The Amber Shift

Fifteen

Noelle

I race through my room, stripping off my clothes and fishing out the turquoise bikini from my luggage. With my hair secured to the top of my head and a towel under my arm, I run down the stairs and out the back door.

The cover is removed from the hot tub, and it bubbles and steams, beckoning me to lose myself in its warmth. I toss my towel onto one of the six loungers on the deck and move past the glass-top table for eight. Like so many of the other spaces in Corbin and Bennett's homes, the outdoor area is designed to entertain big parties. A deep-cushioned sectional curves around a firepit at one end and an outdoor bar graces the other side.

I reach the hot tub and dip my toe in the water. It's perfect. My body melts into the warm liquid, and I focus on the millions of twinkling stars overhead. The water beats against my back, working out the stress of the last few weeks. My eyes flutter shut, and I think how this is the ultimate representation of heaven on earth.

Rustling comes from the side of the hot tub, and I sit up straight, trying like hell to see in the pitch-black dark outside the shelter of the deck.

"Hello? Remi? Is that you?" When no one answers, I call the other's names, but the silence echoes around me, and for a moment I think I imagined the sound.

Until something moves from the corner of my eye.

A gigantic wolf stands right next to the hot tub, looking up at me with glowing amber eyes, its gray and brown fur so dark I can hardly see it. I haven't witnessed any of the guys in wolf form, so could this be one of them?

I take in the fur and eyes and venture a guess. "Killian? Is that you?"

The wolf doesn't answer, because of course it doesn't...it's a wolf. But instead of giving me any kind of sign that it's him, the animal silently keeps walking toward me. Its gaze is steady, and its upper lip is pulled taut, showing its sharp canines.

My lips turn up into a hesitant smile, and I stand, the night breeze sending a chill over my body, breaking my skin into millions of tiny bumps. "Killian, quit fucking with me and change back," I say, stepping out of the hot tub and onto the deck, water dripping from my hair and body and pooling at my feet.

The wood creaks as I take one more step toward the wolf. But then I remember something from that night when Corbin and Elijah told me the truth.

Glancing up at the crescent moon, Elijah's words come flooding back.

"Only alphas and the King himself can shift at will." Everyone else has to wait until the full moon.

None of the guys are alphas...

I turn back to run into the house when the wolf bares its teeth in a growl and springs for me. It knocks me to the deck and pins me down with its enormous paws. Its claws fully extend, pressing into the skin above my chest.

I scream, something like a frantic help me, please and push against the animal, but it's too heavy, and it doesn't budge. It leans in closer, the heat of its breath brushing against my face and drool dripping from its jowls. Tears run out of the corners of my eyes as I turn my face away from the wolf's snapping jaws.

"Fuck!" I yelp as its claws sink further into my skin, drawing blood.

The wolf's long, pink tongue shoots out, wetting its lips.

Writhing under the canine, I shove its chest, fighting to get up one more time. It lunges forward and sinks its teeth into the spot where my neck meets my shoulder.

Searing pain spreads through my veins and I cry out, sobs racking my body as blood runs down my neck and chest. "Please stop, please." I am aware begging an animal to do something is foolish, but if this is a lycan, maybe it can understand me.