Moments In Time: A Collection of Short Fiction (10 page)

I was filled with love, joy, and happiness. I was just filled, and it took breaking the fucking rules to finally make it happen. To experience what I was feeling while holding my son, I would have broken every fucking rule that the Corps laid out before me.

Cassie and AJ were worth walking through fire for, and I would gladly accept that challenge if it meant being as happy as I was with the two of them in my life.

About the Author

C.C. Brown is a
Marine Corps wife, mom of two, American Literature nerd, and author. She loves gloomy weather and fully intends to make Seattle her home someday. She’s also an intense lover of the New York Yankees and the Seattle Seahawks, and is willing to lose friendships over them. Just kidding. ;)

C.C. may be found on social media at:

Facebook:
C.C. Brown

Twitter:
@CCBrownAuthor

Books by C.C. Brown include:

Red Flags

Enlightened

Shattered

Fraternizing

Compromising

b
y Madeline Sheehan

Half human, half wolf, and promised to a purebred alpha wolf who wants her to submit. What’s a girl to do?

Shayanne stared up at the starry sky, flexing her muscles, dancing on her tiptoes, reveling in the raw strength coursing through her body. It was strength that every wolf shifter was born with, but during the full moon it packed even more of a punch.

Full moons were special. But tonight, the beginning of the summer solstice, packs from all over the country were gathered in the Colorado Rockies for the full-moon run, a yearly ceremony to celebrate mating bonds, new births, and worldwide pack alliances. The celebration began at dusk—a meeting was conducted, then at nightfall the wolves would run until the sun began to peek over the mountaintops. She’d turned eighteen last week, and tonight would be her first run.

Even being a half-breed, not able to fully shift into a natural wolf, she still felt powerful.

Surrounded by the eyes of hundreds of wolves, glowing with the same excitement that coursed through her own veins, Shayanne felt drunk with adrenaline. She could hardly wait to shift, to run under the light of the full moon beside her pack for the very first time.

Her father smiled down at her. “Excited little thing, aren’t you?”

She grinned. “I feel like I’ve been waiting all my life for this.”

And in a way, she had. It was nothing short of a miracle that she and her father had ended up where they were today.

Her father, Arthur Halston, had been abandoned as a young pup, found by humans, and placed in the system. He spent his youth in the circuit of Boys Homes and foster care until, at fifteen years old, he ran away.

He bounced around for a few years until procuring a job working at a large horse ranch in Wyoming, and when he was nineteen, he married the ranch owner’s daughter, Heather. A year later Heather found herself pregnant, and after only half of a normal human gestation period, went into labor. Her human body, already depleted from the accelerated pregnancy and the rapid growth of the baby inside her, gave out only minutes after she’d given birth to a freakishly strange-looking baby.

What Arthur hadn’t known, having been raised by humans instead of his own kind, was that when a wolf mates with a human female, there was a fifty percent chance the child would be wolf, and a fifty percent chance the child would be human. There was also the slight, extraordinarily rare possibility the child would be a half-breed. In the odd instances that a half-breed birth had occurred, if the child managed to live, it remained half-shifted until the child reached puberty.

Horrified, devastated, and grieving, Heather’s parents blamed Arthur, accused him of being a monster, a Satanist, and planting a demon child inside their daughter. Still grieving his wife but terrified his newborn daughter would be taken from him or killed, Arthur took her and ran.

Unable to leave his furry, snout-nosed daughter with humans for fear that his secret be known, Arthur was unable to work and was forced to live in the wild, foraging and hunting his way around the country. And the child, as most shifter wolves do, developed quicker than a human child, and was walking at six months and talking fluently at nine.

When she was a little over a year old and able to hunt alongside her father, several wolves from the Colorado Gray Pack happened upon them. The alpha took pity on Arthur and offered both him and his daughter a place in his pack.

It was years ago on her twelfth birthday, in front of her entire back, that Shayanne shifted into a full human for the first time. Since then she could half shift whenever she wanted.

“Shay!” Careen, their pack alpha, sidled up next to her. “Does eighteen feel any different then seventeen?” he asked. “I’m so old I barely remember thirty!”

She laughed. Careen didn’t give himself nearly enough credit. He was a handsome forty-eight-year-old who barely looked forty. His long black hair had a few grays but his smooth, tanned skin was flawless, the only noticeable sign of wear and tear was in the small lines around his dark eyes.

Her father slipped his arm around her and squeezed her tightly to him. “I can hardly believe my baby is full grown.”

Careen smiled. “Speaking of which, I have someone I’d like you both to meet. A very important someone from the Allegany Mountain Pack.”

Shayanne felt her father stiffen beside her and she glanced up at the older man. Unlike Careen, her father looked every bit of his fifty-two years, if not older. Something she’d always blamed on the death of her mother, the human woman she’d never known, and his year on the run.

“Grey!” Careen called out, gesturing.

She turned with a ready and practiced smile to greet the visiting wolf, and instead her mouth fell open. He was huge, broad and muscular, at least six foot five inches tall with squared masculine features, a wide mouth, and a strong jaw. His jeans hung low on his waist, accentuating his sculpted abs and hips, and just like his arms, his bare chest and abdomen were covered in tattoos—colorful, realistic scenes of wolves in the wild, howling under the full moon, running, hunting, mating.

He was also badly scarred, hurt by another wolf, probably in his bid for the position of alpha. Because he was most certainly an alpha. His cheeks had been repeatedly slashed. Four ugly scars ran the length of both sides of his face. More scars indented the side of his skull, more than likely the reason he kept his dark hair closely shaven. Scars were typical among wolves, but Shayanne had never seen injuries this extensive on a wolf that who lived long enough to heal.

She honestly couldn’t tell if the man had ever been attractive, but she doubted it. His features under the injuries were formidable, dominating. Even without the scars, he wouldn’t go unnoticed. He looked powerful instead of pretty, masculine and mean, despite the smile on his face. He’d been made to instill fear in others and it was working. She was absolutely terrified.

“Careen.” Grey greeted his fellow alpha, and the two wolves grasped forearms.

“Grey Nash, this is Shayanne Halston, the bitch I’ve been telling you about.”

Shayanne’s eyes shot to Careen. He’d never before referred to her as a bitch. When referencing her as a wolf, she was still called a pup. Bitch was reserved for females who had reached breeding age or who were of age to be mated.

Her heart started pounding. No. Oh God, no.

“Shayanne,” Grey said, grinning. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.” He held out his massive hand to her.

Instead of taking the offered hand, she glanced up at her father. “Daddy?” she whispered.

But her father was staring at Grey. “She’s a half-breed,” he growled. “Not a suitable mate for an alpha.”

Blood thundered through her ears. She was to be mated? When? Why hadn’t she been told?

Grey’s smile disappeared. “I disagree,” he said evenly. “There have been several instances where half-breed bitches have mated wolves and bore them purebred pups.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. Mated. Pups.

Careen nodded his agreement. “That’s the beauty of half-breeds. If Shayanne were to mate with a human male, she would give birth to humans. But that will not be the case—”

“No, it won’t,” Grey growled, shifting his gaze from Careen to her. “Because you will be mine, not some vile human’s mate.”

Shayanne swallowed thickly. She wasn’t his; she couldn’t be his. After all, she had everything planned out. She was going to spend the summer with her friends, then start community college in the fall, hoping one day Careen would give her permission to take leave from the pack to attend a university somewhere exotic like New York City or Los Angeles. One day she would have to mate, that was inevitable, but she hadn’t planned on it happening until she’d experienced a little bit of life outside of the pack.

Her father’s jaw locked. “Don’t do this,” he growled through clenched teeth, his gaze never once leaving Careen’s. Both males’ eyes had gone wolf, a golden yellow with an elliptical black pupil.

“Arthur,” Careen said firmly. “She’s eighteen now. We’ve talked about this.”

“No,” he bit out. “She was supposed to go to college first!”

Grey stepped forward. “No.”

As Grey’s alpha authority washed over them, the single word packed so much punch that her father fell to his knees. She immediately followed suit, though she felt no compulsion to do so. Being a half-breed had somehow allowed her free will, something she and her father had worked hard to hide over the years.

“It was decided years ago,” Grey continued evenly. “The ceremony is tonight.”

Shock nearly crippled Shayanne. Not only was she to be mated, but she was going to be mated tonight? No!

“This is a good alliance, Arthur,” Careen said. “Grey is a wild-born wolf, alpha of one of the very rare Dark packs, and a good wolf.”

He didn’t look like a good wolf to her. He looked like a beast from hell. And he was old! At least ten years older than her!

Her father looked just as horrified as she felt. “I forbid this,” he spat.

Careen’s fangs extended past his bottom lip. “Are you issuing a challenge, Arthur?”

A pregnant silence followed, during which her father’s face fell. Finally he glanced down at her, his eyes glistening with tears. Even knowing her father could do nothing against two alpha males, seeing him give her up so easily made her heart crumple.

Careen clasped his hands together, his eyes once again human. “Good!” he said, all previous hostility instantly gone. “My mate is waiting to help Shayanne prepare for the ceremony.”

“Prepare?” she whispered. Panic scrambled her thoughts and suddenly she couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be happening, not tonight, not right now, not to this terrifying older wolf.

So she did what any terrified half-human, half-wolf girl would do when faced with a shotgun wedding. She shifted. And ran like hell.

Shifting for a half-breed was more or less what humans believed of werewolf mythology. Her eyes went wolf, her ears elongated, long thick hair sprouted from her cheeks, chest, arms, legs, and feet, and all four of her canines punched past her lips like mini daggers. Her body, not skinny or fat, just average, was instantly toned, built for optimal strength and speed, which combined with the full moon was amped up on high. She blurred through the clearing full of wolves, pushing and shoving until she was free and clear, then hightailed it back to town.

Shayanne knew what to do. Her father kept his money in a coffee can under his bed. She would grab it, pack some clothes, and get on the next bus out of there. She had absolutely no idea where she’d go, but wherever she ended up, at least she’d be free.

She was nearing the edge of the forest, almost to the road that would take her back to her pack lands, when suddenly she was tackled from behind and, screaming, she was thrown face-first into the dirt.

The badly scarred black wolf pushed at her hand with his big wet nose and growled. She knew a direct order when she heard one, and despite her aching body, rose to her knees to face him.

As she watched, Grey’s fur began receding, his bones cracking as his limbs elongated. His spine broke and re-knitted. His full transformation was complete in under a second, leaving him human and crouching next to her, naked.

“Shayanne Halston, you will submit,” he growled.

It was fear that forced her submission, not his command. She immediately rolled onto her back and lifted her chin, exposing her neck.

He nosedived for her bared skin, nostrils flaring as he sniffed up and down her neck. His tongue darted out, rough and wet, licking furiously at her throbbing jugular.

She’d heard stories of forced matings. That even in human form, males were still able to access their scent-marking glands, using their tantalizing scents to subdue and arouse the chosen female. She hadn’t been sure if this would affect her since most things wolf didn’t.

It didn’t.

Instead of scenting his need to mate, making her feel like she was being given the greatest gift of all, she was frozen in fear, knowing she was about to be forced into mating with a grown wolf who was scaring her half to death.

She squeezed her eyes shut as he began to undress her, then whimpered, not out of need but out of fear. She felt his roughened hands slide across her face, over her lips, down her neck, up and down her arms, across her sternum, then settling on her breasts.

Low growls erupted from his chest as he squeezed the soft flesh. She tried to react as a bitch should. Whining, she pushed forward into his touch, and he rumbled his approval.