by Mary Hughes
“What’s a fuckin’ dual?”
“Killer, you ignorant ass.” Rodolphe switched off the siphon and slid it into his inner pocket. “A dual is the product of a forbidden mating between a shifter and a witch. A child made of power who also possesses power. The perfect food.”
Sheer revulsion twisted Killer’s face.
Rodolphe slapped him. “You dare judge?”
Killer glared sullenly. “No, master.”
“There’s always a price to be paid for great advances. The trick is to make it come from someone else’s wallet. Now, where was I? Oh yes. But the dual escaped and hid from X among the wolfpacks. Fortunately, X had attached an etheric eye to the child’s familiar. Or as mundanes would say now, he ‘bugged’ the boy’s raven. Then X developed a brilliant plan to flush the dual from hiding.”
Rodolphe smiled, snapping on a rubber glove. Killer thought Rodolphe was helping him. If only he knew what a pawn he was.
“X allied himself with a brilliant former member of the Witches’ Council who’d propitiously stripped all the private information he could before absconding…including the magical community census.” Rodolphe carefully rubbed a deadly nightshade compound onto the blade. It sizzled as the death magic absorbed it. The venom was complete, so deadly not even an alpha wolf could survive it.
“A fuckin’ census, master? How’s that helpful.”
“You barking idiot,” Rodolphe spat. “That census had the location of every pack on the continent. All X had to do was develop minions in each pack and command them to give developing alphas a nudge just a little early.”
“A nudge to challenge the old alpha?” Killer’s eyes widened. “Like we did with Blackwood?”
So the wolfman wasn’t entirely lacking in brains.
“An underdeveloped alpha, fighting a mature alpha might win or lose. But the dual, challenged before he was ready—well. He’d use his wizard’s magic, you see? Then all X has to do is wait for the familiar to feel the surge of his master’s magic. X trails the raven to the dual and voila! X has him.”
“So you’ve found the fuckin’ dual, master?”
“Not yet.” Rodolphe sputtered it. “But the crow’s on the move. It’s only a matter of time.” He pointed the poisoned knife at Killer and punctuated each word with a stab.
Killer blanched quite satisfactorily.
“And when the crow finds the dual—” Rodolphe retracted the blade with an angry flick and tossed it at Killer, who barely caught it, “—I’ll be there to claim my reward.”
Chapter Twenty
In the shelter of the pet store’s entrance, Sophia unbuttoned her blouse, pinned the enameled brooch to her bra strap, and buttoned back up. Then she headed for the bookstore, where she hoped Mr. Kibbles would help her learn how to use the thing.
True, Mr. Kibbles was a cat, and she’d be a wolf. True again, she’d never seen Mr. Kibbles as anything but a cat. As children, she and her brother Gabriel had tried to make the cat change, taunting him unmercifully and hiding his food dish. She felt bad about it now, but they’d just been kids. Besides, Mr. Kibbles’s reaction was to wash a forepaw or smooth his already perfect coat and generally indicate that frankly, children, he couldn’t give a damn. He may have been a familiar, but as a haughty cat, he was darn near typecast.
Sophia knew he could help her best, though, because he changed forms, not as a shifter did with magic shifting muscle and bone and cloth, but as a spirit did, smoke to smoke, the only creature she knew who did. Well, aside from Jayden, who’d been as helpful as grease on a climbing rope.
“Yip, yip!”
The noise brought her attention to a small bit of fluff marching toward her up the sidewalk, glaring. She knew what that glare meant. You didn’t wait for Mason.
“Sorry. We both thought I’d take longer at Jayden’s. How’d things go at Bonnie and Clyde’s?”
The dog looked away with a disgusted grrr.
“That’s too bad. But I have good news. I can shift. Or I will be able to. I just have to practice.”
She started again for the Uncommon. Noah marched alongside her, from his stiff gait only partially mollified.
At the store, she unlocked the door, then turned to him. “I’ll need Mr. Kibbles to help me. Since you two don’t get along…” She quirked a half smile, a sorry-but-could-you-stay-out expression.
Noah huffed the doggie version of a sigh. He yipped, If I have to. As Sophia opened the door, he started walking the perimeter of the building.
She went inside, strangely reassured. Sure, the wards were up, but no one would attack her unannounced while the little dog with the big heart was keeping guard.
In the kitchen, Mr. Kibbles was intent on his post-breakfast grooming.
She got rid of the newspapers she’d laid down for King then dropped into a half Lotus opposite the cat and studied him closely. He stood and gracefully stretched, his muscles sliding easily under his gleaming fur. He was all that was animal. She wanted to move like him, lithe, fast. To be like him, her senses sharp and living totally in the now.
She closed her eyes and focused inward. Slowly she opened her third eye. It was easier now that she’d unlocked part of her magic. When she was ready she looked at Mr. Kibbles.
He was so brilliant on the etheric she was nearly blinded. Squinting reduced the flare of light to a nimbus of pure gold. Whoa. She’d never looked at him this way before. That nimbus signaled a being of immense power and wisdom.
How do I use this? she asked the cat, mentally tapping the brooch attached to her bra strap.
Puny human. The haloed cat looked down his nose.
No need to diss me.
His glowing emerald eyes widened. I’m not dissing you. Humans live inside their skins. Muffled. The field of self is meant to be larger; life is larger. Grow beyond your limitations, Sophia.
Oh. She pushed her boundaries as he continued.
Greater speed and strength and sharper senses are yours when your self is outside your skin…yeow!
The cat was a windmill of scrabbling limbs, disappearing so fast there was a black hole in the nimbus where he’d been.
Wondering what had spooked him, she closed her mental eye and opened her physical.
She saw no difference. She still sat on the floor, although she now noticed the specks of dirt between the aged tiles, small motes of dust bouncing along in the eddy of air currents…
Wait. She wasn’t sitting on the floor. Her eyes were simply the same height as when she was sitting.
She was standing, on four furred, pawed, legs.
Ooh. Pretty fur too. Not your typical gray wolf, she was pure white.
Probably because of the white enamel brooch, but she admired herself for a moment. Her limbs were slender but strong, her loins sleekly muscled. Her tail was bushy and her coat shone with health.
Hey, this isn’t nearly the problem I thought it would be. She smiled, felt her mouth open, and her tongue loll. Ah yes, a wolfie grin. Deserved. This was going to be easy.
She strode for the door…using her two hind legs like a human. Her front legs stayed where they were. Back and front tangled, and she fell. Her muzzle hit tile, teeth cracking together. Since her spirit self was an inch outside her skin, she scraped off a few layers of Sophia.
“Ow!” she said only it came out “Yip!” It reminded her of poor King. Poor Noah, rather.
Mr. Kibbles snickered.
Know-it-all familiar. You try changing from a simple left-right to coordinating four paws and a tail in two minutes flat. She cautiously got her paws under her and tried again.
It took her hours just to learn to walk. Going human, she took off her shoes. Shifting back to wolf, she thought about walking on her toes, and that helped. Eventually Mr. Kibbles stopped snickering so she moved on, trying a trot. Her trailing front leg hit her surging rear, and she tripped and went down.
Mr. Kibbles started snickering again.
She lay on her side and growled at him. He
jumped to a higher perch…and continued snickering. Stupid familiar.
She rested her head on the ground for just a moment. Mr. Kibbles’s water dish was in her line of sight. Tired, hot, and thirsty, that water dish looked good. She rolled slowly to her feet and went wearily to the bowl to lap cool bliss.
Her long tongue darted out, slapped water, and splashed it all over. She tried again. As much liquid hit the floor and splashed onto her muzzle as went in her mouth.
She whimpered. She was a failure as a wolf. She could barely walk and to make matters worse, was a slob.
She tried to cry, but even that didn’t work. Her nictitans—third eyelids she didn’t even know wolves had—closed instead, and she only ended up with well-lubricated eyes.
As the noon siren blew, Mason limped in. “I am not leaving you this time, no matter what you say.”
She contracted to human. “Didn’t Noah tell you he’s guarding me?”
“Noah’s taking a break. I’m your guard for the lunch hour.” His brown eyes darted around the kitchen and his belly rumbled.
“Want lunch?”
He gave her a sheepish grin. “That’d be good.”
She fixed them tuna sandwiches. The task reoriented her. Five hours left, and self-pity wouldn’t help Noah. She’d learn how to do this if it killed her.
Hope it doesn’t come to that. “When’s sunset?”
“Eight fifty.” Mason bit off half the tuna sandwich. “Will you be ready?”
Will I? “Yes.” She bit off nearly as much of her own sandwich with a determined chomp. She barely chewed before swallowing. She hadn’t done anything this physical since mock-dueling her brother in college. She washed the sandwich down with milk. “I can walk and even trot if I concentrate. Cornering is still a problem, though.”
Mason snorted. “Woods’ paths are nothing but curves.” He chomped the last of his sandwich, brushed off his hands, and stood. “Better get back to practicing then. Sounds like you’ll need it.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“You want false reassurance, go to an iota. Beta’s job is to give you a swift kick in the butt.”
“How about a swift job of the dishes?” She pointed.
“Love to, but you’ll need the space for practice.” He grinned and left.
By the time dusk rolled around she was exhausted, actually a good thing. Too tired to care which leg went where, things naturally fell into place.
Mr. Kibbles, with a strange rumble—a purr?—coming from his throat, head-butted her flank, the animal equivalent of a knuckle bump, and trotted out.
She was also hungry again but didn’t eat. Hungry was good, right? It’d add fire and focus to the hunt. She might even be able to catch something small and furry…kill it…eat it…okay, maybe she’d go out for a cheeseburger after instead.
As the sky darkened, Sophia, tired but somewhat more confident, climbed back into her skin. Scant minutes after sunset, Noah strode into the kitchen.
For a moment all she could see were his golden eyes, the hard planes of his face, and the black hair curling around his ears. He was more handsome to her than ever.
He seized her by her upper arms and gazed deep into her eyes. His were filled with concern for her. “You don’t have to do this.”
“What happens if I don’t? Can you meet this Challenge Hunt solo?”
His jaw clenched. “I won’t lie to you. It’d be a…problem.”
The growl underscoring “problem” clued her in that it would be a problem the way brain spasm migraines were “uncomfortable”. “Noah, I’ve been practicing. I’ll do fine. Well, as long as I don’t have to kill…to eat…yeah.”
He blew air. “Let me see you change.”
That part at least was easy. She mentally touched the white enamel wolf and pushed outside her skin. Lolling at Noah, she sat on her wolf butt.
What hit the floor was not just her furred hips but something big and oval and puffy.
Her rump shot up, her feet scrabbling to get under her. She raised her tail and sniffed…damn, was she in heat?
She blinked up at Noah, and she must have looked shocked even for a wolf.
He looked…wistful. He stroked her head, gently. “You’re as beautiful a wolf as you are a human, Sophia.”
He thought she was beautiful. She needed to kiss him. She retracted into her skin, turning human under his hand. He stepped back as she extended vertically. He must have wanted her with equal need because when she was fully human but still slightly unfocused, he cupped her nape and pulled her in for a gentle but thorough kiss.
Her lips were starting to buzz and her heart to hammer when he stepped back. “If we’re going to do this, it has to be now. Mason, Jayden!”
Two wolves trotted into the kitchen. One was dark gray with tan markings and Mason’s big chocolate eyes. The other was black with black eyes.
The black wolf took a big sniff of the estrogen-filled kitchen and grinned at her.
She grinned back, all teeth. “Fuck you, Jayden.”
The wolf only grinned wider.
“You two.” Noah’s tone was straight-up alpha. He pointed at both wolves, though his eye was on the black. “You will guard Sophia and keep her safe. If she has even a broken toenail at the end of this, I will hurt you badly.”
The Jayden wolf yipped.
“If I’m dead after the hunt, then I’ll come back and haunt you.”
“Dead?” She blinked at him, a tingle of fear ripping down her middle. “What do you mean, dead? It’s a hunt, not a fight. You can’t die. How could you die?”
Noah’s golden gaze was steady on her. “Sophia. Sweetheart. In the woods, there’s no safety net.”
“But surely with the whole pack there…?”
He took her face in his hands. “Most of the able adults are off earning a living. Some are at home with young pups. Aside from the four of us and Ivan’s group, it’ll be a few dozen females afraid for their young, some elderly, and a handful of teenagers.”
“Then can’t we hunt…I don’t know, squirrels and rabbits? Smaller things that can’t hurt us?”
“The purpose of a Challenge Hunt is to prove I—we—can feed the pack.” He met her gaze steadily. “So the bigger the better. A deer if we can.”
“Deer?” She swallowed hard. “With those big pokey things on their heads?”
He smiled. “It’s okay. Antlers don’t harden until fall. I’ll aim for the nose or the rump to avoid the worst of the pokes.” His smile disappeared. “Sophia, if we’re doing this—if you’re doing this with me—we have to go now.”
Put that way, she had no choice. She put on her shoes and they went.
Noah drove a big SUV, Sophia sitting beside him. If her heart hadn’t been pounding like a tympani, it would have been almost nice. As he drove, she put her phone on vibrate. She didn’t want any distractions.
At the repair shop, Sophia shifted. Almost immediately her gaze found Noah’s.
His expression was pensive. He sighed, unusual in such a self-contained, still man. “You really are quite beautiful, Sophia.”
Her heart swelled.
Then he closed his eyes and…just rearranged. His black hair ran down his body like rapidly laying overlapping roof shingles. His limbs flowed like cream, forward and down. His face extended, ears sliding up.
In scant seconds, a huge black wolf stood in his place.
She’d seen his wolf before, but that was when her head was cracking open and he was under siege. Now she looked her fill.
He was sleek and muscled, his haunches roped and his chest deep. His withers would’ve come to human’s collarbones, and he must have been his full six three from head to hip. Since the average natural wolf stood two to three feet tall and was no longer than five feet—and the average shifter only a little larger than that—he towered over them all.
His fur was solid black except for a few dark gray markings on his face and one wolf-shaped blaze on his chest. Th
e gold of his eyes glowed even brighter from within his black mask.
Every hormone in her body exploded. The scent of her estrus was so strong she stopped breathing. Her wolf would have been perfectly happy to jump him right there. Thank goodness for the human in her who knew that, besides having places to go, they had witnesses—and that those witnesses were fully capable of laughing their fool heads off.
Sure enough, when Noah’s first act was to come nuzzle and lick her, behind them was the explosive rasp of a wolfy cough.
Noah shot Jayden a glare. Jayden lolled. Even Mason whuffled, like a muffled laugh. It completely broke the mood.
Noah gave Mason a barked command. Mason managed to stop whuffling long enough to press his snout against a wolf-high spot on the wall, activating an almost invisible door. Noah led the way out. The door closed behind them.
They walked single-file, Noah trotting in the lead with his tail held high, Mason in the cleanup position. A trail cut through the field abutting the back of the store, winding its way through tall grass toward a smattering of stunted trees and thistles and shrubs at the edge of the forest.
Following the path, they entered the woods. Gradually the trees got taller, the trail narrower. Soon it became little more than a few broken twigs to the naked eye.
But to the nose…Sophia put her head down and snuffled. Scent blazed, shouting that this was an often-used way for the pack. She was traveling through the most amazing odors. Wildflowers and grass, but she also caught the powdery scent of moths and the bitter tang of bugs, and whiffs of stuff she hadn’t even known had scents. In her constant nose-turning she tripped a couple times, until Jayden sniggered. Then she snapped her jaw shut and paid attention to where she was going.
But when they passed a well-marked oak, she nearly turned inside out, caught by the sheer complexity of smell. Stale bitterness was overlaid with a fresh, virile scent she identified as Noah’s. Instinctively she knew this was a signpost for the pack’s sacred territory, marked by their alpha. Other animals came here only at their own risk.