I swear, she gets off the bed and is on the floor faster than what should be possible. I didn’t know snakes could slither-sprint like that. I’d be impressed if she wasn’t trying to eat me.
I squeal-scream and race forward, but I feel her fangs snapping at my tail. She misses me by a friggen hair.
Lug Nut shouts at her, but she isn’t listening, and I’m not fast enough. I’m not gonna make it.
The only way I’m gonna save my ass is if I shift. I have to try.
As I keep running, I try to force the shift into my bones and muscles. I haven’t done it for years, but it should be like riding a bike, right?
Wrong.
I push and push and push, but it won’t snap over. I’m stuck, like a coin that’s glued to a sidewalk. I just can’t pry myself off and flip over to my other side.
She strikes again, and this time, she scrapes my ass with the edge of her fang and manages to yank out several hairs. The move trips me up too, and I go flying towards the open door, only to fall headfirst into a foot.
The sight of Addie and her alpha standing in the doorway makes the snake stop in her slithering tracks.
Addie snatches me up in her hands while the alpha scowls. “What the hell is going on here?” He points at the rattlesnake. “Shift, Zoey.”
Even though the order isn’t directed at me, I feel the power rippling out of him, and it makes my tail twitch.
In a quick shift, the rattlesnake jerks and grows, and then I’m looking at a five-foot female in her human form lying on her belly on the floor, face planted into the rug and buck naked.
Lug Nut grabs a blanket from the bed and places it over her. “Thanks,” she mumbles before getting to her feet and wrapping it around her form.
“Zoey, what the hell happened?”
Her lip wobbles. “I’m so sorry, Alpha. I don’t even know what came over me. I came into my room, but my snake just snapped when I smelled an outside shifter. I couldn’t change back.”
“We weren’t expecting you back today, or I would’ve warned you,” Addie tells her, while I stay safe inside her hand.
Rattlesnake Zoey looks down at me. “I am so sorry. I’m such an ass. I could’ve killed you.” Her eyes fill up with tears, and I smell genuine sorrow and shame emanating off her skin.
“You didn’t know,” Alpha Hugo reassures her, his gentle tone contradicting his hardened biker vibe exterior he has going on. “My fault. I should’ve made sure everyone was aware of our guest. We’ve just been careful with this one since we don’t know her past, and she hasn’t wanted to shift to her human form.”
Lug Nut speaks up. “Speaking of that...Mousey here tried to shift,” he says, nodding towards me.
Rat! I’m a rat, dammit.
“She did?” Addie asks with surprise.
He nods. “I felt the power pulse out. But it wouldn’t work. It’s like she’s...stuck.”
Now everyone eyes me with newfound curiosity and contemplation.
Addie looks over at Hugo with worry. “How can she be stuck? What does that mean?”
The alpha looks me over, scratching the scruff on his chin. “I think it means she already has an alpha. And he’s keeping her from shifting back.”
All three of the other shifters look at him in horror. “Who would do that?” Addie asks. “That’s...horrible.”
Hugo lifts a shoulder. “Not sure. But now I know how we can help her.”
I gulp around the rising lump of fear that comes with Hugo’s words. Like I can somehow escape whatever he’s planning, I try to scramble out of Addie’s hand, even though falling from this high up won’t feel awesome.
I squirm, catching her off guard and manage to jump out of her palm like I’m going skydiving out of an airplane, but somehow, Lug Nut is suddenly there, his fingers nimbly plucking me from the air before the falling sensation can even settle in my gut.
He curls his fingers around me, holding me securely in his palm, tsking at me as I try to squirm. “No running away,” he chastises me, keeping me firmly in place.
I bite the fleshy bit of skin between his thumb and pointer finger, but he just chuckles in response. “She’s feisty.”
Alpha Hugo gives a grunt of agreement. At least I think it’s a grunt of agreement. I guess it could be a grunt of annoyance. Or gas. I really don’t know him well enough to be sure.
“No more hiding, kid,” the alpha tells me. “Let’s get you turned back, and then we need to talk.”
7
Reese
They’re going to get me killed.
I know that they’re trying to help, but the second they sever my alpha bond, I’m dead meat.
He’ll know. Sid—the bane of my existence. The villain of my whole damn life. My lowlife alpha who took great pleasure in punishing me.
Once he feels the bond snap, he’ll come for me. There’s no doubt about that.
But I can’t tell them any of that, because I can’t friggen talk as a rat. All I can do is give them physical cues, like the scent of my fear and my insistence to get away. I’m doing both of those, but they just don’t know enough to heed my silent warnings.
We’re gathered in some kind of big cafeteria-style dining hall. It smells like raw meat, lemon cleaner, and baked bread, plus about a hundred or so different shifters. Quite frankly, it’s not my favorite.
There must be at least forty shifters gathered here. Some of them are pretending to eat, but really, they’re just watching the spectacle. It’s me. I’m the spectacle.
Hugo, Addie, and Lug Nut are circled around me, along with a few other shifters that I don’t know. I’m still being held in Lug Nut’s hand. His hold is firm but not enough to hurt me. Every few seconds, I try to get away, but he’s a really good holder. He doesn’t give me an inch.
“So you can break her bond?” Addie asks Hugo, a worried line etched between her brows.
Hugo shrugs a shoulder. “Not sure. It’ll depend on whether my alpha power can override her current alpha. If his hold on her is stronger, then there’s nothing I’ll be able to do.”
Addie shoots me a worried look. “Poor thing.”
Rattlesnake Zoey stayed behind in her room—apparently, she’s the one Addie shares with, but she’d been gone for a while. She shot me some guilty looks before we left. I can’t really blame her for almost eating me. Shifters are instinctively protective of their pack and can easily go on the offense when there’s an outsider around.
This pack seems like they’re protective and loyal, and I can’t fault that. If anything, I envy it. The rats in my pack were never like that. They were constantly fighting for dominance or sneaking around. Loyalty was nothing but a seven letter word to them.
I’m thinking about those rats that I haven’t seen for years, so I totally miss the conversation going on around me. I get snapped right back into the present when Alpha Hugo suddenly shifts.
And holy grated cheese stick, he is friggen enormous.
The alpha is a giant scarred albino jaguar that looks like he must weigh at least two-hundred-fifty pounds. He is scary and snarly and—good Lord, are those his teeth?