“Animals are less violent than humans. Surely you know this by now.”
Her wolf sighed. Go easy on him. He’s been through a lot. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Her wolf knew what Rome was?
Of course I do. You know what it is.
This conversation was getting rapidly off track and she needed to focus so she made a conscious decision to tune out her wolf for a few minutes.
“I know they’re less violent. I get it. My wolf tells me all the time. Still…”
“You’re afraid.”
His eyes got huge as he dropped her hand and stormed forward. “I’m not afraid.”
“Because Gods forbid you get afraid? Or admit to it?”
He narrowed his eyes. She thought he might start shouting telepathically. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d had to face down a shifter in a temper. She wasn’t worried about Parker’s reaction, even if he doubted himself.
A warm white light filled the room. Angel gasped. It wasn’t often she was surprised.
Yet, Parker had done just that. She hadn’t believed he could be goaded into doing what she wanted.
Seconds later, she looked down at her huge mate’s huge wolf. He blinked up at her and she stepped forward until she could pat him on his head. His fur felt soft under her fingers.
“I’ve never seen one as big as you before.”
He panted at her praise and bumped her legs.
“Are you humoring me? No way is it that easy to get you to do what I want.”
“Maybe I decided you made sound arguments.”
She shook her head. “I know you better than that.”
“Maybe it was simply time.”
“Past time.”
“Don’t rub it in. You won this argument.”
“You still haven’t said „you’re right, Angel.’”
“You can keep holding your breath, mate.”
She laughed aloud, loving the way it felt to banter with him. Everything with Parker was just so natural, so easy.
“Are you going to keep me here by myself or are you going to shift too?”
Raising an eyebrow, she tried and probably failed to look uninterested. “I suppose I could shift.
It’s not like I have all that much going on.”
“Keep it up and I’ll shift back.”
Well, she didn’t want that. Not with the possibility of an actual run with her mate on the horizon.
“Okay, I’m shifting.”
Calling the white light to herself, she felt the calm and peace that always filled her before any change into her wolf form. This time, however, the sensation was also joined by a tremendous sense of anticipation. There were real woods here—even if she was temporarily trapped on the island of Westervelt—and she would get to run in them without the burden of the warring Alphas in New Orleans breathing down her neck. Plus, Parker would be with her and even though it should still feel new to have him by her side, she had already come to find that everything was better when he was around.
She shook her head as she relaxed into her wolf form. It wasn’t until she strained her neck to look up at Parker that she realized how much bigger he was than she as a wolf. If possible, it was an even larger discrepancy than when they were in their two-legged form.
Still, she wasn’t intimidated. If he came across as a giant teddy bear when he was a man, he seemed like a puppy now. As she moved forward, she butted him with her head until he walked through the wolf-door in their room.
She followed him out of the building onto the front yard. Her wolf begged for control, loving the feel of the grass beneath her feet. Angel smiled inside as she gladly relented to her wolf-half. They were both given so little opportunity to indulge in simply being who they were meant to be.
Her last human thought was that magic could be a gift when it felt like this. She moved fast, aware that Parker’s wolf traveled in her wake. She had no idea if he’d given himself over to his wolf but suspected he had since he made no attempt to contact her telepathically.
Her wolf swung around to regard him. He stopped moving for a second and she wondered what he was up to. Seconds later he nipped at her heels and she yelped.
Oh…so he wanted to play. She darted around behind him to grasp the back of his leg. Her teeth dug into his fur and he growled low in his throat. He wasn’t threatening her, simply letting her know he intended to win whatever game this was they played. She smiled, showing him her teeth. She was a Kane and even as wolf, she always won.
She took off running, the wind hitting her snout as she darted through trees. She had to move fast to keep him from catching her. His sheer size alone gave him an advantage.
For every two strides she took, he took one. She darted through bushes and over large rocks until skidding to a stop as she realized where she’d run.
Blinking, Angel felt her full consciousness return to her wolf body. They were at the lake. Her wolf had run them to Parker’s lake. She looked up. An old, abandoned wood cabin sat several yards from the lake. She swallowed. It had to be where Parker had grown up.
She turned around to see him. He sat very still, his wolf eyes unblinking as he stared straight ahead.
“Parker, are you okay?”
She rubbed up against him. His silence concerned her. He hadn’t been here—not to this particular spot—since he’d seen his father murder his mother. This had been dumb.
What had her wolf been thinking running here of all places? There had to have been somewhere else she could have led them.
He needed to come here and you saw this lake in your vision.
She really didn’t want to get into a rip-roaring argument with her wolf right now.
Perhaps it might have been wiser to have given Parker a little bit of a chance to get used to the idea of being a shifter again before hoisting his past onto him.
His wolf didn’t think waiting would accomplish anything.
Angel bit down hard on her tongue. She could taste blood in her mouth. So the two of you decided this on your own? You decided we would cause him pain without so much as a hint to me.
Her wolf had the good sense to look down. Knowing that was about the only sign of an apology she was going to get from her constant companion, Angel called the shift onto herself, letting the warm white light engulf her.
It took her a few seconds to find her balance on human legs. When she was sure she wasn’t going to fall, she walked over to Parker and sat down next to him on the grass.
She placed her hand on his soft fur and stroked his back, staying silent.
This had to feel like visiting a gravesite. It was a solemn moment. She wished she could put on some clothes. That was the problem with shifting: it left you completely vulnerable when you shifted back, which was why it was so important to be in good company when you changed back.
Parker’s head nudged hers and she smiled. “Feel like talking yet?”
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to want to talk about this place.”
“Well,” she sighed. “We have two choices. We can sit here and not move. We can leave and tell our wolves to mind their own business. Or we can go closer, look at the cabin, and try to figure out what is happening with this lake since I dreamed about it in my magic-induced coma.”
The white light of Parker’s shift touched her and she smiled. She regarded his naked form as he sat down next to her on the ground. A warmth started in her core, which she decided to ignore. This was not the time or the place to be so turned on by her mate.