The Reluctant Wolf (Book 1 Cloverleah Pack) (5 page)

Chapter Seven

“Holy fuck!”

“How did you do that?”

“Wow
, that is some skills.”

Shawn realized that the sight of him shifting, complete with clothes was a bit of an oddity but he also knew that if there was any chance of any life with his mate, that both him and his pack needed to understand they were not dealing with an ordinary wolf - there was a sizable chunk of ‘Other’ woven into this man’s genes.  He struggled to sit himself up and winced at the pain still throbbing in his shoulder. 

Immediately two strong arms reached around him and pulled him up into an equally comfortable lap. Leaning back across a broad chest that he knew belonged to his mate, he twisted his neck to see Kane staring at him with a slightly confused, but definitely admiring gaze.

All of a sudden Shawn felt really bashful.  He dropped his gaze and let his hair cover half of his face - he grew it that way specifically.  He rested his head, just for a moment, on Kane’s chest feeling his warmth and strength
.  In that moment he felt safe which was weird because he hadn’t actually exchanged two words with the man he was sitting on.  He felt Kane shift one of his arms that were still clasped around his waist and the next minute Kane’s hand was brushing the hair from his face.

“Hey sweet face, don’t hide.  In case you didn’t realize, I am Kane - hi.”

Shawn heard the words. He had already fallen in love with the sound of his mate’s voice.  Then the absurdity of the situation caught up with him. 

He leaned away from Kane’s chest for a moment and said
with a small smile. “Hi yourself, in case you didn’t get it first time, I’m Shawn.”  The words,
your mate,
were thought but not spoken.  Kane’s answering grin lit up the rugged man’s face.  Shawn knew he could get lost in that face.  He was still staring when he felt another person’s hand on his arm and Kane’s answering growl. Yep, the other wolves in the room, time to face them too.

He looked up at the man closest to him
who had a huge grin on his face.

“Hi Shawn, I’
m Troy, yeah we all know who you are.  Man you cook some amazing food down at the diner you know.  We haven’t eaten so well in months.”

His twin’s face also popped into view.  “
Yeah, your cooking puts us all to shame, man and your bike is a sweet ride.”

Shawn raised his eyebrows.  “You rode my bike?  My bike, man?” He glared at the man.

Scott had the grace to look embarrassed.  “Yeah, well we had to get it here somehow; couldn’t leave it on the street.  But I took care of it, I promise.  I’m Scott by the way.”

Shawn looked down to hide his grin. 
It was then he noticed a new pair of feet and from the smell it was the smaller Omega wolf.  He looked back up again. The little one looked almost as shy as Shawn was feeling.

“Hi, I am Dean, how’re you feeling?”

“A lot better now, thank you.”  Looking up he faced each one of the wolves, he hoped he could be friends with. 

“Thank you, all of you.”  He looked across at Griff who was standing back from the others.

“Are you okay?”

Griff rubbed across his huge chest and grinned.

“Yeah, feel a bit stiff like I have had a hell of a work out, but nothing I can’t handle.”

Shawn held out his hand to the bigger man.  “Come here a minute.” He waved his hand at Griff who looked at Kane, before stepping forward.

“Just trust me.” Shawn urged the larger man.  “I just want to touch your arm, honestly.  I won’t hurt you.”

Griff held his arm out and felt Shawn’s light touch.  He could also feel Kane growling low in the background.  Then BAM.  It was like all of his synapses had fired at once and he felt a warm glow radiate right through his body.  Stepping back quickly, he shook himself off and then stared at Shawn in amazement. He shrugged his shoulders, moved his arms and…didn’t feel a twinge anywhere.  In fact he felt really good.

“Wow, how did you do that?”

Shawn sighed.  He tried to move Kane’s arms from around his waist, but that man wasn’t budging.  If anything he gripped harder, but at least the growling had stopped.  Shawn knew that he had no choice but to be totally honest with this group of men if he ever had a chance at happiness, but damn he was going to get really hurt if they rejected him.

He looked around the room as he tried to get his head together.  Everything smelled of Kane so it was obviously his place and as Shawn looked he liked what he could see.  Big comfortable couches all done in black leather set in a room with white plastered walls and deep wooden floors.  There were a few mats strategically placed on the floors and a big book case that held a multitude of books plus an overly large television and what appeared to be a games system.  The overall effect was masculine but lived in. It would be nice to live here, he thought.

“Well, as you can probably tell, I am not your average wolf shifter…” he started.

Everyone started talking all at once, mostly along the lines of ‘ha, you think.’ Kane raised his voice just enough to be heard over the din.

“Enough! Let Shawn speak.” 

Now Shawn faced dead silence.  He honestly didn’t know how to go on.  All his life he had faced wolves that shunned him or tried to kill him once they knew how different he was.  He had never felt wanted, never felt like he belonged and had never had friends for longer than a few months before he had to run again. 

He really wanted to believe that these wolves were different.  He had found his mate - was it so unreasonable for him to want a life that didn’t involve hiding who he was from the people closest too him. 
He took a deep breath and went on.

“My Dad is the Alpha of our pack. We, or rather they, live up by the Canadian border.  He never found his mate so when he was about 40 years old he met and mated with what he told the pack was a human woman.  She died giving birth to me, so I never knew her.”

Shawn stopped for a minute, as memories of his mother’s picture hit him.  He felt Kane nuzzle into his neck - something that felt way more delicious than it should given the circumstances.

“Um, yeah,” he said getting back on track.  “So yes, Mother dead, and I was raised as a normal wolf shifter.  In fact I was raised to be the next alpha, but that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.  I was fourteen when I realized I preferred boys to girls.  It was frowned on by the pack, but I could hide that as I was still a teenager.  But one night, when I was on a run with some of the pack, we were just larking about, you know, like you do when you are young and full of piss and vinegar.  Anyhow, I stepped into a rabbit hole or something and broke my leg while still in wolf form.  I remembered that it hurt like fuck and then all of a sudden I was covered in
the blue haze you guys encountered.  I shocked a couple of my friends in the process, who were trying to help me.”

“Of course that was reported to dear old Dad who proceeded to have his own blue fit over the ‘abomination’ from his loins.  I remember he beat me pretty badly and left me locked up for about a week.  Then he bought in a Shaman from a local
pack to tattoo an apparent warning to other wolves about me, in both my human and wolf form.  But instead the Shaman told me that I was a magical shifter - that I could command magic of all types.  We were together about a week, while he was supposedly tattooing on these warnings but he told me instead he had simply placed wards on my skin, in both forms, to protect me and warn me when danger is coming.”

Shawn stopped again and Kane spoke up softly.

“Well that is a pretty handy thing to have, don’t you think?”

Shawn smiled.  His mate didn’t seem horrified by his tale so far, in fact his grip on him was becoming more comforting and arousing by the moment.  Focus, Shawn, Focus, he told himself.  He was certain he didn’t imagine the low chuckle coming from his mate, or the pressing ridge in his man’s
pants.  So not helping.

“Yes, and the Shaman was able to teach me a few other things as well.  Basically how to convert my thoughts into real things, like you saw when I shifted with clothes on.  When I healed Griff I just thought of him the way he was when I met him.  Things like that.
”

“Well shit, wouldn’t your pack really appreciate some powers like that, especially in their alpha?”  This time it was Scott who spoke up. 

“Huh, you think?  Nope, not at all.  I wasn’t pure wolf - I was an ‘Other’ and to my Dad that is worst than being human.  Unfortunately things got worse.  Dad came in while I was with the Sha
man, to see how the tattoo was going.  It was taking so much time because it was hard for the Shaman to tattoo the wolf as you can imagine.  Well, when Dad came in the Shaman was actually teaching me how to project my magic…uh…a fireball that hit my Dad when he walked in the room.”

“I imagine that didn’t go well,” Griff said softly.

“No not at all.  He attacked the Shaman and only let him live because he was afraid of what the man could actually do to him.  Then he pulled me out in front of the whole pack and told them I was an abomination and didn’t deserve to live.  He went for my throat and my protection wards came into play, shocking him big time.  So he had his beta’s beat me with huge wooden planks, planning to kill me that way.”

Shawn could feel Kane growling again and quickly carried on.

“So, I managed to get away.  I threw a few power balls at my attackers which of course just made them angrier but then they went off to find something to finish me off with - I guess I just wasn’t ready to die yet.  I got away and have been on the run ever since.”  He gave a small smile at Kane as he said that.

“You can see now why I bolt at the sight of wolves?”

“So who was shooting at you, Shawn?”  It was Griff that bought the conversation around to the present problem.

“I am guessing human hunters employed by my father.  They have been tracking me for more than ten years now.  My Dad had some other witch create a batch of bullets infused with magic.  If I stay in my human form when I am shot the bullets start to attack my magic powers
making it impossible for me to heal.  When I am in wolf form the bullets can’t negate the magic, but the acid in them starts to break down my body effectively killing me from the inside out. I have to admit this is the first time I have been hit with two of them at the same time, and it is also the first time anyone apart from me has been able to get them out for me.  Thanks guys.”

“So can anything else kill you?”  Dean had crept closer to Shawn as he had been talking and was now sitting on the ground at Shawn’s feet.

Damn the perceptive Omega, Shawn thought.  Taking a deep breath he came to what he perceived was the worst part of his story - the part that had made all other wolf packs shun him during his teenage years when he was trying to find somewhere he could call home.

“Basically no, it would be really hard to.
  Or so other wolf packs have found when I have come across them in the past.  When my magic is activated as such, in either wolf or human form, no-one can get near me.  Yes sure I can get shot, but I heal really, really quickly.”  He pulled at the shoulder of his t-shirt showing where he had been shot just an hour before. “Look for yourself.”

Where the gaping wide wound had been was just a red pucker on Shawn’s skin.  The acid marks that had trailed down his arms were gone and there wasn’t even a scar.

“If someone attacks me with a knife in human form, my magic stops it from going into my skin too deeply.  In wolf form I can protect myself in a fight, but as soon as I am hurt in any way then my ‘blue haze’ comes out and as you all saw from before, no-one can get close to me when that happens, so they can’t fight me.”

“But then wouldn’t that just make you a really good friend to have around?”  Dean couldn’t see what the problem was - shit he would far rather have Shawn on his side than trying to face him in a fight.

“I am a threat to every pack’s Alpha. What pack is going to welcome me, when my power, my magic, can render a wolf of any size helpless with literally just a thought?”  Shawn looked deep into Kane’s eyes as he said this.  If Kane couldn’t accept this part of him then he would just have to leave, and get over the pain as best he knew how.

Kane didn’t flinch.  He didn’t look horrified, or angry, or anything at all…except
sexy. Shawn couldn’t believe it.  His mate was horny, despite what Shawn had just revealed.

“Seems to me,” Kane said in that thrilling deep voice of his, “the alpha’s you have met just haven’t known how to handle you right.”  And man if those words didn’t just zing their way straight down to Shawn’s cock and inflame it.

“And you can do good stuff too right?” This time it was Griff who spoke.  “I mean you healed me.  Can you do other stuff like that?”

Pulling himself away from Kane’s eyes was not an easy thing to do, but Shawn twisted slightly in his seat, feeling Kane’s cock grow even bigger (was that even possible) as he moved.  He looked over to Griff.

“Well yeah, I can.  But nobody has ever been interested in that type of thing before.”

“Well like what?”  Hmm the twins did think the same and obviously talked together as well sometimes.

“I can heal you.  I can get you dinner in the time it takes for you to give me your order - no I don’t do magic at the diner, cos I do like to cook, but I can order up a meal within a few minutes.  I can have the tank of my bike sanded in the time it takes to think of bare metal, although I do prefer to do the painting by hand.  Um…I can produce clothes on demand when needed…I don’t know.  Even I don’t know the true limits of what I can do because since being kicked out of my home pack I haven’t lived with other people longer than for about a week.”