by Tina Smith
Sky noted the intense hostility. “What do you mean?” he enquired.
“The child would be killed,” she said harshly. Then the blonde Christian appeared, eyeing the visitors. Greta disappeared into the trees.
Her voice rose. “The huntress isn’t pregnant is she?”
“No,” Sky said to the trees around them, unsure of where the female was.
“Then how do you know about such a thing?” Patrick asked. “Is there a child hidden?” He narrowed his bright eyes threateningly.
“No,” Reid said wide-eyed and he and Sky exchanged a dumbfounded glance.
“You lie,” Patrick replied steadily, stepping closer with his shoulders back to sniff the atmosphere nearer Sky with an animal-like look on his face.
Aylish spoke up. “They ask because I told them,” her voice became quieter. “I warned them about it.” A breeze ruffled her crimped blonde hair over her stoic face.
Sky and Reid exchanged glances.
Greta showed again from the trees. All turned to her as she dropped her shoulders and angrily scolded, “Aylish. Our secrets are our own, I’m surprised at you.” She scowled her emerald eyes incredulous.
“I am the reason you know of it at all Greta,” Aylish snapped self-righteously, as she stepped closer to Reid and Sky.
Sky took the chance to ask what weighed on him, appealing to her sympathy. “We came to ask if you would help us set the huntresses free. Sam will keep them caged until they die otherwise,” he uttered.
“No, we won’t be interfering with her,” Greta’s grating voice replied with authority.
“Please won’t any of you help? You respect the elements and natural law, what Sam does isn’t natural. If she didn’t want to grow the pack, Lila and Cres would leave them be. As long as no innocents are taken there can be a treaty,” he pleaded.
“We have just lost our dear friends; we don’t wish to lose any others from our pack. Go away,” Greta ordered. Patrick sneered at them.
“Why don’t you join us?”Aylish queried, staying behind, arms by her sides. The others hopped over rocks and branches and retreated away like sand in the wind, rapidly becoming invisible in the green surrounds. She waited as they drew back into the darkness. Sky and Reid relaxed slightly as the pack retreated, along with any immediate threat.
“Maybe one day,” Sky offered apologetically. He gave a smile of thanks at the corner of his lop sided mouth, almost exposing his stark white teeth and nodded in polite thanks. He and Reid then receded away and ran in the opposite direction. Back to the dry forest farmlands and sunlight, where the wolves still favoured human skins.
They ran at a pace back down the mountain, having wasted the better part of a day that could have been spent planning to save Lila and Cres. Suddenly they heard something on their heels. A rough looking white wolf was on their tails and gaining on them.
They looked at each other. Reid stopped and transformed to face her. “You make a bad spy, Aylish.”
She shook and became a woman before them. “I’m not spying, I want to help you. I know more about everything than you think.”
“Are you some sort of spy for them?” Sky glowered.
“Ha, no. I only just joined them. It was my best option up until ten minutes ago,” she confided.
“Why?” Reid’s expression was sceptical.
“I want what you were talking about: fairness. I believe we can cooperate, hunters and wolves. They can stop monsters like Paws and protect our society for the rest of us,” she pleaded.
“Why should we believe you or that you won’t turn us in to Sam? Or report back here to them?” He gestured back up the mountain.
“You don’t, I suppose. But she’s taken Lonnie from me – caused Dahlia to be killed. Sam is like Paws. When I was running my own pack I wasn’t like that, we were a family and we didn’t have to be scared. I had children once, Paws took them from me; he said they were monsters. They killed my partner and he slaughtered my babies and had me arrested for their murder. Why do you think he let me go all those years? He was waiting for my wounds to heal. But pain like that doesn’t go away.” She shook her head and pressed her lips into a straight hard line. “If I can help you I will, I want to see this creature – please.” Something about her face when she asked made them curious.
“We didn’t say it existed.” Reid tilted his head. His amber eyes focused on her.
“Fine, but I would like to come with you, please.” Her clear blue eyes burnt with some emotion not unlike desperation.
“Why did you cover for us back there?” Reid challenged. He eyed her suspiciously.
“I want to protect it.” Her voice was fast and littered with emotion.
“Protect it?” Reid gave a quizzical look.
“Fine, but both Reid and I and the creature will tear you into pieces if you’re against us,” Sky warned.
“So there is a creature in existence.” She looked hurt, but her thin lips parted to smile. “I swear on my baby’s lives that I won’t betray you,” she said looking relieved as her expression softened.
“Okay,” Sky confirmed nodding. He noticed a clear, tiny tear that rolled from her light blue eye.
“No,” Reid said aghast towards his friend.
“What?” Sky turned to Reid and shared a moment with his pack brother.
“Let’s discuss this,” Reid urged outraged, looking back at her.
“She says she’ll help us.” Sky shrugged a shoulder.
“And you believe her!” Reid bellowed, clearly unconvinced.
“Maybe. She never hung out with the pack and the first night she was there I saw her run away.” He mentioned towards his brother in a low tone.
“So?”
“Sam brought her back unwillingly. She couldn’t stand Paws, he used Sam to bring her back from her home in the city. And back there,” he pointed up the mountain, “she covered us. We’d be in more trouble if she hadn’t and she knows things, she’s older,” his eyes widened.
“So?”
“Even now she’d rather go with them, than with Sam,” Sky said with conviction.
“How do you know Sam hasn’t thrown her out?”
“Sam, throw away a member?” Sky raised his brow; in past times they would have laughed. But as it was, the humour sprouted and quickly sank away in the midst of a precarious decision.
Reid flexed. “Okay, so we let her come. Sus her out a bit and then what?” he pursed his lips, his eyes hard.
“We go from there, Tisane can check her out, don’t tell her it's…” Sky gave a sideways nod and brow raise to indicate Tisane, “- and see what happens.”
“Alright but it’s your decision.” Reid wasn’t convinced. “If we go down because of the ugly bitch…” he muttered in warning. His muscles rippled again. He let Aylish have a lingering narrow stare. She understood his implied meaning but remained agreeable as he glared at her in warning and phased.
45. Tisane meets Aylish
Tisane was taken aback to see a thin, pale woman appear on the back lawn from the tree line by the river with Reid and Sky.
“This is our friend, Aylish.” Sky introduced her with a certain tentativeness when they reached Tisane.
She decided to ignore it and smiled pleasantly as she politely addressed the slim blonde. “Hello, Aylish.”
Aylish gave a soft, friendly smile, which touched her liquid eyes.
“She was with the mountain pack,” Sky explained glumly.
Tisane watched her in return. “Will you help us?” she found herself asking instantly.
“Yes. I’ll be your eyes and ears inside Sam’s,” Aylish offered with an alive glimmer in her steady eyes, as they remained delicately resting over Tisane.
“I’m afraid I don’t follow.” Tisane’s face pressed into a show of sceptical interest.
“Yeah, Aylish?” Reid muttered, very uncertain of where this was leading.
Aylish let an annoyed breath escape her nostrils. “If you’re so worrie
d that I’ll be a spy here for her, then why am I going back?” she pouted angrily at Reid.
“You know why,” Reid’s baritone voice boomed over the meeting.
In the momentary silence she said, “I want to help,” she insisted looking towards Tisane. “I can assure you I am not on their side. They have taken things from me too,” she alleged pointedly. They had taken too much.
Sky appraised her; he lifted a brow. “Alright you’ve got us listening. How are you going to get the girls out?”
She wiped a tear. “If you’re not inside, you’re outside. If I help you take out Sam then I get Lonnie back, I agree with your philosophies. I want what you ultimately want. I’ll develop her trust and let you in,” she told them stoically. She looked determined enough.
“Sam has talents, she hypnotizes anyone who doesn’t agree with her and she’ll use it on them,” Sky warned her.
“I’ll just have to agree with her then,” Aylish said firmly. And not even Reid disagreed with her.
Aylish stayed with them. They talked of what to do and ironed out the kinks in the plan. Strategy had been lacking in the last two attacks.
“Every battle is won before it’s ever fought. We have to be as cunning as they are,” Aylish advised, delicately sipping her tea.
Reid chuckled snidely. Things were suddenly looking up. Aylish, with her small eyes fixing on each of them, gave Reid an extra glance and she pinched her thin lips. He huffed, only enough so that Sky noticed and cautioned him with a subtle look.
Sky was more serious as he leant forward. “Will she trust you?” His tan brow knitted.
“I’ll earn her trust; she doesn’t know my past like the old ones. That’s the good thing about Paws and Narine being gone. I know you are anxious to free Lila and Cresida, but to get them out and keep everyone intact we must be patient. They won’t kill them, we know it’s not in Sam’s interest to dispose of them, she knows there will be more and that she’d have to find and trap them again, right?”
She was correct on all accounts. Sky suppressed a small grin and he and Reid shared another glance.
“Aylish, what was it exactly that happened to you? How do you know about the creature we asked the mountain pack about?” Sky enquired, his face portraying deep interest. He wanted to understand what was missing.
“I’ll tell you.” Her eyes seemed to glisten in the fading light around the rectangular table. “I was young when I was turned. The mountain pack weren’t the mountain wolves yet. They stayed with the rest of us under a wolf named Claira. Paws wanted me for a mate. Back then we were a small bunch. Men from the town hunted us because we took their cattle; we weren’t protected by law like we are now. There were no subsidies for lost livestock and a lot of the land was still farmed. They came after us with guns, so mostly we lived as humans. We were integrated into the town. I was expected to live with my mother and father until I was supposed to leave them to be with the pack. I even worked at the local general store. Haris was a friend of my brother, who worked in the deli as a butcher. I was nineteen and turned for a year or so. I was ashamed of what I had become and I kept to myself. I was polite to the customers but any friends I had outside the store had drifted away, moved to the city. Haris and I had been on few dates but I didn’t let anyone close, I was waiting for him to lose interest, and I was supposed to leave soon anyway.
“Excitement wasn’t necessary for me, because when the moon was full I was unable to quiet the monster stirring inside me, beneath my skin. The others and I would all meet and wreak havoc, ravenously killing livestock. Soon the farmers were wise to when the attacks occurred and a gathering of locals decided to stake out the farmlands. They even grouped some sheep as bait and waited for us to come.
“I was skirting the forest ridge when I heard a gunshot that echoed like a thunder crack up the mountain. There were three patrols – utes with men on the back, that came in on the flock of rattled sheep. More cracks sounded and I knew some of my friends must be hit and then my bullet came. It felt like a bite on the leg and I buckled under the sting. Then I ran as fast and hard as I could until I collapsed high in the mountains. I awoke at daybreak as the frost covered the ground and discovered that while I had healed, the bullet had been lodged inside my leg. Though I hadn’t felt it, I realized I had another bullet in my shoulder that felt as though it had fused to the bone. The leg bullet I could remove, but not the shoulder one. I wondered how many others had been killed...I hoped I wasn’t the only one left.
“In the morning, the men went to cover up the corpses and terror stricken by what they found - burnt the bodies. I still remember the smell of the smoke. While his father was out – Haris, unhappy he wasn’t invited to the shoot, snuck out with a rifle and went up into the hills to find the one that had run away above Flind’s farm.
“Haris followed me up into the hills in the morning, tracking me by the blood and broken twigs. I heard him approach. I phased and tried to take him from behind, but he was too quick. The bulky gun on his back wasn’t easily reached so he drew a hunting knife from his belt and cut me with it. As I came at him again, he plunged the blade into my ribs. I fell back, my body shuddered as I phased into my human skin, readying to die.
“But he didn’t finish the job, because when he saw the beast was me, he dropped his arm and knelt to hold my face. I heard him weep. I thought to wait a moment and then bite him as he stroked my curly hair. I knew he felt something for me; it was why he had persisted. His father had insisted he stay behind on the hunt to spare his son the terror and pain of seeing what the beasts really were. The secret of Shade. He cupped my face and lay a soft kiss over my lips, as though I was something he loved dearly and rather than finish me, he cradled me and wept.
“He kissed me once more and I placed a hand over his. I gently and sweetly kissed him back until he was wrapped in my arms and I in his. As I lay in his lap, he embraced me tightly as though he may never let me go. He breathed unsteadily and stroked my face running a thumb that lingered over my bottom lip. I knew when he did this that he loved me, but more disturbingly that something inside me had spread, so that I felt the same, as though he had infected me, rather than me infecting him.
“He hid me and cut the bullets from my back and leg. I was in love with him, he protected me.
“His father and the others believed I had died in the mountains, or escaped their bullets. Then the remaining wolves had their revenge. They swept through the farmers as Celeste, Dieter, Greta and Agnes went on a rampage. That night they turned Martha, Phyllis, Caprice, Robert, Patrick, Troy and Christian. Ben Flinds sold his farm to Celeste and took up a house in town, living in terror ever since, afraid we’d come for him. Most of them are dead now.
“When they saw I was in love with Haris, they advised against it. They asked me to change him, but I wouldn’t. Finally I ended it, but then changes seemed to occur within him. He asked if he’d been turned without his consent, though he had no bites. He went to college and returned as a ranger. We started up again in secret or the pack would kill him.
“Celeste died on the highway, Dieter wanted to take over, then Martha drowned. He told us it was suicide, that they’d had enough of immortality. Paws always wanted control. Maybe the others knew, maybe they were scared of him. He wanted me for a mate, but I refused. He was furious when he discovered I was pregnant, but the others protected me. I lived with Haris and within a year we’d had another child together. They were pink and healthy, beautiful human children, but Paws wanted me back. No one left the pack. He killed Haris and when I still wouldn’t comply with him, he murdered my babies. Somehow he convinced the pack to help him, he said they were against the law. Maxie put up a fight, she turned - but she was still too young. She and her brother lay slain on the floor of our house. I was nearly fatally injured. When the police came, they saw the bodies of my babies - I was the only one left and they made assumptions. I was jailed and declared insane and was sent to a high security asylum.
“Ther
e I stayed for twelve months until one night the pack broke me out. I went with them back to the pack house, but I could never be with them, not ever as I had been. Finally, he let me go. He created Dahlia for me, as a present, and I took her and went to the city. I studied and got a job working with youth at the Centre for the Community, the C.C. as a counsellor. That’s it really. Lonnie came along later - I couldn’t bear to see him die, so I changed him.” She recalled what a mess he had been in. “Then Sam showed up and dragged us back here. I never would have come willingly. Dahlia wanted to, she had never known the country or the forest and she yearned for the pack life she had never experienced. I’m glad she was taken after she got to know it a little.” She cleared her throat and blinked away the memories. “Now all I have left is Lonnie and he’s in there with your Alpha. Haris’ death meant these hunters were needed and I won’t let them die,” she said with a defiant look of intensity. Aylish had looked into the bowels of hell, not much frightened her anymore.
Tisane had been listening with the others, in the lounge room. “My mother was the ranger after your Haris.”
“Was she a Hunter?” Aylish’s face brightened.
“Yes.” Tisane knew that for sure.
“Are you her child?” Aylish smiled kindly.
Tisane nodded.
“Do you know...” She rephrased, “Who was your father?” Aylish suddenly stood up.
“I don’t know,” Tisane replied honestly.
Aylish glanced at Sky. “Is she the satyr you described?” she asked, looking over Tisane with her sparkling blue eyes.
He swallowed. “Yes.”
“She hid you well,” Aylish announced to Tisane. “Then your father was one of the wolves,” she confessed.
Reid sat up straighter and asked, “Which one?”
“He also fathered Narine to a human - her half-sister. I know who it was,” said Sky. They looked at him. “Bert, he warned me. He got us out of the ambush.”