Page 41 of Claimed

“Humans in your pack. Kind of...”

“Crazy? Naw. When an alpha identifies his mate it doesn’t matter if she’s human or shifter. She’s his.” I shrug. “Though Cat, Ty’s mother, she’s now in a relationship with a human that joined our pack. Not fated. She’s a council alpha’s widow. She brought it to us for a vote. He’s a good guy. Pharmacist. Cat’s a healer. They got along great. She’s widowed, for over three decades, and they started seeing one another after being friends for a time. She wanted him to know all of her. Where she comes from.”

“That’s lovely, especially if she’s a widow. Most widows wind up dying alone.”

“He was widowed too. Guess they bonded over common ground. Interest in medicine.”

“So your council votes on all matters?”

“Sometimes the council, sometimes all the alphas. Sometimes the whole pack, depending on the issue.”

Her eyes travel my face. She looks deep in thought for a moment and there’s trouble in her eyes and inside her, too.

“Something on your mind?” I ask.

She clears her expression and asks, “Do you think Mason is disappointed his mate doesn’t shift? That their offspring might not shift? Your sister doesn’t shift, I gather because her motheris human. Did that upset your father even though she’s just a girl?”

“Just a girl? Don’t let my sister hear you say this.”

Stacy’s face reddens. “I didn’t mean it like that from my perspective but it’s the way a lot of males think.”

“Not many around here think that way or they’d be out on their asses. But to answer your question, no, that Bailey doesn’t shift doesn’t bother anyone but Bailey. As for Mase? He’s crazy about his mate. Doesn’t give a shit that she’s human. Their offspring might shift. Never know. There’s a pack in Alaska we’re friendly with and they’ve got a half-human alpha. He shifts.”

“Whoa. A half-human alpha? That’s got to be rare.”

“Well, technically I’m only half shifter, babe.”

“Oh,” Stacy breathes. “Right. I guess I didn’t think of that.”

“Mixed supernatural is looked at differently in a lot of places outside Arcana Falls too, I suppose. As for the half-human alpha, not everyone in his pack wanted him in that role, but he earned it. We helped untangle that mess. Anyway, it might become the norm around here to have more and more humans. Tyson’s mated to Mases’s mate’s sister, Ivy. Who knows who Jase, Linc, and Joel will mate with? Shifters, humans, or witches – no telling. Gotta say, love that I get to sit back and watch it happen. Don’t have to keep wondering who I’ll wind up identifying as mine.”

She’s quiet a moment, still holding my hand in both of hers, still examining it.

I wait a few minutes, and finally, she says, “I wish I were better at wolf stuff.”

“Why aren’t you good at wolf stuff? And why do you need to be better?”

“I’m not real good at it from lack of practice. We’re not allowed to shift very often. I’d like to be able to run fast. I hid in the woods and watched you and the other men go for runs together several times and it really made me wish I could do stuff like that.”

“First, I’m glad you weren’t a fast runner. Might’ve been harder to catch you.”

She smiles. “I’m glad you caught me.”

Her expression immediately darkens but instead of asking questions, I kiss her and run my hand up and down her naked hip, then say, “The women in our pack go for group runs, some of them.”

“Oh?” she asks, perking up.

“Sure. Not every day like the council alphas, but I’ve seen groups in the pack do it, including female groups. Some of them like to go late morning and then go for lunch afterwards. Cicely likes running at dusk after she closes the store. She shifts probably every day. Some of the other women don’t do it as often but it’s in our nature, most of us, to shift regularly. You wanna go for a run with me now?”

She blinks in surprise. “Now?”

“You’re in Arcana Falls now, Blossom. You can shift whenever the fuck you want.”

“We can do it now?” Her eyes are lit up. The dimple is back.

I smile. “Sure. Let’s go.”

She bursts from the bed, so I follow my naked mate straight to my front door where she’s bouncing excitedly on the balls of her small feet. I peer outside, see there’s nobody around, but I corral her toward the back door anyway. I don’t want to run intopeople, don’t care to share her attention with anyone this soon, so I suggest, “How about I show you the Arcana Falls?”

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