Page 4 of Pregnant Wolf's Mate

“None of your business!” she snapped back at him, but the moment she looked him in the eye, she regretted it. The amusement that was written plainly on his face was even more infuriating than his sarcastic tone.

He scoffed openly, crossing his arms across his chest and shaking his head. He was so broad, unbelievably so, that he practically blocked her entire path, and all she could do was stand her ground.

“It’s just like a Silverdale wolf to go and try to run away from all her responsibilities,” Ray said, shaking his head further, looking appalled. The way he clucked his tongue against his teeth made her want to lash out at him. She would have loved to have been able to produce her wolf claws right then and there and rake them over his chest as a warning not to get in her way. But, helpless as she was, all she could do was glare back at him.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she demanded, placing her hands on her hips. That only seemed to make him even more amused, yet she couldn’t bring herself to move out of the pose for fear she might think he had any sway over her actions.

“You Silverdales are so privileged, you do what you want when you want to do it, and don’t give a damn about the consequences or how it might affect everybody else,” Ray snapped back at her. Macie opened her mouth in order to retort. He didn’t give her the chance. “Don’t look at me like that and try to tell me it’s not true when I’ve just caught you trying to run out on your own goddamn full moon ritual.”

Macie opened her mouth to protest but bit it back just as quickly when she saw the smug look on his face. “What makes you think I was trying to run out on it?”

“Well, you were, weren’t you?” he said, cocking his head on one side and looking at her as though he knew the truth whether she wanted to accept it or not. “You’re so entitled that you think you can do whatever you like and nobody will bat an eyelid, that just because you're a Silverdale, everyone will automatically adore you until the very day you die.”

What the hell? Where is all this coming from? Macie thought, taken aback by the hostility in his tone.

“You have no idea what I’m going through!” Macie snapped back at him, her hands tightening into fists at her sides. “And you certainly have no right to talk to me like that! Why don’t you go back and crawl under whatever rock you just came out from under?”

With that, she turned and started to storm away before he could say another word. So furious with him and feeling so out of sorts, she didn’t think about where she was going until it was too late.

Rushing down the hall and out of the far door, she found herself stumbling right into the crowd of pack members who were awaiting her on the garden patio.

Shit! She cursed inwardly as the rest of the pack started to cheer at her arrival.

Macie felt as though her day was just going from bad to worse. Standing in the very center of the clearing that Dash had chosen for the full moon ritual to take place, she forced her shoulders back, hoping to exude confidence even though in truth, she was more nervous than she ever remembered being in her life.

The woods that bordered the edge of the Silverdale Manor estate were soaked with full moonlight, and it lit up the faces of more than fifty Silverdale werewolves who all looked back at her expectantly. And the excited looks on all their faces made Macie’s skin crawl. Worst of all were those on the faces of her family, her mother and father and sister standing at the very front of the crowd waiting to be the first to join her when she started to shift.

“Tonight is a good night!” Dash’s voice rang out through the trees even as Macie stood feeling like a circus attraction. He wandered up and down in front of her, making sure that every single member of the pack would be able to hear him. “Tonight is a wondrous night! Tonight, upon the 18th year of my cousin Macie Silverdale’s birth, we celebrate not only the full moon that gives us strength and courage and light, but also the day she shall officially join the pack as a full-fledged wolf!”

Macie’s insides twisted and her skin turned cold. Not even the late summer heat could keep her warm when it came to one of Dash’s exaggerated speeches, especially when she was the sole focus of the said speech.

Oddly, Macie found herself searching the faces before her, looking for one in particular. She told herself it was because, after their encounter in the hallway, she did not want him to be around to see her fail. Ray would surely know then why she had been trying to run out when he had caught her. Not that she owed him any kind of explanation. Her parents and Dash, on the other hand, would demand to know what the hell was the matter with her when she wasn’t able to shift in front of them all. The truth was she had no idea why she couldn’t shift. Maybe if she were just a normal wolf, not practically shifter royalty, they might give her the benefit of the doubt and simply say her beast was just testing her or maybe even being stubborn.

But because of who she was, they wouldn’t think twice before they started to whisper about how a Silverdale wolf had failed. And so, as Dash continued on with his talk, Macie felt the color draining from her cheeks.

And when he had almost finished, she closed her eyes and prayed, Please, just let me shift this once. I won’t ask for it ever again, just this once.

For just a second she felt as though she might actually be able to feel her wolf, as though the beast was responding to her prayers with a promise that she would spring forward right in the nick of time to stop her looking like a complete and utter fool.

But when she heard Dash say, “Macie, please do the honors!”, she felt any fizzle of connection she had with the beast melting away, as though it had never been there.

“Macie! Macie! Macie!”

The pack all around her cheered and pounded their fists in the air and for a second she was certain that she could hear the wolves within them howling along, calling to her wolf as though they were trying to coax her out.

But the longer they chanted and the more she tried, tightening her hands so tightly into fists at her sides that she could feel her fingernails biting into her palms, the more she realized it was impossible.

Come on! Just come on!

She squeezed her eyes tight shut, gritted her teeth until they felt like they might crumble beneath the strength of her jaw, and tensed her entire body so hard that she was sure she would hurt for a week. And still, nothing happened.

Heart sinking further and further, wishing that the ground would just open up and swallow her whole, she blinked open her eyes and looked desperately into the eyes of her sister. Help me!

The sympathetic glint in her sister’s pale blue eyes was too much to bear and the tears that had been pricking at the corners of her own eyes started to stream down her face.

Unable to handle the gasps of shock that rushed through the pack like a wave, as though they had finally realized what was going on, she turned on her heels and started to run. It didn’t matter where, all that mattered in that moment was where she didn’t want to be. And so she ran aimlessly, her feet carrying her faster than they ever had before. Even when she felt the brambles and undergrowth snagging on her shift dress, she didn’t stop to think or even try to pick it up around her legs.

She just kept on running and running until her bare feet were slick with mud and she felt like her lungs were going to burst with the effort. Though she was not a full shifter until her first turn, she still had the speed, strength, and endurance that all shifters had during their human state and yet, by the time she drew to a halt, she was so out of breath her lungs were burning with the effort.

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