by Lisa Ladew
Ella gasped and held her hand over her mouth. “Oh, how awful.”
“Yeah, so while our parents were dealing with that, they left newborn Trent and Troy with an uncle. Wolven pups learn to shift by imitating the scent of the hormones adult wolven release when they shift. Pups can be born in human form or wolf form and the parents shift around them constantly until they shift at least once into the other form. No one thought to tell our unmated uncle that. He hadn’t realized it and he never shifted. By the time my parents gathered them up, they were stuck as wolf pups and no amount of shifting in front of them would get them to shift into humans. There’s more to it, but that’s the basics.”
“Oh no,” Ella said, and her eyes filled with tears. “They can’t ever shift?”
“They never have yet.”
Ella buried her face into Trevor’s chest, his strangely hairless chest. “Are they sad about it?”
Trevor shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Ella looked up at him. “You’ve never asked?”
He looked out the window. “No.”
“Because you think it’s your fault.”
He didn’t say anything.
Ella wiped her eyes. “Trevor, you couldn’t help any of that.”
“I know,” he said brusquely and pulled away from her, gathering up his clothes and pulling them on. Ella finished dressing also, lost in her own thoughts. She would try to comfort him later, when he responded to her again.
They made their way quietly down the stairs, to where the dogs─ wolves were curled up on the couch. Ella smiled at the sight of Smokey curled up on top of Trent, a perfect imitation if you overlooked the fact that Trent was a dog and about one hundred and fifty pounds heavier than Smokey.
She picked Smokey up and cradled him in her arms. “Where were you last night? We missed you.”
Smokey meowed once and pushed off of her body, wanting back down to the couch, wanting back down to Trent.
Time for breakfast, she heard Trevor say in her mind. Wade wants us in to the station in thirty minutes.
Taco salad or bacon and eggs? she tried to broadcast from her own mind.
Trent and Troy’s heads came up so quickly, identical looks of canine surprise on their faces, that she had to smile. Trevor laughed out loud from behind her and pulled open the refrigerator.
What’s the matter, boys, you never spoke to a lady before?
Chapter 32
Ella held Trevor’s hand as he pulled her into the police station and down a long and sterile hallway. Cops were staring at her from everywhere. Trevor sent the dogs─ wolves somewhere, then turned in the opposite direction. “Don’t be nervous,” he told her.
“Sorry, but how can I not be? I’m nervous to be a one true mate and I’m nervous not to be one.”
Trevor nodded sagely and she saw something dark behind his eyes. He didn’t try to tell her she was wrong.
She clung to him, scared of the time when he would drop her hand and pretend like they hadn’t already connected. She knew it had to come. He wouldn’t want his boss to think he’d done something stupid.
“It’s that door,” he said, pointing to an open door in the hallway. She swallowed hard and straightened her spine. Trevor squeezed her hand and pulled her along. In less than a minute, they both stood before Deputy Chief Lombard’s desk, hands still clasped.
“Wade, this is Ella, she’s the one I told you about.”
Wade smiled warmly and motioned towards the chairs. “Sit, please, both of you.”
They sat, and still Trevor didn’t let go of her hand. Ella wanted to kiss him.
“Do you think if you touched her, you could tell if she was a one true mate?” Trevor asked.
Wade sat back and studied Ella, his eyes traveling over their clasped hands and then up to Trevor’s face.
“At this point, does it even matter?”
Trevor frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’ve chosen her. She’s chosen you. I sense a bond around you that would be unbroken by news to the negative.”
Trevor squeezed her hand. Ella felt a warmth spread through her chest. She looked at Trevor, then looked away quickly, down at the floor, not wanting either male to see the tears shining in her eyes.
“Wade─”
“Don’t worry, son. Regardless of how it turns out, you won’t face any recriminations from me. I understand that we don’t choose our mates with our heads, we choose them with our hearts, and our hearts don’t understand prophecy.”
Ella bit her lip.
Wade went on. “But if it will make you both happy, I will try.” He waited expectantly.
“Yes,” Trevor said.
Ella blinked hard and looked up. “Yes.”
Wade came around the desk and took her free hand with one of his. She watched him carefully, not sure what she was hoping he would say. He frowned, then took her hand with both of his. Finally, he placed her hand carefully back on the arm of her chair, then sat down again.
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“I get nothing from her, which certainly is strange. Normally I can read humans like a book written just for me, seven or eight generations back.”
Trevor shook his head. “But that’s not a confirmation.”
“No, it is not. You know as well as I do, Trevor, that we don’t know what to expect with the One True Mates.”
“Is there anyone else who could try?”
“Certainly, we could have a few select Citlali try. Our most powerful. But you know none of them are more powerful than I am.”
Trevor nodded. He knew.
Wade looked out his window and spoke airily, almost as if discussing the idea with himself. “We could try Crew.”
“You think he might feel something you don’t?”
“Crew is a mystery even to me, Trevor. A wolfen with powers almost too great for this world.”
Trevor scoffed. “Are we talking about the same Crew here? The male I usually can’t find? The one who you just know is in the next room but then he’s not and he disappears for a week? The one who never talks at all? The one who I’m not even sure why he’s on the team? I know he could have been a Citlali, but I also know he lost it, he either refuses to or cannot sit in repose for prophecy.”
Wade leaned back in his chair and steepled his hands, looking at Ella appraisingly.
“Um, should I leave?” she asked.
Wade dropped his hands to his desk and shook his head. “No, you can hear this. Human or not, part-shifter or not, one true mate or not, you are Trevor’s mate and that makes you a part of all of this, no matter what.”
Trevor shifted in his chair. “We haven’t actually, um.”
Wade raised an eyebrow. “A ceremony is just that, son, a ceremony. Your hearts are entwined so surely I’m a little surprised it could have happened in so few days time.” He looked at Ella again. “But that fact alone could tell us many things if we chose to listen.”
Ella was not sure what any of what this kind man-person- argh, wolfen, was saying to her meant, only that it made her feel warm deep in her chest, and like she belonged there.
Wade looked up at the ceiling. “What I’m about to tell you has only been discussed in the great hall before.”
Ella didn’t know what that meant but a glance at Trevor told her it was something impressive.
“Crew still has great power. But he has gone underground.”
“Underground?”
Wade held up a hand. “Just listen. Crew doesn’t have to sit in repose for prophecy. He is the only shiften that we know about who can catch prophecy at any day or time, and he can open himself up to it with just a thought. He began reciting prophecy the day he first learned to talk, entire sentences coming out of his tiny mouth and frightening his poor mother almost to her death. His family called us, and several of us went to them. It was frightening, watching that young pup babble on as if he were having a private conversation with the Light or
Rhen or the angels, especially when the darker things began to come through.”
“Darker?”
Wade held up a hand. “I’ll get to that. We gathered around the child and recorded many of the things he said, but the longer he spoke, the more his body seemed to shrink, like he was using up vast reserves of energy he didn’t own. He became skin stretched over a skeleton before our eyes, until his mother pleaded with us to stop him. We tried to distract him and that did not work, so I put him under. Every time I would wake him he continued to speak prophecy and would not eat or drink. Some of the things he said sounded like they came from Khain himself. So I put him under again and we took him to Remington.”
Trevor looked at Ella. “A doctor,” he said, but his eyes were dark and his face drawn in distaste.
Wade nodded. “Remington fed him artificially until his body recovered some of its fat stores, and then we worked with him, waking him and distracting him until he learned to control the speaking.” Wade dropped his eyes. “It took many years, and by that time, his mother was dead.”
Ella covered her mouth with her hands.
“Crew suffered, and by the time he was able to be a normal boy again, his world had changed. He never did go to the war camps. He came to live with me and Lorna instead. We took care of him as best we could. His father let him stay with us, having four other boys to take care of, and unable to understand Crew. Even though I shared some of his power, I never understood him either. I tried to be a father to him, but I failed. When he was thirteen, he decided to do something dangerous, something I warned him against and asked him not to do.”
Ella felt Trevor tense in his chair.
“He sat in repose and specifically sought to contact Khain, something I don’t believe any other shiften alive can do. Khain was resting, had been resting for eight years, and when Crew created a connection with him, he had a good fifteen minutes or so to poke around in his head. Almost everything that we know to be true about Khain came from that short time. When Khain discovered Crew in his head, he became very angry and began to show Crew things he did not want to see. He showed Crew the death of his mother, which had already happened, then showed him the death of his father, that had not happened yet. Then he showed him my death.” Wade shook his head. “I asked not to be told about that one so I don’t know when or how. Khain then stood face to face with Crew in his imagination and spoke prophecy to him. He said that when Crew turned thirty-five, he would meet his one true mate, a female of such beauty, grace, and strength of will, that Crew would be lost to her. And when they were mated, Khain himself would find her and kill her in front of him.”
Ella rocked in her chair, her heart going out to Crew, a man─ wolfen she had never met.
Trevor squeezed her hand and she squeezed back. A new fact of her status as Trevor’s mate appeared to her. The danger it would bring. Khain didn’t seem real to her in this new sense, and she was already dreading the day that he did.
“I did not know.” Trevor said simply. “I must submit myself to Crew. I have wronged him. I’m sorry for what I thought about him, and I do want him to see if he can read Ella, if he is willing.”
Wade stayed silent for a long time. “I want you to understand that the experience drove Crew moonstruck, but we recovered him. He is now whole, but he and his powers are underground. If he still uses his powers, he doesn’t share them with anyone, and I do not know if he will do this.”
Trevor nodded. “Let’s ask.”
Chapter 33
Ella waited in the chair for Crew to arrive, imagining what he would look like. Scary? With an air of mystery around him? Would she be able to feel his power when─ if he touched her? Would he know who or what she really was?
They heard footsteps in the hallway and the three of them turned as one. Crew entered, stopping just inside the door, his face carefully blank. No smile or frown there. He was tall, at least a few inches over six foot, and built as much like a warrior as Trevor was. Ella found him pleasant to look at, but not exactly what she would call handsome, not in the way that Trevor was. His hair was dark, his face unshaven, and his work clothes rumpled, as if he’d been working for a few days without a break.
Trevor shot to his feet and crossed the room. Ella thought she heard a whining coming from him. She stared at him curiously as he hung his head and a very animal-like noise came from him.
“Dude,” Crew said, “no.”
“Yes. We haven’t exactly gotten along since I’ve been here, and most of that is my fault.”
Crew didn’t say anything for a long time. Then he bobbed his head. “Cool.”
The two men─ wolven clasped hands. Ella felt a strange undercurrent fill the room.
“Thank you for coming, son,” Wade said. “We think we’ve found the first one true mate and we need your reading on her.”
Crew locked eyes with her and Ella stared back, her throat tightening.
“I get nothing,” he said, almost dismissively and Ella looked around surprised. That was it?
“Do you think you would get something if you touched her?” Wade asked.
Trevor, standing to Crew’s right, moved quickly between her and Crew and growled deep in his throat.
No one said anything for a moment, then Trevor seemed to come to his senses. “Shit, sorry,” he said, moving to sit down on the other side of Ella.
Crew looked at Wade and Ella saw Wade raise both eyebrows and incline his head towards her. Crew took a few steps toward her before Trevor heaved out of his seat, again placing himself between her and him. A loud, terrifying snarl filled the room, causing Ella to pull her feet up off the floor before she realized it was Trevor again.
Wade stood up and approached Trevor, watching him carefully, then waved a hand in front of his tense face. “Trevor, you here?”
Trevor shook himself visibly, but he didn’t relax. “Step back,” he said. “You don’t touch her.”
Crew stepped back and leaned against the doorway, a small smile on his face for the first time. Wade got in between them. “Trevor, you asked him to touch her.”
“I know.” Trevor relaxed again. “Shit, I’m sorry again. I don’t know what I’m doing. I─”
Wade appraised him. “You sure you don’t know what you’re doing? Because I think it’s pretty clear.”
“I can’t help myself.”
Wade shook his head. “Not your fault. My guess is there’s something stronger in your connection than ordinarily would be there. And the Light help us if it’s like this for all of you. Supposedly there are thousands of one true mates. The fighting could get worse before it gets better.”
Trevor turned to look at Ella apologetically and take her hand. She smiled at him and brushed her fingers over his arm.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway. Crew looked out then looked back at Wade. “It’s Mac.”
“Good, bring him in. We’ll see if he can touch her.”
Trevor’s face contracted into a snarl and he whirled around, his body contorting as he shifted right there. Ella watched with fear in her heart as his clothes fell off of him and he bound across the room, his huge leap taking him right to the center of Mac’s chest as he stopped in the doorway.
Mac shifted at once, even as he dropped to the ground under Trevor’s greater weight, his snout and body lengthening, his leg joints popping, while Trevor tore and bit at him, fastening on his throat. Mac’s wolf had gorgeous, glossy white fur that quickly became red with his own blood.
“Get Trevor!” Wade yelled to Crew and jumped toward the fray. He and Crew both caught Trevor under his front legs, pulling his jaws apart and screaming at him to stop before he killed Mac.
Ella climbed up on her chair and watched the four males roll around on the floor, biting back the scream that was caught in her lungs.
***
Twenty minutes later, the drama was over. Mac was gone. Wade and Crew had shifted to heal their injuries and cleaned the blood off themselves in Wade’s bathroom.
Trevor sat quietly in the chair next to Ella, the blood cleaned from his face and neck, his demeanor completely tightened down. Ella didn’t know what to think or do.
Wade sat in the chair across from them while Crew stayed near the door. Wade cleared his throat until Trevor looked at him. “My guess is that you will calm down a bit once the two of you are mated, but until then, no one will be able to get close to her, except mated males, like myself.”
“Good thing we have a lot of them,” Trevor said dryly.
“Indeed. I still want Crew to … see if he can get anything from her though. Would you be willing to let me put you under?”
Trevor stiffened. “Why not just bind me?”
“No way. I will not bind you again. You know why. Besides. I have to wonder if your fervor could break the bind, and then you would be very dangerous. I’ve never seen a male act quite like this over a potential mate.”
Trevor did not contradict that. “Why don’t I wait in the hall?”
“Because I don’t want my door torn in half.”
Trevor nodded again. “Ok, do it. Put me under.”
Ella watched, eyes wide. She didn’t know what half of the words meant, but she was too anxious for it all to be over to interrupt.
Trevor stood up and laid down on the black leather couch along the back wall, his feet sticking over the end. Wade touched him on the arm and as far as Ella could see, did nothing more than that. But when he moved, Trevor was relaxed, eyes closed, seemingly asleep.
Wade nodded at Crew. Crew approached her slowly, not saying a word. She held up her hand, not wanting him to touch her anywhere but there. She kept her eyes on Trevor, afraid he would wake up and the fighting would start again.
