Pack of Her Own, page 27
I lifted her, placing as much of her in my lap as I could. “It’s all my fault,” I cried. “I never meant for this to happen. I’m sorry, Nat! I’m so sorry!”
She was still in my arms. So still. So quiet. Tears tore themselves from my eyes, and I didn’t bother to hide them. My mate. My fated one. And I’d driven her away. Lost her for too long, and now I was going to lose her forever.
“No!” There was something I could do. If only I could do it right.
Another pitiful gasp spasmed through her body, and my choice was made for me.
I’d read the chapter in the book. Okay, I’d skimmed over the first page in the hopes that maybe, someday, I’d be able to fix things with Natalie and maybe convince her to turn so I could have my mate. Either way, I knew, theoretically, how to turn a human into a wolf. Of course, I had no idea if I was prepared for it.
“Blood of my blood,” I murmured and focused my intent on the well of magic inside me. The magic that let me shift, let me heal, let me forge a bond to my territory, and connected me to my pack members and my mate. “Blood of my blood, awaken a new wolf.”
Again, like when I was in the woods with Heather and Callum, like when I freed Heather’s wolf, the magic of the wolf within flooded the forefront of my brain. My wolf came rushing back and I felt my body begin to shift. The fur rippled over my skin, and my fingernails sharpened into claws. I felt my ears slide up to the top of my head and my fangs poke out of my mouth. I stayed partially shifted and followed the magic.
I lifted Natalie’s arm and moved her sleeve up to reveal the flesh below her elbow. Before I could overthink it, I set my claw against the inside of her arm and sliced open her skin from wrist to elbow. She writhed slightly and I could feel her body getting colder by the second.
I lifted my claw and licked Natalie’s blood from it. I swallowed the mouthful of her blood—and the taste was divine. My tongue caressed my claw—it was glorious. Beautiful. Addictive, even. But even as the thought of tearing my teeth into her crossed my mind, I released her and let her arm fall into my lap.
I turned the same claw on my own arm and mirrored the wound I’d given Natalie. “Blood of my blood,” I intoned. “Awaken a new wolf.” I pressed our wounds together. I had no idea how this was supposed to work, but apparently the magic did. I felt a piece of that magic leave me and slip through the connection in our blood, like a marble being sucked up by a vacuum.
It was done. My power was in her now.
As soon as I had that thought, Natalie’s eyes flared open, and she gasped, her body flailing in my lap. I tried to soothe her, but she started convulsing, spittle flying from her mouth as I rolled her onto her back. I watched the wound in her stomach shrink and breathed a sigh of relief. It was okay. She was okay.
“Wren!”
Hikaru appeared beside us with Rias at her side. I only glanced at them for a second before Natalie convulsed again and slid clear out of my lap. Hikaru laid her hands on Natalie, and I growled at her.
“Enough! What happened here?”
“She was dying,” I said through a mouth full of sharp teeth. I focused on shifting back to human and continued when my mouth could form words properly. “He tried to kill her. He—”
She shook her head. “You turned her?” I nodded quickly. Her eyes went wide with panic. “Come on, we need to go.”
“What? Why?”
“She needs to be somewhere safe and familiar. Now!”
I wanted to argue. I wanted to sit here and wait until the magic did its work, and I could have my mate back. But she knew what she was talking about. She always did. I needed to trust her. Like I always had.
I lifted my mate in my arms and earned a flailing arm in the face for it. Heather appeared beside me, reaching to help, but my sharp bark stopped her in her tracks.
“Don’t jostle her too much,” Hikaru warned me. “We need to get her to the truck and back to Terabend.”
I followed her lead, scared of the panic in her tone, knowing that we were in uncharted territory.
“Stay with me, Nat,” I whispered to the shuddering form clutched in my arms. “Please. Stay with me.”
* * *
Another scream ripped through Hikaru’s clinic, and I had to cover my ears to try to ignore the pain in the sound.
“Six hours!” I said. “It’s been six hours and she’s still screaming!”
“You think it’s a quick process to rewrite someone’s DNA? Their genetic structure?”
I shifted from foot to foot, unable to even look at the vampire. “It’s fucking magic, isn’t it? I don’t know how long it takes.”
“It takes as long as it takes!” Hikaru said. “And that’s if it even works at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not perfect, Wren! Sometimes people’s bodies can’t take the transformation.”
I shook my head. “Natalie will be fine. She has to be fine.”
“I’m being honest, Wren.”
“She’s going to be okay. She needs to come back to me.” I hated the whimper in my voice.
“There’s no telling what’s going to happen,” Hikaru said, voice soft. “The transformation doesn’t take, and she dies. Or she transforms and she lives as a shifter for the rest of her days.”
“Is that it?”
She shook her head. “Wren, if this goes on too long, she will break down. Whether she shifts or not won’t matter. She’ll be a rabid animal, dangerous to anything and everything around her.”
“No!” I shouted. “Not Natalie. That’s not going to happen.”
“You need to be prepared that it’s a very real possibility, Wren!”
I shook my head again. “I need to go in there. I need to be with her.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“I don’t care! I need to be with her. She needs me!”
I moved right past her. With her speed she could’ve stopped me, blocked me, hit me, whatever. But she didn’t. I went through the door and shut it behind me. The dimly lit exam room looked the same as it always had. Save for the single figure hunched over in the far corner.
“Nat?”
She recoiled at the sound, and her dark and wild eyes stared at me across the room. “Go away!”
“Natalie, please. I’m here.”
I took a step forward, but she shook and tried to back further into the corner.
“Get away from me! I don’t want to hurt you!”
“Hurt me? You won’t hurt me.”
“I heard everything, Wren! Maru said I’d be rabid. A danger to everyone. I can’t do that. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
I took another step forward. “I won’t let that happen, Nat. You know I won’t.”
She shivered again. “You’ll take care of me?” I nodded as those dark eyes roamed over me. “You’ll kill me?”
“That’s not going to be necessary.”
“Tell me you’ll kill me, Wren!” she shouted. “I need to know! I need you to kill me if I don’t make it through this!”
“Shut up!” I grabbed the exam table and wrenched it out of the floor. It slammed against the wall behind me. Nothing more was between us but air saturated in fear. “It’s not going to happen! It’s not!”
She opened her mouth to argue, but the words were engulfed in another scream as she convulsed again.
“Wren! Help me! Please!”
In a flash, I was by her side, arms wrapped tightly around her. I sighed into my mate, feeling her shiver and shudder, her body so hot it almost scalded my skin. Her fever was only getting worse. What was I supposed to do?
She arched her back against me, but the groan that slipped out was not one of pleasure.
“It hurts!” she whined. “I can’t take it!”
“It’ll be over soon. I promise, Nat. It’ll be over soon.”
She scratched at her skin, like she was trying to tear into it. “It’s so hot! I can’t…I can’t stand it!” She pulled away from me. “Like something is under my skin! I can’t get it out!”
I took her hands in mine. “It’s okay. I can help you. I promise. I can get it out.”
She shook her head. “No! Stay back! I won’t hurt you!”
I pulled her in close, putting one hand behind her neck and the other on the small of her back. I gently skated my mouth over her cheek, tasting the sweat and tears and the decadence of her skin. Like a morning breeze after a rainstorm, like that first sip of cool water after a hard workout. She tasted like home. I cradled her in my arms and let my wolf rise to the forefront, initiating my shift once more.
“I’m here, Nat,” I whispered. “I’m here. I love you.”
She whimpered into my shoulder, mouth opening and closing in gasping cries. “Please! Wren, help me. Please, my Alpha. Help me.”
And like that, I was reminded of a night barely more than a month ago. That night that I pushed her away. That night that I pulled the beautiful wolf out of another woman who couldn’t shift. I knew what I had to do. My body, my brain, knew what I had to do. I pulled her tighter to me, wrapping myself around her, and whispered in her ear. “Come to me, my wolf. My mate.”
She shivered and arched her back against me, throwing her head back in such a lovely position it sent slivers of heat down to my core. Her shoulders moved against me in violent contractions, almost pulling out of my grip, but I only held her tightly.
“Wren!” She cried out again and I pressed my lips to her collarbone, letting her feel the fangs in my mouth.
“Let her come, Natalie. Let her be free. I want to meet your wolf!”
She twisted and writhed as the sound of bones moving and grinding echoed through the small room. She threw her head back and screamed, but I could see the midnight black fur starting to sprout from her skin. Her stomach pulled from me, and I saw the mass of scar tissue from Craig’s attack, and I knew that this had been the only way to save her. I had no other choice.
“I can’t—” she gasped. “I can’t do it!”
“Yes, you can!” I held her head steady and looked directly into her eyes. “Shift, Natalie! Show me your wolf!”
“It hurts!”
“You will not die here! My mate, my Lupa, you are mine and I will not lose you to this!” I cried. “Now shift!”
Her scream led into a howl as she slid from my arms and sprawled on the floor. I fell to my knees as she writhed and contorted, more fur rippling across her body as her bones broke and moved to create a different skeleton. A moment passed before the woman was gone and in her place was a small wolf with a midnight black pelt and exhausted gray eyes. On her stomach and her back were two patches of lighter gray fur—right where her scar would be. Her eyes focused on me, and I pushed myself through the rest of the shift, towering over her as she panted with her tongue sticking out.
Alpha? I heard her voice in my head.
I am here, Lupa. I moved to her side and curled up around her. Welcome to your new life, my love.
With an exhausted whine, the dark wolf laid her head on my legs, and I settled in around her. She was mine now. My Lupa. My fated mate.
I would never let her go again.
Chapter Thirty-eight
Natalie
Being a werewolf was pretty cool. The hearing and smelling took a while to get used to, though. Like the day I smelled some bad fish but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Hint: someone left a raw fish carcass out in the woods about ten minutes from town. The wind just happened to be blowing the right way to make me fight to keep my lunch in my stomach.
Still, the strength was a bonus. It took three werewolves and a werepanther only two hours to move all my things from Rory’s place in the city into Wren’s cabin. Not including travel time, that is. As I headed outside after dropping off the last box, I glanced from the truck to the house and back again.
“I don’t want to be a cliché,” I said, “but does this make me a U-Haul lesbian?”
Wren, Heather, Gwen, Rory, Rias, and Hikaru all looked around at each other.
“Yup,” Rory said.
“Yeah,” was Gwen’s answer.
“Definitely,” Hikaru said, smirking.
The other girls all gave other signs of agreement and I sighed. “I know I can’t get mad at most of you,” I began, giving Heather a wink. “But, Heather, you should show more respect to your Lupa.”
She lowered her eyes and glanced away, but couldn’t hide the small smile that crossed her lips. “Sorry, Lupa.”
We all had a good laugh and I looked around at this crowd of friends, new and old. A group of people who knew me better than I would ever have said people knew me before. I had brought myself to be honest with Wren that night after she took me into her home, and like water breaking through a dam, it made me want to be open and honest with others in my life. Heather had been next, and she had no problems with who I was. Neither did Gwen, or Rias, or Hikaru, or any of these wonderful women. Even Zeke and Vadi and some of the other supernatural folks in town knew what I used to call my secret. Every single one of them accepted me for who I was.
It was all so new to me. This love and acceptance—what I’d searched so long for but was always just out of reach. It was like I was in a dream.
“Ugh, I can’t believe you’re moving out here to live with all these wolves!” Gwen said. Wren gave her a withering look.
“She is a wolf now,” Wren replied, “and she’s a member of my pack. You’d do well to remember that.”
“Oh, leave her alone,” I told my Alpha. “She doesn’t mean any harm. I’ve known her longer than I’ve known you.”
Rory snorted. “That’s not hard. It’s been like two months.”
Rias and Hikaru glanced at each other, grinning like maniacs.
“Yup,” Rias began.
“Definitely a U-Haul lesbian,” Hikaru finished.
I glared at them both. “If you guys are done, can you take the damned truck back to Zeke, please? I promised we wouldn’t be too late with it tonight.”
Rias waved. “I got this.” She headed for the truck.
“My apartment’s going to be empty without you there, you know,” Rory said.
I brought my best friend in for a tight hug, trying to be mindful of my new strength and not crush the life out of her. “I know. I’m sorry. I can’t be in the city right now.”
Wren shot me a knowing look. I’d shifted a few times, with Wren as my chaperone, but it was still hard to come to terms with the wolf inside me. I didn’t want to risk something happening in a big city. It must’ve been hard, having to do double duty of new-wolf babysitting between me and Heather. But she didn’t complain.
“I get it, I do. But are you going to come back?”
Another glance to Wren. “I doubt it. Maybe temporarily. I mean, I still want to finish my schooling if I can. But I think I’m in Terabend to stay.” Wren moved up beside me, taking my hand in hers. The warmth of her touch did more to ground and relax me than anything else I’d ever felt.
“Actually, Rory,” Wren said softly as she beckoned to Hikaru, “we have a proposition for you.”
Rory’s eyes went wide. “For me?”
Hikaru nodded. “The strip mall where my clinic is has a couple of spaces for lease. We were wondering if you would like to open a veterinary practice here.”
Rory’s jaw dropped. “But…I mean…”
I smiled at her. “I know you inherited the one in the city from the old doc, but this’ll give you a chance to start something of your own and be around your friends.”
She gave a startled laugh. “But where would I—”
“You know your cabin is all fixed up,” Heather added. She had been the one to replace the window and whatever else Wren tore up the last time we’d been there.
“But the money—”
“Nothing to worry about there,” Hikaru cut her off. “There’s nothing you can claim that we haven’t thought of, Rory. You know who we are. You’re part of this family. We want you here.”
“And besides,” Wren said, “if you open a practice here, then you’ll have a beautiful assistant to help you.”
I grinned at her. “So, what do you say?”
Rory glanced between all of us, even Gwen.
“Hey, don’t look at me.” Gwen sounded almost sullen. “I don’t have a choice about going back.”
Rory beamed at us. “Okay! I accept!”
The other girls crowded around Rory as I stepped away and turned to Gwen, who was standing like she was getting ready to bolt.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
She shook her head. “It’s fine.”
I wrapped my arms around her tight, feeling her own shifter strength against me in a hug tighter than any I’d had from her in the past.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I wouldn’t have her if it wasn’t for you.”
“I’m sure you—”
“No, Gwen. Don’t do that. You helped. You didn’t have to, but you did. That means a lot, to me and to Wren.” I glanced at my mate, who was still busy talking animatedly with Rory. “I owe you. I owe you big time.”
An uneasy look crossed her face. “The pride…”
I shook my head. “Not the pride. You. I owe you. So does Wren. If there’s anything we can ever do for you, don’t hesitate to call, okay?”
She nodded slowly. “Fine. Okay.” She sighed, rubbing a hand across her face. “Now I need to figure out how to tell a bunch of feline shifters why I smell like wolf.”
I winced. “Ouch. Make it an epic story. Throw in a ball of yarn or two. They’ll eat that shit up.”
“Har-har,” she deadpanned.
“Don’t be a stranger, okay?”
“Let me know when you come back to town,” she said, “we can spar at the gym, just like old times.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Just like old times?”
