“Do you want to join them?” Shaz approached with a wild glint in his eyes. He followed my gaze, looking out at the pack that was now his. “It’s been a while since we’ve all been together like this.”
That was true. There’d been a time when we had run together on a regular basis, especially on full moons. Now I ran alone more often than not. “Yes, I do. Can you believe I’m almost afraid to be here with them?” I laughed bitterly. “They were right to kick me out. I’m not one of them anymore.”
Shaz turned me to face him. With a finger beneath my chin, he forced me to meet his eyes. “They were never right to kick you out. You led them, protected them. You helped them to live the comfortable life they have here. When they should have supported you, they abandoned you. They don’t deserve to have you lead them.”
The intensity in his gaze rocked me. There was such vehemence in his words. A spark of anger lit up his brilliant eyes, and I watched as they bled to wolf.
“I don’t deserve you,” I said softly.
“You know there’s no way in hell they would have pulled that shit if I’d been around to put a stop to it. Things have changed so much since Raoul died.” Shaz stared longingly out the window to the field and forest beyond Kylarai’s backyard.
It had been very different when Raoul led the pack. He was a strong leader who was always willing to do what was best for the wolves in his pack. Except for me, I guess. Our relationship had been warped by the history he’d shared with my mother. Too bad I hadn’t known that until after he died.
In the year or more since his passing, I had changed and so had the town wolves. They knew I was bonded to a vampire, one they all saw as a threat. Being spurned by them had stung, but ultimately, it had meant very little. They didn’t really know a damn thing about me.
“Let’s go. I’ve been waiting impatiently for this all day.” Shaz led me outside, down the patio steps to the grass that was beginning to yellow with the promise of summer’s end.
A smile tugged at my lips as a memory surfaced. Shaz and Arys had really gone at it out here. While beating the hell out of one another, they’d torn the wooden railing off in a tumble down the stairs.
Noticing my reminiscent expression, Shaz chuckled. “I’d like to think I would have won that fight. If Kylarai hadn’t broken it up.”
“You guys have come a long way,” I replied. “I’m impressed.”
“Yeah, well…there’s a lot you don’t see.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
He used disrobing as a means of distraction. “Nothing at all.”
Slowly, Shaz peeled off his t-shirt and hung it on the railing. He’d bulked up during his extended time as wolf in the mountains. His firm physique rippled with hard muscles that demanded my attention. It was impossible to resist running my hands over his chest, down his stomach.
“Hey, guys, save it for the forest,” Kylarai called from across the yard. “No hanky-panky in the yard.”
“You heard the lady,” Shaz said, playfully pushing me away. “Hands off.”
When he dropped his pants next, I was in a hurry to join him. I disrobed fast, feeling the exhilarating rush of my wolf rising to the surface.
“Are you coming?” I asked Ky and Coby, noting that everyone else had made their way across the field toward the tree line.
“Sure,” Coby said with a mischievous grin. “We’ll be right behind you.”
My hungry gaze wandered over Shaz. My wolf couldn’t have been happier to be there with her mate. Something had changed in him while he was away. It was more than merely his physique. There was a new understanding in him and a newfound aggression that was courageous but not careless.
I knew damn well that he and Arys discussed me when I was not around. I couldn’t fault them for it either. Still, I wondered what it was that initiated the change in Shaz.
Before I could reach for him again, Shaz darted away and dropped to his knees, becoming wolf before touching the ground. He playfully nipped at my ankles and smacked me with his tail.
“I’ll give you a head start,” I said, nodding toward the tree line.
He didn’t have to be told twice. Turning tail, he fled from the yard and into the night. It was an old game for us, racing to a particular tree on the edge of the forest. I was the reigning champion. It had been a long time since we’d raced and just been wolf with the others.
Embracing the change was like opening a floodgate. The wolf rose up, bursting forth, freed from its human prison. My body reknit and reformed, a sensation that hurt for just a second before it was replaced by the satisfying release, like that of having a good stretch.