Every time Reid came home he commented on how much Kurt had grown, how strong he was getting. And it was true. When Reid was home, the power sometimes got so strong it was almost unbearable.
Kurt’s first change happened when he was four. Reid was home, thank god for that. We were watching television. Kurt played with his toys on the carpet. He had light blond hair, so light it was almost silver, and eyes that were beautiful brown when his wolf didn’t peek through them.
It had happened a lot up until now, especially when Reid was around. His eyes were often yellow. But nothing else happened. Not even during full moon. The first time we’d been sure the moon was going to call Kurt’s wolf out of him too.
We heard a small grunt, a growling sound, and when we looked a wolf pup was lolling on the ground with a pure silver coat and yellow eyes. I would know those eyes anywhere.
“Kurt, baby?” I asked and he made a small barking sound. Reid laughed. I was shocked. I held out my hands and Kurt bounded to me, licking my face when he got to me.
“That’s my boy,” Reid laughed. He brought on the change, and shifted too. Kurt tucked his tail between his legs when Reid stood in front of him in wolf from. He’d seen Reid’s wolf before, but it was different now Kurt was a wolf too.
Reid padded to him on soft feet and sniffed him, licking his face with a large pink tongue. Kurt made small whimpering sounds but returned the affection.
Reid threw his head back and howled. Kurt followed suit. The sound was cute, a high-pitched tone that somehow fit perfectly with Reid’s deep howl.
I felt suddenly left out. No matter how part of this I was, no matter how much I could feel and channel the power, be in touch with the pack and be the alpha’s mate, I was still just a human.
Reid looked at me with his pale blue eyes as if he knew what I was thinking, and he brought on the change, shapeshifting back to human form. His change pulled Kurt back too, and my two men were standing in front of me, human again. I smiled. Reid kissed me and Kurt cuddled me.
I had him as long as Reid was on duty. When he came back, he was Reid’s boy. I could live with that.
The phone rang and Reid picked up. He listened for a moment, and then he nodded, and hung up again. When he looked at me he was angry, his eyes wolf eyes again even though he’d just changed back.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“That was Harry. He and Sarelle broke up. She’d refused to join another pack. She’s gone rogue, quit her position as a soldier.”
“What does that mean? Like, for us?”
Reid glanced at Kurt, and took a deep breath.
“I don’t know. Harry didn’t say anything else, but I have a feeling we might see her again. She was already angry. Let’s just hope she doesn’t have a taste for revenge.”
I was suddenly scared. I couldn’t protect Kurt if I was alone and a werewolf attacked us.
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
“We’re going to get you ready to fight,” he said.
Allegra
I found a self-defense class, geared towards women that stayed at home when their husbands were away. Since Reid had gotten the phone call that Sarelle was back and looking for revenge, I’d been terrified. Reid had wanted to teach me more about self-defense but he’d suddenly gotten called up for duty and I as left alone at home with Kurt.
He was only five. That meant that I didn’t have to protect only myself, but him, too. And I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to do that.
Sarelle used to be a part of the pack until her behavior had been disrespectful enough towards Reid and I that Reid had kicked her out of the pack. It wasn’t a unique situation, werewolves got kicked out of packs all the time if it just didn’t work out. That’s what Reid had said.
But to me, this was a unique situation, because I was human, and for the first time a werewolf was out to get me.
I dropped Kurt off at Charlene’s house. John and Charlene had had a baby girl almost a year before we had Kurt, and we often arranged play dates for Kurt and little Carla. They got along really well, they loved each other and it gave both Charlene and I a chance to catch a break.
“Mommy’s not going to be long, okay?” I said to Kurt and kissed him on the head. He ran into the house, looking for Carla. Charlene smiled at me.
“They’re stunning at this age,” she said. I nodded. They were stunning at that age as long as they were human. Kurt was perfectly human when Reid was away. It was when he came home and the power built between the two of us that the power in him started showing itself, too.
Kurt was a little freak of nature. I was a human and technically incapable of having a werewolf baby. But I had one. And he had power all his own that showed long before the teenager years. I was lucky that it was only when Reid was home that he changed. He knew how to deal with him.
It felt like we each had half of Kurt. When it was just me and Kurt at home I got the human half. When Reid came back from duty it was him and Kurt, the two werewolves, and Kurt could relate more to his father than to me.
I was lucky that it had worked like that. But still, in a way, I felt like my head was underwater half the time.
I drove the short distance to the recreational center where Randall Humphrey offered his fighting classes. We were five women in the class and we spent more time gossiping than Randall liked.
I was up first when the class finally kicked off, and Randall asked me to show him some of the techniques he’d been teaching us. He pretended to be an attacker, and grabbed my neck with one hand from the front. I put my left arm over his, and locked his elbow, doing the slow-motion press against his jaw that I would do fast in real life.
He nodded his approval and asked me to turn around. He wrapped his arms around my body, pinning my arms to my side. I demonstrated a kick to the shin and then jabbing my head back into his nose.
“I think you’re going to be just fine,” he said. He didn’t ask me to demonstrate other moves. Last week I’d put him on his back in front of the rest of the class and that never went down well.
After I picked up Kurt we headed home. The front door was open and I frowned. My elation about doing so well in class drained away and my body filled with dread instead. I could handle full on attacks, but I wasn’t ready for an ambush.
But a moment later Reid stepped out through the door. Kurt squealed and squirmed until I got the seatbelt for him. He jumped out of the car and ran to Reid.
“Daddy!” he cried out. Reid laughed and lifted him up onto his hip.
When I joined them he kissed me. I felt the electricity in the air, the hum of power that always accompanied Reid. My lips tingled where he’d kissed me.
“I didn’t know you were coming home,” I said.
“They let me off early. For good behavior.” He winked. “I wanted to surprise you guys.”
“Surprise!” Kurt yelled and Reid laughed.
“Definitely a surprise,” I said. It was good to have him home. I’d missed Reid, and sometimes it was hard to explain to Kurt why Reid wasn’t home when he wanted him to be.
“How are your classes going?” Reid asked.
“They’re going great. I’ll show you a bit later and you can tell me what you think of my progress,” I said.
We spent time together and watched a kids’ show on television with Kurt. Reid sat with him on the carpet and it gave me a chance to watch them side by side. Kurt was a little clone. He had almost-white hair, a very light shade of Reid’s wheat colored hair. When Kurt wasn’t a wolf pup he had sea-green eyes. They turned yellow when he changed, like a lion’s. It didn’t take much to see that Kurt was going to make his mark in the werewolf world.
There were times that I wondered if there was any of me in him. But then Charlene would comment on something he said or did that reminded her so much of me, and I felt a bit better. Still, having a werewolf for a child was about just as hard as having a werewolf for a husband.
When Reid tucked Kurt into b
ed and closed the door, he turned to me and smiled. I stepped into him and wrapped my arms around his neck. He kissed me, lingering over my lips, and my body became hot. It had been months since I’d seen him, touched him. I wanted him. I wanted to relearn every part of him, let him take what was his again.
“Come on, show me what you learned,” he said. I looked at him.
“Now?” I asked.
“Why not?”
I groaned. “Because I was thinking more along the lines of reproduction rather than survival.”
Reid chuckled, shaking his head like I’d made a joke and took my hand. He led me to the living room. I sighed and pushed away my urges. He really wanted to do this, right now.
“Okay, run me through what you know,” he said.
“Alright, well, I can’t really tell you what to do because that would defeat the purpose, right? So you attack me, and then I’ll do what I’ve learned,” I said.
Reid pulled up his eyebrows at me.
“What?” I asked. “If anyone comes at me to attack me, they’re not going to stop me and warn me first, telling me what they’re going to do, right?”
Reid smiled and nodded. I was making sense. Good. He took a few steps away, and he looked relaxed and laid back. He had one hand in his pocket and his whole stance said ‘friend’. I wanted to comment. I took a breath, but suddenly he was in front of me. Suddenly he was on top of me. He’d moved so fast I hadn’t seen him, and his hands were around my wrists. I did what Randall had taught me to free myself.
But Reid’s hands were like manacles around my wrists and there was no way I was going to get out of it. And it wasn’t just the fact that his hands were so strong that I couldn’t get out. It was the atmosphere that came with him. All the love and affection had drained out of the room and Reid was a dangerous animal in front of me. He oozed out authority and it was laced with danger. His eyes were the color of blue flame and his face was menacing.
My heart beat in my throat and I think both of us were very aware of my fear. Reid, because he was a wolf and wolves fed off fear. Me because I knew exactly what buttons I was pushing by being scared of him.
“Let me go,” I said, and I fought to keep my voice sounding normal. I was scared, and I didn’t want it to show. It was bad enough that even I could feel it in the air around us.
Reid let go of my wrists and stepped back. The ferocity leaked away and two seconds later it was like it had ever been there. I took a deep breath.
“Again,” I said. This time I expected him. The speed didn’t catch me off guard, but his position did. He was suddenly behind me, with one hand wrapped around my neck and his mouth was in my shoulder, ready to take out a bite. It wasn’t a human attack, but it wasn’t humans I was preparing for.
I couldn’t see him, but I knew that it had gone through his mind. I tried to get him off me but it was like a child struggling against an adult. It was pointless.
“Reid,” I managed to say and my voice sounded choked. I turned to look at him and there was nothing human left, even if he was still in human form.
“We are still just pretending, right?” I asked. He looked at me with those animal eyes, and as I watched the green, his normal color, bled into them until he was back completely and there was no sign of his wolf.
“I just wanted to see what you’d learned. I can’t pretend to attack you and not pretend to be an attacker,” he said. That didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I wasn’t a werewolf. I didn’t have to differentiate between my human and my animal side.
“You’re unhappy,” I said. He shook his head and looked behind him before backing up to the arm chair and sitting down.
“I just don’t think you’re prepared for this at all. You can’t save yourself when it really comes down to it. What happens if you’re home alone? Or when it’s just you and Kurt, and I’m away on duty? I can’t let that happen.”
“I’ve been going to classes for weeks!” I said. “I’m top of my class and everything.”
“And your instructor is human, isn’t he?” Reid asked. I nodded. Reid nodded too.
“What he taught you is going to be hard to do even if your attacker is human. The real deal is different than any class setting. But if it’s a werewolf? How can he teach you the right things?”
I sighed and sat down on the couch opposite him.
“So what you’re saying is that all of this was for nothing?”
“I just want you to understand what you’re going to be up against,” he said, and that wasn’t an answer. “With werewolves, when there’s a human it’s a law that it’s only about drawing first blood and nothing else. Any other damage can be viewed as an assassination attempt. But you can die without bleeding. The law has loopholes. It assumes we’re just about bloodlust but there are smarter wolves, too.”
“I thought all that was pack rule,” I said. I had no idea the government was so on top of things.
“It’s a pack rule for a reason,” he said. “If you’re going face to face with a werewolf, she will still be stronger than you, faster than you. And if she loses control at any point and she starts the change, it won’t matter how far she is. As soon as she’s not completely human and she does breaks skin, you’re going to be howling with us next full moon.”
The idea of being a werewolf made me shiver. I lived with wolves, I was friends with wolves, I helped rule wolves. But I didn’t want to be one. The amount of power I dealt with was more than enough for me.
“I’m assuming you’re saying ‘she’ because you’re talking about Sarelle. Not werewolves in general. What am I supposed to do, then?” I asked.
His face clouded over when I mentioned her name, and I saw a small glimpse of how worried he was about it.
“Start over,” he said. “I’m home now, I’ll teach you. And when I’m gone I’ll get you someone else, a werewolf that can teach you what to do. But you’re just a human, Allegra.”
The way he said the last bit made me scared. If he was scared for me, knowing everything he did, I had a lot of reason to be.
Chapter 2
Reid
She wasn’t ready. There was no way she was going to survive a werewolf attack. And knowing Sarelle, it was going to be about revenge. There was nothing as dangerous a female werewolf with a sense of vengeance. And Sarelle was strong. I’d fought her myself when she’d come to me about being a part of the pack.
That was how we decided on the hierarchy. Everything in a werewolf’s life was about physical fighting. We healed fast enough, and unless we literally lost our hearts or our heads, or we were shot with silver, we survived anything.
None of this counted for Allegra. She was human. And she could turn into a wolf so easily if something happened. Lycanthropy was the most contagious disease on earth. But Sarelle wouldn’t want to turn her. She would just want her dead. If Allegra was a wolf she would be able to take her place completely, and she would be more of a threat than she was now.
Sarelle would never risk that. She worked smart. Immoral, but smart.
Allegra went to bed, sulking. She was pouting like a child. She hadn’t been able to beat me at all. Not even close. And she was upset that she hadn’t been able to use anything she’d been taught. Or anything I’d been trying to teach her. To her it was still a game.
She just didn’t understand how serious this was. She could die. What was worse, Kurt could die. I didn’t know if Sarelle had it in for my offspring, but if he had part of Allegra in him anything was possible.
I left the house and for a moment I wasn’t sure which way I was going to go. The forest or to someone’s house like a normal person? When I came home I spent more time in the forest as a wolf than anything else.
But this time I decided I wasn’t going to the woods. I wasn’t going to go out and change. I didn’t have a problem with controlling my wolf today. Lately I was okay. Since Kurt was born, actually, I’ve been keeping a handle on things. I hadn’t lost control in a long, long time.
“Do you want to go out for a drink?” I asked. He looked at me like he was waiting for the punchline. When I looked at him expectantly he laughed.
“We never do that,” he said. I shrugged.
“I just need to talk. Man to man. No wolf to wolf nonsense. So I thought we might as well grab a beer while we’re at it.”
He nodded. “I’ll just check with Charlene,” he said and disappeared into the house. I stayed outside. The night air was fresh and cool on my skin, and it carried scents of a lot of other people that were around us in their houses. John appeared a few minutes later.
“It’s fine but I’ve got a curfew,” he said and pulled a face. I chuckled. For a wild wolf, Charlene had him on a very short leash.
We walked. It was a nice night, and two big muscled men in one car was uncomfortable. When we reached the pub it was already quite full. The atmosphere buzzed with the energy of potential, and laughter rose above the gentle hum of conversation. Smoke hung in the air like an artificial sky.
Werewolves and alcohol didn’t really go together. Neither did Rangers and alcohol. We’d never been inside the pub before. The noise was loud to my sensitive ears and the smoke tickled my nose, but we made our way to a booth toward the back that was empty. Eyes followed us as we walked past, but no one said anything.
Not a lot of people had what it took to approach two guys our size and look for trouble.
The table was sticky with spilled alcohol and a waitress appeared. We both order soft drinks. She looked at us until she realized we were being serious before she disappeared.
“This place is horrible,” I said to John.
“I know. Why did we come here?”
I shrugged. “Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be normal.”
John chuckled. “Of all the wolves in the pack, you’re the only one that this werewolf business feels normal to. You were born like this. The rest of us picked it up somewhere.”
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