by Jae
Kelsey let her gaze sweep over shelves that held clamps, chisels, saws, cordless drills, and other power tools she couldn’t identify. A beautiful dresser stood against one wall of the woodshop, one of its drawers still missing. She discovered it on the large workbench, over which Rue was bent.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Kelsey said. “Do you have a moment? I thought we could talk now that Danny has gone to bed.”
“Give me a minute,” Rue said without looking up.
“Of course.” Kelsey used the time to study her unobserved.
Again, Rue surprised her. Gone was the rich businesswoman. Instead, Rue looked like the simple carpenter she might once have been. She had changed out of her designer slacks and into a pair of faded jeans. Despite the cool temperatures in the woodshop, she wore only a sweat-drenched tank top that clung to her torso, her shirt abandoned next to her. Subtle muscles played in her arms as she hand-carved an intricate pattern into the front of the drawer.
So that’s where her calluses come from. She’s much more than just a spoiled CEO. Don’t ever underestimate her.
Finally, Rue looked up. She straightened and pushed back a strand of golden hair from her face. When she caught Kelsey looking at the dresser drawer, she trailed one finger over the wood. “It’s a birthday present for Elena...Mrs. Mangiardi, but don’t tell her. It’s a surprise.”
“I won’t say a word,” Kelsey said. “It’s beautiful. I’m sure she’ll love it.”
A pleased smile slid over Rue’s face. “The wood is a pleasure to work with. We grow our own trees.”
“You do?” Kelsey hadn’t known that. She had thought Rue’s company was ruthlessly deforesting regions all over the world.
“Yeah. I own almost twenty thousand acres of woodlots here, in Oregon, and in upstate New York.” Rue put the chisel down, wiped her hands on her jeans, and circled a large machine to stand next to Kelsey. “So what did you want to talk about?”
At this distance, Kelsey couldn’t help inhaling Rue’s scent. Her chest expanded. The tiny hairs on her forearms tingled, this time not with the urge to shift shape but with the invisible force field of energy and confidence that seemed to surround Rue like a bubble. “I realized that we both forgot to sign my employment contract.”
Rue flicked a lock of golden hair out of her face and crossed sweat-dampened arms across her chest. “We’ll go over to the house and sign it, but only if you promise to give up that annoying habit you have.”
Annoying habit? Kelsey’s heart hammered against her ribs, and for a moment, she couldn’t breathe fast enough to supply her lungs with oxygen. She licked her lips and looked away from Rue’s hypnotic stare. Don’t panic, she told herself, but it wasn’t that easy. All her life, she had avoided getting into conflicts with dominant people, but apparently, she’d managed to annoy Rue after just two days of living in her house.
“You all right?” Rue eyed Kelsey’s heaving chest.
“Oh, um, yes. It’s just the paint fumes and sawdust in here.” Kelsey waved her hand in front of her face as if that would clear the air. Her gaze flicked back to Rue. “W-what did I do to annoy you? Are you talking about the video games?”
“No. I’m talking about you lying to me.”
The tingling of Kelsey’s skin flared into a severe itching. Oh, no. Did she somehow find out I faked my résumé and I’m not a tutor?
“So, tell me the truth now,” Rue said. “Did Danny really work with you? Or did he make things hard on you?”
As her knees threatened to give out, Kelsey leaned against a nearby workbench. Phew. She doesn’t know. A heavy weight lifted from her chest. But she’s no dummy. I better be careful. Instead of answering with another lie, Kelsey ducked her head and grinned up at Rue. “You do mean ‘make’ this time, right? You’re not asking me if I made out with your fourteen-year-old son, are you?”
Rue’s laughter, as spontaneous and uninhibited as the woman, trickled through Kelsey.
“I do mean make, not neck.” Rue repeated the signs, but they looked a bit sloppy again.
Kelsey put her hands over Rue’s and corrected the movements. “Like this.” The skin contact sent tingles up Kelsey’s arm. It’s just her calluses. They scratch. She dropped her hands and stepped away.
Rue cleared her throat. Her pine scent got thicker, muskier for a moment, then fluctuated back to normal. “All joking aside, how did it go with Danny today?” The insistent gaze of her pale blue eyes drilled into Kelsey.
“Pretty much like I expected,” Kelsey said. “I really can’t complain.”
“You can’t, or you don’t want to? Tell me the truth. He wasn’t eager to work with you, was he?”
Under Rue’s stare, Kelsey couldn’t lie. She had a feeling that Rue would see right through her. “It was just the first day. I didn’t expect him to be fine with a total stranger living in his house right away. We got off to a bit of a rough start, but we got along all right after I won a race in his video game. I think we’ll be fine.”
Rue still didn’t look away.
The startling brightness of her eyes almost blinded Kelsey. Her gaze veered back and forth between Rue and the floor.
“I expect regular progress reports.”
“Of course,” Kelsey said, an almost automatic reaction to the authority in Rue’s voice. She hoped she wouldn’t stay in Rue’s house for long enough to have much reporting to do.
Finally, Rue looked away, releasing Kelsey from her imprisoning gaze. “Come on. Let’s go to my office and sign the contract.” She picked up her shirt from the workbench, directed Kelsey to the door, turned off the lights, and locked the door behind them.
Silence settled between them as they headed toward the main house.
Rue turned on the lights in the house and escorted Kelsey down the hall. “Let me know if Danny gets out of hand and you need me to intervene. I can take him to task if he gives you any trouble.”
Why does she anticipate the worst from him? Not that she was all that far off. “I don’t think that will be necessary. We need to trust Danny, not expect him to mess things up.” Most of all, Kelsey needed Rue to avoid a confrontation with Danny before she could get him out of the house. Every surge of adrenaline might push Danny further toward his First Change.
“You’re very different from the other tutors we tried,” Rue said. “They didn’t lose any time reporting Danny’s noncompliance to me and ran screaming into the night after the first day.”
Kelsey’s stomach clenched as she imagined how many different teachers, tutors, and interpreters Danny might have gone through in the last few years. The Hardings had also moved twice—first from Oregon to Syracuse, then from Syracuse to Clearfield. Just when a young Syak needed the stability of his pack, Danny had been confronted with constant changes. “I’ve only been here for one day, and I don’t really know Danny yet, but I think deep down, he’s a good kid.”
Rue stopped in front of Danny’s room and opened the door a few inches to peek in on Danny.
Pausing next to her, Kelsey looked too. They stood shoulder to shoulder and studied the sleeping boy. With her better-than-human night vision, Kelsey could make out the form on the bed. After a few seconds, she saw Danny’s hands move.
A smile momentarily chased away her worries. He’s talking in his sleep. I wonder if he’s dreaming. She tried to read the signs, but they were small and incomplete, not making any sense to her.
“I know he’s a good kid,” Rue said, her voice low as if she would wake Danny if she spoke more loudly. “We got along so well when he first came to live with us.” She paused, pensive. “You’ve seen the bookshelf in the living room?”
Kelsey nodded.
“He helped me make it when he was ten.” Her gaze seemed to reach into the past and see the boy she had once been close to. “But now...” She shook her head. “He’s changed so much, and I’m afraid he’ll mess up his life and his chance of a good education if he doesn’t clean up his act.”
&
nbsp; Is she really worried about Danny, or is she just pretending? Kelsey inhaled deeply, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t detect the foul smell of deception. “What happened to change your relationship?”
“I wish I knew.” Rue closed the door and straightened her shoulders. “You know what? Let’s sign the contract tomorrow. It’s going to be a long day at work tomorrow, so I should get some sleep. Good night.”
Kelsey mumbled, “Good night” and fled into the guest room, more confused than ever. She dropped onto the bed and laid her hands over her eyes. Why couldn’t her first solo mission be an uncomplicated one, where it was clear who the bad guys were and where her loyalties lay?
Your loyalty is to Jorie. She saw Rue hurt Danny, so even though right now Rue seems to care about him, that will change at some point. The thought of taking Danny away from his mother knotted Kelsey’s stomach, but what if his mother would end up hurting Danny? She couldn’t afford to take that chance. Even if Rue wouldn’t kill him, a human family was no place for a Wrasa, especially not a Wrasa about to undergo his First Change.
Kelsey rolled over and reached for her cell phone.
Jorie picked up after the first ring, reminding Kelsey that she wasn’t the only one on pins and needles about this situation. “Yes?”
“It’s me—Kelsey.”
“Is there anything new?” Jorie asked.
“Not really. Rue is hard to figure out. I have a feeling she’s a tough business woman, and she spends a lot of time at work, but she genuinely seems to care about Danny.”
“Strange,” Jorie said. “In my dream, I saw her choking him.”
“I’m not doubting your vision, Maharsi.” Kelsey couldn’t rule out that Rue might hurt Danny if she felt threatened or stopped seeing him as her son once she detected signs of him changing.
Jorie sighed. “I’m not sure what to do. Stealing Danny from his mother comes too close to what the Saru almost did to my mother.”
Kelsey hung her head. “I don’t want a repeat of that either, but I don’t see any other way to keep Danny safe. We can’t let him stay with Rue, but I will try to get him to come with me on his own free will. I just need some time to get him to trust me.” She clutched the base of her skull, which had begun to pound. Time we don’t have. They couldn’t afford to wait for much longer. Fifteen years ago, Kelsey’s hesitation had cost the life of her brother and his family, and she never wanted something like that to happen again.
“Do you really think you will get him to believe such an incredible story?” Jorie asked. “It was hard enough for me to believe that werewolves…shape-shifters exist, but being told that he is one of those shape-shifters…”
“I bet he already noticed that something is changing inside of him,” Kelsey said. “His sense of taste and smell have changed and intensified, he’s become more territorial, and he nearly ran off toward the lake to hunt a duck. I hope he’ll be willing to listen to me.”
“And if he’s not?” Jorie asked.
Kelsey squeezed her eyes shut. “Then we’ll need to kidnap him. We’ll make it look as if he ran away from home while we take him into a pack home in a remote area and find a Syak to mentor him.”
“I hope it won’t come to that,” Jorie said. “But I’ll send Griffin, just in case.”
Kelsey opened her mouth to protest but then closed it without saying anything. If the First Change overcame Danny before they could bring him to a safe den, Griffin could guide him through it. I can’t do that. A mentor needed to be a natak, someone who could assert enough control over the boy to guide him safely through the First Change. She remembered the sureness of Garrick’s touch, the steadiness of his gaze as he had taught her how to control the pain and shift at will. Even when she stopped being able to trust her body and her senses, she never wavered in her trust for Garrick, her future natak.
“Keep us posted,” Jorie said. “Good luck.”
When the call ended, Kelsey sank against her pillow and prepared for a sleepless night. How do I tell a fourteen-year-old boy he’s a shape-shifter and needs to leave behind his home and the only family he knows?
Chapter 10
Danny woke from a weird dream in which he ran through the forest, chasing a rabbit. Disoriented, he looked around and realized his smartphone was flashing and vibrating on the nightstand. He sat up, reached for the phone, and glanced at the display.
He had a new text message from Tom. Meet us outside your mom’s woodlot at three, the message said. Bring the keys.
Danny gnawed on his lip. He wanted to hang out in the woodlot with his friends. The forest at night always called to him, but with the new tutor right next door, sneaking out might not be a good idea. If he got caught, Rue would be furious, especially if he took her keys. The thought made him angry. Why do you give a shit about what she thinks?
One glance at his watch revealed that it was already after two a.m. Quickly, he got up and dressed. He tiptoed to the door and opened it. Normally, he snuck out through the window and shimmied down the drainpipe, but that route wasn’t an option since he needed to get Rue’s keys first.
The lights were out in the rest of the house. Either Rue was still in her office, working, or she was asleep. He carefully closed the door behind himself and tiptoed down the stairs, hoping none of the steps were creaking.
Rue’s keys hung on a hook next to the door.
He reached out his hand and then hesitated inches from the keys. Not a good idea. The phone in his back pocket vibrated again, urging him on. He didn’t need to look to know that it was Tom. He curled his fingers around the keys and lifted them off the hook. Now that he had overcome his hesitation, he acted quickly, leaving the house and jogging through town. He made a game of staying in the shadows, where the light from the streetlamps didn’t reach, and enjoyed the crisp, clean scent of the night.
Tom and Justin waited in front of the chain-link fence surrounding the furniture company’s property. The sweet stench of dope gave away their position even in the darkness.
Danny wrinkled his nose but didn’t comment.
“Finally,” Tom signed, illuminated by Justin’s flashlight. He threw away his joint and gestured at the fence. “Do you have the keys?”
Danny nodded. He tried the first key, but it didn’t fit into the lock. None of the other keys fit either. “Shit, Rue must have another set of keys somewhere.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Agile like a monkey, Tom scrambled up the chain-link fence and dropped down on the other side. He waved at them to follow.
Danny didn’t hesitate. Tom had already called him a sissy because he got sick every time he tried to smoke dope, so he couldn’t afford to make Tom think he was afraid. He jumped, grabbed onto the fence, and pulled himself up. When he swung over, the sleeve of his sweatshirt got caught on a wire sticking out at the top of the fence. Grunting, he struggled to free himself. Fire flared over his skin as the wire scratched along his arm. Finally, he was free and jumped down.
Justin landed next to him.
Not stopping to see if one of the security guards had heard them, they ran across the open space and disappeared into the woodlot.
Danny felt his lungs expand. He deeply breathed in the scent of damp moss, fresh earth, and minty herbs. His eyes pierced the darkness without any problem.
Ahead of him, Justin and Tom stumbled through the forest, trampling over roots and young shoots.
Geez. Like a herd of elephants. Danny rolled his eyes. He waved at his friends to go ahead and paused in front of a red oak. Every time he visited the woodlot, something led him directly to this tree. Knowing he’d have no problem catching up with his friends, he sat on a moss-covered stump and touched the oak. The feel of the gray-brown bark beneath his hands seemed to transport him back in time. He grinned when he remembered traveling to her production sites in Oregon, New York, and North Carolina with Rue. They had spent hours combing the woodlots for the perfect spot to plant the oak. Back then, Rue hadn’t seemed to mi
nd playing hooky from work.
A whiff of dope made Danny turn his head.
Tom and Justin were standing next to him.
Quickly, Danny jerked his hands away from the red oak before Tom could tease him for fondling a tree.
“Let’s go and see if we can get into the sawmill,” Tom signed in the beam of Justin’s flashlight.
Tom had bugged him before about letting them see the sawmill. “I told you that’s not a good idea,” Danny answered. “Rue is pretty anal about her machines.”
Tom rolled his eyes. “What a dyke.”
Danny jumped up from the tree stump and had to unclench his hands before he could sign. “Don’t call her that.”
“You called her anal,” Tom said.
“That’s different.”
“Oh, yeah?” Tom, already fifteen and half a head taller than Danny, stared him down.
Normally, Danny backed down and let Tom take the lead, but not this time. Somehow, someone else bad-mouthing Rue when she wasn’t there to defend herself seemed wrong. What are you? The knight defending her honor? Come on. But he couldn’t help himself and kept up his defensive stance. “Yes.”
Finally, Tom shrugged. “Whatever. Now give me the keys.” He held out his hand, palm up.
Danny hesitated.
“Come on.” Tom waggled his fingers. “You’re not afraid of good, old mom, are you?”
“Bull. I’m not afraid of anything.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” Tom strutted off in the direction of the sawmill.
Justin and Danny followed.
“Quick before the security guard sees us!” Tom waved at Danny to unlock the door to the sawmill.
After one more second of hesitation, Danny searched for the right key and opened the door. The smell of sawdust, resin, and freshly cut pines and oaks engulfed Danny as soon as he entered. He breathed in deeply, savoring the scents, and turned on the light.