New Moon Howl

by Zenina Masters

  “I am getting that idea. I am sorry I didn’t come earlier, but I didn’t really think that I could.” Kenzi waited out the hug.

  When Melwiss finally released her, her face was flushed, and she was smiling. Her patchwork clothing was made of the finest fabrics, in all the wrong colour matches.

  Kenzi looked around. “Is there somewhere you can open your present? Morwiss packed it with everything she could think of, based on the weight.”

  “Sure. We can have coffee and a snack.”

  Kenzi didn’t ask if she had just eaten. It was part of the wealth of magic that was consuming Melwiss from the inside out. Her power was strong enough to eat her if she didn’t compensate with supplementation. The price of power manifested in Melwiss in the form of intense hunger. The more she used, the hungrier she got.

  Kenzi followed her to a small café, and she waved at Andy when she spotted him at the counter. “Just can’t stop working, huh?”

  He shrugged. “Lorai wants to talk about me spotting for her for a few weeks. Her husband has found a set of ruins that he wants to examine, and they are too deep for him.”

  “You do that?”

  He grinned. “I sell dresses all the time. Everything from shoes to underwear as well. I can manage the inventory she is leaving behind.”

  She blushed. “Right. And your family likes to keep busy.”

  “You have that right. Good day, Mage Melwiss.”

  Melwiss smiled vaguely and nodded as she began to unwrap and unravel the packaging on her present. She was seated on the floor with the parcel between her thighs. Kenzi almost wished for her phone to take a photo, but she hadn’t been allowed to bring tech through the portal. It would have been one stimulation too many for the transporter.

  Melwiss sat on the floor and giggled as she pulled out item after item, from her favourite chocolate and ramen noodles to the box with the charm that Morwiss had created to keep her sister from blowing apart.

  Andy brought her a cup of coffee and nodded to Melwiss. “She seems happy.”

  “She got a physical expression of love and remembrance. It has that effect on folks.”

  “You came all this way to deliver a present?”

  “Of course. She’s the closest thing to family that I have.” She sipped at her coffee and paused in surprise. “How did you know?”

  “You have a three sugar and two cream kind of face. I told you, I am very good at retail.”

  She smiled and shook her head.

  “So, the merman. You have met him before?”

  Kenzi nodded. “Yeah, when I was a teenager, and then again on my eighteenth birthday. I don’t know if there were any other times. My recollections of my early days are a little fuzzy.”

  “Your beast knows him.”

  “Yeah, she seems to.”

  Melwiss was making happy noises and reading comic books.

  Kenzi and Andy took a seat near the chortling mage.

  She met his rich brown gaze and the amusement therein. “What?”

  “So, do you have a mate?”

  “No. Of course not.”

  “Why not? You are a good age for it.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Any man who wants to take a run at me has to go through Elder Killian. She has been breaking kneecaps of the men making offers for me. They aren’t up to her standards. The guy I end up with is going to have to defend me when I am vulnerable and stand at my side during all of my shaman duties. It is a lot to ask.”

  “Does he have to be a wolf?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “No. The shaman bloodline is random. It weaves itself into every species and gives one shaman to every five thousand shifters. Teal is one, but she didn’t follow this path.”

  “She is? Huh.”

  Kenzi watched Melwiss play with her toys, the charm already around her neck. “We all find our paths through our own ways. She found a path that lets her use portions of her magic for the benefit of those around her.”

  “And she found Tony.”

  Kenzi laughed. “He found her, but that isn’t my story to tell.”

  He nodded. “Have you known Melwiss long?”

  The smile crossed her face and fixed on it. “A decade or so. She is one of the most caring, insightful, and powerful women you will ever come across. Smart as well.”

  “I can believe it, but the belief falters now and then.”

  She sighed. “Have you ever looked up at the stars and felt yourself spinning off the world?”

  Andy looked at her solemnly. “I have.”

  “Her love of colour gives her joy, so she wears as many as possible. The embroidery between the patchwork gives her a sensory anchor. It keeps her knowledge of her body intact when her mind would fly to the stars and keep going.” Kenzi looked at her friend fondly. “She has found a way to get around the hazards of her power, and that shows tremendous intelligence and awareness of self.”

  They sat there for an hour, watching the greatest mage of their age eat chocolate and get it all over her face while she read comic books and giggled like a child. Nothing else needed to be said.

  Chapter Six

  The patchwork clothing had been made by a loving hand. A dozen colours of velvet made up the jacket covered with embroidery, and the chiffon blouse was made of a rainbow of fabric that would shift and sway with her movements.

  Kenzi folded up the clothing, the skirts, jackets, and blouses, into a neat square while Melwiss tidied up everything she hadn’t eaten.

  Andy was back behind the counter, chatting with the proprietor and wiping the countertops.

  “Melwiss?”

  Her friend was now less dazed and emotional, back in control of herself. “Yes, Kenzi?”

  “We have been invited for dinner in the Crossroads. Would you like to come?”

  Melwiss smiled with a wry grin. “Will your merman be coming along?”

  Kenzi was stunned, but she shouldn’t have been. “My what?”

  “The man with the muscles and scales that has been moping around the Isthmus for the last three weeks, waiting for anyone close to what he needed. I should have told him that his mate wasn’t here yet, but he was a bit grumpy.” She went from wry to smug in a heartbeat.

  “I don’t have a mate.”

  “Not yet, but there was a reason your beast kept running to his territory. You were looking for him.”

  Kenzi paled. “How did—oh, you mean then.”

  Melwiss grinned. “It happened here? Of course, it did, or you wouldn’t be wearing one of Lorai’s dresses.”

  Kenzi could feel her cheeks flush. “She was very enthusiastic.”

  “I would imagine she would be. She hasn’t seen her mate for ten years, and now that you two are in communication, you should know her thoughts on the matter.”

  Kenzi prodded her beast, and the smug heat that was coming from her thoughts showed that she was paying attention to the conversation.

  “Ten years ago, he couldn’t be our mate. The treaty hadn’t been signed.”

  “So? This is now, and now, she can have him if he is in agreement.”

  “Don’t I enter into this at all?”

  Melwiss wrinkled her nose. “Not really. This place is designed to take politics of the human world and chuck them out the window. You get the mate that is right for you, not the one that has the best political contacts.”

  Kenzi cleared her throat. “So... dinner?”

  “Oh, yes, please. I will wear some of my new duds. I do need some new boots, though. Can you ask Morwiss to get me some?”

  “I can and I will. Well, if we want to make it to the Crossroads, we should get this stuff to your house and then start hiking.”

  Andy wandered over. “I can lend a hand.”

  Melwiss blushed and nodded. “Thank you. If you could take the comics?”

  Kenzi took the fabric; Melwiss gathered the leftover snacks in her basket and pulled the original wrap around it. Andy had the stack of comics, and they headed off t
o Melwiss’s place.

  The Isthmus was starting to come alive with guests meeting and mingling in the streets and businesses. Kenzi smiled and nodded at a few of the folk that they passed, but her beast was looking for the blue-green hair and tanned face with dimples. The scent of other merfolk was distracting for her, so she had to rely on sight, and she wasn’t happy about it.

  Melwiss skipped along, and soon, they were at her home. From the exterior, it was all bright and cheery, but when Melwiss opened the door and led them in, the interior was organized, polished wood, and held only the lightest scent of lemon in the air. The minimalist organization wasn’t a surprise to Kenzi, but Andy looked a little bewildered.

  “Did you think it would be chintz and doilies?”

  “Something like that.”

  “I told you, she is highly intelligent, but pursuing her personal joys makes her happy. This is her brain, and the outside is her body.”

  “Right. Well, on that food for thought, I will leave you, and I hope you enjoy your time here at the Crossroads or the Isthmus.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

  “Thank you, Andy. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day off.”

  He left, and it was only two minutes before Melwiss appeared, and she smiled. “I am eager to have a proper dinner with other folks.”

  Kenzi linked arms with her and grinned. “I don’t know how proper it will be, but I am more than ready to spend the evening catching up with you.”

  Melwiss sighed, and they walked along, out of the Isthmus and to the path that led back to the Crossroads.

  “How are you enjoying it here, Mel?” Kenzi had to ask.

  “It is an excellent use of my talents. I have enough snacks to eat, and I am binding people in wedlock who couldn’t get married any other way. It is a pretty nice gig.”

  Kenzi chuckled. “Fine. Are you looking for your own mate while you are here?”

  “Nope. Mages are still bound by their own rules and regulations. There is no space in the treaty for mages. We are labour only.”

  “Is that what you have been told?”

  “Yup.”

  Kenzi nodded. She had actually read the Crossroads treaty, and it did have space for mages in it. If the Mage Guild wasn’t telling its’ members that they could now take shifters or fey to wed without losing community standing, that was their business. Kenzi’s heart ached, but she wasn’t up for tampering with another magical society.

  Teal and Tony were waiting for them, and dinner arrived via a line of servers who carried in platters, nodded and returned to the restaurant.

  Al was standing with a smile on his features as he explained the buffet of seven different main courses, five side dishes and a dessert that would be produced the moment that Tony summoned him.

  A fifth place setting was at the table in the centre of the Meditation Centre. Kenzi nodded toward it, “Are we expecting someone else?”

  Tony sighed. “There is a merman here who has been here for weeks without even a hint of a mating reaction. He is here to discuss whether he wants to remain another week or to go home.”

  Just as he finished his explanation, Roman arrived.

  He paused in the entryway and smiled at her, “Hello, Kenzi.”

  “Hello, Roman. I am glad that this is a more dignified meeting.”

  He grinned and walked up to her, taking her right hand, turning it, and pressing a kiss to her palm.

  The shiver rioted through her limbs, and only a small portion of that was due to the fey contact, the rest was the warm feel of his lips on her skin.

  Kenzi blushed and caught Teal and Tony glancing at each other with meaningful stares while Melwiss giggled behind her hand.

  “I see you found your mage.”

  Melwiss grinned and came forward, extending her hand. “She did. I am Melwiss, binding mage of the Isthmus. How are you doing, Roman?”

  “I am at the end of my rope, so to speak. Who knew that finding a mate would be so difficult?”

  “It isn’t for everybody. Did the seers send you?”

  “They did. They said I was to meet a woman of extraordinary skill and power, but you weren’t interested.” He winked at Melwiss.

  “Ah, yeah. Nice flirting. Did they give you a timeline?”

  He frowned. “No.”

  “Good. You have some time.” Melwiss smiled brightly.

  She walked over to Teal and Tony and spoke quietly. When she finished her conversation, Tony disappeared for a minute before returning and giving Melwiss a nod.

  Kenzi watched it all with amazement. It was always funny to watch Melwiss change gears from airhead to ruthless schemer.

  She sidled up to her friend and asked, “Mel, what are you up to?”

  “Just some shenanigans. Nothing to be worried about.” Mel’s smile was angelic.

  Teal clapped her hands. “Right, shall we eat?”

  They gathered around the table, and Kenzi was unsurprised to find that Roman was seated on her right, Melwiss on her left.

  Everyone was quiet as they filled their plates, and then, there were a few minutes when the sound of eating was all that could be heard. Finally, Tony looked over and asked, “So, Kenzi, how long did it take you to bind to your beast?”

  Kenzi cocked her heads. “We started speaking two years after I was found. When we began communication, the hair whitened nearly immediately.”

  Roman smiled. “I did think that you were originally a brunette, but I like the contrast of your hair and eyes.”

  She sighed. “It takes getting used to. Melwiss used to try and dye it.”

  Melwiss chuckled. “Yeah, those were some fun sleepovers.”

  Teal smiled. “You had sleepovers?”

  Mel paused.

  “Don’t worry, Mel. Well, they weren’t really sleepovers. Mel’s sister, Morwiss, was my healer. She was assigned to remove layers of skin and spell work from my back. Mel kept me busy with things like the dye jobs while her sister was working. We had to pace it after the time I ended up completely purple.”

  Mel chuckled, “But, her hair was white, so she looked like an anime character.”

  Everyone laughed, and the moment of discussing the removal of the curse seemed to be gone.

  The dinner was lovely, and there was only one small matter left to discuss.

  “So, Guardians, where have you put me for the night?” She set down her spoon and looked at her empty dessert plate with wistful regret. She wished she had another one.

  Teal cleared her throat. “We thought that you would be best served by being at the Isthmus, so you could be near Melwiss. I have a VIP charm for you that will let you purchase what you need.”

  “Oh, great. So, I can stay for a couple of days?”

  Tony nodded and then looked to Roman, “So, are you going to remain here, or will you head back to the human world?”

  Roman glanced at Kenzi. “I believe I will remain for another week. After all, new folk arrive every day.”

  Kenzi felt the heat creep up her features. Her leg was touching his under the table, and the images that her beast was feeding to her were enough to keep her skin flaring for minutes. The wolf knew the scent of him and knew what set Kenzi off. She was combining the two situations into a mental tangle that had Kenzi’s breath locking in her chest.

  With her pulse roaring in her ears, she made her goodbyes to the guardians and linked arms with Melwiss again to make their way back to the Isthmus. Roman remained behind.

  * * * *

  Roman looked at the guardians. “She is the one. What are my options?”

  Teal wrinkled her nose. “We are going to have to override her status, but that won’t be easy. The Shifter council convenes in the morning, but if they rule against you, there is still a chance.”

  Roman leaned forward. “What?”

  “Dira. This is her domain, and she is more than willing to distract herself from the babies with this sort of thing. What do you want to do first?”

&nb
sp; “Both at the same time. I will speak to Dira, and you get the case before the Shifter’s council.”

  Tony gave him a slight smile. “Are you sure?”

  “She came to me at fourteen, eighteen, and now, twenty-eight. Each time her beast made a choice for her. I know that the beast rules at the Crossroads, but I want Kenzi to have enough time to make up her own mind.”

  Teal nodded. “I am on it. We will have Shaman Alberta Kenziak declared a mate-able female by sundown tomorrow, or you will have it done tonight. Either way, time is wasting.”

  He grinned, hugged them both, and headed toward the woods where the originator of the Crossroads was raising her family.

  Getting authorization to turn a shaman into a wife was going to take some doing, but he was willing to put the time in to get a lifetime with Kenzi at his side.

  Chapter Seven

  “What are you up to, Mel?” Kenzi asked her as they walked up the hill toward the Isthmus.

  “I am simply engaged in a little bit of matchmaking. You are entitled to fall in love, and your beast has already chosen your mate. Who can fight a few days to make it happen? At the very least, you can take a lover and get that out of the way.”

  Kenzi exhaled sharply. “I told you that in confidence.”

  “I know, and there is no one else out here. Roman wants you. He wants every inch of flawed, crazy you. Do you know how rare that is?”

  “He doesn’t even know me.”

  “So, let him get to know you. You have three more days here, and a lot of conversation can occur in that time. Heck, he might even give you some swimming tips.” Melwiss chuckled. “Either way, you will have exposure to a man your beast has set her heart on.”

  “I am supposed to wait for the elder shaman to pick my mate.”

  “How long are you going to wait? Why can every other shifter listen to their beast and you have to listen to a homicidal old lady?”

  It was a fair description of Killian. Kenzi dissolved into giggles.

  “Did you ever find out about your family?”