Zena Wynn - Claiming Shayla

So, in a replay of her first meeting with the Sparrowhawks, Shay found herself once more sitting on the mound, waiting for her four-legged lover to return. This time instead of the women of the pack, she had Kiesha, Caleb, Kian, and Nikolai keeping her company.

“You can shift now. You didn’t want to run with the packs?” Shay asked Kiesha.

Kiesha cast a wary look at the pine-strewn ground before reluctantly settling beside her cousin. “I’m still not that good at it, and Alex wants me to avoid shifting until after the babe is born.”

“Why? Does it hurt the baby?” Shay asked, placing a protective hand over her stomach.

Kiesha shook her head. “Alex doesn’t think so, but he’s not willing to take any chances either. In fact, he hesitated on allowing me to come tonight—not that I wouldn’t have come anyway—because he was concerned all the people shifting at once would force me to change as well.”

“Did it?” she asked curiously, keeping to herself that she was able to shift at will. That was something only Rory and Kian knew. She’d shocked them with her capacity to shift easily from human to wolf and back, especially since her scent still proclaimed her to be fully human. One day that ability might save her life, and Rory wanted the element of surprise on their side. Not only could she do a full shift, but both Rory and Kian were teaching her how to do a partial one as well.

Digging her hands into the soil, Shay concentrated until she felt her nails shift to claws.

“I felt the tug on my wolf—God, it still feels so strange saying ‘my wolf,’” Kiesha admitted with a laugh, “but Alex taught me how to control it.”

Shayla hadn’t felt a pull at all. Of course, she’d still been tightly linked to Rory when the pack shifted en masse, so that might have had something to do with it.

“Do you think she was the only one?” Kiesha asked Shay.

Shay glanced at the men, who stood in a group talking before answering. “I don’t know. Conor said enemies, plural, so I doubt it. What I do believe is that after what Rory did to Laurie Bell, anyone else planning to betray him will think twice.”

“And what, exactly, did Rory do? She screamed like someone was tearing her apart from the inside out,” Kiesha said.

“He bound her wolf.”

Kiesha’s brows drew together as she tried to understand what Shay was talking about. “He did what?”

“He bound her beast,” she repeated. “Locked it up so tight it can’t come out. I told Rory as punishment I wanted everything taken away from Laurie Bell that mattered to her. Rory couldn’t make her not be a shifter, so he did the next best thing. He made it so she couldn’t access her wolf,” Shay explained.

Kiesha’s jaw dropped. “I didn’t know that was possible.”

Shay glanced at Nikolai, who watched them. “Neither did Rory until Nik told him,” she said, gesturing toward the vampire, who winced at her abbreviation of his name. “I guess being older than dirt has its advantages.”

He bared his fangs at her, and Shay burst out laughing. It felt good after the tension of the last few weeks.

She turned back to Kiesha to finish her explanation. “To the Sparrowhawks, the only thing lower than an omega is a shifter who can’t shift.”

“Not just the Sparrowhawks, but all shifters,” Nikolai corrected.

“And this is something all alphas can do?” Kiesha asked.

“No,” Caleb answered. “It takes a lot of power. More power than one alpha alone can command.”

“So how…?” Kiesha asked.

The men all looked to Shayla. “Don’t look at me. I know what he did and where he got the idea to do it because I read him while our bond was wide open. I still don’t know how or why it worked.”

Nikolai sighed and came and crouched down beside them. “Because of the wolf’s bond with his pack, he’s able to link with them on the spiritual plane and gain strength when needed. A pack’s alpha also has a certain amount of control over his members’ beasts.”

“Like the ability to force a shift when necessary,” Caleb added.

Shay remembered how Rory had forced her wolf to retreat when she hadn’t known how to change back to her human form.

“Yes, exactly. The reverse is also true. Just as an alpha can force a change, he can also stop a change,” Nikolai continued. “But the effect is usually temporary.”

“Most alphas only use this ability to help omegas learn how to control their beast in situations where it would be dangerous for them to shift,” Caleb said.

“So what Rory did to Laurie Bell, binding her beast like he did, is only temporary? It won’t last?” Kiesha asked.

Nikolai shrugged. “It’s difficult to say. It all depends on how strong the woman’s beast is and how determined to break loose. Right now she’s sense blind. Her wolf is there, but it can’t connect with her. It’s like being in a concrete box with no opening. The woman will still have better vision, hearing, and sight, and faster reflexes than the average human, but she won’t be able to tap into the strength of her beast. And she won’t be able to shift into her four-legged form.”

“She looked down on Rory’s mother all those years for being an omega, and now she’s less, and outcast to boot,” Shay stated with grim satisfaction. It wouldn’t make up for all the damage the woman had caused, but it was a start.

“Thank you, all of you,” she said, looking at Nikolai and Caleb in particular, “for all you did tonight. Nikolai, I know you and Rory have this whole vampire/shifter stuff going on, but I appreciate you not only allowing Shannon to come here—don’t tell her I said ‘allow’—but stepping in with much-needed advice and wisdom.”

“Of course he did.” Kiesha slung her arm over Shay’s shoulder. “We’re family. Family sticks together. You know how it is: we may argue and fight with each other, but let someone else threaten us and it’s on.”

“Hmm, I always wanted a vampire as a brother,” Shay mused, eyeing the vampire thoughtfully.

Nikolai shook his head and smiled, a mere crook of the mouth. “The wolf has his hands full with you.”

“Yep, but he’s never bored,” she said with a cheeky grin.

Caleb choked on a laugh. From the way Kian’s eyes twinkled, she knew he was amused as well.

Rory retreated, letting his wolf take control. Unlike the man, the beast saw things in simple black-and-white and wasn’t conflicted by emotions. Betrayal was severely dealt with, then forgotten. Now it took joy in running with its brothers, its sibling at its side.

He brushed his side against hers in a show of easy affection as they ran through the dense woods, not minding that she had the scent of vampire on her. Even the vamp was pack.

The man inside the wolf knew that later he’d have to deal with fallout from tonight’s actions, but for now he was content to simply revel in the multitude of smells—the rich soil, new and decaying leaves, pine needles and cones, the smell of small prey.

He chased after a rabbit, caught and killed it, and brought its bleeding carcass to Shannon before bounding off after another one.

As a pack, they roamed all over the state park, traveling miles and remarking territory that belonged to the Sparrowhawks. Occasionally Rory caught sight and scent of couples mating in wolf form, and missed Shay with a longing that was physically painful.

Both man and wolf made the decision to turn and head back to the clearing, to their mate.

MacDougal fell into step beside him. “I contacted the Arizona pack’s alpha.”

“And?”

“I’m going to go, check it out,” MacDougal answered before trotting off.