My pulse raced with excitement. I was going to shift. Into a wolf!
Finally.
But right now, I was going to test out my paws. “Ready. Okay, so what do I do?” I asked for the fifteenth time, turning my head to look up at him.
He smiled at me. Smiled. Soft, gentle, for once he looked at ease. As if the weight of the world was off his shoulders. As if here, now, with me was his world.
“You don’t do anything. You just let it happen. Remember how it felt to be a wolf. Bring your awareness to that energy and let go.”
I closed my eyes and drew a breath and tried. All I remembered, though, was my panic. Not understanding what had happened. What I was.
Not until Rob had commanded me to be still.
I opened my eyes. “I remember you did something. To help me shift. You made me do it.”
He nodded. “I helped you. An alpha’s command is that strong. But you can do it on your own. You don’t need my help. You never have. Just be the wolf.”
Be the wolf. Right.
I tried again.
Still nothing.
I turned to Rob, sliding my palms over his hairy chest, pressing my breasts up against his ribs. “Please? Make me do it?”
That, too, made sense. My request. I loved when he was in charge. In control. Perhaps my wolf wanted that from him too.
His arm curled around my back, and he pulled me up tight against his body. We hadn’t had sex since I’d been shot—he wanted to be sure I healed fully, but he’d promised after I shifted to wolf form once more, the rest of healing would take place.
He squeezed my bare ass in his large palm then released the flesh and slapped. “Shift.”
One word.
A command.
In a flash, I was on all fours, looking up at him, then watching him shift, too. Then running together. I laughed—well, the wolf version of laughing—and looked over my shoulder at him. He was right behind me, huge and gray furred, nipping at my flank.
I picked up speed.
It felt incredible.
I was so fast! So nimble. I jumped over a fallen log, sailing well above it, way past it. My strength and agility were incredible. I felt… whole. And with Rob by my side, I am safe and protected. As if he was letting me do my thing but would be there if I needed him.
I caught a scent of something interesting. My instincts told me it was a rabbit. I followed it until I found a hole and started digging.
Rob nipped my hind quarters to make me leave it.
I’d probably thank him later, but at the moment, it riled me up. I turned and tussled with him. He quickly dominated me, bringing me to my back and standing over, his jaws loosely caged around my throat. I went slack and gave him my belly, and he let me up, so we could run again.
Submitting to him was as natural and instinctive as breathing.
I ran and ran through the forest, my senses all heightened, my pleasure off the charts. It felt wonderful.
Rob stayed with me as my guard, herding me when he wanted me to change direction, tussling with me when I wanted to play, until at last, he chased me back to the lodge.
He shifted first and stood on the porch, looking down at me.
“You can do it,” he encouraged. He wasn’t going to command this time. He was going to make me find it on my own.
I brought myself back to the last time. When I’d been lying in the barn, and he’d stroked my fur. What he’d told me then. I closed my eyes, remembered his voice.
And just like that, I found myself crouched on the ground in human form.
“I did it!” I beamed.
“You did.” Rob’s smile brightened his rugged face. He held his arms out, and I fell into them.
“I love you, Rob Wolf,” I said. And I meant it. With all my heart.
He cupped my face. “I love you, Willow Johnson.” He cocked his head. “Johnson-Wolf? Or just Willow Wolf?”
I smiled. “Maybe just Willow Wolf. It has a super-hero ring to it, you know?”
He stroked his thumb down my cheek. “Definitely.”
Epilogue
ROB
New moon pack meetings were formal. Organized. There was a schedule. An agenda. Everyone attended.
Full moon runs happened organically. They weren’t required, but they were still tradition. A constancy that every wolf could attend if they wanted to run with others, and they almost always did. Wolves needed to run when the moon was full. There was aggression that had to be let out. Sexual tension. It was unavoidable, especially if unmated and definitely if leaning toward moon madness.
Tonight was the first time I’d run mated. No wildness haunting me. I wanted to run now not out of desperation but out of pleasure.