“They were right. You do look like your mother.”
Talk about having a bad day. Sara sighed and stepped forward to face the leader. She wasn’t the tallest, but clearly she ran these females.
“She killed my sister. Now I’m going to kill you,” the woman stated simply. “I’d hoped to do it long ago, but that bitch grandmother of yours moved like lightning.”
“Then let’s end it.” Sara was so tired of the bullshit. “Here. Now. Anything to get you to shut the fuck up.”
The woman hissed her displeasure and Sara snarled in return, her lips pulling back over her growing canines.
Then the bitch’s hand wrapped around Sara’s throat, dragging her close. Sara grabbed at the hand cutting off her oxygen as panic swept through her. Panic, fear and anger. Definitely anger. The female leaned in and sniffed her. “How sweet. Just turned. Just marked.” A tongue that should not have been able to fit in the woman’s mouth lashed out and swiped up the entire side of Sara’s scarred face. It wasn’t really wet, but dry and painful where it touched. “I bet he’ll miss you when you’re gone.” Then she lifted Sara off the floor and tossed her across the room and through the closed glass window.
Zach skid to a halt in front of Sara’s porch, Conall practically slamming into the back of him. He watched her body flying toward the window and his mind howled in anger and pain. He was going to lose her. Lose the only woman he liked much less loved. But as Sara’s body cleared the glass, he watched her change. Her limbs smoothly shifted to hind and front legs, her hands and feet into paws, black hair spreading over her body. To finish, her beautiful face elongated into a muzzle and snapping jaws.
Then she hit the porch, bounced and flipped off it, sliding across the grass in front of her house and coming to a halt when she slid right into Zach’s long front legs.
Like that she’d shifted, officially becoming one of them. One of the Pack. But this was her first shift, and she’d need time to come to terms with it. Time to learn to use her new body. Time none of them had.
Sara felt her body go through the window. Felt the glass shredding her clothes, tearing her flesh. She briefly wondered how long she could fight if she lost a lot of blood.
She hit the porch, bounced once, and flipped off it into the air. Then she felt grass and dirt against her body as she slid into Zach. He wasn’t the Zach she was used to seeing. He was the wolf she’d set up on her couch. The wolf that possessively watched her from the woods. How did she know the wolf and the man were the same? Easy. She recognized those beautiful eyes. Those beautiful hazel eyes. If she’d seen them last night, she would have known it was him. No one else had eyes like that.
The cats were coming closer. She could smell them and hear them moving, surrounding her and the Pack. Quickly, she scrambled up on all fours, ready to fight.
It took her a good five seconds to realize she was no longer human. She realized she’d shifted when she went through the window. That explained why she’d bounced so easily from the porch. She shook herself out of her clothes as the power of the wolf coursed through her new body. The strength of centuries of breeding and the lust for the hunt and the kill. She turned to the beast behind her father’s death. A golden lioness stood on her porch and roared in rage. Sara realized that as a lion, the bitch was huge.
All the cats were. She stared in awe at their size and beauty and tried to figure out how, exactly, she and Zach were going to fight animals weighing a good three-hundred to four-hundred pounds more then any of her Pack did? Then she felt Zach brush up against her. She felt his strength. His power. His utter confidence in her. Confidence in the psychotic bitch he’d come to love.
He was right. She was a psychotic bitch. And these heifers had murdered her father. She would probably get herself killed today, but she would hurt, maim and kill as many of them as she possibly could first.
She turned to face them, her lips peeling back to bare her teeth, a snarl angrily forced out of her. And that’s when they burst out of the woods—thirty-strong. Marrec and his Pack. People she’d known most of her life. She knew each one even as wolves. Jake. Fogle. Lana from the hair salon, and so many more. She recognized their scent. The rest? True wolves. Wolves and descendents of wolves that had watched over her since she was a child.
Sara turned back to the lioness. Things had just evened up a bit. And being the psychotic bitch she was, she charged her head-on. The lioness let out a roar that shook the trees and went up on her hind legs, but Sara kept coming. She collided with the female, clamping her jaw around the beast’s throat. Three of her Pack joined her. Two went for the cat’s groin while the other wolf gripped the lion’s head in her mouth. They all bit down and wouldn’t let go. Even as the lioness fought for her life, Sara still wouldn’t release her. Big paws clawed at Sara, tearing her fur-covered flesh. She simply ignored the pain and the blood she felt running down her side and muzzle. Instead she dug her teeth in deeper and, using all her new-found strength, yanked out the bitch’s throat. Sara stood back to watch the lioness struggle to get back on her feet. But blood gushed from her wounds and eventually she stopped fighting.
Sara spit out the remains of the lioness and turned to see Zach, Conall and Yates dispatching one male. Marrec and six of his Pack were fighting another. The full-blooded wolves had taken on two male lions. Her Pack had taken on another female.
Two more females came at her, so Sara tore down the steps of her porch and slammed headfirst into one of them. The two bounced off each other into opposite corners. The other lioness was slower and became the tragic victim of a white pickup truck driven by a crazy Latina.
Angelina hit the brakes, violently turning the steering wheel so the truck spun out. The side of the two-ton vehicle hit the lioness and knocked her across the temporary battlefield. Miki leaned out the window, Angelina’s shotgun in her hands. Sara watched that expression of cool detachment Miki always got when hunting. Mik pulled the trigger once and the beast gave a pained roar, landing in a heap, a large part of its skull gone. Sara saw that classic Miki smile and knew her friends were as much predators as she was.
Assured her two friends could handle themselves, Sara turned back to see the last female scramble to her big feet. She roared out in anger and frustration. And when she did, Sara attacked, wrapping her maw around the back of the lion’s neck and twisting the beast around so they both hit the ground. Then Zach was there beside Sara, grabbing the lion’s throat, Conall took hold of the beast’s rear right leg. Marrec grabbed the rear left. Casey, Yates and Julie all took a firm grip on exposed flesh. Zach crushed the lion’s windpipe and as it struggled to breathe, they all tore her to pieces.
Sara released the animal and trotted over to Miki and Angelina. They looked down at her, but their eyes widened. At first Sara thought they were simply afraid of her as wolf. But she quickly realized she was freezing cold and shaking. Looking down at her crouching form, she saw blood-and-dirt-covered skin. She’d changed back.
“Oh, honey.” Angelina reached into the truck and pulled out a blanket.
“I’ll take it.” Zach, now human, took the blanket and moved toward Sara.
“Dude, some clothes!” Miki, the entire left side of her face already black and blue from the punch, turned away to look at the truck, the ground, anything but her friend’s naked boyfriend. Then Miki saw Casey prance by with her muzzle wrapped around a hunk of lion leg. “Okay. You people are killing me!” She rubbed her eyes with balled fists as Angelina put her arm around Miki’s shoulders and tried not to laugh.
Zach crouched beside Sara, wrapping the blanket around her.
“Zach, I’m so cold.” She barely got that out, her teeth were chattering so hard.
“Don’t worry, baby, it’s normal. It’s your first change. It’s to be expected.”
Sara still grinned. “My first change? You mean I’ve popped my change-cherry?”
Zach looked at her and started laughing. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. If you’re tacky enough
to say that.”
He picked Sara up in his arms and held her close, making sure the blanket was tight around her.
“Clothes! You people need clothes!” Sara peeked over Zach’s shoulder to see a naked Conall standing behind them and in front of a clearly disturbed Miki. Considering she’s just taken out a three-hundred-pound animal with one shot, you’d think she’d handle the naked thing a little better.
“Go on,” Conall said to Zach. “We’ll take care of cleaning this up. You take care of her.”
Zach nodded and walked into the house, Sara’s head resting against his shoulder.
Within minutes, Zach had Sara in a hot bath. He washed the blood off her face and out of her hair. Cleaned her wounds and gently licked the ones on her neck, face and shoulder. Then he dried her off with a big towel and carried her to bed. Laying down next to her, Zach pulled her to him, resting her head on his chest, his arms tightly wrapped around her long body. He nuzzled her, rubbed his nose against her wet hair and kissed her forehead. Sara sighed once and in a few seconds she was asleep.
It was early morning when she woke him, her naked body stretched out on top of his. Her lips moving along his neck and her hands sliding down his waist.
Zach took her head in his hands and turned her to look at him. To be blunt, she was all fucked up from the previous night’s fight—her left eye black and blue, a deep wound on her neck, a vicious cut across the bridge of her nose. She is so hot, he thought. And she was glowing. Clearly she took after her mother more than any of them realized. She was all about the hunt.
“Okay, what? What are you staring at? Is there a bug on me?”
He wanted to tell her. Tell her he loved her. Tell her she was his mate and that together they would rule the Magnus Pack. He really wanted to tell her.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” he finally said and her eyes immediately narrowed with suspicion. “Nothing bad,” he added hurriedly. “I don’t think.”
She pushed herself off him and sat at the other end of the bed. “Well?”
He cleared his throat. “Um…see, after yesterday…you know, you’ve kind of…well, you’ve kind of established yourself as the dominant female…which kind of means…that…uh…” She continued to stare at him. Okay. So she wasn’t going to make this easy. “You see, it’s just that…for the Pack it’s all about…um…and for me…you know…” Why was this so hard? Maybe it was the way she watched him, her arms crossed in front of her breasts. “Uh…”
Then her phone went off. Sara held up a finger. “Hold that thought.”
She easily swung herself off the bed and grabbed the phone from the top of the TV. “Hello? Hey, Mik. Whasup? You doin’ okay? How’s your face today?” Sara flopped stomach-down across the bed. Zach stared at that delectable ass and became completely lost, forgetting what he’d been talking about. Who she was talking to. He forgot his own name. He forgot all of it. “Good. Me? I’m doin’ just fine. Just waiting for Zach to quit dancin’ around the bush and tell me he loves me.” Zach was startled but couldn’t tear his eyes away from her ass. “Not that bush, you perv. Anyway, it’s taking him an hour and a day and I’m running out of patience.” Sara’s legs lazily moved front to back, her breasts barely touching the sheets, her chin tucked into the palm of one hand while the other held the phone to her ear. “That’s a good idea. Hold on.” She looked at Zach. “Would it help if I told you I loved you first?”
Zach didn’t know what to say. Hell, he was still staring at her ass, so he sort of nodded. Sort of.
Sara went back to the phone. “You’re right. Apparently that would help. You’re so smart.” Sara fell silent for a moment, listening to Miki on the other end. “Yeah. You got it.” Sara snapped her phone closed and tossed it on the nightstand beside the bed. But she tossed way too hard and the phone hit the wall and flew back, disappearing under the bed. “Well, shit.”
Zach watched her lean down to search under the bed. She slid half her body to the floor trying to reach the phone, but all Zach could see was her ass bent over the bed, one leg sliding across his thigh. He growled.
Sara had just gotten her hands on her phone when she felt Zach’s tongue slide across her ass. Startled, she flipped off the bed.
Cell phone still gripped in one hand, she pulled herself up to rest on her knees. Zach was laying on the edge of the bed, smirking at her. “Could you warn me before you do something like that?”
“You shake your ass at me like that, you get no warning.”
She tried to stop herself from smiling, but simply couldn’t. “I’ll keep that in mind for the future.”
“You mean the future of five seconds from now?” He grabbed her arm and yanked her onto the bed.
“Hey!” Sara’s already bruised and damaged face slammed into a pillow. She lifted her head and brushed her hair out of her eyes. “You know, you’ve been tossing me around a lot.”
“Uh-huh.” Zach moved up behind her. “And that bothers you because…” He gripped her legs and pulled them apart, then dragged her down until her ass was on his lap.
“I didn’t say it bothered me, I just think I deserve a little more respect than that. You know, with me being Alpha Female and all.” His head snapped up in surprise and she grinned at him. “Don’t look so surprised. I’m not stupid. I knew in the hospital, when you wanted me to yell at the girls. Hey!” she yelped when he slapped her ass.
“You’re a real smart ass, you know that? But I’ll let it go because you have such an amazing butt.” As if to prove it, he slapped her ass again.
She growled. “You know, I’m not your…” She stopped and they looked at each other. They both knew what the next word out of her mouth was going to be. “Okay. So maybe I am your bitch, that doesn’t mean I’m your chew toy.”
Zach raised one eyebrow, and Sara watched him lean down and lick her lower back. Her hands gripped the sheets. “You asshole, you’re trying to distract me again.” His tongue took its time moving across her hot and hungry flesh and it felt so good, she wasn’t sure what the hell she’d been complaining about.
“What were you saying, beautiful?” he asked as she felt his thick fingers slowly entering her pussy, his tongue lapping at her accursed damaged thigh. Sheets shredded under her hands as she looked back at him. And there was that smug prick she’d grudgingly fallen in love with. The wounds he’d sustained on his face, neck, chest and back the night before had already begun to heal. He’d gotten every one of those rips and tears because of her and he didn’t care. She knew he didn’t care. Clearly the only thing Zach Sheridan cared about at the moment was getting her wet and getting her off.
He caught her staring at him and nipped her ass cheek. “What ya starin’ at?” he demanded playfully.
But her reply was deadly serious. “You. I love you, Zach.”
He looked at her for several moments then leaned down and kissed her ass. His hands slid under her breasts and, holding them firmly but gently, lifted her so that her back was flat against his chest.
Kissing her along her neck and shoulder, he stopped to lick wounds new and old. When he reached her ear, he leaned in closer than anyone before him ever had. “I love you, baby,” he whispered. “More than anything.” Then he was inside her and she forgot about everything else.
Chapter Twenty
Miki held up a tennis ball, looked at Sara’s new Pack, and tossed it out into the forest away from the ongoing rave. They all watched it go, then they turned back to Miki.
“Okay. Go—”
Sara and Angelina slapped their hands over Miki’s mouth before the word “fetch” could come out of it.
They pulled her over to one of the food tables.
“Are you out of your ever-loving mind? Everyone here but us is like Sara,” Angelina snarled. “And after seeing them in action I’d rather not fuck with them!”
Miki gave that innocent smile. “It was just a little experiment.”
“I don’t want to know.”
; How sweet. Her friends were having one last fight before she left. Tomorrow she’d leave with Zach. Back to her original home with the man she loved. She wasn’t sure, but she thought her father would be happy about that. She knew her grandmother wouldn’t be. That thought made her giddy.
The last thing they were doing before they left was throw this all-night rave for Marrec and his Pack. Seemed only fair after they helped her tear a whole Pride to pieces.
But the mere thought of leaving was sending her into a full-blown panic attack. How was she going to leave her best friends? These crazy bitches had risked their lives for her, accepted her for who and what she was, and were there whenever she needed them. She knew she should tell them that. She knew she should tell them how much she loved them. Instead she turned to Angelina and glanced down at the four-hundred dollar shoes on her friend's feet. Sara raised one eyebrow and grinned. “Those are nice gold-colored shoes, Santiago.”
“Actually they’re champagne. My signature color. They look fabulous on me, don’t they? I just found them…ya know…lying around.”
Sara tried to think how she was going to do any of this without these two. Already the females of the Pack were waiting for Sara to give them orders. She didn’t know what to tell them, although “Move out of my way” seemed to be quite effective at the moment. And thankfully she knew music and DJs because apparently she was partnering with Zach to take over the club business from Yates and Casey. Considering she had no idea what she would do with the rest of her life just the week before, it was kind of startling to suddenly be “in charge” of anything. Especially a thriving business. She didn’t want to disappoint them or Zach. She especially didn’t want to disappoint herself. Deep down she knew she could do it. Unfortunately that knowledge didn’t stop the panic from causing her to hyperventilate in the bathroom just ten minutes before.
Then again maybe she couldn’t do this. Maybe she shouldn’t leave. Just because she could suddenly shift into a wolf at will didn’t mean she should leave what she knew best. It definitely didn’t mean she should change her whole life for some guy she just met. Hell, they hadn’t even gone on an actual date. Christ, did wolves date? And if they did date where did they go? To dinner at a restaurant or hunting down some deer? Nope. Nope. She couldn’t do this. She was nobody’s Alpha Female. She’d have to tell Zach to forget it. He could just take his big cock and go. Yup, that was the plan. Good plan.