Chapter Fifteen
Betty came downstairs again with two cups of coffee. “Mom is going to take a nap.” She told her father then handed Ken one of the drinks. “They drove all night.”
“I'll join her then.” Chuck stretched then gave Betty a kiss on the cheek. “You spend some time with your mate.” He tossed Ken a meaningful glance.
Once Chuck was gone up to the apartment, she blew out a relieved breath. “I guess hell can freeze over.”
“What do you mean?” Ken chuckled.
“He approves of you.”
“He does?” Granted, Ken was still alive, but he hadn't gotten any fuzzy feelings from her dad.
“None of the furniture is broken. He mustn't have tried hard to kill you.”
“The day is still young.” He drank his coffee in a few gulps. “Let's go before anyone else distracts us.”
She set her cup aside. “Where to?” Her grimace spoke volumes. “You want me to try to change shape.”
“No, I want you to do it. There's a huge difference.” Ken heard the echo of Ryota in his words. It was how Ken had been taught by his father.
She gave him the one fingered salute. “No shit.” She stormed outside.
He followed her onto the empty sidewalk. The furious gaze she tossed over her shoulder melted his bones. She was so beautiful he could barely breathe.
Ken took her by the shoulders so she wouldn't run again. “You are a shifter. Accept that fact. We've proved it. Now we just need to figure out what is blocking your attempts to change shape.”
She shrugged out of his grasp. “I've been through block therapy, Ken. Three years of it. I've done the visualization exercises, emotional trigger explorations, and DNA testing. I can't imagine you knowing something that I haven't tried.”
“I'm your soulmate. You might respond to my call.” He had spent a lot of time thinking about teaching her last night while tossing and turning.
The anger faded from her face and she drew closer. “You have my attention.”
“Good.” He wove their fingers together. “Let's take a walk.” There wasn't a whole lot of information on calling another’s wolf form. From what he’d read, it was an emotional tug of war. He had tried something similar with Angie when they first met and had thought she was possibly a wolf shifter. It hadn't worked, but he hadn't been her soulmate either.
“Where are we going?”
“The park. There's a secluded area that is usually empty.” As long as he and Betty remained out of sight where, they could change shape in the park. Ryota didn’t like public shifting. It frightened the humans and made the authorities tense. He had planned to take her home, his home, but her parents had just arrived… He assumed she wanted to stay close to the rescue.
“I didn't realize they'd be here so soon.”
“Who?”
“My parents, I planned on telling you they were coming. I just wanted you to know that so you didn't think it was an ambush.”
He shook his head. “I doubt you wanted them to see us getting it on.”
Her face turned all shades of pink. That took talent. “No.” She sounded breathless and cleared her throat. “About the fundraiser. I've never participated in anything like this. I don't know how to organize myself.”
“You bring the adoption forms and animals. I'll take care of everything else.” Like shade, water and a table…
“I mean I don't just allow anyone to adopt my rescues. I usually do some investigating and interview their vets, let them come visit the animal a few times so we know for sure they get along.”
“Stalk them?”
“Ken.” She play-punched his arm. “They're family.” He liked playing, but no one in his pack teased him except for Beth. This was nice, what he and Betty were creating.
He rubbed his chin. He hadn't realized how complicated finding homes for the rescued animals would be. “Well, it's a good opportunity to meet the people. Get to meet them face to face. I mean, people who support an orphanage can't be all that bad.”
“You have a point.”
“And anyone from the pack shouldn't need that much investigation. I know everyone very well.” It was his job and responsibility to vet pack issues, triage the problems, delegate the assignments, and decide what needed Ryota's personal attention. Nobody wanted the alpha’s scrutiny so the pack was well-behaved. “It will be a great time to meet some of them.”
She went from bright pink to pale in seconds. The girl had real skills.
“What?” he asked, not hiding his amusement. “Too much, too fast?”
She buried her face against his arm. “You're tossing me on a roller coaster ride without a harness and yelling hold on as you hit go.”
“You haven't started screaming yet.”
She tossed him a heated look. “I was saving that for the bedroom.”
Every muscle in his groin contracted at the same time and it grew difficult to walk. It was like magic. She affected everything. The air he breathed seemed fresher, colors brighter, scents clearer. He craved her in his bones.
And Ryota thought he could give her up? Pretend she didn't matter? He might as well start digging his grave.
“Easy, wolf boy.” She pressed her hands to his chest.
He blinked and realized he had pinned her to the side of a brick building.
“Eyes.” She tapped his cheeks. “Teeth.” She clicked her fingernail against his gnawing canines. “Bad wolf.”
He took a deep shuddering breath. “Don't tease. I can't take it.” A few feet separating them should help. Her scent still curled around him and it didn’t contain a single drop of fear. “I like it too much.”
“I'll take note of that.” It sounded like a promise.
Betty never felt more powerful in all her life. Ken treated her like a drug that he couldn't have enough of.
His eyes and teeth returned to normal. She tried to picture a future without him and almost cried out at the emptiness that filled her heart. No, she wouldn't let that happen. This confident, caring wolf was hers and no one would take him away.
No one.
She grabbed his hand and walked him toward the park. “Let's shift.” She didn't care about past attempts. Being a soulmate proved what she’d believed all along. She was a shifter. She deserved a pack. Most of all, she could change shape.
He marched next to her, his one step requiring two of hers.
She would do this. Everything would change once she proved her old pack wrong. She would be the beta’s soulmate! Maybe her parents could move here and Dad would join New Port's pack.
Her heart raced as they crossed the grass of Prospect Park. Dandelions spotted the lawn and the flower garden had gone wild, but it still held a lovely big pond with ducks and lots of trees.
“How come you know this park? I thought you lived on the other side of the city.” In the richer part, though for someone who seemed to have money, Ken hadn't once turned up his nose at her falling-apart lifestyle.
“I did some real estate assessments in the area.” He coughed. “I stopped by the park to see what it had to offer.”
“Besides the pond and woods, not much.”
“It has great running paths through the woods which extend beyond the city limits and could possibly connect to a national park.”
She raised her eyebrows. “That's…informative.”
“I like the woods.”
“I was raised in the city. Riverbend doesn't have much to offer in wilderness. They have a river.”
He nodded. “New Port is the same, but we want to change that.” He pulled her off the beaten path and deeper into the wooded area.
“I'm not sure it's safe to be so far from the park. There might be gangs.”
“We're shifters.” He gave her a toothy grin. “We're the predators, not the prey.”
She squeezed his fingers tighter and drew closer to his side. Thick leaf cover filtered out the sunlight and shadows deepened. Somehow the noise of street life vanished as if behind a veil. It was magical.
Ken slowed his pace, his shoulders more relaxed. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the back of her fingers.
Everything smelled green and fresh. She didn’t go to parks often. If anything, she took her Great Danes to the pond to swim on hot days.
Ken parted the thick foliage and gestured for her to walk ahead.
She pushed past the ground cover and halted. Sunlight painted a small patch of grass in bright greens. Birdsong was the only thing she could hear.
Ken's body heat pressed against her back. “No one should bother us here.” He crossed to the center and sat in the grass.
She kicked off her shoes and squished the delicate blades with her toes. “Should I take off my clothes?”
“Sure.” He followed with a huge shit eating grin.
“Will it help or hinder the process?”
He sighed. “We'll probably end up making out at some point but I'm willing to make the sacrifice.”
She knelt in front of him. “If I shift in my dress, it will tear apart and then I'll have to walk home naked.” They really hadn't thought things through before leaving the rescue.
“Just take off the dress but leave your underwear on.” His expression was somber. “Seriously, I can control my beast urges. This is important.”
She pulled her sundress over her head and folded it on the ground. “Okay so now what?”
“You remember the trigger exercises they made us practice?”
“Do I ever.” She grimaced. Most shifters could change shape by the age of thirteen when hormones surged, but some shifters were late bloomers.
Chris, the alpha of Riverbend, had been one. It was how they had met, taking late bloomer classes after school. Chris had finally shifted at the age of fifteen. Betty, of course, never had. She knew these lessons well enough to teach them to the younger students.
“This won’t be like forcing a shift, right?” She wrung her hands. “Because that didn’t work.” Shifters said the process hurt. She had just stood there while the old alpha had tried to link with her wolf through a pack bond. No pain. No connection. Nothing. It had failed so spectacularly that she’d been declared human on the spot.
“I don’t know. I’ve never tried this and I don’t want to make any false promises.”
She gave him an uncertain nod. Honesty was a good thing, but she sure could use a little false reassurance right now. “What do I do?”
“Go through the exercises. From what I’ve read on the process, once you touch upon your trigger, I should sense your magic, and I’ll call to it. Our bond should link us together and I should be able to help you shift.”
“Are you sure? That sounds kind of like witch stuff.” She wasn’t crazy about witches. They could be way out there. Even though they all claimed to be white witches, black magic came from somewhere.
“It is!” He laughed. “Every shifter contains some magic. When we change shape, it calls out to others of our kind. That's why we change in a pack, it's so much faster.”
She nodded. “One of the ceremonies near my eighteenth birthday was trying to shift with the pack. Everyone had come to help me but I didn’t hear the call. If it didn't work with my whole pack, why do you think it will work with just you?”
He pressed his lips over hers, a flash of heat singed her mouth. A promise. A link to what could be their future. “Because you are everything.”
Betty closed her eyes and went through the exercises, from visualizing her wolf self to running through her most vivid memories, trying to discover something that would trigger her change.
Fingers brushed her temples and Ken leaned in so close they shared air.
Sweat coated her skin. She concentrated. All her being focused on becoming her real self. She would shift this time. She would. She would. She would. Her limbs trembled and she gasped for air. So close. She’d break her own bones if it would help her change to a werewolf.
Ken's grip tightened until it felt like he was pushing against her brain.
She moaned, her head pounding.
Ken released her. “I can't sense anything.”
Her eyes popped opened. “Don’t say that.” It sounded like defeat. She needed his encouragement because she’d already been down this terrible road.
He sat slumped in the grass. “I can't sense any magic. I can't call to you if there's no magic.”
If he gave up, then she might as well pack her bags and go home with her parents.
Betty sagged, leaning on her hands. She couldn't believe she’d let him talk her into this. He’d ripped open old wounds and she sat here bleeding to death. “I shouldn't have tried.” The last word hiccupped in her throat before being followed by a sob. She crushed her fist in her mouth to stop the flood of more.
Ken moved so swiftly she didn't see him until he caught her in his arms. “Don't give up. We've just started.” He gave her a shake. “Don't you dare give up on us.”
She shook her head. “I don't want to.” She hated how devastated she sounded. Years of healing gone in moments. “What do we do now?”
He kissed her forehead. “I have a friend who didn't shift until her mid-twenties. She studied with lots of shifters on how to change shape. We'll go see her tomorrow.”
She wiped the tear that trickled down her cheek. “Okay.” She wouldn't give up that easily.