Addie (Pack of Misfits #1) - Raven Kennedy Page 0,70
is still there. Dammit.
“Alpha, if you let us, we swear that we will prove ourselves to you. And to her,” Lafe puts in.
“Why should I trust the word of a pred who didn’t even have the respect to stay with his newly mated female?” Hugo demands.
“Hugo…” Addie begins, but he cuts her off with a single look.
“You go on now, Aderyn. I need to speak with these three alone,” he tells her.
She cocks a brow. “Are you gonna be nice?” she asks.
“No.”
She blinks at him and then shrugs, like—what can you do?—before wiggling her fingers at us. “Have fun. I’ll go get ready to leave. You can meet me in the warehouse after.”
She turns to leave, and right as we’re all distracted, watching her walk off—okay, fine, we’re watching her ass—Hugo shifts.
Having a huge, two-hundred-fifty pound albino jaguar suddenly in your face is a surefire way to piss your pants.
Lafe nearly trips on his own feet trying to back away, but we’re all too slow to dodge the swipe that the alpha takes at us. All three of us land on our asses, dazed, and look up at his bared teeth and white fur. His spots are faded, and he has scars running down his torso, all the way to his swishing tail. Every inch of him is muscular, and his form radiates alpha power, making us realize just how strong he really is.
“Please don’t maim us,” Lafe tells him from his spot on the ground.
The alpha growls at him.
“Shut up, Lafe,” Herrick snaps, making the alpha then turn and growl at him.
“Both of you shut up,” I tell them, and yep, you guessed it, Hugo then growls at me.
He keeps on growling, letting his power wash over us, and I don’t need shifter hearing to catch the melodic giggle coming from behind us. Yep. That’s Addie laughing at us right now.
When I try to turn around to look at her, his massive paw comes out again and smacks me upside the head and damn. That has some kick to it. I have to shake my head to clear it, and the enforcers standing around smirk and chuckle at our expense.
When the jaguar gets in our faces and snarls some more, all three of us are forced into a shift. Our coyotes come out, immediately bowing in respect to the powerful alpha. The jaguar paces in front of the three of us where we’re crouched on the ground, and when he bites down on my neck, my coyote knows better than to struggle.
This is a pivotal moment for any shifter wanting to join a new pack. Our animals know their place, and they sense Hugo’s power and immediately defer to him. What would be worrying is if our coyotes didn’t submit. That would mean our animals didn’t recognize him as an alpha, and we wouldn’t be able to join his pack.
When Hugo has drawn a little blood on all three of our necks, he roars again, but then swipes his tongue over the marks, and I sigh in relief. By doing that, it means he’s accepted his role as our alpha—he’s accepted us into his pack. Which is pretty fucking surprising, considering I was pretty sure he was about to toss us out on our asses. Hell, we deserve it.
But for some reason, he didn’t. I can already feel the new alpha bond taking over, like a buzz through my skin, and a settled feeling gathers deep in my gut. For shifters, being rogue is not our preferred state. Our animals naturally want to join packs and live together.
I’d forgotten what it felt like to have that alpha-pack bond. Now, it feels like everything has clicked into place inside of my spirit. I belong to a pack again, I have a mate, and everything is connecting together and giving me a sense of belonging and peace.
Hugo roars one last time before shifting back. My coyote looks up at him, and when Hugo walks forward, holding his fingers out to me, my coyote sniffs him tentatively. When he’s done getting his scent signature, he licks Hugo’s fingertips. The alpha pats my coyote’s head, and then moves down the line, doing the same thing to Lafe and Herrick.
When he’s done, Hugo looks down at us. “Shift.”
Our coyotes instantly retreat, and we stand up again, yanking on our dusty jeans and shirts. I swipe at the puncture on my neck from where he bit me, but it’s already healing.