“Miranda, no! Stop!” Caleb shouts at her, racing after her, but she’s disappeared into the woods, leaving us alone again. “She’s going back to the pack house,” I say. “She’ll tell everyone that I didn’t follow the rules of banishment.”“I’m the Alpha,” Caleb growls. “She can’t to this to you. To me. To us.”“I should go,” I mumble, bending down to clean up the picnic supplies. “You can tell them that I tried to trick you into letting me come back, that you were just taking advantage -”“No.” Rage flares in Caleb’s grey eyes. “You’re my mate. I love you. This can’t happen. Let’s go.”“But,” I protest, “I’m banished.”Caleb isn’t taking no for an answer, though. He shifts into wolf form, his jet black fur rippling in the forest breeze. He tosses his head, gesturing for me to climb on top of him, and I grip his thick fur in each fist, sticking close to his muscled back as he rushes through the woods. His paws take each twist and turn of the forest path perfectly, and so
My jaw falls open. Caleb has just reversed my banishment, using his powers as the Alpha to undo what the pack just did.Chaos erupts in the pack house, snarls and shouts and arguments, and I shrink close to Caleb’s side, worried that a fight will break out any minute.“Quiet!” A loud, gravelly voice silences everyone. I see that the man who was speaking up on my behalf has stepped into the center of the room. He’s really old, with a reddish beard and thick, square glasses. “Caleb,” he says, “you know that I was close with your father. I’ve been with this pack since long before your dad was a little cub, and I have always helped to advise Alphas. You have a lot of power here, but according to pack laws, an Alpha cannot simply reverse a banishment.”“I know, Arnold,” Caleb says. “I looked it up.”“Ah.” The older wolf raises one bushy eyebrow. “I had noticed that some of my older books on ancient pack laws were missing. I wondered whether our young Alpha was seeking to
Caleb takes the stairs of the pack house two at a time, loping up on long legs toward the main bedroom.“Now that you’re not banished anymore, you can live here, with me!” He turns to me with a big smile, opening the door to his room.It’s gorgeously decorated, with a wooden four poster bed in the center, its posts carved intricately with scenes of wolves hunting together. The curtains are slate gray and the carpet is a deep blue, which is soft and plush under my feet. “Arnold wants his books,” Caleb grumbles, looking around on various shelves to see if he can find them. “I think they’re back at the cabin, though. So is your stuff. I should head back and get them.”“I’ll go with you,” I offer. I want to spend more time with Caleb, and I definitely don’t want to be alone in the house with a bunch of werewolves who just voted to kill me.He shifts, and again I ride on his back, but the journey through the woods isn’t the same as it was earlier, when we chased Miranda. We
Caleb promised to take me on more dates after the picnic was interrupted, and he keeps his promise. A few days after the ritual to reverse my banishment, Caleb tells me to get dressed up and meet him outside by his Jeep. I pick out a slinky black dress with silver fringe, making sure the amulet I wear so proudly is displayed against its fabric. Caleb is waiting for me, looking sharp in a black jacket with silver buttons.“You look nice,” I say, climbing into the passenger seat.He smiles, looking me up and down. “We match.”“Where are we going?”“You’ll see.” Caleb drives me into the center of town, the downtown area that most of us shifters tend to avoid. It’s packed with humans, and we prefer the open air and wild spaces of the woods. That’s why our pack house is out on the edge of the city, in the forests.But Caleb parks outside a cool concrete warehouse type building, then turns to me with a grin. “Do you like live music?”I shrug. “I’ve never actually been t
The restaurant, called Big Belly, serves massive sandwiches, piled high with meat. It’s werewolf heaven. The waitress seems impressed at my order, and even more impressed when I finish it all. “You were right,” I tell Caleb. “This place is amazing.”“To humans, these are huge portions,” Caleb laughs. “The first time I came here, I didn’t quite realize that they put so much meat on them, so I ordered three sandwiches like I usually do.”I nod. We wolves eat differently than humans, and we need large amounts of meat and other proteins.“I finished all three of them, and they took a picture of me to put on their wall!” Caleb points, and sure enough, there’s a picture of him looking somewhat confused and sitting next to three empty plates. Above it, someone has written BIG BELLY’S WORLD RECORD HOLDER.I laugh. “Caleb, we’re supposed to keep a low profile among humans, not go around setting world records!”He shrugs. “Between you and me, I think the chef might be a shifte
I show the note to Caleb later that evening, once I’m back home at the pack house. He sits down on the bed next to me, sighing and running a hand through those gorgeous dark curls.“Most of the pack has started to accept you, especially now that you’re my Luna, but there’s something dangerous about how much Malcolm and Miranda still hate you.”“I’ll be okay as long as I wear your amulet, though, right?” I ask.“It’s your amulet,” Caleb corrects me. “I gifted it to you - you’re not borrowing it, it belongs to you. That’s important for the ritual.”“Right, right.” I remember how Caleb had to sacrifice something of his own in order to reverse my banishment, and I know it’s important to the werewolf magic of the ritual that it remains mine. “But it should protect me from them.”“Hopefully. But the amulet’s spell is very specific - it protects you from being betrayed. Since you already don’t trust Miranda and Malcolm, there’s nothing there to betray. Someone could still attac
I have known all my life that when a werewolf finds their mate, they join their bodies and become fully one another’s. But I never knew just how incredible the actual experience was.Caleb carries me into our bedroom, and soon our snow gear and ski clothes are in a pile on the floor, and he’s kissing me, holding me, and his Alpha musk is stronger than I’ve ever smelled it. It wraps around me, my body, my head, my heart, and makes me want to dissolve completely in it.He takes deep breaths, scenting me, drawing in whatever pheromones I’m putting out, and I feel wanted, desired, cherished. Our bodies entangle, and when we finally mate, his teeth sink into the flesh of my shoulder and I feel his mark enter me, a brilliant flash of love and claiming and connection.When it’s over, we lay next to each other, panting, basking in the hazy glow that seems to be surrounding us. Through the windows, the clear white light of the moon shines onto our bare skin. When it touches my clai
As I get dressed, making sure I have warm clothes and sturdy boots for my sojourn into the forest, Caleb continues to explain some things about my shift.“I’ve been reading more of Arnold’s books, learning about what happens when an Alpha mates to an Omega, and what it means for a werewolf to have their first after they’re mated and marked. Both are pretty rare.”I feel my face grow hot with the reminder of how weird and unusual I am. Sometimes I feel sorry for Caleb, being stuck with me as a mate.“I’m sorry,” I mutter, stuffing my feet into my warm winter boots. I know I won’t need any of these warm winter clothes after I shift, since a wolf’s thick fur and heavy paw pads protect them, but part of me worries that I might be stuck in human form forever. “It’s nothing to be sorry for,” Caleb insists. “It means there’s something special about you - and about us, about our bond. It also means that this shift is about more than you discovering your wolf. It means something to