Weremones

by Buffi Becraft-Woodall

  He reached up and brushed his hand over her eyes, forcing her to close them. He leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Reach out. You have the pack alpha’s awareness.”

  “I’m an empath. I’m aware of a lot of things.”

  “No. It’s more than that. Close your eyes.”

  Adam placed his hand over her eyes. The warmth seeped into her skin.

  “Close them. You are a part of the magic that weaves the pack together. Feel where everyone is, how they are. You can dispense comfort or pain as you choose.”

  Diana reached out with her senses to the fabric that made up the wolf pack. She felt the individual threads that made up each one. Knew the identity of each. They were hers. If she chose, she could follow each thread to its owner to find out what he was feeling.

  She could communicate if she wished, not with words, but she could express a need or simple command. One strand, heavier than all the rest, glittered with power. She followed the thread back to the source. She opened her eyes, meeting his.

  “Yes. I feel it.”

  Adam nodded.

  “Even without choosing me as your mate, you are the Matra Canis.” She didn’t know what to make of his smile. “You are the Pack Mother of their choice.”

  Adam shook his head.

  “It’s not supposed to be that way. I don’t know how the boys managed it. From that first night in the woods, when they brought you to me, they had made their choice. But I think that they needed to be able to choose. They need you to choose them back.”

  I need you to choose me. He didn’t say the words. He was tired of begging for scraps of affection from his pack. She’d either choose them, him, or not.

  “One more thing.”

  Okay, he wasn’t quite through. He couldn’t have her cutting all ties and walking away.

  “Brandon doesn’t defend himself, much less anyone else. Garrick damaged him so badly. But for you, he changed. He protected you from that man. He was running and afraid. He came back to make sure you would make it.”

  He sat back and watched her shoulders sag. Guilt was a wonderful motivator.

  “I don’t know. I need to think.”

  She did look tired. Wiped out. He’d laid a lot of responsibility at her feet and demanded she take it. He felt a tiny bit bad for her, but not so much that he wouldn’t do everything in his power to keep her near. Not for the boys sake, for his own.

  He got up and pulled the covers up.

  “Get some sleep.” He bent and rubbed his cheek along the sweet softness of hers while she was too tired to resist. “I’ll hold them off as long as possible, but before long everyone will filter up here to keep you company.”

  Adam paused in the doorway to watch her drift off to sleep. Her short straight hair stood up in spikes against her pillow. He ached to uncover all the full womanly curves that taunted him under that nightgown.

  “Have just a little more courage, for you. And faith, in me.”

  He quietly closed the door. There was more exhausting pack business waiting downstairs.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Adam stood for a moment in the opening to the living room. Inside, everyone sat in a loose huddle. It amazed at him how comfortable the humans were.

  His mother had never been so comfortable around wolven gatherings. That was why she moved halfway across the country, away from Paul Sheppard, to non-pack area, and married a man as human as she.

  How human were psychics?

  Mack laughed and play wrestled with Mark, knuckling the boy’s blond chili bowl haircut, while Karen sat secure in her boyfriend’s lap. Bradley’s arms circled around the teenage girl.

  She giggled and cringed when he buried his face in her neck. The rest of his pack, Tank and Chase included, chatted among themselves.

  “There is a lot to do before tonight’s hunt.”

  He walked to the center of the group and crouched in front of Karen. She met his stare with her own, unafraid, a touch uncertain for being singled out.

  She was always in and around the boys, especially Bradley, so Adam had never singled her scent out before.

  He’d been slow to realize that the boys had made Karen a part before his arrival.

  If she carried pack scent for another reason then the close association with the boys would hide that. Still, there were things he had to be sure of.

  “You’re a very pretty girl, Karen. It’s no surprise that Bradley has taken to you.”

  Adam gestured at the teenagers, together, as a couple.

  “But, I have to wonder. What happens when it’s time for college? I know I’m going to insist on it for Bradley. You know how young men are on the college scene.”

  Karen stared at him, her brow furrowed and her hands gripped at her boyfriend’s until her knuckles whitened.

  “No. I don’t think I do,” she lied.

  “Adam.”

  He silenced Bradley’s protest with a cut of his eyes. The weight of censure from the pack bored into his back.

  “College is a happening place. Lots of other pretty girls. A guy’s hormones are going to be playing hell. He’s gonna slip up.” Karen’s face paled, as white as her knuckles. Adam went in for the kill.

  “It makes me wonder. What’s going to happen when he does slip up? He may get it on with another female.”

  Adam shrugged off Bradley’s warning growl. The pup’s uncomfortable noises didn’t bother him.

  “You know, at some point he’s going to screw up big time. What are you going to do?”

  Karen’s white face pinked with anger. She struggled out of Bradley’s grip and stood up with her hands on her hips looking down on Adam.

  “You think I’m going to betray them? Me?”

  She sputtered for a moment, obviously trying to find vile enough words without resorting to foul language. She looked so much like her mother that Adam had to suppress his smile under a scowl.

  “Betray you? Let’s get a few facts straight. I’ve been around far a lot longer than a year.” She raised a little hand and started to tick off her fingers.

  “I’ve helped hide the little boys from Garrick and his so-called warden scum. I’ve bandaged burns, learned enough first aid by the time I was eight to splint arms and legs. I’ve lied. And once drove the getaway car!”

  By the time she finished her arms were waving wild enough for a plane to land by. Bradley grasped the hem of her tee shirt and tugged gently.

  “Karen.”

  Off to the side, Brandon made a series of cutting motions across his neck for her to stop. Adam figured the rest of the boys were making similar cease and desist motions the girl did not heed.

  “The getaway car?” Adam allowed himself to grin, finally. He couldn’t have kept up the stern face much longer without choking. “Now that’s a story I’d like to hear.”

  “Urp!”

  Karen landed with a thud in Bradley’s lap. The boy literally took matters in his own hands. He wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her off her feet. He winced hard when she made contact and buried his face in the back of her neck.

  He garbled something that sounded like, “Show some respect.” But it was hard to make out through the whimper.

  Adam stood and turned to face Mack. The ex-soldier was leaned back against the bottom of the sofa, arms crossed. He upended his hands in the air.

  “Don’t look at me. I’d shoot you myself before letting anyone else at your hide.”

  Adam shook his head at Mack’s off the wall answer. Yet, he had no illusions that his friend wouldn’t take him out if he deemed Adam a danger.

  “Let’s get down to business folks.”

  He crouched down, unlaced his work boots before toeing them off, and stowed the socks inside. Everyone else who wore shoes followed suit.

  Adam whipped his tee shirt over his head. Karen gave a squeak of protest.

  “Hey! Wait a minute!”

  Adam turned back to the girl with a smile.

  “Don’t
worry. It’s important to be comfortable for this ceremony. Less restrictions on the body.” Less mess too, he refrained from saying out loud. “If you want to change clothes, feel free to do so. Remember, there will be some touching of skin to skin.”

  He glanced a make to make sure the man understood he’d be included in this, too.

  “Nothing perverse, I promise. Everyone keeps his, and her, hands and body parts contained appropriately.”

  Almost everyone in the circle nodded. Karen beat a hot retreat up the stairs to her room. Adam stepped over Seth’s outstretched legs and crouched in front of Brandon. He kept his hands in plain sight on the tops of his jean covered thighs. His voice was low and careful.

  “That okay with you, buddy?”

  Brandon drew his knees up under his chin. He looked past Adam, trepidation oozing from him. Adam kept his body language non-threatening. He didn’t need another outburst from the boy.

  No, he didn’t think he could handle another outburst like the kitchen incident.

  “You’re making Chase and Tank your wardens.”

  “Yes, I am. But they’re not so much my wardens as the pack’s. A warden’s job is to protect the pack from harm. Any harm. Even if it’s someone in the pack that’s doing harm. And frankly, as is, we’re not strong enough to hold our territory against other predators.”

  “What about the werecoyote pack?”

  “Well,” Adam felt as though he was walking a thin line. One wrong answer, and the kid might take him up on walking out. Brandon might make it alone, but he’d fare far better with his pack to buffer for him. “I’m going to order a purging.”

  “What’s a purging?” Seth sidled closer. Serious curiosity lit his dark eyes. “Are you going to kill all the werecoyotes?”

  Adam reached out and set a hand on the fuzzy dark curls. Chatter started up around him. He raised a hand in the air to quiet them.

  “Good God, people. A purging is an evacuation of other predatory supernaturals. It’s not a slaughter.”

  He didn’t know if his kids were naturally a bloodthirsty lot, or they acted that way because of all they’d been through.

  Though, truthfully, a purging was exactly that before the various supernatural leaders got together and hammered out a treaty.

  “What sets wolven apart from weres is that we are an organized society. A strict society that protects itself. We can’t do that if we let in the weres, vampires, and other predators, that do not follow our laws, run amok in our territories.”

  Adam stood. All eyes followed his movement.

  “We are wolven. We keep what is ours safe and we don’t share with outsiders.”

  “But are you going to kill them?”

  Adam looked down at Brandon. He sighed and crouched back down to the boy’s level.

  “What do you think?”

  He waited, feeling the weight o the boy’s judgment.

  “I think that you will try to be fair. Some are going to die because Benj won’t want to leave his businesses behind. And he thinks we owe him.”

  A slow smile formed on Adam’s face. Sharp, white teeth, pointed for tearing his prey, gleamed.

  “Benjamin Gates will die.”

  Brandon nodded. His knees bumped his chin. His focus found and centered on the two strays they were about to adopt. He was okay with whatever plans were made. Soon, his tormentor would be unable to bother him again.

  “I don’t like to be touched.” Brandon’s protest was small, but harsh in the scheme of the pack. A rejection.

  “All right.” Adam agreed. He knew the statement was false. Brandon was in constant physical contact with those he trusted. Bradley, Karen, Diana, and to a lesser extent the other boys. Occasionally, the boy brushed up against Adam to fulfill the need to connect that all shape shifters shared, wolven and weres.

  Adam slapped his palms together. It was time.

  ———

  Diana woke to the sense that something was about to happen. Something momentous, she should be a part of. A glance at the clock said that she’d been asleep for only a few minutes.

  Like before, Diana used the wall for balance. At the head of the stairs, Adam’s voice lured her on. She descended the stairs, careful to hold on to the handrail.

  “The Welcoming is a ritual as old as time, going back to before memory, when our kind slipped away from the human tribe to run with our cousin the wolf.”

  Adam’s story swirled in her mind, as half remembered images tried to surface.

  She felt herself slip into the pack bond.

  “Eventually, curiosity lured the wolven ancestors back to the human realm. But, after living so long among the pack, they were no longer human. But neither were they completely wolf. We were Wolven.

  “A pack is more than a group that hangs out together. It is comforting your pack brother. Helping with homework. Watching for other predators that could harm the whole. The pack is family.”

  “Tonight we welcome Tank and Chase into our family.”

  He turned to the strays.

  “We offer you acceptance. The comfort and trust of the pack. Do you accept?”

  Both males stepped forward. Tank took another half step, presenting himself to the alpha. He swept his hair off his shoulder, baring his neck in a formal gesture of submission and went to his knees.

  “In return for your gift, I offer blood and meat to the pack. My muscle to protect and provide. My blood to bind and heal. My allegiance to the Pater Canis and to the well being of my Pack.”

  Adam drew a pale claw tipped hand delicately over the vulnerable dark skin covering Tank’s artery.

  The words beat a familiar cadence in Diana’s head, as if she’d heard them before, taken them inside her to live. She made it as far as the entry to the living room, edging around the frame to slide down the wall and watch the mesmerizing ceremony.

  Adam took one sharp claw and drew it up his forearm. Blood welled and ran in scarlet lines down his wrist. He offered the arm to the man kneeling before him. Tank took the offering, lapping up his chosen leader’s life’s blood. A sense of satisfaction eased from the dark warrior.

  “Blood to Blood. Brother to Brother. Hunt to hunt.” Once Tank released the arm, Adam placed both hands on the still kneeling man’s shoulders. Red drops ran down his forearm, dropping onto Tank’s chest in the region of his heart. “Now, we run as one, my brother. Heart-Hunt-Pack.”

  Adam lifted his arms and Tank rose in a single fluid motion. He stepped back gracefully, making room for Chase.

  Diana was drawn by the power in the ceremony. The sizzle ran through her, the connection made. Her limited understanding glimpsed what it was to be pack.

  She felt joined with every male and female, running through the woods in harmony together. All four of her paws were the wind, her fur the cloud the wind pushed along, and the woods were her sky.

  Diana sucked in a breath as she came back to herself.

  While she was out running metaphysically with the pack she missed some of the proceedings. Chase was now kneeling in Tank’s place at Adam’s feet.

  Adam started the chant again. This time, the pack, everyone, joined in. The swell of power lifted her up into sky again. Howl-song surrounded her. When it was gone, run to its end, the pack, human and wolven, flopped in a satisfied half furry heap together.

  Diana smiled from her place at the door. She was too tired to crawl into their cozy pile, but it looked right. None of the wolves were unaffected by Adam’s call of power.

  He was an alpha all right.

  He lay back against the bottom of the sofa like a pagan god. His pack lay scattered around him.

  Silvery gold fur gilded the dense muscles of his body. He was bigger in his manwolf form. A pale blonde mane fell over his pale blue eyes, half closed, sleepy and satiated, after the huge amount of power he’d shared and tied to his pack.

  The peculiar pale blue of his eyes fastened on her and he smiled at her, a strange and still handsome movement of his muz
zle that exposed white predator’s teeth. In that moment Diana felt a connection with him, a oneness of purpose that she’d never felt before.

  A shaggy golden wolf rose and stumbled over to her, breaking the intensity of the connection. Adam smiled again and turned to gently scratch the neck of the wolf boy curled up next to him. The boy made a wuffy giggle.

  “Chase, right?”

  The gold wolf bumped his head against her shoulder and settled down. He laid his head across her lap. Soon a lanky wolf, so dark a brown he was almost black, curled up on her other side.

  Chase reached his snout over, snuffling at his new companion then after a couple of cursory licks relaxed back into Diana’s lap.

  Their coats were clean with the twin scents of musk and woods. From a distance their fur looked silky and soft. Up close, with her fingers dug in, Diana felt the stronger, wirier over-pelt. Underneath, the second layer of fur was soft as down.

  Comforted by the soft warmth of their bodies, Diana drifted back to sleep tinged with the images of the forest beckoning to her.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “I want to go with you.”

  Adam pushed in the clutch and brake, and shifted the truck into neutral to look at the boy framed in the open truck window.

  He clutched the door like a lifeline, as if his will were anchored to the truck. The boy’s washed out features looked even worse in the night.

  Adam’s wolven night vision leeched the color out of everything leaving behind the stark, strained tension in Brandon’s face.

  Hell, he could feel the kid’s need as if it were his own. As Pater Canis of the pack, it was. Adam’s need for retribution was a fire in his belly.

  “Not this time, son” Adam shook his head. Death glittered in his eyes. He kept his gaze on the house instead of the boy. No sense scaring the crap out of the kid again tonight.

  He tried to keep his tone mild, for Brandon, but he was already preparing himself for what had to be done tonight. Before Benjamin Gates discovered where he left his nuts and retaliated.

  Adam had already let one night go concentrating on Diana’s injuries. Another would undermine his authority.