Selene
I watched the trees fly past us, confused, and a little upset that they were going to hurt him. Or was it because he was accepting it so easily? I couldn't think up a better punishment though. We stopped for breakfast and they left us alone in the car. Reece didn't fight now. He just sat there. Quietly. Doors unlocked and he was still sitting there quietly.
"You let them hit you?" I asked quietly.
"I heal fast. Look. Elena cracked a rib yesterday and I can breathe normal. It's a bit tender but-" He was grinning, showing off, but when I turned my head around the grin faded. "It's not that bad."
It seemed bad to me. It really did. I slid into the back seat and shoved the top up. Reece was still mottled blue, purple and red from whatever had been done yesterday. There was a nasty lump where he'd pointed.
I tried to ignore his body, as I ran my hands over the brusies, taking this all in. The way his stomach contracted when my fingers touched it, his eyes fixed on me, cringed when I prodded the spot.
"Yeah, that's the spot." He gritted his teeth slightly. "Your ex-boyfriend did something like this? Did you dob the bastard into the cops?"
"When he broke my jaw and tried to-" I felt him inhale sharply, "-I did. He was my college professor. Got him fired and a restraining order on him." I frowned. "How long till you heal this?"
"The bruising will be gone by tomorrow. The bastard did what?" I felt my head twisted up. Reece's eyes fixed in mine. "You never sai-"
He cut off, blood draining from his face, his eyes widening, going past me to the front window. My head twisted around to see what'd cut him off. Then I saw her. Standing on the side of the road up ahead, waiting to cross the road as if she couldn't quite get over her habits.
But Reece could see her.
Why could he see her if she was a ghost? I scrambled out of the car, nearly tripping on seat belts, and glancing at the place the older men had gone for breakfast.
"Dani, wait!" She was crossing the road. Ignoring us.
I saw her then, saw her all over again, staring at herself with this fury that made my blood run cold. Daniella staring at herself. Glaring at herself. "You want to stop him?" She hissed at me, her head twisting around to meet mine, green eyes narrowed. "I'd kill that bitch if they'd let me."
Me? Stop him? Stop a fully grown werewolf?
"Fucking hell, woman, go!" She tried to shove me. I felt a thrill, a shock where her hand went through me, and went. Tried to run, my legs shaking like jelly, totally confused about this.
She glanced back at us, Daniella, as I ran at Reece and caught his arm. Her eyes weren't green though. They were close to it, this pale blue, almost glowing in the dim grey light of the day, but they weren't green. Reece didn't seem to notice her or me, he ran faster, and ...she ran faster too. He ran faster, the two of them too fast for my legs to keep up with, and then she just matched it. It was like he was chasing a rainbow- that impossible perfect match in speed. They were skidding past people, starting to get away from me, nearly knocking people over as he chased her through the streets. The grey sky let go above us as she led him through the streets of this tiny town, circling around, making the ground get slippery and impossible for me to rush on.
She left not a single foot print. This Daniella, this one we could both see, while we were running through puddles and leaving prints, she wasn't doing it. Her feet met puddles, they splashed, but that was about it. And she just ran faster as Reece pushed himself.
I lost sight of them after a few minutes, panting hard, unable to physically keep up with it. I bent over, breathing fast, sweat and rain running down my face and back. I managed about two minutes of running. Reece could apparently run like that, while injured, while half-drunk...
Some part of me, some part that still had enough oxygen to think, wondered what I was worried about. He was super-athlete even with a fractured rib and a bruised body. I couldn't run two minutes without nearly passing out in the nearest gutter. The cast over my own fractured arm, it was getting wet, and I held it under my stomach as I tried to stand up and look for where Reece had gone with this Daniella.
"You okay?" Nick slowed down beside me. "Where'd he go?"
"That way. Chasing Daniella." I pointed.
He flinched. I saw it, he actually flinched, like someone had prodded him with a needle. "Daniella?"
"The woman that died. She was ..." I needed to breathe, sucking in more oxygen, still not recovered. I had to get fitter for this.
"It's okay. Breathe." I felt him touch my back, just for a second, like he wanted to comfort me but he didn't want to touch me. It was a bit weird when he had his hands on Anne all the time.
"She was crossing the road." I breathed out a huge lungful of air and spoke at the same time. "Reece chased her. She and he ran. That way. She had different eyes. Daniella, the ..." Another deep inhale, as I got some oxygen back. "The ghost one. Told me to chase him."
"You saw her ghost?" He moved forward again. "Okay. I'll chase him. Breathe." Then he was gone again, running through the rain, running with that impossible fast pace that Reece'd had.
The word 'werewolves' drifted through my head again. Running fast. I had this sudden urge to get a notebook and write it all down. They beat each other up, they healed fast, they ran like Olympic champions and apparently didn't think a cracked rib was a cause to rest like I would have. I would have been curled up in bed moaning abut it.
"It's okay." A voice beside me shocked me. He'd been so quiet. Antonio lifted an umbrella above us. "Let Nick run. He's gotten a bit unfit lately."
Unfit? Was this guy kidding me? I tried to smile as my breathing started to slow, heart slowing, my own body still not recovered from two minutes of hard running. Suddenly a stitch made me hiss in pain, my muscle in my chest getting upset, and changed my mind there. "I think I'm the one that's not fit. Ow."
"You could do with some more weight. It'd be easier for your body to keep up." Antonio commented lightly. "Muscles need energy. Speaking of energy, here."
I was given a steaming hot container and a fork. Antonio started back to the car, waiting for me to turn around and follow him, and we headed back slowly in the rain. Scrambled eggs and toast was inside and I ate it gratefully, accepting the coffee when he offered it, sitting in the side of the car as Antonio stood beside it with the umbrella, his dark eyes tracing across the town. People started to vanish as the rain took on a heavier edge to it.
"What do you hear?" I asked as I watched his head twitch around, eyes focused, like he was listening to something I couldn't hear. Another thing to add to the notebook. He didn't answer at first. I added softer, "Come on. I already know and I'm curious."
"They're getting a bit too far to listen to." His lips twitched as he met my eyes. "Reece shouldn't have told you."
"How many strange things do you need before you're in this club? I see ghosts, apparently." I muttered.
He smiled a little more then. "Elena wants to test that. She's got a friend coming today who can see them. There's no club. Just self-protection." Antonio went quiet as a small group of people past by. I watched his nostrils flare, watched his head twist around as he listened to them when they were speaking too soft for me to hear, as if privacy was a totally different concept for him.
Or was it something else he was listening to?
"All right. We better follow them in the car." He sighed and stood straight, lifting himself off the side of the car. "You can eat it while I drive."
I got in and pulled my seatbelt on. Antonio started the car and moved away, his eyes darting around, his ears... almost literally... twitching. I tried to eat quietly. Wondered if he could hear my stomach gurgling. How embarrassing... and forget trying to hide a fart around these people, I realied with horror, remembering the one I'd let off before.
I did love Twilight. And I supposed I could say I prefered Jacob, at least before, but before I'd never stopped to think about the reality that came with his 'gift'. Now that I thought about it, maybe a dead person who had no super-hearing, super-strength or super-smell was a better choice after all. Why was I debating this right now?
A piece of scrambled egg fell off the fork that'd been hovering there and I flushed, trying to fish it out before it touched the clean seats. Clean expensive seats. Had to focus more. I jabbed myself a little with the fork. Where were we? Just down the street. I always drifted off too much in thoughts.
"There they are." Antonio said after a few minutes more of driving. Reece was standing there in the rain, soaking wet, his blonde curls now dark and his shoulders slumped. Nick looked just as wet. There was no sign of Daniella. "Go sit in the back with Reece, Selene."
I got out and went to sit in the back as Reece slid in, his face dark, shoulders slumped. He didn't even look at me, he was breathing hard, and I swore I saw tears mixing with the rain and dribbles of water coming out of his curls. But he turned his head away and I wondered if I'd only imagioned it.
"She got into a car." Nick said quietly, He glanced down the highway nearby, we could see it from here, and pointed at it. "It went that way. There. That red car."
"Sorry, Selene, looks like we're not getting you back to your brother as fast as we planned." Antonio turned the car around carefully on the road and headed down the street, suddenly speeding, the force of it pressing me back into the car seat. "Towel's in the back behind you. Can you grab one for Reece and Nick, please?"
I got up and unclipped the seatbelt, sliding up to get into the back part and search for the towels. The force of the speed knocked me over as he skidded around a tight curve onto the highway, nearly falling into Reece's lap, his hands appearing on my waist.
I found the towels and sat back down. Nick took one and Reece stared at me, white faced, stared at me like that till the seat belt was back on and he was sure I was safe. Maybe it was because we'd already been in one car accident together. I reached up to throw the towel over his head and the dark look faded a little from his eyes when I rubbed his face, trying to dry it.
"It can't be Daniella though." I said, softer when Reece flinched, the dark look returning. I wished I hadn't said anything because that expression scared me.
"It's not." His lips squeezed together as his hands took the towel off his head and started to dry his hair. "That's the problem."
Anne
When I woke up and saw that Elena was downstairs, discussing Reece's punishment with Jeremy, I got that he was now in deep deep shit. Up to his nostrils. Attacking a pack member and blurting out our secret? Either one on its own … it was bad.
The two of them together?
I stood there quietly on the stairs as I listened. I'd missed hwat it was, what they'd agreed was fair, only hearing Elena agree quietly that it would be delayed until this was all over unless he broke one more law. If he did, she'd have to do it now.
Whatever it was. It sounded pretty dire.
"And you, Anne, can stop snooping." She said. I jumped, sliding out, feeling a bit guilty as Elena raised an eyebrow at me. "How did you sleep?"
"I slept. I don't know. You're punishing Reece?" I sat down beside at them at the table. The toddlers came in to crawl into my lap, all three of them attempting it, asking for lunch. I had to say no to them, which they weren't impressed by, but I saw they'd already had lunch. It was all over their faces. She didn't answer as I grabbed a wet cloth and cleaned their faces, ignoring their protests, trying to get the mess cleaned up.
"We will be when we're not in this crisis." She said softly, smiling as Dominic gave up trying to et me to lift him up. Elena picked up up and held him close, kissing the reddish curls, inhaling slowly. "Maybe sooner if he doesn't snap out of it."
"How?"
"That's not important right now." Jeremy spoke up. He let Lily and Susie climb into his lap. "Elena's not going to hurt him, if that's what you're worried about."
That was what I was worried about. I smiled weakly and let him squeeze my hand. "Any news about Selene?"
"Yeah. Jeremy reported Clayton's car stolen and it was found near a car hire place. It was pretty easy from there. Nick and Antonio found Selene and Reece in a motel. Reece was drunk again and Selene was scared silly, Nick thinks, but not for herself. He thinks something went on between the two of them." Elena laughed softly as she reached up to rub her head. "They're driving back now. Antonio will be the one to punish him."
"I guess I can't request to help."
"It's probably better to let him do it." Jeremy said quietly, hugging Susie as she started to draw on him, not looking the least bit concerned about this. "Tonio might be sweet to you but he can be ruthless when he's angry. And he's angry."
"So am I." I muttered. "At least give me a chance to hit him."
"If you want." Elena smiled somewhat and stood up. "Clayton's going to wake sometime soon. I'll be upstairs. Let me know if you hear anything."
Jeremy glanced at his phone, frowned and went to plug it in as she headed upstairs. "You want some lunch?"
It wasn't really a question. It was more of a suggestion, one he'd keep suggesting till I gave in, so I nodded and dodged my toddlers as I went to get my own lunch.
An alarm made us both lift our heads, Jeremy heading for one of the security panels I more or less ignored, frowning at it. He opened it up and gazed at it, swore softly as he switched off the alarm, and lifted up two toddlers at once.
"What?"
"Little bit of trouble. Get the kids upstairs." He replied, already heading for the stairs, Elena's feet coming back down. "Elena, get the twins."
She grabbed the twins as I lifted up Dominic, Jeremy had the girls, and headed upstairs with him. We put them in the room with Clayton- Vi's sleepy eyes meeting ours as she stood up- and I waited, trying to figure out what it was. What had gotten us doing this. The rain more or less drowned out the sound of everything outside.
"I'll stay in here with Vi and Pav." Jeremy's eyes met mine. "You think you can intimidate a mutt?"
"Yeah, I guess, why?"
"One just knocked our gates down. Elena will stay inside and come out if needed. Vi, Pav, you two aren't apart of the pack, so I need you two to stay here and watch these ones with me." Jeremy spoke through the door to them and they nodded. Five kids under five and an injured man needed protection, I had to guess, it required the three of them. Just in case.
Elena followed me downstairs again as I tugged the jacket off, deciding it restricted my arms too much, her hand meeting my bare arm gently. "They may have heard Clayton was in hospital and decided to come. Anne, head on down first. Stay calm."
"I'm calm. A little annoyed but calm." I reassured her. Tied my hair back, which made her smile a little, breathing in slowly. I hadn't actually tried intimidating a mutt for a long time. This was Clayton's job and he was good at it.
"Karl is probably coming from the other end. The house we rented for him is close enough for him to hea-" She cut off, voice lowering as we heard it. The faintest trace of feet on wet driveway, splashing through a puddle, Elena's eyes moving to the door. She didn't need to continue. If his house really was close enough to the gates to hear a car crash through them then he'd probably be able to figure out it wasn't a good thing.
I stepped outside and watched as a pair of people came along the driveway, leaning against the wall, relaxing as I inhaled slowly. Dampness, wet cloth, wet hair, one of them a mutt. That meant the other was something else. Mutts teaming up with non-werewolves. It was just another sign of the times.
"You lost?"
"We heard your enforcer's dead." The mutt sneered. Didnt' look the least bit upset about it either. "Need a new one?"
"No." I replied, stood up slowly, stretching. "But seeing as it's raining and I'm lazy, feel free to leave." I saw this wasn't their intention. This was to do with Elena, female, and their assumption even now that she was gone without him. When they stepped closer I fixed my eyes on them in an attempt to stare them down. "What now? You lost?"
"We want the cure." That was the man beside him. He spoke up, looking a little more nervous than the mutt. I could smell the fear drifting off him even through the smell of rain and mud. "That's it. I can pay. Lo-" He was cut off by the mutt as he held out cash, the mutt snatching it, and advancing on me. Up the porch. It was a bit too close to the house for my liking.
I shoved him back hard, my movement sudden, shoved him right back into his frightened friend. "I said, leave. Didn't I?"
The mutt tried to stand, covered in mud and water, his scowl obvious now. I'd treated him months ago at the hospital when the disease had ripped through the werewolf community, disabling almost every one's strength, hearing and scent, and I knew he was probably one of the ones still weak. The treatment centres, run by the very man who'd created the disease, had been closed for close to a month now. He couldn't get his hands on the addictive temporary cure.
So he wanted the permanent one. The one that didn't leave him helpless like a human.
"Three thousand dollars." The other man said, trying to get the cash off the mutt, only to be swung at. "Look. I can pay another three grand. Three grand each."
"What's your name and species?" I asked, ignoring the angry mutt, standing up a bit straighter. I wanted to know for more reasons than social small talk. I wanted to check the files of threats, see if we had his name on file, see if we had details.
"Sorcerer. Steve. Steve Fisher." It was such an ordinary name for someone who was apparently a magic user, I had to resist smiling, had to keep my cold stare on him. "I – I just want to be normal again."
"Did you ask the Cabal?"
"They said no. I heard that you're all cured."
"Do you always destroy the property of people you want to help you?" Elena's voice came from behind me as she came outside. She had that same cold look, that indifferent stare that gave me chills even, her arms crossed. "Three thousand, ten thousand. The answer's the same either way."
"That wasn't me. I just... he needed a car here and I … he drove it through. I swe-" The sorcerer was shoved aside as the mutt suddenly tugged something out of his jacket, his hand shaking.
A gun. The idiot had a gun. Out of all the things mutts normally wouldn't have... and it was a sign of what we were going to face till all the mutts were back to normal. "Go get it. Go get the cure." He snapped, his hand shaking so hard I wondered if it'd go off by accident. "Why do you get to decide? Decide who's good enough. Who gets to be in your pack. Who gets protection and fo... get the fucking cure!"
I moved between him and Elena, shielding her from it, even though every fibre of my being screamed at me that it was a gun and I shouldn't be anywhere near it. I kept calm somehow, sort of, except for a tremor in my thigh that wouldn't go away. "We can't offer you the cure."
"Bullshit!" He fired it, fired it at my feet, trying to scare me. It worked but somehow, maybe out of shock, I couldn't move. I wouldn't have been able to if he'd seriously aimed. "Give me the cure!"
"We only got a few samples. The rest is being made now." I replied, trying to keep my voice low, trying to not piss my pants as his shaking hand re-aimed it at me. Or at Elena. Either way he was trying to harm one of us. "Put the gun down. Keep pointing it Elena and I'll personally make sure you never see it."
"Bullshit. Give me the cure!" There was an edge of madness to his words, his eyes wild, his hand shaking so hard that the rain was making it slip in his grip. "I don't want to fucking live like this. Like a fucking human!"
The gun went off, a loud shocking bang that set off one of the kids inside, and almost straight away I felt a red hot poker jab into my hip. The one that'd always been funny since I'd been captured. No time to think, to care, I used it to throw myself at him, weight and all, slamming my fist hard into the man's jaw, shoving the gun to one side as it went off again, as he tried to shoot Elena again. I bit his wrist hard, growling, ignoring the spurt of blood and only let go when he let go of it. Threw it to one side, slamming my fist again into his face, until someone was grabbing me and pulling me back.
Karl grabbed the sorcerer, I saw, had him restrained. Elena was pulling me up, my leg trying to give way as I tried to put weight on it, rage at the asshole. For attacking my alpha. He tried to shoot Elena. My Alpha.
I struggled, trying to get my fists back on him, not caring if he was still or not, teeth bared, growling, my hands shaking. It took her some time to get through to me, to calm me down, to remember that he'd shot me. Hadn't he?
I turned to check on Elena, check her over, seeing that behind her there was now a hole in the door instead of in her. Elena's blue eyes locked in mine as she said, firmly, loudly, "Quieten down."
I did. It was an order and I did, stopping, muscles trying to unlock themselves. Elena's eyes only released mine when she was satisfied I'd calmed down, going down between us to my legs. I followed her gaze.
It was another lovely scar for Nick to admire later. Not that bad, not like it felt, it felt like he'd just rammed a burning poker into my thigh and kicked me a few times for good measure. The reality was a little less dramatic. The bullet had grazed the inside of my thigh, cutting through jeans and skin and leaving a bloody mess, and missed Elena as it found the door. Blood dripped down into the dark blue fabric and it felt worse than it looked.
"What do you want to do with this one?" Karl asked, hoisting up the sorcerer who looked terrified, and she shrugged. "Basement?"
"We'll get the Cabal to come get him." Elena agreed. The look on his face made it obvious she'd picked the worst choice. In other words, the best choice. "Come inside, Anne. Good going."
She tugged my pants off as I leaned against the wall, Karl hoisting the sorcerer downstairs, and I pressed something against it while Elena went upstairs to get Jeremy and call for sorcerer backup. They weren't our problem.
It didn't take long for him to be taken away and the werewolf was taken away by Karl. Jeremy stitched up the wound in my thigh, wanting to be sure, and I pretended to smile as the triplets watched my face from the living room.
Selene
I fell asleep after ten minutes. It wasn't a natural sleep. I fell into it as if I was pulled there, dragged there, into a place that was muted color, screaming people, angry people. A child. A woman staring at me. She was not real though, her eyes were nothing, like she was void. Black. Nothing existed there, nothing ever would, she was hollow. But she was alive. She was staring at me.
People paced around her. Daniella was one of them, screaming at her, children, girls, boys, people screaming at her. And still she fixed her eyes on me and I felt a chill run down my skin as she reached for me. As the void reached for me too.
Then I was awake, shaken awake, my heart racing as Reece shook me out of it. It was like he'd slapped me, though I doubted he had, and I stared around. The car was speeding like it had been before, land racing past us, fields and trees, the rain pouring hard on the car. Something was wrong.
"Something's wrong."
"Nothing's wrong." Reece was trying to comfort me, his jaw tight, stroking my back.
"Slow down. Slow down the car. Stop chasing her." My teeth were chattering, skin clammy, afraid. We had to stop chasing her. We had to stop it now. Before the speed had been a nice thrill, an exciting ride. Now it scared me and the urge to scream at the thick older man was rising big time.
Reece snapped, "Do it before she panics then," as his hand grasped mine so hard it was hurting but for once I wasn't as worried about that.
Antonio slowed, almost right on time, because we saw something. He and I saw it at the same time. A big white shape on the road, standing there, fur bristled and teeth bared as the car went directly at it. Antonio swore and swerved off the road, tyres sliding on the damp road, the car going right off into a ditch.
We all flew forward, seatbelts catching, as the front of the car met a tree and skidded again, through a fence, sliding around several times before it came to a rest in the muddy field.
There were owls everywhere. Owls on the car. Owls on the ground. Flying overhead. Other things, I saw them through the crowd, a horse, foxes, a couple of crows, eagles, other species, but mostly just owls of all shapes and sizes.
"Reece, do you see them?"
"The wolf?"
"The owls." I stared in wonder at them as they gathered around. Felt myself start to cry and I didn't know why I was doing it, except that I wanted to cry, and it wasn't out of unhappiness. It was just this release of something inside me. And as I cried I felt myself unclipping the seat belt and getting out of the car, ignoring Reece or Antonio or Nick, ignoring the three of them. I felt compelled to get out of the car, to walk through the muddy field towards the road, feet sinking up to ankles in the thick muddy grass, several cows ignoring me. Owls followed, foxes, the horse trotted some distance away, wings swooping overhead so close that I should have felt the wind from it. Was that a tiger over there? It didn't matter. My focus was on one thing and one thing only.
Arms tried to grab me as I stepped over the fence, voices shouting, the wolf coming from the road as she made her way to me. She bared her teeth as someone tried to pull us away from each other, a low deep warning growl that made it clear she wasn't in the mood for this, she wasn't going to play a game.
How did I know that?
"Tell Reece to back off or you'll kick him in the balls. Worked for me." Daniella called. I noticed she was in amongst the crowds of animals, swearing as they tried to push her back, and she wasn't alone. A dark haired woman was beside her, struggling with the same problem, the animals trying to push them both away. "It's a bloody zoo. There it is, Eve." She pointed through the crowd as a big dog tried to pull her back by the clothing she wore.
It was here too. I should have been afraid. The owls were swooping around it, circling it, keeping it contained. The creature. The monster. No face, no legs, nothing about it natural at all, just void. Just void, worse than shadow or black, like touching it was going to have you dragged into another place.
No one else saw it.
Reece's arms tightened around me as he shoved me behind him, the wolf coming closer, and then Antonio was nearby trying to frighten it off. Werewolves frightening a wolf off. I felt it inhale slowly, felt it smell both animal and man, and snort at them softly through her nostrils. Mate and wolf-man. Idiots.
It attacked as they tried to shove it back, but not to kill. To discipline. Dragged me away from them as fast as it could, teeth closing around my sleeve, pulling me out of their grasp. It did, the second it got a hold of me, it had me pulled away from them. I flowed out like water, like fluid, flowed out easily and leaving only a silver cord behind me.
I glanced back to see my own body slump, tears still running down my face, and I wasn't in it. I was attached to it by the silver cord but I wasn't there. The wolf nudged me as she watched them lift me up and carted back away from her. But her attention wasn't on them now. It was on me. She snorted again, a strange sound of amusement, and then turned her brown eyes to fix on mine.
I saw it. Saw her entire life. Birth, pack, hunting, ice, puppies. I felt shock as I saw her show me where she first met the wolf men, when she ran with one as Pack, when she first laid eyes on Reece and chose him as her mate for the two of us. She had always known this was where she was coming. Then the journey across ice, land, stone, through great mountains filled with prey, through tree and stone never seen, coming from a place of ice and stone to a place where prey was plentiful, where man-wolf hunted and water came from the sky. She had been looking for a long time. Through the cold, and then through the hot, and now coming to find me in the cold again when the rain made the hunting hard.
She didn't see the world like I did. She smelt the world. She felt the world under her paws. Measured it by the prey. By the wolf around. Her pack was long gone.
Then I felt it, my own mind merging with hers, and felt my own life story pour into her mind as easily as she'd given me hers. Two rivers meeting, creating one single river, this was how she put it and I had to agree with the image.
She saw my life. Saw my childhood, saw my mother, saw the love and laughter of my own 'pack', and then the end of my pack as my mother never came up from the water and my father's weakness ended him. I had to see it as she did, had to go through it all over again, but she strayed closer, warm course fur under my hands, heart near me. Ignored the men as they tried to shoo her away. Alan. The bird. Saw the people telling me I was wrong. Collage, the professor flattering me with attention, love letters, and how awestruck I was of one of the leading people in UFO research paying attention to me, and how good looking he was. She didn't understand 'UFO research' or what it meant for a professor to try and attract a student, but she understood 'higher ranking', and understood this was wrong somehow. She growled softly as we shared in the memory of his drinking, his rages, and who came out the loser in all of it. I used to give him pleasure orally, adored him. But I refused to sleep with him because I wasn't ready to take that step yet and when he tried to force me, breaking my jaw in the process, he was caught by my room mate, I reported him to the police from hospital. Showed the letters, reported the attempted rape, the broken jaw a dead giveaway and had him fired and charged. She didn't understand these details either- just that I'd reported this creature to an Alpha figure and that he had been punished. This satisfied her and she relaxed.
The search for answers. This was how it ended, how our rivers merged. Ending with a hunt, she informed me, a hunt for each other. I had my way. She had hers. We hunted, we travelled, and now we met. Now we merged.
Now she died.
I flowed back up into my body before I could answer her, before I could feel shock at her simple statement, flowing up into my mate's arms. Reece was fixed on the wolf, teeth bared, still growling softly. But he looked confused. His nostrils kept flaring, his head shaking somewhat, the aggression less than Antonio's genuine threat.
Pushing him back, I stood, and went to the wolf as she lay down. Her heart slowed when I touched her, easing back, the owls, the horse, the foxes, the eagles and crows, even the tiger coming to circle us. Wait. She slid out of her own body and the heart stopped, going to stand near us, as I stroked the fur that no longer held her. My fur.
It was my skin. She had given me her skin and her life.
A car had stopped nearby. I hadn't heard it before. Neither had the others, but hwen Alan got out, when several of his friends got out, including some of the elderly, I felt not shocked at all.
"Guess you were wrong, eh?" One of the women laughed and clapped Alan across the head. "Let's take her home and get started."
"What about those three?" The older man pointed behind me.
I turned around to look at Antonio, Reece and Nick. Nick looked muddy and annoyed, the car apparently stuck and not working, trying to wipe his hands clean on the wet grass.
"Need us to call for help?" Alan called as they came out behind me. He was coming over with a blanket in his hands, the woman beside him, the two of them kneeling beside the wolf's body. I had this sudden urge to bite. No. Not my urge. It was her urge, as she watched them handle her, but they didn't touch her skin. They were using the blanket to cover her from the rain.
"I think..." The old man came across, slowly, carefully. "It would be wiser if Yvvone takes them back to the town near and then returns. Don't you?"
He met Alan's eyes who nodded, glancing at the woman, who glanced at the muddy men and groaned softly.
"We should stay and-"
"This is private now." The old man met Antonio's eyes. "This is not werewolf business."
His business, though, the wolf nudged me. She fixed me with a look, then her eyes went to Reece, pushing against my leg.
"She wants him to stay." I said quietly, to Alan, to the old man, then glanced at Reece. He stood there looking like he didn't know what the hell was going on. A wolf came out, got them to crash, then attacked us, now it had died and … he knew what was going on, I realised, and it had stunned him. "The wolf. That sounds mad, but I think she's ..." Another harder nudge, teeth trying to nip me, "No, she really does."
"Then he stays. But the rest have to go. Please do not call a truck for a few hours."
We watched Nick and Antonio get into the car with the woman and leave. I didn't know what was happening. Only that I was given a knife. An ancient knife, from the looks of it, and Reece was told to stand back and turn away till it was done.
"Tell your wolf to go away. This isn't easy to see." Alan said softly. "My owl refused to talk to me after. The only one permitted to do it is you though. Don't let her offer go to waste. After, we can take it over for you, but this is your skin. You have to accept it this way.
I stared at the knife, then at the body, connecting it to 'skin'. I had to skin the body. My wolf. I had to skin her.
"I-"
"It's just this part. I'm going to talk you through it. Once it's done, the skin will be treated by me. It's usually done by your father and mother but-" Alan breathed out slowly, squeezing his eyes shut, his hand coming to rest on my hand. "-Dad would have wanted us to do it for you. That's your grandfather. Yvvone is your mother's sister."
"My grandfather and aunt?" I didn't even know I had one. I stared at the old man who stood there, rain running down his face, waiting patiently.
"Go ahead. I'll talk you through it. Reece, don't turn around." Alan couldn't resist shooting another order at Reece, who muttered something under his breath, his arms crossing. Then he slid back and waited for me to be ready.
I nodded, swallowed hard, and gripped the knife.
When it was done, they had me pull it onto a blanket, and I stepped back into Reece's chest. He had turned around at some point, apparently, and not thrown up. I wanted to. I felt it threatening to do it even now, this ...I couldn't look. I turned around and did not resist when Reece offered arms and a chest to hide head in, even if he was soaking wet. He looked white too.
"Is this how they have to do it if they want a human?" He asked, his breathing a little too fast, his arms shaking.
"This is her friend. One of the wolves." I heard Alan say quietly, to the man, who breathed out slowly with a soft 'Ah'.
"I don't know. We don't … try it." The older man, my grandfather, admitted. "This is something we are going to talk to your Alpha about."
"What's happening to her body?"
"It'll be buried at Forestwatch, if the woman allows it. We treat it with respect, Beth, it's okay. Your aunt's a horse. Try skinning and burying something that big with respect." Alan was trying to get me to laugh. It didn't work.
"She's had enough." Reece muttered.
He was right. I'd had enough. I'd had enough of this. He seemed okay though, less panicked, less angry. The wolf was moving around him in slow circles, inhaling, prodding his leg, though he didn't seem to notice her. Obsessed with him.
A blanket came around my shoulders and I let my grandfather lead me into the car, Reece not far behind, Yvvone waiting for us. We were all soaking wet and I saw the trunk open, saw Alan and my grandfather lower two heavy blankets worth of … into the trunk. The owls, the birds, everything, they'd all started to vanish. Even the wolf had gone now. Only an owl remained, Alan's owl, circling around the empty area as it grew dark.
We drove back, Reece's arm across my shoulders, and I accepted it. Shut my eyes and fell asleep, the warmth nearby, the slightly faster than usual thud of a heart near my ear.
We only woke when he was dropped off at the gates into Stonehaven, dumped there, and I blinked sleepily as I saw they'd been dented and knocked over. But before I could ask we were pulling away again, seeing Reece run for the house, yawning as I tried to sit up.
"I checked on the way down." Alan reassured me from beside me. "Nothing's wrong."
It looked odd though. Maybe someone had lost control in the slippery rain. When we got to Forestwatch it was still raining, raining hard, the tents glowing in the darkness. There was a fire in one of them, a fire in the fireplace inside the building, most of the people inside. I was taken into the tent with the fire inside it and sat down by Yvvone, who left me with a pile of clothing and waited outside till I'd changed.
This tent was round, a hole in the top, framework around it. It had a real door though. Strange looking compared to the modern tents everywhere else, I thought as I accepted a hot drink.
"This is wine." I realised when I'd sipped it. Tasted the bitterness.
"Mulled wine. Not really alcoholic and it warms you up. I'm your mother's sister, by the way." She sat down beside me. Yvvone must have changed while I had, she was dry too now, rubbing a towel against her hair with one hand as she reached for the fire with the other. "This is my yurt. I know everyone else likes their tents but I like yurts. Nothing like a real fire."
"You knew my mom?"
"She was a good woman. Alan insisted on raising you." She smiled a small sad smile, glancing sideways at me. "Your grandfather agreed. I made sure you were okay though, from time to time, made sure he accepted a little money. Your mother wasn't like us so he wanted you to feel like you could be human."
"But I'm not."
"No." She agreed. "Wolf. That's a surprising one. Your wolf must have come from Alaska or somewhere for this. I don't think there's many white wolves south of Alaska."
"You're a horse?"
"Yeah." She grinned. Nodded towards a large bag. "Pain in the ass to cart around but being a horse has advantages. I see her from time to time, my mare, wandering around outside trying to graze. They can't shake those habits. You'll see your wolf too."
"Did your horse pick your ...um, boyfriend?" I didn't want to say mate. It sounded too odd.
"She has ideas about it. I'm guessing that's why the werewolf hung around. Your wolf decided on him."
"He decided on me first." I said it, flushed as she laughed and squeezed my shoulders, embarrassed.
"Well, good on you. Muscles. Accent. Tan. Your mum would have been impressed. We always liked accents. We've got a family tradition of marrying men or women from other cultures, you know. You look like you're nicely balanced in genes. I got Dad's Irish genes." She shrugged lightly, touching her paler skin, the freckles, her hair a lighter brown than my dark hair. "Your grandmother was half native American. Your grandfather was a mix of Spanish, Mongolian and Irish. Family tradition, as I said, we like accents. Guess it might be an Australian next."
"We're not getting married or anything." I muttered, sipped the wine, face redder as she teased me. This was what it was like to have an aunt?
"You need help to sneak out with him, tell me. How old are you? Sixteen?"
"Nineteen."
"So much time passed already?" She breathed out slowly, shook her head, the damp hair sending droplets onto the fire. "The rain makes you look younger."
The door opened to the yurt and Alan came in, with my grandfather, the two of them dry and cleaned up also now.
"Your skin's going to take some time." My grandfather informed me as he sat around the fire. "Alan is speaking to you on behalf of your father."
Alan started to talk then as Yvvone served out more mulled wine for the two of them. Explained our history, that we weren't from America, from any country, that we just appeared. No one knew why or now, just that in every landmass, we started to merge with animals. It was a long time ago, when we relied on skins for warmth, when some of our ancestors found that the skins made them shift. They formed groups, or were seen as the witchdoctors, or as the healers, finding protection and being treasured. But in some places this changed and they had to gather together in groups for protection, civilizations rose, the skin-walkers hunted, civilizations fell and we survived on. We hid. Other races came from us. Werewolves. Shapeshifters. Shamans. The cougar skin-walkers. Necromancers. Children of the skin-walkers that did not behave like us. The separation happened thousands of years ago, with some races, others mere hundreds of years ago.
The werewolves were going to be helped because, as my grandfather said softly, they were still seen as 'our' children. Our responsibility. Other races that appeared, sorcerers, witches, half-demons, other races that appeared, all these were not our problem. We hid from them and watched them. This was why Alan was in Miami. Watching the sorcerers on behalf of those of us in America. And when the cougar people had been destroyed, it was decided that we'd also go back into hiding.
"The reason you see the dead isn't because you're a Necromancer or able to raise them like one. There isn't much you can do about the dead. Except ignore them." Alan said quietly, shooting a look back over his shoulder towards Daniella. I wasn't sure when she'd 'appeared'. She sat there though quietly listening and flipped him off and refused to budge as his owl kept trying to push her. "It's because our animals are dead. They don't die and give us a skin. They give us their body and then try and partner with us as spirit bodies."
"Partners in crime?" Daniella called, shoving the owl sideways as it nudged her, swearing as the beak met he finger. "Tell your bird to back off. I'm dead, I shouldn't have to put up with this shit."
"Dead humans are supposed to go somewhere else." Alan snapped. "Fuck off. This is private."
"Private my ass. I'm watching out for her for Reece." She snapped right back, shoved the owl aside.
"Alan, relax." Yvvone said softly. She glanced over to Daniella. "Werewolves are under our protection. We failed this one. She can listen."
"Partners. She remains with you until you die." Alan continued, voice rising, attention returning to me. "Selene is supposed to be a secret name. We're removing all trace of it from the world now. From now on, you're Beth."
Not her name. The wolf nudged him. Not Selene.
He didn't know what she wanted, I realised, as he stared at the big white wolf trying to nudge him. He didn't hear her. "Selene isn't my name."
"What is it then?"
"Thought I wasn't supposed to share it?" I couldn't help it. I was angry with him and he'd been snarky.
Alan sighed and rubbed his head. "To us, you are. We're the family that remains here. Your blood. Here to protect you. It's apart of this. Apart of taking the skin. What's your name?"
Smells of red apples. The wolf informed me. My name was smell of red apples. I blinked at her, ignoring Alan for the moment. That was my name? Out of all the things? She nodded, amused, and informed me that I smelt like red apples. This was what my mate thought. The name was my name now.
That wasn't a name though.
She snorted softly through her nostrils at my disbelief. Sora. Sora- smells of red apples.
"Um. This is going to sound a bit odd-"
"We're being named by animals. Of course it will." Alan's eyes raised up to the dark owl swooping across his head. His owl. "What is it?"
"Sora. Smells of red apples."
Even he laughed at that, Alan who rarely laughed and who hated most comedians, shaking his head. His eyes went back to Daniella. "You need to keep that secret. And you have to leave for our names."
"I will." She looked like the statement almost insulted her, like this was an obvious thing she had to do. Daniella was gone pretty fast.
"My name was Pink beak with soft edge- Pinky." Alan said, soft, his eyes going to the dark owl who ruffled his feathers somewhat. "Thanks."
"Two legged young one with sweet lumps. Sweets." Yvvone looked less upset than Alan did. "I used to feed her sugar lumps on the way to school."
"Watchful one. My human name is Greg." My grandfather smiled somewhat as his eyes met mine."These names are kept in our family. Speaking them can give them power over you. Right. Time to eat something and relax. Yvvone, have you got any marshmellows?"
We drank mulled wine and stuck things into her fire, marshmellows, bread, whatever we thought might toast. Relaxed. I stopped worrying about the problems that the werewolves had, head filled with family I hadn't known was here, with food, with laughter, with the warmth of a real fire. Both inside and out. It was alcoholic though. I sipped mine,they drank theirs, re-filling from a pot she'd left near the fire to keep it warm, celebrating my 'coming of age'. We curled up around the fire on cushions, the warmth of the tent easing me into a sleep, the wolf curling up beside me even if she had no need of it.
Anne
It started to get dark and still no word. Jeremy checked his phone. Elena did. I couldn't put mine down. The motel they'd been found at was a four hour drive away so they'd already technically been late at lunch time, except that none of us would have been surprised if they'd stopped to get something to eat, and no one had worried then. The hours had gone by though and more and more, we looked at the clock, checked our phones,and made calls. Nothing.
It was while I was pouring out soup for the kids that Clayton woke and tried to stumble down, enraged, disorientated and completely and utterly normal when it came to memory, words, images, anything... he was furious with Reece. He was still groggy, still drugged up to his head, but apparently not too much to shove Vi aside and charge for the basement. It took Elena a while to convince him a day had past, he needed to sit down, and Reece was being brought back.
Of course, this was the point Reece came barging into the front door, soaking wet, demanding to know what had happened.
It took a while to get Clayton off Reece, maybe because none of us tried too hard, but when Vi reminded us that he'd had surgery on his brain Elena and Jeremy detatched him from the bleeding Australian and took him back upstairs.
"Where's Nick and Antonio? And Selene?" I helped him up, only to hit him hard, ignoring the pain it caused. Good. Idiot had to stop doing idiotic things.
"We crashed." Reece cringed as he backed off. "They're okay. Just got stuck in a muddy field. Selene... well, I don't know where the fuck to start. I can't tell you all of it. They made me promise to stay quiet. Apparently they're coming soon to talk to Elena."
"They?"
"Her brother. Got a towel?"
I got him a towel and tried to get Nick on his phone again. No luck. If they were bogged... "Nick's not answering his phone."
"He might have left it in the car. They got a lift to town." Reece's breathing slowed as he threw a wet shirt to one side, rubbing his hair with the towel. "What happened to the gate?"
"Mutt. Had a gun." I flopped onto the couch as the triplets went for Reece the second he collasped onto the couch, beside me, none of hem apparently caring how wet he was,
"Shit, anyone get hurt?" Reece swore softly. When I lifted my skirt to show him, he frowned, his eyes narrowing when he caught sight of the bandage on my thigh. "Ah. Was it bad?"
"Not really. He was aiming for Elena." I replied, shrugged and pulled Dominic and Lily into my lap as Susie tried to 'help Uncle Reece with bath time'. He was soaking wet and had a towel. "You three get your bath soon. What happened?"
"The crash?" He cringed when Susie's hand met a bruise. "I'll tell you in a second." Reece lifted her up, gently lowering her down. "When these three are asleep."
It wasn't long before Nick called from a payphone to reassure me he was fine. The town's only payphone had apparently been damaged and, as they were strangers, they were more or less asked to stay outside. In the rain. The disease had made that town equally as paranoid as ours. They were on their way back now, the car was being towed and they'd had to hire a car, he'd only stopped to call.
We got the kids to bed, little and big, while I told Elena and Jeremy what Reece had told me, and finally managed to sit around near the fire as Reece tried to explain what had happened.
"Well, you know we had a little romantic break..." He tried to joke. The scowl on Clayton's face showed it wasn't that funny. "Sort of. Sorry. Too soon. We saw Daniella."
Our anger with Reece faded then. Or at least, mine did, when his hand came for mine and hung onto it. His face was still light, no trace of distress, but I felt it in the way he grasped my hand harder than usual.
"Daniella?"
"Nick saw her too." Reece defended himself softly. "I chased her. Nick chased her with me, when he caught up, and she just kept running faster. Like we couldn't run as fast as her, no matter what we did, and she isn't a fast runner. Not like that. Then a car came around the corner."
"Daniella died though." Jeremy said quietly.
"Yeah. She did."
Then it wasn't Daniella. At least not the one we'd known. We all seemed to get what Reece had been saying at the same time. It wasn't Daniella.
"Did she smell the same?"
"Almost." He replied quietly. Clutched my hand harder. "Not quite. Like ...like when food's about to go off."
"Then what?" Elena asked. She'd lost the anger at Reece now. Her face was pale, drawn, leg pressing against Clayton's leg.
"Antonio turned up in his car with Selene and we chased her. Selene fell asleep, had a bad dream, woke up and told us to slow down. We nearly hit this giant white wolf suddenly and ended up bogged in a field after some spectacular spinning. Then she started to cry and talk about owls, then she was running at this wild wolf, and it was about to attack us, and... I don't know. She fainted. Then she woke up again and it died. Her brother showed up and made Antonio and Nick leave. They let me stay. I can't explain what happened after that. There was an old man with them who said he'd be here tomorrow to have a meeting with the Alpha. I have to stay quiet till then."
"How did you get here if they were sent away?" Clayton asked.
"They dropped me off at the gate. I saw it had been knocked over, ran here, got beaten up. End of story." Reece's eyes went downstairs. "Am I sleeping in the cage?"
"No. Anne's going to be in charge of you from now on. If you mess up, we punish both of you. I am going to punish you for the laws, when I'm sure the Pack is secure once more, but for now you're to follow her orders." Elena said softly. She didn't smile, didn't laugh, she fixed him with such a look that he cringed again. "You understand, Reece?"
"Yeah." He glanced at me, sideways, grimacing. In other words... if he screwed up, it'd hurt me. And from the way he looked at me, I knew it'd work, knew that Reece had forgiven me. Apparently he was too shocked to be angry at me now. "I get it."
"Good." She sighed and stood up. "I need to go to bed. Reece, Anne, can you two stay up and wait for Antonio and Nick? Clayton, come on. You weren't supposed to leave the bed."
"Coming." He stood up, uneasy, shooting Reece another disgusted look as his legs threatened to give out on him. Then he followed Elena.
After a while everyone else got up, one by one, heading to bed. We sat there staring out the window at the rain, watching, Reece's heart still racing. He'd just had an encounter with whoever stole Daniella's body. I hugged him close, felt him shudder and breathe out slowly, and we waited for Nick and Antonio to come home.