by Mason Sabre
It was almost like she was floating above them, watching them from the outside. She could see her father’s people, hear them, touch them even, but they weren’t there. Every sound was simply an echo in her mind. Every thought, every feeling. The crowd clapped at something her father said, but she didn’t hear … didn't even comprehend, but they were all looking at her … to her, and she smiled. She plastered a fake smile across her face and nodded at whatever it was he had said.
“Let’s shift,” Karl said, his voice loud, strong like her father’s, like Stephen’s had been. It should have been him here. That was the lie, wasn't it? She wasn't the heir, not really. Not even because of death because he wasn't dead. Below them, men, women, and children stripped down to nothing, putting their clothes in piles and then dropping to the ground, letting the call of the moon take them, accept them. They all called back, asking for their gift and blessing to be renewed tonight. The energy floated through the air like the undercurrent of electricity. It was alive, vibrant, static against the hairs along her arms. Gemma answered with a call that only the other shifters could hear, only they could feel it along their skin like a warm hand made of silk.
Growls and roars began as a low rumble, like a thunderous cloud just taking a breath and getting ready for the big show. It echoed around them, and as the pack began to shift, the Davies and the Ellis family watched. Karl’s father watched almost childlike. His eyes were wide with it, but of course, they had only ever been part of this from down with the rest of them, and they had never moved closer, never risen in the ranks, and now, suddenly, there he was, standing at the very top of the table. Gemma reached her other hand out to grab Keith’s. He was smiling so big and squeezed her hand hard. It was almost infectious.
This was how it went with shifting. The packs always shifted first while the alpha family watched. It was the alpha’s job to look out for them, to guard them and warn them of any threats. Shifting was a vulnerable thing. There was a window of time, when the shifter was caught between the change they were defenceless, easy targets. The alpha family watched for threats and then, when the animals had all shifted, they would protect the alpha family, surrounding them, armed with teeth and claws.
Keith let go of Gemma’s hand and went to stand with Emily. It was their turn, his offering. He removed his own clothes and placed them on the ground, and Emily guarded him as he shifted, as he went from man to beast. Then it was her turn, and his turn to protect her. His chance to offer protection to the alpha female. Malcolm was normally the last to shift … the most important of them all, but not tonight. Tonight, he gave that honour to Gemma, and he would protect Jane Ellis and welcome her into the family.
Evie stood beside Gemma, small, dainty, her tiger-green eyes were so bright as she watched everything. She had never seen this before, never seen a true mating. The celebrations they’d had before as a pack, she had been too young for them, too small to understand what it all meant, but now, she was officially next in line, unless Gemma produced an heir and saved her from that responsibility. Gemma fought back the envy that swelled in her chest for her little sister. She was so free, so free of it all. She would never know this pain. Never know what it would be like to follow her duty like this, sacrificing everything her heart wanted. Gemma promised her that much.
When Evie had shifted, Gemma found herself being tugged to turn around. She faced Karl, a smile across his lips. “My turn,” he said, his voice husky with anticipation. So many green cat eyes stared. So many shades, waiting for her, waiting to protect her. She was the heir with the new mate and the potential to offer the next heir in line. In that moment, she was the most important of them all, and Karl had to show that to them. He had to take his place and his vow to protect her. He unfastened his shirt, separating the fabric with each button pop and revealing a toned, tanned chest. She raised her hand to his skin, feeling the heat of him and she hadn't even made skin contact yet. He was burning with it, boiling … his tiger ready and waiting under the surface to take his place at her side and to claim her tiger as its mate. He would honour her.
She hesitated with her fingers mere inches from his skin, but her mind still refused to accept this, to take the last step and allow him this place. He couldn’t shift until she permitted it. He couldn’t be the one to stand guard unless she allowed it. She raised her eyes to meet his. They were so filled with joy and hope. So at peace with the next step. He nodded to her and raw agony wrapped itself around her heart, filling it with betrayal. She clamped her eyes shut, threw into her mind the signed execution order with Cade’s name on it and thrust her hand forward as she let the lies spill from her mouth. “I take you as my mate. I take your tiger and bind it to mine. I accept your protection, and in the same breath, I give you mine.” Opening her eyes again, she nodded. “Shift and I will protect you, as you will me.”
His tiger rose under his skin, rose to meet her hand, to be touched, to feel her words and obey them. Grinding her jaw tight, Gemma took another step closer to Karl, stepping into his safe circle. She pushed both hands against his hot flesh and then glided her hands up to his shoulders, so she could push his shirt free from his body. The button to his jeans was already unfastened, and they hung low at his hips, revealing the sculpture of muscles around his bones. She pushed them down, too, as he stared at her. His liquid green eyes burnt with a fire that seemed to burn in her own gut when her own tiger came forward to meet with his. “Shift,” she said again, whispering it.
Close by, Malcolm stood tall on four paws and roared, such a roar it called out to all of his tigers, creating one loud, deafening sound as they all joined him. His golden fur shimmered in the moonlight. Grey fur around the edges of his mouth moved and flattened with the sound.
The bones in Karl’s face moved. A ripple that started in his cheeks and made its way along his body as he morphed from man to tiger. Gemma felt like a fraud watching him. Someone else should have been standing there, appreciating the raw erotic call of his body before he shifted, but her own mind could only show her Cade, standing somewhere else, performing the same thing. Giving himself over to his mate and promising to protect her forever … from everyone.
It was her turn to shift.
She moved with the grace of her tiger and the semi-daze of a woman whose mind was lost. But she accepted the call from the moon and let that finally seep into her skin, seep in and seek her animal. She was ready, alert, waiting for this moment to be set free. Gemma let her hands go to her vest and lift it over her head, then she pushed down her shorts, sliding them down her legs. The tigers around her gave another roar, and she crouched in front of them, in front of Karl’s magnificent form. This was it. This was the moment. If she shifted with him there, she was accepting him. He came closer to her, nudging her with his cold nose, nuzzling his head against her bare chest. Letting her eyes close, she nodded, for herself, for Cade and Henry and for acceptance. Running her fingers through his fur, she separated it where the black stripes met the gold and called to her own tiger. She shifted.
Chapter 26
Karl
Karl’s pulse beat so wildly that it sounded like it was somewhere in his head and not in his chest. His chest swelled from it all as he looked out, and so many cats’ eyes were on him and Gemma. He had never even imagined it would be anything like this … anything so big and perfect. Gemma, she was perfect. She stood by his side, had shifted into her wild and beautiful tiger. Her fur shimmered in shades of gold and yellow. He could have stared at her all day, if she’d let him. He wanted to lean into her, to just touch her. Gemma … she was his.
His father must have seen what he was thinking because he was watching and smiling. Even in tiger form, Karl could see the pride that rocked his entire body and made him stand with his paws squared and his back high. It touched him, right into the depths of himself and made him feel stronger, better.
Gemma sucked in a breath so deeply that Karl could feel her ribcage expand against his side. Just that touch, that contact made him want to p
ress into her more. He wanted to make it so it was just the two of them and everyone else could vanish. She took a breath right down into her body, expanding herself, then she paused, holding it, and as she looked out across their waiting tigers, she let it go, let it out in a long, hard clearing roar that gave them all permission to hunt, to run, to be free and one with their animals. And they did. Each and every one of them ran off in a wave of orange and yellow fur that rippled and poured into the lands around them. It coated the earth like a light suddenly hitting the darkness, and the sight of it filled Karl with … he wasn't sure. Something. Something so much bigger than himself and he was part of it now, part of her.
Karl took a step forward, his body ready to race out with them all, but he didn’t want to ruin this day by being too eager and racing ahead. There were rules, order. Pack law stated that the alpha went last, except today. Today he and Gemma would be the last ones to run. They would be the last to leave, giving their protection for the new order that would one day rule them all. But he could feel the power of the moon like a blink on his radar that called to him and demanded his attention. Usually, it was a force so hard to deny, so hard to withstand. Once, if he had stood with the other tigers, he wouldn't have been able to hold off his shift until last. He would have given into the call, letting his tiger out. But tonight, as he stood there with Gemma’s hand against his chest, something came to him. Like some final thing snapping into place and giving him the last notch in his mind. He could control it, control his tiger.
He felt like his skin was still vibrating from where she had touched him, where there had been a connection. Her eyes had shone with such the brightest of colours. He had almost felt their tigers meeting as if they had both already shifted. She was by his side now and he angled his head, so he could touch her, brush against her and take in her scent. She chuffed, a low growl in her throat, then she nipped at him, a bright glint in her eyes.
His parents ran from the rock first, their own loud growls echoing as they went. They jumped down and landed together where the pack had just stood, then they dashed off in the same direction as the rest of the tigers. Evie ran after. She tossed a smile at both Karl and Gemma and then leapt down. She was gone with a flash of gold fur that disappeared into the darkness and then got lost in the mass of other big cats. Next was Emily and Malcolm. Malcolm stopped before he jumped and tossed one gaze to Gemma then let out a deep feral sound, telling her something. A message between father and daughter. It made Karl’s chest tighten, not because he didn’t know what Malcolm had said to Gemma, but the reminder he was part of them now. Part of the alpha family. He considered that he would never get used to that. Never see himself as more. If his mother could see him now….
He didn’t entertain that thought for long as Gemma leapt from the rock and waited for him. It would be typical that his mother was on his mind and he would lose his place next to Gemma. No. Scrubbing his mother from his head, he ran and raced beside Gemma who took off the moment his paws hit the earth. She was fast, but he was faster. He was male and bigger, stronger. They ran side by side for miles, dashing through the trees and bursting out where the woodlands gave way to a long stretch of grass. Around them, Karl could hear the wild frantic calls of the animals they were hunting, cattle, stock, old and useless animals that the Humans would save and sell just for the night. Animals they had used until they were drained and nothing to them. But it gave the shifters something to hunt, something better than rabbit and rodents.
Karl nudged at Gemma’s side. He had his own plans for her, his own ideas, something that would make the night special for them. She slowed when he nudged her, throwing him a questioning growl, and he tossed his head in the direction of the valley. Where they ran, the mountain peaks reached out across the skyline. They reached out almost as if they ran to the top, they could touch the very moon itself.
There was a ram by one wall. It bleated wildly when its frightened eyes caught sight of the two predators with it in their sights. Then it bucked. Going out of its mind, it smacked into the wall several times, trying to make its escape. Gemma had stopped, and Karl stopped next to her. She aimed her nose into the air and let out a gruff sound, one of both warning and hunger. Karl’s tiger answered in response—in response to his mate. He was supposed to kill it. That was the command. He snorted back at her, nudging her lightly from the side and then he stepped into the path just in case the ram realised it could run left or right instead of bucking at the same useless spot at the wall.
The ram watched him, wide-eyed and still with some kind of desperate defiant fight in its eyes. Karl peeled back his top lip, crinkling his nose at the animal, and dashed forward, charging for it. It had no time to react or run away from him as he leapt into the air, front paws stretched out, and when he landed. He sank his long teeth into the back of its neck and pressed its twitching body into the ground. Hot blood spilt into his mouth and down his fur, but he held on as the animal gave its last fight and called out with desperate sounds. Then it stopped, and Karl let go. This was Gemma’s feast. Gemma’s place to feed first and offer him a seat at her table.
She circled it at first, like a queen walking around the offering she had been given and seeing if it was worthy of her. Karl kept himself back, sitting on his hunches, his fur still slick and dark red with the ram’s blood. When she was satisfied, instead of biting where Karl had delivered the killing blow, she settled herself down near its belly, where the flesh was soft, meaty and the most delicious. She took the first bite, ripping into the dead animal’s flesh and pulling a chunk of it away. She growled as she chewed, a low rumble that vibrated along the earth toward Karl. He could watch her forever, he realised. It wouldn't matter if she was a woman or tiger, both forms were just as perfect as the other, as breathtaking.
He wanted to inch closer, but couldn't. To do so would be to show her disrespect. He didn't want to go close to her to feed, he just wanted to touch her, to feel her. The cat half of his soul was possessive, dangerously so, and it wanted that closeness to its mate.
When Gemma had eaten enough she was satisfied, she nodded her head toward Karl to invite him to join her. When he was close, she dropped a piece of torn off flesh for him. He had fed her and now it was her turn to offer him food. They ate until their bellies were filled, until Karl was so full of it, he was sure he would burst. He was sure he wouldn't be able to run another inch, and it was over two miles back to the stone where they had all shifted. Out here, they were alone.
He licked at the side of Gemma’s face, gentle at first, savouring the taste of her and the feel of her soft fur against his tongue, but each lick seemed to spur something in him, creating a deeper need … a need to taste her. He licked along the edge of her jaw, along her face, near her ears, licking until he was satisfied she was clean. Then she did the same with him. He lowered his head, giving her access to him, but also putting himself in a vulnerable position where she could bite if she wanted him dead. This was trust. Trust between the two cats.
Tapping her with his paw, Karl inclined his head in the direction the ram had been trying to get to. Karl had a surprise hidden for her. She tilted her head, though, showing her questioning at what he wanted, but he stepped away and she got the idea. She was as tired as he was. Her movements were slow, laborious. She didn't race this time. That was all spent and so was her tiger, but this wasn't so far. On the other side of the wall there was a small valley that gave way to a small path. A path that was disused and had long drops on either side, but at the end of that, there had once been a house. It had stood sheltered from the elements. All that remained of it now was the rocky foundations, laid around the ground like a stone map of a house. Karl trotted to it and stopped, waiting for Gemma. Now was the time for them to shift back.
Karl watched Gemma with the same adorning gaze he’d had at the rock. Now it was more so, deeper. Every gesture she had given him this evening had been of acceptance, messages, welcoming him into her world and telling him he could stay. This
was what home felt like. What it was like to belong to someone who wanted you. When she shifted back to a woman, she curled her legs under herself, curling into a tired breathless ball, almost. She had her head down and her hair hung, hiding her face and other parts of her from view. Karl never took his eyes off her, though, as he told his tiger it was time to go back, time to let him have the reins of his body again. His body always felt tired, but good tired after a Moon Night shift. It was as if the moon gave them power, made them better, stronger, more able to run and hunt, but when they shifted back, then the power was gone and all the extra energy they had used, needed replenishing. Karl let himself sit for when he shifted, breathing in the scent of trees around them and Gemma. The lids of his eyes were heavy, and were this not his night—their night, he might have let himself lie down and go to sleep.
Karl had placed a box at the back-most corner of the house’s foundations earlier that day. He wanted this to be perfect. He wanted Gemma to know he would care for her and not fail. Inside, he had put in two blankets, some water and matches to light the fire he had built. He went to it, half crawling, half dragging himself over to the corner. “I put these here earlier,” he said, when he unfolded a blanket and found Gemma watching him with a curious expression across her face. He offered the blanket out and she nodded.
“Prepared?”
He nodded, feeling his skin heat a little at the way she was staring at him. He wanted to go to her, needed to, but he wasn’t sure she would welcome this so soon. He tried to reassure himself that at his house, they had almost taken that final step … almost, and it was Gemma who had named him potential mate. She let him drape the blanket around her shoulders and she shuffled herself to sit close to where there would have been a fireplace if this house was still standing. Karl’s fingers touched her hair by accident, and he had to force himself back … force himself not to rush her.
