Shifter Bound by Leisl Leighton

Author:Leisl Leighton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Chapter 16

It seemed like a dream; a horrible, sad, dream. But it wasn’t. The pain and grief around her told her it was too viscerally real, a horrible aching bruise that wouldn’t heal.

When Bron and River finished settling Gabbie’s body, Iain and the others stepped forward, running their hands over Gabbie, touching, petting. Iain encouraged her to follow their lead. ‘It helps the soul to let go, to move on.’ It felt strange, but right at the same time, to touch the dead woman.

Once they were done, Iain let go of her hand, and with River and the other two Were, picked Gabbie up and carried her to the packhouse where she was laid on a large flat-topped stone in the garden, in a section she’d never been to before. Eloise knew she needed to let the others know about Cain, his threat, what he wanted to do, but she couldn’t seem to make the words rise up her throat, her lips stiff and unable to form the words.

Iain squeezed her hand and whispered in her ear, ‘Later. Grief first.’

She stared at him, wondering how he knew what was in her mind, but then others began to arrive and her attention was torn from future worries to the present.

Every new arrival stopped on entering the clearing and howled to the sky as they saw Gabbie laid out. She hadn’t noticed when River slipped away, but then he was there, arms full of flowers and blossoms from his garden. Bron helped him lay them around Gabbie’s body. The last ones, a few stems of kangaroo paw, he placed on her chest, her hands folded over it. ‘They were her favourite,’ he said.

Once that was done, Bron and River backed away to stand under a ghost gum. Iain led Eloise to stand beside them.

Every Were who arrived howled to the sky then walked to Gabbie to touch her. Once done, they joined the growing group, creating a circle around the fallen. They held hands, stroked arms, rubbed backs, nuzzled. Touching. Always touching.

Iain never let go of Eloise’s hand.

Finally, as the sun was setting with a blaze of furious crimson and purple, Jason, Skye, Adam and Shelley arrived. The moment Jason stepped into the clearing, it was like everyone breathed again, his presence a soothing balm. She’d never really understood the link between an Alpha and his pack, couldn’t quite comprehended the impact of it on every aspect of a Were’s psyche, but in that moment, she felt it as certainly as she felt Iain’s hand in hers.

There was grief there. A fury savage in its quiet certainty that this death would be avenged. But alongside that was warmth. Comfort. Power. Bound with a sense of familial love so strong it could never be broken. It tugged at her, threading through her deepest soul, winding itself into her heart, and she knew she could never do without this feeling. That if it was ever broken, she would not survive.

Iain’s fingers clenched tighter around hers.

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