Wolf, Shifted by Rebecca Ethington
Asher
“Ash,”Dax’s hand wrapped around my forearm, pulling me back to where Peyton was. “Let’s go the long way.”
Dax gave me the look that I knew all too well, it had been one he had given me every time we were about to do something genuinely stupid. Jump off a cliff into the quarry. Steal my dad’s truck. Drive to the next pack over looking for females.
Every one of those adventures started and ended with that look.
I had sent Dax out earlier that day to do some surveillance and get to work on his ‘map’ of the estate. It had all been part of our plan in case we needed to get out of there quickly. I had no idea what Greyson had planned, and I wanted to be prepared.
The presence of that female had definitely made this more complicated, which is why I had also asked Dax to find her while he was out doing his recon.
Clearly he had found something. I pulled down the jacket of my tux, smoothing the fabric as I leaned into my beta who was now grinning.
“What’s so exciting about the long way?” I whispered conspiratorially low, already following him down the hall. “Did you find her?”
He shook his head, glancing at Peyton who was watching us intently. I hadn’t told her what I had felt the other day, about the girl Greyson’s beta had dragged out of the car. I still wasn’t sure what it was.
Well, that was a lie. I knew what the feeling was, but I wasn’t sure-sure. Hard to be sure of anything when you feel the prickling need of a mating bond from only seeing the top of someone's head.
“No girl. But I did find Grey’s suite. He put us on the same floor.”
Of course he did. This guy couldn’t help but posture us. My wolf liked that. Hell, I liked that.
“Not like he was hard to find,” Dax continued as he led us past the wide staircase that would have taken us to the fancy dinner we were all supposed to be attending. “I had his scent in my nose thanks to the territorial pissing match you two are in.”
“I haven’t even met the guy, how can I already be in a pissing match?” I said it as innocently as I could, even as I grinned in smug victory.
Greyson Dillon was threatened by me. Me. A twenty-four year old alpha he had never met. There was something wonderful about that. Well, it would have been wonderful if I wasn’t supposed to submit to the guy. Made me wonder how all the other Alphas had managed it. I just wanted to rip his throat out.
“You two are going to get me in trouble, aren’t you?” Peyton’s shoes tapped as she caught up to us, pulling us both to a stop in the middle of the wide hall.
“Yes, which is exactly why you should go to the dinner without us.” I turned to her, gave her a wide grin and pushed a piece of hair that had come loose behind her ear. She promptly put her hands on her hips and fixed me with the puppy dog pout she had perfected when she was four and learning how to get anything she wanted out of her big brother.
“You are going to make me go to that dinner unescorted?”
“Like that’s ever stopped you before. You can’t possibly expect me to believe that you, Peyton Williams, don’t have the confidence of a runaway steam engine.” She couldn’t help but smile at that. She knew I was right.
“It’ll cause a sensation if you aren’t there, Asher.”
“Oh, I’ll be there.” I grinned, running my hand through my hair as I stepped back and smiled. “I’ll just be later. Later than Greyson. Later than everyone. Trust me, after my entrance no one will remember your solo entrance or Mr. Greyson Dillon.”
My wolf was a smug bastard, but so was I.
“Hey Ash,” Dax said, flinging his arm over my shoulder as Peyton rolled her eyes at me, “your Alpha is showing again.”
I shoved Dax off of me and stepped toward my sister. I may restrain my wolf when needed while we were here, but they both knew that wasn’t going to be a possibility all the time. I wasn’t even sure I was going to be able to submit to Greyson when the time came. He wasn’t making it easy with all of his power plays.
“Go to dinner, Pey, we will be there in a few.” I kissed her forehead and turned without another word, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to disobey me anyway.
“Love you, Asher,” Peyton called after me. I just waved my hand and turned the corner, following Dax into what was clearly a closed off wing of the house.
Lesser wolves milled around here, all of them looking at us with interest, even as Dax began to loudly exclaim just how lost and late we were to the dinner. Thankfully none of them tried to give us directions. If anything, they backed away from me, eyes down as I passed them.
“Asher.”
“Don’t start, Dax,” I hissed, as he pulled us to a stop. The long burgundy hallway looked like something that would be in a casino. “I’m not going to pretend to be something I’m not.”
Dax gave me a look, but luckily didn’t say anything. My wolf was already on high alert with the foul scent of musk that drenched this hallway. It wasn’t even the moss and rot smell that I associated with Greyson, either, it was the heavy musk I had smelled from Hank the other day, and something else I couldn’t place.
My stomach dropped to my toes when I recognized it. The spice of magic. A witch.
There was a witch in this hall.
My wolf flooded my senses, every smell heightening as my vision perfected itself and my teeth and nails lengthened ever so slightly. My wolf was ready to shift at a moment’s notice. Witches were dangerous, and worse yet, working with witches was forbidden. Same with vampires. It seemed as though Mr. High Alpha didn’t take those rules too seriously.
“Asher? What is—?” Dax’s question was cut off by a shriek that echoed down the hall, the woman’s voice low and threatening and sending every single nerve ending in my body into a prickle of energy. I thought I was close to a shift before, but now my wolf was damn near ready to explode out of me.
“When are you fur bags ever going to realize I am not interested?” My mouth filled with saliva as she yelled, the sound mixing with the squeak of tennis shoes.
“Yes, we’ve heard. We’ve also told you that Mr. Dillon is not here to bed you. He just wants to meet you,” a sugar sweet voice replied, although that one I knew. Kat. I met her yesterday when she brought me the welcome gift from Grey. A basket of dog treats.
“Yeah, I’m sure. I mean, that’s clearly why he kidnapped me and locked me up and—”
“Silence, female,” a male wolf boomed, cutting her off as the sound of their feet grew closer. The smell of lavender and rain hit me like a sucker punch to my gut. That same feeling from the day before washed over me; I was pretty sure I forgot how to fucking breathe, or even think clearly.
My wolf whimpered, need and desire flaring with a possessive growl that sent me stepping forward. Dax barely caught me before I lunged at the trio who walked right before us, their hall intersecting with ours as they dragged the woman I had seen from the window toward the door that was Greyson Dillon’s.
Fuck. They had her, her hands zip tied behind her as they took her right to him. They couldn’t treat her that way…
Dax jerked me back again as they passed us. The girl scowled at them, the golden glare of her wolf sharp as it flicked from Hank to me for a half a second before she was gone, dragged to the door that was already opening.
Mate.
My wolf’s voice was loud in my ears. The growl echoing over the hall as my need to protect her screamed in my ears and I damn near lunged out of the hall and to her. Whoever she was.
I was ready to rip Hank and Kat off her and carry her out of this place like the Alpha claiming his prize. His mate. Because that’s what she was. She was mine.
Mine.
“That’s better,” the male that I now recognized as Hank said just before the door closed.
“Screw it.” I lunged for the door, Dax barely catching me before he dragged me back down the hall, practically flinging me against the door on the opposite hall.
“What the hell is wrong with you,” I snarled, trying to push against him. Dax just slammed me against the wall harder.
“Wrong with me? Damn it, man! You were about to challenge the High Alpha.”
“Like hell I was!” I pushed against Dax again, but he just came right back. He didn’t even blink as my Alpha snarled at him. “That was the girl. The girl from the window.”
Dax’s eyes darkened, his hold on me loosening as he looked down the hall we had just come from, to the now silent hall and the room the girl had been taken into.
“That’s the girl. The prisoner they just dragged into Grey’s apartments?”
I nodded. “She’s my mate.”
There was something about saying it out loud. My wolf howled in my head at the word, at the claim I was placing on her. We had smelled her, and with one look, her eyes against mine, he knew. I knew. She was mine. My female. And she had just been taken to Grey…
“Are you sure?” Dax asked, sending my wolf snarling loud enough that even Dax could hear. “Okay, fine, you are sure.”
“I need to go get her. Claim her.” Damn. I had been warned that the mating instinct when a wolf, especially an Alpha wolf, found his fated mate was strong, but this was ridiculous.
“You can’t barge your way into Grey’s rooms and take the female he clearly asked to be brought to him, Asher.”
“Brought to him?” The words were acid on my tongue.
“Yes,” Dax hissed, leaning into me and holding me against the wall. “Didn’t you hear her? They kidnapped her—”
He couldn’t even finish over the growl that was echoing from my chest.
“Ash, you know why we are here. I’m glad you found your mate. Overjoyed. Seriously.” I bared my teeth, he sure didn’t sound overjoyed, but he continued on before I could get a word in. “But you cannot go in there and try to claim her. He would see it as a challenge. Challenging him now…” Dax clicked his tongue and shook his head. He didn’t really need to say more than that.
“Then how do I get her?”
“We will get her, Ash, but if you don’t play this right you are only giving him a reason to kill you, and probably her, faster.”
“Damn it!” I knew he was right, my wolf knew he was right. As much as I wanted to race in there and take her, I couldn’t. Everything about this visit needed to go perfectly if we wanted to get out of here alive, and finding her… finding my fated mate… was a rather large complication.
I finally pushed Dax away, my beta letting me go as I paced over the maroon carpet, my eyes continually darting down the hallway, towards her. I could still smell her, I could still feel the need to race to her.
Claim her.
I shook my head and forced myself away from the hall. I could fight it. I would have to.
“Okay, you’re right, but I am not leaving her when we leave here.” I said, Dax submitting again at the growl in my voice.
“What do you want me to do, Alpha?”
“First, we need to find out everything about her, and I need to get her away from that bastard before Greyson does something that he will seriously regret.”