Dream Catcher

by M. C. Cerny

  “She’s under my protection. She belongs to me.” Warren’s muscles under my fingertips vibrated and my head buzzed with white noise from fear and what he’d just said.

  “Reagan, take her,” Jase growled and my flight instinct switched on, my paralyzed feet ready to move.

  “Go. Go now, Kerri.” The danger was palatable in the air and I turned, running back toward the truck. Reagan was on my heels, following me. I was brought up short by three adolescent kids I recognized from the high school I student taught at. The senior football players were not much older than myself. The boys, Colin, Levi, and Gage stood before me. The white leather sleeves of their varsity jackets glowed against the moonlight, making them look broader in the shoulders.

  “Hey, Ms. Harper,” Colin greeted me with a friendly smile. The boys then looked past me, beyond my shoulder. In the semi-dark, I saw their faces change and expressions turned from welcome to anger.

  Torn between protecting my students and running for my life that felt precariously in danger, I stood frozen in place. “Boys, it’s not safe here. Go back. Turn around and go home.”

  “Ms. Harper, we should make sure you get back to your vehicle.” The middle one, Levi, held a hand out toward me and I reached to take it when the voice spoke again, stopping me.

  “Oh look, the carebears have decided to join us.” The hissing voice sounded amused and much closer now, maybe even directly behind me. Too fearful to look back, I was surrounded by Jase, Reagan, and Warren.

  “We won’t let anything happen to you.” Gage, the smallest of the boys, stepped forward. Looking back at my students, I watched them hunch over. Grunting, they started to change shape before my eyes, clothing ripping and popping to stand up as three large black bears.

  Watching, I told myself that none of what I was thinking could be possible. None of that could be real, at least not there, not in small town Woodland Creek, Indiana. I turned my head toward Warren. I once saw him as my safe and strong rescuer, who now looked more like a large hairy wolf with very big teeth and sad eyes. His arms were open to me, but I staggered backward, afraid and trying to keep them all in my sight. I didn’t know why Jase and Reagan were just calmly standing there doing nothing. Sounds ripped from my throat as I sank to my knees, screaming into swirling faces...faces that looked shockingly like the moving mural painting in Lupin Hall.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Resilience is all about being able to overcome the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive.” Jamais Cascio

  WARREN

  “Can you drive the fucking truck faster!” I sat hunched over Kerri protectively in the back of the super cab of my truck with Reagan. Her students, apparently bear shifters, intercepted Creighton and Stefano while we took Kerri safely to the truck. She’d passed out screaming, hyperventilating and shouting that none of that was real.

  “You just asked me to drive slower, make up your friggin’ mind here!” Jase yelled and accelerated the truck down the park road back into town.

  “Should we take her to the clinic? Her heart is beating really fast.” Crammed in the backseat, Reagan had been holding Kerri’s hand from the moment she passed out. The gentle flutter of her heart each time I touched her made me wonder if she realized how much more wolf than man I really was inside.

  “Let’s take her to the house and call Eden over.” Jase seemed to be the only voice of reason as I banged my head back against the glass partition of my truck. I was pissed with myself for putting her in any danger.

  “Fuck!” Cursing didn’t make me feel better like I hoped it would.

  “She’s going to be fine, Warren.”

  “Fine? She just saw a snake and spider shifter for the first time, three of her students shift into bears, and my partial shifting into a wolf. What part of this evening was fucking fine?”

  “It’s not like shifting is a total secret, just think of your dad and mom.” Jase was right, but it didn’t feel right when I recalled her shocked face. It was like I had broken something within her by revealing our second nature to her at the cliffs.

  “This is a nightmare.” I rested my head against hers and prayed she didn’t wake up confined as we were in the back of the truck. I couldn’t imagine how freaked out she’d become then with nowhere to escape to.

  “On the bright side…she didn’t see me shift and I’m her roommate.”

  “Or me,” Jase chimed in.

  “I mean, think about how traumatic that would be for her. I really like her.”

  “We can figure this out, Warren. I’ll call Eden and she’ll be able to help us through this.” Jase made the turn down the main street of town and called Eden’s cell phone on the truck’s Bluetooth.

  “Please don’t get all freaky about this.” Reagan patted my leg and I blew out the air clogging my chest with frustration.

  “God, all this excitement has made me hungry.” Grousing Jase complained more.

  “You’re always hungry.” I sent Reagan up front to sit with Jase. That left me with a very pale Kerri lying across my lap taking in shallow breaths. I was worried that she had been unconscious a significant amount of time since we left the park.

  * * * * * *

  “Well, this makes for an interesting evening.” Eden pressed her stethoscope to Kerri’s chest, listening to her heart. “She didn’t fall?” Then she checked her pupils.

  “No.” Shaking my head, I sat on the bed next to her, holding her hand and rubbing warmth into her skin.

  “She’s got a hell of a set of lungs on her, though.” Jase was standing in the doorway, biting deeply into an apple, the crunch of skin and flesh loud inside my bedroom. I wondered what Kerri would think of us all, of me when she woke up.

  “She’s in shock, obviously. It’s not every day you get the rug pulled out from under you and realize the majority of the town you live in is a bunch of shifters.” Disappointed, she looked at all of us, assuring me that Kerri should be fine in a few hours.

  I’m not fine.

  I’m so far from fucking fine.

  Seeing the shocked expression on her face and blood drain all the precious color from her cheeks like the white moon in the sky was enough to age me another twenty years of my wolf life.

  “What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to explain this?” Eden stood up from examining Kerri and walked around to where I was.

  “You give her a Valium and explain it to her like she’s a toddler.” She slapped a pill bottle into my hand hard; the rattle of two pills inside made a smacking sound against the plastic. Her features turned stormy and while I could definitely take her down fully shifted in wolf form, I respected her and knew it was my fault.

  “I’m sorry, Eden.”

  “I warned you about this. Our kind hasn’t lasted this long in Woodland Creek by getting romantic notions about every human who passes through town. Your parents are one of the few exceptions.” Reminding me of my parents didn’t make the burn of shame and guilt in my chest any easier to breathe through.

  “I know. I’ll take care of it.”

  “Will you? Because if she so much as breathes about shifters, you know that Creighton and Stefano will have no qualms about taking her…” Eden stopped, leaving me with much to think about. A venomous spider and a snake as those two were earned their fearsome reputation by causing problems everywhere. I shut the door to my bedroom, leaving Kerri to rest until the time for confessions came. There was a lot to discuss and not much time to do it in.

  Jase ordered in some food from Drake’s Diner, making sure we were well stocked if it came to keeping Kerri until she was…comfortable with the idea of us. I felt a sick gnawing in my stomach that had nothing to do with hunger. I was pretty sure he ordered one of everything; the countertops were filled with bags and boxes of food there was no way all of us could eat. Reagan was putting away the cold items in the fridge and Jase was in the kitchen picking off his plate.

  “Guess I’ll start a fire and
we can settle in to wait for her to wake up.” Jase emptied his plate into the garbage and moved to the living room fireplace.

  “Actually, do you mind taking Reagan back to the dorms on campus? I really want to do this alone with Kerri, at least at first.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Reagan stepped forward and I held my hand up to ward her off.

  “Yeah. It’ll be okay. I’m just going to go shave this beard off and cut my hair to something a bit more manageable and friendly looking.”

  “Don’t make any jokes about eating her, dude.” Wagging his finger at me, Jase popped me in the shoulder and at another time his joke might have been funny.

  “Get out, furball.” Pushing back, he left, putting an arm around Reagan. She leaned up and kissed me on the cheek, telling me good luck.

  Left in the empty house, I said a prayer from my dad’s people in silence, a blessing of hope and strength, which was what Kerri would need to live unscathed in Woodland Creek. Now that she knew things, the secret things we’d worked hard to keep from the outsiders, I contemplated taking her to meet my parents. I was sure that my father, an outsider himself to the shifter world, could help her understand. I just needed her to wake up.

  I grabbed my shaving kit and began to shave the lingering beard of wolf hair from my face and cut back the unruly strands of longer hair that seemed to want to grow out each time I shifted to wolf form. After changing the razor out and dumping the loose hairs into the trash, I rubbed some aftershave over my face. I patted the towel down over my still wet face and looked up into the mirror to see Kerri’s lovely face, pale and drawn. I wanted to kiss the shaking worry from her body, touch her sweet soft lips, but first I had to be honest with her.

  “Kerri…”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I love the intimate, single spotlight, troubadour-y quiet, delicate moments. But I also love Springsteen and screaming and shouting.” James Bay

  KERRI

  “S-so what are you exactly?” The flutters in my stomach started to feel like butterflies that had been stomped on, broken wings and lies tainted what was left. Warren tensed through his reflection in the bathroom mirror, clean shaven and yet not himself.

  “Kerri, it’s complicated.” Holding up my hand, I willed him to be truthful and tell me what I’d seen wasn’t real.

  It was a mistake.

  A dream and nothing more.

  “That’s not an answer.” I wavered, and his lips pressed together and his brow furrowed. I imagined the lines of his face changing and I shook it off. I didn’t even know what I’d seen out there at the park. I didn’t have any proof, but my heart knew and beat frantically at the possibilities. I didn’t want to have to say the words because then it might have actually been real, and then I wouldn’t be crazy, because maybe crazy was better and easier than whatever that might have been.

  “It’s not what you think. I’m not…we’re not going to hurt you.” He put the towel down on top of the toilet, but stayed inside the bathroom. I thought about bolting, but the distance from the hallway to the door wasn’t much, and I knew he would catch me.

  “So there are more of you? Not just what I saw out there?” He was quiet, thinking maybe, and took a step toward me, nodding.

  “Yes. There are more of us.” I felt like prey when his eyes dilated and the nostrils on his nose flared.

  “I saw what you did. You changed, you’re not you.” Warren stepped toward me and the nervous energy returned. I was confused, unsure, and void of emotion.

  “I see the way you look at me.” Stepping backward into the living room near the fireplace, the heel of my flat shoe caught behind me, making me stumble slightly into the wall behind me. Warren reached out to me and I put my hands out to ward him off. Our eyes never left each other while my heart pounded faster in my chest with nowhere to go.

  “How do I look at you, Kerri? Say it. Say the words.” Was he joking? His eyes were gray with golden flecks against his tan skin and even darker hair. Shaking my head, I blinked my eyes and swore he’d licked his lips.

  “Like you’re hungry and I’m the only food source for miles around.” He was smirking and trying not to laugh, which made me mad. Angrier than I felt when Dillon let me down. I reached behind me to steady myself, grabbing the fire poker near the stack of wood.

  Would I actually hit him with it?

  I didn’t think I could. He’d never hurt me and if anything he’d been kind and generous since I got to Woodland Creek. Warren took a step near me and I stepped back again. There wasn’t much room between us and my discomfort grew along with my conflicted feelings for him.

  “Tell me what you think I am.” Firmly, he waited and the air sucked out of the vacuum, leaving just us and the truth.

  “A wolf.” It choked me, but there it was. I’d said it and all the jokes I vaguely recalled between Jase, Reagan, and Warren came back to me. Silly things that now fell into place and made the puzzle an actual picture.

  “Would that be a bad thing, dear heart?” The air between us crackled and tingled against my skin. The scent of pine permeated the house and Warren’s skin fluidly moved muscle over bone when he stepped closer.

  “I-I don’t know. I’ve been looking all my life for something good, as stupid as that sounds. Warren, what happened in those woods…I don’t know you at all, do I?” I wanted him to understand my life hadn’t been easy. Being Dillon’s girlfriend came with a shit ton of baggage I’d only started to deal with when I ended it with him.

  “Why, because I treat you the way a woman should be treated? I might have kept something from you, but I had to protect you since you don’t live in our world.”

  I tried to interrupt him, but he kept going. “Don’t blame me for your ex’s behavior. You deserve to be appreciated, Kerri, and that’s all I wanted you to see.” Warren was practically a prince among men, maybe a dark prince, and I didn’t know what to do with that.

  “Don’t you get it, Warren, all this time you’ve made me feel special, like a princess…” Tears broke through my lids, stinging my eyes. “I’ve been so scared it’s really the big, bad wolf coming to get me and maybe I was right.” Warren made a face, looking away for a moment, shielding his eyes. A strangled sound that could have been a laugh or a growl emitted from him as he put a hand over his mouth and then ran his fingers through his hair, pulling on the uneven shaggy locks.

  “Kerri, honey, you have no idea what kind of big, bad wolf I can be.” Warren pressed on, standing chest to chest with me. He grabbed the poker from my hand I hadn’t realized I’d clutched in my panic and flung it to the floor several feet away. The ringing rattle of metal on wood vibrated in the house. “Just know that I’ll always be the one that protects you.” Warren grabbed my arms and hauled me against him. My back was flush against the wall and he wedged a leg between my own, breathing heavy and panting into my hair.

  “One what?” My eyes closed as I asked the question, unsure of what to anticipate next in his answer. The woods flashed back to me and everything I saw there replayed in slow motion. The twist of skin, muscles twitching to rip clothing, and the hair that covered him.

  “Wolf.” Warren slammed his lips against mine, growling and sucking the soft tissue between his sharp teeth. Sensations drowned me. Air was forced from my lungs and the dizzy feeling overwhelmed me as he thrust his tongue inside my mouth, stroking the inside, claiming me with each unhurried and controlled movement. Nerve endings fired rapidly and Warren tasted of spice, melted ice and happy endings I never thought possible.

  The kiss was an unspoken bond between us. I let my fingernails rake over his shoulders and back, clutching him closer to me.

  “I want only you, Kerri, but I need you to accept me as I am.”

  “Yes, Warren.” I didn’t care what I was agreeing to as long as I didn’t have to give him up. Against his warm body I felt light-headed again. His mere presence continued to overwhelm me as I learned by taste and touch what he was without the words.


  “There’s something I need to tell you first.” Holding me up by my arms, he gave me a gentle shake, dissipating the heady spell of emotions flooding my body and the space we occupied.

  “Haven’t we covered all the bases? I think I know what I saw out in the woods.” Uncomfortable, I laughed and Warren hesitated. Could I have been wrong?

  “I’ve, uh, I’ve never done this before.” Speech robbed me for a moment. What was he talking about?

  “Warren?” Eying him warily, I tried to step out of his hold, but he didn’t let go. “Is this a trick question? We’ll sort the other stuff out, won’t we?” Chuckling softly, he pushed a loose lock of my hair behind my ear gently before tugging on my lobe and looking me in the eyes seriously.

  “We will, but that’s not exactly what I mean to tell you right now.” He blushed.

  “Warren, you can tell me anything.” I meant that too. Whatever else he referred to couldn’t be worse, could it?

  “Never had sex before.” Eyes locked, we stared at each other and the shock was something to take in as I swallowed down something less helpful to say.

  “Oh. Like ever?”

  “I think you can only be a virgin once, so yes, I’ve never done that before.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Are you upset?”

  “I don’t think there’s a way to really answer that question without sounding thoughtless or crazy.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  “I mean, does it bother you that I’m not one? That I was with—” Quickly, he placed fingers over my lips, silencing the name that could kill the moment completely. Dark memories bubbled on the edges and he kissed my forehead before leaning his face against mine, smiling.

  “Shh…we don’t need to say his name to ruin anything here. I just wanted you to know. Just in case.”

  “In case of what, Warren?”

  “I got a bit too…enthusiastic with you.” His smile was wide and more boyish. I forgot that I had but two years on him. It was like a puppy getting his first chew toy seeing Warren’s sweet enthusiasm. I started to wonder what that really meant. Would he? Could he turn? I didn’t want to be the wolf’s next meal, but it was a logical assumption, wasn’t it?