Valen assumed they’d crossed the country, but in truth he had no idea just how large the continent was. They’d headed north and across it, though. The temperatures were cooler here, and he expected in winter the snow would be deep. He’d have to make sure his humans were protected.
He had pack lands to rebuild. People to lead. Valen felt a good amount of peace himself. They still had no clue as to how to heal the sick humans, but something would work out. Shifters were volunteering to try to turn them, with a lot of fucking and biting going on. So far, there was only Aaron who’d been changed. Valen told everyone not to give up. After all, it’d been months before Aaron had undergone his shift.
Patience wasn’t anyone’s virtue in the pack, it seemed.
Valen was surprised some days that everyone could walk. The sounds he heard at night bespoke of frequent, heavy sex.
“Where are we going to put dens?” Aaron asked.
Valen shook his head. “Not dens in the traditional sense. More like homes, like in the villages. It’ll be cold here and heat will be paramount for those unable to shift. Need to protect them all. We’ll start on the plans tomorrow. Today, let’s celebrate our new lands, and explore them. Together.”
“That sounds like the best idea I’ve ever heard,” Aaron said. “I’ll race you!”
“Cheater,” Valen called out as Aaron took off. “You’ll pay for that!”
“Counting on it,” Aaron called back to him.
Valen ran after him. He was going to catch his mate and play with him for a while. They hadn’t had sex in the past two days and that had been all kinds of hells. Valen needed Aaron.
The streams that cut through the new pack lands were decent in breadth of depth. They weren’t like the river had been, but they would suffice.
“The trees are still my favorite,” Aaron said after they’d done a quick outlying exploration of the property. “They’re amazing.”
“I agree. I wish we had some kind of reference book for the plant life here. Wherever ‘here’ is,” Valen added.
“So do I. The flowers are pretty damn amazing, too. Did you notice the teal colored one?” Aaron asked.
“I didn’t, but there’s such a wave of flowers out there, I missed more than I’ll ever see.” Valen chuckled. “It’s going to be fun learning about our new land.”
“Yes, it will.” Aaron sat beneath one of the yellow-barked tress. “I need to give Jordan the books from Lanaka. He deserves them.”
“He truly does if he’s to be our shaman.” Valen couldn’t wrap his mind around that yet. “A human shaman. I can’t understand what’s happening in our world.” He sat beside Aaron.
“We’re integrating,” Aaron suggested. “That’s my guess. It was time for it to happen. Maybe, unless our two species combined, they’d both become extinct. I don’t know what would take out shifters, but surely something could.”
“Masses of crazed humans. No,” Valen muttered. “No, because we outnumber humans. It’s a puzzle, just like figuring out how we’re supposed to save Jordan so he can be our shaman is a puzzle.”
Aaron arched an eyebrow at him. “That’s not complicated.”
“How is it not complicated?” Valen asked.
“Because we just need to find someone—a shifter someone—to try and turn him.” Aaron tapped his chin, eyes rolling skyward as he settled into his thinking pose. “There’ve been a few who have given him a second look. Jordan isn’t unattractive. He’s just not—he doesn’t look like everyone else, as pale and skinny as he is.”
“The matted hair needs to go.” Valen thought it looked painful.
But Aaron was already shaking his head. “Nope, they wear it that way. Matted locks. It’s a ceremonial thing for them. They do stuff to their hair to make it that way.”
“Well, if that’s what they want then I suppose it’s fine. It looks different, but there’s nothing wrong with that.” Valen ran his fingers through his own soft hair. “Has anyone shown any interest in the newcomers? In Jordan?”
Aaron snorted. “The issue is, the newcomers show no interest in sex. They miss the most blatant flirtation and that’s dinging more than one shifter’s pride. They’re kind of used to getting noticed.”
“Let me know who’s interested in whom, and I’ll speak with the shifter side of that equation. I think they’ll need to drop the flirting and go for bluntness, as in, this might keep you from dying,” Valen explained. “Jordan’s people aren’t very sexual—that they know of. I bet once they learn to let go of their inhibitions, they’ll be wilder than any of the rest of us. They have years of sexual repression to shake off.”
“Not wilder than me.” Aaron sniffed and glared at him. “Although since you seem to think so, maybe I should—”
“Get your butt over here,” Valen growled. He had Aaron pinned to the ground before he was done speaking. “Suck me. Open up that smart mouth of yours and suck me.”
Aaron licked his lips, watching Valen coyly as he did so. “You mean, put my mouth to good use instead of flapping my jaws?”
Valen wasn’t going to be dumb enough to agree with that. Instead he cupped Aaron’s chin and tugged on it.
Aaron opened his mouth.
“Perfect,” Valen praised before moving up to push his cock into that wet, silky heat. For a little while, he lost himself, his worries, and sank into the pleasure of being with Aaron. His release came too quickly, shaking him to his core with the intensity of it. Aaron cried out a moment later, the scent of his seed rich in the air around them.
The sexual interlude eased some of Valen’s tension, but he’d hardly caught his breath before his thoughts returned to his pack. Even so, he pulled Aaron to lie beside him, and tucked Aaron’s head against his chest.
“You’re already worrying again,” Aaron accused. “We’re going to be okay.”
Valen hoped so. He needed to keep a more positive outlook than that. “I know, but it will take a lot of work. We’re going to have to start building soon. Do we even have tools for such an endeavor?”
“We have some tools, but they weren’t priorities when we were fleeing,” Aaron said. “We’ll have to make more and do what we can with what we have. There’s surely downed trees we can use. Instead of single homes we can start with a large shelter to house everyone. Even if they just fit in it to sleep. Once we have that covered, we could set about adding to the pack buildings.”
“Will you and Rivvie handle planning that out?”
Aaron beamed at him. “Of course. I’m happy to be able to help.”
Valen wished he could continue to lie there with his mate and relax, but his mind wouldn’t slow down. He worried about everything—his mother, his pack, the illness that would very likely mean he’d have to kill people he was responsible for.
“I may have to kill them,” Valen rasped, and while it might have seemed to come out of nowhere, the admission followed his inner turmoil. “All of the humans. What if—?” He gulped, fear running rampant for a moment before he got himself under control. “Aaron, what if we can’t stop it? What if no one else can be turned, and the disease takes them? I can’t let them suffer. I can’t put the rest of the pack at risk.”
Aaron sat up and looked at him.
For once, Valen wanted to hide from his mate. He forced himself to look Aaron in the eyes.
“You mean,” Aaron began before pausing and clearing his throat. “You mean, what if my brother, my parents, turn into murdering lunatics? Yes, you’re worried about the others, but it’s my family that concerns you the most, because I love them.”
Valen nodded, just a bare hint of movement. His chest was tight with worry. “Yes. What if I have to kill them, Aaron? What then? How will I be able to look at you and expect— No, but I wouldn’t expect you to love me anymore then.”
“Valen!” Aaron sounded angry, furious in fact.
It was so shocking that Valen knew he was staring slack-jawed at his mate.
Aaron poked him in the chest. “I will
always
love you. Always! Don’t think anything will change that. If…if it comes to that, if they must be put down, then I will thank you for doing it quickly and as painlessly as possible. I will mourn them.” Even now, tears slid down Aaron’s cheeks. “I will mourn my parents, because you know, you
know
they will not be with anyone else. They’re almost certainly going to become ill and—” Aaron sniffled.
Valen couldn’t stand it. He reached for Aaron, then he held Aaron while he wept.
“I will find a way,” Valen promised. “This madness will cease. It will not destroy our pack. We will stop it.”
“Valen!” Rivvie shouted from some distance away. “Valen! Come quick!”
Valen and Aaron shot to their feet. Valen took one of Aaron’s hands in his. “He didn’t sound scared,” Valen noted before they took off running.
“Excited,” Aaron got out.
Valen had to agree. Rivvie
had
sounded excited. Did that mean Matt was going through the change? Had Rivvie and Matt been together enough times already for that to happen?
But as Valen and Aaron broke through the trees to where the pack was gathered, it was another surprise that awaited them.
“Mom!” Valen ran to her.
Aaron tugged his hand free but kept pace with him.
She looked tired but beautiful, her silver hair shining in the sunlight. “Valen, I’m home.”
She was. Valen swooped her into his arms and spun her around. “Thank you. Thank you for returning to us,” he said as he set her back on her feet.
Beal pulled on his earlobe. “Silly son, where else would I be? And look. I brought you more members. Shifters from a pack that was decimated by the same storm—or one very much like it.”
Valen noticed the thirty or so men, women and children standing behind Beal. He nodded to them. “Welcome. I am Valen, alpha of this pack.”
Almost as one, the newest members knelt and bared their necks to him.
Valen kissed his mom’s cheek.
“I couldn’t find Lanaka anywhere,” she said quietly.
Aaron moved closer. “We know where she is.”
Beal’s eyes held a sudden sadness. “She is with the spirits, isn’t she?”
Aaron nodded. “Yes. She sent us a new shaman. A human one.”
Valen watched Beal for any signs of trouble, and when she didn’t seem inclined to be angry over a human being a shaman, he knew she had truly moved past her hatred of the entire species.
Valen went to each new shifter wanting to join the pack. He scented them one by one, and accepted each one’s vow of fealty to him.
The world truly was changing. His pack was changing with it. Valen didn’t know what tomorrow held, but he’d face it with his mate. Together, they would make their own small part of the world a safe haven for shifter and human alike. And they’d find a way to defeat the illness threatening the human species.
Nothing would stop them from succeeding.
Epilogue
“It looks damn fine,” Matt said, standing beside Rivvie. “We built it in under a month, too. I am fucking impressed! Aren’t you?”
With Matt smiling at him like Rivvie was something special, what else could Rivvie do but agree? “Yeah, I am. It holds all of us, almost two hundred. Wow. That’s something. We might be the biggest pack to ever exist.”
Matt let out a whoop and he punched a fist in the air. “And we have a home. Not a rudimentary one like Valen thought we’d have, either. I mean, ten large rooms for mass sleeping, a private room for Valen and Aaron, the attached outer rooms for those adults wishing to have sex. A kitchen to prepare food in, and the bathrooms attached to the back. We are amazing, Riv!” Matt bounced up onto the tip of his toes and kissed Rivvie, a messy, wet kiss that was only halfway on Rivvie’s lips. “Now to finish the other house and the separate shaman dwelling.”
“I think that one may be done already.” Rivvie pointed to a place, fifty yards away. The wooden structure’s chimney let out a great puff of smoke at that moment.
“I’d say you’re right,” Matt asserted. “Thank goodness the shifters that showed up had a variety of tools. Saved us a lot of time and trouble.”
“They sure did,” Rivvie agreed. “I think we may have finished with little time to spare. The temperatures are getting cooler every day. Valen thinks we will see a lot of snow. I’m looking forward to it.” He would love to play in it, especially as a wolf.
“Me too.” Matt grinned at him. “So, what do you say we give one of those outer rooms a try?”
Since everyone else was still off doing their assigned tasks, Rivvie thought Matt had a solidly brilliant idea. “First one there bottoms.”
Matt snickered and slapped Rivvie’s ass. “You know I can’t run as fast as you can. That’s hardly fair.”
Rivvie did know that. “Hm. Well. I guess since you were insistent on topping me last night—twice—maybe I should just claim the right to fuck you until you scream for me.” Besides, Matt was still human. In fact, no other humans had turned into shifters. Morale was beginning to sink in the pack. Several times a day, and many times at night, Rivvie had to fight back a choking fear that he’d lose Matt.
“Oh, good. I’d hate to think I lubed myself up for nothing.” Matt winked at him then turned and ran into the large home.
Rivvie blinked. “Wait. What? You what? When?” And why was he standing there asking questions? He wasn’t as stupid as he acted at times.
Rivvie found Matt naked from the waist down, bent over one of the padded benches they’d installed for just such activities. Rivvie’s canines dropped and he flicked his tongue against one of them. The sting felt damned good.
“Come on, man, what’re you waiting for?” Matt wiggled his butt, then reached back and parted his cheeks, exposing his glistening hole to Rivvie. “You want me, don’t you?”
Rivvie swatted Matt’s thigh. “You know it.” He picked up the material covering his own rigid cock. “And it’s a damned good thing you’re already lubed.” He lined his shaft up and hooked his hands under Matt’s shoulders. “None, a little or more?”
Matt’s breath gusted out of him at the question. It was their way, checking to see how much pain, if any, the other wanted.
“More,” Matt rasped.
Rivvie thrust hard, pushing in to the hilt and driving a shout from both Matt and himself.
The tight, gripping muscles of Matt’s ass rippled and clenched as Matt panted.