Her mind slipped in and out of conciousness, like waves on a beach.
Her eyes fluttered open. A wooden beam ceiling stared down at her. She turned, glancing around. The clock on the wall read one-thirty. Only a half hour. It wasn’t long enough for a dream to come. Or was it?
She sat up suddenly. “Holy crap!”
Her door burst open, and Chris came barreling in. “What! What’s wrong?”
Arching an eyebrow at the younger Michaels brother, she frowned. Had it all been a dream? It had to be. There was no such thing as a werewolf, but deep down, she knew there was. This voice in her head that no doctor had been able to quiet had been with her since childhood. It’d talked in her dreams of magick when she was little. It told her about the wolves that lived around her. It’d been fun, like an imaginary friend at night, but as she aged, it began to cry and mourn for the life it could never share with her.
The voice’s pain had become so loud Sarah started taking sleeping pills to silence it. The pills had stifled the dreams. Every once in a while she would forget her pill or run out of her perscription, and the dreams and voice would return. But they were nightmares now. Full of pain, sorrow, and screams of loneliness.
“Did I imagine it?” She met his soft gaze. He looked at her like Brad used to look at her. He cared about her. Even after she’d been hateful to him, he still cared.
He shook his head. “Let me get Siobhan and Kate. They wanted to talk to you about the dreams.”
She gasped. “How do you know about the dreams?” No one knew. Only her doctor and her mother. Her mother would never have said anything.
“You said something about dreams and nightmares on the deck earlier. You were having a panic attack.” He stepped to the door and turned back. “We can help you, Sarah.”
She shook her head. “No one can help me. Least of all conspiracy theorists who believe in werewolves.” All the suspicions returned. He might care about her, but he and her so-called friends were one step away from the loony-bin.
The corners of his mouth turned up just slightly. He was trying to hold back a smile, but his twinkling eyes gave him away. What the hell is he laughing about? Werewolves are not real. They can’t be.
“Let me get them.” He didn’t wait for her to object. One moment he was in her doorway, and the next he was gone.
“Well, fine then.” She sighed and swung her feet over the side of the bed, scrunching her toes in the carpet.
Siobhan was a family friend of Margaret’s. She’d come for the wedding. Tall, willowy, with blond spiral curls, she reminded Sarah of the hippie that ran the supplement shop down the street from her old apartment in Texas. Crazy hair, crazy clothes, and lots of crystals that supposedly made her more in tune with the earth. She did sell the best incense in town, though.
Kate was petite and cute. She wore her black hair in a pixie cut, and her blue eyes were sharp, but compassionate. At the reception, Kate had introduced herself and asked if she needed anything. She’d mentioned something about her seeming down. Now, come to find out, she was in the middle of all this mess too.
A few minutes later, Siobhan’s voice called from the doorway. “Sarah.”
“Come in.” She scooted back up onto the bed and crossed her legs, waiting for the explanation to crazy.
Siobhan smiled and sat quietly in the recliner across from the bed. “What did they tell you?”
“That a werewolf killed Brad. That I’m a werewolf. And that I’m a target for the same group that killed Brad.”
Kate walked in quietly and leaned against the wall. Siobhan turned to her and nodded. “Yes, the Council wants you eliminated. They consider latents mistakes that need to be corrected. But, Sarah, let’s start with some history.”
Shit. “Okay.” Why not? I’m still not going to believe you.
“In the ancient times, magick was more openly practiced than it is today. I’m talking way back in ancient Greece. Werewolves and all other supernatural beings were invoked upon humanity by mages or what you might call magicians. Nowadays they are commonly called witches and warlocks. But I digress. Werewolves were originally created to make Spartan soldiers stronger. Pack-written histories say a god called Lycurgus created the first wolf-man, or werewolf. Lycurgus was actually a mage, not a god, but he really likes that title. From that first wolf came eleven family lines. The first of each family sits on the Council as an original. There is more to the Council, but we will stop there for now.”
Holy shit! Kate acts like she knows this Lycurgus guy. How old are these people? “Why only eleven?” Fact or fiction, it was still an intriguing story.
Siobhan interrupted her thoughts by continuing. “Those eleven can turn other humans into werewolves. Though all children and those born of others changed by the eleven are wolves, we do not carry the magick that enables us to change a full-blooded human into a supernatural. Only an original has that power.”
“So you’re saying all werewolves orginated from those eleven?” Sarah asked, knowing disbelief was clearly written on her face.
“Yes. Stefan Antipas, your great-great grandfather, and his sister, Renata, are decendants of an original and claim status as royalty. Other wolves, like the Michaels family, were changed via a transformation. They’re not part of the royal bloodlines,” Siobhan answered.
“Are you?” Sarah asked.
Siobhan smiled and shook her head. “No, my family isn’t royal either.”
“But you’re trying to tell me I am?”
“Yes.”
“But I’m human.”
“For all intents and purposes, yes, you’re human. But you have a wolf’s soul trapped within you.”
“The dreams...”
“Yes.”
“It’s real?”
“She’s very real.”
“She?”
“You’re female, therefore, your wolf is female as well. We don’t encounter very many latent wolves because it is against our laws to have children with humans for this very reason. The wolf soul is born with the human baby’s soul but is trapped in the unconcious. There is no way to communicate between the two souls like we are able to. That’s why she comes to you in dreams. Your concious mind fades to the unconcious.”
“Wait, you can talk to your wolf? Like, right now?”
Siobhan smiled and nodded.
Sarah couldn’t help but feel a small amount of hope. If they could talk to their wolves maybe she could finally get rid of her nightmares. Anything she needed to do would be worth it to end the neurotic torture. Maybe, just maybe what they were saying was true.
“Can I ask her a question?”
“Of course, but it’s filtered through me. It’s very rare for the wolf to take control of the human host. Though it has happened.”
“Oh...can she tell me why my wolf cries and screams and makes sleeping a constant nightmare?”
Sarah watched Siobhan start to say something and then pause. She really was acting like someone was whispering in her ear.
“She says try to imagine being locked alone in a dark room for your entire life. She said you probably interacted in your dreams with your wolf as a child and then grew frightened as you got older. Childhood innocence allowed you to bridge the gap, but after that, you broke off contact and muted her attempts to speak to you. Once you started with sleeping pills, she was completely isolated.”
Sarah cringed, thinking of the misery. She hadn’t meant to be cruel, but she hadn’t known any better. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
“She knows that, sweetie.”
“How do you know about the pills?”
“Chris saw them on your bathroom counter when he brought you up.”
“Oh.” Sarah sighed and leaned back agains the headboard of the bed. She squashed a pillow under her head and wriggled until she was comfortable.
“My mom has a wolf, too, doesn’t she?”
“Yes, and your grandmother. But they are too old to survive the transformation. W
e can’t help them.”
Tears welled and stung her eyes. It wasn’t fair. Her mother shouldn’t have to keep suffering too. The dreams weren’t something they ever talked about. Her mother had taken her to the doctor for a prescription sleep aid when they’d become bad at night, but she knew the mental agony she suffered through on a daily basis was shared by her mother. There were many nights she’d heard her mother cry out.
“What will happen to me...if I...t-transform?”
Kate stepped forward and knelt by the bed. “I will perform a spell and call the wolf’s soul up, waking it into your full conciousness. Then you two will be able to coexist in a healthy way. We need to do it during the full moon to make it easiest on you. The next one is in a few days.”
“Why you? Why not Siobhan?”
“I am very old and the only one with enough power to call up your wolf. Though we will also tap into Chase’s alpha power to connect with the wolf spirit as well.”
“How old?” Hints had been given earlier in the conversation, but she wanted Kate to confirm her suspicions. She couldn’t really be from ancient Greece, right?
Kate smiled, and her blue eyes flashed. “I stopped counting a couple thousand years ago.”
Air whooshed from Sarah’s lungs. She was! Damn. How did someone exist for thousands of years and still look like they were barely thirty? “You look...”
“I’m immortal. Just like Lycurgus, though he likes to be called Lee now. I was once called Aset, or Isis in ancient Egypt.”
“So you’re saying you’re an ancient Egyptian goddess slash witch? This Lycurgus guy is one too, and he created the first werewolves? And you’ve both been around since ancient times? Does that about sum it up?”
An amused smile spread across Kate’s face. She stood and walked to the door. “That’s about it in a nutshell for now. I’ll be back later. Siobhan will answer any other questions you have, okay?”
Sarah nodded and turned back to Siobhan. “Will I turn into some scary monster like you see in the movies?”
“No, sweetie. But you will turn into a wolf. We’re all different colorings, but most of us resemble the average timber wolf.”
Sarah shot up off the bed. “That’s why he was smirking when he told me several wolves lived around here. The damn man was talking about all of you.”
“What?”
“Chris! Yesterday morning. I saw a wolf walk across the lawn outside. I mentioned it to him, and he said several wolves lived in the area.”
Siobhan burst into a fit of giggles. “You probably saw him coming back from his morning run. He’s gone out around six every morning since he got here,” Siobhan confirmed.
Sarah’s eyes widened. “You mean the wolf was Chris?”
Siobhan nodded.
“So the other wolves I saw a few minutes later were...?”
“Probably some of us. I know the Damakis girls went out yesterday morning too. It might have been them.”
“Can you talk when you’re a wolf?” She bit her lip. This was all too strange.
“No.” Siobhan laughed again and shook her head. “You’re still present and aware of everything happening. It’s not like the wolf takes over your being. You just become a wolf.”
“If I do this spell, would I be able to sleep and function like a normal person?”
“It will be a huge adjustment for you both. I won’t lie to you, Sarah.”
“Can I see one of you change or transform? Is that allowed?”
Siobhan’s face brightened. “Of course. I’m just thrilled that you want to.”
“I have nobody, Siobhan. I lost the one man who loved me despite my restless nights, filled with sleepwalking, screaming, and crying. I don’t know how my mother and father have made it so many years. If there is a way to live without fear and terror hanging over my head every time I close my eyes, I want it. Brad would want me to have it, no matter how crazy you all sound.”
CHAPTER THREE
Chris stood when Siobhan and Sarah came down the main stairwell. Siobhan nodded but subtly waved him off. They went through the main doorway and out to the front of the lodge.
Crap! Heath was patroling the north side this morning.
His wolf started laughing. “That’s going to be awkward. I didn’t hear Siobhan mention anything about lion shifters here at the inn.”
Shut up!
“You’d better get up.”
He growled. His wolf was right. If he didn’t warn Siobhan, they were likely to walk right into the big mountain lion. Sarah might be coming to terms with werewolves, but they didn’t have to lay out the entire supernatural genome on the first day.
Closing the door quietly behind him, he scanned the tree line for the two women. He heard them first. They were headed down a small path to the right...and Heath was in a tree right above where they were headed.
Shit.
“Maybe she won’t look up.” His wolf snickered.
“Why is he just laying there? Why didn’t he come back inside?” He spoke aloud.
“He’s a cat. They are lazy and sun bathers.”
Chris sniffed. The wind was blowing north. Siobhan wouldn’t smell Heath until they were right on him.
“Heath!” he bellowed, hoping the wind would carry his voice. It worked. The tawny feline stretched and turned toward him. But the movement dropped his tail below the branch he was stretched out on and caught the attention of both women.
Sarah’s shriek was terrifying, but he had to give her props because she didn’t run. The little firecracker stood her ground. He sprinted toward them. Siobhan was trying to calm her down and it wasn’t working. Sarah was speeding down the road toward another full-blown panic attack.
“Heath!” he roared. “Change now.” She needed to see the big cat wasn’t a threat. It was the only way they were going to get her grounded again.
The mountain lion yawned and slipped to the ground, shifting the second his feet touched the dirt. “What the hell is your problem? I was just taking a nap.”
“Some guard you are, kitty cat,” Chris snarled, closing the gap between himself and Sarah in seconds. “Didn’t you hear them coming?”
Heath chuckled and crossed his arms over his bare chest. He rolled his head back and forth then turned to Sarah and Siobhan.
“Didn’t mean to startle you, Sarah. I was under the impression you already knew about all of us.” He scowled at Siobhan. “Surprises happen when you don’t tell the whole truth.”
“Maybe we should’ve let you break the news that an entire magickal world exists within the one she knows, and oh, by the way, we have a little bit of everything here at the inn,” Siobhan quipped back.
“Maybe you should have,” Health said, a teasing smile spreading over his face.
Chris rubbed Sarah’s back, hating the wheezing sound coming from her lungs. It was starting to slow, and now he noticed something different. A scent of arousal. The hair on the back of his neck pricked at the thought of her with another man. He didn’t need to worry. Heath was happily mated, but he still found himself very possessive of the little redhead.
“Go find some pants.”
“Jealous, wolf-boy?” Heath snorted. He winked at Sarah, shifted back into a mountain lion, and gracefully padded away from them toward the inn.
Chris growled but stopped when he caught Siobhan’s accusitory glare.
“Sarah, I’m sorry,” Siobhan started. Sarah pushed away from Chris and held up her hand.
“What else?” Sarah hissed. “What else have you all lied about? You said there were wolves. Not lions. Are there tigers and bears too!” she yelled, taking a few more steps away from Chris and Siobhan.
He swallowed a growl, not pleased she was pushing him away, again. Something deep inside him said she was vulnerable and mentally not in a strong place. “Sarah,” he cooed, changing his tactics in mid-stride.
“Don’t Sarah me!” she snapped.
So much for that.
“Yes, ther
e are lions and tigers and bears too, Sarah. And many others,” Siobhan answered calmly. “Kate and I thought one history lesson at a time would be enough.”
Sarah’s complexion whitened. He took another step forward, but she backed away.
“Old magick created supernaturals. Ancient gods and goddesses and wizards and sorcerers created beings thousands of years ago to help them fight wars. We are the descendants of that magick. There are many species, and we have coexisted with humans for millenia,” Siobhan finished.
Waking Sarah Page 3