Seven Years

“You did this,” Beckett growled, oblivious that Austin had broken into the room.

Austin erupted with fury and dove forward. A shadow of black fur streaked across the air and it was a vicious attack. He gave himself up completely to the nature of his wolf, relinquishing all control.

The human never stood a chance. Austin’s wolf savagely sank his sharp teeth into Beckett’s throat and ripped it out. Flesh peeled back and blood poured free.

It was over in seconds.

Austin shifted back to human form and immediately crawled naked to Lexi, checking for a pulse. He wiped the blood from his face and blew a few breaths into her mouth, just to make sure she was still breathing on her own. She was, thank Christ, and the coloring in her face slowly returned.

“Still alive,” he whispered, throwing on his clothes. Then he landed on his knees in front of her and cradled her head. “Lexi, I need you to shift,” he said insistently. “Can you hear me?”

She was barely conscious. Alphas could force a Shifter to change into their animal, but not so much the other way around as that would require cooperation from their human. Austin summoned the Breed magic within him and whispered in her ear, “Shift.”

In a flash, her wolf materialized.

“I’m so fucking sorry,” he said, gritting his teeth. The pain in his chest was insurmountable. So much rage that he wanted to bring Beckett back from the dead just to kill him all over again. Choke the bastard and let him get a taste of his own wickedness.

Austin scooped the wolf up in his strong arms. Her breathing was labored, but the shifting had healed her to some degree. He hustled down the stairs to his car and carefully placed her in the back seat, leaving behind Beckett’s body in the destroyed apartment.

Lorenzo’s man spoke frantically on his cell, shouting a few curse words. After closing the car door, Austin fired off a growl that sent him hauling ass.

Austin barely remembered the drive home. A firestorm of emotions overwhelmed him, from shame to rage, and then complete and utter devotion to this woman. In that moment, he knew with absolute certainty he wanted to protect her for the rest of his life. Whether she decided to take a spot in his pack or as his mate, it didn’t matter. He was willing to die for her. If Lexi didn’t make it through this, Austin would never be able to forgive himself.

His stomach twisted into a nervous knot as the wind from the open windows created a vortex within the car.

The tires skidded across the driveway of his house and Austin hopped out, opening the back door.

“What the hell is going on?” Reno shouted out.

Austin gently lifted her out and growled a warning at Reno when he stepped forward and got an eyeful.

Austin actually bared his teeth. “Get away from her,” he said darkly.

“Bring her inside.”

Lexi’s head flopped down and she began to twist her body. “Easy, girl,” he soothed in his alpha voice. She relaxed and Austin stalked toward the house with Reno following close behind.

Denver strolled along the edge of the woods with Maizy up on his shoulders. She had a jar full of lightning bugs sitting on top of his head. “Lookie, Mr. Cole! I got a bunch of ’em!”

“Denver, you two stay outside,” Reno demanded before turning his attention to Austin. “What happened? I tried calling your ass and you didn’t answer. I happened to check the monitor and caught a man entering her apartment, but we don’t have cameras set up inside.”

“Someone tried to strangle her,” Austin replied through clenched teeth.

“Hope that someone is taken care of,” Reno said in a chilling voice.

Lynn shrieked at first sight of the wolf. “What are you doing bringing that in the house?”

“Red alert, boys. We got a situation,” Reno announced.

Austin gently placed the silver animal on the brown carpet spread across the center of the living room. Ben and Wheeler stepped back, and Ivy cautiously lingered in the hallway, tugging the end of her braid.

Austin searched Lexi’s body to see the extent of her injuries; she needed to shift once more in order to heal. He had already tried in the car, but her wolf refused.

“Hold her back,” he ordered the twins without looking up. They hooked their arms around Lynn to keep her from running—the worst thing you can do around a wolf.

Silken fur tickled his palm as he grazed his hand around her graceful neck. She whined, and it felt like a pitchfork pierced his heart.

“Lexi, shift,” he demanded.

Three more times proved unsuccessful.

“That’s not going to work,” Ivy informed him. Her loose braid draped over her shoulder and the ends of her long gown swished as she took a step forward. “Do you think a woman wants a man yelling at her when she’s hurt and afraid? She won’t listen unless she trusts you.”

“And what do you suggest I do?” He lifted his eyes to meet hers. What Austin didn’t say was that he was willing to do anything.

Ivy knelt down and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Kiss her nose. Tell her she’s safe. Whisper you need her back. Don’t demand it, Austin. Ask her. Let her wolf know she’s more than just another Shifter of a lower rank; make her trust you because you care about what happens to her.”

In front of all his pack, Austin laid down on the floor without a second thought. He stroked her white face and nuzzled against her snout, close enough to her canines that her wolf could have taken a chunk of his face off if she wanted.

“You need to shift to heal,” he whispered, stroking her soft ears back. “No one here will hurt you; I won’t allow it. No one will ever touch you again.”

Her glittery eyes partially opened and she whined, her tail flapping once.

Austin smiled and kissed her nose. “There’s my Ladybug.”

And just like that, Lexi’s wolf shifted.

Nudity was not a huge deal because it was part of their lifestyle with the shifting. Austin still pulled his shirt over his head and draped it across her hips to protect her modesty. The cuts healed and the bruises on her windpipe were faded, but not completely gone.

“I don’t understand. What’s going on?” Lynn gasped, barely holding on to her sanity.

Austin lifted his chin. “Your daughter is a Shifter. Your husband stole her from a pack years ago after killing her mother. We can discuss this later, but right now, I need to save her life.”

He turned his focus back on Lexi and she moaned, her hands beginning to slide up to touch her throat.

“No,” he said, gently holding her wrists. His mouth grazed against her ear and he asked her to shift. In another split second, Lexi switched back to her wolf. Relief swelled through him, as he knew this process would work the healing magic.

Most guys didn’t care about scars, so they didn’t bother shifting to heal the little things. Serious injuries could be taken care of by shifting, allowing the magic to work its way through the body, as long as it was done as soon as possible. The more time that elapsed, the less likely a wound would heal through shifting. Breed magic was something remarkable without explanation.

Austin rose to his feet and confronted Lynn with the truth about her daughter. “It’s imperative you never speak of this to anyone. There are consequences for revealing our secrets. This is who I am, who I’ve always been. This is why I couldn’t stay here after Wes died, because I belong with my own kind. Lexi loves you as a mother, and I hope you can still love her as a child. But know she’s a dangerous animal, and the only reason I can get so close is because she’s barely conscious. Our animals are nothing to mess around with.”

When he twisted around to kneel by Lexi’s side, Lynn broke free from the twins and flung herself on top of the wolf.

“Don’t you touch my daughter!”