by AJ Merlin
“I guess you’ll just have to let me sweep you away so you can see, princess,” he purred, eyes brightening to the spring green of his panther. “But if you do, I might not have such an easy time letting you go.”
The playful threat was hot, and the breath caught in my throat as I pulled away to look at him with eyes that I was sure burned with the copper of my maned wolf’s intensity.
“Promises, promises,” I laughed, and kissed him once more.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Did you pack the first aid kit?” Noah walked down the hallway, Miss Murple following him.
“Uh, no?” I asked, following after the waddling cat. “We’re staying one night, Noah.”
It had lined up perfectly that the day after I had lunch with my courting alphas, Noah and I were looking at two more days off in a row.
That meant we could visit Bea. Something I was looking forward to. Noah was too, I figured, in his own way. But she’d always been a bit harder on him than she had me.
“You sure you don’t want to bring someone?” Noah asked. “It’d distract her.”
“Why don’t you bring Hayley?” I asked, evading the question effortlessly.
The beta shifter made a face. “No. I don’t want to scare her off.”
“Well what makes you think that Bea wouldn’t scare off one of my boyfriends?”
Noah paused to look at me, mouth twisted into a scowl. “While I agree that if anyone could scare them away, it would be Beatrice, I also have very little faith in that happening. She’d love them. And they’d probably charm her into forgetting about us for a few minutes.”
“I’m not bringing them.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to scare them off, and I’m not ready to have the conversation about why none of us look related or have the same animal shape.”
That made him pause. “You really think they’ll care that much?”
“I really don’t feel like telling them. So drop it.” I let my teeth lengthen slightly and snapped at the raccoon shifter, but Noah only rolled his eyes, completely unaffected by my warning.
“Well, Miss Murple is coming,” he said, picking the cat up and dumping her into the carrier he’d gotten out of the closet.
“Naturally. She needs her exercise, and Bea’s chickens love her.”
He paused at the door, backpack in hand, and I stood behind him with my bag as well. “You have everything?” he confirmed.
I nodded. “The new lock works?”
It was Noah’s turn to nod.
Two hours later, as Noah’s car rolled into our sister’s long driveway that led through the woods and up to a small hobby farm, my phone beeped to alert me to a new text.
“I’m surprised you’re getting signal out here,” Noah admitted, turning down the music.
“Same,” I agreed, lifting my aviators off my face so I could look at the message properly.
Do you want to spend some time together?
The message was from Hades, and had been sent to the newly minted group chat between the three alphas and me.
I frowned, and fired off a quick reply.
I would, if I wasn’t visiting my sister with Noah. I’ll be back tomorrow.
His reply took a minute, but was pretty much exactly what I’d expected it to be.
Have fun. Tell Noah I said hi.
“Hades says hi,” I informed my roommate, who glanced my way.
“Did you miss a date opportunity with your alphas?”
“Guess so. But thats okay. I saw them yesterday, and I’m happy we’re here.”
As we pulled up to the house, my brows rose at the increased number of chickens. “She’s really getting into this farm thing,” I commented, getting out of the car once Noah had parked.
Sucking in a breath, I wasn’t at all surprised at the scent of farm animals that assaulted my senses. Nature took a back seat, and I found myself sifting through the smells of chickens, cats, her dog, and other animals that she’d never had before.
Did I smell sheep?
Set far back off the road on its own modest acreage, Beatrice’s house was a tidy, brick ranch house with a large, covered porch. The door opened, and our sister came out, wearing a pair of work jeans and a wide smile.
By looking at the three of us, it was obvious to anyone with eyes that we weren’t related by blood. Noah and I could’ve passed as blood siblings, sure, but not Beatrice.
Our sister, though she’d just turned thirty-two, could’ve passed for being in her mid twenties. Not that it mattered, since shifters led longer lives than humans did, but it was the principal of the thing.
Her long, black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, drawn back from high cheekbones and hazel eyes. A full mouth was upturned in a smile, and her walk would’ve made any model jealous. So would her flawless, coppery skin that had never met a blemish in the time I’d known her.
She was as tall as I was, maybe an inch taller, I thought, but it wasn’t so unheard of on her.
Beatrice was an alpha. An imposing, caring, intelligent tigress who had always herded us around as kids and kept us out of trouble.
While she could be annoying at times, she was also my oldest sister and self-appointed protector.
“Bea,” I greeted, stepping forward to throw my arms around her and breathe in the familiar scent of family.
“I’ve missed you two!” She replied, gesturing for Noah to join in our hug. “It’s been too long.” She squeezed our shoulders and pulled back, taking a deep breath.
“Does someone have an alpha?” Her bright gaze found mine.
Well that was quick.
“Three. Maybe,” I admitted, feeling suddenly a bit shy around her.
“I want to hear all about it! And…” She fixed Noah with her gaze. “You, Noah can’t hide that omega’s scent under all that cologne.”
He flushed, embarrassed, and looked away. “You running a farm now, Bea?”
“A rescue,” she amended. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
It was a struggle to keep up with her as she took long, confident strides across the yard to where a freshly painted barn sat behind the house.
“A friend needed some help with the animals she was having brought to her,” our sister explained, pushing open the door and showing us the inside of the small building. “So, I started bringing some of them here.”
Inside the barn, two sheep glanced up at us and bleated a welcome. Another trotted out the back, into the pen beyond, and two goats gazed at us from atop hay bales.
To our left was an enclosure made for rabbits, and currently held three lounging bunnies the size of golden retrievers.
“Miss Murple is going to flip,” I told Noah, whose face fell in shock.
“Oh shit, I left her in the car!” He yelped, trotting back to where we’d parked.
“How serious is he about her?” Beatrice whispered, closing up the barn.
“Pretty serious,” I told her, before he could come back and deny my words. “More than I’ve ever seen. Which surprises me? She’s an omega, and he’s not an alpha, obviously.”
“Biology doesn’t always win out,” Beatrice shrugged, reaching down to pick up an orange cat twining about her ankles.
Another walked over to make my acquaintance, and I leaned down to run a hand over its head. “Anyone helping you with this?” I asked slyly, wondering if there was anyone special in my sister’s life.
“Not anyone like that,” she replied, watching as Noah returned with the carrier and trailing the big golden retriever, Moose.
“Is it still okay if I let her out?” Noah asked, breathless. “Will any of the new animals bother her?”
“Your cat will be fine, little brother,” Beatrice snorted, gesturing at him impatiently.
“Okay…” he glanced at Moose, who wagged his tail, and set the carrier on the ground to open it.
Once the little door had swung open, Miss Murple squeezed out
of it, her bulk nearly becoming stuck in the door.
The change in the grumpy cat was immediate. She looked up, eyes darting back and forth, and one of the barn cats walked forward to touch noses with her.
Then, like a flash and a, well, not so fast flash, the three cats were off towards the barn. Miss Murple had never gone far, and I had a feeling she’d be back on the porch and begging to be let in by the end of the hour.
“I’ve made dinner, if you’re hungry now?” Bea offered, taking the cat kennel from Noah deftly and leading the way back towards the driveway.
“Starving,” Noah and I chorused, though he tried to fight her for the cat carrier, instead of letting her carry it.
Not that he’d succeed. Our sister, the tigress, outweighed and outmatched him. He wasn’t getting it back until she put it down.
Dinner ended up being a lot of things we hadn’t had since living with our foster parents, Bill and Kendra.
Beatrice went all out, and I gladly chipped in to help her set the table and take care of anything that didn’t involve burning the food.
Noah took a more proactive approach on that side of things, and by the time he and Beatrice were finished, the table groaned under steaming bowls of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, cornbread, and corn.
“Bill and Kendra would be so proud of us,” I stated, admiring the table as I sat down across from Beatrice. “You should invite them over this year for their anniversary. I bet they’d love it.”
“I would….” Bea agreed, ladling corn onto her plate and then handing the bowl to me while Noah took charge of cutting meatloaf. “But I don’t want to upset Meg.”
That was a good point, and I should’ve considered it before suggesting Bea’s house be a family dinner spot.
“Have you seen her lately?” Noah asked, and gave the meatloaf dish to me.
Beatrice didn’t answer until we were all served and I’d taken an embarrassingly large bite of mashed potatoes.
“I visited a few weeks ago,” our oldest sister explained. “When I could get away from work.”
“Everything okay?” I mumbled around a mouthful of food.
“I think Meg’s doing really well, actually,” Bea said with a nod. “She went into town with Dad, which I thought was a surprise. But they said she’s been coming out of her shell lately.”
“Wow,” Noah stated. I shared the sentiment.
We’d all had varying speeds of coping with our childhoods before foster care. Most of us had developed the ability to live alone as adults, though Bill and Kendra had never forced us to leave, even when we’d turned eighteen.
They’d always treated us like their real family. No matter that they had no biological children of their own and that all of us had come to them from severely abusive situations, they’d never cared about our circumstances.
They’d only wanted what was best for us as a family.
“I’m really happy for her,” I said, stabbing a green bean. “It’s got to be a relief for Bill, too. He worries so much about her.”
Both of them did, but Meg had latched onto our foster father, Bill, when the social workers brought her home and had never let go.
“You should both visit soon. Their anniversary is coming up in six and a half weeks. They’d love to see you,” Beatrice suggested.
“Maybe you can bring Hayley,” I said, glancing at Noah.
“Maybe you can bring your alphas,” my roommate shifter replied without hesitating.
I wasn’t so sure about that.
The smile fell from my face and I pushed a bit of meatloaf around my plate. “I don’t know if that’d be such a good idea,” I said after a moment. “They’re not really…” I wasn’t sure what to say.
“If they aren’t okay with it, what then?” Noah pushed onward. “Are you going to lie about it, or hide your family situation, forever?”
“I’m not hiding anything.” But god, I hated how this was a recurring topic of conversation lately. “Noah, I’ll tell them, okay. I just need to figure out how.” And when. Though, the when was going to be very, very far away, I was sure.
“I’m just saying,” Noah shrugged, and I didn’t miss the way Beatrice’s eyes narrowed slightly, meaning she disagreed with at least one of us quite vehemently but was trying to hold her tongue.
Though for the life of me, I couldn’t guess at whose side she might be on.
“I get it,” I said quickly, and held my hands up in quick surrender. “But let’s not talk about my questionable love life anymore, okay? No.” I turned and let my elbow fall to the table with a thud, chin in my hand. “I want to hear about South-Georgia drama and how in the world you became a rescue, Bea.”
She smiled after a moment, her expression lighting up. “You won’t believe me, but it all started with one of those damn rabbits in the barn and some girl in town who thought she could psychic the poor thing back to good health.”
When my phone rang again a few hours after dinner, I ignored it in favor of stripping out of my pajamas.
By the time it was alerting me to a text the second time, I could grab it, and did so.
Hope you’re having a good time.
The message was again from Hades, but this time it was sent just to me, instead of the group.
I smiled and typed back, My sister has a farm. We’ve been petting sheep all day.
No shit? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sheep in person. Maybe at a zoo?
I couldn’t help a snort at his response. I don’t think zoos have sheep, Hades.
After a moment he texted back again, Then maybe you’ll have to bring me to see your sister so I can pet a sheep myself.
My smile faded slightly and I stared at my phone, irritated that this issue seemed to be finding me again and again. As if the universe wanted me to come to terms with things I wasn’t ready to come to terms with.
Maybe I will. There. That was a good answer. Noncommittal and vague. I liked noncommittal and vague today.
I’ll see you on Tuesday at work?
I replied that I’d be there, and waited until after he’d said good night to put my phone down by my bed again.
With that done, I shifted, letting myself get a bit lost in the feeling of my body changing, arms lengthening and bones reforming into my maned wolf shape.
It didn’t hurt. Shifting never hurt. While it had felt weird for the first few months when I’d learned how to shift, my foster parents attributed that to me learning so late, instead of when I was four or five like most other kids.
Now I loved everything about the feeling of my animal form, and wished more than anything that I could spend more time like this, instead of being a functioning, human-shaped adult.
My room in Bea’s house had a floor length mirror, and I strode forward to stand in front of it, nose nearly touching the glass.
I looked just the same as always, didn’t I? Was there some perceptible difference these days, now that I was being courted by three different alphas?
Tipping my muzzle to the side, I flicked my large ears at myself.
No, dummy, I told myself silently. You’re still the same you.
Pushing open the door, I found that Beatrice sat in the living room on the rug, a book in her hand and Moose sleeping across her lap.
When she saw me, she smiled and patted the rug beside her.
I approached, stretching out and touching noses with Moose.
The dog just thumped his tail on the floor twice, and went back to snoring.
“I know that neither of you appreciate some of my advice,” my sister began, prompting me to look up at her in surprise. “But I worry about you and Noah.”
I snorted, sure there were better people to worry about.
Hadn’t Zak fallen into the Pacific a few weeks ago to prompt a pretty lifeguard to save him and take him on a date? That seemed like a better thing to worry over than my love life and Noah’s career.
“But I’ve always worried about you the most.” She
ran a hand over my ears and I frowned at her as much as I could in this form. I knew she meant well, but she didn’t need to worry about me. “I know that Noah said at dinner he thinks you’re moving too fast, but he’s not like us. He’s a beta. He doesn’t get the instant, biological pull you have to someone that is a potential mate.”
Did she get it? I hadn’t thought that Bea had ever found anyone she wanted to court or had any interest in.
Maybe she just hadn’t told us.
“I know it’s exciting. I promise, I do. And I want you to be happy. However, I want you to remember that once all of the newness fades, once their scent doesn’t have you on cloud nine, you’ll still have to live with the alphas you chose. Under all those pheromones, aside from all that biology, there are people there who may not be showing you their everything right now.”
She paused, giving me a minute to unhappily process her words.
“And it works both ways, Alek. Eventually, they’ll want to know about you, too.”
I sneezed and shook off her hand to get to my feet. With a shake of my head I eyed my sister balefully, sure she knew what I would’ve said if I was still in human form.
Beatrice shrugged. “Good relationships aren’t built on secrets, little sister. And if it’s really meant to be, they won’t care about where you came from or how you found them.”
Maybe not in her world.
Besides-I had every right to keep my secrets. Every right to let the skeletons turn to dust in the closet, and every fucking right not to tell them about certain things.
With one last scoff, I turned to the door, pausing to slant a glance in her direction.
Beatrice rose and padded to the door, opening it and the screen. “Don’t go too far,” she advised. “I have some new neighbors, a few miles east of here. You might scare the nice beta couple.”
I shook my head, but made a mental note not to stray that far. It wasn’t my intention to scare anyone.
I just wanted to run.
And so I did.
An easy leap took me down the stairs, and I broke into a jog in the springy grass of her yard. I couldn’t help putting my nose to the ground, and I breathed in the farm’s scents that were sharper in my wolf form than they had been before I’d shifted.
