HIDDEN (Hidden Trilogy Book 1)

by Yelden, T. J.

  “What was the other reason for shifting in the woods?” I asked, eyes on the trees. Cassie and Bree sat on their haunches, their wolf eyes following our conversation.

  “When we shift, it’s sudden. Nothing gentle about it. It’s best if we remove our clothing first, so we don’t have to buy out an entire department store later.”

  “Oh.” I replied, face heating before adding, “I could have just turned my back. Or are you guys always this modest?” I teased and Cade laughed.

  “Modesty isn’t the wolf way. We were doing it for your benefit.”

  “You don’t have to change your routine just because of me. I can adjust.” I assured him. He grinned before he replied.

  “We’ll see.” He turned and I followed his gaze. Wow. They were big. Bigger than Cassie and Bree. Brody and Hunter were much more bulky and taller than either Cassie or Bree. They probably stood at about hip level to me.

  “Brody is the light brown one, Hunter the dark brown.”

  “They look almost identical.” I assessed as they both made their way slowly toward me. They stopped just within arm’s reach like Cassie and Bree had. I moved to touch them, Cade once again mirrored my steps. Feeling more comfortable with Brody, I reached out to him first. His eyes closed when I ran my hand over his head and a soft contented growl emanated from his chest.

  “Did he just purr?” I asked, and the sound abruptly cut off. I watched as Brody gave me a wolfy glare before he moved out of my reach. Cade laughed.

  “He doesn’t appreciate being compared to a cat.”

  “Can you talk to them?” I asked, astonished.

  “Sure. Human to human, human to wolf, or wolf to wolf, we can hear and talk to each other. The human connection only works with pack members.”

  “That’s pretty cool.” I was impressed.

  “Touch Hunter.” Cade instructed. I turned back to the dark haired wolf. I slowly approached Hunter, watching his body language for any signs he didn’t like it. I knew Hunter the person, was still in charge, but I had a feeling his wolf was a little more aggressive than the others. He allowed me to touch his head, briefly, before he turned away and joined Cassie and Bree.

  “Ok.” I grinned, happy with my success. I turned to look at Cade and found myself face to chest. Bare, naked, sculpted chest. Oh. My. God. My heart stopped and my lungs seized. Finally I regained enough composure to raise my eyes to his. He was smirking. His shirt was still in his hand, and I watched as he dropped it to the ground. Then his hands went for his jeans. My eyes widened.

  “What are you doing?” I turned around quickly as I heard a zipper slide.

  “You said that we shouldn’t do anything different. That you’d adjust. So I’m shifting in front of you.”

  “Yeah, but a little warning next time.” I huffed, still turned away. He chuckled behind me. I didn’t hear anything for a few seconds, but didn’t dare turn around, just in case. Not that I wasn’t curious. Before I could think any more on Cade’s less than half clad body, a soft pressure on my lower back made me think it was okay to turn around.

  As I did, I looked down at Cade. In wolf form. He was entirely black and huge. Easily bigger than Brody or Hunter. I could see Cade looking out from his brown wolf eyes and that was all the reassurance I needed to raise my hand. He ducked under to bump my hand sooner. I gently ran my hand over his crown and admired the soft fur underneath. He pressed a little harder into my hand. I took that as a good sign so I brought my other hand up and cupped his jaw then caressed over and around his ears. His eyes closed in pleasure. I smiled in return. I let my hands fall down to my side, but Cade wasn’t done quite yet. He head bunted my stomach which made me step back to catch myself and my hands automatically came back up to steady myself along his neck. He rubbed the crown of his head against my stomach before he shifted to the side of me and rubbed around to my back.

  I held still, not really sure what he was doing. I looked over to the other four and found each of them looking on with their heads cocked to the side. As if they were just as puzzled about what was going on as I was. Finally, Cade rounded my other side and stood close enough that his fur rubbed against me. He looked at the other wolves and some silent communication must have passed between them, because each of them took off toward the trees and left me with Cade. I watched as they bounded through the tree line, bumping into each other playfully as they went.

  My eyes moved to Cade who was watching them go and then proceeded to curl up on the ground at my feet. Once settled, he looked up at me, as if to ask, “Coming?” I laughed, too bad their wolf talk didn’t work on humans. Or…whatever I was. Right, one thing at a time. I sat down by his head and Cade laid his head in my lap. Shocked, I looked down at the large head resting on my legs and shook my head. Such a weird day. With nowhere else to lay my hands, I started petting him like I would a dog. He didn’t seem to mind.

  We sat in silence for a few minutes as I continued to pet him. He would occasionally sigh in contentment and his eyes were closed. I thought back over the new revelations over the past few hours and couldn’t believe the changes. There were actually wolf shifters in the world. No myths or fantasies. They were real. Beautiful. Majestic. And somehow I was accepted as one of them. Of course, there was the small fact about how Liam claimed I wasn’t human. Which I didn’t totally understand…yet. If I wasn’t human, what was I? Obviously not a shifter if they didn’t think so. What other creatures were out there? Was I one of them? If only I knew who my parents were. They could probably have shed some light on the situation. I sighed and looked around the clearing.

  “I wish I had my sketch book.” I commented as I thought of all the drawings I could have made. Cade huffed in agreement. The sun was finally out and there was a nice breeze. The flowers were starting to lose their brilliance in the late fall but overall, the waterfalls were still beautiful. Not to mention I was sitting next to an actual wolf. It would have been cool to sketch Cade in his wolf form.

  Wait a minute. I thought back to my most recent drawings. The ones of the individual wolf, or the group. The whole pack, five of them in all. All my drawings were of them. All of them. Cade, Cassie, Bree, Brody and Hunter. The only one missing was the one looking on from the forest. What did that mean?

  “Cade, I think I knew you were wolves all along.” He cocked his head to the side and looked up at me with one eye. “I mean it, but I have absolutely no idea how. I’ve drawn all of you. Right down to the same color.” Cade sat up and looked at me. Before I could even guess what he was going to do, I blinked and suddenly he was human. Naked. Right in front of me.

  “OH MY GOD!” I yelled, closed my eyes, and threw my hand over my eyes for good measure. “What the hell, Cade? A little warning next time?”

  “What was I supposed to do?” Cade huffed from somewhere above me. “You drop a bomb like that then wait patiently to discuss it?” I could hear him as he moved around and pulled his clothes on. “I can’t exactly tell you I’m shifting.” I waited, not wanting to risk another peep show, even if a small part of me wanted to. Just a small part, really. “I’m decent now.” I moved my hand to see that he was half decent. He only had his jeans on, and it didn’t look like he was going to put his shirt on that was still lying on the ground as he sat beside me.

  “Now, what’s this about your drawings?” His full attention was on me waiting for an answer. I took a deep breath before I tried to explain.

  “I’ve been drawing you and everyone else. Well, I think it’s you. It sure looks like you in your midnight black wolf form.” I said. “Same for the others. And I’ve been having dreams about all of you. In wolf form.”

  “How could you possibly know that, enough to draw us? Or dream about us?” Cade asked softly, perplexed.

  “I have no clue.” I shrugged. “This is your world, not mine. I don’t understand how I would even begin to know something like that.” I pondered and didn’t meet his eyes. He shifted closer to me and rested back on one hand while he brought
the other one up to my chin to force me to look at him.

  “This is as much your world as it is mine now.” He argued. “You know who we are, what we are. Nothing changes that. You’re one of us now.” He grinned before adding. “An honorary pack member.” I shook my head and grinned as I remembered back to when he said that the first time. Little did I know then how literal that phrase would be.

  “So you have no idea about this whole drawing or dreaming thing?” I asked. He sighed and dropped his hand from my jaw before he raised it to run it through his hair.

  “No. Not a clue. Although,” he said with a gleam in his eye, “It’s flattering to know you dream about me.” I play punched him in the arm which didn’t affect him at all. “We’ll tell Dad and Mom when we get back.” He commented as his eyes traveled off toward the woods.

  “You can go run with them, if you want.” I commented, thinking that he wished he was with them.

  “And leave you alone? I don’t think so.” He scowled at me like it was the worst idea ever.

  “No really, I don’t mind. I’ll just hang out here or do a little exploring.”

  “Exploring?” He scoffed. “Besides, I’m not leaving you in the middle of a forest, alone.” He said disapprovingly.

  “Fine. Then what do you want to talk about?”

  “You.” He leaned back on his elbows.

  “Me?” I asked with raise eyebrows. I turned slightly to look at him. No shirt, leaning back on his elbows? Holy muscles.

  “Yeah, you know my secret, now I want to know yours.”

  “Hate to break it to you but I don’t turn into a furry animal.”

  “No kidding,” he replied, rolling his eyes. “Although, it would be cool if you could.”

  “Yeah, one thing at a time.” I replied with a shake of my head.

  “So, how about it? What’s your secret?” He asked again.

  “Uh, last time I checked your parents were doing research on that one.”

  “Not that. And quite stalling. You know what I’m asking. I want to know what happened at your other foster homes.” Huh, not exactly a topic I wanted to talk about right then.

  I regarded him carefully before slowly asking, “Why?”

  “Something you said.” He regarded me steadily. “You said staying with Steve and Nicole was better than any other place you’d been. I want to know what happened at the other places.”

  “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

  “I think you should. Besides, I want to know.” He said forcefully.

  “Why?” I hedged.

  “In case there is somebody out there that I have to go hunt down and kill.” I laughed until I saw the serious expression on his face.

  “You can’t do that.” I stated, wide eyed.

  “If they hurt you, then I can at least pay them a visit and repay the kindness.”

  “No, really. It’s not that big of a deal.” I tried to reassure.

  “Then tell me what happened. Everything you remember.”

  “Everything?” I sighed. “How long are we going to be here?” I joked.

  “Until you tell me.” He said relentlessly.

  “Fine.” I sighed. I laid back and looked up at the sunny sky. “You want from the beginning?”

  “Yes. As far back as you can go.” He plopped down on his side and propped his head on his hand as he gazed down at me. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see his face.

  “As I mentioned before, my birth parents supposedly left me on a church doorstep when I was two.” I started. “There was a note stating what my name was, how old I was, and that it was safer for me without them.”

  “Any clue as to what that meant?”

  “I don’t know. Neither did the church people. They figured my mom was in an abusive relationship or something like that and was trying to get me to a safer home. Even if that meant giving me up.”

  “I’m sorry. You don’t know anything about them?”

  “Nothing. Only thing I have is the name Clara. That’s what she, supposedly my mother, signed the note with. The police never found a record with that name that related back to a two year old. The church assigned me a last name for my records.” I didn’t look at him and continued to keep my eyes closed.

  “Go on.” He urged and I sighed.

  “I was passed from foster home to foster home. No one wanted me or needed another mouth to feed. I became defensive and fought a lot. I didn’t know it at the time but it was because there was no one there to simply ask me how my day was going or show kindness of any kind. I was totally alone.” I felt Cade shift closer to me but continued my story. “By the time I hit twelve, I was a terror. I’d pick fights every other day, throw things at people, never listen to anyone. A few years later, when I turned 14, I had a run in with Chad.”

  “Who the hell is Chad? What did he do?” I felt Cade tense beside me and his question was more of a growl than anything.

  “It’s not as bad as you think. Chad was in the grade above me, moved around in the system just about as much as I did. I got along with him over the years because we understood each other. He was my only friend, well, friend being applied in the loosest terms.” I thought back to our interactions before continuing. “Soon though, he started hanging out with a local gang. He skipped school, more than usual, and talked to people in quiet corners. I confronted him about it since he was the closest thing I had to a friend. He said he was making bank with this deal he had going on with the gang. I didn’t ask what it was. That was something you didn’t do. Too much information would get you in way over your head. Anyway, he asked if I wanted in and I said no, I wasn’t interested.”

  “Good.” Cade grunted.

  “I’m not finished.” I replied. “I turned to leave and that’s when I noticed three of his gang friends had come up behind us. They asked what I was doing with Chad. I was probably a little too defensive, and well, mouthy. They surrounded me and started taunting me. One shoved me, another shoved back. I was a pinball between them while they laughed about it. I don’t really know how it happened but I just snapped. I caught one in the balls, another in the throat, and the last a kick to the rib cage. I wasn’t that big, or strong, so I didn’t really know how I did what I did. All three were laid out on the ground moaning. Chad looked on in utter shock. It wasn’t that they were permanently down, just for a few minutes. Neither of us could believe what I just did. Take out three boys twice my size? That’s when I ran. I ran for a long time. When the police finally caught up with me my foster family said they’d had enough. I was shipped off to Steve and Nicole’s the next day, halfway across the state.”

  “You never heard from Chad again?”

  “Nope, and never want to.”

  “The other group, the gang, never checked up on you?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  “Where was this?” He asked, steel edging his voice.

  “No, uh huh. I’m not telling you so you can go hunt down some mystery guy from three years ago that has probably already forgotten the incident.”

  “I would be more than happy to remind them all.” He growled.

  “No.” I argued firmly. He grunted in response. I decided I might as well finish the story. “It was rough at first with Steve and Nicole, but they had patience with me and taught me to deal with my problems and not internalize them or lash out at others. I knew I had to turn my life around if I ever wanted to make something of myself. The only other option was end up like Chad and his so called friends. So I started focusing on school and using diplomacy more than my fists. And that’s where I am today.” I opened my eyes to see him staring down at me lost in thought. “Enough about me. Tell me something else I don’t know about your wolfy form.”

  “My wolfy form?” A small grin surfaced on his face. I nodded, happy to see him in a better mood. “Well, you already know about the speed and strength.” He said, referring to this morning’s ride up the mountain.

  “Yeah, so that
was how Brody reached me so fast when I almost fell off the trailer last month.”

  “There was no ‘almost’ about it. You fell. If Brody hadn’t been there, you would have knocked the wind out of yourself. Or worst, cracked your head open.”

  “Hey, accidents happen.”

  “If you were more careful, they wouldn’t.”

  “Accidents happen to well-prepared people. Don’t single me out.”

  “Whatever.” He mumbled.

  “What else don’t I know?”

  “Our hearing is exceptional.”

  “I knew it!” I yelled and Cade winced. “Sorry. You really shouldn’t sit so close to me. If you were more careful, you wouldn’t have hurt your poor sensitive ears.” I teased.

  “I didn’t hurt them, you did. There’s a difference.”

  “That’s like me blaming the trailer for not being where I put my foot. That’s ridiculous.”

  “You’re ridiculous.”

  “Am not.” I argued. He shook his head. I finally remembered what we were talking about. “I knew Bree overheard my conversation that day in the library with Tyler.”

  “What conversation with Tyler? Which day?” Cade asked as he came to alertness.

  “Settle down,” I shook my head. Boys, really. “This was months ago. Shortly after we started school. He was asking if I wanted to go to that first bonfire at his house.”

  “The one where you lied to us?” He raised his eyebrow.

  “Yes.” I sighed and rolled my eyes.

  “Just making sure we are on the same page.” He grinned.

  “Anyway, I came back to sit by Bree and she knew exactly what Tyler had said. But I knew she was too far away to have heard under normal circumstances.” I shook my head before I looked back at him. “What can you hear right now?”

  “Now?”

  “Yes. Right now.” I watched as he concentrated on his surroundings before he answered me.