Page 2 of Wolf's Gambit

He may have been a child himself, but my brother was methodical. Kris watched and studied the Anterrio Pack for weeks before he approached the pack’s leader and told him our story, seeking shelter and refuge, but really, he was asking for help.

Guiding the pack leader and the shaman to where I was hidden, he explained I had been in my wolf’s form for nearly five years. As an acknowledged pack leader, Bale had the power to force my shift. It took weeks of being forced to submit to him before I didn’t automatically change back to my wolf and learned to embrace my human form.

The shaman advised I should remain human until I was of the age when most children embraced their wolf for the first time, normally between ten and twelve years of age. He said I needed to learn my body and mind as a human. My wolf already knew me, but the human side of me needed to be just as dominant.

I was six when they took us into the pack. They refused my shift until I was fourteen. For eight years, they forbade me to let my wolf come forward.

I knew why they did it. There was little to distinguish me between a shifter and a wolf cub born in the mountains.

I had been wild. Untamed. Feral.

Even now, almost twelve years later, I preferred to be in my wolf form more than my human one.

Four legs were better than two. Short legs were better than the gangly things I had as a human. A wet nose close to the ground was better than being stuck in a book like Cass usually was, believing that her prince would one day come. A white-furred wolf was more acceptable than a white-blonde eighteen-year-old girl with pale blue eyes and skin as light as her hair, which still caused some pack members to look away instead of meeting my eyes.

Being human sucked.

Being a shifter was better.

Being a wolf? Nothing would beat it. Ever.

“Earth to Kezia,” Landon murmured from beside me.

Looking up, I saw Kris waiting for me on the outskirts of town, and all three of us naturally slowed our steps.

“Kezia,” he called to me brusquely, the warning in his tone that he knew I’d slowed as we approached was clear. His gruff voice was at odds with his handsome face. Kris had light brown hair that reached his shoulders, not my white-blonde coloring. His eyes were deep blue rather than the pale blue I had. But the constant frown line on his forehead, on an oval face like mine, with the same sharp cheekbones and thinner upper lip, and the way his fingers twitched at his side as if he were constantly restless, gave away our familial resemblance.

My brother may be more comfortable in his skin than me, but we both shared the same wildness that the other shifters of the Anterrio Pack lacked, and when Kris scowled at me as he was now, it was even more prominent.

“Kristoff, lost your reindeer?” Landon jibed as he walked past him. We should never have let Landon watch that movie. That one character shared the same full name as my brother and was a constant source of delight to Landon. He took every opportunity to refer to it when Kris was within hearing distance, and my brother had exceptional hearing.

“Landon, lost your dick?” my brother bit back at him as he turned his attention to him. “Seems you were playing in the water with the women when you should have been training.”

I bristled at the tone and the statement—my brother is an ass. He’s also one of the pack’s betas and head of pack security, so they respected him within the pack. But he was still an ass.

“He was helping me.” I cut off whatever retort Landon was about to give. We didn’t need him and my brother bitching at each other right now.

Kris glanced at my basket. “Nothing?”

Looking at the seven fish in it, I looked back at him. Yup, I knew it—we’d fooled no one. “If you let me hunt without the spear, I would have caught more than fish.”

“Not everyone wants your saliva on their food,” he chastised me. Stepping forward and taking the basket off me, he tipped the contents into Cass’s. “Stop cheating for her,” he softly reprimanded. With a hard look at me, he turned on his heel. “Come.”

Giving my friends a weak smile, I hurried after my brother.

“I wouldn’t mind if he commanded me to come.”

Hearing Cass’s soft whisper to Landon made my eyes widen in shock as I turned to stare at her in disbelief. If I heard her, that meant my brother did too, and also, what the hell?

With a cheeky grin, she blew me a kiss and grabbed Landon’s hand, ignoring his disgruntled look at her remark. They both headed to the kitchens with today’s haul.

I walked behind Kris as I followed him to the shaman’s house. This routine was well-known to me. If I left the town’s boundary, despite being with the pack leader’s children, on my return, I was to be taken to the shaman who would ensure I hadn’t shifted.

For eight years, this pack denied my wolf, and from the age of fourteen, I could not shift unless it was at the command and supervision of the pack leader.

The Anterrio Pack may accept my brother, but making me do this every time I left the town confirmed that they still didn’t trust me. I’d been wild and free for so long, how could someone like me conform to their pack ways?

What I resented even more was that my brother went along with it. Kris never once took me at my word. He would always chaperone me and then, more often than not, wait for the shaman to tell him if I had shifted so Kris could tell Bale I’d remained human.

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