***“Reynard,” Troy whispered as he stared at Ryan. Everyone stared back at him. Paul was the first to break the silence.“It’s rude to stare, Troy.” Paul admonished his friend in a loud whisper. Then he turned apologetic eyes to the white-haired man. “You must pardon him, man.” He addressed Ryan. “It’s your hair that’s shocking him.” He grinned when Ryan turned to face him. “He’s still getting used to the weird hair colours that people are sporting these days. Do you blame him? Dude’s been holed up in some magical fortress all his life. You should have seen his reaction the first time he saw someone with green hair.” He laughed. “Yours really suits you, by the way. Your hairdresser did a great job.” He gave a thumbs-up sign.“That’s his real hair, Paul,” Jeremy growled.“What?” Paul gasped. “Really?” It was his turn to stare.“You must be Ryan,” Troy said quietly.“I am.” Ryan managed to tear his amused gaze off Paul and began to move toward Troy with a hand extended. “Nice to meet y
***In the conference room the next evening, a serious meeting was taking place. The topic on board was Troy. Present were Philip, Jeremy, Joel, Stan, Paige, Ryan, and Deloris. The meeting had been called by the Alpha of Alphas.“I’m saying he’s a ticking time bomb,” Jeremy said quietly. “He can shift at any time…which is good. We just need to keep an eye on him. I had to explain to him that he wasn’t sick.”“That poor child,” Deloris murmured. “He must be so confused right now.”“Not just confused.” Philip rasped. “He’s in pain.” He stood and began to pace. The werewolves in the room knew how a first shift felt like. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.“My problem is that,” Jeremy went on, “I think mum is trying to suppress the shift because she thinks Troy is not ready.”“What?” Philip gasped.“What makes you say that?” Joel asked.“You all know Philip and I had to attend an alpha’s meeting today.” Jeremy glanced at the faces around the table. “We’ve been away from the pack house the w
***Troy went so quiet it almost seemed as if he was sleeping. Jeremy knew better. He could sense the tension inside his brother. Apart from the struggle his body was going through because of his premier-shift, Troy clearly had a lot on his mind. And as a werewolf, Jeremy could easily feel the anxiety pouring off of his brother. Since he hadn’t had his shift yet, Jeremy couldn’t link up their minds and read Troy’s thoughts. All he could therefore do was hope that his brother would trust him enough to tell him what was on his mind. He wished…“I’m sick.” Troy blurted out suddenly. Jeremy knew better. But he remained quiet. “I have been for years. It’s a monthly ailment. Does our father or mother have any such disease?” He raised his head and looked at Jeremy with eyes filled with curiosity.“No, they have no such…”“Then why do I...how about you?”“What you have is not a disease, Troy. It’s…”“Oh, it is.” Troy gave a short laugh devoid of humour. “It started when I was fifteen. It’s ne
***“Nitwits,” Paige murmured with an eye roll as Ryan shook his head in amusement.“Mum’s going to descend on you.” Ryan chuckled. “Brace yourselves.”“She should bring it.” Philip grinned. “I’ve already called her to join us.”“Lip come on, she can’t leave Troy alone at home.” Jeremy groaned. “It’s danger…”“Who said anything about leaving him home?” Philip snorted.“You dirty pervert.” Paige chuckled. “You just wanna see him, don’t you?”“I didn’t see him the whole of yesterday. Neither have I seen him the whole of today.” Philip drawled. “Do you blame me? Stan, please tell the guys to prepare the Jungle Room.”“Way ahead of you, boss.” Stan grinned as he relaxed into his seat. “Just sent them a message.”“Good.” Philip gave a thumbs-up sign.A young lady entered with some snacks for them. Everyone, but Philip helped themselves. The thought of seeing Troy again in the next few minutes was causing all sorts of warm feelings to course through him. Truth be told, he’d missed the annoy
***“You can’t tell me how to lead my life.” Troy’s voice raised. “I’ve been told what to do my whole life. I refuse to allow you people to tell me what to do with myself.” Sweat poured out of him as he trembled from sheer fury. “How dare you insist I turn into an animal?” His eyes locked on Philip’s. “Is my body yours? Do you even think?” Troy felt as if his intestines were trying to force their way out of him. The pain…it was too much. And the people in the room with him seemed to think it was okay to feel that way. Troy started a silent chant unconsciously. “I’ve had it with you people…”Troy felt an intense energy within that he’d never felt before. He didn’t have to chant for long at all. Just as Stan reached out to hold his arm, Troy felt the release. He was more shocked than anyone in the conference room when the fireball appeared in his hand. It had materialized in his hand just as he was snatching his arm from Stan. The ball flew… right at Ryan who had bent down to pick up hi
***Ryan watched Gloria go and sighed. It was obvious that Gloria had had a change of heart and Ryan was happy about that. Sometimes, parents had to be firm with their kids. For the very first time since he laid eyes on the regal, elegant woman who he’d come to love as a mother, Ryan thought Gloria looked old. It was as if she’d aged overnight. Worrying about her child had clearly taken its toll on the poor woman. Ryan rubbed his hand on his stomach, which surprisingly didn’t feel as flat as it had days earlier, and wondered whether his kid was going to give him such stress.“Don’t stress your daddies out, baby.” He whispered. “You did good today. You saved your daddy, grandma, your uncle Troy…who is a little confused at the moment, your uncle Philip,” he relaxed more into his seat, “your uncle Stan, auntie Paige, grandpa Jo, and grandma Del. That’s a lot of people. Thank you. Your daddy and uncle Philp are being dickheads right now.” His speech began to slow down. “The others are loo
***“Help me.”Philip heard someone asking for help in his sleep and slowly opened his eyes to see Troy on all fours, at his feet. He looked terrible.“Shit…” Philip groaned as he got off the couch and crouched beside Troy. “Tell me how you feel.” He asked as he pulled a whimpering Troy into his arms and looked up at the clock on the wall. It was a few minutes past four a.m. “Hey…”“Pain…” Troy moaned. “So much pain…. Help me please…”Philip got to his feet, carried Troy fireman style, and rushed out of his suite. As he went, he barked instructions through his mind-link to his aides to unlock the Jungle Room in the basement immediately. Then he sent messages to Jeremy and Stan to meet him in the basement.Philip got on the elevator and rode to the basement with a passed-out Troy hanging over his shoulder. When he got out, three of his aides were already there, holding open the door to the Jungle Room. The door was made of solid vertical iron bars, making it easy for anyone outside the
***It was important to remind his friend that it was his murderous Ojah spirit that had maltreated Ryan and not him. And Philip did exactly that;“The last thing you want is to remind Ryan of what he went through,” the alpha said fiercely.“Well, I think feeling guilt is in order.” Stan drawled. “I mean thanks to him, the poor guy doesn’t have any good memories of his first wolfy experien…”“Shut up, Stan.” Philip snapped. Then he turned his attention to Troy who had begun to groan beside him. “Hey, want some water?” He asked softly.“No.” Troy moaned. He didn’t think he could keep anything down. “Why did you take off my clothes?” He looked down at his boxer-clad body.“’Cause they’re going to come off anyway.” Philip shrugged. “Why ruin perfectly good clothes?”“Oh god…” Troy screamed suddenly and rolled onto his hands and knees. “You sure this is how it’s…aahhhhh…” He panted harshly until the pain passed. “Sure this is how it’s supposed to be?” He gasped.“Some go through worse, bu