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Anne
I went to find Reece after a few hours of trying to sleep. Truthfully, I was really worried about him, and even if he was drunk he was still a big teddy bear. A big unhappy one, sure, and one that had sent a guy to the hospital, but still... I didn't want to leave him alone in this.
Antonio glanced up as I came down into the basement, Reece locked up again, Antonio with a screwdriver and screws in his mouth. It looked like Reece had knocked the door free somehow, not a small feat at all with the incredible work put into keeping this thing secure, but apparently this hadn't bothered Reece's escape attempt in the slightest.
I sat down outside as Antonio repaired the door and came to sit beside me.
"So what happened?"
"Some idiots harassed Selene and stole her food. Reece was drinking nearby while I loaded the car, saw them setting her car on fire and snapped when ...it looked like one of them was trying to force her." Antonio's face twisted, grimacing. "I can't say I don't approve his actions. They're getting a bit much in town. They robbed her and tried to scare her from coming back."
"It's that bad?"
"You're safe with babies. No one would harm you. If they did, I-" Antonio scowled and glanced at Reece, who was on his back in the bed, snoring. "Like I said. I don't really care much about the one he nearly killed."
It was pretty cold of Antonio. But then, we'd had far too much experience with the bad side of human nature to care, and I had to admit I wouldn't have been gentle with them either. "Is she all right?"
"Reece scared her but she's unharmed. Hope and Karl are staying overnight with her. We took some food over for the stuff they stole, to Forestwatch, and she didn't want Alan to know. So we didn't tell him." Antonio's head met the wall as he leaned back, gazing up, a long deep sigh. "I'm too old for this."
"Yeah, really old." I muttered. "Old man. I should go over in the morning."
"Just don't take this one. He's going to have to stay here for a week, even with the change, Elena was not happy at all. We can't let him go back to town in case the friends reported him." Antonio shot Reece a look at that. "He attacked them too, they saw his face, so it was a bit of an incident."
"Ah, bugger." I sighed.
"Exactly."
We went quiet, watching the drunk idiot sleep, and I noticed the bruises start to appear on his knuckles. So he'd really gone for it, it seemed, and with the strength a werewolf had that was saying something. I doubted the hospital would be able to believe it was really a person who'd done it. I didn't tell Antonio why, what Reece had told me while he was in my room, but suddenly I saw that I might have to pay more attention. Watch him. Loosing his temper like that... it was not a good thing. He'd be lucky if she wanted to talk to him in a decade. And what if she was human, like Alan had said? A human and a werewolf couple was possible, Jamie wasn't physically strong like Jeremy, but then he hadn't tried charming her by smashing skulls half-drunk.
Antonio nudged me gently, his voice cutting through the quiet. "You need to worry about other things, Anne."
"Like nappies? Yeah. Already got them lined up for tomorrow." I seriously had. Lined up, positioned for quick unwrapping, the changing table organised like I'd never organised in my life. "Lunch and dinner defrosting in fridge. Clothes in dryer."
"No." Antonio smiled though, arm pulling me against his side. "Not that. Benicio Cortez has to speak to you about your obligations. Elena's making him wait for a while."
"Obligations?"
"Twins. Heirs to a powerful corporation run by one of the old powerful sorcerer families. The only ones, apparently." Antonio squeezed my shoulder as I groaned softly.
"Can't we wait till they're … talking?"
"Probably not. Business doesn't wait."
I groaned again. Art, babies, this was something I seemed to be okay with. Business. God, that sounded terrible. Boring. "What are they expecting?"
"I don't know. I can guess that you might be involved in running it on their behalf or may have to find someone to do it for you. I can't help you with that but I do know about business. You can talk to me once he's gotten time to discuss it with you."
Reece snorted and fell off the bed, snored on, and we watched him without bothering to get up.
"They're big?"
"Apparently. I was going to let you know earlier but we've been a little..."
"Buried under nappies." I muttered. Antonio laughed softly and nodded. When I yawned, he nudged me, pushing me back up.
"Go sleep. I'm watching him." Antonio leaned back, settled against the wall, eyes going back to watch the sleeping drunk Australian. "He's going to regret it by the time Clayton and I are through with his hangover."
"Poor guy." I muttered, he smiled, and I held up my hands as he waved me away. "Okay. I'm going back to bed. If you need-"
"-We'll be fine. Reece needs punishment, not cuddles." He waved at me.
I sighed and left reluctantly. I wanted to cuddle him, Antonio was right, I wanted to cuddle and hug and love and … and maybe he was right. Getting drunk wasn't going to make this any better for him. Me giving him comfort and sympathy wasn't going to make him rethink it. I headed up and crawled back into bed beside Nick who hadn't woken and passed out.
Selene
We ate dinner together. Hope and myself. Karl took the toddler out to where his friends lived while we did. She tried to reassure me that the guy was fine, that Reece wasn't a drunken asshole, and made sure I was okay. Of course I'd been okay. That idiot that'd tried to scare me... well, okay. He had scared me. But we'd learnt some stuff in college and one of them was how useful a belt was for self defence. I'd nearly had it off my wrists and was more than happy to throw it around his neck and make him pass out. If that failed, whack him. If that failed, stab at his eyes with it. Belts were great for all those things. They weren't great for restraining someone unless you were holding the end and he hadn't been.
It wasn't him that really upset me. Not completely. My car- I'd only just paid it off. Alan's stuff I'd spent ages trying to collect. The food. The cards I'd been too freaked out to get. Hope reassured me that the older man had got them for me, Antonio, but I wasn't really keen on seeing him either. Not even her attempts at distracting me with the latest evidence that aliens had caused the disease could cheer me up.
She said they'd stay overnight here, Karl was coming back with their baby, so I set up the sofa for them while I got the kettle on. This was just a one bedroom cabin thing. It was tiny and good for me and it was now going to have to be good for three more. Apparently they could sleep with the kid so I didn't have to worry about that. And he was kind of cute. Three and a half years old, nearly four, and a monster except when he met his mother's eyes and suddenly ...he was an angel. A very tired angel slash monster who made them hurry to bed by ten.
Hope, Karl and their little one were asleep now in the living room by eleven and I sat in my bedroom in the one bedroom apartment, staring out the window, far too rattled to care about sleeping. I barely knew any of these people. Given my phone number to some guy who'd snapped and nearly killed that guy. I wasn't happy that he'd tried that but I had found a nice squishy wet bit of trash to shove in his face and run, sort of, I just wasn't sure what it was. But what if the Australian had killed him?
The idea repulsed me really badly. It really did. You thought you knew a guy then he turned around and became crazy manic with too much strength to be normal. There hadn't been any guilt in his face either when he'd chased me. None. Like punching guys was a regular night out for him. This entire place felt strange to me. Like it wasn't quite right. I hadn't exactly told Anne and Hope the truth. It wasn't just 'ghost owls' I saw. It was a lot of things. I felt them too, felt them crowd in on me as the year had gone past, and that thing on the beach had been the worst of it. I'd dreamed about it for months.
The more I spent time around Hope and Karl, the less they seemed normal to me. It didn't make sense. This didn't mean I didn't like them. I was still completely and totally starstruck by Hope. She was ...incredible. Living my dream job. But they were still 'not normal'. Whatever normal was supposed to be.
I groaned softly, running my hands through my hair, much too stung out to sleep properly. I hadn't even eaten. They had, especially Karl, but I just didn't feel like I could be bothered to eat.
Last night I hadn't dreamed of that thing on the beach. Or the night before. In fact, I hadn't dreamed of it since that woman had been killed, and while no one told me where she was, I knew that she'd been buried and left in the forest. The people that'd attacked us hadn't used knives, except for that one, they'd ...done other things. Things my brain didn't want to accept as fact and yet there it had been. It was like magic, like watching people use magic, while that thing straight out of my nightmares watched.
It was a lot to take in. Maybe this was why I'd just let Alan run me around all over the place for the last two weeks doing stuff for him. It exhausted me and I slept and then I did chores and ...no time to stop and think. Not even the sight of a big dog outside stopped me from collapsing into bed every night, even if it was a bit unusual, I was just too tired.
And the sight of that dead woman naked in the bath as they tried to clean the blood off her. The sight of a corpse. They'd all been so ...calm. Like they'd seen a corpse before. Why didn't they take her to the hospital? Why had they buried her in the forest?
She'd replaced the monster in my dreams now. That face. It was always that face, the blood, and the forest we'd left her in. Always. Sometimes I swore I saw her on the street, in the shop, in a car, and I felt like I was starting to go mad. This dead woman haunting me all over the place. Even on the drive back. For a second while staring out of the taxi tonight I saw it. Her face all over again, those green eyes burning into me, reflecting back where my face should have been. One blink and she'd vanished.
Was it my fault she'd died? Why had she run away? That man, Reece, he'd come back to help us. What if he had gone after her? I should have told him to go after her. I did feel guilty and responsible. I had almost been on the verge of telling them that I'd been dreaming about it when it came. Maybe I should have. But I had thought they'd think I'm crazy. 'You saw a skin-walker? See you around some time' crazy.
I went for my laptop only to remember it'd been in the car. That'd burnt. I groaned softly, crawled into bed, and tried to will myself to sleep. It only took a hot shower, my heart pounding as I hoped I didn't wake the visitors up, to get my body to ease into a more relaxed state so I could sleep.
Alan woke me the next morning, coming in, caught between anger and worry and anger. I sat up, my eyes heavy, wondering what time I'd managed to pass out as he started to rant about cars and insurance and was I okay and where were the cards and money and...
"Coffee." I muttered. There it was, in the background, Hope sneaking in behind him as he ranted. "Thanks."
"You could have been hurt. Why didn't you call me when you were being followed?" Alan snapped. I knew he loved me, that was why he was like this, but I still hated it.
"Because it wasn't a problem. They left me alone for hours. Why didn't you help me get that stuff?" I snapped, blowing at the coffee, trying to get it to cool down so I could get it all down fast.
"I had to do things. Fuck. All that money."
Yeah, thanks. I came after it. I didn't say it but after being 'fired' yesterday I was tempted to. "It's got insurance."
"Lucky thing it does. Okay." He sighed, flopped onto the bed. "Okay. So I'll go get what you didn't while you stay here out of trouble."
"And do what?" I snapped. "I can't just sit here and stare out the window." Stay out of trouble. Like it was my fault, yesterday, even though I had tried. I felt like a kid with Alan no matter how hard I tried. Every time something went wrong he went like this. He behaved like it was all my fault and I felt about as big as a two year old. It'd been so different at college on my own. I'd taken care of myself and felt great about it. Now I was back living with him and ...well, it was back to this.
"I don't know. Read a book. Watch TV. Clean." Alan replied, his eyes going over the room, and I saw it. He was flipping back into 'father' mode and away from brother mode. My mum and our dad had died ten years ago when he was nineteen and I had just turned nine. Alan had to study and care for me and work, and I knew it had been hard on him, but sometimes I remembered what it'd been like to just have a brother. I missed that. I missed my mum and our dad. "You could clean this place. And I'll buy you another laptop." Alan added, quieter, glancing at me. "You can repay me when the insurance comes in."
The offer of a laptop felt like a little bribe, to not be so mad, and I replied stiffly, "Thanks."
"Please, Beth, don't go into any more alleyways." He added, glancing at me as he stood up. "Just stay put. I'll be back before lunch. Get up, okay? It's past nine."
I watched him leave, frowning, feeling somewhat responsible for what'd happened. Maybe he thought I was. I didn't know. Voices came from outside in the living room and as I got up and dressed I listened. He wasn't alone here.
"Is she awake?" The voice was Anne. I hadn't heard it for a while but it was pretty easy to tell from the Australian accent.
"Yeah. She'll be out in a second."
I got dressed a bit faster when I heard her stay and sit down. Hope was still here, I could her her on the phone outside talking to someone, but Karl looked like he had vanished again with the toddler. Funny how he kept going back to that place his friends lived.
Anne didn't barge into my room like my brother had. She waited and I came out to see her smile a quick tense smile. She looked like she hadn't slept either. The older man from the night before was there too but he smiled a friendly smile and I didn't feel quite as threatened by him.
"I came from Reece." Anne's eyes raised up for a second, like this annoyed her a little. "He's grounded."
"Oh." I sat down. Tried to not frown or anything but it didn't work. Her eyes went across my lips like she'd noticed the slight movement.
"Yeah. He was a bit of an asshole." She agreed. Rolled her eyes. "I found him in my room after. Look, I know he..."
"He beat someone up till they were nearly dead then attacked their friends, then came after me covered in their blood. A bit of an asshole is an understatement." I muttered.
She blinked, grimaced, and nodded. It looked like I'd shocked Anne a bit because she glanced at the older man. "Antonio said attacked you."
"I had it. He let go of my hands." I replied, sitting back, waiting for her to tell me it was my fault too.
"Okay. Yeah. But he wanted to say sorry. He was a bit drunk. That's not an excuse but … what he did, it's not what he's usually like. And if he gets like that, just slap him. Trust me. He's a big pussy cat who forgets that big can be scary." She wasn't happy, I realised, and it wasn't with me. Anne fidgeted as she tried to give the message. "He was trying to be scary towards them, I think. Argh. I didn't come here to make excuses for him. Just ...don't worry. We're making sure he knows he was stupid."
"Not me?" I couldn't help it. That feeling of 'stupid child' from Alan lingered. But I wished I hadn't said it when she looked at me like she wasn't sure what I meant.
"No, of course not. Why would we think you're stupid? There's some idiots in town making life hell for anyone they don't know. Antonio was ...well, after Daniella, we're trying to watch out for everyone here who's our friend. They were trying to put out your car and then Reece saw you weren't coming out, so he got a bit upset." She shook her head
"In fact-" The older man, Antonio, spoke up as he slid down into a chair beside us. "-It was partly my fault. Reece wasn't supposed to be in town at all and I got distracted when I saw them robbing your car and setting it alight."
I wasn't sure what to say. "Um. That's okay. It was insured. Look. Seriously. Anne, what is going on?" The words came out before I could hold them back. After laying there last night, sleepless, wondering what the hell I'd seen... "You left her buried in a forest and there was something that looked like magic. That thing on the beach. No one's said anything to me. Even Alan won't talk about it."
She grimaced as Antonio blinked, staring from her to me.
"She saw all that?" He asked softly, smile there but no charm in his voice now, and she tried to wave it off. I suddenly felt like I wasn't supposed to have said anything, Anne shot me a 'quiet' look, like this wasn't stuff I was supposed to see. What was going on?
"She was there." Hope came back in as she put the phone away. "We're not sure. I'm investigating as best I can from here."
"It's not the first time I've seen it." I blurted it out before I could think. The three of them stared at me like a lunatic. "I mean. I've seen it before. In my dreams, I see it all the time, I haven't slept properly for months. Look, don't tell Alan, he'll take me to a shrink. But I swear. I'm not crazy. I'm tired and sleep deprived but I'm not crazy. And what was with Reece throwing that guy over five metres? Why haven't I seen him on the Olympics or something? Why isn't anyone explaining any of this? And what's with that dog that's been outside my house every fricken night? Or the owl? Or... Come on. I'm not a kid." I was still feeling like one though. I wanted to throw a tantrum, pitch something across the room and lock myself in the bedroom with a ton of chocolate. The worst part was that I was afraid it was all in my head.
That made Anne twitch, Antonio stiffening.
Hope's hand on mine cut off my babbling as she squeezed it. "No one thinks you're crazy or a kid." Her eyes met Antonio and Anne's eyes, Antonio sighing.
"Elena's going to have to know." Antonio said quietly, his eyes meeting Anne's eyes, and she frowned. "Not much choice. She saw it all. She won't like that you hid it, Anne. Selene." He turned to me, using the name I liked, and for once I felt like it didn't fit. It felt like I was going to be lectured or something and Beth usually popped out for that. But all the older man said was, "Give me half an hour to get you some sort of answer." and he was striding outside and walking halfway down the street.
It was beginning to sound like the Mafia.
Anne
One factor neither of I hadn't taken into account was Selene. I realised, as I stared at her, at the hair all over the place, dark shadows under her dark eyes, the healthy brown skin now an unhealthy pale color, that she too had more or less been left alone to sit with this for the past few weeks. She was about to crack.
She couldn't have been like this openly for two weeks. Hope would have contacted Elena straight away. But maybe Reece's stupidity had pushed her a bit too far. Suddenly we'd reached the point where we had to force her to forget, which apparently I could do but hadn't tried with hypnotherapy, let her know what was going on, or... the last idea, I didn't like it. And I felt like she deserved to be protected if Reece really had bonded to her like that. Like 'mates' should not only be allowed under Pack Law but protected like pack, even if they weren't allowed to be on the land or to know about us.
She sat there, her knees jiggling up and down, a cup of coffee sitting beside her where she'd forgotten it. Antonio spoke to Elena softly. This was a real problem. Alan knew about us and he'd never actually said she couldn't as well. He'd said she couldn't know about them.
I could believe that if Benicio Cortez knew about what she'd seen, the magic users, I wouldn't see her again. This didn't help the protective urge I was starting to get towards her. Reece's girl. Maybe it wouldn't happen for years but the wolf in me accepted it so easily, accepted her so easily, that it shocked me.
"Okay." Antonio's voice made us all jump as he came back up at a jog. "Pack your things up. Elena thinks that if you saw it, if you saw as much as you did, that you should live with us while Hope investigates."
This was not what I expected. I blinked as Antonio's dark brown eyes met mine. So she was coming but she wasn't allowed to know? Or were we telling her there? I kind of felt like that wasn't it.
"My brother told... ah. Forget it." She flushed as the words cut off. "Forget that. Okay. I've just got a couple of bags, all the furniture came with the apartment. But it's on a contract."
"Given the attack, I'm sure I can convince your landlords to release you from it." Antonio's voice was smooth, calm, and I'd started to see that he wasn't as sweet or gentle as he acted. The landlords weren't going to be talked to. They were going to be given that smooth calm threat he did really really well, probably honed in business and pack intimidation alike. "Pack and come home. Hope's staying there, so is Anne, so you'll know a few people. Hope, can you put all the food and stuff in my car? No point wasting it."
She packed and I followed Antonio out to his car. He turned to me as we were out of earshot.
"She's coming back?" I asked softly and he nodded.
"We're going to lock the doors between Stonehaven and the newer half. Technically it's a house, it has four bedrooms, so you and Nick can stay in there with the kids in one room, Hope and Karl in another, Matt can sleep with Logan and Kate and she'll get a room to herself. We'll just make it clear that after dark she stays inside- we go hunting." He smiled a small tense smile as Hope came out to dump a box of stuff in the car. "And to stay in the newer half. Reece has to stay in the older part of Stonehaven so that probably won't be a problem for her."
"Might be for him. How are we going to hide this?" I said quietly. Antonio shrugged. "I mean, we've got ...habits."
"Which are now all going to have to happen in the old Stonehaven. It was Clayton who decided this when he heard what Reece told you last night. I only told him. Relax." He added, quietly. "He might tell Elena but he won't spread it around."
"Good. The last thing we need is for her to hear it from us." I muttered. She came out with her bags, all five foot three of her, and Antonio got the boot of the car open for her.
"What about cleaning?"
"I can do that as repayment for you letting us stay over so many times." Hope called, another box in her hands as she came out. "And eating your food. I don't mind. Any time on my own is good time."
I understood that. She got less time to think than I did- I had to work for the pack, do things, got out. Hope didn't get that as much. Having kids meant you had to become superwoman and suddenly evolve to never need sleep, have eyes on all four sides, and super stretchy arms to capture fleeing toddlers. One, three, still it was a lot to handle. We had to get back too. I'd been gone for longer than I meant to.
"Do you want me to pay board?" She asked, uncertain, and Antonio nodded.
"Not too expensive, I promise. But there's a few rules." He said softly, opening a door for her. "It's not far from where your brother's staying either. He shouldn't mind much."
I wondered about that. He knew what we were. It would probably bother him quite a lot but he'd just have to deal with it. Selene had seen so much, heard so much, that we had to think about how to explain what she'd seen. Any other human might have been able to accept some excuse we'd come up with. Selene had spent years thinking about the paranormal. Her brain couldn't do that.
"I can handle rules." Selene replied. She slid into the car and we headed off quickly once Hope locked up for her.
On the drive back I wondered what kind of answers we'd give her. She clearly expected them. But she was frazzled and stressed. Maybe she did feel safer with us, she lived in this apartment on her own most of the time, and if she had been dreaming of the skin-walker it couldn't have been easy for her at night.
Antonio gave her the rules as we drove back. Hunting happened at night, so she had to stay indoors when it got dark, just so she was safe. Or if she was going out to town, to let us know when. That Stonehaven was 'a different house', even though they were connected internally, so she had to knock on that front door like we now apparently all did. And that Reece was there but, he added fast as her eyes widened, he was more or less now in deep shit about getting drunk and behaving like that so she wouldn't see him for some time. I knew that was because he was in the basement for a week.
It was risky. It meant we'd have a little less freedom to be ourselves. It was the only thing that worked for now. I was surprised that Clayton had stood up for her safety, even if he did know she was a 'mate', but then he'd always been closer to his wolf than us. Maybe to a wolf the mating bond wasn't a small thing.
Selene accepted the rules easily. She reassured us that, with the kinds of dreams she'd been having and after what she'd seen, wandering around in the dark alone was the last thing she wanted to do. A fire, a good book or a laptop, she was good. She didn't know how to cook but she'd help cleaning and didn't seem frightened when I warned her that there were three toddlers and two babies. Not too badly. But I had the feeling it was only fair to her to at least give her the main bedroom, if we were 'renting' it from Jeremy, so that she didn't have to deal with the crazy bathroom problems that came with the lot of us.
But she did mention not wanting to see Reece. I couldn't blame her for that. I didn't know how violent he'd been. Oh, I knew he'd been bad, I knew he'd used all his strength on a human, but to see the expression in Selene's face when she descried it... it really did make him look like a monster. Bloody idiot. Why'd he chase her when he was covered in blood anyway? I did not feel pity for his week long punishment. Grief for Daniella didn't mean he could loose his mind completely.
"Here we are." Antonio said cheerfully as he pulled into Stonehaven's gates. Electronic gates, security system, I saw her eyes go over it with interest. "It's got a lot of land. You much of a walker?"
"Not really." Selene admitted. "I get lost easily."
"That brings us to the next rule. Bush walks done with one of us. There's a lot of bush and no real trails, so people get lost easily. Anne's been here for three years and does okay. My brother, Nick, he's been visiting this place since he was six and he still gets lost." Antonio grinned back at me. "Needs Anne all the time. I hope the kids get her sense of direction."
I didn't know that. It suddenly explained why Nick usually went into the bush with one of us. He must have been trying to hide that little embarrassing fact from me. I grinned back, amused, and Antonio squeezed my leg.
"That, with the brown door, is the old Stonehaven. I say old, because it was there for a long time, but there was a fire a few years back. It's actually a new building based off the old one." Antonio got out, speaking lightly. "The new half is that one with the blue doors. Jeremy rents it to Anne right now and whoever needs a room. We haven't figured out a name for it, we just call it the new Stonehaven."
Selene gazed at the building. I saw suddenly how huge it probably looked. Two houses, side by side, connected in the middle. They both were designed to look the same age too.
Antonio led her inside as I carried her bags in. Hope started to take the food in behind us. "Where's she sleeping, Anne?"
"In the room with a bathroom, so she doesn't have to deal with the fight for it or the toddler stuff." I said lightly. Antonio nodded. "I need to clean it up a bit though."
"Good, because I'm taking Selene on a tour." He smiled and took her arm, always a gentleman. "Have you had breakfast, Selene?"
She shook her head and Antonio headed for the kitchen with her. "Good. I'm hungry. We'll eat, tour, I'll show you the garden. No rush. Nick and Clayton are next door so you've got some room to clean."
"I'm going to find some answers." Hope called as Selene glanced over her shoulder at her. "I'm in the study."
They vanished and I went for the clean sheets and linen in the laundry. The toddlers were next door, I heard them playing with Nick and Clayton, heard the twins nearby, my body easing as the mind reassured it that all was safe next door. Matt, Kate and Logan would be at school. It gave me a precious half hour to empty out our room, dump our things in the bedroom next to the baby room, change the sheets and clean the bathroom for her. It wasn't perfectly clean but ah well. Nothing around here was perfectly clean at the moment. This half of Stonehaven had become the 'kid central'. Hope's little boy was here, my three toddlers, the twins, so we were more or less distracted by things and cleaning didn't really happen that much.
Clayton came through the middle doors upstairs as I cleaned the room, glancing down as Antonio headed outside with Selene, his face tenser than usual. "Giving her this room?"
"The other bathroom's shared with a bunch of babies, toddlers and werewolves. Seemed like a good idea to give her some of her own space to stay in." I leaned back, dropping the horrible chemical shit, throwing it back into the cleaning box. "Antonio said you stuck up for her."
"If we took care of it, Reece would go. Ain't loosing more pack." He scowled slightly, crossing his arms, watching as Selene trod on his land. "She isn't too big, is she."
"You don't think she's his mate?" I joined him and watched them. She was pretty short compared to Antonio.
"Second time he's claimed it. I won't say yes or no." Clayton glanced sideways at me. "Saying no to an obsessed werewolf hasn't worked in the past. Elena. You. So we'll see how it goes. Reece wants to say hello."
"I'm not taking her into the basement. It might scare her off." I wondered what she'd think if she saw that.
"Might not be a bad thing to do that." Clayton muttered. Watched her. It wasn't really hostility towards her. It was our instincts, watching a stranger on our land, knowing she'd sleep amongst us. The few we'd let in who weren't Pack had spent years working up that trust to get here. Well, except for when we'd appeared, these female werewolves with nowhere to go. That may have been because Nick had already met me. "So the middle doors are gonna be locked from now on. Here's the key." He handed me a key and I slid it into my pocket. "She know the rules?"
"Seems okay with it. Apparently she's been dreaming about that thing so she's probably not interested in straying from the safe house." I hesitated. "Her brother might not be happy with this. He knows what we are."
"Yeah. Elena said that." Clayton's eyes stayed fixed on Selene until she vanished around the corner of the house. "Another good reason to keep her close. He won't run off with her here."
Oh. I got it now. It wasn't just to help her, it was to keep her here, keep her close to us, and at the same time, keep Alan and the 'skin-walkers' close too. I raised an eyebrow and he just stared passively at me like this wasn't underhanded.
"She's not gonna be harmed." He added, softer. "That's the last thing we'd want."
Alan turned up later, while I was showing Selene her room, and Elena talked with him next door before Selene could know he'd arrived. I introduced her to the triplets and twins to distract her and that worked till we saw him leave again, with Selene none the wiser about him, his face red. I wasn't sure if it was with anger or what. Just that he'd gone bright red.
Once that was done we tried to get back into the swing of things, trying to ignore the strangeness of having a human around us, while Hope did her best to keep Selene distracted and involved.
Selene
So I had a new home. A home that, in a way, was kind of nice. Friendly. The kids were cute, a little spoiled, but cute. When I'd been in college I'd shared a house with a couple and their kid, so this wasn't that new to me, just a bit overwhelming.
It was awkward though. I had this feeling that Stonehaven had secrets I wanted to see, which was driving me nuts as the days went past, even with the work Hope had me do. She got me a contact and I found myself actually working on an article for the paper she wrote for. Me, writing an article!
Three days after I got there, three kind of awkward days, I finally got a replacement car for the other one. This meant a lot more freedom and Alan put me right back to work.
This also meant that the dog returned. No one mentioned the dog I'd seen, hell, they weren't even discussing the monster thing. The only thing Hope kept me up to date on was those people we'd seen doing magic- where they'd been spotted. She agreed it was probably a skin-walker, she agreed that they worked for it, and so probably she figured that by watching the people she'd know where it might be. Right now it was somewhere in Texas.
I'd told them I wasn't going to go out in the dark. This ...may not have been the truth. Somehow the 'This is like the mafia' idea had stuck and I 'stayed in town' late. No one seemed to care, so long as I called as I was coming back, and as long as I pretended to believe the bullshit about hunting they were happy.
I knew they were up to something. Seriously, how obvious did they have to be? I'd been weeding the garden and caught a glimpse of that man, Reece, shimmy out of a tiny window to a basement. He didn't even notice me but I did notice that there was some kind of cage down there. The 'mafia' theory only got stronger when I saw that. Who had cages in their basements anyway?
I'd already been snooping around, cleaning, and with Anne overwhelmed with her mass of children, it wasn't that hard. They had so much food it wasn't funny. The 'off limits' part of Stonehaven had a second kitchen and the vegetable gardens were huge. This was how I got outside more- I was weeding, getting the garden beds ready for the winter that'd already started now, and seeing the Australian escape out of a cage with a wicked grin that made my chest hurt was just another tick in the 'Something odd's going on here'.
I thought he hadn't seen me anyway. I went back to weeding, eyes on the house, trying to pull the right green things out and leave the right green things in.
"That was a carrot. Poor carrot." The accent, smooth, came right from behind me. I stood up, spun around, and hit Reece square in the jaw with the top of my head. He grunted in pain, stumbling back, holding his jaw. "Ow. You're a fast mover."
He was different in the daylight, without blood and alcohol, that smile was back. That charm. It'd made me all squeamy and melty when he'd had it. Now I was kind of afraid of him. Reece lowered his head so his eyes fixed in mine with that same scary intense look he did, only without blood all over his face, and he threw the 'carrot' I'd pulled out to one side as he stepped towards me.
"Sh." He held up a finger to his lips. Grinned. "I escaped."
"The cage?" I asked and Reece raised an eyebrow, nodded, and glanced back to the side of Stonehaven.
"Guess it's a bit obvious, huh." He glanced up as the door opened to the off limits part. "Come on. Got to talk with you."
He grabbed my hand and dragged. That strength, it was too much for me to stop him, and I found myself hoisted along like I was one of those three year olds in the house. I yanked at his hand hard, annoyed, the fear rising back up. He seemed like a nice guy but he was ...I didn't know. Too much. Like he was a coiled wire, all built up, all energy that wasn't going anywhere.
"Stop it, stop forcing me."
That stopped him. Reece let go of my hand like I'd stung him.
"I didn't ...sorry." He grimaced as I rubbed my red hand, staring at it. "I keep forgetting you're ...not well, that I'm a bit strong."
"That we're not all superman?" I stared at my poor hand. Ow.
"I wanted to apologise to you. Not do that. Let me look." Reece grasped my arm, his grip suddenly gentle, and this time I could have pulled away. I didn't. I let him inspect the damage, his fingers running over the red skin, the sensation sending shivers down my spine. "Bloody hell. You're so delicate."
"Yeah, thanks." I muttered. He reached out for my other hand. Then he seemed to remember that it was still in a plaster. I'd forgotten till now, to be honest, except a vague acknowledgement when dressing, I'd been so focused on the mystery of this place and the mystery of the attack and... but now it suddenly itched annoyingly. It wasn't that bad. It was just a fracture and it no longer hurt, I could carry things, use it, it was just annoying to have this stiff plaster on my lower arm.
"It's a good thing. I like it. Look, I had to say sorry. I was just angry that he'd try and hurt you. It sort of made me a bit mad. I don't usually do that." He frowned, let go of my arm and scratched his head. "I don't have much respect for guys that try and use their strength to hurt people."
"I got your friend killed." I muttered. His face darkened and his grip tightened, just a bit too much, but he quickly let go again. "It's me that should be sorry. I should have been able to handle a few idiots."
"No, not ones like that. Even I couldn't handle them on my own. Daniella..." For a moment, my fear and annoyance at his rudeness faded, because the word did something to him that made my own chest hurt, this kind of despair I'd honestly not seen since my brother and I had been orphaned. "She could have come to us. She didn't."
"Why is she buried in the forest?"
I wished I hadn't asked when that expression returned. Reece didn't answer. He let go of my hand, his own tightening so hard the knuckles went white, then caught sight of my gaze on it and he tried to stop it.
"Sorry." I muttered. "No one's telling me anything. I keep seeing her in my dreams. All of it."
"I see her too." Reece admitted, softer, leaning against a tree. "She had a hard life and I think she might have preferred a forest to be … I think it was a nice place for her."
He knew her. I didn't. Was that why they'd buried her there?
"It isn't just dreams." I heard myself saying, saw him listening, eyes fixed in mine as if everything I could say, everythign I did say, was the most interesting thing he'd ever heard. Like he was trying to memorize it. Again my breathing quickened as his eyes fixed in mine with that intense stare, his nostrils flaring, his body shifting up a bit higher. "I see her awake too."
"Awake?" He asked softly. "Where?"
"Just on the street. Sometimes in a reflection." I said it quietly, expecting him to laugh or frown at me like Alan would, but nothing. It was like he believed every word I was saying and it was a relief. I felt less nutty all of a sudden. "I mean, I really …"
"How does she look?"
"I don't know." I tried to think, tried to remember. "Mostly, she's just staring at me, like she's trying to get me to see her. Like you are right now. Really intense stare."
Reece stood up and gestured for me to follow him, holding out his hand, and I reluctantly took it. But he didn't drag me, didn't crush my hand, he was being surprisingly gentle. I might not have gone with him if I hadn't seen that despair. Maybe he wasn't an asshole. Alan had been mean when our parents died. It took him a few years to stop blaming me.
He led me into a clearing some distance from the houses, right up to a river, and Reece flopped onto a log that was right up against the water. "Can you see her in the water?"
I went over to it and stared. No, I couldn't. "I don't see it." I glanced back, expecting him to suddenly burst out laughing and tease me, but no such thing happened. The smile had faded, the shadows there in his eyes again, and he patted the spot beside him and I sat down.
We sat there, watching the river, the air heavier, awkward, like there were things that were supposed to be said. Neither of us said them. I wasn't even sure what they were. My heart was racing a bit more though. It was difficult. I kept thinking of the warmth of his hand, it was overshadowing the blood, the rage in his face as he'd charged at me, and I kept wanting to just forget it like I'd never seen him like that. But wasn't that what battered people said?
"Why did you chase me if you weren't angry with me?"
" I wanted to ask you something." Reece said softly, his eyes on mine in the reflection in the water, watching me.
"What?"
"I want to date you."
The words hung in the air from Reece, his breathing a bit faster, and when I turned to look at him, I actually saw fear in his face. Shyness. Uncertainty.
"Why?"
"I want to spend a lot of time with you. Make you a girlfriend. Maybe marry you if you 're into that sort of thing." He said, so plainly, so calmly, and then stared at me with that intense look. That frightening look that sent thrills right down to my feet. "I hear dating's the normal way to start."
"You don't know me." I stared at him, stunned, and ...I didn't know. The first time I'd seen him in the store, blonde curls, big grin, I had to admit it'd sort of struck me with how damn good looking he was. How I'd like to do things with him I hadn't really done with anyone, images of ...I didn't know.
"I'm a werewolf." As if the marriage part wasn't a big enough bombshell, he struck me with this, his eyes meeting mine. No joke there, nothing, just this serious expression. He continued, the accent getting thicker as that awkward shy look increased on his face, "I know you. I want to date you, marry you, I want you to like me. The dating part. I only ever dated Daniella. I don't know how to do it but ..."
"You're a what?" I stared at him. Dating, marriage, he was a werewolf? And I was worried that I was mad. "Is there a reason they put you in the cage?"
"Look. Sit here and I'll show you." He stood up. Stripped. "I'll be right behind you. Don't look. It's a bit weird looking." I flushed as he threw a top at me, winked, and strode past me.
"It is?"
"It isn't. But the change to wolf is. Five minutes and it's done." He continued to strip, my cheeks going bright red, the reflection not hiding a thing from me. I saw the way his back, all muscle, curved down into his the jeans … I had to shut my eyes for a moment. There was movement behind me. "You can open them again. I'm kneeling. I have my pants on. I just needed my shirt off."
"This is mad." I muttered. "If you're touching yourself..."
"Five minutes and I'm done or you can call the shrinks on me. I know you believe in them." Reece popped his head up, adding, "Will you date me if I am one?"
"I … hadn't said yes to dating you before. Just because I like Twilight doesn't mean I go strange for men pretending to be werewolves." I muttered. Flushed. I knew he'd probably seen twilight under my head. Why hide it?
"Twilight? Exactly how it is. I see you, I know you, I want to date you. Like Jacob and the baby. Except … I have intentions far less pure." His words made me jump and I almost glanced back, almost, but Reece cut me off. "Yeah, yeah, grown man. Watching the films. Let me concentrate."
My cheeks went redder as the words 'far less pure' echoed around my head. Shut my eyes a moment. He was in pain, suddenly, I heard it.
I saw her, suddenly, when I opened my eyes. The woman Daniella standing across the river, watching us, as plain as day. She watched and I watched her. The entire time he grunted, groaned, whined, she stood there, staring at us.
"I see her right now." I said quietly. Almost glanced back, almost, but she shook her head hard. Then she strode right across the river.
"He doesn't see me. Don't look. He hasn't done this much and he might get stuck if he doesn't concentrate." She spoke quietly. There was a kind of sadness there, as she stared at him. "Okay. Look now. He's done."
I looked, tearing my eyes off her, and the second I did she was gone. He was there, standing up, a triumphant look on his face as he held up an arm.
An arm?
It wasn't an arm. It was a leg. A fucking hairy leg coming from midway down his arm. With a claw on the end. Yellow-tan fur, like his hair, the paw wriggling, Reece gazing down at it. "It takes practice to do this. First time I did it properly. I can turn completely."
"Why the hell are you … what is that?" I stood up, nearly tripping over the log, and he grabbed at me before I fell into the river.
"I told you. I want to date you. Or, I'm going mad. I don't really care." He laughed, a desperate laugh, the grief coming back into his face. "You saw her again?"
"She told me …" I was going mad.
"She spoke?" His eyes narrowed, suddenly he was staring around the clearing, trying to find her, attention gone from me. Reece spun around, staring. "Where? Where is she?"
"I don't see her now. She said you don't see her and you might get stuck." I stared at the paw, stared at it as if I could see through the trick, reaching up to touch it. He flinched a moment, relaxed, the muscles shifting under my hand. Muscles. Bones. Blood veins pulsing. The paw intact, claws extending and retracting as I explored. "Holy fuck. That's real, isn't it?"
"Werewolf." He agreed. Then he inhaled sharply, his head swinging around, spinning around. "Shit. Clay..."
"You're a fucking idiot." A soft snarl came from nearby, Reece standing up, the older man striding into the clearing. "What the hell, Reece?"
"She's seen the skin-walker in her dreams, she sees ghosts, she sees Daniella. She isn't human." Reece moved to stand between me and him.
The blonde man strode forward, Reece stiffening, backing up against me. I saw his 'paw' and arm mutate, saw the bones shift, the muscles, the fur, heard him hiss with pain, and … somehow it bothered me less than 'Clay' who'd caught him. It was strange. I felt like I was in danger. It wasn't making any sense but the man, this man that'd stared at me for the past week, he was dangerous. I sensed it. Suddenly the look Reece had given me, the blood all over his face and fists, he may have as well been a naughty boy compared to this man.
"Who told you that?" He drawled, eyes darting to me, no friendliness or attempt to pretend at it. He didn't like me.
"I overheard it and she told me just now." Reece glanced back at me. "You know what she is."
"Yeah, heard you say that about Daniella. You forget our rules?" The man said, soft, stepping closer, and while Reece was a fraction taller, this man made him look feet shorter. My heart sped up, skin crawling, I was afraid somehow. A hand came back to rest on my shoulder, Reece's hand, pulling me against his leg.
"We didn't want to have to do this. Elena wanted their help." The man said, quietly, and Reece stiffened. "This is your fault, Reece. Couldn't wait."
"Then don't do it."
"Don't have much choice. Move." The growl, the low deep growl, it was scary. The hostility in his face as he stared at me through Reece's arm... and then his fist met Reece's head, knocking him back into me, the big guy falling back. I stared at shock at Reece, his body falling, eyes rolling back. The hit. It'd been so sudden, so violent, that suddenly Reece wasn't the scary one.
"Fucking idiot." The blonde man hit him again, hit him hard, nearly knocking him into the river. "You."
The blue eyes caught me again, like I was a mouse caught by a snake, freezing me. Scaring me. I nearly pissed myself with that stare alone. Suddenly he was grabbing me, and I was dragged along behind him, trying to tug myself free, only for his hand to dig in harder. I bit it, bit it hard, the man swearing and releasing me. I got about five metres before I was grabbed, struggling, trying to yell... for help, for Hope, for Anne, I didn't know, for someone. Clayton's hand closed over my throat, cutting off my yell, his arm tightening around me as he squeezed hard. No one was coming. We were alone in the forest, his arm like an iron vice around me, no one was nearby...
My lungs screamed, screamed for air, thrashing against him. It felt like hours, hours of agony, fear, knowing that I was about to die and there was nothing to do about it...and then I couldn't stay awake.