Sei

by Catherine Lievens

  “He’s a Nix. That’s what they do.”

  Alice shook her head. “I don’t want to go. I thought we were taking a car or something, not—” she waved at Mael. “Not doing whatever he did.”

  Donovan opened his mouth to tell her she’d be fine, but before he could, someone yelled. “There they are!”

  Alice cried out and tried to burrow herself closer to Gabriel, who wrapped his arms around her and looked at Donovan with wide eyes.

  Donovan gestured at Mael. “Come on, we need to get them to the pack.”

  Mael nodded and took one of Donovan’s hands. He offered the other one to the kids, but Alice shook her head. Gabriel hugged her closer and whispered in her ear, “We can’t stay here. They’ll hurt us.”

  “What if they hurt us, though?” she asked, obviously talking about Donovan and Mael. She’d clearly changed her mind about Donovan helping them already.

  “We don’t have a choice.”

  The sound of footsteps coming closer made Donovan want to grab the kids, but they’d never trust him if he did something like that. He and Mael could probably defend both themselves and the kids if they needed to, unless there were more than a few humans after the kids.

  Mael shook his head and grabbed Gabriel’s wrist. Gabriel yelled out a protest, but they were already shimmering away.

  * * * *

  Sei exited the grocery store, waving at Anthony with his free hand. He needed to hurry if he wanted to get to work in time. Dallas wouldn’t say anything if he didn’t—the infirmary was far from being full these days—but Sei still took his job seriously.

  He stumbled against someone and reached out by instinct. The guy he’d hit reacted more quickly, though, and two strong hands wrapped around his arms. “Easy there,” a deep voice said.

  Sei blinked up at the guy. “Thanks. Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

  “I noticed.”

  Sei didn’t think he knew the man. He wasn’t a pack member or an enforcer. “Well, thanks for keeping me upright.”

  Sei tried to move away from the guy, but the guy didn’t let him. “Wait. Can I talk to you for a second?”

  “About what?” Sei asked, still trying to wriggle his way out of the guy’s hands. Whoever he was, he was rude, and Sei didn’t like him.

  The guy finally seemed to notice Sei was uncomfortable and let him go. “I wanted to ask you some questions about the video that was posted online some time ago, the one with the guy who became a wolf.”

  Sei swallowed as he tried to look like he didn’t know anything. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Of course you do. You live here, right?”

  Sei resisted the urge to kick the guy in the shin. “Yeah, I live here, and I have to go to work, so bye.”

  He started walking away, but the guy didn’t seem to care. He followed, walking by Sei’s side. “My name’s Connor Riley. I’m a reporter for the Daily Beacon.”

  Oh, shit. A reporter. Of course Sei would stumble into a reporter. It made him want to reach up and check whether his hat still covered his ears, but he refrained. The last thing he needed was to give the man something to write about. “Yeah, well, I’m a nurse, and people might die if I’m late.”

  “It’ll take just a few minutes of your time. You live here in Gillham?”

  “Yeah, as you already know.”

  Connor ignored Sei’s sarcasm. “So you have to know about the video.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “There have been more and more accounts of people becoming animals lately, and it seems that most of them eventually end up here. What did Kameron Rhett talk about during the town meeting a few weeks ago?”

  “Why don’t you go ask him?”

  “Because he refused to see me.”

  “That should have given you a clue. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Are you one of them?”

  Shit, Sei had had enough. He kind of wanted to shimmer away, just to give the guy something to write about. “One of them what?”

  “A werewolf.”

  Sei rolled his eyes. Why did everyone think Tom was a werewolf? Werewolves were different from shifters. Not that most humans would know that, of course. “No, I’m not a werewolf.”

  “Okay, so what are you? Can you turn into some other kind of animal?”

  A camera flash blinded Sei, and he blinked. “What the fuck?”

  “Are you one of them?” a voice yelled in his ear.

  “What kind of animal are you?” another voice asked.

  There was another flash, and Sei shook his head. “What the fuck?” he said again. No one answered him.

  A small group of people was starting to gather around him, yelling questions, taking pictures, and recording video.

  “Where can we find the men from the video?”

  “What happened to the one who became a wolf? Is he alive? Why hasn’t anyone seen him since the video was recorded?”

  Connor bumped against Sei’s side. He looked almost as overwhelmed as Sei felt, even though he was a reporter himself. He probably wasn’t used to being in the spotlight, but since he’d been walking with Sei, the others seemed to think they were friends. They were asking Connor questions, too, and he was gaping at them.

  Sei tried to push away from the reporters, but there were too many of them. Someone bumped into him, and he felt his hat sliding to the side. He dropped his bag of groceries and scrambled to get the hat back where it belonged, but it was too late.

  One ear popped out, and after a second during which time seemed suspended, the flashes returned, along with the yelled questions.

  “Why are your ears pointed?” a woman asked.

  “Do they mean you’re something else?” a man yelled into Sei’s ear.

  Sei shook his head. “Leave me alone.”

  “Our readers want answers. Don’t you think they ought to know if they’re living next to people who can become wolves?”

  “I don’t have answers for you!” Sei screamed. No one listened to him.

  “Are you dangerous?”

  “Can you understand what’s happening when you’re an animal?”

  Sei wanted to shimmer home, but the reporters were too close. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally shimmer one or more of them into pack territory. That would be even worse than what was happening right now.

  Someone pushed him again. His back hit the wall behind him, and he cried out. His eyes widened when Connor placed himself in front of him, shielding him with his body. “Leave him alone,” Connor said. His voice got swallowed up in the dozens of other, louder ones.

  Sei couldn’t breathe. He was glad for Connor’s help, but the crowd of reporters was pushing Connor back against Sei, his back almost plastered to Sei’s chest. Sei closed his eyes and tried to calm down, but how was he supposed to? There wasn’t any space for him to move, to breathe, and the reporters were still yelling questions at him, not even waiting for him to answer before firing another one, then another one.

  A loud roar made everyone jump. The crowd turned around as a single person, and people started screaming after a few seconds of silence. To Sei’s surprise, the reporters fled, leaving him and Connor plastered against the wall. The cowards wanted to know about shifters, yet they ran as soon as a—a bear found them?

  Sei pushed against Connor’s back. “Let me go.”

  “Uh, there’s a bear,” Connor answered.

  “I can see that.”

  It would have been hard not to. The bear was big, easily ten feet as it stood onto its back legs and roared again. Its fur was brown and its teeth big.

  “Should we run away?”

  “No.”

  “That thing’s going to eat us.”

  “I don’t think so.” Sei couldn’t be sure it was a shifter, of course, but he didn’t think random bears usually wandered into Gillham, espe
cially not bears who seemed to be followed by two wide-eyed teenagers and a Nix.

  Connor looked from Sei to the bear. “Wait. Is that a guy? I mean, a guy that can become a bear?”

  Sei sighed. There was no getting out of explaining what was happening to Connor. Besides, he couldn’t be as bad as Sei had thought. He’d tried protecting Sei. Maybe it was only so he could get answers or something, but still.

  “Yeah, that’s a bear shifter.”

  Connor blinked. “Bear shifter?”

  Sei gestured at the bear, who was lumbering closer. “Yeah. That other guy in the video is a wolf shifter, not a werewolf. Werewolves are different.”

  Connor looked like a feather could knock him on his ass. “Bear? And werewolves? Oh my God, how many of you are there out there?”

  Sei crossed his arms over his chest. “By you do you mean shifters, or paranormal creatures in general?”

  Connor shook his head. “I don’t think I’m ready for this.” He straightened. “But it doesn’t matter. Are you going to answer my questions now?”

  “Everything all right?” Mael asked. He was trailing behind the bear, the two still wide-eyed teens behind him.

  “Yeah. Thanks for the help.”

  “Who were they?”

  “Reporters. I’m not sure why they targeted me, but Connor here could be the reason.”

  “Hey!” Connor protested.

  “What? It’s true. I was just walking home after buying some food. There was nothing weird about that. Someone probably heard you asking questions.”

  Connor swallowed, and instead of answering, he pushed Sei back against the wall, his gaze on the bear again. “Are you sure that’s a shifter?” he asked in a whisper.

  “That’s Donovan,” Mael answered for Sei. Sei had no idea who Donovan was, so he took Mael’s word for it.

  He pushed against Connor’ back. “See? He’s a shifter. You can let me go. He won’t hurt me.”

  Connor didn’t look convinced, but he still moved sideways. He kept a hand on Sei’s arm, though, and when the bear shifter growled, he started to move in front of Sei again.

  The bear was faster. He bumped his side against Connor, sending him to the ground, and came straight at Sei.

  * * * *

  Donovan needed to get the human away from his mate. He knew he wasn’t exactly rational right then—the human seemed to want to protect his mate, not to hurt him. Still, he was touching Donovan’s mate, and neither Donovan nor his bear liked it.

  The human fell to the ground, and Donovan pushed his face against his mate’s stomach. His mate squirmed, but he didn’t try to get away. Donovan chuffed and moved his head upward until he found his mate’s neck. He stuck his nose against it and sniffed. His mate’s scent swamped him, and he wished they were alone in his bedroom, or at least somewhere he could shift without flashing everyone.

  Donovan’s mate laughed and buried his fingers into Donovan’s fur. “Hey, buddy. What’s going on? Why are you sniffing me?”

  Donovan chuffed again. There was no way he was shifting there, in the middle of Main Street, not when he could see and hear the reporters snapping pictures and talking to their cameras. He didn’t want his dick to be plastered all over the news and papers, not to mention blogs and whatever.

  “We should probably shimmer back to pack territory,” Mael said. “I’m sure Donovan wants to wait for more privacy before he shifts back.”

  Donovan’s mate bit his lower lip. “But what about the cameras and everything? Won’t they record us shimmering away?”

  “I suppose they would. We just need a private place to shimmer.” Mael looked around, his gaze sweeping over Main Street. “There. Let’s go to the flower shop.”

  “Oh, yeah. Nuallan and his mate won’t mind. We might have some problems with the human who works there, though.”

  Mael frowned. “Why? He works with Nuallan. Doesn’t he know about us?”

  “He does. He’s just a bit too interested. Nuallan told me the guy asks about a thousand questions every day.”

  Donovan didn’t care how many questions that human asked, as long as he could go back to pack territory and shift. He should have let Mael and another enforcer walk the kids to town to buy what they needed, but then he wouldn’t have met his mate. Besides, the kids seemed to finally trust him, at least in part. He hadn’t wanted to dump them on someone else.

  He grunted and lumbered away from his mate. He still didn’t know his mate’s name, and that wasn’t going to change until they left. He turned his head to check whether everyone else was following. They were, so he led the way down the sidewalk to the flower shop Mael had spotted.

  He couldn’t open the door, though, so he sat down and waited for his mate to join him. His mate opened the door and stepped inside, keeping it open so Donovan could walk in. He sneezed when the scent of too many flowers reached his nose.

  That made Alice laugh, and Donovan thought she probably hadn’t had too many opportunities to laugh that way while she’d lived on the street. It was a nice sound to hear, and he didn’t mind.

  “Uh, that’s a guy, right?” a man asked from behind the counter. He was wearing a bright pink T-shirt and red jeans, and Donovan wondered if the clashing colors would make him go blind.

  “Yes, he is. He can’t shift back because the street is full of reporters,” Mael explained.

  “And you came in here because...”

  “We needed a private place to shimmer.”

  The man clapped his hands. “Oh, goodie! I’m finally going to see you guys shimmer? Nuallan refuses to show me how it works.” The guy pouted. “He’s no fun.”

  Donovan rolled his eyes and bumped his nose against his mate’s side.

  His mate looked at him, smiling, and reached out to scratch Donovan’s head. The spot between his ears was one of Donovan’s favorite places to be scratched, and he closed his eyes in pleasure.

  Damn, he’d finally found his mate. It had taken him eighty-five years, a thirty year-long marriage, and three kids to find the man who’d be with him for the rest of his life. He wasn’t sure why his mate didn’t seem to realize what they were to each other, because he could see the man’s ears, and he knew he was a Nix. Nix recognized their mates on sight, yet Donovan’s mate didn’t seem to. Maybe it was because Donovan was in his bear form.

  That made him want to leave as soon as possible.

  “What’s going on here?” another man asked.

  Donovan opened his eyes. He was obviously not going to get even one moment alone with his mate until they were back in pack territory.

  “Sorry. Sei was mobbed by a group of reporters,” Mael explained to the new guy. “Donovan shifted to send them away, but they didn’t go far, so we needed a quiet place to shimmer.”

  Sei. That was Donovan’s mate’s name. Was it short for something? Donovan wanted to ask.

  The only thing that came out of his mouth was a grunt.

  The new guy gestured at Mael. “You should probably leave now, before those reporters decide they want to risk coming in here to take a few good pictures.”

  “Right. Thanks.” Mael turned to look at Sei. “You take Donovan. I’ll take the kids. Kameron’s living room, okay?”

  Sei nodded, and Donovan huddled closer to him. He bumped against Sei’s legs and stayed there. Sei’s fingers tightened into Donovan’s fur, and the flower shop around them disappeared.

  Donovan recognized Kameron’s living room when they shimmered, and he didn’t waste time shifting. He grabbed a pillow from the couch as soon as he was in his human form and held it in front of his dick. He didn’t care about people seeing him naked—he’d shifted way too many times in his life to care—but Alice and Gabriel were still young, and they were with people they didn’t know. He didn’t want to spook them.

  Sei gasped as soon as Donovan faced him. He raised a hand, but he didn’t touch Donovan. Instead, he asked, “You knew?”

>   Donovan nodded. “Since I got close enough to smell you.”

  Sei nodded and let his hand fall. “I see. I didn’t. Not while you were in your bear form.”

  Donovan opened his mouth, but Alice giggled, and he realized he was now giving her and the others his back. That meant the three of them had a very good view of his naked ass.

  “Mael,” he said without turning. He didn’t think he could look away from Sei, not right then. “Why don’t you take those two to the community area? I’m sure they’ll find other teenagers there.”

  “I can do that. Come on, kids.”

  “We’re not kids,” Gabriel muttered.

  The subsequent silence told Donovan they were gone, and he relaxed. He was pondering whether or not he should leave the pillow on the couch when he went hunting for clothes when someone snickered behind him.

  “Well, I can’t say I thought I’d ever see that again.”

  Donovan turned, grinning at Bran. “You can look, but you can’t touch. I don’t think your little mate would appreciate that.”

  “Oh, I appreciate it all right,” Daniel said from somewhere behind Bran. “Or at least, I appreciated it until Bran shoved me behind his back so I couldn’t see it anymore. That’s a fine ass, man.”

  “No looking at my mate’s ass,” Sei snapped. His eyes widened, and he slapped his hand on his mouth. “Sorry.”

  “About what?” Donovan asked.

  “I just told them we’re mates. I didn’t even know if you wanted anyone to know about it.”

  Donovan frowned. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  Sei shrugged. Daniel pushed by Bran and came closer. “Well, you could be ashamed of him, or you could not want to be mated to a man, or a Nix. Or you could—”

  Donovan shook his head. “I’m not ashamed.” He leaned closer to Sei and cupped his cheek. “I don’t know you, but I already know I’m going to love being mated to you, when you’re ready. I don’t want to hide it.”

  Sei nodded, but it was Daniel who answered. “That’s great, but maybe you should hide that ass of yours before Bran decides to tear it off your body because I can’t keep my eyes off it.”