But I’d admit, Austin more than Ethan. That totally made me feel shitty, but Kali Sara, I knew why. The second Ethan was mine was the second that I’d be so fucking ready to never be away from any of my mates.

The thought of being with the three of them, however, made me want to purr.

Unfortunately for me, I’d changed, but I hadn’t changed to the point where my she-wolf could suddenly do cat things.

My she-wolf.

Just the thought was a reminder of her wants and needs, and right this second?

She wanted out.

Now.

Right now.

Completely in the dark, and unable to do anything other than obey, I stood up, and without another word, shifted.

I didn’t even want to reply.

I needed to run.

The urge was in me.

Out of nowhere.

Maybe in another place, I’d have questioned why. Would have questioned what was going on, but here and now? I wasn’t questioning anything.

Couldn’t.

The only thing I could do was run.

Run my fucking ass off.

So I did.

And within seconds, I felt the air itself shift as Eli’s wolf made an appearance.

The effect on me was staggering.

It was like, out of nowhere, the place throbbed with an ominous atmosphere, even though I knew Eli would never in a million years hurt me.

I’d been running, not away from him, but running toward the forest behind the pool where I knew Austin had been making weird noises that time before the attack.

Now?

I came to a halt.

I had to.

Eli was so dominant that my she-wolf felt like she was magnetically attached to him.

Though that chafed at my independence, it wasn’t like I had a choice. When he approached me, his muzzle ran all along the side of my body. He scented me, all of me. From my sides to my snout to my butt.

Of course, that was when I ground out, “Back off, bud.”

When his voice connected with me, I sighed with relief, even as I wanted to roll my eyes. “I’m not your bud,” he rumbled, and if he’d been in human form, and I as well, I’d totally have jumped his bones.

Fuck.

That voice?

Alpha.

And while it was enough to make the she-wolf quiver, I was glad when he pushed alongside me, scenting me with him.

I could feel that in the air now.

The way his essence perfumed me like the best aftershave ever.

He nipped at my heel, then barked, “Run free, sweetheart.” It came out as an eager yip in wolf form, but I’d take either command.

He was right too.

There was a sense of freedom that came with each step I took now that I was running with him.

It made me realize what he’d done.

When he’d shifted, he’d pulled some alpha mojo to get me to slow down, to make me stay put.

“Jerk,” I muttered in my head.

He snorted. “Wasn’t about to have you running off into danger, was I?”

I’d have liked to argue about that, but my other mate was still probably feeling the aftereffects of a natural wolf attack back home, so it wasn’t like I could chide him for being a dick.

I huffed, though, and carried on.

Exploring the woods in this form was a revelation.

As a human, it was beautiful. The sky was so mottled with color, it was like looking at the best kind of tapestry, because the strangely rich hues here were so much better in this form.

I felt the wind brushing through my fur, and it scented of me and Eli, but also of honeysuckle. I could smell green verdancy too, and I was overjoyed to note that the temperature in this skin was perfect.

Ambient so that, even though I was running hard through the underbrush, even though Eli and I were sniffing things out amid the different trees and brushes, hunting as it were through the majesty of this place, I didn’t feel overheated.

Eli and I did that for over two hours.

Exploring the land, enjoying its beauty. Wherever we were, be it heaven or some such paradise—with predators waiting in the wings—it was big.

Huge, even.

So expansive that it made me wonder what this place was for when it wasn’t being used by alphas to claim their omegas.

But even as I felt Eli start to relax, especially after I’d been approached by his wolf and I hadn’t been scared—I knew my chiding him for sniffing my ass had both amused and relieved him—everything seemed to turn to shit.

It hit me in the face exactly as it had with Austin.

It was there and then it wasn’t.

The scent. Again.

The power in the air.

It almost made me cringe.

It was nothing like what he’d exposed me to before, this was different.

I could sense it, even if I didn’t recognize it until the cat’s smell littered my space.

The creature stank. It wasn’t earthy and pungent like I’d thought before—the beast had evidently wandered close to us, triggering my she-wolf’s response. But this scent was vile.

Death and decay surrounded it, and only when I saw it leap out of the bushes at me, did I even realize what it was.

A cougar.

Where on Earth had that come from?

I leaped out of the way just in time, but Eli, of course, was already in my space.

He flew out of nowhere, colliding with the cougar, and as I felt him call on all his power, I wanted to die inside.

I wanted to crawl inside my soul and hide, because this level of power was so intense it scared me.

The cougar, quite naturally, was aggressive. Kali Sara, I couldn’t blame her. It was either act with aggression or just curl into a ball.

I scented that she was a she, and she fought with a brutality that was bewitching.

The pair of them struck each other, teeth snapping, claws raking, and blood dripping.

It was different, so much different than what I’d been exposed to with Austin.

There, it had been wolf against wolf, and inadvertent though it may have been, Ethan had prepared me for that with his beta challenge.

This?

This was different.

Cougars fought differently. Biting and kind of, well, the only way I could describe it was to compare it to the butterfly stroke in swimming. The curve of its arm was lethal, the way she could stretch and rake her claws was perilous, and even though I was cowed into place, frozen not out of fear but Eli’s dominance, I realized how beautifully she fought.

How majestic she was.

Eli was dark and dirty. He nipped and tore, slashed and cut through her defenses, and then I heard it.

The tiniest of muffled sounds.

Horror whipped through me as I ripped through the hold Eli had me in and saw the small cougar cub ambling toward us.

My eyes locked onto the tiny creature as he approached, mewling and crying for its mama.

My heart pounded as I saw Eli start to attack the cougar with a ferocity that the beast was too drained to survive.

I sensed her desire to defend her cub, and fuck, I couldn’t let this go on.

She needed to limp away, go and be with her baby.

I didn’t give a fuck that this was a different kingdom from the one I lived in.

I knew this was pure animal, and that it might bite me in the ass at some point, but having torn through the first chokehold Eli had on me, I managed to shred through the rest.

It was stupid. So fucking stupid. I knew that, but it wouldn’t stop me from doing it.

As the creature was protecting its cub, Eli was defending me. Making sure I was safe.