Total pages in book: 202
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
“Well, technically I’m only half shifter, babe.”
“Oh,” Stacy breathes. “Right. I guess I didn’t think of that.”
“Mixed supernatural is looked at differently in a lot of places outside Arcana Falls too, I suppose. As for the half-human alpha, not everyone in his pack wanted him in that role, but he earned it. We helped untangle that mess. Anyway, it might become the norm around here to have more and more humans. Tyson’s mated to Mases’s mate’s sister, Ivy. Who knows who Jase, Linc, and Joel will mate with? Shifters, humans, or witches – no telling. Gotta say, love that I get to sit back and watch it happen. Don’t have to keep wondering who I’ll wind up identifying as mine.”
She’s quiet a moment, still holding my hand in both of hers, still examining it.
I wait a few minutes, and finally, she says, “I wish I were better at wolf stuff.”
“Why aren’t you good at wolf stuff? And why do you need to be better?”
“I’m not real good at it from lack of practice. We’re not allowed to shift very often. I’d like to be able to run fast. I hid in the woods and watched you and the other men go for runs together several times and it really made me wish I could do stuff like that.”
“First, I’m glad you weren’t a fast runner. Might’ve been harder to catch you.”
She smiles. “I’m glad you caught me.”
Her expression immediately darkens but instead of asking questions, I kiss her and run my hand up and down her naked hip, then say, “The women in our pack go for group runs, some of them.”
“Oh?” she asks, perking up.
“Sure. Not every day like the council alphas, but I’ve seen groups in the pack do it, including female groups. Some of them like to go late morning and then go for lunch afterwards. Cicely likes running at dusk after she closes the store. She shifts probably every day. Some of the other women don’t do it as often but it’s in our nature, most of us, to shift regularly. You wanna go for a run with me now?”
She blinks in surprise. “Now?”
“You’re in Arcana Falls now, Blossom. You can shift whenever the fuck you want.”
“We can do it now?” Her eyes are lit up. The dimple is back.
I smile. “Sure. Let’s go.”
She bursts from the bed, so I follow my naked mate straight to my front door where she’s bouncing excitedly on the balls of her small feet. I peer outside, see there’s nobody around, but I corral her toward the back door anyway. I don’t want to run into people, don’t care to share her attention with anyone this soon, so I suggest, “How about I show you the Arcana Falls?”
“I heard it’s a big part of why the region is so magical.”
“Don’t know a whole lot of the lore about the magic.” Though I guess I should know, given my Young genetics. Maybe now that I’m getting acquainted with the Young coven, I’ll ask about that. “But it’s a sight to see.”
“Let’s go!”
I open the door, and she shifts as soon as she clears the entrance, sprinting from my back patio toward the woods.
Her wolf is small, like most females, but also a little underweight. Her eyes look a little too large what with the lack of weight. She trots ahead, so I shift, thinking about the fact that even if she hadn’t made it crystal clear that her former pack was dysfunctional, even just the knowledge they didn’t allow her to shift whenever she wants would be a cue the alpha is problematic. Not letting a shifter shift? Unless it’s for safety reasons, this makes no fucking sense for the wellbeing of your pack. A wolf shifter, male or female, alpha, beta, or omega needs to be connected intimately with their wolf and that comes from shifting to and from both forms. If you’re in one form too long, you become disconnected from the other.
Being alpha, if I don’t shift every day, I feel the nudging from my wolf. This is why I shift most days as soon as I’m up. Running. Exercising my wolf is good for my human mind as well as my animal form.
She excitedly drops to her belly at the sight of my wolf and sticks her butt up in the air, pinning ears back and barking excitedly, then jumping, uncoordinated, her tail wagging. She butts my chest with her forehead. We circle, smelling one another, nuzzling each other, and then she jumps on me, pretending to bite just above my right shoulder but licking instead before taking off, running a few feet away, skidding to a halt as she turns and barks again. She wants me to chase her.
Gladly.
I can see she’s trying to pick up speed, but she’s not fast. Since she’s putting effort in, I give her the lead for a while. She makes the mistake of looking back to see how far away I am and stumbles, but quickly recovers and tries to pick up pace again as I pass her. I slow so she can catch up. She’s winded by the time we get near the river, so I trot slowly.