“I’m not certain whether you’re being humorous or not,” he said dryly.
“A wolf got inside the house and lunged for her. I’m sorry if the spear on your wall had any sentimental value, but it’s probably out in the front yard somewhere now.”
His eyes widened and he leaned forward. “You speared a wolf?”
“I’m relieved you don’t have white carpeting.”
Lorenzo rocked with laughter, and it warmed me.
“What will happen to those wolves?”
His eyes glittered with intent. “If they had a pack, we’d return them to their Packmaster. Since they do not, their bodies will hang on the property line to serve as a warning.”
“I certainly hope they were all killed in animal form,” I added. Shifters remained in whatever form they died in, be it human or animal.
“Tell me, why is it you do not weep for what he did to you?”
I gripped the rug with my fingers. “I’ve wept enough tears for that young girl. She would be ashamed to know I had grown into a woman who couldn’t stand with her back straight and her chin high.”
Lorenzo leaned on his left arm. “You speak of her as if she were another person.”
I took a quiet breath. “In many ways, she is. When something marks us, it changes who we are, and we become different. Are you not different than the young boy you once were? I sometimes ask advice from the older version of myself, hoping she’ll send me her wisdom in my dreams. I mourn for that young girl, because on that night, she died. But without her loss, I wouldn’t be here.”
“I sometimes think I could listen to you talk for days,” Lorenzo said wearily. His eyes hooded and he took long blinks. “You are so different from your father.”
“He always said I had my mother’s tongue,” I said with a sly smile.
“And what did you inherit from your father?”
I considered that for a moment. “Perhaps his warrior’s heart. It surely wasn’t his good looks.”
Lorenzo chuckled sleepily.
“Maybe you should shift,” I suggested. “How long has it been?”
He yawned and rubbed his face. “Days, I guess. I can’t shift with you here.”
“Sure you can.”
It was common for alphas to be able to remember their entire shift, and in some cases, share control with their animal as one stream of consciousness. But like the rest of us, they could close their mind and go to sleep. My mother used to tell me that centuries ago, Shifters never had to sleep. They would change into their animal form at night and allow their human mind to rest, and in the morning, their wolf would sleep when they switched back. Now such practices were no longer necessary, and our wolves don’t roam as freely as they once did.
So I began to sing an old hymn my mother had taught me that had been passed down through her family. A tune that would coax out a wolf, one often used when an alpha wasn’t around and someone needed to heal but was too weak or stubborn to shift.
“I don’t like that a man did that to you,” he said under his breath, so low I almost didn’t hear it.
His eyes slanted down and he tipped his head against the side of the chair. Lorenzo sleepily watched me sing, and I began to notice the twitching in his face. His wolf was trying to come out.
And the Packmaster succumbed.
His pants fell to a heap on the floor on top of his shoes, and a large grey wolf shook his head and emerged. He stood at my feet and lifted his nose, taking in my scent.
Goodness, he was spectacular. It’s as if he were made of the purest snow and someone had sifted dark ashes over him, blanketing the top of his coat. His ears and snout looked like they’d been dipped in ink, and his fur was a little white over the tops of his eyes, making them more pronounced.
His wet nose glided up my leg as he approached me. I lowered my eyes, and Lorenzo’s wolf startled me when he began licking my mouth. I closed my lips and tried to turn away, but he wouldn’t stop.
It made me giggle. “Well, Lorenzo, it looks like your wolf likes me.” I knew he could hear me in there, if he hadn’t fallen asleep. I stroked the soft, thick fur around his face and nuzzled beneath his jaw.
I’d never submit to Lorenzo, but you had to treat the animal within each Shifter with its due respect. I fell on my back and he stood over me with his front paws on either side, looking about the room. I rubbed his chest and felt the vibration against my hand when he released a howl.
And in an unexpected twist, the tables were turned and Lorenzo’s wolf sang me to sleep.
***
The next morning was my third day in the Church pack. Someone had left a cart of food outside the door, and I rolled it into the room. Lorenzo was still in wolf form, and I let him loose in the house after he barked at the door.