“I’m just going to ignore that you called me an out of context werewolf, and ask what the hell else you mean about it only being part of me.”
She skipped right over the apology part and said “Do you know what blood is?”
“Uh yeah, it’s the stuff that keeps us all alive, pumps around our bodies.”
“It’s life in its simplest form. It’s our life line and time span and history and heritage. It’s generations of creation and DNA to form us.” She paused “It’s our power. A source of everything we are.”
Addison, an alpha werewolf from the Manhattan Maen pack once said of me, that I had real power. I didn’t really think anything of that comment, it was just a passing remark, but it stuck all the same, lodged in my brain until now.
It never occurred to me, to think more of it, to question it. I thought he was just making a pointed statement, or you know, trying to make me sound cool. But from what the good doctor was telling me, I might be a whole lot more than cool. But now I’m thinking differently. Addison might have been on to something and known it, without saying anything about it, to me. But how could he? He couldn’t have known about me. Right? Nobody has ever known anything about me, not even my father. I focussed back on Dr Marisini again.
“A true werewolf is the calm before a storm. The eye of the storm with the power of the storm. That’s what you are. You’ve got Dire wolf in your blood lines. Have you ever noticed how those supposedly more powerful than you are drawn to you, that you’re always surrounded by them? You were brought up in a family of alpha werewolves, and are partnered with an alpha werewolf. It’s not just because there his friends and that’s who they are when you’re around him. It’s because they’re around you.”
“You must have this wrong somehow. I’m not all powerful. I’m just a beta wolf.” I replied honestly confused by what she was going on about.
“I’m sure you’ve been told that your whole existence. That you’re just,” she said pausing to emphasising “a beta werewolf.” I sighed. I had heard it all my life, especially from those who wanted to put me down. But then I’m sure most beta werewolves had heard that line too. So it hardly meant I was any different to them.
“There’s always someone, somewhere who thinks they’re a whole lot better than you, that’s willing to put you down. That’s just people.” I replied back at her.
“Right, people, not werewolves. Not you.” She said pointing at me. “Power attracts power. Those supposedly more powerful than you are drawn to you, some without even knowing it or why.”
“Well that would explain Gabby, then.” I muttered out loud getting a quizzical look. “Um, female alpha werewolf from another pack. Wants to destroy me for no apparent reason other than she hates my guts.”
“Ah, well, then yes, this would make some sense of that. She probably senses your power. Isn’t too happy about it. You’re a threat and you probably don’t even know why.”
My brain raced, so if Gabby sensed it and was agitated by it and Addison sensed it and was keeping secret about it, what did that mean for Paris? Or the others like Wiatt and Jules when I was around them. Or hell, even my sister and brother, the two alpha werewolves left in my family.
Shit! My father had always said I was special. I figured it was just because I was the youngest girl and because I was adopted. Like Addison’s comment, I didn’t think it meant more than that and took it always at face value. But then, I gather I wasn’t supposed to. But why? I shook my head. Nothing made sense. This had to be some elaborate joke.
“You’ve got Dire wolf in your blood.” She repeated.
“So I’m a half blood Dire wolf, is that it?” I asked unimpressed, given the lead up she’d given me. The café waitress walked over to our table again, even though we hadn’t ordered anything. We both fell quiet and looked at her expectantly.
“Sorry ladies, I have to kick you out. We’re closing early on account of the expected weather front coming through.”
“Expected weather front?” I asked her.
“Yeah, big storm coming. We’re being advised to border up windows. They think it could be a damaging one. So we’ve got to get the shop secured.”
Dr Marisini and I pushed out our chairs and she scooped up the paperwork and the manila folder again, before we walked out of the café to her car. “We’ll go to my place and I’ll explain the rest of it.” She said as I noted the drop in temperature. It was cold, quite crisp, actually and still dark outside as I looked up at the black clouds blanking the sky. But no rain, not just yet. Well it wasn’t like I couldn’t do with the time to chat more to Dr Marisini if the storm hit whilst I was in New Jersey. Seemed like there was a lot I could find out from her.
“You live in New Jersey? I thought you lived in the Hamptons.” I said trying to get a sense of her.
“No, I live here in Jersey with my girlfriend. But my work takes me everywhere. I got the call out for you guys in the Hamptons, I was nearby, so I came.” My cell phone rang and I ignored it, wanting to smother it with whatever I had in my handbag to smother it with. We got into her car.
“So your work is you’re an on call friendly for the Neiwe Teme?” She started the car up again.
“For all werewolf packs, all werewolves really. Friendlies like me tend to be, kind of freelance and scarce. But my services are retained by the local pack here, so they become my first priority.” She started up our conversation again, as if it’d never stopped. “Dire wolves are supposed to be extinct.” She said smiling warmly at me as I felt butterflies dance in my stomach. “By a couple thousand millennia. By all accounts Bg, you shouldn’t exist.”
6
My heartbeat started thumping wildly. I didn’t know how else to take the news that I was part of a race of wolves who were for lack of a better word, were, ancient. “Are you sure?” She nodded her head as she drove off. “How is that even possible?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But here you are. And it’s been wildly reported for years, centuries, that Dire wolves went extinct.”
A thought occurred to me. “Maybe the natural Dire wolves did go extinct, are still extinct. I’m a werewolf doctor, there’s a big difference. Wolves that are animals, that we see around the place in the wildness, they’re just animals, surely you know that.” I said to her.
“Right, but that doesn’t change the fact that your bloodline is part of an extinct race of wolves, all werewolves originate in some form from an animal wolf blood line. And in most of New York you’re likely to find grey wolves and brown wolves. When it comes to shifters, they tend to be coyote based around here.”
I looked at her, I didn’t know that. “Lycan’s don’t figure into the equation because they originate from a werewolf bite, so it’s different again. Because they are not born with the genes, werewolves naturally obtain through origin of their species.” She turned down a corner and drove down a street.
There were only a handful of houses on the street that looked like it backed onto the beach front of Sea Bright. That had to mean expensive real estate. A beachfront property. I looked at the doctor again. She didn’t exactly elude the image of wealth, but looks could be deceiving.
“If you’re a freelance friendly and on call, where exactly do you do this kind of work, like you’ve done on me?” I asked her as I looked at the houses around us. They looked, clean, neat, new.
“I have permission to work out of various facilities, including hospitals and colleges. I wouldn’t have that if I wasn’t the Neiwe Teme doctor.” I nodded my head in understanding. The Neiwe Teme pack had resources that the doctor could use if they could have her services, seemed like a fair trade to me. She pulled up to the third house on the right and pointed to it. The Breukelen pack had their own friendly too. My family doctor for all my life.
“Come on in.” She said turning off the car engine and getting out. I followed her out of the car and up to her front door, the wind was starting to blow and it occurred to me that the
street was incredibly quiet. I couldn’t see another soul on the street, there were no cars parked in driveways and no lights on in any homes, which given how dark it was now outside, should be on. I pushed my black hair out of my face and huddled into my jacket as I marched up her front steps.
The inside of the doctors house didn’t give away any indication of monetary wealth from her. But it was homely and personal. Her living room faced out onto the street with large windows that gave us a view of the opposite neighbouring house and a glimpse of the beach behind it.
I immediately went to the photos on display and looked at a picture of the doctor and another woman, laughing at what looked like, Coney Island boardwalk. Where as Doctor Marisini was pretty, this other woman was stunning, clearly a natural beauty, no wildly colourful hair for her. “Is this your girlfriend?”
“Yes.”
“Is she a shifter too?” I asked curiously.
“No, she’s a Neiwe Teme wolf.” I turned around to face Doctor Marisini again and she indicated I should sit. I wondered how a werewolf and a shifter got together and how the shifter’s mixed scent didn’t drive the werewolf crazy. I know it always annoyed me when I was around them.
Because it was like smelling your environment, committing it to memory and then having to figure out what was out of place, or if something was out of place. It was damn near impossible to figure out if an enemy was approaching because the shifter’s scent could be and was almost always at all times, anything. So you had to be alert of your surroundings, vigilant. I sat down in an arm chair and put my handbag on the sofa beside me.
“So I’m part of an extinct race of werewolves huh?” I said looking at her as she sat down. We’d both abandoned our coffee at the café.
“Something like that from what I could find out.”
“Luke you’re our only hope, no there is another.” I said softly under my breath and getting a chuckle out of the doctor for my Star Wars joke. “Cool.”
“Dire wolves were thought to be the fiercest of all wolves. They had great strength, speed and hunting skills.”
“Then why’d they die out, if they were the fiercest bad asses around?” She shrugged her shoulders. “Well, that sounds nothing like me at all.” I replied back at the doctor. “Although my fighting skills are improving I believe, given the amount of fights I seem to have gotten into in the past year and a bit.”
She leaned forward at me, her elbows on her knees as she spoke. “I have a theory about you, do you want to hear it?”
“Doc, I travelled to Jersey in secret. Of course I want to hear this theory.” I fired back at her crossing my sneakers.
“Okay but first, I need some answers from you before I share my theory.” She looked at me and paused. I wondered what she thought of me by just looking at me. I didn’t look special, I didn’t allude the confidence of the alpha’s I was constantly surrounded by.
“Fire away.” I said as I looked out the front windows. Rain drops started to fall outside.
“Are you able to shape shift at will?”
“Well yes, all werewolves can. It’s nothing new to call on a shift.”
“I know that, I meant, can you do it like the alphas do?” She asked me looking at me like I was going to drop some gem of information in her lap.
“You mean partial shift? No. I’ve never partially shifted. And as far as bringing on another werewolves shift like the alpha’s do when they call out your wolf. Never done that either, the most I’ve done for any pack mate of mine, is help them get as close to the need to shift, as possible. You know, by firing up the libido. That kind of thing.” She nodded her head and I could see she was thinking something over.
“Have you ever tried?”
Now it was my turn to look at her surprised. Of course I’d never tried to partially shift, or call out anyone’s wolf, I was a beta werewolf. We’re told pretty early on what we can expect to happen to us, what our abilities will be limited to. I’d never thought to push past that. I’d never had reason to. Besides, I hadn’t exactly come into my shape shifting abilities in the most natural of ways.
“No.”
“Maybe you could try it now. A partial shift.” My eyes narrowed on her and I started to growl automatically.
“I thought we’d established I’m not a test subject, that I’m a person with feelings. Turns out just because I’m a werewolf, doesn’t mean I’m a circus animal either. Your girlfriend is a werewolf for gods sake, you must know how personal shifting can be to some of us.”
“My girlfriends kind of different. She doesn’t have a problem with it being public or private.” I took a deep breath, Doctor Marisini really needed to work on her beside manner. “I’m guessing you don’t think you have any special abilities because you’ve been told since you were born, you’re just a beta werewolf right. And if you hear that enough, you start believing that. You might not even bother to question it. Especially if you don’t seem to naturally be able to do what any alphas do.”
“Never had a need to. I just get by lunar weeks like everyone else.”
“Do you ever wonder if it had anything to do with what happened when you were fourteen?” She asked simply, like it was no big deal, like she had a right to.
I felt my anger surge through me, into my arms and legs and I leapt without thought, straight at her, landing on top of the doctor, in her chair. Pinning her to it. Honestly, it was an impressive leap. “You better fucking explain to me how you know about that! And why I shouldn’t slash your throat wide open and drink from the fountain of your blood.” I saw her visibly shake.
My anger over the attack I suffered at fourteen, I’d never really let go of it ever. How could I? I was a werewolf, our memory’s strength was in sound, sight and smell for good and for bad. My bad memories were pretty much trapped in my head for my entire life, because I had a good mind for remembering things. Whether they should be remembered or not. Whether I wanted to, or not.
I started snarling in her face, up close. Allowing the sound of my wolf’s growl to creep out of me from behind very human teeth. “If you don’t think I can’t rip you apart with these teeth doc, you’d be wrong with the way I’m feeling right now.”
She closed her eyes tightly. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry, please don’t rip my throat out.”
“Answer me!” I yelled back at her. “How do you know about me, at fourteen? Because of your research, doctor? Sounds like you did more than blood work on me. Bit of background checking, speaking to people maybe? Talking to my friends huh? How do you know about that?”
She half opened her eyes but I could see she was still trying to cower away from me. She was truly terrified and all I felt when I looked at that fear in her, was satisfaction. I stayed, exactly where I was, hovering over her, extremely close to her. My hands and legs on the sofa chair, acting as a prison.
“My parents used to take me up to that camping ground when I was growing up.” She said softly back at me. And I felt the coldness of her words sink into my skin. I was asking to be taken back there by having her talk about it. “Lots of families used to go up there when they were bringing up kids like you and me. Not just werewolves. It was like a safe house for us. All of us. ”
I pushed back off the chair instantly to get away from her. “Not for me it wasn’t.”
“I know.” She said meekly, glancing at me and away again. I felt agitated and started moving around the room. Doctor Marisini had to be the same age as Paris and if she’d grown up in New York then it was highly likely she’d done what countless other families, werewolves, lycans, shifters in our culture had done back then. Taken their kids to the country to help them get ready for the changes that would come when they hit puberty and came into being whatever it was they were meant to be. That was why my family went up there.
“I remember overhearing my parents in the kitchen of our trailer one night, talking about your attack. They said you’d been attacked, and were found naked and terrified in the woods. With no idea
who you’re attackers were, or whether they’d been caught. It was all my mother needed to hear, she had us pack up and get out of there that night. We never went back after that.”
I kept moving around the room, clenching and unclenching my hands. I wanted to hit something, I wanted to smash skulls and mangle meat. I wanted to break bones and scream and scream until my voice left my body desolate. I’d never brought myself to talk about what happened to me, to anyone and I wasn’t going to start now, with her. A prodding shape shifter doctor I clearly didn’t know from anything.
I looked at her then, hard and sniffed the air. Inhaled her scent and tried to sort through it. It was still as confusing as ever. Definitely a shape shifter and not a lycan. Not the lycan scent I remembered the most from that night, all those years ago. “I remember my parents mentioning the name Sommers. It never occurred to me when we first met up at the Hamptons that it was you. Not until I started doing this, that it was you, from back then.”
“Our discussion is over doctor.” I seethed at her still moving around. The darkness outside the front windows complimented my mood. The rain was coming down harder, more persistently and I suddenly didn’t care about getting wet, I just wanted to get out of there.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”
I snapped around on my heel and looked at her. “Aren’t you a peach?”
“We live in a small world Bg, and whilst we don’t run in the same circles, we exist in the same world.” She said softly. I stopped clenching my hands into fists and took a few deep breaths.
“I think the attack might have affected in part, how you matured as a werewolf. I don’t mean matured as in attitude, I mean, abilities. From what I heard, apparently that was the night you shifted.”
Werewolf Storm Page 3