Mikaela was right. The bite did not hurt. Instead of pain a euphoric tingle traveled outward from the bite, running down the tips of her fingers and upward toward her shoulder. From there it spread out across her body, leaving her warm and energized. The wolf’s bite was the most beautiful feeling she had ever experienced. Cate wondered if her transition would be different than the other females. Perhaps her role as alpha changed how she would experience the shift. She rubbed her right hand over the area where she had been bitten. Her arm was pulsing now. She could feel the energy of the wolf magic moving through her. Yes, this was far better than she had imagined.
Without warning, a stabbing pain gripped her body. It started in her neck and quickly moved down her back through her stomach into the front of her legs. Cate sucked in a breath.I accept you, she chanted silently to the wolf. With agonizing slowness, her skin began to tear. It started just below her hairline on the back of her neck, pulling away from her muscles with leisure. Her muscles began to rip next, pulling at her bones. She could hear the snapping of her ribs and feel the fur of her wolf, rubbing up against her insides, willing her to let it out.I accept you. Cate sucked in another breath, fearful that making noise would intensify the pain. As if knowing that she could take no more, her wolf sprang free of her human form.
Cate’s wolf stood next to Dimitris’ larger one. She turned and looked out at the circle. The pack stood silent. No one had moved from their original position. She growled, commanding each man and woman to begin their transition. As if on cue, each person shed their robes and began to shift from human form to canine. In a matter of seconds Cate and Dimitris were surrounded by wolves. She stood, growling at the pack, and eyed each wolf individually. One by one each one diverted its eyes and lowered its front legs laying its muzzle to the ground so that Cate stood above it.Submission.Turning, Cate’s wolf looked to Dimitris, the alpha. She growled, a low rumble that originated in her chest. His wolf returned the growl. Her wolf felt the need to lower her gaze and tuck her tail, but she fought it. She growled again, inching forward. His black wolf advanced as well, placing his muzzle to hers. Cate’s wolf threw back her head and howled. Then she began to to run.
ten
Cate awoke to a loud clicking noise. She raised her hand to push away the computer, sure that Dimitris was typing next to her ears. The spot was empty. Raising her head, she looked around the room. He sat in a wingback chair in the corner, nearly twenty feet away. “Good morning, mate,” he said, placing the laptop on the table next to his chair.
“Do you have to be so loud?” Cate griped. She stretched and willed her body to wake. Her muscles were sore. Her legs and bottom felt like she had run a marathon.
“I’m not loud, mate, you just aren’t yet accustomed to your new and improved hearing. For the next week or so you will be sensitive to the sounds and smells you come into contact with. It won’t take you long to accustom yourself to it.” He leaned over her and kissed her on the mouth. She inched away, embarrassed. She hadn’t even brushed her teeth yet. Her wolf growled at her. Apparently her internal bitch didn’t mind a pre-toothpaste kiss.
Cate sat up and tried to smooth her hair. Her fingers caught on a knot.Is that a stick?Cate pushed the offending item back into her mane. “Let me just —” she pointed to the bathroom as if that explained her need to get away. Rolling away from Dimitris, she hopped out of the bed. Her legs protested the movements, but her pride demanded that she not slow on her way to the bath.
After relieving herself, Cate moved to the sink. Her personal items had been laid out by the left basin. She wondered which pack member had been given the unsavory task of packing her bathroom. She thought of the unmated faces she had seen last night, but dismissed the idea. Dimitris would not want another man to touch her things. She decided it must have been a female that had packed her items. She reminded herself to find out who had been given the task and thank them for it. She spit into the sink and put the toothbrush back in her mouth. Braving the mirror, she moved her head to see if she could see the offending item that was tangled in her hair. She abandoned the toothbrush and after a few moments was able to remove a small twig with a miniature pine cone attached. “Holy shit,” she muttered. “What did you get up to last night, wolf?”
She looked her reflection in the eye as she spoke. Was it her imagination, or did her eyes look different? Younger perhaps. She dropped the twig on the counter and leaned in. Definitely not her imagination. She looked younger, a lot younger. Her lips were fuller. Her cheeks were smoother. There were no fine lines around her eyes or mouth. “Holy shit,” she said again, this time with more oomph. Stepping back she looked at her body. Her tits were still small, but higher and tighter than they had been last night. Her ass was also more pert. And her belly! She grabbed it in disbelief. Where there had been a slight pooch and faint silver marks, there was now only firm, smooth skin. Somehow she had shed her 41 year-old skin and reemerged in the body of a 25 year-old.
“What the hell happened to me,” Cate screeched as she burst from the bathroom. Dimitris sat on the bed as if he had been waiting for just this moment. She looked at him, he was at least six and half feet tall and all muscle. Her wolf brushed against her skin, urging her to move toward him. The need to rub against him was strong. She resisted. “How will I explain this to my child?” she demanded, waving her hand up and down her body to emphasize the changes.
“Which question would you like for me to answer first, mate?” Dimitris patted the mattress next to him, encouraging Cate to sit down.
Her nostrils flared. “Start with the first,” she said slowly, struggling to keep her cool. Her wolf felt close to the edge.
“Remember I said that shifters age slowly? I didn’t just mean those of us that are born as shifters. As my mate, you will now age slowly too. We age as a human until around our25thyear. Then we slow, rather significantly slow. We’ll age about one human year every 25 or 30 years. Last night when your wolf retreated, your human form reverted. Your body will be different now. You won’t scar, you won’t be ill, gaining weight will be difficult for you. As a wolf, your body will stay lean with little effort.” He sat back, looking her over. His pants pulled tight across his crotch telling her that he liked what he saw.
“What about Peter? What am I supposed to say to him? Or his teachers? Holy shit, I didn’t even think about his teachers!” Cate began to pace. She had never been one to walk off stress, but her wolf seemed to find comfort in the movement.
“That’s easy. Most humans can be easily compelled to believe that you are just aging gracefully. All shifters have a small ability to compel all but the strongest of human minds. Usually a pack has a gifted female that can compel even the most stubborn of humans, but we are still waiting on her.” He eyed her. “I don’t think the Goddess would give that gift to the alpha, but perhaps.”
She waved off that comment, deciding to pursue the line of conversation later. “And what about Peter?”
“That parts the simplest of all, my Cate. Peter is part wolf now. He will simply accept you as you are, no questions asked.” Cate felt a weight move from her chest. Her child was an innocent pawn in all of this. In a matter of a few days he had been gravely ill, healed by a wolf’s bite, and now the step-son to the most powerful wolf shifter in Coyen. The last thing he needed was a mother he didn’t recognize.
She sat down next to Dimitris, suddenly too tired to stand. Immediately he pushed her body back into the bed. “You were too exhausted last night, my Cate, to properly celebrate our mating.” The recess of her mind told her she was still angry with him, but her wolf thumped her tail at Dimitris’ attention. He pinned her to the bed with his bulk. She was still naked from the night before and his mouth took advantage, sucking a taut nipple into his mouth. Her hands moved to his hair, lacing her fingers through his dark locks.
“Mmm,” she hummed. “What exactly happened last night?” The deepest part of her brain prompted her that she was still angry with Dimitris, but her wolf overrode the reminder.
He sat up, looking her in the eyes. “You don’t remember?” Cate shook her head no. “After you shifted, all the wolves bowed down to you.” She remembered that part.
“What happened after?”
“Afterward, you led the pack on a run. You ran and ran until almost the entire pack fell from exhaustion. Only Mylo and I were able to keep going at your pace.” He stopped, ducking his head back to her breast and licking her nipple. Between licks he said, “Finally, you collapsed and shifted back to your human form. I picked you up and carried you back here. You’ve been asleep ever since.”
Cate arched her back, urging Dimitris to take her other nipple in his mouth. He obliged, moving his mouth to her right side and his body above hers. His hand skimmed down the smooth surface to her belly, and into the slick heat of her core. Her hips thrust upward encouraging his fingers to continue their quest. He indulged her need, forcing his long finger into her wet center. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake for hours,” he said between long pulls on her nipple. She loved how his accent thickened when he was aroused.
“Have you been waiting long?” She whimpered, pumping her hips against his hand. Her wolf was near the surface and aching for him.
“Hours, mate,” he answered. “It’s past noon.”
His words were an icy bath on Cate’s libido. She sat up quickly, pushing him off. “You let me sleep past noon?” she yelled. “Did you stop to think that Peter might want to see his mother? That staying in a strange place might have freaked him out a bit?” She crawled backward on the bed, but Dimitris was on her, trapping her ankles in his strong grip.
“I have already seen to Peter. I told you, he’s part wolf now. He knows instinctively that this is where he is supposed to be. He’s playing with his new cousins in the game room, and he’s having too much fun to worry about you sleeping late.” He pinned her to the bed with his thick arms. Her body struggled, but it was in vain. Dimitris lowered his face to her belly and laved her skin with his tongue. “Your body is incredible, but I’m going to miss your sweet silver marks and your sexy curved tummy.” Cate tried to shove his head away from her midsection, but he easily held her arms in place.
“Dimitris, don’t be ridiculous,” she chided. “I need to get up.”
“First, you will not leave this bed until I say you can. There are some advantages to being alpha, this is one of them. Second, I was being completely serious.” He held her tight against the mattress. “You will always be perfect in my eyes, but I liked your marks. They were a reminder that your body is to be worshiped. It’s a temple.” With each sentence he bit at her stomach. “When you are big with my child, there will be no marks. You will not scar and that makes me sad. I would like for my child to leave evidence of his place on your body, just as Peter once did.” He held her body tightly as he slid further down her body. She opened her legs to his mouth. He ran his nose from her base to tip, gathering the fullness of her scent. “I want to wake you like this, my Cate. I want to crawl down your body every morning. I want to lick your sweet cinnamon coffee scent until you wake, coming in mouth.” Cate was on edge. With only a few licks, she shattered. Dimitris’ strong tongue lapping up her sweet juices.
