Chapter Twenty

"Minx." A strong hand stroked my head, my neck. "Wake up, little wolf. You're missing your whole first time."

My first time? I struggled to open my eyes, but they seemed stuck, gummed up with something. I tried to tell Theron, who spoke, and the others I sensed also there about my eye ick, but my mouth wouldn't work right. I couldn't let this be my first time when I was unable even to see them. I might be afraid of being with three of them together, but on another level, I wanted them so much.

"Should we shift, too?" Bodhi asked.

Too? As in also? Who else was shifted? Surely they didn't want to make love to me in their wolf forms. But then, flexing my hands, I felt the difference there, too. They were… I squeezed my eyes tightly closed and blinked them open. To see paws.

Finally.That voice from before came again. But it wasn't from someone else. No.

Are you my wolf?

Or I might say you are my person. If you're quite awake, we can stretch our legs.

First time not in bed with my mates but in wolf form.

How do we do this? Do I move us or…

Instead of answering, my new aspect showed me how things worked. With no effort I was aware of, I stood on four paws, my head thrust forward and tail wagging behind me. My tail! I had a tail. And it wagged like a dog?

Never like a dog. Just greeting our mates.

Sorry. No insult intended.

We lifted our muzzle and howled at the rising full moon, a dare to our mates to join us in the night. My wolf wanted to run in the countryside, I knew without being told in so many words, but we currently stood on the roof of a very tall building with no fingers to press the elevator call button. My mates, instead of remaining in human form with handy thumbs, were madly stripping down and before I blinked twice had shifted to join me in their beautiful wolf forms. I'd seen them before, of course, but not from this angle, and not from my wolf's perspective. She was intrigued but more interested in showing off than in admiring them.

We pranced around the perimeter of the rooftop, past the training area, the veggie beds, the flowers and trees and other plantings. Even the tennis slash pickleball court. At first, my mates simply followed, keeping close, but when we gave a twitch of the tail and charged away, the chase was on. The elevator enclosure was right in the middle of the expanse, and we ran around it again and again, faster and faster. My mates were on our heels but never caught up, and I began to suspect it was deliberate. Surely, with their more experienced limbs and size—they were at least half again as big as us—they could catch us at any time.

But there was such joy in the chase, and I hoped they'd give me a little more time. If I'd known what this was like, I'd never have been so quick to dismiss the possibility of even being a wolf. Nobody could explain this experience adequately any more than they could tell someone who had not met their mates what it was like to know deep inside that another being, or beings, belonged to one.

My parents really believed I would not be a wolf…yet here I was. Here we were, my wolf and I, parading around the rooftop until, finally, we ran out of energy and rolled onto our back, exposing our belly to the only ones we would ever trust enough to do that for. Our mates.

Then their wolfen aspects blurred, shifting along with the rest of them until my trio of handsome men replaced them, gleaming with sweat as if they'd been exercising in two-legged form. "Shift, Minx," Theron ordered. "We need to talk."

Need to talk? Panicked, I tried to leave behind my wolf form, but I didn't know how to do it. I hadn't made the change on my own the first time. How did I…how could I…

"Shift," the trio chorused, and I landed on my bare bottom on the roof as naked as my mates.

"Oof."

They all looked down at me as if I was the prize pupil, someone who had done something amazing. To be fair, it had taken their concerted urging, but in fact, I had accomplished what I'd wanted to do my entire life without even knowing how to try. And I'd done it, the first time, by myself. Somehow.

Three hands reached for me, and I blindly accepted the closest one, but all three of them brought me to my feet. Standing there with them around me, breathing in their heady and enticing scents, I became aware of another one.

My nose wrinkled. "What is that?"

They burst into laughter and led me over to where they'd undressed. "You can put on Bodhi's shirt," Theron said. "And my jacket."

"No, I'll just wear my own stuff," I argued, although the idea of having their clothes against my skin appealed. "You need yours."

"Minx?" Grim pointed toward shreds of fabric that looked shiny and wet.

"Oh gods. What's on it?"

"It's on you, too." Theron lifted my arm into my view, and I recoiled.

"Why?"

"Nobody told you what happens on a first shift?" Bodhi approached with his shirt. "It's like being born. Painful and messy and leading to great beauty."