Page 85 of The Wolf in My Tavern

My eyes skim over the room, which I’ve rarely been left alone in, and certainly not long enough to explore. Resolved, I march over to the first chest, lift the lid, and search for anything that might facilitate my breaking out.

Chapter Thirty-One

Callum

Iblink a few times… and step back, only to slam up against the wall.

“The fuck I’m a shifter!”

“You could have been more subtle,” Gray says.

“How can you be subtle about telling a man he is a shifter?” Drake asks. “He has grown six inches since he got on this ship, and he was not small before. And he is an alpha. He doesn’t even know what the fuck he is.”

I feel woozy, like I might pass out.

“Have you seen his cock?” Drake adds.

“I have not seen his fucking cock,” Gray says, sounding deeply affronted. “What do you think I’m doing up there? Pulling his pants down so I can inspect him for a knot?”

“Gods,” I say weakly. I’m definitely feeling faint. The room is spinning. I can’t draw enough breath.

A face swims in front of me, one I hate, and a hand wraps around my throat, pinning me against the wall.

“Look at me,” Gray commands. His voice has a quality to it, a snap, like the crack of a whip. Although I despise the bastard, I feel compelled to look.

“You’re a shifter,” Gray confirms, his tone bitter. “We didn’t realize at first. Then we saw you fight. You have likely never been around your own kind before. Our presence would have triggered you, calling to your wolf.”

My own kind. I feel cold and clammy. Wolf? There is not a lot of give in the chains holding my cuffs, but I still yank them like I might be able to put my fists around his throat in return. “You lie.”

“Ada might have had an influence, too,” Drake offers. “Given what the lass is…”

“Don’t mention my m—woman,” I snarl. Gods, I nearly called her my mate, which I suppose she now is.

Gray presses me harder against the wall. The texture of the hand collaring my throat changes, and my eyes shoot down to see that the entire length of his arm turns to that of a beast while the rest of him is human. He slowly changes, growing, expanding, and rising until he takes on the bipedal form.

I saw him like this before, taking Ada that first night on the ship. I want to say it disgusted me, but the truth is, it did not.

“This is a partial shift or beast form,” he says, his voice low and rough. “It is not common to all wolf shifters. Only alphas can hold it for extended periods of time, while betas can only shift to a wolf.”

Before my eyes, the fur disappears, he shrinks, and a human hand is once more against my throat.

He is telling me I am a shifter, an alpha, and that I can become both a beast and a wolf.

“The degree to which a shifter can hold this form depends on the power of the alpha and the blood running through their veins,” Gray says. His words might as well be gibberish for all that makes sense to me. “A bound shifter is bound and cannot move between forms, which puts them at a disadvantage. They are effectively a human. Betas, and most alphas, would be trapped thus. But some, those who are high ranking and powerful, like me...” His hand morphs into a clawed beastly fist once more. “Can transform small parts of their body at will.”

His head transforms into a wolf’s. His lips peel back, and he snaps his teeth at me. It is horrifying to see a human body with a wolf’s head, but in a flash, he is wholly human again.

“For some shifters, those with… those with the highest blood… there is no binding in the world that can hold them save one that is magically endued.”

“I am no shifter,” I say quietly. “I can’t be.” I swallow. His hand moves away from my throat, and he takes a step back.

“Your father took you to Bleakness for reasons I cannot begin to guess… perhaps protection.” He shrugs. “He is not a blacksmith. I know that. And I’m betting that you do, too. I heard your mother passed over to the Goddess. I’m also betting she was not human. And, save your father being an idiot, which he clearly is not, he knew what she was.”

My heart is racing, and my stomach churns. Sweat breaks out across the surface of my skin, followed by a cold wave. When I came down here, I thought for sure he was going to kill me. I did not expect to be talking about my mother.

“Now,” —he takes another step back— “you can escape anytime you want, shifter.”

My nostrils flare. He believes I am powerful like him. I look between them. “Why would you help me? Why would you not just toss me over the side of the ship?” My mind moves through his words slowly, reluctantly. “If I am higher than you, I could beat you.”

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