by Jeff Hale
Darien didn’t bother to wait for me as he usually did when we hunted together, instead hurtling himself recklessly into the middle of the little herd with a loud growl. The buck squealed in pain as Darien landed on its back, sinking his teeth in its neck, claws in its shoulders. The impact knocked it over and its hooves scrabbled frantically at the ground.
I felt bloodlust rise in myself and surged forward after one of the smaller does before the rest of the bunch scattered to the winds. Unlike Darien, I lacked the element of surprise, but I caught up quickly, my paws digging into the damp earth to propel me forward. A regular dingo might have passed it by, but being one with human intelligence, I had a bit more strategy to play with.
The doe made a noise of pain as my teeth clamped onto her lower leg. I jerked my head to the side and felt the bone snap in the leg, and with another noise she tumbled to the ground. I was immediately on her, teeth tearing into the tender belly as I pushed my humanity to the background and let the animal take control. The warmth of her blood, the taste of the raw meat, filled a hunger in me that processed food could never seem to touch.
Despite losing track of time as I fed, I never dropped my guard. After all, you never knew when a stupid, or not so stupid, hunter would wander by. The sound of movement behind me had my head raised, bloody muzzle turned toward the intruder as I growled a warning. It was Darien.
He still had blood about his snout and paws. I was sure he had probably consumed most of the buck that he had taken down, the healing his body had been forced to do leaving a hunger even deeper than my own. I was full, so I stepped back from the carcass, letting him know that he could have the rest. Not that he had to ask, that was courtesy on his part. He was my Alpha, so I would have given it up either way.
It didn’t take long for him to become sated, and we wandered back to the creek we had passed earlier. The skunk was gone, so it was safe to enter the water and wash as best we could. The mountain creek was cold and I shivered despite the thick fur. I left the water and trotted back towards where we had left the bike, occasionally stopping to shake water out of my fur. Darien followed behind me. We were both too full to run.
The change back to human form was not one I relished. After the freedom of being in animal form, my human body felt cramped and claustrophobic. I would get used to it again after a bit, but it always left me a little irritable.
After getting redressed, we stayed in the wooded area a moment longer, watching the sunlight filter its way down through the canopy of leaves and branches. I just stood there, scenting the air around me, letting myself relax.
“You up for a trip?”
I opened an eye. Darien had broken my meditative mood. He never was one for meditating.
“I was expecting it,” I told him. Our voices seemed loud. The crickets quit chirping. “When are we leaving?”
“In the morning. We’ll follow them back. I want to make sure she gets home safe.” There was a distance in his voice, one I was used to hearing, the one that crept in when he thought of Sasha.
“She didn’t know, you know. What it meant.”
“What what meant?” Darien’s voice was sharp.
“That you had chosen her, for your mate. She didn’t know.”
There was silence for several seconds. I could hear him breathe. He was staring at his boots. “I know. I was afraid that if I explained it all first, she would run scared, before I had a claim on her.”
“Just her?”
“Screw you, Alex.”
I sighed. I opened the other eye and gave him a knowing look.
He glared at me. “Dammit. Fine. Before I ran scared too. Happy?”
“Not really. Just wanted to hear you admit it.”
“I haven’t felt that way, this way, in so long, I didn’t know what else to do, and I was afraid if I didn’t claim her quickly that she would…. I’m not sure what I was afraid of.”
“Sure you are. Don’t deceive yourself, man. And don’t try to sugarcoat it for me, it’s not like I’m gonna be cranky at you or anything. You just wanted to make sure that I knew she was off limits, you were afraid she might be drawn to me as well, or me to her. I would have done the same, if I were you.” I stuffed my hands in my jacket pockets and nudged a pine cone around with my foot. “And honestly, if circumstances were slightly different, I would probably argue with you over it. Alpha be damned.” I knew there was a hint of jealousy in my voice and I didn’t care. I had nothing to hide from Darien, and better he knew up front my own feelings in regards to Kat than suspect something behind his back.
“Circumstances?” He had the grace to sound bewildered.
I stomped over to him and looked up at him. “Oh, come off! Don’t play stupid with me, you think I can’t smell her too?”
He shook his head, his eyes closed, and I could see pain cross his face. “What are the chances though? I mean, really? That she would come back to me?”
I exhaled heavily and held up a finger. “One, she’s young enough. Sasha died twenty one years ago, Kat is eighteen.” I popped up another finger. “Two, she fair reeks of the same scent. We all have our own identifying scents, you know this as well as I.” Another finger. “Three, we both know that rebirth is part of the Life Cycle, that we are all reborn again. Four,” I added yet another finger, “she’s a wilder, and if or when it was time for Sasha to be reborn, it would most likely be in that of a pure blood or half blood.” I unfolded my thumb. “And lastly, c’mon, mate, you feel it. In here.” I touched his chest. “Or I reckon you sure as hell wouldn’t have made her off limits to anyone but you, or just about deflowered her in a laundry room. You have better control than that.”
“What?” His eyes went wide. “Deflowered? She’s a virgin?”
“She’s eighteen, Darien. Did you expect her to have a list of previous lovers as long as her arm?” I gave him an incredulous look.
“I honestly forget her age when I see her, Alex.” He closed his eyes and a flush crossed his face. “And the way she responded to me, I just figured, well…”
“Well, you figured wrong.”
“And you would know, how?”
“A little birdie whispered it in my ear. Blonde, blue eyes, goes by the name of Kris?”
“Oh.”
“Oh. Yeah.”
“But the way she was with me, it just didn’t seem…”
“Her beast reacting to yours. Especially to yours. If she is Sasha reborn, and I’m pretty sure she is, I’m sure her soul recognizes you, even if she herself doesn’t.”
He was silent again, thinking, possibly trying to rationalize his feelings again. He sighed heavily. “So what do you think it will be?”
“What what will be?” I was confused by what seemed to be a sudden change in direction.
“Her beast. What do you think she’ll be?”
I gave him a contemplative look. “Are you sure? That she’ll even change?”
He nodded. Emphatically.
I exhaled a breath upward that rearranged my bangs, thought a few seconds, then shrugged. “I’m not sure. But not wolf, not canine. I don’t get that… vibe… from her.”
He shook his head, sadness creeping into his eyes again. “Me either. But then again, neither was Sasha.”
I shrugged again. “I suppose it’s always a possibility, but I don’t think I get that vibe either.” Sasha had been a breed of shifter even rarer than my own, one of those that had inspired as many or more legends as those of werewolves… sort of. She had been a weredolphin. Sounds strange, I know, but ‘totems’ after all.
After years of watching her play in the surf in half human form, it would have been easy to see where myths of mermaids came from. But the one thing that made me think Kat wouldn’t go the cetacean route was the one tiny thing missing from her scent that made her smell only ninety-nine percent like Sasha and not one hundred percent: the smell of the sea. Sasha’s own personal scent had always been intertwined with the smell of sand and surf; Kat’s was not.
“She’s hard to figure,” I said. “I couldn’t tell you exactly what she will be, but I can pretty much figure what she won’t be. And there’s something else, something I can’t quite put my finger on.”
“You too?” He gave me a sharp look. “I thought that was just me analyzing the whole thing way too much.”
“This time? No.” I laughed and glanced up through the trees, noting that the sun had shifted and was beginning its descent for late afternoon. “C’mon, let’s get out of here. I know it’s early but I suggest that after last night, we get plenty of sleep before heading out tomorrow, most especially since I know you’ll be pestering Matt again once it’s dark.”
He answered me by throwing a leg over the bike and knocking the kickstand back. I waited for him to start it, then hopped up behind him and we carefully made our way back to the main road, then back to town.
Fatigue hit me before we even made it back to Matt’s place. I was sure Darien was feeling the same way, probably worse. We let ourselves in, locking the door behind us. Sure enough, Matt was tucked away asleep in his own room, a jaunty little ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign hanging on his door for our benefit. There was a note on the counter. It read: sleeping, be up later, hopefully will be able to tell you something before you leave in the morning-Matt.
I dropped my jacket on the floor, pulled my shoes off and sat on the edge of the hide-a-bed. It had been a long night, and a long day. My head hit a pillow and I burrowed in, vaguely noticing Darien just drop bodily onto the other side, and I was quickly asleep, Kat’s scent in my nostrils.
I awoke much later from a dream that would have had Darien at my throat if he found out about it. Good thing that dreams are just that and it was nothing I ever planned on acting on, at least not without a lot of things changing. My own attraction to Kat was different than Darien’s, since I had not had any kind of feelings toward Sasha other than brotherly, and not anything I could put my finger on exactly.
Needless to say, I knew I was in for a world of heartache where Kat was concerned, and I found myself unable to do anything about it, and even a bit unwilling. I had only really felt this way once before, back when I’d still been human, and that girl had broken my heart. While it hurt that I would never be able to have Kat, it felt good to care that much again.
It was the sound of Matt rummaging in the kitchen that had woken me up. I cracked an eye, a bit irritated at having been pulled out of my dream. I attempted a glare, but I’ve been told I don’t glare well and it probably came across as just staring. It did no good, and I just sighed and levered myself off the bed.
Matt had retreated to the living room by the time I finished in the bathroom and I joined him there. He was watching cartoons. The sun had been up for a while already and the DVD player read 8:47. There was a plate with a couple of warmed up chocolate pop tarts on the coffee table. Matt pointed at them as I sat in the easy chair.
“Eat up,” he said.
Pop tarts. Not exactly the most nutritious, but I had a thing for breakfast junk food. I took a bite out of one and looked at the television. An animated coyote was being bested by a bird. Poor coyote. If it had been me, that bird would have been lunch long ago. Noise from the other room told me that Darien was awake as well. I ate my pop tarts and we watched the coyote get bested yet again while we waited for Darien. It didn’t take long before he strode into the living room, his hair freshly wet, and dressed in clean clothes.
“So,” Matt said the one word, then paused for a good ten seconds, still watching the cartoons. “I did some asking around last night. My pack Alpha gave me permission to tell you anything that I could, considering the circumstances.” Unlike pure vampires, rakshasa, the name supernaturals gave to shifter-vampire hybrids, still ran in packs due to their shifter base nature.
“Circumstances?” Darien’s voice was sharp. He glanced toward me and wrinkled his nose as I ate the last piece of pop tart.
Matt picked the remote up from where it lay next to him on the couch and turned the sound down most of the way, making eye contact with Darien.
“Yes. Circumstances. Regarding Kat… and you.”
I could tell that Darien was starting to get impatient with Matt. I swallowed the bite of pop tart and asked, “Can you elaborate on that, please, Matt, instead of, well, doing whatever it is you’re bloody well doing?”
Matt’s eyes were on the television again. He’d had a fascination with cartoons for as long as I’d known him. He chuckled as the poor coyote fell to an ignominious temporary death over a cliff, muttered something about a ‘silly dog’ then abruptly turned the television off.
“Have you two ever heard the name Lochlan Shaughnessy?” he asked.
The name was familiar to me and from the look on Darien’s face, familiar to him as well. Not someone we’d ever met though.
“Wasn’t he your former Alpha?” Darien was perplexed.
“Yes, before we both became rakshasa. Now he’s the Beta for this pack, next in line for Alpha if or when we ever need a new one.”
“And this Lochlan bloke has to do with this, how?” I raised my eyebrows at Matt, questioning.
Matt made a soft sound and shook his head as though we were missing something huge that we should have known.
“Shaughnessy?” he repeated, as though it answered everything.
Darien and I exchanged a confused look, then both shrugged at the same time.
Matt bit one corner of his lip in a wry, incredulous smile. “You have got to be kidding me. Neither of you asked Kat what her last name was?”
It was starting to click into place what Matt was trying to get across when I heard Darien swallow a gasp and knew he had beaten me to it.
“Her father?” Darien’s voice was tight.
Matt smiled and nodded, like we were slow students who had finally caught on.
“How did you know he was her father? You didn’t get her last name either,” I accused.
“The picture,” Darien said.
Matt inclined his head. “I recognized him from the picture she showed us. You two have never seen him before, so it didn’t make a difference. I’ve known Loch a little over a century. He looked different, he was still alive when that picture was taken, but I see him just about every night, so I knew it was him.”
“But Kat said her father was dead, died when she was a baby.” I was still a bit confused.
Matt shook his head. “Eighteen years ago, Lochlan Shaughnessy and our friend, Karl DeSoto—”
“Your Alpha?” Darien interrupted.
Matt gave a quick nod and continued, “—were headed out to do a little evening hunting. The vehicle they were in was struck by another one coming the opposite direction and Loch’s car went off the road and into a ravine.” He narrowed his eyes at Darien. “You know as well as I, that even shifters can be hurt beyond repair by mundane means, and Loch was dying, too much damage done to his heart.”
“So DeSoto turned him.” I made it a statement.
“Yes. He… stabilized him with his blood until he could return Loch to the pack and have the ritual performed. Of course, Kat’s mother was told he was in the hospital, too badly injured to be seen. Loch didn’t want to explain to his wife what he now was, didn’t feel it was fair to her anymore when he was no longer technically alive. After all, she never even knew he was a shifter.
“I even attended his funeral. He played dead in the casket, it was buried empty, and Kat and her mother went on with their lives.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, almost as though he were trying to decide what to say. “Kat… Katelyn…. I saw her at the funeral, the baby, I didn’t realize it was her though, I didn’t piece together the nickname until now.” His face grew serious again. “Loch told me last night that he’s been keeping tabs on them ever since. He’s not too fond of this guy that Roslyn married—that’s Kat’s mother—but he hasn’t had any reason to step in.”
Her full name was Katelyn? It was such a beautiful name that I was surp
rised she would let anyone shorten it to Kat.
Darien sighed heavily. “So then, am I to expect a pissed off vampire after me now that I caused his daughter to become a shifter?” There was concern in his voice.
“No. He knew she was a wilder and figured it would happen someday. He was more concerned over how it happened, that someone had tried to kill her.”
Darien nodded thoughtfully, then shook his head. “Why? Why now? Kat’s been here before, her grandparents live here, why make an attempt now?”
“That was your fault actually.”
“What?” Darien’s voice rose.
Matt glared at him. “Sure, Kat has visited before, but no one really paid attention to her. You know that there are different factions in vampire society, that there are other supernaturals that hate all vampires, including the rakshasa and the liches, and that have problems with shifters as well. My pack has been having problems with a group of fae that settled into the area, as well as a nearby group of pure blood vamps that want Lochlan’s territory. They would have no reason to connect Kat with Lochlan, especially since her grandparents have a different last name, until they saw her in your company. They knew what you were. That made them curious about Kat, and well, once they knew she was Loch’s daughter and in the company of a shifter, they figured she was a shifter too and—”
“Bam. A shotgun full of silver.” I shuddered. A new thought occurred to me. “But how did they know? I mean, Katelyn was only with us very briefly on the beach, then at the theater before it happened.”
Matt shrugged. “Any number of means. Someone could have seen her at the beach when they left, there were others in the theater. With the three of us in our mixed little group, and distracted at that, we might have missed picking up on another vampire or a fae.”
“So is she still in danger?” Darien asked.
The expression on his face was dark and it worried me. The last thing either of us needed was Darien going off harebrained after pure blood vamps, or even worse, some fae that would probably fuck him up beyond all fixing.