“This is what I speak of,” Ulrik said.
Kiona folded the boy into her arms and held him, kissing him on the temple. “You frighten him.”
“I frighten him,” Ulrik snorted. “He is the Alpha. His destiny is to be the most powerful among us. And you treat him as your lapdog.”
“He’s still a child.”
“Yes. But it was you who took him from his mother. I would have waited until he was older.” Ulrik saw that his words stung Kiona. She tightened her hold on the boy. Joey rolled his eyes up to look at her, obviously surprised by Ulrik’s statement.
“You would never have moved,” Kiona accused. “I had to move to force you into action.”
“A few more years would not have mattered. We could have prepared more.”
“You’ve been preparing for over three hundred years.”
Ulrik ignored the comment. “The boy obviously isn’t ready.”
“Joey, do you want to learn to become a wolf whenever you want?” Kiona asked. The boy shrugged his shoulders. “You understand you’ll become a wolf for a few days every month, right?” He nodded. “Did you like being a wolf?”
“It hurt,” Joey said.
“Yes,” Kiona cooed. “It hurts at first. But then you get used to it. Isn’t that right, Ulrik?”
Reluctantly, he answered, “Yes.”
“You can learn to become a wolf whenever you want,” Kiona said.
“I want my mom and dad. When are they coming? You said they’d come.”
Ulrik watched Kiona pat the boy’s head. “You told him this,” he reminded. “Why would you tell him that when you hate his mother so much?”
“You hate my mom?”
“Hush, Joey,” Kiona said, her voice suddenly tight with anger. “Of course I don’t. Ulrik is just being mean.”
Joey squirmed out of Kiona’s grasp and stepped away. “I wanna go home,” he said.
“You cannot go home now,” Ulrik said. “Your mother and father are not there.”
“Where are they?” he asked.
“Your mother is looking for you. I do not know where your father is.”
“Do you want John Redleaf to take you fishing today?” Kiona asked.
“No. I want my mom and dad. I want to go home.”
“Leave us,” Ulrik said, directing his voice to Kiona. She started to protest, but he cut her off. “Go. Leave me alone with Joey.”
Kiona pursed her lips, but stood and walked out of the kitchen without looking back. Her footsteps sounded on the stairs and a moment later her bedroom door closed above them.
“Joey, I want to show you something,” Ulrik said in as kind a voice as he could muster. “I want you to be calm and watch. Do not be afraid. Can you do that for me?”
He nodded. Ulrik stood up and said, “I am going to take off my clothes.” Joey’s eyes widened, but he stood his ground. Ulrik quickly undressed, laying his clothes over the back of his chair. “Now watch. I am going to call the wolf. I will change my shape. Do not be afraid.”
Ulrik kept his gaze fixed on Joey’s eyes. He let himself change slowly, pausing at the in-between stage, towering over the boy, letting him see the muscular humanoid shape covered in wolfish hair, topped with a wolf’s head filled with long, sharp teeth. Joey did not flinch. Ulrik let the transformation complete itself, lowering himself to all fours but keeping his eyes locked with the boy’s. When the change was complete, he walked to Joey and rested his head on Joey’s shoulder.
Hesitantly, Joey raised his arms and put them around Ulrik’s neck. Ulrik nuzzled himself against Joey’s cheek, then sat back on his haunches. He let himself change back to his human form, again doing it slowly, holding Joey’s gaze. The boy watched, transfixed, as Ulrik’s shape melted from wolf to man.
“No pain,” Ulrik said. “That comes with time. Do you want to be able to do what I just did?”
Joey nodded slowly.
“You can. You have that power,” Ulrik said. “I will never harm you, Joey. I gave this Gift to your mother. I taught her how to live as a wolf. I love her very much, and I love you. I would teach you as I taught her. Will you let me do that?”
“I want my mom,” Joey said.
Ulrik nodded. “I want her to be with us, too. But before I tell her where we are, I want you to become familiar with your Gift. You know your mother no longer loves the wolf. She would make you take your medicine so you cannot become the wolf. Let me teach you the ways of the wolf, then we will contact your mother and ask her to come to us.”
Joey’s heavy eyebrows formed themselves into a “V” that reminded Ulrik very much of the expression Shara made when she was thinking very hard about something. Then the boy nodded.
“Very good,” Ulrik said. “I am very happy. Today we will go outside and we will practice changing shape. It will be good.”
Thomas
Thomas sat stiffly beside Shara in the backseat of a Piper Malibu Mirage single-propeller airplane. His old friend, Tim Crawford, flew from his home base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, to pick up him and Shara in Salt Lake City the day after Fenris’s visit to the motel room. Now, as the sun sank in the west, ending another day, the little airplane was touching down on a runway of Stillwater Regional Airport in Oklahoma.
It had been a long time since Thomas last visited Oklahoma. He closed his eyes and conjured an eighty-three-year-old memory of another woman, Katherine Cross, and the misguided but magical night they’d spent together. He opened his eyes before he remembered how she’d died under the knife of a butcher who called himself a doctor.
Rest in peace, dear Katherine.
Thomas looked again at Shara, the woman who had lived to fulfill the prophecy of the Mother of the Pack. Her face was drawn and pale. One fist was clenched in her lap and Thomas knew that within that fist was the gold wedding band her husband had worn. The tattered, bloody shirt Fenris had delivered was stuffed in a backpack behind their seats. Thomas felt the need to put an arm around Shara’s shoulder and try to comfort her, but somehow that simple gesture didn’t feel right.
It is too soon. She is not ready for comfort. In a week she has lost both her son and her husband.
The little plane taxied to a stop. Tim removed his headset and plopped his worn straw cowboy hat back onto his balding head before turning to his passengers. “Here we are,” he said. “You two sure were quiet back there.”
“Aye, but we needed the quiet time,” Thomas answered. He reached into the inside pocket of his leather biker’s jacket and took out a wallet while Tim opened the plane door. He counted out some one-hundred dollar bills and passed them to his friend. “I cannot tell you how much we appreciate your services, my friend.”
“Aw, I still owe you for that hunting trip last winter. That buck’s head looking down on me every night from over my fireplace reminds me I never woulda bagged him without you as my guide.”
Thomas laughed and handed the man another bill. “Buy Rachael something nice from me,” he said. “For taking you away from her on such bloody short notice.”
“I’ll do that,” Tim said, taking the money and stuffing it all into a pocket of his jacket. “I’ll get the door so ya’ll can get outta here.”
Thomas turned to Shara. “Here we are,” he said. “Shall we find a car?”
Mechanically, Shara released her seatbelt and stood up. She ducked to get through the low doorway of the plane and almost walked past Tim Crawford where he stood on the tarmac. She stopped, though, and turned to the pilot. Thomas saw her try to smile and fail. “Thank you,” she said. She nodded and dropped her gaze, then turned and walked on toward the terminal.
Thomas clapped Tim on the shoulder. “The lass has had a hard time of it,” he said. “She just recently lost her husband and her son. She’s going to stay with family here.”
“Oh. Oh shit, I’m sorry to hear that,” Tim said, turning to watch Shara walk away. “Her husband and her son. Oh shit.”
“Thank you again,” Thomas said, patting
the man’s shoulder one last time before hurrying after Shara. He caught up with her just before she opened the door to the little building. He followed her inside.
Shara bought a newspaper and sat down to scan the classifieds. She took a pen from her purse and circled some ads, then went to a nearby pay phone and made two calls about used pickups. A few minutes later she returned and sat down. “There’s a man bringing us a truck. It’s an older one. I don’t have much cash with me. But he promised it’s in good shape. It’s a 1973 Ford.”
An hour later they left the airport in an old blue Ford F100. Shara drove and it took her a moment to adjust to the three-speed gearshift on the steering column, but she quickly got the hang of it and soon had the truck moving down the highway.
“Is it far?” Thomas asked.
Shara shook her head. She’d had to put the ring into a pocket of her jeans to drive the truck.
After more time and turns than Thomas had expected, they turned off a road made of Oklahoma’s infamous red dirt and faced a closed iron gate. Shara got out of the truck and entered a code on a keypad mounted on a brick pillar. Thomas noted that the fenced compound looked very much like the one Shara and her husband had lived on in Montana. The gates slid open and Shara drove the pickup through, then had to go back and close them.
“When were you here last?” Thomas asked.
“Six years ago. Right after the work was done to fix the house. They trashed it after they ran me and Chris out of here. We came down once to look at the finished work, stayed one night, then went back home.”
The house came into view. Thomas was surprised to see the ordinary farmhouse that was protected by the high, electric fence, iron gate and security cameras and alarms. He’d expected something bigger, like the ranch house Shara had in Montana.
“This was Chris’s home when you met him?”
Shara nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “Well, when we met the second time. Ulrik tried to get us together in college. Before he … bit me.”
Thomas nodded, thinking for the first time that he wasn’t the only one returning to bittersweet memories in Oklahoma. Shara had grown up here, less than one hundred miles from where they were right now. She’d been given the Gift here, met her husband here. Even her parents were still alive and living in the city where she’d left them. Thomas shook his head. His own parents had died in Ireland nearly two hundred years before Shara was born.
Shara parked the truck in front of the house and killed the engine. “I can’t believe I’m here without Chris,” she said. “I can’t believe he’s … gone.”
“Aye, lass,” Thomas said, reaching over to pat a hand she’d rested on the seat between them. “Too often we lose those we love. But your son lives. Now we must focus on finding him.”
“Bastard Ulrik,” Shara muttered. “Let’s go inside.”
Thomas watched her throw open the door and get out of the truck. She grabbed her pack out of the back and started toward the front door of the house. He sighed heavily, then followed her. Shara was standing in the living room of the house, staring ahead at nothing when Thomas caught up with her. He stopped just behind her and sniffed, but didn’t smell anything alarming. “What is it?” he asked.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she whispered. “I don’t know if I can be here.” She pointed to a table against the south wall. “Chris used to keep fish in an aquarium there. They were all dead the first time I was here. He would get so wrapped up in his work he’d forget to feed them for days, then he’d go buy new ones. He said – ” Her voice hitched in her throat. “He said he always wanted a dog but was afraid he’d neglect it, too. And I told him … I told him he had a wolf living with him now.”
She broke down then. Thomas lowered his pack and took hers from her hand, putting it aside. She didn’t protest when he took her in his arms and held her tightly against him. She lowered her face onto his shoulder and sobbed as he stroked her thick black hair.
If only I could have held Katherine like this. Just once.
Thomas closed his eyes and pressed his face into Shara’s hair, trying to banish his own memories. It was several minutes later when he realized Shara’s sobs had stopped. He lifted his face from her hair and she looked up at him, her dark eyes still glistening with tears.
“Thank you,” she said.
“For what, lass? What have I done?”
“You warned me years ago what was coming. You nearly got yourself killed trying to protect Joey. You showed up just in time to save me from Fenris. And now … now you let me get your shirt all wet.” She put a small hand over the stain her tears had left on his denim shirt.
Thomas laughed softly and watched a smile light her face. “I am happy to be your kerchief, m’lady,” he said.
Shara looked around the living room again, not moving away from Thomas yet, and he found he didn’t want to release her from his arms, either. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been here. I guess the first thing we need to do is make sure the security system is working.”
“Aye,” Thomas agreed. “And then maybe stock the cupboards.”
“Yeah. I’m starving.”
She hesitated for a moment, then stepped away from him. Thomas let his arms drop to his sides. Shara smiled an awkward smile at him, then turned and walked away. Thomas followed her into a small bedroom lined with blank television monitors on shelves and a desk with a computer. Shara began turning the electronics on and within a few minutes the monitors in the room were showing miles of fence surrounding the compound.
“Everything seems to be working,” Shara said, taking a joystick and moving the camera on the east side of the entry gate. She turned it to face up the driveway, zoomed in on a boulder and pulled the lens back, then put the controller on the desk. “Let’s go get some groceries.”
As they left the compound and turned back toward Stillwater, Shara shifted gears and said, “If I’d been thinking, we’d have bought food before we came out here in the first place.”
“Your mind was elsewhere,” Thomas said.
“Yeah.”
“I must tell you,” Thomas said. “In two days, my cycle will be upon me.”
“Your cy… Oh yeah. You know, I almost forgot all the werewolf stuff,” she said. “Do you need to hunt? Chris used to buy cattle for me and keep them on the land. It … it wasn’t much fun, but it satisfied the wolf.”
“I do not need to hunt. Or kill,” Thomas said. “We’ll just buy extra meat. That will do me. I’ve no intention of leaving you alone.”
She looked at him again, another smile on her face, and Thomas found himself liking it more than he should when she smiled at him. “You’re very kind to me,” she said.
“You make it easy,” he answered.
She reached over and squeezed his hand. “Thank you.”
Reluctantly, Thomas released her hand, but only when she had to shift the truck’s gears again.
Ulrik
“You must concentrate on the change,” Ulrik said. “Remember how it felt when your body began changing on its own.”
“It hurt,” Joey answered.
“Yes,” Ulrik said, sighing. He rubbed his brow and squinted at the sun. It was after two in the afternoon on his second day of working with Joey. The boy sat before him, cross-legged under a nylon canopy pitched behind the house. Kiona and John Redleaf sat on the back porch, watching the proceedings and sipping iced tea.
“I’m hot,” Joey whined.
“Your mother was able to change her shape on the first try,” Ulrik said.
“When are you gonna call her? I want to talk to her.”
“Not now. You must learn to change your shape at will.”
The boy looked away, pouting. His face was set and he refused to meet Ulrik’s gaze. Ulrik studied him for a moment and suddenly found himself thinking of another young boy he’d once thought to mentor. Daniel, too, had been a stubborn one. Still a young man himself, Ulrik had given up on the boy.
Not t
his time.
“In time, the change will find you,” Ulrik said. “Just as it did last time. It will return, and you will become a wolf again.”
“Not if you call Mom,” Joey said. “She can bring my medicine.”
“Is that what you want? You told me you enjoyed being a wolf.”
“Yeah,” Joey agreed. His face softened a little. “It’s just the part where I change. It hurts. I’m scared. I’m hungry, too.”
Ulrik sighed. “Very well. Go to Kiona. She will take you inside and give you something to eat.” He watched the boy get up and scamper onto the porch, where he hugged Kiona. The Indian woman took him into the house; John Redleaf remained in his chair on the porch. Ulrik met the other man’s gaze for a moment, then shook his head and looked away. He scanned the empty horizon, saw nothing, and went to the porch. He took the seat Kiona had left.
“If I suspect you present a danger to me or to the boy, I will kill you,” Ulrik said. He faced forward, looking back out over the yard. The Indian beside him did the same.
“It would be a battle to please the old storytellers,” John said.
“It would,” Ulrik agreed. “Except that it would not come to that. An old wolf and a young bear. It does not take a wise man to guess the outcome of that battle. I would shoot you, John Redleaf.”
The Indian grunted and nodded. “I do not care about the boy. Or about his destiny. Or legends. My allegiance is with Kiona.”
“She is your lover?”
“Sometimes.” There was a pause, then John said, “She was my first teacher, instructing me in the ways of the skinchangers even before we went to Europe.”
“I do find it incredible that she was able to find one who could give you the Gift you have,” Ulrik said. “She has always been resourceful. But she has seldom put that industry to good use.”
“If Kiona asks it of me, I will kill you,” John Redleaf said. “I do not wish it. I respect you. But she loves the boy and would become his new mother. I will do as she asks.” He stood and looked down at Ulrik. “For the moment, she still loves you and wants you to live.” That said, he went into the house.
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