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Immediately, embarrassment flooded her face. She hoped the alphas hadn’t heard her, but she knew they must have. They heard everything, saw everything,smelledeverything.
Shannon knew if she glanced at Tanner or Logan right now, she would see the primal hunger burning in their eyes, and the aching arousal straining against the fronts of their pants.
So she didn’t look at them, and she stopped looking at Rufus too. She dragged her eyes away from the tawny-haired wolf shifter’s naked body and fixed her gaze firmly on the dancing flames of the campfire. It was the only place she could look without completely losing control.
And she wasn’t ready to lose control. Not yet. First, she wanted to hear Rufus’ story.
“I’m not sure where to start,” Rufus said.
Tanner was sitting across the fire, puffing on the cigarette he had just rolled for himself. “Start at the beginning, friend. When were you born?”
“Don’t know exactly,” Rufus answered. “I’ve never been much good at keeping track of things like that. I just know it was sometime after the Occurrence… and sometime before Shannon was born.”
He hesitated for a few seconds, as if gathering his thoughts.
“My parents were both wolves—red wolves—already a rare species when I was born, now almost entirely gone. I only remember my parents a little, just vague impressions really. I remember the warmth of my mother’s fur when I would snuggle up against her belly to nurse with my siblings. And I remember playing with my father, nipping at his tail until he would growl and roll me over onto my back with his snout.”
Shannon still wasn’t looking at him, for fear of the effect it would have on her heat, but she could hear the smile in his voice as he talked about those happy memories. As he went on, however, the happiness faded.
“I must have been about six or seven moons old when the hunters came. They got my mother, my father, all my siblings. I can still remember the sound of their weapons, about as loud as thunder, and the cries of my family as they were gunned down. I ran as fast as I could, and somehow I managed to get away. To this day, I still feel like a coward for running.”
Shannon’s heart ached as she thought of Rufus fleeing for his life, and the fact that he still carried that pain with him only made her sadder for him.
“What else could you have done?” she said, her voice cracking. “You were just a pup. You never could have fought off hunters with rifles.”
Rufus chuckled sadly. “That’s the same thing your father told me.”
Shannon’s heart skipped. That was the second time today that someone had unexpectedly mentioned her father. The first time had been when the centaur leader had mentioned the human traveler he had occasionally encountered bringing firestone down from these mountains. His description fit her father perfectly—red hair, fearless, a little crazy. And now it turned out that Rufus had known him too.
“How did you know my father?” Shannon asked.
“He saved my life. After my family was killed, I spent several months roaming the wilderness on my own. I wasn’t old enough to be a good hunter, so I often went hungry, and I sometimes got sick from eating rotten scraps. My only experience with humans had been bad, so I avoided them at all costs. Until one day—I must have been about a year old—I got my leg caught in a hunter’s trap. I was stuck for days, unable to move, and I was sure I would die of thirst and become a meal for the harpies. Then, just as the last of my life force was leaving my body, I saw a man approaching. I assumed he would kill me, but I was too weak to fight. All I could do was accept my fate. Only the man didn’t kill me. He freed me from the trap and took me back to his ranch, where he nursed me back to health. That man’s name was Samuel Duffy.”
Somehow, Shannon wasn’t surprised. Her father had always been compassionate, especially toward other species. Whenever he found an injured bird, he would always bring it home and provide a safe place for it to recover until it was strong enough to fly again. And of course there were the hucows, whom he had taken it upon himself to rescue from a life of abuse and servitude. The fact that he had nursed a young wolf pup back to health was right in keeping with his personality.
But why had her father never mentioned it, Shannon wondered.
Rufus went on: “At first, your father thought he might have to keep me forever. My leg had been badly broken by the trap, and it never healed completely, so I couldn’t run or hunt for my own food. Not that either one of us minded, of course. Samuel liked having me around to keep him company on the ranch he was still building, and I loved him like a second father. He fed me and protected me, and he even let me sleep in the house with him. And he gave me the name Rufus. It means ‘red-haired’ in Latin. He was a smart man, your father.
“Anyway, one day when I was about two years old, something strange happened. Samuel woke up one morning and found a naked young man curled up at the foot of his bed. I had spontaneously shifted during the night. Needless to say, this caused a few minutes of panic for both of us, but I figured out how to shift back into the wolf again, and then Samuel realized it was me. I don’t know which of us was more astonished by my new ability. Perhaps the most amazing part was the discovery that my injured leg had healed. The shifting had healed it somehow.
“After that, Samuel raised me like a son. He taught me how to speak, which didn’t take long, since I’d already been listening to him talk for a year, and I already understood most of what he said. He taught me how to use tools as well, and I helped him work on the ranch. It was a good life, but as I got older, I couldn’t help wondering if there were other shifters out there. Sometimes, with Samuel’s blessing, I would go out into the wilderness for days at a time, looking for others like me. I met many wolves, but none that could turn into a man. For a long time, I thought I was the only one.”
Shannon detected a hint of loneliness in Rufus’ voice. She could sympathize. As an omega, she knew what it was like to be different, and to feel alone.
“So what happened?” Tanner asked. “You must have left eventually.”
Rufus didn’t say anything right away, and Shannon decided to go ahead and risk a glance in his direction. His brow was furrowed, and he seemed to be thinking very deeply about what he was going to say next.
“I need you to keep the next part a secret,” he said at last.
“Fine,” Tanner said. “We’re not in the business of spreading rumors. Right, Logan?”
“Of course,” Logan agreed.
Shannon nodded that she would also keep Rufus’ secret.
Rufus sighed. “Okay. I’m really not supposed to talk about this. I never even told Samuel all of it. But I know I can trust the three of you. Well, it turns out there are others like me. More than you might think, actually. The reason I never found them when I went looking is because they’re really good at hiding. Eventually, they came looking for me. They invited me to join their pack. At first, I was reluctant to leave Samuel—he’d been like a father to me—but in the end, I decided I should be among my own kind. I think Samuel understood, even though I never told him exactly where I was going.”
