One True Mate 7_Shifter's Paradox

by Lisa Ladew

  Graeme moved in front of Heather, moving his face close to her, smoothing her blonde hair off of her face, then moving his hands to her belly. “She may have named herself.”

  Graeme fell silent. Heather fell asleep, her face smoothing out, her breathing easing. If a two minute nap was all you got between contractions, you took that two minute nap, apparently. It reminded Harlan of stories Jaggar used to tell about snatching naps between bullets during the first gulf war, Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia conflicts.

  Harlan checked on Jaggar. Still plucking at the air, inhaling deeply. He looked lost. Harlan turned away and asked the question that needed asking. Bears weren’t his favorite, but that didn’t mean one was gonna get bulldozed on his watch. “What did Leilani mean about the bear has to go?”

  Graeme checked on the doctor and his medic, this magical team of Conri and Remington who may have had less sleep than Heather recently. He shrugged one shoulder, his eyes narrowing in concentration as he watched them work.

  Heather rolled onto her back, moaning, as a new contraction gripped her and the young inside her moving almost violently, her stomach shifting under Graeme’s big hands. Graeme frowned, concentrating, his lips moving as he spoke to himself. “Fire bath. She wants a fire bath. I never heard of such a thing. And… Kendra no, never that! You can’t do that. He didn’t hurt mommy. He helped mommy.”

  Graeme shot to his feet. “Oh no.” Graeme grabbed Heather up in his arms. “Get back Harlan, move,” he chanted, but Graeme was already on the move pulling the other way. Harlan jumped up and backpedaled again praying he wasn’t about to be involved in a fire bath. He had a low fire tolerance.

  Graeme transformed smoothly, one minute a man, clutching his very pregnant, very precious mate in his arms, their matching gold arm bands flashing in the low light of the room, Heather’s from a bare arm, Graeme’s peeking out from under his short-sleeve, the next moment he was a red and yellow dragon the size of a draft horse, his head brushing the ceiling, Heather barely visible, wrapped in his strong, leathery wings. Harlan could see enough of her to know she was asleep. Conri and Remington had stopped what they were doing to stare, open-mouthed at Graeme. Remington had seen Graeme as a dragon before, but not Conri.

  Dragon Graeme raised his head and snorted, grazing the ceiling with fire. Shit, that fucker was wood! Harlan held his breath to see if it would catch. It didn’t. Where was Mac with those slow-ass bearen? Jaggar didn’t notice anything, he had moved into the corner near the hallway where Leilani had been, looking as vacant as Leilani had. Harlan shook his head. “What a shitshow,” he muttered to absolutely nobody.

  Graeme sidestepped in that funny way that he did when he was about to pull some impossible shit and poof. Gone, like Leilani. Harlan slapped a hand to his forehead and swung his gaze through the mess of a stone cabin in the woods with a perplexingly wooden ceiling. For that matter, shouldn’t this couch and all these extremely flammable rugs and pillows be… not here? Had he really heard Graeme say fire bath? “Mac,” he called weakly. “Tell the bearen to bring a ….” a what? How did you contain a fire bath?

  Remington raised his hands, a box of bandages in one hand and a sterile package in the other, a stethoscope slung over his shoulders like a human doctor, staring at the spot where Graeme had been. “She’s gone,” he said.

  Conri looked as lost as Remington sounded. Uh oh. They were going to need some doctors for the doctors.

  Troy ran into the room from the doorway, a big-ass, scary-ass black wolf, but one Harlan considered a friend. Troy circled him, a whining howl coming from his throat. Harlan didn’t get it. He didn’t know ruhi. Troy sprinted to Jaggar and grabbed his pant leg with his teeth and shook. Jaggar looked down at him, but Harlan could tell from across the room that Jaggar wasn’t all there. The Beast still had him. “Troy, what the—”

  Trent raced into the room, Troy’s brother, another big-ass, scary-ass black wolf, but with a brush of white on the tip of his tail and his chest. He planted his feet and stretched his neck, howling/whining like Troy.

  Shit. it was bad, whatever they were trying to get across. Harlan’s eyes rushed through all the males in the room. Who spoke ruhi? Mac ran in, followed by Rogue. “What’s going on?”

  The room was chilly, suddenly. Frigid. A force lingered somewhere. Harlan could feel it pressing down on them—

  Troy faced Mac and stared at him, growling, snarling, whining. Mac frowned, then he remembered, he had learned ruhi, he needed to be open to messages. His eyes snapped wide and he shot his hands in the air, making huge get-out circles at everyone. “Out! Everybody out! Kendra is born in the in-between and she’s on fire and she’ll kill Conri on sight and Heather’s gonna die if they don’t come back right now and Graeme wants to stay inside the cabin so we all gotta get out!”

  Harlan had started moving at “she’s on fire” and then the “kill Conri on sight” had him sprinting, and the whole, “Heather’s gonna die,” thing just sped him the fuck up and they were all piling out the door and running, Harlan spinning to count heads as they spilled and scattered. Conri lumbered across the forest and hid behind a tree in the moonlight, only daring to peek at the cabin from a safe distance. Harlan didn’t laugh. That was probably smart.

  Mac and Rogue had spun around and were looking in a window. Rogue’s pinched face went soft. “Awww,” she said.

  Harlan ran for the window. He wanted to see. The dragon was there, little bits of fire snorting out of his nose with each exhale. Harlan checked the ceiling. He elbowed Mac and whispered to him. “You got those bears on the way, right?” The young, where was the young? His eyes searched the folds of Graeme’s reddish wings, trying to pick out wing from Heather from young.

  “Yeah,” Mac whispered back.

  “They’ll need a permanent team out here.” He saw her! Graeme eased himself downward, lowered his scaly bulk to the ground, loosened his wings and relaxed a bit.

  Mom and baby were curled around each other, limbs entwined, mom sleeping, baby looking around with bright eyes under a flame of red hair that danced like a living fire on the young’s head. Harlan rubbed his eyes and squinted at it. “That can’t be fire, can it?”

  “Nah,” Rogue whispered. “It’s an illusion. Got to be. It just looks like fire.”

  Mac shook his head. “That’s one baby girl that’s gonna need a hat.”

  Yeah she was. You couldn’t take a kid out in public like that.

  Other than the hair, Kendra looked like a baby, a completely normal, plump, fat baby with creamy light skin and corn kernel toes, dimples on the sides of her knees, one hand waving in the air. But she did not look like a newborn. Even Harlan could see that. Her eyes were shrewd, knowing, wise and judging already.

  Graeme shifted his bodyweight again, curling his long neck and his long tail into a circle around the blanket of his wings. Heather snored lightly, completely limp as Kendra actively nursed, held to the breast by Graeme’s wings.

  Graeme snorted out a plume of fire that circled around the three of them, sending a ring of heat at Harlan, Rogue, and Mac, who were all still staring in the busted window. Harlan’s eyebrows were singeing but he couldn’t look away. The fire surrounded dragon, mom, and baby, tickling baby’s hair and cheeks and her fat baby feet. She giggled and creamy milk the color of creamed sweet potatoes spilled down her chin.

  Conri stuck his big head up between them and said, “What was that about the baby is gonna kill me on sight?”

  Mac and Rogue both shushed him and pushed him away from the window. Mac pulled him behind a tree. “Yeah, you know that IV you stuck Heather with? You hurt Kendra’s mom and you are now her mortal enemy.” He shot a look over his shoulder at the window, then tsked his tongue and lowered his voice. “Tough break, bear, she looks mean.”

  Conri’s eyes went wide. “Lemme see her!”

  Rogue pushed at his chest, angling him further into the forest, away from the window, turning her head and pressing her lips together to stifle giggles.r />
  “Is it a joke or not?” Harlan growled as he followed. Was that baby in there something they needed to worry about or not?

  Mac shook his head. “It’s not a joke, not at all.” His voice went stern. “Rogue! Quit clowning.” She nodded and waved a hand at him. “Sorry,” she said, her voice serious. Mac nodded and spoke to Conri. “Seriously, you gotta stay away from here until Graeme figures out how powerful Kendra is. Graeme said she’s been aware of everything that’s been going on, but in the simplified way of a child. All she knows is you hurt her mom, and Remington was about to hurt her mom and force Kendra out into the world and her plan was to fry him the second he did.”

  Conri stared at the little cabin, his mouth open. “Can she do that?”

  Mac shook his head. “We have no idea.”

  Conri bobbed his head and licked his lips. “Work with the wolves, stay away from the dragons. I can dig it.”

  5 - Lowdown on the When

  Harlan pushed away from the tree he’d been resting against, watching the sunrise light the forest with heavy eyes, his thoughts circling the female who had shown up the night before, and what he thought he’d seen. The cabin was still standing.

  The front door opened and Graeme strolled out as a man, looking like a new person after his four or five hours of dragon sleep. He wore a pressed blue t-shirt and jeans and his fancy shoes. Harlan had once made the mistake of calling his fancy shoes wingtips. Graeme had glowered at him and said they were, “brogue shoes.” Were all dragen fussy, or just Graeme? Harlan would never know, since Graeme was the last. Graeme’s arms were folded in front of his chest and a sleeping and perfectly harmless-looking Kendra, was cradled in them. Heat poured from both of them, but outside, Harlan could handle it.

  Graeme stood in the doorway for a moment and lifted his face to the forest, to the trees and their changing colors for just a moment. Harlan could see the satisfaction clearly stamped on his face. What would that feel like? To have your young in your arms after a bagillion years of thinking you would never have one? He stayed still, let Graeme have his moment with the morning and the forest and his new daughter.

  Graeme noticed him. He lifted his chin. “Where’s Mac?”

  Mac appeared from around a tree a ways away. Harlan had no idea where the others were, but he had no doubt they were all close enough to hear what was being said. The fire crew, with their fire gear had set up a temporary mobile command station nearby.

  Graeme headed down a forest path, directly facing the rising sun, and Harlan and Mac fell into step behind him. They walked silently. Harlan wondered who was following and who was staying with Heather? Graeme would take care of that in his mind, and now Mac could do the same. Harlan would never learn ruhi. He was an old dog who didn’t need any new tricks.

  Harlan hurried up the path a bit so he could see Kendra’s soft baby head cradled in her daddy’s arm crook. The hair really did look like flame, especially in the spreading morning light. Harlan reached his hand out. Not to touch it. Just to get close. Was it hot? Hotter than the rest of her?

  Kendra’s baby eyes, looking so big in that way that babies had, popped open and she stared at him, threat clear in her gaze. A lick of flame shimmered across her steel-grey irises.

  Harlan pulled his hand back. Mac had jogged up next to him and seen the whole thing. Their eyes met and Mac’s were wide. Shit, he mouthed. Harlan pulled his hand back theatrically and stuck it in his pocket. No touching. Got it. Totally cool.

  The path opened up to a meadow where they could walk abreast. Mac produced an apple from his pocket and put it on a post along a fence line.

  “My attention has been divided,” Graeme said. “Now I am back and need to think on this. Lay it out for me, like I haven’t been here, every detail.”

  Harlan wished for Jaggar. He was the one with the words. But Harlan would do in a pinch. He glanced at Mac. Mac lifted his chin at him. Go ahead.

  Harlan tried to sort it all out in his mind so he could lay it out clearly for Graeme. “That was Leilani. We’re working under the assumption that she’s a one true mate. I think she’s Jaggar’s mate.” His chest twinged at the betrayal of his friend, speaking about him when he wasn’t there, but everyone had to be clear what the score was. Especially Graeme. He swallowed hard. Not every detail, maybe. “I saw her once when I was 12 years old. She looked exactly the same. We saw her a year ago in Trevor’s driveway, me, Mac, Beckett, Troy, and Bruin. Then Mac and Bruin and Rogue and Willow saw her in Bruin’s driveway. She stopped Bruin from going into his house and getting blown up. She’s time traveling, she has to be.”

  Graeme grunted. “Let me hear about these times. Every detail. Leave nothing out. It’s all important.”

  Harlan’s heart seized. The day that he’d seen Leilani the first time, when he’d been 12, had been a big one for him, but he’d only told this story one other time. To one other person. Evie. He rushed through the telling quickly. He didn’t remember too much anyway. Not anymore.

  Graeme grunted, disappointed. “What about the second time?”

  “Ah, see, it was about a year ago, just after we pulled Trevor out of the Pravus. She showed up in Trevor’s driveway, said my name, asked me if I was real, and disappeared.”

  Mac shook his head. “Yeah but, she was different that time than she was last week in front of Bruin’s house. Like a different person. She looked the same, but her expression, her words, and the way she spoke were tight, controlled, not all crazy like she was in the driveway. She called me by name. It’s like she has a twin sister or something.” Mac shot a look back toward the cabin. Rogue had a twin sister and they couldn’t find her. Rogue hadn’t seen her since they had both been five years old.

  Graeme nodded his head. “Ok, so when she came to you and Bruin and Rogue and Willow, what did it look like?”

  Mac didn’t understand. Harlan thought he might. The room. The shimmering. All of that meant something and he asked Graeme if that’s what he meant. It was. Mac shook his head. “I don’t remember. It was a crazy day.”

  Graeme walked on, hugging his baby girl in his arms. She’d gone back to sleep. Harlan and Mac ran to catch him and hear what he was saying. “Dragen are born travelers, and still we don’t attempt time travel. We don’t understand it, but we know it, and so we don’t mess with it. Dangerous and painful, that’s time travel. This Leilani, though, I’ve never seen anyone travel with that level of smoothness, able to keep the window between two whens open for so long.” He fell silent and Harlan read between the lines. Lots of power. Lots of danger that probably only Graeme could truly comprehend. Of course. The world hadn’t almost ended anytime recently. They were overdue.

  “We have to find her,” Graeme said. Harlan held his tongue. He wouldn’t call a male an ignoramus in front of his newborn daughter. Wait till she was at least a month old before introducing her to the cold hard reality that smart people said obvious shit sometimes. Eh, who was he kidding? He wouldn’t call Graeme stupid because Graeme was a fucking monster and Harlan didn’t feel like dying that day. And oh yeah, Graeme was his friend.

  But yeah, he was on it. Find her. Double time attention from now on. And he bet Jaggar was already on the road, looking.

  6 - Back to the Asylum For the First Time

  Eventine rocketed toward the Roosevelt Asylum. She could see it now, was coming in fast. She’d done this once before, in the future, but she’d come from Rhen’s Meadow, not from the nowhereness she was coming in fast from this time.

  She had no form, so she went through the building walls easily, squeezing her non-eyes shut even though she knew she couldn’t be hurt. Through the walls of the Roosevelt, to Leilani’s bed. Same bed as the first time Leilani sensed her presence and snatched her in. That time, Evie had been scared of what might happen to her inside Leilani’s consciousness, but this time, Evie was eager to arrive. Leilani was mentally unstable and Leilani was unpredictable and forgetful but she was sweet and welcoming.

  Leilani grab
bed for her. Evie grabbed back, desperate to be anchored somewhere again.

  Did the Bear live or die did the bear live or die did the bear?

  In the moment of slamming into Leilani’s consciousness, essentially sharing the seat of her mind with her, Eventine’s own neurons scrambled and that question that had been all she could think of in nothing and nowhere had come screaming back to the fore of her mind. It flared once, in red fire, then faded, the question only an orange echo stamped on Leilani’s mind.

  Leilani faced Evie, both of them in Leilani’s mind, looking at each other like they were standing in reality, two friends having a conversation. But did Leilani remember her? Graeme had said she might not.

  They’d gone back in time together, just her and Leilani, her riding behind-saddle in Leilani’s mind, from a time that no longer existed. Evie had lived through it. Leilani had lived through it, but only bodi-less Evie would remember it.

  Which meant that first time Evie had joined Leilani in her consciousness? That time when the two of them, both in one body, had left the Roosevelt, walked to Burton’s farmhouse, found what was left of the KSRT, grilled Graeme on their best opportunity to change the future by changing the past, then stepped back through time to stop Bruin from walking into his house that was wired to blow up.

  It was her past, and a now a one-possible-future that Evie hoped to never live to again. The bear didn’t die. She hoped. They saved him. They went back in time, stopped him from entering his house, and then Evie helped Leilani step completely through time. The moment she did that, the nanosecond that she closed the circuit, she ceased to exist there in that space and her consciousness joined her body where it was in that moment, knocking all of the memories of the last year out of her head?

  Evie had seen it. She’d seen him not enter the house, seen it blow up without him in it, then they’d stepped through from old time to new time. Evie had no body to go to, so she’d gone… nowhere, nowhen.