“Who’s the big-ass bitch?”

Embarrassment poured through Daisy. Her cheeks burned from the blush that she knew covered them. Calder dropped her hand, quickly spinning on his heel ready to take action, knowing the chief would keep an eye on the fire and update him should the need arise.

“What the fuck did you say?”

Daisy gasped when he grabbed the weaselish looking man by his throat and lifted him off his feet to make direct eye contact. She should have felt sorry for the man when Calder slammed him up against the concrete building, but she didn’t. Not even a little bit.

Instead, an unfamiliar feeling swept through her. She tried to catalogue it, but couldn’t. Her heart swelled at the sight of her mate defending her honor. No one had ever done that for her.

“What did you say about my mate?” Calder’s voice was thick with anger as his fangs descended, a clear warning to all who surrounded him.

Daisy watched as his face elongated, while his body remained human. It was the weirdest thing she’d ever seen.

Calder dropped the choking, sputtering man to the ground, hard. Majik, thick in the air, swirled around her mate’s body, but this time Daisy had no problem seeing through the misty haze.

“You will answer your Alpha.”

Daisy’s skin itched as Calder issued the command, thick with majik. The air around her felt charged with a power so surreal she panted for air. She looked around to see if the others nearby had also succumbed to the effects of the powerful majik.

Her head spun and bewilderment coursed through her as she looked around. The people who moments ago had surrounded her were gone, replaced instead by wolves—including the man who had been on the ground.

Daisy’s tongue felt unusually thick when she tried to speak, and the itching she’d felt earlier in her gums had returned. Her stomach twisted as the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. A brief flash of nausea passed over her and almost sent her sprawling on her ass. In the back of her mind, a large brown wolf charged her, fast and furious. Daisy opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out.

The wolf crashed into her body, knocking her to the ground.

“We are one,” the animal growled in her thoughts.

The ground quaked beneath her knees. She tried to stand, damn near passing out when she looked down at her feet and saw soft, fuzzy paws where her beautiful toes should have been.

“Calder, what’s happening?” Daisy cried in her mind, though all she heard was the sound of a wolf howling.

“Calm yourself, child. The Alpha speaks.” A strange feminine voice invaded her mind.

“Let it be known to all that Daisy is my mate as decreed by the Fates. For all those who question the legality of our mating, look to her now. See that she is one of us, bound forevermore to me. Those who have the audacity to insult the Alpha’s mate will pay dearly. I am Alpha of Twisted Tail and there are several who would do well to remember that.”

Calder’s voice boomed in her head, and though they’d spent hours in conversation and more hours making love, the voice in which he had spoken surprised her. It wasn’t his normal voice, the voice she’d become familiar with. He sounded like her mate, yet at the same time he didn’t. Curiously, she was the only one who kept her head held high and straight ahead, watching her mate. The others seemed as if they struggled to remain upright.

“Listen to the power in his voice, child. He is the true Alpha of this pack. Those who questioned him are now feeling the power of a true Alpha, some for the first time in their lives.”

“Who are you?” Through her conversations with Calder, she knew he often spoke to his wolf. Was the voice in her mind her wolf? It was either the wolf or she’d lost her mind. Maybe the stew she’d made was bad and making her hallucinate?

“I am you and we are one, child. Breathe free; all is well with your mind. I will guide you in our majikal and ancient ways—ways that your human body and mind have no inkling of.”

Daisy did as her wolf instructed and sucked in a deep breath, not feeling threatened by the voice, nor intimidated by it. The voice comforted her, cocooning her in her favorite blanket, keeping her mind peaceful—and quite frankly, keeping her from losing it altogether.

“What do we do now?” Daisy asked her wolf, having no idea what the proper protocol was.

“We wait.”

 

***

 

Calder sensed Daisy’s shift the moment it had started. Surprise, shock, amazement—any of those words could have worked for the emotions that zinged through him at the knowledge that his mate had been gifted with a wolf of her own. Odin had indeed found her a worthy mate for him, and had rewarded her in kind.

The worry he’d felt when he first realized that his mate was a human vanished. Anyone who sought to challenge her position would first go through him and his wrath, and a pretty sight it would not be.

He continued to press his power on the pack as a whole. From this moment forward, he was done with the games, done with the holdovers from the corrupt former Alpha. His mate would be safe, protected; it was non-negotiable. Those who longed for a different life were welcome to leave.

The sound of incoming sirens howled in the distance. Calder eased up on his display of raw power, his features returning to normal from his half shift. The pack recovered quickly from his emotional outburst aimed at defending his mate’s honor, and shifted back to human form. His sweet Daisy was the last wolf standing. He approached, reveling in the beauty of her animal—thick chocolate brown fur that matched her eyes. His wolf panted and whined his approval.

He remembered her fear: “Don’t you ever worry about getting stuck in animal form?” He reached out, stroking her fur. “Feels good, doesn’t it, Ást?”

She whined, leaning in to rub her head against his leg.

“All you have to do to shift back is imagine your human form. Let the transformation come naturally.”