by T. S. Joyce
“It’s time,” was all the man said.
The black wolf stood, rubbed his massive side down the cage bars in front of her, and loped toward the door, hesitating only long enough to look back once before he disappeared.
Dean nodded to Morgan, and she backed away from the bars, emitting a short low growl. The black wolf was safety. The human could go fuck himself.
At the other wolf’s cage, he threw the bundle at her and demanded, “Change. You have ten minutes and then I’m coming back for you.”
His tone invited no argument, and even if Morgan didn’t completely understand, she knew the she-wolf better do as he asked.
After he left, the she-wolf paced frantically, glancing at her and away, then back again. Her whining grated on Morgan’s nerves. The she-wolf tried to block herself off from view but the small bed didn’t provide enough cover. There was nowhere to hide. The brown wolf lay down and shook like a leaf. What was she doing?
The wolf’s muscles convulsed and her head snapped to the side as she started, and failed, to stand. Her legs lengthened and bent at odd angles. A strangled groan came from the wolf’s throat. In horror, Morgan couldn’t look away. The monstrous sight terrified her. Whatever was happening to that animal wasn’t natural. It was an excruciating death Morgan couldn’t peel her eyes away from. Dark fur disappeared, giving a glimpse of muscle, tendon, and sinew for a split second before it was covered completely by smooth, human skin. Long blond hair grew from the creature’s head and her muzzle slowly retracted, leaving a woman’s face in its wake. Her growls and whines of pain gave way to a soft human groan.
The girl lay there shaking. She tried to get up and reach for the bundle, but collapsed. Tears streaked down her cheeks in jagged channels. She rested again and crawled to the bundle and untied it. Clothes. The man had brought clothes to cover her new, raw, human body. Morgan would feel naked too if she were covered in hairless, vulnerable skin.
The girl finished dressing and Dean returned to unlock her door.
“Pack meeting. Everyone’s already here,” he snapped, grabbing the woman’s arm to steady her.
Baffled, Morgan watched them leave, whining. The girl was a wolf. She’d smelled her, seen her, knew without a doubt she was an animal. But she’d turned into a human woman. The girl’s scent was different as she passed the cage. Still familiar, but definitely more human. Walking upright made her almost recognizable, but Morgan’s mind skittered away from trying to force a connection.
She wasn’t ready to understand yet.
Chapter Sixteen
Grey stood by the front window, his hands clasped tightly behind his back as he watched Dean lead Alexis toward the house. Behind him, the Dallas pack was sitting in dead-silence around the big dining room table.
Alexis looked pale and scared, as she should, and Dean looked like he would rather be anywhere but here. Dear God, the alpha better not go easy on her or Grey would handle her punishment himself, and damn the consequences.
Grey didn’t join the others at the table when they came in. He held his position by the window. Wasn’t his pack, so he didn’t belong at that table for this decision.
No one looked at Alexis but Brandon. The others stared at the table, like they’d already shunned her.
Dean sat at the head of the table and gestured for Alexis to take the seat beside him.
She looked from wolf to wolf, and then sat heavily into the chair.
“Alexis,” Dean murmured. “Do you deny you Turned Morgan without her permission?”
“I don’t deny Turning her, but it wasn’t my intention to do so.” She sneered and added, “Obviously.”
“What does that mean,” Dean demanded.
“It means I wanted her dead. I wanted her to die, to perish, to be road kill, to be a fucking carcass on your front porch. She isn’t pack! She’s a fucking human bitch that—”
Dean slammed his hand on the table so hard, it echoed. “So you turned a wolf you have no intention of mentoring, and your defense is you meant to kill her instead?” he yelled. “For what, Alexis? Because you were jealous? Because you didn’t like her? You were going to kill her, kill the guardian of that little baby, and for what? To hurt Grey because you didn’t get what you wanted?” Dean stood and leaned his clenched knuckles against the tabletop. Red seeped up from his neck to his cheeks and his veins in his forearms bulged. No one spoke, but Alexis wore a snarl and tried to hold his gaze. Three seconds. That’s all it took for Dean to back her down with a glare.
Alexis dropped her gaze and clasped her hands in her lap.
The alpha lifted his chin and uttered, “You are to be transferred.”
“No, you can’t do that,” Alexis pleaded.
“Let me finish! You’ll be transferred to the Denver pack. Jonathan Reeves is a good alpha, and he’ll treat you fairly, even though you don’t fuckin’ deserve it. I can’t just kill you, Alexis, although I’m really fuckin’ tempted.”
“But it is cold in Denver! You know I hate the cold. Are there any other females in that pack?” she asked.
“No,” Dean said. “This might come as a shock to you? But there’s a shortage of packs that accept members who’ve recently tried to murder a human. Jonathan has taken in troubled wolves before and has agreed to do so again as a personal favor to me.”
“Troubled? You think I’m troubled? You made me like this and now you are casting me off like I’m unimportant to this pack. I’m an available female, and you’re lucky I chose to stay here. All so you can defend that whore. She took what was mine, embarrassed me in front of the entire pack and everyone laughed at her like she was this new little pet. She’s a fucking human!” Loathing and disdain seeped into every word. “You chose a human over your own pack member.”
“She isn’t human anymore, no thanks to you. And now she and her child are in danger, because you let jealousy lead you to this. I didn’t make you what you are, Alexis. I turned a dying girl I didn’t know into a wolf to save her. The person you are today? That’s all because of the choices you’ve made. That’s not the wolf in you, it’s just you. You have dishonored the pack with your actions, and you have dishonored me. A taxi will be at your place in an hour to take you to the airport. Wade will accompany you to Denver, and you are never welcome back here. Is that clear?”
She stared defiantly at him, tears filling up her eyes. She wiped them hastily, nodded once and stormed toward the door.
The dumbass she was, she dared a pissed look at Grey. “You’re lucky you’re in his pack, Alexis. I would’ve dismembered you slowly.”
She stomped out and slammed the door closed behind her. Wade stood and made his way to the door. “I’ll make sure she goes straight to Denver and settles there,” he murmured. “I’ll be back in a few days.”
The door clicked closed behind him, and no one in the room moved a muscle. No one but Brandon. “This is bullshit,” he said.
“What’s that?” Dean asked, fury tainting his tone.
“She’s a female, Dean. She’s important.”
“She’s a murderer,” Rachel argued.
“She’s special!” Brandon yelled.
“To you, and only you,” Jason murmured. “She didn’t want you, Brandon. She doesn’t need you to be her hero now. That bitch is cold. Let her be cold in someone else’s pack.”
Brandon huffed a breath and shook his head, his eyes light, and full of rage.
“I’m going for a run,” Dean said low.
“Dean,” Rachel whispered, reaching for him.
“I need some time,” he said, and left.
Grey didn’t envy him. He’d heard breaking a bond to a pack member was excruciating. His wolf would be unsteady for weeks, maybe longer. There was sacrifice involved in losing Alexis, but Grey respected him for doing the right thing.
We would’ve killed her, Wolf spouted off in his head.
And for once, Grey agreed.
****
Without a definite timeline for how long they’d be stayin
g at Dean’s house, Grey needed to get overnight things for Lana and himself for their stay on pack property. He drove to the apartment first and packed what they needed in a small duffle bag.
Rent money in hand, he went downstairs to the landlady’s apartment and paid it early in case he wasn’t here at the first of the month. With his responsibilities taken care of, he headed for Morgan’s house.
He didn’t have a key, but she kept a spare under a rock in the back yard. He turned a cartoon on for Lana and ran upstairs to pack things she might need.
Morgan’s bedroom had been painted in a muted purple, with thick white baseboards and trim around the single window. Gray, floral print curtains adorned the pane and an old-fashioned table lamp sat on her night stand. A photo booth strip of pictures had been taped to her dresser mirror, and showed them smiling, making silly faces and in the last frame, kissing. The first time he’d seen her room, he thought it fit her perfectly. Now it echoed with emptiness. He missed her so badly, it was a constant and uncomfortable ache in his chest. An hour with her wolf earlier wasn’t nearly enough.
The mattress sank in as he sat on Morgan’s bed and looked around for inspiration for where to start. Her scent was everywhere. He crossed to the drawers and pulled out what he thought she could use. A couple shirts, jeans, a gray thermal pajama set he liked, and her favorite tennis shoes from the closet.
Picking and choosing through the lingerie drawer was both exciting and terrifying. He hadn’t ever seen her in underwear and didn’t know which ones she would want for everyday use. Red it was. He didn’t know anything about comfort, but she’d look hot in red.
Packing toiletries was stressful because he had no idea what a woman needed to get ready. He found a make-up bag and threw it in with her toothbrush, toothpaste, and shower things. If she needed anything else, Rachel would probably let Morgan borrow it. Next, he went into Lana’s room and packed warm clothes, pajamas, socks and shoes. Rachel had already set her up with a toothbrush at the property.
After locking up, he buckled Lana in her car seat and stopped by the bank to talk about the measures needed to start using money from the trust fund account. Whether he decided to tap into it or not, he wanted to know how to access the money. He almost walked out, thinking of his father's reaction, but Lana slipped her tiny hand into his while they stood in line and suddenly his pride didn’t seem so important anymore.
Morgan and Lana would need more from him.
When he and Lana arrived at the house, Rachel was leaned against the dining room table, eyes puffy and red as if she’d been crying. “Dean still isn’t back from his run.”
“He probably just needs some time.” Grey held a sleepy Lana in one arm, and his duffle bag in the other. He paused at the stairs and said, “Rachel? Thank you for letting us stay here while Morgan…while she…I’m sure you’re ready to get us out of your hair, but just I can’t leave her.”
Rachel smiled. “I know how it is. It’s the same with Dean. It’s how I knew we were meant to be. And I don’t mind company. That’s the reason we bought this place. Plus, it’s really nice to have a little one around here.”
He grinned. “Lana won’t be any fun to be around tonight unless I get her to sleep.” He headed upstairs with Lana clinging tightly to his neck. After emptying the bags into a vacant dresser in their room, he lay with her until she fell asleep. He would’ve drifted off too if he could sleep. Wolf wouldn’t let him go unconscious when Morgan was vulnerable though.
When he was sure Lana wouldn’t wake, he slid out of bed and went downstairs and to the front porch where he could wait for Dean to return from his run. Bored, he sat on the porch swing and scrolled through pictures on his phone. Morgan was so damn beautiful. He had a picture of her sitting on her couch, laptop in her lap, looking up at him with this incredible smile. A ray of light had filtered through the window and landed in a stripe across her face, illuminating her green eyes.
Green eyes.
Green eyes that now turned purple.
Would she ever smile like that again? Sadness washed through him and he scrolled to the next picture.
“What’re you looking at?” Dean asked.
Grey startled and jerked his attention to the alpha, who stood leaned against the porch railing on the bottom stair. Shit he was quiet when he wanted to be. Wolf hadn’t even sensed him.
“I’m looking at this picture I took of Morgan and Lana.” He passed the phone to Dean, who looked at the photo and chuckled. The picture had been taken in her front yard and in it, Morgan wore an infectious grin as Lana proudly showed her a grasshopper.
“Landscaping looks nice,” Dean said. “Does she take care of it herself?”
“Yeah, she’s really creative with stuff like that. Like, she can just look at something raw and imagine the end result. The house would be a decent little place if the neighborhood wasn’t so rough.”
Dean sat on the porch stair and Grey came to sit beside him, looking out at “You should start thinking about getting them out of there. Do you have the means to get them someplace safer? I think now that Morgan is a new wolf, it’ll be extremely hard to keep her in the city. At least until she has more control.”
“It’s something I definitely need to start thinking about. I have the means to do it, but I don’t know how she’ll feel about it. We haven’t been together that long, and now this...” he gestured at the barn. “I don’t know how we’re going to come out of it. The place she lives in now has my hackles up any time I’m over there. Since she’s been turned, all of my instincts are awful and constant. I want to bring up moving, but honestly, I don’t even know where to start looking.”
“I was talking about it with Rachel and we don’t think it would be such a bad idea if you found someplace around here. If we’re serious about trying to help you keep Morgan safe, it makes sense you would be close enough for us to get to your place quickly if you need us. And I think it would be better for Morgan if she had easy access to Rachel and Marissa. This is harder for a woman, and she’s going to need support. Morgan has survived the Change, which is rare, but now the hard part begins. Wade has a large parcel of land a couple properties west of us. We used the same realtor, and I can give you the number if you want it. If you can afford it, you should probably get land to go with the house.”
Grey nodded. It wouldn’t suck to have his own property to run on, either. “You wouldn’t mind having us all in your back pocket? I know things get tense between us sometimes. Are you sure you would want me living near your territory?”
Dean leaned against the porch railing and stared thoughtfully toward the barn. “I guess we’ll see. Two packs in one territory hasn’t been done before, as far as I know. But then again, there’s never been a need for it.”
“Alright, I guess I’ll need that number.”
“Alexis is gone,” Dean said unexpectedly. “I won’t let her come back, Grey. I won’t put her in Morgan’s face and make this harder on her.”
Grey hesitated and chose his words carefully. “Thank you for doing that. I know it must be painful, losing a wolf.”
“Did you know I made her?” Dean asked, emotion seeping into his voice. “Before Rachel and I met, I was in a rough place. I was dominant, always wanted to fight, and had trouble with control and no pack under me to keep me grounded. Wade tried to help but I’d pushed him away by then. I was drowning in the guilt of Turning him too. I was up late drinking too much at this crappy bar near my apartment, and when I walked outside, I couldn’t find my car. You would laugh if you saw how tiny that parking lot was, and me with my super werewolf senses couldn’t find my own damned car.” He smiled vacantly at the porch’s wooden floorboards. “I was about to head back in, convinced it was stolen, when I heard this noise. The sound was so faint I thought I imagined it, but I heard it again. This soft sigh. So I followed the noise and found Alexis in the alley between the buildings. Someone had dumped her body behind a bunch of trashcans, and she was almost dead by the time
I got there. I don’t know what they did to her or why, and she would never tell me, but they cut her up pretty badly. I panicked. I was drunk and couldn’t think straight, and I Changed, thinking if I saved this girl it would make up for what I’d done to Wade. So, I bit her, and kept myself from killing her. I Changed back, found my car, and took her to my place. Wade was the first in my pack. Alexis was the second. And for all of the shit she’s done, I made her. The choice to send her away—” He shook his head and got a faraway look in his eyes as he stared out at the woods. “I hope you never have to make that decision.”
Chapter Seventeen
Nine days.
It had been nine days since Morgan had been Turned.
Nine days as a wolf.
It was best if Grey’s visits were limited, and only as Wolf to keep her stress level down until she was in human skin again. He brought food and stayed for a short time each day, but that was the only contact he had with her. It was the only contact anyone had with her.
It had been nine eternal days since he’d touched her.
Marissa was at school, but Rachel hummed softly and off key in the kitchen.
“Would you mind watching Lana for a few hours?” he asked. “I have a meeting and I’m afraid she’ll get bored.”
She pushed the newspaper she’d been reading to the side. “Sure. I’m just hanging around the house today until I pick up Marissa. Leave the car seat in case your meeting runs long, and I’ll take her with me.”
He sat in the chair beside her and tugged at one of the inked pages. “Computer’s faster, if you want the news.”
“True, but there’s something really satisfying about holding paper in your hands. In my day, the newspaper was all you had.”
The dark-haired woman didn’t look a day older than thirty, but her actual age was a complete mystery. He knew better than to ask. Girls didn’t like that shit.
“Anything juicy?”
“Not today, thank goodness. I’m looking for unnatural deaths.”