Page 29 of Shifters Awakening

“Might as well go in,” I said. “They know we’re out here. They all have excellent hearing. Not to mention they probably smelled you easing closer.”

She gasped. “Do I stink?”

In the dining room, somebody snickered. Probably Olivia.

“No, not like that. It’s just you. Nothing bad about it.”Fucking hell, Emma.If she knew how not bad it was, she’d bolt out the front door and into her car in a heartbeat.

“Okay.” She didn’t add anything else, but she stepped into view of the dining room.

In two strides, I joined her on the threshold, making it clear by my proximity to her that she was under my protection. They’d all assume I’d taken her as a mate, and that was the safest thing for them to believe until we could present her as the newly emerged multimorph.

Every shifter in the dining room stood to face me. Chairs grated against the flooring, and each one made eye contact with me before dropping their chin slightly in the sign of deference.

When I turned to Emma, her eyebrows had climbed to her hairline, and she studied me through eyes so wide the morning sunlight illuminated the emerald tones in her irises. “There’s a seat for you at the end.”

“Great,” she breathed. “Okay.”

Olivia pulled out the seat I mentioned, and Emma settled in it.

I nodded to the room, and the shifters returned to their seats at the long table or resumed filling their plates. Business as usual.

Emma stared at the surface of the mahogany table. She had so much to learn, and I had so much to teach her, but the swell of feelings in my chest was already nearly too strong to ignore.

My gaze cut to Olivia. Whether my beta liked it or not, she was going to have to be responsible for trainingEmma, and I would be breaking it to Olivia before breakfast concluded. It was the only way I was going to get through this without dragging the rainbow vet into my bed and binging nonstop on the animal doctor elixir only she had.

Olivia placed a plate, nearly filled to overflowing in front of Emma, and another shifter brought her a set of silverware. “I didn’t know what you liked, so you’ve got some of everything.”

Emma’s chin lifted. “Yeah, thanks.” She considered the large white plate. “Not sure I can eat all that.”

Olivia studied her. “You have to. You need it.”

Emma looked dubious but filled her fork almost immediately.

A glance at the shifter in the seat beside Emma sent him scurrying away, and I settled beside my new charge rather than my usual place at the head of the table. Another plate of food appeared in front of me, accompanied by silverware. The pack needed to understand how serious my tie to her was. As the alpha, the pack would follow my lead, and I needed all of them to keep her from becoming a target for our rivals.

Olivia thumped the shoulder of the she-wolf across from me, one of the shifters who’d always made her eagerness to mate me clear, and the woman growled before she moved to another location.

Emma flinched at the disgruntled sound of the growl, but she kept shoveling food into her mouth. Hierarchy of the pack would be the hardest thing to get used toat first.

I leaned closer to her. “Olivia’s gruff, but she means well. She’s a bully and doesn’t do anything halfway. Subtlety isn’t in her nature.”

Several of the pack guffawed in agreement.

Unbothered by my evaluation, Olivia gestured to Emma with her fork. “Have you tried shifting again?”

“Not yet.” Emma grinned, showing her teeth. “I mean, I’m still not sure I believe it’s true.”

Every sound in the dining room stopped as each pair of eyes turned to her.

She scanned the room, and her smile faded. She whispered, “Did I say something wrong?”

“No, nothing wrong,” I whispered. “They’ll show you.”

Olivia wagged her eyebrows, stood, and immediately disrobed. “Now watch.”

Emma’s cheeks flamed, and she stared every place other than the voluptuous, naturally blonde Olivia. A gust of wind slammed into the side of the house and burst inside, making the old timbers complain. Colors danced around Olivia as she reared back, contorting in inhuman convulsions, and Emma’s face twisted into a mask of horror.

The shifters threw back their heads in long, howling wails. The magic inside them flared any time a shifter morphed nearby, and the howls were like the vent whistle on a heating tea kettle. The reaction was always stronger when a shifter of their same kind morphed nearby. My reaction to Emma had been muted by her bear-change and her fox-change. Thingsmight get interesting if Emma ever shifted into a wolf.

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