Chapter 23

ZACH

Zach sat on the couch, his eyes following Anna as she paced in front of him, wringing her hands anxiously. She hadn’t spoken for several minutes, and Zach finally broke the silence with a small sigh.

“Anna, please sit down. You’re making me dizzy.” He gave her a small smile, patting the seat next to him on the couch temptingly.

Anna paused her pacing and eyed him as if he had threatened to jump up and pounce on her.

“Fine,” she muttered, finally sitting down but on the other end of the couch so there was enough room to fit an entire person between their bodies.

“I just can’t wrap my mind around this. My mom, Dominic, what does any of this mean…”

“Don’t think about it right now.” Zach reached over and brushed a loose tendril of hair behind Anna’s ear, trailing his fingers over her cheek before he pulled away.

“We’ll be back to talking about it all soon enough. Right now, you need to try and relax a little.”

Everyone had moved back to Silver River’s building in the city, knowing it would provide the best security.

There was no question of inviting Dominic back to the den. He was still too unknown, too much of a threat. There were too many vulnerable pack members back at the den.

Now, they were just waiting for Jon to return from dealing with Blake Williams before they started speaking to Dominic.

Zach wasn’t sure what Jon had decided to do with the other alpha, having left the decision in his lieutenant’s capable hands.

Anna’s soft voice drew him back to the present.

“What will the rest of the pack think when they find out?” Her voice was so quiet, barely a whisper, that a human would have probably missed it.

Zach’s shifter hearing, however, caught every word perfectly. For a long moment, he didn’t answer, waiting for her to look up and meet his gaze.

When she finally did, Anna’s eyes were watery, making the green almost luminescent.

Zach felt her worry and insecurity hit him in the solar plexus like a powerful punch. He didn’t flinch, his expression remaining unchanged to ensure she remained unaware that she had hurt him.

He knew Anna hadn’t done it on purpose. She still didn’t know about the psychic link between them or how it worked.

She may have been aware that they were starting to share some of their feelings, but Zach would have bet that she had no idea how it actually worked.

For now, he was going to keep it that way.

Her lack of knowledge about the connection between mates meant he was able to read her feelings—and what she was thinking—and use it to his advantage.

It wasn’t exactly ethical, but Zach was learning that when it came to Anna, he was prepared to use every tool available.

Now, he turned toward her, cupping the side of her face with his hand.

“Anna,” he murmured, “none of that changes who you are, and the pack already loves you.” She didn’t respond but closed her eyes and pressed her face into his palm.

Her worry lessened but only slightly. It still sat like a dead weight in his chest.

“Do you think Theresa or Natalie would turn away from you if they knew you weren’t a full shifter? What about Piper? Or Mitch?”

Zach gave himself a mental high five when Mitch’s name came out without a growl.

“But it would be different if I was half human, and we don’t even know what I am. What if…”

Zach waited for her to continue, but she only bit her bottom lip, shutting her eyes.

“What if what?” he finally prompted, and after about a minute, she finally released a heavy sigh, opening her mouth to respond without opening her eyes.

“What if my shifter side is weaker than whatever the other side is? What if that’s why my wolf is gone? I don’t know how or why, but they orchestrated my birth and my coming to Silver River. I was created to be used against—”

“We don’t know that.”

“—Silver River, against you, which means there is ~something~ about me that is dangerous.”

“Anna.” His voice was a growl this time, which surprised Anna into silence as she blinked owlishly at him as if just remembering he was even sitting next to her.

“You will stop talking like this. Your conception has nothing to do with the present or the person you have become. In fact, you are who you are in ~spite~ of your circumstances. What I do know for certain is that you are a Silver River Pack member and ~you are my mate~.”

Zach knew that his wolf was staring at Anna through his eyes, and he wondered if he had taken it too far.

He waited for her to yell at him or to storm away again, but instead, Anna did something he least expected.

After staring at him in silence, gaping, she launched herself at him, her body colliding with his.

With her face buried in the crook of his shoulder, Anna tucked her knees in so that she was sideways on his lap and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, tangling one of her hands into the hair at his nape.

They sat like that for a long time, neither saying anything. Zach idly stroked a hand down Anna’s back from her neck down to her tailbone.

Eventually, he felt her body relax against him and go completely limp as she let out a soft snore. Nuzzling his nose into her hair, Zach smiled.

***

Anna was still sleeping when Jon entered the room thirty minutes later, raising an eyebrow as he took in the pair on the couch.

Zach ignored him, his arms tightening around Anna a fraction, unwilling to let her go.

“Where’s Blake?”

“In the city version of a dungeon—under guard in the basement level next to the laundry rooms. Steph and Dominic are outside; should I tell them to wait?”

Jon gestured over his shoulder toward the door, and Zach’s eyes followed the movement, contemplating.

“No. Let’s get this over with,” he finally decided. “I want to get back to the den.”

A few seconds later, Steph and Dominic entered the room, neither speaking. Steph sat in an armchair opposite the couch.

Dominic had carried in a chair from the other room, and he sat down and casually crossed one knee over the other. Zach noticed that Jon remained standing close to the doorway.

He was always vigilant, which was part of what made him an excellent lieutenant.

“We’ll need to decide what to do about Blake and Grey Wing, especially if they’re as scattered as Blake claims,” Zach began, “but for now, I’d like to hear your story.”

He stared at Dominic, who met his gaze unwaveringly.

“I said I would share it, and I shall, Alpha.” He glanced around the room, his eyes touching each of the lieutenants. “Wolf shifters are always so testy, and I’ve met a fair few in my time.”

Steph leaned forward in her seat to peer intently at Dominic’s face. “Your time? You can’t be, but you talk like you’re pushing one hundred.”

“That, I suppose, will be where the explanation begins.” Dominic rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Zach felt Anna tense up, her breathing changing.

“I am neither shifter nor human but a species that you have most likely never come across. Our kind has ensured that the world remains in ignorance of our presence.”

He paused for a moment, letting everyone process those words. As he continued, his eyes focused on Anna, although her own eyes remained closed as if asleep.

“We are immortals. We have been here longer than both humans and shifters, and we have abilities that neither kind would be able to imagine.”

“Immortals?” Steph repeated. “So, exactly how old are you?”

“I am considered young, merely five hundred years old.” Dominic shrugged one shoulder as if his age somehow annoyed him.

“Merely?!” Steph scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Shifters are lucky to reach a hundred and fifty, but here you sit at five hundred, looking like you’re thirty.”

“This is off topic,” Zach said. The room immediately went silent at the sound of his voice. “Dominic, tell us about the Circle.”

Anna caught her breath at his words, and Zach knew she would soon have to give up all pretense of being asleep.

As if on cue, she blinked her eyes open and stared up at him. Zach gave her a quick, reassuring smile.

She didn’t smile back but instead ducked her head, pushing herself off of him so that she was once again sitting beside him with plenty of space between their bodies.

Her cheeks were flushed, almost as if she had just realized the position she had been in, apparently too focused on the conversation before.

Shifters were tactile by nature, reliant on physical touch, but that was something Anna had been deprived of her whole life.

Zach was steadily introducing her to the concept of mates, showing her the good that could come from being connected to him and the pack.

Slowly, even if it was subconsciously, Zach believed Anna was becoming more open to the idea, and with each interaction, he got a little bit closer.

After each interaction, however, she retreated. The worry that Zach had been able to feel from her earlier was now gone as if her mind was completely closed off to him.

He mentally traced the psychic path that connected them, moving along it toward her, but at the other end, it was almost as if she had slammed a mental wall down.

He hadn’t even been aware she knew how to do that. Frustration burned through him.

Knowing it was a problem that couldn’t be solved right then, Zach turned his attention back to Dominic. He looked pensive.

“There are not a lot of my kind. We live a long time, and after a while, there is a possibility of turning…what is the shifter term for it? Feral?”

He waited for Zach to nod in understanding before continuing.

“After being alive for so long, the chances of going ‘feral’ grows exponentially. However, our version of feral is more devastating than what shifters would be used to.”

“Because of your abilities?” Jon asked, his brow furrowed in thought.

“Correct. We can control the elements: wind, fire, earth, or water. Most only control one, but some are gifted with more. There is also a range of psychic abilities: telekinesis, shapeshifting, telepathy, to name a couple.”

“So, you obviously have telekinesis and can control wind?” Steph asked, her gaze intent on Dominic.

He smiled at her. “Very observant, yes.”

“What can you shift into, then?”

He gave a casual shrug, still smiling. “Anything, and all immortals have that ability.”

Jon gave a low whistle, looking at Zach. “Well, shit. I’m guessing the next thing you’ll tell us is that the Circle are immortals.”

Dominic gave a heavy sigh, clasping his hands together as he sat back in his chair.

“Yes, they are. I was charged with investigating their activities; our kind believed them to be soulless or feral. I have discovered that is not so.”

Zach tapped his fingers on his thigh, ignoring the desire to pull Anna to his side and wrap an arm around her.

Her mind had been open to him since they had met, and now, this dead silence was rubbing his wolf raw, distracting him when he needed to focus the most.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” he commented. “Isn’t it good they aren’t soulless?”

“It is. But it would be a much simpler matter if they were soulless because then the group could have been simply eliminated. However, they are proving to be organized and cunning. The Circle are immortals who believe that we should no longer hide. They believe that shifters and humans are inferior species that need to be exterminated.”

“So, what was their plan with Anna?” Steph asked, missing Anna’s flinch at the question. Zach didn’t.

Her head was angled away from the group so no one could see her expression, but Zach could see her profile, the furrowed brow and her teeth harshly biting her lower lip.

He was surprised he couldn’t smell blood with the force she was using.

With the barrier between them, he couldn’t comfort her unless he spoke to her aloud, and his instinct told him she wouldn’t appreciate that at that moment.

“My investigation has been slow, but my inquires have led me to believe that Anna’s conception was a direct plot against Silver River,” Dominic declared, setting both feet on the ground and sitting forward in his chair.

“How could that be? Nineteen years ago, or even more, we had barely anything to do with Grey Wing. Zach, you obviously hadn’t heard of the Circle before?” Jon asked.

“No, and Phillip mentioned nothing of it, as far as I can recall.”

As Zach spoke, Anna looked up, meeting his gaze.

With a small gesture that the others wouldn’t notice, Zach motioned for her to move closer to him.

After hesitating slightly, she moved, as subtly as she could, so that her thigh was pressed against the length of his own.

Zach felt some of the tension leave his body, knowing she was allowing him to give her some comfort, even if she wouldn’t remove the shield yet.

“Something must have happened,” Dominic mused, “to come up with such an elaborate plot against one pack and then to decimate Grey Wing in revenge like they have. They feel as if they have lost control over Anna and, therefore, lost whatever plans they had for her.”

“I don’t understand any of this!” Anna burst out, speaking for the first time. Her hands clenched into tight fists in her lap, and Zach placed a hand over one of them.

“How could they have used me? I’m not a shifter and not an immortal, whatever that means. I don’t have powers; I don’t have a wolf. I’m basically a human!”

“Anna—” Dominic started.

“Natalie told me I would have died if I hadn’t been transferred to Silver River, so none of this makes sense. ~None~.~”

Before anybody could say anything, Anna snatched her hand out from under Zach’s and stood, striding from the room. Zach watched her go along with everyone else before turning back to Dominic.

“Let’s give her some space. Please continue; I’ll fill her in later.”

Dominic gave a quick nod, his eyes still on the door that Anna had walked through.

“There have been no documented hybrids of immortals and shifters before, so everything about Anna is new. I took some memories from Blake Williams’s mind at the warehouse for the sake of convenience, so I know what was done to Anna during her childhood.

“Until I can convene with the elders, I must assume that her being blocked from any kind of psychic contact, shifter or immortal, has restricted the growth of her abilities. As a plant needs sunlight and nutrients to grow, those of both shifter and immortal blood need the feedback a psychic connection can give them.”

“She says it’s been years since she’s shifted. Do you think she even has a wolf anymore?” Steph asked quietly, looking at Zach out of the corner of her eye.

Dominic shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I do not know enough about shifters to give you an answer. I do not even know if she will develop immortal abilities. The people who raised her did her a great injustice.”

“Who was her father? You said he was your brother?” The question came from Jon.

Dominic immediately scowled, looking away from the group.

“Caius. He was a part of the Circle, having a direct hand in the taking of Anna’s mother. I was not there, but according to the records, he was executed for his crimes not long after the Circle, and Anna’s conception, was discovered.”

“You say that like you’re not sure.” Zach stared at the immortal impassively.

Dominic stared back, obviously trying to decide how much he wanted to say.

“I have reason to believe that one of our elders is a member of the Circle. I am not sure who, so I cannot act on the information. It also means that I cannot believe anything they say until I know for sure they are trustworthy.”

Zach opened his mouth to ask something else, but before he could, Alex started speaking through their mind-link.

~Zach, you need to return immediately. There are intruders on our territory.~

~On our way.~

~“Steph, Jon, shift and run back to the den. We need everyone else in the vehicles. Dominic, we’ll continue this later.”

Knowing the lieutenants would follow his orders quickly, Zach left the room without another word to quickly find Anna.

~What happened?~

~Someone’s out there with tech that’s messing with our surveillance systems. The den is completely blind.~

~Humans again?~

~We did a sweep, and we can’t find anyone, human or otherwise. My instincts are telling me there’s someone out there, someone dangerous.~

Knowing that Alex wasn’t one to exaggerate, Zach trusted his second’s instincts. Feeling a shift in the air behind him, Zach stopped. Looking over his shoulder, his eyes met Dominic’s.

“Let me come; I can help.”

“We haven’t reached that level of trust yet,” Zach said, turning away again.

“It isn’t humans or shifters.”

At Dominic’s words, Zach turned back to him, scowling. “How would you know that?”

Dominic only tapped his head.

“That tells me nothing.”

“Give me a little bit of trust. I would like to provide Anna with the family that she was always deprived of. I know”—he carried on quickly when Zach opened his mouth to interrupt—“that you are her mate, her pack, but she deserves to know about her immortal side and what that means for her.”

Zach considered him for a long moment before giving a short nod and turning around and walking forward.

Dominic followed close behind.