by Trisha Linde
That was one problem dealt with, but now I had a whole new problem, and he was standing right in front of me. He might have just been a shifter, in which case, he was fine to just head back out to the woods and turn back into a wolf. He could return to his life and no one would be the wiser.
But something about Wolf’s bizarre behavior made me think he was something more, something special. And even if we could figure out a way to turn him back into a wolf, he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere. In fact, judging by the way he was looking at me right now, like he could devour me whole, he was planning on an extended stay.
I needed to find someone who could help, but I had no clue who that someone would be. Someone I could trust, perhaps someone who had already seen him as a wolf and who would believe my outlandish story.
“Wanna go for a car ride?” I asked Wolf, and then I cringed at how much it sounded like I was coaxing a dog into leaving the house. I cleared my throat and tried to make myself sound less patronizing. “We need to take a drive down to see a friend of mine. You’ll like her.”
Wolf was staring at my lips as I spoke, and then he reached up to touch his own lips, trying to mimic the way my mouth had moved. I took his hand in mine and led him out the front door. He seemed wary of getting into the car, but in the end was willing enough.
“We’ll get you sorted out, one way or another. I promise.”
8
Wolf
The small moving cave finally came to a stop. At first I’d thought that maybe it was an animal that we’d climbed inside as it started lumbering down the road with a huge growling noise. My heart started hammering, my instinct telling me to bare my teeth, but then I remembered that I had no teeth to speak of. The delicious man didn’t seem scared, and the strange encasing around us didn’t smell like any animal I recognized. It did, however, smell vaguely the same as the cave we just left.
We moved with incredible speed, taking my breath away. I burrowed my face into the thick warm clothes I had wrapped around me, hiding my eyes from the blurring shapes outside. It wasn’t nearly as warm as my fur had been, but it was a fair bit better than walking around with the bald skin of a human.
Once we stopped moving, the man came around and somehow opened the wall. He took my hand in his and guided me out into the snow. His hand was warm against mine, a perfect contrast to the air against my face. Our breaths came out in great clouds, but we soon stepped through a door into a warm space. I was instantly bombarded with a whole new world of stimuli. It wasn’t a large space, and dim. In fact, it felt more like home than anywhere else I’d found so far in this human world. Regardless of first appearances, it was not home. I had a sudden urge to pull my human back through the door, to take him back to his home where we belonged.
The smells here were startling. This was clearly a place where many humans passed their time. There was a lingering smell of smoke in the air as well. I could detect a lingering loamy scent in the air, like the forest floor, damp and moldy.
“Noel?” someone called, stepping out from another doorway. “Isn’t this your day off?” He was an older man, his clothes rumpled and baggy, hanging off him like an extra layer of loose skin. His hair was wispy and grey, and he wore something around his eyes. My first impression was that this man was no threat to me, nor to my human.
“Hey, Reggie. Are you busy?”
The rumpled human looked back and forth around the room, gesturing to the empty seating. “This is about as busy as we get, so… no.” The edges of his lips twitched.
“You know, if you would just let me do a little bit of advertising…” Noel began, but Reggie quickly cut him off.
“You know I won’t do that to Alphonso. His business is still new, he needs the business.”
Noel chuckled. “You do realize that all of his clients are celebrities, right? He’s an entertainment lawyer, he doesn’t handle wills and marriage licenses.” I didn’t understand humans, but even I could tell that Reggie wasn’t listening.
Noel sighed and let it go. Instead, he said, “I’m afraid I have a bit of a problem.” Noel bit his lip gently, flitting his eyes over to me. “This,” he said, gesturing to me with his hand, “is Wolf, I guess. He may or may not be human.”
Reggie’s eyebrows rose up until they disappeared into the wrinkles on his forehead. “I see.”
“Do you?”
“No, not really,” he admitted. “But I’m a lawyer. I’m in the business of not asking questions. What would you like me to do? How can I help?”
Noel rubbed at the back of his neck nervously. “I was hoping maybe you could give him a whiff. Tell me what you get from him.”
Reggie nodded. “If you think it’ll help.” He stepped slowly towards me, with his hands out, palms open. “My name is Reggie Sharp.” He waited for a response, and when he didn’t get one, he asked, “May I?”
I didn’t know what he was asking, or how to respond. I was picking up the meaning of their words, more and more by the minute, but making the sounds still seemed a far stretch. I turned to look at Noel, and he nodded encouragingly. So, I nodded as well.
Reggie stepped up and leaned close, breathing deeply through his nose. At this close proximity, I could get a scent of something gamey from him, like the deepest woods. “Well, he’s definitely canine,” he said. “I’d put money on it. Some kind of shifter, but there’s something else. Something… I can’t quite put a finger on it.”
Noel frowned. “What do you mean by ‘else?’” I didn’t like the little crease between his eyes. I wanted to touch him and ease his worry.
And so, that’s what I did. I took a step forward and reached up to his face. I gently traced the worry line with my finger. When I took my hand away, Noel was staring at me with wide eyes. Reggie, too, was open-mouthed. “Why do I feel like I just witnessed something dirty?” he said.
Noel cleared his throat and eased back from me, putting a small space between us. Not so much, though, that I couldn’t smell the brief release of hormones.
“You were saying?” Noel encouraged Reggie to continue.
“Uh, yes. Right. The only way I can describe it is to say that it’s something old.”
“Old, like my grandmother?”
Reggie chuckled. “No, like way older. Ancient, in fact. He smells of centuries past, of the passage of time, of cultures long forgotten.”
Noel frowned again, but this time it was not of worry; I recognized a feeling of curiosity that I was also beginning to feel. “You’re being very cryptic,” he said.
Reggie took the round things off his face and wiped them with the corner of his shirt. “Honestly, I’m a little hesitant to say anything.”
“Why? We’ve always been candid with each other before.”
“Yes, but this is way out there.”
Noel made a gesture with his hand, flapping it towards Reggie.
“Alright,” Reggie finally relented. “He smells like… magic.”
A little sound like a cough or laugh escaped Noel’s lips before he bit down on them. “Like, bibbity-boppity-boo? Will he turn back into a wolf at midnight?”
It sounded like he didn’t believe the words he was saying, but I turned to Reggie quickly. I very much wanted to know the answer to this question.
I may not have been a human for very long, but this had very quickly turned into a place I wanted to be. The sights, the smells, the food! In the woods, I had been cold and hungry, and very much alone. Here, with Noel, I finally felt like I was where I belonged. I felt like I was wanted.
Reggie released a long breath in a huff. “I really wish I had answers for you, but I’m afraid I’m in way over my head on this one.”
“You’re not the only one,” Noel said softly.
The door opened behind us, and I spun around, ready to defend. A warm hand was instantly on my arm, halting me before I could spring. “Easy,” Noel whispered to me, soothing my snarling inner wolf. “It’s just Ella, do you remember her?”
> “Hoo boy,” a small female said in a high voice as she strutted toward me, eyes gleaming.
She certainly didn’t look like a threat; in fact, she was the exact opposite. I got a warm and caring vibe from her, though she was also obviously an alpha. Despite her size, there was a clear sense of purpose and strength to her. I instantly liked her.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me?” She held her hand out to me, while her eyes roamed my body, sizing me up. “Ella Stewart,” she said.
I stared at her hand. She stared at her hand. Reggie and Noel stared at her hand.
“Okay then,” she finally said slowly, lowering her hand. She almost seemed a little grumpy. Had I done something wrong?
“He’s… new in town,” Noel said as if offering an explanation.
“Uh huh,” she mumbled.
“What are you doing here, anyway?” Noel asked her, bringing her attention back to him.
She held something up, a small box with bars across one end. I could see something moving inside. “Maybe you didn’t know, but our boss, Mr. Sharp here, is like a literal cat whisperer.”
Reggie blushed. “Stop it, I am not.” But he was already reaching for the box. “Give him here.”
“With pleasure.” She shoved the box at Reggie, and he opened one end of it.
From within came a beast like none other I had ever laid eyes on. I was used to the wild creatures in the woods; the large predators, all teeth and claws; the prey, tiny and quivering, and oh so delicious. This animal didn’t fit into either of those categories. He wasn’t much larger than a rabbit, but I could instantly tell that this wasn’t an animal to be underestimated.
Reggie, however, didn’t seem to understand the inner nature of this creature. He cuddled it into his chest as though it were a defenseless kit.
I braced myself for the inevitable attack. I liked Reggie, and I certainly didn’t want to see him get hurt. But then everything changed. Reggie brought his hand up to stroke the creature’s chin. With that simple (and life-threatening) action, the animal’s entire body sagged. It relaxed into his arms and actually began to purr.
“I don’t believe it,” Noel muttered.
“Right?” Ella said, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s the damnedest thing. Reggie, are you sure you don’t want to take him home with you? It would just be until my brother got back from his honeymoon.”
“Oh no, I’m afraid my apartment doesn’t allow animals.”
“Ummm… they don’t know about…” She gestured up and down the length of his body and then made her hands into claws. “You know, grrr.”
Reggie gave a little pout. “Not that it’s any of their business, and I’d like to think that I can restrain myself from scratching the carpets. I am human most of the time, you know.”
“Sure, sure. Of course.”
“Now if you don’t mind, I have work to do.” And with that, Reggie and the monster headed through a door at the back of the room.
“I’ll be back to pick him up at five,” Ella called after him. “Good riddance.” She brushed her hands together.
Ella then rounded her full attention on me, and I was caught in her black-eyed stare. “Now it’s your turn, buster. Do you want to fill me in on what happened between last night’s injured wolf and today’s man now standing here in borrowed clothes?”
I peeked over at Noel and saw that he was speechless, slack jawed. “You know who he is? How—”
She waved him away. “Oh please. I’ve seen you wear these clothes a million times, and you also haven’t had a man stay over in waaaaaay too long. Seriously, you should join a convent.”
“Hey, that’s unfair,” Noel griped, but a small warmth built inside me at the thought that he’d been alone.
Just as I had.
I listened to them bicker back and forth, their playful banter not unlike the wolves of my old pack. The more I thought of the wolves in my past, in comparison to the humans, I began to feel something unspooling from deep within. It was ancient, just as Reggie had said, a hidden well of magic buried deep inside me.
I closed my eyes, imagining a well brimming with a shimmering gold. I reached one finger down to touch the surface of it. A ripple moved across the surface away from my touch. I looked down at my finger and saw that it too was now gold. It moved and shifted, spreading slowly up my hand. And with it, came a warmth, tingling me to my core.
I knew things. Not because I had learned them, but because my ancestors had known them. This was an untapped source of magic, spilling out, just waiting for someone to access it.
That someone just happened to be me.
I opened my eyes, surprised to see that I was still in the office with Noel. I knew this wasn’t a cave, it was a building. I looked around at the art on the walls, the desks, the carpet beneath my feet.
I knew it all.
“Noel?” I said, testing my voice for the first time. He turned to me, eyes wide. Ella looked just as surprised, as if she had forgotten I was even there. “I don’t want to go back to the woods. I want to stay with you.”
9
Noel
“Do you like ghost stories, Noel?”
Ella’s voice tugged at the edges of my mind. “Huh?” I said, not taking my eyes from Wolf. He, in turn, was staring right back. He hadn’t said much since he first broke his silence. He seemed happy enough to just listen. And to watch me.
We were sitting on the worn leather couch reserved for waiting clients. Not that we had many clients. Ella pressed a cup of bitter coffee into my hand.
“Ghost story, I said.” She clicked her fingers in my face until I finally turned to look at her.
“Sure, I guess.” I shrugged. “It’s a little late for Halloween, though. Have any Christmas stories?”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Bear with me for a minute. Once upon a time, hundreds of years ago, there was this guy.”
I raised my eyebrows at her lack of details. “You’re quite the storyteller.”
She waved my sarcasm away. “Okay, so I don’t know any of this for sure, and I’ve forgotten the history behind it. I’m winging it. Bear with me for a minute, okay?”
I gestured for her to continue and sat back in the sofa. I could feel Wolf’s leg pressed against mine, and I found the heat of him through my pantleg to be terribly distracting. I took a sip of my coffee and did my best to pay attention.
“So,” she said again. “There was this guy, an alpha, he was like a settler or something, back when Pittsburgh was just starting out as a city. I think. Maybe. Anyway, he met the omega of his dreams and they fell madly in love. It was epic love, on the grandest of scales. Like, true love.”
“Where are the ghosts? You promised me ghosts,” I teased.
“Shh! I’m getting there. As with so many undying love stories, the omega gets pregnant. Yay! But then tragedy struck. The omega died during childbirth, because healthcare was like, non-existent back then. The alpha was absolutely crushed. In his devastation, he wandered into the woods in the dead of winter, never to be seen again. The end.”
“Ummm... that’s a really sad story, Ella, but there were still no ghosts.”
“Oh, right.” She cleared her throat and took on a spooky quality to her voice. “To this very day, people swear they see his spectral form wandering through the woods, searching for his lost love.”
I heaved a sigh. My patience was wearing a little thin today. “Ella, I love you like a sister, but can Wolf and I just go home now? I think we have some stuff to work out.”
I went to stand, but Wolf placed a hand on my thigh, stilling my movement. “Wait,” he whispered. “There’s more.”
Ella’s eyes widened a little as she looked at him. “You’re right! There was a point to this story.”
“Oh, thank the goddess. A point.” I was being a little snippy with her, but in reality, a small chill was starting to creep through me. The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees, though no one had opened the doo
r.
Ella leaned forward. “I heard a second theory about what happened to the poor alpha. The story goes like this. The guy was actually a wolf shifter, but back then he would’ve had to keep that under wraps. So, when his true love died, he ran into the woods. Except he didn’t die. He turned into a wolf and refused to rejoin the human world. They had failed to save his omega, and he couldn’t stay to live amongst humans any longer when everything reminded him of what he’d lost. He found himself a pack, and lived out the rest of his life as a wolf.”
We were all silent a moment. Ella wiggled her eyebrows and jutted her chin towards Wolf at my side. “Huh? What do you think?”
My breath stuttered to a stop. “What, you think he’s the wolf from the ghost story?”
She frowned a little. “Yeah, probably not. That seems a bit far-fetched. Okay, so not the same exact wolf, but maybe a descendent?”
I turned to look at Wolf and startled at the heat in his eyes. “Well?” I gulped. “What do you think?”
He gave a casual shrug, but there was a tension to his shoulders. “I don’t know for sure. It’s hard for me to explain. I don’t have access to all the specific memories of every one of my ancestors, but I have this vast knowledge at my fingertips.”
“Like English?” I said, one eyebrow raised.
“Yes, like English,” he chuckled. “I know the names for everything around me, even though I’ve never laid eyes on them myself. Like…” He reached forward and plucked a magazine from the coffee table. “I know what a magazine is. Maybe not… that…” He flipped it open to a page with an ad for a breadmaker. “What’s wrong with an oven?”
“Looks like you know how to read too.” I left him to flip through the pages and looked back at Ella. She was watching us with a wistful smile. “This proves that your story can’t be true. Even if he somehow magically knows everything from this ancient wolf, passed through the generations, then how the hell would a settler from hundreds of years ago have known about magazines?”