“Silver is top,” Zar said. “It originates from Moon silver, you know? Or wisdom; silver-muzzled. Calling someone silver is to say they’re alpha, the leader. Any sizable pack will have two or three silvers with one chief, or cataja, above the rest. Your cataja is your proper alpha. She’s the one with final authority.”
“The queen? Always a she?”
“Not always, but it’s typical.”
“No Mayo packs.” Kage set down his cup and stretched his arms over his head, shoulders popping. “Anyway, who are you taking along to see this busy old worm for tea?”
“Not you, obviously.”
Kage looked at me, slowly lowering his arms.
“You just implied you didn’t like her. Why would you want to have tea with her? But forget her for now. What about the rest of the day?”
“We’ll need to spend another night,” Zar said.
I took a drink, the coffee just cooled enough for it. “That too. Maybe we could get a nap before lunch? And I wouldn’t mind sightseeing since I’ve come halfway around the world to visit Cornwall—as it turns out. It would be nice to see more of the coast. What do you think?”
“You’re asking?” Kage frowned. “Or are you just going to pinch my keys and give them to someone on the street to drive you around?”
I sighed. “I’m sorry I hurt your feelings yesterday, Kage. Really. I didn’t mean to upset you. But has it ever occurred to you to be sorry about terrorizing your passengers, making them sick, endangering their lives, and reckless driving while towing a caravan and potentially endangering others on the road as well?”
He didn’t answer. I kept looking at him and eventually he gave a little shrug.
“If I ask Isaac to take me to meet with Ellasandra this evening are you going to try to kill him again tonight?”
“I didn’t do that,” he grumbled and drank. “Why’d you think he was still up walking around this morning if we’d meant him dead? The Moon-cursed bastard.” Under his breath.
I shut my eyes and savored the rich, sharp espresso. Just half now. I could finish the rest cold. I’d had about six minutes of sleep last night, and none of them could have managed more than an hour either.
Rest, lunch, take a few minutes to be a tourist, solve a murder case.
Maybe a campfire tonight? Hot soup? That would be a treat before bed.
And do our best to get through the day without it becoming an endless bickering session.
It wasn’t like we’d be trapped together much longer. Even the ones—Isaac and Zar, maybe Jason, maybe even Kage—who I would like to know better.
We soon returned to the Jeep and started back for the nature preserve at Kage’s usual brisk pace.
As we set out south, the black wolf stuck his face up between the front seats to lick Kage’s ear. Then he took a pass at me.
I leaned away. Those teeth by my nose made me jumpy. I offered him my hand, as if he might want to sniff it like a dog.
Jason licked my palm and I stroked his cheek with the backs of my fingers. Fur around his face was short and soft, still very thick. Past his cheeks and at the base of his ears it started to grow out until it formed almost a mane around his neck and up his shoulders. Here, the guard hairs were long and coarse, yet the undercoat remained soft and wooly as a lamb.
With more light shed on the matter, it was still intimidating to have his face, the long muzzle and intense golden eyes, right in mine. At the same time … it was pretty cool to have a wolf in the car.
It also seemed to me that Jason was still Jason. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this, however, given what they’d done last night. It might be nice to think that their shift into a wolf form caused savagery to rise to the surface. At least it would have made a nice excuse.
“Get your arse over.” Zar was shoving him to stay in his own seat.
Kage braked and down shifted. Jason lost his pawhold on the console, slipped, whacked against Kage’s left arm, and tumbled into the floor.
“Get in the back, Jay,” Kage said. “We don’t need your help.”
He regained his footing and licked across Kage’s neck.
“Shove off!”
Jason climbed over the seats into the back.
Chapter 16
Someone had left bluebells on the step up to the trailer. I saw them as I opened the door to go in. Also that they’d been slightly crushed. I’d stepped on them coming down a couple hours previously. So someone last night. Zar. Though … maybe Isaac? Thinking of the necklace and the way the white wolf had seemed to catch my eye in the dark.
This reminded me that I’d seen him limping. And what about the rest? Did anyone need medical care? Would they attack Jason because I’d let him come along? Or more fights in general just because they were back together and some still in furred form?
And hadn’t they promised to look out for each other as well as me? My brain was too fogged to remember the details but it seemed like Diana had brought up the matter of them being in this together.
Still, I wasn’t the caretaker—or teacher or mom—or in any other way the responsible party. My concern was saving them from a far worse nemesis than each other. I didn’t go around asking if everyone was all right or proposing we could all be friends. I just went back to bed.
So much warmer now with the sun up, I opened all the windows again, locked the door, and was asleep ten minutes after getting back.
The fight that woke me was a verbal one.
Insults, oaths—plenty of bloodies, moons, and arses.
I reached for my phone. Only late morning. Three hours sleep. It would do. Time to finish my drink.
I did my little bit of washing up and readying for the day. How long would the water last? One more night. I could shower back at Melanie’s.
I sent her a text, saying how beautiful Cornwall was, throwing in a couple details to make myself feel less like a total liar and fraud of a sister. I’d taken a picture of the lighthouse yesterday that I sent.
The weather report, which I had to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit, said hot. After last night, I was aching for it and gladly pulled on my one change of clothes—blue shorts and a sleeveless yellow blouse. I would keep the hoodie with me in case of wind.
“Of course I didn’t! He blames me or Jay for everything just for being in the room.” That was Andrew. A name I’d been avoiding since we’d met.
Working in a hotel? What did the rest of them do? They couldn’t all be involved in mundane jobs or they would know humans better.
“We had to stay around the Jeep anyway,” Jason said. He sounded worried, voice hushed as if he didn’t want to wake someone. No one else seemed troubled about such details.
“Why’d we have to bring the kir thing anyway? We should have our bikes.” A snarl from Jed.
“The caravan, moron,” Kage said. “How were we supposed to tow that?”
Bikes? Remembering the mobile home park, I wasn’t surprised to think bicycling was how young werewolves tended to get around. But Jed had wanted to bike to Cornwall?
I noticed the cup of bluebells I’d put in a dab of water on the table and smiled. Patches of sunlight filtered into the trailer. Three hours of sleep wasn’t so bad. Just like one druid rather than none wasn’t bad.
Lots to be thankful for today.
“We’d have caught something if someone didn’t trip over his own paws like a yearling learning to run,” Andrew said.
“Want a better look at my paws, maggot?” Jed.
“Go ahead.” Andrew laughed. “Let me grab a book. You’re so slow I’ll have to pass the time.”
Lunch. That was what we needed. A warm turkey club with a pickle spear and a side salad, maybe an iced latte. But I was thinking of my favorite quick lunch spot at home in Portland.
Lunch in Cornwall? A pub. Or Indian food. I didn’t even eat fast food at home. Not going to make a habit of it when I could be trying new things in a new place.
I stepped out to dappled sunlight thr
ough thick leaves and found all in their upright forms and dressed.
Kage and Jed faced a tree, in which sat Andrew. Jason stood below. Isaac, reading on a tablet, sat on the fallen tree that Kage had hit the night before.
Zar sat by the caravan, leaned back against a tire, chewing a long stalk of grass and reading from a thin paperback in a plain brown binding. He smiled up when I emerged, scrambling to his feet.
“Morning again, Cassia.” He tossed away the grass stalk. “We were making plans for lunch.”
“Were you?” I returned his smile. “You have such an interesting way of going about it.”
“May I?” He offered his hand and I gave him mine, not sure what he meant. He kissed my knuckles. “My apologies for being out of sorts earlier.”
This confused me just as much. “You didn’t do anything.”
“You’re too kind.” He still held my hand. “I’ve thought of you in every birdsong and rustle of leaves this morning. Though your voice is more musical than either. The sunrise was a shallow brushstroke compared to the masterpiece of your beauty.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I wish I were worthy of this journey with you, Cassia. I’ve never met anyone like you. My fumbling efforts to contribute must seem trivial—”
“Zar?”
“Yes?” Beaming, eyes lighting up like fireworks when I said his name, pressing my hand. I could practically see him wagging his tail.
What are you on? I swallowed as I repressed my own words. Instead, I said, “Are you okay?” And withdrew my hand.
“I’m brilliant now that you’re here. You’ve made this the most perfect morning of my life.” Sincerity poured off him like sunbeams.
Goddess, he made me feel ancient and cynical and just … mean. Although I doubted he was more than a couple years younger than myself. He wasn’t a wolf. He was a golden retriever. A gorgeous, poetic one with wavy black hair.
“I’m … glad I could help,” I said quietly, easing back.
“Would you allow me to walk you to the village for lunch?”
“We all need lunch, Zar.”
“Your desire is my quest.” Bowing his head. “Your goal is my passion—”
“What?”
“I’ll take you all for a meal.”
“That’s a kind offer, but it’s Kage’s responsibility. And you’re already helping with my goals by finding Ellasandra. And, in the short-term, I’d be happy with none of you doing the others a serious injury.”
While I spoke, I stepped toward those around the tree. The argument died and they looked at us, Kage nearest.
“Lunch?” I offered him a smile.
Kage frowned, perhaps due to his favorite pastime of snapping at his cousin being interrupted. Then he looked about in a businesslike way. “All right, wolves, here’s the day: meal, visit the coast, then Cassia will see our druid—”
He seemed about to elaborate but Jed cut him off. “Who made you silver?”
Kage spun to face him. “You want to explain the plan, vulture-face? Go on and tell Moon and wolf what we’re doing since you know.”
“Not me,” Jed snarled. “The witch is silver here. She can speak for herself if there’s a ‘plan’ to know.”
A backhand since he didn’t bother using my name. Still, I was more appreciative of an acknowledgment to my position from Jed than for the gushing from Zar. I’d had no idea Jed thought I was anything other than a nuisance to be followed around.
“For right this minute, lunch and sightseeing,” I said. “But we can’t fit everyone into—”
“I’ll ride in the back,” Jason said. “So will Andrew.”
“We can’t drive around with seven people in that Jeep.”
“We’re supposed to protect you,” Kage started.
“So you’ve said—”
“Not asking you to ride in the back. What difference does it make?”
“It’s illegal for one,” I said. “Even if it was safe and comfortable, which it’s not.”
“We’ll keep low,” Jason said. “No one has to see us.”
Kage opened his hands, facing me with a We have the simple solution gesture. It was weird how he made me feel so demanding and unreasonable all the time.
I stared at him, and the rest, all watching me other than Jed, who scowled at the ground.
“Are you going to argue and bicker all the way out to the beach?” I asked.
“Am I going to drive?” Kage asked.
“No.”
He looked into leaves over our heads.
I sighed. “The door’s open. Do you all want to wash up? Shave? Be sparing with the water, please. And leave your bags here in the trailer so you have more room.”
While Zar was telling me how thoughtful and kind I was, Andrew hopped out of the tree as if he’d been waiting for nothing but this invitation all along.
“What are you reading?” I asked to get Zar to shut up about me as Jason slipped past us into the trailer with thanks.
Zar held up the spiral-bound paperback. “I beg your forgiveness. I don’t know humans well, like Isaac or Andrew. I hope to get to know you better, Cassia. And show you how much you mean to me.”
“Mean to you?” I looked up as I took the book from him. “Zar … you’re sweet but you just met me.”
“The greatest moment of my life—an eclipse time.”
I wanted to tell him to stop, but, dammit, he was too cute for that. Instead, face hot, I studied the thin book.
It was a quick guide to social customs and smooth relations with humans, illustrated with simple cartoons and covering such topics as work, sports, mealtimes, offspring, authority figures, and etiquette at gatherings. There was something very odd about the book—aside from it obviously being self-published and probably limited to about ten copies.
I flipped to the front.
“Zar…? This was published in the fifties.”
“That’s right. Our great-grandfather wrote it. He served in the human army in World War Two. He knew everything about humans. A brilliant wolf, but I never met him.”
“I’m sure he was. Did it ever occur to you that the social customs and lives of mundanes may have changed in the past seventy years?”
His smile faltered.
I handed back the book. “Have your people stayed the same for that long?”
“Yes. Well…” With another chuckle. “We have better bikes.”
“Better bikes…? So you don’t work around humans? What about school? What about … going to the grocery store?”
“I’m a crafter. My work is home with the pack. We’re homeschooled by core, and supermarkets and all that are up to core.”
I didn’t ask what he meant by core. Every few minutes one of them said something I wanted to understand, wanted to ask about, but I struggled to rein in my own questions and curiosity.
One more night, help them be the ones to gain information, and be on my way. I couldn’t let myself keep getting more invested—allow curiosity to run away with me, or dwell on moonlit beach strolls, or gold necklaces, or learning more about their language, customs, or anything else.
I let out a slow breath. “I was homeschooled for a few years by my grandmother also. But that was mostly to study our craft once I went to live with her. Diana seems to want your pack to get along better with humans. I’m surprised you don’t go to school and learn to blend in better.”
“It wouldn’t be safe. Young pups don’t understand about keeping our secret. And once we reach Moon’s transition and learn to change we can’t always control it at first.”
“You can’t?”
Stop it. You don’t need to get to know them any better.
But I wasn’t used to repressing my own curiosity.
He shook his head. “Hellish difficult. Mastering the change is half our education as yearlings.”
“But once you learn you have total control?” I looked away, trying to spot something to busy myself over. Zar was too eager to talk f
or my own good.
“Oh, yes, perfectly.”
“Except?”
He shrugged. “Nothing.”
“No, you were going to say more.” I met his eyes.
“Well … it’s not that we can’t control it. It’s just not always … comfortable. Especially at our ages… It’s supposed to get better with time.”
“I’m not following you.”
“It’s … it’s hard to…” He screwed up his face.
“‘Compulsion’ is the word you’re looking for.”
I turned quickly to find Andrew at my shoulder, waiting to go into the trailer while Jason and Kage were in there.
“Compulsion?” I asked.
“That’s what lady-hair is trying to explain,” Andrew said, smiling into my eyes. His smile was nothing like Zar’s. Where one was a golden retriever, the other was a fox. “Like your coffee. Like a triple chocolate layer cake on your birthday. Or that perfect pair of shoes that just happen to be on sale. Or having sex. You can exercise perfect control.” Andrew stood much too close, allowing me to see his hooded amber eyes in rich detail. “But who does? Who ever has?”
I addressed Zar. “So wolves have control over changing once they’ve matured? But you’d rather change all the time? It would be hard on you not to change regularly? Like celibacy or giving up a substance you’re dependent on?”
“I don’t have to change,” Zar said, eager, ignoring Andrew. “If you’d rather, I’ll stay in skin for the rest of the trip. No fighting, no noise—”
“That’s not why I’m asking you about this,” I said.
“Then why?” Andrew asked.
I glared at him. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
“Wolves have asked him that question for years.” Kage stepped from the caravan and Andrew took his spot inside, giving me a bow before he retreated.
I wanted to ask Zar about the mindset. Jason had seemed normal, perfectly aware, but surely there was more to their change than skin-deep. I bit my tongue.
“Are you two ready to go? Zar, do you want in the trailer?” I asked. “Let’s get going. And Zar? Be careful about what that book tells you, okay? I’m not a fifties housewife.”
Moonlight Desire: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 1) Page 10