“Don’t think you can disappear for months on end and then arrive in the middle of the night and receive a welcoming committee,” Murray said. When Bruce turned there was indeed a shotgun leaning against the wall, easy for Murray to reach.
“This isn’t about me or Jenna,” Bruce said. Murray frowned at Jenna’s name. “I’m here to warn you.”
“Oh?” Murray said and his fingers twitched like he wanted that gun.
“There’s going to be trouble up in the mountains during full moon and I want you to make sure the villagers are all locked up tight in their homes in case it comes this way. Guns won’t save.”
“What kind of trouble are you talking about?” Murray asked. Bruce shook his head but didn’t break eye contact.
“The kind of trouble humans shouldn’t get involved with.”
Murray hesitated only a second, but it was long enough for Bruce to know that Murray knew what he was saying. Maybe not all of it, but enough.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said eventually.
“Yes, you do. You’ve known for a long time. Don’t play dumb. Just keep the villagers safe. After full moon, it will be over.”
“And you’ll be back?” Murray asked.
“I’ll try to be. I don’t want to leave Jenna. But either way, she’ll be back. I’m going to try to be with her.”
Murray nodded slowly as if he’d given up on arguing. Bruce nodded too, and then he left the house. There wasn’t any more that he could do or that he could say. He knew that Murray had known about what was going on in those mountains. He didn’t know how much he’d known, but he knew that he knew more than he should have. There was a reason the Assassins hadn’t been able to move on. They’d picked up on something, and when Bruce had sent out his feelers he’d realized why.
Not all the humans were as ignorant as they pretended to be.
His people were going to be safe now. Murray would see to it that they were as far from harm’s way as they could be. It was up to the shifters to do the rest. The shifters and Jenna.
When he thought of her his chest constricted. No matter how accurate Dwayne was, he didn’t want to believe that Jenna would turn on him and kill Tara. He didn’t want to believe that she would be able to be controlled. He wanted to believe in her, in the future, they had together, in the chance they had to win this war.
He had to.
Chapter 4
The next day Darren had to go out of town on business. It was something that had just come up, he’d said. Big surprise. He wasn’t sure when he would be back but he would let me know.
Jenna packed her stuff, all of it, just after hanging up from the conversation with him. She wasn’t coming back to El Verano. She had already organized with the landlord. He was going to sell off the few pieces of furniture Jenna had bought, and the place would be open for new tenants. She was going home.
Jenna couldn’t wait.
She’d had enough of the city, where there was no green and no wildlife and no Bruce. She left on a plane to head back to Williamsburg, where she wanted to make it right with her people. When she’d left she hadn’t just left Bruce, she’d left them too. The Syracuse Mountains lay in the distance, beckoning for Jenna to come back. The pull was strong, like they were calling her home, and she had the feeling that it wasn’t just about the Mountains, but about Bruce that was in them.
She was back on track with him, and for the first time she really understood what he said when he talked about their bond.
There was only one obstacle now. The Assassins were headed in the wrong direction, but that wasn’t going to last long. At some point they were going to realize what was going on and then they were going to turn around. Darren would know then that Jenna had set them up, and she would be a part of the enemy.
She would be in as much danger as the shifters, if not more. She had no way of defending herself. Jenna thought that maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to go by Bruce’s cabin and go get her gun. She might need it.
But first she needed to warn the Family what was happening. She knew that there were going to be a lot of the Assassins because they were planning on taking out all the shifters. And she knew that they had about a day to get ready before the Assassins turned around.
A day wasn’t a lot when it came down to how much time you had left to live.
The plane touched down. She couldn’t be in and out of the airport as quick as she had before because this time she had luggage. She couriered it Williamstown instead of transporting it herself. She sent it to Murray’s address. He would sign for it and understand she was coming back.
She took a cab that dropped her off at the edge of the town. She didn’t want to go in there, not yet. So instead of walking in between the buildings when the car pulled away again, she followed the dusty trail that led into the mountains. How many times had she seen Bruce follow this route? Everything made sense now.
The was low in the sky by the time she finally made it to the plateau. It had been a hard climb, a lot of work and she was heaving and sweating by the time she got there. She was the only one in the clearing. The place seemed desolate in the daylight, like nothing and no one had been there in a long time.
Jenna knew that it was an illusion, but it was a good one. But when she stepped onto the rock she felt a prickle in her legs. Something like magic, running through the earth. She knew that if she was a shifter it would have been stronger.
She sat down on a rock to the side and waited. They would come eventually. They had to. Otherwise, if they didn’t appear, she would find Bruce. She could follow that tug toward him. Even now she could feel the direction he was in. It was toward the East, and if she had to guess she would say he was in the cave. But that was just because she knew what was in that direction.
The sun sank away slowly and the night drained the world of color until everything seemed dark and scary. The trees were like tall figures waving in the wind, and it felt like there were eyes on her everywhere. She rubbed her hands on her upper arms, trying to drive away the cold that felt like it had driven right down to the bone.
“What are you doing here?” a voice sounded from the trees and it wasn’t a friendly voice. The man with the long ponytail stepped into the light of the moon and it lit up his face enough for Jenna to recognize him as the one Bruce had pointed out as the only human. The psychic, he’d said.
Jenna feared him more than the shifters, in a way, because he knew things that she didn’t necessarily want to disclose.
“I needed to warn you,” Jenna said and her voice sounded thin. The psychic – Dwayne, if she remembered correctly – stood in a way that reminded her of someone jamming their hands into their pockets, even though he didn’t have pockets.
“We don’t need you to fight our battles,” he said and Jenna got the feeling that he really didn’t like her. She started feeling uncomfortable being alone with him. He wasn’t a shifter but she was sure he could hurt her in some way.
“I’m not trying to interfere, I just want to help.” Jenna didn’t know why she was trying to defend herself, but she was there to warn the Family and this Dwayne guy was part of the Family, after all.
“We don’t want your help,” Dwayne said.
Jenna took a deep breath. She’d wanted to say something but she’d decided against it. She would just wait for Bruce. He would keep the peace and let her speak.
A moment later the other couple appeared. They were less hostile than Dwayne was but only just. It seemed like everyone was set on being against her. Jenna just wanted to help, didn’t they see that? Bruce was her husband and they were his Family. Didn’t that make them her family too, in a way?
But the way they were glaring at her, Dwayne especially, it didn’t look like it.
Bruce was next to appear and Jenna was relieved. It was starting to feel crowded with all the hostility and the animalistic stares she was getting, and she didn’t know how many shifters she could deal with before it became a
problem.
“Jenna,” Bruce said and he caressed the word like it wasn’t just a name. It looked like he wanted to walk up to her and wrap his arms around her, but he remembered where he was before he did and he ended up just standing very close to her.
“I wanted to come and warn you,” Jenna said.
“Why don’t we wait for the others, Bruce?” the man said, clutching his wife’s hand. She stood slightly behind him like there was a threat.
“So that we can outnumber her, Stephen?” Bruce said, emphasizing the guy’s voice the way he’d done with Bruce. “It’s not like we don’t have the collective strength to do it as it is.” He laid the sarcasm on thick and Stephen pulled a face.
Tara and the other woman walked through the trees together. They both looked at Jenna like she was someone that had to be removed. A bird that circled overhead, and when it dropped to the ground it took the shape of a human before it touched the ground. It was spectacular and scary all at the same time.
Jenna fought the urge to take a step back, grabbed Bruce’s hand instead. He squeezed her fingers reassuringly, but instead of holding onto her as she’d hoped he let her go.
“What did you want to say?” Bruce said to Jenna once everyone was in the circle. They weren’t going to waste time with greetings.
“They’re on their way,” Jenna said and she didn’t have to tell them who she was referring to. “But they’re going the wrong way. They’re headed toward Ficksburg first, but that won’t last. They’ll figure it out sooner or later and then they’ll turn around.”
“Why are they going that way?” Tara asked. Jenna felt a shiver when she looked into the woman’s eyes. The irises had changed color, so light that they looked white and it looked scary with just the pinpricks of black where here pupils were.
“I told Darren that Bruce had made me leave the area because there was going to be a meeting,” she said.
“What?” Dwayne looked at her with narrowed eyes. “And he didn’t pick up on it?”
Jenna shook her head. She wasn’t about to explain to a psychic how she’d mislead another psychic.
“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” the big woman asked.
“Would I be here if I was lying? I could have just left them to come and kill you tonight if I wanted to. They were coming this way sooner.”
The big woman scowled at her.
“Full moon,” Dwayne said. “That’s when they were coming.”
“That’s when they’re coming now because they’re going to Ficksburg first. I don’t know how many they’ll be, but it will be quite a few because they’re planning on taking you all out.”
Tara hissed at Jenna like she was the one that meant them hard. Bruce stepped forward, but he didn’t say anything.
“I’m not the enemy here,” Jenna said, speaking up for herself. When Bruce just stood there, not saying anything, Jenna tugged on her sleeve.
“Why aren’t you sticking up for me?” she asked, right in front of everyone. Bruce looked at her and something Jenna saw his animal slide behind his eyes. How had she not noticed it before?
“I’m pretty much ready to take any fight that’s coming your way,” he said in a way that sounded like he didn’t get what she was going on about. Jenna shook her head. This wasn’t the way she thought it was supposed to work, but there was a communication gap between them. Not linguistic or cultural, but it was the difference between humans and animals.
Bruce turned to her. Jenna expected something romantic or something committal. Bruce took both hands in his.
“I really appreciate you coming down here to warn us,” he said. “But I think you should get out of here.”
Jenna didn’t know what her face showed, but Bruce added a moment later, “To keep you safe.”
Jenna pulled her hands out of his and took a step back. She looked around the group at all the hostile faces, and then back at Bruce who stood in front of her with his hands now hanging at his sides.
“You don’t trust me,” she said. She was looking at him, but it was aimed at all of them. “I keep coming here, risking myself and my human life to help you, and you think I’m the enemy.”
“Jenna…” Bruce said. She shook her head. She didn’t want to hear it. She turned her back on the Family and started walking away. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she thought about the rule that you should never turn your back on a wild animal. But to be honest, they’d done it first. She walked into the trees, and this time, Bruce didn’t follow her the way he had last time. She half-hoped that he would, but she wasn’t surprised when it didn’t happen.
She made her way down the mountainside. The trees cut out all the moonlight and Jenna tripped over roots and rocks, fumbling her way down to the town like even the mountain didn’t want her.
She felt miserable and rejected. The mistrust hurt, but it was to be expected. She’d only been trouble for the Family since she’d been married to Bruce. What had really hurt was the fact that he seemed to agree.
Jenna didn’t understand what it was all about. He’d been on her side all the time. He’d thought that introducing her into his life would work. That was why they’d gotten married, wasn’t it? And now it seemed like he agreed with the Family like she was bad news. It was like something had happened while she was gone – to make a plan to save them, having said that – and now he didn’t know if he could trust her anymore.
When Jenna finally cleared the trees and walked into Williamsburg the place had been transformed. Jenna had forgotten how amazing it looked during Christmas in the small town. They decorated it the way they always had, with decorations hanging from street lamps. There were fairy lights in arches over the road and there was a giant spruce made up as a Christmas tree in the town center.
For a moment, the tree reminded Jenna of the tree lighting ceremony she’d gone with Darren to at the hospice. Then she had mourned the loss of not only her parents but her people here in Williamsburg. Now she was back.
There wasn’t anyone around. It was freezing and the snow was piled up on the sides of the road. Everyone was in bed, cuddled against the cold.
Jenna walked toward the cabins and she knocked on Murray’s door. He opened it almost straight away and when he saw her his face lit up. It was good to know that someone was still happy to see her.
“Jenna-girl,” he said and he hugged her. “You’ve come home.”
She nodded and walked inside when Murray stood to the side. The house was warm and cozy. A tree was made up with presents already under it, and there were two mugs on the counter and a kettle boiling.
“Are you expecting company?” Jenna asked, nodding at the mugs.
“I was expecting you,” Murray said. “Young Jonas came to deliver to bags that had your name on them this afternoon so I thought you’d swing by. Bit later than I’d thought but…” he shrugged. Jenna smiled, and then her face crumpled and suddenly all the emotions she’d been pushing down came tumbling out and she was crying.
Murray shook his head and walked to the counter, pouring the boiling water into the mugs. The smell of cocoa filled the room, and it smelled like Jenna’s childhood. Her dad used to make cocoa when it snowed.
“I miss him,” Jenna whispered and Murray nodded.
“I know. He would be so proud of you.”
Jenna chuckled without emotion. “I don’t know. My life is upside down now. I don’t even know what’s going on anymore.”
Jenna knew that she was saying things she wouldn’t be able to know how to explain, but there was too much of it and she had tears on her cheeks and Murray was the one person that wouldn’t expect her to be strong.
“You’re right where you want to be, and that means you are where you should be,” Murray said and walked to the lounge where he sat down. Jenna followed his example. “Bruce is not a bad guy. He’s just different. You can’t expect your life to be the same once you start sharing it with someone like him.
Like him… if only Mur
ray knew, she thought.
“I’m glad you came back,” Murray said. “This place isn’t the same without you.”
They sat in silence drinking their hot cocoa and for a moment it felt like old times, when it was snow outside and warm inside and everything was right with the world.
“I just don’t know what to do now,” Jenna said. It sounded like she meant with her life now that she was back in town, but she was talking about the war and her relationship with Bruce more than anything else.
“I think you’ll know what to do,” Murray said. And that was true. In a way, Jenna knew exactly what to do. It was just hard when she had no support when even Bruce thought that she was the enemy. But after she did what she needed to do, he would be free and they could start over. All of them.
It looked like she was the enemy now, but when it was all over it wouldn’t seem so bad. Sometimes people needed saving, even if it was from themselves, and one of the biggest downfalls of the shifters was that they thought they could do it all themselves. Especially Tara. If she was humbler she’d be a better leader.
Maybe after it was all over the pack would realize what it meant to follow someone else, and that leaders didn’t necessarily follow through. Jenna was just a human, but she could fix it. Hadn’t she been doing just that? But none of them believed it.
She would just have to show them.
“I have to get going,” Jenna said once her cup was empty and she got up. Murry got up to let her out, and she walked the short distance to Bruce’s cabin in the darkness. He hadn’t been there in a while. A thick layer of dust covered everything.
Jenna cleaned up the bed and remade it, and then crawled in. She would do the rest of the house later. Maybe after tomorrow night, he would come and live with her again. Maybe everything was going to be okay one they realized that they didn’t have to follow just one person’s way of doing things.
Chapter 5
When Bruce woke up late afternoon he could feel the night creeping closer. It was still an hour until sundown, but the pull of the moon was already strong. The moon was visible in the sky when he stepped out of the cave, despite the fact that it was still light.
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