by Dawn Steele
She rounds a dark pocket of trees and sees them in a clearing. There they are – a huge black panther and a pack of very large wolves. She immediately wishes she has thought this over before she so unwittingly came here, but her only concern was – is – for her brother.
The wolves turn to regard her, and she can see the intelligence in their feral green eyes.
Not wolves, she instantly understands.
Shapeshifters.
Just like her brother.
Their innate intelligence tempers the ferocity their animal form brings along with all its raging hormones and glandular secretions. But it is like having two warring wills in one body, she knows. She has seen Jared’s transformation and all the freedom and imprisonment it brings.
On one hand, the animal side of them longs to rend and tear everything in sight. Unlike true creatures of the jungle, the shapeshifters have not learned to temper their bloodlust and the power coursing in their muscles and veins with the need to kill only for food or defense. Like children reveling in their strength for the first time – or many firsts – they let the demonic, feral sides of themselves take over completely.
Shannon has suspected the deaths of old man Pullnam and the others were due to these shapeshifters who were unable to rein themselves in. And now she knows for sure. Jared was the same. At first flush of his transformation, he went on a small animal hunting spree. She is glad the only slaughter of human beings he ever performed was on those cartel lowlifes in Tupelo. Those men who held her prisoner in Conchita’s hacienda were killers and mutilators of innocent women and children. She did not regret their deaths at the jaws of her brother.
The only slaughter she knows of, that is.
“Jared!” she cries out in fear.
He bounds in front of her, shielding her. The pack of werewolves pace, circling them. This is not a good situation. Both she and Jared may be staring at their deaths right here if the werewolves have no control over themselves.
“Please,” she cries to them, calling to their reason. “My brother and I have no quarrel with you. We just came here to get away from our pasts. We won’t tell anyone about you and we will leave you alone. Please let us be!”
The growling continues. Rumbles from deep chests and deep throats. Light gleams from malignant eyes. Has this pack gone too feral to understand human words? But the fact that they are standing their ground gives her hope. The panther is far bigger than them, but there are five or six of them, and Jared is only one. Bullets cannot impact them, but a fight with another shapeshifter can do serious damage.
The lead werewolf takes one step forward, and then another. Emboldened, the others do so too. The heat rises from their bodies and their hackles make them look very large. Their teeth are sharp and white in the scant light afforded by the moon.
Shannon wonders if both of them have miscalculated in coming here.
Please, she prays.
A deep growl behind a thicket of trees makes them all look up. Another werewolf bounds into the clearing. This one is the largest of them all, with glowing green eyes. It is very clearly a male. The other werewolves immediately retreat at the presence of this one, signifying that he is the alpha of the pack.
Do not run, Shannon tells herself. They would only come after you. Jared seems to agree with this as well as he stands his ground.
The alpha werewolf throws up his head and howls. She recognizes that howl. It is the one she heard when she was in Lucien’s bedroom that very first night. Then he favors her with a stare and she can see the supreme intelligence in his eyes.
The pack does not move.
Jared seems to intuit that they are letting them go. He turns away, nudging her to do the same. She does so, taking small steps backward. She is very careful not to run just in case this invokes the werewolves’ ire.
In this manner, they retreat from the thicket of trees. The werewolves – under the command of their alpha – do not follow. Once they are a considerable distance away, they both break into a run and head back for the sanctuary of their cottage.
THE WOLVES
“Jared, you have to be more careful!”
“I am being careful! It’s just that I didn’t know they were there!”
Shannon examines her brother’s naked and now human form in their cottage. There are no scratches or marks anywhere.
“Well, now that you know, you can’t go hunting.”
“I have to go hunting. Jesus. Hunting is what I do.”
“They have obviously been here for a long, long time. This is their territory and they are staking their claim.”
“Then I’ll have to hunt in a different zone. Or take them on.”
“You can’t take them on! You have seen them. There are five or six of them.”
“I have taken on far more than that, sis.”
“But those were men! These are werewolves. Haven’t you seen them with your own eyes, Jared? Don’t let your macho shtick get the better of your brains!”
“I’m bigger than any of them.”
“And if you ran in a pack, by all means, take them on!” Though she privately thinks that is a stupid idea too as she detests violence of any sort. “But you don’t run in a pack, and you can’t go against a pack.”
Jared gets up from the couch. His long, lean body is all sleek muscle. His erect penis bobs in front of him. After a transformation, he is usually hungry and horny.
“I’m going to get something to eat. And then I’m going to get someone to fuck,” he declares, picking up his clothes from the floor. “Unless you’re willing to put out, sis.”
“Don’t talk like that. You know I don’t like that,” she counters, her eyes flashing.
“Fine. I’m going.”
He heads out and slams the door behind him. She hears the engine of his new Pontiac start up and its tires screech as it back out of the little driveway and down the road.
She is worried. Worried sick.
Worried that Jared might be foolhardy enough to confront one or all of the werewolves, and it would be just the thing he would do too. Worried that tonight was just a warning. This is our territory. Go hunt elsewhere. Worried that the woods – huge as they are – might not be big enough for another shapeshifter.
They would have to leave. Go further north, maybe even to Canada.
She will have to talk to Jared about leaving.
Oh, but her heart wrenches at the thought of having to leave! They have just gotten here. She is tired of running. And she has gotten a job at a place that she likes. She has just met Lucien.
The thought of having to leave Lucien now that she has found some measure of happiness is devastating. Besides, another handsome face is lurking in the corner of her mind. Kirk. She likes her boss. She feels very comfortable around him.
She doesn’t want to leave this place.
Is it possible they can all coexist?
She can’t put a reading on the werewolves. Are they willing to share their territory, or will it be all- out war the next time they meet?
Maybe Jared won’t be alive the next time they meet.
But maybe she is overthinking this. Maybe they won’t ever meet.
Her cellphone rings in her purse and she jumps. She retrieves it.
“Lucien?”
“Good time to call?”
“Yes. I’m home now.”
“You OK? You sound a little winded.”
She desperately wants to tell him about everything that has happened, but she doesn’t know how he will take it. Does he know there are werewolves in the community?
“Sorry.” She tries to make her tone light. ‘I was just running in from outside.”
“You have to be careful out there in the fringes, Shannon.”
“I know.”
“Don’t go out there at night, OK? There are wild animals there and there have been attacks on people.”
“I know. I’ve heard about them.”
She wonders if he is trying to giv
e her a subliminal message. It is so difficult when you are just starting to get to know someone. You don’t know how much to say. What would scare them off? How much information would be too much information?
She senses he is going through the same thing with her. Maybe all of them have secrets that are buried too deep within their families to share. Lucien would be very repulsed if he learned that she had slept with Jared back when they were lonely and alone and teenagers. They had clung to each other because they thought they were the only two abnormal people in the world.
“I’d feel a lot better if you moved out of there,” Lucien says seriously. “Look, I’ll find you another property. One that isn’t by the forest.”
That is one no-no for Jared, she knows. He needs the forest. That is part of the reason why they moved out of Arizona. Because he needs new hunting grounds.
“No. Jared likes it here. We’ll be all right, Lucien.”
Wherever they move to, Jared will always need forest territory, so he will have to carve out his own place one way or another. Either he will have to share it, or he won’t.
Lucien pauses. Again, she knows he is wondering how much to tell her, just as she is doing the same. But they can’t always be there to look out for each other, just as a parent won’t always be there to help a child cross the street.
“Just be careful, OK?” he says.
“OK.” She is starting to feel more at ease now. Maybe she is worrying too much for nothing.
“What are you wearing?” he says in a low seductive voice.
She laughs, and all is well in her world again.
For now.
FAMILY
In the next few weeks or so, they arrive into some sort of unspoken co-existence. Jared does not encounter the werewolves again. Maybe they are circling in different hunting grounds, or maybe they are avoiding one another.
Or maybe they have come to an understanding of shared territory.
There are so few of us shapeshifters. We are not animals. There is plenty of forest for all of us. We don’t have to fight one another to death to claim it like real animals. We don’t want to incur investigations from the police or they will hunt us to the ground.
At least, Shannon hopes that is the reasoning.
It would make total sense.
Lucien and she have also come to a serious dating cycle. They would meet several times a week. He balks at waiting for her outside the clinic due to his unspoken feud with Kirk Fitzpatrick, but he doesn’t mind picking her up from home. They would go out to the fanciest restaurants in Dolphin’s Bay and the surrounding towns.
Shannon has had boyfriends before, but none who have feted and wined and dined her as covetedly as Lucien Walker.
She is falling in love with him, God help her. Although Lucien has never mentioned the word ‘love’ to her even once, he appears to show it in his every gesture and act – in his concern for her wellbeing and happiness. She gets that he is not a man who banters the word ‘love’ easily around, although she can clearly see the struggle in his blue eyes. This is why she appreciates him all the more for what he is doing.
He has never proclaimed that they are officially ‘dating’ either. Romance words are not in his vocabulary. But it’s OK. She is willing to go with the flow right now. Why push something that is going so wonderfully, right?
So many relationships are tripped up at the inopportune moment because of this kind of thing. She does not want to be the kind of girl who demands commitments from someone who isn’t used to doling them out.
Besides, she isn’t sure she wants a commitment herself right now.
So the ‘L’ word doesn’t creep out from either of them. Neither does the ‘C’ word.
Not saying it isn’t at the back of her mind every second.
*
It is only a matter of time before Kirk Fitzpatrick finds out who she is dating.
It happens when she and Lucien are at a café one Sunday morning. They are having a lazy Sunday brunch of gourmet cereal with milk when Kirk walks in alone.
He stops when he sees them.
Shannon is seated facing the entrance and she is the first to see Kirk.
Uh oh.
Keep calm, she tells herself. You’ve done nothing wrong. And really, she hasn’t.
Lucien turns.
“Great,” he mutters. “What have I done to deserve this?”
Kirk pauses at the doorway. Everyone in the café looks up. Conversations immediately stop, and Shannon realizes that more people in town probably know about the Walker-Fitzpatrick feud than either Lucien or Kirk gave them credit for. Either that, or the presence of two antagonistic and very handsome men in the room gives everyone pause.
It is very clear that they are antagonistic. Kirk’s shoulders are drawn back and he proudly strides into the room like a gunslinger. Lucien is as still as a statue. The air between them crackles with electricity, and not of a good sort.
Instead of going up to the pastry display like she expected him to, Kirk walks to their table.
“Hi, Shannon.” He smiles broadly. “Fancy meeting you here.”
She doesn’t quite know what to say.
“Hi, Kirk.” She stands up. After all, he is her boss.
He holds up a hand. “No, no, please don’t stand on my occasion. I didn’t mean to interrupt your breakfast.”
Everyone around them, including the waitresses and the cashier, is watching them with undisguised interest.
Lucien says, “Then don’t.”
Kirk tenses.
Uh oh, Shannon thinks. She doesn’t know whether to stand or sit.
“Don’t what?” Kirk demands.
“Don’t interrupt our breakfast.”
“Lucien,” Shannon begins, but he wards her off. He does not get up but glares at Kirk balefully from his seated vantage.
Shannon doesn’t know what to do but to look from one to the other fretfully.
“I haven’t forgotten what your family did to my brother, Walker.”
Now Lucien stands up. “My family didn’t do anything to your brother. I am very sorry for your loss.”
“Maybe we should take this outside.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Please, don’t!” Shannon cries. She is afraid that if they do take this argument outside, it would escalate into a fight. At least in the café, in the presence of so many people, they are forced to maintain a semblance of civility. Or so she hopes.
“You may not be personally responsible for his death, Walker,” Kirk continues, his entire stance in fight readiness, “but I won’t rule out the rest of your clan. Everyone in town knows what you people are.”
“What my ancestors were has nothing to do with who I am or what my family is today. So don’t you go accusing people of witchcraft. I can land you with a lawsuit so fast that you’d be forced to close your clinic down.”
“You want to sue me? Go ahead. Let’s see what secrets my lawyers will dredge up from you.”
“I’m not the only one with secrets, Fitzpatrick. Let’s see what this town will think of you when they finally understand what you and your family really are.”
The two men become suddenly aware of everyone listening in.
“Please,” Shannon says again. “Don’t do this here. I’ll leave.”
Kirk looks at her. “No, I’ll leave. Sorry for interrupting your breakfast. But I’ll have to say this, Shannon. If you’re dating this guy, be very careful.”
“Who are you to tell her who she can and cannot date?” Lucien bridles.
OK, this is not going anywhere good. Shannon picks her purse up.
“I’m sorry both of you can’t be civil in a public place, so I’ll just go.”
“No!” Lucien says.
“You don’t have to go, Shannon.”
But she walks out of the café, her heart thudding painfully against her ribcage. Behind her, she hears Lucien say to Kirk, “Now look what you did.”
She breezes
through the door, and Lucien is immediately beside her.
“Look, Shannon, I’m sorry. Don’t go, just wait for me here. I’ll pay and then we can do whatever you want.”
“He’s my boss, Lucien.”
“I know.” He does appear contrite. “I’m sorry.”
Kirk comes out after them.
“It’s OK, I’m going,” he says. “I’m sorry, Shannon. I’ll see you at work.”
A few people who are about to enter the café look curiously at them. Shannon can’t help but be shaken. She hates confrontations.
“OK,” she says to Kirk.
They watch Kirk walk towards his Tahoe, get in and rev away.
“Shannon,” Lucien begins, but she wheels on him.
“Look, I don’t know what really happened between your families, but you can’t keep going on having this feud. You’re both like tin cans waiting to explode. Someone is going to be hurt real bad if you don’t solve it, especially if you say your family is innocent of the crimes he is accusing you of.”
“It can’t be solved,” he declares. “His family accused mine of something we didn’t do and they can’t prove we did it either.”
“What exactly is it then? You want to keep me out of this, but I am already involved. I need to know.”
She thinks she knows. Kirk has hinted at it, but she wants to hear it from Lucien.
His face is an unreadable complexity of flitting emotions. Then he says abruptly, “OK, I’ll tell you, but don’t blame me if you don’t believe me. Most people would say it’s a pretty tall tale.”
“Try me.”
He pauses. “I’ll go in and settle the bill. Then we’ll go for a long drive.”
THE DRIVE
The route Lucien decides to take in his Mustang is a scenic one, but then, most routes in Dolphin’s Bay and its surrounding towns are scenic. The air is crisp today, and the sun is actually out, although scudding clouds on the horizon indicate there may be rain later. The mountains, blanketed with forest, are on one side, and Shannon finds herself wondering what Jared is doing on a bright day like this.