Shifting the Night Away (76 page)

He stared across the lake at the woman. She was naked... and
beautiful.
He knew he should turn and run. Leaving her to wonder if she'd really even seen him. Her human sight couldn't show her the details of his wolf in the fading twilight. If he disappeared, she would be left wondering if she'd seen a coyote or maybe a feral dog. But something held him there, transfixed, their eye contact compelling him to stand his ground.

He caught her scent on the breeze, floating to him over the water like a flower in bloom. Something inside him stirred. A memory of a feeling began to come over him, a feeling he hadn't known in several years, a feeling he wasn't ready to trust.
 

Finally, the woman tore her eyes from his and began moving closer to the water. He watched the soft pink light of alpineglow highlight the sensuous curves of her flesh. Soft, ample curves that lit a flame in his loins and begged to be touched, taken.

Lane's wolf savored the scent of her and instinctively recognized his mate but Lane the man still had doubts. He couldn't make a choice based entirely on the instinct of his cock-- he needed a mate who satisfied more than just his sexual needs. He finally tore his gaze from her magnificent form and turned back into the approaching darkness, knowing he would be back in the morning.

Diego sat on the edge of the thicket where the pack had bedded down for the last several nights. He sat on a rock and threw tiny pebbles across the small patch of grass that stretched out in front of him. He hadn't seen Lane in 3 nights. He didn't know where his brother had gone off to or when he would return.
 

There were 5 of them without Lane. Reylynn and Prinn, vying for position as alpha female to be. The growing tensions between the two girls had made it difficult for Diego to keep the group together and calm. Both girls were nearing their first heat and each of them were preparing to be chosen as Lane's mate by the end of the year.
 

Geordin was the only other male. Docile and far older than the others, but content to remain subordinate, uninterested in taking a mate and forming his own pack. Geordin had stumbled into their group many years earlier, when it was still only Diego and Lane traveling south together.
 

A rogue wolf, Geordin was their elder by hundreds of years. Wandering the continent without pack or family after his human mate had refused to be turned, forcing him to watch his family age and die around him.
 

Diego and Lane had been happy to have Geordin's wisdom and experience to draw from and he became the first adoptee of their misfit pack.

Zaia had been the last piece of the puzzle and was proving to be the last straw for Diego. Ever since she wandered into the territory they had been settling, he had known he she was his but Lane was their alpha, so he had the right to mate first.
 

Their pack wasn't typical for wolves
or
shifters, really. In many ways, they were establishing new traditions. Only Lane and Diego were related by blood, so this group might have as many breeding pairs as it wanted without breaking off to establish new packs or fighting among themselves for dominance. It was understood that Zaia and Diego had been a couple since her arrival, but Diego simply would not usurp his brother's right to mate first. His patience for his brother's hesitance was wearing thin, however. He wouldn't wait another season before taking Zaia.

He fully understood his brother's point. Lane was determined to re-establish their bloodline. In order to do that, they needed to choose mates that would insure offspring that could shift. Reylynn and Prinn
were "
more wolf than woman," as Lane had so eloquently put it; twin daughters of a full wolf father and a half-shifter mother. They rarely shifted into human form, more comfortable living as wolves. It was unlikely that either of them would be able to turn a human mate, and near impossible that their pups would be able to shift if they didn't add shifter blood to the mix. But they were the only realistic options for Lane since he had avoided human company for so long. Unless Lane went back to town and found a human woman who agreed to be turned or, a long shot, he was able to find another shifter, he would be forced to choose between the sisters or step aside as leader of the pack.

Diego rested his chin on his knuckles and stared across the Sierra wilderness, lost in his thoughts. He knew Lane had no interest in his most available choices. He knew his brother wanted what was best for the pack, for their legacy, for their future. Lane wasn't trying to be difficult and he wasn't trying to postpone his brother's future with Zaia. He simply hadn't found what he was looking for.

Diego worried that his brother would leave the pack voluntarily if he couldn't find a mate by the end of the season. Diego didn't want that either. He worried that his brother would roam off alone and succumb to heartache, regret and remorse. If that were to happen, it would leave the burden of re-establishing their bloodline on Diego's shoulders. He was more than happy to rise to that challenge; his and Zaia's children would make fine wolves
and shifters.
Fierce wolves who would also be strong men and women to carry on the proud name of his family.
 

Diego did not, however, want the responsibility of reclaiming their place among the shifter clans, he did not want to fight any fights or partake in any politics. That had been Lane's mission. All Diego wanted to do was live happily ever after with his mate and his pups.

Tara was up before the sunrise began to lighten the sky. She lay in her tent, staring at the ceiling, snug in her sleeping bag.

She was not ordinarily a morning person, but after several days in the wilderness without artificial light sources to skew her internal rhythms, she found her eyes opening each day just before dawn became apparent. Much to her dismay. Even in summer, Sierra mornings are cold and at this elevation,
very
cold. The predawn twilight did not exactly beckon her out of her warm, comfortable sleeping bag. She'd much rather just sleep another couple of hours.
 

This was her 4th day out, it was useless. She knew she was awake for the day, she might as well get dressed, crawl out of the cozy nylon shelter and get the water boiling for coffee. If she was going to start her days at 5 am, then they were at
least
going to start with coffee!
 

She felt around for her fleece camp pants and camp shoes and a few moments later she found herself watching the first blushing hints of dawn tinting the eastern sky ever lighter shades of blue. By the time the sky went all pink and gold, she was holding her steaming cup in her mittened hands.

By the time the sun was above the jagged horizon of the eastern slopes, Tara had her temporary home packed away, ready to begin another day's trudge south. She had 14 days left to make it to the small town on the east side at the base of the big mountain and she was looking forward to a hot shower and a beer with dinner tonight. She needed to get moving if she was going to stay on schedule.

14 more days
. Tara took a mental inventory of her food supply and did some math. The problem with backpacking was that you could only carry so much food, but the longer you hiked, the more food you needed. Tara looked down at herself,
I could stand to miss a few meals,
she thought.
 

She'd always wanted to do a long distance thru-hike: the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail... aside from the opportunity to live in the woods for 6 months, the caloric deficiencies that thru-hikers eventually suffered promised a substantial weight loss.
What a great diet plan,
Tara thought,
best fat camp ever.
 

Tara sighed in resignation. Her dreams of running away to live in the mountains made sweet diversions, but she'd have to settle for much shorter hikes until she either retired, hit the lottery, or found a hunky outdoorsman who loved backpacking
and
curvy women. The lottery had better odds.
 

Shouldering her pack, Tara looked one last time over the small lake before heading back to her southbound trail. During her morning of waiting out the dawn, she had seen several deer come to its edges to drink, a fox, and even a bobcat, but no sign of the dog from yesterday. It had to be a dog. Right? There are no wolves in the Sierra Nevada.

Lane was restless. He hadn't been able to get comfortable as either wolf nor human all night. Shifting often just added to his lack of sleep. He just couldn't get the woman from the lake out of his head. What was it about her?
 

His wolf begged to find her, to keep her and protect her. It throbbed to take her as his, but Lane hadn't fully trusted his wolf for a long time. So he pushed his wolf's longing far away to the back of his mind, passing it off as merely the animal's response to the knowledge that he was in search of a mate.

 
He needed to go back into town, re-establish himself and start his human life over. Or move farther, into one of the cities in the valley on the west. Somewhere where with more people. Somewhere where he would find other shifters. Somewhere were he might find a suitable mate.

He could look for a human woman, but that seemed like a long shot. Animals are more instinctive, they'll recognize a smart mating opportunity and act on it within weeks, days, or even hours. Lane was working against the clock, with only a few months before Zaia would go into heat and he knew his brother wouldn't sit out another of her seasons. Lane's best chance was a shifter. Humans are far more plentiful, but they take much longer to woo, especially when you throw in the "Oh by the way, I'm a were-wolf and I'd like to make you one too so you can live with me and have puppies for the next thousand years" line.

Lane knew Diego didn't want to challenge him for his position but he also knew that there was no other way it could work. Lane wouldn't fight his brother, if Diego made a play for top spot, Lane would simply step aside. He would never be able to stay with the pack if that happened. His submission to Diego wouldn't merely put him into the number 2 spot, it would move him to the back of the line. He would have to move on alone.
 

Lane's thoughts poured through his mind, reminding him that he needed to be turning east and heading back to the house near the small town of Lone Pine that sat waiting for him to return, but his feet continued to carry him west, following the hiking trail, following the woman who had seen him at the lake yesterday.
 
Something pulled him toward her, even as he tried to resist.

He so rarely encountered humans in the mountains. He knew all the crisscrossed lines they used to travel by foot here, but most of the Sierra remained unencumbered by human footprints. No one expected to see wolves here, so no one looked for them. The pack had had free run of the most remote places for over 30 years. It had been many years since Lane had had to worry about the pesky little details of interacting with people. He wasn't sure what he was going to say to the woman he was following, he only knew he would be saying something. He had to meet her.
 

He told himself that he needed to find out if she was telling everyone about her wolf encounter at the lake last night. He told himself that he was just following up, hedging bets, closing loopholes, but deep inside he knew that his need was about something else entirely.