“Why not?”
Kay stared at Gideon. “Why not?” she repeated, then shook her head. “I don’t know. Brett? Greta?”
Brett answered. “It’s not our way. We’ve always done our fighting during the full moon, pack against pack, or Alpha against Alpha. Or on the sly, the way Rinaldi’s men killed Bobby and Stewart. As a declaration of war.”
Kay mulled that over for several minutes, then pushed it to the back of her mind to reexamine later.
“So, Brett, have you tried shifting yet?” she asked.
“No.”
“Try it, now.”
Rising, Brett stepped into the middle of the room. He stripped down to his shorts, then took a deep breath, his brow furrowed in concentration. At first, nothing happened; then, little by little, there was a change in the air, a subtle ripple of preternatural power that gradually grew stronger until it raised the hairs along Kay’s arms.
A growl rumbled low in Brett’s throat and in the blink of an eye, his shorts shredded and a large brown wolf stood before them.
Kay smiled.
Greta clapped her hands. “It works! It really works!”
“I think it would be a good thing if our whole pack could change at will,” Kay remarked. “It would give us the upper hand if it comes to a full-scale war. We’re stronger in wolf form. Harder to kill. Our senses are sharper.”
Gideon shook his head. “Are you sure about this? Won’t it make them all Alphas?”
“No,” Kay said. Her father had told her that only a few of each generation were born with the Alpha gene. When she had asked why, he had told her that if every pack member carried it, there wouldn’t be any werewolves after a while, because they would kill each other off. “That gene is only passed to a few in each generation.” She shook her head. She’d had it all this time and never knew. “I’m the last of my father’s direct line. The only other pack member who might have the gene is Brett and Greta’s son, Isaac.”
“So my blood somehow enables them to shift at will and that’s all?”
“Well, as far as I know,” Kay said. “There’s no way to be sure.”
“If you decide to go ahead with this, then Isaac should be exempt until we determine whether he carries the gene or not,” Greta said. “You know how unpredictable young Alphas can be.”
Kay nodded. Young males were never left alone until they learned to control their wolf.
Kay glanced at Brett, who stood in the middle of the room, watching her.
“Now for the hard part,” she said. “Brett, can you shift back?”
It took him less time than usual to resume his own form.
“How do you feel?” Kay asked.
“Good,” he said, pulling on his pants. “I feel good. Hell, I feel better than good. I feel like I could take on the whole Green Mountain Pack by myself!”
“Any desire to take over our pack?” Kay asked, eyeing him somewhat apprehensively.
Laughing, Brett shook his head. “No. None at all.”
Greta picked up his shoes and socks and tossed him his shirt. “Let’s go bring the pack up to speed. We’ll all need to get a good night’s sleep. Good night, Gideon,” she said, nodding in his direction. “See you in the morning, Kiya.”
Shrugging into his shirt, Brett followed his wife out of the room.
Kay stared after Brett.
“Something wrong?” Gideon asked.
“No. I was just thinking—Brett was able to shift right away. Why did it take me so long?”
“Probably because you’re only half wolf. Or maybe because you’re female.”
She punched him in the arm. “Chauvinist pig vampire!”
“Ouch!”
“You’re probably right about the half wolf thing. Even though it didn’t happen right away, I could feel it coming,” she mused, remembering how her appetite had increased, until it seemed that she was hungry all the time. There had been other symptoms, too, changes in her body that she couldn’t explain at the time. She stretched her arms over her head. “I think I’m ready to call it a night,” she said, yawning. “Are you ready for bed?”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
He didn’t say so, but she knew he was going out to feed. She kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll meet you upstairs.”
“Fifteen minutes,” he said. “Twenty at the most.”
She shook her head as he vanished from her sight. If only he could pass on that ability to vanish at will, she thought, heading for her bedroom. That would really give them an edge.
Thinking of Gideon, she changed into her nightgown, then washed her hands and face, combed out her hair, and brushed her teeth.