by P J Gordon
“Exactly. So, Manda, a therianthrope woman can marry a regular man and they can have children, who will all be shapeshifters. Therefore, a shapeshifter can have a regular father and a shapeshifting mother.” Richard once more adopted his lecturing tone, in between bites of his breakfast.
“A therianthrope man and a regular woman are a different matter though. They can have children as well, but when a regular woman becomes pregnant with the child of a therianthrope man, the child she is carrying—which will always be a therianthrope—will cause her to transform. The therianthropic factor in the baby’s body crosses over into the mother’s body and changes her. She can become pregnant as a regular person, but before long she’ll change. That’s why a shapeshifter will never have a regular mother.”
Manda paused with her fork suspended between her plate and her mouth. “So that’s what you meant when you said your mother had ‘become’ a shapeshifter!”
“Not exactly,” Richard said, sipping his coffee. “Mom became a shapeshifter when she and Dad got married, before they ever decided to start a family.” He bit the corner off of a piece of toast. “The other way to join the club is by receiving an injection of blood containing the therianthropic factor, taken when the donor is in a non-human form. If the donor is in human form, the donor’s DNA imprint is active and the factor won’t imprint the recipients DNA. It won’t work then. When our parents got married, our father infected our mother, so to speak, introducing some of his blood into her system and transforming her. It was another ten years before they decided to have our brother William.”
“So what does all of this have to do with abstinence?” Manda asked, puzzled. Her studied nonchalance amused Richard, but only the slight twitching at the corner of his mouth betrayed it. When he spoke, his answer was serious and all traces of humor quickly vanished.
“If a normal man is careless, he can get a woman pregnant. That’s a pretty serious consequence. If one of us is careless, the consequences are much more serious and far-reaching. Our carelessness can turn an unsuspecting woman into a shapeshifter whether she wants to be or not—whether she’s equipped to handle it or not. That could potentially affect not just that woman and her child, but every other shapeshifter. There’s no way to know how she’ll react, if she’ll reveal the secret, or what else she might do. Can you see how dangerous that could be?”
Manda nodded. She could well imagine the trouble and chaos that a shapeshifter with a cavalier attitude could cause. One thing wasn’t completely clear though.
“Just playing devil’s advocate here, what if someone was careful? Wouldn’t that be safe?” Manda asked.
“There’s no such thing as completely safe sex,” Richard explained. “No form of birth control is even close to being reliable enough, especially for us. Unexpected things happen. It’s just too risky.” Richard looked troubled. He stared grimly into his coffee mug. Josh’s sympathetic look toward his brother left Manda wondering what she was missing. She considered them both speculatively. Josh noticed her curiosity and pushed away his almost empty plate.
“Someone we know wasn’t careful. It turned out badly,” he explained cryptically.
“I’m sorry,” Manda said quietly, reaching out to stroke Richard’s arm.
“It’s okay,” Richard responded, patting her hand, “but I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Okay. Can I ask another question then? You said your parents were married ten years before they had a baby. If birth control doesn’t work, how were they able to wait so long? I mean, there’s the obvious way, but...well...,” Manda trailed off awkwardly.
Both men were quite clearly amused by her discomfort, but not unkindly so.
“It’s not that it doesn’t work at all. It’s just not 100% reliable. Besides, that only applies to regular women. A therianthrope woman has an infallible form of birth control,” Richard explained. “Every time she shifts, her monthly cycle resets, so it’s easy to control fertility. Simple as that.” He squeezed Manda’s hand. “Any more questions?”
Manda shook her head. She’d need some time to absorb what he’d just told her. “No. Not right now.”
Richard turned to his brother. “What are your plans for today, Josh?”
“David and Stacey hit the slopes early today, but they’d like to hook up for lunch if Manda feels up to it. We could just have room service again if you want. After that I thought I’d get in a few runs with them. That’s if you don’t need me around here.”
“You should go with them. Manda and I will get along fine.”
Manda had finished eating and scooted back to snuggle up against Richard’s warm body. The fire had taken the chill from the air, but his body heat was still welcome. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled the blanket around them both.
“What would you like?” he asked her when she was situated comfortably. “Shall we have lunch with the others? If you don’t feel up to it we can do it another day.”
“We can do it today. That’ll be nice. But I don’t think I want to go out. Can we just eat here?” Manda was fairly certain that going out would involve Richard carrying her around like a doll, and the thought of the spectacle she would make wasn’t appealing.
“Of course. I didn’t think you’d want to go out,” Richard agreed.
“I’ll text David and let them know,” Josh said. “They thought they’d be in around 1:30. We can plan on lunch at 2:00.”
Manda extricated her hand from the blanket and reached for her mug, which was just out of reach on the table. Josh picked it up to hand it to her but froze when he saw the bruises revealed as her sleeve pulled up on her outstretched arm.
“Jeez, Manda! You’re black and blue! You look like you fell off a mountain. Does it hurt?” Josh’s brow furrowed.
“I’m sore,” Manda conceded.
“It’s too bad you’re not a shapeshifter already, M. You could just heal yourself.”
Richard’s body became very still against her. Too bad you’re not a shapeshifter already, Josh had said, as if to him it was a foregone conclusion. She would have given anything to know what Richard thought of his brother’s assumption. Did he approve or not? Was that the future he envisioned?
“I imagine that must be very convenient,” she said, noncommittally. She took her cup from Josh’s outstretched hand and leaned back against Richard, pulling the blanket back up around them. “Do you think we could get some of my clothes from my room? I’d like to get dressed before lunch.” She looked up at Richard and caught a look of frustration on his face. It vanished so quickly—to be replaced by one of his disarming smiles—that she almost thought she had imagined it...almost, but not quite.
“Of course,” Richard agreed readily. “If you’d like we can bring all of your things over. I’ll move out of my bedroom and you can take it.”
Manda frowned at him suspiciously. “And where would you put your things?”
“I’ll put them in the other bedroom, of course,” he answered smoothly—a little too smoothly, in Manda’s opinion.
“And what about Josh?” she pressed.
“I’ll be happy to move into your room,” Josh offered, but just as Richard’s response had seemed too smooth, Josh’s expression was a little too innocent. She narrowed her eyes at Richard and crossed her arms across her chest.
“But you would never stay in this suite alone with me without Josh to chaperone,” she stated with utter certainty. “So, you might put your things in Josh’s room, but you plan to sleep on the sofa, don’t you?”
Richard didn’t even bother to deny it. He just returned her accusing stare evenly, as if he could see nothing wrong with that plan.
Manda shook her head firmly, wincing a little as the motion momentarily reawakened the dull throb in her head. “No. I’ll go back to my own room. I won’t let you sleep on the sofa. No way.”
“You’re hurt, sweetie. I want you here where I can take care of you. It’s a comfortable sofa.” Richard’s tone and express
ion were very persuasive, but Manda refused to budge.
“No. Absolutely not! If it’s so comfortable, I’ll sleep on it!”
“Manda...,” Richard began, obviously planning to argue the point, but Josh interrupted.
“I told you she’d never go for it, but it’s okay. I have a better idea,” the younger man said smugly. “I checked in at the front desk on my way out this morning. The penthouse suite will be available this afternoon. It has four bedrooms, and a terrace with a hot tub. There’s room for us all and we can move in after lunch.” He leaned back with a satisfied smirk. “Problem solved. You can thank me at your convenience.”
“Perfect! Thank you, Josh. We’ll just move Manda’s things from her room after lunch then.” Richard cast an inquiring look at Manda. “That’s if you’re okay with the idea.”
“I’ll go along with it on one condition,” Manda replied solemnly.
“What’s that?” Richard asked with a hint of exasperation coloring his voice, no doubt due to her apparent resistance.
“I have first dibs on the hot tub!”
Chapter 29
They relocated after a late lunch with David and Stacey. By dinner, Manda was settled in her new room in the penthouse. These accommodations were much more luxurious than her old room had been—though the old one had been very nice. The penthouse even made Josh and Richard’s original suite seem small. In addition to the four bedrooms, the new suite boasted a dining room, office, and a sitting room furnished with a baby grand piano (which Richard declared to be perfectly tuned).
During the next few days, Richard put the piano to good use in his very successful efforts to amuse Manda. He played for her again the songs he’d written about her, insisting that the piano would do them more justice than the guitar had. Manda was skeptical at first, certain that they couldn’t possibly be more beautiful than they had been when Richard first sang them for her. It had been their first evening alone after Sarah and Daniel left and she’d been left speechless. Richard proved to her once again that it was foolish to underestimate him, however. When he played them on the piano they were impossibly more beautiful.
“He’s classically trained on both the piano and the guitar, you know,” Josh had informed her when she commented on Richard’s playing. Of course he was, she thought, and wondered if there was anything he couldn’t do.
The piano was only one of the many ways that Richard kept her entertained. He was, he told her, determined to make sure her hard-earned vacation wasn’t ruined. For the first few days, while she was forced to stay off of her injured ankle completely, they stayed in the penthouse. Richard arranged diversions such as picnics on the rug in front of the massive fireplace, where they roasted marshmallows. He had dinner brought in from the finest restaurants and they snuggled up on the sofa and watched movies or sometimes he read to her. She particularly liked that, as the sound of his voice was mesmerizing.
By the end of the week she was able to put some weight on her ankle and their diversions expanded to include concerts, sleigh rides, mountain drives, and actually going out to many of the fine restaurants that Vail boasted. After Manda had recovered a bit more—and with her leaning heavily on Richard—they explored local art galleries and a few interesting shops that intrigued Manda. Richard was very wary of letting her overexert herself on these forays however, and interspersed these energetic activities with more sedentary pursuits.
During lunch on the Wednesday of their second week in Vail, after a particularly adventurous morning, Richard suggested that they cancel their afternoon explorations.
“You seem like you’re favoring your ankle a little more than usual. Did we overdo it this morning?”
“Maybe a little,” Manda admitted. Her ankle was aching. “I probably won’t be climbing any mountains this afternoon. It’s a shame, too, because it’s beautiful outside.” The weather was unseasonably warm, which was the primary reason behind their over-ambitious morning. They had both been enjoying the warm sunshine too much to come back indoors.
“Well, we’ll just have to find something else to do this afternoon.” He was quiet for a few minutes, silently eating his lunch. Then he smiled. “Maybe we can have a little show-and-tell. Why don’t you and Josh and I take a drive and we can show off for you a little. I know you’ve been curious.”
Manda was immediately excited. “Really?”
Ever since he’d revealed his secret to her, Richard had been educating her on the finer points of therianthropy. He’d made it all sound very logical and mundane, though of course it was anything but. The one point Manda had the most difficulty understanding was the apparent disregard for the laws of physics. Josh had made a comment about shifting to larger and smaller forms. Manda had wondered about that.
“How does that work? Isn’t there some sort of physical law about the preservation of matter or something?”
Richard had assumed his professorial tone when he answered. “It does seem to defy the laws of physics, but that just means we don’t understand it fully yet. As you can appreciate, there isn’t much research on the subject, since there aren’t more than a handful of scientists in the entire world who even know we exist. Personally, I think that there’s some sort of matter/energy conversion…but then I’m not a physicist, so…,” he shrugged. “I will tell you this though. Shifting takes a lot out of you when you’re transforming up in size. That’s why we eat so much.”
Manda had chuckled at this explanation for their voracious appetites, and she was oddly comforted by his admission that they didn’t fully understand every aspect of shapeshifting. Paradoxically, this simple lack of factual information made it seem much more real to her. It wasn’t tied up in a neat little package; real life seldom was.
Manda’s attention was drawn back by Richard’s voice as he spoke to Josh on his cell phone.
“Do you have plans this afternoon or can you get free to come help me give Manda a more comprehensive demonstration?” Josh’s reply made Richard grin. “Okay. Finish that run and meet us back here then.” Richard paused again while Josh spoke, and then rolled his eyes. “Yes, fine. I don’t expect you to starve. We’ve eaten already, but we can stop and get you something to go.”
An hour later they were pulling away from the drive-thru window at a local fast-food restaurant. Josh sat in the backseat of Richard’s car, happily devouring the large bag of food he’d ordered.
Richard asked Josh to direct them to an appropriate, secluded location. His explanation that Josh had explored the surrounding area fairly extensively since their arrival surprised Manda.
“My morning runs aren’t usually strictly runs,” Josh explained around a mouthful of French fries. “I mean, why run when you can fly, right?”
In between mouthfuls of junk food, Josh directed Richard up a series of narrow, snow-packed roads. By the time they’d driven two miles they’d twisted and wound through the forest so much that Manda no longer knew north from south. After another several miles, Josh indicated an almost indiscernible track off to the right. It was probably the access road to someone’s summer cabin, but right now it disappeared under a deep drift of snow after the first ten yards.
“We can park there and walk the rest of the way. The spot I’m thinking of is about a mile from here, just on the other side of that ridge.” Josh leaned forward between the front seats, eagerly pointing to the steep slope he was referring to.
Manda groaned. “This means you’re going to have to carry me again, doesn’t it? How do I get myself into these things?”
Richard chuckled. “You can blame your own curiosity and sense of adventure, and since I don’t think you’re quite up to the hike yet, you either let me carry you or we turn around and go back to the hotel now.”
Manda’s troublesome curiosity and sense of adventure naturally got the better of her. Unwilling to forgo Richard and Josh’s show-and-tell, she agreed to ride on Richard’s back. She hadn’t had a piggy-back ride since she was a little girl, and she was cer
tain she’d look completely ridiculous, but she was prepared to look like a fool in order to see more of their shapeshifting.
Surprisingly, she thoroughly enjoyed the experience. With Josh leading the way, there was no one watching to see if she looked silly or not, and clinging so closely to Richard was far from unpleasant.
The two men ascended the steep terrain effortlessly, though Manda knew it would have been a strenuous climb for the fittest hiker. They conquered the ridge quickly, and sooner than Manda anticipated, they arrived at a clearing in the center of a heavily forested valley.
“Here we are,” Josh announced, slipping his pack from his shoulders. “We’ll have all the privacy we need here.”
“This is perfect,” Richard agreed, allowing Manda to slide to the ground. The two men tramped around in a circle, packing down the snow underfoot, then Richard took the pack from his brother and unzipped it, pulling out a rolled up blanket—the type that was designed to take to football games and similar events. One side was a water-resistant nylon fabric while the other was warm, soft fleece. He spread it out on the snow in the sun at the edge of the clearing. “Your front-row seat, Miss.”
As Manda settled onto the blanket, he produced another fleece blanket and a thermos from the pack. He handed her the thermos.
“Hot tea, just the way you like it,” he advised and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. “Shall we go ahead and get started? I think Josh wants to go first.” He settled onto the blanket beside her as a grinning Josh slipped off first one boot then the other, placing each sock-clad foot onto the corner of the blanket as he did so. He proceeded to remove the rest of his clothing until he was wearing only his pants.
“That’s enough,” Richard laughed when Josh reached down as if to remove those as well.
Josh chuckled. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to do it the hard way. What first then?”
“Start with something small and cute and work your way up,” Richard suggested.