Wolf Dreams

by Aimee Easterling

  Was enough water still pent up behind that bottleneck to fill the entire cavern before various tunnels emptied it? I started estimating flow rates and volumes, then squashed those calculations as I took in the more immediate problem in our midst.

  Because Claw wasn’t the only other werewolf in the chamber. Of course he wasn’t. He’d followed us to help Harry with Jim Kelter, and apparently he’d brought Val and Theta along for the ride as well.

  And the four of them had found the President. Had found him and freed him. Now, the moon-crazed shifter who’d precipitated this mess treaded water in wolf form, growling and nipping at anyone who dared to enter his personal space.

  I’D POPPED UP CLOSER to the President than either of us felt comfortable with, which might be why the pregnant girl’s beast re-awoke. Or maybe she’d been struggling for footing the entire time my wolf and I were swimming. Either way, she surged up through me, lengthening my fingernails into claws.

  Jim Kelter charged forward in a leaping, splashing surge of aggression even as my wolf grabbed the pregnant girl’s beast by the ruff. I returned to humanity with a jolt, teeth and claws raking the inside of my esophagus.

  A blur of movement in the flashlight’s dim glow heralded Theta jumping atop the President to prevent him from overwhelming me. The two of them went under while I gasped against internal agony. Claw swore, released the supportive embrace he’d held me in, and stroked off to one side.

  This far beneath the snowy surface, the water wasn’t freezing. But it wasn’t balmy bath-tub temperature either. No wonder cold filled the spot where Claw’s body had been cupping me, the chill worsening as my glance trailed his retreating figure to discover what had shaken him up.

  Val had been floating on her back when I breached the surface, and I’d just assumed she was resting after an extended bout of treading water. But now I caught sight of her face—eyes closed, cheeks white, lips purple. As the only non-werewolf among us, of course she’d be the first to succumb to hypothermia.

  “We need to get out of here,” I started. “We can dive back to the tunnel....”

  My words were lost in a cascade of splashing as Theta and Jim Kelter popped back up together. They were both winded, but the President was worse off than the human.

  “Not like that, he can’t.”

  I didn’t even need Claw to finish his sentence before I realized what I’d forgotten to include in my calculations. The President’s moon blindness explained why Claw and company were hanging out here rather than trying to escape their predicament. Wolves were good swimmers on the surface, but they didn’t dive. And it appeared Jim Kelter was stuck in his lupine form.

  Well, he was stuck there unless I used the tool I’d killed a man over.

  My fingers fumbled at my hip, noting the reassuring weight of the wolf statue surrounded by woven nylon fabric. I had a potential solution, but I couldn’t tread water, stuff it in the President’s mouth, and at the same time force him to shift all by myself. I needed at least one of my companions to believe the crazy story I was about to tell them. Too bad past events put that likelihood into doubt.

  Still, I had to try for Val’s sake as well as for the President’s. I swallowed. Then, meeting the eyes of my companions one after another, I faltered my way through the tale.

  “I have a solution,” I told Claw—told all of them. “I’ve talked to, um, a prehistoric shaman. She told me—no, showed me—how to use the wolf statue. Look, I know this sounds unbelievable, but we might as well try it. If we put the statue in Jim Kelter’s mouth and he shifts back to human, his wolf will be ripped from his body and—I hope—he’ll end up sane.”

  The pool fell silent except for the splash of descending water, the hiatus expanding until Harry lifted one hand to shine his flashlight directly into my face. “I thought she was a scrambled egg,” he said slowly. “But, no. She’s actually a nut. Walnut? Almond? Doesn’t matter. I don’t like nuts any more than I like eggs.”

  A titter from Theta and the soft scent of disappointment from Claw. The tide was turning against us. I’d known this would happen, but my wolf had somehow believed in fairy tales.

  Apparently she still did. They’re our pack! my wolf roared silently. They have to believe us!

  “So, other ideas?” asked Theta. “More”—she cleared her throat—“realistic ideas?”

  And that was it. My wolf’s disappointment grew visceral. Snarling, she stole my body back with a gut-wrenching shift of fur sprouting and bones grinding. Then she dove toward Theta with murder in her eyes.

  OUR HIPS WERE NARROWER as a wolf than they had been as a human. So our shift was sufficient to dislodge the belt from around our waist and send the stone plummeting into the depths.

  My wolf and I noted the loss at the exact same instant. If they don’t want it, we don’t need it, she decided as I begged, Grab it! Quickly!

  To my surprise, she obeyed me. Or maybe the pregnant woman’s wolf was the one answering my call? Either way, our lupine body twisted, grabbing the descending statue with our teeth before it disappeared into the depths.

  The fabric was soggy and unpleasant, but the stone tapped reassuringly against our teeth. The sensation was like yet unlike the moment when I’d ripped the wolf out of the pregnant girl. And it reminded me what I was about to give up.

  For all I knew, this statue was the sole remaining link to a prehistoric shaman who definitely wouldn’t be making any additional statues. So one werewolf and one werewolf only could use the magical object to sever their animalistic half.

  The taste of Blackburn’s blood still coated my throat as I swallowed. The knowledge that my academic life might prove untenable with a wolf inside me rushed through my mind.

  But I had a solution to both of those problems. All I had to do was use the statue, not on Jim Kelter, but rather on myself.

  I tensed, waiting for my wolf to react to my disloyal assessment. But I hadn’t spoken my thoughts aloud, even here within her belly. So she continued dog paddling toward the President of the United States.

  “Claw?” Val murmured as I approached the Presidential side of the cavern. A splash from behind us. There, the hypothermic human was moving. Maybe we really could all take care of ourselves.

  “You look out for you,” my father had told me over and over throughout my childhood. “Everyone around you is doing the same.”

  The memory made me test my abilities here behind the wolf’s eyeballs. If I was going to use the statue on myself rather than on the President, I’d have to force a shift before my animal half realized what was going on....

  I stole a little control to see how she’d react, turning sideways to travel just a little further to the right. The pregnant girl’s wolf remained quiescent while mine went with the movement as easily as if she’d expected it, leaning into the curve so we drifted between Harry and Theta before approaching the only other wolf in the cave.

  For his part, Jim Kelter was lost in such a deep internal battle that he didn’t react to our presence at all. Meanwhile, a splash over my left shoulder alerted me that I was no longer alone.

  Val, of all people, had come up behind me. “I’ll hold his mouth while you shove it in there,” she said firmly, her lips so blue I wasn’t sure how she managed to move her tongue.

  As the sole non-shifter present, she had no wolf fur to protect her if Jim Kelter went crazy. Plus, given her dwindling body heat, she had even more reason than me to flee this cavern by herself.

  Yet, here she was beside me, ready and willing to do what was right.

  As easily as disloyalty had seized me, I relinquished the impulse to serve my own self interest. If Val could risk life and limb attempting to break Jim Kelter’s moon blindness, then I could do no less.

  Chapter 27

  It was almost as if Claw had hung back, giving me the opportunity to use the statue on myself if I needed to. Because the moment I accepted the inevitable, he flung out orders across the cave.

  “Harry and The
ta, you restrain him. Val, get on Jim Kelter’s back and be prepared to hold his muzzle shut once the statue is in there.”

  “Olivia.” I only realized I’d become lost in the wolf President’s eyes when Claw’s voice pulled me out of my reverie. “Are you with us?”

  He wanted to know if I was going to redevelop cold feet. While I was literally chilled to the bone, I was now a willing participant. After all, even if we were about to murder the President’s wolf as thoroughly as my own wolf had just killed Blackburn, sometimes it was worth making sacrifices for the greater good.

  So I paddled my body around until I was sure Claw could catch the statue when I dropped it, then I spat the belt pouch out of my lupine mouth.

  “Good.” Claw’s single word was as warm as a sip of hot chocolate. “Wait for my order,” he continued, giving me a role in the proceedings, “then shift to help pull Jim Kelter back.”

  And maybe it all happened exactly the way Claw had planned it. I couldn’t really tell because Harry released the flashlight to dangle around his neck, dropping the illumination level by about 90%. The same instant the cave darkened, it also erupted into splashes and snarls.

  I was alone, treading water beside what sounded like a shark attack. A dark shape burst through the surface inches from me, the resulting wave buffeting me into the cave wall.

  “No, not like that!” someone shouted. The President’s flailing claws scraped down my side, raking my skin despite the intervening fur.

  I backpedaled, having difficulty gauging distance in the darkness. I needed to be close enough to help, but not close enough to be caught in the struggle.

  Finally, a lull suggested the pack had gotten Jim Kelter where they wanted him.

  “Now,” Claw warned me. Then, louder and fiercer, “Shift.”

  I snorted water up my nose as I was wrenched backwards to humanity. Cold water seared goose-pimpled flesh, and it was all I could do to stay afloat.

  A crack, as if Jim Kelter’s teeth had broken. Or was that the statue?

  “Get back!” Claw ordered, but Theta was already lifting Val away from the President. Human and naked, Jim Kelter lashed out with fists and feet while Claw and Harry—now lupine—darted around him like swallows hunting invisible mosquitoes in the air.

  Within me, the pregnant girl’s wolf growled in reaction. She understood what was happening. Sympathized with the wolf spirit that would be separated from its body forever as soon as it was caught.

  Only, Jim Kelter’s wolf was no more keen on being squashed than the pregnant girl’s had been. Or so I realized when Val began to shriek.

  THE FEMININE SCREAMS were followed up by masculine bellowing. “No, no, no, no, no!”

  This was Claw, intent upon protecting his sister. He lunged atop her, nearly driving her under in his effort to guard her from enemy attack.

  Streaks of blood popped up on Val’s flesh, the wolf spirit biting and clawing. If we didn’t act quickly, the President’s wolf was going to take out an eye.

  I growled in frustration, and so did the wolf inside me. No, the wolves.

  Your pack, I whispered, not to Jim Kelter’s wolf but to the vagrant in my belly. Immediately, her ears perked up and tilted forward. I’d said the magic words to catch and hold her attention.

  He needs you, I continued, stroking closer to the center of the maelstrom despite the moving bodies that spun around Val like the spokes of a wheel. Theta’s foot clipped my jaw as she tried to grab Jim Kelter’s wolf spirit, and I went under for a moment. But when I rose back to the surface, I was close enough to do what needed to be done.

  What is he, your thousand-times-great-grandson? Because, magical or not, lycanthropy couldn’t come from nowhere. If Jim Kelter had possessed a wolf inside him waiting to be woken by chemical methods, then his ancestors must have possessed the same.

  And where would an unexpressed wolf gene originate except from a prehistoric werewolf who’d desperately ripped out her inner beast thousands of years before?

  I wasn’t sure if the pregnant girl’s wolf followed my logic, or whether I simply made her look at Jim Kelter’s wolf spirit as something other than an enemy to be avoided. Whatever the reason, she tensed with focus, and she must have liked what she saw.

  Because she leapt out of me, maternal protectiveness driving her toward a spirit that remained invisible. Well, invisible to me but not to her.

  She slipped between the corporeal shifters as easily as a fish slides through water. And I felt rather than saw the moment when both wolf spirits united.

  It was a culmination of the cave girl’s searching. A new and safer pack.

  My own tenuous bond to her winked out as another bond formed, replacing it. Then, protected by their proximity to each other, both cave girl’s and Jim Kelter’s wolf spirits slipped away into the dark.

  WE DOVE BENEATH THE dark surface one after another. First Harry assisting Jim Kelter. Then Claw and Theta, one on either side of a barely conscious Val. She needed their help more than I did, so I’d waved off further assistance, knowing it would take two werewolves to ensure the hypothermic human made it through the dive.

  Which left me to follow Harry’s glowing flashlight at the tail end of the procession. One-armed, I swam too slowly to keep up with my pack mates. Before I knew it, the cavern had grown pitch black around me. My lungs were already complaining, and now I was lost.

  Or at least, I thought the cave was pitch black until my wolf woke and stretched inside me. We blinked once...and when our eyelids flicked back open a streak of light arrowed away into the depths.

  This wasn’t the flashlight; it was a pack bond. The same one that had pulled us to this chamber in the first place. All I had to do was follow—downward, countering my body’s natural buoyancy with only one workable arm.

  I solved that issue using feet as my primary propulsion method. Kicking off the sidewall, I angled myself downward until we struck the cave floor. Then we pulled our way forward one-handed, pushing against protrusions with two bare feet.

  Yank, kick, kick. Yank, kick, kick. I’d lost track of my burning lungs, my freezing fingers, the way my head turned woozy and sparkly inside. But my wolf was adamant, so we continued following the thread of light...until it disappeared into the rock.

  Wait, no. The light wasn’t gone. The pack bond had entered the tunnel I was hunting for. Following the tether’s lead, I traveled gently upward, momentum considerably easier to achieve when I wasn’t fighting against the density of water.

  Unlike the tiny tunnel I’d crawled through to get into the painted cavern, this one was big enough to allow my one usable arm to stroke widely through the water. That plus strength-giving adrenaline as my lungs reached their limit meant I saw stars when my forehead slammed directly into someone else’s skull.

  Claw. I couldn’t see him or smell him, but I knew who it was regardless. His body slid past mine in a washboard of muscles gliding across my belly. Despite everything, I shivered at the touch.

  Then he was pushing me faster than my one-armed freestyle had managed. Was pushing me so fast, in fact, that I came out of the water like a fish accidentally leaping onto the bank.

  There was light here, and voices. A sleeping bag surrounded me, then Claw’s body engulfed my padded torso in his own.

  “If you need help, ask for it,” he growled, cradling me against his wet, naked body. I tensed, angry at being berated, then relaxed as he finished: “Don’t scare me like that.”

  Tipping my head back, he proved the terse words had stemmed from protectiveness rather than anger when he stole my breath with a hard, adamant kiss.

  Chapter 28

  His mouth was warm while my lips were frozen. Streaks of heat radiated outward from our contact, tingling fingers back into flexibility even as my torso curved upward to press against his chest.

  Claw was a furnace of pleasure. I slid my good hand around the nape of his neck, pulling, wanting. And he responded in kind, drawing me in so much closer that I thought
our bodies might merge.

  Careful. I shivered as my father’s voice bubbled up out of memory. This was how everything had started. One kiss, one monster losing control inside me, one hospital visit, then over a decade of mind-fogging pills....

  But Claw was as monstrous as I was. My finger skimmed across the raised welt around his neck, the scar that proved his past was even darker than mine.

  Claw had a history and a wild side. His monster matched my monster. Together, we fit.

  No wonder his hands washed away my inhibitions as they slid up and down my body. The sleeping bag was lost in the shuffle, skin brushing against skin. My lips were so sensitive each bristle of incipient mustache poked and intrigued me. I—

  Gasped as cold air replaced the arms that had supported me one second before.

  Claw had scooted sideways and turned his body away from me, what I could see of his face so red his scar stood out like a white necklace beneath his chin. What happened? I swiped my hand across my mouth, half expecting to find blood coating my fingers. But all that came away was cave water and the scent of Claw.

  “Olivia...” he started, then turned the rest of the way around so only his back faced me.

  We weren’t alone. A shadowy figure stood impatiently just beyond the ring of flashlight illumination. Theta cleared her throat, then laid down the law.

  “It’s time for your wolf,” she demanded as I huddled in the dubious safety of a dead man’s sleeping bag. “One day two-legged, one day four-legged. Let’s go.”

  I waited for Claw to say something, to ask me to remain with him. But he merely nodded and took another step into the shadows. He didn’t once meet my eyes.

  The distance between us sapped my energy in ways the cold water hadn’t. “I don’t have all day,” Theta demanded.