But for some reason, it gave Cheyenne strength.
Because she would survive for Max. She was going to survive for them.
And then Gideon bit again, but she didn’t feel anything.
She only felt Max.
* * *
When she woke up, Cheyenne was back in the clinic room she had been in after Blade’s attack. Max once again sat by her side, and a blanket covered her. She didn’t have a single wound on her.
Max was on his feet as soon as she opened his eyes, as if he had been waiting for her and listening for the barest sound of movement.
“You’re awake.” He lowered his head and brushed his lips on hers, a gentle caress that she barely felt. She wanted more but was afraid it might be a little too much right then.
“I am.” She paused as she felt something inside of her, something pushing through. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. “Max, I need to go outside. I think…I think something’s inside me. I think I need to shift.”
She clawed at her skin, her heart beating fast. Sweat broke out on her body, and her flesh went clammy. Max’s eyes widened, and he shoved down the blanket to pull her up.
“That’s not supposed to happen for another week, at least, Cheyenne. You’re not supposed to shift the same day you get bit. But, Jesus, it’s not like the two of us are normal. Come on. Come on. It might just be a reaction to the Healing, or it could be whatever Blade is doing. Either way, I’m going to get you outside. I’m going to help you shift if that’s what’s about to happen. But I’m going to make sure Walker is here.”
Cheyenne held back a scream as something inside her pushed. She didn’t know what it was or why she felt this way, but she knew it was her wolf.
As Max had said…
The two of them were anything but ordinary.
Soon, Max had her on the grass outside of the clinic and started pulling off her clothes. She heard footsteps as Walker ran toward them, his hands out as if he needed to Heal.
But she couldn’t focus on either of them, only on what was happening to her.
Her bones broke, her body changing shape as if it were always meant to do this. Her face elongated, and her teeth grew into fangs. White fur sprouted through her skin before sinking back in and coming out again.
And throughout it all, she didn’t feel any pain.
She should be feeling pain.
You will next time. This is my gift.
She knew that was the voice of the moon goddess. It had to be.
This was the deity’s gift.
And Cheyenne was now a wolf.
She was a shifter.
She was Pack.
And as she stood on all fours next to Max and Walker on their knees, she knew her life had altered once more. She wasn’t the woman looking in any longer. An outsider no more.
She was the Conduit. She was a Talon. She was Max’s mate.
And now…now, she was wolf.
BLADE
One more time.
One more time, and then he’d be ready for the next phase.
One more try.
Blade looked down at the artifact in his hand and knew that he would have to take out Cheyenne before he completed the final task. But for now, he could make one more stand.
He’d take out one more Alpha.
Gain one more step in his rule as the Supreme Alpha.
And then he’d reign over them all.
Chapter Fourteen
Cheyenne ducked from the fist coming at her face and almost smiled before she remembered that she was supposed to keep her attention on the fight and not on the fact that she’d successfully dodged a punch.
She moved again as Aimee’s jab came for her once more, and this time, it connected with her shoulder. Cheyenne winced, rubbing out the sting, then grinned as her friend did a little booty dance.
This is the first time they were sparring together for training, although each of them had been fighting with others up until this point. They were going on two weeks of learning to use their new abilities. Well, Cheyenne’s new skills since Aimee had been a shifter for longer.
But Cheyenne was doing better, at least she was trying to do better.
The others told her that she had shifted far faster than anyone they’d ever heard of. That should have worried her, but there were so many other things to worry about, she could only focus on getting better and not being a liability. Gideon and Max had both told her that everything was probably due to her being connected to the artifact. Though it wasn’t like they knew all of the details when it came to the stone that had changed everything.
Aimee stopped her dance and opened her arms. Cheyenne hugged her friend close and kissed her temple. It was so weird, this new life of hers, but she was finding her way. The fact that she and Aimee were training in fighting and learning how to use their bodies as weapons while learning how to control their beasts was insane. It felt like, one moment, Cheyenne was helping animals. The next, she had claws and fangs just like one.
Not that Cheyenne wanted to call herself an animal, nor would she call any of her Packmates that, but the vet jokes hadn’t stopped, even with the underlying tension within the Pack.
In the weeks since she had shifted, there hadn’t been a single incident with Blade. In fact, the entire Aspen Pack was closed up. No one went in, no one came out. Both the Talons and the Redwoods were watching. The European Pack was also watching and had secretly sent over a few of their wolves over time. Cheyenne hadn’t met any of them yet since they hadn’t wanted to stay within the Talon den, but Max had told her they were near. Everyone was gearing up for a battle that seemed to be on the horizon, even if she couldn’t quite see it.
Because Blade was testing everyone. That’s what all of these siphons of energy were. It had to be.
He was slowly killing off those he thought weakest—though she didn’t know exactly why—and showing every single Alpha he could that he could have their power with the snap of his fingers.
She didn’t think Blade knew or planned on all of the energy flowing through her. If he did know, she was afraid that she’d become just another target for him.
What would he do to her? Attack the den? That already seemed like a given.
“Again?” Aimee asked, bringing Cheyenne out of her thoughts of war and demise.
“Sure. I think I’m punching too early, I don’t have control of my senses yet.”
Everything was heightened now that she’d become a wolf. Max had said she would learn how to deal with that over time, but sometimes, things were a little too loud, or she could smell something from far away. Just the night before, they had been making eggs, and she’d had to stop because the smell was too much for her. Max had nodded, taking care of it, and then helped her to relax so she could get a hold of her senses. Everything had changed, including what she could eat. Some things tasted a little too sharp, a little too salty. And she couldn’t even drink her way out of all the stress because her new metabolism burned through alcohol way too quickly.
Max and the rest of his brothers and cousins drank beer, but it was apparently just for show and for the taste. They couldn’t actually get drunk unless they drank a lot. That happened, and she knew from Max that he had tried a few times to get completely toasted after losing his arm, but he hadn’t done that in a while.
In fact, as she watched him fight with Kameron across the way, she knew that he was just as comfortable with himself now as he likely was before. He battled with grace and an intelligence that spoke of skill and instinct. Kameron was slightly faster, but since he was the Enforcer, Cheyenne expected that.
Max was beautiful when he fought. He helped her at home, as well, teaching her some of the techniques he knew. Because she was smaller, though, she liked learning from some of the female lieutenants. Kameron’s men and women trained daily, even if they didn’t have to spar for hours every day sometimes. But the women that worked for Kameron and the rest of the Pack had been able to show Cheyenne w
hat to do with her body since her center of gravity was a little bit lower than the rest of them.
Aimee and Cheyenne went back to fighting, pausing only when Kameron and Max came over to give them some tips.
If Cheyenne wasn’t studying to figure out if they could find anything on the artifact, something that was becoming less and less likely as time moved on, she was finding ways to strengthen her connection to her wolf and her skills. She should be exhausted, and if she were still human, she knew she would have been passed out early every night.
But she wasn’t. She could sense her wolf within her, but Cheyenne wasn’t sure what she felt about the other soul inside her body. Her wolf felt the same and that was an odd thought. But the fact that her wolf was there at all kept her energy up. After trying to find her place, Cheyenne came home and just spent time with Max. She wanted to learn who he was, and she would try to make sure he knew who she was.
But at the same time, she knew they were both changing. Neither of them was the same person they were before. But wasn’t that the point of falling? Wasn’t that the point of creating a mating bond?
Maybe if she were still human, or if she had fallen for a man who wasn’t a shifter, things would be different. Cheyenne had gone on dates before Max and had been in some serious relationships before. But she’d never truly fallen in love. Enough time had now passed that maybe if either of them were still human, they could have felt this on their own. But the mating bond pulsated between them every day, and it just increased what they felt for each other, ramping it up at such a rapid pace that, sometimes, she felt as if she were struggling to catch up.
But then she looked at Max, saw the way he cared for his family and put his all into trying to save his Pack—and her for that matter—and she knew that what she was feeling wasn’t wrong.
It just wasn’t human.
But she wasn’t human anymore either.
Max came up from behind her and put his hand on her hip. She looked up at him, raising her brow, and he rolled his eyes. The fact that he did that, something he wouldn’t have done when they first met, made her warm inside. He was beginning to come into his own, starting to be the Max that people missed. But throughout it all, he was still her Max. And that counted for everything.
“You’re reacting too early because you’re anticipating what she’s going to do. And because you two are best friends, you happen to know what she’s going to do. And it helps that you were both trained by the same people. But if you’re going to be on a battlefield with another wolf from another Pack, they’re not going to fight the same as Aimee. So, you’re not going to be able to anticipate what they’ll do the same way. I still want you to anticipate what they’re doing by watching their movements rather than what you think they’ll do in any given situation, though.” She met Max’s gaze and nodded.
“That makes sense.”
“So, why don’t you do it again, but this time, with me?” Max winked, and she grinned. She knew that the others were watching, noticing the way Max smiled more, how he actually laughed out loud. He hadn’t laughed before, not with her. And she knew that the Max she saw now was the Max he would become, rather than the two separate versions he had been in the past. He was healing, and maybe that was partly due to her, but she didn’t think so. People were asking him questions, coming to him for answers. And he was finding his place within the Pack.
And that counted for something.
She was just about to duck again because Max was fast when she fell to her knees. Everyone stopped moving around them, and she heard rumblings of people afraid that Max had actually hit her. But he hadn’t made contact.
Instead, it was something far worse.
She looked up at her mate, her eyes wide. “The artifact. He’s trying to use the artifact.”
* * *
Kameron called for Walker. Cheyenne could hear him yelling it as well as using his phone. Walker must have been close but not within hearing range.
“I’m here, Cheyenne. Tell me what to do.” Max was on his knees in front of her, cupping her face. She leaned into his hand, taking in his strength not only from his presence but also through their bond. “Just pull through. You’re strong, Cheyenne. So damn strong.”
“I’m going to. I’m going to try to…try to, I don’t know, put the energy back. Or just stop him. I’m stronger now. I can feel it.” She screamed, unable to hold back the pain, and Max pulled her against his chest.
“Don’t do anything that will kill you. Or even hurt you. Because I’m going to get really fucking pissed off if you hurt my mate.”
She snorted at that and then writhed in pain. It felt like her entire body was being ripped through a tiny pinprick hole and then shoved back through it. But she could feel the energy, and if she closed her eyes, focused, and used the steadying presence of her mate and her best friends around her, she could concentrate. She knew that Dawn, Dhani, and Aimee were there. Walker and Leah were there, as well. Almost everyone she cared about was around, making sure that she had strength.
And those that weren’t there were out protecting the Pack and the den itself.
The Talons were strong. And that meant Cheyenne had to be stronger.
So she closed her eyes even tighter and focused on the energy pooling within her and that which was being siphoned out. It didn’t feel like the same bond she had with Max. That was like a cord, one that she could almost mentally grab and tug. And every time she did, she felt his emotions. Felt, dare she say it, his love.
So, she wrapped herself around that, protected it. It was almost as if she put a coating on it, making sure that nothing could touch it. It was the most important thing within her.
And then she looked back at the artifact’s energy, wrapped her metaphysical hands around it, and pushed.
She swore she heard a scream on the other end of her consciousness, and she knew it had nothing to do with Max or her. That was all Blade. Something she had done had hurt him, but it wasn’t enough.
So she shoved again, this time, towards the origin of the power, the one who should have been holding that lifeforce, that Alpha-ness. She pushed and pushed, putting all of her strength into that. She knew she was screaming, knew she was gasping for breath. There was sweat pouring down her face, and the others were mumbling around her, but she had no idea what they were saying.
Instead, she focused on that energy and pushed again.
And then it was almost as if a fuse blew, and she screamed again, thrown back into Max as the power went away. She didn’t know if someone had died or if she had beaten Blade in this tiny, little battle.
But she had done something.
Cheyenne opened her eyes to see Walker above her, his hands outstretched. He was Healing her, and she knew she was once again bleeding from her nose and ears and eyes. “Is it as bad as before?” she asked, her voice a rasp. “No, it’s just different,” Walker said. “You’re going to be fine.”
“You’re not going to be fine once I beat your ass for doing that,” Max grumbled. But it didn’t sound like he actually meant it. He was just scared, and honestly, so was she. They had talked about what it meant to be a Conduit, and she hadn’t known that she could do what she just did until she’d done it. There was no practicing when it came to what was going on with her.
So she let Walker and then Leah help her because she felt helpless. Perhaps she had done something, or maybe she had made it worse, there was just no telling.
By the time the others were done, Max had picked her up and carried her to their house. She didn’t think about it as his house anymore, it was theirs.
He sat her in bed and tucked the blankets around her even though she still wore her clothes. She hadn’t bled on her own clothing, only Max’s, so now he was shirtless, running around trying to take care of her. She couldn’t help but lick her lips at the sight of him.
With all the new energy running through her thanks to the Healing, she wasn’t tired. But she would let Max take care
of her. If it made him happy, she could do that.
Yet what she really wanted was to be near him, to touch him.
“You can’t do that again,” Max said as he got into bed with her. “Gideon just called, and one of the Packs from Florida said their Alpha lost his power for maybe a minute before it slammed back into him. And this time, only one wolf died. Another wolf was on the way, and then suddenly, he was able to break from whatever was happening to him. That was you, Cheyenne. You did that.”
She closed her eyes, letting out a breath. “I wish I could have done more. I just hate feeling helpless.”
“You’re anything but helpless, Cheyenne. I remember when I first came out of the clinic after the battle with the humans, wondering if I should be dead. I thought I knew what helpless meant. I had to figure out how to do even normal things differently. Countless people in the world are either born or, through some chance of fate, have to learn to live with only one arm, but I’d never really heard of a wolf that had to deal with that. We heal so quickly, it’s almost unheard of. It just took me a long time to figure out exactly what I was supposed to do, and how to fit in again. Finding myself so close to death like that? I didn’t like who I was, and I knew I couldn’t go back to who I had been. And every time I tried to move a step forward, I just looked at my family and how much they were growing, and I felt helpless.”
“You’re anything but helpless, Max,” Cheyenne said, repeating his words. She snuggled into him, inhaling his scent. Now that she could smell so much more, she knew she would never forget the essence of Max. She was his, and she knew his scent was embedded in her pores, just like hers was in his.
“I’m just glad you’re here,” she said, her voice soft. “I’m just happy I’m with you. And I shouldn’t be happy, not right now, not with everything going on. But you make me happy. I couldn’t do any of this without you.”
“And you know I couldn’t do anything without you. I think we make each other stronger. Don’t you think?” He leaned forward and kissed her. “I love you, Cheyenne. I love everything about you. I love the fact that I fell for you before I should have. I love that you fight for anything you feel is an injustice. I love the fact that you helped me discover exactly who I was all along rather than the person I thought I had to hide from.”
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