The Awakening Series

I can leave.

I can run.

I can live off the land and hunt to survive. The confines of humans no longer bind me to get by.

Wolves can live anywhere as long as they can hunt, and although we have a pack mentality, I’ve heard stories of isolated wolves doing fine on their own.

That is what I have planned, longed for, waited for, and I know where I’m heading.

I can finally realize my dream of leaving all this behind me and finding my solitary peace somewhere out there, as far away from these mountains and people as I can, and never looking back.

Our call stops as soon as I relax, and my energy fades fast.

I’m overcome with fatigue that makes me slump back down and flake out on my belly, sighing as my body tingles and itches with a thousand tiny tremors.

I glance down in time to watch as everything changes back faster than I thought it would.

Fur that was keeping me warm, on paws instead of hands… it all begins to recede, and unlike my transformation to the beast, the reversal is not painful at all.

It’s fast, almost instant, and before I can blink or even come to grips with what is happening, I am nakedly human.

I’m smeared in my blood and flat out in a huddled heap on the floor, which affords me some dignity by shielding my body.

I scramble to pull my body into a ball, aware I am entirely uncovered and exposed to the hundreds of eyes around me.

I jump when my blanket is tossed toward me by the nearby Damon, smirking as his eyes devour my nudity, and I recoil.

I’m embarrassed, ashamed at being naked in front of everyone, and mad as hell that he made sure I would have to cross eight feet to get the blanket.

I glare at him, forgetting myself for a moment, then ponder not going to get it and huddle up to cover myself instead.

Others had theirs tossed directly at them, and looking around, I realize I am the only one who has to go crawling for hers, like an animal.

He is trying to humiliate me, and I move fast to catch it. Shocked when the slightest movement sends me shooting toward him at lightning speed, I end up almost at his feet in the blink of an eye.

“Wow,” I blurt out loud and get laughed at by someone nearby as they realize how naive I am about the speed and power we all inherited. Another change in me I have to get used to.

I grab the blanket and try to crawl backward while pulling it over me and fall onto my back as it’s jerked tight and yanked back taut.

It sends my head crashing on the smooth stone below me and bounces my skull painfully.

Damon snickers, his foot on the edge, as he looks down at me with complete disdain.

My face is reddening with heat, aware of many more muffled snickers and laughs at my expense, and I can’t conceal the shame washing over me.

He’s laughing at how much he enjoys making a show of me. I have no choice but to try to pull the blanket from him once more.

I know others are watching; my senses are heightened, and my body is breaking out in goosebumps all over in response.

I can feel them everywhere on me, and I want to sink into the ground and disappear. I yank, but the blanket tears from the pressure nearer my end, and I have to stop or be left with a scrap that will cover nothing.

“For God’s sake, Damon. This isn’t the time or place. My father is staring at you. Pack it in,” Colton snarls his way.

He pushes him from behind and comes into view, shoving him off the blanket, and swoops down to pick it up.

He walks forward in two confident strides and hands it straight to me, bending slightly as he does so to make sure I get it with no more interference.

I know he’s only doing it to save face, exert his dominance in front of his father and save Damon from punishment later.

Either way, I am thankful for him and relieved he is an alpha-in-the-making for the first time.

I reach out and take it gratefully, quickly pulling it around me and hiding what’s on show, afraid to look at him.

But it’s almost impulsive as his hand, still attached to the corner, briefly touches my shoulder in passing because of how speedy I am.

A hot searing flash runs through my body alarmingly, igniting something tingly inside me I can’t identify like being zapped by a low-strength Taser.

I gasp at the contact, glancing up at him as he attempts to rise to stand, seemingly also recoiling for what was maybe just an electric shock. For one brief millisecond of synchronized surprise, our eyes lock.

It’s all it takes.

One second of direct focus, a meeting of eyes I have never dared to look into before, and the worst thing in the world happens to me.

We connect; visions, images, and projections flow through my mind at a neck-breaking speed that fries my brain, and I cannot break his gaze or look away.

I’m startled into silence, locked in, and unable to fight what happens.

My body is rigid and paralyzed, controlled by this higher force as we’re forcefully held, trapped in an intense stare-down, and his dark, almost black eyes eat into my soul.

His memories, my memories, his fears, my fears. They become a jumbled mass of zooming information, flooding, invading my mind, and overtaking me.

I’m body-slammed with an overwhelming amount of emotions in literal seconds that could potentially zap my brain to death.

My body, heart, and soul are pulled into this flash of breath, which completely spins my world on tilt and instantly changes everything.

Neither of us can do anything in our paralyzed state but let it happen until the wild ride of transferring all we are, all we know, and all we feel is done and leaves us shell-shocked from the fallout.

Rooted to the spot, aware only of the darkest chocolate eyes on mine, I’m unable to break free yet marooned like I suddenly found a home, and his gaze goes from sworn enemy to lifeline in my darkness.

Breathless, reeling from the invasion of his life, his memories, and his history pouring into my memory banks, I finally snap out and fall backward in a slump.

Then, I’m released from whatever the hell that was and momentarily dazed.

I am entirely incapable of any kind of movement as I lie on the ground, startled into silence and lightheaded from what felt like a physical assault.

“Holy shit!” Colton’s voice waves my way, sounding equally shocked and as breathless as me.

I strain up to see him also on the ground, on his knees, though, looking like someone sucker-punched him in the stomach.

He falls forward and drops his palms on the floor to hold him steady, eyes wide, skin pale, unusual for his usually tanned hue.

He looks like someone told him the worst news he ever heard in his life, and he’s reeling in the aftermath. Complete silence surrounds us. A pin drop could be heard, and I have no idea what to think.

“They just imprinted,” one solo voice squeaks and echoes around us like someone announcing a death sentence.

“No, that can’t have happened,” says another, moments later, and then another, and another. The mutterings of one or two become many, deafening as they all verbalize their questions about what they saw.

The voices blend and blur as my fingers find my skull, and I scrub my head to get my brain to function, to figure out what just happened to me.

Me? I did what…? No. It can’t be.

I lie here dumbfounded and try to pull my thoughts together.

I’m unsure why I now know his favorite song and how he likes his coffee. I suddenly can’t get the strong scent of him out of my nostrils or the need to get up and hug him out of my brain.

I have a crazy primal urge to get up and sit on him and do things I never wanted to do before or even a few seconds ago.

It’s like every part of my soul is suddenly attuned to him, even though he’s feet away. Deep heavy longings tingle in my body, and every urge is to have Santo all around me.

I lie back down and try to breathe through the oncoming panic, try to rationalize what this was as I draw in the air with shallow breaths and try to let my body recover from the colossal zap he gave me.

“Silence!” Juan Santo demands with a vicious bark, echoing around the mountain, and like a sudden clap of thunder, his voice halts the rest of the chaotic noise, giving me some relief before my brain explodes.

He storms toward us and physically drags his son up by the shoulder from his slumped position, gripping and hauling him like a madman.

Then he angrily turns to face him once on his feet, raw anger erupting all over.

“Tell me you didn’t!” he demands in a harsh tone, but Colton seems as spangled as me.

His usually confident stance is loose, and he seems unsteady on his legs, knocked sideways and unsure what the hell happened to us.

“I don’t know what that was… I’ve never… I don’t know!” His cocky, dominant tone is lacking too.

I can feel his eyes back on me as I struggle to sit up, pulling myself into an upright ball and finally having the courage to stare at them.

As soon as I meet Colton’s eyes again, that same jolt hits me in my heart and stomach like a massive thud, and I know this isn’t anything else.

I’ve heard enough about it to understand what it is—saw it happen to others.

He stares at me with the same instinctual longing I throw his way, the unspoken need to walk toward him and to touch each other.

The need to go over and wrap myself in his arms, the longing way we stop and gaze at each other as urge blots out sense and beast overtakes human reasoning.

We imprinted, and the Fates gave me my mate.

Colton Santo is my destined alpha, the wolf I’m supposed to spend eternity with and follow wherever he goes.

He’s my path set in stone, my lover, my life, the father to my future offspring until the end of time.

And I can’t imagine anything worse.