“Sure thing,” Natalie whispered when a groan came out from under the pillow of Teresa’s bed. Rolling her eyes, Mackenzie stood and gathered her things to get ready in the bathroom. Once she was awake, there was no going back to sleep and she knew it. It was her day to dust and vacuum the living room, which as it turned out, was a completely different room than where the boys were playing their games. The living room had a television and a big sectional couch as well as a wall filled with bookshelves. Pictures adorned the walls, all of the pack members from each of the house locations were in one photo or another. She hadn’t looked at each one in detail, mostly just the ones with Geoff. She hated that she searched out those specifically.
Padding down the stairs, she could hear that some of her new family was awake, but most were still sleeping. When she got to the living room, she decided to wait on the vacuuming out of respect for those still in bed and grabbed a dust rag.
She took extra care to dust the pictures with Geoff in them. She told herself it was because they were extra dusty, but the throat clearing in the background told her she was busted ogling again. She couldn’t help it. It was as if he called to her.
“I’m pretty sure my face hasn’t been as dust-free since that picture was put up.”
“There was a smudge. I was trying to get it off.”
“Want some help?” Before she could say no, he had grabbed a rag and started dusting at the other end. In no time, they met in the middle and the job was complete.
“Thanks.” Mackenzie took the rag from his hand and put them in the cabinet below the bookshelves. When she stood, she saw one of the old tomes with the title Lycanthropy.
Mackenzie fingered the spine, wondering if she would look silly opening it up. She was surrounded by Werewolves and had yet to ask anyone any more questions. Not even Teresa and Natalie, who had become her best friends in the house.
“That’s a good one. Some of it isn’t actually rubbish. But if you want to know the facts, you should really ask someone. There isn’t a single book that gets it all right.”
“Why not? Why wouldn’t one of use write one? I mean, it would be super helpful to be able to Google ‘Why am I turning into a hairy beast once a month’ and not have a bunch of PMS Websites pop up.”
Geoff laughed loudly, his eyes crinkling as his head fell back. The flutters in her stomach that were always present when he was around magnified and she had to look away.
“Because we want people to think we’re myths. Can you imagine what the world would do if they knew we were real? Every unsolved murder, every violent crime, everything would be blamed on us. They would want to study us. Hell, they might even force people to change by injecting our wolf saliva into their blood stream. It wouldn’t be pretty.”
Geoff moved to the couch and sat down, looking to Mackenzie as if he were inviting her to join him. She finally moved her feet in his direction when he patted the cushion impatiently. Looking back toward the hallway, as if she were actually contemplating leaving, she sighed and sat down, on the other end of the couch. She was hoping the distance would keep his grass and pure man essence from penetrating her senses and turning her into a giggling fool.
“Seriously? I won’t bite. Well, at least not for another two weeks. Unless you want to see me change on demand. Some girls like that, I hear.” He grinned as if he were the funniest thing in the world, but Mackenzie just couldn’t bring herself to find the humor in the beast. The last time she bit—her whole body shuddered as she remembered the resulting carnage.
“I’m good here.”
“Fine. Then I think I will move over there. I really don’t want to have to yell.” Geoff stood and moved his seat about two feet from where Mackenzie sat. “There. Now, ask away.”
“I don’t even know where to start.” She really didn’t. She had been studying mythology for years, but she was so confused about what to believe and what to chalk up to human fears and imagination.
“How about the first thing that pops into your head. We don’t have to go in any specific order.” The first things that popped into her head were all questions about Geoff. Not the impression she wanted to give off, but damn it, she couldn’t help herself.
“How old are you? Like for real. Margret said we live a lot longer than humans.”
“We do. Ten times their life spans. I’m afraid if I tell you, you will want to run away. Think I’m some old man.”
“Yeah well, I guess you just have to tell me and find out if you’re right or not.”
“I’m two hundred forty.”
“Holy shit.”
“Are you running yet?”
“No. Just damn. Two hundred and forty! But you look like a young man. How the hell does that work?”
“It’s the healing properties of our blood. The constant healing keeps us looking younger longer. I appear to be in my twenties, but I have been around a long time. Within our pack, you will find a wide range of ages, from you, being the new baby in the house, all the way to our pack leader. Margret is over four hundred years old.”
“Wow. What about kids? Do you have any? I mean, two hundred and forty years is a long time to go without starting a family, or you know, accidentally starting a family.”
“Why, Mack, I think I should blush! Are you asking if I have had the company of a woman in my bed?”
Geoff may have said he should blush, but she was the one who flamed red. She hadn’t meant to ask that. Who would assume he hadn’t been with someone in that long!
“No! Of course not! Forget it, never mind.”
“I’m just giving you a hard time. No, I have no children. I have enough responsibility keeping the pups in line.”
“But, I mean, if there are born Weres, it is possible though, right?” She hadn’t realized how badly she wanted a future family until that moment. There were no small children in the house and if the ages were as diverse as Geoff said, did that mean there were no parents?
“It is possible for some. Born Weres can have children with each other and every offspring would carry the Were gene. If a male, born or bitten, impregnated a human woman, the child wouldn’t be a Were. They would have extra abilities, like faster reflexes, better hearing, and eyesight, things like that. A male human can impregnate a born female Were and the baby has a fifty-fifty chance of carrying the gene. Female bitten wolves are barren. They can get pregnant, but when they turn each month… it just can’t survive that. ” He wouldn’t look at her. Mackenzie was glad for it, too. The tears in her eyes were threatening to overflow. She could never be a mother. She would never have children. Another thing to add to her list of things she lost because she walked down the wrong fucking path.
“But why?” her voice was barely above a whisper, “Why can a born have children but I can’t?”
“It’s in the DNA. When a woman is born a Werewolf, her body is different on a cellular level. It has something to do with the uterus and its shape and durability. When a woman is bitten, it doesn’t make her exactly like a born. I’m not sure why.”
Mackenzie sat in silence. A minute passed. And then another and another.
“Are you all right?” His voice caressed her before she felt his hand on her shoulder. She couldn’t answer him. Truth was she wasn’t really sure if she was okay or not yet. She knew she wasn’t able to verbally answer without losing it.
“Gimme a minute.” Standing and moving over to the bookshelf, she took a few deep breaths, hoping to calm herself down. When that didn’t work, she started grabbing whatever was within reach and throwing it across the room. She heard things smash, and cursing coming from the hallway as her antics brought other members from the house to see what the commotion was. The only thing she heard that helped stop her tirade was Geoff’s voice telling them all to go away, to give her time to let out her emotions.
When she stopped throwing things, the empty bookshelf became a resting place for her forehead, and a really good place to hide her face from Geoff.
“Better?”
“Actually, yes. So, never? I can never have kids?”
“I’m sorry.”
“So then why the hell do I still have to have a damn period each month?”
“Um...maybe I should get Margret.”
Even through the harsh reality of the situation, she had to laugh a little at his awkwardness. Apparently, his many years on the earth still didn’t desensitize him to that of a woman’s natural biology.
“No, don’t. I just, I need to sit.” Mackenzie pushed away from the shelf, stepping over the disaster that lay on the floor, and sat back on the couch. When Geoff sat next to her again, she didn’t try to move away. When he grabbed her hand and gave it a supportive squeeze, she refused to read too much into it.
“Do you want to ask anything else? Or should we just maybe clean this up?”
“How about both?” She stood before he could answer and began collecting the books from the floor. As she arranged them back on the bookshelf, she heard Geoff leave the room and return a few moments later.
~*~
“So, are we it? I mean are there other people who turn into other animals besides wolves?” Mackenzie really was curious. She had read at one point that there were just as many shifters as there were animals. Some could even pick and choose what they turned into.
“You mean like people who can turn into dogs or cats or other people?” His voice gave off hints of humor, as if he wanted to laugh but didn’t want to offend her in any way.
“Well, go ahead. Laugh it up. Until a few months ago, I thought Werewolves were a thing of make believe, too. Who’s to say all the stories don’t have meaning somewhere.”
“Sorry, sorry. As far as I know, we are the only lycanthropes. There is no such thing as shifters, just Werewolves. We have been given many names over the course of humanity. We have been around just as long as they have. But the stories about people turning into anything other than a wolf? Well, those are just fairy tales.”
“So, no vampires? Pixies? Angels? Demons?”
“Angels and demons are not my forte. As far as I know, the accounts of angels and demons come from humans doing amazingly good or amazingly evil things, with the help of a little magic they may or may not have figured out they can tap into. Some call them witches. All human, just with the ability to control the flow of magic that surrounds everything in this world. Vampires,” he shuddered when the word escaped his lips, “they are very real, and we do not, under any circumstances, have anything to do with them. The idea of natural born enemies is very real. Mostly because their venom can kill us, and our saliva can kill them. It is the only real weapon to use against either Were or vamp, besides decapitation or stopping our hearts.”
Mackenzie had stopped cleaning and just stared at him. She hadn’t known any of that. She was kind of hoping that he would deny the existence of all other supernatural creatures she had read about, even if that hope wasn’t well founded.
“Wow. So all this time, humans thought these creatures were just stories told to scare us, were real?”
“One, we are not creatures. Not like you are thinking. We, you and I and the rest of our pack, of our kind, are Werewolves. You need to try and accept that you’re one of us, not a creature, not a monster, and definitely not a human. Two, many of the stories written are either made up or about one of the few who went off the deep end. We keep control of our own and if someone messes up so badly the humans begin talking about them, they are dealt with. Little red riding hood’s big bad wolf? That was Michelangelo, and no, not the artist, he was banished from his pack. The humans hunted him down, just like in the original story. We have our own storybooks, if you are interested. The real stories behind the humanized fairy tales.”
“Thanks.”
They finished cleaning the room up together without talking. When the last bits of broken trinkets had been swept up, Mackenzie brought out the vacuum. She figured she might as well finish her chores since her temper tantrum had already woke up the entire house. Geoff returned to sitting on the couch and when she approached with the machine, he diligently lifted his feet in the air to allow her to clean under his feet.
“Mackenzie?” Her name being called from the doorway startled her. When she flipped the switch to turn the vacuum off, she realized that it was Margret. Geoff had mentioned her earlier, but it wasn’t until then that she realized she must have returned from getting Analise settled in California.
“Welcome back!” Mackenzie called with a big smile. She was grateful to Margret for finding her and helping her. She even coached her on what to say to her mother when she finally roused the nerve to call. She still had to do that.
“Thank you, dear. Would you mind if I had a word with Geoff?” Shaking her head, she quickly wrapped the cord around the machine and pushed it through the door, while Margret slipped into the room.
Mackenzie put the vacuum away in the closet around the corner and passing the just barely open door to the living room on her way to the stairs, she overheard her name.
“I see you and Mackenzie are spending more time together.”
“That’s what you wanted, you asked us all to befriend her and be there for her. The tempering is a hard time, and she has so many questions.”
“Be careful, Geoff. You know how emotional pups are. I can count on you to be there for her without being with her, can’t I? You know how important she is.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
~*~
Racing up the stairs, Mackenzie didn’t know if she wanted to be grateful for overhearing that conversation, or cry because now she knew Geoff was off limits. Throwing the door open, she didn’t even care if she woke Teresa up. The girl could deal with it.
From the resonating crack shook the wall from the doorknob slamming into the little table that stood next to the door for their keys and other necessary items when leaving the house, woke Teresa up. She sat up, without saying a word, and just stared at Mackenzie. The glare Mackenzie sent Teresa’s way told her she was not in the mood to hear anything about the noise.
“You okay?” Teresa could be really cool when she wanted to be. In the two weeks that Mackenzie had been in the house, she spent most of her time with Teresa or Natalie. She tried befriending the others, but she just felt out of place. Teresa had a temper, but honestly, who in the house didn’t? She liked to say the reason she had less control of hers than the others was because she was a redhead. Genetically speaking, she was just a firecracker. Mackenzie couldn’t help but laugh at that, and then wondered what her own problem was because her hair was plain old brown.
“No. Every time I start to think that I can handle this new life I was thrust into, something jumps in to bite me in the ass. I mean, first I turn into a massive wolf, and that hurts a fucking lot. I don’t even want to think about the next cycle. When I do change, I am a monster that rips animals to shreds. I lost the life I had planned. I am terrified to talk to my mother, let alone see her. I find out I am going to live for hundreds of years, that I won’t be able to have kids, vampires are real and hate me just because I drool once a month, and apparently, my chances with Geoff are null and void because Margret doesn’t want him to get involved! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY LIFE?”
Throughout her tirade, Mackenzie paced the floor in front of the window, ignoring the spectacular view. Her brain was on overdrive with everything she had learned. She could heal from just about anything—except vampire bites, beheading, and having her heart stopped. She had a group of people surrounding her that accepted her for who she was and wanted to help her. It sounded like it would be a great life. If only she could focus on those things, and forget the rest.
The creaking sound that came from the springs compressing and releasing broke the silence in the room. Teresa padded across the room and put her arms around Mackenzie, resting her forehead in the center of her back, hugging her tightly. Mackenzie relished the comfort of another person for just a moment before pulling away.
She gave Teresa a small smile
and took a drink of water that she kept in a bottle on her nightstand. “Sorry. I know I need to grow the fuck up and deal with this, but damn it, I never answered the question: ‘What do you want to be when you grow up’ with the word Werewolf.”
“Don’t be sorry. There are a lot of us who were changed and left to figure it out on our own. We all have been through exactly what you are going through now. It’s a lot to take in. Just be glad that Margret found you, like she found us. She is amazing, taking in all the new pups that have nowhere to go. Once you have been here a while, she will even get you started on the training, to make you a better fighter, both in human form and wolf form.”
“What do we need to know how to fight for?”
“Well, as young as we are, we won’t be fighting for a long time. She tries to keep the pups safe. But we are a large pack and sometimes other packs want to control ours. If they take Margret out, our pack belongs to them. After you have been in a pack for a year, you take the oath. Once you take the oath, the magic that makes us who we are, binds us to our pack leader. Not like a slave or anything, more like a strong urge to be loyal to them. The strongest can deny the pull, but with Margret? Why would you want to? She is amazing.”
“So what happens when they attack and they don’t kill her?”
“She kills them. It isn’t pretty, and she doesn’t like it. She often mourns their lives in her office for days on end after, but when a wolf starts a fight, the only way to stop it is by death.”
“So, the whole pack either dies or becomes loyal to Margret?”
“Yeah, basically. That’s how we got the Alaska land. A pack traveled down here, to take our place. Margret is very old and so is this pack. Just about everyone knows about us, and they know that we have ideal land and that Margret’s funds cover all the necessities. Not every pack lives like we do. Hell, most don’t. Most just meet up wherever they can. They are a pack, not a family, and they are jealous of us.”
“Wow.” Mackenzie couldn’t help it but she was completely in shock over the information, but knew she shouldn’t have been. That is one thing that the books got right, in order to take over a pack, the pack leader had to die. It was in everything she had ever read—both in her textbooks and in all paranormal novels. Why did she think that Margret’s pack would be all sunshine and rainbows, and that everything would be as happy as can be?
The Tempering (The Mackenzie Duncan Series) Page 9