MoonFall: A Paranormal Werewolf and Urban Fantasy of Suspense (Supernatural Siblings Series Book 2)

by Drew VanDyke

  That made me laugh so hard I started gasping and choking on my own spit, and I realized that, despite all my urges in other directions, Will was better. Nothing beats a man who can make your diaphragm clench so hard that you almost pass out.

  Hmm. I guess that applied to non-humor stuff too.

  So we made our excuses and headed back to the car.

  “You know, I really don’t want to get dressed yet,” Will told me as he laid out his towel on the seat and we drove back to Knightsbridge naked as jaybirds.

  He didn’t try to molest me the whole way.

  I think I was disappointed.

  The next week proved to be a whirlwind of excavation. Putting a basement into an existing structure could be a tricky business, it seemed, but Jackson’s crew seemed to take it all in stride. Since no one else was home, the pack worked later into the evenings than usual. We had dinner every night together. I was starting to think that there might really be something worth exploring in this strange arrangement between lycanthrope and lupine.

  Will spent a lot of time at his mom’s, as she seemed to be going through a rough patch with her health, anemia or something, he said. Looking back later, I’m sure his absence freed me to explore this exhilarating new world of pack.

  Don’t ever let anyone tell you that who you hang out with doesn’t matter. It does. You always conform to some degree, and the longer I stayed with the pack, the easier it became to envision myself as part of their world. And it appeared that there was something to this pack magic thing. I found myself feeling healthier than I ever have been, happier than normal and not as tempted by substances to modulate my mood swings.

  Funny thing was, I usually like a lot of alone time, the freedom not to be hyper-aware of the needs of others and able to concentrate on my own. Being a twin makes me skittish about long periods of close quarters. Normally, the closer I am to someone, the more the latent twin-like bond gets activated and I end up feeling responsible for their wellbeing. It’s especially hard with Amber, because when she’s not happy, chances are, neither am I.

  Thank God the pack was very self-sufficient, and though they often paired up with each other, they didn’t make me feel like an odd girl out. I guess Jackson and his crew were becoming familiar, like a favorite pair of jeans, or in Amber’s case a well-worn pair of heels. I fetched and carried for them when I felt like getting out of the main house, even swung a hammer a few times, learning something about construction while working up an honest sweat.

  Good thing there was a pool just a few steps away. I offered them the use of it several times, but Jackson refused to let his crew take advantage. Bad policy to indulge on the client’s property, he said. I suppose he was right, as Amber owned the place, not me.

  Despite his invitation, I chose not to visit Adam in Vegas. I really didn’t feel like doing the same old casino-and-spa routine and besides, I was thinking about teaching aerobics again. Maybe get back into working in the health and fitness industry itself instead of just writing about it from a travel journalist’s angle. I’d done a short gig of the latest crazes when I turned eighteen. I wasn’t the dancer that Amber was, but I had a few moves inside me. That and hostessing had kept me out of the house as my dad and his new wife noisily consummated their affections.

  Ew.

  I’d been so glad to move out.

  Late one evening, as the crew was finishing up their day’s work, Jackson looked at me. “So, Ashlee…”

  When someone says your name after the word so, it always makes me wonder what’s coming next.

  He went on, “I think it’s time we took you out to run with the wolves.”

  “It’s not a blood moon is it? No offense, but I’m not ready to get knocked up.”

  “No, it’s not a blood moon.” The corners of his mouth twitched up and his nose crinkled. “Besides, like every righteous man on the face of this planet, I mate with integrity.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means if you’re not a full-on one hundred percent yes, then I default to no. Because until we can trust your no, we’re never gonna fully be able to trust your yes.”

  “I suspect you’re in the minority. Will’s the only guy I know that’s a part of it.”

  “Until I met Sully, I actually wondered whether there were any truly good men in the world.”

  “Thank God for a few good men.”

  “And thank the Goddess for a few good women. So, you up for a run?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  Jackson turned to the pack. “Ash is coming along.”

  Everyone smiled except, predictably, Sierra. Her usual scowl only deepened at her alpha’s announcement. Why couldn’t she just get over it? She’d won the volleyball game, after all, and seemed to hold all the cards…except one, I guess: Jackson’s determination to turn me into lupine breeding stock. If only she could see how conflicted I was about it, she’d be less jealous. I really, really had no intention of replacing Will with Jackson, and even the proposed wolf-on-wolf action felt like cheating in my mind.

  At least I had another lunar month to decide. When was this blood moon anyway? I needed to look it up for myself.

  We all piled into the work vehicles and headed up into the canyon. I rode with Jackson and Sully, relieved that Dex seemed to be distracting Sierra, as much as he could anyway. When we sighted Mount Rettig – barely a mountain compared to the peaks to the east, rising only about four thousand feet from the valley floor – we hiked a ways until dry brush gave way to copses of trees intercut with boulders that looked weathered from the few deluges we had during the short California winters.

  The droughts had been getting worse in recent years. We really had to do something about that too, I thought. One thing at a time, Ash. Wolves first; I could save California’s ecosystem later.

  The pack quickly set up camp, grilled some steaks rare, and as sunset approached, began to undress.

  I joined them and we all stood around in a circle, naked. After all, clothes wouldn’t change with our bodies. I tried to pretend that we weren’t nude, but my wolf kept sneaking peeks from the neck down. Bad doggie, I told her on the cinema screen of my mind. She bared her teeth at me and grinned.

  “Well, now what?” I looked at my pack expectantly.

  Yes, I really was starting to think of this as my pack. Dex and Sierra. Darla and Geoff. Twyla and Neal. Sullivan and Jackson. Me and…sigh. I so wasn’t going there right now.

  “Now, we wait.” Jackson said.

  “For what?”

  “You’ll see.”

  “Couldn’t we have waited in our undies?”

  Sierra snorted derisively. “What, the naturist resort was fine, but here, with nobody around, you get shy?”

  “Leave off, Sierra,” Jackson said. “Here they come.”

  The wind shifted and I caught a whiff of true wolf in the midst of all the weres. Jackson let out a piercing whistle and two beautiful greys slipped out from behind him.

  “Ashlee” he said. “This is Luken and Elka. They are ulv, natural wolves.”

  Entranced, I dropped to my knees without thought. Nothing could have prepared me for the impact of this moment. They were the most breathtaking creatures that I had ever seen.

  Like every living thing on the face of the planet, animals have a resonance to them for those in tune with the supernatural. Top predators rang with special power as the appointed life-takers of the weak, the sickly, the unfit. These wolves radiated a contained strength, humbling me with their majesty.

  If I hadn’t been half-convinced already, I was now seriously considering Jackson’s insane proposition.

  Which is, of course, what he wanted.

  The two turned their muzzles toward Jackson and he gave them a nod. The smaller one, Elka, trotted forward and met my eyes. My breathing stopped and my heart pounded loud in my ears. I swear she winked and chuffed at me, sitting back on her haunches and looking sideways toward her mate.

  Luken came forwa
rd and placed his head on my shoulder, butting at me like a dog until I lowered my own head in greeting. Then both wolves joined me in an embrace, lapping at my neck and scenting me. They squirmed around me like puppies until I could do nothing else but run my fingers through their fur, nuzzling them as they nuzzled me.

  When I looked back up at Jackson, his face showed satisfaction at the wonder I felt, tears rolling from my eyes. The wolves lapped briefly at my tears, and then left me to slip back into the shadows.

  “But you said they’re natural wolves. Where did they come from?”

  “It’s an experiment in repopulation. We brought them in a couple months ago to learn the lay of the land.”

  The human side of me fretted about the wisdom of screwing with the ecosystem, whether they would kill livestock and be hunted by ranchers, and what Fish and Game would think if they were spotted.

  The wolf in me rejoiced, and I understood perfectly where Jackson was coming from. These two were a Good Thing, so right that no justification was needed. The Pacific Northwest, northern California included, needed them there.

  The pack needed them there.

  I needed them there.

  Jackson went on, “Once they accept you into the pack, you’ll always know how to find each other.”

  “How?”

  “You’ll feel it.”

  Soon, the moon began to rise. Or fall; pick your own metaphor.

  If you’ve never been a wolf, you can’t know the joy of bounding across the hills, following the heightened senses of a magnified world: the way the terrain rolls out before you soft in the moonlight and the grassy soil springs up against your paws, a natural cushion so unlike the harsh feel of concrete in human form.

  But the joy of being a lone wolf was nothing compared to the shared experience of pack – the heady aromas of scents captured on the back of the tongue, and the sounds of nature rushing past as side by side we leapt over fallen trees and trickling streams, pushing up against each other and jockeying for position as we nipped at each other’s flanks and heels.

  I tell you, it was glorious.

  Jackson and I raced for the summit of Mount Rettig as we stretched ourselves to our limits, unlimbering muscles that had lain dormant over the last lunar cycle. Luken and Elka played with Darla, Twyla, Geoff, and Neal, while Sully, Dex and Sierra brought up the rear.

  Though I could sense Sierra’s constant disquiet, there eventually came an anticipation in her gait that seemed at odds with her mood. I didn’t have time to wonder when on a narrow beam of light, I caught the glint of metal out of the corner of my eye. Sully barked a warning – too late – as a bullet ricocheted off a nearby tree and grazed my hindquarters.

  Not again! I thought as pain flared, but unlike the last bullet I met by moonlight, this one had only drawn a line of fire across my skin.

  Jackson barked a warning and the rest of the pack headed for cover.

  Me, I let the beast take over. Instead of running away from it, I turned toward the danger, rage filling my chest. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line and I headed straight for the shooter.

  He took one look at me and made a beeline for his Land Rover. It was one thing to take a broad shot against the silhouette of a wolf running in profile, another entirely to try to put one between the eyes. An unflappable expert might have done it, someone experienced with big game; lions and tigers and bears. Fortunately for me, this hunter didn’t seem so steady.

  This wolf had the bad guy in her sights. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I caught him, but that thought had barely crossed my mind before a big, silver-white blur came hurtling past, breaking my stride and pushing me off my goal.

  Sierra.

  I snarled. The bitch is in my way. She needed a lesson in payback. Don’t ever distract a wolf-girl set on revenge unless you intended to become her nearest target.

  I turned and sank my teeth into her haunch, fully intending to put the bitch in her place once and for all, when Luken and Elka shot between us and my head began to pound as images flashed through my mind. Visions of light and shadow accompanied by strange memories of metal smells, cages, and torture bombarded me and I sneezed trying to clear the dust from my head. It wasn’t exactly words, but it was like getting a nostril full of primal canine communication. Wolves do not get close to mundanes. That was what the brain barrage was saying. Sierra and I whined at the onslaught until Jackson’s arrival brought the two to heel.

  The hunter was long gone by the time the snarling and yapping stopped.

  We finished the night in silence. Well, at least Sierra and I did. The rest of the pack took up an awful lot of howling until we all passed out after gorging ourselves on a flock of geese that would never fly south for the winter. We woke up human, the true wolves gone, naked in a puppy pile, wrapped arm over arm and leg over thigh as the sun brought the shift with the passing of the moon.

  Chapter 5

  Whoever coined the term “dragon breath” must have woken up in a puppy pile with a bunch of shifters. I swear we gave new meaning to the word. This must be one of the givens when you ran with a pack, I thought as I pulled my toothbrush from my satchel and made do with a rinse from the bottles of water we’d brought with us.

  It seemed Sierra felt the same about meat-odor morning breath and I chuckled as she took a huge slug of mouthwash and began to pass it around like whiskey. I rinsed and spit and joined the others as we grabbed our gear and headed back to the vehicles.

  I so needed a shower and time alone to decompress that experience.

  It wasn’t hard to stay silent and just let the emotions run through and off me as Sierra cranked up the summer rock station and lounged in the passenger seat with her grungy toes hanging out the window. Dex drove, and he dropped me off at the house before heading back to the lodge.

  Knightsbridge was starting to feel like home again. And it kind of scared me. Was I really doing this? Retreating from my travel-writer lifestyle for the familiarity of a hometown I thought I’d left behind?

  “Gods who run as wolves.” That’s what the true canines called us, I reflected that evening. Oh, not in so many words, but that was the imagery they conveyed mind to mind, scent to scent, eye to eye, and head to head. I could imagine, though, it was they who were the gods, because if we were the gods of this celestial play, we sure had a lot to answer for.

  It’s painful to struggle against the natural order, Elka had thought at me when she’d calmed me down and licked my wound. Looking back, I agreed. What had I been thinking, attacking a hunter? But that’s where wolf and human differed. Where most of the time wolves’ only concern is for survival, humans wrapped themselves in layers of complex intention and conflicting desire.

  Just before we’d parted, Jackson had said he’d report the hunter to the Master. I wanted to ask him what he meant – was there some kind of über-alpha I’d never heard of? – but he’d waved off the question, saying he’d me fill me in later, and truthfully, my brain was overloaded with new werewolf stuff. After dealing with everything alone for ten years, it felt good to have others like me around, despite being overwhelmed.

  I decided to call Amber and catch her up to speed, which of course got me an earful from my twin.

  “Are you insane?” Amber’s voice drilled into my head and I held the cell phone at arm’s length after I’d told her what I was considering. “You’re smart enough to know not to get pregnant, but you want to have a gay guy’s puppies? Isn’t that taking progressive eco-conservationism to an extreme?”

  “Come on, Amber. If you were in my shoes, you’d totally do the same thing. You love dogs!”

  “Yes, but I prefer to get mine from a certified breeder.”

  “Besides, you had the opportunity to have John Robert. Maybe I want the experience of giving birth as well.”

  “Giving birth? You’re looking forward to giving birth? 36 hours of labor once in a person’s life is plenty, thank you very much. And birth is to raising ki
ds as a wedding is to marriage: not the same thing at all. Frankly, the fact that you would be able to drop a litter and just walk away is pretty irresponsible even for you, Ashlee.”

  “Ouch.”

  She sighed. “I’m sorry; you may think that we’re having a peach of a vacation out here, but Dad and Rhonda get up at oh-shit-thirty every day and I can’t sleep in with all their morning rattling around in the kitchen. Then they go to bed while I’m on my second glass of wine and getting chatty, leaving me with no one to talk to except Elle, which is driving her crazy. I’m tired of juggling priorities for everyone else when all I really want to do is be back home on the couch with my feet up.”

  “I’ll trade you my life for yours.”

  “You could never handle my life. What do you ever have to deal with? Getting shot in the ass and writer’s block?”

  See, I knew leaving out the part about my latest bullet wound was the right thing to do. Which, come to think of it, though it was only a grazing, had healed up practically overnight. Go were-change and pack magic!

  Anyway, never give your twin sister ammunition.

  “Damn, Amber. Spare me a little truth, why don’t you?” I replied, trying not to be offended at her supercilious tone.

  “That time of the month. Sorry.”

  “Yeah, I know. Tell me about it.”

  “Then shut up and take a Midol already, I did. Do I have to make it enough for two?”

  She had me there, and we both ended up laughing. God, I loved to laugh with my sister. But our lives were so different that sometimes it was hard to find enough common ground to share the same sense of humor anymore.

  For those of you who aren’t twins, there is an element of shorthand that we have with each other. You know, how they say that we can finish each other’s sentences, know what each other is thinking. Well, Amber and I took it one step further. She’d get the period and I’d get the pains, or vice versa, and one of us would be on the phone with the other one telling her to take a Midol.