As the early light of dawn appeared, Shaelan was pacing by the window, looking down at the rest of the village. The others were moving around quietly, she wasn’t sure if they had slept, she knew she hadn’t. For a few hours, she lay in Calum’s arms, watching him. She didn’t know how he had managed his short nap. Although he was probably more used to this sort of thing than she was. When he’d finally spoken, she’d almost fallen off the bed in surprise, not even realizing he was awake.
The village was so quiet now, no one was awake yet. She knew that was going to end shortly. Everyone would come out of their homes when the bell rang, all would be present to witness their lives changing.
She was sure it was the stress. The unknowns weighing on her that made her feel this way. Panicked, but almost depressed at the same time. So many things could happen, the outcome was not guaranteed. If Leroy backed down, was it truly over? She didn’t trust that. He could only be saying that, saying anything to buy more time to come up with a new plan or angle. He could take off and then the wondering would always be there, they’d be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.
If Calum did fight him and won, what then? They’d be free, but at what cost? If he killed Leroy there would be that weighing on them forever. She knew Calum had a more violent nature to him than she did, and that he’d probably exercised it in his life, but this…this could change a person deep inside. What happened if he did win, was he then the alpha of the clan? How would that work with him having to be Devin’s second when he became leader of the alliance?
So many shifter and clan things she didn’t know. Was it all just passed on by word of mouth or was it written down somewhere? She didn’t even know that. Then, as hard as she was trying to ignore it, the thought kept coming back, what if Calum was seriously injured or worse…she wouldn’t have him. Oh god, I can’t do that. There was no way to move beyond that. Her life wouldn’t have any meaning if he were gone and Leroy remained breathing.
So many emotions. Her chest was tight, and she was sweating too—hot one minute, then cold the next. Her entire body was tingling, her skin was too tight, and she physically felt ill, all the way to her soul, if that were possible. What was she going to do?
“Hey, love.” Calum came up behind her.
Shaelan jumped. She hadn’t heard him coming. She turned to look and was surprised he was just wearing his jeans, nothing else. She paused to look at him, her eyes wandering over his chest slowly, taking in the sculpted muscle, then looked at her mark on his neck.
“Keep looking at me like that and we’re going to have a problem,” he said quietly.
Her eyes jumped up to his. “Sorry.” She cleared her throat. “Why are you dressed like that?”
He moved closer to her in a slow easy motion, like he was afraid she was going to take off, and honestly, she may just do that.
“In case I need to shift.” His eyes held hers.
“Oh.” Inside she’d known that but didn’t want to admit it.
He ran his hand down her arm gently, “Are you okay?”
Just him touching her almost hurt. She shook her head. “I don’t think so. There’s something…”
He stepped closer, still not pulling her into his chest. “I can smell your cat. Not just sense her but smell her.” Leaning down, he brushed a brief kiss on her lips. “You’re going to shift for the first time soon.”
She looked at her arms, like they were going to suddenly grow fur. “How soon?”
His tone was gentle. “There’s no way to tell, could be an hour, could be a few more days. You could feel the way you do now, then it stops and then happens again right before. It’s not the same for everyone.”
Blowing out a deep breath, she glanced out the window again. “Talk about bad timing.”
He chuckled. “Could have been a whole lot worse.”
She turned to see that heated look in his eyes. “Yes, I guess it could have.” She tried to smile but failed. Even for him, she couldn’t. There was just too much battling through her.
“I want you to stay up here when I go down…”
“What? No.” She shook her head, wanting to grab him but couldn’t stand the feel of anything against her right now. There had been moments she’d even entertained the idea of stripping off her clothes to see if it would help.
He grasped her hand lightly, barely touching her. “When I go down there, I need to know you are safe and out of harm’s way.” The expression in his eyes was serious. “If I’m worried about watching over you, then…” He shook his head. “I can’t have that distraction.”
She knew he was right, but the idea of standing up here…what if he needed her?
“We don’t know how close your shift is, and the tension could bring it on faster.” His tone was so tender.
The very idea of shifting in front of everyone, turned her stomach inside out. “You think it could happen?”
He searched her face. “I don’t know. I need the fewest possible variables when I go down there.”
Her brain kicked in. What he was saying was if she was there and distracted him, he could die. She didn’t want to stay behind, but she wanted him to live more. “Okay.” She nodded, close to tears. “I’ll stay here.”
He kissed her mouth softly again.
“No, please, not again.” Jake’s voice made them both turn.
Shae saw him standing there with his hands on his hips and shaking his head at Gage.
“No what not again?” Kelsey asked in a tone that said she already knew and was unimpressed. “Gage. Why are you half naked?” She turned and looked at Calum then her head snapped around to Devin as he walked out of the hallway. “What’s going on?”
Rayne moved around from behind Devin. “They’re leaving us here. Again.”
Kelsey gave Gage a narrow-eyed look. “Shocker that is. What I want to know is why they’re all ready for a fast shift.”
Jake lifted his hands and backed away. “Not my plan. Obviously.”
Gage sighed and then looked at his mate. “Dev and I are just going to make sure it’s stays fair.” He waved a hand down his half naked body. “This is just in case.”
Shae stood there, hugging her arms around her waist, not sure if it was her place to speak or not, but it was her mate going down there as well. “I’m glad you’re staying up here with me. I don’t feel well at all, and Calum says he can smell my cat.”
Kelsey and Rayne both turned to her at once, sympathy on their faces.
“We’ll be right here with you,” Rayne said in her gentle way.
Her mother and Aunt Marilyn walked in the door and stopped to look at everyone. Shae could see the tension on their faces. Her mother stopped and looked at her.
“Shae?”
Waving a hand at her, Shae stepped as close as she dared to Calum without touching him. Being near him made her feel slightly less awful. “Apparently, my cat is working on making an appearance soon.”
Her aunt’s face lit up. “Well, you tell her to just put the brakes on for a little bit.” She looked around. “I’m too old for too much to be happening all at once.”
Calum cleared his throat and looked at Nona, then her mother and aunt. “Can you ladies stay up here with her, I’d feel better if she had all of you.”
They nodded, and Nona turned back to the kitchen. “I have a tea that helps. I’ll get some steeping.”
Calum turned back to Shaelan. As he did, the bell at the hall rang out.
Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and came over to the window. You could taste the anticipation in the air. Slowly people started to come out of their homes below.
“Jake?” Calum said in a quiet tone without turning from the window.
“Yeah?” he answered from somewhere behind Shaelan.
“If this starts to go south, you get all these women the hell out of here. Just in case.”
A chill ran down Shae’s spine, she turned to look up at Calum. His green eyes caressed over her face. She couldn’t breathe.
“Will do, Cal,” Jake answered quietly.
Rayne turned to Devin. “Nothing better happen, just in case.” The emotions in her voice clear.
Calum turned back to look out the window again, there were a lot of people standing in front of the hall now.
“Cal doesn’t lose,” Gage was saying quietly to Kelsey.
Exhaling slowly, Calum turned to look at Shaelan and tipped her chin up so she was looking at him. “I have too much to come back up here for,” he said.
She wasn’t sure if it was to her or the others, but she couldn’t stop looking at him to check. “You better come back up here.”
He nodded and kissed her mouth softly.
She watched him walk out of the house and could barely draw air into her body as she did. She watched the three men go down the stairs, her whole body was shaking. It was all she could do to stand there and not run after him. The other women stood beside her and the emotions she picked up from them was the same. The three men walked down the steps slowly, looking like honed warriors, the way they moved. Shae turned to looked at Nona and she didn’t know why, but she didn’t look as worried as the rest. She had to hold on to the thought that her mentor was always right.
Halfway down the stairs, Calum spotted Brock standing in the middle of the crowd, playing the fake Brock. He was looking around as if he was trying to figure out who had rung the bell, even though it had been him.
“I didn’t realize how many people were here,” Gage said, surprised.
Calum had to agree with that, there had to be at least fifty people, that he could see so far and others were still walking in that direction. He didn’t see any children. Hopefully there was some plan in place that young children went somewhere else and not to the hall when the bell rang.
“See anyone that looks like a maniacal lunatic yet?” Devin asked with a growl in his voice.
Just as Calum went to answer, the crowd parted, and three men walked between them. “Anyone of those three work for you?” He zeroed in on the one walking beside the man clearly leading. He didn’t know how he knew, but he knew it was Jerome. “The one on the left doesn’t get away.”
“That who did that to Chad?” Gage asked.
Calum growled low. “He’s carrying the gun, so I’m going to say yes.”
“Then he shot Gene as well. We’ve got him,” Devin said so low that his words were barely a whisper.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs and started walking toward the crowd, it parted for them as it had for the other men, the only difference Calum could see was the faces they walked by didn’t show fear. In the eyes watching the three strangers was hope, hope that they were going to end their nightmare.
Calum stopped walking, keeping twenty feet between them, Leroy and his goons. He noticed Brock slowly vanishing into the crowd. Not many knew he wasn’t the complete asshole he pretended to be, so it was a wise move on his part to remove himself from the equation.
The man standing in the center of the three, snarled at him. “The green-eyed one returns.”
Calum growled low as a response. He watched Leroy look him up and down, noting his state of dress and then the cocky expression turned to an apprehensive look. The man was a coward, he thought, and that pissed him off even more.
Looking around at the people standing there, Leroy waved his hands around. “Are you all just going to stand there and let strangers take over your village?”
There were a few sneering remarks and retorts that weren’t in his favor as the people slowly moved, standing more to the side nearest Calum. That left Leroy and his men standing alone.
He felt someone come up beside him. “I tried,” Jake said, out of breath. “But when the clothes started coming off and they called me Jacob, I got out of there.”
“What?” Devin looked around.
“Shit,” Gage hissed.
Calum looked away from the man he was going to kill long enough to glance at Jake, he held up his hands.
“They’re pissed. All of them…” He held up his hands again.
Before Calum’s rage-clouded mind could process what he was saying, he heard a warning growl from behind him. Turning, he saw a blonde she-wolf prowling toward them. On her left was an orange tiger, ears back and teeth bared.
His heart and cat jolted in unison when a blacker-than-night female jaguar flanked Rayne’s other side. Her eyes were on him with each step she took, and he couldn’t have looked away if he tried. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, and later, much later, he’d berate himself for not being there for her first change. His cat alerted him as soon as he could sense hers, Calum should have known it would be today.
Kelsey bounded over to Gage and rubbed up against his leg, before she moved past him to go stand between him and the alpha of the village. She emitted a low warning growl and crouched down like she was going to pounce.
Rayne didn’t pause to formally greet her mate, as she leapt past where they stood to stand near Kelsey. The growls coming out of her, if they had been directed at Calum would have made even him back off and be somewhere else.
Shaelan paused as she reached Calum and he could only nod to the questioning look in her pale feline eyes. It was her right to end this, her way. She nudged his knee with her shoulder as she moved by him. He turned, feeling nothing but awe at how graceful she was in this form. It had taken him months to master his balance in cat form to look that sleek.
“Should she be doing this on her first shift?” Devin asked quietly.
Calum watched her walk out in front of the other two women, with long nimble strides. “Are you going to tell her she can’t?”
“Fuck no. I like breathing,” he whispered.
“This is Shaelan’s to end, but he dies if he so much as touches a hair on her,” Calum snarled. He started to close the distance between them and then stopped so fast Jake walked into him. Nona and Aunt Marilyn came out of the crowd, walking toward Shaelan. From the other side her mother and Billie emerged, and a few other women. From behind them, a few jaguars with various coat colors came stalking forward slowly. All females.
“Fuck me,” Gage hissed quietly. “His ass is toast.”
“Is that a serving fork in Marilyn’s hand?” Devin inquired in a hushed voice.
Calum made a note to find out later, he wasn’t taking his eyes off Leroy as he started to walk toward Shaelan again. He knew she needed to do this for her people, for herself and her mother, but he sure as hell was going to be beside her when she did.
A large black male cat came charging out of the group, and in a few long strides, Brock reached Shaelan and actually did the equivalent of a hip bump on his way by her. He headed right toward Jerome without hesitation. He knew why he was going right for him, but just as long as he saved a few hits for Calum, he didn’t care.
Jerome pulled his gun from its holster and aimed, but Brock pounced and knocked him up against a tree. The gun hit the ground without being fired. The two guards came out of the crowd and put a collar around Jerome’s neck while Brock leaned his two large paws on his chest holding him in place. They clipped the electrified club to it and held him. Calum would be having a chat with them later about letting him flip the switch on it a few times, while it was still attached.
Nona nodded once to them, then turned to look at Leroy. He was down to one lackey with him now, or none, Calum thought as he was getting down on his knees, with his hands raised in the air in surrender. As least his brain worked. Now.
“Shae’s mate was going to challenge you to be alpha,” Nona said loud enough so all could hear as she stopped to the right of where Shaelan paced. “To protect herself, to free us…” Nona shook her head.
“Then what?” Leroy demanded. “Follow that alliance and a stupid wolf?”
Rayne turned to face him and emitted a growl so ferocious that all the hair on Calum’s arms stood.
“Not too smart, is he?” Gage commented.
Devin shook his head as he took a few steps closer to the women.
Shaelan’s mother went right over and stood beside her daughter. “Her mate was doing what was right. That’s what love should be in a clan.” She glanced at her daughter prancing beside her. “You are not the rightful Alpha of this clan.”
Leroy’s face went red with rage. “Who’s going to be alpha? A true blood bitch that can’t shift or her half breed daughter…”
Calum growled a long, low warning. Shaelan answered him with a soft yowl, before she bound toward Leroy so fast, no one could have seen it coming. With a leap, she knocked him down to the ground and held him there, her teeth clamped around his throat and one paw on his chest pinning him to the ground. She continued to growl without releasing him.
“Dad kind of wants him alive,” Devin said, moving up beside him. “We can’t find out who has been working with him if he’s nothing but chewed up fleshy remains.”
Grunting and annoyed because he knew he was right, Calum moved to get to him before he was stupid enough to piss off Shaelan anymore. He was almost there, when her mother pulled out a dart gun and shot him with a tranquilizer. Twice.
By the time Calum reached him, the man was unconscious.
Shaelan released him and sat down looking at him for a moment. She turned and looked at Calum, then took off running in the direction of the stairs. He was stunned by her speed for a second and then realized nothing about her was normal, or like any other shifter he’d ever met.
“I think your mate just became alpha of the clan…or her mother…it’s tough call,” Gage said as he smiled down at Kelsey.
“I think for our own personal safety we’ll let them decide who is alpha,” Calum said with a smirk and watched as Shaelan bounded up the stairs to Nona’s.
“Wise words,” Devin agreed.
Nona elbowed Calum. “You should go make sure she has no problems shifting back.” She shook her head. “Never seen anyone just do it in a blink the first time.”
He jolted, completely forgetting again that this had been her first shift. Hell, he hadn’t been able to co-ordinate four paws to run like that until his at least his second, and here she was half was to the top of the stairs. “Shit.” He took off running in her direction.