“Do not shift.” She bit out the words. She kicked him in the ribs. Not full force, but hard enough to drive the air from his lungs. He curled around the pain, gasping.
“Get up.”
He got up, his hands shaking. His vision was starting to blur at the edges, the world taking on a strange double quality that meant his bear sight was bleeding through.
“Good,” Siren said, stepping back. “Are you hurt?” she asked, inspecting him. She gently cupped his face and looked into his eyes.
“I’m okay. I know what you’re doing.”
Reed wiped sweat from his face, his whole body tingling. It felt like his skin was a size too small.
“Are you okay to keep going? I kicked you pretty hard.”
He could hear the tenderness in her voice. Hear that she was about to give up on him. And he wasn’t going to let her.
“Let’s go again.”
Siren took a deep breath and let it out, inspecting him carefully.
“Okay. Now we find out what really scares you.”
She started to undress and Reed blinked at her in shock. “What . . .”
She pulled her shirt over her head and kicked off her shoes, then stripped out of her pants. In the time it took him to process what was happening, she was naked.
Her body rippled, bones cracking and reforming. Fur sprouted across her skin, dark as night. Her face elongated and her teeth lengthened into fangs. In seconds, his dark angel was gone. In her place stood a massive wolf.
He’d never seen her wolf before. He’d known she was a wolf intellectually, but knowing wasn’t the same as seeing.
She was biggerthan a natural wolf, her eyes as sharp blue as in her human form. Everything about her was pure predator.
She lowered her head, hackles up, and growled.
The sound reached into Reed’s chest and grabbed something primal. Something that remembered being four years old, pinned under a massive dog, its teeth sinking into his arm. Helpless and screaming.
His bear didn’t ask permission.
The shift ripped through him like an explosion. One second he was human, the next he was a grizzly, muscle and fury, roaring at the wolf that threatened him.
The wolf didn’t run. But she should have. Everything in Reed’s bear brain said she should run. He was bigger. Stronger. He would tear her apart.
She growled again and took a step toward him.
His bear charged.
The wolf darted left, impossibly fast. Reed’s massive paw swiped through empty air. He spun, looking for her, and she was behind him somehow, snapping at his flank.
He roared and lunged. She dodged. He swiped again and missed again.
Some distant part of him knew this was wrong. Knew he was trying to kill his mate. But the bear didn’t care. The bear only knew threat. Only knew fear. Only knew the need to destroy before being destroyed.
The wolf stopped moving. She stood in front of him ten feet away and shifted. Then there was Siren. Naked, hands raised. Completely calm.
“Reed, stop. I need you to shift back now.”
His bear snarled. The predator was gone but the rage wasn’t. He took a step toward her, claws digging into the earth.
“Look at me. I need you to shift back right now.”
