Chapter 4

SAMANTHA

I ran through the woods as fast as my paws could take me, always finding yet another burst of speed every time the memories of my morning found me again.

But no matter how fast my padded feet pounded against the forest floor, I couldn’t outrun the creature I had become.

Ayisha continued to speak to me calmly, until at last, my frenzied sprint became a jog, then a trot, and finally slowed to a walk.

Then, with all my energy sapped, I collapsed heavily against the damp earth. I was only vaguely aware of the strong arms that lifted me up and carried me back through the woods.

When I awoke on the sofa in a cozy living room, I was me again. Human. I tried to sit up but immediately felt sick.

“Easy now,” a deep voice said from beside me. “Take it slow. Some wolves have bad reactions the first time, and I’ve never known anyone to shift so late.”

Emerick resumed stroking my forearm up and down with the backs of his fingers.

It definitely helped.

“W-was…was all that real?”

Emerick nodded. “As real as that wet towel on your forehead.” He paused. “I’m sorry about how this all unfolded. None of us were expecting… It was a surprise. Your wolf is—”

“Ayisha.”

“Excuse me?”

“Her name is Ayisha.” I frowned. “At least, that’s what she tells me. Is it normal for werewolves to have split personalities, or am I genuinely crazy?”

Emerick laughed. “It’s normal. Mine is named Zef, and he can be a real pain in the neck.” He gave me a lopsided grin. “Ayisha is really impressive. She took us by surprise.”

Slowly, I eased myself up into a sitting position, swallowing down the bile at the back of my throat. “Why? What is so special about her?”

He pursed his lips and looked at me thoughtfully.

After a few seconds, he stopped stroking my arm and laid it by my side. “I think I’ll let the others explain it to you. Now that you’re awake, let me go and gather them.”

“No, wait!” I snatched his hand.

Emerick swallowed as he looked down at our entwined fingers. “You’re shaking?”

A nervous laugh escaped on a ragged breath. “Werewolves? Really?” A tear worked its way down my cheek. “This is insane, isn’t it?”

Emerick sat down again, this time squaring his shoulders to look at me head-on. He gently wiped the moisture from my eye.

“To us, it’s not,” he explained. “Being a werewolf is just part of who we are.

“We never would have overwhelmed you like that had we thought it even remotely possible you might shift. I think your grandfather—”

“Grandfather,” I repeated, trying to make sense of it all.

Emerick’s forced smile was more like a sympathetic frown. “I think he has a theory as to what happened, so we’d better wait for him to explain.

“But if we’d thought it possible, we wouldn’t have pushed like we did, and I certainly wouldn’t have shifted in front of you.”

I look up and into his enchanting eyes. “Then why did you?”

“I…” Emerick searched for the words. “I didn’t have a choice. Ayisha practically commanded us.”

“And you obeyed?”

Emerick was quiet for a moment, telling me in a different way that he didn’t feel he was the best person to answer my questions. “Come. Let’s head back to the conference room.”

He stood and held his hand out to me.

I accepted it, and he pulled me to my feet slowly.

“Emerick?” I said as he guided me toward the hallway.

“Yeah?”

“Stay with me?”

His smile was beautiful. “You’ve got it, Samantha.”

“Sam,” I corrected him. “My friends call me Sam.”

***

As we opened the doors and entered the conference room, I saw that my dad was already waiting for us.

“Sam, honey.” He rushed to my side. “How are you?”

I shot him a glare, stopping him in his tracks. I could feel Ayisha in my mind, her hackles up.

“Sammy?”

“Don’t you dare ‘Sammy’ me!” I took a deep breath and turned to Emerick. “Could you give us a few minutes?”

“Of course. I’ll, um, summon the council.”

I waited for the door to close behind him before facing my father.

“How could you keep this from me?!” I shouted, my anger boiling over.

“It’s complicated,” he replied.

“Then uncomplicate it! I’m thirty-three years old. You’ve had thirty-three fucking years to at least ~hint~ at something. How could you?”

My voice dropped to a whisper as a sob broke through. “How could you keep this”—I tried to come up with the right words—“~part~ of me a secret? How could you keep me from Ayisha?”

He rubbed a hand over his chin. “I suppose I never really knew when or where to begin. I’d always planned on it. Is there ever a good time to tell your daughter that she’s a werewolf?”

“Oh gee, I dunno,” I said, shrugging as high as I could, “I suppose you could have started by telling me that things exist to begin with. I mean, for God’s sake—”

“Goddess,” Dad whispered.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s Goddess actually. Werewolves worship the Moon Goddess.” He waved the words away when he noticed my dumbfounded expression. “Let’s leave that one till later.”

“Well, we should probably start somewhere,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Like, how does this even happen? Were we bitten? Have you always been like this?

“What’s the right question to ask, Dad? I don’t even know where the fuck to start.” My voice rose in pitch as my frustration grew.

“Okay, okay.” He raised his hands in surrender. “Let’s start there then. We were born this way. All werewolves are. No one turns into a werewolf.

“There are theories about a witch binding the souls of a man and a wolf together long ago, but—”

“Wait, hold on. Witches are real too?” I interrupted, my mind spinning.

“Oh…yeah…there are… That’s something else we can discuss later. Maybe we should just cover werewolves for now?”

“Right. I’ll hold some of my questions about an entire supernatural world you’ve kept secret. Let’s focus on the biggest lie of the day. Please, continue,” I said, my words dripping with sarcasm.

“Sammy, I—”

“No, Dad! I can’t believe you kept this hidden all these years! Why? What possible reason was there?”

“Because I didn’t want to make you choose!” he roared back.

His outburst left me stunned into silence. I stared at him for a short while, my mouth hanging open in shock.

My father was not one for emotional outbursts, but I was coming to the realization that maybe I didn’t know who he really was at all.

“What do you mean ‘choose?’”

Dad sighed and let his forehead fall to his hands, where his elbows rested on the table.

“First, it was a choice between your mom and Kate or being a wolf. They aren’t like us. If you had known, the pack would’ve brought you here, away from them.

“Werewolves work hard to keep our kind a secret from humans. All efforts are made to keep pack members together for everyone’s well-being.

“I managed to keep your wolf hidden precisely so we could all stay together.

“I knew everything would change with your first shift at sixteen, but your mom and I were so terrified that telling you the truth would break our family. We felt helpless.

“And then you met Travis, and I justified…~suppressing~ your wolf by saving you the heartbreak of losing him.”

“How did you suppress her?” I asked.

He looked away. “I found a witch willing to do the spell.”

~“It was a curse,”~ Ayisha said in my mind.

“You cursed me?” I asked.

Dad still wouldn’t meet my eyes. “It sounds worse than it is. But yes, I had a witch cast an old curse that blocked you from connecting with your wolf. For all intents and purposes, you were human.”

He looked ashamed. “I thought I was letting you have a normal life with Travis. I’d always planned to tell you everything when you turned eighteen. But then—”

“But then I got pregnant,” I finished for him.

“But then you got pregnant,” he echoed, sighing heavily. “When that little boy was born, I fell in love with him. I loved being his grandfather.

“I was so proud of the life you two were building. When Travis died, I knew I had to tell you the truth. But, Sam, you were so broken. I was afraid I’d lose you for good.”

A tear slipped down my cheek. “My husband had just died. Of course I was broken.

“And I faced it all alone because you kept the most important secret of my life from me. On top of losing the love of my life, I was missing this whole other part of me I didn’t even know about.”

“I didn’t know what would help and what would hurt, Sam. Your mom and I were just trying our best to help you and Luke in any way we could.”

I knew that was true. My parents had uprooted their lives to be close to us. My mom had even retired early to help me with Luke while I started my career in real estate.

“Okay, so you didn’t tell me right away,” I said. “Why didn’t you tell me in the five years since Travis has been gone? I’ve been doing okay since then. Hell, I’ve been doing well even.”

“To be honest, I don’t know. I guess I didn’t want anything to change. I didn’t want you to choose…this.”

“But this”—I gestured around us—“is your world too.”

“Well, yes and no,” he replied.

“What do you mean?”

He sighed and rubbed his face. “I am your grandfather’s bastard,” he said with a sad smile.

Before I could ask him anything else, the doors opened, and the council came filing in just like before: Stephen first, then William, the white-haired woman, and the redhead.

Emerick was the last in and closed the doors behind him. When he turned, his eyes found mine.

Suddenly, I felt inexplicably less alone.

“Has your father explained what we think happened?” Stephen said. He sounded so cold.

“About…what?” I frowned as I looked from him to my dad.

Dad shook his head. “We didn’t get that far.”

The white-haired lady rubbed her temples. “By the Goddess… Do you at least know what an alpha is?”

I shook my head, feeling like the dumbest kid in class.

“The alpha is the strongest wolf in a pack,” William explained more gently than the other two. “They are more powerful than any other in their territory.”

“They are, therefore,” continued the white-haired woman, “expected to lead and protect the others.”

“One does not become an alpha by choice,” William cut in. “Rather, the Moon Goddess blesses a chosen one. Typically, the alpha genes are passed on through family bloodlines.”

Stephen pressed his fingers against his chest. “I am a former alpha of the Red Claw Pack. When I retired, my son, William, received the call.”

William had become lost in thought for a moment. He turned his gaze to the redheaded woman. “When I retired, Serena’s and my son received the call.”

“My cousin?” I said quietly.

Serena nodded. “Christian.” Tears glistened in her eyes.

William sighed. “Sadly, Christian suffered a terrible loss. His wife—or mate, in werewolf terms—died tragically. He took his own life shortly after.”

I was taken aback. I could understand the pain of losing a soul mate. For a moment, I wondered if my presence in his life could have made a difference during my cousin’s time of grief.

William continued: “Since Christian didn’t have an heir, it wasn’t immediately clear who the next leader would be.”

“But the pack can feel a pull to their alpha,” Stephen chimed in, “and we all felt a pull toward your family—”

“Not all of us,” the white-haired woman hissed.

Stephen ignored her. “We all assumed it was Luke. He’s a blood relative of mine, William, and Christian after all, and most alphas are male.”

My skin went cold, and I snapped my head toward my dad. “You thought Luke was the destined alpha of a werewolf pack, and you didn’t think it was worth mentioning?”

He shrugged. “I never thought they would come for you two. I assumed they would find a way to name someone else rather than acknowledge any descendant of mine.”

“Elias has never made more sense in his life,” the white-haired woman quipped snarkily.

“Quiet, Emilia,” Stephen said. “You’ve made your opinion on the matter perfectly clear.”

I frowned and shook my head. “Wait. If you’re all after Luke, why did your men take me?”

“We didn’t know you were a wolf because of the curse. But we knew how strange this would all sound to a human. The council agreed to bring you here to explain everything before approaching Luke.”

Emerick winked at me. “We’re not animals.”

“But the curse broke when you arrived on the pack’s land,” Stephen continued. “Your wolf is no longer dormant.

“We don’t know why. It could be the protection spells around the pack house triggered something. Or maybe you being around so many wolves at one time.”

“Whatever the case,” William continued, “something has allowed your wolf to break through finally.”

“And she is magnificent by the way,” Dad finished. Pride was evident in his tone.

I could feel Ayisha preening in my mind.

“But you haven’t just discovered your wolf.” Stephen glanced over at Emilia, who was staring daggers at him. “When you transformed, you… Your wolf is…”

“Samantha, your wolf is bigger than any I’ve seen,” Serena said, her warm smile far more inviting than Emilia’s hideous scowl. “You were also able to influence Jonathan and Jackson with your will.”

“W-what does that mean?” I struggled to say, but the answer was already clear to me.

Emerick placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me to face him. “Sam, we were wrong when we thought the pull was drawing us to Luke. It was drawing us to you.”

Stephen stood up, walked around the table, and bowed his head before me. “I, Stephen Redding, pledge myself to you, Alpha Samantha Paulson. I will protect and honor you with my life.”