So, technically, he wasn’t AWOL. But it was a murky thing. Montag was working on dangerous and highly illegal projects that he couldn’t show anyone else within the ranks. Shane hadn’t even been privy to it since Montag had figured Shane for a whistleblower. Montag had been right.
So Montag and the others couldn’t report Shane missing because, technically, he’d been missing at first because of Montag’s projects. Shane hadn’t known it at the time, but every mission he’d been on for the past year hadn’t been ordered by anyone but Montag, who was now apparently going rogue.
Everything Shane had worked for was gone. Everything he had believed in, shattered.
So now, Shane had a choice: learn to live once again as the man he’d become, the wolf he was becoming, or give up.
And Shane Bruins did not give up. Ever.
According to Gideon and the others, he was Pack now so he would have to live under Pack law rather than human law. Only now that the humans knew about the wolves, would things change once again? Shane didn’t know the answer to that, and honestly, thinking about it too hard hurt his brain. So instead, he pushed those thoughts aside and vowed to himself that he’d fight for what was right. And that meant he’d fight for the Pack that had taken him in when he’d had nowhere else to go. So he’d work with the Pack, learn who he was once again, and hopefully find a way to have the wolves and humans work together as one, rather than apart.
The thing was, Shane knew the vast majority of the human population didn’t care and weren’t scared. There were activist groups proudly accepting the existence of the things that went bump in the night. It seemed to Shane that it was the vocal minority who were against the shifters, as well as key players in Washington that wanted to use this new reveal to their advantage.
Well, Shane would just have to do his best to make sure that didn’t happen.
He took a deep breath, trying to relieve some of the tension in his shoulders, but he couldn’t quite make that work. His body didn’t hurt as much as it had the day he’d showed up on the Talons’ doorstep, nor did it hurt as much as it had in the days after, but he still wasn’t up to the level he’d been when he was human.
Human.
How strange that he was now thinking of himself as something other than human. Though the others swore they scented wolf on him, he wasn’t sure they were telling the full truth. They wanted to wait and see how he would react to the full moon. And because he was the first of his kind, he didn’t blame their hesitance when it came to trusting him and what he would turn into. He didn’t know either.
He wasn’t human anymore, nor did he know if he was wolf. He was somewhere in between, and that worried him just as much as the fact that there were two wolves out there that made him want more.
“How are you feeling?”
Shane turned on his heel at the sound of Gideon’s voice and fisted his hands at his sides. He hadn’t heard his Alpha approach. Shane had been standing in the middle of his new house, but he’d left the door open, needing to air it out as it had been empty for a year or two. For such a large man, Gideon could sure move quietly. And though there had been something inside Shane that he could now recognize as a bond, or perhaps a sense of awareness of the nearness of Gideon, he couldn’t decipher it yet. They’d told him that would come with time and practice, but they’d been saying that about everything.
“Like I’m lost,” Shane said honestly, surprising himself. Since he’d already started, he might as well tell Gideon most of it. “I feel edgy. Like I don’t quite fit under my skin.”
Gideon nodded. “Come with me.”
Shane raised a brow. “Where?”
Gideon snorted. “You know, most people would just come with me. I am Alpha, after all.”
Shane shook his head. “You’re not a dictator, that much I can tell. Maybe those who would come with you without question know you inside and out and figure you have a reason. But you still allow others to question you.”
The other man tilted his head, studying him, so much like a wolf that Shane had to blink. “Perhaps. Now follow me. We’re going to take a walk into the forest so you can feel the wind on your face and the den’s magic on your skin. You’re edgy as hell, so if you don’t want to come with me, I’ll make it an order with the force of my Alpha wolf behind it. You need the walk.”
The order bristled Shane, though it shouldn’t have. He’d been taking orders his entire life. Though the recent ones had all been lies. Perhaps that’s why Gideon’s order just then made him want to be surly.
“Don’t even try it,” Gideon growled. “I know it sticks in your craw that you have to listen to me after your last leader fucked you over, but you’ll get over it. You’re not at full strength yet, and you need the connection to the Pack. So get a move on.”
With that, Gideon turned around and headed out, as if knowing Shane would follow. Much to Shane’s chagrin, he did indeed follow soon after, closing the door behind him. They’d put his hand up to the scanner when they’d shown him the place, so now it would only unlock for him or one of the ruling members of the Pack in an emergency.
He had a home now.