Page 88 of Captivated By Alphas 1, Fated (The Blood Moon Chronicle #4)

The three cousins had been banished to the waiting area, but I could hear them pacing like caged animals. My new ears picked up fragments of their conversation, and none of it was helping my mental state.

“…never seen a partial shift that stable…”

“…bloodline has to be incredibly pure…”

“…fucking beautiful…”

“Am I going to stay like this?” I asked, touching my ears again.

They were stupidly soft and moved when I was thinking, which was both fascinating and mortifying.

“The ears and tail? Because I have to tell you, Doc, my wardrobe is not equipped for this situation. Do they make business casual for people with tails?”

Dr. Reyes actually smiled at that. “Learning to control your shifts takes time and practice. For now, try not to stress about it. Your body needs to recover from the trauma.”

“Easy for him to say,” I muttered. “You don’t have to explain to your professors why you suddenly look like you escaped from a furry convention.”

By the time he finished and declared me stable, I was hanging on to my sanity by about three threads and a piece of dental floss.

Every answer just raised ten new questions, and my leopard ears were picking up way more information than I wanted—security reports, worried whispers, fragments about bloodlines and protection that made my stomach churn.

“I need to speak with your family about your condition,” Dr. Reyes said, packing up his equipment. “Rest here for a moment.”

He stepped out, and immediately my stupid new ears zeroed in on his hushed conversation with George, Madi, and Mom in the hallway. I tried to tune it out, but apparently that wasn’t a skill that came with the leopard package.

“…celestial snow leopard, no question…”

“…power levels are extraordinary for a first manifestation…”

“…he’ll need constant supervision until he learns control…”

“…others will sense what he is now…”

“Great,” I muttered. “Super hearing and no off switch. This just keeps getting better.”

The cousins materialized the second Dr. Reyes opened the door, now dressed in dark clothes that somehow made them look even more dangerous. Their eyes immediately zeroed in on my face and the leopard ears that were apparently my new reality.

“How are you feeling?” Jace asked, approaching me like I was a spooked animal that might bolt.

“Confused. Terrified. Hungry,” I admitted, my tail doing that thing where it curled around my leg when I was stressed. “And I still don’t know how to make these go away.” I gestured at my ears. “They keep moving on their own. It’s like having emotional weather vanes attached to my head.”

“They’ll retract when you feel safe enough,” Adrian said gently, though his eyes were clearly cataloging every detail of my transformation. “Partial shifts often hold when we’re stressed or afraid.”

“Wonderful,” I said weakly. “So I get to walk around looking like the poster child for My Life Went Completely Insane until I stop having existential crises about my entire identity. Should be any day now.”

Despite everything, Cole’s lips twitched. “You look beautiful, Eli. The ears suit you.”

Heat flooded my cheeks, and my traitorous tail actually perked up at the compliment before I could stop it. “Apparently, they have a mind of their own too. Great. Just what I needed—body parts that betray my emotions. What’s next, a mood ring tail?”

When I tried to slide off the examination table, my legs buckled like wet noodles. The adrenaline crash, combined with whatever the hell my body had just been through, left me about as stable as a house of cards in a windstorm.

Jace scooped me up before I could face-plant into the medical equipment. “Easy,” he murmured, adjusting his grip to be careful of my tail. “Your body’s been through a lot today.”

“I can walk,” I protested weakly, though I made no effort to get down.

“Sure you can,” he said, already heading for the door. “Right after you stop looking like you’re about to pass out.”

He carried me to the main living room, where the rest of the family had apparently gathered for what looked like an impromptu crisis meeting. Sheena, Paul, and David were clustered on the sectional, while Princess and Titan had claimed strategic positions near the fireplace.

The moment we entered, Sheena’s phone appeared in her hands like magic. “Oh my God, Eli, you’re absolutely gorgeous!” she squealed, already snapping pictures. “The ears are so perfect, and the way the tail curves—”

“Delete those right now,” I threatened, my ears flattening against my head. “Sheena, I swear on your Louboutin collection, if even one of those photos makes it to social media—”

“I’m not posting them!” she protested, though she kept taking pictures. “These are for posterity! For the family album! You look like a fantasy prince!”

“I look like I escaped from a furry convention,” I corrected. “Delete them or I’m telling Duncan you’re the one who’s been stealing his secret chocolate stash.”

Her finger froze over the camera button. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

With obvious reluctance, she deleted the photos, though I caught her taking one more as Jace settled me on the couch.

“I actually have tons of clothes that would work for you,” she said, bouncing slightly with excitement. “I’ve been designing a line for partial shifts—you know, for young shifters going through supernatural puberty. It happens to everyone eventually.”

“Everyone?” I blinked at her.

“Well, everyone who’s a shifter,” Paul said, grinning. “Most of us go through an awkward phase where we can’t control our shifts properly. Some get stuck partially shifted for weeks.”

“Paul was the worst,” David added with evil delight. “Remember when you were fifteen and got stuck with wolf ears for a month? You tried to hide them under beanies, but they kept poking through.”

Paul growled. “At least I didn’t get stuck with a tail during basketball season like David did that one time in summer.”

“Wait,” I said slowly, processing this information. “You all… went through this? But you never said… I mean, I’ve lived here for years, and nobody ever mentioned…”

The three of them exchanged uncomfortable looks.

“It’s not exactly something we like to advertise,” Sheena said, her cheeks flushing slightly. “Supernatural puberty is mortifying. We all try to pretend it never happened.”

“Plus, you moved here when we were already past the worst of it,” David added. “So we were all done with the whole ‘accidentally shifting body parts during dinner’ phase.”

“Though honestly,” Sheena continued, “we just… we never thought about it. You were human, we were shifters who’d learned control. It never occurred to any of us that you might be one of us too.”

“Because I was human,” I said, my voice small. “I mean, I thought I was human. Everyone thought I was human.”

“We all did,” David agreed gently. “You, us… this is as much a shock to us as it is to you.”

Duncan appeared with a tray that looked like it could feed half of Seattle, his eyes immediately focusing on my ears with obvious delight.

“Well, would ye look at that,” he said, his Scottish accent thickening.

“Adorable wee thing, aren’t ye? Though this is going to make keeping ye safe from predators a bloody nightmare. ”

He shot a meaningful look at the three cousins, who straightened like they’d been called to attention.

“Aye,” Duncan continued, setting down plates of food that made my stomach growl audibly. “Looking like that, every alpha with eyes is going to want a taste. Better keep this one locked up tight.”

“Or we could just ban Michael Huntington from the estate permanently,” Sheena suggested with false sweetness. “Because you know the second he sees Eli like this, he’ll try to steal him away to his creepy art collection.”

The temperature in the room dropped about twenty degrees as all three cousins went perfectly still. The growls that rumbled from their chests made Princess yip and hide behind Titan’s massive form.

“Michael Huntington,” Adrian said with deadly calm, “won’t be a problem.”

“No,” Jace agreed, his voice carrying a promise of violence that made my new ears flatten instinctively. “He won’t.”

“Okay, scary panther mode off,” I said quickly, grabbing a piece of bread before they could start planning someone’s murder. “Food now, territorial posturing later.”

The smells were incredible, but eating proved to be a challenge. I was starving—like, could-eat-a-whole-cow starving—but every bite made my stomach lurch. My body couldn’t seem to decide if it wanted to consume everything in sight or reject food entirely.

“This is weird,” I mumbled around a mouthful of Duncan’s beef stew. “I’m hungry enough to eat a horse, but my stomach keeps doing backflips.”

“Shock,” Adrian explained gently. “Your body’s processing a lot of changes. The hunger is from the shift—it burns massive amounts of energy. The nausea is from the trauma.”

“Great,” I said, forcing down another spoonful. “So I get to feel like I’m dying while eating the best food in the world. This day just keeps getting better.”

Mom appeared in the doorway, her face still pale but determined. I could see her struggling with something—words she’d been holding back for years, maybe decades.

“Mom?” I prompted softly. “What is it?”

She sat down beside me, her hand stroking my hair while carefully avoiding my sensitive ears.

I could see her struggling with something—words she wanted to say but couldn’t quite voice.

“I’ve been waiting so long to see this,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion.

“Part of me always wondered when it would happen.”

My spoon clattered against the bowl. “You knew? You knew this could happen?”

“I suspected,” she admitted, tears starting to flow. “There were signs over the years. Little things. The way you never got sick, how you could always find your way in the dark, that time you fell off the roof and barely had a scratch…”