by Cassie Black
"Shit. Is she pregnant yet?"
"Too early to tell, I think. We'd know in a couple of days. We could keep her until then, and if she is we would have to let her go. But if she isn't, she'd be all ours. And she smells delicious."
"That she does." The guy in front of me had been watching my face throughout. "So who screwed you, baby?" he directed the question at me.
"Piss off," I said again, wondering what the hell they were talking about, and not liking the bits I did understand at all.
"Hold her, Jake," he said to the man behind me who tightened his grip on my elbows painfully. Then he stepped closer to me, and clapped a hand over my mouth as I started to scream, and unbuttoned my jeans with his other hand. I tried to pull away as he reached under my panties, but the guy behind stopped me with his body. I heard a dirty chuckle in my ear as he appreciated the movement of my buttocks against him, so I stopped moving. The man in front of me used the opportunity to slip a finger inside me, wiggle it about, and withdraw it. He held it to his nose, and his expression hardened.
"Hugo-fucking-Grantham, boys. Looks like we're going to have to leave this one alone. It's too dangerous."
"How come?" the guy behind me asked, his voice still too close to my ear for my liking.
"Jesus, don't you know about the Granthams? Bunch of fucking psychos where their women are involved. Cade Grantham personally mauled at least four wolves who were sniffing around his bitch, and that was before he even claimed her. He attacked all four of them at once, and by himself too. They were planning to take his woman, and he found out about it. Two of them died. The other two were not so lucky. His brothers are a bit more civilised, but not by much. And those bastards stick together. This one is more trouble than she's worth, no matter how good she smells." He licked his finger then. "Or tastes."
"That's a shame."
"Yeah, but it is what it is. We'd better get out of here now. Later, baby," he said, and then I was released and they were gone.
I stood trembling while I did my jeans up, and contemplated reporting this to the hospital authorities and the police. The whole conversation between those three had made no sense. And how had they known about Hugo? From smell? And wolves, what bloody wolves? Where did that all fit in? I tried to figure out how much I could tell the police about this conversation without sounding completely nuts, and gave up. I wanted to go home, and leave all this madness behind me. So I did. I climbed into my car, and drove off.
V
I went straight home, promising myself that I'd stop by a pharmacy tomorrow for the morning after pill. Those creeps had reminded me that we had not used condoms last night, and I wasn't ready to have a baby. I had decided long ago that I would only have one when I really wanted one, and that time had definitely not come yet. The matter of fact way they had talked about me being pregnant had freaked me out almost as much as the way that they'd figured out that Hugo and I had slept together. And who the hell was Cade Grantham? Had he killed wolves? Was that even legal?
I took a long hot shower when I got home, dressed in pyjamas, and settled back in bed to start reading Tintinalli's latest edition. It was a very welcome dose of reality for me. I was starting to nod off when the doorbell rang. I stood up, irritated at being disturbed at this time of night. It was nine pm, for God's sake. I was only slightly less annoyed when I looked through the peephole and saw Hugo. He had some explaining to do.
I opened the door and let him in. He stepped inside, shaking a few drops of rain from his dark hair. I closed the door behind him and turned towards him, wondering where to start with the questions. His expression froze me in my tracks. His features had hardened, and his eyes were flashing with a barely suppressed rage. I stood and watched as he inhaled deeply and stalked off in the direction of the bathroom. He returned a few seconds later holding the clothes I had been wearing that day. I blushed slightly at the sight of my panties dangling from his hand.
"What happened?" he asked shortly.
"Good question," I said. "Three guys accosted me in the car park, sexually assaulted me, and then they left. They said a load of weird shit too, which I am hoping you could explain."
"Sexually assaulted how?" he grated, the muscles at the side of his jaw clenching.
"One of them stuck a finger inside me, and then he sniffed it and said Hugo-fucking-Grantham. Like he knew you. Then they spoke about your brother who apparently kills wolves, and then they left."
"Did the one who assaulted you have dark brown hair and a small scar on his left cheek?"
"So you do know them," I said sourly. "You can tell them when you see them again that they should keep their goddamn hands to themselves in future."
"I'm going to do a lot more than that," he said in a measured tone, his face stony. "Are you OK?"
"I'm fine." I could see the concern in his eyes. It was touching, considering how brief our relationship had been. "So who is Cade Grantham?"
"He's my brother."
"Those guys said he killed wolves. Aren't they endangered or something?"
"You have no idea," he chuckled. "We need wine. I have a lot I need to tell you."
"I have to work tomorrow."
"You can't. It's too risky. If those bastards found you, there will be more on the way. And they don't take no for an answer." He looked at my outraged expression with faint amusement. "It's only temporary, little love. A few more days and none of them will ever be able to touch you again."
"I have to work," I said stubbornly. I had never called in sick for a shift, and I wasn't about to start.
"Hear me out, and then you can decide," he said reasonably, grinning now.
"OK," I said, too curious to refuse. "Wine's in the kitchen. Give me my clothes back."
He grinned wider, and held my panties up to his nose, inhaling deeply. I blushed.
"Pervert!"
"You have no idea," he said quietly, handing me my clothes. "But only for you, Liv."
I took them from him, and went to deposit them in the washing machine. I was weirdly affected by his words. I returned to find him lounging on my couch, his long legs stretched out and a glass of red wine in his hands. He patted the seat next to him, and I plonked myself down, tucking my legs under me, and accepted the proffered glass from him. I took a small sip, and sat, watching him expectantly.
He said nothing for a minute or two, and then he spoke carefully, as if everything hinged on these words.
"I'm going to ask you to suspend disbelief while I try to explain this, Liv. I know that you believe in the scientific method. Every doctor must. It is the basis for everything we do. I am going to explain something that will seem impossible, but remember this as you listen. I have irrefutable proof. If you need it, I will give it to you."
He paused, watching my face, but I said nothing as I watched him back.
"About eight thousand years ago a meteor landed a few thousand miles from here. It carried a substance of some kind. Current thinking believes it may have been a type of bastardised amino acid, one which survived the freezing cold of outer space and searing heat of its journey through earth's atmosphere. Nobody knows where it came from, or what its exact composition was. What we do know, though, is that two brothers found a strange lump of rock. How it broke open is anyone's guess, but it did, and they got some of what it contained on their hands, and they ingested it. It changed them both, but in different ways."
He stopped there, and glanced at my face. "Drink more wine," he suggested, smiling wryly.
"Sounds like I am going to need it," I said dryly.
"Remember, I have proof," he reminded me. I nodded.
"Anyway, back to the brothers. The amino acid became incorporated into the proteins that made up their DNA, and they both became stronger and faster. It was almost impossible to kill them. But they were also very different from each other in a couple of very significant ways. The older brother developed retractable fangs and started feeding off the blood of others. The younger developed the abi
lity to transform himself into a wolf at will. Why a wolf, and not some other animal, nobody knows."
"They also developed an obsessive urge to reproduce, and they spent a lot of time and energy on this. They learned to recognise by smell the women whom they were able to impregnate, the women who possessed the so called wild gene, which enabled them to combine their DNA with that of the brothers. They bred with these women, and their offspring retained the same characteristics as their fathers. And they were always male."
"After a few generations it was recognised that the laws of humans could never govern these creatures, and they developed their own Law, which is still in place and strictly enforced to this day. A large part of that Law governs the treatment and possession of those special women, the wild ones."
"Those creeps called me a wild one," I frowned at the memory. "And so did you when we first met."
"Yes, I did. You are a wild one, Liv, and the descendents of those brothers will not leave you in peace until you are acknowledged by Law to belong to one of them. They will hunt you each and every day that you live."
My expression must have conveyed my incredulity, because he poured more wine into my glass, and said, "Suspend disbelief, little love. Remember the proof."
I took a big gulp of wine while he continued.
"The Law governs both the vampires and the wolves, and is strictly enforced by both groups when it comes to these women. A wild one does not belong to any specific male until she carries his child. Once that occurs, she can never be touched by another vampire or wolf again. This is an absolute. If you carried my child, or had borne me one in the past, and a wolf laid even a hand on you, he would be executed."
I was starting to feel a bit drunk then. I had never been a heavy drinker, and I'd forgotten to have supper in all the drama of the evening, so my head had begun to spin a little. But I still retained most of my reason, and everything I knew and was rejected what this man was telling me. He must have read the scepticism in my expression, because he smiled gently.
"Do you need proof, Liv?"
"Yes." I started wondering what sort of proof he was going to produce, and whether he was actually having an acute psychosis of some sort. Had I invited a dangerous maniac into my home?
As if on cue he stood up and started undressing. In spite of myself, I enjoyed the show. He was a fine looking man, big and strong and beautiful. I wondered if it was wrong to lust after someone with mental health issues.
"Watch me, Liv," he commanded, and then he fucking changed right there in my sitting room. It was over in less than a second, but all the steps in between the naked man and the enormous wolf were burned into my mind. I gasped and dropped my glass, but sat frozen in position on the couch, my heart fluttering in panic in my chest. The wolf walked slowly towards me, its eyes on mine, and then it laid its head in my lap and closed its eyes. I reached out and stroked the rough fur, my fear receding in the face of the wonder that filled me. Jesus, he really was beautiful.
And I guess that was when I knew that everything he'd said was true.
VI
We sat like that for a few minutes, and then he backed away and shrugged back into his human form. It was disconcerting and fascinating at the same time. I watched him pensively as he dressed.
"More wine?" he asked eventually, his eyes crinkling at the edges in amusement at my obvious speechlessness.
"Oh crap, I spilled my wine," I said, suddenly remembering the glass of Shiraz I had dropped on the floor when he'd changed into a wolf. A wolf, I thought to myself. A huge goddamn wolf.
"I'll get the salt," he said.
"Right." A great big fucking wolf. I sat dwelling on the enormity of this while Hugo retrieved the salt and poured it over the plate sized stain on the carpet. I watched absentmindedly as the salt started to leach the wine from the wool.
"Liv," he said gently. I looked up at him in wonder and consternation. Everything I believed to be true had been challenged by the events of this night, and now this man was standing here speaking to me as if the world was still a rational place. It made no sense.
"Come with me, my little love," he held out his hand and I took it automatically, content for the moment not to make any decisions about anything while my poor feverish brain tried to process all of this. He pulled me to my feet and I followed him dumbly upstairs, where he made me brush my teeth and climb into bed. He lay down beside me, his arm around my waist.
"Right," I said eventually, my voice unsteady. "So you're what, a werewolf?"
"I prefer the term shapeshifter. We can change at will, day or night, and independently of the moon. We own a lot of land, so we can do our own thing without being discovered. The vampires are pretty similar that way. We stay hidden most of the time, but we can mingle with you humans pretty well if we have to. Or if, like me, we have outside interests."
"You humans," I said. "Wow. Sounds so wrong. Why did you become a surgeon?"
"I got bored. Plus I really like the smell of blood. And my skills come in handy every now and then. My brother was stabbed in the abdomen recently, and I got to stitch him up so you can hardly see a scar. We heal very well, so his life wasn't threatened by the stabbing, but our skin scars like human skin if its not closed properly."
"But those guys today said he killed two wolves. How is that possible if you heal so well?"
"He attacked them as a wolf, and wolves can kill wolves. Humans would struggle to kill us."
"So who stabbed your brother?"
"His woman did," Hugo smiled wryly. "He'd been keeping an eye on her for months, fighting off all the wolves that sniffed around her, and waiting for an opportunity to ask her out. You have to see my brother to understand how incongruous the whole situation was. He's huge and fucking scary, but he was too nervous to approach her. Then she accidentally stumbled onto a tract of our land, and he had to claim her there and then, because otherwise she would have been fair game for any of the others. And some of those boys like to share, if you know what I mean."
"That's disgusting."
"Yeah, I know. Cade had her taken to one of his cabins, and he basically forced himself on her. She stabbed him later that night while he slept and drove off in his new SUV. You should have seen him. He was torn between frustration and admiration for her, but mostly he hated himself for what he did, even though he really had no choice. I told him he should have tried to explain it all to her, and he agrees, but it doesn't make him feel any better. He's been keeping an eye on her since, but from a distance. She's pregnant too, so the others have backed off. But now we've heard from the vampires that one of theirs has gone rogue, so he's started fretting again."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because Cade and I are both Enforcers, and we will be called soon to help the vampires take down this rogue. That means I won't be around to protect you. In a couple of days you will start to smell different, and they will leave you in peace. But they will still come for you until then, and I need to keep you safe. I want to take you to the witches tonight. They can look after you until I get back."
"What? Witches?" I swung around to face him. "And what do you mean I'm going to smell different?"
He looked at me carefully and took a deep breath before speaking again.
"Liv, the witches are a group of women with money and knowledge. They are not supernatural, but they are powerful, and they help us occasionally with issues like this. They also keep us on the straight and narrow for the most part, and make sure the Law is followed. They'll know how to keep you safe."
He watched my face while this sunk in. Then he continued slowly.
"Your smell will change when the embryo travelling down your Fallopian tubes implants in your uterus."
I was still processing the information about the witches when he said that, so my reaction to his words was delayed for a few seconds.
"What?" He said nothing, just waited and watched my face.
"What?" I said again, louder this time. "You can't
know something like that. And what if I don't want to be pregnant? Which I don't, by the way. If that makes any difference at all."
"It does make a difference, little love, but only to how you feel about it all. Because the pregnancy is inevitable. I am a wolf, and I could tell that you were ovulating last night."
I stared at him, open mouthed.
"These pregnancies don't respond to hormonal manipulation either. So if you wanted to terminate it, it would have to be done surgically. And that doesn't always work." He spoke in an infuriatingly matter-of-fact tone. I was finding it hard to breathe, I was so angry.
"Get out," I finally said, as the implications of everything he had told me started to sink in. I had a life of my own, one that I had worked unbelievably hard for. I was a doctor and I loved my job, most days anyway. Now this man, this wolf, this surgeon had come along and he had invaded it, and if what he said was true, he had irrevocably changed it. A cold rage burned through me.
"Get out!" I was almost shouting. He had ignored me the first time, but now he stood up and nodded, and then he walked out. I heard him walk down the stairs and I waited until he had closed the front door behind him, and then I burst into tears.
VII
I woke up the next morning with a hangover and a sour taste in my mouth that had nothing to do with the wine I had drunk the night before. I had decided last night before I had finally fallen asleep, that I would be trying the damn morning after pill anyway. Just in case it worked. For some reason, the idea that it might work didn't fill me with elation. I turned a blind eye to my ambivalence, and drank coffee and dressed for work. I was still angry, but more with the circumstances that had led me to this, rather than at Hugo himself. It's a hell of a thing to be pissed at your own genetic makeup.
I drove to work, and parked as close as I could to the ED entrance, worried about another possible encounter with a group of men, sorry, wolves. I was considering asking a security guard to accompany me to my car after work when a shadow fell across my window. I jumped slightly, and looked up to see Hugo standing next to my car. I opened the door, and stepped out. He stood, watching me with a slightly apprehensive look on his face.