by Anna Craig
“Let me go,” he snarled at his sister, completely wolf now. His canines snapped dangerously close to her still-human face.
And it was was her face that stopped him short. She ignored him, staring below the cliff, her expression beyond stunned. Lit by the sky's fire, her slack jaw and huge eyes were illuminated by more than just the sun's dying light.
“Look, Trevor,” Tamsin whispered. Her voice strangled on itself as she pointed below them. “Look!”
~~~
Now, that same strange voice deep within Cassie whispered. Now, I live.
She had no idea what that meant. But she felt, with a sudden, excruciating pop, exactly what happened next. Everything simply—changed.
She changed.
She...shifted.
Her nose grew longer. Her teeth grew longer and sharper. Her bones and flesh and hair and eyes and skin and limbs all changed, flowing and cracking and twisting and contorting into something else. Something else that was not human.
But it was still her. And holy freaking shit, did it feel amazingly good and right.
Cassie opened her mouth. A long, growling howl emerged, splitting through the air as her new body split through the clothes she'd been wearing. Her claws extended, seeking something to grab and slice. Her tail lashed, her eyes saw with strange new focus, and her head buzzed with the weirdest, awesomest power she'd ever felt. Power that was immense and directed.
Power she could actually control.
Cassandra Wakefield was a wolf.
Opening her mouth, another howl spilled from her as she still wind-milled through the air. Then another howl, loud and gaining strength.
A deep answering cry spiraled down from the cliff far above. Cassie's heart swelled as she recognized the deep bass tones of the wolf who loosed his own savage howl. Her mate, letting her and the world know he had heard her. That he was there, watching over her.
Trevor howled again. This time, mingled encouragement and rage rang through it. The sound spurred Cassie into deadly sharp awareness of the moment—as well as how to control it.
“I. Am. Alive!” she roared into the air, her powerful voice ringing even as it was ripped away by the wind.
Howling with profound rage, Cassie flung her wolf body toward Aliana and the ledge she'd landed on, following the other wolf's trail by some combination of scent and pure instinct. Her brain kicked in, prompted by a ruthless impulse to stay alive.
Aliana never would have tried to kill Cassie without a backup plan. That hideous bitch didn't want to die. She just wanted Cassie out of the picture so she could rule the fucking world or whatever it was she needed so badly.
Like some kind of furry missile, Cassie aimed her spectacular new body for the ledge that she was mere seconds from tumbling past. Absolutely no fear gripped her, nor the strange dissociation that had cradled her human form only breaths before. Now she had only the focus of a predator, enraged beyond belief. Calculating with some sort of ancient ability that allowed her to hone in on her opponent. To hunt her prey.
The cowardly wolf who dared to challenge, to attack, the mate of the alpha.
The cowardly, treacherous wolf Cassandra must eliminate.
With a crash that was admittedly painful, though she immediately ignored it, Cassie landed on top of Aliana and the hard, narrow ledge that extended about a hundred feet beneath the top of the cliff. She didn't bother wondering how she'd survived this fall, this tumbled landing. She didn't need to wonder. She was a fucking wolf shifter. A wolf who was strong. A wolf who had capabilities far beyond those she possessed in her more vulnerable human form. This was real, and she knew exactly what to do with it.
Aliana's wolf eyes nearly bugged out of her head in shock as she thrashed beneath Cassie's landing body. “Impossible!” she snarled.
Managing to flip herself up and away, she leapt as far back from Cassie as she could along the narrow confines of the ledge. The slanting light from the dropping sun made her stupefied expression utterly clear. It was almost funny in its comical astonishment.
Cassie threw back her head to laugh, except it came out once again as a howl. Raging, laughing, exulting, she howled long and loud.
Apparently her alpha mate's bite had worked after all. Oh, hell yeah.
“Nothing,” she said in a growl, lowering her sleek wolf head to pin Aliana with a coldly furious stare, “is ever impossible.”
God, this felt so perfect. So right. Everything seemed different. She felt bigger, bolder, more sure. Completely at home in her own skin. Four huge paws anchored her to the floor of the ledge. Scents filled her nose with a sharp intensity she'd never before experienced. Her vision was so clear, it felt like she could x-ray the stunned wolf crouched before her.
Cassie was a wolf shifter, full on, and it was fucking amazing.
“You want me, bitch?” she snarled at her enemy. Her voice was low, fierce. Nothing like her, but completely her. “Here I am. Come and get me.”
Chapter 2
Trevor gawked at the bizarre scene playing out below them, riveted by Cassandra. His Cassandra. His beautiful, sexy, strong, tempting mate. A wolf. A wolf.
Growing exultation filled him as he watched her shake herself, then point her nose up for a triumphant howl that pierced the mountain air. Her sleek golden form shone like a beacon as the sun fell completely beyond the horizon, taking the lucidity of light with it.
It had worked. His alpha powers to create another wolf shifter had worked after all.
He had not failed his mate.
Tamsin, still in her human form, shrieked with stunned joy and jumped up and down beside him in a highly unusual display of silliness. Together, they peered over the edge, Tamsin's fingers clutched in his fur with tense excitement.
Cassandra crouched in the pose familiar to all predators. Waiting for her cowardly prey to make the next move. Prepared to leap and parry, slice and claw. Trevor could just barely make out her tail lashing the tiniest bit at the end. She stared at Aliana with merciless focus, just as any predator should when faced with a threat.
His mate was a glorious, stunning wolf.
Despite his exultation, a sense of nervous restlessness returned. Yes, his mate was a wolf. But she was a brand new one, facing off a cunning wolf who had been born a shifter. Unease tickled over him He skimmed the cliffside with a sharp glance, looking for a way they could descend more safely than free-falling through the air to the ledge a hundred feet down. He hardly knew how they had done it and survived, although it seemed suspiciously as if Aliana had known precisely what she had been doing. Tamsin was right. He could not fling himself off while in a blind, raging panic and hope to land in the same spot also intact. The fact his glorious mate had managed it was an incredible twist of fate.
Fate, the fickle thing that never seemed to arrange herself with positive intention on his side. Right now, Cassandra seemed to be harnessing fate's impressive power. Yet while she possibly could hold off Aliana while the other wolf still froze from shock, Aliana was a wolf shifter through and through. She would regain her faculties and more than likely overcome Cassandra if their battle became earnest.
Trevor paced the top of the cliff. “Strike now,” he urged his mate in a growl, despite the fact she would not be able to hear him. He was too far away, and her every sense was narrowed in on the threat before her. “Strike while she does not expect it.”
Tamsin's laughter fell away. Trevor caught a whiff of sudden anxiety as she leaned forward a little more, watching the wolves below them. “She is the alpha's mate. She will be fine,” she said. Her tone, however, belied sudden doubt. “Won't she?”
Trevor felt the rage of helplessness rise in him again. He had no answer. Yes, humans could be turned into shifters by the deliberate bite of an alpha. It happened now and then, particularly in other parts of the world—within this country, in fact—where packs were less bound by ancient rules. Rules that Trevor knew were in place for solid reasons.
Most humans, however, simp
ly were not meant to be turned. The rules kept shifter packs secure from an influx of weaker human blood, which if allowed to proliferate would eventually drive out the animal side and leave only human genes behind. Yet any human who was deemed truly worthy could be made into a shifter if the alpha decided it was to the benefit of the pack.
“She is mine, and she is now fully the pack's as well,” he whispered, feeling the inexorable truth of those words. He had made the wise decision. He had to have. Cassandra was his mate. It made impeccable sense to turn her into one of them. He'd thought it had been either his failure as an alpha that his bite had not taken.
He thanked every deity he didn't believe in that he'd just been proven wrong.
But...what if this unforeseen showdown would reveal with wrenching clarity the reasons for reserving an alpha's bite only for truly exceptional cases? The shock of the fall, then the shift itself, had most likely left Cassandra vulnerable enough that she would not be able to meet Aliana's pure-blooded wolf status with matched strength.
As Aliana's stance became one less of startlement and more of calculation, Trevor spoke to his sister, though his gaze never left the tableau below them.
“I have confidence my mate is my mate because it was meant to be,” he said, demanding the words be true even as he spoke them. “That she is strong, cunning, and resourceful. However,” he added, growls wracking his body as his fur edged up along his back in powerless anger, “you must go back to the estate. Run. Bring back as many wolves as you can. Just in case,” he said, his voice so grim it almost hurt.
His words hung empty in the air, for Tamsin had already turned and bounded away, the sound of four paws leaping and striking the earth in huge surges echoing in Trevor's ears as he tried to contain his fury, his self-questioning.
Worst of all, his gripping fear as he watched his mate prepare to fight for her life while he was unable to protect her.
~~~
Cassie held herself so still she could hardly believe it. Not a single time in her life had she ever managed to not move even the tiniest muscle for so long. But this felt effortless.
Oh, hell yeah.
She kept her gaze firmly on Aliana's face, unblinking. Her heartbeat seemed fast yet steady, her body ready for action. Ready to leap at any moment. She was strong, coiled like a snake ready to strike. Her focus was tremendous.
She was a wolf. A wolf. The words, the knowledge, rattled around in her head, but the reality of it didn't phase her in the slightest. It was simply too normal. As if she had always been meant for this moment. This life.
Aliana still stared at her, eyes not quite as big but still surprised. Her head was warily cocked, as if waiting for the next rabbit-out-of-a-hat trick.
Of course. How often did one get to see a human being fall off a cliff, turn into a wolf mid-air, then somehow manage to land on a ledge that just barely hugged the side of the mountain?
Yeah, not too often.
Cassie lifted her lip in a snarl. The movement was easy to control, as natural as if she'd been doing it all her life.
This time, though, Aliana didn't shy back in startlement. This time, she lifted her own lip, revealing her sharp teeth meant to instill terror.
Tough. Cassie's fear had finally, truly vanished the second her entire life literally shifted.
“My, what big teeth you have. The better to bite me with, my dear?” Cassie heard herself snap in response. Where these tough-ass words were coming from, she had no idea except that it had something to do with being a goddamned amazing wolf. Something inside her was battling for her very life. Something she'd never known she had, but it sure as hell was here in full force, ready to rumble.
Aliana's lip didn't drop back down, but Cassie's words clearly jolted her a little bit. As Aliana stood her ground, lip still curled up, staring with fierce tension, Cassie noted the creamy tan tints to her coat. She had to concede Aliana was a pretty wolf. Obviously very smart and patient as well. She probably was a reasonably important member of the pack due to those qualities, she thought with a sharp, analytical part of her mind.
Really, it was almost too bad she'd come to her reckoning now.
Without warning, Aliana sprang at her.
Breath oomphed out of Cassie when the other wolf landed on her. An enraged howl spilled down from the cliff above, but she couldn't spare a thought for her mate. She was in a battle for her life, and she damn well knew it. Aliana's jaws closed over the nape of her neck as her weight smashed them both the ground.
Cassie ate dirt. Spitting, biting, and snarling, she went after Aliana with all the pent up anger she hadn't even known she had. Heaving with a mighty effort, she managed to throw the other wolf off of her, even if only by a few inches. Aliana lost her grip just a bit, her jaws slipping even as her paws scrabbled for purchase beneath her. Then she managed to grab hard onto Cassie's neck again.
“Let go of me, you nasty bitch!” Cassie turned into a full-on demon wolf as she howled her own fury. Twisting, kicking, and slashing with her beautifully sharp claws, she fought her way out from beneath Aliana.
One paw kicked hard onto the hard earth of the ledge. A small shower of pebbles skittered off the ledge into the yawning space below. Cassie was certain if she fell again, there would be no more ledges to land on.
Another howl from far above told her Trevor was still there. Watching, and probably mad as hell he couldn't get down here to help her.
Cassie was completely on her own against this she-bitch.
The one who was trying to kill her for the very last time.
“We'll see about that.” Cassie's snarl was low in her throat.
Aliana had regained her composure. Crouched a few feet away, ready to strike again, she said in a smooth yet sarcastic voice, “Well, now. Aren't you just full of surprises. So our alpha bit you in order to keep you close to him forever. How very sweet of him.”
Her mocking tone grated, but Cassie was careful not to let it show. Instead, she played Aliana's psychological mind game right back. “He's not your alpha anymore. Remember? You're banished, Aliana. You have no alpha. You have no pack.”
Cassie felt the slightest flash of shame at her pettiness as shadows skated over Aliana's light brown wolf eyes. But Aliana, it seemed, was a survivor, too.
“No, little human.” She spat the word out with intentional disdain, disregarding the fact that Cassie actually was a pretty big wolf. “I no longer have a pack. But that has not broken me yet, now, has it?”
She jerked her head upward, toward where Cassie knew her mate watched them, though her gaze never left Cassie's. “The alpha, however, finally will be broken when you die. He finally will be ended, and it will finish there. And,” something truly frightening glinted in her eyes, “you will leave him, little human. I'm going to see to that.”
“And then what? What the hell is your game plan here, Aliana?” Cassie's words snarled out of her.
The other wolf responded without blinking. “Your death, first. That will reveal Trevor's weakness, allowing Thayne to challenge him and finally take his rightful place as pack alpha. And I, of course, will be reinstated into the pack and become the alpha's mate.”
Cassie narrowed her eyes. “Why not just leave and find another pack? Or make your own? That's got to be easier than all this craziness. You pushed me over a cliff! And fell with me!” Cassie whuffed in what seemed to be the wolf version of rolling one's eyes. “That seems like it was a pretty complicated plan.”
Aliana's lip curled up in what Cassie recognized would be a nasty grin if she were in human form. “You cannot simply start a pack and expect to have any power. Or money. It takes hundreds of years for packs such as this one to form and come to the strength and influence it has.”
Interesting. Cassie took the knowledge and filed it away in a part of her brain that seemed to be—not new, exactly, but now somehow released. Like she hadn't been using it to its full capacity before.
Fucking sweet.
Aliana's
eyes seemed to be glowing brighter. Like a wolf getting ready to leap again. Narrowing her own eyes back, Cassie watched the other wolf very closely as she listened.
“Perhaps cliff diving was a little crazy, yes.” The gleeful look on Aliana's face said it had been a rush, though. “Yet was it also calculated, planned, and practiced? Definitely.”
Cassie gave her opponent another sizing-up look. The bitch was absolutely insane. “Practiced? You practiced jumping off a cliff?”
The other wolf's answer was careless. Like leaping off a cliff into empty space was the easiest thing in the world. “It was planned very carefully, of course. I knew this ledge was here. The first time was a bit of an accident. But I figured out how to get off this ledge. Then we practiced. You never know what you'll need to do in order to protect your place in the pack.”
Something in her tone skirted the edges of an absolute darkness at which Cassie didn't really want to take a closer look. But she had to. “We?”
Aliana hadn't moved, as far as Cassie could tell, but she was closer. Somehow, she was inching her way toward Cassie. Fur ruffed up, Cassie held her ground. Every muscle in her incredible new body was taut, tensed to spring if Aliana so much as twitched.
“Thayne, of course.” Aliana's voice drawled with pride as if that should have been obvious. Pride and something that sounded like a real attachment. “He's been at my side the entire time. We've planned this for years.”
Cassie couldn't help a little bark of laughter at that. “You planned jumping off a cliff for years? That doesn't sound very smart to me. Or like a good use of your time, no matter how damn rich this pack is.”
Aliana's ears pricked up even higher in anger. Encouraged, Cassie kept goading her.
“In fact,” she went on, “how did you ever think I'd even be out here? I mean, years ago,” she added, warming up to her own leaping thoughts, “you didn't even know I'd be in the picture. Are you trying to tell me part of the magical power of being a wolf shifter is the ability to foresee the future?” Deliberately, she let disdain color her tone, while keeping her entire body firmly in attack mode.
