Free Shift Into Me (Werewolf Shifter Romance) (The Alpha's Kiss) by Lynn Red

split second.
    That instant was enough time for Damon to throw an elbow that crunched the old wolf’s cheek.
    Fire coursed through Damon’s veins.
    All at once, he saw the moon through the trees and remembered Lily lying there, perfect and safe in those blankets. “You’re already everything you need to be,” she had told him the night before they got to town, the night before all this confusion started. “You just have to believe it.”
    “I... do,” he said under his breath.
    “He comes,” the ghost voice said. “Dodge low.”
    Without thinking, Damon ducked a wild blow from Hunter that probably would have spun his head around on his neck, and gave his friend a sharp uppercut in return. Damon’s friend grunted and came at him again, but with a little stagger in his step.
    Damon flexed his massive shoulders, drawing them almost up to his ears, and was about to deliver the blow that would send his friend to the ground in a heap with the other two, he saw Hunter stumble, and lunged forward to catch him instead of to strike.
    “I can’t believe this,” Hunter said, out of breath and clearly hurt. “You... three of us. How?”
    Damon grabbed his friend under the arms and laid him down slowly on the ground.
    The eyes ringing the makeshift arena had all vanished, and the older of the two werewolves was just climbing to his feet. “I...”
    Damon turned his attention to the voice. “What was the meaning of this? You really felt like you needed to test me in a fight?”
    “It’s... our way,” the old man said. His tone had gone much softer than it was when he screamed and dove for Damon’s throat. “None of us knew you were... able.” He swallowed with a painful click. “We heard about you, we knew you’d been chosen, but none of us knew why. Last we knew, you were just a child, secreted away from the pack.”
    Thinking for a moment, Damon chose his next words carefully and spoke in a near-whisper. “Then you’re satisfied? The elder chose me. I didn’t ask for this. And I’ve already been tested once, in case somehow you were aware of all the other details of my life except that one.”
    “You have tainted blood,” the old man said. “Pokorann must have plans for you that we can’t understand.”
    “Tainted?” Damon snarled, leapt to his feet and grabbed the old man by the neck, jerking him off the ground. “Tainted blood? You’re talking about my brother?”
    “Not just your brother,” he said and then fell silent. “It’s... my throat, you’re... choking...”
    Hunter interrupted the old man with a ragged breath and a groan. “Can you lift me, Damon? I’m... my ribs ache... I think they’re broken.” He let out a laugh that obviously hurt. “You’ve got a hell of a left hook, no matter what Nat says about your heredity.”
    Damon shot the old man one more vile-filled glance and then replaced him on the ground. “Nat?” Damon asked. “That is your name, old one?”
    The old man nodded. “Nathaniel. But... yes, Alpha, that is my name.”
    Hearing that word, that title, sent a shock crawling through Damon. It was the first time anyone had referred to him with that kind of deference, that sort of respect.
    His thoughts turned to Lily, then to Poko in his cave, then finally back to the discomfort of reality, to the leaves under his bare, clawed feet, and to his friend asking him for help.
    Damon nodded. “Good. Then I’ve proven myself to you, Nathaniel? My family’s past no longer bothers you? If it’s the Carak you’re worried about...” Damon paused, noticing the man shifted his weight from one clawed foot to another. “Know that I exiled my brother. I am aware of my past. I won’t pretend to know all the details, or even most of them. But know that you, the Skarachee, are my true family.”
    While waiting for Nat to answer, Damon turned and helped his friend to his feet. Hunter moaned and then grabbed his ribs, hunching over to ease the pain.
    “I can see that,” Nat