by Nara Malone
“They have their hands full with the orphan piglets.”
Jake looked up at Marcus. Nothing was going to sway him. Marcus could see how desperate Jake was to escape.
“I’ll keep him for you,” Marcus heard himself saying.
Jake straightened. “And keep him away from the computer. In fact both of you stay away from computers, especially mine.”
“Us? A rabbit and a millennial being? What could we possibly need with computers?”
“Just saying, Marcus.” Jake made a small, barely perceptible bow.
* * * * *
The music of female laughter led Marcus to Allie and her friends. They looked as if they had come straight from work—Franny in her uniform, Elaine in a beige business suit, Lila in a dress that oozed sex. A sinking sun painted the moon garden in hues of lavender and gold.
“Marcus,” Elaine called in greeting. “I hope you don’t mind Allie showing us around. I’ve wanted to see this place since I saw Allie’s first pictures.”
“You should see it in the moonlight,” Lila said. “It’s even more impressive when the bears are out and the wolves are howling.”
Elaine laughed and bumped Lila’s arm with her elbow. “They don’t have wolves in Virginia, dear.”
Marcus nudged his way between Lila and Franny to plant himself at Allie’s side and redirect the conversation. “Thank you, Lila, for bringing Allie’s things by. And thanks to all of you for keeping Hella safe.”
Hella squirmed in Allie’s arms. She hadn’t seen him since her rescue, but she reached a paw for him, one claw caught on a thread in his shirt. He freed the claw and rubbed Hella’s ears.
“There’s also nothing like having Marcus give you a tour in his druid robe,” Lila continued. She eyed his current ensemble—faded work shirt with sleeves rolled up to conceal they were too short, threadbare jeans and bare feet. A smirk made the direction of her thoughts obvious as her gaze moved from him to Allie’s outfit of shirt and sweatpants. He supposed it must appear they’d scrambled for whatever clothes they could find when unexpected guests arrived.
Elaine lifted an eyebrow and considered Marcus. “You dress like a Druid to give tours? Is she kidding?”
“Yes,” Allie said.
“Humph,” Franny said, giving Marcus an I-knew-you-were-the-devil look.
He tried shrugging the comment off with a laugh. It didn’t work. Elaine was looking at him as if she expected an invitation to a garden tour with him in costume.
“The robe was a little joke I played on Allie. I’m not even sure what I did with it.” He hated how easily these little twists on the truth came to him. What was he supposed to say? Mirror portals only transported living things. He kept robes on a hook beside his for the comfort of naked visitors. On that particular evening he’d just come through the portal when awareness of Allie’s presence drew him to the garden. He could imagine Franny’s reaction if she knew what he really was. Fortunately, none of Allie’s human friends had seen one of the Pantherians shift. It was hard to believe in the chaos of that ill-fated night, they’d managed to avoid the problem of what to do with human friends who knew too much.
To Elaine, Marcus said, “I’m sure the new tenants will give you a tour, but please call ahead.” In hopes of discouraging them from returning, he added, “There’ll be four men living here. They said our secluded compound was perfect for the sex games they’ll be hosting.”
Both Elaine and Lila moved closer, interest obvious. But it was Franny who asked, in a carefully neutral tone, “What kind of sex games?”
So much for deterring them. Marcus shrugged. “That’s all I know. But don’t be concerned. This compound covers a thousand acres and it’s secure. What they do here won’t impact anyone but the guests who choose to join them.” He wasn’t trying to dip into their minds, but avid interest sometimes allowed people’s thoughts to leak into his awareness.
Now that would be an interesting guest list. Elaine’s interest went beyond who might be on the guest list if the gleam in her eyes was any indication.
If it weren’t for the bears and wolves, it might be interesting to get lost in these woods and wander up to the door. He could only hope the wildlife continued to discourage Lila. He couldn’t see her agreeing to a game where Ben and company tracked her though the woods, each with the goal of catching her and fucking her before she made it to home base.
Franny was the one to zoom in on the most relevant detail in Marcus’ announcement. “Tenants? Where are you planning to go? Moving closer to town isn’t smart under the circumstances. One of those guys from the genetics lab keeps asking where Allie got off to. I don’t think his interest is casual.”
“Which is why we have to go. We’re too close to them and some of them saw Allie the night I snatched the pig.”
Allie looked up at him, her eyes full of questions. Bands of tension tightened around his chest. He should have told her the moving plans before he announced them to her friends. This was the first real interest she’d shown in much of anything since Eddie died. Contact with her friends had drawn her out of her inward retreat. He hated that they had to move away.
Franny grimaced. “I won’t say I agree with what you did. I sure don’t approve of you dragging Allie into this. But what they do up at that lab ain’t right either. Damn shame that pig died. We did everything we could to save her.”
Marcus sighed. “It’s often the case the mothers don’t survive. They implant too many embryos in an effort to maximize production. The same thing happened with the snow leopard I rescued. We lost her and the cubs.”
Allie reached for him then, fingers skimming the underside of his bare forearm, over his wrist, then linking with his. Hella had given up trying to get him to hold her and settled comfortably in the crook of Allie’s arm. The tightness in his chest eased.
“We saved the piglets this time,” Lila said. “That made it worth all the trouble. They still doing okay?”
“Beautifully. They’re already settled in at the farm we’ll be moving to.”
What appeared to be a furry snowball sprang from under a flower bush and attached itself to Marcus’ pant leg. A furry snowball with claws. Hella wriggled from Allie’s arms and sprang to the rescue when he bent to detach the troublemaker.
Marcus gently deposited the hissing bundle at his mother’s feet. She called her kittens and stalked off toward the house, tail high. Four miniature copies trotted after, their tails a line of white flags weaving through the tall grass.
“It looks as if she’s making herself at home,” Allie said.
He squeezed her hand. “I think she’ll like the new place better. You’ll see.”
“Tell us where you’re taking Allie,” Franny insisted.
Allie leaned into Marcus, putting her other hand on his arm. “He’s not taking me. We’re moving together.” Marcus wished he could read Allie’s thoughts in that moment. Was this a performance for worried friends or did she truly want to be with him? He’d done everything in his power to make her need him as much as he needed and wanted her. She needed him. He just wasn’t sure she still wanted him.
“We’re still finalizing details,” Marcus explained. “I haven’t had the chance to go through all of them with Allie. While Allie was seen and recognized during the last rescue, one of the animals she rescued, a snow leopard, is endangered. Illegal to experiment on. The lab can’t go to the police.”
“You’re assuming there’s no one on the force they can pay off,” Elaine said. “Given that a leopard was involved in your prior rescue and all the lines officers crossed when they interrogated Allie, I’d say that’s a risky assumption.”
“I thought of that. In case they were thinking of trying to get the law involved, I had a picture of the captive leopard delivered to them. They know we have evidence. We aren’t moving too far away. About three hours from here. Close enough to stay in touch with you, but far enough away to be able to go out in public without fear.”
�
�I don’t see why Allie has to turn her life upside down when they were the ones breaking the law,” Lila argued.
“Because I have past history that could make trouble for me if I’m charged with breaking and entering,” Allie said.
“I understand why you have to go,” Elaine said. “But I really hate losing you at the paper, Allie. Couldn’t you create an LLC or something to help you stay anonymous while doing contract work for me?”
Allie brightened. It was the closest he’d seen her to happy since Eddie died.
“We’ll find a way to make that work if that’s what she wants,” Marcus said. “I’m sure Seth can advise us.”
“That’s what I want,” Allie said. This time she did smile.
Lila had gotten more restless as the light faded. Glancing at the shrubbery. Squinting in the fading light. If Ben were around, Marcus would be tempted to put in a telepathic request for a wolf howl.
“Much as I hate to break up the party,” Lila said, “I have a date I need to get ready for.”
Franny came forward and locked Allie in a hug. “We’re not going to let you forget about us, sugar. But I agree with Marcus.”
Allie patted Franny’s back. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve been laying low for one reason or another all my life. I’m pretty good at it.”
Each friend came forward for hugs and goodbyes. Marcus wasn’t neglected in the farewell. Even Franny hugged him, though she whispered in his ear as she did, “You keep her safe and out of trouble, or I’m gonna make sure you suffer ten times the misery you bring down on her. Don’t even think I can’t make that happen, pretty boy.”
Marcus didn’t doubt it.
* * * * *
Allie waved to her friends and stood watching the drive for a long time after they left. Loneliness settled in with the dusk. Yes, she’d always stood apart from the crowd, but she’d been close enough to have company when she needed it. She’d been free and confident of her survival skills. Now nearly everything she learned about surviving in the world wouldn’t apply in the world she genuinely belonged to.
When she turned around she was annoyed to find Marcus quietly a few feet away. Sorrow turned to frustration. The bars of her current cage might not be as rigid as the one Eddie created, but it was still a cage.
“Worried I’d run away?” she snapped.
He winced. “Allie, you’re not a prisoner here. If you don’t want to stay, I’ll help you work out something else. I never intended to take charge of your life.”
He turned away, had started back toward the house when she exploded. “What a load of crap. Everything you’ve done since we met was an attempt to control me.”
Marcus stopped but didn’t turn around. “I wanted you. I won’t say I didn’t screw things up trying to persuade you to want me. That isn’t the same as controlling you.” His tone was like winter, cold wind and cracked ice. It didn’t cool her off.
“Explain to me why you never told me what I was? Give me one good reason you had to keep that secret from me. You must have known what I was before the night it all unraveled. Isn’t that why you were hanging around? You had everyone in on it. Jake. Maya. Seth! Why not tell me?”
He whirled to face her.
“I didn’t tell anyone. I know how it must look, but I was the only one who guessed at your true nature before you shifted in front of them. I didn’t tell you because I wanted to leave you with a choice. I wanted you to be free to live as the person you’d grown up believing you were.”
He stalked off toward the house then. He was mad.
Seriously? He thought he had the right to be mad at her? He had leveled the new life she’d built for herself in one night.
She ran after him, catching up as he stormed though the back entrance to his basement lab. In time to see him kick the cardboard carton teleporting Pantherians discarded their street clothes in. She’d like to kick it herself. Kick it right through the damn mirror portal.
“Now look who wants to run away,” she fumed. She slammed the door behind her.
A black rabbit dove from desk to floor and through the door that led upstairs. Allie didn’t recall seeing him before. She was in no mood to let bunnies distract her.
Marcus threw up his hands and dropped into his chair. “I’m sorry. You’re right. You deserve to be heard and I will stay here until you’re finished.”
“I need to know things, Marcus. I want you to stop keeping secrets from me for my own good.”
He picked up a pencil, tapped the eraser against the desk blotter. “What do you want to know?”
“Where we’re moving to might be a nice place to start.”
“I’m sorry. I wanted to discuss it with you first, but I just got the confirmation that Ben’s pack agreed to swap houses with us.”
“Are there any other details you are planning to discuss with me and haven’t gotten around to yet?”
Marcus looked away, gazing through the tall windows at the other end of the lab, tapping the pencil faster.
“That’s what I thought.” She was already heading for the same exit the rabbit had taken when she said it.
He grabbed her wrist as she stalked past.
“Allie, please, some of this is difficult. I’m trying to figure out where to start.” He gave her arm a tug. She relented, allowing him to pull her closer. She sat on the edge of his desk. When he let her hand go, she folded her arms across her chest.
He cleared his throat. “Jake will be gone for a while.”
From the way Marcus said it, she could tell it hadn’t been the friendliest of partings. “Why? Where? Did he go back to those dragon islands you told me about?”
“It’s the Dragon’s Triangle and the Pantherian Islands are located there. But no. He couldn’t go home without risking someone figuring out something unusual is going on with me and my family.” He started tapping that pencil again. “He went looking for your sister.”
Allie pinched the bridge of her nose, closed her eyes, then opened them to escape the visuals her brain served up. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, couldn’t let herself think about what had happened to her sister. A child thrown away and not lucky enough to wind up with Eddie.
“He can’t possibly find her. Where would he even start? There has to be some other reason he left, Marcus.”
He looked out the window again.
“Marcus?”
“He feels guilty about your father, thinks you blame him.”
“I don’t.”
“I know. But let’s leave him to this for a little while. We all have some adjusting to do.”
She sighed, got to her feet and paced the length of the lab and back, thinking aloud as she did.
“There is so much I don’t know. I feel alien. Like a freak. And I’ve always been different. I’m used to it. Being the daughter of the guy everyone fears doesn’t win you many friends.”
“You’re not a freak.”
She turned and paced back toward the windows. “I finally put together a life where people treat me like I’m your average Jane. And you just gotta love this punch line. Turns out I’m not even human.”
“Allie, come here.”
She lifted her head but didn’t turn around. It had gone completely dark outside. She could see his reflection in the glass. She was tempted to refuse. It wasn’t an order, not how he’d said it. More a plea. But it was the look on his face when she finally turned, a look of vulnerability she’d never imagined she’d see in Marcus, which compelled her to go to him. He patted his knee and she sat.
“You may find this hard to believe, but I understand exactly how you feel. Maybe not how it is to think you’re human and later discover you’re not. But I know how it feels to be different from everyone else, feel like an alien.”
“Why would you feel like an alien among your own kind?”
“I’m going to tell you. I have never shared this with anyone. In telling you, I place my well-being, and the well-being of my child and his children, i
n your hands. It’s my last secret from you. I share it with you now because I can’t expect you to trust me with your future if I don’t trust you with mine.”
She put her hands over his, the rapid tick of his pulse beat where her fingertips curled around his wrist. She waited.
“I’m not sure I’m a Pantherian. I wasn’t born to the tribe. My mother found me abandoned and passed me off as one of her cubs. She even lied to her mates about it to protect me. She knew the tribe would reject me if they discovered how different I was.”
“But you’re a shifter. Just like them. I’ve seen you.”
“I’m not like them. I can shift into any species I choose. Pantherians can only shift from human to one other species. And there are no Pantherian Snow Leopards.”
“But I’m a leopard.”
“I think you’re like me, Allie. I think you can be what you choose. Eddie may not have seen many leopards, but a young leopard is hard to mistake for a common kitten. I could be wrong, but I think you shifted to a domestic cat as a child because there would be plenty of stray cats to model yourself after in the back alleys. When you shifted the other night, it was your connection to me that decided the form you’d take.”
She couldn’t speak. The information wouldn’t compute.
“I think, given the genetic anomalies you and Marie share, that there may be more like us in this area.”
“More? I don’t know what to do with this information, Marcus. Are we going to go hunting for stray cats?”
“I don’t think we need to go hunting. In the short time Pantherian males have been in the area, two females have found their way to us. The attraction may be subliminal, but I believe it’s there.”
She knew where his logic was leading. “So you think moving Ben and his gang here will turn up the volume on that signal?”
He nodded. “Are you up for that, Allie? Are you ready to find out the truth about where we came from?” He ducked his head when he asked. His pulse quickened.
“Why do I get the feeling you aren’t?”
“I don’t know that I’m not. I just don’t know if I’ll like the answers. I find it ominous that there are three of us and none with parents. What are the odds that all three known members of a species were orphans? I don’t want to do anything that you’re not ready for.”