle down his side.
I shook my head. I had absolutely no fucking idea what the hell was happening, but I knew that the thought of even taking a couple of steps away from Gabe while he was in this state—half-naked and bloody and human (holy shit, holy shit)—made me sick.
My phone. “Let me call for help.” I grabbed my phone and nearly dropped it from how badly my hands trembled. I unlocked it and immediately cursed. No service. “Shit,” I said, rubbing a hand across my face and feeling something wet streak my cheek.
Blood.
Gabe started to sit up. The shirt fell from his chest. I went to grab it, but he put a gentle hand on mine. “It’s okay. Look.” He pointed at where the gashes in his chest used to be.
Key word: used.
His skin no longer looked like it’d been taken against a cheese grater. The blood was still there, but it was already drying a dark red.
“It’s part of being a shifter. Our healing abilities. I know it’s a lot, and this isn’t how I wanted you to find out.”
“A shifter?”
“Yes. Someone with the ability to change into an animal. My form is a wolf, obviously. We also—” He winced.
“Sorry, healing isn’t totally painless. But yes, there’s also our were forms that only happen on a full moon.
I’ll give you a full rundown later, but for now, I should get my clothes back on. ”
I blinked as if that would clean the slate and clear up some of the absolute and utter shock I felt.
“Go. Run. Find the guys and bring them here. I can fight now if the other wolf comes back.”
I stood up as Gabe leaned against a tree. I still didn’t want to leave him, but what other choice did I have?
“Okay, I’ll be right back.”
“Please,” Gabe said, suddenly looking up at me with an expression that could only be described as puppy dog. “Don’t run away. Please. I know this is all fucked-up, but I’m not a monster.”
I shook my head, my eyebrows knitting together. “That wasn’t even a thought in my mind.” Then, as if to prove it, I leaned down and grabbed Gabe’s face in my hands and kissed him. “I’ll be quick.”
Maybe I truly had lost it? Every warning sign blared, every red flag thrown on the field.
This man had the ability to transform into a wolf and end my life with one snap of his jaws.
He was something out of this world. A storybook character that had escaped from the confines of his pages.
I shouldn’t trust him. There were so many questions that needed to be answered before I could feel like I even had a slight grasp of the situation.
And yet…
I fully believed him.
Gabe smiled up at me, his bright blue eyes gleaming with the threat of tears spilling over. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” I said, returning his smile. “I’ve always been an advocate for animals. I donate to the ASPCA yearly.”
“Fuck you,” he said with a laugh.
I winked at him and took off down the path, hoping against all hope I didn’t bump into a hiker with my shirtless and bloody self.
Gabe really liked the color blue.
I knew this—not only since he had told me that first time we hung out in the coffee shop—because I was currently sitting on his navy blue couch, my feet planted firmly in his baby blue and white striped rug, a dark blue pillow on my lap.
I reached for the (navy blue) cup on the coffee table and took a long sip of the vodka soda Dylan had poured me.
“So,” I said, leaning forward and placing the cup back down with a loud clunk against the wood.
I still didn’t quite have control over my fine motor skills.
Apparently, finding out that magical beings lived hidden among us wasn’t really conducive to having a steady hand.
“You all are part of the same pack?” I looked around the room, seeing familiar faces but unable to reconcile them with the people I knew they belonged to.
Dylan, Emmy, Chris, Soren.
Gabriel.
All of them shifters. And not just them, either.
Two others had arrived at Gabe’s house roughly around the same time we had.
There was Yuni, a stern-faced woman with a gentle touch, who immediately went to check on Gabe’s no-longer-existent wound and gave him some pills for the lingering pain.
The other addition to the group was Raquel, who came in wearing a leather biker jacket, holding an energy drink in one hand and a perfectly rolled and fragrant blunt in the other.
“I think you could use this,” she had said, offering me a hit.
I vigorously shook my head. “The last time I smoked, I thought my lips had been permanently sealed by the Nutella I was shoveling into my mouth. I don’t need to get paranoid tonight.”
“Fair enough,” she said
“But thank you.”
She smiled, and instead of walking away to go light up her blunt, she had set it down and grabbed both of my elbows. I tensed for a moment, but the kind smile that crinkled her auburn-brown eyes made me relax. “You’re safe here.”
And after a brief moment to catch my breath and collect my thoughts, the group gathered in the living room to explain what was going on.
“Yes,” Emmy answered. He still had on our team jersey from filming.
The baby blue stripes fit in perfectly with Gabe’s furnishings.
“We are all part of the Burlington pack. I’m the alpha, so I take on most of the leadership duties.
Make decisions on engaging with other packs, ultimately make the decision on accepting anyone new into ours.
” His tone became oddly pointed in that moment.
I straightened in my seat as he continued.
“Not every shifter belongs to a pack or even has them. Hawk shifters, for example, are largely solitary people, scattered all throughout. Then you have the horse shifters, who have herds with a different hierarchy and territory system than us.”
I rubbed at the bridge of my nose. “And this is all real, right? I’m not being pranked? This isn’t some crazy hazing thing?”
“It’s not,” Dylan said, lips pursed. He scratched the back of his head. The streak of white across his eyebrow dipped with his apologetic expression.
“Holy shit,” I said. I covered my mouth with my hands and stared straight ahead at the drooping white orchid on Gabe’s bookshelf.
Waves of realization were hitting me, and that brought with them the tug and pull of an anxiety attack.
My brain had trouble connecting the dots here.
As if they were speaking a language I only had the thinnest grasp of.
I simultaneously wanted to bust out in stomach-tightening laughter or bolt through the front door and run out into the street, shouting for help.
Gabe, who’d been standing by the window, moved across the living room and sat down next to me. He squeezed my shoulder before rubbing the center of my back. “Do you need some time?” It was as if he read my mind. Or maybe my impending panic attack was that obvious?
Chris stood from the armchair. “This is a lot. We don’t all have to be here.”
“It is true,” Soren said. Dried blood streaked across the Bobcats logo on his jersey from when he helped get Gabe back to his car. “We can go.”
This was all so fucking insane. It didn’t make absolutely any sense, and yet I had seen it happen with my own eyes.
I watched Gabe transform from a wounded wolf to a wounded man.
And I saw that gruesome injury heal to a tiny crescent-shaped patch of discoloration against his tan skin within minutes.
This morning, I had woken up in one world, and tonight, I would be going to sleep in another.
I just had to accept that as fact.
And yet… I was the only non-supernatural in this room.
“No,” I said, forcing myself to say something. “Stay. Please.” My voice was shaky. I could hardly look around at the gathered group. Gabe didn’t scare me, but I wasn’t entirely comfortable with everyone else.
Not yet.
Gabe continued to rub my back. It was a soothing, grounding touch. He looked over at Emmy, who was already grabbing his coat. “You guys go. We’ll be okay. I’ll give him a crash course in shifters.”
“Call us if you need anything,” Emmy said. I lifted my gaze from the floor. Emmy smiled at me as he opened the door. “And Eli, welcome to the pack.”
Before I could refute anything—Pack? Welcome? I’m not one of you—he had left, the rest of the group following behind him.
The door closed with a quiet click. Gabe and I were alone.
“So,” he said. “What do you want to do now?”
I gave him a deadpan stare. He chuckled and bumped me with his shoulder.
“Let me refill your drink.” Gabe grabbed my glass and stood. “Tonight’s probably going to be a long one.”
I rubbed my face again and stretched, already feeling the stress of the day catching up to me. “You mentioned something about a hot tub?”