Chapter Seventeen
Glancing over his shoulder, Ken watched as Angie tugged Betty by the hand toward the back of the building. His mate tossed him an anxious look before disappearing in an alley that led behind Scratch Your Itch. She didn't have any reason to worry. Angie would take care of her. His heart weighed heavy. She had better take care of Betty. He had planned on spending the whole day with her. This unexpected development left a hole in his schedule and he wasn’t the type to leave the gap empty.
He scratched his chin and scanned the sky. Maybe he should start moving Betty out of the rescue and into his home.
With the orphanage fundraiser, they should hopefully find the animals prospective homes, then she could make the move permanent. Voila. Eviction problem solved.
Eardrum piercing screams split the air. He pressed his hands over his sensitive ears and spun toward the source, crouched and ready to fight.
Angie, in her white dragon form, beat her wings as she gained altitude. His soulmate clutched in one of her clawed talons, screaming like a monster movie victim.
Feet rooted on the pavement, Ken drowned in horror as one of Betty shoes hit the storefront window of the coffee shop down the street. He had thought Angie had some kind of riding harness and Betty would be on her back. He reached for his trigger memory to shift when Betty stopped screaming and waved at him.
Angie dived close enough for him to see a self-satisfied grin on Betty’s face aimed in his direction.
Trigger memory vanished. He rubbed his head as the dragon carted her off to the castle. Betty had just scared ten years off his life and she found it amusing? Was this what their relationship would be like? They needed to have a talk. Teasing him was one thing—this crossed a line.
A hand landed on his shoulder and Ken jumped high enough to slam into the streetlight above. Shattered glass rained down on him.
Joshua, one of his packmates, stared at him with wide eyes. “You're looking…pale.” He brushed off pieces of the light from Ken’s shoulders.
Ken took a deep breath and reined in his nerves. Joshua was high in the pack’s hierarchy. Showing weakness in front of the other hunter wasn’t acceptable and would give Joshua bad ideas. He couldn't beat Ken in a challenge, but Joshua believed differently. Ken didn't want to put him in a hospital again. Those bills were high and the pack had better things to spend their money on than a hunter's ego.
“Was that your mate the dragon just stole?” Joshua asked. Other hunters from the pack were with him. They wore shorts and sweat stained T-shirts and smelled like his locker in high school. One of them was carrying a basketball.
“No—yes.” Ken shook his head. “Yes, that was my mate but the dragon didn't steal her. You know better than that, Josh. Angie and Betty are friends.” Stretching the truth was as close as a lie a shifter could try without being detected. He hoped Angie and Betty would be friends. After that stunt, he'd say they were a match made in heaven. The moon help him if he was ever home alone with those two troublemakers. He grinned. “Betty is something else.”
“Rumor is she can't shift.” Benoit moved in closer. He was a good wolf and a better friend. Benoit probably didn’t realize the corner he’d backed Ken into.
And so it begins. The fight to keep his mate. He’d hoped for a few more weeks, but that had been a fool’s dream.
At hearing this piece of gossip, Joshua’s face split into a shit-eating grin.
Benoit glimpsed Joshua’s expression and he grimaced. “I have cousins in the Riverbend Pack. They are in an uproar since she was banned a few years ago as human. Their old alpha was challenged over the decision and lost to the new alpha. There’s lots of bad blood over it.”
Ken gave Benoit a slow blink, amazed at how fast wolves gossiped. “I heard about that challenge.” Betty had told him about her ex-boyfriend and how he had become alpha of Riverbend Pack, but it didn’t lessen the shock that his pack knew as well. No matter what he did, he couldn’t prepare Betty for how the packs would delve into every nook and cranny of her past. He’d been groomed for a position of power within the pack since the day Ryota had adopted him, so he’d kept his nose clean. Betty hadn’t had that foresight. How could she when her old pack had brainwashed her into thinking she was human?
“Why would they fight over her?” Joshua cried out. “I need to hear this now.”
Benoit’s shoulders slumped and he instinctively gravitated toward Ken for protection.
Ken rested his hand on Benoit’s shoulder. “I want to hear it too.” He met Joshua’s stare until he dropped it. “I have no secrets. Let's grab some coffee and get off the sidewalk.”
Letting this opportunity to hear the rumors firsthand go by would be a mistake. Transparency had been Ryota’s biggest asset when he’d taken over New Port’s werewolf pack. No secrets. No lies. The pack respected their alpha and Ken agreed with his father’s policy. Even when the truth sucked.
He herded the small group of males farther down the street to his favorite coffee shop.
The barista made the best siphon coffee in the city. It could jumpstart a dead car battery.
Drinks ordered and paid for by Ken. He joined the others in the couch area with Benoit the center of attention.
“So, the challenge?” Ken leaned back in his chair, legs crossed, taking over the conversation before Joshua could. Inside, Ken wanted to shake the information from the shifter across from him, but after years of being beaten, he learned how to keep even his scent calm.
“The present alpha was her boyfriend. When she left the city and him, he blamed the old leader. He demanded her return and challenged him.” Benoit accepted his cup from the server and took a sip of his steaming coffee. “He destroyed him, is what I heard. I mean, like shredded him like pulled pork.”
Joshua whistled.
The higher the position in the pack, the deadlier the fighter. It was why Ken had to put Joshua in the hospital last year. If he took it easy on Joshua, then more attempts to usurp Ken would occur. Ken had made Joshua an example. So, he understood why the young wolf made such a show of killing Riverbend Pack's old leader.
“So why didn't she go back when he took over the pack? Why did she stay in New Port?” asked Remi, a shifter who had just won his first hierarchy fight last week, which explained why he was hanging out with the top hunters today.
Ken wanted to say because she never loved her ex-boyfriend and was waiting for Ken to find her. But even he knew that reeked of bullshit. “Pack law supersedes alpha laws,” Ken whispered. “No humans are pack.” The hardest thing he’d ever voiced.
“So? She could be honorary pack like all the other human spouses.” Joshua accepted his coffee from the barista.
“Could you accept being honorary pack after living as a shifter your whole life?” Ken sipped his drink, temperature close to lava. The barista was human and didn’t understand he should have been served first. Such laws had to be bent outside their kind. Ken hid his satisfaction as Joshua swore after burning his tongue.
No one responded to Ken’s question. They didn't have to. It was obvious. None of them could live as humans, so how could they expect different from Betty? Ken smiled into his cup, happy his point was made.
“What are you going to do?” Benoit asked. “I mean, if she can't shift, the pack won't accept her.”
Ken set his cup down and met each hunters gaze until their eyes dropped. “She's shifter enough to have me as her soulmate.”
“Only shifters can have soulmates.” Joshua had to add even though he still stared at his shoes. Predictable as always.
“Exactly,” Ken purred. “She’s a shifter. She will change shape. She just needs the right incentive.”
Slowly, they finally raised their eyes and met his wolfish grin.
Angie set Betty on the ground gently then the dragon landed next to the castle. “Did you see the look on Ken's face? You have a great set of lungs by the way. That scream was killer.”
A laugh died on the tip of Betty’s tongue as she recalled the horror on Ken's face. Maybe she had gone too far.
“And kicking off your shoe was genius. It took the whole prank to the next level.” Angie looked Betty over. “I think this is the start a beautiful relationship.” She shifted and ran into the castle butt naked. “Give me a second,” she called out.
It had seemed like fun when Angie suggested the joke. Now, Betty’s stomach churned with butterflies. Once she’d seen the determined expression on his face, like he was going to shift and attack his best friend, Betty had changed her mind and stopped screaming. He’d visibly relaxed when he saw her smile. She wouldn't scare him like that again. That was a dumb ass move. He cared for her and she’d used it against him.
“Ready.” A dressed Angie waved to enter her home.
Betty had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't admired the massive stone building until now. “Wow.” She leaned her head back to see the top of the towers. “All you're missing is a moat and knights in armor.” She'd seen photos of New Port Castle on television but Eoin, the black dragon, never let the press on his land for close-up pictures. This was a privilege few people experienced.
“Um, is your mate here?” she asked. Angie seemed real nice but Betty hadn't heard many good stories about Eoin.
“He's out picking trash for his sculptures.”
“Sculptures?”
Angie pointed out a sharp angular metal object protruding from the ground. “Eoin is an artist.”
Betty had mistaken it for a weapon. She kept that to herself though. “That’s…very intense.” Scary was more like it. “He makes these out of trash?”
“Old cars mostly.”
She stared hard at the statue. Nope, she couldn’t see a car in there no matter what angle she titled her head.
“Eoin melts them down before sculpting.” Angie wiggled her hands. “We don’t burn easily.”
“He uses molten metal like clay?” Okay, Betty had to admit that was fucking cool. “I can see the appeal.”
She followed Angie inside the castle and slowed her steps once over the threshold. The entrance was empty but impressive in size. Even the inside walls were built of ancient stone. A scatter of dead leaves and spider webs were the only decorations.
“I assume you went through all of the basic shifting classes.” Angie crossed the room quickly and took a hall to the right.
Betty hurried after her, not wanting to get lost. “Until I could recite the lessons backwards.” Her eyes scanned the threadbare tapestry hanging on the hallway walls. Dragons, fire, and fighting. Why weren't there pictures of dragons sniffing flowers?
She paused by the largest tapestry that reached ceiling to floor done in flamboyant reds and oranges. A whole flight of dragons burning a village.
Angie returned to her side. “Badass, huh?”
Not the word Betty would have used. Terrifying, chilling, disturbing…were a few words that came to mind though. “Hey, wait a minute.” She scanned the other tapestries again. “Why doesn’t anyone else have feathers?”
Angie shrugged. “We haven't really figured it out why I have them. My egg was stolen from its nest so I don't know what clan I'm from.”
Betty raised an eyebrow.
“No, there's not an obvious feathered dragon clan, but Eoin says there are some reclusive clans that I might be from. They stay away from other species and live high in the mountains.” Angie turned away from the pictures. “Come on.”
Betty wanted to ask Angie why she wasn't tearing the mountains apart to find her clan. Pack was the heart of being a werewolf. Betty knew firsthand how crappy it felt to be an outcast, to be alone. But Angie was a dragon. Maybe they didn't depend on each other like a pack. The bone deep need to hang out together, lean on each other, and have fun.
The last couple of days with Ken had reminded her of how much she missed being around her own kind. Trixie and Betty’s other human friends were great support but the bond was different.
“Ken said you recently learned to shift.” Betty walked faster so they were side by side in the wide hall.
“I was like you. Told I was human because I couldn’t shift even though I rang as shifter on their radars. I never felt human and assumed I was some genetic throw back from a distant shifter relative that made me weird.”
They climbed a stairwell that went both below and above them. How big was this place and how many floors?
“Eoin insisted I was dragon from the moment we met.” She shook her head. “I thought he was a crazy, but I wasn’t going to argue with a dragon.”
Finally, after climbing half the tower, Angie led her into a long hall dotted with closed doors. At the end they entered a crowded sitting room filled with couches and chairs placed closely to a fireplace.
“This is what I call our living room. A lot of the castle has fallen to disrepair over the decades and this is one of the few intact rooms.” She pointed at the glass windows set in the stone walls. “It's where we spend most of our time as humans.” She flopped onto a couch.
Betty sat across from her. “So how did you shift?” The suspense was killing her. Did she have the solution to Betty’s problem?
“After years of trying to figure out what I was, Eoin discovered I had a spell blocking my magic. That's why I never shifted. I wish I could get refunded all the money I spent on shifting lessons.” Angie sighed and hugged a decorative pillow to her stomach. “I used every dime I had to find my place in the world. At least until I opened Scratch Your Itch. That’s where I belong. Not some obscure clan.”
“A spell?” Betty leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees. Magic users existed, but like vampires, they lived very secretive lives. She’d heard of places where a person could purchase love spells or charms, but more times than not they didn't work. Her mother had warned her that real magic came with a price. She didn't mean the kind that had dollar signs either. Magic wanted precious things like life. “Why the fuck would someone put a spell on you to stop you from shifting? Pardon my French.”
Angie snorted. “I spent a lot of time growing up on the streets. Swearing is just punctuation as far as I'm concerned.” Her smile turned sad. “It's a long story. Let's just say they did it out of love, not malice. So, I can't be angry. Well… Not much.”
“I don't think anyone’s used magic on me. My parents and old pack turned themselves inside out trying to help me shift. Someone would have a sensed a spell and I don't have enemies who hate me enough to curse me or anything.” But maybe there was a spell she could buy that would help her trigger the shift instead of preventing her. Like the opposite of what Angie had. She wasn’t crazy about using magic, but she was desperate enough to at least consider it.
“List all the things you've tried so I don't waste our time replicating things that didn’t work.”
Betty went over the endless exercises and their variations.
“Meditating with monks. Never heard of that one.” Angie chewed her bottom lip, looking lost in thought.
“It was the longest week of my life.” The monastery had been quiet and boring, but boy, could those monks cook. They made the simplest of meals taste heavenly.
Angie set the decorative pillow aside and leaned forward. “How far are you willing to go?”
Betty’s heart thundered. That was the million-dollar question. She focused inward. If she didn’t learn how to change shape, the packs would either chase her away from Ken or kill her. She wasn’t stupid. Pack law was so firm she could bounce a quarter off it. Soulmates were always shifters and here was Ken, beta of a powerful pack, publicly claiming her after her pack declared her human. If the packs let this slide, other half-breeds would demand similar treatment. A line had been drawn long ago as to who was considered shifter and Ken had shoved her over it.
They would probably let her live if she denied his claim. If she left him. A future without Ken was unthinkable though. She’d never accept another man in her life. Not after meeting her soulmate. She’d grow old all by herself.
“Death. That’s how far I’d go. Until I die.”