Winds of Change

by Kat Keppeler

Chance forced himself to straighten, giving Lee’s shoulder a solid thump and turned his attention to the woman that Rory held. She was a real piece of work and the fact that Lee was furious rather than frightened meant he’d changed more than even Rory or Chance had fully understood.

  “Why my safe?” Chance said, his words cracking with menace, “We know that Rory’s shitbag of a father holds your leash, and we know that he’s had scouts poking about for a bit. What the fuck are you looking for, Akira? You can tell us what they know now and we’ll make the kill quick and clean. Drag it out and we’ll let the betas rip you into tiny pieces. They’ll save your throat for last.”

  Chance meant it. This, more than any other reason was why they’d been adamant that Skye not come along on this hunt. Protecting their sweet natured mate wasn’t just about keeping her physically safe but none of them wanted to see her ideals brutalized by the world they lived in. She’d been a shifter for less than half a year and if Chance could, he’d keep her from ever seeing this side of their world.

  “Do not give me orders, exile. I do not answer to you…” Akira said, her tone choked as Rory squeezed. The growl came from Rory and he pulled her close to him, a gasp of fright from her.

  “No you don’t. But you’ll answer me.” She was close enough that Rory could hear her gasps catching in her windpipe. “You come here, threaten my pack! Try to steal something from us... You have three seconds to talk or I will gut you and watch Lee eat your entrails.”

  Her eyes caught the look of Lee, his hackles high and his snarls filling the clearing with a deep, low rumble. It was clear that Lee would do exactly that, and he’d do it happily. There was confusion in her face as she had only known him to be an omega and she had greatly underestimated Rory and his strength. “Talk. Now.”

  “He sends us, by their hand. You do not think that they do not know you and this pathetic little pack you make?” Akira said, a growl leaving her. “We will find you, we know where you are… And he will tear you limb from limb…”

  Rory growled again, squeezing harder as she tried to scream.

  “They will slaughter you..” She managed before he crushed her throat and she made nothing but gurgling sounds. Rory tossed the woman to the ground where she fell in a heap, grabbing at her throat. “You’ve earned it, Clarence Lee…”

  The grey wolf was on her suddenly, his paws pinning her shoulders to the ground. Lee sunk his teeth into her shoulder and shook his head. The sound of tearing flesh filled the air, her gurgling increased in a strangled scream.

  The wolf atop her growled, scratching bloody furrows in her flesh as he tore chunks from her. As the light in her eyes began to die out, Lee sank his teeth into her neck and bit. With a shake of his head and a spray of blood the she-wolf on the ground convulsed but that didn’t stop Lee’s onslaught. He ripped at her until bits of flesh lay strewn and his maw dripped with her blood.

  Chance was breathing heavily, tamping his rage down as they were all furious that Aiden had dared to intrude in their territory, to threaten their mate and their cubs.

  “Fucking wanker,” was Chance’s rough comment before he jerked his chin to Scott and Caleb, “Good job. Go on back and tell Skye we’re fine and tell Finn the problem’s been dealt with. Tell them we’re just doing with clean up and we’ll be home.”

  That drew a few looks from the packs beta wolves but they followed Chance’s command without question or even hesitation, heading back to let the rest of the pack know that all was well. Normally, clean up would have been their duty and not the alpha wolves but with Lee’s unprecedented rising through the ranks of their pack, Chance wanted to give him a moment to deal with returning to himself in private. When he’d snapped at Rory, he’d claimed rank on Scott and Caleb; rank that their wolves had ceded. Watching Lee try to cope with his emotions right now would only unsettle that.

  Chance and Rory didn’t approach Lee until he was done with the body, his grey sides heaving and flecked with blood and gore and the low rumble still in his chest.

  “Okay, Lee, time to come back to us now,” Chance said, his voice turning gentle in the way it only ever did in private with his mates. Gingerly, he lowered himself to his knees and held out his arms for the grey wolf, “Come back to me. Threat’s gone, you killed it. Come on back now.”

  The wolf was whining, it had started on the ebbs of rage. Standing over its kill, Lee whined in despair. The moment Chance opened his arms the wolf leapt into them. It was one of the only times in this modern age that Lee didn’t seem able to control his wolf enough to shift back. The beast buried its bloody face against Chance, almost knocking him over.

  Concern was clear on Rory’s face as he walked over and began talking to Lee, adding the low reassuring rumble of his voice to Chance’s gentle encouragement. “Lee, stop. Breathe… Listen to Chance’s heartbeat, the sounds of the forest… Breathe, Lee, just breathe…”

  It took several moments but soon the wolf was melting away and a sobbing Clarence Lee was wrapped in Chance’s arms.

  “Stupid fucking bitch…” He said, tears streaming down his bloody face. “Four centuries and she hasn’t learned perms are better left in the eighties.”

  His attempt at humor was brief and quickly faded as the tears streamed down his face. “She came into our house! Our babies…”

  Lee hiccuped against his mate. It as clear that he was struggling with the action of killing anything, he always a gentle natured wolf and these new instincts were hard to adjust to. It didn’t match at all with how Lee thought of himself.

  Chance wrapped his arms around Lee’s shaking form even if it made his ribs ache.

  “Rory,” he said softly and without needing to elaborate, Rory dropped down next to them until Lee was bracketed between Chance and Rory’s solid frames. Chance pressed his lips to Lee’s temple, “She can’t hurt Skye or the babies now, Lee. They’re safe. We’re all safe. You’ll feel better once we get home and you can hug Skye. Your instincts will settle down then. I promise.”

  The instinct to protect was powerful strong for the dominant wolves and Chance wasn’t surprised that Lee found it overwhelming after a lifetime of being content at the bottom of the proverbial food chain.

  Over Lee’s head, Chance caught Rory’s eyes with his own. Their gentle omega had just asserted his dominance over the pack betas, the only question was whether pointing that out would make things easier for Lee or harder.

  “You want to talk about the fact that you’re hitting way above what we’ve always thought of as your weight class or do you want to just ignore it tonight, Lee?” Chance said finally, rubbing his cheek against Lee’s temple as if it would help soothe him when the topic that he’d more or less been ignoring was brought up, “Because right now you’re right behind me in the dominance pecking order and let’s be honest, I’ve not been a proper beta since Rory found Skye.”

  Lee seemed to quiet at that, having to think about exactly what had just happened in more ways than a kill. His eyes were wide, surprise in them as he had to stop and think.

  “Not tonight…” Lee hiccuped, shaking his head a little. “Not tonight.”

  Rory stroked a hand against lee’s turquoise hair. “Alright. Alright, Lee, but tomorrow you’re going to have to face it that you’re not exactly an omega anymore. And they’re going to start looking to you for guidance, for direction.”

  Lee just quietly nodded, resting against Chance until the last of his tears faded. It was Rory who spoke next, looking to the two bodies. “Now, what do we do with those two?”

  “I got it,” Chance said as he gently untangled Lee from his lap and pushed him fully into Rory’s arm. Their dark haired mate rose to his feet stiffly. Even if it didn’t make a noise, they knew he was hurting. Chance was never going to have those ribs heal if he didn’t start taking it easy but life seemed determined not to cooperate. He shook out one hand like it stung before balling it into a fist. This time, it took a moment or two for those witchflames to surround his hand an
d once they burned brightly, he tossed the ball onto the bodies like he was throwing a match onto a bonfire. The flames went up, eerily silent and throwing flickering white light but after a couple of seconds the two wolves were reduced entirely to little piles of ash.

  There was a moment of silence before Chance turned towards Rory and Lee and said, “Tah daaaah,” like he had pulled a rabbit out of a fucking hat. If Lee didn’t want to talk about his wolf’s sudden burst of steroids, Chance really didn’t want to talk about the witchy magic that was getting easier and easier to call, “Let’s go home so Skye can yell at everyone properly. She was furious when we left and Finn’s currently handling that alone.”

  Lee stood, he was close to Chance on the walk back through the woods. It took them a while, it wouldn’t have if they had shifted but all of them were concerned that Lee wouldn’t shift back. When they emerged from the tree line it was Micah who called out. “They’re back!”

  The entire pack piled out onto the back patio, watchful for their leader and his mates. The sight of Lee covered in blood drew more than a few gasps, one even from Finn himself.

  “It was quiet.” Finn said loud enough for them all to hear. “Scott says one of them looked like a guy that had been over at the new house. Been watching us for days… You see him?”

  Lee didn’t wait for the alphas to finish talking. He saw Skye and made a beeline straight for her. Without permission, and not caring about her protests, Lee wrapped his arms around her. He buried his face in her neck.

  “Skye, please?” Lee whispered against her hoping no one else would catch the watery tone. “Please… Don’t hate me.”

  Skye had been clenching her hands so tight on the railing that the wood would have to be repaired and she’d fretted when he’d gone to hug her, worrying that he was injured. Their bond was strong, and growing stronger by the day, and she’d felt his emotions second hand as rage and then despair had consumed him. Finn had shared that roller coaster and it had made it easy for Skye to put aside her frustrations as she and Finn had sat holding each other’s hand as they could do nothing but wait.

  “Never,” Skye said fervently, wrapping her arms around Lee tightly and uncaring of the blood that he was covered in. Her arms went around his waist and she just held him, hoping he could feel her absolute acceptance. “I would never. I could never. You’re always mine, Clarence Lee, and I’m yours. Whatever you are now, whatever you might become, that isn’t going to ever change. I love you. I will always love you and nothing in all of heaven or earth could change that.”

  “Good.” Lee said, pressing a kiss to her shoulder before he pulled away. Alone he walked into the house leaving a trail of bloody and dirty feet prints against the carpet. Lee didn’t stay for the things Rory would say, instead he went to the bathroom in the basement and locked the door behind him. Lee never wanted time alone, he as always in constant company. Finn looked on a bit concerned as Lee left them, but turned his eyes to Rory and Chance.

  “They came for us tonight because he sent them.” Rory said to his pack, their eyes on the form of their nude leader. “We didn’t let them live, and he’ll know when they don’t come back that we asserted our might. Maybe he will realize that we are not a force to be reckoned with even if we are small. It might sound like we are in trouble, but this was a victory.”

  Betty snuggled into Liam’s side, her face against his shoulder.

  “It was a victory. We aren’t going to be dictated by what they say we should be, by what they say is dominance. This is our pack, we all need to be ready to fight and to kill when they come back.”

  He knew saying it that way might frighten his pack, but he hoped quietly that they understood the danger they were all facing.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The sounds of feet overhead let him know the pack had let all of themselves back into the house but Lee didn’t leave the shower. The wolf inside him was still riled, the taste of blood in its mouth had been something sweet it seemed to crave. That scared Lee more than anything.

  Blood ran down him in red rivers, pieces of black hair from where it had stuck to him he kept replaying it in his mind. The way she had gurgled when his teeth tore out her throat and the way her eyes had clouded over as she died. The memories were visceral and ugly.

  It wasn’t until the water had run cold and there was a gentle knock at the door that Lee even stirred.

  “Go away…”

  They left him alone, left him to his privacy. He turned the water off and propped himself against the shower wall shivering.

  It had taken him hours to crawl out from the bathroom, the room was dark but he could hear the gentle sounds of breathing. Lee climbed into the pile of bodies that were his mates, surprised to see that even Finn was here in the dark with them. His cold body slid into the sheets next to a nude Skye, Chance right behind him. Rory and Finn both rolled instinctively to put their arms around all of them. “Welcome back.” Rory said softly from behind Skye. “You alright Lee?”

  Skye stirred but Chance didn’t, not even with Lee’s cold feet against his legs. She yawned a little and snuggled closer to Lee to share her warmth with him. Her belly bumped into his and she made a noise of annoyance as it got in the way.

  “Finn drugged Chance,” she whispered softly to Lee before he could be concerned that the pack’s beta was dead to the world and snoring very faintly. “He said he overdid it and he’s going to hurt himself if he doesn’t stop pushing it. I’m glad you’re here. Give me your hand, Lee.”

  Skye reached for his still cold fingers and slid them to rest on her belly, flattening her palm over the back of his hand.

  “Wait… there,” Skye said softly, curving his palm around a very soft flutter under the taunt skin. “Do you feel it?”

  Lee almost started crying again, Finn’s hand rested on his shoulder as he felt the surge of Lee’s emotions again.

  “Hello princess.” Lee said, tears streaming from his eyes. Of course it wasn’t that Lee could see what the baby was that stirred against his palm, he just guessed.

  “I’m so sorry Skye. I won’t ever let anyone threaten my babies or you.”

  Lee said that with a degree of certainty in his tone that had never existed before. The threat to whatever may even think to harm them was there, Lee would strike and he would draw blood. Never anything but a gentle wolf, the change in Lee was something that none had expected. It almost hurt to know that he was becoming something other than the gentle omega they had all loved.

  Lee made some quieting sounds to the baby that stretched against its mother’s skin, and he cuddled Skye close without saying a word more. Sleep didn’t take him for a very long time and when it did it was much like Rory’s own sleep schedule. He woke every few hours and to any sounds in the house above them.

  For the first few days after the break-in, the pack was on edge and no one was allowed to leave. Once it seemed the smoke had cleared and no immediate threat materialized, those restrictions began to relax. There were still bills to pay and work to be done.

  Not to mention that they couldn’t keep Chance cooped any longer without him blowing a gasket.

  Rory had become a scarcity once the pack started leaving their property again. He was in town often speaking with others. It wasn’t long until Dave conceded and said that they needn’t have an election.

  Rory was acting more like a mayor by week’s end than a sheriff but he accepted the the title nonetheless.

  Everyone had their own ways of reacting to the threat. Lee began a workout regime that Skye found exhausting to watch - though of course she did watch nonetheless. Anytime that one of her mates was stripping to the waist and doing push ups, Skye was more than happy to be an observer. Finn focused on getting the clinic in order for shifter births and Chance redoubled his efforts in trying to untangle the oddities of his inherited magic, spending long days locked in his office with the occasional weird noises or smells.

  Rory, however, worked harder than all the
rest of them put together. No one would ever realize to look at him now that he’d been so reluctant to turn Belcrest into their safe haven. He was constantly out, adding to his duties as sheriff as he tried to establish every sort of defense that he could think of from the motley assortment of abilities that the residents had.

  Eventually Finn had to physically stop him from leaving.

  “Rory, I know you’re busy but we need to do this now…” Finn grumped at his alpha.

  Rory’s response was immediate and apologetic. “I know, I’m sorry its just…”

  Finn held up a hand to shut him up. “I know, it’s just that you’re doing all the leader things now but you still have to make time for your mates.”

  Rory followed him to the small clinic that was in the process of packing up, Chance was already hard at work securing space for a bigger venue. Lee was the one who snagged Skye from her nap.

  The five of them piled into the only tiny exam room there, Skye on her back while Finn pressed some buttons on the finally set up ultrasound. He had been reading the literature about it for a while, and of course he’d be clumsy at first but even the new ones were reminiscent of the old machines.

  He gave Skye an apologetic look as he squeezed a bit of gel onto the swell of her abdomen, a light smile. “Alright, let’s see what’s baking in the oven.”

  They all stared at the screen as if it would show them their darkest secrets. One baby was extremely large and it took a while of Finn bouncing the wand on top of Skye’s belly to make the baby even move. “There we go, stem’s right on that apple.”

  Lee squeezed Skye’s hand happily.

  “It’s a boy, baby!” Lee announced ecstatically while Finn moved the probe around more.

  “And here’s number two... No stem. No apple, a girl.”

  Only expecting another Finn moved the probe again, except when he got to the top of her fundus they made out one other baby and what looked like a foot.

  “Hello there, what the…” A turn of the probe revealed yet another infant crammed in Skye’s ribs.