Leopard Moon

by Jeanette Battista

  "I'm working lunch, but I'm off that night."

  "I'll pick you up."

  Kess' face went blank for a minute and then she said in a tight voice, "I'll meet you. Just give me the time and place."

  What was that about? Was she afraid to get in a car with him? Afraid for him to know where she lived? If he really wanted to know that, all he had to do was ask around. The town wasn't so big that he wouldn't be able to find out where someone new was staying. Still, if it bothered her, he wasn't going to force the issue. He gave her directions to the coffee shop and they settled on seven for the time.

  He felt it would be good to leave now before he did something stupid that made her want to renege on the whole raincheck coffee date. But he had one more thing to give her. He reached behind him into the waist of his jeans and pulled out a book. He held it out to her.

  "Here. I thought you might like this after I saw you in the laundromat."

  Kess took the book from him, eyeing the grotesque cover curiously. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?"

  He grinned at her. "Because everything is better with zombies. Didn't they teach you that in school?"

  She smiled at him. "Thanks, Cormac."

  "See you Wednesday."

  *********

  Cormac settled himself on the couch. His dad had a called a meeting of the full pack to go over the werebear incident. Cormac wasn't sure what there was left to go over—they'd discovered the bear they had been trying to relocate was actually a werebear, and that the werebear had someone looking out for him. They'd had were-visitors before, and while the pack usually had notice of them being in the area beforehand, it wasn't unusual to find out about it after the fact from a friend of the family.

  He checked his watch. He still had about an hour before he needed to meet Kess for coffee. He hoped that the meeting wouldn't be a long one. His father would be ticked if he tried to sneak out early for a girl, but Cormac wasn't going to miss this opportunity with Kess.

  Burke dropped down onto the other side of the couch. The large room was beginning to fill up. Griff and Finn had also arrived. Finn joined them, but Griff went to stand next to Cormac's father. The two older men stood silently, staring out the large picture window. Cormac watched the rest of the pack trickle into the room in twos and threes.

  When everyone finally arrived, they numbered fifteen. It was large for a pack, one of the largest on the east coast. The core group was Cormac's family, but there were some distant relatives and friends who filled it out. The low murmur of conversation made the room sound like a bee hive, which died when Alaric turned around to address the assembled group. Griff stood behind him and to the right.

  "You all are aware that we had an unknown werebear in our territory a few days ago. The issue has been resolved. He's under Bob Garrett's watchful eye now—some of you know him—so I don't think we need to worry too much about him."

  Cormac nodded. He'd never met Bob, but knew that werebears tended to be solitary creatures, not gathering in familial packs like wolves did. It was possible this new werebear had only come to the mountains to get a handle on his changing and then would be moving on; he didn't think two male werebears were likely to get along in the same space for long periods of time.

  His father continued. "This does bring to light something Griff and I have been concerned about. Our borders become harder to secure the more the world shrinks. This werebear is a testament to that. We had no idea that a strange were had come into our territory. We were lucky in that this one was not an enemy. But it's dangerous to have an unknown werebeast in our mountains. If any one of us had been caught out by this werebear on our own and he did mean harm, the encounter would end in something bloodier than just getting thrown into a tree."

  Gee, thanks Dad. I'm so happy to be reminded of that particular highlight. He felt Finn nudge him in the ribs and had to resist snapping his teeth at his cousin. Next time he'd make sure Finn was the one that got smacked around by a bear.

  Alaric paused, letting that sink in. Cormac had to give it to his father; the man was good at speeches. He waited like all the rest of the pack for his father to continue. But Alaric turned to Griff, who took up where the Alpha left off.

  "We need to know about every were that comes into our territory so they can be evaluated as a threat. We don't want to get blindsided like we were with the bear. We were lucky, but we can't count on luck."

  Burke raised his hand, waiting to be acknowledged. "How can we tell if there's an unknown were in town? It's not like there's anything that marks weres as different from regular humans."

  Cormac looked at his cousin. That was the problem right there. There was no good way of telling someone was a were until they changed, and even then, unless they changed right in front of you it would still be hard to tell. Even in animal form, a were didn't look much different from the animal they changed into. Even their scent changed when in animal form.

  "You can't and that's not what we're asking you to do," Griff answered with a wry smile. "We're upping the patrols. Keep your noses peeled for the scent of anything strange in the woods. Animals that shouldn't be here, non-pack wolves, anything out of the ordinary. You smell, see, or hear something strange, you report it to me and the Alpha."

  "And not just on pack land. Even if you're taking a run on the Parkway or the other side of the mountain," Alaric looked at him pointedly and Cormac ducked his head. His father knew how much he enjoyed running the Parkway forests in wolf form. "If you smell anything odd, you call it in and leave the area. You don't do anything alone. We're a pack and we're strongest when we work together."

  Cormac spoke up. "So what are we going to do with any new weres that we do run across?"

  "That will depend on who they are and what they want." Cormac's father gave him a pointed look and he knew to drop that line of questioning. Cormac guessed they'd deal with it when they had to rather than go round and round with endless speculation.

  Alaric and Griff continued to answer questions and to go over perimeter patrol schedules. Cormac felt his attention drift and he was glad when the pack meeting broke up. He wanted to rush out of there and head straight to the coffeeshop and his date with Kess, but he needed to talk to his father first.

  The Alpha had withdrawn to a spot over by the fireplace, where he prodded the burning logs with an iron poker. His father looked very far away, and for a moment, Cormac thought about just leaving him alone. But his questions wouldn't wait.

  "Has something happened?" His voice was low and urgent. "Is there something you're not telling us?" The pack had never been particularly concerned with strange weres coming into the area. The patrols were mostly to keep trespassers from setting up on pack land, and they'd never made it a point to actively sniff out and identify unknowns.

  "Why do you say that?"

  Cormac noted that his father didn't deny it, but he let it pass. "Extra patrols over a werebear? Seems like we're being too careful."

  "That werebear you're dismissing could have killed you." His father's voice was pitched low, but his eyes were intense when he looked at Cormac.

  He saw then just how scared his father had been for him. Alaric was a man of few words; his eyes and facial expressions were what he really used to communicate, both as a wolf and a man. Cormac knew that split second of him flying through the air must have felt like an eternity to his father. But Cormac was fine. He'd come out with only bruises. There was something else driving the patrols.

  "And that's really all there is?"

  Alaric sighed. "There's less and less land available for territories. We've been fortunate so far, but we can't count on that forever. I want us to be more careful."

  "You're expecting a fight."

  "No. I am not. But I'm trying to be prepared for that eventuality. We are a strong pack and we've been here for generations. But if someone does come here and means us harm, we'll deal with them in whatever way we have to."

  Cormac stared at his father. There was st
eel in his words and he knew his father would use any means necessary to protect his pack. That was part of what being the Alpha meant. Someone called his father's name and Alaric left, putting a hand on Cormac's shoulder as he went. He was bothered by the way his father was thinking, even though he had expressed similar concerns to Burke only a few weeks ago.

  He shook himself out of his fog and checked his watch. Cormac swore under his breath. If he didn't hustle, he'd be late for his raincheck coffee with Kess.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Kess had showed up a few minutes early for her date with Cormac, in the hopes that she could get her nerves settled. When he'd first asked her out, she'd been flattered and excited. She'd never been on a date by herself before. Sek had put a serious damper on any kind of boy/girl activities and dating hadn't been anywhere near a top priority in the year that she'd been running. But as the day of the date grew closer, Kess found herself getting more and more knotted up about it.

  She liked Cormac. She really did. He was funny and handsome and seemed pretty genuine about getting to know her. In all the other places that she'd lived, she'd kept to herself to the point of being antisocial, which didn't really encourage forming friendships or making dates. She hadn’t allowed herself to like a guy in so long, she had kind of forgotten what it felt like. It made everything feel new and interesting again; even a place like the Barn where she worked almost every day seemed to brighten when he would show up. It made her feel a little dorky to be so attuned to somebody else's presence in such a good way.

  And that was a problem. She shouldn't have started anything with him. She certainly shouldn't have accepted his invitation for raincheck coffee. Kess knew she would probably only get six months here at the outside before she'd have to take off again to keep ahead of her father's private investigators. How would she be able to do that if she got involved with Cormac? How could she leave him behind if her brother showed up?

  But he'd been so adorable when he'd asked her out. And she did miss feeling like a seventeen year old girl instead of a humorless fugitive with nothing to look forward to except more running. It might not hurt to just hang out with Cormac and see what might happen. Didn't she deserve a little fun?

  Kess mentally smacked herself. She'd been interested in someone in Miami and that hadn’t worked out well. Or at all, really. Greg had been a year ahead of her, but they ran into each other a lot between classes and he was in her choral group. He was pretty cute and sweet and he'd made a few tentative remarks that made her think he'd ask her out. She was excited at the prospect, giddy that her crush might turn into something more.

  She'd made the mistake of mentioning it at home. Sek had gone ballistic, asking all kinds of crazy, way too personal questions about Greg and their relationship, not that they had one. Kess had told him it was none of his business but that had only made him angrier. She was almost positive that he'd been the one who convinced their father to pull her out of her private high school--God knew what stories Sek had made up--and arranged for her to be homeschooled after that. Kess knew that her father had always been concerned for her safety and anonymity, especially now that her first change had happened, so it probably hadn't taken much prodding on Sek's part to get Darius to agree.

  Kess refused to let her brother control her life and she'd rebelled. A mutual friend gave her Greg's number and she'd called him. She'd been right--Greg had liked her and wanted to ask her out, but hadn't gotten the chance before she'd left school. Kess jumped at the chance to prove to her brother that she could make her own decisions about who she was going to see, and made a date with Greg then and there.

  Somehow Sek had found out about it. On the appointed afternoon, she'd snuck out to meet Greg, only to find her brother waiting for her with Greg nowhere in sight. She'd been furious, her anger only growing when Sekhmet dragged her back home, telling her that the boy would never be bothering her again. She'd never found out exactly what Sek had done to Greg, but she was positive she didn't want to know for sure. Deep down, Kess was afraid she already had a good idea. And without proof, she didn't want to risk going to her father; no doubt Sek would have a believable explanation, one that would paint Kess in the worst possible light.

  Right. Okay. So she'd thank Cormac for the invite and then make up some excuse and get the hell out of there. He was a good guy. He deserved someone who didn't come with so much baggage, someone who could give him what he wanted. A girl who didn't have to hide parts of herself. A girl who wasn't her.

  Yeah. This sucked.

  She took a deep breath and opened the door to the coffeehouse. It was called the BeansTalk, and it was a fairly large, open space, filled with two and three-top tables. A display case of pastries and desserts stood adjacent to the register. The place wasn't terribly busy, so she wandered over to check out the desserts rather than securing a table.

  Kess was leaning down over the display case, weighing the merits of the red velvet cake versus the caramel apple pie when she saw someone standing beside her in the reflection of the glass.

  Cormac put his head down next to hers, peering into the case. "So which one are you getting?"

  "It's between those two," she said, pointing to the different choices. "But I really can't st-"

  Cormac was already telling the guy behind the counter which desserts they'd like. He turned back to her and asked, "What would you like to drink?"

  Kess sighed. Okay, she would eat her dessert and go. That was it. "Jasmine tea, please." She waited while he took her tea and his coffee and followed him to a small table at the back of the room. He made sure she had everything she needed before getting up to go collect her dessert.

  He set the plates down in the middle of the table and handed her a fork. "Which one do you want?" He paid for them so she figured he got first crack.

  "Neither. They're for you." She raised her eyebrows at him. "What? Why should you have to choose between two things you like? I got you both."

  Because life is all about choosing one thing over another. You don't get to have everything you want. "You are so helping me eat them."

  He shook his head."I'm not big on sweets. Unless it's something my mom made--she's a great cook." He checked his watch. "Sorry I was late. I was talking to my dad and it ran a little long."

  "Obviously I didn't notice being so distracted by the desserts," Kess teased. He had maybe been a few minutes late, nothing unforgivable. She noticed he sounded irritated. "Everything okay? I mean, if this is a bad time..."

  "No. It's a great time." He ran a hand through his hair. "My dad just has this tendency to forget that people aren't always at his beck and call. Comes with being in charge, I guess." He perked up. "But I don't want to talk about him tonight."

  "Okay, no talking about fathers. What can we talk about?"

  "Have you started that book I got you? Is it any good?"

  She laughed. "It's Jane Austen cracked out. There are ninjas in it. And zombies."

  "It did say that in the title. But the ninjas--that's unexpected." He tapped the table with his index finger as if to emphasize his point.

  "Nobody expects ninjas. That's why they're so effective." She took a bite of the cake as a way of resisting the urge to stare at his hand. He had long fingers, his hands scarred from working outdoors. "Masters of the black arts of silent death and all that stuff."

  Cormac laughed. "Did you grow up watching bad kung fu movies?"

  "Some," she admitted. "Mostly we watched a lot of movies with explosions in them."

  "We?" He leaned in closer.

  "My brother and I." Kess fiddled with the apple pie, unsure of what to do with his face so close to hers.

  "God, did your brother make you watch whatever he wanted to watch? Whenever it was my brother's turn to pick, he'd always get some historical war movie that involved a lot of marching. And possibly swords. Boring." Cormac leaned back. She thought he looked disappointed for a moment.

  Kess picked at her cake. She hadn't meant to mention Sek at
all. "No, my brother usually let me pick the movie." He usually deferred to her wishes, especially when she was younger. She made an effort not to let thoughts of Sek ruin her evening. "When I was little, I had this thing for talking animals. I think I saw every Air Bud movie made, even the direct to video ones."

  "My sister--her name's Lenore--went through a phase like that. It was pretty embarrassing." Cormac smiled at her.

  Kess found herself smiling back at him. It was kind of interesting sharing something personal with him. She found she wanted to tell him things about herself. "Deeply embarrassing. Please don't tell anyone--it would ruin my street cred."

  Cormac nodded sagely. "Because you need that around here. I completely understand."

  Kess flicked her fork at him. "So now it's your turn to tell me your most embarrassing childhood movie."

  "Oh no, I'm not going there. You were foolish enough to reveal your secret to me--you think I'm going to do the same? No way." He shook his head, arms crossed over his chest.

  She had an idea. "I bet I could ask Finn what it was. He'd tell me."

  Cormac sat back in his seat, relaxed and easy. "I don't think so. Mutually assured destruction."

  "Come again?"

  "I have so much dirt on Finn, he would never risk telling tales about me. If it were to get out that he, say, is still a bed wetter, he'd never get another date around here."

  Kess almost spewed tea all over him. She wiped her mouth with a napkin and tried not to fall out of her chair from laughing. Cormac was laughing too and it took them a minute to get themselves together.

  Kess forgot about the time and her decision to leave early. She was having too good a time just talking and laughing and debating things with him. His grey eyes would flash when he made an especially wicked comeback and she was growing to like it. He made her laugh like no one ever had. And he did a lot of nice little things too: making sure she had refills of tea, bringing her more napkins when she was out, pulling her chair out for her when she came back from the restroom. Plus he didn't say a word when she polished off both desserts.