by M. A. Church
Tyler’s eyes widened. “Whaaa…?”
“Your choice will dictate the future of werecats as a species—and other were species as well.”
Tyler shook his head in denial. “Wait. Just hold the hell up! I’m going to be responsible for werecats as a species? News flash: they’re all going to die then. Shit, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Fuck that. What had any of them ever done for him, besides try to kill his ass?
“Choose carefully,” Bast intoned. “You are the one and only.”
“What? What? What does that even mean?” Tyler’s voice spiked. “The one and only what?” Dealing with Bast on a good day was unsettling, but this? This was terrifying. “And why me? A half-breed? A nobody? A freak who should’ve never been born? A fucking mistake, that’s what I am. Holy hell, Bast, have you been in the catnip?”
“Catnip?” Bast blinked. Her eyes returned to normal, and she slumped. “As usual, your humor is as dry as the Egyptian desert, but thank you. You broke the spell.” Then she frowned. “I also want to address something.” Bast leaned forward, staring intently. “You are not a freak. I do not make mistakes.”
“Oh?” Tyler folded his arms, completely wigged out and more than a little pissed. “Don’t make mistakes, huh? Then what the hell am I?”
“More special than you know. Child—”
He’d had enough of that too. “I’m not a child. I was never a child, nor did I have a childhood. My werecat mother got pregnant by some random human, and as soon as I could stand on my own two feet, she abandoned me. Couldn’t wait to get away from the freak she birthed, and believe me, she made that very clear. I grew up lonely. Unwanted. Miserable. Every damn were I’ve ever met has wanted to wipe me off the face of the Earth.”
“I am sorry.” Tears gleamed in Bast’s eyes. “But you must understand, everything happens for a reason.”
“Fuck that noise too.” Tyler sneered. “I’m hated by my own kind. Do you have any clue what that’s like? But hell, guess I shouldn’t complain. Even though my life sucks, at least I am alive. Which is nothing short of miraculous since werecats and humans don’t normally reproduce!”
“I know loneliness,” Bast said quietly, her words heavy with sorrow. “Never think that I do not. I have existed before Time itself. And yes, you are a child compared to me.”
Like water tossed on a flame, Tyler’s rage sputtered out. He never stopped to consider what her life must be like. She was ageless, a creature who’d survived for eons—maybe longer. He couldn’t comprehend her endless existence.
Feeling a bit like the child he claimed not to be, he gulped. “My goddess—”
“The first werecats came from my loins, Tyler. Make no mistake, I love my children, imperfect as they are, but you… you’re especially dear to me, and yes, you are special.”
“Please forgive me for losing my temper.” Tyler scooted up to the table. “I shouldn’t have disrespected you.”
Bast snickered. “You dare to tell me how you feel, and I appreciate that. More than you know.”
“Not sure that’s wise. You could probably annihilate me with just a thought.”
“Less than, but why quibble?” Bast winked.
“Jesus.” If she believed that took the sting out of her words, she was sadly mistaken.
“Wrong deity.” Bast snickered.
“And one I don’t believe in, unlike you.” And she talked about his sense of humor. Tyler mulled what she’d said. He kept coming returning to one point. “You want me to stay in West Falls.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t like it, but okay.” It took a huge amount of trust on his part, but she’d never steered him wrong, although this did have “bad idea” written all over it. Saving werecats as a species meant nothing to him, but for her, he’d try. She mattered, even if his fellow werecats could suck it.
“Now, would you repeat what I said? I only caught the tail end.”
“Sure, and while we’re on that subject, what the hell was that, anyway?”
“Sometimes entities more powerful than me wish to communicate. That’s all I am allowed to say.”
“There’s something higher than—yeah, know what? Never mind. One of you is more than enough in my life.” Tyler took a breath, then reiterated what she’d said.
Bast sat silently after he finished. Finally she nodded. “Thank you. That confirms what I thought. Something is coming, and you are part of it. Be careful, child.” Bast and the surrounding landscape began to fade, but her voice followed him as darkness descended. “Oh, and I call you ‘child’ as a term of affection too. Just wanted you to know.”
TYLER OPENED his eyes. Damn deities and their need to have the last word. Even though what she said warmed his heart, annoyed didn’t begin cover how he felt with the overall situation. Her request for Seth and him to not leave… yeah.
As much as he disliked being there, he’d stay, trusting that she knew what she was doing. Trust that this wouldn’t come back to bite him on the ass. Yup, he was going to be one grumpy cat for the foreseeable future.
After rubbing his cheek against Seth’s shoulder, Tyler stood. He stretched one leg and then the other. Straightening, he shook out his fur. Sleep was out of the question, so maybe if he mangled something small and fluffy as a midnight snack, he’d feel better.
Pleased with that thought, he set off into the woods.
Chapter Two – Brier
“EVERYBODY’S AT home, cuddled up with a mate, and what am I doing?” Exasperated, Brier tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “Driving through the night to check out a damn smell.”
To be fair, though, he was at loose ends. Aidric had Carter, Janelle had Sam, Heller had Lawson, and Remi had Marshell. All of them had fallen—everybody except him. Hunching his shoulders, Brier scowled at the street. Did he feel like there was a huge bull’s-eye painted on his back?
Abso-fucking-lutely.
Their goddess, Bast, swept through the werecat ranks, handing out mates willy-nilly—or, in Dolf’s case, he got another mate—regardless of whether they wanted one or not. Snorting, he braked for a red light.
Did anyone end up with who they thought they’d get?
Hell no.
It changed, and he drove on. So, he was the last unmated beta… and sweating buckets. Who did Bast have in mind for him? He sincerely hoped it wasn’t a werewolf. The mere idea made him shudder. No way he’d handle that as easily as Aidric.
Or, goddess save him, a Vetala. Marshell and Janelle were terrifying. Their kind were considered the badasses of the paranormal community since they fed from blood and often lacked a problem taking it. Sometimes all of it.
Having a human mate didn’t bother him as much as it once had either, but hopefully Bast would grant him a werecat. He wanted someone stable. Easygoing. Drama-free. He was tired of the never-ending furor that revolved around the mates Bast chose for his friends—and the consequences of those choices.
His cell rang, and he fished it out of his pocket. Seeing the name on the screen, he exhaled deeply. “Speaking of drama….” He unlocked it and answered. “Hey, you. What’s up?”
“The sky,” Breanna quipped.
“Oh, ha-ha.” Brier rolled his eyes even though his sister couldn’t see him. Breanna had returned to the clowder not long ago and made it her mission in life to annoy the shit out of him, it seemed. “That was funny when we were kids.”
“And yet you keep falling for it.”
“Did you call me for something?” Brier actually dreaded her answer. After listening to her whine endlessly about the snow where she lived, he’d told her to come home if she was that unhappy in Philadelphia. He should’ve kept his mouth shut, because the next thing he knew, she was calling with a moving date. “Or was it just to rag on me?”
“Calm your tits.”
“Damn, really? You have got to stop hanging around Janelle.” Breanna took a job at Janelle, Marshell, and Lawson’s car wash business as an accountant. She and Ja
nelle had hit it off at once.
“I’ll make sure and tell her that.”
“No! Don’t you dare.” Knowing Janelle, she’d take it out on him the next time they trained together. She was a beta, and a totally badassed Vetala.
“Now, see, what I heard was you’re open to blackmail. Excellent. Unless you want me to squeal, you better swing by my apartment later.”
“I hate you.”
“Bullshit. I’m your favorite sister.”
“You’re my only sister.”
“Semantics. So, when can I expect you?”
“Fine. You threatened me into it.” What trouble was she about to dump in his lap? “Dolf asked me to check on something, so I can’t give you a specific time. Best I can do is call when I’m on my way.”
“That works. See you then.”
“Okay.” Brier tried to sound put out, but even he could hear the affection in his voice. “Later.”
She might irritate him, but he was glad she was home. She’d originally left because of the narrow-minded views certain older members of their clowder held about females working outside of the home. At the time, he thought she was being ridiculous, but now he understood her reasoning. Then Dolf’s newest mate, Kirk, blew through the clowder like a tornado, tearing up their firmly held speciest ideals. Not long after that, Janelle bulldozed any remaining bigoted standards. Well, for the most part. There were still some holdouts, and they were vocal. But thanks to Kirk, Lawson, and Janelle, Brier’s eyes had been opened, and he was proud to say he wasn’t the ass he used to be.
He pulled into Arches and found a parking space. Sam’s restaurant employed both humans and paranormals, but he always filled the managerial positions with werecats. Lately Sam had been focusing on employing more women from the clowder, which, of course, hadn’t gone over well with the elders. He’d bet Janelle was behind that move.
Brier walked inside, hunted down the manager, and informed her that he’d be prowling around out back, then headed to where Sam said he’d noticed the scent. Thanks to a weak streetlight, shadows reached from darkened spaces. Tree limbs rustled in the lonesome breeze. Fuck, it was really isolated out there.
The opened dumpster sat in a small alley. Across the way sat a vacant lot with overgrown trees. The closer he got to the area, the more the hair on his neck stood up. His cat suddenly growled. Not one to ignore such a warning, Brier expanded his senses, looking for whatever was disturbing his animal, but there was nothing… nothing but an odd, faint scent under a confusing melody of smells.
His cat stalked in his mind, tail swishing.
Brier sniffed. There was the barely there tang of werecat, but it was so faded, so… weak. Generic. But even that was nearly drowned out by much stronger chemical-based notes—oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, calcium, and nitrogen. What the hell?
His nose twitched, and he mindlessly rubbed it. Sam was right—something was seriously off with the odor. Confused, he stared at the dumpster. What he smelled reminded him of… dammit. It reminded him of the elements that made up the composition of the human body, not a werecat.
Then it nailed him between the eyes. “Holy shit, there’s no personal scent marker. At all.”
His cat yowled.
Reeling, Brier stumbled backward. All werecats had one. All of them. His was sweet, light, and fruity. Sort of citrusy—or so he’d been told. How could a werecat, who’d obviously been here in shifted form, not have a personal fucking scent? He’d never heard of anything like that. How was it even possible? Fuck, he couldn’t even tell if the shifter was male or female.
Unnerved, Brier thoroughly examined the space. Clearly whoever it was had been scavenging for food. Several trash bags were torn open courtesy of very sharp claws. He wandered past the other businesses’ dumpsters, checking them as well. He tried to track the werecat scent, but it died out at the mouth of the alley.
At a loss for what to do, Brier returned to the dumpster behind Sam’s place, scowling. What was he supposed to tell his Alpha? That, yes, there had been a shifter, and apparently the person just up and disappeared without a trace too. Oh yeah, they had no personal scent, and his cat was acting strange because if it. But hey, nothing seemed to be disturbed.
Except him.
Brier dragged the phone from his pocket. Fuck it. This was why Dolf got paid the big bucks. After he placed the call, Brier caught himself tapping his foot. Aggravated, he stopped. He glanced around, checking the shadows to see if anyone, or anything, saw his nervous tell.
His cell rang several times. Just as he was ready to hang up and try again, a breathless voice answered. “Hello?”
“Tal?” Why was Tal answering Dolf’s phone?
“Brier?”
“Can you get Dolf, please? I need to speak to him.” In the background, someone moaned.
“He’s, um…. We were about to, um….”
Brier cringed. “I’m sorry, but I really need to speak to him.”
“Ahhh….” Tal giggled.
Brier pinched the bridge of his nose. By the goddess’s left paw, Dolf needed to climb off Kirk and answer the phone. Whoa. Where the hell did that come from? His cat scratched at his mind, agitated.
“Just a second.”
Rustling came across the cell, and then a muffled curse sounded.
“Yes?” Dolf rasped.
Well, someone sure didn’t sound like his usual calm and collected self. Lucky bastard. Meanwhile, here Brier was, standing by a smelly garbage heap in the middle of the night. His life completely sucked. “Hate to interrupt, but I felt this couldn’t wait. I did pick up a trace of that unknown werecat. Sam’s right. The scent is off.”
“Off….” Dolf cleared his throat. “Sorry. I’m a bit parched.”
Moaning tended to do that to a person. Seriously, he straight-up hated Dolf at the moment.
“So, what did you find?”
“There’s the odor of a cat—a werecat—and that’s all. Nothing else. No personal marker.”
“No personal marker? But that’s… that’s…. Are you sure you sufficiently examined the area? Maybe you missed it?”
Really? “Dolf, I’ve sniffed this place from one end to the other. I didn’t miss it because there’s nothing to miss.”
“I don’t understand.”
Was Brier speaking in tongues?
“That’s not possible.”
“I know it shouldn’t be, but….” Brier reminded himself that snapping at his Alpha would only end badly for him. “How is the impossible now suddenly possible?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of anything like this. Ever. Did you find any trace of the other werecat?”
“Outside of a very faint scent that identified the intruder as a werecat, no. Nothing. It’s just so damn—shit!”
“What? Brier? Brier! Dammit, what’s going on?”
Brier clutched his chest. “Nothing. Fuck. It’s nothing. Just a rat.” No way was he telling Dolf how high he’d jumped. Nope. Wasn’t happening. Fuck, good thing he was outdoors, or he’d need someone to peel his ass off the ceiling. “I mean, a rat ran out from behind the dumpster and startled me.”
“Do you feel threatened?”
He started to joke how he was bigger than a rat, but that really wasn’t what Dolf meant and Brier knew it. How the hell did he answer that? He was jittery, yes. Stupid damn rat proved that. He was a werecat—larger than a fucking Savannah—and was jumping at every little sound. His cat was acting weird too, but he didn’t have the sense that he was about to be attacked.
“No, just unsettled.”
“As am I. I don’t like this. Can you find a trail leading away from the restaurant?”
“Now? No. It’s breezy tonight, so tracking is about impossible. Sam’s dumpster is full, as are the other businesses’. It reeks of garbage out here, to put it nicely.”
“I can imagine.”
“No, really, you can’t, unless you’re standing by them,” Brier joked lamely. “Anyway, employee
s have made trips to dump trash, so that doesn’t help. Cars have driven down the alley too, so there’s the stench of exhaust. Sorry, but if there was a scent trail, it’s gone.”
“Dammit. Okay. Go home since there’s nothing else to do tonight. Tomorrow I’ll contact my father. Hopefully he’s heard of this.”
“That’s it?” Why am I questioning him? It’s not like I want to stand around out here.
“Well, I guess I could have you, Remi, Janelle, and Heller cover every square inch of West Falls in the vain hope you pick up this were’s trail. I’m sure that would only take a year or so. Hope you aren’t busy for the foreseeable future.”
Brier glared at the phone. Everyone was a damn comedian tonight.
“Brier?”
“What?” Brier snapped. Shit. “Sorry.” Restlessly, he scrubbed a hand over his face. “Didn’t mean to snap at you.”
“I was joking, but never mind that. You seem out of sorts. Are you all right?”
“I….” It wasn’t like him to be so snappy with his Alpha, but this whole deal left him feeling off-balance. “I’m fine. I’m just…. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Understatement of the year. “Something has my cat stirred up,” he blurted.
“I see.”
Good, then how about explaining it to me?
“But you don’t feel threatened?”
“No, just odd,” Brier said, taking another slow glance around the alley. “I guess it’s because I’ve never known of a werecat who didn’t have a personal scent. It’s damn weird. I don’t like weird. If that’s all you need me to do, I’m heading out.”
“After I speak with my dad, and maybe some of the elders, we’ll have a meeting. I’ll call Janelle, Remi, and Heller and update them with what you found. Or didn’t find, as the case may be.”
“Let’s hope this werecat is just passing through.”
“It’s a distinct possibility. It’d also explain why whoever this is never contacted me when they entered my territory. I’ll let you know when I have a date for the meeting. Good night.”
“Okay, thanks, and good night.” Brier disconnected the call and pocketed his cell.
