Forbidden Shifts Read online

  I tried to reason with him. “Look, Mark, I—”

  Lindsay cut in. “Dad, I know it’s difficult, but it’s the same thing I’ve been telling you on the way over. I chose to do this. I made him do this. I wanted to be closer to this world; I’ve always understood it better that the real one.”

  Mark closed his mouth and turned to his daughter. She continued.

  “I’m good at this, Dad. I like this. This feels normal to me, and it’s what I wanted. I knew you’d never turn me, so I found someone who would. And now I feel like there are people who understand me, and that’s amazing.”

  Mark finally spoke. “So, was this whole thing with you and Kellan just about shifting?”

  My stomach dropped. I hadn’t even considered that possibility.

  “No, it’s not.” Lindsay said firmly. “I never came into this relationship just wanting to change. I would be with Kellan now no matter what he was.” Her voice was steady and serious, and I felt my heart swell knowing that she felt the same way I did.

  “I really like him, Dad. He’s a good beta to you, and I know that I’ll make a good part of the pack, too.”

  There was a silence as Mark and Lindsay stared each other down.

  “So, you actually want this?” Mark asked, incredulous.

  “Yes. I want him, and I want this lifestyle.”

  It was a wonderful thing to hear.

  “And you’re certain?”

  “Yes.”

  Mark nodded to himself, thinking hard.

  “Well, then it makes sense for you to step into my shoes, then, doesn’t it?”

  I stepped forward, as his beta, and spoke. “Mark, I don’t want you to think that I did this to try to usurp you or get in your way. I just really love your daughter, and—”

  “I wasn’t talking to you, Kellan,” Mark interrupted with a smile on his face.

  Lindsay’s jaw dropped. “Me? But I haven’t even spent time with them as wolves yet. I don’t know the first thing about leading a pack!”

  Mark turned to his daughter. “Look, Lindsay, you’re older than I was when I first took on the pack. I’ve been looking to step down for a long time now, and I like to keep these things in the family. I’ve worked hard to keep this pack together, and I want it to go to someone I trust. Someone like you.”

  Like Lindsay, Mark didn’t mess around. I knew he was serious. And so did she.

  “Oh, Dad, of course I will!” Lindsay said, a smile practically splitting her face in two. She stepped into his arms. “I’ll do you so proud, I promise.”

  “I know you will,” he replied. “And you’ll have to promise to keep this beta of mine in check. He’s known for his tendency to hook up with the wrong people.” Mark shot a warm glance at me over Lindsay’s shoulder, and I smiled back. Of all the things I expected to happen, this was the last one. It had gone better than I could have possibly dreamed.

  Stepping out of her father’s embrace, Lindsay turned to me.

  “So, what are you waiting for? You’ve got to get me introduced to the rest of the pack!”

  ***

  It was months after Lindsay had been given leadership of the pack, and things were going well. It took a while for the guys to get used to being led by a headstrong young woman like Lindsay, but she was enthusiastic and busy and always organizing runs that kept everyone happy. She had grown popular, and was already attracting new pack members, as well as training up her own beta, another girl called Millie. She had decided that keeping me in the position might have looked too much like favoritism. I didn’t mind; I was the one who got to go home with her after all.

  We had been out for a run by ourselves one night, and, just after we shifted back, Lindsay put her hand on my chest.

  “Don’t get dressed yet.”

  Dropping my jeans onto the forest floor, I smiled. “And why would that be?”

  “Oh, shut up, Kellan,” she laughed, pushing me over so I fell on my back, letting out an “oof!” as I landed. Reaching into my pants pocket, she pulled out a condom and sheathed my already-hardening cock. I squirmed as her hands touched me. Yes, this was going to be good.

  Climbing on top of me, she wasted no time in sliding my cock inside of her, circling her hips in the most enticing fashion. I went to put my hands on her thighs, but she brushed me away.

  “Not yet.”

  She had placed a hand over her pussy, making me watch her play with herself in the most tantalizing way, and her face was soon lost to ecstasy. Her body rolled with ease, long and lean from all those nights out running. Her pussy felt amazing round my dick as she worked her hips up and down, her pussy slowly getting tighter as her orgasm approached.

  She never looked more beautiful to me than in the moments before she came, because it was the time she became the most free, the most wild. And there it was now, her head thrown back, her body tensing, her hand moving quickly over her slippery clit. It was explosive, the way her pussy clenched around me, hearing her wild cries as they echoed off into the forest night. I couldn’t resist any more, and wrapped my arms around her, reaching for my own release. It didn’t take long as I pounded into her, making her body go limp with pleasure. I came seconds later, my face in her long hair. We slowly pulled apart, buoyed by the freshly-shifted euphoria and the post-orgasmic glow.

  Climbing off me, she reached for my jeans and threw them to me, flicking her matted hair back from her face. God, she was beautiful.

  “Get these on, buddy. Because we’ve got to get home and do that all night long.”

  Picking up my pants, I pulled them on and grinned. This was going to be a good evening. In fact, now that I thought about it, they all were.

  The End

  Wild in the Highlands

  I should have known this day was coming, Bridget thought. She closed her eyes and buried her face in the rough fabric of her skirt. I should have known I wouldn’t be any different.

  She sat in a small clearing just out of earshot of the village. Her back rested against the smooth bark of her favorite birch tree, and she was surrounded by early morning mist. It was easy to pretend that she was alone out here, that she was free. But after hearing her father and mother’s conversation earlier this morning, she knew it was time to stop pretending. Within just a few weeks’ time, she would be married.

  Bridget exhaled slowly. It was going to happen. There was nothing she could do to stop it.

  She ran her fingers through her hair – it was long and wavy and red, just like all of the other women’s hair in the clan, and she hadn’t brushed it yet this morning, so it was scraggly. Her eyes, which were a greenish hazel, were her only real defining feature; her mother had the same color of eyes that she did, but nearly everyone else had gray eyes.

  Bridget looked at her hand, which was small and pale, and right now had dirt under the nails from yesterday, when she had climbed one of the tallest trees she was allowed to go to. Yesterday, she had been a girl. Today, she knew, it was time to start being a woman.

  A snapping branch startled her, and Bridget spun around, peering around the side of her tree. But it was just her sister, Alisa. Alisa was two years older than Bridget, and they had been close when they were younger, but when Alisa got married off a year ago, the distance between the sisters had grown.

  “What are you doing out here so early?” Alisa asked, carefully picking a burr off of the skirts of her dress. “Mother and Father are looking for you.”

  “I’ll come back soon,” Bridget said, wiping the tears off of her face and hoping that Alisa didn’t notice them. She felt foolish for crying. Alisa, after all, had already faced the same fate that was now looming in front of Bridget. She knew Alisa didn’t love her husband, even after being married to him for over a year.

  Alisa frowned, apparently having noticed the tears after all.

  “What happened, Bridget?” She crouched down next to her sister, being careful not to let her dress touch the ground that was still damp with morning dew.

>   Bridget bit her lip, not wanting to admit to Alisa why she had been crying, but it spilled out of her anyway.

  “I-I heard Father and Mother talking,” she said. “This morning. I woke up early, and they didn’t know I could hear them.” She paused. “Father wants to marry me off soon.” Her voice hitched on the last word, and Bridget went silent, fighting off another sob.

  Her sister’s face softened. “Oh, Bridget, it really isn’t that bad. It’s scary at first, but once you get used to it, it isn’t much different from living with Mother and Father, other than the fact that you have more chores to do.”

  Bridget stared at her sister. It was different for her. Alisa had always been the good one, the one who stayed home with Mother and washed the clothes, or prepared the evening meal. Bridget had been the one out climbing trees, trying to follow the men when they went hunting. Bridget had been the one who had dreamed of a different life.

  “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life cooking for, cleaning for, and… and bedding a man I don’t even love!” She threw herself into her sister’s arms and started sobbing again. “Please, Alisa, can’t you do anything?”

  Her sister’s arms wrapped around her, holding her gently as she cried. Bridget eventually sniffled and pulled away, looking down at the ground as she wiped her nose on her sleeve.

  “I’m sorry,” she said in a whisper. “I didn’t mean to get your clothes dirty.”

  Alisa looked down at her now damp dress and raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t seem mad. Instead, she looked at her sister, watching her closely. Then she seemed to decide something, and her face set itself in an expression of determination.

  “You’re sure you don’t want to marry anyone in the clan?” she asked.

  Bridget nodded firmly. She knew all of the men in their clan, and couldn’t think of a single one she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. Some, life Ralf, were at least nice, but others were simply cruel.

  “Then I have an idea,” Alisa said. “But if you do this, there would be no going back, do you understand?”

  Bridget nodded again, her heart leaping this time. “What can I do?” she asked, gazing into her sister’s eyes. “I’ll do anything, if there’s even a hope of escaping this fate.”

  Alisa nodded. “If you ran away, or pretended to run away, just for a couple of days, then the clan would have to question your purity. They wouldn’t be able to marry you off anymore. You’d be able to spend the rest of your life as an unmarried woman.”

  Bridget nodded slowly. It made sense, and she would then be able to choose a different path for herself. Perhaps she would learn childcare, or midwifery.

  “I’ll do it,” she said, her voice firm. She was beginning to feel confident again for the first time since hearing her parents’ conversation this morning. “I’ll go now.”

  “Don’t be foolish,” Alisa replied. “You will at least need some supplies.”

  “But if I go back,” Bridget said, “they might try to keep me in camp. I’ll be fine, I know how to survive in the woods on my own for two days. I don’t even have to go that far.”

  Alisa sighed. “Look, wait here. I’ll run back and get you some stuff. Food, a water skin, a knife, blanket, fire starter… can you think of anything else?”

  Bridget shook her head.

  “Okay, wait here,” Alisa said. “I shouldn’t be long.”

  Bridget hugged her sister tightly in thanks. “I’ll be here, waiting.”

  ***

  True to her word, Alisa wasn’t gone for more than half an hour. She had managed to stuff all of the supplies in a small pack, and handed it over to Bridget.

  “Sorry,” Alisa said. “The food is leftover from yesterday, and the blanket is kind of old. I didn’t want them to notice anything was missing.”

  “It’s okay,” Bridget said, hefting the pack and then slipping the strap over her shoulder. “Thank you, Alisa,” she said. “Thank you so much.”

  The sisters hugged again, and then Bridget turned towards the forest.

  “Are you sure about this?” Alisa asked.

  “Two days,” Bridget said, taking a deep breath. “It should be easy. The men do it for much longer when they go hunting.”

  “If you’re not back within two days,” Alisa said, “then I’m telling them everything. If you get hurt out there, I’ll never forgive myself.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Bridget said, meeting her sister’s eyes with a smile. “See you in a couple of days!” Bridget chose a direction away from the village and began walking. She could feel her sister watching her, blessing her with her gaze.

  ***

  The going was easy. Bridget knew these woods well. She had been playing in them since she was a little girl. Even though she wasn’t allowed to go very far alone, she had often accompanied her mother on trips into the forest looking for herbs, and she had followed her father around on patrols. She knew that to really be out of reach of anyone at the village, she would have to go a ways past the normal boundary. She wasn’t scared, though. She decided that if she was going to be spending two days alone in the woods, she might as well take advantage of it. She would take the opportunity to explore.

  Bridget paused at the stream that served as a marker for the clan’s usual territory. Past this, the forest was wild. Only the men came out here, for hunting, and Bridget knew she would have to keep alert so that she didn’t stumble onto a hunting party. But that should be easy enough; even the men tended to stick to the well-worn game trails.

  Bridget chose a faint trail that was heading slightly north, and decided to follow it as long as she could. She wasn’t that worried about getting lost; once the clan knew she was gone, they would send people out to look for her. She could always light a signal fire if she got into trouble, and she would be found within a few hours. But she was determined not to do that unless it was an emergency. She didn’t want to be found too quickly, because then the clan elders might decide that she was still marriageable.

  The day wore on, slowly at first, and then with growing urgency, as if the night was rushing toward her at a breakneck pace. She realized that she would have to stop soon and find somewhere to camp. She had never been this far away from her family, and she had never been this alone. She wasn’t scared, exactly, but she was very aware of her aloneness.

  It was getting chilly out as the daylight fled, and Bridget thought longingly of the blanket in her pack, but she forced herself to keep going. She didn’t want to stop too close to the village and risk being found in the morning.

  She rounded a bend in the trail and stopped in her tracks. A great gray wolf stood on the trail in front of her. Bridget felt frozen, too surprised to even be scared. The wolf regarded her with an oddly aware look. Bridget felt almost as if a person was looking back at her, instead of a wild beast. She met the wolf’s silver-gray eyes with her own. Something seemed to pass between them, as if their hearts were beating at the same speed, in rhythm with each other. Bridget felt a strange connection to the wolf. The wolf seemed to feel whatever it was too, because it cocked its head and continued to gaze at her, instead of running away or attacking, like she would expect a normal wolf to do.

  Suddenly a branch snapped somewhere, deeper in the forest. The wolf was gone, as quickly as a deer disappears when it hears a hunter. Bridget didn’t move for a moment after the wolf left. Her heart was pounding. What had just happened? And what had scared off the wolf?

  She didn’t want to find out. She bit her lip and looked around. It was nearly dark enough to set up camp, anyway. She gazed at a nearby tree that had nice, sturdy branches. While spending the night in a tree wouldn’t be comfortable, it would at least be safe. She hadn’t been afraid of the wolf when it was standing in front of her, but now the thought of a wolf pack stalking through the trees around her made her shiver. Plus, there was something out there that had scared off the wolf.

  Her mind made up, Bridget walked over to the tree and began to climb it. The lower branch
es were easy to reach, and she hauled herself up about twenty feet before she felt safe enough to stop. Two branches formed a sort of cradle near the trunk, and Bridget settled here. She pulled the blanket out of her bag, and then looped the strap of the bag around a branch. Then Bridget leaned back against the trunk and closed her eyes.

  Sleep didn’t come easily. The sounds of the forest seemed louder than ever, and Bridget found herself jerking back awake every time she approached the edge of sleep. She kept reminding herself that she was in a tree, safely off the ground, and that there was nothing else in these woods that could climb, other than squirrels and bears. As far as bears went, the hunters said that only baby bears really climbed, since the adults were too big. This was a small comfort, and after nearly an hour of unsuccessfully trying to sleep, Bridget retrieved the old knife out of her bag and held it in its sheath against her chest. It made her feel slightly better; the solid weight of steel in her hand was always comforting. It didn’t do much to stop her mind from wandering to thoughts other than those of the immediate danger of being eaten, though.

  She kept thinking of her home, and what her parents must be thinking right now. She wondered if Alisa had told them anything. Alisa had probably kept her word, and would remain silent unless Bridget failed to return after two days.

  When Bridget thought of her future beyond returning to her home, it was fuzzy. She wouldn’t be able to be married off to one of the men of the clan, but she would still have to make herself useful somehow. If she ended up not having a natural aptitude for healing, then what would she do? She supposed that she could spend her days tending gardens and gathering herbs and berries when it was warm out, and in the cold seasons, she could repair clothing for the unmarried men. It wouldn’t be the most interesting life ever, but at least she would have more freedom than she would if her father forced her to marry some boorish man who wouldn’t let her leave the house without permission.

  Bridget’s thoughts also kept wandering back to the wolf. She hadn’t been scared of it, even though she should have been. Something about the way that it had looked at her, the intensity of its gaze, made her feel like the wolf had really seen her, the person she was. It was as if the wolf had looked at her and known her, in a way that no one else ever had.