Half Wolf

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

His wolf was large, but it wasn’t the beast’s size that stilled the crowd. Instead, a concerted wave of goosebumps crashing across every shifter in the room proved that the newcomer’s alpha dominance was single-handedly responsible for throwing metaphorical cold water over the proceedings.

Of course, alpha dominance was nothing new in the werewolf world—everyone had the ability to some extent. Still, a shifter’s capacity to sway others to his will was largely dependent upon the relative strength of each contestant’s wolf. My weak animal half, for example, could have been barked down by anyone in the room...which is why she was currently sound asleep within my human body.

At the other extreme, the eddies of invisible yet very tangible compulsions rolling off my stalker’s lupine form proved that he was the rarest of the rare—an uber-alpha. The newcomer’s dominance was so intense that he was able to part the raucous shifters like the Red Sea with a single glance, leaving a clear path between the door he’d padded through and the table on which I crouched.

In fact, if the evidence around me was any indication, I should’ve been glad my own wolf was asleep or I’d likely have fallen flat on my face at my stalker’s approach. The rest of the room’s inhabitants weren’t so lucky. Some of the nearby shifters remained rooted to the spot. Others dropped to their knees, heads bowed to the floor. And a drunk in the corner nearly choked on his own vomit until the stalker’s gaze followed mine and released the shifter from his spell long enough for the poor guy to finish throwing up.

While the uber-alpha was looking the other way, I glanced up at the window through which half of my pack had recently disappeared. Perhaps this was my chance to escape?

But Ten-Gallon was as frozen as the next guy, and I knew our rescuer would be torn to shreds by his fellows as soon as my stalker left the room. I didn’t even know my new comrade’s name, but a budding leadership sense suggested that he would soon become our pack’s newest member.

Which meant I was going to have to suck it up and deal with the wolf who was responsible for my outpack status and who seemed intent on following me across the country in order to gloat. His eyes latched back onto mine as I pondered my options, and I could tell I wouldn’t have made it out the window anyway before his teeth closed around my skin. So, as usual, I settled on bravado as the best solution to a bad situation.

“Hunter,” I greeted him.

In response my stalker shifted so fast I couldn’t even discern the transition, hair receding and body lengthening in an instant until only his amber eyes remained the same. “Lost Wolf,” he countered.

And with those simple words I was flung back three weeks to our first meeting. Then, as now, the uber-alpha had walked into a room vibrating with peril. Then, as now, I’d felt duty bound to protect my pack even while risking my own skin.

But at that point in time, the danger had come from Hunter himself.

Come to think of it, I wasn’t so sure anything had changed.

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