by Mandy Rosko
"I am your alpha," Garret said again, still calm, still talking like this was a conversation they were having over lunch. His mouth twisted. "It was one of Dennis's mutts that changed you. Not Laurence. He's a full wolf. Either way, I didn't change you, but I'm claiming you for my pack. You are weaker than I am physically. There would be no battle to determine whether you agree or not, and you have no other pack to fight to reclaim you. That makes me your alpha if I choose it."
"And you're choosing it, are you?" she sneered.
He smiled. "I am."
"You're not my alpha. That's a… that's a stupid way of phrasing something, or talking about me like I need anyone to be my keeper." Miranda looked down at her hands. Hands that had fur and claws, and a strange sense of self-consciousness overcame her. "What do you mean by mutt?"
Garret's eyes softened. "I mean no insult by it. You're beautiful."
"But you're saying I'm a mutt?" She had so many more problems to worry about other than this, but that word sounded dirty in her mind. She didn't like being called something that sounded so vulgar.
"I'm saying your new shape reflects the one who changed you." Garret looked her up and down. "I believe there is some fox in his bloodline. You look more like a wolf, but your shape is somewhat smaller. Your hair is tinged with orange, and your ears have white tips. You could either be my vixen, or my she-wolf. You're lovely either way."
God, she was not going to let that talk melt her like butter. She was going to keep some damned self-control.
"I'm not your vixen or your she-wolf," she muttered, with a lot less heat in her voice than she would have liked.
Garret went back to smiling at her. "I'll choose one to call you then."
Great.
"Come on. I want to show you something. Stay on all fours."
Garret leaped away, as easy and sleek as if he'd done this his entire life. He probably had. The jerk.
She tried putting one foot in front of the other. It was awkward to say the least. She walked like a sea turtle on land. It wasn't like she was on her hands and knees either. Her hind legs had bent in just the right place to allow her to stay on all fours like a proper canine, but she still couldn't get a good feel for it.
And she was pretty sure Garret was laughing at her.
"No laughing. I will kill you," she said, knowing she could never follow through with the threat, but it made her feel better to voice it.
He shook his head. "You'd have to catch me first, and that's not likely."
A growl, a genuine growl, left Miranda's throat. She hadn't meant for it to come out, and she shocked herself when it did.
Garret threw his big head back and laughed out loud. "Do you want to chase me down and teach me a lesson?"
Even her reply was a growl. "Yes."
She did. She really, really did. Her fear almost completely melted away as something animal and primal within her prompted her to act.
Garret dropped down to his front, tail wagging in the air, a classic dog's playful bow. "Come and get me then."
Miranda felt an animal pull within her that she'd never felt before in her entire life. She had the urge to chase something down, grab it by the scruff of the neck, and maybe even shake it until it stopped moving.
She leaped at him, her hind legs slipping in some decaying leaves, and she fell on her face.
He laughed some more, and her embarrassment and the need to get back at him was complete.
Miranda charged for his throat. Garret ran, his laughter enraging her.
* * *
The pleasure of having his woman chase him was a high the likes of which Garret had never before experienced. One hundred years old, and after all the pleasures of life he'd come across, this was by far the best. Of course, if his mate happened to get lucky and catch him, which she wouldn't, she would attempt to bite and claw him in ways that were not playful.
He didn't mind. He barely kept out of reach of her paws and snapping teeth, but only because he chose to stay close. She was already improving, her speed picking up, and Garret was soon genuinely running through the birch and pine trees, under a fallen log, and leaping over a puddle. She was keeping up with him. Now that his woman was no longer walking like a newborn calf, she was discovering her strength.
She was quick. He liked that; it got Garret's heart and blood pumping.
Only when she veered off in the direction of a skittering rabbit did he realize the success of his mission.
Miranda chased the poor little wretch until it leapt into its burrow, out of reach of her small snout.
She howled, as though in pain, as she dug at the entrance.
Garret approached her with excitement. "I know where we can find more."
Miranda's eyes, glowing golden as her animal side struggled for control, stared up at him, eager and needy. "Where?"
He showed her where, and by the time they arrived at one of Garret's favorite spots, she'd chased down four rabbits—killing one—hunted three squirrels, and rolled in the dry grass and dirt to get at her itching back.
"Nice, isn't it?"
She lay on her belly. Her eyes were still golden as she stared at him, but a little more of the human hazel color was starting to break through. "This is great! I can smell and see and hear everything!"
Garret shook his head, amused by the childlike candor in the eyes of his woman. He used to be like this, living only to hunt small game and scratch the burrs out of his coat before chasing down coyotes and other natural wolves.
"Not everything, but come with me; there's more to show you."
"There's more?" Miranda rose to her four feet. She still hadn't tried to walk on her hind legs since Garret had ordered her not to.
He nodded. "Just don't kill them when you see them."
He took her to the edge of his property. A family of wolves lived out here, and he hadn't chased them away for one reason.
Miranda opened her mouth, sighing and cooing the way females did when presented with puppies.
The parents watched her with concern, but they did nothing because Garret was right there. Natural wolves didn't have alphas the way the shifters did. They were usually, if not always, family packs. Following the leader for them just meant following the ones who provided the food and shelter.
But they could still sense Garret's power. They knew they were on his land. It had been an accident, however, and Garret chose not to chase them away when he discovered the mother was heavy in the womb.
Her pups were fluffy and playful now, old enough to be excited for visitors. Miranda was giddy under the attention. Garret didn't want to tell her they were only so excited because they smelled the rabbit she'd recently eaten.
He didn't let her stay for too long. They were still on his territory, but in another wolf den. They were guests, and Garret didn't want the pups becoming used to attention like this.
The sad expression on his woman's face when he announced it was time for them to go, however, was priceless.
"If it means keeping that happy expression on your face, I might just have to bring a puppy home for you."
Miranda's ears perked as she looked up at him, as if the prospect was interesting to her. She was intrigued. Good.
She turned her head back to the wolf den and the sounds of the pups playing inside. The father eventually trotted out and walked off, out to hunt for more meat for his mate and pups.
Garret was jealous of that wolf, but soon he wouldn't be. He'd have his own pups with his mate in a matter of months.
Perhaps that was why he'd allowed the family to stay.
"Are you listening?"
He blinked, looking down at his woman. "Of course."
Miranda shook her head. "No you weren't. You were off in space."
She looked toward the den. "Thanks for bringing me here. I guess you must get along with the wild animals pretty well."
"When they respect my strength, I do."
She cocked her head to the side, then turned her at
tention back down to her hands. "Nothing's going to be the same, is it?"
Garret wouldn't lie. "No."
"Are you kidnapping me?"
He held back the feeling of being punched in the gut by her words. "No, but you will not be allowed to leave here for some time. Not until you have full control."
"Will I ever hurt anyone?"
Her eyes shone. Miranda barely glanced up at him, and it was apparent she was afraid of her new reality.
"I won't let you hurt anyone. Usually high stress or enraged situations cause a loss of control in new or careless shifters. I will make sure that doesn't happen to you. That's why you need to stay here."
"And the reason why you keep calling me your mate?" she asked, and this time her stare, as watery as it was, was defiant.
Garret couldn't help but smile. "Because you are my mate. I know you feel that same pull toward me. It was obvious in the smell of your lust."
He said it teasingly. Miranda turned her face away, but he could still feel the heat in her body rising.
"I'm not having sex with you."
He shrugged. "I waited a hundred years for you. I can wait a little longer."
"A hundred years!"
There were so many things he was going to have to teach her.
"Yes, well, not quite that long. I certainly wasn't searching for you when I was a child, but the point remains the same."
"I… You're not lying are you? About your age?"
"What do you think?"
Miranda took a moment to think about it. He furrowed brow indicated she was thinking hard.
"I guess, if I can change into a fox-wolf hybrid, and you can turn into a big and scary wolf, anything is possible."
"Of course it is, just as it is very possible that I will soon have you."
She glared at him. "Don't sound so sure about that."
"But you like it when I sound sure of myself."
The increase in her body temperature again told him he was spot-on.
"Why do you have to be big and impressive and handsome? This isn't fair."
Garret laughed. Was that what she thought of him? "Come, I'll take you home now. That rabbit you ate won't be enough. You'll need more protein to keep up with your new body."
"Ugh, I still can't believe I ate a poor little bunny."
She'd eat more of them in time. Eventually, she'd stop seeing them as cute little critters and realize they were prey animals. They would be easy for her to learn to hunt. No defenses meant Garret didn't have to worry about her getting hurt if she caught one. Deer and moose were notorious for trying to kick their attackers.
"Garret?"
It was the sound of her voice, suddenly tired and weak, that had him spinning around.
She was melting back into her human shape. The nearly orange hairs on her body shed rapidly from her pores as her bones changed and her body shrank.
Miranda shivered when she was back in her human shape. The cold air and the lack of adrenaline would see to it that she noticed every breeze. Her hair was wild around her head and shoulders, her cheeks rosy and lips pink. She looked more like a vixen now than she did when she'd been in her animal shape.
Playtime was over, however.
Garret pushed himself onto his hind legs and walked to her.
"Here, I have you." He scooped her up with ease, and Miranda leaned into his fur.
He smiled. She glared.
"I'm just cold."
"Of course," he replied.
Miranda grumbled, but didn't argue with him anymore as she leaned into his fur, hiding her nudity and seeking his warmth.
She might not admit she needed him now, but her body spoke clearly for her. He'd take whatever he could get.
Chapter 5
Miranda tried hard not to look too deeply into the fact that Garret carried her like a bride, or that she liked it so much.
His fur was coarse and kind of scratchy, but there was this one spot on his chest, right between his pecs, that was as soft as those puppy wolves she'd been petting and playing with in the wolf den.
Miranda put her fingers into that fur, marveling at the softness of it and the color.
There was white fur mixed with steel gray, black, and even a few brown and blond strands in there, reminding her of the blond color of his natural hair. It didn't take her long to warm up as he held her close. He was so big, and she so small in comparison, that her entire body was being pressed into the warmth of his chest, and she was practically using his fur as a blanket to snuggle with.
"Um, can I ask you a question?"
"Of course. You may ask me anything."
Miranda took in a deep breath. "Okay, you said you were waiting for me for a hundred years?"
"Ah, yes, I am actually a little older than that."
"How old?"
"One hundred and two."
Miranda tried with everything she had to keep her body from going completely tense. That was too weird to hear about.
"Will I live that long?"
“Before the change? No. Mate or no mate, you would have aged. Now? Yes, it's very likely you will live as long as I will. Longer, since the females tend to outlive the males."
She didn't know if he was referencing the average life spans of women over men in general, or of women shifters compared to men shifters.
"How long will I live?"
"A decent lifespan is considered 300 years, though I've met one shifter who lived to be 500. I certainly don't want you to outlive me by a hundred years, so now I'll have a good excuse for taking care of myself."
The smile when he said that brought about another wave of heat in her body.
Miranda put her hand on the back of her neck, trying to cool herself off. "Okay, so, if changing me would've meant I'd live as long as you, maybe longer at this point, why would you not change me? You talked about that Dennis guy, and his friend who changed me like it was a bad thing."
Garret's expression changed, his eyes becoming softer. "Ah, yes, well there is a good reason for that. Women are not normally changed. A female can be born a shifter, but the change is dangerous. Strong men have succumbed to the change and died. There is no official study for this, but the belief is that the survival rate for women is a little less than 50 percent."
Miranda tensed. Fifty percent? That was it? It was basically a coin toss on her life.
For the chance to live up to 500 years old, Miranda wasn't so sure she would have wanted to risk the next sixty years she did have on odds like that.
"I see."
Garret nodded. "You were recovering for a couple of days. The plan was not to change you. I would have introduced myself and gradually eased you into this. When you saw me in my wolf form, it would have been easier."
"And Dennis changed that?"
Garret nodded. "He did."
"Why? What did I do? I never met him before in my life!"
"I know, sweet. It's not what you did, it's what he thinks I did."
That got her attention pretty fast. "Thinks you did? Because I'm connected to you he wants to get back at you through me?"
Garret nodded. "Yes."
Miranda had to think about that. "You said I met you once before…"
"When you were a child, yes."
Miranda really looked at him, at the color of his hair, the hard set of his jaw. "I guess you do look a little familiar, but that doesn't… Well, never mind. I guess I shouldn't bother questioning this anymore after everything that happened."
"You may ask all the questions you like," Garret said. "Ask more if you like."
Miranda swallowed hard. "Okay. Uh, well, what does Dennis think you did that he wanted to kill me to get back at you for?"
Garret sighed, and for the first time, he looked uncomfortable, as if he'd been hoping she would ask something else. "We were children together. Friends. His father, a few other members in the pack, were troublemakers. They went too far one night. They hurt one of the omegas. I won't get into details, b
ut they were banished by my father, who had been the alpha at the time. To be fair to Dennis, he wasn't involved." Even as Garret said this, he sounded as though he was admitting it reluctantly.
"When his father was banished, however, he and a number of other sons and daughters of the accused decided to go with their parents. Being a rogue, or in a small pack with no territory, is not an easy life. When his father died, he blamed me. I was the son of the alpha, and he thought I should defend him."
Miranda quietly took all this in. "Where's your father now?"
"Dead."
Miranda swallowed hard.
"We don't have to speak about this if you don't want to." She didn't want to. It was all so dark and gruesome. "Okay, something else then."
"What?"
Now her body felt overly hot as she thought about what she wanted to ask, and Garret's body heat was so not helping. "You said we were going to have sex—"
"Having a change of heart already?"
He sounded a little too eager, considering the morbid conversation they'd just been having.
She glowered through the warmth that rushed up her neck, ignoring his overly enthusiastic comment. She wasn't going to admit he was charming and kind of funny, or that she thought he was sexy when he looked like a man and still insanely cool to look at in his other shape. No fucking, flapping way.
"When… if we ever do, it's not going… you're not going to look like this, are you?"
He was so big already, she didn't even want to think about the size of his penis. Miranda imagined her love cave getting ripped wide open, and it made her cringe. As sexy and amazing as Garret looked, she didn't want to have sex with him when he looked more like an animal than a man.
He laughed out loud, throwing his head back and everything, the bastard. "No, honey. Not unless you want me to, of course."
Miranda groaned.
She realized just then that Garret had started walking on the soft grass of his lawn. That big, imposing house was back in view, and she was finally able to get a proper look at it.
Impressive stone work, glistening windows, and plants that grew up the walls made it look like a mansion. The fountain in the center, which she hadn't noticed before, gave off the impression of a modern palace.