to say, and Eli, while all man, wasn’t like a usual guy. Austin was quite capable of leering at me as I did a two-mile jog with no clothes on. Eli? While I was sure he’d look, he would never hoot or holler at me as I did so.
Austin?
Hell yeah, he’d be down for that.
My lips curved wider at the thought, as did the realization that I genuinely missed him. And Ethan.
But I’d admit, Austin more than Ethan. That totally made me feel shitty, but Kali Sara, I knew why. The second Ethan was mine was the second that I’d be so fucking ready to never be away from any of my mates.
The thought of being with the three of them, however, made me want to purr.
Unfortunately for me, I’d changed, but I hadn’t changed to the point where my she-wolf could suddenly do cat things.
My she-wolf.
Just the thought was a reminder of her wants and needs, and right this second?
She wanted out.
Now.
Right now.
Completely in the dark, and unable to do anything other than obey, I stood up, and without another word, shifted.
I didn’t even want to reply.
I needed to run.
The urge was in me.
Out of nowhere.
Maybe in another place, I’d have questioned why. Would have questioned what was going on, but here and now? I wasn’t questioning anything.
Couldn’t.
The only thing I could do was run.
Run my fucking ass off.
So I did.
And within seconds, I felt the air itself shift as Eli’s wolf made an appearance.
The effect on me was staggering.
It was like, out of nowhere, the place throbbed with an ominous atmosphere, even though I knew Eli would never in a million years hurt me.
I’d been running, not away from him, but running toward the forest behind the pool where I knew Austin had been making weird noises that time before the attack.
Now?
I came to a halt.
I had to.
Eli was so dominant that my she-wolf felt like she was magnetically attached to him.
Though that chafed at my independence, it wasn’t like I had a choice. When he approached me, his muzzle ran all along the side of my body. He scented me, all of me. From my sides to my snout to my butt.
Of course, that was when I ground out, “Back off, bud.”
When his voice connected with me, I sighed with relief, even as I wanted to roll my eyes. “I’m not your bud,” he rumbled, and if he’d been in human form, and I as well, I’d totally have jumped his bones.
Fuck.
That voice?
Alpha.
And while it was enough to make the she-wolf quiver, I was glad when he pushed alongside me, scenting me with him.
I could feel that in the air now.
The way his essence perfumed me like the best aftershave ever.
He nipped at my heel, then barked, “Run free, sweetheart.” It came out as an eager yip in wolf form, but I’d take either command.
He was right too.
There was a sense of freedom that came with each step I took now that I was running with him.
It made me realize what he’d done.
When he’d shifted, he’d pulled some alpha mojo to get me to slow down, to make me stay put.
“Jerk,” I muttered in my head.
He snorted. “Wasn’t about to have you running off into danger, was I?”
I’d have liked to argue about that, but my other mate was still probably feeling the aftereffects of a natural wolf attack back home, so it wasn’t like I could chide him for being a dick.
I huffed, though, and carried on.
Exploring the woods in this form was a revelation.
As a human, it was beautiful. The sky was so mottled with color, it was like looking at the best kind of tapestry, because the strangely rich hues here were so much better in this form.
I felt the wind brushing through my fur, and it scented of me and Eli, but also of honeysuckle. I could smell green verdancy too, and I was overjoyed to note that the temperature in this skin was perfect.
Ambient so that, even though I was running hard through the underbrush, even though Eli and I were sniffing things out amid the different trees and brushes, hunting as it were through the majesty of this place, I didn’t feel overheated.
Eli and I did that for over two hours.
Exploring the land, enjoying its beauty. Wherever we were, be it heaven or some such paradise—with predators waiting in the wings—it was big.
Huge, even.
So expansive that it made me wonder what this place was for when it wasn’t being used by