Chapter Twelve
“PENNY?” CAITLIN’S THROAT WAS so raspy, she tried to clear it.
Quick as a snake, her sister’s head bounced up. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her hair an unruly mess. “You’re awake.”
“I’m awake,” she verified softly. “Everything feels better now.”
“They tamed your wolf.”
Caitlin sat up, her body aching like she’d been lying in one position for months. “It took forever. Days and days of hell.” All she could remember was sleeping, pain, changing, pain, hunting, pain, pain, more pain…
Penny snorted. “Days? You’ve been out for three weeks since the taming happened, Caity. If you’d still been employed, you’d have definitely been fired.”
“Three weeks? What? What’s… what’s today’s date?”
“It’s Saturday. The first weekend of November.”
But… but it had been the middle week of September when she’d driven out to see her sister. Still warm like summertime, but the mountains were much chillier than the city. Now that Penny pointed out the date, however, there was a definite bite in the air.
“I’m glad you’re up, Caity. I did a thing and I was going to record it for you, but now you can watch it live with the rest of us.”
“What did you do?”
“What I was planning to do… for me, anyway. For a forced change, though mine won’t be in the same context as yours.
I recorded your turning from human to shifter.
Don’t be mad. It’s not pretty, It’s ugly and painful and messy.
But it’s time those people who voted to force us into it face the reality of what they’re doing to people. To shifters.”
Her ears were ringing. She could hear others… not only with her ears, but connected somehow. In her head.
She’s awake.
Just awake?
No, conscious this time. Both human and wolf.
Her ears picked up the faint sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.
Stairs?
She looked around at the masculine, opulent bedroom. This wasn’t the cabin rental.
Penny watched her carefully. “You’re in the alpha’s house. Isaac’s. We no longer have the rental.”
The bedroom door burst open. Isaac was there, right on the bed with her, pulling her into his arms while the others scrambled in after him.
She yelped when someone yanked the sheet off her, leaving her halfway naked since her T-shirt was tangled up around her waist. And, oddest thing, every single person in the room reached out to touch skin on her bare legs.
Her foot. Her arm. Anywhere they could get, and stroke.
“About time you woke,” Joaquin said. “We ordered pizza and chicken wings. Hoped the smell would wake you in time to watch the news special with us.”
“Okay.” Her stomach let off a loud growl.
“Yeah!” Alex and Amos high-fived each other. “Wolf appetite.”
“What is happening?” she murmured, half to herself, looking down at her panties with the little bow ties.
“Get out,” Isaac growled to everyone. “Let her get up and shower. She can meet us downstairs for food before the program starts. And we can explain everything.”
Everyone cleared out. Even Penny, but with a relieved look on her face as she hugged her tightly.
There was a shower in the suite, so she used that. Her own toothbrush was sitting beside another in a holder, so she used that.
And her clothes were in her bag on the massive dresser in the room. She pulled on a pair of leggings and a large tee, then turned to leave the bedroom.
Caitlin had only been in Isaac’s house once before and hadn’t entered the upper level. She followed the hallway to where she heard voices drifting up the stairs, then slowly descended.
Isaac stood as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs.
“You okay?” he asked, reaching for her hand and squeezing. She gave him a smile. “I think so. Just confused. I don’t remember a lot of what’s been going on. I had no idea so much time had passed. No idea we weren’t in the rental cabin anymore.”
“That’s pretty common. Your wolf had the skin most of the time, completely booted you out. So, there’s a lot you won’t remember. It’ll get better, though. You’ll start to work together and both be present while in each other’s bodies.”
He pulled her down to the couch, and Penny brought her a plate piled with pizza and wings. There were even a few veggie sticks to dip into her ranch dressing. She dug in.
“Do you remember when I said the scent of your marking was stronger inside the rental cabin?” Isaac asked.
She nodded, her mouth full.
“I should have known better. It wasn’t that Rhett’s stench was stronger indoors.
He had been indoors. He had been inside your cabin, more than once.
He stole Noah’s phone, texted Penny that the meeting had ended and a guard was heading there to cover you so she could go home.
So that you would be left alone. The wolf you saw?
It wasn’t mine. It was Rhett. The rest of his crew was watching from the line of trees.
Once you were changed, they were going to swoop in and take you.
Thankfully, Penny called Noah back when she left, and when he didn’t answer, she called Misty to make sure it was me heading to guard you.
We had no idea why she’d left you, because Noah still hadn’t found his phone and had never texted her.
Noah made her stay put until he could get to her while the rest of us changed and headed to you. ”
“I saw the wolf in the trees. I thought it was you. Your wolf is dark also. And I’ve seen your eyes, they glowed the same color.”
“My wolf is dark, but with an ash undertone. Charcoal. His is–was–black. Also, I look darker at night. Almost black.”
“He’s dead?” she asked, taking a chomp out of a chicken wing.
“Hell, yeah,” Amos said, from across the living room where he’d just sat. “Isaac kicked his ass. And then, when they were without an alpha, we wiped out the entire pack.”
“So I guess they couldn’t have reported our relationship anyway, huh?”
Too little, too late. She never would have been forced to change.
“It’s on!” Misty yelled, making herself heard over the din of the guys. She reached for the remote, turning the volume up.
“—and now for the breaking news you’ve been waiting for. We have exclusive footage of the actual process of a human-turned-shifter, provided by none other than Governor Montgomery’s own daughter, Penelope Elizabeth Montgomery. Not many people know, Penelope—”
“—Penny, please.” Her sister’s face popped up in a dual screen remotely, opposite the news anchor.
The woman smiled. “Penny. Not many people know that you were one of the first humans to be affected by the new Turn Limitations Act, put into place by your own father, Governor Roland Montgomery.”
“That’s right. I’d fallen in love with a wolf shifter before Turn Limitations was introduced.”
“And your father, Governor Montgomery, was aware of the relationship between you and him when he introduced the bill, correct?”
“That is correct. I was in contact with my father, explained the risks of humans being forced into a change, and begged him not to back the bill.”
“He chose to do it anyway?”
Penny nodded sadly. “He chose to anyway.”
“But I’m a little confused. At the time you contacted us and said you’d like to air this story, it was set for next spring. This is a little early–”
“Because, unfortunately, this isn’t quite my story. Not yet. You see, my sister, Caitlin, came for a visit. This is her story, and these images you see might very well be the last pictures of her ever taken.”
“Your sister? She’s also on staff, right? Is she okay? Was it planned?”
“Not at all. She was attacked by someone and forced to change. Thankfully, she survived the initial bite, but as you can tell, it’s still touch and go. This is the process that I explained to my father, and it’s very possible that he could still lose one or both of his children.”
“Dear God, Penny, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for you, for your sister, for the rest of the humans that will be in this heartless, sickening boat because of Turn Limitations.
Now, to explain things further, the new law has two parts.
Not only does it restrict a shifter’s rights to turning only one person in their lifetime, but the second part of the law is even more damning.
It forces a human partner to get bitten by their significant other, whether they want to turn shifter or not.
They have no choice. And the consequences? I’ll let Penny answer.”
“Being bitten, not born, is not a guaranteed shift. A bite is a forced change, and the consequences of a forced change are detrimental. It’s nature’s own population control.
Otherwise, the world would have been overrun with shifters by now, right?
So really, we don’t need humans to create laws to intervene.
A bitten person doesn’t get the luxury of being born with a dual being already inside of them.
Instead, their animal is created from scratch.
When a shifter is created, the animal doesn’t grow from a cub or a pup.
It’s a fully mature adult who doesn’t get training or doesn’t even want to get along with its human counterpart.
It wants to own the skin completely, which is instinctual.
An animal has instincts and doesn’t want to feel and think.
Therefore, an adult shifted animal has a harder time being trained.
Now, the problem lies in that this takes time.
A person has to be primed, has to be comfortable with shifters and the differences in law and lifestyle.
When a change is forced, you don’t have time to become acclimated.
That causes a higher death rate among the newly shifted because the wolf and human personalities basically kill each other.
I’ll have an easier transition than Caitlin did because I’m trying to acclimate, if somewhat quickly.
Caitlin? She had no chance. Her change was a complete, unwilling shock. ”