settled his shoulders, and Dorian wondered if he realized they were all waiting to see how the big stranger with the green eyes would react. It was obvious to all of them that Clay was very, very dominant as far as the pack hierarchy was concerned, but working as an effective unit had to do with more than simple strength. If Clay was one of those dominants who couldn’t handle a strong female, then they were going to have a serious problem. Because Mercy wasn’t the only dominant female in DarkRiver.
“I want to learn how to do that,” their new packmate said to Mercy. “Will you teach me?”
Mercy smiled as the rest of them blew out quietly relieved breaths. “Yeah, sure.”
It was strange, but a half hour later, as they ran through the forest, Dorian realized he understood more about being a leopard than Clay did, even though the older boy could shift. It made him wonder what had happened to Clay to make him so close to his leopard—and yet so unaware of how to be a cat in a pack.
He didn’t ask, though; he understood that sometimes, a guy just had to be who he was. Luc, Vaughn, Mercy, Nate—none of them treated Dorian as any different than them. He knew he was different, but his latency no longer made him angry-sad as it had when he’d been a cub. Lachlan had helped him a lot, as had his parents. Then, one freezing night, when he was only six, he’d run and run and run, and somewhere in there, he’d come to a kind of peace with himself.
It still hurt deep inside, and he knew it probably always would, his leopard horribly wounded, but he was a valued member of the pack and that was what mattered.
III
Dorian lay stunned next to the fire with Shaya. He had his head in his mate’s lap and she was using a comb on his damp hair. He’d just have thrust his fingers through the white-blond strands and left it after he took a dip in the nearby stream, but Shaya had offered and he liked it when she petted him, so he was happy to lie here looking up at the brilliant stars above.
“I shifted,” he said, not quite able to believe he’d run through the forest on four feet, the wind rippling through his fur.
“You were beautiful,” Shaya told him again, her own joy a vibrant pulse along the mating bond that linked their hearts to one another. “And so cute.”
“Hey.” He growled, grabbing her hand to nip playfully at it. “I am a DarkRiver sentinel. We aren’t cute.”
Laughing, she bent down and kissed him, her tight curls electric with energy around them. “How about adorable?” she teased before going back to her combing of his hair, the rhythmic motion making him feel lazy and cherished both. “What was it like? When you first found yourself on four feet?”
“Disorienting,” he said, thinking of that first shock after Shaya’s gene therapy had taken sudden, unexpected effect. “You have no idea how difficult it is to coordinate four paws at one time.”
Smile luminous, Shaya put aside the comb and placed one hand on his bare chest, playing with his hair with the other. “I’ve seen the cubs,” she said. “No wonder they’re always tumbling.”
“Yeah.” He felt like a cub himself, was conscious he had so much more to learn. But one thing he knew beyond doubt: “Your voice, telling me to trust the leopard to know what to do—that’s what I needed to hear.” All his life, he’d fought to control his leopard, to restrain it so it wouldn’t claw him bloody in its frustration, wouldn’t drive him insane.
That discipline had given him a life and a strong, trusted position in the pack, but in that moment after the shift, it had also left him alone and lost. “My leopard was waiting, ready,” he said to Shaya, wonder bright in him. “As soon as I surrendered to it, I understood how I needed to balance, how my body was meant to move.” He shuddered out a breath at the glorious memory of freedom. “I know I’m not anywhere near graceful yet, but I don’t care. It feels incredible.”
“I know.” It was a whisper, Shaya’s eyes shining wet in the firelight. “I could feel your joy through our bond.”
Lifting her hand to his mouth again, he pressed his lips to her palm, drawing in the lush, sensual scent of her. Of his smart,