Times of Change: Book 1 Read online

  There was a click.

  Looking down at his phone to confirm what he already knew had happened, James sighed. “Natalie hung up.”

  James stared at his phone with his brows furrowed. Eli fiddled with his fingers as his leg bounced up and down nervously. Grandpa sighed and moved back to the couch.

  Tatum let her spoon clang on the side of the bowl. “I’ll think of something.”

  Chapter 5

  James ran his hands through his hair as he walked through the woods. The dark night sky cast shadows of the leaves on the ground. Fresh air filled his nose. It would have been a perfect night to run, but he yearned for something more. Everyone was sleeping, but his mind was racing with thoughts of Natalie. His thoughts were running wild with what-ifs and whys.

  What if Natalie was in trouble? Why did she hang up? What was she trying to hide from him? Was she trying to escape a bad situation? Maybe that’s the reason she didn’t want them to know much about her. Yeah. It made perfect sense. That must be the reason she hung up.

  He couldn’t let a beautiful creature like Natalie go around unprotected. Why else would she be at a club with no other shifters around, asking questions about other packs?

  Damn. She was so alluring at the club. James would love to protect her, maybe even hold her close to his body in order to shield her from the world. He imagined having her skinny form wrapped in his arms, pressed against him. His body tightened and came to attention.

  James had a brilliant idea. Natalie could stay with him…them. He could protect her, keep her safe, and no one would ever harm her.

  James dialed her number. His fingers nervously tapped the back of his phone as it rang, and rang.

  Natalie’s voice sounded through the phone. This is Nat. Try again or text. Beep.

  James ended the call. Was she in trouble right now? He needed to work out a plan. He needed to find her, save her.

  Maybe he could call Eddie to track her down. That’s it. He needed to call Eddie. That human was a tech genius, and would know how to find her. James looked around anxiously, his body caught up with his mind and he began to jog home.

  His phone rang, his breath caught, his heart stopped, and so did his feet. He looked down at the glowing screen. It was her number.

  Frantically, he answered, “Natalie?”

  “Uh-huh?”

  “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

  “No.”

  “If you are…I can help you.”

  “I’m not in any kind of trouble.”

  Was she telling the truth? James wasn’t sure. “Are you sure? I thought that maybe you wanted to join our pack because you’re trying to escape yours?”

  “No. I’m doing alright.”

  “Good.” James sounded disappointed. “I’m glad.” He tried to be more optimistic, but in truth, this only meant that she didn’t need him. For Destiny’s sake, it was depressing.

  “You don’t sound glad,” she said.

  James was silent. What should he say? He wanted her to move in with him? He wanted to mate with her until they couldn’t walk.

  She would hang up on him for sure if he said that. But it was all true. His body was pulsating from just hearing her voice.

  Had he ever felt like this before? No, he hadn’t. Sure, he had met other females and mated with them. College had been fun, but he wasn’t going to act like that with this female, not with his Natalie. They belonged together. And he was making her his new goal in life. Natalie needed to be with him forever.

  “James, you there?” Natalie asked.

  “Well…I. Yeah. Never mind; it’s nothing.”

  “It doesn’t sound like nothing to me. Is something wrong?”

  James wanted to change the subject. If not, he would tell her every thought, feeling, and secret running through his head. “So why do you keep shutting me down on information about yourself?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Well, uncomplicate it.”

  Natalie cursed.

  “What are you afraid of?” James asked.

  “You’re not giving up, are you?” Natalie sighed. “Let’s just say worrying about what others might think of me has been hell. You may never want to speak to me again if you find out.”

  “I’ll always want to speak with you.” And James meant it. He didn’t know why, and he couldn’t explain it, but she needed to know his intentions. Why wasn’t she with him? It was killing him.

  “Even if I tell you I have a penis? A disease? A child?”

  James’s voice sounded whisper soft. “Do you have a penis?”

  Natalie howled with laughter. “No. I don’t.”

  James let out an audible sigh. “Okay. We’re good. Tell me. I swear I’ll stay on the phone with you. I’ll even call twice tomorrow.”

  “Wow, promises, promises.” Natalie chuckled. “The truth is, I don’t have a pack. I’m a half-breed. I was wondering if that’s why you guys couldn’t smell me last night. I must smell different.”

  James had to think about that for a moment. “I couldn’t smell anything in that place. But you said a half-breed. What do you mean?”

  “My mother’s a human.”

  “That’s not a big deal.”

  “Really?”

  “Of course not. We don’t care if you’re half-human.”

  “Do other shifters think the same way?”

  “I don’t know about that, but I hope so. Tell me about yourself.”

  Natalie groaned, and even the sound of her revulsion at telling her life story made James’s spine tingle.

  Natalie spoke in fast, choppy facts. “I don’t know much about my father. He got my mother pregnant and left. I have a feeling it’s because my mother was human. She never told him that she was pregnant with me though. She says it was for the best. Mom raised me on the farm. She homeschooled me and made sure I had control over myself and my wolf. When I convinced her that I wouldn’t lose control and turn into a wolf, she let me go to college. I just graduated with my nursing degree, and that’s about it.”

  “I’m sure there’s more to you than that.” James walked down a worn path made over time by his family. They loved running out here at night. Not that they were always together. In fact, they were normally separate.

  Natalie chuckled. “Maybe, but that’s all I’m sharing until you tell me about yourself.”

  “Alright. I ended up in West Virginia when I was seventeen. I love learning, reading books, and mental challenges. I graduated, and now I have a good job opportunity in New York. But first, I need to help my family. My great-grandfather is sick, and my little brother’s wolf is craving freedom. That’s why we wanted to know about your pack.”

  “Oh, I hope you find one. I’m most likely not going to join a pack. I guess I was just curious. I mean…I don’t quite fit in anywhere, ya know? My mom kept me away from most humans. I’m freaking awkward around them.” Natalie’s voice cracked. “I probably won’t even fit in with full-blooded wolves either. It’s like I don’t fit in anywhere.” She paused and sighed deeply. “Why am I telling you this?”

  “Because I want to know, and because you fit in with me.” He hoped she could sense it. Their connection wasn’t normal. It was unnaturally beautiful, strong, and pure, and he loved her. For shit’s sake, I love her. James wasn’t sure how, but it was true.

  “Natalie, did you hear me? You fit in with me. You’re mine now. I’ll never leave you alone or let you go, and you’ll always find a place with me.”

  “You promise?”

  “Yes. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

  “I appreciate that.” Natalie sniffled. “Sorry. I didn’t think I’d be getting all emotional. Shit.” There was rustling on the other end of the phone.

  James smiled and closed his eyes. He shouldn’t be so happy when she was crying, but she wanted to belong with him. “I want you to be yourself around me, always. I want t
o be that shifter for you. The one you can always come to and never feel like I won’t accept you.”

  “Like my best friend?”

  “More than best friends.”

  “Will you tell me about other shifters when you find them?”

  “Of course, if you will promise me something?”

  “Sure.”

  “If you see my number on your phone, always pick it up for me.” It wasn’t a demand. It was more like a plea.

  “I suppose if you’re calling me, I could answer.”

  “Good. I’m going to let you go to sleep. I’ll call you later.”

  “Okay. Night.”

  “Sweet dreams, Natalie.” James hung up the phone. What in the hell was happening to him? He was falling in love with this female, but that was crazy. They had just met. When he told her that she fit in with him, she had cried. It made his heart do leaps in his chest to know she needed him. Damn, he had it bad. But she was sweet and beautiful. More gorgeous than anyone he had ever seen.

  James waited for fifteen minutes before redialing her number. He smiled as the phone rang.

  She answered the phone, “James?”

  “Just making sure you’d answer my call.”

  Natalie laughed sleepily. “Yeah, well. I like hearing your voice.”

  “You’ll hear it again tomorrow when you wake up.”

  She chuckled again and became silent. Her breathing slowed, then deepened. James listened, knowing she was falling asleep. He wished he could wrap his arms around her, rub her back, and watch her sleep. He imagined her pale skin contrasting with her flaming red hair and her lips begging to be kissed.

  “James?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m falling asleep.”

  “Okay.” He didn’t hang up. He kept listening as Natalie fell into a deep sleep. He leaned against a damp tree, closed his eyes, and imagined her lying beside him in a big bed as their breathing synced with each inhale and exhale.

  Chapter 6

  The next morning, Tatum paced around while Grandpa and Eli stared at her from the kitchen table.

  James walked into the kitchen all smiles. “So, what’s your plan.”

  Grandpa twiddled his fingers, looking back and forth between Tatum and James. Then, he set his eyes on Tatum. “What’s your plan, alpha?”

  Tatum looked at him, rolling her eyes. “Not you too, Grandpa.” She shook her head.

  James threw up his hands. “I don’t know anything about this. I don’t have ideas like that. I’m a book nerd, not a freaking scout. You know you have ideas, so spill them.”

  It wasn’t that easy. She hadn’t finished forming a plan in her head yet. Minutes ticked by as her family watched her pace.

  She stopped, and looked over at them. “I figure shifters need a lot of space to run, hunt, and live. We need to drive around until we come across something, like well-wooded areas. If Natalie could smell us, then we should be able to smell other shifters.”

  Eli ran his hand through his hair. “I know I’m stating the obvious, but that also means they can smell us.”

  Tatum nodded and held her hands in the air. “This is going to be dangerous,” Tatum admitted as she paced the floor again. “Maybe we should buy guns?”

  Eli shook his head. “No. You’re tough, and we’re tough. We can make it without them. We’re shifters.”

  She slapped her hand down on the table. “I am not tough, Eli. I’m a female. And we may be shifters, but we will be going up against numerous shifters at one time. “Damnit. Never mind, it’s settled. James and I will shop for guns.”

  Tatum was getting so sick of her brothers pushing her into male roles that she didn’t want to be a part of. Not only that, but humans would come up to her and continuously remind her about how tall she was. For Destiny’s sake, she was a female. And that kind of shit hurt her feelings. She just wanted to be normal, and find a male who loved her. A male who didn’t look at her like a freak of nature with a masculine body. She stomped her anger out through her foot with one loud boom.

  And as for the guns, she didn’t have any training with firearms, but having a gun seemed to ease her mind when she thought of her brothers being mauled by a pack of wolves. After the attack at Blackwater, she needed to make sure no one hurt the family she still had.

  For the next week, they prepared for their hunt and made tons of purchases.

  Tatum called all of them into the kitchen to help decide on their first location. She pulled out a West Virginia map and walked across the kitchen, thumbtacking it to the wall. She also had mini maps of each county, which she placed on the table. Searching on his computer for aerial views of wooded areas, James ignored state parks and camping grounds. Eli searched his phone for big cities in each county, marking them off on the maps as he found them. They circled places void of human contact.

  The following Monday, the siblings got geared up. They wore black steel-toed boots, camouflage cargo pants, and army-green tank tops. The hunt was on. They packed up the SUV, ate an early breakfast, and said goodbye to Grandpa.

  Tatum picked the first destination out of the many possibilities. Her logic behind the choice was to start in the north of the state. They could work their way down the map.

  They drove on a dirt road for a while until they couldn’t go any further due to deep muddy holes.

  Tatum’s SUV was struggling to get through them. They decided to pull over and walk the rest of the way. What other option did they have? She considered it a good sign. The gutted road would mean more privacy, and she didn’t remember having human visitors at Blackwater when she was younger. But what did she know? She didn’t remember anything before the attack. Her father’s bloody body seared unwanted images into long-term memories. Nothing else registered anymore. Even her mother’s face escaped her mind. As hard as she tried, memories of her mother wouldn’t solidify. She longed to remember what her mother’s facial features were.

  Tatum grabbed the county map, locked up the car, and walked through the woods. She figured that shifting in an unknown shifter territory would be a bad idea, not to mention the prospects of arriving naked. What if she were in front of the alpha, naked and begging for a place to stay? Mentally, it would be like offering her body in return for a home.

  If a shifter regarded them as a threat, it would be over before it began. They would kill Tatum and her brothers before they had time to explain. It was just better this way. On human feet, they were better prepared to reach the ears of any shifters they might come in contact with in the woods.

  Tatum waited for one of them to take the lead, but they just stared at her. She rolled her eyes, and gave in, but only because she couldn’t stand the thought of her brothers getting hurt. Therefore, she moved to the front, just in case.

  Moving off the dirt road, she led them through the woods instead. The pathless stretch was full of rocks and untouched plants. The leaves in the trees mocked the waves from the ocean as the wind rustled them. They passed by a multitude of different trees—ash, oak, cedar, birch, and on and on. Woodpeckers knocked, and birds chirped in faraway perches.

  Tatum kept her ears perked, listening for anything offbeat. Her brothers occasionally stepped on twigs or kicked small rocks.

  Around two hours later, Tatum stopped, took her water bottle out of her backpack, and sat down near a tree. She wiped the perspiration from her forehead and fanned her shirt. Sweat painted her shirt a darker green under her arms and around her neck.

  She drank, rested for ten minutes, and started again. Her brothers followed her lead, but none of them dared make a sound. They were in sync with her, following her movements down to the letter.

  After thirty more minutes, Tatum spotted a path up ahead. She stopped walking immediately and bent down on one knee. She looked back at her brothers, who were crouched and awaiting her instructions.

  She signed, There’s a path up ahead. I’m not sure if it’s shifter made. I’ll
go check it out. Stay here.

  Both brothers nodded in understanding.

  Creeping up to the dirt path, Tatum bent down to get a closer look at the ground so she could identify any tracks, human or wolf. Nothing of importance jumped out at her until she stood up. Something caught her eye. Upon closer inspection, she saw that there were paw prints on the edge of the path. She bent over and smelled dry earth and plants right before a rain shower, and it lofted around the paw prints. It was the smell of petrichor, and it told her what she needed to know. Never before had she thought about what smell a shifter would have, until now.

  Her brothers and her Grandpa didn’t strongly smell this way anymore. Maybe it was because they spent too much time in human form hiding behind soap and detergents. But when Tatum and James had been dancing and sweating, perhaps their more basic smells came out. Turning, she rushed back to her brothers and signed to them.

  There are paw prints on that path.

  Eli showed his teeth in a full grin while James inhaled and held his breath.

  Tatum looked around again. She signed, I’m not sure how to introduce ourselves. We still need to be careful. Should we all go in together? Or just me?

  Eli and James looked at each other and signed, Together.

  As the trees became less dense the sky painted itself an ombre of blue, purple, and pink.

  Tatum’s heart pounded in her ears as she led her brothers through the clearing. They passed dilapidated, whitewashed houses lining both sides of the dusty dirt path that led to a huge two-story house.

  Shifters were stepping out of their homes. Some snarled at them, while others scurried back inside as they passed.

  Tatum wasn’t sure if she should stop walking or keep moving. She was relieved to find that her feet didn’t give her a choice; they kept moving forward. Her brothers followed close behind as they approached the two-story house at the end of the dirt road. Tatum was sure the larger home was an indication of the alpha’s residence.

  As they approached the house, the front door swung open. A large male with long unkempt white and gray hair stomped onto the porch and headed toward them with a scowl on his face. Tatum’s feet decided that yes, in fact, this was an excellent time to stop.