Heart's Sentinel

by PJ Schnyder

  She steadied herself, anchored by her instructor's amber gaze, “Not much, Dad. I, uh, had a bad minute there, but I'm okay now.”

  Her father mussed her hair as the class resumed its game. Everything seemed to move forward as if the panic attack never happened. Adam stayed by her side, probably as much for her reassurance as to be assured she wouldn't have another bad reaction.

  “It takes some getting used to,” he assured her. “Living with so many people who can know so much about what you are and what you think based on scent. Take things in your own time, at your own pace, and we'll be here to help you through the rough spots.”

  “I'm sorry.” She tasted bitterness as she said it.

  “No harm done,” he answered her with a reassuring, gentle pat to the shoulder. “And you kept control. Very good for someone so new to being a shifter. Seriously.”

  The adults formed a large circle with the children in the middle. They threw a huge air-filled ball, as large as an adult, back and forth around the circle as the children dodged and laughed.

  She found herself calming as she watched the children relax into play. They truly showed no harm from her earlier disruption.

  “Even in training, jaguars like to play.” Adam's words were light, making her turn to look up into those eyes, suddenly twinkling with mischief.

  She began to reply, but a metallic flash caught her eye. She turned in time to see something huge crash through the window.

  "Down!" Adam's voice snapped and Mackenzie ducked low in automatic response. He crouched protectively over her, his hand pushed on her back while her father's shoulder pressed against hers. Chaos and the frightened screams of children deafened her. Fear rose up in a choking wave, but it was the children who called to her, the scent of their own fear that cleared her vision. They scattered left and right as something, someone, crashed around the dojo.

  Peering around the shelter of Adam's torso, she saw a man with some sort of jet pack strapped to his back. He struggled with a control band attached to his wrist as twin jets on the back of the pack fired randomly, slamming him into the walls, the floor, the ceiling.

  Adam cursed. "Stay here."

  He’d given an order, and she felt the power of it in a way she had never experienced before. He rushed forward with several other instructors to get the jet pack under control, but it proved too unpredictable, throwing them off and slamming them into walls as it continued to jerk free and yank its operator around like a rag doll. Two more men leaped in through the window, obviously in pursuit, and joined the instructors.

  A few children crouched against a nearby wall near Mackenzie and her father. Eyes wide with terror, they clamped their little hands around their ears. As the chaos continued, their frightened screams caught at her, triggering an instinct deep inside her. One small girl looked directly into her eyes and lightning streaked through Mackenzie.

  The man with the jet pack spun then, headed towards the children. They saw it coming, voices frozen and their little bodies paralyzed. She moved, her fear gone, only the memory of the little girl's blue eyes caught in her mind.

  Crashing into the children, she wrapped her arms around them as best she could and shoved all three sideways. As they hit the floor, she braced her arms, trying not to crush them, while behind them, the jet pack slammed into the wall where they'd been a second earlier. She lay on top of them, hoping it wouldn't turn in their direction again.

  But Adam appeared suddenly, pinning the jet pack down sideways as another instructor fumbled with the controls. The man strapped into the jet pack cursed over the cacophony in the room. "The toggle switch, gotta hit the button and the toggle at the same time." Adam reached for some other control panel and deactivated it.

  The abrupt silence echoed in the dojo. The sound of the air intakes on the jet pack cut off, leaving only the quiet sobs of children and the harsh breathing of the men.

  Levering herself up, she looked down at the children. "Are any of you hurt?"

  Three pairs of wide eyes looked up at her. The blue-eyed girl started to speak, but her lower lip trembled and then she lunged, wrapping her little arms around Mackenzie's waist. Hot tears seeped through her shirt, and she patted the child's head awkwardly.

  "Is anyone hurt?" Stepping to her side, Adam repeated the question, and Mackenzie felt something tight inside her chest relax at his arrival. How long had it been since any man's presence made her feel better?

  "I don't think so." she answered. While scared and shaken, none of the kids had visible injuries although the little girl in Mackenzie's arms wouldn't let go. "I'm a tad tied up at the moment though."

  He checked her over from head to toe before raising his eyes to Mackenzie’s. Heat washed through her, burning away the jagged edges of fear. "You just about gave me a heart attack, saving them." He glanced at the child and then focused on her again. "Thank you."

  She dropped her gaze, a flush rising in her cheeks. Instead of answering him, she murmured to the little girl. "It's okay now. You're safe."

  Another instructor hurried over and gathered up the children, taking the child from her and carrying her out of the dojo to be checked over by a medical team. Adam turned to talk to some of the men who’d come in after the runaway jet pack. Mackenzie's father strode to her, taking her by the chin and turning her face left and right.

  "You're scratched." Unhappy and shaken, her father scowled, but pride shone in his eyes. "You're healing right away, though." He paused, and then wrapped his arms around her. "This place was supposed to be safe." She sensed the anger building in him and smelled the change on his skin as his arms tightened around her.

  "An accident, Mr. Sunton." Adam returned, his hands held out in apology. "They were testing the thing and somehow it got out of control."

  "That's it? Things like that can just happen?"

  "It’s not likely these things happen all the time, Dad, this had to be a freak occurrence." Mackenzie did her best to soothe herself as well as her father. "We should be glad no one got hurt."

  Despite the scowl on her father's face, the emotion cracked his voice. "I can't see you hurt again."

  Mackenzie hugged him back carefully. The attack hadn’t only hurt her but had damaged her entire family. Giving him a minute, she kissed his cheek and carefully extracted herself from his arms.

  Looking up, she saw Adam eyeing her, checking her for injuries. She stood and held out her arms. "See? Everything moves. I'm not hurt."

  Her father stood, keeping his peace. She knew him. He'd probably talk to her about it again later, once they were alone.

  Adam gave her a lopsided grin, lighting up the room in her eyes, and her heart jumped a beat. His glance dropped to the floor. "Yup. You're fine. The floor needs a little repair though." He nodded to the dents in the padded floor where her hands had planted on landing.

  She’d shredded the padding—at some point her claws must have come out. Panic seized her, her stomach knotting. "I could have hurt the children."

  "But you didn't," he said firmly, and reached out to touch her arm to bring her attention back to him. "You acted quickly, and you planted your hands so you wouldn't hurt them. Considering the situation, it's amazing you could think so fast."

  The approval in his voice calmed her, and she glanced around the room rather than up into his eyes again. In scant minutes, the incident had trashed the room, shattered mirrors and glass, dented walls, and ripped padded floors. The little damage she'd done appeared miniscule in comparison.

  Her eyes fell on the jet pack as several men carefully extracted the man strapped into it. "Is he okay? What is that?"

  Adam nodded towards the group. "He's fine, beat up but otherwise okay. He might have a broken an arm and leg from getting smacked around. The medical team is seeing to him now. They're good at what they do. Best we can do is stay out of the way." He seemed concerned, but his advice made sense. "The jet pack, it’s something new."

  "New?" Mackenzie cocked her head sideways, too k
eyed up to settle, with adrenaline coursing through her blood.

  He measured his response. "There's a situation out here, for all of the prides and packs. You were supposed to be assigned a Sentinel, a sort of buddy, and he would have told you as part of your orientation."

  "But you're going to tell me now." She didn't make it a question. If a situation existed, she didn't want to be in the dark.

  His lips twisted in a grimace. "Well, he was the Sentinel assigned to you. I'm guessing we're going to need to get you someone else, because even a shapeshifter isn't going to heal from those injuries any time soon."

  She folded her arms, waiting. The smile fell away from his face, the predator there, under the surface.

  "There are hunters out there." Adam bit out each word. "Not normal hunters. These things hunt shapeshifters and take their skins as trophies. Their technology is way too advanced to be ours, and we think they're hunting humans in the cities, too. The jet pack is from a hunter captured by a neighboring pack of shapeshifter wolves a week ago. My pride brother was on the team analyzing the thing to see how it works."

  She dropped her arms in surprise as she processed the wealth of information he’d dumped on her. Well, she'd asked for it.

  "You’ve got the short version." He turned to herd her towards the door. "You can ask questions later, once we get you checked over."

  He hustled her and her father out to the waiting medical people. She expected a swarm of uniformed technicians but instead found normal-looking people with concerned expressions, checking her over with instruments taken from portable medical kits.

  "We're on alert, obviously, and accidents happen." Adam explained as she sat patiently through the series of tests. "So we keep portable medical kits stashed at every public gathering location and in caches throughout the territory. You'll need to learn to recognize where they are in case you're first on site to an accident, before the trained medical team arrives."

  Professional, capable and efficient, but not suited up in anonymous isolations suits and helmets. They comforted her so much more than the impersonal medical teams she remembered treating her in the city after her attack. In moments, they pronounced her in good condition and handed her back over to Adam's care rather than be carted off to wait in a sterile emergency room for further checks. Much better, and no less thorough, she thought.

  Adam brought her and her father a cup of steaming broth. "Something to help calm your nerves."

  She bit her lip to hide a smile as her father took the cup from Adam's hand to give to her. Adam appeared to take the small protective gesture in stride, and simply handed him the second cup once she had hers.

  "It's later." Mackenzie blew on her broth, and looked up at Adam over the rim of her cup. "Can I ask questions?"

  He motioned to a nearby bench, encouraging them to sit. Her father sat next to her and preempted the questions with a demand of his own. "I want to know my daughter will be safe here."

  "This is not a normal day." Adam gestured at the broken window of the dojo.

  "I hope not." She wasn't sure how anyone could survive so much excitement on a daily basis.

  "The hunters are a real threat," he admitted. "But all the prides and packs are at risk. With your situation, we were going to wait until you had time to settle in before talking about it with you. You had enough to worry about without the added stress."

  "What are they?"

  He shook his head. "We're not sure yet. We know they're humanoid, and they can speak standard language. Their technology is similar to what we know, but very advanced. The team was testing out the jet pack to get an idea of the controls. There are other groups testing other equipment like the communications technology and body armor."

  "The jet pack looked to be built for a man." She considered the mystery, turning the memory over in her head like a puzzle box.

  "The hunters stand, and bleed like we do. We learned as much from last week's attack." His lip lifted into a snarl. "What we don't know is where they come from or why they hunt us."

  "Walk like us, talk like us, and you're not sure they aren't some faction of us?" Awful idea, but the Cataclysmic Wars had been proof of the atrocity mankind could commit.

  "They look different. Pale, long in the arms and legs with oblong skulls and huge eyes. They don't smell like humans or shapeshifters, either. They smell almost metallic. Some of the teams are considering them alien even. We don't know enough." He bit out the words, but she didn't feel the usual zing of fear. His anger, however real, was clearly directed at the hunters and the discussion.

  "How is anyone safe out here?" her father asked. By the tone of his voice, she knew he ached to take her back home.

  "The cities are vulnerable too, Mr. Sunton." Adam pointed out without hesitation. "The human police haven't made it public because of the panic it could cause in such a big populace concentrated in a small area. The risk is the same, and we are better able to help Mackenzie get the control she needs."

  Her father fell silent, considering.

  When she didn't say anything, Adam continued. "It's been a hell of an evening. You should go back to the guest house and settle down. The only thing you need to let sink in right now is we've got the territory on alert to be sure everyone in the pride is safe, including you. No one goes anywhere alone, and you will always have an escort outside of town. With the amount of security we've set up to handle these hunters, your stalker won't have a chance in hell of getting anywhere near you."

  A shocked laugh popped out of her mouth. Adam paused to look at her, concern evident in his pinched expression. She shook her head and waved her hand in a weak gesture. "I didn't expect reassurance to come out of this sort of thing."

  He ran a hand through his thick hair, ducking his head sheepishly. "When things smooth out, I promise I'll talk it through with you in a sensible way."

  "No." She glanced at her father and then back to Adam. "We’re fine. I'll go and process someplace quiet. We'll go back to the guest house."

  Gravity dragged at her limbs and her hands shook in waves of fine tremors. Fatigue kicked in as the adrenaline finally drained out of her system.

  “The pride will probably assign you another buddy tonight. In fact, new protection for you takes highest priority.” He paused to exchange a few words with a passing instructor before adding, “Why don't I swing by in the morning to introduce you to whoever it is?”

  He planned to find out exactly which Sentinel would be assigned to guard Mackenzie and make sure his pride mate knew to treat her with care. Although she'd held up amazingly well under the shock of the accident this evening, her face became paler with every moment.

  She tipped her head to the side as she seemed to consider his offer before she said, “We haven't had time to meet many people yet. An intro would be …easier.”

  The echoes of damage done to her were there for him to see, as much as she presented the impression she had accepted what had happened to her. She put up a good front. But her actions in the emergency told them all clearly what she was made of. Given the time, she would be an incredible woman.

  “No problem, I'll be over first thing in the morning, okay?” he assured her.

  Her father nodded, his concern still evident, but she gave Adam another sweet smile before standing up. As she stepped away from the bench, Nick paused and turned to Adam, giving him another nod and a gruff, “Thank you.”

  Adam nodded in return and wondered if her father would thank him for thinking about what he wanted to do to those lips of hers.

  Nope. Not a chance.

  Chapter 2

  Words crooned in her ear as she struggled to see through the pitch black filling her vision. He loved her. He would make her His, in every way. With sluggish arms and legs, she struggled, held down by some great weight. Her nostrils filled with the smell of her sweat, her tears, and her blood.

  Agony ripped through her and Changed her.

  Mackenzie bolted upright, blinking away tears. Strug
gling to steady herself, she looked around the unfamiliar room. She almost sobbed as her eyes drank in the light, realizing day had come and the time for nightmares had passed.

  The sun had barely risen above the high tree tops of the forest when she threw on sweats to answer the brisk knock at the door of the guest house a few minutes later. She paused briefly as she passed a mirror in the hallway and noticed the state of her hair. Grumbling, she grabbed her father's cap and jammed it over her head, tucking her hair in the way she used to as a kid.

  As she opened the door, Adam stood there looking bright and cheerful.

  “Morning.” Hearty and far too awake, his voice pricked at her sleep-fogged mind.

  She mumbled a response and looked around him.

  He grinned, amusement lighting amber eyes. “No one out here but me.”

  It took another long minute to process the unexpected visit and then she realized she'd left him standing in the doorway waiting for an invitation to enter. Okay, not so swift in the morning.

  Stepping back, she cleared her voice and attempted a more civil greeting. “Come inside? Dad's in the shower. We thought you'd be a little later than this.”

  “We wake early out here. But I brought something to make up for it.”

  She followed him to the kitchen, her interest perking as a mouthwatering aroma rose out of the box he opened.

  “The café in town makes the best coffee in the territory.” He raised an eyebrow as he gave her a look from head to toe. “I'm guessing caffeine is a good idea. You don't seem to be a morning person.”

  As if it took a genius to notice. She started to retort then thought better of it as he lifted out cream and sugar as well as the large covered cups. “Coffee first, witty repartee later.”

  Adam grinned. “Cream or sugar?”

  “Both.”

  “Light and sweet.” He obliged her by adding them to one of the cups. “Like you, Kitten.”

  Startled, she didn't answer him as she carefully took the still steaming cup from his hands. One thing had only gotten better with her Change. Her favorite treats smelled even more delicious. Focusing on the wonderful aroma wafting from the cup, she tried not to analyze the unexpected fluttering sensation the nickname caused in her chest.