Page 3 of Rogue Wolf

But this morning, before dawn, she knew something was about to shift and change again. So, for a few hours, they’d been clean in each other’s arms, fucking and kissing and holding each other, the nightmare around them forgotten.

She stood now, cricking her back, surveying what they’d done.

It didn’t seem much.

“You smell like him,” Ash said.

Tamaska turned. “Because I’m in his clothes?”

The other woman shrugged. “Because you’ve been laying down with him and he’s somehow infused himself into you.”

She must have stared because Ash offered her a small smile.

“It’s a good thing, Tamaska,” she said, rinsing her rag, then checking on something running on her computer. “It means you’re taking him on as your mate, and he you.”

“But it’s not just up to him,” Tamaska said, “everyone gets a say.”

Ash sighed. “The old ways are deep, but if we don’t change, then we stagnate and die out. The idea of keeping bloodlines pure and not mixing with humans is…antiquated. But it also makes sense because the human has to be turned and not that many want that.”

The words weren’t pointed at her, but it felt that way, and they weren’t wrong. Her fears, all of it… Tamaska sucked in a breath. “I’ll do what I can to prove my worthiness.”

Ash only looked at her and went back to her task.

Tamaska sighed. It wasn’t only all of that bothering her. Kodiak told her something else after the fight, and she couldn’t make sense of it. He’d told her she might be more than just human.

She didn’t know what the fuck that meant. Was it to do with the mark of the vampire? But she certainly wasn’t one, wasn’t turning. Sunlight didn’t hurt her and she didn’t suddenly crave blood. And hadn’t he told her how the vampires and shifters hated the smell of the other? She loved Kodiak’s scent.

So what the hell did he mean?

Am I some other monster?

Her mind whirled through the list of fantasy creatures she knew about.

Dragon, banshee, zombie, witch, bogeyman, goblin, golem…

She would know if she was one of those…right? None of the creatures that came to mind felt right.

Wolf shifter?

Tamaska shivered. That was impossible. She couldn’t be something like a wolf and not know about it. She couldn’t be discussing the dangers of turning into one if she was already one.

Were there other shifters out there? Could be be one of those? Or maybe something she hadn’t thought of. Something horrible…

Again, it didn’t make sense.

Then again, when she’d gone to the nightclub alone in search of the Blood Opal, it was like her senses had been on steroids. She could hear and see better than normal.

Maybe the vampire’s mark and her weird link to the opal made her something else, something more?

Superhuman?

Was there even such a thing?

Or maybe she was a mishmash of vampire and shifter that was coming to life with the exposure to this dark underworld. Or the mark put on her had opened something inside her.

But that could work in her favor. If she was superhuman in some way, then her transformation into a wolf shifter might be less risky. From the very little Kodiak had told her about the process, she understood the risks. A change could go horribly wrong.

Especially since she’d been marked.

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