Chapter Ten

~ Remy ~

"Why don"t we all go into the living room and sit down and talk about this?" The situation was tense and I felt the need to defuse it. I wasn"t sure why, but I didn"t want Vanya to fight.

Vanya grunted, but allowed me to pull him out of the bedroom and into the living room. I pushed him into one of the chairs at the dining table and went to make a pot of coffee. I was pretty sure we all needed a minute to absorb everything that had happened.

Hudson and Yeri came out a few minutes later. I noticed that they sat pretty close together when they joined Vanya at the table. I just hoped he didn"t notice. Pretty sure he"d blow.

Once the coffee was ready, I gathered four cups and carried them to the table. I set the coffee on a hot pad on the table and then brought over the creamer and sugar.

When I sat down between Vanya and Hudson, Vanya grabbed my chair and pulled it closer to him and then wrapped his arm around my waist. The idiot was clearly laying claim to me, but grumbled if Hudson even glanced at his baby brother.

I so wanted to roll my eyes.

"So, the green glowy thing," I said, hoping to get this conversation started. "It obviously did something to all of us."

"Yeah, but what?" Yeri asked as he sat forward, resting his arms on the table. "I remember bits and pieces, but most of it is a blur."

"I"m assuming everyone in this room can shift into a wolf?" Vanya asked.

We all nodded.

"What else have you noticed? I know I have a stronger sense of smell and better eyesight. I can see clear as day in the middle of the dark, and..." He glanced at me. "Some things smell better than others."

I refuse to admit how warm those words made me feel.

"You"re taller," Yeri said.

"Taller?" Vanya asked.

Yeri nodded. "When you were home six months ago, I came up to your chin. Now, I barely hit the middle of your chest. I"d also say that you"ve filled out a bit, too. Your shoulders are wider."

I glanced at Vanya, trying to see what Yeri was seeing. Maybe I hadn"t spent that much time around the man before because I hadn"t noticed the differences.

"I...uh...I know Vanya is my commander, but I"ve always felt like we were equal even with different ranks. Now..." Hudson shook his head. "It"s like I have this overwhelming urge to submit to him because I can tell he"s more powerful than me."

Vanya sighed even as he frowned. "Do you remember that first night when we were bringing that deer back?"

"Yeah."

"After the green glow hit us, I woke up to a wolf eating the deer. When I growled at it, it scampered away and sat there in the shadows as I ate my fill and then I stepped back and pushed the deer toward it. I waited until the wolf was done eating and then he barred his neck to me. I can"t believe I am saying this, but I remember gently biting down on his neck, and then cleaning him before we went to sleep."

He glanced at Hudson for a moment before stating. "I think that wolf was you."

Hudson grimaced. "I think it was, too."

"In natural wolves its normal for there to be a pack hierarchy," I explained. "The strongest wolf leads with the others following. He"s the alpha wolf. It"s also natural for them to eat according to where they are on that hierarchy. The alpha wolves eats first since they are the protectors, and on down the line to the omegas of the pack."

"Can there be more than one alpha in a pack?" Yeri asked.

I squinted for a moment as I tried to remember every nature show I had ever seen. "I"m not sure."

"In any society, there always has to be someone at the top to lead and take responsibility, someone to make the final say in how things are done," Vanya said. "Sometimes that leadership comes in the form of a government, a president, a king, or an alpha wolf. Whatever he is, he protects and provides for his people. Or, in our case, his wolves."

"Are you saying Vanya is the alpha?" Yeri asked.

I"d say yes simply because of the power emanating from him. It surrounded him like an aura. Pulsing with life. Strangely, I didn"t feel threatened by it. If anything, I wanted to bask in it, wrap it around myself like a warm blanket.

Did the others feel the same way?

God, I didn"t even know if alphas were a thing in this situation. This wasn"t a Hollywood movie or a romance novel.

I wasn"t exactly sure what it was.

I jerked and jumped toward Vanya when someone pounded on the door. My heart had damn near climbed into my throat.

"Yeri!" The knocking grew louder and more insistent. "Yeri, wake the fuck up!"

"That"s Akio," Yeri said as he got up and headed for the door. When he opened it, my eyes widened at how pale Akio was.

"Thank god." Akio panted heavily. "There"s a wolf in my cabin."

Vanya stood. "Hudson, keep them safe."

"Yes, sir," Hudson replied easily as if he had done it a million times before, and he probably had. When he reached the door, he glanced at Yeri. "Stay here."

Yeri rolled his eyes, but nodded.

I whimpered when Vanya walked out before getting up and hurrying over to the window. I watched him walk to the cabin next door, worry eating away at me.

"Who was that?" Akio asked.

"My older brother Vanya," Yeri replied as he shut and locked the door. "This is Hudson. He"s mine."

My head whipped around so fast my neck cracked. Yeri was claiming Hudson? Vanya was not going to be happy about that. I wasn"t sure he could argue against it, not after what we had done together...twice.

"Tell me what happened." Yeri said.

"When I woke up, there was a wolf in bed with me," Akio explained.

"Carmine," I said simply because that was who I expected the wolf was. Considering what the rest of us had been going through, it made sense.

"I don"t know where he is," Akio explained, not knowing my thoughts.

I glanced at Yeri and gave him a small nod.

Yeri"s eyes rounded.

"Oh, uh, I"m sure he"s around." Yeri rested his hand on Akio"s shoulder. "Why don"t you come sit down? I"ll make you some coffee."

"Do you have any tea?" Akio asked as he sat at the table. "Tea calms me. Coffee makes me jittery."

"There"s tea in the cupboard, Yeri," Hudson said.

I turned back toward the window, anxiously watching for Vanya"s return. I didn"t know why I was so unsettled without him here. It didn"t make sense. I barely knew the man. I shouldn"t feel this connected to him.

And yet, I did.

When I saw Vanya walking back with Carmine, I hurried to the door, pulling it open. As soon as Vanya stepped up onto the porch, I threw myself into his arms. Yes, it was highly inappropriate and probably not a good idea considering he was my best friend"s older brother.

Now ask me if I cared.

That didn"t mean my face didn"t flush with embarrassment when I heard a very distinctive snort from behind me.

"Oh, I see how it is," Yeri said. "You can hug anyone you want, but I can"t even be in the same room with someone else."

I don"t think he was talking to me.

Especially when Vanya growled.

He fucking growled.

I leaned back so I could look up into his face, but he wasn"t looking at me. His blue eyes had narrowed with anger and he was glaring at his brother. It was a look I don"t think I had ever seen him give Yeri.

"Um..." I pressed my lips together as I glanced over my shoulder. From the jaw dropped expression on Yeri"s face, I was right. His brother had never given him that look before. "Maybe we should go inside."

I wasn"t sure I wanted whatever this was to be banded about for everyone to witness.

My brow furrowed as that thought led me to another one. "Do you think we were the only ones affected?" We were not the only ones in the camp. If the others had been affected like we were, we needed to talk to them.

I was terrified of what this all meant for us. It was clear that something monumental had happened and it had changed us—maybe not all of us, but some of us—and we needed to figure out how to deal with those changes.

"How many people did you say came up here with you?" Vanya asked.

"Ten people including me and Yeri."

"All of the cabins are full?"

I nodded before pointing to each cabin. "We put Brad and Margot in the last one so we didn"t have to listen to them. Levi and Olivia are next to them with Charlie and Cindy on the other end. Carmine and Akio"s cabin is on the other side of Yeri"s cabin."

"We probably need to talk to them and figure out if they were affected by the meteor like we were."

My shoulders slumped. "I was afraid you"d say that."

Vanya lifted an eyebrow as he gazed down at me. "Problem?"

"Brad is an ass."

I heard Yeri let out another snort in the background, and I knew why. I was underplaying how much of an asshole Brad really was.

"He kind of...uh..." I wasn"t really sure how to explain what had happened yesterday because I wasn"t sure what had happened. "Brad kind of got drunk and..."

I glanced at Yeri, hoping he would help me out here.

"Brad had one too many yesterday and he attacked Remy," Yeri stated.

The growl that came from the man holding me was not good.

I peeked up at Vanya to see how angry he was. The pulse throbbing in his clenched jaw did not reassure me.

"Charlie and Carmine got him off of me and took him back to his cabin," I quickly explained. "Yeri and Akio got me to the cabin and took care of me."

"It was really weird," Yeri added. "I mean, yeah, Brad is an ass, but he"s usually not that much of an ass. He kept demanding Remy stay sitting next to him after kicking me out of my seat. When Remy tried to get away from him, Brad grabbed him and refused to let him go."

Yeri was not helping.

I grunted when Vanya"s arm tightened around my waist until you couldn"t even pass a piece of paper between us. "Breathing is not overrated I can assure you."

"I"ve always suspected that Brad is in the closet," Akio said. "To the outside world, he"s a homophobic prick, but he stares a little too much sometimes. You know what I mean?"

I knew exactly what he meant.

I nodded. "I"ve thought that myself a time or two."

Or twelve.

"I think me and this Brad guy need to have a little conversation," Vanya stated. His nostrils flared as if he was trying to contain his anger. "He needs to understand who you belong to."

Say what?