by Leela Ash
“Was she at least attractive?” TJ asked.
“Who cares?!” Carter exclaimed. “She isn’t my fated mate. Why is it that humans can date and date and date and spend all this time with someone who is not destined to be with them? Why do they like to waste their time like this?! It’s so pointless!”
Gavin shrugged. “It is what feels natural. They do not like to be alone, even if the person they are with is not complementary. It’s probably harder for them than it is for us.”
“Do they not believe in fated mates?” Carter pointed out. “Why don’t they only date their fated ones?”
“Maybe they just get confused and don’t know who is their fated. We do not always know right away either,” Gavin pointed out.
“All right, all right,” TJ interjected. “Enough with the semantics. Where did you guys go? And even if she wasn’t your fated one, do you know whether or not she has the potential to be a descendant?”
“She does not have potential,” Carter said. “She didn’t even remotely smell of dragon.”
“Carter, most of them are mostly human,” TJ pointed out. “They aren’t going to look and smell entirely like us. They are going to appear human. That is why we use the device to help track them down. But even that is faulty. Did you administer the test?”
“Here,” Carter grumbled, thrusting a piece of the woman’s hair at Gavin. It had been placed carefully in a plastic bag after Carter had gotten his hands on it. He had been forced to try to kiss her in order to get it and since then all he’d wanted to do was gargle with mouthwash. She wasn’t his fated one. He had no business being near her like this. Who knew where her lips had been?
“Good, we will be able to tell for sure with this. Even if she isn’t your fated, it doesn’t mean she isn’t somebody else’s,” TJ pointed out.
“I got the stupid medicine too,” Carter said. He dug in the pocket of his jeans for the little pill bottle and tossed it to Gavin. “I played hell getting that stupid thing. Next time, you’re on your own. I’m done doing bitch work.”
“Thank you,” Gavin said, suddenly excited. “I have been waiting for this.”
He sprang up from the couch and disappeared immediately into the basement, where he had set up a makeshift lab with pieces of the artifacts that the Elders had equipped them with before their banishment.
“That put him in a good mood,” Carter said bitterly. His thoughts turned once again to Amy and he felt himself growing more and more agitated. He wanted to be outside her home; he needed to know she was safe. What the hell had been going on that night? Did she know those men? Now that they were no longer together, he was kicking himself for all the questions he had neglected to ask. If only they could see each other again…
“Yes, he is very excited to move the cause further. The sooner we are able to bring about the change that needs made and revive the Loni bloodline, the sooner we can all go home. One of these days, we will figure out how to open that portal. We will get back to Fiora. I know it.”
Carter nodded dubiously. He wasn’t so convinced. At this point, he was hurt enough that he wasn’t even sure he wanted to go back. It had been far too much pain. Betrayal. They didn’t deserve him there. They had stabbed him in the back and stuck him in a world where it was nearly impossible for any magic to exist whatsoever.
In fact, if Max hadn’t recently discovered that the totems held the secret to their ability to shapeshift anywhere in the universe, they might have gone on believing that it was impossible to take on their dragon forms. Then where would they be? They would feel completely useless.
“Whatever, man,” Carter said, standing up abruptly from his seat. He chugged down the rest of his beer and tossed it across the room, right into the recycling bin. “I’m going to bed.”
“Hey, you have to rinse those first,” Gavin said, appearing suddenly from his lab. He went into the kitchen and rustled through the bin as Carter sighed, retreating deeper into the house to try to find some solitude.
5.
Amy tossed and turned, but she couldn’t get to sleep no matter how hard she tried. Images of the evening were burnt into her mind. The attackers. The wolves. The shockingly handsome stranger who appeared just in the nick of time to save her.
What would have happened if he hadn’t been there? Where would she be right now? Why had they gone after her like that? And how in the hell had she managed to have the ability to daze both wolves before they were able to harm her? It seemed impossible. She wasn’t the kind of girl who fought wolves off and lived to tell about it. She was a sickly and depressed girl who always needed other people to take care of her. How was any of this possible?
That wasn’t even mentioning Carter. Handsome, serious, kind, and concerned. She had an immediate reaction to him; one that was very physical and very powerful. It was unlike anything she’d ever felt for someone before. It was probably just because of the attack; the adrenaline had done it. It had made her feelings more intensified. That explained it.
So, why, now that she wasn’t in danger any more, couldn’t she get him out of her head? She was shaken up by the attack, sure, but did that really explain away the man’s mysterious presence and his uncanny ability to see right through to what she needed? Rest. A chance to sneak away from needless police involvement. She had just wanted to go home and sleep. And he had promised to take care of everything. Did she really want to report this? Who would even believe her?
There were many great things about Brookside, but one of the more unfortunate aspects was how small it was. Everyone seemed to know her. They had expectations. They wanted to know the citizens were comfortable, well cared for, and sane. They didn’t want to hear wild stories from sickly women about creepy men and their wolf monsters. Because really, she felt wrong just referring to them as wolves. They were dark. Scary. Foreboding. And their eyes had an almost human quality about them that was deeply unsettling. They weren’t just wolves. There was more to it than that.
Now she really was starting to sound crazy. Even to herself. But even Carter seemed to have been able to tell that there was something strange going on. Even if he himself was part of that strangeness. How had he been able to attack two men without any injury to himself? Was he really that strong a fighter? Or was there something more going on?
No, something more seemed unlikely. She couldn’t go indulging in wild fantasies. Maybe she had been feverish the whole time and had been hallucinating everything that had happened.
But the burning look in Carter’s eyes hadn’t been something she just imagined. That had been real. She knew it was real. He had been there. And he was the single most attractive man she had ever seen. Why couldn’t she get him out of her head? How could she know she could even trust him? He had wanted to see her home. Get in her car. What if it was all some ploy and he was really working with the enemy?
That didn’t seem likely. She knew for certain that it wasn’t. She could feel it in her gut. Amy’s mother had always told her to trust her intuition. Even though most of the time it came across as nothing but strange. There had always been something a little bit weird about Amy’s family. That much was certain. They weren’t prone to hallucinations, but odd things did have a tendency to follow them. And maybe this was simply one of them. Carter notwithstanding.
Finally, she allowed herself to drift into a fitful sleep. There were many vicious enemies in her dreams. She found herself being pursued in an alleyway, much like the one beside the convenience store. Instead of wolves this time, they were wolf-man hybrids, half contorted in a strange shape and ready to tear her apart. Four of them. The men with the wild hair had apparently changed to this strange form to pursue her.
“Golden one!” the creature nearest Amy hissed.
She yelped in fear as it snapped its teeth at her and she tried to scramble out of the alley, only to run into the broad chest of a handsome stranger. Carter.
A hot thrill surged through her body and she gazed up at him. He smiled reas
suringly, his eyes flashing with an intensity that made her weak at the knees. Suddenly, he had moved away from her and was fighting, fighting. Until there was no more danger left. Until she had no enemies to speak of any longer. Until she was safe.
“Come,” Carter said firmly, wrapping his broad arm around her waist and tugging her down the alley, toward a bright, warm light. She glanced over her shoulder to view the casualties of the fight, but there was no one there. The alley was clean and brightly lit now. It was only Amy and Carter walking through it, toward this comfortable, mysterious place.
“Here,” Carter said, stopping and gazing out at a futuristic metropolis. Amy gaped at it, wondering where they were and how they had gotten there. “This is where we belong.”
Amy blinked, and Carter was whisking her further into the strange place before the message could sink in. They were suddenly in a dimly lit apartment and Carter was standing in front of her, his chest bare and his broad muscles rippling as he reached out to touch her face.
“You are safe with me.”
Amy opened her mouth to reply, but before any words could escape her lips, Carter was pressing his mouth against hers in a warm, tender kiss. He deepened it quickly, and the feeling of his tongue against hers sent a hot thrill coursing through Amy’s body. Her heart was pounding wildly as Carter’s broad hands began to roam up and down the gentle slopes of her curves, and finally rested on her hips.
He broke the kiss to look into her eyes, narrowing them at her. “This is going to be difficult.”
Suddenly, Carter was gone, and Amy was alone in a train station, her heart pounding rapidly. Where was she? What was this place? Did she need to take a train to find Carter again? Where had he gone?
An aching loneliness that only Carter could fill consumed Amy, and she looked around for him in a panic. Finally, she caught his gaze in the window of the train. He smiled calmly at her and beckoned for her to get on with him. She smiled back at him and boarded, just as she woke back up.
***
All the next day at work, Amy was exhausted. She couldn’t get Carter out of her head. He had completely consumed her thoughts from the moment she had laid eyes on him, and frankly, it was getting to be tiring.
“Hey, how are you feeling?” Richard asked, coming up to her cash register. Eric was somewhere in the grocery store stocking shelves, and Rich had a tendency to come to talk to her when nobody else was around so he wouldn’t appear to be showing favoritism, even though it was clear the two of them were as close as two people could be without actually being family.
“I’m starting to feel better,” Amy said.
It was the shocking truth. After the attack the night before, despite not getting enough rest, her illness had all but gone dormant again. She furrowed her brow as she thought back to the confrontation, and Richard noticed immediately.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice suddenly low and concerned. “Do you need to go home again? That’s perfectly fine if you do, just let me know. We will do whatever you need. Eric and I can manage.”
“You really need to hire someone else,” Amy said with a soft laugh. But it was easier said than done, she knew. Brookside was a pretty small town. The pool for employment was limited.
“Yeah, yeah,” Rich said. “Please don’t evade my question. What’s going on? You can tell me about it…”
“Well,” Amy said, glancing sidelong at Rich. She didn’t want to indulge his strange, eccentric behavior. “It’s kind of weird.”
Rich perked up. “Oh really? You know, your father used to tell me about weird things that would happen all the time. Your family really has the strangest luck, you know?”
“I’m well aware,” Amy said flatly. She was getting sick and tired of her family’s “luck.”
“So, what happened?” Rich asked. “You know I won’t judge you or anything.”
Amy hesitated. “There was kind of an attack last night. When I was picking up some medicine. It was no big deal, nothing major. I wasn’t hurt or anything. It was just really weird.”
Rich stared at her seriously. “What kind of attack?”
“I don’t know, some creeps and their dogs wanted to mess with me. Probably just some lonely drunks.”
“What happened?” Rich asked. There was no cheer in his voice anymore. He was as protective of Amy as if she were his own daughter. It was nice to have someone on her side here.
“They tried to attack me I guess, but some guy saved me and took care of it. It’s really not a big deal. Everything turned out fine.”
Rich shifted and mulled this over for a few moments before speaking. “Do you want to take the rest of the day off?”
“No! That’s the last thing I need. I can’t be cooped up at home stuck in my own head all day. Especially not after something like that. I told you, I’m really feeling better. Like…remarkably better. It’s kind of insane.”
Richard studied Amy hard before giving a slight nod. “Okay. Good. Remarkably better is very good.”
He was quiet a few moments and then sighed. “Come back to my office a minute.”
Amy sighed back. Any time Rich asked her to come to his office, it was to unload some crazy story or bizarre theory he had about the paranormal activity in Brookside. She wasn’t interested.
And yet, there had been something strange about the wolves. And her dream had only roused her suspicions further. Maybe Rich would know something. He would certainly feel validated if she joined him in one of his crazy theories for once.
“Do you know why I’m so interested in the weird things that go on around here?” Rich asked, studying Amy with sincere brown eyes.
“Why?” Amy asked, almost afraid of the answer.
“Because it’s important to me to follow up on some things your father told me about. Long ago. Before you were born. Once you came around though, he went quiet about everything. Probably hoping to protect you.”
Amy sighed. Another crazy conspiracy theory. And this one included her father, who had been dead for most of Amy’s life. Here we go.
And yet, she could never pull away when she knew she might hear something about her father. She missed him. Even if he was hard to remember.
“And what exactly did my father say?” Amy asked rigidly, secretly resenting Rich for the possibility of misquoting one of the most important figures in her life to serve his own eccentric agenda.
“He told me a lot about strange things that would happen. Your great-grandmother is a good example. Her fits. Her illness. She was just like you. And her daughter. Your grandmother. Even your mother had some signs of it. But hers wasn’t so bad. She changed. And they went away a little bit.”
“What do you mean she changed?” Amy asked, eyeing Rich seriously.
He shrugged. “She just got stronger one day. After meeting your father things started to get better for her. She only had episodes every once in a while after that. But you know something? The strangeness that follows your family follows both sides, not just your mother’s. Your dad was a bit of an odd one too. It’s probably why your parents fell so deeply in love and so quickly. Love at first sight, they say.”
Amy furrowed her brow thoughtfully. Love at first sight. Why was her immediate reaction to that phrase to conjure an image of Carter’s face? This was insane. All of it.
“I don’t have time for this, Rich. I have work to do. I don’t want to leave Eric hanging. He’s already done enough to pick up my slack around here, you know?”
Rich chuckled. “Okay, okay. But just so you know, any of the weird things that happen to you? The strange men and dogs? They have an explanation and you are probably the only one who will ever be able to learn what it is. I’ve been trying to figure things out for years. I know that the wolf shifters in Stonybrooke are real. I’ve seen evidence. I’ve seen them myself. It’s not just a rumor or a theory. They exist. They try to hide it from the rest of the world unless the shifters are right there in your face and impossible to deny, but they
’re real. Maybe something is going on. And it has to do with where you come from.”
Amy was inching toward the door during all of Richard’s speech, her blood pressure rising steadily. She hated talking about her family. She didn’t have them anymore. All of them were gone. She was alone in Brookside, with her eccentric uncle figure, and he wanted her to believe she had some special lineage that he couldn’t even explain.
All Amy knew was that it meant she was a freak. Everyone knew it. And it had everything to do with her bizarre disease.
Even if it felt better after seeing Carter, that didn’t mean it was going to go into remission for long. She would have to work hard and make sure she was making money and pulling her weight, because who knew how long the next episode would last?
She had to stop worrying about Carter and weird things beyond her understanding or control, and focus on herself. That was the only way she would ever make it in this world, and she was determined to do so.
“I’m getting back to work, Rich,” Amy said, cutting him off before he could get another word in.
Rich gazed at her and then nodded, recognizing that she’d had more than enough.
“Sure, Ames. Sorry about that. Good luck out there. If you need anything, let me know.”
His concern brought a weary smile back to Amy’s lips. He was just trying to look out for her, even if his way of trying to help her turned out to be a little bit more unconventional than she could deal with sometimes.
“I will.”
Amy sighed heavily and pushed through the doorway of Rich’s office, bracing herself to greet the rest of the day as well as she could.
6.
Carter glared down at the shopping list that Gavin had scrawled out on the back of a banking receipt. Why couldn’t he have just used a normal piece of paper like everyone else? The ink was starting to smear and Carter wasn’t sure whether he wanted apple juice or apple pies at this point.