Feral Northern Shifters 2

resentment. “And I know how to take care of myself.”
“Right.” The older man didn’t believe Bram. Why not? Ethan muzzily tried to figure out what they were arguing about. He was losing track of the conversation. Another needle poked his flank and he barely felt the puncture.
Time passed, but Ethan grimly and determinedly remained cat.
Words came back into focus.
“Jesus, we’ve been here close to an hour. Shift already.” The gloved hand of the alpha came down on Ethan’s face, and despite his desire not to show weakness, he flinched. A thumb raised his eyelid and the blue eyes of his worst nightmares looked into his. “Okay, Bram, he needs encouragement and clearly he’s harmless now, close to senseless. Get over here and touch him, coax him.” The alpha spoke directly to Ethan for the first time. “Shift, buddy. It’ll go easier on you if you do.”
This asshole was no buddy of his, but all Ethan could let out was a soft, pathetic hiss. He began to tremble. His human so long suppressed was struggling to change, to shift, to be with these humans. To talk .
Couldn’t go there, could not go there. Not with fucking wolves .
They knew of his struggle to stay cougar, but showed no mercy. A bare hand ran through his fur. Not a pat, but an awful caress that went down the length of his spine. They were playing with him, tempting him, and the human in him didn’t know or didn’t care. The human thought they were asking for his company, offering friendship. The human was an idiot who yearned for companionship.
His cat, on the other hand, was a solitary animal who needed no one and nothing, but food and sleep. His cat was much stronger. Usually. At this moment, his human craved contact and Ethan could not fight it down. Between the drugs and that shifter hand—fingers drifting through his fur, over his shoulders and back—he became terribly, fatally weak. Tremors rippled through him.
“Let it go, Ethan.” A bare murmur, as if in comfort. Bram’s voice was a lure and a betrayal. A false source of comfort.
Ethan refused to let it go. He fought hard to stay what he was, focusing on his cat, fighting down his human while those beguiling fingers softly stroked his exposed neck. Despite his best efforts, the blackness took him.

Chapter Two
    Ethan lay on his back.
He never lay on his back. It was too narrow, the cougar’s back, and much more comfortable to lie on his side. He attempted to roll over and his body resisted. Odd. His shoulders were too broad, his legs wrongly shaped, his tail…gone.
Panic . He pulled in air and scrabbled, trying to sit up. He couldn’t see, couldn’t move limbs properly. A noise came from his throat, and it sounded all wrong—human. God no .
Something pushed at him to rise. A hand. Hands. Someone behind him. Human-shaped. Arms surrounded him, clamped down on his wrists, wrapping his own arms around him like a human straightjacket. A chest pressed against his back.
Made no fucking sense. Prepare for attack. Cat… Think! Air pulled in again. Breathe, Ethan.
“Easy.” A murmur.
Ethan bolted. No. Tried to bolt, but couldn’t move, could only shake. He wasn’t paralyzed, but confined. The clasp became a vise, and legs pressed down on his own while arms tightened around his. Someone enveloped him. How? Why?
He heard a keening noise and came to recognize that his own throat was making it.
“You’re all right, but you need to calm down.”
The voice spurred Ethan to fight harder, and he strained against the muscles and bones that held him. He was strong, even in human form, but not more powerful than this cage of arms, legs, back. He needed to shift. Cat. Cat . He needed to think to shift.
“Don’t fight. No one is going to hurt you.” The timbre of the voice gave his captor away, as did the strength that held him.
Wolf . Ethan was entrapped by a wolf. The thought tore at him and his heart banged harder, threatening. Everything threatened. His world started to turn gray and he battled to hold on. God knew what they’d do to him once he passed out.
“Easy.” It was an effort for the stranger to hold him. The wolf actually nuzzled the side of Ethan’s neck, a classic wolf-calming technique, but it worked on wolves , not him. Ethan would have tried to crack his captor’s head, but he was shaking too hard and he was held too tight. Ethan had lost control. Weak, lost.
“Ethan.” A soothing voice, deceptive, and yet some of Ethan’s energy leached away. Human