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Theo
“No! I won’t do it!” I yell, throwing the cup I had been drinking at the wall, a brown stain dripping down the light gray paint. Just because I am the second, I won’t give my life up for the pack. It’s not fair of them to ask this of me.
“Theo! It isn’t a request.” James stands before me, arms crossed over his broad chest, his jaw set. Gray eyes identical to my own glare at me.
“You do it if it is so God-awful important!” I growl as I pace, hands clenched at my sides, my wolf pushing to be released. I want to throw myself at my brother, my twin- fight him for control of my life and the pack. The only thing stopping me is the other person in the room. At the first hint of violence, I know she won’t hesitate to wade in and separate us, just as she has done for the past thirty-three years.
“Theo,” her soft voice pleads. “You know James can’t do it. He has already mated; you are our only hope at an alliance.”
Hurt and censure flash through me before I look at her defiantly. “Yes, and look how that turned out, Mother! You and father demanded he marry for the pack, instead of love.” I bite out through gritted teeth. My wolf is pushing to be released, to deal with this in a physical way. The idea of marrying for duty rubs both of us the wrong way.
“Yes, and we are stronger for it, even if it didn’t work out between them.” Mother stands up, her four-foot eleven-inch frame slender, but vibrating with the anger. “Our lives are not always our own to live. The alliances are important and we all must do our duty.”
“Mother...”
“Don’t “mother” me. I did my duty by marrying your father and everything worked out wonderfully, God rest his soul. You will marry Brittany and that is final.” She holds my gaze until I look away, then leaves the room, head held high like the queen she is.
“James...” I turn to try and plead with my brother. But before he speaks I know his answer.
“No, Theo. I can’t step in on this. It is the only way we will be able to keep the alliance. Angie and I weren’t right together and everyone sees that. I am paying for it, literally. But she is powerful, and her family holds the eastern packs.”
“So, you two are going to throw her sister and me at each other in hopes we get it right where you couldn’t?” Bitterness laces my voice. “What makes you think we can do any better? Then, what? Will you throw Jennika and Amber at the other packs when they reach maturity?”
James shifts his stance, his hand running over his buzzed head, a sure sign of his frustrations. I don’t wait for him to respond, not wanting to hear his excuses for throwing my life to the wolves. “Never mind. Forget I asked.”
As I stomp through the Lodge, the few pack members I pass cower from my anger. Slamming the door behind me, I jump into my truck, hitting the gas so hard that gravel sprays the yard. I can hear Tristan yelling my name, but don’t care. I have to get away from here, away from the responsibilities and to the only place that I am truly free.
***
RUN! FREE! The leaves swirl under my paws as I run, the wind whistling through my fur. The freedom found in the woods is something I wish I could bottle up. Every scent is magnified, every sound more distinct. Here my wolf doesn’t care about the pack’s human needs; it is all about freedom. Maybe it would be better to run, to stay in my wolf form and lose myself in the northern wilderness.
Shaking my fur out, the wolf rips control away again and all that matters is the pounding of my paws on the packed dirt. The faint smell of a deer has me salivating as I chase after it. But then another scent grabs my attention.
Squirrel, no not squirrel. New! Different!
I stop running and start sniffing the ground, tracking the smell as my human brain starts cataloging what my wolf is seeing and smelling. This has never been in the forest,⸺it doesn’t belong. Bunny? Bug? Human?
Nose to the ground, I push into the overgrowth alongside the trail, revealing a small hole in a tree. Pushing my nose in, I try to find the new smell, only to jump back in pain as three fiery lines flair on my nose.
Shifting to human form, the cool air reminding me that I am naked as a jaybird, I try again more cautiously, this time using my hands to separate the vegetation. There! In the back of the tree, I can just make out the shape of a furry...cat?
“Hey there,” I say soothingly as I reach in. “I won’t hurt you. Come here.” Slowly my hands get close enough to touch the cat, who hisses, arching her back and then launching herself at my hands, biting down with two sharp teeth.
“Ouch!” I yell, jerking my hand back to see two fang marks, like a miniature vampire bite. “Why did you do that? Here I am trying to save you and you bite me! Don’t you know that there are dangerous animals out here? Things that would hurt a little thing like you.”
While talking, I reach my hands in again, this time trying to make sure that they are well out of biting range. Quickly I grab the furry animal and pull her out, almost dropping her in shock.
“What are you?” Horror fills me at what I hold in my hands: a creature out of someone’s imagination. Fluffy blue fur covers the animal, soft as the softest angora sweater. Long, wide ears sprout from the top of her head, with soft pink inners, two moth-like wings sprout from her back and three arms extend from each side of her body, similar to those found on a caterpillar. To finish it off, a long fluffy tail swishes in irritation. She is almost cute, except for the two fang-like teeth that protrude from her upper lip. These must have been the cause of the puncture marks on my hand. About the size of a large cat, she fills my arms.
She, I don’t know why I think it is a girl, but I do, trembles in my hands, cowering in fear. I rub my hand gently down her back. I take a long sniff, trying to figure out what she is. The scent of chemicals and human and something else hits my nose.
“Shh, little one. You’re safe.” The ground shakes as the sound of paws pounding the ground comes closer, causing the bunnymoth creation to try to scramble from my arms, which I tighten around her. “Don’t worry. That is just my pack. They won’t hurt you.” The creature struggles to get out of my arms, causing me to tighten them. I can’t let her get away. I don’t know what she is, but she smells almost human.
Four wolves skid to a stop inches from me. I knew that they were here, keeping an eye on me. Probably sent by James to bring me back, but none of them would approach me until they could sense my anger wasn’t going to be lashed out at them.
The largest of them pushes his brown nose into the side of the creature then pulls back shaking his head and snorting. I half wish I could talk with them in my human form, but we can only talk pack when shifted, and if I know them at all they won’t shift until we are back at the cars. We are deadlier in our shifter form than our human form and with something new and unexpected in our forest, they will be on high alert.
“She isn’t right, I know. I think she might be human somehow.” I tell him. He pushes his nose towards her again, but she gets an arm out from under me and swats his nose, causing him to yelp and jump back. “Tristan, I think she is telling you to mind your manners.”
The little bunnymoth shifts her body as if getting comfortable on a throne, her head raised. If she was in her human form, I would think her eyebrow was cocked as if to say, “you dare?”
“Pretty proud of yourself, aren’t you? Hurting the poor wolfie’s nose. Don’t you think you should say sorry? He just wanted to sense what you are.” I admonish her, rubbing my hand down her soft back.
She looks up at me and shakes her head.
“Oh, so you can understand me?” She looks down at the forest floor. “So why the show of fear? Why attack me?”
She doesn’t respond but I can feel her body shaking.
“How long have you been in this form?” She shakes her head. “Can you shift to your human form?” Again, she shakes her head.
I focus on her, putting a strong mental command behind my words, “Shift!” Nothing happens. I try again, but it is like my will hits a wall and falls flat.
I look to my pack who are all quietly watching, I can force each and every one of them to shift. In fact, I can see them trembling, trying to resist the call to shift, but this little bunnymoth won’t or can’t obey.
“We need James,” I mutter. The wolves just look at me, “Yeah, I know he is back at the Lodge and I have no desire to go back there. But we can’t leave her here, so she is coming with us.” One by one the pack looks at me, bows and turns away. Tristan is the only one left watching me.
“It’s not safe for her here,” I tell Tristan. He shakes his head and nuzzles the tattoo on my wrist. I look down at the crescent moon with a wolf howling, a B etched into the moon, a reminder that I am a Beta and not an Alpha. “I know, but what can I do? We leave her here to be killed by a wild animal, found by some shifter who will use her- or worse, the animals that made her into this?” I realize that the creature has become dead weight in my arms. Looking down I see the steady rise and fall of her chest, her eyes closed.
I start the long walk back towards the truck and civilization, Tristan at my side.