He wiped his eyes. “If you tell anyone I did this, I’ll never live it down.” He laughed.
She pulled his head down for another kiss, trying to show him with her mouth all that was impossible to say. He’d never have to worry that she would betray him like that. He was her everything too.
Finally, she spoke. “I overreacted. It was exhaustion. The idea of there being a world without you in it was too much for me.”
“What can I do to fix it?”
She reached up to kiss him. The more she knew of her wolf, the more she understood what this actually was. Michael was an Alpha wolf, he needed to take care of everyone and she being his mate meant he felt doubly so toward her.
“You can’t fix it, Michael. It’s not broken. It’s just over.”
He exhaled loudly. “You forgive me like you forgave your pack members for hurting you?”
“It’s not even in the same league. It’s nothing. Didn’t you ever fight with your brothers?”
He laughed. “Yes, but we’re all stupid little boys. We’d end up pounding on one another and get over it.”
“You and I don’t do that, however, I think we may have done the mated equivalent of it just now.”
“Okay.”
He rolled off her and she felt bereft of his warmth. It wasn’t that it was cold in the room. No, she just preferred being close to Michael. Rolling over, she snuggled into his side as he pressed his nose against her hair.
Suddenly remembering her thoughts before she went to bed, she yawned. “Where did you go last night?”
“We had to swear in the wolves to make them Pack. There were forty-five of them; it took hours.”
“Didn’t I have to do that?” She felt a little put off that she had missed the whole thing.
“No,” he laughed. “I can hear it in your tone you didn’t like not being there. I came back to get you but you were out cold. You’re my mate, which makes you automatic Pack. Technically, it makes you royalty.”
Royalty? She’d not given much thought to that aspect of Michael’s persona. He was a Royal member of the pack—not just an Alpha but one of the top members. Life was going to be a little different from being all but ignored except when someone wanted you to wait on them or beat on you.
“Tristan doesn’t mind that I missed it?”
She’d only met the Alpha briefly and she hadn’t been able to hold his eye contact the whole time they’d been together. She assumed, or hoped rather, that would lessen as time went on. Or maybe she’d really never know what he looked like.
“If he did, he didn’t mention it to me.” Michael kissed her hair. “Wanna go run?”
“I didn’t pack any sneakers.”
She was going to need a lot of clothes if she was going to make it in Maine. It was warm right now, well, warmish. Compared to Louisiana it was downright cool.
He pinched her lightly and she yelped, laughing. “What was that for?”
“I didn’t mean run on our two legs. I meant run in our wolf bodies.”
She started at the thought. Wow, she really could do that. Gulping, she remembered the last time she’d shifted and how much that hurt.
She decided to ask her wolf. Do you want to run?
Yes. Her wolf sounded tentative. As long as Michael stays with us. I don’t know these woods yet.
“She wants to as long as you stay with us the whole time.”
Michael laughed. “Just try to get rid of me.”
He bounded off the bed like a little boy. “I’ll show you all my favorite spots.”
She moved a little more slowly. The idea of shifting for fun was brand new to her.
She’d never even gotten to go with the pack when they ran wherever they went. What did shifters do when they ran together? Look at the scenery?
“Where do we shift?”
“Here.” As if to demonstrate, Michael shifted as the warm white light she’d witnessed so many times in shifts surrounded his body. In his place, was Michael’s tall black wolf with the white lines around his eyes.
“You make it look so easy.”
It is. Try it yourself now.
He’d told her it wouldn’t hurt and it wasn’t that she didn’t believe him, she did. It was hard, however, to imagine it could be pain free when it had been so agonizing the first time.
“Okay.”
Closing her eyes, she called the white light to herself and felt the shift begin.
“Breathe.”
Listening to Michael she took a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. Her muscles shifted, her bones altered, and through all of it there was no pain.
She blinked as she realized she was a wolf.
Taking two steps, she got used to the feeling of moving on four feet instead of two.
“Now what?”
Michael sniffed the air. “Give her control.”
“How do I do that?”
Even as she asked the question she could feel the wolf prowling on the edge of her mind pushing forward. Before Michael could answer, she opened up her senses and the wolf moved in.
Now things were clear. She could see the world through her eyes and wow, things looked different . Michael’s room was awash in color and smells, all of which she’d known as a human but now she could really feel it. Colors had taste. Why hadn’t she known this before? Red was hot, it burned her tongue just to look at it. Yellow…
“Come with me.”
She didn’t need to be told twice. Michael was her mate and he was Alpha to her, to boot. If he said come, she came. Scarlett blinked. Wow, her thoughts had been given over to the wolf too. It wasn’t that she didn’t think these things as a human just not quite like that…
They moved together through the house. It was mostly quiet. She could hear low voiced conversations behind closed doors as they walked on four feet.
“It’s quiet.”
“It’s still early.”
Scarlett hadn’t heard the others last night, which she now knew she should be able to do. That meant that something about the construction of the building kept sound to a minimum. Probably a must-have for a wolf house…
Michael growled, low and nonthreatening. Clearly, he wanted her attention. “You’re thinking too hard. Be the animal. You need to learn to do this. Someday you might need to live like this for a while.”
“Why?”
“We never know what’s going to happen. Theo did for a while. Who knows when we may need to hide from my father.”
“Okay.” She swallowed. That was a horrible thought. She needed to be the wolf.
Finally, she exhaled and let the wolf in completely.
As they approached the doorway to the outside, Michael took off running and Scarlett followed. At this speed, it was easy to be her wolf.
There was nothing but the call of the woods. The wind felt glorious and the grass soft beneath her feet. It took her twice as many steps to keep up with Michael thanks to his larger size but she didn’t care.
They entered the woods side by side. That was when she scented it. Having never hunted one, she still knew exactly what it was: deer. It was there and she wanted one.
Michael crouched low and she followed suit. “Get it.”
He wanted her to get it? It turned out to be no problem. Her wolf might have been terrified in the human world, but in these circumstances, she felt right at home. As long as Michael watched, she’d do anything he wanted.
Pouncing in the air, she gave into the instinct to take down the deer. It ran, but she was faster. Michael moved in front of the deer, distracting it, keeping it from getting through the bushes. Growling, Scarlett took it down by ripping out the tendon in the back of its left leg. The animal screeched as it went down. Then it was easy. She was hungry, it was meat.