Seven #3
“Your mate?” Justin nearly screamed at him. “He would have been another conquest of mine if—”
Cole scoffed. Loudly. “Are you kidding? He’s no more susceptible to your bullshit mind-altering pheromones than I am. He can’t be, he’s mine.”
I wasn’t anyone’s, but the truth of the matter was that I was far more likely to fall into bed with Cole than with his cousin.
“He’s not yours,” Abel bellowed at Cole as he, Reggie, and Fletcher came toward us. Cole stood between me and everyone else, not about to let me be hurt.
Things had spiraled so quickly. I hadn’t been ready to reveal to Cole what I was, not yet, but now I had no choice.
I was always so careful about who I showed my true form to, and normally only those who weren’t going to live long after my revelation were allowed to see.
I wanted to show Cole, but I needed to talk to him first and explain so he wasn’t frightened.
I needed to get everything straight between us, but there was no time and—
“Why is everyone yelling?” a sultry, soothing voice asked.
Everyone turned to look, and there was Ondine, coming slowly up the stairs to the porch.
She looked different than she had when she left; her now blond, shoulder-length hair was pulled up in a messy bun, her big blue eyes taking in every person there.
The freckles, her smile, the leggings and oversized sweater hanging off one shoulder; none of it looked threatening in the least.
“You’re back,” was the only thing I could think of to say.
“I felt the pull to return early,” she murmured, starting to hum as she moved forward. She glided more than walked, graceful as a dancer, her knee-high brown leather boots with their heavy soles and high thick heels not making a sound as she moved.
No one could take their eyes off of her, and as she crossed to me, the humming changed to an achingly mournful Gaelic song of longing and loss that she knew I loved. It was beautiful as it rolled off her tongue.
As I watched, everyone’s shoulders relaxed, and they all exhaled deeply. Fists unclenched, Abel’s hands no longer sported claws, and there was quiet where there had been angry shouting moments before.
Easily, and so very quickly, she’d put everyone in a trance. From the beginning, I’d been amazed by her ability to simply pull people under into the deep, dark water of her spell.
“What the hell is hap—who’re you?” Cole asked Ondine.
Interestingly, there was no change in him at all. He was just as angry and ready to fight as he’d been before she arrived.
One of her thick golden eyebrows arched in surprise. “Well now,” she said to me, grinning. “Desire for you trumps the song of a siren? Very impressive.”
“Stop. We both know you’re only using the smallest portion of your influence.”
“Yes, but still.”
Cole turned his head to look at me, then went back to staring at Ondine. “Who are you?”
And just like that, so fast it was impossible to follow with the naked eye, she was the gyrfalcon from earlier, hovering before him, her wings flapping gently to keep her aloft.
His mouth fell open as he watched her soar up into the sky, disappear for a moment, then come diving back down toward us, flipping up at the last moment and returning seamlessly to her present human form—a stunning blond with sparkling blue eyes almost too big for her face.
“You’re his…what are you?”
“I’m his friend,” she said, holding out her hand. He took it immediately, without fear. That impressed her. I could see the approval and pleasure on her face. “You are as well, yes? Even though you fought the other morning over the ridiculous notion that you won’t be the alpha.”
“He’s the alpha.” Cole nodded at Abel.
“No. He’s the second-born, and weak. We’ve seen a lot of alphas, Mere and I,” she told him. “And yes, in a few rare packs, there has been a second-born, a beta, who has stepped up and been fair and kind and a fine leader.”
Cole was listening intently to her.
“But not many. Betas are meant only to help a pack transition from one alpha to another, as you know but pretend not to.”
“Yes, but—”
“I don’t know why you would ever even argue the point with Mere—he’s positively ancient, and he knows of what he speaks.”
Cole turned around to face me.
“I—”
She huffed out an exasperated breath. “If you think you can go even a moment more and not show this man what you really are, Merritt Baker, you’re a fool. You’ve let it go on too long as it is.”
“I need to explain first that—”
“This is what happens when you stay in this human suit of yours too long. You forget that in your true form, everything is primal and you’re utterly present in every moment.
You can’t feel what this man is to you right now because the part of you that’s feral—and carnal, I might add—has been repressed for an age. ”
“You’re not helping.”
“I am, though. I am always in touch with my true nature, whereas you, my love, are not.”
“I had to change Friday night to kill two wolves, so I was in touch a very short time ago,” I pointed out.
“And I suppose he was standing right next to you when that happened?”
“No.”
She rolled her eyes. “Then you couldn’t very well have sensed the truth if he wasn’t with you,” she snapped at me. “Why are you arguing with me when you know I’m right?”
I was just as bad as Cole, postponing the inevitable. He was putting off challenging his uncle to be alpha because he feared the change and what it would mean for his life. I was afraid of what I could have if only I was brave.
“Please, Mere,” Cole murmured, his eyes as beseeching as his voice. “Show me.”
I took a couple steps back from him.
“Wait till you see, Cole,” Ondine said with a sigh. “He’s glorious.”
I shot her a look.
“What? You are. I thought so when I first spied you on the rocks above me as I lay spent, nearly drowned on the sandy shore.”
“Your retelling of that night gets more colorful each time,” I grumbled.
“So many men followed me from the ship, but that was of no consequence to you. Even now I can recall every moment of your great bloodstained jaws closing around my waist with more care than I ever remembered experiencing before that day.”
“That sounds like a good story,” Cole told her.
“It is,” she assured him, her impish smile making her eyes glow a bewitching sapphire.
“Watch the boy, in case he wakes,” I told her.
“He won’t. I can feel his exhaustion from here.”
I was ready.
“Shall I let them see as well?” Ondine asked innocently, waving her hand to include the others, batting her eyelashes for my benefit.
“You know I don’t like to scare anyone.”
She laughed, and it was, as always, a sound you wanted to bask in like the warmth of the sun.
If only Justin knew what the true power of seduction was, he’d never try again for the rest of his life.
“You must keep in mind that sometimes a good fright is exactly what’s needed, and I for one cannot abide this human disguise of yours when you’re taken for less than you are. ”
I scowled at her.
“Cole here sees and wants you, and I suspect when your form changes, his passion will not diminish. The women at The Bower, they utterly adore you, and so I hold soft places for all of them in my heart as well. All those dear ones you care for at the shelter think of you as their protector, and so treat you well. But any who take you for less than you are, who think you weak, who think they can dominate you without serving up their own heart first, who don’t see you as a gift…
I drown useless things, as well you know. Have I not always been this way?”
I nodded. “I’m sorry for trying to change you. That’s why I wanted to see you, and why I must have called out—I had an epiphany this evening.”
“And I heard your heart, as I always do. But Mere, the man waits, and I will release the wolves now, so please, guardian of the innocent, let us see the true form of the Cù-sìth.”
Closing my eyes, I exhaled my humanity as I had done the other night.
I didn’t normally change so often. Before Friday night, I hadn’t been in my true form for years, and even then, I hadn’t stayed in it long enough to really feel my power roll through me.
I had doled out punishment and returned quickly to human.
But now I would change slower, taking my time to feel what I had been in the beginning, when I was first created from fog and rain, earth and wind, purifying fire and, more than anything, the breath of the goddess.
I was made first to dwell in the fecund green of the forest, to punish and kill, deliver vengeance for the sins man committed against others and the world.
Only later had my own thoughts moved from death to birth.
Perhaps it was better to protect those who could be hurt, keep them from harm so they would never become angry and wrathful.
If I became their shelter, my heart said, I could change the outcome.
It had taken lifetimes, but everything had changed when I became a shield instead of a sword.
One of them had been the transformation itself.
It used to be instant. I thought of my true form and became the incarnation of death.
But once I became a protector instead, now, it took concentration.
I felt the power roll through me as it always did, altering my frame, making me bigger, stronger, my paws enormous, my fur heavy and coarse, and filling my long muzzle with razor-sharp teeth.
I was something right out of a nightmare, and centuries ago, the screams of those I hunted had been my music.
And now Cole saw what I was as I stood before him, an enormous creature with glowing green eyes, my long fur running with bright green flames.
I was afraid to look, but I told myself his reaction didn’t matter. I would still protect him and Evan, would try and restore him to alpha, and allow no one to harm him. If he was scared of—