One True Mate 7_Shifter's Paradox

by Lisa Ladew

  Rogue rolled her eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “Totally explains your all-in technique.” She heaved him off the ground. “Come on, let’s go find an air conditioner in the middle of the night. If we’re lucky we’ll have to drive to Chicago.”

  But new yelling from inside the cabin caught all their attention.

  “What the fuck!” Conri’s voice boomed out, his voice deep and rich like Bruin’s but he wasn’t quite Bruin, he didn’t have that soft, guileless tone when he spoke, was missing that intonation that let you know that Bruin was your friend, that it didn’t matter who you were, Bruin already liked you. Conri was more like normal people, meaning he liked you if you were cool and didn’t like you if you weren’t. Bruin thought everyone was cool, and wasn’t that a fucking trick? Shit, Harlan missed the bear just a little himself. Good for him being named the Fire Chief. That had been a smart move on the part of the bears. The first one they’d made in a while, but Harlan was already on the move again to see what Conri was staring at, his eyes wide, the stethoscope in his hands forgotten. Harlan gripped the holster of his weapon loosely as he ran, but didn’t unsnap or pull. He wouldn’t know till he saw what was going on whether he would use his human weapons, or his animal ones.

  He could see Graeme. The big male moved fluidly. He wasn’t sweating. He didn’t even have a hair out of place, even though Heather had been in labor for over a week, and neither of them had slept for almost as long. He faced what Harlan couldn’t see, but didn’t attack. His stature was confused, but not aggressive. The big male was posh as shit. He had stature out the ass, but he was wily and smart and he would know if they were in danger. Harlan took a clue from Graeme and relaxed slightly, but did not slow.

  Harlan made it through the door, running into the center of the room, around the other side of the couch that Heather was laboring near. Heather, Conri, Graeme, Remington, they all stared open-mouthed at one point in the room. Heather’s stomach shifted and rolled as the young inside moved. She curled an arm around her belly and whispered to it, her eyes closed. Jaggar, Mac, and Rogue ran in behind Harlan. Troy too. No sign of Trent.

  Harlan skidded to a stop, when he saw it.

  Leilani.

  She stood near the hallway, her long dark hair wild around her pretty, too-thin face like she was within her own special storm, one that followed her around. Her eyes were wild and vacant and shifting and for a moment he wondered if she were blind. She looked exactly the same as she had 41 years ago, the first time he’d ever seen her. Time Travel. It was a hard one to swallow, but what else could possibly make sense?

  “It’s Leilani,” he said, weakly. Everyone in the room thought she was his mate, but only Mac and Rogue and Troy had seen her appear out of nowhere before. Mac had seen her twice, as many times as Harlan had, and for some reason that fact made Harlan poke his wolf. Wake up.

  The words echoed in his mind as he stared at Leilani. She turned wild eyes on all of them. Was she seeing them?

  The cabin whooshed with the forced air of portable air conditioners and fans, but the heat still made Harlan nauseous. Like breathing in desert air in the middle of summer. Why weren’t they outside? One look at Graeme and Heather said it was because they weren’t hot.

  “Harlan, that’s your mate!” Mac yelled, waiting for him to do something.

  “She’s not my mate,” Harlan snarled, eyes on her. What the fuck was he going to do? Maybe he should try. He lifted a hand to her, unsure what to say or do. “Graeme…” he said weakly. Graeme should talk to her, not him.

  Heather started to moan, her head dropping to the floor, speaking into it. “Talk to your mate, Harlan, get her out of here. I can’t handle this right now.”

  “She’s not my mate,” Harlan said automatically. He would take her to the house, though, if he could. He wanted to help her, to find her mate and put her in his arms. She looked like she needed the tender loving care of a mate.

  Leilani met his eyes, and her scent reached him. Muted. Boring. To him. There was no way she was his mate, like the others thought. He had only one mate, and she was dead.

  Behind him, the Beast snarled and Harlan turned, astonished. He hadn’t heard the Beast snarl in years. Not since…

  Jaggar was in the doorway, hands clutching the door jamb as if to keep him in place, to keep him from Leilani. His skin rippled, dark hair grew and withdrew in patches on his two-toned face. Oh shit. Jaggar had never shifted into the Beast.

  That fucking carrot was gonna get them all killed.

  Harlan held up his hands to his friend. “Jaggar, hey man, you know the Beast is peeking out?”

  Jaggar didn’t move, didn’t look at him, didn’t acknowledge his existence. Didn’t breathe. His eyes sheened over from one brown to one blue to one blue, one brown, then amber then the deepest green Harlan had ever seen and then back again. Had he seen silver, too?

  “Shit!” Harlan swore, sidestepping the couch, throwing a look at Leilani, who hadn’t moved. He inched as close to Jaggar as he dared. None of them had ever seen the Beast. None knew his temperament, and many said it had to be dangerous. If Jaggar shifted and wanted to destroy some shit, only Graeme would be able to stop him. Harlan, Mac, and Rogue would get Leilani, the bear and the cat, and Heather to safety while Troy and Trent ran interference. It was the best strategy, and therefore, all the warriors present would know it on instinct. They all knew the hierarchy of those present, who was strongest: Graeme. Who was meanest: Mac, or Rogue, or maybe Mac when Rogue was involved. Who was the smartest: Jaggar. Who was the most strategic thinker and the most solid and steadfast: Trent. Who was the fiercest in battle, the one most likely to never let go: Troy.

  And then there was Harlan, the soldier. Tell Harlan what needs to be done and Harlan makes sure that gets done. The cat and the bear were inconsequential, not part of this. And then there were the two wildcards.

  The first wild card was the Beast. The half-cat, half-wolf inside of Jaggar that no one had ever seen, who had never been allowed to come out. The only Beast in existence. A fucking aberration of nature, for as far as they knew.

  The second wildcard was Heather. She was a one true mate. She was fireproof. She could start fires with her mind. She was half-angel. No one knew what else she could do. What any of them could do. And that pendant they all had? The shiftesegen, Willow said the angel called it? Those were a trip. Powerful and scary wrapped up in one fucking enigmatic piece of metal and gem.

  Wind in the small cabin picked up, whirling harder around Leilani, making Harlan realize there was one more wildcard. A big one. Where in the fuck had she even come from, and when she disappeared, where did she go?

  The Beast snarled, but only Harlan seemed to notice. Everyone else was facing Leilani, trying to hear her. Harlan wasn’t even sure if she was speaking. She looked like a mental patient, the wild eyes, the flying hair, and that hospital gown didn’t help. They’d been searching for her for a year, checking all hospitals and homes in a concentric circle for her. They had a 6-officer patrol team searching through Chicago institutions at that very moment, looking for Leilani. They were so low on wolfpower in Serenity, they were having to go begging for spare personnel from neighboring police departments.

  Harlan didn’t want anyone to have to corral the Beast. He never wished for ruhi so badly in his life so he could call for help with his mind. He needed backup, stat as shit. He needed some fucking bodies out here. He checked with his wolf.

  Nowl, you seeing this?

  I won’t fight the Beast

  You won’t have to, just keep the Heather and the young safe, if it comes to that

  I’m here

  Harlan spoke to Jaggar, his hands out in front of him. “Jaggar, hey, Jaggar, you hear me? It’s me, Harlan, the Knotted Wolf? Anchor to your time—” Realization hit Harlan hard and he spun around to take a good look at Leilani. His first smart look. Shit. “Graeme,” he said, turning toward the male, who still had his hands on Heather’s hips, pus
hing and kneading, but was watching Leilani with dark eyes, his stance alert and ready. Conri and Remington had retreated to huddle around an air conditioner. The room seemed to shake and the wind around Leilani picked up. Rogue crouched near Heather and whispered to her. Heather’s face was a knotted mask of concentration.

  Harlan spoke quickly, trying to make Graeme understand before Leilani disappeared. Graeme would know what to do, if he just knew what she was, what she was doing. “Graeme, Wade was right, she’s time traveling. Jaggar’s prophecy. It says The Beast anchors Time. She’s Time, Graeme, and we are all fucked if that Beast comes out to meet her.”

  Jaggar had told him so, a long time ago. The Beast knew nothing but pain and conflict.

  4 - Doctors aren’t for Frying

  “Harlan,” Leilani said, her voice imploring, and Jaggar snarled wickedly from behind Harlan. Oh shit, had Harlan hoped to die soon? He was all talk, no action, like a Tropical Storm with no rain. Shit no, it was worse than that. Now he was just a Tropical Depression and school was back in session. Everyone on the fucking bus.

  He backed against a wall so he could see Leilani and Jaggar at the same time, working through it all in his mind, as the oven air whirled around him. Nowl, his wolf, spoke up from inside him, his voice a low, tenuous growl.

  She might be fated to the Beast

  Ya think?

  Jaggar still had his death-grip on the doorway, a wild snarl idling from deep inside him, his eyes rolling crazily, his two-tone face dark and shifting.

  “Harlan, did the bear live or die?” Leilani’s voice was light and soft and dreamy and hitched like maybe her vocal cords froze every few seconds. Her face was pointed toward Harlan, but her eyes stayed nowhere for long. “Is the bear alive? I have to know.”

  Mac spoke from near the door, pushing into the room as hot air whipped around faster, like a tornado within a forest fire. They’d already had one of those, they didn’t need another. Mac had to shout, the sound of wind was so loud. “Bruin, that bear?” Awesome. Harlan loved when Mac was around, because Mac opened his mouth and made Harlan look like a genius.

  Jaggar was Harlan’s bff, the male Harlan normally hung with, and Jaggar was an artist and a genius and a former soldier and a former marine and a scary badass all rolled into one, so Harlan’s only claim to fame in that friendship was that he was older. Good one, Harlan, being born six years before Jaggar. You should be proud.

  Leilani turned her gaze to Mac, frowning slightly, a spark of recognition in her vacant eyes. How did Leilani know Mac? Mac had told them all how Leilani had showed up at Bruin’s house just before it had blown up, warned Bruin to stay out, even called Mac by name, said they’d spoken before. Mac maintained that he’d only seen her that one time, when she’d appeared by the tree in Trevor’s driveway a year ago, and they hadn’t spoken then.

  They’d talked time travel after that incident, in the few minutes they had between crisis, Wade putting it out there as a possibility, but Harlan hadn’t quite been able to believe it. He believed it now. “The Beast anchors time.” He was a mother-fucking idiot, not seeing it before! But did Leilani know Mac outside of that? And time travel? Did that deadbeat angel dad really think they needed time travel powers? Wasn’t that shit dangerous? And if Leilani was Jaggar’s mate, why did the thought of her talking to Mac sometime in the past or the future make Harlan poke his own wolf? He could only worry about one thing at a time. And right now he didn’t know what the hell he was worried about. Pick one.

  From deep inside, Nowl scowled at him. Turned his back.

  I know she’s not mine, but she’s not Mac’s either, so why? Harlan said. Ok. he’d decided on Leilani knowing Mac. Perfect. It fit with his current I’m-an-idiot theme.

  Nowl nodded his head, laying down. You got this. Take your adderall first.

  Thanks for nothing. Harlan snarl-grinned at Nowl. Fucker, this is serious.

  Nowl flicked his tail. Without Evie and Butterfly, Nowl didn’t take anything serious. When the worst had happened to you, serious had already fucked you over. Sometimes the only thing left was apathy.

  Harlan could use some apathy to lessen his ride on the current ADHD rollercoaster he was on, unable to keep a thought in his head, or an emotion. Leilani wasn’t HIS, so WHY was he so fucking interested in her? Why was he an even bigger mess than normal at right that moment? He caught Conri’s eye from across the room. Conri and the big cat were still huddled in front of the air conditioner, wiping sweat from their eyes.

  “Bruin, yes,” Leilani said, her voice still fading in and out strangely, her eyes rolling, the wind moving crazily in the room. “Is Bruin alive?”

  Graeme moved close to Leilani, approaching her as he might a deer, or a rabbit, his voice low, his tone smooth, his hands relaxed at his waist. He didn’t look intimidating. He looked reasonable. Strong. Decisive. Like if you were a child in trouble in a crowd and you couldn’t find a mom with kids, you would go to this male. Reasonable, even with everything falling apart around him. “Yer a troya, lass, is that right?” She didn’t say a word. Didn’t look at him. Graeme spoke again, waving his hand in front of her. “Where can we find you? Tell us where you are. And when.”

  When? Harlan’s brain hurt. What if Graeme just grabbed for her? What would happen?

  Leilani turned her vacant eyes to Graeme and for just a moment, her visage flickered, became hard, her eyes commanding, her stature regal, like a general or a queen had just stepped inside her body. It only lasted for a moment, but when it was over, Harlan felt like he’d been punched in the gut.

  Evie.

  “Is he alive? Is he alive? Is he alive?” Leilani cried into the hot room, and Harlan inched behind her, trying to see into the room visible behind her, the room that followed her like a picture on a chain attached to her. It was hazy in the dark heat of the cabin but he thought he could see a bed in that room that Leilani had presumably come from and would return to, as she had twice before, no three times before. She was dressed in that same shapeless hospital gown he’d seen each time. The hospital gown with the teeny tiny butterflies on them.

  “He is!” Rogue stepped in closer to Leilani and yelled to be heard over the ever-increasing wind. Vomit-wind, Harlan was about to name it, because the heat made him want to puke. He clamped down on his stomach and wiped his forehead while Rogue yelled to Leilani “He’s fine! You saved him. He stopped Khain, and him and Willow are out saving more bears right now.”

  Leilani visibly relaxed and her body almost collapsed. Harlan lunged for her, so did Jaggar from the doorway, but something stopped the collapse, stood her upright again. That presence. They both stopped in their tracks, not quite daring to touch her.

  Evie.

  He and Jaggar stopped close to her, both with their arms out but neither quite dared touch her. She looked solid enough, but her windstorm and the shimmer behind her made Harlan wonder if she was.

  “Don’t,” Graeme warned. “She can take you to whenever she came from. You won’t like it.”

  Harlan nodded his thanks. “Good to know.”

  When Leilani spoke again her voice was distorted, different, harsh and painful sounding. Her eyes rolled, touching no one.

  “The bear needs to go. Kendra says it’s too cold out here.”

  Rogue nodded like she knew what the hell Leilani was talking about. “Where can we find you? We will come to y—”

  But Leilani winked out of existence like she’d never been there. Harlan stared hard and tried to re-see it in his mind. What had happened? One minute she’d been there. The next minute not. The wind fell to nothing, like its source had been sliced with scissors.

  Heather moaned in the new semi-silence. Graeme ran for her. The heat closed in on Harlan and he wiped his forehead. Jaggar crept to where Leilani had been standing. He pulled his hands in toward his face in great sweeping motions, like he was trying to catch her lingering scent and funnel it into his face. Harlan pressed against the wall, trying to figure out what in the h
ell had just happened. He hated shit like this. Shit that left you reeling, but left you with nothing to fight. He needed a fight.

  “Graeme,” Heather cried, her voice breaking, her rope fraying. “Just cut her out of me. I can’t do it. I give up. Let Remington do the c-section.”

  Remington and Conri stepped forward with their needles and their drugs and their plans. “Call the team in,” Remington told Conri. The bear and the cat went into medic mode. Controlled chaos. Cue the Grey’s Anatomy theme music. Equipment and sterile wrappers flew, even as Graeme shook his head and tried to talk Heather out of it.

  “She doesn’t want to come out,” Heather moaned, eyes still closed, laying on a bed of blankets and pillows on the floor in front of the dark couch, dressed in only a long dress, her belly huge in front of her. “Heat the room up. Start it on fire. Start this couch on fire, then she’ll come out.”

  Mac headed for the door, his face set, muttering to himself, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He looked as shell-shocked as Harlan felt. Harlan caught his words as he headed out and Rogue ran to follow him. “We’re gonna need a fire-break. Someone get some fucking bears out here. If I let them burn his forest down, I'll never hear the end of it. ”

  Graeme shook his head, pressing on Heather’s hips, rubbing her back. “No fires. this is the world she’ll be born into. We can’t sugar-coat it for her.”

  Harlan remembered he was supposed to be in doula mode. He ran to Heather’s nest, kicked off his boots, and knelt next to her, looking at Graeme, his expression questioning. Graeme nodded, and showed him where to press on her lower back and hips.

  Heather braced herself, stretching into the pressure, and tried to sleep and talk to her mate at the same time. “Did you name her after your brother?”

  Graeme looked at her sharply. “I didn’t name her.”

  “Leilani called her Kendra,” Heather said, her voice weak and fading. Her strength was waning. Even Harlan could tell that, and he hadn’t seen a shiften baby born in over 30 years. It used to be quite the event. Would it ever be again?