“Shit,” he swore and bolted outside.
I ran after him and noticed the otherwolves began to perk up and some of them shifted into their wolf forms. Kaistood on one of the picnic tables.
He closed his eyes and took a deepbreath in through his nose.
“Portland Pack just crossed ourborder; seven wolves about twenty miles away.” He growled and looked at me.
“Where were you born?” he barked.
I jerked back at the power in hisvoice. “Portland,” I answered.
A rumble went through the pack andone of the wolves that had shifted, howled. My body had chills. “What’s wrong?”
“When someone ischanged, theAlpha of that pack whochangedthem becomes that person’s pack. That’swhy you’re mine. But there is an old magic law that states that the Alpha fromthe pack of thechangedhuman’s birthplace can fight to claim him or herif they can reach that person in twenty-four hours. It’s been sixteen hourssince Ichangedyou.”
My breath came out in rasps. “So theAlpha from the Portland pack is coming to claim me?”
Kai’s eyes blazed yellow. “No.” Therewas power behind that one single word. “He’s coming to try. I was hoping youwere born in Michigan or some place a bit farther away.”
Emma stood next to me. “If it was asubmissive male, he wouldn’t even try.”
Females are rare. She had told me. ‘ForeignWolf.’My pack sense was tingling. They were on OUR territory and there wasnothing we could do because of the rules. I could feel the irritation comingoff of Kai.
As Kai barked orders to the otherwolves to take up positions at the perimeter, I leaned into Emma.
“I think it might be a good time foryou to tell me about killing a werewolf 101,” I whispered.
Emma swallowed. “Two ways. Extremeblood loss or silver poisoning. Our power to heal is in our blood. If youdecapitate or tear into a wolf enough, they will die before they canregenerate.”
I nodded. “Okay, so keep my head on.Don’t touch silver. Got it.”
Emma looked at me, shocked. “YOUdon’t fight the Portland Alpha, Kai does.”
“Oh.”
“You’re the prize,” Emma told me. “Andthere’s something you should know aboutchangedwolves. The PortlandAlpha is achangedWolf, he wasn’t born that way and so he has a…gift.He is immune to Silver.”
“A gift.” I let that sink in. “So allchangedwolves have a gift?”
Emma nodded. “You will, too. Once youshift for the first time it will begin to manifest. The lycanthrope virus bindsto the human DNA and then it activates.”
“Okay, so Kai has to fight anotherAlpha who only has one way of being killed, because of his gift.”
“Yes, he can only be killed by bloodloss. But Kai is achangedwolf too.” Emma’s eyes gleamed with pride.
“Aurora!” Kai barked. I ran to hisside. He gently took my hand and pulled me to the side yard where we could talkin private.
“I will fight for you because you’remine.But I pride myself on doing things differently in my pack. I won’t keep youhere against your will. I know you haven’t had time to learn what being a werewolfis all about and when I saw you lying in the road on the verge of death, I knewI had to at least try to give you life. Females that survive thechangeare rare and Dane will try to take you at all costs. If you think you wouldlike the chance to switch packs, tell me now.”
There was a vulnerability in his lookthat made my heart hurt. He was an Alpha; the most dominant of wolves, and hewas asking me to stay, maybe not with his words but his look. The way he saidminewas possessive in an endearing way. Did I want to leave Emma, Kai, and theothers that I had begun friendships with? Did I want to leave without exploringwhat was behind that kiss in his office? My inner wolf howled in pain at thethought. “This ismypack. I’m not going anywhere,” I told him.
The corners of his lips curled.“Good. Now if I die, the pack transfers to you as my second. That could be adisaster because you know nothing about being a wolf or leading a pack.”
“Then let’s hope you don’t die, forthat reason and others.” I quickly squeezed his hand. Was I flirting with theAlpha before he was about to go into a fight to the death for me? He smirkedand turned to leave.
“They’re coming,” he told his wolves.“Emma, don’t shift. I need you to be able to communicate with Aurora.”
I smelled something then. Whisky andcigarettes, rain and wood. ‘Portland pack. Foreign Wolf.’
