Moon Touched (Zodiac Wolves: The Lost Pack #1)(32)

More? “I thought we spent most of our time nude."

Stella grinned over at me. "That doesn't mean we can't look hot the rest of the time."

She also made sure I had some underwear, bras, and socks, then handed the clerk her credit card. I shoved aside any guilt I felt. It was Kaden’s money, and for locking me up and his bad attitude, I should make him buy me this whole store.

I reached out to pick up the bags, but Stella tutted at me, shooing me away. She jerked her head toward Clayton and Jack, who had followed us into the store. They exchanged a glance but came forward anyway.

“Make yourselves useful,” Stella said, shoving the bags toward them. I opened my mouth to protest but stopped at the grimaces on their faces.

I hid a smile. The exchange reminded me of how Mira would interact with the Cancer pack. Stella was a lot like Mira, at least in character. Physically, they looked nothing alike, but something made me feel at home with Stella.

Thinking of Mira brought a pang of loneliness. I wondered if there was a way to get word to her that I was safe, and that I hadn’t been brutally murdered by Jordan or the Leos. She must be worried sick, even as she adjusted to her new life in the Pisces pack. I imagined her reaction to me telling her I'd been taken in by the lost pack—she'd never believe it.

“Ayla?” Stella said, and when I glanced over at her, the look on her face said it wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get my attention.

“Sorry.”

“It’s all right, you looked a million miles away. What were you thinking about?”

“Just someone I knew,” I said. "A friend in the Pisces pack. She last saw me half-dead at the Convergence and I'm sure she's worried sick about me. Is there any chance I could send her a message?"

"No, sorry." Stella's face was somehow both sympathetic and unwavering. "We can't let you contact anyone outside the pack. For our own safety, you understand."

Damn. I'd suspected that would be the case, but I had to try. "So I guess a new phone is out of the question too?"

"After you join the pack, you can have one. Until then, we can't risk it."

Back outside, a small bundle of motion ran past my feet, and I jumped out of the way automatically. Then I gaped as several wolf pups ran past and tumbled over one another in the grass, growling and nipping playfully at each other. Wolf pups? How was it possible?

“Boys!” Stella said, almost sternly, as if this was completely commonplace to see young wolves running around. “They’re some of my students,” she added, noting my look and misunderstanding it completely. “I’m the kindergarten teacher in Coronis.”

I couldn't seem to pick my jaw up off the floor as I watched them play. “It’s not that. How did they get their wolves so early? I’ve never seen shifter wolf pups before.”

"Oh, right. I forgot you grew up in the Zodiac Wolves." Stella gave me a slightly pitying look. “We don’t need the Convergence to get our wolf forms. Or our mates, for that matter."

“How do you get them?”

“It happens naturally,” she said with a shrug. As if it was just that easy, as if I hadn’t been hoping and praying for it ever since I knew what it meant to have a wolf. “Most of us shift the first time when we’re toddlers.”

“That’s incredible. The years of training you must have…” I trailed off. “And mates? How do you find one without the Sun Witch spell?”

“When we become adults, we can sense if someone is our mate when they're nearby, as long as we're both shifted. Or so I'm told, anyway. I don't have a mate yet."

I couldn't believe it. I'd wondered how the Ophiuchus pack found their mates, but I'd never imagined it was all so...simple. What made them so different from the rest of the Zodiac Wolves, that they didn't need the help of the Sun Witches?

That train of thought led me to another. "What about the Moon Curse?”

“The what?” Stella asked.

For a moment I thought she must be messing with me, and I looked at her face, trying to find a hint of humor or any indication that she wasn’t being truthful. All I saw was vague confusion.

“The curse that makes shifters go mad at the full moon?” I asked slowly. “The Sun Witches have to bless us at birth to make sure that won’t happen.”

The confusion became a full-on frown. “That sounds like some sort of fairy-tale. Who’s telling you these sorts of things?”

"It's what we're taught our entire lives," I said, my voice a little shaky. "The Sun Witches bless us as babies, and then they unlock our wolves and help us find our mates when we turn twenty-two."

Stella spread her hands. "I'm sorry. I don't know about any of that. Maybe all of that happened after our pack was kicked out of the Zodiac Wolves."

I nodded, wondering if that was all there was to it. Or maybe it had something to do with the rumors I'd heard that the Ophiuchus pack had bred with the Moon Witches long ago. I glanced over at Stella, trying to see some physical sign that she was more than shifter, but saw nothing unusual. If not for her Ophiuchus pack symbol, she could have been in any of the twelve Zodiac packs.

Before I knew it, we’d stopped in front of the grocery store, like my feet had simply followed wherever Stella had led me. I'd been so wrapped up in my thoughts, she could have led me right into the forest to the edge of a cliff, and I wouldn’t even have noticed. Everything I’d known my entire life was slowly being uprooted in front of me. The lost pack was treating me more kindly than my own birth pack had, and apparently, they had access to their wolf powers and mates without the aid of the Sun Witches. What kind of alternate world was I living in?