“Uhm…” I hugged my knees to my chest again, still uncomfortable being undressed around him. “I don’t have an inner wolf. The rumors say that the reason you’ve lived so long is because you spend most of your time in your wolf form—more time than any shifter I’ve ever heard of. If that’s true, then that means you would have areallygood idea about the connection between the man and wolf parts of your soul. I was hoping you’d help me find mine. The inner wolf, as well as the confidence I need to go back and make Anders take me as his mate. Can you show me how to shift?”
Levi stared at me for what felt like an eternity. When he finally opened his mouth, I cringed inwardly, awaiting his ire or ridicule.
Instead, he shook his head slowly and let out a sarcastic chuckle. “You don’t ask for much, do you, Juniper Hollis?”
8
LEVIATHAN
June stared back at me, a hopeful and almost desperate look on her face. It still made no sense to me. Why would anyone want to bind themselves to a man who’d treated them like shit? Part of me wanted to offer her the chance to live with the rest of my people in Hidden Grove, but she seemed hellbent on staying in Idlewild to take care of her grandparents.
I knew exactly how bad it could be to go out on your own. Shifters were pack animals. To be turned out with nowhere to go and no one to rely on was both emotionally and physically devastating. Having a less than perfect relationship wasn’t ideal, but the support of a pack, of family and friends, might make it bearable. It wasn’t my life to live, but this was not an easy thing to ask of me.
“You know it’s not that easy, right? How old are you now?”
June pulled her knees closer to her body, almost turning herself into a ball. “Uh, twenty-seven.”
“Shit,” I sighed.
Shifters reached full maturity during puberty, and their first shift usually took place somewhere between eleven and fifteen, depending on the person. A shifter who had trouble accessing their inner wolf wasn’t entirely that rare: they usually figuredit out within a year or two. For every year that passed from that point, it became more and more difficult to make contact. Juniper was more than a decade past the point when she should have first shifted. If it was even possible to connect her with her wolf, it wouldn’t be easy.
She stayed silent as I thought about it. While I mulled over the possibilities, I recalled that one whispered word.Primroses. Those three syllables clung in my mind like a barbed fishhook. Could this woman be Naphele reincarnated? The odds were beyond slim, but if there was even a small chance, I couldn’t let it slip away.
“All right,” I said, trying to sound like I wasn’t fully sold yet. “Let’s say Idohelp you, what’s the plan after that?”
June’s eyes widened, the blue of her irises reflecting the flickering orange of the fire. “You’ll help me?”
“I haven’t said yes yet. First, let’s hear what you’re wanting to do. We figure out how to get you to shift, and then what?”
She swallowed, licking her lips as she looked away. Obviously, she hadn’t considered that yet.
“I go home,” she said with a shrug.
Unable to keep the smirk off my face, I said, “You decided you’d go traipsing down Main Street as a wolf, and everyone in town would come out to ooh and aah over you? That this Anders guy would stumble over himself to apologize and take you as a mate?”
“No,” she said, but from the blush rising on her cheeks, I was pretty sure I’d hit the nail on the head.
“Sure,” I said. “Seriously, what will you do if we get it done?”
She let out a heavy sigh and held her palms out to the fire.
My eyes drifted to her slender, delicate fingers. Did they look like Naphele’s had? Would they feel the same when they stroked my cheek? Try as I might, I was having a hard time not making comparisons. It made me feel like a dick.
This woman was her own person, even if shewasthe reincarnation of my lost love. I couldn’t simply wash away all she was,whoshe was, because I wanted Naphele back. I’d known since the beginning that if I ever found her, she wouldn’t be the same person. That was the nature of reincarnation. Perhaps some old memories might resurface, but you couldn’t force a person to be someone else.
Even so, soul mates were soul mates, two spirits intertwined, dancing throughout the centuries and millennia to find each other again and again.
“I would go to my grandparents first,” she finally said, pulling me from my thoughts. “After that, I’d speak with the elders, and they could address the town. They’d want a demonstration, and that’s when I would shift and show my wolf. Then it would be up to Anders to decide whether he’d want to reverse his decision.”
“And if he still doesn’t?” I asked dryly.
She blinked, pulling her head back as if I’d slapped her. “Well…he has to.”
“I think it’ll take a bit more than shaking a little wolf ass in his face, if your relationship is as bad as it sounds.”
“You’re an alpha. You can show me what an alpha would like in a mate.”
More attempts to change herself. I understood why she was so desperate, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. The only thing that stopped me from refusing her was the chance to be near her for a few days. If she really wanted this, then I’d have plenty of time to really get to know her. I’d be able to tell for sure if she was Naphele reborn, and if so, then who knows what might happen.
