True Nature

by Neely Powell

  “And of course the mighty Hunter should get what he wants,” Meagan retorted. “Just like always.”

  Hunter fell back a step, surprised by Meagan’s bitterness.

  “That’s enough.” Stirling helped Isobel to her feet. She protested, but it was clear that she was in no shape to continue this conversation.

  “Tomorrow,” she whispered to Hunter. “I promise tomorrow we will talk. You take care tonight.”

  With a last grumble from Stirling and a disgusted glance from Meagan, Isobel was helped from the room. Hunter stood in front of the fire, staring after them.

  From the chair where she had remained seated, his mother chuckled. He stared at her. She raised her glass to him and then drained it dry. “The fun’s just beginning, my dear boy. You may be sorry when you know all the secrets.”

  Hunter swore, and she laughed again. “I know. I know I disgust you. But if you ever marry, we’ll see how well your wife copes with the MacRea heritage.”

  Turning on his heel, Hunter went to the foyer and through the heavy front doors into the cold, winter night. He couldn’t breathe in this house. Despite his grandmother’s admonition to take care, he needed to change.

  He raised his face to the sky and began to run, shedding his clothes as he changed into a sleek black panther. Lifting his head again, he let out a loud roar, fully realized, fully feline. Panthers can roar as many other cats do not. Cats like bobcats, cougars, and even housecats can purr, but they cannot roar. Hunter roared again, eager to silence the other creature who had dared cry out on his family’s land.

  Behind him, he heard voices. He recognized Shamus, calling his name. But Hunter took off, racing through the gardens, scaling a tree and breaching the walls of the estate. No one could catch him when he took this form. Black panthers were called ghosts in the forests because they were difficult to see among the trees and undergrowth.

  As he ran, the anger inside him subsided. He remembered running in this same forest with his grandfather. He could feel Fraser’s presence. On a hill overlooking the house, he stopped and roared again, imprinting his grief on everything around him. He waited for an answer, but he heard nothing. He felt dominant and in control as he tore his way up and down trees.

  Gradually, he calmed. He went back toward the estate wall. Then he smelled the enemy.

  The evil was close. He looked around, sniffed the air, and moved to hide in nearby weeds.

  He waited, but the enemy stayed hidden. Chymera didn’t attack. And Hunter was canny enough to realize this was part of the battle. His grandmother had been right. Tonight was not the time. But the time would come. Hunter knew that as well as he knew this land.

  He climbed a tree and went back over the wall. Just beyond the broad, front porch, he shifted again and found his clothing had been placed on an iron bench among the porch’s furniture.

  Shamus stepped out of the shadows. A rifle gleamed in his hands. “You can’t tear off like that again, Master MacRae.”

  Master MacRae? The address surprised Hunter into silence. This was what Shamus had called his grandfather. He ignored the man and pulled on his clothes.

  “There’s a demon afoot,” Shamus said. “Your grandmother cannot take another loss. Aye, none of us can take it.”

  Remembering the strength he had felt on the hill overlooking the house, Hunter forced out a laugh. “I’m not afraid.”

  “You should be.”

  Before Hunter could reply, his cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pants pocket and saw that it was Zoe.

  “Are you all right?” she asked breathlessly when he answered.

  He turned away from Shamus and went inside, firmly closing the front door on the scowling bodyguard.

  “I’m fine.” Hunter crossed the foyer to his grandfather’s study.

  “What do you think it was?” Zoe asked.

  “What was?”

  “What you heard in the woods. You felt something, smelled it. I saw you.”

  “You’re talking crazy. Do I need to call Bernie and get her to take you back to the hospital?”

  “You were in the woods, as a panther.”

  Hunter frowned. “How did you know that?”

  “I saw you, Hunter, I saw you running through the woods. I was just sitting here, thinking about you and your grandfather, and then I could see you. You were so sad and so grief stricken it broke my heart. You ran wild through the woods like a black streak.”

  How could Zoe know what he had just done?

  “Your grandmother told you not to go, but you went anyway.”

  This was downright creepy. He and Zoe had always been in tune, but she was peeking into his brain. “So you saw the scene with my family, too?”

  Zoe sighed. “I can’t explain how I see these things, but I do. I know you were warned not to go into the woods and went anyway.”

  “How much of my life can you see?”

  “Oh, my god, Hunter, only stuff involving your second nature,” I said with impatience. “Anything else and I’d poke my eyes out. Now what was going on tonight?”

  There was another long silence before Hunter sighed. “I felt like I was going to explode if I didn’t run, and there’s this thing out there, howling in the night…” Hunter steadied his voice and told Zoe about his grandmother’s talk of his family’s enemies. He described the primal scream that had spilled over the mountains and valleys.

  Zoe barely stifled a gasp. “So you ran off to issue your own challenge? And you’re already thinking about going back. Aren’t you?”

  He was silent.

  She groaned in frustration. “Oh my God, I can see you searching through those woods again. This is what your grandfather meant in my vision. He said we had a special connection, that I could see you. I have just enough precognition to know what’s about to happen, but I can’t do a damn thing about it. Just like with Kinley.”

  “Zoe,” Hunter murmured. “There’s nothing you could have done about Kinley.”

  “I can’t lose you.”

  “You’re not going to.”

  “Your grandfather told me to protect you.”

  “Shit.” Hunter dropped into the chair behind his grandfather’s broad desk.

  “There’s so much I don’t understand. Like Grandda’s body. He didn’t change. He took all that punishment as a human. That just doesn’t make sense. He could change in half the time it takes me. What would cause him to remain human when he was being attacked?”

  “You need to listen to your grandmother,” Zoe said. “I know she can explain this to you.”

  “Tomorrow I’m taking her to the cabin to spread Grandda’s ashes. She promised we would talk.”

  “Is it safe to go there?”

  “Grandda’s men are armed to the teeth. They’ll be standing guard.”

  “They couldn’t contain you tonight.”

  “I didn’t give them a choice,” Hunter admitted.

  “Don’t take chances,” Zoe warned. “Please, promise you won’t. I feel as if something bad is about to happen.”

  “Worse than what’s already happened?”

  She had no reply to that. Hunter sat back in his grandfather’s chair. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back at work in a few days. We’ll be back to normal.”

  “Normal?” Zoe’s laugh was low and without mirth. “I don’t know, Hunter. I think ever since you found that body in the woods behind our office, nothing has been normal.”

  Hunter clicked off the phone and listened to the sounds of the house settling around him. He had always felt safe here. Now he wondered if he would ever feel safe again.

  The following afternoon, Hunter pulled an ATV up to the porch of his grandfather’s cabin. The rustic hideaway still looked much as it had when he’d come here as a teenager. The snow that had fallen yesterday had largely melted. Sunlight filtered in streaks through the bare limbs of the giant trees that surrounded the haven of Fraser MacRae.

  This would be his final resting place.

/>   Beside Hunter, his grandmother sighed. “Fraser was always so happy here. He loved the woods and spent a good part of his life wishing he could spend more time here.”

  Hunter got out of the vehicle and extended her a hand. She stepped out, one arm cradling the urn with Fraser’s ashes. Nana had regained her strength today. Her eyes were clear and bright. Acceptance had settled over her features.

  Hunter had been surprised that it was just the two of them who would spread the ashes. But Nana said that’s what Fraser had wanted. How did being excluded make his father feel? And what did Stirling think of how Shamus and the other employees kept deferring to Hunter?

  His parents and sister had been very quiet this morning, as if last night’s family fracas had never happened. Margaret and Meagan departed for the city after a somber family brunch. Stirling was back at the house, going over financial records and meeting with attorneys, already moving forward to settle Fraser’s estate.

  His grandmother’s soft sigh brought Hunter back to the business at hand. He turned to her. “Are you ready to do this?”

  “Almost,” she murmured, looking again at the sun-dappled forest. “Fraser brought me here when we conceived your father. Those four days were among the happiest of our married life.”

  “Nana, please,” Hunter said, pretending to shudder.

  She chuckled. “Your grandfather was a lusty, loving man. Our life together was a wonderful romantic adventure. It should make you proud to know that.”

  “It does, but can we talk about something else now?”

  Isobel passed the urn containing her husband’s ashes to Hunter. He took it calmly, although he couldn’t control a grimace.

  “Don’t be so squeamish. You’re just holding a part of your grandfather. He will be so happy when he’s resting peacefully in his beloved woods.”

  Looking down at the urn, tears stung his eyes.

  “I know, ogha. Life will never be the same for either of us. He was a vigorous, happy man, more so with me than anyone else.” She glanced around, her expression soft with memories. “When we moved here, there was almost nothing here. He built our house and set about bringing people here to build the town and create a place where he had everything he needed. With easy access to New York City, we were set.”

  “Were you happy living way up here most of the year?” Hunter set the urn on the steps of the cabin.

  Isobel laughed. “Not at first. I left the small town where I lived in Scotland and looked forward to living in America and experiencing new things. I wanted to live in the city. Fraser was astonished at my reaction. He said, ‘I thought you’d love it, Izzie, it’s a great deal like your home in Giffnock.’ I said, ‘That’s why I wanted something different, you big ass.’ We had a hell of an argument.”

  Now Hunter laughed, remembering his grandfather’s famous temper. “How long were you two mad at each other?”

  “Until your grandfather grabbed me and kissed me and said, ‘Ah, lass, you’re gorgeous when you’re spittin’ fire. Give us a kiss, and I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.’ And he did. Did you know we’ve visited every one of the continents? I’ve had a good life, a very good life.” Tears gathered in her eyes.

  “It’s not over, Nana, you can still travel and enjoy yourself.”

  “Maybe after a while. I’m thinking about going back to Scotland. Your great aunt Agnes lives in Giffnock. I’m going to stay with her for a while. She’s in our family’s big old home, so there’s plenty of room. It’ll be nice to be with family and visit old friends.”

  She wiped the tears off her face with her hands.

  Hunter’s chest tightened. It would be like losing both grandparents with his grandmother living so far away. “Are you sure you want to leave the house where you lived with Grandda?”

  “It holds nothing but loneliness for me now.” Her words were whispered. “The staff will stay on at the house and maintain it. It’ll be here whenever you’re ready for it. Your grandfather made arrangements to provide everything for them, and for you. He wanted you to have this estate. It’s never been important to your father.”

  “Why is that? Why do you think Father is so different from me and Grandda? It’s not just the shifting. Father and I are nothing alike.”

  She put her hand on his cheeks. “He’s very much like my own father, reserved and ambitious. When he visited my parents in Scotland, your father would go to town and sit for hours in my father’s office at the bank. He was obviously a very observant child. He has used all he learned at my father’s knee. They don’t think like we do. For them it is all about what you possess, how you appear to the world.”

  “He does know how to make money,” Hunter said without affection.

  “As did your Grandda,” Isobel said, her voice stern. “And it’s not a bad thing. You resent it because it’s not as important to you, but so many people envy what you’ve always had. Appreciate it and use it wisely. Emulate your grandfather, Hunter. Use what you’ve been given to help others and make Fraser proud.”

  She stepped back and nodded at the urn resting on the porch step. “It’s time.”

  Hunter was afraid he would give into tears if he tried to talk now. He picked up the urn containing his beloved grandfather’s earthly remains and followed his grandmother to a spot just south of the cabin. The winter sun was beginning to dip in the sky, but it was still strong enough to warm the shadows here.

  Isobel took the urn from Hunter, lifted the lid and turned in a slow circle. Fraser’s ashes poured out in a silvery stream. After several moments, his grandmother stopped, bowed her head, and her lips moved soundlessly. She looked up, smiled, peaceful as she handed the urn to Hunter.

  He took it, not knowing what he should do or say. But once the container was in his hands, he felt his grandfather. He could feel Fraser’s essence merging with the land he had loved so much.

  As the last of the ashes scattered, the emotions Hunter had been holding at bay took over. He dropped the urn to the ground and sobbed.

  Isobel enveloped him in a rose-scented hug and let him weep on her shoulder. “It takes a strong man to cry, my grandson. It is good that you loved your grandfather so much.”

  Hunter eventually backed away, pulling a white linen handkerchief out of his pocket. His initials were embroidered in the corner. Having a clean handkerchief was something his grandfather had taught him. The older man told Hunter that girls liked it, especially if they cried during a movie and needed it.

  When he had composed himself, Isobel put her arm through his, and leaned her head against his shoulder. “We always knew this day would come, Hunter. We Scots are nothing if not practical.”

  Her voice became almost businesslike. “Your grandfather’s attorneys know what to do. The estate is set up to provide for you and me and to give Stirling his share, which I’m sure he will continue to invest wisely and increase accordingly. I believe Meagan shares his talent for financial wizardry.”

  She pulled back to study him. “You’re the one I’m worried about. You’ve inherited your grandfather’s mantle, his blessing and his curse.”

  “The shifting. And the family enemy.” Hunter returned her steady gaze. “You promised you would tell me what I need to know.”

  She nodded and stepped away. “I know you don’t realize this, but you’re the only thing Fraser and I truly disagreed about.”

  “About me? Why?”

  “He wanted you to be carefree as long as you could. He wasn’t able to do that, you see. He had to take up the reins of the family honor.” She looked hard at Hunter. “He had to fight.”

  Hunter frowned, not quite following her. “As in physically fight?”

  “Sometimes. Leading the MacRaes is a big job. You’re the one who has to continue the line.”

  “You’re talking about reproducing, having children—”

  “I mean protecting this family. I was furious with Fraser that he hadn’t prepared you for your role as protector. Your father and I a
rgued with him about it many times, but it was no use. He had his own timetable set in his head. He wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “Grandda called me this weekend. He said we needed to talk. I should have come straight here. If I had, he wouldn’t have been alone.”

  Isobel shook her head. “He was stubborn and foolhardy at times. You need to learn a lesson from what happened to him. You have to respect Chymera’s daring and strength.”

  “Respect that thing we heard screaming last night? Never.”

  “You must respect your worst enemy,” his grandmother insisted. “Think about when your grandfather taught you to shift and showed you how to prowl this forest like a king. What did he tell you?”

  Hunter closed his eyes, thinking back to those long months here at the cabin, when his first change had come upon him. He remembered the nights he and Fraser had roamed for miles, crossing the territories of other predators. His grandfather taught him to be confident, but to know that a false step, an unguarded moment, could give other creatures the opening they needed.

  When he looked back at Isobel, she was smiling. “He taught you well, didn’t he?”

  He nodded.

  She gestured for him to follow her as she crossed the clearing and back to the cabin’s porch. “It’s time for you to know everything, Hunter. But first, I have a little surprise for you.”

  She pulled off her coat and laid it over the wooden banister of the steps. Stretching her arms up, she closed her eyes and the air around her crackled with energy and change. Hunter stood with his mouth gaping as his grandmother became a beautiful snow leopard. Before he could say anything, the air was alive with electricity as she changed back. Seeing Hunter’s face, she burst out laughing and squeezed his arm.

  “You look so amazed,” she said, her bright laughter ringing throughout the woods. “It was your grandfather’s idea to keep our secret. Fraser, and now you are the only ones I’ve ever revealed myself to. I do understand how you were trained. He trained me, as well.”

  Hunter legs went weak. He rubbed his face with his hands, still not certain of what he’d just seen. “I’m…I’m astonished. How…what?” He stopped and took a deep breath. “Have you always been like this?”