by Ines Johnson
When she faced the opposite direction, she stopped when she saw the human males who had leered at her on the train platform. Pockmarks and Thumbsucker were out from under her spell. Thumbsucker even licked his chops like a predator spotting easy prey.
Lucia turned from them and headed back in the opposite direction. As she turned, she bumped into a large pack in the aisle and stumbled.
Strong arms reached out to catch her. Thick, brown arms that spanned from her shoulder blades to her waist encapsulated her in a cocoon of warmth. A heady fragrance of herbs, wind, and an underlying musky scent of something she'd dreamed of but had never experienced in nature.
Lucia looked up into light, brown eyes. Wide-open eyes full of kindness and concern. They stared back at her without fear or wariness. She caught a hint of mischief in the crinkle at the brow, but not a trace of malice.
He was the most beautiful male she'd ever seen. He rivaled the depictions in artwork in the coven library. He looked like one of the princes in maligned fairy books. Lush lips formed a frown that turned into a sheepish grin.
"I'm so sorry, miss."
His voice grumbled through Lucia, turning her legs to jelly. Her unsteadiness caused him to clasp her tighter, lest they both topple down to the ground. For the life of her, Lucia couldn't grasp why that would be a bad idea.
A voice in her head, a voice that sounded uncannily like Mother Sage shouted at her to get a hold of herself. She was a witch, for Goddess sake. And this was a wolf.
Witches were taught to keep away from wolves. The breed was a possessive bunch. They not only wanted to keep a child resulting from a Rumwicca, they would also want to keep the witch if he believed she was his mate. Lucia, being a product of such a pairing, knew all too well how true this was.
Through some sense of self-preservation, she peddled her feet to regain her ground. Only to find that the floor was not within her reach. This man had her completely in hand. His dark, wild mane blocked the Moon from her sight. Her eyes found his again, and she became lost in their hazel glow.
"I didn't mean to take up so much space." He set her feet on the ground and then bent down to pick up the bag that had obstructed her way. "I'll just get this out of your way."
Lucia was no longer parched for berry juice. She watched the muscles ripple across the back of his thin shirt as he grappled with the heavy bag. In fact, she had to swallow a few times to clear a dry path down her throat.
She stood rooted to the spot where he'd set her on her feet again. She couldn't move, hoping to be caught again in his open gaze.
A hand on her wrist jerked at her attention. "Hey, I said we have a seat for you back here."
Lucia looked down at the hand on her wrist. It was small in comparison to the wolf beside her. This other hand was a puny thing. She glanced up at its owner.
Pockmarks from the platform leered back at her. The male looked like a boy, not a man. Younger than her, in fact. She could see the baby hair behind his wet ears.
"Take your hands off me, please." She shook off the kid's hand as though he were a gnat. But like the tiny insect pest, the boy grabbed at her again.
"You looking for a good time?" The red-faced pest ran his hands up her arms.
A memory collided in her mind. It was of her father, holding her hand as they walked in the sand. She remembered the feeling of love and safety in his arms. Her mother had held her other hand. Lucia remembered her heart racing as they swung her between them. She remembered him laughing. As much as her mother had tried to mold herself into the human world, she was a coven witch born and bred. Her mother, Katerin, hadn't taken to frivolities, but she had smiled on the beach that day.
Lucia thought of the big man beside her who'd held her a moment ago. She'd felt safe in his arms. Her heart had raced at that encounter, but far different from her memory of her parents. Heat had raced through her body and uncurled in her belly at the wolf's touch. The pestering pock-faced man with the puny hands felt nothing like either encounter.
"Excuse me."
The voice came from beside her. Lucia turned to the wolf that'd sent heat to a place she hadn't known could warm in such a way. Was he going to rescue her like men did in myths and fairytales? Her heart pounded in anticipation, drowning out the faint sound of Mother Sage's cautionary voice.
"I'm sure I heard the lady say 'take your hands off her'."
"Stay out of this dog," said the boy who had his hand on her forearm. "This witch is ours."
The wolf beside her blinked. His eyes roamed over Lucia in confusion. Lucia watched as he took her in anew. When the wolfman had looked at her initially, he'd looked into her eyes. He'd seen the features marking her as one of his kind. She noted the moment his eyes connected the dots of her sheath dress and dark cloak.
"Witch?" His eyes widened impossibly large. He held up his hands. "I'm so sorry, ma'am." He bowed his head and lowered his gaze.
"Oh no, wait..." Lucia balled her fist and felt her heart sink at the wariness that settled over those hazel eyes. She made a move towards the wolf that walked out of her dreams and onto the train, but she didn't get far. There was something tethered to her arm.
She turned back into the leer of the human male that still had his hands on her. The Moon's energy was already rising through her blood. She narrowed her eyes at the young man and lifted her chin.
"Let go," she said.
His leer turned into a frown. He looked down at his fingers as they did what she told them to do. Then, like a fool, he looked back up at her. His buddy was foolish enough to do the same thing.
Lucia widened her stance in the aisle. She uncurled her fingers and pulled more power from the pale orb in the sky. She fought to keep any malice out of her voice and heart. She had no intention of hurting these men, not physically at least.
"I am not interested in either of you." The two males turned from color to monotone as the silver flooded her eyes. "You two appear to be the only ones interested in amorous activities. So, why don't you indulge each other."
She felt their resistance and pulled more of the Moon's energy into her veins. Both of their spines straightened. They turned to each other and embraced.
"Go find your seats and don't let each other go until the train stops," she said.
Lucia watched them go. Watched them find their seats and then sit down obediently as though they were pupils in a schoolroom. Then watched them attack each other with their unwarranted passion.
Slowly, Lucia's vision cleared and color washed over her senses. The fae chuckled. The human women tried unsuccessfully to hide their giggles. The human males scrunched their noses in disgust.
She turned back around to see that the wolf had not fled. He was chuckling along with the fae and human women. But when he saw that he held her attentions, he tensed once more. The irony that this large male, who could easily overpower her physically, was wary of the power coursing through her veins was not lost on Lucia.
"I didn't realize you were a witch," he said to the floor. "I wouldn't have offered to help otherwise."
"No, no. I thought it was very gallant of you."
He cringed. "I didn't mean to offend you. I know witches can defend themselves and don't need men to-"
"I'm not like that," Lucia insisted. "I'd like to have a man’s help.”
"You're here on your Rumwicca?" He didn't sound excited about the prospect like the boys now necking in the back of the train car had.
"No," she denied. Then she wondered if he were offering an invitation? "I mean, yes."
The wolf grimaced.
"I mean..." Lucia didn't know what to do. She only knew she wanted him to look at her again with those kind eyes without any wariness. "I'm supposed to be here on my Rumwica. I've reached my majority. But I won't do it. I'm not returning to my coven."
Her mother had stayed when she met her father. But years later, when Lucia was five, her mother had taken herself and her daughter back to the mountains, and her father had let them go.
The wolf looked up at her, directly into her eyes. His eyes searched hers. They softened the moment he must have decided to believe her.
"Would you like to sit with me?" he offered, waving his hand towards the empty seat.
Lucia beamed up at him. He stepped his big body aside to let her pass. She folded herself down into the cushioned chair as the train picked up speed.
He folded into the seat beside her. His thigh brushed hers and she felt another wave of heat warm her through.
"I'm Lucia," she said offering him her hand, the way she'd read males greeted each other.
He looked down at her hand and smiled, engulfing it with his own. "It's nice to meet you, Lucia. My name is Pierce."
Chapter Four
Jackson shuffled the papers on his desk. The files were a huge stack of misdemeanors; mostly from angsty, teenaged moonkind in the rebellious phase of their lives, eager to test the boundaries not just with their parents but with the city authority as well.
There were cases of elves and fairies committing petty larceny by creating windstorms in outdoor flea markets then stealing off with goods. Cagey cubs committing vandalism of a rival's home or property. Underage drinking and drug use was always a problem with the rebel youth. But it was more of a problem with the faire folk.
Jackson watched as an officer brought in a fairy. The woman had been growing a potent batch of green tea that offered miraculous weight loss. The capsule form created by humans grew in a lab and there were contraindications that could put users in sick bed. The fairy's potent teas grew from the ground and were safe because it was near impossible to overdose on tea. If it could be sold for medicinal or entertainment purposes, the government took control. But if the humans couldn't get a cut, it was illegal and therefore the PPU's duty to enforce the law.
The fairy had no government license. She'd have her business taken, but worse she was now a felon and wouldn't be able to apply for a business license to retake her product when she was set free. It was unfair, but it was the law.
Domestic violence existed amongst wolves. Mostly young bucks fighting over dominance, territory, or females. She-wolfs sometimes fought each other for the same reasons, too. But once young wolves found their mate they mellowed and settled into monogamous, matrimonial bliss. Unless two wolves claimed the same mate.
In another corner, Jackson's father spoke to the two young wolves he and Warwick had brought in. Neither would press charges against the other. They'd spend a night in a cage and then be sent on their way. Damage had been done, but no laws broken.
In their human form, the brothers, battered and bruised, sat in opposite cells like caged animals. They both listened to Harold Alcede, nodding their heads in time as though his father delivered a sermon. Jackson's father had that effect on people. The man could likely look a High Priestess in the eye on a Full Moon and get her to agree with him.
Jackson turned his head back to his desk. His nameplate shone brightly under the desk lamp. Detective Jackson Alcede, it read. Over his shoulder, hung his certificate from the police academy. Beside it was his Criminal Justice degree from undergrad. What wasn't on the wall was his Juris Doctor from law school.
He'd enrolled in law school and been accepted before he'd received his Bachelor's. When Jackson had announced this news at family dinner, his father's smile hadn't quite reached his eyes as it had when Jackson had finished police training earlier that month. They hadn't talked about it, but Jackson had deferred his acceptance, assuring himself he'd only work two years on the force and then revisit the matter.
It wasn't until one year later that Jackson had enrolled in the law program. He took daytime courses after his work on the force was complete for the night. It had taken him an extra year to complete the degree, but he'd achieved it.
He hadn't told his family, not about his enrollment, nor his completion of the law degree. The certificate sat in a box on the floor in his new home.
Chief Alcede rose from his seat, leaving the two warring brothers sitting peacefully in their cells. They stared at the walls for a few moments until the brother who had salivated all over Jackson's shirt spoke quietly to his scarred brother.
Jackson turned his attention to the PPU's small corner of the precinct. It had been his grandfather who'd fought for the division within the police department when it became clear that the humans in the intermixed city couldn't handle moonkind crimes. His father had built this division from two desks to a corner division.
Weapons and offensive strikes weren't always the answer as the twenty-first century wars that devastated the planet taught them. After the mutual destruction of the human super powers, the Earth moved and moonkind rose with powers that defied laws and nature. The human response was to aim more weapons. But when this city was founded, it was Jackson's great grandfather that called forth the leaders of humankind, faekind, and the few witches and warlocks that ventured down off their mountains. With nothing but words and a charming smile, Herman Alcede brokered a new set of laws. Laws set in black and white with no shades of gray.
Every law began as a conversation, a conversation about boundaries.
In the twenty-first century, there had been laws that every person had a right to guns. That law was laughable in this day and age. Guns were relics of a tumultuous time long past. If any person broke a law they were taken into custody, sequestered away from the rest of society until it was deemed that they had been rehabilitated, upon when they were set free. That is, unless they were a danger to society at large, which was rare. Only terroristic witches and warlocks, psychotic fae, rogue wolves, and other lunatics were sequestered away for long periods of time. Rehabilitation in Sequoia City was often a cooling-off period, followed by a conversation.
Moonkind received their rules from the Goddess who loomed perpetually in the sky. Laws and rules couldn't step on innate or Goddess given rights of another living soul. Jackson had read that in a long dead human document called the Constitution. Every soul had the right to pursue their own happiness. That was what councils and bodies of laws were created to ensure; that freedom, those opportunities, are natural Goddess-given inalienable rights.
From a child, Jackson had been enamored of these bodies of law and their intricacies. When his family settled down to watch crime dramas at twilight, Jackson would stay up later to watch the repeats of the political commentary of the night. His family's legacy was in the enforcement of the rules, but Jackson had more of an interest in the formation and evolution of the rules. And now, Jackson's true passion was no longer satisfied with his late morning television viewing and early morning law classes. There was an opportunity to sit on the local city council and Jackson wanted the seat.
Jackson watched his father walk towards his office. The old man offered him a smile as he passed by. "Everything okay, son?"
Jackson opened his mouth, but his throat seized. He felt his wolf pacing inside his chest, pawing at the cage of his heart. It wanted to howl. Jackson shut his mouth and swallowed, the taste of bitter bile hit the back of his throat, burning the walls of his chest.
"What is it?" his father asked, the perpetual smile in his eyes when he came across his wife, one of his sons, or his daughter dimmed as he looked at his son's undulating neck.
Piercing coal dark eyes stared back at Jackson. The same thick locks of mane, only wilder. The same Alcede nose. The same dark brown skin spattered with the dark hair of the wolf that lay beneath.
The chief motioned Jackson forward into his office.
Jackson gulped and struggled to uproot himself. He followed his father inside the large room. He felt like he was a teen being called in to the principal's office.
Once inside, his father motioned for Jackson to shut the door. "Is it about the lone wolf case?" he asked when the door was closed and Jackson seated.
Lone wolves had a bad rap, often deserved. They had no family ties, no pack loyalty. They could be vicious beasts if provoked, almost as dangerous as a coven witch wh
o'd been wronged.
There were lycan criminals, but they were few, because though lycans had tempers, they always followed their alphas. All alphas in the city had the utmost respect for the Chief of the Paranormal Police.
"I know you don't like dealing with small cases," said his father. "It's not taking advantage of your fancy education."
"It's not about the case, dad."
Harold nodded. "It's about your brother then. I know there's been tension between you two, especially with this latest...trip."
Jackson and his younger brother, Pierce, had been at odds when Pierce announced his latest trek into the northern lands of Canada. They had all thought he'd be taking his place on the PPU with his brother and father.
"You two are so alike," said his father, "both curious. You turned your curiosity to books. Pierce turned his to the world."
"But I've never run away from my responsibilities," Jackson objected.
His father's face turned to stone. Jackson felt like a twelve-year-old cub.
"Did I say anything when you spent the last two years with your head in books about law?"
Jackson blinked at his father's astuteness. How had he known? Why hadn't he said anything? But then Jackson realized, he'd never said anything either. Maybe this was the time to talk with him about transitioning out of the force and onto the council where he could use his experience with enforcing the law to craft better laws that helped society at large and the policing unit do their jobs better.
"I gave you the space to explore," his father continued. "And in the end, you made the right decision and stayed where you belong. Alcedes always do the right thing."
Jackson's jaw tensed. It was what his father had said after Jackson had shown him his law school acceptance letter. He swallowed, trying to grease the passage of his throat to allow words to spring forth. He needed to have this conversation.
His father stood and came around the desk putting his hand on Jackson's shoulder. "You came to where you belong on your own. Your brother will do the same. Every wolf needs to make his own path. This will be Pierce's last trip. He's a wolf grown now. He's gotten this travel bug out of his system."