Page 53 of Wolf Forgotten

Cole's scent took me to the base of a tree and then it stopped. Where the hell did he go?

Eli shifted and laughed. "Really, Cole? The treehouse?"

I looked up and sure enough, there was a treehouse hidden in the branches. How was I supposed to shift?

Backing away from the tree, I thought about being myself again. Nothing. I shut my eyes and pushed. Nothing.

I whined as Eli began climbing the rungs of the ladder I hadn't even noticed.

"Push the wolf back," Cole said from above. "You might have to be stern."

Push her back? Ugh. That made no sense. Iwasthe wolf. I closed my eyes again and focused on figuring out where she was. It wasn't like I could see her and just grab her by the scruff of her neck.

Just let me shift, damn you!

My skin tingled, and I latched onto that feeling and pushed with all my might, landing on my hands and knees on the forest floor.

"That was crazy." I needed to practice because not being able to go back and forth easily like everyone else could was dangerous.

"Now, get your ass up here." Eli was standing next to Cole, and they both had grins on their faces. "We haven't been here in years."

I climbed the ladder, which went right up into the treehouse. "Wow." I looked around the space that was the size of a small bedroom and had the trunk of the tree running straight up the middle. It was dusty, but oddly clean for them not coming to it for a few years. "What do two grown ass men need with a treehouse?"

"We used to come here when we were teenagers to look at porn magazines and jack off," Eli confessed. Cole smacked him in the back of the head. "I mean, we came here to play with our G.I. Joes."

I rolled my eyes. "You two jacked off together? That's hot."

Both of them blushed, and I laughed. Those dirty dogs.

The room was all wood, but had window hatches on each wall that could open. In one corner there was a small table pushed up against the wall with two chairs, and in another corner were two heavy duty plastic totes stacked on top of each other.

"Is this your porn collection?" I opened a lid, and inside was a ton of Legos, action figures, and toy cars.

"The porn collection is long gone." Cole crossed his arms over his chest. "We need to talk about what happened."

"Oh?" I moved the box and opened the second one, which was packed with military style blankets. I took one out and smelled it. "Surprisingly, this doesn't smell musty."

I unfolded it and wrapped it around myself. Cole frowned as I avoided his question. I honestly had no clue what had happened. It wasn't me who had proclaimed I was an alpha.

"I couldn't stop myself." Eli kept his head down as he grabbed another blanket from the container and tried handing it to Cole, who shook his head. "What's so wrong with having two alphas?"

Cole stared at me. "Nothing, but..."

"But you're worried the betas are going to be pissed. Namely, Dante." Eli wrapped the blanket around himself and sat down in a chair at the table. "I don't see how you're going to stop her wolf from challenging them. You've already seen it's in her nature."

"We're getting way ahead of ourselves here. I barely even became a wolf, and as soon as I get this under control, I'm moving back to my house and going back to work." Cole had me pinned against the tree trunk before I could even finish what I was going to say.

A low rumble came from somewhere deep inside him, but I stared straight into his eyes. His alpha posturing needed to be taken down a peg or two.

"Your place is here. With me. With Eli. You can't move back to your house." His tone held a finality that made my wolf bristle.

I blinked at him. "I won't allow you to tell me what to do. Unless you have some kind of mind-control mojo, I don't follow commands I don't agree with." My fingers itched, and I shut my eyes. "Now, back up before my wolf comes out and bites something you don't want bitten."

His warmth left me, and I stayed leaning against the tree trunk until the tingle was gone. I was willing to stay to learn what I needed to, but they couldn't expect me to give up my entire life. I had a career and friends that were like family to me. I could be their mate or whatever while going about a normal life.

"What Cole was trying to say is it's dangerous to not be in a pack. What if you got injured and ended up in a hospital? Shifting or healing like we do would lead to a lot of questions. There have been wolves who have disappeared, Ivy. We don't know where they end up, but something tells me that the government does, in fact, know we exist, just not to what extent." Eli's eyes were sympathetic as he stood and came toward me. "The fact that you somehow went undetected for so long is unbelievable."

He pulled me into a hug, and I snuggled against him. "I'm a freak," I joked.

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