Zoey’s heart was racing too fast. So fast, too fast, she thought it might explode. All she could hear was her blood pounding in her ears. All she could feel was the distance between her and her mate growing and it was making her wolf go crazy. She wanted to race after him but the panic inside of her had stopped her in her tracks as soon as she stumbled into the meadow full of fighting wolves.

Fighting wolves. Wolves attacking each other. Teeth and claws and fighting the likes of which she’d never even imagined in her wildest dreams. As soon as she’d seen the battle raging she’d come to a grinding halt as her wolf tried to process what was happening and figure out who was who.

Who was friendly? Who was enemy? Who was pack? Her pack.

Something had happened when she broke through the woods into the clearing. She didn’t know what it was. She didn’t know how it had happened. But Rafe wasn’t the only wolf she could sense anymore. She could identify others within the pack now. She could scent their blood and recognized it as her own. Pack. They were part of her pack.

In the back of her mind, her human side pondered the revelation. Pack. Michael had said she wasn’t one of his wolves but she could sense them now. It was like she’d been wearing blinders all night but at the scent of blood, the sight of her friends and family fighting, they’d been ripped away.

She was pack. Moirae pack. That meant Rafe was pack too but…

Zoey’s wolf whined and shook her head. Rafe was too far away. She couldn’t feel her mate. All she could feel now was the giant hole in her chest that his absence had left behind. She felt empty and lost.

He’d left her. He’d really left her. On her first full moon, during her first shift, he’d left her alone.

Not just alone but unprotected amidst an attack.

Her wolf howled and scuffed at the dirt and Zoey tried to take a few deep breaths and calm her other half down. She needed to focus. She needed to concentrate and take control of the situation. Her human half understood that something terrible had happened here and it had fractured Rafe’s tenuous hold on his control. Her wolf only felt his abandonment and she was fluctuating between going after him to rip into him and dismissing him completely.

Zoey tried to push to the surface. She needed to shift. She needed to be human. This was something she needed to handle calmly and rationally. As a human. Her wolf was an animal and she didn’t understand how to process this situation through the filters of the past and circumstance and love. Zoey tried again to push to the surface but nothing happened.

Her wolf was too strong. Newborn and fierce, she wasn’t giving her skin up easily. She’d gotten through the first few awkward minutes quickly. She’d found her footing in the real world easily and she didn’t want to go back inside Zoey so soon. The moon was still up and tonight was hers. Zoey could feel her fighting to stay in control and she didn’t know how to convince her other half to give it up.

This was why she needed Rafe. He was supposed to walk her through how to shift back to her human form. He was supposed to be there with her every step of the way. He’d taught her how to let her wolf free but he hadn’t shown her how to get herself back out and into her own skin. He was supposed to be here for this.

Panic flooded through her system and her wolf howled again.

“Zo?” Her wolf hissed at the sound of her name and spun to face the person that was slowly moving towards her.

Michael. Her human side surged for the surface but her wolf growled and shook her off. The wolf narrowed her eyes and bared her teeth. Subconsciously she knew that the half-naked man was a friend. She recognized him but she didn’t like that he’d gotten so close without her noticing and she didn’t like that he smelled similar to her mate, but wasn’t him.

“Zoey…” Michael stopped moving towards her and held a hand out, “Zo, it’s me. It’s Michael. You know me. Calm down.”

The wolf tilted her head but didn’t move.

“Come on, Zoey.” He kept his voice soft and calm, “I know you’re in there. Look at me. You need to calm down and shift back so I can talk to you, okay?”

Internally, she rolled her eyes and externally her wolf must have made some sort of similar response because Michael smirked a little. She wanted to yell at him. She wanted to tell him that she was trying to shift back but she didn’t know how. But they couldn’t talk because she was still a wolf.

“Shit.” Michael ran a hand through his hair, “Fucking Rafe. He didn’t tell you how, did he?”

Her wolf bared her teeth again and Michael winced.

“Sorry. Sorry. Not insulting your mate.” He held both hands up now, “I want to help you find him but first I need you to shift for me. I can’t leave you like this. Okay, Zo? So… shift for me, please?”

Zoey tried. She really tried. She reached for the surface with every ounce of willpower she had but her wolf wasn’t having any of it. She shook Zoey off and gave an internal growl that was threatening and a little bit scary. Zoey recoiled from the anger her wolf directed at her and felt her panic spike again.

What if her wolf never let her surface again? What if she was too strong? What if this scarred her wolf the way Rafe’s was scarred and they were never able to live in harmony again? What if….

“Zoey.” Michael’s voice had turned hard and her wolf stiffened this time.

There was something different in his tone. Something that made her wolf perk her ears up. She calmed just a hair and twitched as if suddenly uncertain of who she was dealing with.

“That’s what I thought…” Michael’s brows furrowed slightly and he shook his head, “Son of a bitch, I was wrong. I don’t know how it’s possible or what changed but… you’re one of mine now. You and Rafe both.”

Mine. Zoey would’ve laughed if she’d been in her human skin. How long had she yearned for Michael to call her that? For as long as she could remember she’d wanted to be his. Now her wolf hummed a low growl in her throat.

She wasn’t Michael’s anything. She belonged with Rafe. He was her mate.

“Jesus, Zo.” Michael muttered, “Take it easy. I told you I accept Rafe’s claim on you. I get it. You’re not… mine… you’re just, pack. You’re pack and I’m Pack Alpha. Do you know what that means? Can you understand me? Because I need you to understand me before I do what I have to do here.”

Zoey swallowed the knot in her throat as she processed past her wolf’s line of thinking. Pack. Just like she’d thought when she entered the clearing. She was pack. Moirae pack. She just hadn’t thought it through to the logical conclusion. That made Michael her Alpha.

Not Rafe.

Her mind whirled as she tried to figure out the rest of Michael’s statement. What did he have to do? She knew that tone of voice, even through the fog of her wolf’s simpler mind. She knew that something was going to happen, she just didn’t know what and her wolf backpedaled suspiciously.

“Stop.” Michael’s voice held that deep undercurrent again and this time, she registered it for what it was even as her wolf froze in her tracks.

Power. It flowed out of Michael’s throat like a voice unto itself. It coasted over her fur and sank into her skin. It rolled through her veins and she struggled on instinct. She tried to move, tried to back further away from him but her limbs didn’t work and the harder she tried to pull, the stronger the hold on her became.

“Easy now.” Michael softened and stepped forward again, holding his hands out in a way meant to keep her calm, “Easy Zoey.”

He was coming at her like she was an animal that would spook if he moved too quickly. Which, she supposed she was. Her wolf whimpered but stopped struggling against the hold that Michael’s voice had put on her. Then it hit her.

He’d used his Alpha voice on her. Oh, oh, she’d only thought she recognized his power over the pack before, when she’d been human. She hadn’t. She really, really hadn’t. She hadn’t known he could do this. Control a member of the pack through nothing but a demand. And he’d used it on her.

She bared her teeth at him and Michael chuckled, “There’s the Zoey I know. That’s it. You just figured it out didn’t you? What I meant when I said you’re mine? You figured out I can make you do anything just by saying it and that pisses you off, doesn’t it?”

Her wolf growled.

“Yeah, that’s it Zo. Get mad at me. That’s fine. You want it to stop? Shift. Shift back for me so I don’t have to make you.”

Make her. Shift. Zoey struggled for the surface again. Panic was hitting her hard. He could make her shift. That brought back memories of the first shift in the woods. It had hurt so much and she’d wanted it. How much worse would it be if she fought it? She had a feeling her wolf was going to fight it and it was going to be pure agony.

“Yeah.” Michael dropped to his heels and his voice dropped into a whisper, “Don’t make me do this, Zo. Please. Don’t make me hurt you. You know I can’t stand seeing you in pain.”

Her wolf whined. She whimpered from inside her own skin. She was struggling, trying to break to the surface but she didn’t know how. Damnit she didn’t know how! She wanted to come back. She needed to come back. She needed to find Rafe and get him back. But she couldn’t find a way to claw her way back to the surface and her wolf was too panicked and agitated to give up control.

Michael sighed heavily, “We’re wasting time. I need to be checking on the rest of the pack. I need to figure out what happened and who did it. I need to go after Rafe. But you and I both know before I can deal with any of that I have to take care of you.”

Her wolf whimpered.

“You’re family, Zo. I have to take care of you.” Michael started to reach out, as if he was going to stroke her fur but then seemed to think better of it and pulled his hand back, “Are you ready?” His brows knit together and he closed his eyes, his voice had dropped back into that powerful baritone, “Shift, Zoey. Now. Shift.”

The words hit her like a punch to the gut and her wolf hissed. Zoey screamed as her bones cracked and her muscles seized. It was agony. Pure agony as her wolf howled and her throat went raw with the sound of her screams. She doubled over, panting and sweating and the world went fuzzy and then completely black.

“Zoey?” Michael’s voice roused her back into consciousness and her eyes flickered open, the world coming back into focus.

She was on the ground, curled up in the fetal position. Everything hurt. Literally everything, even her teeth hurt. She thought she might puke so she pulled air in and out of her lungs slowly. Trying to steady herself and find her equilibrium. Her body was wracked with pains and she moaned as she tried to sit upright.

“Easy, now.” This time Michael’s hands closed around her upper arms, guiding her into a sitting position and she winced at his strength, “Sorry. Sorry. I know it hurts. I’m sorry.”

“Rafe…” Her voice came out a harsh croak and she met Michael’s eyes, “We have to find Rafe.”

“Zo…” Michael scrubbed a hand over his face but she reached out and grabbed his wrist, pulling his hand away and forcing him to look at her.

“He’s hurting. He’s scared and alone and…” Her voice broke and she didn’t even realize she was crying until Michael softly brushed the stray tears off her cheeks, “Michael, please…”

“I’ll get him back for you, Zoey. I promise I will. Just let me take care of you first.”

“No.” She tried to shove up to her feet to go after her mate herself but her legs were too weak to hold her weight and Michael had to catch her.

“Goddamnit Zoey. You never listen to me.” He swept her up into his arms and she became instantly and embarrassingly aware that she was naked.

Naked as the day she was born. In front of the entire pack. Her skin against Michael’s as he carried her. And it felt wrong, so wrong. She shivered and tried to cover herself but Michael only chuckled.

“Don’t bother. I’m not looking and even if I did, it wouldn’t be anything I wanted to see.”

She sniffed, “Gee, thanks buddy.”

His grin was sparkling when he laughed, “You’re my brother’s mate. My sister by fate. You’re also a member of my pack. You’re going to have to get used to the nudity thing if you’re going to shift with us going forward. This is nothing.”

“You think your brother is going to see it that way?”

Michael’s smile faltered. Her chest ached and her wolf whined from her new place deep inside Zoey. His brother. Her mate. Rafe. She felt incomplete without him. Like her heart was missing from her chest.

“He didn’t want to change, Michael.” She whispered softly, “He was worried. He was… scared. He didn’t know how his wolf would react to me but all of this… the fighting and the blood? It was too much. I can feel him and he’s so far away and he’s panicked. I need to go after him.”

“You’re not going anywhere except inside to rest and heal from your first shift. I’m Pack Alpha and whatever happened tonight, it brought him back to me. He’s pack again and I can feel him too. I promised you I’d get him back and I will. You have to trust me, Zoey.”

“I do. I trust you. And I’ll stay here.” She met Michael’s eyes, the ones that looked so much like her mates, “Find him and bring him back to me.”