Wolf Marked by Alexis Calder
6
Ace Grant, Tyler’s dad, and our pack’s alpha, was standing outside the barn with a small group of other shifters when we arrived. I quickly found Tyler, Julian, and Marion Reed, my classmate who shared the same birth month. In addition to them, I recognized Marion’s parents and the other shifters present. It was a small town after all, and even if I was an outcast, I still knew everyone’s name.
Jenny Ortega, the high priestess, was the only person in the gathered group smiling at me. She’d always been pleasant with me, but never kind. Of all the adults in town, she was the only one who might have been able to speak up on my behalf and go against the alpha. She never did. To make matters worse, everything I knew about the moon goddess and general shifter religion came from what I read in books. I wasn’t allowed to attend other ceremonies since I wasn’t considered a full wolf. Not that I fought hard against that. Most of my classmates complained about how boring they were. But, it was another one of those things that showed how I didn’t belong.
“Why are you here?” Ace asked as he walked toward me. “I thought you’d be long gone.”
I cocked an eyebrow and turned my gaze to Tyler. “Why am I here, Tyler?”
“She’s a broken wolf, but she’s still pack. She needs to be here for the ceremony,” Tyler said.
“She doesn’t belong here,” Ace said.
“I’m happy to leave right now,” I said.
“What if the curse breaks? What if she shifts? We should know if there’s another shifter out there from our pack,” Tyler said.
Ace narrowed his eyes and seemed to study me for a minute before looking back to his son. “You suspect the spell wore off?”
Tyler shrugged. “You want to risk losing a wolf when we’re on the decline?”
That was news to me. I knew lots of younger wolves chose to leave, but I didn’t know they cared. “You don’t want me and honestly, I’ve never once felt the wolf stir. The curse is solid and I’m an embarrassment. Just let me go.”
“You are mighty anxious to leave, little one,” Ace said.
“Gee, I wonder why? Everyone here has treated me like dirt since birth. You think I want to stick around?”
I ignored the gasps from the onlookers. Sure, I was risking pissing off the strongest wolf here but I was done. And honestly, it wasn’t like he could do much worse to me than his asshole kid had been doing for the last decade.
“You stay. If you don’t shift, you leave and never return.” Ace glared at me as if this was some kind of dark punishment.
“You got it, boss,” I said, with far too much sarcasm in my tone.
Ace’s upper lip twitched, but he turned away from me. I wondered if he figured I wasn’t worth the effort.
It was better that way for all of us. He didn’t want me here and I didn’t want to be here. Tyler was delusional. I peered over at him and caught him looking at me. He turned away quickly and pretended he hadn’t been watching me.
I rolled my eyes and bit back the huff of frustration. Whatever he was playing at, it was successful at pissing me off. That was probably his end game. Beating me up and letting me leave wasn’t enough. He wanted to really torture me. Which meant, make me sit through the dumb ceremony. I supposed he thought I’d be all weepy watching everyone shift when I couldn’t. He didn’t know how glad I was to be getting away from all this. I wanted nothing more than to live a normal, boring, human life.
Standing off to the side, I waited as everyone made small talk and avoided the spot of grass where I was standing. The sun was low in the horizon, painting the sky a gorgeous orange and blue. It was a stunning sunset but I was far too impatient to appreciate it. Come on, moon, rise.
Finally, the sky was dark enough and even I could feel the pull of the moon. It was tiny, but it was there, calling to the wolf buried and bound deep within me. I couldn’t feel the wolf, but I could feel the moon. It was a strange sensation and it made me a little sad. Fighting back, I send the feeling away, sending it deep down inside me. Fuck that. I was about to embark on my journey to be a full human. All of this would be behind me.
“It is time to welcome a new full wolf to our pack. Tonight, we embrace our twin soul, our wolf, and run with our new sister as she begins the bonding process.” Ace was in the middle of the group of shifters. They seemed to gravitate toward him as he spoke about the first shift and its significance.
I wanted nothing to do with any of it. Keeping my distance, I ignored the pretty speeches and applause. Instead, I focused my attention on the moon. Had the magic worked to break me free of this place? In theory, it should, even without a shift. I just wouldn’t know until I crossed out of pack lands.
Someone grabbed my arm and I jumped, returning my attention to the present. Tyler’s large hand gripped my upper arm. I tugged my arm away, trying to free myself from his grip. “Let me go.”
“So you can bolt the moment the spell breaks? I don’t think so.” He pulled me toward the group. “You wait here until everyone has shifted. You don’t leave a moment sooner.”
I knew there was a good chance his wolf would force the shift as soon as he reacted to the others. He was new to this and while he was strong enough to resist the moon, he probably wasn’t strong enough to resist seeing his alpha shift.
Jenny lifted her hands into the air, sending dozens of gold bangles sliding down her wrists and pooling near her elbows. They made a melodic sound as they shifted and moved with her motions. The others were silent, staring at her. Even I found myself more focused on her than Tyler’s grip on my arm.
“The goddess shows us favor this night,” Jenny said. “The wolf born of tonight’s moon will be a powerful force in the universe.”
Marian looked smug and she batted her lashes in Tyler’s direction. I resisted the urge to hurl. Every woman around our age wanted to be the next mate to the alpha. It was enough to make me lose my lunch. Wait. I didn’t eat lunch today. But I still felt sick at the thought of anyone being permanently stuck with Tyler. Nobody deserved that kind of eternal punishment.
“Pack, family, new wolves, it is time to connect with your soul’s twin, your inner form freed.” Jenny lowered her hands. “It is time to shift.”
Whoops and cheers rose from the group and everyone started to strip. I’d been raised around shifters my whole life. I’d seen most of my classmates naked. I still wasn’t a fan of it. Probably because it tended to accompany something awful like gym class or naked tag or gods knew what else. When people started getting naked, it was my queue to leave. I didn’t need to be the only one in human form around a bunch of wolves.
“Go on, then,” Tyler said. “This is your chance to try. See if you can do it.”
“Are you serious?” I stared up at him. In the moonlight, his eyes looked silver and his handsome features were even more stunning. Of course they were. Of course the world’s worst human being would get all the attractive genes.
The sound of breaking bones, cracking and snapping sounded louder than usual in the silence of the evening. I winced, then forced myself to look Tyler in the eye. “Go shift with your family. Leave me be.”
“You don’t belong here,” he hissed.
“Yet, you’re the one delaying my departure,” I replied.
Howls exploded around me, echoing into the starry night sky. They were staggered at first, then came out unified as the pack synched up.
I turned away from Tyler to see that we were the only people in human form. The rest of the members present had shifted. With a single howl, a huge black wolf took off, bolting toward the woods. Ace’s wolf was guiding the others away, into the woods, where they’d run until dawn.
I expected to see all the wolves give chase. I even expected to see Tyler break down and join them. I didn’t expect to see two wolves linger behind, moving closer to me with careful steps.
“Julian, Kyle, nice to see you,” I said. “I suppose you’re stupid enough to follow this asshole around even when you’re in your mutt form.”
The wolves growled at me but didn’t advance. I tugged at my arm again, trying to pull away from Tyler but he held fast. Stupid shifter strength.
“Well, this has been fun, but as you see, I can’t shift. So if you don’t mind, I’m going to leave and never see any of you again.” I tried to pull my arm away again. Tyler’s fingers dug deeper into my arm and it started to hurt. I was going to have new bruises in the morning. “Tyler, you proved your point, now let me go.”
“I would love to let you go, but there’s a problem with that,” he said.
I was out of patience. “I’m done with your games. I get that you won’t have anyone to throw around anymore when I leave, but it’s time to move on. Buy a punching bag, join a gym, take up meditation. Do something else to get out these anger issues.”
“I wish I could. I wish I could do anything else but hold on to you right now. You’re pathetic but I thought just maybe, if you shifted, I could feel something other than disdain for you,” he said.
“Why start now?” I tugged at my arm again, just in case. Still stuck. “Look, we’ve had a good run. Let’s keep hating each other and end it.”
“When I had my first shift, I started feeling the pull but I ignored it. The more I ignored it, the worse it got. I thought for sure, it couldn’t be true. But then, every time I pushed you or hurt you, I felt the pain as if I was abusing myself. Fate is a cruel mistress.” Tyler shook his head.
“What the ever-loving fuck are you talking about?” Tyler had snapped. All these years, I thought he was just hateful. Turns out he was insane. Wonderful. I was so close to getting out of here and the crazy future alpha was going to be my undoing.
“Don’t you get it?” Tyler was screaming at me now.
For the first time since he grabbed me, fear gripped me, making my chest feel tight. I looked over at the two wolves standing next to us, awaiting orders from their leader. If they wanted to take me out, there was nothing I could do to stop them. I didn’t even have a hope of out running them.
“Tyler, please,” I whispered, trying not to rile him up. “Let me go.”
“I know you can’t shift, but I thought for sure you’d feel it. I guess this will make things easier for me to break.” He seemed to be talking to himself rather than me, but his tone was calmer now.
I waited, afraid to say or do anything that might result in my neck being snapped or a wolf’s jaw clamped down around an important artery.
Tyler grabbed hold of my chin, turning it so I was facing him. His eyes seemed to look into my very soul. “You are my mate.”
