Page 15 of Shifters Awakening

For me, a patrol would be the safest place to sink the excess tension thrumming through me since Emma had left me with lots of questions and a raging hard-on.

Olivia had been formally requesting a town trip for amonth, yet I knew supplies weren’t the only reason she wanted me to visit Willow Creek. She’d noticed my mild interest in the veterinarian there, and if she were to find out about last night, she’d have pushed doubly hard. I didn't have a mate, and I refused to take one with all the unrest among the shifters—two facts Olivia also disagreed with. I didn’t think Olivia cared if I took a human or a shifter one either, but I keptthoseinstincts tightly bound.

Until Emma…

A low growl escaped as the colorful-haired vet stepped into my mind, and I imagined her as I’d last seen her, her lips bright red from my kissing, her mouth opened slightly, and her eyes swimming with pleasure.

The first time I’d encountered her in Willow Creek, she’d been crouched down, rubbing the ears of a large German Shepherd outside the post office. Her smile had been made all the brighter by the sunlight dancing through the rainbow of colors in her hair. She’d been the most attractive woman I’d seen in a long time, and my inner wolf had begged to be let out.

My desire for her was getting stronger, and I would have to get her into my bed eventually. Somehow.

It wasn't like I didn't want a mate, but who had time to grow a relationship? Booty call trips into Willow Creek would make more sense than anything else, though I didn’t know what would a human do if she ever caught sight of the shifter I was. Humans didn’t know the first thing about our kind.

Not that it mattered anyway.

I refused to distract myself with a sexy woman whileshifters of all kinds disappeared, Acheron couldn’t be found, and taunting traces of magic swirled beyond our borders. Those drinks Sheila had poured down my throat had nearly put an end to my resolve to keep my dick in my pants.

None of my turbulent thoughts helped settle me, so I stripped myself of my pants and shirt and tossed them in a nearby chair, opting to leave them behind instead of shredding them in the shift.

The setting sun already slanted in through the window blinds, casting striped shadows over the plastered walls, and I pulled the door open and took a deep breath, scenting the evening breeze. The air had gone chilly, and it slid over my skin as I stepped out onto the wraparound porch.

No one batted an eye over seeing me naked. In fact, several of the she-wolfs looked me up and down, their expressions making their intentions clear, even if the spicy scent of their desire hadn’t immediately twinged the air. As the alpha, shying away from the scrutiny wasn’t an option.

In three strides, I reached the edge of the porch of the historic, three-story Antebellum-style home and leaped down onto gravel walkway. Moss hung from the limbs of the giant sycamore trees and live oak shading the front lawn of the place that had been in our pack since the 1800s.

Our pack, the Six-Mile Pack, resided on several hundred acres in the middle of Nowhere, Louisiana, remote as we could make it. A large gravel driveway splitthe front lawn before ending in a circle which led directly to the front door of the alpha’s manor and headquarters.

Because I held the title, I lived in the main house. As much as it felt like too much home for me by myself, the pack expected it. In times of need, the manor could be turned into a makeshift hospital or any other number of things. Pack members were allowed to inhabit or build homes anywhere in our territory, and all were allowed to come and go as they pleased.

Shifters crisscrossed the property, in their human forms or their wolf forms. At least a dozen shifters lived near the main house, and hundreds more lived in the surrounding areas in the tiny houses and cabins that dotted the property. Their safety and their survival were my responsibility, and they all answered to me.

A burst of color surrounded me as I shifted into my wolf form, and a chorus of encouraging yaps echoed all around me. Not one of us could shift without a swell of pride rising in the others. We could always feel the magic of a shift when it happened nearby. The skill came with the first shift, like a new layer of instincts.

An answering howl slipped from my throat as I lifted my snout high, relishing the crisp air, glad for the turn of the seasons. The normal patrols would start in the east, so I loped to the west, toward the sinking sun and the park on the far edge of our domain. It was better nothing had happened with Emma.

My paws ate away the miles until the sun disappeared, thundering beneath me. Hours slipped by, and the full moon rose over the horizon, big and yellow. Thelight shimmered through the leaves of the trees. What did humans call this one? A Harvest Moon?

The Hunter’s Moon came next, and the annual gathering of the shifter clans would occur beneath it. It was our pack’s turn to host the party at the historical neutral territory a few hours away, chosen by the surrounding shifter clans, and it was another cause for Olivia’s push for a restocking supply run into Willow Creek.

But that was a thought for a different day.

Sprinting sent my pulse thundering through me, and I gulped the air, consuming every scent. Raccoons, opossums, porcupines, rabbits, and so many more shared the land with us. Deer bounded away as I frightened them from the low places where they preferred to bed down for the night.

As I approached the outer limits of our land, smoke made my nose twitch. A campfire burned somewhere inside the park. It was worth checking out, so I hopped over the fence. Drunk campers could be a problem if they were carelessly burning or up to no good.

After I moved closer, my wolf-vision caught the flicker of flame, so I jogged nearer. Since my fur was dark, maintaining my wolf form would keep me hidden in the shadows around the campsite. If I shifted now, my human skin would reflect the light from the fire which might be a way to get shot, depending on who might be out this far. Finding a naked stranger in the middle of nowhere never went well.

I chuckled. Except in porn. It only ever worked out well inthosesorts of movies, and those never imitatedany part of reality. Still, the joke made me bare my teeth in a toothy smile.

A tree trunk provided cover as I came to a stop. The hiker had her back to me, and the light from the fire cast her in shadow so I couldn’t make out her features.

The camper wasn’t in the sites at the front of the park, the ones the humans usually chose. This one must be a loner. Her long hair fell over her shoulders, and her scent seemed familiar somehow—like blueberries and… something else. For a moment, I attempted to place it, but it was too much like almost every other over-dousing of perfume. Humans never could stand the honesty of their own scent. The concoctions only covered the smells for other dull-nosed humans.

Not shifters. Not me.

A burst of cooling wind sent fallen leaves skittering over a deer path made bare from wildlife use, and the hint of something else brought my attention to the forest around the hiker and the bayou beyond.

Something else was out there.

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