More than a Werewolf (Shifty Series Book 1)

  More than a Werewolf

  By Sara Summers

  To anyone who has ever dreamt of being something more than who they already are

  Chapter 1

  My name is Leah, and I never planned on finding the other half of my soul at 19 years old. I didn’t think I’d end up co-leading the world’s largest pack of wolves with said soulmate, either, but as a wolf shifter, I guess I shouldn’t have bothered planning my future anyway.

  I was working as a waitress in a town in Washington called Glacier, saving up money for college. In Glacier, everyone had questions about shifters.

  Luckily, I had answers.

  “Hi, what can I get you?” I smiled at the three-person family, who had the diner to themselves.

  “Can I have chicken noodle soup?” the little girl asked. Her parents beamed at her, and my smile became slightly less fake.

  “Of course.” I smiled, then wrote down everyone else’s orders. “It’ll be right out.” I promised. As I turned to go, the girl cried out,

  “Ooh, I love your mate mark. That’s pretty.”

  My hand automatically reached up to the right side of my neck, resting on the golden mark just under my ear.

  “Thank you.” I smiled again, then hurried away before she could ask any more questions.

  Every shifter has a “mate mark”, or at least, that’s what the humans call them. We call them “coties”.

  We’re all born with a cotie that matches someone else’s, and when we meet that someone else, our coties change together into something new and bigger. The person with the matching cotie is our soulmate, though popular culture has taken to shortening the term to “mate”.

  “Alright, here it is.” I put the plates down in front of the customers. “Let me know if you need anything.”

  I tried to walk away before anymore shifter talk came about, but as usual, it was unavoidable. I didn’t mind answering questions about shifters in general, but I couldn’t stand it when people asked personal questions.

  “Did you find your mate yet? Has your mark changed?” the girl asked. For a moment, I was relieved, glad the questions were easy this time around. And then the mom spoke up.

  “Honey, you ask if her mate found her yet. She’s waiting for him.” The mother scolded her.

  “Oh, okay.” The girl nodded. I fought back a grimace. “Has your mate found you yet, or are you still waiting?”

  “Still waiting.” I forced a smile. “I’ll be back in a few minutes to check on you.” I told the rest of the family before hurrying off again.

  As a shifter, I had been raised knowing that one day, I’d find the other half of my soul. As a female shifter, I was raised being told that when he was ready, my mate would come find me.

  While gender equality was all the rage in the human world, even the humans didn’t question the inequality in my world. Shifter females were treated as the lesser gender. We couldn’t lead, couldn’t make our own decisions, and couldn’t even find our own mates.

  Still, no one argued.

  I suppose it’s romantic in a way, the idea of waiting for your prince charming… Once upon a time, I’d even been excited to find my mate. Then, real life got to me.

  A few weeks after I moved to Glacier, I was approached by a large male wolf shifter. He told me that he was a member of a pack called the Rockies, and he insisted I join the pack. Having just barely escaped my last pack, I refused. He tried to convince me, but when it was clear I wasn’t interested he backed off.

  After that, the Rockies were everywhere. They would follow me wherever I went, even sitting outside my apartment in their cars at times. If you wondered what the definition of “stalker” is, you need only look to the Rockies.

  It was bad enough when they started following me, but then they opened their mouths. They switched off between taunting and threatening me, and I swear, I would’ve given my left ear to get them away from me.

  Only seconds after I brought the little family their food, the bell over the door dinged to let me know that we had more customers. I hurried to the front of the diner, stopping at the hostess’s station to grab some menus.

  When I looked up to see how many customers I had, I involuntarily took a step back. There, in front of me, were five Rockies. They looked to be only a few years older than me, and judging by the sneers already on their faces, they weren’t only there to eat.

  The lunch rush had ended an hour ago, so I was the only waitress working at the time. That meant I was their only option for a server.

  “Hey, guys.” I nodded. “Good to see you again. Steve, I’ve enjoyed watching you through my windows.” I threw out fake names, something I’d gotten good at with them, while I led them over to a table in the far corner.

  I wanted them in the corner so they wouldn’t be able to see me while I was in other parts of the diner.

  “And you, Mark. Your wolf form has the most luscious hair I’ve ever seen.” I smiled icily at the group.

  They glared at me.

  “What can I get you to drink?” I asked sweetly, secretly glad I was getting to them.

  They gave me their orders, and I left to go get their drinks. When I came back, I told them,

  “Go ahead and decide on what you want to eat, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” I smiled overly-sweet again before going back to the table that held the little family.

  “How is everything?” I asked, and this time, my smile was real.

  “Great, as always.” The woman smiled at me. “I do have a question, though.”

  “Go ahead.” I nodded once.

  “Does your mate mark feel strange sometimes? I heard a shifter say that once, and I’ve never heard a definitive statement about it.” She wondered.

  “Yeah, actually. Our marks feel different for a lot of reasons. When we haven’t shifted in a while, they feel sort of tight and warm. When we’re close to our mates, they’re supposed to tingle. If someone touches the mark, it feels weird and we kind of have to shiver.” I explained, smiling.

  “Thank you.” The woman smiled and nodded. “I have a few more questions if you have time…” She trailed off, looking a little sheepish.

  “I don’t have time.” I apologized. “But I actually have a YouTube channel explaining a lot about shifters, if you want to know some more about us. My friends and I made it a few years ago, it’s called ‘Seriously Shifty’.” I offered.

  “Really?” the woman raised an eyebrow. “I’ll look it up. Thank you.” She said.

  “No problem.” I smiled again before taking a deep breath and going back to the Rockies table.

  “Alright, what do you want to eat?” I asked, knowing the answers would get uncomfortable.

  “I’d like a big glass of you.” The first one smiled coolly.

  “I’ll take all that,” the second one gestured to my body, “on a plate.”

  “I could go for a sandwich. A werewolf sandwich.” The third one raised his eyebrows at me, and I scowled.

  “Please, continue to insult me.” I said dryly.

  The term “werewolf” was a crude one, and had been banned from schools and public places worldwide when shifters came out of the closet four years earlier.

  “I’d settle for your rack.” The fourth grinned, proud of his own insult.

  “I don’t think I have to tell you what I want.” The fifth stared pointedly at a part of me that I’d rather not name.

  “Alright then, the ten pound burger for each of you, along with five slices of pie. I hope you brought a big wad of cash.” I gave them a plastered-on smile before walking away, letting my hips swivel to tease them.

  If they were gonna b
e jerks, I figured I might as well make them as mad as I could. What would be the fun in just taking what they threw at me?

  I nibbled on my sandwich for a minute after putting in their orders, then walked back over to the table with the little family at it.

  “Thanks for coming in.” I smiled, handing them their bill.

  “Thank you.” The little girl and her mom smiled at me, while the dad hurried to finish the rest of his daughter’s meal.

  I picked up the bill a few minutes later, then ran the card and brought them back their receipt.

  “Have a nice day.” I smiled, waving at them as they walked off.

  Then, it was just me and the Rockies.

  Luckily, ten minutes passed before their food was done, giving me time to eat my own lunch.

  When I loaded up my tray to bring the burgers over to them, I knew something bad was going to happen. The Rockies were even more of a nightmare when they were alone.

  “Here you go.” I didn’t bother with a smile as I put the plates down in front of them. The burgers were massive, but so were the guys.

  “Thanks, sexy.” One of them raised his eyebrows at me.

  “Hey, the place is empty, go ahead and sit with us.” One of them taunted.

  “No thanks.” I gave them a cool smile, but before I could go the guy on the end yanked me onto his lap.

  His arm locked around my waist, holding me down. I stuck my elbow out to hit him, but only managed to bruise the guy next to him.

  I grabbed his fork off the table, to the dismay of all the cackling Rockies.

  “Let go of me or I’ll jam this knife right into your—“

  “What’s going on?” someone else walked through the door, and the gold cotie on his neck immediately identified him as a wolf shifter.

  He strolled over to the table, and the Rockies all scowled. The one holding me tightened his arm around my waist.

  “Seriously. Let go of me if you ever want to have children.” I threatened, waving my fork at his face. I knew that if the new guy was a Rocky too, I was hosed. I needed to get out of there, and no amount of manly-dominance was going to hold me down.

  That was another thing separating males from females—dominance. It’s the power ever male shifter has, and females? We had nothing but our wit and charm.

  As you can imagine, wit and charm often weren’t enough.

  “Let go of her.” The new guy folded his arms. Though shifters were trained not to ogle someone else’s mate, my eyes immediately went to the lines on his arms. The new guy had a really nice body.

  “You don’t run our pack.” The Rocky holding me growled.

  “Let go of her now.” The man amended his statement, and I could feel the wave of dominance that rushed over the table.

  The Rocky immediately released me, and I hurried to step back next to the new guy. I didn’t know him, but obviously he could keep the other shifters in line.

  My neck started to tingle as I stood next to him, and I absentmindedly pressed my fingers against my cotie. I knew what that meant, but I pointedly avoided thinking about it.

  “Get out of here, Alpha.” One of the Rockies snarled

  I folded my arms when I heard the title, then stepped away from the new guy. His nose twitched, and my eyes zoomed in on the cotie on his neck.

  The stretched-out heart shape on it stood out to me for one reason:

  It looked exactly like mine.

  My heart started beating faster, and I knew I was about to start sweating. That would send my scent through the air, and the Rockies would know I was worked up. That wouldn’t be good, so I tried to calm myself down.

  “This is our turf.” Another Rocky growled.

  “Alright.” The Alpha shrugged. “Go ahead and kick me out. Order me to leave.” He sounded like he didn’t care what happened one way or another. But I knew that if he didn’t care, he wouldn’t have bothered getting involved.

  Then again, if I had as much dominance as he did I would’ve been calm too. Unfortunately I had zero dominance, so my heart was only speeding up.

  The constant tingling on my neck didn’t help to calm me down, either.

  When the Rockies snarled as a team, the Alpha raised his hands in a surrender.

  “Look, I didn’t come here for a fight. I just want some food, like you do.” He said, though I could hear a warning undertone in his voice. “I’ll keep to that corner if you keep to this one,” He gestured over his shoulder, “but if I see you mistreating this waitress again, I won’t hesitate to kick you out of here.”

  “Fine.” One of the Rockies had to ground the word out between his teeth. “Stay away from us.”

  The Alpha turned to me, and I took a step back. My pits felt a little warm, and I knew he could’ve smelled me from outside the diner. Being this close only made it easy.

  He gave me a small smile. There was no question whether or not he knew I was his mate. Even though his cotie didn’t tingle like mine did, he didn’t need it to.

  While we females were instructed to sit around waiting for our mates, the males were promised that one day, before they turned 25, their nose would take them to their woman.

  Lucky, huh? Being a female shifter was the worst.

  Chapter 2

  “Can you grab me a menu?” the Alpha asked. His lips quirked upward, and I nodded. I led him over to the podium, then handed him a menu.

  “What do you want to drink?” I checked, needing an excuse to step away and regain my bearings.

  “I’ll take some water.” He said.

  “Great. Go ahead and seat yourself wherever you want.” I instructed and then hurried out of sight.

  My hands shook as I filled up the water.

  Though I’d known my mate would find me eventually, I never thought it would be so soon. Granted, some girls were only sixteen or seventeen when they met their mate, but still. I’d always expected to be at least twenty-two or twenty-three.

  My mind flashed back to what the Rockies had called him.

  Alpha.

  No way was he their Alpha; they would’ve shown him a lot more respect. That meant he must run another pack in about the same area. For them to know who he was, I figured there must be some leftover anger over something that had gone on in the past. Most packs just kind of left each other alone.

  Alpha.

  I took a deep, shaky breath in.

  Females were expected to join their mate’s pack as soon as he found her. That meant I was supposed to be his woman, the Omega to his Alpha. Omega, meaning the lowest and last member of his pack.

  Alpha?

  Tears clouded my eyes, and my mind flashed back to the events of 6 months ago, as I was running from my old pack.

  “Promise that you’ll protect yourself.” Savanna grabbed my hands, looking me straight in the eyes.

  My entire body was quivering. We were on Grizzly land, my friend Marley having offered me protection. Though wolf shifters were almost as large as bears, no wolf would challenge a grizzly unless he had a death wish. Grizzly packs were as ruthless as they were loyal.

  “Sav, calm down. She’ll be fine.” Kennedy ordered.

  My best friends and I, all ten of us, were gathered in Marley’s room. We were all a little scared, but everyone was doing their best to stay calm.

  “Cozy, stop crying.” Kennedy looked over at my friend, the chimp shifter.

  “I can’t.” She whispered, wiping at her eyes.

  “Never mind that.” Ava, the mermaid shifter, stepped forward. “Everyone put your hand in.” she instructed.

  We gathered in a circle, and I wasn’t the only one who was shaking.

  “Remember, guys. We’re the Shifty Chicks. No matter what happens, we’re going to change shifter culture. We knew we would be split up eventually, and we’ll get through it.” Ava’s voice was steel, and I could feel her mermaid magic thickening the air.

  I didn’t have time to wonder what she was using the magic for; I was too worried about everyt
hing else going on.

  “One for all, and all for one.” Jazz, the Cheetah shifter, tried to calm our nerves.

  A few of us chuckled, but I just quivered.

  “She has to get out of here.” Marley warned. “Forrest could be here any second.”

  “Alright.” Ava nodded. “Everyone remember the promise?” she looked around the circle, and we all nodded. “Leah?” she looked at me.

  “I’m going to be more than a werewolf.” I whispered. “I’m going to make a difference.”

  “More than a monkey.” Cosette nodded.

  “More than panther.” Savanna pledged.

  My friends continued around the circle, ending with the girl next to me, Bree.

  “I’ll be more than a human.” She said softly. “I will make a difference.”

  “No matter what happens, ladies, we’re here for each other. We have the willpower to change the world, so we can do it.” Ava promised.

  “She has to go, now.” Marley called out. “Come on, Lee.”

  I gave all my friends one last group hug, tears flooding down most of our faces.

  “More than a werewolf.” I whispered, as I followed Marley down the stairs and out the door. We ran through the forest, a wolf and a bear side by side, until we reached the invisible line that marked the end of her pack’s territory.

  We shifted back into our human forms, and Marley grabbed my shoulders, ignoring the fact that neither of us had any clothes on.

  Nakedness had never been a big concern for shifters. Since we had no way to carry anything in our animal forms, other than putting it in our mouths, we tended not to bother with clothes.

  “Don’t settle for a boring life in a pack, raising little wolfies for some dominant jerk, okay?” Marley demanded.

  “He’s the other half of me, Mar. He won’t be a jerk.” I protested weakly.

  “Promise.” She warned, holding out her hand.

  I nodded.

  “You know I have bigger dreams than that. I’ll make a difference, I promise, as long as you make sure the girls keep the channel going on YouTube.” I said.

  “I will.” She agreed. “We’ll miss you.” She gave me a small smile.