by Sky Winters
More whispers and a few grumbles. Joaquin’s face went slick with sweat. “I have nothing but business with Magda.”
“She’s set you at war with the muties. You knew damn well Drake was no mutie. Magda’s been working you. Now all the shifters are going to have to fight the muties. The tigers will die, you know that. The muties will go after them first and then what? You get to unite the wolf packs and ride to the rescue. As Alpha of all. Is that what she promised you?”
Joaquin went pale. “How dare you?”
“How dare you send your pack, and all the packs, into war just so you can take power?”
She watched his face as he changed. He was too angry to think, and to angry to try to deny it. It’s true. It’s all true. That’s exactly what’s happening and I know it now, and so do they. Any that might have stood with him are not going to now.
Joaquin’s face contorted. He shifted, fast. She ran, shifting as she went. Her muscles gathered and her teeth burst from her gums, her muzzle opening wide as she jumped onto Joaquin’s back, her teeth sinking deep in the fur at the back of his neck.
Joaquin shook hard, and Angelina flew sideways. The air opened around her and then her back hit a wall, hard enough that all the breath left her lungs. Plaster sifted down, the rainy stuff sucking up into her nose and down her lungs as she fought for a long breath.
Coughing, sneezing, and in pain, she fought to stay in wolf form. Her body revolted. Her fur receded, leaving her flesh naked and bare, exposed. The air conditioner’s blast struck her, chilling her to the bone.
I have to win. I can’t lose. My child’s life, my life and Drake’s life are all at risk. Not only ours but all the lives of those the muties will kill for his grab at power. He’ll turn LA into a cesspool, him and Magda, and I can’t let that happen. That’s not what we stand for.
Joaquin stalked her, his stinking fur standing on end. Angelina let him come, her body moving in slow and steady paces as she circled him as well. Blood dripped from Joaquin’s muzzle; she was not sure whose it was—his or hers. There was pain in her body but she could not pinpoint the source and she couldn’t focus on that now.
None of the wolves moved to interfere. Their silence was profound. Her paws slid on the cool tile. Joaquin’s teeth flashed, his muzzle lifting to reveal his fangs. Those deadly sharp fangs that could tear her throat or soft belly out if she was not careful.
Joaquin lunged. She leaped out of the way, and his jaws snapped down on empty air. Angelina took advantage of that, sinking her teeth into his flank and yanking hard. Skin tore and veins ruptured, spilling blood down his side as he yanked away.
They rolled, their bodies thudding and teeth meeting flesh. Angelina’s claws sank deep into his belly but not deep enough. They separated.
More wolves filled the room. They stared at the battle going on and then they shifted, going human.
Drake!
He would have to fend for himself if they came at him. He could fend for himself. She had to worry about herself right then, and the precious cargo in her belly.
Joaquin clawed her. Her teeth met his muzzle, tore a chunk of flesh away. Pain slid through her nerve endings. She yelped as he tore a long strip of her flesh from her right side, just above the ribs. It didn’t stop her; she snapped her jaws down on his front leg, snarling and shaking her head as she tried her best to rip that leg right off.
His paw tore across her scalp. Long burning trails erupted on her head and she dropped his paw and backed away, dizzy and sick from the taste of blood in her mouth.
He came at her again.
Exhaustion and adrenaline flooded through her body, sending her heart beat into overdrive and making her body take on a fine trembling quiver.
Joaquin leaped high. Angelina made herself wait even though the urge to leap was strong. As he stretched out, flying toward her, Angelina dropped and slid forward, flipping over. Her claws tore his belly, ripping open his flesh and breaking ribs, piercing organs.
Joaquin hit the floor with a long scream. He shifted, cycling back and forth as agony took over.
Drake stepped forward. The other wolves did, too.
Angelina shifted. Naked, bloody, and sick, she staggered toward Drake. He opened his arms and she fell into them.
Sam shouted, “I claim the right to Alpha as a son of the second of the pack!”
“You coward,” Drake snarled, his body heading toward shift. He kept it back but his hands were paws now and the claws at the end were wickedly sharp. “You could have fought Joaquin for it, but you stood aside. Hell, I didn’t even see you here in the room until just now. Where were you hiding?”
Angelina peered at Sam. Her heart broke. She could feel it literally snapping in half right in her chest. “You cannot claim. There’s a new Alpha and the battle was for one. The law won’t allow you to fight me, but if you want to…”
“You won’t battle her. Not for Alpha. You will fight me, and for your very life.” Drake’s smile was grim, and Sam saw death written in Drake’s eyes. He backed away.
“I have the right of birth,” Sam yelled.
“You have no right,” Drake said softly.
“How dare you tell me what I have the right to, bear?”
“I’m an exile from my pack. I’m her mate. I stand with her and if you come at her I will kill you, no matter what your relationship is. You chose not to lay claim before and you don’t get to lay it now. The tigers rescinded the law but once. Fight her for it now and you fight outside the law, a law every shifter pack agreed to. If you chose to break the law, I have the right to enforce it, and I will, make no mistake.”
Joaquin screamed again. Blood bubbled out of his belly. Sam looked away and down. The others looked at everything but Joaquin.
“Is nobody going to stand with me against a bear?” Sam asked.
Silence.
Torn between loyalty to a brother who had shown her none and duty, Angelina made a decision. “Sam, you can live. I will let you—but you are not my family, not anymore. You proved that when you did not stand for me against him when he wanted to kill me. For that reason, I am exiling you. Because you interfered when he was choking me to death, I am letting you live.”
Sam gawked at her. His face, under its olive color, was white. “You can’t exile me. I won’t go. I won’t let you stand as Alpha, and not with a bear at your side.”
Sam shifted. Angelina’s body tensed. Don’t make me kill you, she begged silently. Please. I don’t want this but I will. You are going to give me no choice and I will kill you.
Sam shifted back. His eyes went to the rest of the pack, all standing silent now. “You’re going to accept a woman as Alpha, one with a bear mate?”
The wolves all nodded. Then a chorus of yeses broke out. Gratitude and hope flooded through Angelina. There were good people here, ones who wanted things to go back to the way they had been once, and she had their support now.
Angelina lifted her head. “I know who here fought back as best they could and who believed in what Joaquin offered. It’s your choice, but understand this now, I will kill anyone I have to in order to keep this hood from going back downhill. I will put it right, back to what it was before Joaquin made his bargain with Magda. If that is not for you, you can choose to walk right now. Go with Sam and make your own territory somewhere else if that’s how you want it.”
Drake added, “You should all know she’s telling the truth. The bear territory’s being overrun by muties, and Magda has zero control over them. It’s anarchy over there, and the tigers are fighting them, too. So far, this territory has held, but they’re coming for it. If you set up your own territory, if you choose exile, you’re choosing to be unprotected from the muties.”
Sam smiled, and it wasn’t a pleasant smile. “I have protection from them.”
“How can you be so blind?” Angelina asked. “They used you to try to get an in here and once you’re exiled, you’d be smart to get as far from here as possible. They don’t nee
d you now, and they will kill you. You’re irrelevant. I did you a favor, exiling you. You have a chance. Go anywhere, but go, and stay far from the muties and from Magda, because if you don’t, you’re dead.”
It was true. Sam wouldn’t see that though. His arrogance wouldn’t let him see that, and Angelina knew it as she studied his face. He was too intent on doing what he had wanted to do from the first. He was too intent on trying to grab power, and that greedy need was going to be the death of him.
Sam asked, “Who’s with me?”
Nobody moved. Sam stared at their faces and one by one, the wolves turned away from him. Tears stung the back of Angelina’s eyelids. Her father was dead. Mario was gone, and Sam was also gone from her.
She was Alpha, and she was all alone with no family.
No, that was wrong.
Her eyes went to Drake.
He was her family now.
It shouldn’t be, but it was.
He was a bear, and she was a wolf and that was against the laws—but the laws were tumbling all over the shifting world. Since she was in charge of her pack, she got to make the rules. The first new law she would make was that they could mate as they choose and all the old arrangements would be null and void.
No female shifted should be forced to mate with a wolf she didn’t want simply because her parents made a promise that would benefit them in some way.
The second law she would create would say that no shifter was bound to the old law that said shifters could only mate with their own kind—and while she might never be able to change the minds of those who were outside her pack, in her pack, that law would hold and she would accept whatever species of shifter mated with her pack mates and members.
How could she not?
In her belly was a creature none had ever known, a shifter with a bear for a father and a wolf for a mother.
Trepidation set in. There’d be those who tried to kill her child, or children. There’d be questions of heritage and ability to lead. There was a massive war looming with the muties and a child such as hers would be all the fuel they needed—especially as the muties had been mating outside the law for a long time now with no success in birthing children who were capable of shifting at all.
What if my child cannot shift either? What if our shifter abilities somehow negate each other and they are simply human? They’d have no protection at all and where would that leave them?
“Fuck you,” Sam snarled. “If you ever want to apologize, you can do it from your knees and before the whole mutie army, which I will be riding near the head of. I can promise you that.”
He turned and stormed off. Drake lifted an eyebrow. Angelina turned to the wolves gathered there. “Make sure he takes nothing but what he needs, and that he gets past the territory lines. All those not gathered here now must be told that he’s he is a traitor. Make sure they also know that I have given him exile over death.”
They nodded. The room emptied.
Drake stood there, his magnificent body nude and shimmering. The stickiness of the blood coating her body hit her senses, and so did the rich coppery smell. The tangy, old copper scent made her throat clutch and acid float up over her teeth.
Drake caught her in his arms and held her. “You need a shower.”
“I do.”
Her voice held all her pain, and his finger tipped her head back. He stared into her eyes, his raking her face carefully. “Let’s get you in the shower.” His eyes went to Joaquin. “I’ll handle that.”
Angelina looked over. Joaquin lay there, shriveled and dead. His form had stopped in wolf and his fur was matted with clotted blood. She sighed. “Thanks. At least… say a few words, okay?”
“Sure.” He rested his hands on her shoulders, looking down into her eyes. “You do know what this means?”
“What?”
“I’m like the Alpha’s mate now.” He grinned at her.
She tried to laugh but everything hurt. She leaned into his body and closed her eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you more.” His arms pulled her in closer. His hands rested on the small of her back. ”It’s going to be all right. I swear to you it will.”
“As long as you’re with me, how could it not be?”
He kissed her, hard. His lower body pressed into her, bringing the feel of his member to her lower belly. That hard thrusting flesh ignited her passion. That she could want him even after the things that had just transpired didn’t surprise her at all.
She whispered, “You know what we’re facing, don’t you?”
“I do, but there’s nothing I can’t or won’t face with you, Angelina. You’re my mate for life, for as long as we live, and I intend to make sure we live for a very long time. I won’t let you go, and I won’t let you down. If anyone wants to come for you or our child, they’re going to have to come through me to do it.”
“I love you.” Salty tears ran into her mouth but they were tears of happiness. “I love you so very much.”
His thick cock stiffened yet again, prodding against her soft belly. Angelina backed away and took his hand. “Everything else can wait,” she said softly. “I need you now.”
Drake threw his head back and laughed. “I’ll follow you to the shower.”
Angelina’s smile was impish. “I have a better idea. I’ll race you to it.”
His eyes went dark with desire. “You have a five-second head start, but if I catch you…”
Angelina ran, knowing he would catch her, and knowing she wanted nothing more.
Highland Shifters
Time of the Werebears
“And to the left you'll see a portrait of Lord Lachlan, who ruled with an iron fist. He had a deep intolerance for Highland rebels and pushed for their total annihilation. In the display case to your right is his sword, which shed the blood of countless Highland men, women, and even children, though some were taken in to be re-cultured in the ways of the crown.”
Studying the blade sent a shiver down Sadie McNeil's spine. She was enjoying the tour of her family's castle, and although her heritage trip had just begun, she couldn't wait to see what might happen next. She hoped to learn about her distant family's history as much as possible. The guide spoke on about Lord Lachlan, painting a vivid image of the tyrant in her mind. She could imagine the man's stern face in battle, his eyes narrow and ready to spill the blood of anybody who dared defy him. A series of his portraits lined the walls, and by the time they reached the end of the hallway, she was sure she wouldn't have liked him.
Suddenly, she thought she heard somebody yelling her name. A faraway echo made her turn, her heart thudding rapidly. Where had it come from? Nobody here knew her; she had traveled alone. She looked around the group; nobody else seemed to have heard it.
“Sadie!” it called again. She heard it clearly this time, a man's voice; urgent and afraid. She broke away from the group, following the sound of her name. Everybody else was engrossed in Lord Lachlan's sword. She looked around for the man who seemed to know who she was. She walked slowly, staying close to the wall where the paintings hung proudly in a line. Suddenly, the man's voice seemed to be right in her ear, an intimate breathiness that brought a shiver down her spine. She turned to her right and, to her surprise, found herself gazing right into her own face. At first she thought she had encountered a mirror, but quickly noted the frame, and theother people surrounding her. Somehow, her likeness had been captured in the middle of an ancient painting.
She backed away as if the portrait was on fire, clutching at her heart, and then stared again. That was her all right, right down to the mole on her left cheek, and the fiery red curls that she pulled back into a braid. But how could it be? Surely it was just some ancient ancestor. Still, the resemblance was uncanny. She wondered if her mother had ever noticed.
Sadie studied the painting more closely, holding back the urge to touch it. The woman, who looked identical to Sadie, was standing next to the fierce Lord Lachlan. The tour guide caught up with
her and began telling of the painting's history.
“Here we see Lord Lachlan with his wife, just before the execution of a particularly meddlesome Highland rebel. You see, he is holding the sword from the display case. Lord Lachlan liked to dispose of the rebels himself, told his troops to keep them alive until he dealt with them personally.”
The group moved away from the painting, but Sadie stayed rooted in one spot. She was suddenly overpowered by an intense nausea, and she ran out of the room, desperate to get away from the image of the terrible man and her doppelganger, standing mournfully beside him.
She raced down the hallway, turning a corner and pausing to catch her breath. She had been seized by a momentary panic, but if she could just distract herself, maybe she would feel better. Her eyes wandered to the painting in front of her – a group of muscular men scowling and attacking three large bears head-on. The absurdity of the image made her burst out in laughter. The sound of her own voice comforted her, and she took a deep breath. It was reasonable to be uncomfortable; the painting in the other room probably didn't actually look that much like her. She had just been under a lot of stress lately with the divorce looming over her head. Most people wouldn't be holding up anywhere near as well as she was under the same circumstances. Her entire life had just been turned upside down.
She was filled with anger as memories of her soon-to-be ex-husband's infidelity penetrated her. She had trusted him more than she had trusted anybody. Maybe that was because he was a solid, reliable type, whose wandering eye had been carefully concealed behind his thick glasses and gentle smile. He hadn't been particularly exciting. In fact, the most her heart had raced for him was in the anger after discovering that he had been cheating on her with any woman who pitied him enough to sleep with him. He had made her out to be some sort of insufferable hag, never having time for him because she was so busy with her own career.
