Yes, came the answer inside my own head.
“Yes I can trust you, or yes you’re going to screw me over?” I muttered.
“What?” Zuzu asked.
“Deep breath, Zoo. Don’t move, and keep breathing. ”
You can trust me.
Fat fucking chance.
I can help you.
She was alert now, stirring inside me. Feeling the wolf part of me move like it was its own entity hadn’t stopped being weird for me. I wasn’t sure I could get used to sharing my body with a wild animal, even if she had been there as long as I’d been alive.
Trust me. Trust yourself.
This coming from the bitch who’d run away from the pack to do God knew what in the Louisiana woods.
They weren’t my pack, she scolded. He is my pack. He is our mate.
“Fine,” I said. “But don’t shift. ”
Fine. Get on the ground, and put the gun down.
I didn’t love the initial instructions, but she was playing nice for now, so I wanted to do my part. If we had to coexist—literally—we might as well learn to work together.
I got to my knees, much to Zuzu’s visible dismay, and put the gun on the floor behind me.
I’ve got this from here.
When I opened my mouth again, the voice that came out was mine, but it wasn’t me speaking. I’d never heard myself sound so rough and forceful. “Bow before me, lesser creature, for I am your rightful ruler and you will yield to my commands. ”
Desmond’s ears went from flattened to perked up, and he gave a low whine.
I advanced towards him on all fours, and bared my teeth at him, my gaze not dropping, never showing him any signs of weakness. In spite of the fact my human teeth weren’t anywhere near as imposing as his wolf ones, he still looked uneasy.
“Bow before me,” the foreign version of my voice said again.
The wolf took a step away from Zuzu, watching the fae before turning back to me. Zuzu, for his part, now seemed more afraid of me than he was the wolf.
I growled, and it was not a sound a human throat should have been able to make. It rumbled in my belly and shook my bones.
Desmond’s legs stretched out before him, and he lay with his belly flat on the ground, covering his muzzle with one paw.
“You will not disrespect my authority again,” I told him.
He whined in reply.
Zuzu looked like he was going to wet himself, and his fear gave my inner wolf a thrill.
“That’s enough for now,” I whispered, more to my wolf than to anyone else in the room. I collected my gun, rearming the safety.
For now, she thought back.
Chapter Thirty-Four
She let her humanity slip.