by Rain Oxford
“Stop fighting!” Scott demanded from his car seat.
“Kitten, we’re not---” Henry started.
“Don’t make me come up there!”
I couldn’t help but to laugh inside as a guilty silence filled the car. It wasn’t fair to argue in front of him and I was very glad he would stick up for himself.
* * *
We reached the conservation and had to leave the truck in the forest again. Once we faced the sign that Darwin had seen, I closed my eyes and focused on finding his mind. “Are we sure he’s even here?” Henry asked.
“I can’t sense his mind, but my instincts are telling me he is. Can you smell him?”
“I smell something, but it’s not fresh. Even wolf shifters don’t smell like real wolves and my senses are stronger than those of a normal jaguar, so I think I can find him, especially since I know his wolf scent. I’ll shift and get a better trace, but be prepared, because my jaguar might not like Kitten being around the wolves.”
“He really doesn’t like anything, ever.”
When he took off his shirt, Scott scrambled to do so as well. “No, you don’t need to shift,” Henry said.
“I want to!”
“You can shift when we get home. Right now, we have to find Darwin.” Scott pouted, but he didn’t argue. Henry finished undressing and then shifted. We followed the main path a ways until we got to a gate that was opened electronically. Ironically, that was easier for me to get through than a regular lock, because all I had to do was send a little magic energy through the bars. I made sure the burst was high enough to take out any surveillance cameras as well, but not so strong that it caused real damage. There was always the possibility that, if I gave it too much power, I would fry the electronic lock and it would stay closed.
Fortunately, the gate slid open easily.
Henry led me around several enclosures. Some wolves howled, but the only ones we saw looked more frightened than anything. When he stopped to sniff at a white wolf, the wolf slowly approached the fence submissively.
“This way, Daddy,” Scott said, pointing to another side path that was roped off. Henry got back on the path and soon, we came to a much smaller enclosure. There was a rock cave and a bunch of trees, so I couldn’t see what was in there.
Henry shifted back and I handed him his clothes. “Darwin,” he called quietly as he dressed.
I tried again to find his mind and finally sensed the wolf’s mind. Unfortunately, he either didn’t recognize me or didn’t care, because he mentally snarled. I pulled away before I unintentionally ruined any chance I had of calming him down. “He’s not doing well,” I said.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t even feel his human mind, and his wolf is furious.”
“I would be as well if I were stuck in a cage. Maseré is close.”
“We need to try to get him to shift before Maseré shows up. I think something pissed him off.” I slipped on my ring. Although I typically used it when I had an object in my hand to focus the vision around, this time I concentrated on the wolf’s mind.
* * *
Not to my surprise, I saw a computer screen. Darwin sat back and shut down the computer before standing. Despite his ergonomic chair, he had cramps because he had been working on his computer pretty much non-stop since he got back from the university. He timed himself out on a notepad next to his computer, confirming that he had worked forty hours from Friday night when he got home to Sunday night.
He left his room and headed down the stairs of the huge house to find his father in a study. He just wanted to say he was going to bed, so he decided to wait when he saw one of his pack members already talking with his father. From Darwin’s mind, I learned that the man, Bill, was Maseré’s third-most-trusted pack member, right under Darwin and Anya.
“Why do you let him get away with this?” Bill asked.
“Get away with what?”
“Doing whatever he wants! He causes trouble on his computer when he’s home and he causes trouble when he’s at school! Do you even know what he’s doing up there all day and night?”
“I do, and watch your tongue or I will cut it out of your mouth. Darwin is trying to make the world a better place.”
“He would be better off looking up porn. He knows he can do whatever he wants because you let him and he doesn’t even respect us as his superiors. You are supposed to be the alpha, but your house is run by that little omega throwback. He’s a menace! When are you going to kick him out?!”
“Never, and you are way out of line talking about my son that way.”
“He can’t shift! How can we respect you when your offspring is so incompetent?”
“If he could shift, he would have had to leave the pack a long time ago, so I’m glad he can’t. Now, get out of my office, calm the fuck down, and come back with an apology by the end of the day or you’re banished.”
Bill stormed out of the room and pushed Darwin aside, very nearly touching his skin. Darwin wrapped his arms around himself, trying to hide is exposed skin as much as possible with his thin t-shirt.
“Darwin,” his father asked softly. “How much of that did you hear?”
Darwin’s mental defenses instantly clamped down, shoving the pain away. He scoffed. “Nothing important. That dildo is talking out his ass, as usual. I’ll drain his bank accounts and have him audited for being a bitch. Maybe I’ll have him registered as a---”
“What did you want to see me for?” Maseré interrupted.
Darwin hesitated. I have to have a reason to see my dad now? “I just wanted to let you know that I’m going to Marcus’s.” He no longer wanted to sleep with his pack around.
Maseré frowned. “It’s not safe to be around the vampires until the wizard council is back up.”
Darwin rolled his eyes. “It’s Stephen’s coven. Stephen’s coven is always safe. I’m an adult now; I can go see my friends without my dad’s permission.”
“If you are an adult, then you must still obey your alpha.”
“Fortunately, since I’m not a shifter, I don’t have an alpha.” As much as it hurt to say, it hurt him more to see the sorrow on his father’s face.
“I didn’t mean to---”
“Bye, Dad,” Darwin interrupted before walking away. If his father had tried to stop him, or even yelled at him for being dismissive, he would have told his father the truth and tried to work things out. Instead, by letting him go, Maseré just proved his fears.
His father didn’t treat him like his pack because he wasn’t a pack member. He was a child that had to be treated with caution and special privileges.
* * *
The vision changed to him and Marcus sitting on the floor in a bedroom, surrounded by records, printed emails, signed consent forms, and timesheets. Their laptops were busy loading more data by the looks of it. Apparently, Darwin was dabbling in the investigator work on his own, but he combined it with his father’s environmentalist work. When two zoos lost a number of large cats due to negligence from a certain veterinarian office, Darwin decided to take it upon himself to figure out exactly what happened, fix it, and punish the people who tried to cover it up.
“Dr. Tillman said she administered one milliliter,” Marcus said, reading off a form.
“How big was the cub?”
“Six pounds, one ounce.”
“Okay, that’s fine. What’s the problem?”
“The problem was that her assistant says Dr. Tillman prescribed one milliliter and that she gave the cub the dose herself.”
“But the doctor gave it to her?”
“It specifically says she administered it.”
“Crap. That shouldn’t have been too dangerous to the cub, but if they screwed that up, I’m sure they screwed up somewhere else as well. What was the assistant’s name again?” Before Marcus could answer, Darwin’s phone rang. He ignored it, since it was covered in paperwork, until he realized that it was a particular ringtone. Amelia was calling. He s
crambled to find it even after it stopped ringing. As soon as he found it, he called her back. “Hey! Amy! Sorry I missed your call!”
“It’s no big deal. I figured you were engrossed in your computer.”
He unburied himself from loose papers and files. “Sure was. What’s up?”
“Well… my father said you could come over for dinner if you want to.”
Darwin pulled the phone away for a second to check the time. “Absolutely. I’ll be there soon.” He stood and hung up. “Listen, you can finish this up, right? Thanks! Got a date!” He ran out without another word until he reached the black Sedan. Taorec was the driver, which Darwin was grateful for, because the man rarely ever said a word. “Take me to my fiancée’s house, and be quick about it!”
He then jumped into the backseat and buckled himself in before the shifter could even acknowledge his order. He hadn’t meant to be rude, he was just really excited. Unfortunately, as the minutes passed, the whole thing with the negligent vets wouldn’t let him be. He needed to check on two more veterinary hospitals. After thirty minutes, he sighed and pulled out his phone.
“Hello?” Amelia asked.
“Hey, Amy. Sorry I got to do this, but I need to do something tonight. Do you think I could come over tomorrow?”
“Of course. I know you have a lot on your plate and we have all summer. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yep, tomorrow,” he said regretfully. Then he hung up and spoke to Taorec. “Change of plans. We’re going to New York.”
A few hours later, they pulled over to the side of the street so Darwin could get directions on his phone. He stepped out onto the street to try to get better cell reception, frustrated with the spotty connection, and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground, blinded by the pain.
His brain was busy analyzing the center of pain and the force of the blow, determining that he was not shot but hit with a blunt object by a man who was more than two hundred pounds and six feet tall. He ignored the analysis in favor of cradling his head and trying not to puke. This wasn’t even the worst pain he had ever felt.
Then he somehow ended up on his back, looking up when Taorec swung a bat at Darwin’s chest. He felt ribs crack and screamed, but the cry quickly changed to a wilder sound. At first, he had no idea what was happening. His skin itched so badly he could feel it over the agonizing pain in both his head and chest. He couldn’t breathe. His bones were breaking all on their own now, rearranging and reshaping themselves.
The cracking of his joints, bones, and tendons was a gory sound, but soon that was drowned out by his screaming as his muscles stretched. Taorec’s eyes widened in horror and he tried to smash Darwin’s face. Darwin’s wolf was already taking over, however, and he had enough survival instincts to dodge it, even though it felt like his entire body was cramping. Before Taorec could try again, Darwin took advantage of his next uncontrollable twitch to move him close enough for him to sink his fangs into Taorec’s left ankle.
Taorec screamed and bashed the bat into Darwin’s throat, incapacitating the half-wolf, half-man again. Taorec struck Darwin twice more in the head and once on the back again. Darwin didn’t move. He was holding on by a thread.
Assuming Darwin was dead, Taorec got back in his car and drove off. But Darwin wasn’t dead. In mid-shift, his body was already in the process of changing. For normal wolf shifters, this was their most vulnerable state. Darwin’s wolf, on the other hand, was far too stubborn to let that betrayal go. He clawed his way back to awareness with the sole intention of burying his teeth in Taorec’s throat so deep the older shifter’s head would pop off. By sheer determination, he used the shifting magic to repair the damage caused by his pack member.
Unfortunately, it used so much energy that by the time his body was fully formed, he couldn’t even stand. His last thought was more human than wolf; he was going to survive the betrayal of the pack member only to die of hypoglycemia.
* * *
I took off my ring. “It’s worse than I thought. I don’t know that we’re going to be able to get him to shift back.”
“What happened?”
“One of the members of his pack betrayed him and almost killed him. Someone must have found him and brought him in. The problem is his mind, though. I don’t think he wants to be himself right now. He’s likely to kill anyone who comes near him.”
And that was when I realized Scott wasn’t with us.
“Kitten, no!” Henry yelled, running after his son. Scott was already on the other side of the enclosure and was working the gate release. Fortunately, it had a small holding section so even though he got the gate open, there was a secondary gate. Henry grabbed him and pulled him out before he could even start on the second gate. “What were you doing?!” he yelled.
Wolves howled.
“I’m trying to help Darwin,” Scott said, confused as to why his father was mad.
In Henry’s rush to get Scott away, he didn’t secure the second gate, and that was a huge mistake. Neither of them saw the dark gray wolf bolt out of the rock cave. When he slammed all his weight into the gate, it didn’t stand a chance.
Darwin broke out, snarling and snapping at the metal as if it were attacking him. Within seconds, he turned his attention on Henry and Scott, but by then, Henry had shifted. Instead of attacking, Henry stood protectively over his son. I tried to reach Darwin’s mind again, and apparently, the wolf sensed it; he turned and came at me.
I had a split second to decide whether to summon my staff and try to fight him off, or put up an energy shield. I knew using something like my staff would only exacerbate the problem when he was beaten with a bat, but by then it was too late to put up a protective force of magic. The only chance I had was to attack with magic, and I wasn’t willing to hurt him. No matter how far gone he was, he was still Darwin.
But Darwin never reached me. Faster than I could really comprehend, Maseré cut him off. Suddenly, they were both rolling around on the ground in a blur of teeth, fur, and blood. Growls and the snapping of teeth were very loud in the terrified silence of the conservation. Even the insects seemed to be too afraid or too awed to make a sound. No matter how much I wanted to tell Maseré it was his son he was fighting, the words never reached my mouth. If the alpha showed even an ounce of weakness, he was dead.
I created the same blast of red lightning I had used on the shadow walkers, but I struck a rock next to them, since I only wanted to startle them. Fortunately, it worked; they broke apart and circled each other. Maseré had a bloody gash on his neck and both of Darwin’s forelegs were wounded. Maseré was bigger by a few pounds. Darwin was faster.
At the same instant, they both attacked each other, once again becoming a mess of fangs and fur. Henry continued hovering over his child and I had no idea what to do to stop the fight. This went on for about fifteen minutes before I could see them starting to tire. They were both bleeding.
When they circled each other again, Henry shifted. “Darwin, if you let the wolf win, you’re just an animal.”
Darwin made a jerking motion and growled, as if he was telling Henry to shut up. On the upside, this meant that Darwin recognized that Henry was talking to him. “He’s right, Darwin. You don’t want to fight your father; that would mean Taorec won.”
That had the adverse effect of making Maseré look at me, which was all Darwin needed to attack. He went for the kill.
Maseré was ready.
Moving faster than any wolf I had ever seen, Maseré jerked Darwin down by his leg, taking a deep bite to his shoulder, and pinned the younger wolf under him. When he clamped his mouth over Darwin’s throat, Darwin froze. After a few seconds, Maseré bit down harder and Darwin whimpered. Every instinct in me told me not to move.
It took nearly two minutes before there was a very subtle change in Darwin’s posture and Maseré let him go. First Darwin and then his father shifted back. The young shifter was sitting in the dirt, panting, sweating, covered in blood, and clearly confused. “Why…?�
� He tried to clear his throat when his voice came out hoarse.
“What do you remember?” I asked.
“I was going to see Amy one minute, and the next, my dad is trying to kill me.”
“You attacked Devon,” Maseré said stoically. He was also covered it blood and sweat, but there didn’t seem to be any open wounds. Darwin’s eyes widened with shock. “It’s my fault, and I’m sorry,” Maseré said, shocking us all.
“What do you mean it’s your fault?” Darwin asked.
“In the last two years, I have detected changes in your scent that suggested your wolf was finally emerging. I thought I sensed it when you were fourteen, though, so I didn’t really think it would happen. I should have warned you.”
Darwin hung his head. “No, this is my fault. I shifted at Quintessence. I didn’t tell you because I knew the wolf was an alpha and I didn’t want you to kick me out. I knew he would attack my friends.”
“This wasn’t either of your faults. Darwin came out to New York to finish an investigation on some corrupt veterinary hospital and his driver, Taorec, attacked him with a bat. The only way for him to live was to shift, and his human mind just closed itself off.”
“Taorec has no reason to attack anyone in the pack. Do you have any proof?” Maseré asked.
“Darwin bit him on the ankle.”
“A wound like that would be long gone by now.”
“Taorec is Bill’s best friend,” Darwin said. “If Taorec was able to kill me, Bill would be that much closer to the top. If you could tell my wolf was developing, I bet Bill could as well, and he would have worried about his position being threatened.”
“Sounds like motive enough. Can we get out of here before authorities arrive?” Henry asked, picking up Scott. Since he, Darwin, and Maseré were naked, I could see his point.
When Maseré reached his hand out to help Darwin up, the young shifter avoided it and pushed himself to his feet. Darwin limped a few steps, only to flinch away when Maseré tried to help him. Their struggle to find peace with each other was painful to watch; Maseré couldn’t touch his skin and Darwin didn’t even have his clothes to protect himself. It wasn’t that he was trying to avoid his father’s help; he just couldn’t let him help, and Maseré was trying to fight the urge to do so anyway.