Page 21 of Dual Nature

Suddenly, there was a shaking body wedged in between us, someone licking my hand. Finley had come out from under the bed to try to stop a fight between alphas. I took a deep breath and squatted down in front of her, holding her face in my hands as she licked at my cheek.

"Do you know how stupid that was?" I asked, leaning my forehead against hers. "Don't ever do something like that again. A fight between alphas is bound to happen, and it's not your place to stop it."

She let out a sharp, disapproving bark and butted into me.

"Seems as if she disagrees with that," Lane chuckled. "What if we send her out with the betas and see how things go? We’ll watch from a distance and make sure nothing disturbs them. Zander, did you get ahold of your contact at the Senate?"

"I left a message. If they don’t get it in time, we still might have visitors coming after her, but if we prove she’s a werewolf, then the human police have no jurisdiction here," Zander pointed out. "Although if it's the Dark Ring, they won’t give a fuck about the rules."

"The sun is starting to set. If we're gonna go, I'd rather everyone be back home and safe before it's pitch black outside." Lane sighed then shifted into his wolf and shook out his black and tan fur.

"I'll go find the others while you two head to the hunting grounds," I called as I headed downstairs. A giant white and silver wolf shoved past me, running out the specially made werewolf-sized doggy door that we had installed. "No need to be such a dick, Zander!"

Mason and Noah were in the kitchen eating what Zander had been making. "Where's Elias?"

"When the screaming started, he went to his room. I'm kind of shocked he didn't leave the house," Mason said, shoving another forkful of pasta into his face. "What? It's wrong to let good food go to waste."

Shaking my head, I walked down the hall to Elias's room and rapped on the door. "Hey, you up for taking Finley on her first hunt?"

"What the fuck, Colt! You're not gonna ask us?!" Mason yelled from the kitchen.

Elias opened his door, and the haunted look in his eyes told me that something wasn't okay. "She's alright? It sounded like she was being torn apart."

"Finley is fine... I think. She just had some trouble wrapping her head around being an omega, so she put up one hell of a fight," I answered, gripping his shoulder gently. "You okay?"

He nodded and stepped out of his room, shutting the door behind him. "Is there a reason you three aren't taking her?"

I motioned for him to follow me back to the kitchen. "There have been a few rare cases of omegas being able to have a proper first hunt if they’re with less dominant wolves. Our hope is that Finley might be one of these since she’s unlike anything we’ve dealt with before. You guys up for the task?"

"Fuck yeah, who wouldn't want to take snuggles out for a hunt!" Mason cheered, shoving Noah so hard he all but knocked him off his seat. "Come on, twin, let's go play with our new packmate."

"What if we’re too much? Mason and I are strong for betas, and Elias isn’t a slouch either," Mason questioned.

"Look, all I can ask is that you guys try. Even if she can keep pace and join in, it would be better than slinking in the trees, watching and waiting to be able to pick the bones clean." I sighed. "The first hunt is important, even more so because it bonds the person and the wolf together. Right now, they’re not doing well with that. Her shift was the worst I've ever seen; she fought it the whole way."

Noah's face fell at this news. "Then we’ll do all that we can to help support her. No one should be at odds with who they really are."

fourteen

"Give yourself a moment, then come down when you're ready," Zander murmured as he stroked my head. "Everything's going to be alright. I promise, little dove, we will all help you through this."

Seconds later, he shed his clothes and shifted into a massive white wolf with hints of silver running through his coat. He was stunning to look at, and my wolf preened at the knowledge that this male was our mate. Zander licked my muzzle before bounding down the stairs, making Colt curse him out as he left the house.

Now alone, sitting on my haunches in my new room, I looked around, seeing everything as a wolf would. My eyesight was sharper than anything my human brain could have imagined. I stilled when I caught sight of myself in the mirror over the bathroom sink, hitting me with the urge to stand up so I could see all of my new body. My coat was jet black, but my eye color had stayed the same, if not slightly brighter, as my eyes glowed with that primal intensity that all wolves had. In the back of my brain, I could sense my wolf was pleased that I approved of her form, and that had our tail wagging. It was odd to feel like myself yet… more. My wolf didn't take over my brain like I thought she would. Instead, she sat on an equal plane as if we shared space side by side. The closest way I could think to explain the feeling was what the Organization had tried to teach us about working with a partner—two parts of a whole working in tandem to get the job done.

My wolf had the feeling of her own personality, one that would likely have a strong influence on my behavior, but I still felt like I hadn't lost who I was before getting bitten. Finley the assassin was here, but that was no longer all that I was—I was now an omega too. I could feel her excitement to go run in the forest as well as a reminder that she was very hungry because I hadn't been doing a good job of feeding us. Her thoughts running through my head was the part that was going to take some getting used to, but there was nothing I could do to change that. I slowly padded out of the room and down the stairs, knowing that the others would be there. I'd heard them talking but was too focused inward to listen in on what they were saying.

Once they saw me, the talking dropped off, and the twins gawked at me while Elias gave me a shadow of a smile.

"Damn, snuggles, you look good as a wolf." Mason grinned, coming to squat down in front of me. "Can I touch you?"

The human part of me wasn't sure how I felt about being pet like a dog, but my wolf was all for it. Surging forward, she shoved my head into his chest, rubbing my cheek to mark him with my scent. His large hands started to scratch behind my ears in a way that felt no less than magical, and a sound I'd never heard before started to rumble in my chest. He chuckled as he kept up the attention.

"Would you look at that? I got her to purr," Mason boasted.

"Little one," Colt called, forcing me to lift my head to look at him. "You ready to go on your first hunt?"

I yipped and wagged my tail like the excited puppy that I wasn't convinced I was. In this body, I was finding that she had more power to control our actions, so I was hoping the opposite applied while in my human form. I wasn’t thrilled with how things were going at the moment, but I didn't know how to stop her from acting like an idiot.