by J. K Harper
“You did exactly as any wolf protecting his mate would, Mason,” the woman said. The completely crazy words were said in a calm, purely rational voice.
“Excuse me?” he managed, politeness winning out over the desire to wrestle the truth from someone, anyone in this room.
The fire crackled and popped. Otsana tapped her head. “You hear it, don't you? Another voice, in your mind.”
Mason swallowed hard. He was still standing rigidly, his body tensed yet relaxed at the same time. Which was just as crazy as everything. Yet at the same time, he realized something else that sent another shock through him. This felt natural. It felt right. Whatever was happening, it felt like it was supposed to be this way.
He nodded, while listening to something that sounded like laughter in his head. Laughter that wasn't his, yet it was. “Yes.” His voice was ragged. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Yes. What is it?”
Otsana looked at Ana and nodded at her. Mason stared at the woman he loved with all his heart. She still looked confused, like him, but she also clearly had a lot more understanding of the situation. Whatever the situation might be.
Ana bit her lip in that self-conscious way she had as everyone looked at her, expectant. Her hand slid off his arm, and she looked uncertainly at him. Barely knowing what he was about to do before he did it, Mason reached out to capture both her hands in his. Looking right into her eyes, which still had that amber half-light thing going on, he said, “Ana. I trust you. No matter what the hell is going on, I trust you. So tell me, and I'll believe you.”
She started to look at the others again, but he reached up a hand to gently catch her chin. From her, he could hear anything. And he somehow knew in a way he never had before that whatever she said would be the truth. She couldn't lie to him, or hide anything, or pretend to not understand. “Tell me,” he whispered. “I trust you, babe.”
Real tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, but her lips trembled in a faint smile. “I think—no,” she said more firmly. “I know. I know it's true, because I can feel it. You're like us, Mason.” She searched his eyes in pure wonder, although her smile was growing. “You're...you're pack. You're a shifter,” she whispered, so softly he could barely hear it.
He shook his head, not understanding. She took a deep breath. The room was silent except for the dance of the flames in the hearth. “Mason,” she said very slowly but in a clear voice, “you are a wolf shifter. Like me.”
She never broke eye contact. He stayed right with her, that oddly familiar thing inside his head agreeing with her on a level so deep he knew it was truth.
“I can feel your wolf inside you. You're like us. That's why,” and her chest suddenly began heaving as the tears spilled over, although now she was smiling just like a kid on, well, on Christmas morning, “that's why my wolf has been so sure you're my mate. Because you are,” she whispered, the words seeming to reverberate through the room. “You really, truly are my mate. Mine!” she said, the word ripping out of her in a low half-growl of certainty.
Mason waited for his world to explode, tilt, or otherwise blow up on him at her words. Instead, a long, slow burn of joyful heat began to build inside him. Every single dream he'd ever had about a wolf seemed to stream through his mind, wolves leaping and bounding joyfully, reveling in their freedom.
His freedom.
No frigging way. But it was true. He knew to his bones every word she said was true.
He looked at Ana for another long moment as the tears streaked themselves down her cheeks and her eyes began to shine with a bursting joy. “You're telling me the truth,” he said. “I can feel it. Inside me. My...my wolf,” he got out, stumbling just slightly over it. “I always felt a crazy connection to them,” he muttered, before suddenly rounding on his grandfather. “Gramps. You must have known. Are you...?” He stared hard at the man he'd known all his life.
But his grandfather shook his head. “It's a very long story, Mason. One not for what should be a cheerful morning such as this.” Very old pain rippled across his face, but it was quickly gone. “I shall simply tell you now that wolf shifter blood has been in our family for many, many generations.”
In a fascinated voice, Ana began, “But you aren't—” only to be gently cut off by Otsana.
“Ana, dear. Your mate has just received some very interesting news. It is truth, and that is all either of you needs to know at this very moment, is it not? You have your mate, Ana,” Otsana said very softly. “The mating frenzy finally awoke his wolf, who recognized you as his mate. His wolf was always yearning for you, even after you rightly pushed him aside when you thought he was human. He would never stop looking for the mate of his heart,” she finished, giving Channing the kind of glance that said they had a very long, very loving history themselves. “You awoke his true self because you are his true mate.”
Ana looked at Mason, who was still holding her small hands in his. He still didn't understand half of what was being said, but for the moment he didn't care. Ana's tears had slowed, which gave him huge relief because he hated to see them. Even though he knew they'd been happy tears, they still stressed him out. He wanted Ana to be happy. Always, and in every way.
“Yes,” he answered Otsana, though he looked at Ana. “I can't take more right now anyway.”
“Go now,” Channing said, his deep voice holding an uncompromising authority the other voice in Mason's head—his own other voice, it seemed—now recognized. “Take your mate outside, Ana, and show him his wolf. And you,” he said directly to Mason, his tone jerking Mason's head around to look briefly at him. “You shall take care of your mate, just as she will take care of you. Although I haven't much doubt about that either way,” he added with an enigmatic smile.
Before he could respond, Ana tugged on his hands. “Come on,” she said. “I can tell your wolf wants out. I want to see you as your wolf. And you need to see me as mine,” she added with another adorably shy little grin on her face. “A wolf!” she said again, elation rocketing through her tone.
His grandfather shooed them out as well, just smiling at Mason's growing excitement. “Enjoy your new life, Mason,” he said, a faintly wistful smile on his face. “We'll talk more later. After you've finally met your wolf.”
Ana pulled him back out the door they had just entered only minutes but what felt like centuries ago. Mason blinked at the bright sunshine. Something inside him, though, seemed to be tumbling and cartwheeling with an excitement that shivered up and down his body. Ana kept leading him around to the back of the house, where the snowy woods spread out and up the hillside. Though the huge smile never left her face, she also kept looking at him like he'd grown a second head.
Or a tail, the voice thought inside his head.
Whoa.
Ana giggled. “Your face, babe,” she said. Her own face was radiant. “I can't believe this. No, I can believe this! Mason, my heart,” she said in a giddy voice, before suddenly launching herself to wrap her arms around him.
Her sweet lips came up to meet his, and he very willingly met them, letting them dance over his until he groaned. She stepped back. At his protest, she lifted a finger to her lips. To his renewed shock, Ana then began to strip.
“Um,” he began, glancing nervously behind them at the house. More practically, he added, “You'll freeze, babe.”
Pulling her shirt over head to reveal her beautiful breasts held within her pretty bra, she shook her head at him. “It's not that cold out here. Are you still cold?” she asked curiously, unhooking her bra and letting it drop.
Distracted by the sight, he didn't answer for a second.
Mate, the other voice thought, feeling proud and protective. Somehow, he knew it was looking out his eyes at Ana.
His wolf. The thought was so entirely natural now it made him laugh with a slightly giddy edge. Ana laughed with him, stripping off her last bit of clothing. Mason stared. She didn't have a single goose bump on her, although it couldn't be above twenty-five degrees.
Come to think of it, she was right about that, too. He didn't feel cold at all.
“It's easy, babe,” she said. Her voice was dropping again, deepening into something wilder. “You'll know how to do it.”
With a graceful ripple and shudder, Ana's body changed. It morphed and shimmered and then shifted into a wolf. A genuine, for real, no kidding wolf. A very pretty one, too, with a creamy cinnamon-chocolate colored coat and clear amber eyes. She opened her mouth and a somewhat whining bark came out. Then again, and again, until he could understand it.
“Hurry up, slowpoke. Let's go. I want to run with you.”
After everything, Mason's jaw still dropped. It was all real. Ana was a wolf.
As am I, the voice thought. That is, his wolf thought. Run with mate, the urging strongly pounded in his mind. So strongly that he began to strip down just like Ana. Looking back at the house only once, he simply said, “You'd better not expect me to do this in front of anyone else except you for a long time, babe. This part is weird.”
His beautiful Ana wolf laughed. He understood her perfectly.
With the sun spilling their shadows to the ground and a very light breeze picking up through the trees, Mason felt so at home it was nuts. Except it was real. The wolf part of him knew exactly what to do. It was easy. All he had to do was picture his wolf, just like the dark one that had padded through his dreams for so many years now. Picture that huge creature, and just...let...go.
Everything swooped for a second, and Mason felt disoriented. He shook himself violently from nose to tail, feeling the shudder ripple through his coat.
His fur coat. He stood there on his four strong legs, paws touching the cold snow, blinking in the sun, looking at his mate. Ana laughed again, the sound shot through with pure joy. She bounded over to him in a single leaping stride, touching her nose to his, rubbing her head against his face, licking his chin.
Voice thoughtful, she suddenly said, “Hearts open at Christmastime. He just needed me to believe that.” More slowly, she added, “He wanted me to believe in me. That's what he meant.
“Who meant?” Mason said, but it came out like a strange barking. He stared down his own nose at his mouth, which felt weird. But somehow also right.
Because it's still mine, he thought. He knew it was his human side. You are me, and I am you.
“Yes,” he said aloud, slightly confusing himself more.
Ana, his sweet, dark little wolf with a decidedly mischievous look about her, laughed again. “Silly! I love you, Mason,” she said, tongue lolling out as she grinned at him. Her excitement and joy were infectious. “You are the best Christmas gift I could ever want.”
He experimentally stamped one paw on the ground, huffing with delight when snow flew up from under it. “Nope,” he said, drawing another funny wolf laugh from her. “You're the one who's the best gift. I love you, too. Mate,” he said slowly, testing out the word.
He liked the sound of it.
“Let's run. It's easy,” his mate said, whirling around in excited little circles in front of him. “Just put one paw in front of the other and follow me. I have so much to show you!”
With that, Ana darted off up the hill, her legs gathering and leaping in bouncing strides, the sun catching small reddish glints on her coat. “Follow me!” she called back to him, sheer joy ringing through her voice.
Mason leapt after her, the motion coming as naturally as if he'd been doing it since the day he was born. His own exultant laughter echoed through the trees as he raced after his sweet, sexy, wild mate through the Christmas snow, howling with joy every step of the way.
* * *
Turn the page to read Book 4.75, New Year Wolf, featuring Caleb and Rielle from Hunting Wolf!
New Year Wolf
A Black Mesa Wolves Holiday Tale
Dedication
To sparkling, happy new years with true devotion always on your side
1
The solid thwack of fist meeting flesh in a decisive thump tore through the already heightened frenzy of the room. With a roar, the amped crowd whooped and hollered their approval as the young wolf shifter in the ring shook his bloodied hands over his head in exultation before taking a small victory lap.
Rielle Amoux's face blazed into a thrilled smile as her wolf howled appreciatively inside her. Who knew she'd ever be so excited to see such wanton carnage? Then again, a lot of things had changed after she'd recognized her soul mate in the roughest, toughest, sexiest wolf she'd ever known. She looked around for him, knowing he'd be front and center watching his fighter win the match.
“Ah, hell, yeah!” the voice of said sexiest wolf shifter ever shouted from the side of the ring. “Winnah, winnah, chicken dinnah!”
Rielle giggled at the goofball coming out in her mate as the tall, supremely well-built man easily vaulted over the ropes and flung himself into the ring to pummel the victor with enthusiastic slaps to the back, then a huge hug that lifted the younger shifter off his feet. The winning fighter seemed about ready to squeak in the bear hug he got from his trainer and Rielle's mate, Caleb Bardou.
It was a totally manly style hug, of course, Rielle noted, shaking her head although she still smiled with bursting pride. Cub did well, her wolf whispered. Yes, the cub had, so he deserved a hug. Wolf shifters tended to touch a lot anyway, within reason. But of course Caleb was nothing if not a guy's guy, so manly-man type hugs only. No one in the world knew his soft side except for her. And that, she thought with immense, suddenly blushing satisfaction, was a secret she'd always keep.
Mate, her wolf agreed, looking out of Rielle's eyes with what she knew would be a slight golden glow. It was really nice to be among shifters and not have to hide such aspects of her true self.
A nudge on her shoulder reminded her of her keepers. Caleb's older sister, Lily, and her mate, Kieran, flanked her on either side. Rielle, who usually felt pretty secure in her own safety as she went about her life, had protested only mildly when Caleb had laid down the rules for her attendance at this all-important fight.
“If you plan to be there, Ree,” he'd said with the solemnity of a proclamation, “some Pack Guardians are coming to watch over you. I can't be distracted worrying about you.” His ruggedly gorgeous face had settled into the deadly grim expression that stopped many a shifter cold just at the sight. “The fight ring audience is no place for a wolf with no street smarts or fight skills of her own.”
“I do so have street smarts,” she'd said with a tiny huff, raising her eyebrows at him as she mocked glared up at him. He towered over her by more than a foot.
“Yeah?” he'd said, narrowing his brilliant azure eyes back down at her. “Prove 'em.”
“Oh, I will,” she'd promised, her voice going suddenly husky. “Later tonight, when we're home alone.”
She'd really enjoyed seeing Caleb's face change from overly protective to majorly aroused in about half a heartbeat. They'd had a lot of fun, um, role playing lately. She never would have thought it, but Rielle was pretty shameless when it came to researching sexy new scenarios for them to act out. Especially when they ended up with both of them screaming in sheer bliss.
In her mind, her wolf lolled her tongue out in approval of such antics. Rielle forced herself to focus on the here and now before her baser emotions started broadcasting to the shifter crowd. Because Caleb had been right, of course. The fight scene for shifters, while totally sanctioned and legitimate, tended to get pretty crazy. Rielle wasn't a Guardian, who trained long and hard to keep battle ready, and she didn't have the skills to keep herself safe among a crowd of shifters hungry to watch some bloody battering that would have sent every participant to the hospital had they been human. Small but feisty redhead Lily and long, lean Kieran were both Guardians for the Black Mesa Wolf Pack. They were also both alpha wolves, which afforded them even more instinctive respect from every shifter they encountered.
“My baby brother, the head dork of dorky quoters and king of the ring,” Lily said w
ith an expressive eye roll. But pure big sister pride shone through her voice. “I'm so glad we got to be here to see this!”
She and her mate had accompanied Rielle to the fights with some eagerness. Caleb's new star as a fight trainer was rising. To see him recover from the most devastating blow of his life was something his immediate family enjoyed watching. He was teaching and leading by example, and it turned out he was really good at it. Good enough to gain the respect of the shifter cage fighting world.
And, Rielle knew, he still secretly hoped good enough to regain the respect he'd lost when he'd let down his own pack last summer. And maybe, just maybe, even regain his old position as a Black Mesa Pack Guardian.
Lily went on as she watched her brother, who was now exchanging high fives with admirers on the other side of the ropes but motioning for them to congratulate his fighter as well, “Just look at him. His own training business, and now this win? He'll be beating them off with a stick. I knew he could do it,” she ended with the same fierce delight Rielle felt.
Dark yet usually easily smiling Kieran, whose rangy yet well-muscled bulk had kept any potential troublemakers well away, gave Rielle's other shoulder a light squeeze. “Think he's a keeper, Rielle? I don't know, he still looks a bit like rough trade to me.”
Rielle was used to his teasing by now. “Oh, I think I'll keep him,” she said through a smile. In an arch tone, she added, “He's pretty handy around the store, too, now that I have him trained.”
Kieran didn't quite manage to smother a snicker as he looked at the sweat-covered, still victory-yodeling Caleb. Lily guffawed out loud though. She said, “I'll bet you do have my big baby brother well trained, Ree. I can just see him handling all those nice dresses with the daintiest of care in those meaty paws of his.” She snorted again with laughter, although the big sisterly fondness still rang through.