Half Wolf

by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

  There was no time for further explanations. All he had said before he took off at a run was, “Have to get there. To her.”

  He heard Adam utter a curse, but barely heard the sounds of his pack running behind.

  *

  Kaitlin stumbled to a halt once she got on the other side of the portal and took in a big breath of air. She scanned her new surroundings.

  The colorful landscape she had seen during the last visit beyond the curtain appeared, this time darkened by an overlay of midnight-hued clouds. She glanced up to see a twinkle of stars.

  She guessed that this realm had an opposite time schedule to the one she was used to. Sunrise in the world she had left was counterbalanced by nightfall here. The difference was disorienting, as was the implication of actually having been transported to another time and place.

  When she looked again, she saw that she wasn’t alone. Two beings, perhaps the same ones she had encountered on her last brief visit, faced her. They must have ushered her through the portal.

  “Thank you.” Kaitlin said this sincerely once she got her breath back. Going through the curtain had stolen her air.

  The tall being across from her inclined her head.

  “You know me?” Kaitlin asked, garnering another nod. “I was one of you until…” She couldn’t finish that remark since nothing made sense.

  “Am I welcome here, in spite of what has happened?” she managed to ask, her voice deep, tremulous, hoarse.

  No nod came from these Fey creatures, and yet both of them remained.

  “I would have died,” Kaitlin explained. “I almost did. Michael saved me and I owe him for that and so much more.”

  A reply came at last in a voice as deep as Kaitlin’s. “You carry his smell, even while walking on two legs.”

  Kaitlin shook off her discomfort and rallied. “His actions have bonded us together. That’s the way he explained this to me. I am at the mercy of the wolf’s ways, and yet I seek your help in saving one of those wolves and his friends from an evil creature far worse than any you might imagine. That creature is a monster maker, like the vampires that came after me.”

  “We sense their presence,” the tall being said, still cloaked in the sparkling glamour that hid the rest of her features.

  “You don’t care?” Kaitlin asked.

  “It does not concern us.”

  “Then why have you come?”

  “To help one of our own.”

  “Do you mean me, or is there someone else?” Kaitlin pressed.

  “We came for you,” the tall Fey replied.

  The wind ruffled Kaitlin’s hair, providing welcome relief from the heat of her recent transition. She didn’t dare close her eyes for fear that all this would disappear.

  “We came too late,” the tall Fey admitted. “The wolf had already cursed you.”

  “I’m alive, and grateful for that.”

  “You’re no longer one of us.”

  “Enough like you to come here and speak with you. Enough like you to be able to call the wind and see visions of what this place is like when it’s hidden from me.”

  These remarks were met with more silence. While waiting that silence out, Kaitlin’s eyes began to clear, as if the wind she had somehow called up was whisking away the spell cloaking this foreign landscape from her.

  There were mountain peaks in the distance, and trees of all kinds. She knew the names of each of those trees, and what their shadows hid. In the back of her mind, Kaitlin remembered believing she had known these things once before, and wondered how she had forgotten that.

  “Yes,” the Fey spokeswoman said, perhaps reading the wonder on her face. Possibly reading her mind. “You begin to understand what would have awaited you here.”

  “If you had gotten to me first,” Kaitlin challenged boldly. “Before someone else rescued me.”

  Another moment of silence ensued before the Fey spoke again.

  “He comes,” the tall female said.

  Kaitlin glanced over her shoulder. “The monster?”

  “Your wolf.”

  She nodded. “Michael would rescue me again. He would risk a lot to do so. You must see that these Weres are deserving of help from wherever they can get it. They watch over the people in this town and in others. They live in secret, having to hide in plain sight for fear of being persecuted by prejudices such as the ones you hold, and without the magical ability to disappear through portals to a safer location.”

  “You do not understand about your lineage, Kaitlin Davies.”

  “You are right about that.”

  The other Fey spoke. “We are not uncaring. We do not travel easily, or to wherever we choose. You brought us here. Your call created this bridge to the mortal world.”

  They had come to her rescue, perhaps hearing her calls and prayers the night she almost lost her life. But they hadn’t arrived in time to claim her as one of their own. Instead of becoming wolf that fateful night, she might have been like these two, Fey and shimmery and magically inclined. She had some kind of connection to them still.

  She was also a wolf. And Michael was here, at the curtain, searching for her, waiting for her. She felt his distress and his need for her in a time of danger and strife.

  Her body responded to him with a throb of desire strong enough to make her sway on her feet.

  “I might have been Fey once, but that part of me has been trumped by Lycan blood,” she explained. “In order to be with Michael and be his mate, I need to be a wolf. I choose to be wolf.”

  Suddenly, Kaitlin found she wanted that more than anything. More than the powers these Fey beings wielded. More than anything that anyone could have offered her to change her mind.

  “I’m asking for your help, just this once. I’m pleading for you to help save those who saved me,” she said. “Please.”

  The stars glittered overhead. Branches in the colorful Fey trees waved and creaked in the wind that surrounded her. Finally, before she could say anything further, the tall Fey female glided forward.

  Kaitlin made herself stand her ground.

  “Granted,” that beautiful Fey creature whispered, resting a pale hand on Kaitlin’s shoulder. “When the time is right, you have but to call on us.”

  Then the atmosphere changed. Colors swirled around Kaitlin until she believed she had been swallowed by a rainbow. She felt as if she were tumbling end over end. Her breath whooshed out. When she opened her eyes she was standing in front of Michael, who without hesitation reached for her.

  She was back in the arms of the wolf, where she belonged, having been dismissed by her what? Blood kin? Distant relatives? No matter the title, they had agreed to help if she asked. And that, Kaitlin figured as Michael’s arms tightened around her, had to be a step in the right direction.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Rena said, her words echoing thunderously inside Kaitlin’s unsettled mind. “Dev was right.”

  Chapter 26

  Kaitlin was naked, gleaming with moisture, alive and in his arms. Because she was quiet, Michael feared she might be in shock.

  She didn’t tremble, didn’t quake. Her body molded to his the way it had when he had stretched out over her on the bed. His hands remained motionless when the desire to run them over her lush bareness was all he could think about. Hunger for the secrets her body held returned with fervor.

  Her hold on him was equally as tight.

  “I thought I had lost you,” he whispered to her. “Hell, Kaitlin.”

  Her voice was smooth, calm. “They will help us.”

  Michael loosened his grip. Holding her at arm’s length, he searched Kaitlin’s white face. Sweat dampened her hair at her temples. Several auburn strands clung to her neck, hiding the remnants of the wound that had sent her into his arms in the first place.

  Gray eyes showed no glint of the wildness he was feeling. Something had happened behind that curtain that had changed Kaitlin again. He saw determination in her expression, and an angularity to he
r cheeks that he hadn’t noticed before.

  “What did you say?” he asked her.

  “They will help us. They have agreed.”

  “Great,” Devlin said from behind them. “And what will that cost?”

  Kaitlin turned her head.

  “There is always a cost for soliciting help from the Fey,” Devlin explained.

  Michael said, “Such as?”

  “The first-born son. A pretty daughter. The soul of your grandmother. Who the hell knows for sure? As I mentioned before, the Fey aren’t charming little beings prone to dishing out good deeds to anyone who asks.”

  “Maybe not to humans,” Kaitlin said.

  “Or half-breeds,” Devlin remarked. “So the stories go. In the Old World countries, the Fey were, and probably still are, feared.”

  “Could be that they took her clothes as payment,” Rena suggested wryly when the silence grew too thick to cut through any other way.

  As if to punctuate that statement, Rena unbuttoned her shirt, exposing her sports bra, and handed the shirt to Kaitlin. “I’d appreciate getting this back sometime. I don’t have time or the cash to hunt for a new wardrobe.”

  Michael saw that Rena’s wryness and her heart didn’t go hand in hand. She’d been quick to offer what help she could to Kaitlin. In this case, Rena’s sarcasm disguised real concern for Kaitlin and what Kaitlin might have been through on the other side of that curtain. Devlin hadn’t painted a pretty picture of the Fey.

  Devlin then handed Rena his shirt to cover herself with. When Devlin looked to Cade, Cade said, “Not going to happen. I gave Michael my best blue shirt earlier.”

  The moment of awkwardness had passed. As Michael glanced to the portal one more time, his wits made a comeback. His hunger backed off. With Kaitlin safely on this side of the portal, it was time to go after Chavez.

  It had been suggested, perhaps in a moment of anger, that all they had to do was chase Chavez’s beasts here, to this spot. He had already seen what damage the Fey could inflict, so if they were willing to help, burning down the building housing the fight club didn’t have to be the only option for getting at the werewolf monster maker.

  “Time to move.” He barked the order as his mind whirled with ideas on how to accomplish the plan. “We have to find the beasts and keep them away from the school. We need to bring them here, one by one if need be…”

  “And shove them in,” Rena said, finishing his thought.

  He directed his next words to Kaitlin. “As a wolf, you were noticeable. Like this…” He smiled in spite of the dire situation they were in as she put on Rena’s shirt. “Like this, you’re equally as noticeable.”

  Rena moved up. “Home first for more clothes, and then sprinting toward your relatives comes after. Deal, Kate?”

  Kaitlin looked at him with eyes that were no longer so innocent. With his heart beating hard and fast in his chest over the need to let Kaitlin out of his sight again, Michael pressed his lips to her forehead. His mouth slipped to her ear.

  “If this works,” he whispered to her, “I’ll be damned before letting them take you or any of the others as payment.”

  Kaitlin severed the connection that always left them both breathless. Michael watched her go with Rena, stifling the shout that would draw her back. Kaitlin was loath to leave him. Her body language telegraphed her fear of what the future might bring.

  But his help was needed elsewhere. Now that they had a plan that Kaitlin had placed herself in danger to secure, that plan demanded his full attention. He couldn’t afford to soften or appear to be torn. This was serious stuff, and dangerous. Chavez was a monster, and they had to keep innocent people away from him.

  Could the Fey be trusted to honor a deal? He sure hoped so.

  If they managed to get Chavez here and those portal gatekeepers didn’t like the taste of a real beast, Adam and Tory surely would.

  And, Michael added in afterthought as he, Dev and Cade eyed the visiting pack…if the newest arrivals from Miami had silver bullets in those guns they carried, one good shot from the hand of an expert would end Chavez’s antics forever.

  After that happened, he’d consider everyone in Miami his new best friends.

  *

  Rena laid a hand on Kaitlin’s shoulder, bringing her to a stop. “They’re here,” Rena said in a steady voice. “Werewolves,” she added, as if werewolves and Weres were two entirely different species. “Change of plans, Kate.”

  Kaitlin followed Rena’s gaze to the front of her apartment building. Copying the she-wolf, she sniffed at the sultry breeze and immediately picked up the scent.

  “It’s not like your scent,” she noted.

  “Thank you for the compliment. If I smelled like that, I’d off myself and save everybody the trouble of doing it for me.” Rena pointed. “There are two of them. I guess monsters prefer to travel in pairs.”

  “How did they find my apartment?”

  “Wolf recognizes wolf. Things are easier that way.”

  Kaitlin heard Rena’s silent message to the others in the pack as if the she-wolf had shouted it out loud. She also heard the wolfish yip of a reply.

  “Those two can’t hear your message?”

  “We have a closed frequency. All packs do,” Rena explained. “Those two idiots will detect us in a minute, so detouring to my place will have to do. We can’t take on these guys by ourselves no matter how much I’d like to.”

  “I’m still the weakest link,” Kaitlin confessed.

  “You have other talents.”

  Kaitlin glanced sideways. “Were you human, Rena? Before—”

  “Yep. Although I like to think of my former status as rebel.”

  As they walked swiftly toward what she assumed would be Rena’s abode, Kaitlin couldn’t help being curious about the female beside her.

  But trouble was in the air she breathed, and had been since she opened her eyes Friday night. While in human form, the two werewolves by her apartment building had the look of bikers and smelled like rotten fruit. Rena didn’t appear to be put off by that. Was confidence a trait that could be learned as a person adapted to the particular strengths of being Were?

  As a baby wolf, was she actually stronger than she felt at the moment? Was the ability to shape-shift without a full moon, like Michael did, one of those talents Rena was referring to?

  She’d told the Fey that she had accepted being a wolf but wondered if they had gleaned that she hadn’t been telling the whole truth.

  She didn’t feel like a wolf, even when she shape-shifted. The feeling inside her was more like theirs. Devlin’s notorious Fey.

  Right then, her wolf filled that hollow space, and yet the wind sang to her. Trees whispered their names to her as she passed. She silently recited those names.

  “What if I’m not wolf enough?” she asked aloud without meaning to.

  Rena slid her a glance. “Then you’re torturing Michael for nothing, and I won’t stand for that.”

  “You love him.”

  “Always have. Always will,” Rena admitted. “Then you came along.”

  Kaitlin laid a hand on Rena’s arm to slow her. “I’m sorry.”

  Rena stopped walking and faced Kaitlin. “For what? No one seems to be able to look past that pretty exterior of yours. Except maybe Dev, who despite his well-honed muscle, remembers his childhood stories too well. These guys can’t help themselves. I’m the only one immune to your charms.”

  Kaitlin turned. Rena pulled her back. “Let me finish, Fey girl. I was about to add that even I have been swayed by your courage and your loyalty to a species you’ve only just met the hard way. I wasn’t nearly so ready to accept the fantastical implications of being a werewolf as you are. You have questions. I get that. You have doubts, like we all did. Still, I find your kindness inspiring. Shit, Kaitlin. Maybe I should be in love with you.”

  Rena’s conspiratorial grin didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  They moved off again. Kaitlin said, “Did Micha
el rescue you?”

  “Is this the Inquisition? If so, the timing is really bad.”

  Kaitlin winced.

  “Cade did,” Rena said, picking up the pace. “It was Cade who first found me.”

  The big blond Were who always had Michael’s back would have made a great mate for Rena, Kaitlin thought.

  “You aren’t bonded to Cade?”

  “I already had wolf blood in my system by the time Cade came into my life. Some guy at a party took a swipe at my throat when no one was looking, and the next full moon I got a big surprise.”

  Kaitlin stared at Rena, but kept up with the she-wolf’s strides.

  “Imprinting is different,” Rena continued. “It’s a look in the eyes that snaps a permanent connection in place. A desire to have another person, body and soul, that never eases and can’t be forgotten. We don’t have that. Cade brought me to Michael, and here I stayed. End of story.”

  Rena had more to say. “You’ve hooked up with Michael and I envy you that. Who wouldn’t? But I’ve noticed that you don’t seem to be very happy about it.”

  “I’m in love,” Kaitlin said, confessing her innermost thoughts.

  “And?”

  “I’m not like any of you.”

  “Old story,” Rena said. “Heard it before.”

  “I feel as though the term wolf can’t contain what I’ll turn out to be.”

  Now Rena looked at her soberly, and the time for sharing confidences was over. Kaitlin was beginning to notice another kind of pull on her system that made her stomach tighten and her throat close up.

  “Yeah,” Rena said, glancing up at the sky. “That’s what she does. That’s what you feel, whether or not you see her.”

  “She?” Kaitlin choked out the word.

  “Madam Moon. She waits in all her silver glory to direct the antics of all her children.”

  Kaitlin closed her eyes briefly.