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“Nice,” he said. “And is she…?”
I knew what he wanted to ask. The question every young wolf wanted to know when somebody shifted for the first time.
“She’s dominant,” I said. “Way more than me, and she knows her place.”
He made a face. “That might not go down well.”
“Challenges are forbidden for minors,” Perdita said hurriedly. “You both know that.”
“I’m hardly going to challenge her,” Victor said.
But he wasn’t the only one in the pack who had a reason to try. Things could get messy for a while until Margo figured out her true place, not only in the pack but amongst the teen pack members, too.
CHAPTER27
Margo
I awoke in darkness,naked under a blanket. I sat up straight, clutching the blanket to my chest as I tried to figure out where I was and what was going on. My eyes adjusted quickly. My clothes were neatly folded on the arm of the sofa. Dorian was asleep on the floor.
Everything came back to me in a rush, but it still felt like a dream somehow. I flexed my arm, noting a scar on my wrist. Matching ones on both wrists. I touched my neck. More there, too, but they weren’t as deep as the pain had me believe. How long had I been asleep?
Frowning, I stared hard at my forearm, feeling as though something wasn’t quite right. Then it dawned on me. No goosebumps. No chill. Even without clothes, I was pleasantly warm. That was a first.
I peeked at Dorian again. He looked exhausted. He didn’t budge when I got up to get dressed. I let him sleep, unsure if I wanted to face him yet. After what I did, I wasn’t sure if he’d want to see me.
I snuck outside. It must have been the middle of the night because the moon was high, and nobody was around. So what had changed? I was pretty sure I had shifted into an actual wolf, but I didn’t remember shifting back, so had it been a dream, after all?
I sat on the front step for a few minutes, letting the breeze drift around me, gently blowing my hair across my face. I sniffed curiously. When I paid attention, past the coconut scent of my shampoo, I caught many more scents in the air. Sausages, not fresh. Grass, recently mown. Moss. Wood. Soil. Familiar smells that warmed my insides, like traces of my parents. The air smelled cold. Death, or at least, a semblance of it. I guessed that was Vira.
But the sounds were even better. If I concentrated, I could hear rustling in bushes quite a bit away from me. Somebody coughed a few doors down, then came a creak as somebody else rolled over in bed.
Something stirred in the back of my mind. Wolf. My heart beat a little faster. I couldn’t trust the wolf because she had attacked Dorian and wanted to attack my parents. Though I was currently in control, I didn’t know if I could stop her from making an appearance. Would we always fight?
I looked at the scars on my wrists again. The pain had long since faded, but I doubted I would ever forget it. The shift… I remembered it as frightening and powerful, but I had grown stronger. Death wasn’t on my shoulder anymore. Did I feel it at all? Was I still a harbinger?
I reached out for death, felt a chill in return. But it wasn’t a warning. Footsteps followed. I didn’t need to look to know my birth mother was approaching me slowly, carefully, warily.
“How are you feeling?” she asked from a couple of feet away. Even though she spoke softly, I heard her clearly. That was so cool.
“A little confused.” I threw my head back and looked up at the moon. An ache in my heart might have come from the wolf. I didn’t know much anymore. “What am I now?”
“A shapeshifter?” She took a step closer. “Not quite a werewolf, because that’s not all you are. You might change shape now, but I feel it still; death’s call lies within you.”
“I’m stronger.” I brushed my hand over my bare arm. “Warm. I don’t think I’m dying anymore.”
“Not dying, but the threat is not over. The threads of death may not be entangled around you right now, but Eli is still a danger. He won’t let this go. Not with me here and you changed. He will take it personally, decide the werewolves did this on purpose to strengthen themselves.”
“And weaken the harbingers.”
“Exactly. There is only so much I can do to stop him. He is more powerful than me. He has been practising, and apparently, he has been teaching others. A harbinger I never met came here and tried Eli’s tactics. He was weak, a show to tell us that Eli is not alone, but it worries me.”
“Are there many other compounds then?”
“I don’t know the details. I’m just a woman, remember?”
“Well, do you think us women together can scare Eli off?”
“We should be so lucky,” she scoffed. “Our only hope is his death or the sensory room.”
