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Finally, her body shuddered and he heard a ragged inhale. This time, it was his turn not to breathe as he waited for her to shift.
But she didn’t.
“Zee... baby, please.”
She jolted, shooting up onto her feet and racing into the apartment. He went after her, leaping over the bed and making it into the living room in time to see her darting for the door.
“If you take off running, I’ll just have to run you down again.”
She froze, her entire body quivering. Finally, her head bowed, tail drooping low.
He hated himself a little more.
But she stayed.
“Shift, Zee, so we can talk.”
––––––––
SHE DIDN’T SHIFT.
Not then, and not in the hours that followed as the dark night sky bled away into dawn, then the clear blue of morning.
The sun shone down with relentless cheer when Niko reached for his phone and punched in the number for her brother. She’d fallen into a restless sleep on the balcony and he put his earpiece in, hoping she was exhausted enough that his voice wouldn’t wake her.
Phoenix came on the line, scowling at the sight of him. “I was hoping she’d bloody you.”
“Zee shifted to her wolf form last night a little before midnight. She won’t change back. Do you have any idea why?”
Phoenix’s brows came together over his eyes. So far, they were still their normal greenish-gray, but the man’s tension was clear in the hard line of his jaw, the stiff set to his shoulders.
“I thought I’d made it clear—I no longer have contact with my sister.”
“Fuck,” Niko swore, feeling his options sliding away from him with every passing second. “I’ve got less than eighteen hours to vacate Provincetown. I’d like to talk to her before we leave.”
“We?” Phoenix’s lashes flickered, the only real reaction.
“She’s coming back to Durham-Starfell with me. She’s been without a pack long enough.”
The black began to bleed into Phoenix’s eyes. “What if she doesn’t want to stay in Durham-Starfell, Prime?”
“Until she finds a place where she has a true pack, she has no choice. She needs to be with a pack, needs healing, touch. Since she’s in my territory, it’s my responsibility.”
A sneer quivered on Phoenix’s lips, but he stayed silent.
It was probably the best he’d get from the other man, and considering everything Niko had learned, he couldn’t blame the other man. “If she doesn’t shift soon, I’ll have to force the issue—”
“No!”
The word came out in a low, choked plea.
Niko had looked away from his phone, eyes on the sleeping wolf just outside the glass doors but the sound of Phoenix’s voice had his attention shifting back to the other man.
But Phoenix wasn’t looking at him now.
The arrogant, angry, proud son of a bitch had his head bowed. While the local alphas answered ultimately to the Prime, when he was in their territory, unless laws had been broken, the relationships were almost that of equals. Not entirely, because nobody could be equal to a Prime save another Prime. But nobody could hold the position of alpha without being strong and worthy of respect.
And alphas didn’t bow their heads before Primes, even their own.
