by Lori King
“Really? You’re going to shift and run?” Thomas was fascinated. The only other time he had seen someone shift, was when Cash was shot a couple of months ago. Tina had just started dating Liam at the time, and when Cash was shot by a poacher in the woods, she suggested they bring him to Thomas for treatment to avoid questions. Thomas had managed to get the bullet out of the wounded man, only to watch in shocked awe as the man morphed into a wolf in front of his eyes.
After some explanation, now Thomas understood that werewolves could heal themselves but only if they were in their wolf form. When they were in human form, they were susceptible to human injuries. If the bullet had remained in Cash’s shoulder, he wouldn’t have been able to heal himself because he was so weak from blood loss. Within minutes of having the bullet removed, Cash was on his feet and able to walk from Thomas’s home. According to Tina, Cash was completely recovered within days. That was the day that Thomas learned that werewolves were a very real, but very secret part of society.
“It’s not going to make you squeamish or anything is it? I mean, I have to be naked to shift…” Cash said, looking a little reluctant.
“I’m a doctor. I’ve seen plenty of naked people. Honestly, I just hope I don’t weird you out by watching. I’m anxious to see someone shift when they’re conscious,” Thomas said, and then laughed with Cash as they headed out the back door into the yard.
Cash quickly stripped his jeans off, and standing naked in the morning dawn, his body shifted from a six-and-a-half-foot-tall giant man, to an enormous wolf. He rose at least four foot tall at the top of his head, and his fur was dark chocolate brown with streaks of black throughout. He waited silently for several moments while Thomas looked him over, and then he cocked his head in question.
“Can you shift back for a second?” Thomas asked, and before he could blink, Cash stood before him in human skin. “Whoa! Shit, man, does that hurt?”
Cash shrugged. “Not really. It did the first time I shifted when I was about twelve, but you get used to it. It can still be painful when I’m really worn out because I have less energy to put into the shift, but most of the time it’s just as natural for me as sneezing. Now that you’ve had your time to gawk at my gorgeous body, can we get moving, Doc?”
Thomas laughed, as Cash shifted back, and they both set off at an even pace into the woods. Cash led Thomas down several foot trails, never getting so far ahead of him as to lose him. It was one of the best runs Thomas could remember. The forest surrounding the den was beautiful and teeming with small creatures. The smell of rain was on the air, but the sun brightened the trees as it rose slowly into the sky.
Several miles and nearly an hour later, Thomas followed Cash to a small cabin in a clearing. Immediately he knew that it was a special place. There was an aura of magic surrounding it. Flowers were planted next to the steps, and a very old rocking chair sat on the small front porch. He slowed his body until he was just jogging in place, and looked questioningly at Cash. Shifting back into his human form, Cash gave him a grin.
“Sorry, I should have warned you I needed to make a quick stop. I wanted to say good-bye to Delaky, and get her blessing before we leave.”
“Who is Delaky?” Thomas asked, finally stopping his movements and following Cash up to the porch. It was awkward to be standing in the middle of the woods with a six-and-a-half-foot-tall naked man, on some strange woman’s porch. He was desperately trying not to think about his surroundings, so that he could focus on Cash’s response.
“Delaky is our pack shaman. You probably saw her at the weddings, but weren’t introduced yet. She is our healer, spiritual guide, elder, etcetera, basically our pack grandmother. I feel a very close connection to her, and I never leave the pack for an extended period of time without getting her blessing. It’s bad juju,” he answered with a chuckle.
“Bad juju? Really? I wouldn’t have pegged you for a believer of magic or spirits or whatnot.” Thomas stared at him in disbelief.
“I’m superstitious. No black cats, no breaking mirrors, salt over the shoulder if it spills, and I have a lucky belt buckle that I wear whenever I’m on stage. Without it, I can’t sing a lick,” he responded with a laugh, and his trademark grin. Thomas couldn’t help but laugh with him as he waited while Cash knocked on the door of the cabin.
A very small woman answered the door with an intriguing smile. “You are slow in your good-byes this day, my child.”
“I took the new doc on a quick run before I headed your way. You knew I wouldn’t leave before I stopped to see you,” Cash said, as he hugged her, and then stepped inside the cabin.
Thomas followed, and once in the door he was able to get a better look at Delaky. He was shocked to see that she wasn’t at all the frail, elderly woman that he was expecting. Instead she was a stunning woman with long, white-blonde hair that hung nearly to her knees. She looked like an unpainted china doll, with blonde eyelashes and eyebrows, above her pale blue, nearly colorless eyes. She was such an unusual-looking woman, that it left him standing there gaping at her mutely. How had he not noticed her in the last couple of days?
“Close your mouth healer, or a bug might be swallowed.” She cocked her head, and looked him over. “Long ago you were expected. I am glad to meet you, healer.”
“Healer? Well, I am a doctor, but please call me Thomas, ma’am.” He stuttered, feeling awkward at having been caught gawking. He reached his hand out, and jerked with a start when she cupped it in her tiny grip. Her palms were soft, but her skin was cold, as she turned his hand and looked at it as though reading a book.
“Intelligence and humility have mated into a human soul. Strength surrounds your heart. You will be a strong addition to the Gray Pack,” she responded. Her eyes were twinkling, and he could have sworn he could see images flickering in their depths.
“Thank you, I appreciate having your support,” he said fighting off a wave of discomfort, and trying to cover it with a smile.
“No thanks are necessary when truth is in my words. Young healer, you seek your passion, and find yourself unfulfilled. It will remain so until you accept your place in the cycle of nature. The life you have must be released, to embrace the fullness of your destiny,” she said mysteriously. Thomas fumbled with how to respond to her. Was she crazy? When Cash didn’t respond to his questioning glance he frowned down at the small woman. He didn’t want to offend her or Cash, but she was clearly one nugget short of a Happy Meal.
“Delaky, are you saying that you can see Thomas’s future?” Cash asked, excitement lighting up his eyes.
Delaky tilted her head in acknowledgement, but didn’t outwardly accept or deny his assumption. The whole thing was rather unusual to Thomas. Why would Cash believe anyone could see the future? What kind of culture did werewolves actually have?
“Well, thank you, I think. It’s lovely to meet you, but Cash we should probably get back. We need to get going pretty early.” He fidgeted, feeling like he was standing in the principal’s office trying to get out of trouble. As her gaze searched his face, he found himself thinking that Delaky’s eyes were old, even though she looked like a woman in her twenties. Any other time he would have thought that her agelessness was fascinating, but right now it was damn uncomfortable.
“The soul who is always in a rush will run from what he is meant to see. Now, child, have you bonded with your mate yet?” She took his other hand in hers and held them both in front of her, inspecting them. What could she possibly be seeing on his palms?
Thomas’s blood was pulsing in his ears, and his stomach was jumping. He could feel some sort of electrical current on his skin wherever Delaky’s fingers touched him. It took a moment for her words to register in his head. “Mate? Who, me?”
“Delaky, Doc is human, he doesn’t have a mate,” Cash said. His forehead was wrinkled with confusion, and he stared at Thomas and Delaky’s joined hands just as intensely as she did.
“Pfft. Humanity does not release you from destiny. Our Alpha’s ma
te is proof. Or have you forgotten the cubs she carries?” Delaky said, finally releasing Thomas’s hand, and stepping over to the small stove. She poured tea from a steaming tea kettle into a small ceramic mug, and took a sip as though she hadn’t just made a declaration that shook Thomas’s whole world to its core.
“Are you telling me that I have a mate amongst the Gray Pack wolves?” Thomas asked, his eyes darting to take in Cash’s stunned expression.
“No. I see that you have not established the bonds yet. I will share no more. It is not for me to tell you what Fate has written,” she said with a sigh. Offering them both a cup of tea, which they declined, she took a seat on a small, padded bench by the fireplace. Turning to Cash she spoke again. “Young Gray, you have a need for blessings upon your travels. Come to me.”
Cash moved promptly to her side and placed his hand within hers. Thomas watched silently, as she ran her finger down Cash’s palm just as she had done with his own, and then she lifted her eyes. “You will journey far, and there will be struggles on the path. It must be broken before all of the pieces can be mended. You will have to betray to learn to follow.”
Thomas ran his hand through his hair, and huffed out a sigh of irritation. This woman spoke in riddles, and it was starting to get under his skin. He had no clue what she was talking about. Cash, however, seemed to take it in stride, and he bent and kissed the top of Delaky’s head before turning back to Thomas.
“Ready to go?” he asked with a grin. His naked body was still completely relaxed, and Thomas wanted to scream in frustration as his own body vibrated with apprehension over Delaky’s words.
“Seriously? That’s it?” he snapped, and Cash shrugged. Delaky sipped at her tea, and watched Thomas as he fought his own emotions. “Fine. Whatever. Let’s go.”
He stormed out of the house and down the path toward the tree line. He had no idea which direction the Alpha’s cabin was, but he knew that Cash wouldn’t let him wander off. This wasn’t the way he had intended on starting his time with the Gray Pack. He didn’t want to offend anyone, but that woman was clearly bat-shit crazy. There was no way that Cash would betray anyone, or that Thomas was going to be mated to a werewolf. He had already met the entire pack, and unless they had some females secreted away somewhere, there wasn’t a chance he was attracted to any of the werewolves so far.
He heard Cash running up behind him on all four paws, and he slowed down. Turning his head, he met Cash’s questioning dark brown eyes, and he shook his head. “I don’t like all that mumbo jumbo hoodoo.”
Cash’s eyes darkened and he let out a growl. Clearly, he didn’t appreciate Thomas’s interpretation of the situation. “I’m sorry, man, I’m not trying to piss you off, but I don’t believe in that stuff. Anyways, we need to get back to the cabin and help load up.”
They took off again with Cash in the lead, and in a surprisingly short amount of time they were stepping from the trees into mass chaos. It was a startling change from the earlier solitude at dawn. Deciding now was not the time to pursue the discussion with Cash over Delaky’s supposed prophecies of the future, he headed into the house, and straight up to his room. He couldn’t worry about some crazy lady in the woods declaring his fate. He had too many other things to think about. Excitement tingled under his skin as he refocused on the coming adventure, and he found himself smiling as he stepped into the shower.
A half an hour later he emerged from his room with damp hair, and an excited tension humming through his body. Entering the kitchen, he found the pack Alphas, Devin and Damon, along with their pregnant mate, Caroline, sitting down to breakfast. Also at the table were Jim and Sienna Gray, the former Alpha couple, and another couple who he knew to be Henley and Victoria Gray, Tina’s soon to be in-laws.
“Morning, Doc,” Devin said with a small wave, as he reached over and placed several pieces of bacon on Caroline’s plate. She smacked his hand in admonishment, but she was grinning, and Devin winked back at her.
While her attention was on Devin, her other mate, Damon slipped an extra piece of ham onto her plate from her other side, and Thomas nearly laughed out loud. “Good morning, everyone. It smells fantastic in here.”
“It should! The ladies have been cooking up a storm for almost an hour. Grab a seat and help yourself.” Jim Gray might not be the Alpha of the pack anymore, but he still carried an air of authority that couldn’t be denied.
Thomas followed his instructions, and heaped his plate full of a variety of yummy looking foods. Settling into a seat at the end of the table, he paused and held his hand out to Henley Gray. “Hello, Mr. Gray, we haven’t been introduced yet. I’m Tina’s older brother, Thomas Jameson.”
Henley took the hand, as his loud boisterous laugh filled the room. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, son, but don’t be calling me Mr. Gray again. I’m Henley, and this stunning woman is my wife, Victoria.” Thomas smiled and shook Victoria’s hand as well, and then turned to his plate.
“Thomas, I hear you’re planning on staying with us for the long haul after the trip?” Victoria said, and he nodded.
“That’s the plan. As long as you guys will have me, and I don’t get myself killed on this trip.”
Everyone laughed, but Devin spoke up. “Don’t worry about that, Thomas. I’m sending you with six of our strongest wolves to help get the Quiver Creek Pack back here. Not to mention you will have KJ, who at least knows the area. I’m sure they can get you back here in one piece.”
“Well that would certainly be my preference!”
Tina and Liam took that moment to enter the room, and Thomas stood up to give his little sister a hug. “Hey Tink, hi Liam.”
“Tink?” Henley asked, looking between the two of them.
“Tinker Bell, actually,” Thomas answered his question with a smile. “She was so small when she was little that she reminded me of a fairy, so I started calling her Tinker Bell. Tink came because she hated it so much.”
Tina stuck her tongue out at him as everyone else laughed. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, laugh it up. There is nothing fairylike about me now.”
Thomas assessed his sister for a moment, realizing how right she was. She stood five foot seven now, and though she was still very thin, she wasn’t necessarily delicate. She had grown into a beautiful woman. Her brown almond-shaped eyes were identical to Thomas’s own, but the rest of her features were feminine. She was a ballet dancer, so she moved with a fluid grace that most women envied, and her short black hair gave the illusion of an even longer line to her neck and back. She reminded him of a swan more than a fairy nowadays. Two years younger than Thomas, Tina had lived a lifetime more pain than he had, but he was happy to see her settled and planning a wedding with Liam.
The laughing group went back to breakfast, and Thomas found that he fit right into the fold. They were all very accepting and open with him, as though he was part of their family already. It was comforting and reassuring all at once. They began to scatter as they finished eating, some headed to work on last minute arrangements for the trip, while others had to go to work. Thomas watched as Tina kissed Liam good-bye, before she came around the table to hug him too. He wrapped his arms around her slim frame, and breathed in her apple-cinnamon scent.
“Stay safe, Tommy. I need you back here to help me set up the clinic,” she said with a grin.
“I’ll be back before you know it, Tink. Love you.”
“Love you, too.” With that she waved good-bye, and Thomas watched Liam’s face change in a second. His open, laughing smile closed up, and he looked slightly lost.
“You all right, Liam?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Liam said with a heavy sigh. He turned to face Thomas, his eyebrow ring winking in the sunlight from the window. For the umpteenth time Thomas wondered how this playboy managed to convince his baby sister to settle down with him.
The story Tina had told him was that she and Liam stumbled into each other when Tina was kidnapped along with Caroline. The kidnapper was the Diego Pack Alp
ha, Barton Diego, and he was intent on raping and murdering them both. Once the two women were rescued, Liam had his hands full convincing Tina to even give him a chance. It wasn’t that she didn’t have feelings for him, but Tina went through a painful period of grief and guilt when her fiancé was killed five years earlier in a mugging. Actually, it sounded like Liam and Tina connected via their grief once Liam shared his own tragic history. Liam’s daughter Daphne and his ex-wife Roxy had been killed in a car wreck just a couple years back.
Outside of his parents, Thomas had never seen two souls better suited to each other. Except perhaps Caroline, Devin, and Damon, but that was three souls, and they were a predestined match. Remembering the activities of the day before, Thomas had to admit that Rafe, Ryley, and Shandi seemed to share the same connection, and jealousy didn’t sit well in his belly. Someday, he told himself. He would find a woman that completed him like that, someday.
Making his way into the living room, he was hit with the overwhelming scent of rain and fresh air. A quick glance out the front wall of windows assured him that the sun was still shining brilliantly in the sky where it had been an hour ago, but now a woman stood in the middle of the living room, her compact, sexy little body had his cock thickening in his pants before he could even second-guess his reaction to her. Lifting his eyes, his gaze zeroed in on a pair of gorgeous blue eyes staring back at him from a dainty, heart-shaped face, surrounded by a cloud of blonde hair. Lust hit him full force, and he inhaled sharply. Her face flushed a pretty pink color, just before she ran from the room without a word.
It was another moment before he could breathe again, and he glanced around him to see Damon standing in the doorway apparently watching the escaping woman run in the other direction. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to notice Thomas’s reaction to her. Mentally shaken, Thomas grasped for a logical explanation for his irrational physical reaction to the stranger. He considered going after her, but decided that it probably wasn’t a good idea in his current state. His heart was racing, and his cock was pounding so hard against his zipper that he was surprised it held.