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THERE WAS NO NEED TO test Raina’s shooting or combat skills, since she didn’t possess either talent. While she used magic for self-defense, she didn’t like using it to hurt people. My mate was a healer rather than a fighter, but she was interested in learning how to pick pockets. The girls took her shopping for clothes, which made them all bond a bit more.
We didn’t have any new missions during the next couple of weeks. It felt like a lull before a storm that was brewing somewhere over the horizon. An oppressive sense of doom hovered over us. I couldn’t shake the sense that something bad was going to happen soon. We couldn’t rest easy with Killion and the witch still out there somewhere.
Summer had vanished and fall was making itself known. The leaves were beginning to change color and it was growing cooler with each day that passed. Fallen leaves crunched beneath our feet as we made our way towards our enclosures when the full moon came around.
Freya and Raina were both nervous about shifting around others, but they had nothing to fear. Neither Nick nor I would ever attack each other’s mates. Even if we hadn’t been separated from the rest of the team by electrified fences, I was pretty sure a war wouldn’t have broken out. Alex was the glue that held our strange pack together. She brokered peace just by existing.
Speaking of my sister, she branched off first, with Ike and Yas escorting her. The rest of us split off, then it was just my mate, my brother and the Viking left.
“Are you sure I won’t try to kill Liam and Raina?” Freya asked.
“I’m sure,” Nick said confidently as he scanned his hand to cut the electricity to our pen. “Our zombies will take us to Jax’s enclosure if anything goes wrong,” he added when she frowned doubtfully.
“It’ll be fine,” I said to both women, then closed the gate behind me and scanned my hand to bring the power back on. “Ike will stand guard and the herd are ready to act. Crowmon and Yas will call Uncle Mark and he can bring our parents here to control us if they need to.”
“The supreme alphas can make us behave if we don’t get along,” Raina agreed in relief.
I could see they were still nervous, so I drew my mate away from Nick and Freya. The moon was close to ascending, so we stripped naked. We put our clothes in the hollow of a tree, since the plastic box was near the entrance. Holding hands, we waited for our transformation to begin.
It was always painful to change into my werewolf form. Human thought was left behind as black fur sprouted from me and my bones snapped and were reformed. Dropping to our hands and knees, my mate and I finished our change in tandem.
Unlike me, my mate’s fur was silver that was streaked with amber. I howled in joy that I’d found my true mate and she howled with me. My twin had also found his mate. They both yipped and bayed at the moon, celebrating their union.
Great, the female cougar said dourly. Now there’s an entire pack of wolves living here.
At least they aren’t fighting, her tiger crossbreed mate said sardonically.
Our entire territory is going to smell like dog pee, the gigantic cobra-headed wereconstrictor complained. Her mate wasn’t linked to our minds, but I could sense his presence.
How did I get here, my mate asked in happy bewilderment.
I was wondering the same thing, my brother’s mate added.
Our humans are to blame, my twin figured. For once, I’m happy with their meddling.
I had to agree. Due to their machinations, we both now had our mates. Everyone was overjoyed that we’d somehow discovered our other halves.
Not everyone, my little sister said sorrowfully. I was the first to find my mate, but he’s being kept in a cage far away from here. I don’t think he’s ever coming back.
She howled in misery and my brother and I joined her. Our mates took up our sad song, baying at the uncaring moon that glowed brightly above us. The felines and snakes added their yowls and hisses of commiseration as if we truly were all a pack. It blended into a musical cacophony that lasted for several long minutes.
My sister’s howls finally came to an end, but her misery remained. She trudged off to hunt, knowing it wouldn’t do any good to starve herself. She was far stronger than she realized to be able to go on without her soulmate at her side.
We need to reunite her with her mate, my own mate said sadly.
We would if we could, I said. Our humans don’t want them to be together, but we don’t know why. If we were to bring him here, they would only take him away again. That would end up hurting my sibling even more.
Feeling frustrated and helpless, we were subdued as we all went hunting for food.
For three nights, we ate, slept and occasionally howled mournfully at the moon as if punishing it for my sister’s pain. It was a relief to go to sleep shortly before dawn on the third night. My human could take up the burden of sorrow that was weighing me down.
I was semi-awake when I changed back into my human form. Raina was nestled against me, deeply asleep. I watched the last traces of her fur fade and her features settle back to normal. Sorrow rested heavily inside me and I wondered what had happened while we’d been in our werewolf forms.
Worry had me kissing Raina awake. Her eyes snapped open and she smiled at me, then sensed my concern. “We should check on the others,” she murmured, picking up on my thoughts.
We hurried to the tree where we’d left our clothes to find Delta and Kappa waiting for us. They seemed calm rather than anxious as we got dressed. We tucked our mice into our pockets, then met Nick and Freya at the gate.
“Did something happen?” Nick asked with a frown.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “You feel it, too?”
He nodded and rubbed his chest. “I woke up feeling like someone close to me had died,” he said with a grimace.
“No one died,” Ike said after he emerged from the ground in front of us. “Nothing much happened, except you howled a lot. It seemed like you were sad for Alex because she’s the only one who doesn’t have a mate.”
We exchanged worried looks, then sprinted to my sister’s enclosure. She looked at us in surprise when we skidded to a stop. “What’s wrong?” she asked. Emma was perched on her shoulder like a furry little sentinel.
“Nothing, I guess,” I said with a strained smile. “Did Em tell you we howled a lot?”
She nodded and forced a smile to her face. “She said we were really annoying.”
Syd, Harlan, Brynn and Gedniah trotted into view a few seconds later. “Is anything wrong?” Syd asked. “We all felt awful when we woke up.”
“Gedniah said we were making a racket,” Brynn added.
“It’s because my wolf was sad that she doesn’t have a mate of her own,” Alex said, no doubt scanning that from one of the zombies. “Sorry,” she added with a sheepish shrug.
“It can’t be easy being the only single shifter left in the squad,” Syd said and slung her arm over her shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll find your mate,” she added almost grimly.
“Hurry up and get your butts in here!” Yas shouted from the back door. “Your breakfast is getting cold!”
For once, Uncle Mark hadn’t shown up to check on us. He knew Raina and Freya would fit into our pack seamlessly, since they were both hybrid werewolves. We obediently headed inside to wash up before sitting down to eat.
Crowmon, Yas and Ike had cooked up a feast and we devoured it like starving animals. Alex was quiet and subdued, but that was normal for her after the full moon. Emma sat on her lap during breakfast rather than sitting with Yas and the jester in the living room. The squirrel seemed to sense my sister’s unhappiness.
I headed up to the coms room once we’d cleaned up the mess. Nick followed me, but our mates stayed down below, knowing we wanted a few minutes alone. “Let’s take a look at what our mates look like,” I said and called up the footage that had been taken during the past three nights.
It came as no surprise to see Freya’s fur was jet black, but we both gaped at Nick’s fur. It was no longer silver and was just as black as his mate’s. “We’ve all got black fur now,” he marveled.
“If Yas was a shifter hybrid, she’d be black, too,” I figured. All shifters who had a strong amount of vampire in them had black fur when they transformed.
“Look at Raina,” Nick said in awe. “Her fur is beautiful.” It was mostly silver, but had amber streaks through it.
“She looks a bit like a tiger,” I said in wonder. To me, she was beautiful in both forms. Picking up on that thought, she blew me a mental kiss.
Nick saw me smile and nudged at me with his mind. I let him in so we could talk privately. I’m sorry for being so jealous of you my whole life. I know you didn’t ask to be born first and to be the favorite.
I couldn’t hide my surprise at that assumption. I always felt like you were the favorite, I said. I was raised to be a leader and never felt like our parents loved me as much as they loved you. I was jealous of you for that.
He looked at me in astonishment, then hugged me so hard that he almost cracked my ribs. “We were both idiots,” he said. “Our parents love us equally.”
We were both on the verge of tears, but manfully willed them away. We would always have our twin bond, but we now had mates who were more important to us than anyone else in our lives.
Alex has four siblings rather than two now, Nick said. We both looked down through the window to see our sister staring blankly at the TV.
Raina and Freya will help us do whatever we can to help her, I added. Our mates looked up at us, picking up on our thoughts. They nodded in tandem as if they were twins as well.
Alex had grown up thinking she didn’t have a family, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. She had an entire pack of hybrids and crossbreeds as her family. We would do everything we could to save my sister from the terrible fate that we could all sense was coming for her.
