by John Conroe
Fifteen terror-filled seconds in Las Vegas and suddenly nobody in her life understood her. The pull of the moon, the need to Change and run, the temper and killer instincts that made PMS a joke. Her friends and family still lied to her. Nothing major, just the run of the mill half-truths and white lies that abound in all families except those that could smell and hear the truth. Werewolves never lied to each other… because they couldn’t. Declan and Stacia didn’t either.
“Hey, we’re still in the Barrens. Northernmost section, but still pretty wild. Why don’t we pull over and you two take a run,” Declan suggested.
Holly held her breath as she waited for Stacia’s response. Green eyes met hers in the mirror again and then came a solid nod. “That’s probably wise,” Stacia said.
“Hey write that down, Holly. I’m wise,” he said.
“A lifetime of being a wiseass is not replaced with one idea,” Stacia said.
“What are you going to do? While we run?” Holly asked, suddenly nervous.
“He usually blunders about in the woods, making enormous amounts of noise,” Stacia said.
Declan started to protest, then reconsidered. “Yeah, kinda true.”
“Is it safe?” Holly asked.
“Why, you thinking of taking a bite outta me?” Declan asked, brows raised.
Holly didn’t want to look in the rearview but found her eyes drawn there. Green bled over to yellow as Stacia met her look.
“No, of course not,” Holly said in a rush.
“Just messing. You’re a new wolf and I understand about learning control. I’ll be fine.”
“He’ll be shielded the whole time, won’t he?” Stacia said.
“Yes dear,” he said easily.
The car came to a stop and they all got out. Instantly Declan headed into the pines while the girls stripped down and Changed.
Holly stood up on four feet, shaking off the mild effects that she felt from a transformation that left most werewolves, even natural born ones, disoriented and aching for a few minutes. Stacia was already on her feet, the white bitch not showing any signs of discomfort.
In human form, her senses were way beyond human normal, but in this form, it was as if she had gone from blind to sighted. A chorus of sounds filled her ears and the scents were legion. She instantly knew where Declan was banging his way through the woods. To his credit, he was quieter than most, but still incredibly loud to her ears. She also knew that a fox had crossed the road about ten minutes earlier, that an owl was posted high in a pine tree a hundred feet south, while a doe with two fawns lived nearby and had crisscrossed the road with scent trails.
Stacia chuffed and trotted into the brush, circling to the north, up and around the spot where they both heard Declan settle into the barrens. “I think I’ll just hang here,” Declan said from about an eighth of an mile away. “The sand is warm and I’ve got a clear view of the sky.” He spoke normally, as if they were in the clearing with him.
Stacia moved slowly, scenting and listening as she led Holly deeper into the Barrens. That was fine with Holly, because the sheer amount of sensory information here in the wilds was overwhelming and fascinating at the same time.
Stacia suddenly lifted her head, sniffing the air, then took off in a streak of white fur. Holly automatically bolted after her, a new scent filling her nose. It spoke of challenge and danger blended with mouth-watering deliciousness.
It took them less than a minute to arrive at the source, a young female black bear who spun and chuffed at them. A flurry of activity in the brush behind the bear revealed two small cubs racing up the nearest pine.
Holly felt her mouth fill with saliva as the little bundles of sweet fat and meat climbed the tree like their lives depended on it. Instinctively she moved to her left, separating from Stacia and flanking the sow bear. Stacia growled at her, a clear command to stop, then she herself moved to the south. The bear spun slowly to watch the massive wolves that were as big or bigger than she was. She was popping her teeth, huffing and smacking the ground with her paws.
They could take her. Hell, Holly thought she could do it by herself, and with all of her fighting experience, Stacia would have no trouble. The two of them together—forget about it. Then they could climb up and snatch those little fur-bundled snacks from their perches. Werewolves can climb trees, maybe not as fast or as high as a black bear, but these pines were small.
Instead of attacking, the white wolf settled in place, and after a second called Holly to her with a snarl. First she had raced off to get to the bear, now she was what? Trying to make friends with it?
A branch broke in the distance, directly behind them, and Stacia’s reasons became clear. Her witch was that way and this bear had been too close, so she had placed herself between the danger and her mate.
The guy could supposedly obliterate a pack of weres yet here she was driving off a smallish bear. It didn’t make sense.
She looked at her Alpha, curious, and a strong voice, deep inside her, rumbled agreement with Stacia’s actions. She was still adjusting to having another point of view, and a strong one at that, that rose up unbidden to make itself known. Every were had one, an animal-self who saw things through instincts so strong and so highly refined that they actually overrode emotion and intellect.
Her internal wolf was absolutely fine with an action that protected a mate, no matter how capable that mate was. It also understood not killing the bear and eating her young. She was hungry but not enough to eat an animal her own size plus two twenty-pound cubs. And that was a waste of future resources.
Her human mind found that odd and didn’t think an actual pack of wolves would give up easy prey, but then again, a mother bear protecting young wouldn’t be easy or risk free for even a medium-sized pack of timber wolves. But werewolves had different instincts than regular wolves. Brock had said once that it came from centuries of blended human and wolf minds.
Stacia made no move to attack, and the agitated sow backed away till her furry butt was almost against the base of the tree her cubs had climbed. Stacia came to her feet slowly and trotted away from the bear, and with a last wistful glance, Holly followed her.
Behind them, Holly could hear the mother bear call to her cubs with a soft grunt and a few minutes later, the whole family headed northeast at a fast pace.
The patrolling werewolves found lots of scents and sent much of the local wildlife into a full-blown panic. A pair of coyotes got as close as a quarter mile before scenting them and taking off like NASCAR drivers. They found a cluster of deer and those too went racing in all directions. Forty seconds after flushing the deer, they heard the screech of tires and a thick, dull thud followed by the bleating of a wounded deer.
Both weres bolted for the road, crossing it north of the accident (and incidentally, where their own car was parked) and circled around to find a mortally wounded yearling doe dragging itself through the woods, only a hundred brushy yards from the road. Stacia ended its struggles with a snap of her jaws and the two wolves tore into the fresh meat, blood steaming in the cool air.
They could hear shaken voices, one male and one female, talking about car damage and the need to call the police. Fifteen minutes of concentrated eating later, they heard another car pull up and strobes of blue and red light glittered through the thick pines.
A car door opened and closed, a young male voice joining the first two. The first male told the story in overexcited tones. The cop calmed them down, called it in on his radio, and requested a tow truck. Then footsteps entered the pines, crunching through leaves, and a beam of light splashed about the woods.
Holly’s hackles raised at the intruder’s approach, a low snarl almost audible as she narrowed eyes at a threat to their kill.
Stacia whipped around and grabbed Holly’s snout in her big teeth, a warning growl of her own underscoring the message.
The cop only made it twenty five yards or so, his flashlight beam finding the deer’s path but stopping when it entered
the brushy area where the kill lay. He flashed the light about, studied the trail one more time and then returned to the road.
“Whose car is that?” they both heard him ask the couple.
“We don’t know. It was parked there when the deer jumped in front of us,” the female said.
They exchanged a glance, then simultaneously leapt away from the mostly consumed deer and stalked closer to the road. Dropping to her belly, Stacia crawled till she could just see the road, the three cars, strobing lights, and three humans. Holly copied her, wriggling up next to her Alpha.
The police officer, a young blond male, was calling in the plates on the rented Prius. That done, he proceeded to shine his light into their car, looking over the contents and trying the doors. It was unlocked.
He was just a few minutes into his perusal of the car’s limited contents, an action that forced Stacia to warn an increasingly angry Holly two more times not to attack, when loud crunching noises sounded in the woods on the other side of the car.
The police officer heard them too and quickly illuminated the edge of the pines just as Declan walked out.
“Oh hey, Officer. What happened?” Declan asked, looking at the damaged car, a newer BMW, and the couple who stood staring at him, eyes wide.
“This your car?” the police officer asked.
“Rental, but yes.”
“What are you doing out here?”
“Walking in the woods,” Declan answered.
“At night? By yourself?” the cop asked, voice tightly suspicious.
“Well, yes, but it’s a full moon and my girlfriend and her friend are with me,” Declan said.
“Where are they?”
“Either deeper in the woods or prowling nearby,” Declan said.
“Prowling? Let me see some ID,” the officer, whose nametag read T. Jacoby, commanded. Declan pulled his wallet and handed over his license. The officer called in the license and then shone the light back in Declan’s face.
“Explain prowling?” he demanded.
Before Declan could answer, the cop’s belt radio sounded. “Trooper Jacoby, can you landline?”
“Affirmative,” Jacoby said into his mike. Then he moved fifteen feet away, facing both Declan and the couple with the smashed car. He pulled a cell phone and dialed a number. Declan leaned back against the Prius but looked over at the couple who watched him suspiciously.
“Deer?” he asked them. The girl nodded, while her boyfriend looked cautious. The kid witch asked a few more questions, putting them at ease.
Holly was able to easily hear Declan’s conversation with the couple while simultaneously listening in on the cop’s phone call. The cop call was more interesting.
“Jacoby for dispatch.”
“Hold for Line Sergeant.”
There was a brief pause. “Jacoby? Sergeant Wollings here. Be advised the individual is File Six-sixty-six.”
“Ah, Sergeant Wollings, what the hell is a six-sixty-six?”
“Supernatural entity, Jacoby. Extreme caution warranted. Individual of national interest. Take no action.”
“Ah, Sarge, what do you mean by no action?”
“Don’t even write him a ticket, Jacoby. Hold on, this one has stirred things up. I gotta take a call from Oracle. Stay on this line, Jacoby!”
Officer Jacoby was looking and smelling nervous now, and his right hand was hovering near his sidearm.
Declan, meanwhile, was commiserating with the male driver whose pride and joy BMW was now a crumpled mess. They were both studying the damaged front end.
“Jacoby, you there?”
“Go ahead, Sarge.”
“Oracle is all over our asses on this individual. Do not antagonize in any way, understand, son?”
“Yes, Sarge. He’s been very calm and reasonable, sir. Says his girlfriend and another female are out prowling in the woods, whatever that means,” Jacoby said.
There was a pause.
“Jacoby, look up in the sky. What do you see?”
“Ah, just the moon, Sarge,” Jacoby said. Then it hit him. Holly could see the moment the lightbulb went off over his head. That and his sweat glands jumped into overdrive.
“Everything okay, Officer Jacoby?” Declan asked, sounding concerned.
The cop jerked his attention back to Declan, then looked all around at the trees on either side of them.
“Did they six-six-six me? I hate when they do that,” Declan said with a sigh. “Everything’s good, Officer. No worries.”
“You, ah, mentioned prowling?” the young cop asked.
“Exactly. You get it. But it’s all cool. No problems, I swear.”
“Jacoby, Oracle advises that all law enforcement should defer to the individual on matters of… well… supernatural. Your individual has connections with Demidova Incorporated.”
“Ah, received, Sarge. I’ve been advised that everything is okay.”
“Oracle is asking to be connected to you. Hold on.”
“Ah, Trooper Jacoby?” a new voice asked.
“Jacoby here.”
“Ah, Officer Jacoby, this is Special Agent Bruce Cotter Of Oracle.”
“Go ahead, Agent Cotter.”
“You have Declan O’Carroll in your sight?”
“Yes sir.”
“How is his demeanor?”
“Relaxed, sir. He even asked if he’d been File Six-sixty-sixed, sir.”
“He’s very familiar with law enforcement. His step-aunt is a deputy in Vermont. Any companions with him?”
“He says his girlfriend and another female are out in the pines, sir.”
“Girlfriend is Stacia Reynolds, Jacoby. Know who she is?”
“Yes sir. Does that mean she’s…”
“Most likely. I would advise you that you are not in danger if he is calm and relaxed. Under no circumstances should you be seen as a threat to him or the females. That could be… extremely hazardous. See if he needs any assistance and defer to him on anything arcane.”
“Got it, sir.”
“You have my number. Please call me at the conclusion of your encounter.”
“Yes sir.”
The call ended and Holly turned to look at Declan. He was staring straight at their position although she would swear that no human could see them. Stacia crawled backward and chuffed at Holly to follow her. She began to trot in a short circle to the south, getting close to the road. Then she waited for the officer and couple to look the other way and with a twitch of her steel-hard legs, leapt the road in one jump, landing in the darkness on the other side. Turning, she stared at Holly, who didn’t need an email to figure out what she wanted.
Holly too waited for the opportune moment to jump the road, then followed her boss back to their piles of clothes in the woods near the car.
“Let me guess. You got an earful from Oracle?” Declan asked on the other side of the screen of trees.
“Ah, that would seem to be true, sir,” the cop said, tone much different from earlier.
Stacia was Changed and dressed first, immediately heading out toward Declan and the Prius. Holly caught up to her just as she left the pines.
On the road, Declan had turned to look at them, hands casually in his pockets, his actions giving the cop and the accident victims plenty of time to see the two women leave the woods.
“Stacia, Holly, this is Trooper Jacoby and this is Marissa and Steve, who just hit a deer,” Declan said.
“Officer. Wow, sorry to see your Beamer like that. Are you both alright?” Stacia asked.
“Ommigod! You’re… you’re her! You’re Stacia Reynolds, right?”
“I was last time I checked, Marissa,” Stacia said easily, smiling at the starstruck young woman.
“Holy shit! No one’s gonna believe this!” Steve said, eyes as big as his girlfriend’s.
“Hey, you want a picture with her?” Declan offered.
Both turned to Stacia, hope lighting up their faces. “Sure why not,” Stacia said graciou
sly, moving over between the couple.
Declan took their phones and snapped a bunch of pictures.
“How about you, Officer? Picture with the famous White Werewolf?” Declan asked.
“Just pimping me out all over the place, aren’t you?” Stacia said in mock annoyance.
Holly recognized a well-practiced routine, one that put the civilians and the cop at almost immediate ease. Stacia was the gracious celebrity, Declan her easygoing boyfriend who took pictures and joked around. The cop said they could go, but with just a quick glance between them, they elected to stay until the tow truck came, which was about twenty minutes later. Then they all left at the same time, the couple riding with the tow driver, the cop getting into his cruiser, and the three of them climbing into their Prius.