#Chapter 12 Pretend Lovers
Helen POV
Justin kept me speared in place with his strange, golden gaze until I must have completely lost my mind.
One moment I was crouched beside my naked lover, enjoying the burn of muscles used to excess the night before; the next moment my body had shifted into that of my wolf Joy, and I was racing through the forest as fast as my four feet could carry me.
I didn’t pause to think or look back to see if Justin was going to follow me. I knew I had most likely stolen his beast from him which he couldn’t help except hate me for doing.
My heat must have come over me a second night. That was the only explanation which made sense to my overheated, overtired brain.
I couldn’t process a world in which I lost total control of my inhibitions to nearly mate with a Lycan in front of my village then to literally mate my Lycan in the forest on the ground no better than the animals we were on the inside.
Why hadn’t I been able to control myself? What was wrong with me? Was it the wine? Was it a reaction to being in heat?
No one had ever sat me down to explain the process of being mated. My mother had never had the patience for me she had for my sister Diana; Diana had never been a true sister to me, preferring to treat me as her servant rather than a confidante or companion.
I’dary made it out of the deepest part of the forest when strong arms locked around my neck and a heavy weight fell onto my back, bowing me down into the dirt.
Yelping, I let myself be taken down though I could tell Justin wasn’t transformed. How had he caught up to me? Were Lycans so fast on two legs they could keep up with those of us who were blessed to run on four?
I wished and wished for more information I didn’t have and instead let myself be pinned until Justin’s words made sense to me again.
“Please change back? Helen?”
Finally, I gave into his prodding and shifted into my female form though his weight crushed the air out of me completely, making me let out a squeak of complaint.
“Sorry. Why did you run?”
Justin moved to my side and I knew I was in trouble because I made no attempt to get up to start running again. I just lay there and looked at him while a blush burned its way over every inch of my exposed body.
“Helen, why did you run?”
“I stole your beast from you.”
Justin looked completely perplexed as he asked, “What?”
My blush became a wildfire burning over me and I covered my face with my hands as if it would help me disappear. Why didn’t wolves get the ability to turn invisible? Who determined this was a gift meant only for those bloodsucking vampires?
“Stop it. Stop hiding from me. What do you mean about the beast? He’s happy. He’s asleep!”
Justin laughed, tugging until I let him pull my hands away from my face. He threaded his fingers with mine and I
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wasn’t sure what to do except let him hold my hand while we lay in the dirt together.
“Are you saying you didn’t lose your powers? But what about the—prophecy or whatever?”
Justin shrugged a shoulder the size of a mountain, “I don’t have an answer for you except my father was wrong. I actually feel stronger than ever. You didn’t take anything from me or my beast. You gave me more as a matter of Fact. Much more. I was never able to break my chains before Look at me now! I don’t think they’ve made chains which could hold me down now.”
I could tell from the way Justin was crowing as he flexed his muscles for me—he meant it. He was completely convinced I had given him some kind of additional strength or powers.
“I’m not special though. How did I give you more?”
My wolf form had come to me faster than ever and I could feel Joy practically purring from contentment at being with our mate. I remembered the way I looked more white, more pure of coat the last time I’d checked my wolfen reflection in the stream. Had I gained something from my mate, too?
“Did I look more white to you?”
“I saw white in your fur,” Justin agreed, “I don’t know if I would say ‘more white‘ since I’ve only seen you twice. I do think you’re beautiful. Why is it bad you have a coat of many colors? Prejudice of such kind is ridiculous.”
Justin was sneering at the idea of people shunning my multihued form; I found myself oddly proud he was my
second chance mate even though I knew I didn’t deserve him.
He deserved a mate much more of a prize than I.
“Wolves have prejudice the same as humans or vampires or any other species. It’s the nature of things. All things.”
“Do you know vampires? Humans? I’ve only sensed wolfen when we’ve been in the village and running through these woods.”
“We’re on Fiery Cross land. My pack territory is one of the largest in America. We have an understanding no other species can entire our lands without authorization. They have to negotiate first. I don’t even know what would have to be agreed on to let them come here.”
Justin nodded slowly, “Lone Wolf has a large area, too. I know the size and shape of our territory even though I’ve never run it myself.”
“Why don’t you want to remain Lycan?”
I felt stupid blurting the question out, but we were naked together in the forest and we’d done the most intimate things two people could do together. If I couldn’t ask him questions now, when could I?
“I don’t care one way or the other about remaining Lycan. I just can’t shift into a wolf the way you can. My form is- –grotesque. A half–man, half–beast monster who towers over wolves and people both. The look of me has caused nightmares. My father always says that he wants me to find my wolf so I can be pure for our people, but who knows his real idea.”
I had no idea what a Lycan looked like in shift. I doubted anyone I knew did. Justin was known as the last Lycan because no one could remember the time when the Lycans had ruled over wolves.
Some said the wolves had joined together to destroy the Lycans while others whispered the Lycans had destroyed themselves with their fighting. They were too hot–tempered, too beastlike to control themselves so they’d slaughtered each other until they were all gone with only one line still holding the blood of a Lycan inside its ranks.
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“He’s Lycan too, isn’t he? Or was it your mother who gave you the Lycan blood?”
“No. The Lycan blood comes from my mother’s line. My father doesn’t have Lycan blood though he is a pure Alpha from a line of Alpha Kings. Father doesn’t have the advantages I have as a Lycan, but being from the Alpha King line means he can heal faster and he’s stronger. He’s also bigger and faster than other wolves. We have the genetic or biological advantage over our lower packs just from being part of the Alpha King dynasty.”
“I’m a lower pack. You need to forget me. I’m going to go home and you’re going to forget me.”
It made perfect sense to me. I got up to my knees and shifted into Joy’s wolf form again.
Once more I took off on four feet, this time all too aware as Justin followed me on his fleet two feet. We flew through the forest until we were at the edge of my family’s property and I took a dress down from the clothesline to cover my nakedness. Justin wrapped a towel around his waist from the same line.
“You need to forget me!”
“Never!” Justin insisted, obviously on the verge of laughing at me right up to the moment we were standing outside my kitchen door.
We paused as we heard my sister and my former mate laughing at my lack of love.
“I still can’t believe she really thought I’d mate her! What Alpha would take a tricolor bitch to mate when a pure beauty like Diana was available and ready to breed?”
“She’s an idiot. Always has been. I think she was dropped on her head as a baby.”
“I never dropped her on her head!” my mother laughed, pushing at Diana before admitting, “I did think about it. More than once. She was an ugly baby, you know? Who is unlucky enough to have an ugly baby?!”
“Hush, dear, I think I hear her. Is that you, Helen?” my father called.
Thrusting the door open, I stepped inside and announced, “Yes. I’m home. Sorry. I got caught up in the full moon with my boyfriend. This is Justin. He’s my second chance mate.” 1
“YOU got a second chance mate?!”
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