Shifting Dreams

by Elizabeth Hunter

  “Cute house,” Caleb said.

  “She’d have it no other way.” Jena opened the door and stood by the truck, scanning the exterior. Lights were off on one side, but the rest of the house was lit up like a Christmas tree. Glancing at her watch, Jena guessed the kids were in bed and Matt and Missy had company. She didn’t see any cars, though, which made her wary.

  Just as she saw a curtain flicker, Alex and Ted pulled up, Ted bolting out of the car before it was parked. The woman slammed the car door shut with no thought to attracting attention. Caleb jerked toward her. “Ted, wait for—”

  She pulled him back. “No.”

  “I called Jeremy. Let me secure the scene. I don’t want to have—”

  “She’s a cat, Caleb. It’s better if she confronts them first.”

  “Stupid, hardheaded…” He ran after Ted, muttering.

  Alex and Jena walked behind them. Jena may have been angry, but this was unfamiliar territory to her. Ted was the best person to approach the other cats if they wanted answers. If Caleb got involved, they would immediately clam up. She turned the corner to the side door off the kitchen just as it opened. Ted reached out with a quick swipe and slapped whoever was there before she pounced.

  “Hey!” Caleb tried to pull the woman back, only to be shoved to the side by a snarling Alex. The alpha’s eyes glowed a dark gold, signaling his dominance to the animals around him, and Jena could hear scuffling from inside the house.

  “Chill out, boys.” She shot Caleb a look before she walked inside.

  “Children, Amanda?” A quick snarl and a rip came from the kitchen. “You attacked children?”

  Another snarl and a high whining sound erupted from the kitchen as someone tried to escape. Jena caught them by their shirttail before they could make it down the hall. It was Missy’s sister, Lisette, her body shivering in anticipation as she held back a full shift.

  Jena’s rage welled up when she saw the rough scar through the tear on Lisette’s shoulder, exactly where it would be in her natural form. “A lion with a scar on its shoulder,” Low had said. Lisette was one of the lions who had stalked her boys at the Cliff House. “You,” she hissed, punching her as she tried to twist out of her hold. Jena kicked Lisette’s knees out from under her as she stumbled back, scrambling like a crab into the kitchen where Missy was huddled in a corner and Ted had Amanda in a chokehold against the wall.

  “Tell them, Missy,” Lisette screeched, crawling to her sister. “Tell them who is responsible!”

  Jena heard Caleb and Alex come in behind her.

  “Where’s Matt?” Caleb asked. Everyone looked at Missy.

  “Gone. I don’t know where.” Her voice was low and hoarse, her pale face was drenched with tears, and three red scratch marks were bleeding on her cheek. She was curled in the corner as if trying to hide.

  “The bastard forced her to do it,” Amanda hissed around Ted’s grip. “It was him. Leave her alone.”

  Jena stepped closer. “You forced a shift so you had the baby early?”

  Missy nodded, her eyes filling with tears.

  “Why?”

  “He said he’d kill me. Kill me and the baby if I didn’t do what he wanted. My girls, he would have hurt my girls.” Missy’s voice hitched. “He was obsessed. All he could talk about was the hotel. The development. He was obsessed with Alma, said she didn’t respect him. Said that she was the only one standing in the way of progress. She’d vote no out of spite because she didn’t like him. He—he forced me. I didn’t want to go that night.”

  The taste of bile poisoned Jena’s mouth. Caleb put a hand on her shoulder and gently nudged past her. “Why, Missy? Why did he want you there?”

  Missy shuddered again and closed her eyes. “He said that he just wanted to talk, but Alma wouldn’t talk to him alone. It was the middle of the night on a moon night. We’re too wild. But he knew she’d be out there alone. Said she’d be willing to let me in. If she could sense I was weak, that I had just birthed—” Her voice caught. “So I did it. I was so scared. But he was right! I scratched on the door, and Alma looked out. I managed to shift back to my human form, but I was still bleeding and when she saw the blood…”

  “She let you in,” Jena whispered. “She took pity on you and let you in. And Matt came with you.”

  “Alma must have seen the blood and—”

  “She was worried,” Caleb said. “Didn’t even think for her own safety. She was trying to help you, wasn’t she? What happened?”

  “She was furious with Matt. Kept accusing him of doing something to hurt me.”

  Lisette snarled. “She was right! That animal—”

  “Shut up, Lis!” Amanda growled, still in Ted’s choke. “Don’t talk to them.”

  Jena walked over and wrenched Amanda’s hair so her head jerked forward and her breath was cut off. “Don’t talk to me? That’s my grandmother he murdered. And you covered up for him. You stalked my children like animals. You attacked Caleb in the desert. Why, Amanda?” She let the woman’s hair loose and Ted lightened her grip so her cousin could breathe.

  “We weren’t going to hurt them. We were trying to scare you away. The skinwalker needed to stop asking questions.”

  Lisette said, “We were just trying to protect Missy. It wasn’t her fault.”

  Missy broke in. “They argued. I could tell Matt was starting to lose his temper. Then Alma said she was going to find my grandfather, tell him that Matt had hurt me and the baby. It would all be over. Matt’s career, the hotel. It would all be gone.” Jena saw Caleb’s eyes narrow as he stood beside her. “Alma shifted, and Matt… He killed her. They shifted at the same time. Alma was flying toward the door, but he jumped up and killed her. There was so much blood!” Missy sobbed. “Then he took off and left me there.” She closed her eyes and shuddered, gripping the gold chain she wore at her throat. “I shifted back and ran straight to my sisters’ house. The baby… I knew the baby was in danger.”

  Not right, not right, not right. Jena’s instincts screamed at her. It wasn’t adding up. None of it made sense!

  On the kitchen floor, Lisette crawled to Missy, pulling her sister into her arms. “I know we shouldn’t have attacked Jena’s boys or Caleb. But we would never have really hurt them. We were trying to scare you off. Trying to protect Missy. Alma was already dead. There was nothing we could do but help our sister.”

  “You bitch,” Jena snarled, and Caleb held her back, keeping her from diving onto Lisette and strangling her with her bare hands. “My grandmother was dead, and you protected her murderer? The same man who hurt your sister? You crazy bitch!”

  Alex said, “The rest of the clans will hear about this. I will make sure of it. You think your elders will be able to protect you? No one will trust the cats after your actions. Do you think your family will appreciate that? You’ve brought dishonor to them by sheltering the one who killed Alma Crowe.”

  “And I think our grandmother will want to hear that you cornered innocent children as if they were rabbits,” Ted added.

  Caleb was staring at Missy and Lisette, watching them with narrow eyes.

  Lisette sniffed, a haughty look coming to her face when she saw him. “What are you looking at, skinwalker? We protect our own. I don’t expect you to understand.”

  Caleb stepped in front of Jena and crouched down, ignoring Lisette. He stared at Missy. “Missy, where’s your husband?”

  She sniffed again and more tears rolled down her cheeks. “I—I’m not sure. He left earlier tonight. He didn’t say where he was going.”

  “Did he hurt you again, Missy?” Caleb’s voice was soft. Concerned. He gently reached for Missy’s hand, but she tried to pull back. She was cradling one arm against her chest, her right hand hidden in the soft material of her yellow cardigan. Caleb pulled gently. “Let me see your hand, Missy. If he’s hurt you again…”

  Caleb reached for her right hand, and Missy resisted. She tried to turn, but Caleb’s persistent fingers closed over her w
rist and pulled until Missy’s arm was stretched out in front of her, her right hand clenched into a fist.

  “Of course your sisters were trying to protect you. Of course they were.” Caleb’s voice was soft and deadly as he forced Missy’s hand to uncurl, revealing the crippled pinky, the finger that had been mangled in a childhood fight. It was missing the tip. No one talked about it; Missy had always been self-conscious about her scarred hand.

  But Ted gasped. “Of course! The fourth claw mark.”

  “What?” Alex and Jena asked at once.

  “There were four claw marks on Alma’s body,” Caleb said. “But they weren’t right. I kept forgetting to ask, Jena. At first, I thought there were only three. Odd thing, isn’t it? Threw me off at first. But the fourth was there, just… shallower than the others. Broken. Like your finger. And your lies. Your sisters were protecting you, Missy. You were the one who killed Alma Crowe.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Missy’s lip curled up in a snarl a second before she shifted. Lisette reached over and pushed Caleb back. He tumbled into Jena’s legs, knocking her over.

  “Go!” she shouted to her sister, who tore through the house in sleek lion form. Missy was smaller than the average mountain lion, but quick. She was out the kitchen door and down the hall before Caleb could recover. Jena quickly shot up and ran after her.

  “Jena!”

  “I’ll track her!” She shouted, pulling off her shirt. “Just listen for me. And don’t forget your gun this time.”

  Caleb turned to see Ted swing her arm back, knocking Amanda’s head against the wall when she punched her. Amanda’s eyes rolled back and she slumped to the ground before Ted rounded on Lisette, who was still crouched in a corner of the kitchen. “Stay where you are,” she hissed. “You and your sister are mine.”

  Alex said, “I’ll get help. My father will gather the clans and take them to the canyon. Caleb, try to lead her there.”

  Caleb rolled his eyes. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Alex hesitated for only a moment, then walked over and pulled Ted into a searing kiss. He stepped back and started unbuttoning his shirt.

  “Really?” Ted asked. “Can’t ruin your shirt, even in this situation?”

  He glared at her. “I like this one. And so do you. Wouldn’t want to ruin it.”

  Caleb glanced away for a moment and a massive grey timber wolf filled the room, letting out a low growl when Lisette hissed. It swung toward her, baring its teeth and snapping before it moved to Ted, rubbing up against her legs a moment before he galloped out of the room.

  “Territorial canine,” Ted muttered.

  Caleb pulled Lisette up from the floor and shoved her against the counter. “Where’s Matt?”

  She hadn’t been expecting that question. “What?”

  “Matt. Where is he?”

  “I think he’s visiting his parents’ house.”

  “Who clawed Missy’s face? Those wounds were fresh. Was it one of you?”

  Lisette looked at the ground. “Missy did. As soon as she saw your car pull up.”

  “You knew exactly who killed Alma Crowe the whole time.” Caleb wracked his brain. If Lisette was correct, then Matt probably wasn’t going to show up to complicate things. But Caleb had to go after a lion, and a 9 mm was all he had. He pulled it out, racked one in the chamber, then started out the kitchen door.

  “Listen for Jena, Chief,” Ted said. “She’ll find Missy.”

  The path leading away from the house wasn’t hidden. The soft dirt between the mesquite trees clearly showed the prints in the waxing moon. Still, he didn’t want to rush. He worked his way through the trees, over the wash, and back farther into the scrubby hills behind the house, following the path where the lion had fled. Caleb tracked by sight, listening for a hawk’s scream, but nothing broke the still night air until he heard a rustling in the brush.

  He bit back a curse and darted behind a tree. He was at a distinct disadvantage, particularly hunting at night, but he was hoping those reinforcements that Alex was going for showed up early. Caleb tensed until he saw what had made the bushes shake.

  It was that damn coyote again.

  Letting out a grunt, he stepped back into the path. The coyote looked up at him with fearless black eyes.

  “You again?”

  The coyote put his nose to the ground and sniffed in a circle before he trotted down the path.

  “What? I’m just supposed to follow you?”

  The small animal stopped and turned, waiting for Caleb to get with the program.

  He rolled his eyes. “Fine. But only because I haven’t heard—”

  The hawk’s scream cut him off. He looked to the coyote, who lifted his head back and gave a long, high-pitched howl as if answering the bird’s call. Then he ran toward the canyon and Caleb had to scramble to follow him.

  “Wait up!”

  Cursing under his breath, he followed the coyote, who was shivering with excitement. The animal paused at every curve, leading Caleb deeper and deeper between the dark red walls. Caleb could smell the water. It was the same canyon where the springs lay, but it turned and twisted, disappearing into dark crevices and dead ends. This was a different branch than he’d ever travelled before. Still the old scent of water and mud permeated the gust of wind and he forced himself to keep running. Just then, he heard the hawk cry directly above him, its terrified shriek the only warning he had before he heard the soft thud behind him.

  Caleb turned to see a mountain lion crouched several yards away.

  Missy may have not been a big lion, but she was still a lion, and as she slunk toward him, her low growl echoed off the sheer sandstone. He backed away slowly, his hand itching to pull the gun at the small of his back. If he reached, would she pounce? Would one shot even kill her? Why the hell hadn’t he taken his shotgun out to Matt and Missy’s house in the first place? Oh yeah, he’d been expecting a nice, civilized human arrest where the murderer confessed over coffee and a guilty conscience.

  Stupid Caleb.

  The coyote yipped to his right, darting into a black sliver in the wall that Caleb hadn’t seen before. It was a cave. A narrow one. He’d either be cornered like a tasty, tasty lion treat, or there might just be another way out. Since outrunning the beast wasn’t an option and he wasn’t dealing with a dumb animal, Caleb decided to follow the weird little coyote. He faked left for a second, throwing the lion off balance, before he dove for the black sliver in the canyon wall, scraping his back and stomach as he slid into the cave.

  Missy’s paw swiped into the cavern, but she couldn’t squeeze in. Should he just shoot her? There were still so many questions and Caleb wanted answers. The memory of Missy at the diner with her tiny blond daughter came to mind. She was a mother. A wife. There had to be another way.

  His eyes swept around the dark cavern while Missy prowled the entrance. The coyote had disappeared into the black and Caleb felt along the cold sandstone, going farther and farther into the darkness.

  It was pitch-black, but the air was fresh, which made Caleb think it was a passageway of some kind and not a dead end.

  “Coyote?” he hissed into the darkness. “Hey!”

  He squeezed his eyes shut, even though he couldn’t see a thing. At least the passageway had widened. “Why am I talking to a coyote?”

  Caleb heard a muffled kind of cough from the blackness. Actually, it didn’t sound like a cough.

  “Are you laughing at me, you mutt?” The coughing came again. The damn animal was laughing at him. He kept walking, feeling his way through the passage with both hands spread out in front of him. He stumbled a few times over rocks and bumped his forehead even more, but he kept walking. Just as he saw the sliver of midnight blue dotted with stars, an idea began to bloom. Missy would attack him as soon as she got the chance, but if Caleb wasn’t himself…

  He waited at the entrance to the cave. He could still hear Missy snarling and swiping at the other end of the tunnel. The sound echoed
off the rock walls in between panicked screams from Jena overhead. Still Caleb waited. He crouched down near the entrance until he was almost nose-to-nose with the coyote, who sat with a patient expression on its narrow face. He looked into the animal’s eyes. The coyote looked back.

  Aren’t you a skinwalker, cousin?

  The familiar voice whispered in his mind, and Caleb blinked.

  “Wh—what?” It couldn’t be.

  Everything happens for a reason.

  Caleb was still gaping as the coyote darted out the cave and into the night.

  “Everything happens for a reason,” he whispered. Then he closed his eyes and focused.

  She paced in front of the cave, her slouching body quick and powerful in the silver moonlight. He took care to remain upwind of the lion’s keen nose.

  “Missy.” He made his voice deliberately hoarse. “What are you doing?”

  She turned, startled by his appearance. The lion shifted, immediately flowing into a woman’s naked form. She wouldn’t be as fast now. Maybe he could reason with her, but if he had to draw…

  Missy took a step toward him. “Matt?”

  “What are you doing?” He did his best impression of the mayor’s voice, but he knew it wasn’t exactly right. He tried not to talk too loud.

  “What are you doing here?” Her eyes were wide and worried. “I sent you to your parents’ house! They were supposed to keep you there.”

  “Why?”

  “You know why!”

  He shook his head, letting the sorrow fill his eyes, praying she wouldn’t discover his deception. He heard Jena squawk from a perch somewhere to his left. She knew it was him, but so far, it looked like Missy was in the dark.

  “No, Missy… why?”