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Payton looked up at the large mansion, where the teenagers were trying to open the door. They pounded on the thick wooden slats.
“Go around the front!” she yelled back.
They raced to follow her order. Payton swung her attention back to the omegas. She couldn’t allow them to hurt the young cubs. All her fear and panic melted away. She would defend them with her life.
“Kids, come here!” she shouted.
There were eight children total, and they rushed to gather behind her. Payton planted her feet and waited. Her wolf surged forward, not liking the taste of danger. It was the first time her wolf ever acted that way. Usually, it just stayed dormant, content to let her handle things. No matter how much she had tried to summon it, her wolf just wouldn’t budge. But now … it grew restless. It bubbled under the surface.
Just as she feared, the omegas charged, changing as they ran forward. The wolves growled and snapped, and Payton knew she was out of time. Their teeth and claws would tear them all apart.
“Run!” she yelled to the children. “Run to the lodge!”
The kids did as she commanded. She was right behind them, but it was a lost cause. There was no way they could outrun them. Helpless, hopeless, she only had one weapon, and that was her wolf. Payton begged with it. Pleaded with it. If not for herself, then maybe for the children. Maybe she could buy them enough time to make it to safety and for the parents to arrive.
A heat rose up inside her, and her wolf growled at her to stop. So, she did just that. Payton turned, ready to face whatever the omegas would do. Then this tremendous force pushed itself from her body, exploding outward, and her wolf sprang forward. In stunned disbelief, a gigantic wolf clawed the ground, roaring out a thunderous howl. The omegas came to a screeching halt, cowering in fear. Her wolf, however, was not corporeal. It was translucent, radiating with a bright glow. The orange fur waved with an invisible wind. Payton had no idea what had just happened, or what she did, but she wasn’t scared because she knew this was her wolf.
Using her newfound ferocity, Payton bared her teeth, and her wolf followed suit, howling fiercely. The omegas whimpered and turned tail, disappearing into the forest. With the danger gone, her wolf retreated back into herself, knocking Payton backward.
“Payton!” Jericho cried.
She didn’t even have the strength to move. Voices reached her, and a moment later, Jericho was there. She slid an arm around his neck as he picked her up, then he walked back to the lodge where the rest of the pack stood and waited. The children were safe in their parents’ arms.
“What was that?” he asked.
Payton blinked. “You saw it too?”
“We all saw it.”
Finally, she looked around and saw amazement as well as curiosity on everyone’s faces.
“I … I don’t know,” she admitted. “I think it was my wolf.”
“Let me through,” Esmeralda said. The front of the crowd parted to let the elderly lady through. “I never thought I’d see one, and here you’ve been all along, working for me.”
Jericho set her down on her feet, although he put his arm around her shoulders to make sure she was steady.
“See what?” Payton asked.
“Your wolf, my dear. It’s an astral wolf.”
Jericho frowned. “A what?”
“Legend is when a wolf is so powerful that the human host can’t possibly contain all that strength, it will emerge in times of danger as an astral wolf.” Esmeralda smiled at Payton. “I always knew you were special. I didn’t realize just how special you were.”
“So my wolf isn’t recessive at all?” Payton asked, still unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Esmeralda shook her head. “Perhaps all those other shifters who couldn’t shift contained an astral wolf as well, waiting to emerge at the first sign of danger.”
One mother stepped forward, her young daughter still cradled in her arms. “Thank you, Payton. I don’t know what to say or how I can thank you for saving my little girl.”
“Oh,” Payton said, shaking her head. “You don’t have to thank me. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to any of them.”
“You would’ve been killed,” Nancy said softly.
Payton looked at her mom. “I was prepared to do that, to buy the kids time to get help.”
Jericho’s arm tightened around her shoulder. She looked up at him.
