Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
Warmth and bare skin and dirt greeted me when I opened my eyes next. I blinked several times, trying to remember where the hell I was.
Not in my bed, that was for damn sure. I lay on soft dirt, weak daylight filtering through leaf litter above. But I also lay against… someone.
A tan, well-muscled arm lay slung over my bare abdomen. I froze as I tried to recall the events of the night before.
“Don’t panic,” a voice rumbled next to my ear.
I closed my eyes, my heart beating like a rabbit. I knew that voice.
“Silas?” I whispered.
“Yes. I caught wind of you last night and followed you to ensure you stayed safe. The first shift is… volatile. We supervise all new shifters to ensure they don’t go loup.”
I had no idea what loup was, but it didn’t sound good.
At my silence, he continued. “A new shifter is overwhelmed by their senses and can make mistakes that ruin their lives.”
I was becoming acutely aware that we were both naked. “Someone ripped my pendant off.”
Silas tensed. “Who?”
“If I knew who, I would have done my best to get it back before this happened!”
“I’ll look into it,” he murmured.
“You knew,” I said quietly.
“No.” I felt him shake his head. “I suspected. I kept getting hints of a scent, yours mixed with mine. There was no way to know for sure. You’re an impossibility, Alex. A dangerous one.”
I went very still. The last thing the shifters needed was an impossibility.
Even though shifters were made from magic, many of them were less tolerant with things they couldn’t touch, taste, or feel.
That sort of magic was fine if it existed outside of their pack but, in a way, Silas had made me, and shifters kept things they made close.
Just like the King was keeping me close right now.
I swallowed hard.
Silas’s warm breath tickled the back of my neck. The crisp hair on his muscled forearm tickled my bare skin. My heartbeat sped up. I was far more aware of my nakedness than I was comfortable with.
“Relax.” Silas’s deep voice sent goosebumps rising all over my skin. “I know how jarring a first shift is, but there is nowhere else safer in this world than right here.”
How I’d once longed to be wrapped in a lover’s arms, hearing him tell me I was safe. But I never thought I’d be in a dirty hole when someone uttered those words to me. His hand tightened around my waist as Silas shifted. We were pressed so tightly together… I could feel everything.
Silas was impressive. Everywhere.
Gods.
His other hand stroked through my hair, toying with the curls. “I’ve never seen hair like yours,” he murmured. “I wonder how long it is when you’re wet.”
I blinked, every muscle in my body tightening.
Silas’s chest rumbled. “Your hair, Alex.” His nose burrowed in my hair and inhaled. “Though I wouldn’t mind discovering other wet parts belonging to you.”
I needed to get out of this hole before I did something I couldn’t take back. My skin felt feverish, and there were parts of me long unused beginning to respond to Silas’s presence.
His broad palm stroked over my bare stomach. My head tilted back, nestling against Silas’s shoulder.
“There you go,” Silas murmured. He shifted, pulling me up until I was pressed so tightly against him, I couldn’t figure out where he ended and I began. Warm lips pressed against the crook of my shoulder.
He smelled like wild things and pine and fertile dirt. I was so close to turning around and saying to hell with it, but if I did that, I’d allow the Shifter King far too much control over me. But with the way his hands stroked my bare skin and his lips pressed against that spot on my neck…
I was only human. For the most part.
Something tickled the back of my throat. I tried to clear my airway, but the feeling grew worse until I couldn’t help but try to cough. A few seconds later, I hacked something up and held it up to the watery light, gagging when I realized it was fur.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
The spell broken, Silas’s chest rumbled with amusement. “You must have skipped dinner last night.”
“Not funny. Isn’t that harmful? I ate it all, I think.” Flashes of bones breaking and crunching…
My stomach heaved.
“Relax,” Silas soothed. “You’ll be fine. Our anatomy is equipped to handle such things.”
“What was it?”
“Several rabbits and an unlucky fox.” Amusement tinged his words.
“Fuck,” I whispered. Rabbits and foxes were so cute, and I’d eaten them!
“Everything went into hyperdrive,” Silas said. “The first shift enhances all your senses, all your emotions. You lose a little humanity when the first full moon strikes.”
“I can’t be a shifter. I’m a witch.”
When Silas spoke again, empathy rang in his voice. “You are both now. As sorry as I am for what happened, this cannot be denied.”
My body started to shake. Silas held me tighter, but tenderly rather than painfully. “You’re still coming down. We’ll lay here for a little while until you adjust.”
“This cannot be happening,” I whispered more to myself than him.
“I’m afraid it has.” He fell silent for a moment. “I’ll have another pendant made.”
I slumped with relief, but he wasn’t finished speaking. “The magic will prevent you from shifting, but my advice is to learn to control it. I know you don’t think so now, but the world has given you a gift.”
“To eat cute furry things who are out there minding their business and frolicking under a full moon?” I sounded like such a brat, but I couldn’t help it. I’d never get the taste of fur out of my mouth.
Silas chuckled. “You are a predator, and they are prey. Life is circular. Animals are born, and they die. In between, their purpose is to mate and continue the circle of life. Some say they love. Some say animals are incapable. But they all have a life.”
“What do you think?”
“I believe all sentient things are capable of love. Maybe not in the same way you and I are capable, but love exists for them in some form or fashion.”
“I think so too.”
“Shifters are different, Alex. We are immortal and trapped between two forms. We are human, and we are animal, and if we hone our senses enough, we can use them at the same time. Shifters are born of magic, much the same way vamps are.”
I wasn’t afraid of Silas, not curled up against him like this. “Does this make you my alpha or something?” My words sounded grumpy.
Silas snorted. “I don’t believe anyone could rule you, no matter how hard they tried. I created you in a way, yes, but even though you shift on the full moon, you are not a natural-born or made shifter. You can’t be. You’re a witch… and possibly something else.”
“Can you shift whenever you want?”
“All older shifters can.”
“Can I?”
“There’s only one way to know. But I wouldn’t recommend you do so without another shifter around to guide you.”
“I would like the pendant, please.”
I felt Silas move against me. “Are you ready to get up?”
I sighed. “I don’t have any clothes.”
“I had my Second bring some. We guessed at your size, but there are plenty of females in the pack who have similar builds.”
“Thank you.”
“There’s no need to thank me. You are one of ours now, as strange as it may seem.”
I didn’t want to belong to anyone, not this way. “Even though I’m not a full shifter?”
I felt him stiffen against me. “We do not penalize someone because of their blood. I am still your maker, and that makes you one of us.”
He removed his arm and reached up to remove the makeshift shelter above us. Watery light filtered in as Silas sat up. I curled into the fetal position and tried to hide all my naughty bits. My rear end was just going to have to suffer the indignity of being bared to the Shifter King.
Silas snorted softly. “Packs have zero compunctions about nudity, Alex.”
“Up until twelve hours ago, I was a witch with a lot of compunctions about nudity, Silas.”
A flash of a smile as he reached out of the hole for something. “Fair enough.”
He shuffled something around until soft fabric landed on top of me. “Shirt.”
Another heavier item fell. “Pants.”
Two more thumps. “Underwear and socks. Shoes are iffy, but there’s a pair of boots up there for you when you’re ready.”
Without me asking, Silas climbed out of the hole. “I’ll wait for you. Come out when you’re ready.”
When I was sure he was gone, I rolled over and hurriedly dressed, grimacing at the underwear.
I balled that up and put it into the pants pocket, until I realized they’d brought jeans and the thought of denim rubbing against my squishy parts made me swiftly fish the underwear back out and put them on.
We were supernaturals. We didn’t suffer the same diseases as humans did. Wearing someone else’s underwear couldn’t harm me.
Unless they belonged to Beckett…
Shut up, brain.
When I was dressed, I stood up to my full height and peered out to see Silas sitting cross-legged against a tree. He rose in a graceful motion and came over, holding a hand out.
I took it, allowing him to guide me. When I was halfway out, he crouched, wrapping his hands around my waist and hauling me up.
He was big and warm and smelled delicious.
Mmmm.
His hands lingered. I tilted my face up and blinked.
Damn. “Stuck in a dirt hole” Silas was somehow even sexier than “Shifter King at my door” Silas. His hazel eyes were bright in the low light, and the dusting of stubble over his cheeks and jaw made my fingers itch to touch him.
I cleared my throat and stepped back. “Thank you.” My voice was huskier than it should have been.
“You’re welcome.” Silas’s eyes glittered.
Shifter senses were comparable to a vampire’s, maybe even better. The bastard knew I thought he was hot. At least for this morning.
“Please pass on my thanks for the clothing. I’ll have it cleaned and sent back to the Hollow in a few days.”
Silas’s home wasn’t as secretive as a vampire’s Hive, but few people ever visited without an explicit welcome.
“I wouldn’t recommend doing so. Your scent will bring up some unwanted questions, and I’ll have to approach things carefully. Keep the clothing for now.”
I frowned. “Even if I wash them?”
“Depends on the detergent. Better safe than sorry.”