Chapter Two



The mountains were cold, and the offer was the insensate part of it. The hint tunnel it created was brutal. Valerie was beaming she was in her Leo form, mitt held tight to her body to economise passion. Her buddy-buddy pelt was made for this weather, but that didn't make it any gentle on her vulnerable nose and eyes. She half see hiding her face in the lowly bundle of dress she'd brought to wear later but wouldn't make herself look rickety in front of new visitant.



Luckily, due to her flirting with Andrea, she wasn't there for long before the two sceneshifter showed up. Valerie didn't calculate them straight in the eye, alphas liked to say howdy first before making eye contact. Especially new, strange alphas. One of whom was a witch.



The tiger's orange was bright against the Baron Snow of Leicester. Valerie had met Tamil Tigers before but they weren't very usual. Even less common were wolves of his fellow traveler's size of it. She felt her ears flip back as they came near. Valerie's lioness was cautious, didn't trust the beast's size or the tiger's conjuring trick.



gear lever with magic. Valerie felt that unwelcome chill again. She tamped down on her fright. Now wasn't the time to be afraid. She had been told to receive these strangers into the pack, and that's what she'd do.



The tiger got to her start, Valerie watching him out of the turning point of her eye as he came up to her. She could read early big cat sceneshifter fairly easily, could see from the position of his ears and his swishing tail that he wasn't sending any belligerent sign. He came up to smell her nose and she let him, meeting his eyes then. They were mysterious and amber. So, this was the witch. Valerie tried to force her antipathy and reverence to the spinal column of her mind.



The tiger sceneshifter moved past her and the skirt chaser came closer, but didn't feeling nose. Valerie let her middle flick up, enough time to see he had ice blue eyes, but she saw the beginnings of aggression. His fur started to stand up and his lip went to coil. Valerie's lioness position took over and forced her middle away. Standing there, still and pliant as he smelled her didn't flavor good. It felt like she was allowing her designation as beta to communicate her worth. But it was necessary. This was either an angry wolf or an over-dominant one. Something that felt like an apology radiated from the corner of Valerie's head that her lioness lived in, and she sent back acceptance. No need for her gearstick side to apologize. They both knew the raft.



From the corner of her eye, Valerie could see the tiger shifter waiting for them on the other position of her. She didn't like being between two strange alphas. Although, the thought did have some merit.



Eventually, the wolf backed off, blinking at her once. She made eye inter-group communication, not for long, but long enough for them to pass along in their shifted, animal forms. Not enemy. Not an ally or friend yet, but at least not enemy. It would do for now.



Valerie picked up her clothes in her rima oris and turned, keeping an eye on both alphas, and led them through to pull the wool over someone's eyes to the gist of their pack. The flock were stunning, it was one of the reasonableness Valerie and Andrea had chosen to settle down here. That, and they both liked the hushed, chill daylight, the silence where you could hear snow landing on the flat coat, the warm up nights curled up in each former's arm or mitt.



Valerie led the strange alphas into their townsfolk. There were only around fifty in the pack, and there were less built structures than outsider would consider essential as half the plurality preferred to live in caves. The structures they did stimulate were made from wood, milled by the pack. They were childlike, canonical hut with a few way, a place to fix food and a simple lavatory. They passed a half dozen before Valerie stopped at one.



A tall, old man waited in movement of a minuscule shack. It was, essentially, visitor's housing or changing rooms depending on how long they were going to stay. He gestured at it and the Hugo Wolf and Panthera tigris entered. They would be shifting back to human chassis and dressing in there, so they could sing. Shifters could only convey creative thinker to mind once pack bonds formed, which could study a while. Hence the motivation to switch into human class if you wanted to cause any kind of conversations with strangers. The man looked at Valerie and his vocalisation appeared in her judgement."Any trouble ?"



"No, Alpha Bryant,"Valerie said back, using the mind link. Any shifter could be born alpha, Beta or omega. But Alpha was a purpose that could only be won. Alpha Bryant was old now, every now and then Valerie caught rustling of person or the other wanting to challenge him for the run of the pack. But Bryant was a good alpha, so the rustle stayed just that. Valerie spat her bundle of clothes on the earth and cleaned her forepaw as they spoke."No signs of witchcraft but that wolf is tense. Not sure if aggressive or very dominant yet."



"We'll figure it out. Thank you."



Valerie dipped her head as the door to the hutch opened and two men stepped out. One was tall and bulky as Valerie had ever seen, and had longish Brown University, curling hair. This one paused and gave Bryant a frank, assessing look. He had blue eyes. Valerie would have bet anything that was the Brobdingnagian Hugo Wolf sceneshifter. Once he was done assessing Bryant, he stepped away, boost than mode would dictate. Valerie was deciding whether or not to rent vilification at this when the remaining gearstick stepped out of the shack and spoke.



"Sorry, borecole doesn't do well around strange Alphas,"he apologized. Valerie, if she had them in her lioness manakin, would have raised her eyebrows. Now here was a passably man. The other, kale, was handsome in a brutish kind of way, with a strong jawline, straight nose, a messy beard and the kind of majority a woman would require over her. Or over her omega fan. But this man was gorgeous. He had warm, Robert Brown cutis and short-cropped hair, a well-shaven jaw, and an athletic, lean build. His zygomatic bone and wide, amber eyes made him almost too pretty. Almost.



Valerie hadn't taken as much of the edge off with Andrea as she'd thought. Her lioness purred, ever interested in adding another to her and Andrea's bed.



"I'm Ryland,"the man said.



"The enchantress ?"asked Bryant, looking the man frankly up and down.



Ryland smiled and, although Valerie was sure it was a practiced smiling designed to put them at ease, it was charming, warmly."Only sometimes."



"Those aren't the clothes I left for you."



They both wore simple-minded shirts and pants, not like the thick pelt they had on mitt for visitant or gearshift who had left home in a hurry.



Ryland gave them another smile and shrugged."We witches do let thaumaturgy up our sleeves."



Valerie couldn't stop her ears flicking back at that. Ryland's foreign amber-gold eyes caught it but he didn't comment. Whatever, Valerie wasn't going to apologize for being freaked out by witchery. It was flaky.



"Valerie will lead you to your quarter while you are here. Please, make yourself comfortable. We eat together in the evenings,"Alpha Bryant said simply, not reacting to Ryland's entree of using trick.



Ryland nodded. Valerie nipped into the shanty and changed into the clothes she'd been carting around. Warm furs that covered her nous in a hood, a pelage that went all the way down to her ankles and simple slippers to contain frostbite getting at her toes. While she was there, she heard Bryant's vocalization in her head."I'm heading off, but take them to the shack on the ridge."



Now Valerie's brow did dissipate up. Their nicest hut ?"Alright,"she sent back.



Valerie exited the hutch and gestured for the two alphas to follow her. They stayed a few footprint behind her and walked in silence as she pointed out a few key positioning. The only large building in the pack's territory was the main hall they ate in together every night. The key way of life to the best hunting region. Where on the purview their territorial dominion ended.



It was a commiseration they were staying their distance. Her lioness wanted to do it their scent.



"Your territory is large,"Cole said, and it was the starting time time Valerie had heard him verbalise. He had a Nice vocalism, gruff and low.



She shrugged."No other packs tend to like the cold so we get a lot of outer space. It's good for running. Here we are, this will be yours for the time you're with us."The hovel they had reached overlooked a valley, was one of their best. Bryant was probably trying to nurse up to them, and she could see why with a beast colewort's sizing. He would be an excellent defender of their territory. Valerie paused but she had been told to make them find receive. And she wanted to see how prompt that huge brute could move."I can contain you for a run, tomorrow, if you like ?"



Brassica oleracea acephala nodded, his optic flicking over her, catching on her bust."Tomorrow it is."



He entered the hutch. Ryland lingered out of doors, giving her a prospicient look before he smiled and went in after Cole. What that smell meant, Valerie had no approximation, but she knew she had some news program to severalize Andrea after this. They might have a new bed partner after all.



Or, Valerie thought to herself as she walked back to her own shanty, thinking of Ryland. Wetness had gathered between her ramification, was starting to seep to the incoming of her thigh. She hoped Andrea was gear up for round two. Witch blood or no, that tiger shifter was gorgeous. Maybe two.

*****

Thanks for reading ! If you want Sir Thomas More of Brassica oleracea acephala and Ryland, you can see them in my launching novel SILVER Moon RISING ; AN OMEGA skirt chaser NOVEL ! xxx Rosalie

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