by Mel Todd
Swinging by Toni’s, McKenna felt drained. The men had been, for the most part, welcoming but learning new rules, personalities, and job duties had left her exhausted. JD had stated he planned on going home, eating, and passing out. Only the need, desire to see Charley waylaid that desire. Pulling up into the now familiar driveway she shut off the car.
~I’m here.~
She pinged Toni and Charley as she got out of the car. Before she made it two steps the door opened with three kids rushing out to see her.
"Hey, kiddos. Ready to go, Charley?"
"Aww, can’t you stay?" Jamie asked, a hint of a whine in his voice.
"I’d think you two would be tired of me and be ready to get rid of me." Charley said even as he leaned against McKenna.
"Never," both of them gasped with a level of honesty that hurt and she felt her face heat a bit.
"I see. Well, I’m pretty sure I need to get Charley home and fed, and myself fed, so we can do this all again tomorrow."
The twins glanced at each other and McKenna had the sneaking suspicion giving twins a way to talk without anyone hearing them would not end up on the best things to do list.
"Jessi, Jamie, come on and let McKenna and Charley go home."
Jamie pouted and turned to go in, but Jessi hissed, and a snarl came out of her mouth. "No, ours, stay!" Charley and Jamie both gaped at her, as claws emerged from her hands.
[Stop her, she is too young for that form.]
"How?" McKenna said out loud, her mouth dry as she stared at the little girl who was starting to shift into warrior form.
[Slap her, sudden application of pain should shock her out of it.]
With only a split second to decide as she saw the girl shifting, McKenna threw her trust behind the AI. In a swift motion she reached out and slapped Jessi, hard. The crack echoed in the air as her hand impacted with the girl's face. Jessi was thrown to the ground a red mark in the shape of McKenna’s hand standing out like a neon sign.
"What? I?" Jessi began sobbing.
Toni by this point had rushed out of the house pulling Jessi into her arms. "What the hell was that? McKenna?"
~Wefor, talk to all of us, now.~
There was an odd mental sigh in her head, then the AI began talking, and from the odd ticks on the other faces, she figured they could hear Wefor also.
[From her behavior I would assume that she has not changed in days.]
"Well yeah. Since you got back. None of them have, heck I haven’t," Toni confirmed holding her sobbing daughter.
[Kaylid at this age must change every three to four days. Normally those below puberty are not selected, however the programming was damaged and anyone valid was infected, creating a much larger Kaylid pool than normal.]
"Which means what?" Toni’s voice snapped out with the force of a bullet and McKenna felt Wefor cringe in her mind.
That just qualified as the oddest feeling ever.
[She isn’t changing into her animal form enough. Both forms need to grow together. While adults do need to change on a regular basis to keep in touch with the animal that is the other half of them, children need this much more often.]
"Let’s get them inside, all of them."
McKenna nodded at the two kids. "Inside now."
She shot a thought at JD, but figured he’d be too far away.
~JD you there?~
She felt a questioning reaction more than an actual response and sighed, she’d call him in a bit. Charley and Jamie were still standing frozen their eyes wide as they looked at her and Jamie.
"I’ll explain in a minute. In," her voice snapped out and everyone jumped scurrying into the house as Toni strode in carrying a sobbing Jessi. Once inside she shut the door, following Toni into the living room.
Both Charley and Jamie stood there, faces pale even as Toni set Jessi down.
"Change all of you. We’ll talk to Wefor and you’ll be able to hear us and her okay? We’ll ask our questions aloud, but you’ll hear Wefor’s voice in your mind." McKenna dredged up a smile for the kids.
The boys nodded with shaky smiles and stripped and shifted almost as a fluid action.
Toni looked at her daughter. "You too, Jessi, shift."
Jessi pulled off her top shifting even as she wiggled out of the shorts. McKenna could almost feel the stress trickle away as she flowed into the animal shape.
"Okay. Talk, Wefor. What the hell was all that?"
[Kaylid need to change into their other forms regularly. The warrior form is not required but the others are.]
Toni’s voice hit a slightly hysterical note. "What are you talking about? This is my daughter. Humans don’t need to change."
[You are not human.]
The statement rocked McKenna back and from the pale look on Toni’s face she figured her reaction was the same.
Her mouth opened, but she didn’t know what to say so she shut it again.
~How often do we need to change? Jessi scared me.~
Charley’s voice rang through her head and she wanted to pull the wolf into her arms. Instead she held still watching the two cats and the wolf, wondering if she should change too.
"I haven’t changed since that day. Should I?" Her voice shook as she spoke, hands in tight fists.
[While not necessary, it is recommended. This is why it is not recommended for young ones to be changed into Kaylid. Young ones have too many changes going on in their bodies on a daily basis. If they are made into Kaylid, it is imperative they change every few days to keep the balance between animal and self. It is more a matter of chemistry and hormones than anything else.]
McKenna let that sink, then with a dry throat and mouth she asked the next obvious question.
"Is there anything else we need to be aware of and worried about regarding our shifting and ourselves?" She kept the word alien out of her thoughts and the question. There are some things only JD knew as Anne admitted she didn’t remember much of what they had talked about.
[Probably. But I don’t know what they are as at this time since it is unknown what you don’t know. If you were told everything existing in the databases, the best estimate is it would take 2045 days 16 hours and 32 minutes to impart all of it. That is assuming there were no questions or clarifications required.]
McKenna glanced at Toni who shrugged, her hands still on the fur of Jessi, who hadn’t left her side, instead watching the other two half play half watch her.
"I see. Are there any other health or behavioral issues we need to be aware of?" Toni’s voice didn’t shake, but her body did as she waited for an answer.
[You’ve already adapted the increased caloric intake. If the programming had been intact and not overwritten, common recommendations would be squad tactics and weapons training, but now that does not seem preferable. Though exploring your warrior forms might be helpful. Moving between forms will help with any buried health issues.]
That linked back to what she’d learned earlier so McKenna nodded.
"Got it." She swallowed the scream that bubbled in her throat. "How often should they change and for how long?"
She had to make sense of all of this, the quicksand mix of knowledge, fears, and pressure becoming something she couldn’t avoid.
[Once to twice a week should be enough, though it is recommended to have the shift be active hours, not just sleep.]
Wefor’s flat tone barely touched by any emotion as the words rang in their heads.
Toni took a deep breath visibly trying to control herself. She glanced down at her daughter, who had stopped trembling, and slapped her on the rump.
"Go play. Tumble, get your exercise on." Jessi tilted her head up, then licked her mom’s hand before lifting herself up slowly and pacing over to the boys who had paused in their tumble to wait for her.
McKenna watched them, and Charley leaned over, licking her cheek, while Jamie head butted her. Something must have been said between the three of them because the tension evaporated and a moment later there we
re two black blurs and a white one rolling on the floor. The sound of animal growls and purrs filling the room.
It acted like a balm and she forced her shoulders to relax even as in her head JD spoke.
~I’m almost there. What’s wrong?~
~I’ll fill you in when you get there. ~
She sent a wave of thanks and gratitude his direction, something she’d been playing with and felt his surprise and laughter in return.
Toni stood and headed for the kitchen, pausing there, her body radiating indecisiveness. McKenna followed her in, touching her shoulder lightly.
"You okay?"
"No," Toni whispered.
"Hey, we’ll figure it out." McKenna had no idea what to do, but she put every ounce of assurance she could into those words. When Toni turned and flung herself into her arms, she stumbled back a half step but wrapped arms around the terrified mother as she started to cry silent tears, so the kids didn’t hear her.
That is where JD found them. McKenna holding Toni as she tried to get her emotions back together.
He turned to check on the kids, who’d gone outside to play in Toni’s postage stamp backyard, then settled against the counter.
~Don’t you dare make a threesome joke.~
Her mental voice snapped at him, and he quirked up one corner of his mouth.
~Even I’m not that crass. What happened?~
The flavor of his voice seemed different and as Toni pulled away and went to wash her face at the sink, McKenna figured he spoke only to her. She rattled off what he needed to know. By the time Toni turned to face them, her eyes a little red but composed, he’d gotten caught up.
"Well, I guess better we found this out now than while they were at school. So regular play dates and maybe we start training them? I mean not like the obstacle courses, but just how to defend themselves in both animal and human form?"
Toni shot a look at JD, but he just shrugged. "Better safe than sorry, and I think control for those three is never going to be a negative."
McKenna debated telling Toni about the aliens and their arrival but chickened out. She still didn’t want to believe and there was time. Liads. Lots of Liads.
"Sure, but I do have a question." Toni said chewing on her lip a bit. "You’re great, and I seriously wish there was a spark between us, cause I’d date you in a hot second. But why? I mean my kids don’t mean anything to you. McKenna and I kinda got thrown together with life and what not. But why are you so invested?"
McKenna flinched as Toni asked. The question had occurred to her, but she had so few people in her life, asking for clarification risked pushing him away, so she never asked.
"Over the years Kenna went from partner to best friend. And after all this stuff she became family - my sister if you will. And you fit. Maybe it’s the animal in me, but you’re my pack and I’d do anything for you two and the kids."
His words snapped into place for her. Pack. Maybe normally a wolf term, but it felt correct in her soul. Pack, family, hers.
McKenna smiled at Toni. "What he said. You’re ours."
A flash of relief crossed Toni’s face, followed by a wide smile. "Glad to know you two feel like I do. Family, pack, mine."
Laughter filled the room even as they moved to go watch the kids and arrange for more time in animal form. It all felt right, if only the nagging knowledge the aliens were coming didn’t itch at the back of her mind, it might have been a perfect scene.
Chapter 23 - Training the Nose
The establishment of the first reality TV show featuring a mixed family of shifter and non-shifters. When dad turns into a wolf and his daughter turns into a cat, will cats and dogs be able to live together. Add in a mom and son who don’t shift at all, and the fur is sure to fly. Join us Monday nights to see the drama when shifters and humans try to live together. ~Radio add on KWAK
McKenna and JD spent the rest of the day reading up on the laws and being quizzed by Laredo and Guinness about when the laws applied. She'd read them before, as had JD, but knowing them inside out hadn't been important before, now it was.
"Look, we'd never admit this to anyone, but we don't care about personal use. Nickel, dime bags, especially of weed or Ecstasy. Those are usually stupid college kids, someone stepping out on the wild side and not worth destroying a life over. We want the people dealing and using the dangerous stuff, crack, heroin, opium, and some new designer drugs."
"Opium is still a thing? I thought that went out after the 1900's?" JD asked.
"Well, opium dens yes. But we've seen a resurgence of it. More in pill form than what you saw in your history books," Laredo said snickering a bit. "But what we really want are the guys supplying the drugs to the dealers. If we can make them feel the pinch, we might get some traction."
"So how do we do that?" McKenna asked, a bit curious as to how it went down.
"Normally leg work, informants, turning someone who is pissed off at someone else, but maybe you can get us something different."
"My nose," her voice wry, but at the same time excited. With all the stuff with the kids and knowing there was a timeline that she didn’t know what to do about, the idea of having something useful and positive come out of all of this sounded pretty good.
"Well, yours and JD’s hopefully." Laredo grinned at the two of them. "I’ve got no problem using either of you."
Guinness flashed a smile. "Hey, I'm not going to say I understand the whole shifter thing, but if we have the blessing of the courts and can make sure we follow everything else to the letter we should be fine. I'm a bit worried about challenges in court, so I'd expect we’ll spend a lot of time in the courtroom once you start making busts, so let's make sure we are doing everything possible to make the case open and shut, even without your noses."
"Agreed." McKenna nodded as she spoke. Being in court sucked and made her want to strangle people to an abnormally high degree.
"With that in mind, we've got clearance to do some testing with closed case evidence. Ready to go get your nose trained up?" Laredo asked a wicked smirk on his face.
"We'll need some coffee to go," McKenna said heading over to the coffee maker, her brand-new travel mug in hand.
"You that addicted? I mean Laredo here has it pretty bad, but usually by noon he's off the drip." Guinness remark contained both humor and curiosity.
"No, I'm not that addicted." McKenna replied with a smile as she filled her mug half way with pure dark coffee and put the lid on it. "I've been noticing after a bit my nose gets clogged by all the smells. Coffee is strong enough to cleanse it so I notice the scents again. And if we are going to be testing and learning scents repeatedly, we'll both need it."
"Ah. See, that actually makes sense. My wife drags me into some pretty smelly good stuff stores, and they have coffee beans there. Huh, what do you know? And I thought it was all silly marketing." Laredo's voice held an abstract quality as he talked.
"Wait, some woman agreed to marry you? Are you sure she isn't a figment of your imagination?" JD teased him as they headed out of the squad room. "I'm pretty sure most women would be too smart to want anything to do with you. Like all women."
"Oh, talk it up, muscle boy. I have women chasing after me." Laredo protested as they gave each other a bad time.
Guinness dropped back to talk to her. "His wife is adorable, brilliant, and barely comes up to his mid-chest." He winked at her. "So, everything good? I know other people have been giving you shit, but Piers being on the take really doesn't surprise me."
She shrugged. "I didn't plan on it. Hell, I never planned on any of this, but I'm trying to roll with the punches that I am getting hit with. This seems like it might a good fit for what I'm looking to do. And maybe my turning into a cat will have some benefits. But really, bears apparently have incredible noses. So, I'm interested in seeing what JD can do once he starts to pay attention."
"Well I know I'm all but nose deaf. Years of allergies as a kid and I'm doing good to smell myself when I start to stink
or if there is a gas leak. Anything else and I've got no clue." Guinness added with a smile. They paused at the evidence locker, putting their weapons into lockers and then going through the scanner.
She couldn't remember being down here any time since her orientation. Patrol didn't deal with evidence much. The security was in place to make sure no weapons were taken out, and you weren't allowed to carry any containers in. Her coffee was given a pass as she showed it and would have to show it walking out.
McKenna looked at the rows of boxed evidence and she just blinked at what it implied, how many cases had been tried. As she watched, Laredo walked over, pulled three boxes off the shelves, and came back setting them down. As she got closer more scents started emerging. The hardest thing about this had been learning to ignore her nose. But she'd gotten better, now she'd have to figure out how use it only when she needed to pay attention.
[Human brains are capable of many complex tasks, this is relatively simple in comparison to what your mind is capable of.]
McKenna started a bit, then shook her head, unsure if Wefor's comment had been meant as reassurance or a weird comment.
Laredo looked at the list he dropped on the table as he pulled on latex gloves. "This box should have ecstasy and crack in it. Bust with driving under the influence. Scheduled to be destroyed next week." He reached into the box and pulled out a couple of baggies. One baggie had chunks of an off-white substance and she wrinkled her nose as he opened it up.
"Ew… is that crack?" JD asked, pulling back a little even as he inhaled. The sharp smell that reminded her of burning plastic and chemicals cut through a lot of the other smells.