Lost Howl Read Free

and when you are ready, we will leave.”
    Amira nodded and hiked into her room, chucked some underwear, a few sets of jeans and some t-shirts into a bag. Two minutes later, she left her bathroom and returned to the kitchen.
    “Ready when you are.”
    Lianna got up and hugged her, Dorine hugged her again, and then, she was following Sarah out the door and into the mist-covered day.
    Sarah tucked her files under her arm and began to slowly rotate her wrist. “Is it always this foggy here?”
    Amira chuckled. “Of course. It is why we picked it. I can shift here, twenty feet from someone, and they can’t even see me.”
    The fog began to glow and they took a step forward. Amira was about to find out who she actually was and she wasn’t sure why it felt like the suckiest birthday present ever.
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    Meeting another wolf was the strangest experience she had ever had. The urge to attack him and rip out his throat was overwhelming.
    His pack was watching as they met each other.
    Pack Master Loffwin looked her over, and she felt her hackles rise. The skin on the back of her neck rippled and the hair she shaved short to keep it from being noticeable when this sort of thing happened, tried to lift.
    “Stop eyeballing me.”
    He blinked. “Where is your sense of protocol?”
    She flexed her fingers next to her hips and lifted her lip in a snarl. “Somewhere with my sense of humour. Protocol is taught and for my first wolf, you are a crappy teacher.”
    He sat back and leaned forward, growling.
    She growled back, and the strange tingle in her eyes washed over her as the partial change took her.
    He grew, his shoulders thickened and his claws came out.
    She matched him, shift for shift, her bra stretched to the breaking point as she grew to over eight feet tall with marauding claws tipping her hands.
    The assessing look suddenly replaced his feral yellow glare. He slowly shrank back into his human form.
    Unsure of what had just happened, Amira returned to her normal form. “What was that?”
    A woman came forward with a nervous smile. “The pack master was testing you to see what your pack ranking is. You are an alpha, if you were in doubt.”
    “Excellent. What were my options?”
    The woman smiled. “Alpha, beta, gamma and omega.”
    “What are you?”
    “I am the alpha’s mate, Sari. You have a choice before you. You can either join the pack and choose a mate, or live outside the pack and report to the Shifter Council in case of emergency.”
    Sari smiled encouragingly. “We would really enjoy it if you would join us.”
    “I don’t think so. I enjoy my home and my family. I am not a group-event sort of gal. Not a team player as it were.”
    The pack master frowned. “You must join a pack.”
    Amira cocked her head. “Why?”
    “For support. For family. To find a mate of equal social standing.”
    “I don’t care about getting those from strangers. I will find my own way in this world; now, if you will excuse me, I have an appointment with the Pride Master.”
    Sari cocked her head. “Why are you meeting with him?”
    “Because he knew my father. I want to know what I can learn about why my parents were running and who helped them to hide.”
    She turned and walked away from the alpha and his mate. The gathered wolf shifters began to growl at the disrespect, but she turned and snarled at them, shifting quickly to and from her half-form.
    Apparently, it was scary enough, because they lost their growls and left her alone.
    Amira turned on her heel and headed for the exit.
    She left the wolf offices with a heavy sigh. It was rather freeing but a little dark to turn her back on her mother’s people. From the little that the general council had told her, her parents had had a forbidden love and were unable to get to the Crossroads in time to formalize it before Amira was on the way.
    The problem resided in Amira’s mother. She had actually been married at the time. An arranged marriage to a