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My first look at an alien world was curiously anticlimactic. The cars rumbled out onto a wide green plain, grass spreading out as far as the eye could see, a forest of trees on the horizon. A large mine site broke the flat expanse, trucks moving in and out, a sprawling camp set up around it.

“That’s the gold mine that keeps Sanctuary kicking along,” Shaun said. “Gold is nowhere near as rare in this world as it is in ours. We have to be careful, since selling too much of it devalues the price in our world, but we’ve gotten pretty adept at keeping a healthy balance.”

“Cool.”

I couldn’t say too much, my hands curling into fists, my spine feeling like it’d become a steel rod.

Shade moved, his hand edging closer before he wrapped his around mine, dwarfing it with his massive one.

My eyes slid sideways, and I saw him looking at me through that long black hair, his amber eyes blinking slowly, but the moment was broken when Shaun slung his arm around my shoulders, ruffling his fingers through my hair.

So I wasn’t sure what I was expecting as we drove.

My eyes roamed across the landscape, looking for some sort of sign of what, alien life?

I saw some tall, slender antelope-like creatures cropping the grass, their fur a strange lavender grey colour, but apart from that, it felt like we could be anywhere.

Until we reached the shrine.

The massive stone carvings of two wolves flanking the road in alerted me to our arrival.

Both were heavily worn, the porous texture of the rock revealed from the long time they’d obviously spent exposed to the elements, but she was carved from a chalky white stone, he from a deep black one.

They watched us drive between them with eyes made of coloured glass, the shrine having been built within a forest.

Trees surged up at the wolves’ backs, providing a wall between the outside world, one we were about to pierce.

The drive got bumpy, the road paved with cobblestones that tree roots and age had begun to lift or dislodge, but I didn’t care.

I twisted and leant forward as far as I could within the seatbelt’s constraints, peering at the massive canopy of tree branches above us, plunging the car into gloom, the brightly feathered birds and little critters that went scuttling back, and the stone carvings.

Women with wolves at their sides, men with the same, they’d been carved and placed at regular intervals alongside the road, almost a captive audience to our passing, but there were bigger works, some shrouded by vines, out in the undergrowth. Then we came to the end of the road.

A large circular mosaic had been made as a kind of ceremonial entrance to the building that hulked behind it, my eyes following the pattern formed on it, somehow feeling like I knew its rhythms before I even caught sight of the whole thing.

Shaun chuckled when we pulled up, my hand releasing my seatbelt, and I was almost clambering over him to take a closer look.

It was Shade who opened his door, taking my hand and leading me out onto the polished stones.

He smiled then, a truly pleased, free thing, something I hadn’t seen yet and also hadn’t seen for so long. He grabbed me around the waist, hauling me in close, our bodies falling into a pose we somehow both knew. Then we moved.

I couldn’t even tell you how we danced, just that we did, in a series of spinning, flaring steps that took us away from each other, only to be drawn back again, and I knew the retreat and re-joining had meaning to it.

Shade’s eyes flared green with every return, becoming brighter and brighter, until finally, his grip around my waist tightened, not letting me go any farther, a low growl escaping him when I tried.

I wasn’t scared, not at all. When he stared down at me with alien eyes, held pinned to his chest, I knew there was nowhere else I’d want to be, in this life or the next.

“You’ve been touched,” Flora said, eyeing the two of us and then nodding. “That why you came running to missy here’s side?”

“I…carry her inside me,” Shade replied, going to pull away, but I held him fast.

“All of the hers, I’m guessing.” Those rheumy eyes seemed to catch everything, but she let out a long sigh, then shook her head.

“More boys being born with gifts. That’ll put the cat among the pigeons with those so-called matriarchs.

” She turned away from us, walking towards the building behind us.

“Most wouldn’t know the first thing about what that means, they just know what went before.

Well, come inside, visitors, and let’s see what you know. ”

Sylvan and Kailee emerged from the other car, and surprisingly, Arelia was with them.

Our bags were dropped off, and the men in the Humvees made arrangements with Flora for when she wanted them to come back and grab us.

One leant down and gave her a long hug, and she patted his back before pulling away, then leading us all inside.

The building was massive, the stone here in much better condition.

A large archway indicated the entrance, and around it, hundreds of wolves and people ran across the surface of the stone, carved carefully into the walls with a degree of accuracy that was stunning because this place was old, really old.

I could feel it in the stones as we passed beneath them, as we walked along a pathway and into the front door of the shrine, and I could feel it in me.

It wasn’t until now that I really felt like those visions I’d had were real, because this place?

The architect who created that place, Oemis, they’d had a hand in this one too.

The graceful shapes they managed to coax from the stone, the plentiful mosaics, the carvings, it was all so very familiar, when it shouldn’t be.

Melville was full of concrete and timber buildings, like the rest of the country, and certainly didn’t look like this.

“Come, come,” Flora insisted. “You can inspect the place at your leisure, but let’s get you settled. I’ll need some sort of indication of who’s staying with whom. Your pack will stay in your suite, Bec?”

There was a slightly malicious twinkle in her eye as she asked the question.

“Yeah.” I looked around me, saw all the guys responded differently, from pleased, to pained. Ethan, I really needed to work out what the hell was going on with him.

“Kailee and I will share a suite,” Arelia said, placing a hand on her daughter’s shoulder and then looked pointedly at Sylvan. He just blinked, and it seemed to take him way too long to respond.

“I’ll stay wherever I’m welcome,” he replied finally.

“You’re always welcome with us,” Arelia said, her fingers tightening before she consciously released them.

“Staying with your family it is then. Come, come.”

Flora unlocked a big heavy door with what looked like a much newer lock on it, the hinges creaking a little as it swung open, and then there we were, looking inside the shrine.

A huge round room, the floor completely covered with mosaics, spread before us, the only light coming from the open windows.

They illuminated the brightly coloured stones, picking out parts of the complex imagery, but I walked across it, ignoring it in favour of something else.

There were two of them there, the great wolves, but I was drawn to her.

A massive carved wolf, smooth and as white as bone, sitting back on her haunches, looking down at the space between her paws, where candles and offerings had been placed.

Old flowers that had started to wilt, bowls of sweet-smelling perfumed water, small skulls and bones knotted on a string.

I stood before her, seeking those green eyes, unable to look away and not knowing why.

“You feel her,” Flora said, appearing at my side.

“You should hold onto that feeling. I reckon you’ll need that going forward.

” She glanced up at the statue. “She’s all of us combined.

The youth and strength of the maiden, her uncompromising power.

” When Flora looked sideways, she saw that Kailee had joined us.

“She’s the love and security of the mother, her compassion, her need to care for others, and then she’s me.

Old, seen too much, watched the same mistakes happen over and over, and feeling like you’re the only voice to warn against it. ”

She let out a long shuddering breath.

“All we can do is try not to repeat them. At least make new ones if we’re going to screw things up.

” She smiled. “Come, you don’t want to hear the meandering thoughts of an old woman.

Your mates are getting restless, not having accessed the bounties of your body for what, three or four hours?

” Flora winked and then patted my hand with hers.

“Let’s get you situated, far away from the rest of us.

I need my sleep, when I can get it, and this one isn’t to know about these things until she’s ready. ”

“Flora…” Kailee whined, just like any other kid, but the woman steered the little girl towards one of the doors at the back of the room.

“Your time will come, when you’re of age. Don’t be in any great rush.”

I didn’t know what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it.

The rooms were all big and airy, despite being made of heavy stone, long trailing curtains used to screen off or reveal the large open windows.

It was definitely a living space that seemed a part of nature, because as we stepped into the massive room, complete with a huge multi person bed, the cool breeze coming from between the trees and the sounds of the birds floated in.

“So…what do we do?” I asked Flora when she escorted inside, and she just smiled.

“You know this already. You just want someone with wrinkles on their face to tell you, to make it sound official.” She wrapped both hands around her cane and then peered up at me. “What does your heart, your mind, your beast tell you? What do they whisper on the wind?”

“Connect.” The word was out of my mouth before I could even think twice.

“Connect,” she agreed with a nod. “So off you go.”

She shut the door behind her, left me to face the lot of them down, my pack, my men’s faces looking curious, expectant, hungry, and worried in turns.

“Connect, right…” I mumbled to myself. “Apart from fucking, how the hell do I do that?”

“I know,” Shade said, confident at first, then as he looked at the group, some of that surety evaporated. “At least I think I do.”

He turned to look out the window, the rest of us moving to follow his gaze, and out there, in the trees and the statues and the mosaics, was a dais, barely touched by leaves and debris, unlike everything else around it.

Behind it was another Great White Wolf, carved mid stride, standing ready to stroll off through the garden, it appeared.

It was an echo, I realised. It was smaller, much less grand than the one in Oemis, and yet it would serve the same purpose.

Shade took my hand, squeezing it, making me realise he saw the same thing.

We’d stepped up to that dais, past me, so many past me’s.

Each time, we’d taken up position and then they’d moved in, stripping me down, readying me to either accept the goddess in or relinquish her again, into the next worthy person.

That bit, the next worthy person, made me frown. Whatever it was, Branwen or my Tirian, it twisted in my gut at the thought of that, sharp as a knife. Even as it made me gasp, I couldn’t afford to ignore it, something Shade knew when he stared at me. He just nodded slightly.

“That’s how we connect.” My voice was little more than a whisper. “Not just to each other, but to her, to all of it.”

“No,” Ethan said, backing away. “This isn’t smart, none of it.” He dropped his bag to the floor, edging towards the door. “You don’t know what the hell you’re asking.”

“So tell us,” Axel said. “I feel like I’m the only fucking one who hasn’t been visited by wolf ghosts of Christmas past and who has literally no idea what’s going on. Ethan…”

I don’t know how Ethan did it, seeing Axel’s arms spread wide, hear him pleading with that big, warm voice of his, but he turned away from him, from all of us, and headed for the door. Then I saw a glimpse of it.

Another echo, of another man doing the same to me, giving me the same sad-slash-angry look, hightailing it away from the room like he couldn’t bear to be around me any longer, the door slamming shut.

“It’s OK,” Shade said, appearing by my shoulder. “It’s all OK.”

“You keep saying that,” Shaun said. “I dunno about Axel, but right about now, I’d like some answers, not more questions.”

“One hundred and ten percent agreed,” Axel replied.

“You don’t need me to sit you down and tell you the story,” Shade said. “You’ll see it when you connect.”

“And what the fuck does that mean?” Shaun asked, but I pulled free of them all, walking out the same door that Ethan had.

“Work it out between you, because I’m going after him,” I shot back at them, right as I strode out the door.