“I hope you aren’t nervous, Eli.” Penelope said. “Whether its to do with the air or the land, my pack has been cursed with nothing but dominant wolves for generations.”

Finn raised an eyebrow at Penelope. “Isn’t calling it a curse a bit much?”

Penelope waved him off. “You’re not the one trying to manage a whole pack of you lot. Not to mention even the blow-ins are always dominants too, which leads to nothing but fights.”

Eli imagined if it was a pack of dominant wolves, that any other shifter would most likely steer clear. Even with Cameron and Quint next to him he was feeling the pressure from the other shifters around the table.

“It’s not just dominants that leads to fights,” Quint observed. “The first time Eli met my pack it ended with smashed furniture and pack members having to be dragged off of one another.”

Eli looked at Quint in surprise. He wasn’t aware that Quint knew the details of the first time Eli and Cameron had met, but, he supposed that was probably something to be reported to the alpha. Cameron and Oliver had been throwing fists at each other in front of party guests. Not to mention Cameron had been close to marking him, and Eli didn’t even know that shifters existed back then.

“I bet,” Penelope let out a hearty laugh. “If you weren’t mated it would be tough going anywhere at all without being bothered by wolves.”

Under the table, Cameron found Eli’s hand, and took it in his, offering a reassuring squeeze. Eli shifted a little in his chair, trying to unwind some of the tension in his body. None of the shifters were in anyway imposing themselves, and they were either listening quietly, or talking lowly. The plates had been handed out, and Penelope was encouraging them all to eat.

The problem was that it was very clearly faux relaxation. Cameron too. Even though his shoulders were technically relaxed, his gaze was sharp. Eli bet he was picking up on his unease, making it worse. The only two people who seemed genuinely relaxed were Quint and Penelope. Eli imagined that if Quint had decided to step into Jackson’s territory, that Jackson would try kill him.

Eli squeezed Cameron’s hand back, then pulled it free, picking up one of the tacos on his plate. “Thanks for the food,” He said.

Eli got the taco halfway to his mouth when he realised that nobody was pretending not to stare at him anymore, and were looking at him in open surprise. Even Penelope. He went still, glancing at Cameron for an answer, but he was busy trying to glare at everyone all at once. Did they not think he spoke English? No, that couldn’t be it, Penelope had been speaking to him. Was there something he was supposed to do before eating? But they had all started already…

Okay. Eli decided to stop paying so much attention to the wolf aspect and just pretend they were only people. When he did that, he was more annoyed than perturbed at being stared at.

“What?” Eli asked.

Quint let out a breath of amusement. “They’re surprised you can speak in front of them.”

“Why?” Eli could already guess the answer even as he asked it. “If you’re not a dom it’s a be seen not heard kind of situation?”

“Of course not,” Finn rushed out. Their eyes met, with Finn’s blue and openly curious as he looked at Eli. “We thought you’d be too intimidated in front of all of us is all. Penelope tells us how subs scare easily so we can’t be fighting or raising our voices in front of them.”

Jesus, did they think if you weren’t a dominant wolf that made you a child? Eli was being treated like some strange species. And if he was something new and strange because of the luna’s soul, as far as they were concerned he was just an average shifter.

Eli turned his face pointedly away from Finn, and all the other dumb wolves staring at him. It was irritating as hell. Because sure, he would act submissive for Cameron. But that was it. The rest of them could screw off acting like he was some helpless pushover.

“How long are we staying here?” Eli asked Quint.

“A few weeks,” Quint told him.

“And why aren’t we going home?”

“Because you’re in hiding. The hunters can scower your hometown for you, but they’re not going to look in another pack’s territory. Particularly not Penelope’s territory, there’s been one too many close calls for them to safely post any agents here.”

“Oh.” Eli digested that. He only remembered bits and pieces of the car ride here. At the time he’d been too distracted by Cameron’s mark driving him to insanity to coherently answer or listen to Quint. From Cameron’s reaction, and what Quint said, Eli figured that Matthew’s promises that Eli would be safe at the compound was a load of bull.

But Noah was still there, and his dad and Jenny would look for him once they woke up, but they were hiring Matthew… Eli grimaced. Why did it have to be so complicated?

“What about the rogue?” He asked.

“If he shows up, he’ll have a very bad day.” Penelope said. A few of the shifters exchanged smirks and nudged elbows together. She locked her fingers together and rested her chin on them. Her smile was wider than anyone else’s. “My boys haven’t had a good hunt since all those rogues took off, and we’re looking forward to another one coming to visit.”

The rest of the dinner was more relaxed. A considerable amount of tension seemed to ease from the others around the table once they got talking about how they’d deal with the rogue once he showed up, and then they talked about training, where Penelope nodded to Cameron.

“You’re welcome to join the training, Cameron.”

“He will be,” Quint answered calmly.

“Of course, alpha Quint,” Penelope’s eyes glinted, “I’d be delighted for you to share some of your knowledge with us. We’re quite fond of sparring.”

Eli munched his way through three tacos, until he couldn’t eat anymore. He leaned back in his chair, reaching for Cameron’s lap. As soon as he touched Cameron’s leg, Cameron took his hand. He turned toward him, his green eyes inquisitive.

“Are you done?”

Eli nodded.

“We’re going to head up,” Cameron said. “Thank you.”

Eli was surprised to hear the ‘thank you’ come out of Cameron unprompted.

Penelope gave him a nod, and Eli a smile. “You’re welcome to use anything in the house, no need to ask.”

Eli refused to limp in any way at all when walking away from the table. They went up the stairs back to Cameron’s room. Immediately he laid out on the bed, stretching his back with a sigh. Wordlessly, Cameron dug painkillers out of the drawer and offered them to Eli.

“Just so you know,” Eli took the packet, and dropped it onto his stomach. “I’m not going to doing anything submissive with that lot watching me.”

Cameron made a snorting noise, lying down next to Eli. “Feel free to launch at attack at any time, I’ll back you up.”

“I mean to you as well.” Eli stated.

“Do your own thing,” Cameron agreed, apparently unperturbed.

Eli gave him a hard look.

“What?” Cameron asked, innocently.

“Aren’t you going to object to that?”

“Why would I?”

“Because you totally love when I submit.”

Cameron rolled onto his side, propping his head up with his hand. “Eli,” he said, “I know you pretty well. And I’m not under any illusions that half the time you submit, you do it because you know it excites me. By nature, you’re not a submissive person, and I don’t expect you to be either. Honestly, if I had to compare you to anything in the world, it would be a firecracker. Like I’m dumb enough to try pin down a firecracker.”

Eli bit his bottom lip. He reached up, tucking a loose curl behind Cameron’s ear. Cameron leaned his cheek into Eli’s hand.

“Are you upset about last night?” Cameron asked, tentatively.

“No,” Eli said. “I wanted last night.”

“Okay…” Cameron said, his brow furrowing. “Is it the marks? I like people knowing that you’re not to be touched, but I guess if we leave out my wolf instincts, you might not like that.”

Eli stroked Cameron’s cheek, his heart warming. “If you weren’t a shifter, you’d still leave hickeys just because you could.”

“Well…yeah. Probably.”

“I’m not upset about anything like that.”

Cameron raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, but your scent is giving you away. You’re not happy.”

Eli let out a harsh breath. “Take your pick of the many reasons why that might be the case.”

“About submitting.” Cameron looked down at him, worried. “Can you tell me what it is that’s bothering you?”

Eli hadn’t ever been truly bothered about the dynamic of his and Cameron’s relationship. Cameron was a dominant guy, and Eli wasn’t. But just because Eli wasn’t that didn’t mean he was the total opposite, but everyone around him was acting as if it was natural for Eli to behave a certain way.

“Everyone is acting as if what I am is a submissive wolf, and not an actual person.” Eli said. He caught himself off guard with the tremble in his voice. He forced it down, letting out a frustrated breath. “And it’s really getting on my nerves, so I’d rather forget all this shifter bullshit for awhile, and just be a person. And be treated like a person.”