“I don’t want to shift with you at Rivergate.”
He turned to her. “Is it because you shifted at my place the other night?”
“No. I can shift more than once a month. I can shift whenever I want, although too many times a day is dangerous. No. I’m simply not comfortable going there. The last time I was at Rivergate, my father was with me.”
Silas gave an understanding grunt. “Does it hold bad memories for you?”
“That and I’m not ready for what it might mean for us to be seen together. You’re pack royalty, and I’m a pack orphan. I don’t want sympathy. I don’t want sideways glances. And when push comes to shove, I am different. I change into a fox, not a wolf.”
“No one cares about that.”
“You don’t care about that. Others will care, especially if said fox is dating their alpha. I’m not ready to open myself up to formal pack society. You know how it is. You know how people treat anyone who dates royalty. I’ll be front-page news.”
Silas’s face said it all. He knew she was right.
“Out of curiosity, did you ever tell the Lycanthropic Society about Soleil when you were dating?”
“No,” he said quickly. “They would never have accepted her.”
Meredith nodded. Perhaps his relationship with Soleil was less serious than she’d assumed.
“If she had changed, I would have,” Silas said. “I wouldn’t have let tradition stop me from being with her.”
“But your plan was to wait until things were serious. Together forever serious.”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“So, let’s wait for that with us. This is pretty new. Let’s give it time to breathe.”
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her gently on the lips. “Deal. But since you won’t be shifting…”
“Yeah?”
“I wonder if I can ask a favor.”
Chapter Fourteen
Organizing the monthly shift was one of the hardest aspects of being alpha. On top of his full-time job, Silas was charged with ensuring the safety of the roughly two hundred wolves who chose to shift at Rivergate Manor. Shifting there wasn’t mandatory. Wolves could choose to risk managing their own transitions. But if a wolf signed up to be at Rivergate, Silas was responsible for making sure they left in the same condition as they arrived.
That took magic. Grateful had used her power to add an enchantment around the property to keep supernaturals and humans out, and recently, following Selene’s abduction, to keep wolves in. It also took enough food to feed an army and an intimate knowledge of the needs of the pack. Teenagers shifting for the first time needed mentors. Older wolves needed added protection. A few wolves with medical backgrounds volunteered in a first aid tent to treat those who woke up with wolf-induced injuries.
All of this required time and leadership, and although Silas didn’t do it all himself, it was amazing how many things bubbled to the top. Which meant that the dragon heart waited in the safe under his bed, his new relationship with Meredith was relegated to the back burner, and Alex’s whereabouts remained a mystery. But before he could give himself over to the moon and the wild, there was one thing he needed to do.
“It’s taken care of,” Logan said. “The new enchantment around your house is in place. No one is getting their hands on that heart.”
Silas paced Logan’s office at Valentine’s, feeling restless.
“I need you to give Meredith access.”
Logan smiled. “Oh?”
“She’s going to feed Maggie while I’m managing the shift.”
“When she was here before, I got the sense she wasn’t your everyday werewolf.”
“Half werewolf. Half skinwalker. She shifts into a fox.”
“Skinwalker? I thought they could shift into anything?”
