Hell or High Water (Gemini Book 3) by Hailey Edwards

“Please, call me Cam.”
    “I’m Job.” His blue-gray eyes flicked to mine then back to the ground. “I’m an accountant.”
    “It’s nice to meet you, Job.” I stuck out my hand, and he hesitated before accepting. The zing of feral magic in his blood sang to mine, and I released him. “I’m glad you chose us.”
    A quick jerk of his head, and he eased nearer Nathalie. The tension left his shoulders, and his chin lifted a fraction. Touch was concern, approval, affection to wargs. As they huddled around me, skin to skin, it sank in that not only would Graeson and Dell—and others I considered friends—crave platonic contact, but the entire pack required physical reassurance from one another, and especially from their alphas.
    “You caught a chipmunk earlier,” I said to the quiet wall of muscle with his feet planted shoulder’s width apart. “You didn’t even slow down.”
    One of his shoulders rose and then fell. “I was hungry.”
    Shifting drained their strength at the best of times, and Graeson had ran them until their tongues lolled. Not to mention the magic of the ceremony, which had siphoned energy from them as well. Wargs required calories, lots of them, to fuel their hypermetabolism. The unexpected attack had derailed our celebration, but the food was already bought and the wolves would have to be fed soon. Even heartsick, they had no choice but to sate the cravings of their wilder halves.
    Shuffling over, he stuck out his hand, fingers splayed. “I’m Moore.” He grunted. “Mechanic.”
    Strong magic brushed my palm, and he went to stand beside Haden. That left one man apart, and he was as thin as he was tall. I counted ribs when he unfolded his arms from across his chest.
    The rangiest wolf of the pack was easy to identify. “You were the one who hung back to make sure the pack didn’t leave anyone behind.”
    “I’m Zed.” He thrust out his hand, bent so far over that his forehead almost brushed his upper arm. “I run a salvage yard. Or I used to. Guess I’ll be buying a new place now. At the rate Moore busts up cars, it shouldn’t take long to get a parts yard fully stocked again.”
    Moore growled at him without heat, and Zed shuffled between me and Haden until our upper arms were plastered together from the perspiration sheening his skin. With a shuddering exhale, he leaned harder against me, his heft knocking me into Nathalie, who rested her head on my shoulder.
    “Jensen is gone.” A profound sadness swept through me via the bond, but not a shred of shock. Their noses had already told them all they needed to know. “We need to see to his remains.” A tear leaked down my arm from Nathalie’s cheek. “Bianca is an innocent in this. We can’t hold her responsible for what happened here tonight.”
    No, that blame rested squarely at my feet.
    “Bessemer warned us about the fae hunting you. Graeson explained the rest.” Moore shifted his weight. “We all knew the dangers. We all have our reasons for taking the risk.” His large palm eclipsed my shoulder. “This wasn’t your fault.”
    “We never imagined this, though.” Zed dragged a hand over his mouth. “God knows we never imagined this.”
    “The thing that did this—” Job asked under his breath. “It’s the same monster that killed Marie?”
    “Yes, it is.” Braced for them to turn on me, for the accusations to start flying, I was stunned to silence when not one bitter word was hurled in my direction. “He’s got my aunt and my cousin,” I told them. “He’s going after my family. After tonight, that means the pack too. He’s punishing me for hunting him.”
    “I pledged to my alphas.” Haden jostled me with his elbow as he twisted to face the others. “This doesn’t change that for me or my wolf.”
    “Or me,” Dell called.
    “Or me,” rippled around the cluster of warm bodies. Each of them, every single one, supported Graeson…and me.
    Awkward was one word to describe standing there