SHADOW
I thought we were safe on our way home. I was wrong. I sensed fear. I sensed danger thick in the air.
I remained calm despite constantly raising the hair on my neck as we drove along the empty road.
With my stomach twisting in dread, I prayed to the Moon Goddess for safe passage along whatever danger we were going through, but I could almost feel the apprehension of my wolf.
“Zack.” I gulped. I may have the training, but I hadn’t ripped someone’s throat in human or wolf form. I hadn’t killed anyone. I didn’t know if I could take the life out of someone. No doubt my wolf would not think twice. She was an animal, after all, and for my kind, we were still feral despite our evolution.
“Yeah.” He stole a glance at me. “So you and-”
“Zack, watch out!” I screamed as I saw a gray wolf in the middle of the road.
It was big, but not Alpha big, but probably in rank. Those eyes were lethal, glaring like he’d been impatiently waiting for us on the road. Those fangs were showing off, snarling, ears pointed up, ready to tear us one by one.
Zack drove faster instead of shifting to another lane, and the wolf didn’t even move, challenging Zack if he would take the shot. And he did. Just a second, about to be hit by our vehicle, my heart almost stopped. Air stuck in my chest while our passenger screamed at the top of her lungs, protecting her cub, holding on for dear life.
Something happened that we didn’t expect- the wolf snarled as he launched forward, his paws dug against the hood of our running vehicle, growling for a kill behind the windshield. His eyes filled with rage and anger, but I didn’t see how this was all about Zack or me.
“Don’t move,” Zack told me, but I could sense a lot of fear from him.
“Duck. Stay down,” I told Clara behind us as I unbuckled my belt.
“What are you doing?”
“Hit the break!”
Zack did. The wolf had thrown forward a few yards away, but I knew it wasn’t dead.
“Are you okay, Clara?”
“Yes. Yes,” she replied shakily, horror-filled in her voice.
“Now what?” Zack asked as we watched the wolf get up on his four legs, angrier, madder, and provoked.
“Stop the car. Clara, get down, run back as fast as possible, and hide somewhere. Don’t come out until I come to you.”
“What about you?”
“Let me take care of this situation. Now!”
“Let me just kill that thing,” Zack said through gritted teeth.
“Shift, but don’t do anything until I tell you so.” I looked through the rare view and watched Clara run away.
“No. I promise your mate, our Alpha, and I will protect you with my life. And that includes not letting you fight that wolf.”
“I didn’t tell you he’s my mate, but I won’t ask how you know about me and Califf, but you know me very well. I am as stubborn as your Alpha.” With my wolf feeling threatened, I got down as I saw the hunger of that bloodthirsty beast prowling and stalking in our direction.
The beast was targeting Zack first. It wanted to take down the threat first. That was his mistake, underestimating a woman because whoever this wolf was didn’t know who I was.
“Shadow!”
I ignored Zack. My wolf was about to talk charge, but I pushed it back despite my fangs tickling my gum, and my claws threatened to come out. It wasn’t easy to shut her off, but all I could do right now was be the hybrid that I was.
I snarled and took all my strength as I hurtled, shifting to a hybrid in the air before I thrust the wolf hard out of the road. I bolted in his direction. That animal was caught by surprise. He was still trying to get his bearing, but I was already slashing its neck with my claws.
As he tried to attack back, lifting his head and bearing his teeth, but I was already on top of this ugly beast’s chest.
My claws dug against his bloody neck, feeling the warm blood running against his fur. The stench of the blood sent my wolf spiraling, wanting more blood.
“Who are you? Who sent you? Tell me, and I will show you mercy and give you a quick death! Tell me!” My voice was loud as the thunder filled with rage controlled my hybrid form.
It had been a while since I shifted to this form. It wasn’t everybody’s perception of what kind of Lycan we were. We may be a rare kind, but we were not a wolf walking two-legged. We were in human form with claws and fangs. Our body shape changed, and our eye color resembled our wolf form. Our foreheads became prominent. We may have hair sprouting in some parts of our bodies, but we were more recognizable as humans than wolves.
I growled as he wouldn’t give me what I wanted. I was ready to end his life, but I heard someone coming, calling my name.
“Shadow!”
Shit! Too late to shift back. He saw my form. What would he think of me if he saw me in my hybrid form for the first time? Would he be disgusted? I felt him behind me. His pace was calculated with extreme precaution. Even though his pulse was racing, I sensed his calmness- he didn’t see me as a threat.
“Baby, look at me.” He rounded ahead before the tackled bloody wolf under me, who was ready to surrender his life to death.
I looked at him. His eyes filled with admiration and devotion to me. He wasn’t scared of me, of my form.
“Shadow, come back to me, baby. I’m here now. Let them take care of him. You can’t kill him. We still need information from him.” He raised his hand to touch my face. As soon as I felt his skin, his arm, I gave in, leaning against his touch, purring.
“Califf,” I said his name breathlessly as I blinked off and retracted my claws and my fangs.
“Yes, baby. It’s me.”
I quickly got off the wolf and threw myself to my mate. He caught me and wrapped his arms around me protectively.
“Shift. Your wound isn’t lethal, wolf or I will kill you myself,” Califf ordered him.
The wolf shifted to human form, butt naked, but I didn’t recognize who he was.
Lyon cuffed him with state-of-the-art handcuffs and forced him to be on his feet, taking him to the road. “If you ever tried to break free, the silver inside will kill you quickly.”
I was ready to walk when no one seemed to move but kept staring at me. “You guys okay?”
“So, what was that we saw?” Raiden asked.
“Me? The other part of me.”
They nodded, but I felt thousands of questions reeling in their heads.
“Keep your questions for another time.”
“She can read our minds, too,” Preston whispered to Sam.
“I can’t read minds, Preston. I’m not Jedi.” That cracked up Califf.
“You could have killed me,” Tor said. “Easily.”
I shrugged. “I almost killed that jerk.”
“But you didn’t.” I felt Califf’s touch that calmed me and my wolf.
“Does the other you talk?”
“Good question, Zack. But the answer is no. It was just me, not my wolf, but my hybrid form.”
“Okay, guys,” the Alpha called them close. “No one can know what she is other than this group, Duke, and his mate, Kindra. If I heard anyone talking about her, you would all pay. Until I figure out our enemy, this stays secret.”
“Yes, Alpha,” they said in unison.
“Good. Now, let’s help Marcus find his mate.”
“They ran back. I told them to hide until I come looking for her.”
A few minutes later, looking for Clara, we found them hiding behind the rock. We immediately went back to the compound-some members were already gathering.
“Go back to your home. I will give you updates through your phones and our links if I have gathered vital information.”
“Are we in danger, Alpha?” the redhead woman asked.
“No, Bridget. As long as you follow orders, you will be fine. Now go back. I only set a meeting with enforcers and the head of the family.” Califf turned to me. “I forgot to ask. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Why? Because I almost killed that wolf?”
He shook his head. “Emotionally, mentally. You’ve seen a lot today.”
“I saw my pack slaughtered. I’m still here, standing before a hot as hell ass-covered Alpha.”
He smiled, although he had a lot on his plate right now. He managed to hide his exhaustion and worry for the hundreds of his people. I knew how difficult his job was, protecting these people, keeping the pack in order, and running his business, but he never complained.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I just thought you were awesome.”
“Awesome butt-covered Alpha.” We entered the conference hall with a long table, podium, chairs aligned in both rows, and the whiteboard.
“Where are you keeping them?”
“That dick in the cell, the family in the solitary until I get the real story and confirm their identities.”
“Why did you want to kill Marcus?”
“I didn’t want to, but if he were not as sincere as he was to save his family, he would have revealed who attacked him. But he looked like he was telling the truth.”
“Got it.”
“You will sit beside me.”
“No.”
“Shadow, you are my mate.”
“You don’t have to keep reminding me of that.” I groaned, making sure no one heard us.
His features turned deadly serious. “Are you ashamed of being my mate?”
“You’re an asshole if you think that’s my reason.”
“Then what is it?”
“I’ve lived alone for years with my identity secrets, which kept me safe. I don’t want them to look at me as a future Luna figure or how they judge me, underestimate me, and hate me more that you deserve better than I labeled a rogue. A lone wolf. Let me earn it by working on it.”
He smiled and nodded. “Okay, but if they ask, I will have to tell them the truth.”
“You’re impossible.”