The pack was safe. Kaitlin was safe.
He stretched out a hand to touch her, then let that hand fall to the bed. The time had come for him to leave Kaitlin and he dreaded the fact that duty eventually demanded a separation. No matter how much he wanted to stay with Kaitlin, as the Alpha here, he had to show his face, help with his pack’s search for intruders in the last couple of hours before the sun came up. Leaving them on their own had been a massive breach of his power.
Common courtesy demanded that he make sure their out-of-town guests had a place to stay and were comfortable while they hunted in Clement, and his own digs couldn’t be ruled out because of the delicate bundle breathing softly on his bed.
He lamented this disturbance, wanting to possess Kaitlin in every room of this house, and on every surface.
“I have to leave you.”
Would she be here when he returned? Cuffing her to the bedpost would have been cruel and unusual punishment, even to address her unpredictable behavior…though the Were cop, Adam Scott, had probably brought along a pair.
He smiled wickedly at the thought. Some Alpha he was. He should turn in his claws.
Kaitlin didn’t move, and didn’t seem to be breathing. Michael leaned over her with his own breath held, and found his hand on her shoulder without being conscious of putting it there.
The room was saturated with her sweet, addictive fragrance. There hadn’t been any further sign of her wolf.
He had to speak again, afraid he’d kiss the shoulder that lay beneath his hand. “What was behind that curtain in the park? Do you have any idea? Did that dark spot in the park have anything to do with your shape-shift?”
She didn’t stir.
He hadn’t expected her to.
“How did you do that, Kaitlin Davies?” He had sent her so many silent directives to sleep, there was no chance she would have been able to answer him. Stiff from sitting, Michael reluctantly drew back his hand, stood and stretched. He needed a shower and couldn’t afford the time. He had to show his face to the others, who, despite his message, would want the truth of what had happened tonight.
That truth was that Kaitlin had blown all Were rules apart by shifting before her first full moon. Without a full moon. Into a four-legged wolf. Oh, yes…and he hadn’t kept his pants zipped.
Dressed in fresh clothes, he leaned over Kaitlin’s sleeping form one more time. “In a life filled with surprises, you take the cake, Kate.”
She hadn’t opened her eyes once. Not even a flutter of her long lashes.
“Will your eyes be gray when you open them?”
I’d like them to be gray, he said silently.
“We have a phrase for all of this,” Michael said with his mouth close to her ear. “Learn and burn. It’s not very pretty, is it?”
As long as she couldn’t hear him, Michael offered her a confession that he hadn’t dared to acknowledge until this second. “I am used to fighting for justice, but I’m a newcomer in the fight for love. All I have to offer you at the moment is the use of my home and my protection. Will that be enough?”
His lips rested on her earlobe. “A second touch, just this once.”
He kissed her cheek, without lingering. Kaitlin’s skin retained its warmth, though her inner fires had faded. He covered her with a sheet and whispered, “I wonder what other surprises the future might bring.”
Slowly, he backed away from the bed, fighting with himself all the way. “Wait for me,” he said to her from the doorway, praying that he spoke the truth when he promised, “I won’t be long.”
But Michael had to wonder what he’d find on that bed when he returned, and if it would in any way resemble the woman he had fallen so hard for, in so short a time. The woman who had chained herself to an Alpha, through no choice of her own, and who, while lingering in the throes of passion, and after shifting back and forth into the shape of a wolf, had spoken in a language that Michael feared didn’t have anything to do with the terms wolf or human.
*
“The warrior returns.” Rena strode forward to greet Michael across the street from his home. Cade, Devlin and Dylan were with her. Though Cade looked slightly worse for wear, he wore his bruises well.
None of these Weres looked as tired as Michael felt. They had been up all night without wasting energy on shifting back and forth so many times that Michael lost count. Their minds weren’t ablaze with questions. They didn’t have to calculate possible personal future outcomes.
Finding them near his house meant that the pack still hadn’t found Chavez or stumbled upon more of Chavez’s savages. He felt some relief over that, still overly conscious of having been elsewhere when he could have been needed.
“No sign of them at all?” he asked Dylan.
“Found more vampires,” Dylan said.
“They’re dust,” Rena explained.
“You were right,” Dylan continued. “These vamps were new to the bloodsucker game. And since Chavez could not have created monsters with fangs, it’s a cinch that Clement has another kind of master on the loose.”
Michael winced. “I should have been with you.”
“Don’t worry. You weren’t missed much,” Devlin teased. “All in all, the night was fairly quiet after that first round of bloodsuckers showed their pretty faces early on, and Cade kicked some beastly ass.”
Rena cuffed Devlin on the shoulder.
Dylan said, “We believe Chavez has holed up on the south end of town. We need to check that out tomorrow. Right now, I think you know that everyone here needs rest.”
After a careful scan of Michael’s tired face, Dylan added, “You included.”
“We need dinner. Or is it time for breakfast? I can’t remember the last time I ate,” Cade said. His wounds were superficial, and had already started to fade.
Michael spoke to Dylan. “You’re welcome at my house. Adam and Tory, as well.”
“Won’t it be a bit crowded?” Rena quipped with a lilt of well-aimed sarcasm in her tone.
Michael tossed a mental coin about whether to tell these Weres what had happened to Kaitlin tonight now, or just show them that eerie dark spot that had appeared in the park from out of nowhere, and leave Kaitlin’s unbelievable wolf morph out of it. The coin came up tails.
“Before we disperse, I’d like to show you what I found out here, and why I didn’t join you,” he said.
“Lead the way,” Dylan said with a wave of his hand. “I have another half hour of energy left before I start eating this grass. Adam and Tory will find us soon with a final report on what else they’ve learned. Our trail will be easy for them to follow.”
“Do you Miami Weres have some Sherlock Holmes capabilities?” Rena asked Dylan.
“Just a damn good sense of smell,” Dylan replied. “They stayed behind because they’re hungry for a Chavez sighting, and anxious to get this over with.”
“Is it payback?” Michael asked.
“Let’s just say that Adam thinks so, since he knows firsthand what Chavez’s fight clubs can do.”
Michael recalled the scar on Adam Scott’s face, deducing that the cop must have gotten that scar by being up close and personal with Chavez. A testament to Adam’s toughness would be that he had survived such a meeting. The scar remained visible because Adam hadn’t been Were when he received the injury.
The Chavez mess in Miami again made Michael think that dealing with a fledgling vamp or two seemed lightweight, when in actuality vampires were no joke and a threat to everyone.
Add to that problem the sudden appearance of a black wavering mass of unknown origin and a female who had shape-shifted without a full moon or Lycan lineage…and maybe Clement’s problems were catching up with those burdening the larger cities.
“What I want to show you isn’t far,” Michael said as they all walked across the still-dark, empty campus grounds. He was confident that though these Weres had had their share of trouble in the past, none of them had encountered the likes of that unusual gli
mmering curtain.
He was right, and thanked his lucky stars that the strange thing hadn’t disappeared by the time the pack got there to see it. They all stared at the peculiar spot as if not quite believing what they were seeing.
Rena rubbed her eyes and asked, “What the hell is that?”
Dylan’s expression was reflective, though he didn’t venture an opinion. It was Dev who seemed to have one.
“It’s a portal. That’s what you would call it. We’d know it as a veil.”
“Who is we?” Rena asked.
“Those of us who grew up with stories about this kind of thing,” Devlin replied.
“You mean Irish people,” Rena said.
Devlin stepped closer to the dark spot and lifted one hand.
“Don’t!” Rena insisted. “Don’t touch it. We like you in spite of your faults.”
“What kind of a veil?” Michael queried.
“A veil between worlds. A doorway that leads to somewhere else.”
“Where does it lead?”
Devlin chewed on his lip, possibly, Michael thought, in an attempt to keep from answering that question.
Michael tried again. “Dev? That thing leads where?”
“Fairyland,” Devlin said. “Though it’s actually the land of the Fey, where no one can trespass without being invited, and safety is an issue even then.”
Rena let out a bark of laughter. Cade smiled. Dylan passed a look to Michael that made Michael uncomfortable.
“It’s magical?” Michael asked.
“Not to those who live behind it,” Dev said.
“Why would such a thing appear in the States, and Florida in particular?” Dylan asked.
“And tonight,” Michael added.
Devlin shrugged his big shoulders. “Likely because she’s here, and they know it.”
“Kaitlin, you mean.” Dylan glanced again at Michael.
“That’s the only explanation I can come up with,” Devlin said. “These things don’t appear without a reason. It’s not an invitation to test the validity of those old stories.”
Michael blinked slowly to ease the ache behind his eyes. Staring at the wavering curtain had a dizzying effect.
“You’ve seen one of these before, Dev?” he asked.
Devlin shook his head. “I’ve only heard the tales.”
“Yet you believe this might be connected to Kaitlin in some way?”
Michael hated that he tended to believe Devlin’s explanation when he didn’t want to. He sensed rightness in it because of what he had seen. There was a chance that Tory, having witnessed Kaitlin shining like a lighted crystal near here, might have believed it also, if she had been present.
Michael heard himself ask, “If it followed Kaitlin here, what does that make her?”
He really did not want to hear Devlin’s take on the answer, though that answer was crucial. The nonsensical syllables Kaitlin had spoken rang in his ears as if she had just uttered them. Were those the syllables of another species?
“It makes her one of them, or did until we wolfed her up,” Devlin answered. “I suppose the appearance of this portal, so close to where she is, would suggest that Kaitlin either is, or has something to do with the Fey.”
It was clear that no one besides Devlin had any idea what that might mean. Their worried gazes moved back and forth between Dev and the ominous onyx sheet in front of them.
“A fairy?” Rena said, clearly having none of this. “You’re saying that Kaitlin is a fairy?”
“Fey,” Devlin corrected. “Believe me, Rena, that’s a whole different thing from the image in your mind.”
“How so?” That was Dylan.
“The Fey are nothing like the little twinkly things with wings in children’s books. In fact, they are life-size, and can be quite aggressive and dangerous when crossed.”
“And you know this from rumors?” Rena pressed.
Devlin took offense at Rena’s skepticism, though he said calmly enough, “Stories handed down through the years are different than rumors. Most of them have real starting points, like the old tales about werewolf sightings that no one here would laugh at.”
“So,” Cade said. “If Kaitlin is Fey and that thing in front of us is of Fey origin, does it mean Kaitlin can use this fluttering doorway to leave us? Where would she end up if she did?”
Devlin turned to Cade. “She’d end up someplace else. I suppose the Fey exist in a place that’s like another layer of the world that no one, other than them, can access. How else could these doorways just show up? Why wouldn’t we be able to see what lies beyond them?”
“That’s convenient,” Rena remarked archly. “You just create a doorway and use it to avoid air travel. Anyone care to try their luck with this portal?”
Devlin offered Rena a dare. “I’d like to see you try.”
Michael was feeling sick to his stomach. This portal, doorway, veil, gave him the creeps, the way other things that hid in the shadows often did.
“How can you be sure about this?” He directed the question to Devlin.
“I can’t be sure of anything,” Devlin admitted. “Do any of you have a better explanation that we’d rather go with?”
The area fell silent, due to the fact that no one could come up with a better explanation for that bizarre anomaly. Rena, Michael noticed, did not advance on it, despite Dev’s dare.
“I wonder how long it will stay here,” Cade mused.
“Maybe we should get in touch with Kaitlin’s family. Maybe she should,” Rena suggested. “Her family would have to know about this. Right? If that thing is connected to her?”
“Yes,” Devlin was quick to say. “They would have to know. Fey don’t just happen, like a human bitten by a wolf and then becoming Were. You can’t accidentally become Fey. The stories say they can take human form if they want to and walk among us, but they are always Fey on the inside, and they carry those characteristics with them.”
“What characteristics?” Michael asked.
Devlin shook his head. “I suppose we’ll find out.”
The problem was, Michael thought, he had already seen some of what that Fey blood could do. It could leap over the rules governing the parameters of another species. It could bring a wolf to life in a person when a wolf wasn’t due, and make a woman shine with the light of a star, attracting the interest of both Weres and the undead.
It could very well be the reason Kaitlin seemed to be a vamp delicacy. And why he had noticed her in the first place. It was one answer to ponder, anyway.
“And so,” Rena said without looking at Michael, “we just happened to have given one of those creatures a little something extra to kick around in her system. I wonder how Dev’s Fey will appreciate that, not to mention any relatives Kaitlin might have over there.”
Devlin glanced from the spot between the trees to Michael. With a sober expression on his face, he said, “I’m thinking this can’t be good.”
Chapter 19
Kaitlin stirred on the soft surface, uncurling her body and opening her eyes. Details filled in swiftly this time. This was Michael’s house. His bedroom.
Lights were on. There were voices inside her head, threatening to drive her mad, and she couldn’t silence them. She heard her name spoken and covered her ears, trying to concentrate on something outside herself so she could make sense of things.
The room was a cool ocean blue, immaculately maintained and sparsely decorated. Michael’s taste ran to dark colors and carved oak furniture that he might have crafted for himself as a carpenter. By the looks of things, he was talented in his day job. She ran an appreciative hand over the headboard behind her.
Only one picture hung on the wall by the bed—a framed watercolor of hills and valleys similar to what she had seen in her visions. The reminder made her turn inward again to a place she didn’t want to go…and to what had transpired between Michael and herself—the cause of the aches she felt each time she moved.
She hurt al
l over. Every bone pulsed, as if each of them had been broken and too quickly mended. And she knew why. She had lost her shape tonight. She’d lost Kaitlin, for a time, and without fading away completely had returned to have mind-blowing sex with Michael.
The growl she felt rising wasn’t her stomach calling for fuel; it was a sound that got stuck in her throat—a response to the aftermath of having real sex for the first time. They had shared a kind of intimacy that affects the soul, and she had become a wolf when she wasn’t supposed to.
Full-on sex.
Full-on wolf.
Heaven help me.
The fact that this room smelled like Michael made all those recollections worse. His delicious masculine scent filled the air and clung to the pillow, making her want to accept being like him. Making her consider stopping the fight against the aftereffects of a crazy major body realignment that seemed impossible, but obviously wasn’t.
She was alive. She was here, and Michael had seen to that. He truly was her guardian angel in a world that had tilted off balance. He was a beast with a heart.
“My guardian Were.”
Speaking felt strange. Her throat was raw on the inside.
She studied her hands. Her fingers were fingers. Not paws. Her face felt like her face when she examined it, with no elongated muzzle. Arms, legs, were all there and looking human. Between her legs a deep-seated soreness pulsed that had nothing to do with being a wolf and everything to do with Michael’s talent as a lover.
She remembered it all, though the wink of a reality-check light warned that she wasn’t fully ready for any of this.
She didn’t look forward to finding out what the needling insistence in the back of her mind might be—that urge to find those hills and valleys she had seen images of.
She sat up.
Michael’s voice lingered in her mind like an echo, but so did those other voices she could not place. One thing was for sure. She had kissed normal goodbye in a really big way, and there were consequences for that.
The creak of floorboards focused her attention on what might lie on the other side of the closed bedroom door. Was this a house? An apartment? Did Michael live here alone? She wondered who else might come through that doorway.
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