Hunter
Iwatch, slightly amused, as she tries to stay awake, but it’s clear she’s fighting a losing battle. Her head dips, and then she drops to her side, falling asleep instantly.
I let out a deep breath as I shift to my human form, my twin, Chase, following suit.
The others are sitting by the fire while we watch over her. We’ve agreed that five men might be a bit intimidating for her all at once, so we volunteered to stay as wolves around her until she gets used to our presence.
Chase tosses me a pair of sweatpants from where they’re stashed just outside, and we both pull them on before sitting back down at the cave entrance.
“She’s really something,” I whisper as my eyes rake over the sleeping wolf’s tiny, dirty body.
“I’d say. I’ve never seen a red wolf like that before. I’ve seen brown wolves with a tinge of red, but her coat is such a deep red… she’s beautiful. I can only imagine what she’ll look like when she’s feeling better and cleaned up,” Chase says, agreeing with my own assessment.
“She is, but it’s more than that. I can’t stop looking at her. Like I’m… connected to her.” I glance at him, worried about what he’ll think.
“You mean…” he trails off, his wide eyes meeting mine in surprise.
“Maybe. Do you feel it too? The pull to her?” I ask, nervously.
He licks his lips, looking unsure, but eventually he nods, and relief fills me. “Yeah, I do. Do you think she could be one of our fated mates then? Or both of us?”
As wolf shifters, it isn’t completely uncommon for twins to bond with a single, shared partner. And as Chase and I are so close, we’ve always hoped we’d share a mate, not wanting to be separated. But it doesn’t always happen that way.
“Honestly? I’m not sure, but I hope so. We won’t know until she shifts back.” As with all shifters, you know your fated mate when you lock eyes with them in your human form for the first time, and the bond snaps in place.
I glance over my shoulder at the others, unease filling me. “But I think Maddox and Gage might feel connected to her too. So maybe she’s one of their mates, and the pull is just because she’s fated to one of our pack.”
Chase frowns, rubbing at his chest, then looks back at her, his face softening as he asks, “Could you imagine if she were ours? After all this time searching, we find her here, on our pack lands? What do you think happened to her? Where did she come from?”
“I have no idea.” I think about the muzzle that we found on her. Someone did that to her. I can’t imagine it was because she’s a real threat to anyone. But humans are idiots.
“We need to get her to relax and shift back,” Chase says with determination. “We can’t help her if she stays hidden in her wolf form. It’s clear someone put that muzzle on her. Who knows what else they did? We need to figure out who, so we can protect her.”
He runs his hand through his dyed pink hair as he nods, as if agreeing with himself. He always acts as if everything is so simple. As if we hadn’t been trying to get her to shift since she woke up.
“Is that why you were wiggling around on your back like an idiot? To make her feel more comfortable?” I ask with a smirk.
“It’s not like you had any better ideas. What were you thinking, crawling toward her like that?”
“I don’t know! I just wanted to get closer. I thought she’d let me if I moved slow enough.” He laughs at me, and it makes me smile. Maybe it was a dumb idea… But it had worked for a minute, until she realized what I was doing.
A soft whimper makes us turn back to her. Her paws and head jerk, as if she’s trying to get away from something… or someone. It looks like she’s having a bad dream.
“I’m going to lie beside her and see if it helps,” I say, stripping off my pants and throwing them at Chase’s face.
He grunts as I shift back to my wolf form and slowly walk over to her. She fell asleep with her butt against the wall and her legs out to the side, so I’m able to lie down against her back. I move slowly and gently until her back is flush against my side.
Her whimpering dies down quickly, and soon her breathing evens out as she sleeps peacefully beside me.
“Good job,” Maddox says through the bond. I glance up to see them all standing in the cave entrance, watching us. I guess they heard her whimpers too.