Dark Hunt

by Naomi Clark

  Dammit, we were supposed to be moving away from this.

  I tuned back in to hear Sun say, “I’m starving,” in a sort of sullen-teenage girl way that meant she just wanted to end the conversation. It made me study her closely; try to assess her age through the caked-on makeup. I’d thought she was about my age, but when I looked carefully, I realized she must be a few years younger. I wondered how the hell she’d ended up pregnant in Paris with a man who apparently wasn’t the cub’s father.

  “Okay,” I said, abandoning my tea. “How about we all get cleaned up and go out for breakfast?”

  Shannon shot me a look I couldn’t figure out, then shook her head. “I could do with a bath,” she said.

  “Me too.” Sun bit her lip. “I can’t...” She sucked in a deep breath. “I’ll go clean myself up.” Without another word, she left the apartment for her own.

  “What?” I asked Shannon when our front door closed.

  “We can’t take her on, Ayla.” Shannon pushed her own cup away. “She needs her family.”

  “She’s a lone wolf—she doesn’t have family.”

  “Yes she does, she’s just chosen to ignore them,” Shannon corrected me. “Being a lone wolf doesn’t mean her Pack has abandoned her, does it? It means she’s abandoned them.”

  “Well, yeah,” I admitted. “But we don’t know why. Maybe they turned on her when she got together with a human.”

  Shannon sighed. “I don’t think it matters. The point is we just can’t take her on! We’re only here for a week; it’s supposed to be a holiday—”

  “I know, I know.” I held up my hands in defeat. “But we can’t leave her alone just yet either, can we? Let’s see what we can do this morning, okay? See if we can persuade her to call her Pack or...I don’t know, get in touch with the local Pack and see if they can help? Then we can forget all about this and just enjoy our holiday.”

  “Fine,” she relented. “I get the shower first then.”

  I shrugged. It didn’t seem much to give up.

  ***

  An hour later, the three of us were making our way down Montmartre’s mazey streets looking for somewhere for breakfast. There were plenty of boulangeries and patisseries open, the smells of cinnamon, warm brie and baking bread making my mouth water. But Sun needed somewhere to sit down, so we were looking for a café or coffee shop.

  Eventually we found a small café tucked away down a side street where Sun and I devoured bacon and brie baguettes, while Shannon picked daintily at a croissant and sipped at thick hot chocolate.

  “So,” I said to Sun, sinking back in my seat after finishing off the last of my baguette. “What are you going to do now?”

  She blinked at me, her eyelids flashing lime green eye shadow. Glory would have loved to raid her makeup bag. “What can I do?” she asked. “I can’t go anywhere, the police told me not to leave the city. I can’t do anything to help Mike, not really, not without risking the cub. I only have enough money to cover me for another week and after that I’m screwed.” She bit her lip, trying to hold back the tears shining in her eyes. “Yesterday I knew exactly where my life was going, you know? Me and Mikey, we had a plan. And now...”

  “What was your plan?” Shannon asked, stirring her hot chocolate. “Were you travelling or something?”

  “Mike’s grandfather lives in Spain,” Sun explained. “We were gonna go there until the cub was born, you know, see how we liked it.”

  It didn’t sound like much of a plan to me. It sounded like something a couple of crazy teenagers would come up with. I had to shake my head at it. “Well, you can still go to Mike’s granddad, can’t you?”

  “I never met him.” Sun couldn’t hold the tears back anymore; she dabbed at her eyes with her napkin, careful not to smudge her makeup.

  Shannon signed. “But he’d welcome you, surely? You’re carrying—”

  I nudged Shannon, shaking my head. I had no idea what the deal was with Sun and her cub, but I was pretty sure she didn’t want to talk about it now anymore than she had yesterday. “What do you want to do?” I asked Sun. I felt mean, like I was bullying her, but she had to do something. It was obvious she couldn’t just drift around Paris by herself.

  “I... I guess I could get a job. I’ve done bar work before. I don’t really know...”

  “Sun.” Shannon leaned forward, her expression carefully schooled to patience. “Why won’t you call your family? Or Mike’s family, come to that?”

  Sun sighed deeply, picking at a few crumbs on her plate and avoiding both our gazes. “It’s complicated, okay?”

  “Probably not as complicated as you think,” Shannon argued. “Ayla and I know what it’s like for a werewolf to date a human. Nobody ever says it’s a bad thing, but you know people are judging you anyway.”

  Sun shook her head. “It’s not just that. Nobody knew Mikey and I were dating. I guess maybe it’s different in Europe. In the States, in my Pack, humans and werewolves do not date.”

  “I know—” Shannon started, but Sun cut her short.

  “No, I mean they do not date, as in it’s forbidden. The Pack doesn’t allow it. The alphas think it’s why our fertility rates are dropping, you know? Because of the mixing of blood?”

  I nodded. It was a theory that had been thrown around for years, but I’d never heard of any Pack outright banning wolves from seeing humans. Like Shannon said, maybe there’d be some silent disapproval, but rarely anything more than that. “So the cub...” I began, unsure how to phrase the question I’d wanted to ask all night.

  “We have this thing,” Sun explained. “It’s kinda like arranged marriages, you know? Our parents pair us up with other wolves they think would be suitable for us.” She rolled her eyes. “My mom and dad found me a nice Korean wolf from the next town. They figured that would be perfect. And, you know, Dae was nice and it was fine for a few months. My parents were like, over the moon. And then I met Mikey.” She closed her eyes, lips trembling as she smiled. “And it was like I’d met my soul mate, you know? He was so perfect for me, but we couldn’t be together, and there was the cub. So we just... We had to...” She buried her head in her heads, sobbing wretchedly.

  I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for her or slap some sense into her silly little head. She’d cheated on her mate, abandoned her Pack and left her unborn cub without a father or a Pack. Whether this Dae had been nice, miserable, or schizophrenic didn’t really matter. Surely the cub’s welfare should have come first?

  I gave myself a mental slap for that. I sounded liked my mother. The realization shocked me. I knew as well as anyone how restrictive Pack life could be; I couldn’t imagine how pissed off I’d be if my parents forced a mate on me. Really, how different was Sun’s situation from mine eight years ago?

  Shannon tried to persuade Sun to call home, but Sun was adamant it wouldn’t happen. I understood why, even if Shannon didn’t. . A pregnant wolf was a precious thing—Sun would be welcomed home and pampered until she gave birth. Nobody was going to hurt a mother-to-be, but once the cub was born, the shit would hit the fan, It wasn’t fair.

  Then again, a sensible, mother-like part of me whispered, Sun had nothing right, absolutely nothing. Surely the smart option was to go home until the cub was born, use the Pack and its resources to put her life back together, then get out once she was back on her feet?

  Actually, that wasn’t mother-like at all. My mother would never be so mercenary. A little uncomfortably with my own thoughts, I tuned back into Shannon and Sun’s argument.

  “I can’t fly now,” Sun said with a faint air of triumph when Shannon pushed it. “I’m too far along.”

  Shannon threw up her hands. “Then you need to figure out what you’re going to do, fast.” She shoved her chair back and stormed to the counter to pay our bill.

  Sun shrank into her seat a little. “I’m messing things up for you guys, aren’t I?”

  I started to say no, but didn’t bother. She’d know I was lying. Shannon and
I were supposed to be sorting out our own problems and this situation just threatened to give us more.

  “We’ll sort something out,” I said instead, a vague enough promise that I wasn’t really promising her anything.

  Shannon returned a few minutes later looking pleased with herself. “The waitress said there’s a community center—I think that’s what she meant—for wolves in La Rive Droite. Fancy a walk down the Seine again?” she asked me.

  I nodded, privately hoping we’d get to see parts of Paris besides the river at some point on the holiday. Sun looked glum, but didn’t protest, so we set off for the nearest Metro station.

  Four

  It was easier to find the community center than I’d thought. Rive Droite was heavily built-up, but elegant all the same, the buildings tall and colorful, aged and quirky. So the converted warehouse, painted with blue full moons and cartoonish wolves, stood out a mile away. The words Loup Garou were painted on the door in bright green paint and someone had tacked a sign underneath reading Enfants bienvenus de la lune! I knew lune meant moon and I was pretty sure enfants was children, so this had to be the place.

  “Looks closed,” Sun said doubtfully when I rapped on the door.

  There wasn’t any noise coming from inside the warehouse, but we lingered on the doorstep hopefully for a few minutes. “Maybe they’re not open until later?” I suggested.

  Just as we were about to leave, the door creaked open and an elfin-looking girl peeked out. “Oui?”

  “Um,” I said. “Parlez-vous Anglais?”

  “Yes, very well,” the girl said, sounding proud of herself. “Wolves, yes? Come in, please.” She held the door open for us.

  Inside the warehouse was decorated with the same wild graffiti that tagged the walls and doors: garish murals of wolves hunting, baying under moons, and Hollywood-like wolfmen walking on two legs, long-limbed and misshapen. Those pictures reminded me too much of Hesketh, the human police officer who’d used a wolf strap to turn himself into a monster. I looked away hurriedly, bile in my throat.

  There was a pool table at the far end of the long, narrow room and a bar next to that. From here it looked like it was stocked with soft drinks and sparkling water, not a sign of anything stronger. A small section of the warehouse was blocked off with screen walls and there was a bank of second-hand computers along one wall. A vending machine sat near the bar, along with a couple of old arcade games with zombies and aliens painted on the sides. The floor was strewn with threadbare blankets and rainbow-colored beanbags. It was bohemian, ragged and clearly all put together with more love than money. I liked it.

  “Welcome to Loup Garou,” the girl said shaking all our hands. She was a tiny thing, shorter than me, with cropped hair dyed electric blue and a faded Disturbed t-shirt. I liked her immediately too. “Je suis Clémence.”

  We introduced ourselves and Clémence led us over to a small lounge area in a corner of the warehouse, opposite the screened-off area. Two patched suede sofas stood at right angles to each other, with a widescreen TV between them. A coffee table held a bowl of fruit and a selection of magazines and newspapers. We settled down, Sun reaching for a plum from the fruit bowl. Clémence looked at us all expectantly and I realized I had no idea what to say to her now we were here. I looked at Shannon, who looked at Sun.

  “Sun, maybe you should explain...”

  Sun dropped her plum, looking stricken. “Me? I...”

  “Sun is a lone wolf,” I said, hoping that term made sense to Clémence. There might be some exotic phrase for it in Europe that I didn’t know. I wish I’d paid more attention in French classes at school. “Her Pack is...not around and she’s stuck in Paris, at least until her cub is born.”

  Clémence’s face crumpled in sympathy. “Ah, le pauvre bébé,” she crooned, reaching across to pat Sun on the knee. “And the father?”

  “Dead,” Sun said abruptly. I suppose it was easier than trying to explain. Clémence surprised Sun by hugging her and kissing her on both cheeks.

  “You are a poor baby too, no? Loup Garou will help. We are...” She paused, flicking her fingers as she searched for the right word. “…a support group.”

  Sun seemed surprised at the other girl’s easy acceptance and they fell into a broken conversation, half-French, half-English, about Loup Garou’s work. I listened with interest, picking up what I could. They were, as Clémence said, a support group; somewhere wolf kids could come and hang out, somewhere wolves struggling with family, work, friends, illness, whatever, could come for companionship, support and even counseling, judging from the pamphlets and posters on the walls. I guessed that was what the screened-off bit was for; an attempt at some privacy.

  Shannon nudged me, drawing my attention to one of the papers on the coffee table. It was today’s, but the headline was almost identical to yesterday’s. Le Monstre. The words leapt out at me, and I grabbed the paper before Sun could see it, scanning the article to pick out any words I recognized.

  “It’s not about last night,” Shannon whispered to me. “See?” She pointed to a sentence containing the word Saint-Michel, a district quite some way from Montmatre. “It’s probably too soon for the press to know about last night.”

  “So probably just speculation,” I mused. My gaze drifted to the murals once more, those upright wolf-men sending a shiver through me. I’d never seen anything that the word ‘monster’ described better than the transformed Hesketh. Wrapped in my dead cousin’s fur he’d become a twisted nightmare wolf-monster. If Hesketh had discovered the magic of a wolf strap, others might too. I closed my eyes, trying to remember what he’d smelled like. I’d always thought I’d never forget that scent, but now I struggled to recall it.

  “Ayla?” Shannon elbowed me and I opened my eye to see Sun and Clémence staring at me.

  “What?” They both looked so serious. It worried me.

  “We can help Sun with some things,” Clémence told me. “When Thérèse arrives, she will help more—she is training as a counselor. She can help Sun decide what to do once she has the baby, but we cannot help with a home.”

  “Well, you have a home already,” I pointed out. “The apartment...”

  “Rented,” Sun said. “Mikey... I... We hired it for a couple of weeks, all paid already, and I have enough money for food and stuff, but I’m not due for another six weeks at least.”

  I saw where this was going and grabbed Shannon’s hand for support. “Well...”

  “Sun needs a Pack,” Clémence said simply. “She cannot stay in France, but the immigration laws for wolves are different in England, yes?”

  I had no idea. I glanced at Shannon, who shrugged. “Different, not easier. Sun could stay in the UK for three months without a visa if her circumstances were deemed exceptional.”

  “They are!” Sun cried.

  “But after that, you’re back at square one,” Shannon finished.

  “Well, that’s okay, isn’t it? In three months, I’ll have given birth. I’ll know what to do once I’ve had the cub.” Sun dug her purple-painted nails into the sofa, face grim. “Three months is plenty of time, right?”

  “D’accord,” Clémence said, as if it was all arranged. “We can help with the fine details once Thérèse is here.”

  “Great,” Shannon said. “Sun, maybe you should stay here and chat with Clémence? Ayla and I will come back later.”

  I’d never heard Shannon so keen to get rid of someone. Usually she was all about tact and diplomacy, especially with people like Sun—fragile and in need of help. We left Sun and Clémence talking about grief counseling and as soon as the door of Loup Garou slammed shut behind us, I rounded on Shannon.

  “What’s wrong? Why are you so against Sun? She’s all alone, she just lost her boyfriend—she needs help!”

  “I know and it’s horrible,” Shannon conceded. “But for God’s sake, Ayla, this week is supposed to be about us! We’ve been here a day, and already you’re embroiled in Pack politics.”

  I
tried to suppress my growl and failed miserably. “Don’t,” I said. “Please don’t. This is nothing like Sly. She’s a stupid kid, she’s in way over her head, and she’s all alone. You can’t possibly think it’s okay to ignore that.”

  She turned away from me, staring up at Loup Garou. “I don’t think that. Of course I don’t,” she said softly. “I just wanted this week to be perfect. You and me in the most romantic city in the world. We should be having fun.”

  “We will.” I grabbed her arm, pulled her round to face me. She looked distraught and I couldn’t bear it. After all the strain and tears of the past several weeks, I couldn’t stand it if she started crying now. “We’ll start right now. Where shall we go? The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre…wherever you want. We can go back to Notre Dame, see the gargoyles.” I smiled tentatively and was relieved to see her smile back.