by Vivian Arend
“Of course, I think it would be great for the cousins to be raised close together, so living here in Haines might be the best,” Tad continued, staring at the ceiling as he rubbed at his chin.
A loud thunk rose from the corner of the room as Keil fell off the arm of the couch, his mouth gaping open. Robyn grinned at him, laid one arm on top of the other and rocked them back and forth.
“Shit,” Keil exclaimed. “Really? A baby? But I never smelt, I never…oh hell yeah.”
Tad’s hand slipped over Missy’s waist as he leaned closer to kiss her neck. Here was everything that she’d ever hoped for, longed for. A dream so long in the making had come true. She didn’t have to run away anymore, didn’t have to try to escape anything more dangerous than TJ.
She was home.
Epilogue
Tad was not happy.
He should have been. He should have been freaking ecstatic because he’d waited years for today to arrive. Ever since finding out about shifters, and discovering he was one, he’d hovered on the line between one existence and another.
Today all that was about to change and he should be the happiest man on earth. Especially considering his mate—his best friend in the entire world, and his damn heart—would be there at his side to guide him through his first shift into a wolf.
He was going to be a wolf.
It was amazing, astonishing, incredible…
Embarrassing.
He folded his arms over his chest, the cast on one arm getting in his way a little, and glared at the Granite Lake Alpha. “I thought this was going to be a private affair.”
TJ, the Alpha’s younger and far more annoying brother stood from where he’d been leaning on the wall beside the door and let out a snort. “Yeah, right. Private? You do remember you’re a wolf, not a polar bear?”
Tad ignored TJ and maintained eye contact with Keil. “Why do we have to do this in front of an audience? You and Robyn are the pack biggies…”
“…and you’re her brother and the pack Omega, and I swear if you don’t get your ass in gear, I’ll make you move.”
The third person in the room, the oversized man who was the pack Beta, laughed. “Careful, Keil,” Erik teased. “Tad is one of the few pack members you can’t order to obey you.”
Keil swore, and for the first time since he’d realized it wasn’t just going to be him and Missy alone under the moonlight for his inaugural shift, Tad grinned.
And then gloated, just because he could. “What he said.”
“I can put you over my shoulder and haul you out, willingly or not,” Keil offered dryly. “Come on. Let’s get this over with. No one will even notice you’re nervous.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen anyone reluctant to become a wolf. It’ll be fine,” Erik assured him. “Keil’s right. You just need to go out there, strip down, and Missy will guide you through the shift. Boom—you’ll be wearing fur. Barely any time spent naked.”
Tad stiffened his spine and fought to stay as nonchalant as possible. “Hey, this isn’t about being naked. That’s not…an issue.” Liar. “I just thought this was a family event. No audience needed. I’m a pretty boring guy, that sort of thing.”
He glanced around the room to discover all three men were staring at him, heads tilted to the side, expressions clearly saying “bullshit.”
“You’re the most human wolf I’ve ever met,” Keil informed him. “And that’s not an insult.”
TJ snorted.
Keil paused. “Okay, it is an insult, but I didn’t mean it as one. We know you’re squeamish about nudity, but we need to problem solve, and fast. You might not like the idea, but changing in your clothes is a royal pain in the ass, and the first time you stand on four legs isn’t a great moment to add a balance issue. You’ll already have to deal with stepping out of the cast.”
“I don’t care if I trip over my own feet,” Tad insisted, but his protest came out less vehemently than he intended because there was this little voice inside him telling him in no uncertain terms—his wolf would mind looking the fool.
A moment later his suspicions were confirmed as TJ reluctantly offered his point of view.
“You might not care, but your wolf will.” He pulled a face. “The only reason I don’t get beat on more often is my wolf side is a bad-ass. Not many in the pack want to mess with him.”
Erik slapped a reassuring hand on the youth’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, kid. You’ll grow into your strength someday.”
Strangely, it was that moment of supportive interplay that gave Tad the courage to briskly nod at the wolf who was now basically his brother-in-law. “Fine. We go out, I join Missy, drop trou, and shift. That’s all, right?”
Keil nodded. “That’s all.”
Tad took a deep breath. “Okay, but I’m not wearing a robe. I’d feel like I was invading a Hogwarts banquet and pulling a strip show.”
He squared his shoulders then faced the door. It was just a few pack members. What had he been so worried about?
Keil opened the door, and a rush of images and emotions struck Tad like a physical blow. He hurriedly shut off the connection he mysteriously had with the entire freaking pack—Omega woowoo he was still figuring out. Only as the voices in his head quieted, and they stepped through the doorway, real voices rose in volume.
Damn. There had to be nearly five hundred bodies jammed into the area.
He turned on Keil with a dirty look. “A few people?”
Keil shrugged. “I’ve never been good at math.”
He placed a hand on Tad’s shoulder and pushed him forward, and it was no use in complaining anymore because they were right. He was being childish.
“And I’m waiting for you.”
Missy spoke straight into his head. Tad was never going to get over how amazing and wonderful and incredible that was.
It didn’t take long for him to spot her, because she wasn’t part of the mob—crowd was too small a word for the massive gathering. She stood at the side of the recently built platform at the far side of the arena, her blonde hair loose around her shoulders, the sweet smile on her lips most definitely for him alone.
Missy wore one of the shimmering robes. It hit like a two-by-four that him getting naked meant she’d be getting naked too, and suddenly this entire public rigmarole went from being bad to really bad.
Something inside him growled in agreement.
A frown folded her expression. She’d clearly caught his thoughts on the matter of the pack seeing her without clothes. “Tad. It’s just a little skin.”
“But it’s your skin, and I don’t want anyone else looking at it.”
He reached her side. Screw protocol. Instead of taking the hand she offered, he cupped her face in his hands, kissing her firmly. Letting all of what he felt for her slip through their mate connection, in full view of everyone. Just to make it crystal clear that she was taken and that they were together.
Fortunately, instead of getting upset that he was acting like a caveman, all the love he felt for her came echoing back until he was buzzing with energy. They slid an inch apart and grinned at each other.
Okay, then. Naked time.
Her cheeks had a rosy flush as she walked up the stairs next to him, guiding him to the middle of the stage. The yard lights had been dimmed to allow the moon overhead to be the main lighting, and every inch of Tad felt far more alive than previously. Scents grew stronger, his skin prickled with energy, and his Omega senses drifted in and out of control as bits of information broke through from the gathering below them.
Missy squeezed his fingers to get his attention.
“Don’t worry about them,” She pointed two fingers at her eyes then his and then back again like in some comedy routine. “Look. At. Me.”
She enunciated clearly like an old-fashioned school teacher. “Yes, Ma’am.”
Her lips curled into a smile. Then she waited as the deafening noise from their witnesses faded in expectation.
Waiting.
Waiting.
Missy raised a brow.
Oh, right. Naked.
He didn’t have a robe, so it would take him longer to get undressed than it would for her. He reached over his head and stripped his T-shirt off as he kept his focus firmly on her face. “I don’t want you to take off that robe until the last possible second. No one gets to look at you longer than necessary.”
She smirked. “You don’t have to rush, though. I’m kind of enjoying this.”
Tad hesitated with his hands over the open button on his jeans. Nope. Not even with the admiration in her eyes. “I’ll do a striptease for you when we’re alone,” he promised.
The faster the better. He hurriedly unzipped, pushing everything to the ground. He kicked the pant legs off along with his shoes. A faint breeze rushed past, and all the hair on his body stood on end.
There really was no good way to stand buck naked in front of a crowd of people, Tad decided. The safest way seemed to be presenting his backside, but as soon as he twisted, someone in the crowd let out a lusty sigh, and he fought the urge to cover himself.
He stepped in front of Missy, putting himself between her and the gathering. “Get a move on and let’s do this thing.”
As he stood there with moonlight shining down on him, something warm and wild tumbled inside. He wasn’t sure about the sensation, but it had to be his wolf.
Missy gave an appreciative glance over his naked body, lingering on his abs. Or he thought it was on his abs. “I really love this view.”
She lifted her hands to the collar of her robe in preparation to undo the tie and let the fabric fall, when a shout rang out from the crowd.
“Listen up, everyone. We need to break up this gathering,” someone with a deep voice ordered.
Tad glanced over his shoulder as an oversized man marched through the crowd towards the platform.
Break up the gathering? Now?
“What’s going on?” Tad demanded, twirling to defend Missy at his back.
Keil and Eric didn’t look too concerned, but they were moving toward the stage after the newcomer. Meanwhile all Tad could think of was there was a crowd gathered, and he was standing buck-naked with everything hanging out, and he was about to be arrested for public indecency.
Relief made his legs quiver the instant he recognized the man as a pack member.
The man lifted a brow as he looked Tad over. “Sorry to interrupt your ceremony, but we need to send people into other parts of the pack house and get the numbers down to something under permit-required.” He turned to Keil who’d arrived beside him. “The director of Safety and Public Affairs for Alaska is in town, and he’s human. Somehow he got wind of tonight, and he’s on his way right now. We don’t have a permit for the new stage yet, or a gathering in this area, let alone one this size, and my ass is on the line.”
An unrehearsed dance of chaos followed, with portions of the crowd being cut apart and herded off to different areas. Wolves scattered left and right. Tad caught Missy by the hand and followed as directed, but every rapid step was a firm reminder that his all-in-all was still hanging loose in the wind. Missy clutched his fingers and squeezed them tight while Tad pressed his teeth together, his back stiff in an attempt to ignore the things that were moving other than his feet.
Male anatomy was not made for nude running.
Part of the crowd went one way, part another, with only a small portion joining them in a sprint toward the more remote wilderness, a result he was doubly grateful for when Missy bumped into him and his arm brushed her breast.
They were very nice breasts. They were the finest breasts he’d ever seen in his life, and he was very glad that he’d gotten to know them on an intimate, first name basis. But the fact he had such detailed knowledge also meant that the instant contact occurred, his body wanted to be polite and say hello back. That certain portion of his anatomy, that section he really wished wasn’t out there for viewing, was now no longer ignorable, but upright and waving.
He more felt Missy’s laughter than heard it.
“I’m glad you’re finding this entertaining.”
“What I’m feeling is smug. Listening to the comments from the crowd about how delectable you are, and knowing you’re mine, makes me happy.” She suddenly glanced over her shoulder, then in a very un-Missy-like gesture, lobbed a proprietary stare at one of the other pack members. “Okay, a few of them are going a bit too far.”
Someone from the crowd let out a piercing wolf whistle, and Tad glanced to the side in time to see a group of women ranging from age twenty all the way up waggling their brows at him. The oldest woman in the group, the one with shimmering pink highlights in her hair, lowered her fingers from her mouth then licked her lips at him in an exaggerated manner.
Enough.
He didn’t care where they were being led. Screw the legal gathering requirements. He didn’t need a crowd. He didn’t want a crowd.
Surely he was smart enough to figure out a way to avoid said crowd.
Tad waited until the swarming mass turned a corner, then he caught Missy around the waist and twirled her, zigging back the way they’d come before darting down a side path. He lifted her into his arms so he could run.
She draped her arms around his neck, smiling happily. “You’re going the wrong direction,” she teased.
“Hide us,” he ordered. “Use your wolfie mumbo-jumbo, and make it seem like we’re nowhere to be found. We have something important to do.”
Either she figured out a way to use their Omega-ness, or he was running fast enough that a few moments later they’d lost the rest of the pack. Tad kept going, though, slipping silently through the trees until he came to the clearing he’d found the other day.
He lowered Missy to her feet, keeping her tucked against his body as they stood motionless. Wind shook the branches of the spruce boughs against each other, but other than that…
Silence.
Sweet glorious silence.
“It’s time,” Missy informed him.
He glanced down into her shining eyes to discover she’d already undone the knotted cord holding her robe closed, and as she stepped back, the fabric slid to the ground, a shimmering pile of blue in the moonlight.
Her blonde hair reflected moonbeams around her face and she glowed with happiness and love.
Tad caught her fingers and held them as he stared into her eyes. “I am the luckiest man in the world.”
“You are. Now let’s let the luckiest wolf in the world get his turn to play.”
He had intended on keeping careful track of every step of how the shift happened, but it turned out the only thing he could concentrate on were her eyes. Mesmerizing, caring. Loving him with everything in her as the world shimmered and pleasure struck so hard his spine arched.
A moan escaped him. “What was that?
“Almost as good as sex, right?” she teased, then stepped past him to bump him with her hip.
Fur met fur.
Tad jolted upright, three paws pressing the earth, the fourth sticking awkwardly to one side. He backed up, slipping his leg out of the cast that had held his broken human arm in position to heal.
He tentatively placed his paw on the ground, delighted when only a slight twinge of pain answered. “It’s healed.”
“Not completely, and when you shift back to human it will still hurt a little. Our wolves heal faster, but not magically.” Missy circled him, her beautiful eyes taking him in. “I knew you’d be silver, like me. You’re gorgeous.”
Tad’s wolf preened. An interesting sensation, considering he was still Tad, but now somehow…more.
He was about to make a comment about the strange juxtaposition when Missy turned tail and ran toward the trees. She paused at the edge of the clearing. “Well? Shall we run, my love?”
She was right. Discussions and analysis were for human time. Now? It was time to explore with the wolf he loved.
Tad threw back his head and howled
his happiness to the heavens.
Second Epilogue
June. Two years plus some months later at the Granite Lake pack house
Erik Costanov folded his arms over his chest, staring down from his imposing height at the oldest of the three teenagers standing in front of him, scuffing their feet nervously.
“We didn’t mean to,” the boy insisted.
Forget answering. Erik simply lifted a brow.
Another hard-done-by sigh escaped the youth before he finally lifted his gaze to meet Erik’s for a brief moment. “Okay, we did mean to, but the rules are stupid.”
His voice broke on the final word, rising from a baritone to a childish soprano, and the kid’s face flushed with embarrassment.
Erik ignored it. Teenagers had enough to deal with the hormonal rush of hitting adolescent without getting razed by their elders about things they couldn’t control.
The things they could control was another matter.
He let his gaze drift over three young men gathered before him. They’d been sent to him by one of the older women in the pack who had caught them spray-painting the outside of the pack house. It was too small an issue to bother the Alphas about, but big enough for her to realize Erik, in his role as Beta, was a far better person to hand out punishment than a random adult.
“And the way to fix a stupid rule is to vandalize other people’s property? Or did you think that was a way to prove you’re old enough to be considered for the privilege the rules deny you?”
All three of them drooped like fireweed in a drought.
Their spokesman made a rude noise. “Okay, it was dumb.”
“It was childish,” Erik corrected him. “Because I know you’re all smarter than that when you’re not disappointed. But I expect better of you in the future, even when the rules aren’t in your favor.”
“Yes, Beta.” Three voices in unison.
He looked them over carefully, considering. Erik knew what it was to be disappointed and left out—or he had before he’d hit his growth spurt as a youth and then had to face the opposite kind of trouble. “I want all of you to get your parents to contact me.”
