AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After slowly rising from the couch, he steps behind it and starts tugging his shirt over his head. Huge, fist-sized bruises the color of plums litter his ribs and stomach. I’ve seen them spar before, and I thought it was brutal then, but this is another level. Donovan didn’t pull his punches. Not wanting to get an eyeful of naked Connor, I spin around when he reaches for his sweats.
Kaleb and I trade looks, my conflicted feelings reflecting back at me. I don’t fully understand what it means to be mates, but I know it’s for the rest of their lives. Connor took that choice away from Callie. Anytime I think about it, I can’t help the anger and disappointment I feel. However, he’s also one of my best friends, and witnessing what’s been done to him by one of us makes me feel ill. I guess two wrongs really don’t make a right—except… except it also did. It’s hard to hold onto my anger when I know he just got the shit kicked out of him.
Wolf Connor comes padding from behind the couch and flops on the floor with a sigh. Nolan leans down to pat his giant head, which earns a wag of his tail against Kaleb’s legs. The man is massive in this form, filling up the entire space in front of the couch, and it makes me wonder what it’d be like to be a shifter. I’d be stronger, faster, and have superhuman senses. There’d be no more risk of having my memory wiped if I said the wrong thing about shit I’m not supposed to know. Plus, bonus, the creepy cousins wouldn’t want anything to do with me.
Connor yawns, his sharp teeth on full display, and then he settles like he’s ready to take a nap. The solution is so fucking obvious that I can’t believe it’s taken this long for me to think of it. Unlike other types of supernatural beings, humans can be turned into shifters. He’s the alpha now. He can turn me into a wolf.
Practically vibrating with excitement, I blurt, “Con, turn me into a wolf.”
No longer sleepy, he snaps up to his feet faster than should be possible for a creature that size. With narrowed amber eyes, he puts his face right to mine, nose to snout, and growls. My human monkey brain goes into survivor mode, flooding me with adrenaline, and I freeze like a deer seeing its first pair of headlights. He huffs a warm breath, flashes those same sharp teeth, and then walks up the stairs to Nolan’s loft.
“So that’s a no?” I wheeze, my body starting to shake without my permission.
“Yeah, that’s a no,” Donovan supplies, his voice laced with amusement. Apparently, me looking like I’m about to wet myself is funny.
“Use your words next time,” I shout toward the loft.
“He’d have to shift back to do that,” Donovan reminds me with a smirk, “and you have that hang-up about nudity.”
“I don’t have a hang-up about nudity,” I protest, crossing my arms defensively over my chest. “It’s not weird to not want to see your friends naked.”
Ignoring our mini squabble, Kaleb leans back in the recliner, his right foot supported on his left knee. “Why do you want to be a shifter?”
“You mean besides all the cool supernatural abilities?” I state like it should be obvious. “I’d be one of you. No more pretending.”
“No, you’d have new things to lie about while trying to learn to control yourself and your wolf,” Nolan counters, rubbing his temples.
“I lie about who I am to everyone all the time anyways,” I persist, annoyed that they don’t understand how easily this would solve so many of my problems. “And I’d have you guys to help me.”
“We aren’t shifters,” Kaleb points out, his expression sympathetic. “As much as we intellectually understand the shifter community, we have no experience in what it means to exist with a second consciousness that answers only to their instincts. Connor and the pack would be the only ones who could help you.”
“Okay, so they’ll help me,” I reply, still not understanding what the big deal is.
Donovan sighs, turns toward me, and relaxes one arm on the back of the couch. “What he’s pussyfooting around is that you would give up your human life. You’d become part of the pack. Your absolute loyalty would be to the alpha—not yourself, Callie, or us. Right now, that’s Connor, but the shitty reality is, that might not always be true.”
“But Connor was able to go against…” I begin, but my voice trails off when Kaleb shakes his head.
“He’s exceptionally powerful,” he explains in a tone people use when they are trying to let you down easily. Glancing up at the loft, he adds, “And it took most of his life to break the old alpha’s hold.”
“Let’s not skip over the fact that being turned is mind-shatteringly painful, and you’d be treated as a second-class citizen your whole life because you weren’t born a shifter,” Nolan interjects, the heat of anger adding some color to his face. “Felix, don’t you think we would have suggested this by now if we thought it would actually help you?”
“Sam’s Connor’s second, and Connor’s mom is an alpha in her own right,” I remind them, hating how they are shooting down my only chance to be one of them. “And even if the pack wasn’t nice to me, I’d have you guys and Callie. Just like Con always says, we’re pack.”
Donovan drums his fingers against the back of the couch. “Skipping over the mind-shattering pain part, shifters are territorial. Callie is Connor’s mate. She literally carries his scent with her to ward off other wolves. Even if his wolf didn’t rip you to pieces for daring to go near her, what do you think it would do to your wolf, knowing that the girl you love belonged to another?”
“But she doesn’t belong to him,” I counter stubbornly, hunching into myself. “She’s dating all of us, and she wouldn’t treat me differently because I was a shifter. I know she loves me too.”
“Your wolf wouldn’t see it that way,” Nolan explains, his lips pressed tightly together. “Your instincts would always be at war. Every time you’d be with her, it would be a punch to the face that she’s not yours—not like she’s Connor’s. It would drive your wolf insane.” He runs a hand through his hair, gripping it in a tight fist before releasing it. “And if, by some miracle, your wolf made peace with Connor’s, and you two could share Callie, the pack wouldn’t stand for it. He is their alpha, while you would be a lowly turned wolf. If they didn’t kill you outright for the disrespect, they would make your life a living hell.” He holds up a hand before I can try to argue. “Even if you could handle it, what do you think Callie would do to them if she found out you were being mistreated?”
I’ve seen Callie go warrior witch enough times to know that it would be devastating, and the repercussions would be catastrophic. All my fight dries up on my tongue, and I kick my shoes off so I can pull my feet up on the couch. I want to make myself small, but once again, it’s hard to do with this overly muscular form. When I was skinny, I wanted to look like this. Now that I do, all I want to do is go back.
Kaleb looks at me with this crushing understanding, like he can see right through me to the part that feels like an outsider around them. “I know how hard it is to keep secrets around the people you care about. Lying isn’t something that comes natural to you, and that’s a good thing, but being a shifter would only compound that problem. We will help you keep our secrets. You’re not alone in this.”
“It’s more than that.” I deflate into the couch, resting my chin on my knees. “I don’t want to keep living a life that is separate from yours. It was hard enough when I didn’t know the truth.”
Nolan releases a pent-up breath, what anger he had dissipating under the weight of my pathetic state. “I’ve been thinking about that. I have an idea, but it relies on convincing a few people.”
My head jerks toward him, hope building like an inflating balloon in my chest. “What is it?”
