Page 24 of Cruel Alpha

I couldn’t argue with his logic, so I reached down to unbutton my blouse. Caleb averted his eyes, and I quickly stripped off my shirt, jeans, and underwear. It was cold in the hall, and my nipples were embarrassingly hard. Bringing my arms up to my chest, I tried to cover them as my breasts spilled over my hands.

“You ready?” Caleb said, still determinedly not looking at me. His voice was low and hoarse, and I nodded before realizing that he couldn’t see me do so.

“Yeah,” I confirmed with a squeak.

Taking a deep breath, I lowered my arms, closed my eyes, and reached inside me for my wolf. She was rarely close to the surface, and it took me a moment to find that animal part of me. It had been so long since I’d last done this that the pain of the shift was shocking, and I whimpered as I came to all fours, fur splitting my skin, my bones cracking and reforming.

When I was done, a medium-sized brown wolf stood in my place; she was neither notably large nor notably small, an ordinary plain brown color, totally unremarkable. She was everything I’d always wanted to be but could never quite manage.

When Caleb finally turned around, his gaze was analytical, and he circled me as though I was a car he was thinking about buying. He clicked his fingers, and my head jerked around to find the sound. My wolf and I weren’t entirely separate beings—I was stillmewhen I was in her skin—but the version of me that existed there was more primal, more animal. I thought less and sensed more. Every sound, from the whistle of the wind outside to the huff of Caleb’s breathing and the pound of his heart, was suddenly sharp; I could smell the dry stone of the hall and the lingering scents of all the shifters who had passed through it in the last few days. I could also smell Caleb, that clean pine and charcoal scent that was enticing enough when I was human and that suddenly overcame me as a wolf. A surge of possessiveness rose up inside me.

Suddenly, it was gone, and my wolf was gone, and my human knees hit the stone floor. In an instant, Caleb was crouched in front of me.

“You okay?” he said, and I nodded. His eyes scanned my body for any sign of injury or pain.

“I’m fine,” I told him. “That’s just—it’s as long as I can hold her.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

I expected him to laugh or to chastise me, but he only frowned, thoughtful.

“Alright,” he said. “Has it always been like that?”

“Pretty much.”

“Okay. Okay, fine. You just need practice. Go again.”

I went again. This time, the snapping of my bones and the shifting of my muscles was easier, and the brown wolf materialized faster.

“Alright,” said Caleb, beginning to pace in front of me. “There’s nothing wrong with the wolf, as far as I can see. Your hearing is perfect, and your eyes are tracking me just fine. We need to, uh, just get you comfortable, I guess. Give me ten laps of the hall.”

I stared at him. He couldn't be serious.

“I’m so serious,” he said. “Go.”

With a huff, I went. It was hard to pick up speed in such a small space. What had seemed like a large hall to me was a cage to my wolf, but that animal part of my soul still loved the feeling of running. Perhaps because I no longer had too much boob, or thighs that rubbed together, or the eyes of the Pack on my sweaty, flushed face. I’d managed about five laps when I took a corner too fast and skidded, landing in a human heap.

“That was better,” Caleb said, this time staying where he was on the other side of the hall. “You uh—you lasted much longer that time. Try again, the other five.”

I did. I managed seven laps of the hall on my second attempt, not wanting to stop after the designated five for fear of shifting back again. This time, it was Caleb shucking off his sweatshirt in the corner of my vision that had me tripping over my feet and tumbling to the floor in human form. Winded, I sat up on my heels, looking over at Caleb. I panted while waiting for my next order. He blinked hard, looking away from me again as he asked,

“What sets you off? What triggers that shift back to human form?”

“The first time, I think she was just shy,” I admitted, “but the last couple of times, it was because something went wrong. I skidded in that corner, and then you moving to uh—to take off your sweater was distracting enough to make me trip.”

Caleb nodded.

“Alright. So, we need to practice with distractions. Get you changing direction and dealing with obstacles.” He moved towards the chairs and table stacked at the sides of the room, pulling them out into the space. He glanced at me, naked and shivering in the corner, and said, “You can, uh, wait in your wolf form. Keep trying for longer holds.”

I shifted, determined to show him that I could do this. My wolf wasn’t weak,Iwasn’t weak.

Eventually, Caleb stood back; giving his handiwork an approving nod, he said,

“We’re gonna follow this course around the chairs and over the tables. I’m gonna tell you when to go and when to stop. Okay?”

I nodded, pawing the ground beneath me to indicate my readiness. Caleb wavedgo,and I took off. The first few chair jumps were easy, even fun, and I raced over to the tables, ready to vault them, but then Caleb yelled,

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