Broken Bones

by Deja Black

  Dan remembered her often passing quietly in the streets, forced to ignore the hushed whispers or laughter echoing in her wake. Her burden seemed to physically weigh her down, announcing it was her fate to fall in love with a man who loved himself more, but she still held her head high. And on the day when Dan could have died, she would not allow Matthew to take away the one person she loved with all of her being, words she said while she held him tightly to her breast when all was said and done. Her baby loved boys. Through his tears, she whispered into his ear that while she was afraid of the journey his life would take, he didn’t deserve to die for it. Without hesitation, she struck Matthew hard with the iron she carried as she charged into the room, never fully knowing if the blunt hit ever killed him. She took her angel, his skin blanketed in black and blue, throat wearing the cuffed prints of Matthew’s hands, and left, moving to Louisville where her sister lived.

  She hadn’t known her sister was mated to a wolf or that she would share the stories of happiness and love she experienced with Jeremiah’s brother Tobin, or that Sarai would herself later fall in love with the Alpha. Sadly, none of them knew that the nurse who loved her patients would later die at the hands of the disease many of them escaped, but that she was unable to.

  Conner walked toward the bed and rested in the chair left vacant by Shelly. He lifted one of Dan’s spiraling twists of hair from his face. Dan’s hair was like Matthew’s, but he had chosen to grow his much longer. It was silky and twisted down past his nape. He usually wore it braided with a bead or two for aesthetics, a style Shelly teased him about unmercifully, insisting it was his form of rebellion. Like a kaleidoscope, his hair caught the colors of light and wore them as a personal crown: honey brown, dark sable, flecks of red. Conner curled Dan’s hair around his finger, wrapping over and under, around and up. It was calming, melted his defensiveness.

  “We know you’re not a kid, Danny. It is also known—” Conner grinned. “—that you, hairless brother, have every season of this show at home. We thought it necessary for your comfort.” Conner smiled at him, waiting for his understanding. His amber eyes were patient while he looked Dan over, allowed time for his words to sink in. They had been to his home. Keith’s home? They had seen. Oh, Goddess, they had seen everything. “Not now, brother.” Conner drew closer, his proximity calming Dan’s freak-out moment before it could reach panic attack level on his Richter scale. “In time. It is more important that you rest. Your family will take care of this, as should have been the case before you lay here. Father has decided to ‘look’ for himself rather than have you struggle anymore.”

  Dan turned to Conner’s voice, his brother’s face glowing eerily in the light as images from the television crossed its surface. Conner touched his cheek, the puffy skin around his swollen eye, and drew his finger along his torn lip. Other hands touched Dan, allowing him to feel the heat, the healing. He swiveled his head to the other side to seek Jeremiah’s regard. His hair was pulled back by a leather thong, his black strands streaked with white. Even under the scant amount of light in the room, he bore his own glow, one that eased Dan’s despair.

  Jeremiah’s eyes softened as he took in Dan’s face, traces of worry creasing his brow. He looked gently upon Dan with regret in his eyes. “My son.” Jeremiah’s words were heavy as he placed his hand against Dan’s cheek, touching the blueberry hints of color there.

  “Father, I’m sorry. I….”

  “Danny, now is not the time for apologies. Look at you. Your beautiful face, your hair….” Jeremiah looked down his length, paused, and returned to gaze at him fully. He knew. “Conner is right. You know what must be done, my child. We cannot allow this transgression to go unpunished. If not for you alone, then for the bond of the pack. Do you think we did not feel your pain? Did not know you suffered? You are ours, Danny. You are a part of our pack’s heartbeat. With this—” Jeremiah raised his arm, passing his hand along the length of Dan’s body. “—the beating of that heart has stuttered. This must be done. Your weak excuse for a mate shall be no more. Conner.” Jeremiah glanced over to Conner, who nodded respectfully.

  It was a bit of a shuffle in the tight hospital room, as Conner had always been solid, unforgiving in his height and size. From the moment he had met the young wolf as a teenager when Dan was in middle school, he thought Conner was the sun and moon. He was like a gladiator, fierce in his duty, unswerving in his passion. Lately, though, he had noticed that his passion had a target as his heated glances were often trained on Shelly. He’d have to think on that later. Right then, Conner stood behind Jeremiah, and all of the wolf’s focus was on his brother.

  The Alpha was powerful, able to encourage nature to bend to his whim. He could walk in a man’s mind, and since Dan had done the unforgiveable and kept his mind sealed, it wasn’t difficult to know what was coming next.

  “I must know how deep this pain is, my son. I must also know something of your false mate, how far he has transgressed.” Jeremiah placed a hand on Dan’s head, softening the coming blow with a “Forgive me.” The flash of pain was wicked sharp and unyielding.

  Dark, very dark and bitterly cold. Somewhere, Phineas and Ferb played like white noise in the back of his mind for a moment, and then it was gone. Jeremiah stood with him, an apparition, floating with him yet apart, shielding him from himself, his thoughts of regret and remorse, his horrors.

  “Deeper, Danny. I will protect you.”

  Time sped as Dan felt Jeremiah’s spirit embrace him, shelter him. Then Keith was before him. The first time they met and Keith followed him out of the club, called to him. When they had danced together, and the dance with Keith had been like a dream, but it had left Dan feeling unbalanced, changed. He had needed to get out, get away from that feeling. Had tried anyway. Maybe he was getting sick, had too much to drink. He remembered Keith calling to him. He had turned back, answered, and Keith had smiled, had touched him. Before he realized it, he was agreeing to a date he couldn’t recall he had even wanted.

  He saw Keith and himself on their first date, saw how Keith took Dan over, a sledgehammer and he the brick wall, falling from the crashes against his will as he ordered him to submit to the tumultuous sex that same night. He remembered hesitating, wanting to stop, how unsure he was, overwhelmed but unable to stop the wave, the onslaught. He was looking in the mirror, questioning, wondering if somehow the decision to let Keith have him had been taken from him, wondering if Keith was swallowing him up. He witnessed the snare as Keith integrated himself deeper and deeper into his world, saw when things began to turn from Keith just helping with the drama club to encouraging him to have all of his performances at his theater. He saw Keith hand him the key to his home, tell him all of his things were already moved in, that he would be living with him, and how much he loved him for agreeing this was the best for them both. He wanted to tell that Dan no, to stop him from making such a terrible decision, but he couldn’t. He was silent.

  Then Keith began to shed his beauty like a snake shedding its husk, and Dan saw the malevolence lurking beneath. He cringed when he relived the first time Keith slapped him, the first night he took too long to get home, questioned him, took him hard and rough, leaving his body trampled. Keith apologized again and again for an unbroken record of misunderstandings, mistakes, abuses, and more sex as punishment rather than pleasure. Finally, he witnessed the last night he saw Keith and tried to close his eyes.

  “For this, my child. For this alone, I will have him pay with his blood.”

  Dan opened his eyes, wet with tears from witnessing the horrible roller coaster his father forced him to face. But it was his own life, and for the first time, he had begun to see it for what it truly was—a life where he had no control, a slave to the beast.

  There was no more he could say. Justice would be met. His father had decided. He sought the depths of Jeremiah’s eyes, saw the swirls of power as they took him in. Slowly the swirls dissipated, and warm brown eyes encircled by red were left behind.

 
; “Shelly.”

  “Didn’t tell us anything we didn’t suspect, Danny. What does a father think, a brother?” Jeremiah angled his chin, indicating Conner, who had placed his hand upon his ribs but removed his hand as soon as he heard Dan’s gasp, his face hardening. “What should we think when you meet this mate and later none of your pack has heard your voice, and we do not see this man with whom you have claimed to build hearth and home? You do not text or use Facebook or any of those social things Conner believes is indeterminately important? We heard nothing from you, child. Look upon your brother’s hair, Danny.”

  Dan followed the direction of his father’s gaze, his eyes resting upon his brother’s vermilion tresses. Conner waited patiently. And for the first time, Dan noticed Conner’s locks. Conner’s hair was a fiery red. It blazed when it was long, so he kept it close to his scalp when he did his stealth missions. It was long now, draping over his shoulders…. So either Conner hadn’t been on a mission in a while because there wasn’t one, or he had taken a hiatus for another purpose.

  Conner leaned toward him, sniffed him. “Father, there is something… else here,” Conner analyzed distractedly. “I do not recognize it, yet. Another human, maybe?” The Enforcer sniffed again, inhaled him. “But something is not right.” Then, yet another sniff. “Father, what do you see? I am beginning to feel this is even more than we thought. Another being?” Conner’s eyes traced over Dan’s, his brown orbs glazing over as he gathered the scent that marked his brother, trying to distinguish it from the others he perceived as possibly more than human.

  “Hint, hint, Conner. I am human too,” Dan said, attempting to joke away the flashbacks of the being in his nightmare as they climbed too close to the surface. His throat still ached from his earlier screams during that vision, but he tried a little laugh at Conner tasting the air, trying to mark the contrasting flavors, certain that among them he might have identified Shelly’s. “Remember, Shelly did visit earlier?” he informed Conner knowingly.

  Conner’s bushy red brows drew together as his eyes sparkled at his brother. “Silence, hairless pup, or I will noogie you where you lie. Not even Father can stop that from happening.” He snorted. “I am the best hunter of any pack, and I would recognize the scent of your deirfiúr without fail.” The blaze in Conner’s eyes grew but was extinguished by the humor that just as quickly appeared. Never one to stay mad at Dan too long, he would forgive him, but a noogie wasn’t out of the question. Dan could do little to stop him now or ever.

  “Enough from the both of you,” Jeremiah’s voice boomed. “Conner, what do you mean, another? It is more than Shelly, is it not, son? We all know your interest in the female.” At his words, Conner’s eyes narrowed. “Bristle not, young one. We are not blind. That is for another day, but it is good to know I will have grandsons or granddaughters one day soon from the first of my children. Danny, you are not beyond responsibility as well. I expect children from you. Your mother would have it so, as would I. Now, Conner, explain,” Jeremiah demanded. He continued to touch Dan, who had stopped listening to his father’s expectation of children. From who? Him? Better to leave that alone. He decided to enjoy his father’s touch instead as Jeremiah’s hands moved across his arms, his legs, his shoulders, sensory checking, healing from within, mending the invisible.

  “I felt a presence, hidden. His false mate is there, but another, I agree. What more did you see, Conner?”

  As Alpha, Jeremiah’s strength lay in what the naked eye often missed. His spirit was the origin of his power, the tie binding his people, connecting all, healing both mind and body.

  “Something other, Father. Other than wolf, vampire, or even Daniel’s deirfiúr Shelly. I do not recognize it. As Dan is drenched in it, I will say part of it is his failed mating with Keith. Still, there is another presence. Something more. Both are the same and then not. In the room earlier, before we arrived. It saturates this place.” Looking toward the beta, Conner questioned, “Do you not sense it, Kristoff?”

  Kristoff shifted toward Conner, the slight movement sending almost imperceptible ripples through the virile, lean muscles which allowed Kristoff to reign as the strongest fighter, hunter, and marksman in Jeremiah’s pack.

  He had often hunted with Conner under the moon. Good at what he did, he could boast of his own specialties if he ever chose to speak more than a few words at a time. From the little the iron giant did say, Dan had often heard the telltale signs of a Russian accent in his voice and wondered if he had served in a branch of the Russian military.

  “Yes, Alpha. Enforcer. There is more. I, too, recognize it. A presence in the air before we arrived in the room, a variant stamp than what was saturated within the walls of the home shared by Danny and the false one.” Kristoff nodded in deference and went silent once again.

  It could be trusted Jeremiah would not have anyone less prepared, less skilled at his side than the wolf he valued so much. So as Beta, Kristoff was granted with more than the rest of the pack, but more importantly, as friend. He could move with lightning speed. Dan had seen it many times as the wolves prepared to hunt. Kristoff knew the weapons he caressed in his palms intimately. So, if the scent was enough for him to associate it with a presence, it was worthy of taking notice.

  For a brief moment, Dan’s erratic brain considered Kristoff to be stiff and what a little attention from the right person could do to ease his rigidity. Kristoff was a soldier first, a wolf second, but a man when? It was a balance that made him wonder. If a person as magnificent as Kristoff could not find balance, how could Dan?

  Still, it was no empty statement made by Conner that he was adept at making his mark even outside of the pack. It was proven time and time again in the family, in special ops, in his military career. If he did not recognize a scent, human or otherwise, it warranted concern.

  Dan got it now. Conner would pursue Keith and carry out his execution, but when Dan thought of his dream earlier, the monster terrorizing him, he wondered if it was better his family stayed out of this, that he find a way out of Keith’s clutches alone.

  There were monsters out there, and just like his family was a pack of wolves who sometimes walked as men, as he had often heard Jeremiah say, there had to be other beings out there too. Once, before his father had revealed his nature to him, he had thought creatures of the night something for a child’s fairy tales. That was until Jeremiah and Conner presented their animals to him. Jeremiah believed in family, and he believed in family knowing one another, being true. The Alpha felt resolutely there should be no secrets between pack members, that to harbor secrets against one another would cause lesions in the pack, and those open wounds would destroy them.

  Resultantly, one summer day, Dan went on a walk with his new father and brother. He waved good-bye to his mother, who gazed at him, an awkward expression weighing down her usual parting smile. It had made him wonder briefly, but he had decided to let it go in favor of the warm sun and the company of two men he was starting to love. When he returned, though, it was on unsteady legs escorted by one immense black wolf, larger than any mastiff or Great Dane or even wild buck. A formidable creature. He was also accompanied by another whose red coloring flamed. He traveled back fully aware of his family’s identities, what his mother had married into. Knowing this, knowing Jeremiah and Conner trusted him with this secret, with their true selves, showed him their trust, their faith in him. His smile was wide when he returned to Sarai. Their family was a gift and a promise, and one he would not forget again.

  No, the existence of werewolves wasn’t a fairy tale, wasn’t a myth. Now he knew those fairy tales, those traditional stories, and even songs had a foot in the real world. When Dan taught Grimm’s Fairy Tales, when he told his students the stories of the big bad wolf, they discussed the works as the wolf not chasing a little girl or her grandmother, but as waging war against the monsters of society. He reflected on Jeremiah, Conner, and the pack, and the battle they faced against those unwilling to allow all creatures to live in peac
e: man or monster. There were monsters everywhere, monsters in every form. Some walked on two legs, others four. There were those that flew, those that exhaled fire. Some drank blood. Keith? Keith was a monster in any form. How much more dangerous would he be if he were the creature in Dan’s nightmare?

  “Hello,” Shelly sang as she came in the room, wielding bags aplenty. “Heine Brothers for everyone. Come on, guys, sing my praises. I bring caffeinated libations for those that can enjoy.” The scent of roasted coffee bean goodness wafted from the bags, tantalizing Dan’s senses. “Not you, Dan. Doctor’s orders,” she announced as she strolled around the room, bearing gifts.

  It seemed the hunt-for-Keith discussion would be tabled for another moment. The looks that passed between Jeremiah and Conner’s eyes and even Kristoff’s eyewear promised unfinished business. Dan was still glad for the reprieve.

  Touch. A wolf was nothing without it; therefore, father and brother still held him, grazing his skin with fingers radiating love and safety. Dan watched as Conner glanced over at Shelly, covertly eye-stalking her. Still, if Dan noticed, he was convinced that Shelly did too. Conner’s hands had taken on a tremor that made Dan smile at his father, who shared a warm one of his own. And yes, when Conner and Shelly actually looked at each other full-on, there was indeed an extra quirk to her lips that wasn’t there before. Ah-ha. Caught ya.

  Apparently deciding not to do anything about it for now, Shelly darted over to Dan, making her own space in the family knot entrenching her friend. “Hey, babe!” Kissing Dan on his cheek, Shelly turned to greet Jeremiah. “Mr. Tolliver. It’s nice to see you again.” She glanced back at Dan a little nervously, and then, deciding she had done the right thing, she continued. “And thank you for answering my call and coming as quickly as you did.”