Devany

Beckett greeted me the next morning with a tight smile and a fresh outfit. He escorted me to a nearby bathroom, told me where the towels were, and stepped outside to give me privacy. I stared at the closed door for several seconds, wondering at his strange behavior before finally stepping into the shower.

"Oh dear lord," I said with a moan of delight as water hot enough to scald pelted my skin with the perfect amount of force.

Not that I expected anything less from a bathroom this luxurious. It was nicer than the one I'd bathed in before the auction. Multiple jets, quartz countertops, ceiling to floor tiling in the shower, and glass all the way around. No expense was spared, and this was a guest bathroom. I could only imagine what the master bathroom looked like...Beckett's bathroom.

My fingers tensed against my scalp as I rinsed the shampoo from my hair. That was dangerous territory. I already knew what the man looked like naked, making it far too easy to imagine him wet and naked.

'Wet and naked and soapy...'

That voice...My eyes flew open, and I scanned my body frantically, relieved to find it remained in human form. A sultry chuckle drifted through my mind.

'I'm part of you. You may be in control, but that doesn't erase me.'

'If we're part of each other, how do you have a separate voice? And separate thoughts?'

I had the impression she shrugged. 'Are they really separate? You were thinking about the Alpha, yes?'

I cut off the water and wrung out my hair. The shower door opened with a pop, and I stepped onto the plush white rug covering the marble floor. My nipples hardened in the cooler air, and I quickly wrapped a towel around my damp body, sneaking glances at the door as if I was afraid Beckett could see through the thick wood.

'Would that be so bad?'

'Stop that. Stop reading my mind.'

'Oh, silly girl. Our mind. Think of me as the part of you that has no inhibitions. The part that takes what she wants. And we want that male.'

Wishing I knew how to shut her up, I threw on my clothes and worked the tangles out of my hair with a comb I found in the drawer. It was the first time I'd really had a chance to look at myself since my first shift, and what I saw was nothing like what I expected. For a girl who had wasted away for six days, I looked remarkably healthy, and I swore whenever my eyes caught the light right, they glowed. .

"That was fast," Beckett said when I walked out of the bathroom. I noticed he wouldn't meet my eyes, and a faint blush stained his cheeks.

"I didn't have any makeup, so I just dressed and braided my hair."

"If you tell me what you like, I'll have someone pick that up for you. Even though I don't think you need it."

"That's very kind of you. I'd honestly prefer a different top, though."

I pulled on the collar of the white turtleneck sweater he'd given me. The material was soft and warm, perfect for the cool mountain morning, but the tightness around my neck made me anxious. It was too much like the collar they put on me before the auction.

Beckett looked up and down the hallway before speaking to me in a whisper. "You know why you have to wear that."

A grimace tugged at my lips, and I resisted the urge to tell him I didn't really know why. What the hell did it mean to be Alpha Marked, and if he could go about showing off his marks, why couldn't I? But Beckett was the only person I could trust right now. If he said they had to be hidden, then I would hide them. A low rumbling growl echoed in my mind.

"Beckett?"

"Yeah?"

He opened a door leading into a dining hall that was set up buffet style. Over a dozen wolves filled the room, some eating, while others were filling their plates at the food tables. All of them turned to watch us enter, but one look from Beckett sent them all scrambling back to their previous tasks.

I rubbed my arms as a tingle passed across my skin. He handed me a plate. "Fill her up. You'll need to eat to replace the energy you used to shift."

That wasn't something I needed to be told twice. I filled my plate until food hung off the edge, and I carried it carefully to an empty table near a large bay window. Beckett joined me, amusement shimmering in his eyes as they took in my plate.

"So what was it you were going to ask me?" he asked, his sharp white teeth tearing into a piece of bacon.

"Does your um...wolf...Does he talk to you? Even when you're in your human form. Will it always feel like they're trying to wrestle control?"

Understanding washed over him. Swallowing his bite, he leaned across the table and covered my hand with his. "No, it won't always feel like this. You've already done the hard part by asserting your dominance. She won't take control again."

My wolf snarled even as I sagged in my chair. Fingers curling around his, I smiled. "That's a relief."

"It took the better part of a year for me to stop hearing my wolf as a separate voice. I had to accept that he was part of me. Once I did that, his voice faded, but I'm always aware of him. Of his feelings and urges. My father told me those always feel separate because they're from the part of us that is an animal, and when we're in our human form, it feels foreign. It's only when we're wolves that we feel whole."

His thumb moved in slow circles over my skin. It was an unconscious movement. One meant for comfort, but it stirred a longing inside of me. I'd never felt like this before. Had unleashing the beast inside of me also unlocked my sexual desires? Or was it just Beckett that had that effect on me?

"Devany, what's wrong?"

Blushing, I swallowed and shook my head. "I'm so far behind. Not just in learning how to shift and be a wolf, but in everything. The culture. The history. I'll never really fit in, will I?"

"Don't–"

"Well, well, well," Jack drawled as he approached our table. "Not quite the upstanding Alpha you want everyone to think you are, are you Alpha Warner?"

He gave a pointed look at our joined hands, but Beckett didn't pull away. If anything, his grip grew tighter as he glared at the man who was responsible for the mess I found myself in.

"Why haven't you returned to your pack, Alpha Heir?"

"I wanted to get to know my mate better." Beckett growled, and to my shock, a rumble filled my chest. Jack grinned. "But mostly, I didn't want to miss the Ranking."

I frowned. "The Ranking?"

Beckett paled and snatched his hand away. "There's no rush to do that."

"What is the Ranking?"

Jack's weasel-like face grew smug as he stole a piece of bacon from my plate. Only the knowledge that everyone was watching this conversation kept me from punching him in the throat. My wolf snorted and suggested ripping out his throat instead, and for once, I agreed with the bloodthirsty bitch.

"The Ranking is what every wolf looks forward to. It determines your ranking in our world."

"What if I don't want to know my rank?" I asked, catching Beckett's subtle headshake. He didn't want me to participate, and I would bet money it was because of the Alpha Marks. "Or what if I want to wait?"

"If you wait, you'll be declared an Omega. The lowest of the low. No more than a servant, and if you're meant to be more than that, it will drive you mad, eventually."

"Madness is a real problem around here," I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"Perhaps that is how you treat Omegas in the Blue Mountain Pack, but here, Devany will be treated with respect and honor, regardless of rank."

"You do have odd customs."

Jack shrugged and reached for another piece of my food. This time I snarled and slammed my hand on top of his, pinning it against the table with enough force that I felt his bones snap beneath mine.

Rather than grow angry, my outburst only intensified Jack's smugness. Cradling his broken hand against his chest, he said, "I'm sure Omega will suit her just fine while she's here, but I foresee issues when you come to the Blue Mountain Pack for the mate run."

"The what?"

"Oh, you haven't told her about that either? Hmm." He winked at me. "See you in a couple weeks, love."

"Beckett, what the hell was he going on about?" I demanded when he left.

"Shit," he said as he pulled out his phone and fired off a text.

He received a reply almost immediately. Pocketing the phone, he grabbed my plate and pulled me out of my chair. I nearly had to run to keep pace with him, and when we left the dining room, he took a sharp right, leading us in the opposite direction of my bedroom. A few minutes later, we stepped into a garage filled with late-model cars.

The black SUV closest to us roared to life, and he opened the back door, gesturing for me to climb in before he went to the other side. Two women occupied the front seat. Both were strikingly beautiful, but the one in the driver's seat with short black hair looked vaguely familiar. She grinned when she saw me staring and elbowed the other woman.

"Hi Devany. I'm Pria," she said. "And this is Allie."

"Hello. Look, I'm sorry, but what the hell is going on?"

Beckett buckled his seatbelt, and the garage door opened, flooding the space with sunshine. "Liam is meeting us at the Ridge."

My skin rippled and white tufts of fur sprouted through my skin, falling away in clumps as I fought to stop the shift. Beckett saw what was happening and cupped my face. His touch soothed me at once, and the ripples stopped.

"Liam is a witch," he explained. "He's going to help us with a spell. A couple actually."

"Okay," I intoned. Witches. Cool. I could deal with that. "Why?"

"Because you can't participate in the Ranking right now, but I don't want you to get stuck as an Omega. And because I have a sinking suspicion that Jack and his father plan to rig the mate run so that you'll be mated to Jack."

"Everything you just said is gibberish."

He sighed. "I'll start at the beginning."

"That's a good place to start."

That earned an eye roll. He pointed at my plate. "And while I talk, you need to eat. Every bite."