I Am The Alpha (29 page)

“Patience, my love.” She growled and I laughed for a moment before I relented and stopped to set her back on her feet. She got her balance easily but winced a touch as her bare feet touched the cold, damp earth.

“Okay, Sugar,” I said as we reached a large tree that stood at the very edge of my property. The house was a distance away, a good hundred and fifty feet at least; I had never really had occasion to measure the distance, but it was a good estimate in my opinion. I leveled Chloe with a salacious little grin and ordered, “Strip.” She gave me a strange look and then looked around for a moment.

“You mean get naked, out here, where anyone could see?” she asked.

“That shirt won’t survive the transformations and will only get in your way. Plus there aren’t any neighbors for a mile or more in either direction, so come on, get naked.” I followed up my words with action, loosening my belt and kicking off my oversized jeans as they fell off my hips. She eyed me for a moment and licked her lips, I think unconsciously, before she pulled off the shirt she had stolen from one of my drawers. A wave of gooseflesh washed over her skin as the cool air hit her.

“Okay!” I said and clapped my hands together once, sharply. “Let’s not waste any time, I’m as chilled as you are. So do you remember how you felt when you went through the hybrid transformation last night?” The moon hadn’t yet risen. We could have waited, with the moon still full she would change far more easily, the urge would help her find the triggers she needed, but the faster she got used to making the change voluntarily the better.

“How so? Scared? Angry?” she asked. The words were a bit sharp but I could tell she was simply concentrating. Her eyes were closed, nipples hard in the chill air, something I tried very hard not to focus on, as much as I wanted to.

“No, the wolf and you, working together. That sense of control and power. The joy of joining with the animal and being one…
that
feeling.” I was intimately familiar with my own wolf. He and I had come to an understanding a long time ago. Unlike Chloe, I wasn’t a natural Alpha. I’d fought the change for a long time. I’d hated it. I’d been almost feral in my wolf state for a while before I finally came to terms with the death of my family and the new life that was laid out for me. Yes, I had been a troubled youth as a new wolf-kind, and I was still young by my people’s standards. But, I was at least considered old enough to lead them, if I could hold onto it. The next few months would show the Pack what kind of a leader I would be, and if they were comfortable letting me
continue
to lead.

“William?” I startled, jumping slightly at the sound of Chloe’s voice. I had lost myself for a moment in my memories and when I focused on her again, I saw that she was looking at me with a naked concern in her expression, with her body language. Her hands fidgeted at her sides, smoothing her palms along her bare hips and she shifted her weight on her feet, almost swaying from side to side.

“Sorry, Sugar. Lost myself there for a second.” I could tell she wanted to ask but I pushed on, not really wanting to discuss it yet. I didn’t want her to worry so I changed the subject before she could ask.

“Anyways, search for that feeling. There are two levels, as you already know. Hybrid and full wolf. I can’t exactly explain to you how those feel, it’s different for every person, but you’ll know them when you feel them. We’re looking for full wolf right now. There will be time later to practice with the hybrid transformation.”

She looked like she wanted to question further about my trot down memory lane but after a moment, she closed her eyes again, her lips set in a firm line. I reached out and gently brushed my thumb across her lips, causing her to smile slightly.

“Don’t tense up,” I whispered. “Just feel for the wolf, listen for her… tell her we’re going to play. She should like that.” Her shivering and fidgeting slowly subsided. After a minute’s time, she stood stock still, almost like a statue. The change started swiftly after that. Her body shifted and melded, flesh and bones rearranging themselves in a single fluid movement. One second she was there, and the next my Chloe was gone, and in her place stood a beautiful tawny wolf, fur white, tipped in a golden red reminiscent of Chloe’s fiery hair. She reached nearly to my waist standing on all fours, eyes as brilliantly blue as they were in her human form and now flecked with specks of amber as mine were. I smiled and buried my fingers in her thick pelt, massaging her neck.

She opened her mouth and yawned wide, tongue stretching out showing two rows of wickedly sharp, gleaming white teeth, before she closed her jaws and settled back on her haunches, tail wagging happily back and forth across the dirt. If a wolf could grin, she did it, tongue hanging out one side of her mouth in an entirely canine expression of pure joy.

I couldn’t help but smile myself, bending to kiss the top of her head. She really was a natural! The change had been seamless and almost silent, the barest whisper of sound as her body shifted its natural shape. I stepped back from her and she whined a touch, but it was time I joined her.

I closed my eyes and triggered my own change. It wasn’t nearly as smooth or as quiet as Chloe’s had been. There was a sickening sound of bones snapping and rejoining, flesh tearing and healing as my body changed its shape and Chloe let out a startled yelp, rising up to all fours as if she were ready to run away.

It’s okay,
I told her.
I’m fine, my love.
Not in words, you understand. Wolves have a complicated and purely instinctual method of communication. Wolf Packs in the wild have been observed coming across an obstacle or prey to hunt and the entire Pack has silently reacted, even the ones toward the back that couldn’t possibly have seen, heard, or smelled whatever it was the lead wolves encountered.

Body language is an impressive thing and wolves have taken it to an entire comprehensive system of communication with very little vocalization required. Still, I gave a little bark, and stood up on all fours, spinning in a circle and wagging my tail happily, to show her that all was well. I looked like your typical grey wolf, grey and tawny brown; black marking my thick, insulated fur. Standing next to her I was physically much larger than her, as we were in our human forms. I nuzzled her shoulder and licked at her ear affectionately for a moment before I took a few loping strides into the woods.

I stopped and glanced back over my shoulder at her before she started following me, hesitant at first but then with greater speed as I started running ahead of her. Pretty soon she was keeping up and we
ran
.

The average Grey Wolf has a top running speed of about thirty-one to thirty-seven miles an hour. We were not typical Grey Wolves. We didn’t have anything even approaching natural strength or speed. We were both much stronger and much faster. So as we ran, we covered a lot of distance.

We chased each other through the woods, leaping over fallen trees and plunging through thick brush and vegetation, the ever darkening gloom of night did little to impede our vision and our noses more than made up for any diminished visibility. I was constantly having to nip at Chloe’s flanks to keep her on track as she found herself distracted by gopher dens, animal scents, game trails, unique,
at least to her,
tracks and so on. In the woods there was no end to the scents and things to investigate and as a new wolf she was
fascinated
, drawn to all of them.

I let her play, but kept us moving steadily onward until I finally caught the scent I was looking for. A sharp, heavy, mineral odor. Like wet stone.

Roughly twelve miles from my house right on the border of the Olympic National forest lay the Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort. I led her to the edge of the property, belly low to the ground in a silent crawl forward as I peered intently at the area. Early fall meant the summer tourist season was over and while the place wasn’t empty, it was more sparsely populated than it would have been at the height of summer. Still, there were people around and I kept a wary eye and nose out for anyone wandering the grounds. The resort may be owned and operated by Pack, but the guests were all, usually, very human.

Satisfied there were no guests present, I straightened and loped out onto the property, leading the way away from the swimming pool, instead moving toward the naturally heated mineral pools. The pools were very man made and ranged in temperature from the high eighties up to a hundred and four degrees.

I picked one in the middle range, shifted to my human form and slid into the water with a quiet groan. “Come on in, Sugar,” I said and waved to Chloe where she stood, still as a wolf, at the edge of the pool. “We’ll chat for a bit and relax.”

She shifted back and almost shrieked, gasping as the cold air hit her skin. She leapt into the gently steaming water, plunging to the bottom of the pool in a crouch.

“Holy shit,” she sputtered as she came up, wiping water out of her eyes and sweeping back her hair. “That was a little more intense than I expected!” she admitted and I winced, apologetically.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I forgot, the wolf’s fur is so well insulated. It can be a real shock going from one shape to the other when the conditions are like this. You get used to it after a while. At least a little bit.”

“Thanks for the warning,” she drawled sarcastically.

“Hey, honest mistake.”

“Yeah, yeah. So what are we talking about?”

“Well what do we need to figure out, overall?”

She drifted over and sat beside me, leaning back against the side of the pool and I made sure to ignore the way her breasts just broke the surface as she considered. I make no apologies for how badly I wanted my mate right then, but I needed to focus, so I pushed all thoughts of lust as far away as I could and concentrated on the issues at hand.

“Remus, Sharon… my father,” she said the last with a disgusted sneer. She gave me a sidelong look and a small smile turned her lips again, the kind of smile that I had come to love more than any other. Just the tiniest turning of her lips, as if she had a secret. I mentally dubbed it her ‘Mona Lisa’ smile right at that moment but kept silent on the subject.

“It might be a good idea if we learned a little more about each other too,” she heaved a substantial sigh, “I mean, you look twenty-five but by your own admission, you’re in your seventies and I know almost nothing about you to be this crazy in love with you.”

Her admission made me smile, “You know the important parts,” I told her and slid over until we were touching. I pulled her around so she was straddling my lap and gave her a gentle kiss. “The rest is just window dressing, but we’ll figure it out as we go.”

“Alright,” she sighed and leaned her head against my shoulder. There was silence for a moment before she spoke again in a small sounding voice. “What about kids?” she asked and I fought the urge to heave out a huge sigh. I really didn’t know how she would take that and I didn’t really know how it would have been intended myself, to be honest. When I’d been human, I’d wanted children. As a wolf-kind, I’d let that dream go a long time ago…

“I’m not exactly ready for children at this point,” I said uneasily. “With the Pack such a mess, there’s a lot of work that I need to focus on to get us back on track. I’m not sure if I could handle worrying about children at the same time.”

She nodded against my neck. “I’m really worried our kids would be like your brother… Like Rom.”

I did sigh that time. “I can’t say they wouldn’t be. Blood Born are more aggressive. That’s not always a bad thing, but there does seem to be a higher chance of them being like Rom. Remus is a different case. He seems to have better control of himself overall at least.” I shrugged and frowned to myself. “I don’t know what to tell you, Sugar. I can’t make any promises. All we could do is try to show any kids we might have, the love and attention they’d need and teach them to be good people. Dad never did show the twins much affection that I saw. Maybe that had something to do with Rom being so horrible. Or he might have just been broken from the start. It’s hard to say, really.”

She sagged into me, molding herself against my body and I simply held her for a long time as we each lost ourselves in our own thoughts. She’d wanted kids, her asking about it this much proved that to me. I wish I could say her fears were unfounded, that Rom was one in a million just like human kids, but he wasn’t. Blood Born just tended to be more animal, more wolf than human… whether they came from two Moon Forged parents or not. Sociopathic tendencies manifested more with the Blood Born than with human children, it was my people’s real curse. Our true tragedy.

After several minutes, Chloe stirred a bit. “What about you?” she asked and I frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I know you like art. I know you’re good with your hands and you make sculptures. I know you like to read. And you
really
like the color red. I know you are freaking phenomenal in bed,” I laughed, and her voice gentled, grew more serious, “What else do I need to know about you William Reese?”

“Hmm…” I thought for a minute, really considering the question before I spoke. “Well, I’ve come to appreciate the smell of peaches a lot more since I met you,” I said. I could still faintly detect the scent of peaches around her. Even through the strong odor veil of minerals given off by the geothermic water we lounged in.

“I like movies, and music. I love this park, camping, hiking, all that. I’m an outdoorsy kind of guy, I guess you could say.”

“Nothing wrong with that. You don’t like cities?”

I shrugged and she whimpered slightly in protest as I rocked her in my arms. I smiled that she was so comfortable and answered her question, “Not that I dislike cities. They’re just so… loud, and they stink. There’s so many people crammed into such a small space and all those tall buildings and concrete, and asphalt… It’s like there’s no air. It’s claustrophobic and there isn’t enough green. Not enough good dirt beneath my paws, too much steel and glass.” I shuddered slightly and shrugged again but I made sure to only use the shoulder her head wasn’t resting against. “I just prefer woods, and mountains, and open spaces.”