Wolf Tales III

by Kate Douglas

  Jake patted the bed next to him. Shivering, Shannon sat beside him. Warmth radiated from his body. He put his arm around her and hugged her close against his side.

  “It’s a long and convoluted tale. We might as well get comfortable.” He scooted back into bed, held the covers up for Shannon and she crawled in beside him. It was warm and cozy next to Jake, leaning back against the plump pillows with the soft down comforter pulled up to their chests.

  “Fifteen years ago I was a paramedic with a serious drinking problem, facing sanctions at work. I always felt as if I was looking for something I’d never find. I didn’t know where to look, didn’t know what I was looking for, and figured I might find it at the bottom of a bottle. Then I met Lucien Stone.”

  “The man Tia’s with?”

  “The same. I was hiking up in the Sierras, working my way through a flask of whisky, wondering if life was worth the effort. I saw a wolf. It was absolutely beautiful and I’d always been fascinated by the beasts. I found myself staring at it, mesmerized, while it seemed to study me. I’m not sure how it happened, but I suddenly realized the wolf was in my head. Only he wasn’t thinking like a wolf. I don’t know how long I stood there on the trail, staring at the animal while it wandered around in my mind, but the next thing I knew it was almost dark and the wolf was gone.

  “I remember shaking my head, figuring I’d had an alcohol-related blackout. I started the long walk back to camp. Before I’d gone very far, I came across a man on the trail. He introduced himself as Lucien Stone, said he was camping in the area, but he’d gone farther from his campsite than he’d planned. He asked if I had a flashlight. I did, so we shared the light going back to the campground.

  “We hit it off really well, camped together for the next week. He started sharing the pills with me from the first night, said they’d help me get over my drinking.” Jake turned and stared solemnly at Shannon. “I’ve never gotten drunk since.”

  He settled back, even closer to Shannon than he’d been. “After about a week, I noticed some strange physical changes, a sense that my bones were trying to crawl out of my skin. My senses seemed more acute, and my libido was making me nuts. I thought it was a response to going without any booze, but then, one night I had the most amazing sex in my life, with Luc. I’m not gay, though I’d never been all that particular about who I screwed, but I was drawn to him in such a powerful manner that it seemed spiritual as well as sexual. We linked mentally at the time of orgasm—more than once.”

  Jake squeezed Shannon close and kissed the top of her head. “The next day, he told me about the Chanku. I guess he’d read enough signs in me to know I was one of them. He described a race of humans that evolved on the steppes of the Tibetan Himalayas. They had the ability to shift into animal form…into wolves.”

  Jake looked directly into Shannon’s eyes. She felt the gentle probing of his mind, clearer now than it had been since their first sexual encounter. She struggled against his intrusion at first, then relaxed her barriers. Control of her mind was coming more easily now.

  “As time went on and the Chanku emigrated from the area, they lost the ability to shift. There’s a part of the brain that controls shifting, but it needs certain nutrients to function. What those ancient people didn’t know was that the chemicals they required were in some of the grasses growing in Tibet. The organ that made them unique remained, but it became inactive. Without the nutrients it couldn’t help them shift. Soon, their past became legend.”

  Shannon swallowed back the questions bursting in her mind. Jake’s hand swept over her hair and he kissed the top of her head. “The genes for the Chanku are dominant in the female. A woman of the Chanku race will always give birth to children with the capability to shift, but without the nutrients they will never be anything other than normal—at least almost normal—human beings. Men can’t pass the gene on, but they can be Chanku, the offspring of Chanku mothers. However, they must mate with a Chanku female to have children with the ability to shift.”

  “But my mother wasn’t…”

  Jake nodded. “She must have carried the gene. Was she a happy woman?”

  Shannon shook her head. “No. Never. She took one lover after another, even when I was a child. She and my father divorced when I was a baby. Mom died of cancer when I was still very small, so my father took custody, but he really wanted no part of a daughter. I spent most of my time with Tia Mason.”

  “Your mother was searching. Just as I was. Just as you are. Searching for that part of her that was missing. The part that was Chanku. Much of what drives us is sexual, an almost addictive need for sex, whether or not we’ve had the nutrients. Once we become Chanku, we exist in a polyamorous society. Our packmates all have sex with one another. The only restriction is against indiscriminate sex in lupine form. That’s reserved for our mate. I’ve heard it’s an amazing thing, when true mates tie for the first time. There’s a total link, a bond that can’t be broken. A bond that lasts for a lifetime.”

  Shannon’s skin felt cold and hot at the same time. Her own voice sounded foreign when she quietly asked her next question. “The pills?”

  “Are a condensed form of the nutrient, made from the same grasses our ancestors ate.” Jake hugged her tightly, as if proud of her easy acceptance of everything he was saying. As if he wasn’t taking her world and tilting it further and further, until Shannon wondered if she’d ever feel right again.

  “I couldn’t tell you what was going on because there was still a chance you weren’t Chanku, but the evidence, even after just two days, is overwhelming. You are Chanku. You’re not ready to attempt a shift yet, but if you continue taking the nutrients you should be able to do it before the week is over.”

  Shannon realized she still had her fist wrapped tightly around the jar. Now she held it up and stared at it, fully aware her hand was shaking. “All those stories Tia’s mom used to tell her?”

  Jake nodded enthusiastically. “I don’t know how heroic the Chanku are, but the essence of the tales is true. We are humans who can become wolves. We make the shift without pain or effort. It’s like taking a deep breath and suddenly we’re on four legs with senses so far superior to our human abilities it’s almost overwhelming.”

  Overwhelming described the feelings coursing through Shannon. Suspecting and discovering Jake was a wolf was one thing. Learning he was turning her into a creature just like him without warning her, without her having any choice in the matter, was terrifying. Slowly, fighting the desire to start screaming and just not stop, Shannon turned and stared at him.

  “So. Let me get this straight. You were just going to do this to me and not say anything? Turn me into a fucking werewolf and then say, oh, by the way, Shannon…you know those little pills you’ve been taking? Don’t you think I might have wanted some choice in the matter?”

  Jake shook his head, smiling as if everything made perfect sense. “Don’t you see? I couldn’t say anything. If it turned out you weren’t really Chanku, we’d have had to end our relationship. I can’t mate with someone who’s, well…”

  “Human?” She felt her skin grow cold. “You mean I was okay to fuck, but for the happily ever after I need to have four legs and a tail?”

  “Shannon, it’s not like that.”

  “Yes, Jake. It is. Of course, I’m supposed to mate with you once the change is complete, right?”

  Now he definitely looked unhappy. “Shannon, I’ve only known you a couple days, but you have to admit, we’ve got something special going. Yes, I want you for my mate. What man wouldn’t? You’re beautiful, you’re smart, you’re…”

  Shannon held up her hand, halting his litany. Then she crawled out of bed taking one of the pillows with her. She tossed the bottle of pills on the bed beside Jake. “I’m assuming Tia is Chanku as well?”

  Jake nodded. She thought he looked a little shell-shocked. Good. It served him right.

  “And her father?”

  “Yes. All the members of Pack Dynamics are
Chanku. We’ve met others as well. A group in Montana. They’re the ones who helped rescue Ulrich.”

  “How nice for all of you. By the way, I’ll be sleeping in another room tonight.” Shannon turned away and left Jake staring, openmouthed. She walked from the bedroom with as much dignity as she could muster. It wasn’t easy, with the only lantern on the dresser and the living room as dark as a tomb, but it was worth a stubbed toe for a night when she could think about all the changes in her life, and whether or not she was ready for them.

  Just to be on the safe side, Shannon grabbed the handful of pills she’d left on the kitchen table and shoved them into the small drawer on the end table near the couch.

  It never hurt to be prepared.

  Chapter 8

  Jake stared at the door and fought the urge to howl. What really pissed him off was the fact Shannon was absolutely right. He’d taken steps that totally changed her life without consulting her. There had to be a better way than lying, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out how he could have done it better, short of telling her the truth.

  Something he couldn’t do until he knew. Damn. Talk about your original catch-22. He had to convince her that everything he’d done was for the good, but how?

  Jake waited a few minutes, wondering if Shannon would relent. The silence in the room was absolute, broken only by his panting breaths.

  He needed to clear his head, to get out of the confines of four walls and a ceiling. He needed to run. This time, though, there was no need to hide his Chanku form. This time Jake merely shifted, leapt down off the bed, sauntered over to the door…and realized Shannon had closed it tight.

  Shit. He stared at his big wolven paws, the long ebony claws so good for digging and racing through the woods, but totally useless when it came to doorknobs. Shifting quickly to human form, Jake opened the door, then, as a matter of pride more than necessity, regained his wolf form.

  Shannon watched him from her seat on the couch. She sat in the corner of the overstuffed sofa, knees drawn up to her chin, the heavy afghan wrapped around her body. She’d lit a few candles in the room and the light flickered and wavered with the gentle flow of air currents. Jake walked slowly across the floor. His sharp nails clicked on the hard wood, muted when he walked over throw rugs. He looked at the door, then back at Shannon.

  Her lips twitched until she sucked them between her teeth and bit down to keep from smiling. “So, you want outside, eh? At least you’re housebroken.” She got up with the afghan wrapped around her body and sauntered over to the door.

  Jake caught back a whimper before it escaped. He wanted her more now then he had earlier when she’d straddled his body and bathed him in her rich scent. He wanted her with more than the usual driving force of Chanku.

  His cock twitched, and he knew he had to leave now. With a last look over his shoulder, Jake leapt off the front porch and raced out into the night. The dark forest called, the clean scent of the night air, the sounds of tiny creatures scattering out of his way.

  He was wolf. Chanku. Sometimes answers lay in the depths of the forest. When the body hunted, the mind allowed the beast to rule and the cares of humanity dropped away. His claws tore at the mossy trail as he ran through the night. Wind caught at his thick fur and his tail streamed out behind him. Still, the sense remained, that no matter how far, how fast the wolf ran, his heart would stay forever with the auburn haired woman he might have lost.

  Shannon tightened the afghan around her body and stared at one of the tiny candles flickering on the mantle. She’d started a fire in the big fireplace, more to give her something to do than for the heat it gave off, but the room still had a chill to it.

  Jake had been gone now for hours. Sleep was out of the question. She’d paced, angry at first, then curiosity had finally won out. How in the hell did a person shift from human to wolf and back again? Jake made it look so simple. In fact, it happened so quickly, Shannon hadn’t been able to follow what his body actually did during the change.

  One second he was Jake, the next a beautiful wolf with silver-tipped fur. Shannon rubbed at her arms, more aware now of the strange, itchy sensation of skin crawling over muscle, of muscle twitching as if small currents passed through her.

  She couldn’t deny it any longer. For better or for worse, Jake had started a process Shannon would finish. The dreams convinced her. In her dreams she ran free, the strength and power of the wolf as much a part of her as the eyes in her face and the hair on her head.

  I am Chanku.

  Shannon had realized over the course of the last couple of hours that her dreams of wolves started before her first pill. She’d blamed Jake unfairly, for that much, at least. She’d dreamed of wolves the first night, when Jake had rescued her from the kidnappers.

  Was it Jake’s proximity that made her dream? Had that part of her mind, the wolven part, recognized a fellow Chanku? She’d never dreamed of wolves while living with Tia, but then Tia hadn’t taken any of the supplements at that point, either.

  Shannon tried to imagine the act of shifting, looked for that knowledge within herself and realized there was merely a fuzzy concept in her mind. Jake had said she’d need to take the supplements for at least three or four days, if not longer, before she could shift.

  She threw off the afghan and paced the length of the big room and back. She envied Jake right now, envied him the freedom of running through the forest with the night wind in his face, the sounds of falling water and tiny creatures scurrying, the whoosh of wings as owls sped overhead or bats darted between the trees.

  Suddenly she stopped. How did she know those sounds? Shannon rubbed her hands over her face, aware of a gut-deep knowledge of the forest at night no city girl from Boston should have. How had her mind even recognized the myriad scents, sounds and sensations a wolf would experience while racing through the woods at night?

  Was it some kind of racial memory? An instinctive knowledge? Shannon plopped back down on the sofa and threw the afghan over her lap. She concentrated once more on the flickering candle and let her thoughts follow the tiny flame.

  Opening her mind to possibilities, to the meaning behind her dreams, to that newly evolving part of Shannon Murphy that was something fairy tales were made of.

  As her heart rate steadied and her body relaxed, Shannon slipped quietly into that new part of herself. She explored her own thoughts, her body, her tingling arms and legs and the reflexes that somehow felt faster, sharper. In her most recent dream, she had sensed her internal organs, the workings of her reproductive system. She’d known her organs were whole and healthy, had understood the simple method of releasing an egg for fertilization.

  Shannon’s damaged reproductive organs were no longer an issue. Once she took enough of the supplement, she’d not be able to get pregnant in human form even if they’d been healthy. Only as Chanku would she be able to breed. Mating with another Chanku, as wolf, and only then if she chose to release an egg for fertilization.

  She knew this. Knew it as if she’d been taught her own biology from birth. Shannon stared, transfixed, at the candle. Saw the deep woods, the darkness not nearly so dark as her human eyes would lead her to believe.

  She sensed Jake, knew he ran to control his anger and overwhelming sadness at having deceived her. Sensed the battles ahead of them as her alpha male realized the pack was under the charge of the alpha female.

  Shannon smiled, seeing a lot of male adjustment in her future. Even more in Jake’s. She thought of the five pills in the drawer, pills Jake didn’t know she had. Though his intentions had been good, his methods were wrong. She should have been told what the true purpose of the supplement was.

  There was no question she would continue to take them. No question she would fully embrace her Chanku heritage. And, if she were truly honest with herself, there was no question at all in Shannon’s choice of mate.

  Jake had met needs Shannon hadn’t realized existed. He’d come into her life so suddenly she’d not had time t
o adjust to the change, to the fact her heart was fully engaged with a total stranger.

  Stranger than she’d ever imagined.

  Shannon sent her thoughts out into the night, realized she had greatly increased her ability to use her mind for communication after only two days on the supplement. She found Jake near a small pond, saw through his eyes when he stalked a rabbit near the water’s edge.

  Tasted fresh blood when he pounced, grabbing the small creature between sharp teeth and ending its life in a heartbeat. She felt no sense of disgust, no need to back away when Jake devoured the rabbit, leaving little beside the pond to show a life had ended here.

  Just as Shannon’s was now beginning. A rebirth.

  Slowly, carefully, Shannon pulled away from Jake’s thoughts with a sense of triumph. He’d not been aware of her presence!

  Exhausted, she got up and extinguished each of the candles she’d placed around the room. With only the glow from the fire to guide her, she crawled back on the comfortable sofa and wrapped the afghan around herself.

  Shannon could have chosen the extra bedroom, but this room seemed right for her. It was the center of the house. Her center. Jake’s.

  She was only half awake when Jake let himself inside the cabin, moving quietly on bare human feet. Shannon thought of joining him in the bed, of putting their argument behind them, then thought better of it. Jake needed to know how his actions had hurt her, needed to understand that, just as she wouldn’t take control from Jake, he had no right to take it from Shannon.

  So, crawling through his brain when he doesn’t know you’re there is acceptable?

  The errant thought might have kept her awake, but Shannon was too sleepy to even consider arguing with her conscience.

  Jake paused by the sofa and stared down at Shannon. She lay on her side, the colorful afghan pulled up over her shoulders, her thick mass of auburn hair spread out over the arm of the chair like a dark copper halo.