I walked through the pack lands to a semi-hidden building, close enough to see the previously empty mate clearing, which now held the makeshift building for Shannon’s mating ceremony. I felt Vince stumble behind me. I turned with a smile. “What’s wrong?”

“How?” His voice was low.

“How what?” I grinned as I turned back and continued walking, pulling everyone along with an invisible string. My power tugged them along, even though Vince was fighting the pull.

“How do you know about this place?” He stumbled again, fighting with everything he had.

I spun at the door and stared at him. “Do you know what happens when a person is wolf and Lycan, Vince?” My question seemed to confuse him. He stared up at my wolfman face, and I watched as he tried to figure it out.

“They obviously have a lot of power.” I nodded.

I looked at Rowan. How do I shift out of this form?

His smile was a flash, there and then gone. His voice floated into my mind and caressed me. Like any other shift. You just have to allow Nix to recede. Once you become mated, and Nix unlocked this form, it will be easier and easier to shift into. She can choose as she wants.

Nix pulled back. This will become handy in training.

“We do…but there is another fact that is very unknown.” Megan pushed forward, and I felt my skin ripple. I stared at his face as I shrank. My six-foot-seven frame shrank until I was in Megan’s shifted form.

“No.” He trembled as he stared at me.

“Oh, yes.” Megan shook out her fur.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Brandon snarled.

Megan turned and lifted a brow. “Not at all. I know it is so hard to believe that I wasn’t as stupid as you thought I was, but here we are.”

Shannon turned to look at Brandon. “What?” Brandon fumed for a second and then laughed. “What are you laughing at?”

“Because we were playing checkers while Amy was playing chess. She was always steps ahead.” Brandon flung his arm out. “We caught this wolf watching as we tried to drain one kid. We kept her in the cells here. She got away.”

“Not just that…” I shifted back to my human body. “You taunted me…remember. You came in daily to torture me mentally. All because?” I turned to Vince. “Because your father had become obsessed with my wolf form.” I tilted my head. “You were so disgusted with me.” I turned back to Brandon. “Which is actually hilarious…since Megan, my wolf, was your fated mate.”

The words hung there. “What? No, I was mated to Nix.”

I laughed. “No. Never. You were too weak to have been mated to Nix. Rowan was always Nix’s fated mate. He became Megan’s second-chance mate. Thankfully, thankfully the goddess always had a plan. But you were her fated mate.”

He grimaced in disgust. Vince lifted an eyebrow. “She was a gamma. I felt her power.”

I nodded. “That she is. Nix is my alpha. But it shows something, doesn’t it?”

“What?” He looked confused.

“Alphas are mated to someone similar in rank, so that they can support each other. Brandon mated a gamma…and chose someone unranked.” I turned to face Brandon. “It just shows how weak he truly is. He couldn’t even match a beta. Morgan would have won easily if he had gotten his way and had a boy with my mom. The Oakenfang pack would have been overtaken.” I turned back to the door. “But that doesn’t matter anymore.” I grabbed the handle and opened it. I stepped in, and the scent hit me first. Old blood, my blood, hit me in a wave. Burned flesh. Urine.

Everyone piled in. My friends seemed to shiver as the scents washed over them, but Rowan’s growl filled the room when he stepped in. “This is where they held you?” He looked down the hallway of cells. “Why didn’t I notice this place until we were right outside?”

I nodded as I grabbed the keys from the wall. “This place is spelled. No one really looks this way until they’re brought here. Otherwise, your gaze skips it.” I shrugged. “When I was in here, I was pissed. But now it serves a purpose.” I went down the line and unlocked every cell. Then I turned to the group: “Welcome to your new home.”

I pushed the guards into a few of the cells. I did them in pairs, which thankfully worked since there were only a few left alive after the fighting. Then Morgan and Vince in one, and then Brandon and Shannon in the last one. I slammed the last cell closed, and Shannon charged the door, the silver bars burning her flesh, and she shrieked. “You can’t be fucking serious.”

I grinned. “Oh, I am. I endured it…so can you.” Shannon’s face snarled but then, like a light switch, it changed to a grin. Then she started laughing. “What is so funny?”

She came back to the front of the cell. “You can lock us away all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that your father probably died in those caves, and your mother is sitting at a cabin being attacked by the rest of the brotherhood. And you have been wasting your time here.”