Gideon nodded, a frown on his face. “No, you aren’t. Montag’s people created a serum that somehow mimics what a bite from an Alpha or a very dominant wolf can do. Not every wolf can change a human into a shifter, and not every human is able to change at all. It usually takes that human being near death and getting multiple bites from a specific wolf for a change to occur. You almost died, for sure, and now you carry the scent of a wolf along your skin, but we won’t know what will happen to you on a full moon. The moon is coming, and we’ll be here to help you if you do change.”
“If,” Shane whispered. “That’s a big if.”
Gideon nodded. “Yeah, it is. And that’s one reason why some within the Pack aren’t fully ready to accept you.” He shook his head. “Our Pack isn’t as healthy as the Redwoods. We went through hell during my father’s time as Alpha, and it’s taken years to get where we are now. Those that opposed me as Alpha are mostly gone either because they left for other Packs or became lone wolves.” He paused. “Others fought and lost.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I hate that, you know. I hate that I had to fight wolves that I knew since I was a boy because they’d rather have a tyrant as a leader than me. But I fought. And yet there are still those that hold a sliver of distrust or resentment. The moon goddess chose me as Alpha, but I still had to fight for the right. Some believe I didn’t fight hard enough. Some believe the moon goddess chose wrong. But when the time comes, and you need to shift into a wolf, we will stand by your side and help you. You saved my brother, and for that, I can never repay you. However, I can at least do this.”
Shane listened to the Alpha bare a part of him Shane wasn’t sure he let many others see. He didn’t know why Gideon was telling him such personal things, but he knew it was a gift in and of itself. He wouldn’t take that for granted.
“I want to help more,” Shane said. “And I have an idea if you’ll listen.” Something had been percolating in the back of his mind.
Gideon’s eyes brightened. “Good.” He got up and stretched. “Then come with me to my house. The others are gathering there for a meeting, and you can tell them all.” He nodded. “After you tell me on the way, of course.”
Shane held back a snort at the order. Once an Alpha, always an Alpha.
When they made it to Gideon’s home, Shane’s wolf, or whatever it was, had pushed him close to the edge once again. The walk with the other man had helped, but it hadn’t been a permanent solution.
It probably didn’t help that so many wolves were inside Gideon’s home. It would probably make anyone who wasn’t used to the amount of sheer power unnerved. Gideon was there, of course, and his pregnant mate, Brie. The Beta of the Pack, Mitchell, stood with his back to the wall next to the Enforcer, Kameron. Ryder, the Heir, and his mate Leah sat on one couch next to Brandon, the Omega. Walker, the Healer, lazed in an armchair, while Max lay on the floor next to him. Though it was mostly Talons in the room, the Redwoods were on the large computer screens someone had set up, and Bram and Charlotte were on the other couch in the room. He figured those two were there to help him, and, while he was still confused, he was grateful.
“Take a seat,” Gideon ordered.
Brie rolled her eyes. “Nice to see you,” she added, and Gideon let out a little growl.
Shane gave a small smile and took the only seat left in the room—the one next to Charlotte. He figured there was a reason everyone had left that space, including Max, who had taken a spot on the floor, but he wouldn’t ask about it now. First, he had to lay out his plan, and then he could deal with the other things. He used to be better at multi-tasking, but that had been before a crazed man had stuck a syringe full of poison in his vein.
He sat down next to Charlotte, their thighs touching, and he did his best to ignore the way her mouth parted at the contact. He met Bram’s eyes over Charlotte’s head and saw a heat in them he didn’t understand. Were the two of them together and Shane was too close? He wasn’t sure, but he knew he had to worry about that later, not now.
“So, what do you have planned for us?” Mitchell asked, pulling Shane from his dangerous thoughts. The other man frowned at Shane, but he didn’t take it personally. Mitchell seemed to frown at everyone.
“If there are others worried about how I became what I am and frankly, what I could become, then why don’t we find a way to make sure that can’t happen again?”
Gideon nodded. The other man knew what Shane was going to say, and Shane was grateful the Alpha had looked interested on the walk over.
“What do you have in mind?” Ryder asked, his voice a little quieter than the others. He had his arm around his mate’s shoulders, a content look on his face that seemed a little new to Shane. He didn’t know the man other than what he’d seen in the news with the twenty-four-hour coverage of the Packs, but he knew Ryder’s mating was new and hard-fought.
“Now that I can actually think again and can stay awake for longer than an hour at a time, I can remember where I was taken and where Montag injected me.” Shane didn’t look at the other two on the couch since he figured they knew they were the reason for his ability to think at all.
Mitchell leaned forward. “You can find the building?”
Shane nodded before frowning. “They caught me getting Ryder out of the other building and took me to this one a few miles away that I hadn’t known existed. I heard others around me, but I don’t know if they’ll still be there.” He met the others’ gazes, one by one. “They could have been wolves or even humans Montag wanted to inject the serum into. Either way, they were there, and we might be able to help them now that I can remember where to go.” He sighed. “I regret that it took me this long.”
Charlotte reached out and took his hand. The contact sent a shock through his arm, but he didn’t pull away. “You needed to heal first. We understand that.” Though she wasn’t a Talon, she looked at the others with her brow raised, and they nodded slowly.
Fierce.
“I remember seeing a container where Montag kept the other injections, as well. The General was saying to the others that they only had this one batch since it was so new and they wanted to try some…experiments first. He also said that there was only one place their formula was located. That way, others couldn’t get their hands on it before it was perfected for his own use.”
“Why did he say these things around you?” Brandon asked, his face serious. “He didn’t lay out his entire plan, but it seems he laid out a lot.”
“He didn’t expect that you’d live long enough to do anything about it,” Bram bit out, and Shane nodded.
“If it hadn’t been for Gideon taking me in, I know I would have died,” Shane said after a moment. “Whatever they had in that vial didn’t work completely. It took an Alpha letting me into a Pack for anything to happen. So what they have isn’t viable, but it’s still there. We need to get rid of it, and once we do, maybe the others can sleep easier.”
Gideon ran a hand over his beard. “That may be the case, but there will still be issues as the formula could be found in your blood.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Walker put in. “With the bonds you put in place, it could be that it’s nothing like what it was when it first started. I’ve been studying what I can because we need to know, but I honestly don’t think anyone would be able to get anything out of what is in Shane’s veins.”
“Then we need to make sure the Pack knows that,” Brie said then held up a hand. “Maybe not right away, but when and if you guys take out this building and destroy the samples, the Pack needs to know we’re thinking of all outcomes.”
Shane admired the strength Brie held in her voice. She was such a small woman among a group of large wolves. She might be a submissive wolf, but she’d mated one hell of a dominant Alpha. Brie Brentwood was a wolf you wanted on your side.
“Then let’s make a plan,” Gideon said next.
And they did, along with the Redwoods, who had been quiet during the initial part but now voiced their opinions a
nd goals. It wouldn’t be easy, Shane knew, and the way they worked as one, as wolves, was unlike anything he’d ever been a part of, but now that he was Pack, he knew he wouldn’t have it any other way. If he could give these people even this much, maybe that would show the others he wasn’t the enemy.
Now he just had to believe it himself.
As the group dispersed, plans in place and a scheme ready to be implemented the next day, Shane left the others to talk Pack business. They were the ruling family and had more responsibilities than he’d thought.
Bram and Charlotte came with him, as well. Since they were Redwoods, it made sense that they wouldn’t be needed for the rest of the meeting. His body relaxed as they walked, just the mere presence of these two helped him in more ways than he ever thought possible.
When they reached a small patch of grass between some large trees, he stopped and turned toward them. He’d been quiet long enough, and now that he’d spoken to the Brentwoods, he needed to get this off his chest, too.
“I can’t take it anymore,” Shane bit out. “Why? Why can you two help me calm down so I can think? Why do the two of you give me so much control over something I’ve never had before? And why…why do I feel such a connection, a pull toward the two of you? I just don’t get it.”
Bram clenched his jaw, but it was Charlotte who spoke, her dark eyes wide, earnest. “You feel this connection because we feel it, too. The three of us…we could be mates.”
Shane took a step back, stunned. “What does that mean?”
“It means we have the potential to be mates. Not just two of us, but all three of us. In a true triad.” She bit her lip, looking sexy as hell. “At least, that’s what I think anyway. I just don’t know, but this isn’t the time to talk about it. Bram and I need to head back to our den, and you need to rest so we can all go and hunt tomorrow. Our Packs’ futures rests on our shoulders, and I know you want to talk more about what could be, what is so confusing, but that has to wait.” She let out a shaky breath. “We need to put our Packs first just this once.”
Shane’s mind whirled. Mates? Triad? The three of them? Holy hell. He couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. And because he couldn’t formulate words, Charlotte’s need to worry about the Pack first sounded like a hell of a good idea.
Bram was still silent, but there was so much emotion, so much depth in his eyes, that Shane knew he wasn’t just ignoring them. He was reeling, too.
Charlotte threw up her hands and cursed. “I didn’t mean to blurt that out like that. Let’s just save the world first, then we’ll deal with whatever the hell is going on. Okay?”
Shane gave a hollow laugh at that. “Okay,” he said after a moment. “Okay.”
Bram just shook his head, a small smile on his face. “Saving the world it is.”
And that’s when Shane knew nothing would ever be the same, no matter how hard he tried. Because the idea that saving the world right then could be an easier task than whatever would go on between the three of them spoke volumes.
Saving the world, Shane thought. Yeah, they would have to do that first.
Then maybe, just maybe, he could save himself.
Chapter Seven
What had she been thinking? Charlotte hadn’t been thinking, that was for sure. She’d blurted out the words she should have held closer for just a little bit longer, and now she wasn’t sure what she was going to do. She hadn’t even talked to Bram about it, and yet had felt the need to tell Shane when neither of them was ready for something like that.
She’d been selfish by putting her own needs, her own wolf, ahead of the major operation that was about to take place. That wasn’t like her in any shape or form. She’d always put her Pack, her family, first. And yet she hadn’t been able to hold back the truth.
If it had been any other person with either Pack, they would have already known why there was that tension between the three of them. Maybe they weren’t a triad, but there was something going on, and if Shane had known what to do with the wolf inside him, he would have caught on. He was going through so much, she knew, and apparently, something deep inside hadn’t wanted her to go through any more. Keeping secrets only hurt people in the end, and yet she’d wanted to hold back just a bit longer.
She didn’t know what she was going to do for herself, let alone how the others would react. She’d already tried mating with someone, already given over to the need that had coursed through her. It hadn’t worked, damn it. She’d failed at a process so inherent to the needs of shifters that her kind went willingly into fate’s hands and trusted the moon goddess ninety percent of the time. Most people didn’t reject their potential mates, as there was a reason the moon goddess put them together. Their human halves fell in love and knew without a doubt that the other person was the other half of their soul.
Though she’d known it was a risk to Bram to be mated to her considering where she’d come from, she’d fully given in. And had been rejected. Not by Bram, but by fate itself.
And now, the moon goddess was giving her a second chance. Perhaps even a third. Only she wasn’t sure she was worthy enough for the two men who could be hers. She knew the blood that flowed in her veins. The man who had fathered her had murdered hundreds and sacrificed his own daughter to bring a demon into the world. That man’s son had also killed and tortured hundreds of wolves and humans in his own right, his sense of decency long since diluted by the blood of the innocent.
How could the moon goddess want to gift Charlotte with a mate and a future when her family had caused so much hurt to the world around her?
Yes, Ellie had found a mate with Maddox, but Ellie had been through a far greater hell than Charlotte had. She’d paid the penance for the cruel men’s sins, and yet Charlotte didn’t feel she had yet. Yes, she’d been taken from her birth mother at a young age and forced to live in a basement, chained to a wall and forever encased in silence, but she didn’t think it was enough. It would never be enough. Countless men and women had died because of the Centrals’ Alpha’s greed and cruelty, and Charlotte would never be able to wash that away.
But now it seemed she had a choice. So many choices. Bram or Shane. Bram and Shane.
And because she hadn’t been able to help herself, she’d told Shane the real reason she and Bram could calm his wolf. Because he’d been born human, she wasn’t sure he got the full scope of what it all meant. She couldn’t wrap her head around it herself.
Charlotte ran a hand over her face and sighed. She needed to shower quickly and head back to the Talons so they could do what they needed to do. She didn’t have time to keep her head in the clouds and worry about things out of her hands. She would go with the others to the compound and do what she did best—move fast. She was one of the fastest wolves in the Pack, and she’d use that to her advantage.
And when they were done, maybe, just maybe, she’d sit down with Bram and Shane again and worry about everything else. But right now, she couldn’t think of the personal things in her life, only the Pack’s future.
She quickly stripped out of her clothes and turned on the shower. The water heated quickly, and she slid under the spray, letting out a long sigh of pleasure at the sensation of the hot water on her skin. She’d always loved hot showers, much to her family’s chagrin since she’d had to share the bathroom with her two younger sisters. Maybe it was because she hadn’t had long or hot showers at all when she’d been a child that she took this one form of pleasure when she could.
What most people didn’t know about the Pack she’d grown up in was that the Centrals weren’t always like that. In fact, they’d been a strong and valiant Pack much like the Redwoods before her father had broken something deep inside himself to become who he’d become. And because there had been decent people left within the Pack, who had seen what their den was becoming, they’d left, hidden within the forest and created their own version of a Pack. They didn’t have an Alpha or anything the moon goddess would have gifted them with, but they had been taint fr
ee of the disease that had spread throughout the rest of the Centrals. They didn’t have hot showers, and they lived under the radar for as long as they could. Charlotte’s mother had been one of those deserters, doing everything she could to protect her daughter from a Pack that would see her destroyed. Though Charlotte knew the distance between her mother and her mate, the Alpha, was what had eventually killed her, Charlotte had never been as proud of a person as she was her mother.
The fact that she had that woman’s blood running through her veins was the only reason she had any semblance of hope most days.
She hadn’t thought about her birth mother in a long while. It hurt too much most days, and Ellie had been the best kind of mother, everything Charlotte had ever needed. She didn’t like looking into the past, and she had been a lot recently. She knew it was probably because she was worried about what the future would bring.
Honestly, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do about Shane and Bram. Maybe it would be best…maybe it would be best if the two of them mated and she stood aside. Maybe they would be happier without a woman like her near them.
She quickly wiped away the tears that dared to fall and finished showering. There was no use crying over something she wasn’t going to deal with right now. First, she had to save her people from whatever schemes this Montag had and get rid of the poison that had made Shane into what he was.
Then she could deal with her own crap.
And that was the seventh time she’d told herself that, so maybe it was time she actually did it instead of just talking about it. She turned off the shower and dried off, her mind finally on the mission at hand. Once she was dressed and her hair back in a braid, she stretched her arms over her head, centering herself for what was to come.
She’d been lost for so long, even when others thought she was finally found. Tonight, however, she had a purpose, a plan. She would work with her Pack and the Talons to ensure there was a future for her people. One free of the dangerous propositions Montag and the others held so close to their chests.
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