Marked Northern Shifters 1

lifted at “nice girl”—she seemed to enjoy his compliments so he threw them in whenever he could—but her body drooped when he ended his question. She whined, a rather sad noise.
“You know”—he’d already mentioned their little communication problem—“if you’d shift to human, we could have a real conversation. I’d really like that. It gets a little lonely here, just me and you as a wolf. Even if you’re a very pretty wolf.”
Her tail went right up again. She didn’t tire of being praised for her beauty, though Alec tried to keep it real. He was striving to reach her. Though not the most promising scenario, the pup and her relative freedom was the only potential escape option he could think of. They were in the middle of nowhere with two assholes. Alec toyed with the idea of yelling at the top of his lungs, but he was weak and couldn’t face the possibility that Gabriel would come down to pat him into silence.
Claire moved towards Alec with what he identified as hope. He sighed. “Hey, girl.” He rubbed her head and neck while she leaned into the contact. She seemed more comfortable with him than Gabriel and Luke. Despite his horror of werewolves, Alec had a hard time loathing her along with her fellow creatures.
Perhaps when she was adult she, too, would be evil, and wouldn’t that be a shame. Because she was a sweet thing now.
“I wish you’d leave these guys, Claire.” She stilled, looking at him with her big brown, gold-flecked eyes. “They are very bad men and very bad wolves.”
She whimpered, pressed her nose against his palm in some kind of acknowledgment and lay down beside him.
“No one should be anyone else’s pet, Claire.” Alec spoke in a low voice to keep the tremor out. It was hard for him to even speak of it.
Whining, she licked his hand a little frantically and he went quiet. He supposed she didn’t have a hell of a lot of choice. Most children were at the mercy of their elders.
That night, to Alec’s great dread, Gabriel walked over from the house. He looked down at Alec who didn’t rise. He simply stared forward, waiting for the visit to pass. They could break him outside as long as they didn’t break him inside.
A nervous Claire danced beside Gabriel, pleading with throat noises Alec didn’t understand, but he wished Gabriel would give her what she wanted.
Instead, he said to Alec, “You make our Claire very happy.”
Alec figured she must have been suicidally depressed before he arrived on the scene, because this was not a happy wolf-child. She flinched too often and her expression was one of constant worry.
Gabriel knelt down and patted her. “That’s important to us, because she’s our special gal, aren’t you, Claire?”
She whined and Gabriel frowned. “Can you not bark once in a while?”
She woofed obediently and Alec felt like he was reading tea leaves, attempting to interpret this exchange. Perhaps, Gabriel, too, recognized that Claire was not comfortable with him.
Disgruntled, Gabriel rose and moved towards Alec. Claire ran in circles around the man, barking in a frenzy now. He stopped, displeased by her display. Alec realized Claire was trying to keep Gabriel away from him. Alec shivered with the knowledge that she knew just how much he loathed Gabriel’s touch, and that she wanted to protect him.
“Okay, enough,” declared Gabriel, now impatient.
She cringed beside him, ears going way back, and Gabriel appeared mollified. “I am going to talk to Alec now. He deserves my attention too, don’t you think?”
She pitched a fit, whining and throwing herself against Gabriel’s leg.
“Shut the fuck up,” shouted Gabriel, kicking her aside. “In fact, leave. I want you out of my sight.”
She trembled in place.
“Out!” Gabriel pointed a finger and she started to crawl away. Shaking his head, he turned to Alec with a crooked grin, of all things. “I need a bit more patience. Kids, eh?”
How he thought Alec could possibly sympathize, he didn’t know.
His expression shifted to one of contempt. “Or don’t you think she’s a kid? Maybe you think she’s an it , a filthy thing? Her family did.”
Usually Alec didn’t speak. It never helped. But this time he had to say, because she was still within hearing range, “Claire is a lovely pup.”
“She’s also a kid.”
Alec jerked a nod, for Claire’s sake, because though she was slinking away, she was still not-very-furtively watching them. Look, kid , he wanted to say. You’ve gotta