Now!The wolf inside was howling, jumping, panting, yipping. But…no thrashing, no snarling. Not for the moment anyway.
“You’re strong enough,” April said. “You won’t lose control. You’re alpha.”
“Yes, I am alpha.”
The words came with a growl that felt familiar but rusty. Strong and sure. He hadn’t felt those things in the last few days. He kissed April’s hair.
Now!came the howl inside.
He stood. “Give me a minute to spare these clothes.”
He went to his bedroom and shut the door. Then he removed his clothes and stood before his mirror. He took in the broadness of his frame, the musculature no human could achieve. He took in the scars, red as anger, aching even now. His thigh looked the worst, the mark nearly purple.
This was himself. But the wolf was also himself.
My mate!The howl was incessant, the pressure slowly building inside him.Let me out!
“I’m alpha,” he said, and the pressure lifted. Malachi drew a long breath and nodded. “All right.”
He turned away from the mirror and stared at the door. He could keep it shut. A precaution. Perhaps he ought to. But that would keep him from April until he shifted back, and…and he wanted her to see. In this moment, he wanted to be near his mate more than anything. He unlatched the door, left it barely cracked.
Then he knelt on the carpet.
Twenty-Five
Rippling,stretching,panging,shifting,reaching for the floor with hands that became paws before his eyes. In three seconds, Malachi’s form changed. The wolf sang in his mind with an echoing resonance it lacked when he was in human form.
Run! Hunt! Protect my pack! See my mate!
He raised his nose toward the window. Daylight. His wolf had never seen daylight before.
Bright and good. Now see my mate!
He nosed the door open and padded down the hall into the living room. April knelt in the middle of the room. Waiting for him. He slowed his pace. She had come down to his eye level, and she might not be prepared for his size in this form. Not this close, anyway.
She looked up and saw him. “Ohhhh.”
He halted, but she didn’t smell frightened. Not at all. She smelled…happy. Awestruck. He took a few more steps toward her.
“Come over here,” she said.
He approached with his head lowered. His tail swished once, twice as he stopped in front of her.
April held out her hand, palm up. “Is it all right if I touch you?”
He nodded, and she gasped.
“Oh wow, we can even communicate! As long as I ask yes or no questions.”
She sank her hands into his ruff and pressed her forehead to his. A deep growl rumbled from him, and it sounded no different in this form. She pushed his head with hers, and he nudged back, strength carefully in check. Then she threw her arms around his neck, and he rested his head on her shoulder. His wolf heart overflowed with so much joy he couldn’t contain it. He lifted his nose toward the ceiling and howled a single, soft note, then rested his head again.
“You’re so beautiful like this, Mal. I can’t get over it. It’s fully you, I can feel that it’s you. But it’s you in a whole new form, a whole different kind of beautiful.”
She sat back on her heels, and he huffed at the space between them. The wolf continued to exult in the spurts of not-quite-worded thoughts that were its deepest spirit.
She sees me! She touches me! My mate!This was what it had wanted, what it had been fighting and flailing for: that April should see both forms of the alpha wolf.
Protectiveness, appetite, territorial drive were all heightened in this form. Willingness to snap and snarl increased too. But Malachi hadn’t lost the leash of control. He was still here, human thoughts and feelings and awareness intact as they always were under the full moon. He determined his actions in wolf form as he did in human form.
