I'm grovelling for reviews here..
Chapter 4
Dinner, was as always at the Cates house, a somewhat strained affair. In yet another attempt to match make her errant son Vivian had invited Jenny Sorkin over, a bubbly, rather air headed 26 year old blonde. As always with these attempts, after the first five minutes of pointless small talk Luke just couldn't summon the energy to continue and left the flirting to his far more sociable second in command. From her position at the other end of the table, Vivian eyed her son in frustration. What was wrong with the boy? He was in good health, well off, good looking, strong shoulders nicely filling out the cream shirt, quite intelligent.actually that was what was wrong. He was too intelligent for his own good. Too sentimental about the personal. While in relation to pack business he was as brutal as any Alpha, when it came to choosing a mate his romantic side got the better of him. She had tried to explain that if he mated for power, affection would follow, but every time she did he threw back her own undiminished passion for Matt Donner back in her face. The last time he had shown any palatable affection for any female other than herself had been that Sophia girl when they were just 17. And as had been forcibly pointed out to him at the time any Wolven who wanted to be Alpha couldn't afford to take a reject for a mate. It would be deadly for both of them, as the females would attempt to seize her place and the males would use her weakness to attack him. She had been the most insistent at pointing this out to him, especially after her son's attempt to get Sophia to flip through sex had failed but now she sometimes thought that it would have been the a better solution than the present one, where her son remained single, cubless and resolutely unswayable.
Jenny's chirpy voice broke into her musings insistently. "I said - did you hear that Sophia Donner's back in town?"
Vivian abruptly jerked back into reality, as did her son. Their eyes met across the length of the table, and this time when his narrowed she was forced to look away.
"Sorry, Jenny - what was that?"
"Luukkee. You're not listening. I said Sophia Donner - you know that girl who didn't flip? Well she's back in town. She's staying at her Dad's place - and Emily, who lives next door said she saw a kid with her."
Vivian's ears pricked up. A child! So Sophia had found herself a lover, and was proven to be fertile, not always a given among the blood of Wolf Lake - while her errant son had remained single. She was willing to bet that this new development would give him some food for thought. She was proven right in more ways than one as he excused himself from the dinner table soon after, leaving a pouting Jenny in his wake.
Luke stood at the door to the house as he methodically shucked his clothes, leaving them in an untidy pile on the steps. Part of his mind was revelling in the night air, cool and balmy against his overheated skin, alive with the numerous sounds of birds and wildlife, small things moving through the undergrowth. But the other, dominant part of his brain was going round in circles. Sophia Donner. Back after all these years. And with a child! Who had been her lover - who had dared to touch what was.a sharp pain interrupted the train of thought and he looked down to see his already sharpened nails had pierced his still human soft palms. Great. She was only in town for a few hours and already she was affecting his equilibrium. With a shrug of annoyance he slipped his skin, as easily as one man would exchange his work clothes for the oldest, most comfortable pair of jeans he owns. Shaking his heavy grey coat comfortably into place over his massive muscles he loped off into the night.
Cat stirred from her comfortable position on the coach, cheese nachos in hand. There had been a noise outside the window, and not one she recognised. And coming from a girl who had spent the last three years getting up close and personal with all sorts of wildlife at the sanctuary, that was saying something. She frowned absentmindedly. Her Grandad was out doing Sheriff things, Sherman had already been around for the day and her mother was off on one of her periodic excursions. So nobody in this house but her and her heebie-jeebies. So - strange noise outside, her - cosy and warm inside.but curious. This place was turning out so weird in a familiar, but not really at all kind of way. And she'd be really pissed off if she allowed herself to get scared of it on her very first day. Summoning her bravado she padded to the back door and stepped out onto the porch, where it overlooked the forest that encroached almost to the doorstep.
The night was quiet, the only sound the rustling of leaves and the distant cry of a fox. She scanned the darkened woods but couldn't see anything in the blackness. But that was the problem, it was too quiet, all the little animal noises that normally reverberated through the undergrowth were silent and even the birds had stopped calling. And by the hair on the back of her neck, something was definitely watching her.
She hesitantly took another step onto the porch, away from the security of the lighted doorway.
"Hey - is someone out there? 'Cause it's really rude to stare."
The feeling didn't abate, if anything it intensified as what her Mom called her 'spidey sense' started to kick in. She narrowed her eyes and reached out with her mind, lifting her shields and extending the little feelers that she liked to think of as mental hands. This was the first time she had done this in Wolf Lake and for a moment the noise and colours dazzled her, like staring into the sun at mid day.
Usually, even where there were people their minds were clouded and murky, only the strongest thoughts and emotions hitting her, the rest of the collective mental hum merely background noise. But here, the small minds of the forests more normal denizens were clouds of white heated focus kill- feed-mate-run, and the minds of the human townsfolk were the normal murk of impenetrability, but in among them were brilliant clouds of colour, swirling and complex, thoughts humming and buzzing, ranging from the eager childishness of what's that - why? to the complex harmony of adults engaged in a thousand and one thoughts at once. And they were all open to her - not just the public channels where information and gossip swished along at the speed - literally-of thought itself, but the intimate one on one conversations and even the interior monologues that went on in a ceaseless 24/7. And one and all, from the adults on the hunt to the children playing - they were all her people. People like her, for the first time ever! How could Mom have ever left this? It was intoxicating, like the wine she had been allowed last Christmas -heady and rich. So many thoughts, so many people, so many colours. Like a kid in a candy store she reached for a particularly fascinatingly coloured one - all silver chased gold, slightly isolated from the rest, and then drew back abruptly in embarrassment as all the lectures she had ever had from Sherman on the potential complications of eavesdropping rose up to chastise her conscience. Bummer - having a conscience was a real pain sometimes.
With a frown she brought back her mind to the cause in hand. Carefully she narrowed her focus to the woods near the house. There was only one mind there, strongly shielded, but leaking droplets of information. Male, considerably older, really strong, golden and copper to her mental vision, chased with bits of scarlet and the purple of - regret? That was weird. Vanilla and focused intent and cool amusement at watching her from the shadows. She scraped her foot along the deck, suddenly annoyed that he should feel he could just stare at her with impunity.
"Come out, come out - wherever you are! I can feel you, you know. And if you don't want my Grandpa really mad at you better come out right now."
The watchfulness changed to momentary startlement and then deepened to rich amusement, before abruptly starting to fade as the presence loped away, the bushes around the house not even moving at his departure. She kept her focus on him as he moved away and the denizens of the forest started their normal chorus in relief. An irrational irritation rose up in her and she shouted before she even knew she had.
"Wimp - can't even face a girl?"
But the fading mental cloud showed no sign of response or slowing its flight and she stalked back into the house in disgust. At least cheese Nachos and Buffy were reliable, even when your own life was really weird.
Chapter 4
Dinner, was as always at the Cates house, a somewhat strained affair. In yet another attempt to match make her errant son Vivian had invited Jenny Sorkin over, a bubbly, rather air headed 26 year old blonde. As always with these attempts, after the first five minutes of pointless small talk Luke just couldn't summon the energy to continue and left the flirting to his far more sociable second in command. From her position at the other end of the table, Vivian eyed her son in frustration. What was wrong with the boy? He was in good health, well off, good looking, strong shoulders nicely filling out the cream shirt, quite intelligent.actually that was what was wrong. He was too intelligent for his own good. Too sentimental about the personal. While in relation to pack business he was as brutal as any Alpha, when it came to choosing a mate his romantic side got the better of him. She had tried to explain that if he mated for power, affection would follow, but every time she did he threw back her own undiminished passion for Matt Donner back in her face. The last time he had shown any palatable affection for any female other than herself had been that Sophia girl when they were just 17. And as had been forcibly pointed out to him at the time any Wolven who wanted to be Alpha couldn't afford to take a reject for a mate. It would be deadly for both of them, as the females would attempt to seize her place and the males would use her weakness to attack him. She had been the most insistent at pointing this out to him, especially after her son's attempt to get Sophia to flip through sex had failed but now she sometimes thought that it would have been the a better solution than the present one, where her son remained single, cubless and resolutely unswayable.
Jenny's chirpy voice broke into her musings insistently. "I said - did you hear that Sophia Donner's back in town?"
Vivian abruptly jerked back into reality, as did her son. Their eyes met across the length of the table, and this time when his narrowed she was forced to look away.
"Sorry, Jenny - what was that?"
"Luukkee. You're not listening. I said Sophia Donner - you know that girl who didn't flip? Well she's back in town. She's staying at her Dad's place - and Emily, who lives next door said she saw a kid with her."
Vivian's ears pricked up. A child! So Sophia had found herself a lover, and was proven to be fertile, not always a given among the blood of Wolf Lake - while her errant son had remained single. She was willing to bet that this new development would give him some food for thought. She was proven right in more ways than one as he excused himself from the dinner table soon after, leaving a pouting Jenny in his wake.
Luke stood at the door to the house as he methodically shucked his clothes, leaving them in an untidy pile on the steps. Part of his mind was revelling in the night air, cool and balmy against his overheated skin, alive with the numerous sounds of birds and wildlife, small things moving through the undergrowth. But the other, dominant part of his brain was going round in circles. Sophia Donner. Back after all these years. And with a child! Who had been her lover - who had dared to touch what was.a sharp pain interrupted the train of thought and he looked down to see his already sharpened nails had pierced his still human soft palms. Great. She was only in town for a few hours and already she was affecting his equilibrium. With a shrug of annoyance he slipped his skin, as easily as one man would exchange his work clothes for the oldest, most comfortable pair of jeans he owns. Shaking his heavy grey coat comfortably into place over his massive muscles he loped off into the night.
Cat stirred from her comfortable position on the coach, cheese nachos in hand. There had been a noise outside the window, and not one she recognised. And coming from a girl who had spent the last three years getting up close and personal with all sorts of wildlife at the sanctuary, that was saying something. She frowned absentmindedly. Her Grandad was out doing Sheriff things, Sherman had already been around for the day and her mother was off on one of her periodic excursions. So nobody in this house but her and her heebie-jeebies. So - strange noise outside, her - cosy and warm inside.but curious. This place was turning out so weird in a familiar, but not really at all kind of way. And she'd be really pissed off if she allowed herself to get scared of it on her very first day. Summoning her bravado she padded to the back door and stepped out onto the porch, where it overlooked the forest that encroached almost to the doorstep.
The night was quiet, the only sound the rustling of leaves and the distant cry of a fox. She scanned the darkened woods but couldn't see anything in the blackness. But that was the problem, it was too quiet, all the little animal noises that normally reverberated through the undergrowth were silent and even the birds had stopped calling. And by the hair on the back of her neck, something was definitely watching her.
She hesitantly took another step onto the porch, away from the security of the lighted doorway.
"Hey - is someone out there? 'Cause it's really rude to stare."
The feeling didn't abate, if anything it intensified as what her Mom called her 'spidey sense' started to kick in. She narrowed her eyes and reached out with her mind, lifting her shields and extending the little feelers that she liked to think of as mental hands. This was the first time she had done this in Wolf Lake and for a moment the noise and colours dazzled her, like staring into the sun at mid day.
Usually, even where there were people their minds were clouded and murky, only the strongest thoughts and emotions hitting her, the rest of the collective mental hum merely background noise. But here, the small minds of the forests more normal denizens were clouds of white heated focus kill- feed-mate-run, and the minds of the human townsfolk were the normal murk of impenetrability, but in among them were brilliant clouds of colour, swirling and complex, thoughts humming and buzzing, ranging from the eager childishness of what's that - why? to the complex harmony of adults engaged in a thousand and one thoughts at once. And they were all open to her - not just the public channels where information and gossip swished along at the speed - literally-of thought itself, but the intimate one on one conversations and even the interior monologues that went on in a ceaseless 24/7. And one and all, from the adults on the hunt to the children playing - they were all her people. People like her, for the first time ever! How could Mom have ever left this? It was intoxicating, like the wine she had been allowed last Christmas -heady and rich. So many thoughts, so many people, so many colours. Like a kid in a candy store she reached for a particularly fascinatingly coloured one - all silver chased gold, slightly isolated from the rest, and then drew back abruptly in embarrassment as all the lectures she had ever had from Sherman on the potential complications of eavesdropping rose up to chastise her conscience. Bummer - having a conscience was a real pain sometimes.
With a frown she brought back her mind to the cause in hand. Carefully she narrowed her focus to the woods near the house. There was only one mind there, strongly shielded, but leaking droplets of information. Male, considerably older, really strong, golden and copper to her mental vision, chased with bits of scarlet and the purple of - regret? That was weird. Vanilla and focused intent and cool amusement at watching her from the shadows. She scraped her foot along the deck, suddenly annoyed that he should feel he could just stare at her with impunity.
"Come out, come out - wherever you are! I can feel you, you know. And if you don't want my Grandpa really mad at you better come out right now."
The watchfulness changed to momentary startlement and then deepened to rich amusement, before abruptly starting to fade as the presence loped away, the bushes around the house not even moving at his departure. She kept her focus on him as he moved away and the denizens of the forest started their normal chorus in relief. An irrational irritation rose up in her and she shouted before she even knew she had.
"Wimp - can't even face a girl?"
But the fading mental cloud showed no sign of response or slowing its flight and she stalked back into the house in disgust. At least cheese Nachos and Buffy were reliable, even when your own life was really weird.