by Celeste Raye
She remembered reading about how a bear could kill a man with one hit, but the panther took more. Many more, and by the end of it, her heart was racing so fast that Claire was sure it was going to stop working.
Then it was over. It must have only been a minute or two but it felt like a lifetime. Then again, it felt like a blink of an eye. It was fast, it was slow, it was more than her brain could process, and the next thing she knew, there was nothing to know. It was black around her, and it was only when she came to that Claire realized she had passed out from it all.
The man that was looking down at her was the same one that had been a bear the last time she had seen him. Her brain was whirling with all the information, and she was still wondering if it was a dream. One big, sick, long dream. Maybe her savior wasn't just her savior after all. Maybe he had taken her away from the other two so he could have her for himself.
The guy definitely had a look in his eyes that told her of his interest, and that made her get up off the ground. She was scrambling backward, trying desperately to get away from him.
“Please don't scream.”
Claire hadn't realized that she was screaming. But she was, at the top of her lungs, while she backed away from him. She had to put some distance between the two of them, and she was shaking all over.
Finally, she got a grip on herself, though it wasn't easy. She was witnessing something, some kind of magic or miracle.
Moving to Louisiana had been difficult and living there had proven even harder. The place was steeped in history and death and a whole lot of suffering magic. It was written in books and in the little shops that lined in the French Quarter.
“I'm not going to hurt you, so you can stop freaking out now.”
“You realize that you just turned into a bear, right?”
“I did. That probably messed you up. Let’s back up. My name is Donovan, and I wasn’t trying to scare you. I just heard you and didn’t want to see that happen to such a nice young lady.”
He sounded like a regular person at the moment, he looked like one, but there was no way Claire was going to be able to forget that he could suddenly turn into a bear. How was that even possible? She had a million questions, but for once, she was able to keep them to herself. Obviously, it wasn't going to do any good to piss him off. She saw what happened when he was mad at someone.
“You don't have to be afraid of me. I heard you scream and just wanted to help. That's all. I had to change because I can't take on two panthers in this form. It wasn't to make you afraid of me. You’re safe now.”
The man sounded calm, but she couldn't get over the fact that he had just been a big black bear with orange rings around his eyes. The handsome man that stood before her now, looking down at her like she was a broken bird, was not enough to make her forget. The interest in his eyes was just the same as the other two, but his approach was different. It didn't matter though; she knew that he wanted her. It was bad enough to get raped by a man, but a bear, panthers? She felt like passing out again, just from the idea of it.
“What are you?”
Donovan sighed. “It's hard to explain.”
“Well, since I’m in the middle of this swamp and I’m not going to be raped now, I guess it would be a good time to tell me. I want to know who is the man that saved me. And what you are.”
Chapter Six
Again, Donovan thought to himself that he shouldn't have helped. It was a horrible thing to think, but the way that the woman was looking at him and how scared she was to learn that people like him even existed was exactly why he wasn't supposed to shift in front of a human. He may have damaged his own kind because of it. What if she told people what she saw and then they came looking for them?
The problem was that Donovan now had to deal with the chick too, on top of everything else. She was in the middle of a traumatic experience, and he didn't know how to help, especially because he was part of the trauma. She was looking at him like he was about to bite her head off, and though he could, he would never do such a thing. Telling her that, though, wouldn't help. Donovan was sure of it.
“I am what your kind calls a shifter. It has been in your culture for a very long time, although they usually turn into wolves in your movies and literature. As you can see, there are animal shifters of all types.”
“So, you're saying that there's more of you out there?”
He paused for a moment, wondering if he was saying too much. Should he really start breaking down how it all worked? How many there were? He should be afraid that she would know too much, but more than anything, he wanted her to stop looking at him like he was going to kill her.
Donovan had seen that look before in many of the panther shifters that he had tortured and killed. It took him back to a bad place.
“Yeah, there's quite a few of us out here. A lot of the magical things that you heard about in fairy tales are true. I know it's a lot to take in, but it's just the way it is.”
“So, you're saying that you guys are everywhere?”
He nodded his head and moved closer to her. Donovan felt an immediate draw to her, even though she was human, and he wondered if it was the same draw that the two men had felt.
He wanted to distance himself from that thought, so he asked her what her name was. In all the commotion, she hadn't even given it to him.
“Claire.”
“That's a good name. It’s good to meet you, Claire, and I’m glad that I could stop this from happening.”
There was shielded relief on her face, and she asked him if he was going to let her go. Of course, he wanted to. It was the first thing that he thought was to say yes, but then he paused. It wasn't that simple, was it? It wasn't like he could just forget about the fact that she had seen everything and now had all sorts of information that she could share with the wrong people.
“It's good to meet you too, Donovan. I’m sorry that I freaked out a little bit there. I didn't know that I was screaming, but I’m better now. Really.”
He could see that she wasn't being completely honest, and he told her that it would probably be best if she sat down under the tree that was right next to her. She looked like she might fall down.
Claire looked at the dead bodies around her and shook her head. There was no way that she was going to sit in the midst of it, and Claire told him so. He, of course, had seen so much carnage in his life that he didn't even think about it. He looked around and saw what she saw. Or at least tried to open his mind to such a naive way of thinking about it.
How many times had he seen a dead body? What's more, how many times had he been the reason it wasn't moving anymore?
“I want to answer your questions, but some, I cannot. I also want to let you go, but I can’t do that. Not yet anyway. You have seen too much, and I will have to get counsel on what to do with you. I haven’t experienced this before.”
She started to back away from him, and she was shaking her head now. He frowned, knowing that the calm woman he had been talking to was gone.
“I knew that you were too good to be true. There was no way that some guy was just going to come save me and not have a reason for doing it. So, you're going to drag me away and do the same thing that those guys wanted to do then?”
Donovan was a bit offended because he would never do something like that, and he immediately told her so. He wanted her to see the error of her thinking.
It shouldn't have mattered because it wasn't like Donovan was ever going to see her again. It did matter to him, though. Even if he never laid eyes on Claire again, he did not want her to think of him in such a way. It was a feeling that he couldn't shake, and Donovan figured that there had to be some reason he was feeling the way he was.
“It is not what you think.”
“How do you know what I think?”
“I can pretty much read your mind most of the time. It would take a long time of you practicing to be able to keep me out. So, there is no sense in trying to lie to me. It won’t work.�
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She looked away from him like the eye contact was going to make the connection between the two of them stronger. Usually, he could hear human thoughts if he tried, but hers were so loud and commanding that they had taken over his thoughts.
“I don't like the idea of that.”
“Sometimes it can be troublesome. This is one of those times, because you think of me as some kind of monster.”
Finally, she met his gaze.
“I don't think that way; you just freaked me out, you know? I've never seen a person turn into an animal before. Of course, I've heard of werewolves, but that is just in movies. Vampires, witches; all supposed to be in fairy tales, not real life. To see it real and right in front of me, it's just going to take me a little bit of time to get used to.”
“And you think you can actually get used to it?”
Donovan wanted her to accept him, even though he told himself that it didn't matter. She was a human. She was off-limits. She was less than him. It would lower the probability of another shifter being born to him.
He had to stop. Why was he thinking about babies? There were a lot of things that should be going through his mind at the moment, but her having his children was not one of them.
“I think I can. I’m sorry that I freaked out like that. It’s just a lot. Thank you for helping me. I didn't think I was ever going to get out of the swamp.”
She was looking around, and it was like she saw it all for the first time. Her body started to shake, and the first thing that Donovan thought to do was pull her in close.
“I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Claire. I promise.”
Claire looked up into his eyes. She was a beautiful woman, but there was a tenderness and vulnerability that was hard for him to deny. All he could do was peer into her blue eyes and hope that there would be a way out of this that didn't end with her getting hurt. The very idea of it made him hold her a little bit closer.
She pushed against him after a moment, and he realized that he was probably crushing her. She was just so tiny and vulnerable. Fragile. That was the biggest problem. Donovan was afraid he was going to break her, so he let go of her pretty quickly.
He took a step back so that he could breathe again and then explain that she was going to have to travel with him for a little bit.
“I can't just go traveling with you.”
She was getting worked up again, and he really liked the temper that came out of her. There was an energy to her that was hard to explain, and he wasn't even going to try. All he was going to try to do was convince her to see it his way. She was a fragile bird that would grow teeth and bite if necessary. What a strange mix she was.
“You're going to have to, Claire. I’m sorry. I wouldn’t make it this way if I didn’t have to.”
“I have a job. I have a life. I have a boyfriend that's going to notice that I’m gone.”
The last part Donovan didn't want to hear. Of course, she would have a boyfriend. Claire was very beautiful, and she had a banging body. When he had pulled her close to him, she had been soft to the touch.
“I realize that you have a life. I don’t want to take you away from it, but a human cannot be left to run around with the knowledge that you have. It’s just not heard of, and I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to protect you from it. We will go see my brother soon, and he will advise us what to do next.”
Claire didn’t like the sound of that, and she was scowling at Donovan. She was cute when she was mad. He wanted to bop her nose but imagined that she would instead become enraged. She was already teetering on the very feeling at the moment. He could see it in her eyes, clear as day. He’d dealt with pissed-off women before. That was nothing new to him.
“Look, as soon as I can let you go, I will.”
“Well, why can’t we talk to your brother now?”
He sighed and then shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t want to explain it all but he was going to have to.
“I am in the middle of something and only a few miles from my destination. You can come with me, and we will see what’s going on after that. Okay?”
Claire didn’t seem all that impressed.
“I don’t like this, Donovan. I don’t want to go, and unless you’re going to make me, which I don’t think you have in you, I am not going anywhere.”
Donovan smiled for a moment, cocking his head to one side in amusement. “I think you’ve read the situation wrong, my dear. Just because I don’t want to do something doesn’t mean that I won’t.”
Instead of saying anything else, Donovan threw her over his shoulder and started walking in the direction he needed to go in. She was coming with him, one way or another.
“Let me go!”
“Once you realize that you’re not going anywhere, but where I tell you to go.”
Eventually, he was able to put her down and she got back a little dignity, but not much, and told him that he could trust her. Donovan was going to have to keep an eye on Claire. For her own good, he insisted.
Chapter Seven
If Claire thought that the meeting Donovan had with the two men in the woods was bad, she was in for a surprise. Now it appeared that he wanted to do it all again, though this time there were many panthers, not just two. She didn’t see any of them change, but there was a ring around their eyes when they got closer. Had it always been that way but she’d never seen what was right in front of her?
Claire didn’t want to be there. She just wanted to hang out in the back and observe. Instead, she was the one being asked questions; her very existence seemed to bother the other panthers.
“Why does she have a smell to her? It’s like she was rolling with a few of us.”
There was a look of desire, and Claire was getting sick of seeing that. She clamped her mouth shut, and then he kept talking, the one that called himself Clint.
“I guess she is one of those dumb ones. Sometimes they just can’t take it, you know? Their little brains just explode.”
“I am not stupid, and my brain hasn’t exploded from the knowledge of your existence. I am covered in that smell because a couple of you tried to rape me.”
She felt like he was just as bad as the two that had tried, and Clint drew back. “Are you sure it was one of us?”
“Yeah, they turned into panthers, and he ripped their throats out.”
As soon as she said it, Claire knew that she should have kept her mouth shut. Clint wasn’t happy with the last bit, and Claire looked to see that Donovan was giving her the evil eye.
“You killed two of my guys?”
Donovan turned back to Clint, standing taller somehow, and she was sure that she was going to see more carnage. Problem was, this time, there were so many more of them.
“Yeah. I came upon them and told them to leave. They did not, so I did what I had to do. They shifted in front of this human.”
Clint paused, pressing his lips together. “I don’t even have to ask who they are. We have a few bad apples, but that doesn’t mean that the whole tree is bad.”
“Sometimes it does.”
Donovan had to stop himself. Claire watched him close his eyes and try to pull himself together. He was upset, and he hadn’t even gotten to the part where he was supposed to convince them that they should work with him.
“Anyway, that isn’t why I am here.”
“Why is the human with you then?”
“She has seen too much. I don’t know what to do with her. We don’t show ourselves to their kind. It never turns out well.”
Claire didn’t like how they were talking about her like she wasn’t even there. Like she was less than them, some simpleton. The way that Clint and several of his people looked at her told Claire exactly how they felt.
It was the change of Donovan’s tone that made her notice the most. He was supposed to be on her side, yet she could see that she was in it alone.
“We can always take her off your hands.”
Her body seized up, and
she was scared to death that she was going to be left there with the Bennigans. Claire didn’t think that there were only two like that in the clan. Whoever those people were, she didn’t want to be left with them. She didn’t necessarily like the idea of being dragged around by Donovan either, but at least she felt safe. Or did.
“That won’t be necessary. I will take her back to my brother and he can figure out something to do with her, put her to work, I don’t know.”
Clint seemed about as happy with that plan as Claire was. Neither one of them went against it, though. Clint looked like he was afraid of Donovan, and given she had seen him in action, Claire thought it reasonable.
She relaxed a little bit when Donovan refused the generous offer to take her off his hands, but it made her realize that she wasn’t going to be safe until she was away from all of the magic she found herself in the middle of. Claire was sure there was a lesson to be learned in all of it.
“Now, we need to get down to business if you are done wasting time on a human.”
The words cut, but Claire ignored it, raising her head a little higher, like she was above it all. The callous words would play in her head from now on, she was sure of it. That’s how they felt about humans: a waste. That’s how Donovan felt about her, so why would she be safe with him? It was then that Claire decided she had to get away from Donovan too. She needed to take the next opportunity, before her life was decided by someone else.
“If you don’t mind, Donovan, I’ll just wait here while you talk.”
Donovan grabbed her hand, telling her that she was going to stay with him. She felt electricity run between the two of them, but she ignored it. She ignored anything that made her heart race and patter harder in her chest. It was all a waste of her time.
There was no arguing with him, especially when the threat of being left with the Bennigans was still in the air. She didn’t want to be too much trouble. Her time would come, so she agreed to go with them into an office that was covered in pictures of scary people. Claire didn’t know who any of them were, but she knew what they were.
