The Wolf's Call (Two-Natured London)

by Susanna Shore

  The brothers were equally strong, and were both very much dominant, but they had figured out ages ago how to run the clan together efficiently without coming to constant fights. Rafe dealt with the finances of the clan while Jamie saw to its people and day-to-day operations. If Rafe told Jamie that things would get done, Jamie wouldn’t question the statement.

  But today, a slow smile spread on Jamie’s face. “That good, huh?”

  Rafe frowned. He didn’t quite understand why he was having such trouble putting Charlotte out of his mind, but he didn’t like what Jamie implied with the question. “She’s human.”

  Jamie cocked an amused brow. “Humans are fair game too, you know.”

  The brothers were close and could talk about almost everything, but today Jamie’s teasing irritated Rafe. He did have his reasons for steering clear of humans, even if they weren’t set in stone. Charlotte was hot enough to warrant him bending his own rules, but there was more to it. “The thing is, she’s very much a dominant. My wolf is convinced she’s a wolf too and that we should go after her in earnest.”

  No matter how much his wolf studied her, it wouldn’t change its mind.

  Jamie’s face went carefully blank and Rafe’s heart ached for him. With shifters, the human half could like, lust, and love anyone he or she wanted, but if the beast didn’t approve, nothing would come of it. Rafe had met any number of nice girls during his long life that he had thought would do just fine for him. He didn’t have any great demands. He would take care of a woman’s safety and wellbeing; in turn, she would make sure he was fed and clothed and warm his bed at nights – at least that had been his general idea about marriage in his youth. Only, his wolf hadn’t accepted any of the women, and there had been no point in pursuing them in earnest.

  However, once the beast made its choice, it was very difficult for the human half to resist. Ideally, it chose another shifter whose beast reacted with equal determination as Might pulled them together. Difficulties might arise if the beast went after a different kind of a shifter – a wolf with a non-predatory shifter was a troublesome equation – but it wasn’t impossible.

  Sometimes the beast chose from among the other two-natured species. Vampires weren’t as strange a choice for a shifter as one might think. Both were long-living, and after a century or two vampires were strong enough in Might to face the daylight again. Sentients, for their part, lived only slightly longer than ordinary humans, but at least they could see auras and knew what they were dealing with. But the beasts seldom chose sentients. They were remembered as traitors of all two-natureds for their co-operation with humans during the Inquisition and the subsequent war that lasted for centuries.

  Still, even sentients might do. Humans, however, made for difficult partners. They weren’t affected by Might so they didn’t react to the mating call the beast sent out. In turn, the beast couldn’t understand why it wasn’t being answered and would get very unhappy, affecting the host too. A shifter could woo a human of course, and even win, but it was a sour victory. Even if a happy, lifelong marriage followed, it would still leave the shifter to mourn for the loss of its partner for far longer than the marriage lasted.

  Sometimes the human spouse didn’t adjust at all. That had happened to Jamie. Some thirty years ago he had found a nice woman, won her over, and brought to the clan as his wife. Man and wolf both had been ecstatic. But his wife hadn’t liked her new life among the wolves, or the notion that she would grow old while he would stay the same, and soon left him. She had been able to leave because she hadn’t felt the wolf’s call, and had left their only offspring with Jamie too, to be raised as a wolf with the clan. She later married a human man and birthed purely human children with him; she was expecting the arrival of her first grandchild shortly.

  All Jamie had been able to do was let her go and watch in impotent anger as his woman went to another, unable to kill the human male as his beast demanded of him. He couldn’t even mourn her, she was still alive, which really messed with his wolf’s head. But as long as the wolf thought of her as theirs, it wouldn’t let him look for another partner either. Rafe had sworn that the same would never happen to him.

  “Perhaps she’s a latent shifter?” Jamie said. “The gene might be there, giving her some extra willpower, and making your wolf react. She just hasn’t enough of a shifter in her to make her more than human.” Since the gene pool was very mixed, it was possible for human parents to have children who carried a two-natured gene. They had had wolves in their clan, brought there by human parents unable to give their shifter child what he or she needed. Sometimes the parents even joined the clan with their children.

  Rafe was grateful to his brother for trying to help him, but he had to shake his head. “She doesn’t smell anything but human.”

  “Then perhaps she’s just a very strong human. They do exist you know,” Jamie said with a smile. Humans didn’t have the monopoly on stereotyping. Shifters tended to think that all humans were weak.

  Rafe smiled too. “Perhaps.” But that didn’t mean he was willing to bind her to him, no matter what his wolf said. At least it hadn’t put out the call yet. If that happened, he would be truly screwed.

  Chapter Nine

  There had been a few curiously raised eyebrows at work when Charlotte had switched off her computer before everyone else that afternoon, taking her things and heading home. In only a month, they had become accustomed to her insane working hours. “Should we call a doctor,” Gary quipped. “Or the bosses, so that they can see how we are here late on Friday afternoon after you’ve already left?” Learning that she would be working at home had made him groan.

  Charly didn’t really know why she was following Rafe’s suggestion to work at home – or at Jack’s, as it was. Would he even be there? After all, they hadn’t made any definite plans. She hadn’t wanted to after he lied to her about being a shifter. And she knew he had lied, she was experienced enough a barrister to know when that happened. It had upset and disappointed her and so she had made her excuses and retreated to Jack’s flat, not giving him a chance to renew his offer of working with her tonight.

  The encounter with the wolf-shifter had had an impact on her though, whether it had been Rafe or not, and she had followed the debates in the Commons with much greater interest than earlier. The cause felt more personal now that she knew someone who had something to gain from the vote. It was as if her world had been opened up a little bit more, even though everything was the same. She had always been surrounded by the two-natureds, and Rafe hadn’t even admitted to being a shifter so it shouldn’t have affected her so much, but it had.

  Following the heated debate had also made her understand why he would have lied. It helped her get over her upset. Who could blame him for wanting to hide what he was, especially when demonstrators were making things more difficult? They had marched through Hyde Park the previous night, but like Rafe had predicted, shifters had been a no-show. In today’s papers, the demonstrators were claiming they had scared the shifters into hiding. Charly didn’t like it. It was only a matter of time before the powerful shifters would show the humans exactly how not scared they were.

  As she had suspected, the vote in the Parliament had gone against the two-natureds, but with a much smaller margin than previously. Disappointed with her fellow humans, she had wanted to call Rafe, but had managed to prevent herself in time. If he didn’t want to tell her the truth, it wasn’t her place to force him to out himself.

  Still, she felt that the lie sat uneasily between them. She was waiting for Rafe to show up with nervous anticipation, fiddling with the papers she had placed on her brother’s dining table. The large table that seated ten would be the safest place for their meeting, especially if they sat at opposite ends.

  Yeah, right. As if anywhere with Rafe would be safe. And she didn’t mean his possible status as a wolf-shifter. He was dangerous because he could so easily override her personal restraints. Even now she felt excitement build inside her.
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  With all honesty, she didn’t know what to think of him. Having been brought up with humans only, she didn’t have any experience in dealing with non-humans, even on ordinary matters, let alone with someone who wanted to get up close and personal with her. Was she appalled or thrilled? It was uncomfortable to realise that she might actually have more reservations now that she suspected he wasn’t a human.

  Then again, it might help her keep things professional between them.

  A tiny voice at the back of her mind tried to suggest an entirely different approach. Wouldn’t it be great to have a boyfriend like Raphael Green, a successful businessman, to show to her parents? He would win them over easily with his charm and then she could throw it in their faces that he wasn’t a human. See how they would take that.

  It was a nice image, but reality intervened. He wasn’t interested in anything long-term with her, only a quick roll in the sack. And while she was sure Rafe could stand up to her father, she couldn’t really put him in that situation, even if they were serious. Which they weren’t.

  To pass time – and to distract herself – Charly concentrated on everything she had learned about the land transaction so far. She had tried two different approaches: finding out who actually owned the land by going through official records, and trying to come up with motives for someone who would want to prevent the building project.

  Both approaches had turned out to be surprisingly fruitless. The last transaction record for the land she had been able to find was from the eighteenth-century, which baffled her. Even if the land had been inherited numerous times since within the same family, there should have been some mention of it. The other line she was following was just conjecture until the private investigator she often employed returned with information.

  Was it a landowner who didn’t want new people in his backyard? After making a few phone calls to officials she had compiled a list of names for the investigator to look into. Or was it someone in the village who opposed everything new just on principle? It could be the local cultural heritage preservation society, for example, though she found it difficult to believe that old ladies would go so far as to forge land records.

  Then again, there were all those murders in Midsomer….

  Ok, that was TV and not real life. So maybe it was someone who wanted that piece of land for himself … to prospect gold in the creek that ran through it. Okay, that was a bit farfetched too, but maybe it was a fly-fisher protecting his salmon rights.

  She didn’t think any of these scenarios were very plausible, but she went through them like a mantra in her head to ward off the flush of excitement that went through her every time she thought about Rafe. And that was just about all the time. Thank heavens it was Friday. She wouldn’t have to pretend to be sane in front of her colleagues for two whole days.

  The life-long habit of keeping her body in control finally came to her aid. First, she managed to calm her mind, and then her body followed so that she was perfectly composed when the doorbell rang, heralding Rafe’s arrival.

  Then she opened the door and her equilibrium shot to pieces.

  His size hit her first. She had managed to forget how big he was. He wasn’t even standing straight but had propped a hand against the wall by the door and was leaning a little towards her, and she still had to angle her neck to look up to him.

  The strength in his blue-eyed gaze made the second blow to her self-control, and before she even noticed, she had averted her eyes. She wanted to lift them back up just to show she wasn’t cowed by him, but his body made her forget everything else.

  He was dressed like a biker in boots, a jacket of worn black leather that hugged his wide shoulders, and low-riding jeans that revealed interesting things about his male anatomy. With his height and muscle structure, the getup was truly impressive and it took a physical effort to force her eyes back up to his face. His thick blond hair was even more tousled than usual, not at all flattened by the helmet he was holding in his other hand.

  Who cared whether or not he was human when he looked this gorgeous? And she wasn’t even into bikers.

  Rafe walked in as if she wasn’t standing there transfixed, blocking the doorway. “Sorry I’m late. I had to check in with my brother in Epsom.”

  She could only nod as she watched him stalk across the vast room to the dining table and place his helmet on it. He had buttocks that should be outlawed, or preserved for private admiration and use. Like sinking her teeth into.

  Shocked by the uncharacteristic notion, she managed to douse her arousal, but then he bent over to rub Bob’s ears, giving her a full view of the said derriere, and her body failed her completely. She almost whimpered as she drank in his fine form. The sound was barely audible, but he turned his head to shoot her a quick glance. The smug look on his face made it clear that the bastard knew exactly what kind of an effect he was having on her.

  Charly cleared her throat, determined to overcome her arousal. “You weren’t late. I only just arrived myself.” She may have left work early, but she had eaten out and had treated herself with a visit to a hair salon. Her waist-long hair didn’t need much maintenance, but she liked to have it washed, and her skull massaged regularly; it was a relaxing start for the weekend. She had asked the hairdresser to comb her hair open and it was flowing down in a heavy mass. She wondered if Rafe had noticed.

  He straightened up and checked her out, giving her a notion that he didn’t miss anything. “Have you had a chance to walk Bob yet?” He asked the question conversationally, completely ignoring her staggered state.

  She was grateful for it. “Not yet. I thought I’d go once we finished with the papers.” She waved towards the pile on the table behind him, but he didn’t turn to look at them.

  “Is there something I actually need to take a look at?”

  “Not really,” Charly sighed. “I think I need to talk to the people in the village and see what I can learn that way.”

  He frowned. “Not alone you won’t,” he stated. Then, before she could tell him that she didn’t respond well to dictates, he smiled. “We’ll go together tomorrow. Let’s make a day of it. We’ll take Bob too.” He looked so delighted with his plan that it was impossible to get annoyed with his high-handed manners.

  Who did she think she was fooling? The mere thought of spending a day with him excited her.

  “So we’re not taking the bike?” she teased him to distract herself.

  He grinned and there wasn’t a meditation in the whole world that would calm her from the effect it had on her. “Not unless you absolutely want to.”

  She stifled a shudder. “I don’t think I’d make a good biker chick.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that.” His warm gaze raked her up and down, making her blood heat wherever it touched. “I can definitely see those legs sheathed in black leather.” The way he said it, she could easily see herself sitting astride a bike, pressing her chest against his firm back, holding his waist tightly.

  “Well … ” she had to clear her throat before she was able to continue, “perhaps some other time.”

  “Perhaps,” he returned, but his eyes held a promise of it. She returned his look, feeling their mutual arousal rise again. Would they even make it out of the house?

  Bob pushed Rafe in the thigh, breaking the moment when Rafe turned to look down at it, and she didn’t know whether to feel disappointed or relieved. “Feeling left out, are you, Bob?” he laughed. He gave the dog another enthusiastic rub. “I think we’ll take Bob for a walk,” he stated. Without waiting for an answer, he went to fetch Bob’s leash and put it on. He then headed out the door, the dog following him smartly as if it had actually passed its obedience training. Charly had no choice but to follow too, utterly bemused by the turn of events.

  Chapter Ten

  Rafe drew in a lungful of air the moment he got outdoors, using the exhaust fumes from the busy Park Lane to replace Charlotte’s intoxicating scent. He shouldn’t have ridden down in the same li
ft cage as her. The small space had filled with her essence and messed with his already aroused body. It didn’t help that he had spent the ride trying not to remember what they had done the last time they’d ridden together.

  What was it about her anyway that got him aroused faster than any woman he had known? He couldn’t even claim she had shown any particular dominant tendencies tonight. On the contrary, she had been so taken with his looks that she had followed him out meekly without even a token protest. Who could have guessed the bad-boy look would affect her so much.

  Her beauty definitely had him going from the moment she opened the door. Dressed casually in jeans and a red cashmere V-neck sweater that caressed her curves softly, her gorgeous black hair flowing down like a velvet fountain, she had simply taken his breath away. He had needed all his self-control not to pull her into his arms the moment he saw her, but he had managed to walk past. He knew, however, that taking the dog for a walk was only postponing the inevitable.

  During the ride to London earlier, he had tried to reason with his wolf about how to deal with her. The human half thought that he should just sleep with her and have done with it. No need to disclose uncomfortable truths. But the wolf didn’t like the secrecy and it didn’t like the notion of a temporary bedfellow either.

  He had absolutely forbidden it to put out the call to a human, but the wolf wasn’t ready to admit they shouldn’t pursue her in earnest. The argument between his two halves had reached a point where it had seemed best to simply keep his distance from her and behave professionally during the course of their work relationship. Now thought, the way she was affecting him was making it really difficult for him to keep that decision.

  Friends first.

  The suggestion coming from his wolf was actually a good one. Rafe turned to look at the tall and slender woman walking by his side, seeking for something neutral to say that didn’t involve odes about how her black hair was shining in the moonlight.