Conall said it fed the pack, it bonded them together, and they reveled in the power they felt from their alphas. Their response to it at the Challenge confirmed it.
Despite Thea not knowing most of the pack members that well, they gave her respectful nods of their heads, murmuring her name in greeting as she passed along their lines with Conall. Callie and James stood off to the side, separated from the pack to highlight their rank. Beside them were three strangers.
Feeling out the air around them, Thea detected a little bite of energy from their collective magic. A warlock stood between two witches. He had a shock of white-blond hair and pale skin, in complete contrast to the dark-haired, golden-skinned witches at his side. The women, according to Conall, were sisters, and the man, a high-ranking warlock within the coven.
Her mate stopped in the center of the gathering and Thea stood by his side, her expression carefully neutral. The strangers studied her in surprise, like they hadn’t expected her to really be a werewolf. But they could sense the alpha in her. She could tell by their expressions.
They were not amused.
“Are you satisfied?” Conall asked without preamble.
The man lifted his chin. His arrogance was palpable. “We’ll witness the shift before we are satisfied.”
Conall emitted a little snarl but turned away from them to face the pack. Thea followed suit. Her eyes danced over the gathering. Grace and Angus eyed the strangers with distrust, as did some other members. But most were watching her, some wearing smiles, others vibrating with the call of the moon.
And Thea could feel it. She could feel the pull toward the celestial being in the sky. Her eyes rose to it as the sun dipped out of sight and moonbeams cut through the dark landscape. It glistened across the loch in the distance.
A burning, tingling sensation rippled down Thea’s spine and her gums began to throb.
Conall was right.
It was unsettling to feel the beginnings of the shift when she had not initiated it.
Her mate undressed and the pack immediately followed his lead.
Shit, she’d forgotten about this part.
Public nudity.
Thea cut Conall a look for not warning her and he threw her that boyish grin. “It isnae anything they havenae seen before, Thea love.”
She heard chuckles from some pack members and gave her mate a dirty look before hauling her shirt over her head. His eyes darkened as he watched her shimmy out of her pants, and he didn’t look so cocky about his pack members seeing her naked.
“It isnae anything they have havenae seen before,” she mocked.
Conall’s expression promised delicious retribution for her cheekiness.
She was about to respond in kind when the pleasure-pain of the transformation began. At the same time as Conall, her claws grew. Feeling Conall’s power swell out of him, flooding the pack and her, her knees trembled.
He threw back his head and bellowed, “Ceannsaichidh an Fhìrinn!” and goosebumps covered Thea’s entire body. Jesus, he was magnificent.
“Ceannsaichidh an Fhìrinn!” she yelled in unison with the pack. Her mate turned to look at her with pride bright in his gray eyes seconds before they both fell to their knees and let the change take them.
Conall had been right. It was odd to not be in control of shifting, a little alarming at first, but once she let herself relax, it was easy. Natural. The transformation didn’t take long and soon Thea was closer to the ground, padding along the dewy grass to nuzzle against Conall in wolf greeting. He nipped playfully at her ear and she sidestepped him to make her way over to the members of the Blackwood Coven.
She stared up at them, communicating silently. “Well? Satisfied?”
The warlock appeared dismayed, but he nodded slowly. “Our business here is over.”
He ushered the two women away. Remembering the casualties they’d caused in their search for her, Thea pulled back her muzzle and let out a low, deep, menacing growl.
The witches jumped, throwing her startled, frightened looks over their shoulders before scurrying out of view around the Coach House.
Thea laughed, and it came out like a hoarse snarl. She turned to find Wolf Conall and Wolf Callie wearing their versions of wolfish grins, whilst Wolf James’s expression clearly said, “Was that necessary?”
Yes. But more than that, it had been fun.
Seeing most of the pack had already taken off for the run, Thea lunged past her mate, his sister, and beta, and hurried up the embankment toward the road that would lead them into the forest that covered the hills.
Everywhere she could hear the pack as Conall fell into stride beside her.
They were all around her, their hearts beating in tandem.
And Thea realized as they gloried in the call of the full moon that she had never, not once in her life, felt more herself than she did right then, running with Conall and his pack.