He reached for the small spark of magic deep inside him and took on his dire wolf form. Once the change was complete, Capac looked back at Riya to see her staring at him with wide eyes. At least she wasn’t screaming.
“You don’t look like my wolf,” Wren said, drawing his attention back to her.
During the ice age there weren’t any timber wolves, just dire wolves. The shaman used what he knew
, Capac projected into Wren’s mind along with everyone else’s in the room.
“Shit, you’re telepathic?”
Yes, all sentinels are, including our mates. You should be as well in the end if this works.
“Perfect. Let’s go then.”
Wren sat on the floor and waited for Capac to come closer. He padded forward, then nudged the collar of her shirt aside. He didn’t hesitate. He opened his jaws and bit her where her shoulder and neck met, hard enough to break the skin until he tasted blood on his tongue. That done, he backed away and shifted to his human form to wait and see if his bite had worked. It only took a few seconds to show that it had. The bite mark on Wren’s neck healed as if it had never been there.
She let out a pained-sounding groan. “I think you don’t have to worry about this anymore. It definitely worked. This hurts like a motherfucker. I’m going to shift now.”
Wren’s body shimmered and blurred as she took on her other form. There was a small difference in her wolf now. She was still a timber wolf, but one that was stockier and had slightly larger teeth. She looked like what she was—a mixture of dire wolf and timber wolf.
“If you want to communicate with us all, picture who you want to hear you and think of what you want to say,” Capac told her.
Like this?
Wren asked in his mind.
From the smiles of the others, it was easy to tell they’d heard her as well. “You have it.”
Wren shifted to her human form and smiled. “It worked. Does this mean I’m now part of your pack?”
Edensaw stepped over to her and nodded. “Of course. As your alpha, I officially welcome you to the pack.”
“Sweet. Now I really want to go for a run in the trees and test my new wolf out.”
“Meadow and I will go with you,” Durlach said as he stood, pulling his mate up along with him. “Our place is on the next property. You should know where it is. Plus, we should also introduce you to Taylor, who lives there as well. He’s a cat shifter, who turns into a cougar. He has some issues when it comes to werewolf kind. It’s better to show you as a friend or he’ll try to chase you off.”
“A cat shifter? I never knew they even existed.”
“Neither did we until I met my mate. Come on, let’s go for a run.”
“Keep an eye out for anything that is suspicious,” Edensaw told Durlach. “I doubt Tanner would be dumb enough to come here, but that doesn’t mean we should let our guard down.”
Durlach nodded, then he, Meadow and Wren walked out of the living room.
Capac turned toward Riya. She sat in the chair, her hands gripping the cushioned armrests. Her gaze flitted from one person to another around the room. It was time he got her alone and saw how accepting she was of everything.
Riya sat on the bed and watched Capac close the door behind him, then back against it as he stared at her with a worried expression. After Wren had left with Durlach and Meadow, he’d brought her up to his bedroom. It didn’t take much guessing on her part to figure out he was concerned with how she’d taken the news of him being a werewolf.
Capac pushed away from the door, crossed the room and sat beside her. He took one of her hands in his larger one and laced their fingers together. “How are you?”
“As good as can be expected when someone learns mythical beasts are actually real.”
“Are you still scared?”
“Somewhat.”
“Of me?”
She shook her head. “That’s the funny part. I’m not really afraid of you as much as the idea of you being a werewolf. With you, in your human form, here like this, I’m fine. You’re still the man I want to have a relationship with.” She looked down, then back up at Capac. “The one I have feelings for.”
He reached up and tucked some hair behind her ear. “I fell in love with you the instant I realized you were my mate. You are the only woman who will make my soul complete. Now the big question is, can you accept me as a werewolf and all that staying with me will entail?”
Riya licked her dry lips. “I’m not going to lie and say I’m ready to make a decision right now, because I’m not. I only met you a couple of days ago and you’re asking me to give you an eternity. I doubt myself at the best of times. I don’t know if I can give you an answer so quickly.”
Capac blew out a breath. “As I said downstairs, I would have given you time to get used to this before asking you to make this big step, but the fact is I can’t. Tanner is dangerous, more so now that he’s taken over the leadership of the dark wolves. He knows about you. To be honest, even if you say no to becoming my mate, I don’t think you’d be able to carry on your life as you had before. Tanner won’t care if I don’t claim you. You’re still a connection to me.”
“So in other words I’m left with no choice.”
“If you don’t want to accept me as your mate, I will never claim you. My mating urge will continue to ride me, push me to do just that, but I would never force it on you. Somehow I would have to control it. You’d have to stay here where you’re protected, though. And once Tanner and the dark wolves have been eliminated as a threat, you’d be able to leave without having to worry about being used to get at me.”
“How long would that be? How long have you been fighting the dark wolves already?”
“Almost three years.”
“See, it could be another three years or more before they are no longer a threat.”
Capac cupped her face in his hands. “I’m going to tell you this, not to make you feel as if you have to accept what I offer, but to let you know my feelings for you will never change. You are the only woman out of the entire world who was capable of setting my mating urge off. There will never be another, even if you decide you don’t want me as a mate.”
Riya reached up and placed her hand over one of his. “Never?”
“Never. I’d spend an eternity alone.” He gave her a small smile. “Though I would much rather spend it with you at my side.”
“If I do this, you will still wait until tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“I think I’ll need that time to get this all straight in my mind.” Riya took a deep breath. “I guess the first order of business will be acquainting myself with your wolf. I saw you downstairs like that, but I was paying more attention to what Wren experienced after you bit her.”
“If that’s what you want.”
Capac dropped his hands, then slid off the bed and stood before it. He met her gaze, as if silently asking her if she was ready for what would happen next. She nodded. Just as what had happened in the living room when he’d shifted there, his body blurred and shimmered. In the end, in Capac’s place, stood a black dire wolf. His legs were a bit shorter than a timber wolf’s, and he was stronger-looking. His teeth were also larger. Overall, he looked like an animal that had lived during the ice age, which he had. That still boggled her mind that Capac was an honest-to-goodness prehistoric man.
He sat on the floor and looked up at her. Though they were now wolf’s eyes, they were the same color as when Capac was human. She could also see uncertainty lurking in them as well. There was no mistaking him for a normal, wild wolf. He showed too much intelligence.
Are you still okay?
Capac asked her telepathically.
Riya rubbed her sweaty palms along her thighs. “I think so. When you turn me, will I be a dire wolf or one like Wren?”
You’ll be a full dire wolf, except your fur will be dark-brown, the same color as your hair.
“And my eyes?”
The gorgeous light green they are now.
Riya shifted a little to the side, then pushed off the bed to stand. Since she was stressed, her klutzy side reared its ugly head. She managed to step down on Capac’s tail. He let out a yelp and jumped out of the way, pulling away from her.
“Damn it, I did it again. I should have looked where your tail was. Are you sure you want to be stuck for an eternity with me? I’m liable to poke your eye out next.”
Capac stepped closer and rubbed against her leg as his laughter filled her head.
Good thing I’m immortal. I’d probably be able to grow an eye back.
“That is so not reassuring.”
He nudged her.
Stop worrying so much. What little damage you do heals in an instant. Come on and pet me. I know you want to since I’m such a good-looking dire wolf.
Riya chuckled. “A little sure of yourself, aren’t you? But I am going to pet you, anyway.”
She settled onto the floor next to Capac. Riya reached out and scratched him under his chin before she moved to behind his ear. He seemed to really like that. He turned his head toward her and leaned in to give her better access. She ran her gaze over him, loving the feel of his soft fur. She could be just like him, able to turn into a wolf that had been extinct for ten thousand years.
Riya stroked her hands down his back. “Will I be as klutzy as a wolf as I am as a human?”
Capac gave a short laugh in her mind.
To be honest, I don’t know. As werewolves, we’re pretty agile and have better coordination than a mortal, even in our human forms.
“Then I’ll put that on the pro column for becoming one.”
There is nothing like going wolf and running wild in the trees, Riya. It’s a freedom mortals never get to experience. Around here you might find a cougar coming for a run as well, though.
“It sounds as if my life will never be boring.”
Capac shifted to human form and took her into his arms. “It was nice having you pet me as a dire wolf, but I much prefer to hold you like this. I don’t know if this will help or not, but if there wasn’t a chance that you could love me too, you wouldn’t have been fated to be my mate. Matings aren’t usually one-sided.”
There was that to consider as well. No longer caught off guard, able to think clearly without fear pushing at the back of her mind, Riya was able to appreciate exactly what Capac could give her. She’d been afraid she would always be alone. She didn’t date much because not many men seemed attracted to her. Then throw in a few klutzy moments and they lost interest in her real fast. With Capac she got a mate and a handsome man she had never dreamed of being able to say was hers.
Riya was halfway to giving Capac the answer he wanted, but she wasn’t ready to rush into it just yet. She wanted the time he was giving her to let it all sink in and percolate for a little while. Then she thought of something.
“Capac, what about my family? My parents will notice if I don’t age.”
“You’ll have the choice of two options. Once you reach the stage where you should be looking older, you’ll have to disappear from their lives forever. The other, if you trust them not to reveal to the world what you are, will be telling them the truth. You’d have to decide what will be best for you.”
“Okay. Say I tell them and they decide they want to become werewolves? Would you turn them?”
“If that was what they truly wanted, yes. That way you’d never have to worry about them saying the wrong thing to the wrong person. I wouldn’t cut your family off from you over something like that. Edensaw has said that any mate’s family members who would like to be turned are more than welcome to join our pack.”
That took some of the pressure off Riya’s shoulders. Even though her parents hadn’t wanted children, she still was close enough to them she’d miss them terribly if she never saw them again.
“I guess you’ve given me all the information you could to help me make my decision,” Riya said. “But just one thing, how would you claim me? I hope it doesn’t involve pain like you turning me.”
Capac pulled her onto his lap and laughed. “I promise you it doesn’t, only pleasure. The first time I make love to you fully is when our souls will join, forming the mating bond. And once it’s in place neither one of us will be able to stand to be away from the other for long periods of time. A few hours will seem like weeks, and we’ll suffer what we call separation anxiety. You’ll constantly think something bad has happened to me.”
“I guess that explains why you haven’t wanted to do anything more than heavy petting and oral sex.”
“Exactly. Once I’ve claimed you there is no undoing it.”
“I’m not going to give you my final answer, but I really can’t see much of a downside to any of this. I do have strong feelings for you.” She took a deep breath. “I’m scared to call it love right now. It’s so new, and I’ve never fallen in love before.”
Capac kissed her long and slow before he pulled away. “I’m patient, though you make me burn for you.”
“Burn how? Burn hot like a fire or burn cold like ice since you’re from the ice age?”
He smiled. “Maybe I do burn like ice for you. Now let’s spend the time getting closer, with no clothes on, of course.”
Riya laughed as Capac stood with her in his arms, then tossed her onto the bed before he climbed up next to her and covered her body with his.