A clueless shaman at the mercy of her beast meets the merman who has always been the one she ran to.
When Kenzi first found out she was a shifter, the circumstances were surreal.
Ten years later, she isn’t just a shifter but a wolf shaman and counsellor. Her life has gone from a nightmare to the bland plodding of bureaucracy.
When her friend requests that she deliver a gift to the Crossroads, she jumps at the chance to see the world she has only heard about second hand.
Roman first heard the call of the wolf on the new moon, and a child was asleep in the woods when the sound died. She returned to her people only to come back as an adult who had sought him out with unerring precision.
Ten years later, she is a woman of power and her beast once again leads her right to his shores. Is she the woman for him or the world’s furriest stalker?
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
New Moon Howl
Copyright © 2017 Zenina Masters
ISBN: 978-1-4874-1249-4
Cover art by Carmen Waters
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Smashwords Edition
New Moon Howl
Shifting Crossroads Book 43
By
Zenina Masters
Chapter One
Her heart pounded in her ears as the sound of rustling leaves assaulted her senses. She pushed herself out of the leaf litter and tried to rise to her feet.
Naked. She was naked again. Damn it.
The rustling got louder, and a figure appeared in the space between two trees.
“So, miss. You have made it out here yet again.”
She crossed one arm over her breasts and splayed her other hand over her groin. “This time is different.”
The elf sighed and stepped out of the woods, holding out the cloak that he was carrying. “Of course it is. This time I came prepared.”
She sighed and took a handful of steps until she could grab the cloak and wrap herself in it.
“Thank you. I don’t suppose you could lend me a shirt or something? I don’t know where I left my bag, and I would rather be wearing something when I go to find it.”
“You seem older.”
She chuckled. “I am older. I turned eighteen last night. It just happened to line up with my lunar trigger.”
The sound of waves and rustling leaves was the only noise for a minute.
“What does your being eighteen have to do with it? Are you running away again?” He cocked his head, his thick blue-green braid swayed over his shoulder.
“No. Well, yes, but this time it is legal. They wanted me to leave, but now that I am a legal adult, no one will come looking for me. I am free of them, finally.” She shuddered, and tears started to run from her eyes.
He looked around. “I do not have any clothing here, but I may be able to call someone who can help.”
“I don’t need help.”
“You are a young adult, alone, and without resources. Accept help. It is the most adult thing you can do.” He smiled.
The sincerity in his voice and expression got through her wariness. “Fine. Please. I would like any help I can get.”
His grin lit up the woods around them. “Come with me to the water’s edge and wait. I will return when I have made the call.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
She held the cloak closed and followed him as he led her through thirty feet of woods and onto the sandy beach that merged with the water.
He smiled and stepped into the water; his khakis disappeared when he was waist deep, and a tail flicked out. His shirt was the next thing to go, and the slow breaching of his body before he headed for the depths stunned her.
Merman. She had gone from running around as a wolf and twice had come into the domain of this merman. She thought he was an elf, and he certainly looked that way while he was walking around. He was at one with the woods around him, but that ease translated into the water the moment that he touched it.
She shivered as the cool breeze from across the water tried to get into the cloak.
The sun was marking mid-morning. She huddled as the light fought the wind and slowly warmed her. She kept her thoughts blissfully blank.
It had taken twenty minutes before the merman reappeared. He walked out of the water and smiled. “They will be here in minutes. They are of your kind, so things should be better for you.”
She frowned. “My kind?”
“Shifters. Wolf shifters to be precise. They are like you and will take you in. You will probably end up with a new pack if you are so unhappy with your old one.” He smiled brightly as if everything was supposed to make sense to her.
“What is a shifter?”
His eyes went wide just as a ball of light swirled open on her left. She leaned back and screamed when two huge wolves lunged out of the light and headed toward her.
“Guys. Cool it.” A woman came out of the portal and smiled. “Hello. I am Bethany. I will be your transporter today.”
The merman moved forward to speak, but the transporter held up her hand. “We can take it from here. Shifters are not your responsibility.”
She warily looked at the two wolves who had stopped a few feet away and were now sniffing her with interest. She clutched the cloak close to her. “I don’t know what a shifter is, but if it involves wolves, I am not interested.”
The transporter frowned. “We are here to take you to the hall so you can find your pack, or find another that suits you.”
“What is a pack? I am a person, not an animal.” She rose to her feet.
The transporter’s eyes widened. “Tell me why you are here.”
She frowned. “On the night of the new moon, I go running, and I wake up in a variety of places. Sometimes I am at home, and twice, I have come to these woods. Today, I tried to take my bags and run west, but that didn’t work out. I ended up north, and I have no idea where my bag is. I was leaving to start a new life.”
Bethany scowled. “What is your name?”
She smiled that someone had finally asked her. “Alberta Kenziak. Most folks call me Kenzi.”
“Who are your parents?”
“They are both dead. I was raised by my stepmother and her new husband. Neither were happy that I was stuck with them.”
One of the wolves blurred, and a naked man was suddenly looking at her. “Is Kenziak your birth name?”
“I think so. My stepmother’s name is now Baker.” Being confronted by a naked man gave her the strange impulse to make eye contact. His eyes were brown with a ring of gold around the pupils.
He smiled kindly at her. “I am Dino, and I think we can find out where you actually belong if you let us. Bethany is a
transporter and works with us. She also acts as our communicator while we are in beast form.”
“So... you can go back and forth between? I mean, at any time of the month?”
“We can. If you can’t, it is something that finding your people would help with. Do you know what you look like when you shift?”
She closed her eyes and tried to remember. “White, I think.”
“Good. Will you come with us so that we can look into it a little further? White wolves are exceedingly rare. You are probably a pale grey, but we won’t know until you shift.”
She wrinkled her nose. “If you say so. Can someone find my bag?”
The other wolf came toward her and sniffed.
“Richard will take care of it. He has a nose for tracking.”
Bethany nodded. “Right. Go on back, and I will come in with Richard when he brings the bag.”
The portal opened up again, which was weird because Alberta did not remember it closing.
She turned to the merman. “Thanks for setting this up.”
He nodded. “I wish you nothing but the best. Have a good life, Kenzi.”
She nodded, and Dino extended his hand to her. She held the cloak together but offered him her hand. With his warm grip around her fingers, she walked through the portal and into a world she had never imagined.
This was the freakiest hallucination after a beating that she had ever had.
Kenzi waited in a warm room with an unlocked door while a friendly young woman went to get her clothing. A soft knock made her blink. “Um, come in?”
A woman entered and smiled. “Hiya, I am Doctor Yolanda. Dino noted that he smelled blood on you when he met you, so I just wanted to ask if there was anything you need attending to?”
Kenzi shifted and felt the blood on her back coming free of the cloak. “I think that my scabs tore open. If you could bandage them or apply a cream to let the skin stretch a bit, that would be great.”
“Scabs?”
“Yeah, I don’t have much feeling on my back anymore, but I can smell the blood as well.” She looked around the room and couldn’t find a good place. “Can I just remove the cloak?”
The woman smiled and snapped her fingers. An exam table appeared, covered with paper. “Yes, please. Have a seat and open the cloak. I will only move what I need.”
“Okay.” Kenzi lifted the cloak so that the hem was just under her butt and the rest was sagging around her. She settled and released the clasp on the front of the cloak, sliding her shoulders free and holding the fabric at her breasts while the rest pooled by her hips.
“Oh, my god.” Doctor Yolanda’s whisper was horrified. “What did they do to you?”
Kenzi felt the pressure of the fingers against her back but nothing else. “I believe there was magic involved. He said it was to stop me from pursuing my other nature, but I still went running.”
“Stop you... I will be right back. Please remain here. We are going to try and help you.”
“Um, okay.” She couldn’t really go anywhere until there was clothing in the mix and her bag hadn’t shown up yet. She was stuck.
Dr. Yolanda eased the fabric up to cover her and left the room. Five slow minutes had passed before another knock had Yolanda leading three other women into the room.
“All ladies?”
Yolanda smiled. “We thought it would be easier considering your vulnerable state.”
“You are right. Okay, time for the second peep show of the day.” She lowered the fabric to expose her back again, and the women gathered round.
One of them applied cool pressure. Kenzi sighed. It felt glorious.
The women spoke amongst themselves, but Kenzi knew what they were looking at. Her back was a pavement of scars, and each was traced with silver and spell work. She might not know what shifters were, but she knew what a mage was. Her stepfather was a mage, and he had tried to keep her from whatever she was. She guessed that their kind wasn’t supposed to collide in the normal scheme of things.
Dr. Yolanda’s fingers trembled as she came around to give the diagnostic. “Alberta—”
“Kenzi.”
“Kenzi, you have been layered in the strongest restraint spells that I have ever seen. They have been placed under your skin, and I don’t even want to guess at the agony of the means by which they were applied. We can remove them.”
“Good.”
“But it is a slow process and will take over six months just to get back to a safe layer of tissue. Are you willing to let us heal you?”
“Will it end the dream?”
Yolanda paused. “The dream?”
“Yes, after every beating, I hallucinate and imagine a place between worlds where elegant folks meet, fall in love, and return home, no matter how weird the combination of their families. I like that idea, but when the dream is over, reality comes in. This is a new dream. I am just wondering if you know when it will end.”
Yolanda looked at the other physicians and shook her head. “I am afraid that this is your reality, but we will have someone help ease you into normal. It isn’t something to be achieved all in one night.”
Kenzi smiled. “I am willing to stay here as long as I can. This is definitely peculiar but fascinating dream none the less. Thank you.”
She hitched the cloak back into position and took the clothing that someone handed her. It was time to get on to whatever happened next.
Chapter Two
Kenzi pulled the t-shirt over her head and ignored her braless status when she worked the sweats up her legs and over her hips. The shoes were slip-ons, and when she was basically dressed, she flipped the cloak over her shoulders.
Rubbing her hands together, she looked over her audience. “Okay, I am ready. Where do we go next?”
“We need to bring you to someone who can do a diagnostic on your back. Time is going to be a factor in your recovery because whatever was done to you is firmly embedded.”
Doc Yolanda smiled tightly. “The actual next step is something to eat while we wait for the specialist to arrive. Do you like hamburgers?”
Kenzi tried to stop her mouth from watering. “I used to. I haven’t had one in years. My stepparents were vegetarians.”
The other doctors hissed in commiseration. Yolanda nodded encouragingly. “Come with me. We will get you back on the omnivorous bandwagon if you don’t mind.”
“Great. Um, what is this place?”
“This is the Shifter Guild Hall. There are representatives of most shifter species somewhere in the building, and this is where their folk can come to ask advice or get assistance in dealing with the human world.”
“That sounds complicated.” She looked at the halls of what seemed to be a plain old office building. Every now and then, one of the widely spaced doors would open, and people were visible inside. Some looked at them curiously but most went about their own errands.
Kenzi had to ask, “Why are so many folks here naked?”
Yolanda chuckled. “Shifters find clothing optional when they are amongst their own. Also, if they are operatives returning from a mission in their beast forms, they wouldn’t have clothing with them.”
“The merman had clothing on and shifted.”
“His clothing was as magical as he was. Fey are different, and they are never to be confused with shifters.”
“Right. Where are we going?”
“We are meeting with a healer and a shaman. They will be able to figure out the spell on your back more fully.”
“There is a spell on my back?” She fought the urge to turn around to check on it.
Yolanda sighed. “I think the shaman and the healer should take care of any further diagnostics.”
Glares and meaningful looks to the other medical personnel were ignored. They walked through several halls and up staircases until they were in an open-plan area, which appeared to have been overtaken by nature.
“Wow. This is... is that a koi pond?” She walked over to it and knelt on the
thick mossy floor. The fish rushed to the surface in search of food the moment her shadow crossed their little universe. She splashed the surface with her fingertips, and they nibbled at her skin.
“Playing like an infant. Is this why they interrupted my nap?” A white-haired woman leaning on a black cane with whimsical skulls on it moved slowly through the glade inside the building.
Dr. Yolanda bowed low. “Thank you for coming, elder.”
The other medical personnel bowed as well. Kenzi remained on her knees, letting the fish molest her fingers.
The woman walked up to Kenzi and lifted the cloak with the tip of her cane. “Wearing fey fashions?”
Kenzi looked back at the fish. “I was naked, and he gave it to me. He didn’t even peek. It was rather nice.”
The old woman took the cane and put it under Kenzi’s chin.
Kenzi scowled as her head was lifted on that rubber tip, and she was staring into the eyes of a woman whose body had grown up in the era of horse and buggy, but her eyes looked like she just finished jailbreaking her phone. She was one scary old lady.
“Hmm. You don’t appear to have a deformity. Why do you think he didn’t look?”
Kenzi blinked and thought about it. “Because the last time he saw me, I was fourteen. He turned his back then. This time he seemed to be prepared.”
“Fey are good at conjuring clothing out of nothing, but if I am to take a look at you, I need that magic off your body.”
Kenzi nodded against the pressure of the cane. “Fine. Can you move your cane?”
The woman pulled her cane back. “Who are your parents?”
“Emily Skarrow married Dexter Kenziak, and I was the result.”
The old woman leaned on her cane. “What were your parents?”
“Alive. Now they are dead.”
The snort was loud, but the mosses and trees stopped it from echoing. “What were their beasts?”
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