Free Shifting Shadows (Sparks Collide Trilogy) by Amanda Kelly Page B

batting her eyelashes and placed
her hand on my arm. I moved it and kept going, ignoring the unladylike huff and
sound of stilettos stomping away.
    If I waited any longer to get home they
would send someone after me, probably Trent but it’s possible it could be Will
or someone equally as annoying. Showering, then, was not an option. I changed
forms and sped away from the dilapidated building. It was an abandoned house so
disgusting, drug addicts wouldn’t even live in it but it worked just fine for
underground fights.
    Eventually I got to the woods behind my
father’s house and noticed the clouds looming dark in the sky as I shifted
back. I glanced down at my cell phone, 6:30a.m. Just as well, I thought. I had missed
the 5:00am run and subsequent meeting. At least I
hadn’t missed breakfast.
    I walked in to the smell of bacon and
an absolutely full but silent dining room. My father took one look at me from
the head of the table and snarled. I kept walking, ignoring all of the eyes
around me that ranged from pitying, my friends, to outrage, my father, to glee,
the elderly who couldn’t wait to see the ‘young rebellious fool’ get the beat
down.
    “Hey, pops. How’s it going?” I
sauntered over to the buffet table and starting blindly piling on food, not
caring what it was. A fist slammed onto the oversized oak table and it shook
the whole room. I didn’t turn around.
    “Get in my office, now” my father’s
voice so horrifying I turned just to make sure he wasn’t mid-change. As
suspected his eyes were a burning yellow but his human features remained,
though just barely. Careful not to make any sudden movements, I walked slowly
into the hallway and into his office.
    As I congratulated myself on managing
to bring the food with me, my father came up behind me, threw the plate against
the wall, and locked us both inside. “I was going to eat that, Dad.” I spit the
last word out with enough acid to dissolve a house.
    “Sit down” he whispered. The rage had
turned quiet and undeniably lethal. I sat and waited. And waited some more. Ten
minutes must have passed before my father stopped pacing and sat in his own
chair.
    “You’ve been fighting again.”
    It wasn’t a question but I answered it
anyway. “Yeah...”
    He cut me off “And not a human, one of
our kind, I can smell his blood on you. What did he do, breathe in your
direction?”
    I winced, the truth wasn’t any better.
    My silence turned my father’s face from
furious to stone cold, empty. He spoke. “You missed the meeting, your meeting and you were out alone, fighting. You come home smelling of alcohol,
sweat, and someone else’s blood. Did I get everything?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Cut the sir, shit, James. We’re done
here.”
    He said it and I knew he meant it. He
was truly done with me, forever. My chest closed up and my body felt like it
was on fire. I’d finally done it, I thought detachedly. I’d pushed him too far.
    Suddenly I was on my feet. “No, we
can’t be done, let me explain.” He didn’t even look up. I couldn’t get enough
air. “I’m the Alpha. I’m going to be the leader. You need me.”
    Gray eyes pierced me. “You are an Alpha
but you are not a leader.”
    “What do you mean, that’s the same
thing. The pack needs me with or without your blessing.”
    He stood “Alpha is what you were born
as but you only embrace it when it gets you what you want. A leader is the
thing you run away from at every opportunity. A leader is someone who lives,
breathes and dies for the good of all. No one’s going to come to you to tell
you how good their day is going, it’s all complaints, every bit of it and a
leader deals with it when no one else can. They alone have to make the tough
calls. You think because you are an Alpha that you deserve respect but if you
listen to nothing else, hear this, respect is earned. It is your actions every
day that can earn respect and nothing else, not your status and not who your
father is.