Slow Shift by Nazarea Andrews (best ereader for pdf .TXT) 📗

to come back for the winter solstice. Tyler isn’t especially sorry to see her go, but Chase is a little despondent for a few days, texting her incessantly until Tyler coaxes him into a Marvel movie marathon that lasts most of a weekend and results in a two-hour argument between Chase and Ben and Tyler about who the best superhero is.

He goes to sleep smiling, Tyler sprawled out at his feet in his wolf form.

~*~

He wakes up gasping, as the tattoos on his chest burn to life and the ground rumbles beneath them.

“Chase,” Lucas shouts. Tyler snarls, braced protectively against the boy’s shins as magic burns through the air and the ground shudders and bucks.

“Chase!” Lucas shouts again, closer now, staring at him wide-eyed.

His phone is ringing, and he knows without bothering to look that it’s Aurora.

“My wards,” he murmurs, “Something—something bad tripped my wards.”

Lucas stares at him and Chase feels his stomach flip as he looks at a grinning Lucas and a worried Tyler, naked and human again.

“We’re being attacked.”

Chapter 18

Tyler forgets, sometimes. He thinks it’s fair. Chase slipped into his world as a heartbroken child, and even with the years that passed since then, years that feel like forever and never enough—sometimes he forgets that Chase is more. He’s Pack and he’s human, so Tyler wants to protect him, but more than anything, it’s because he’s Chase and he’s his.

So sometimes he forgets that this fragile human boy is power wrapped up in pale skin, sarcastic smiles, and gentle, perfect hands. But in moments like this, while Chase braces his feet as the forest shakes and he breathes, power rippling off of him in almost visible waves—

Moments like this, it’s impossible to forget.

“The wards are holding,” he murmurs, “I need—we should go to the Stones.”

“Chase,” Tyler starts, panicked, “We need to protect—”

Chase turns, his smile dark and fierce, and it makes the wolf in him whine anxiously. “The land will protect us, but we need to go to the Standing Stones.”

Lucas moves first, and Tyler watches him, watches Chase patiently waiting, and he nods.

“Ok.”

~*~

It’s a Pack, made up of an Alpha pair and three green eyed betas.

The forest feels wrong, like the sharp edge of violence before a storm. Tyler wants to press into Chase, hold him safe and hide behind him all at once. He does neither, just stands tall and strong at Chase's shoulder with Lucas nearby.

“This is the mighty Reid Pack?” one of the betas laughs.

One of the alphas snarls at him. “It does seem that our...information...regarding this pack and this land might be....mistaken,” the Alpha, a tall man with a disconcerting gaze and drawling Southern accent, says. “Tell me—where is your Alpha?”

“Too busy to meet with you,” Chase says cheerfully. “Why don’t you tell us what you want, so we can tell you ‘no’, everyone can snarl and snap, and then you’ll leave. We don’t have to waste time on pleasantries.”

“But they’re so fun,” Lucas says mournfully, and Chase’s grin flicks wider.

“I’m Luther, of the Southwest Pack. My Alpha heirs, June and her mate Warren. Our betas, Kevin and Kelsey,” Luther says, indicating to each of his wolves.

Chase sighs and points. “Lucas and Tyler, betas. I’m the Shaman. Now, what the hell do you want?”

“No name, little Shaman?” June says, honey sweet through sharp fangs, and Tyler growls, low and furious.

Chase touches him, a soothing press of fingers against Tyler’s wrist. It feels electric and hot, a caress that burns through him to settle in his groin, and he has to fight to keep his eyes open, to keep his groan behind his teeth.

“It’s not important. Why are you here?” Chase bites out, the question a sharp demand.

Luther smiles then, and it’s all teeth and threats. “Why, dear boy, we’re here to take the territory.”

~*~

Harrisburg belonged to the Reids.

Before the accident, they were a sprawling family that kept to themselves, even as they were doted on by the city.

After, Chelsea ran, too scared, traumatized, and angry to stay, and she dragged Tyler with her until he was old enough to leave. It broke something in him, leaving his Alpha. But leaving his family’s land, leaving the home that they had protected and run for over a hundred years—that broke something, too.

It’s a matter of living with the damage, he thinks. What kind of brokenness is something you can carry, something you can breathe through?

He stares at Luther—at his strong, unified Pack—and feels the Shift prickle over him. He roars.

~*~

“This land belongs to the Reid Pack,” Chase says, while the echoes of Tyler’s roar still reverberate through the air. “It belongs to me,” he says, grinning.

Luther huffs a sigh and June snarls, charging forward. Tyler moves to meet her, lunging, claws extended.

Power flares up, a white-hot burst of it that wraps around him, holds him still while it throws June back. The she-wolf yelps when she slams into a tree, collapsing.

Luther looks back at his fallen packmate, then back at Chase, and a smile ticks up the corners of his lips.

“Get out,” Chase snaps, “This is the only warning you’ll get.”

“We’ll go,” Luther murmurs, “For now.”

~*~

Chase sways a little, after they vanish into the woods, and Tyler catches him before he crumples. He whines as he holds the boy close, and Lucas looks at him.

“His tattoos, Lucas. They’re burning.”

~*~

Tyler refuses to leave Chase. He can see the way it grates on the boy’s nerves, being constantly in his space, but Chase doesn’t protest.

The rival pack doesn’t actually leave Harrisburg. He thinks that’s the only reason Chase doesn’t order Tyler away and ward the house against him. Instead, he sleeps like the dead for almost twenty-four hours, and when he wakes up, curls sleepily on the couch and eats three bowls of soup before he finally says he’s had enough.

“What happened?” Tyler asks, and Chase laughs, sounding a little nervous. Tyler’s stomach sinks. He won’t like this.

“The wards—they’re defensive. The forest works to keep any threats out—Caitlyn didn’t think I could twist the wards to do