Beauty and the Brute [Werescape III]

by Skhye Moncrief

Putrid entrails and pieces of animals littering the ground didn't cushion the impact of

  Trance's black hooves as they clopped and slid against slick curved edges of cobbles lining the dry flanking stream's bank.

  What happened to these animals? And just what are we doing here in this battle zone?

  * * * *

  Beauty hadn't asked about the decaying animal parts. She didn't have to the way her grip tightened around my waist. I'd explain later how the odor would mask our trail. Hide our passing that route. We'd threaded through the stream, forest, and up into the secluded valley where the Shifters who called themselves Brothers left their hobbled ponies out to graze on tufts of grass outside a ringed wall of upright logs. Now to speak with Dark Cloud. Speaking of clouds, the blue sky didn't hold a wisp of moisture. Just a hawk, spiraling, diving, seeking what we all required. Sustenance. And I'd take shelter along with a mouthful of food any day.

  Trance headed past two black and white ponies, toward the conical bases of teepees the palisade concealed.

  Beauty cleared her throat.

  Softly. Keeping the questions nagging her to herself. She was a mate to be proud of. “We're almost there. Let me do the talking.”

  “Okay,” she whispered and squeezed my waist again.

  She had to be tired of holding on.

  The village's gateway slowly appeared in the bend of the high fence with each of Trance's methodical steps. One warrior stepped through the opening in his fringed buckskin pants. He carried a traditional lance from what they'd explained to me on my previous visit. Eagle feathers hung from one side along the lance's length. The feathers matched those in the warrior's long graying hair. Not black hair. Not the color of a man carrying the genetic imprint of his people from before AEI. No, Dark Cloud had brown hair streaked with white. White a sign of his rank through age. And as the Shifters always said around me after my parents were murdered, Dark Cloud could rain on anyone's parade. Half-breed or not, Dark Cloud would

  permit us to stay if we requested shelter. Or he'd make us move on. He is law out here, essentially a clan head.

  Other Shifters stepped up, creating a line of fully-armed warriors behind Dark Cloud.

  A line that stretched out before the gateway and adjacent walls.

  “Are you certain it's okay?” Beauty whispered. “It doesn't feel right.”

  Why would she say such a thing? “We are safer here than anywhere else. Trust me.”

  “Alright.”

  But her tone didn't hide the tension I could feel through both her arms. Maybe her intuition warned of something I couldn't detect?

  “Welcome Warrior Who Wanders,” Dark Cloud called out to me. “Hawk came to me in a dream and warned of your arrival.”

  Warned? I pulled on Trance's reins until he stopped. “Warned? There are still many hours of daylight. Should we move on tonight?”

  Dark Cloud wagged his head. “No. It is a great honor to provide shelter for your child.”

  Beauty sucked in a deep breath. “Child? I'm no child,” she muttered.

  She really had no idea she was pregnant. I slid my gaze to the elder's bright brown eyes. “It is a great honor for my mate, my child, and I to accept your protection.”

  She sucked in a hiss.

  Foolish woman. I patted her slender hard wrist.

  “Come then, Warrior Who Wanders.” Dark Cloud turned sideways, causing the line of warriors to break, creating a wide gap leading into the gateway. “We will share stories and news while the evening meal is served.” His gaze locked onto Beauty. “And I will speak with this stranger who brings to us a new order.”

  Just what I needed. A mystery. With Beauty's premonition, I had enough to contend with aside from riddles cast by a Shifter clan head. I slid out of the saddle onto the hard ground and lifted my mate's large round eyes down to my side.

  Her attention focused upon Dark Cloud.

  Rather, the elder's last statement.

  “You are welcome here.” Dark Cloud nodded at her assessing stare.

  “Thank you,” she managed and leaned into my side, drawing my arm down around her lower back.

  “Nothing will harm you here, She Who Has Come to Save Us.”

  She shook her head and met my gaze. “I don't understand.”

  Rarely did anyone when it came to elders and their dreams. I pulled the slim curve of her lower back closer. “Let's eat now and speak of dreams later.”

  She gulped audibly.

  Dinner went well sitting around a dancing fire with only Dark Cloud after the gate was secured. Gray Jay quietly served from the wooden tray she carried while her mate studied us closely across the jigging flames.

  The woman's long tunic's fringe soundlessly tapped the tops of her tall buckskin boots where they stopped right beneath her knees. Gray Jay smiled, genuinely, handing a large flat round of bread to Beauty.

  Content with her duties. Had she prepared the mound of flatbread? Or collected the food in the wooden bowl beside the bread? Her pride in her work resonated in her smile. This village was an excellent place for women. Mates. Beauty.

  “Thank you,” Lorelei said.

  “You see, it was not but a month ago when my dream began.” The older warrior pointed a long twig at us. “Both of you rode toward the setting sun on a black beast.”

  Easy enough to claim given Trancer carried us into the village. I nodded respectfully nonetheless and took a soft round of bread. “So what of these dreams? You say Lorelei is in them?”

  Dark Cloud bit his flatbread and chewed as if the steady motion helped him access the memories.

  Getting a story out of a tribal elder always seemed to require the greatest patience. An entire winter here had made me one of them. A member of the clan who knew what to expect.

  What to groan internally about.

  He gracefully swallowed. “I saw the spaceships. They seemed to fly heavy as if loaded down with all those they've already taken. But still they remained in the sky. The extraterrestrials must have been waiting for one more.” His gaze settled upon Beauty. “For the one they named Lorelei.”

  Her heart set off on a bout of thrashing.

  Probably trying to beat its way through her ribcage to affect an escape. Poor, Beauty. I'd learned the hard way many winters ago that one couldn't run from a tribal elder.

  Dark Cloud's eyes flashed amber. “Do not fear a message from the subconscious. Dreams are gifts meant to help us if we are willing to listen.”

  The old warrior might speak with the cadence of a Native American but thought like a

  Guardian.

  “But my name means luring rock. Even if they did choose my name, why would the aliens name me luring rock? It's almost redundant. The Earth is a rock. I am not.”

  She'd do better to chew instead of speak. But I didn't need to note the point. She'd learn soon enough.

  Dark Cloud's salt-and-pepper eyebrows pinched into a long line. “Perhaps you know more than you think.” He nodded slowly, twice, staring at the fire. “If we look a little closer, delve into the similarities, we will see that the Earth is a rock.” He gnashed on another bite of bread.

  Leaving her brain to digest the truth. Once a Shifter trained in science and reasoning, always a Shifter. The man could just spit out what he knows.

  She shifted the positioning of her bent legs, moving one to the top over the other, where she sat cross-legged at my side.

  Fidgeting as if trying to hide the fact neither of us cared to ponder Dark Cloud's great mystery.

  The elder swallowed and waved his stick slowly toward the darkening night sky. “But a rock from which all life springs. As are women.” His gaze settled on her. “Mates. Perhaps this redundancy is not a redundancy at all. Merely a stated fact.”

  As his analogy. “So you say Lorelei lures the aliens here to the rock of Earth?”

  The man nodded once, almost indifferently, before chomping on another bite of bread.

  Silently. Ever so quietly. A person c
ould hear the pop of the fire. The almost inaudible breathing of a sleeping planet. Well, this bullshit was why I kept going the last time I

  wintered here. Too damned much Gods-be-damned pontification. Why couldn't he just spell things out? I met his assessing stare. “What do you know?”

  “It was all a dream, Warrior Who Wanders. Just like your life on the move had been. Surreal.

  Questionably productive.”

  If I uttered one word, this could go on for hours. My punishment for interrupting...

  Dark Cloud waved an upward turned palm as if lifting the fire's heat to the dark cold sky.

  “But now we face the present and the future. And the time has come for us to stand strong.

  To stand against the enemy. Because the enemy is coming.”

  The unyielding determination he wore for a mask wasn't about to generously toss me another morsel.

  Sit up. Beg. Roll over like a good dog. Were-dog. Wandering never looked more welcoming.

  But arguing the point would only make me look young and headstrong. My child needed me.

  Looks like the future was unavoidable. A future with or without Dark Cloud.

  “Tomorrow will bring more answers. Tonight, we rest. Sleep. Welcome the dream.”

  * * * *

  The hide tent flap fell into an immobile curtain hiding the whisper of Gray Jay's retreating footsteps.

  Beauty shoved close to me. “What was all that rambling about his dream?” she whispered.

  I pointed toward the central fire's circle of stones and guided her back with a palm to a hide spread for sitting beside the fire's golden light. “Say as little as possible,” I whispered. “Dark

  Cloud will be listening to see if we take his advice.” I winked at her less-than-amused pinched brow.

  Her hands anchored on her hips. “I am not some crazy person who forgot who named me.”

  “Sit.” I waved toward the hide at our feet. “I'll tell you what I think. Just speak softly.” Or we'd be in for another lecture when leaving our sleeping skins in the morning.

  “Let's just go to bed,” she said with a groan and scanned the shadows around the circular base of the teepee. “Where do we sleep?”

  Sleep was good. Or just a nice idea to let Wolf loose to play.

  “I see that look on your face, Brutus.”

  Well, I couldn't help but grin. I led her to the pile of sleeping skins.

  We began unlacing our boots.

  She sat on the hides, yanking at the brown laces of one of her hiking boots. “I can't believe you didn't tell me I was pregnant.”

  And now I get a big scowl. “Would it have made a difference if you knew? You had enough to worry about without knowing you carried a baby. So, I didn't say anything.”

  The almost-indifferent look Beauty focused on me had to reflect she contemplated throwing a boot at me. Instead, she thrust her bare feet under a hide.

  We couldn't mate with those pants on. “Pants,” I snapped.

  “No. Not until I hear what I need to hear.” She wriggled down onto her side.

  Curvy perfect side. Just where in the hell was Wolf? Maybe the Mating Fever was over now that his seed grew in her womb. But lying beside that tight little ass wasn't going to be any easier without Wolf breathing down my neck. I tossed my shirt onto my boots and shimmied down to pull that little bottom into my lap.

  Not so good.

  My cock hardened instantly.

  “Brutus!” She rolled to face me with a straight-lipped scowl. “I need to know why Dark Cloud said those things. My God. I'm pregnant! What about our future? Brutus, the aliens are coming!”

  Her heart began drumming.

  A plea for someone to help her understand. I ran a palm across her velvety soft cheek and brushed the tip of my thumb over her silken lips. “I don't know. Elders are considered wise here. Not just the toughest bastard gets to call the shots. These people respect wisdom as well as strength. He told us what he could. All he knew. And dreams have a funny way of warning us. He just wanted us to know something could happen.”

  She snuggled into my chest.

  Although I would have rather her soft skin touched mine. All I got was her bare palms.

  “I had that feeling again today,” she said.

  The confession about her need to rip off her shirt would have been nicer to hear. “The one that someone was watching us? Or following us?”

  She nodded and tucked the rounded firmness of her forehead beneath my chin. “It has to be about his dream. Something's wrong, Brutus. Really wrong. I'm scared.”

  Nobody's taking my mate. I raked my fingers into the warm silk of her hair and locked her even warmer and softer curves against my chest with both of my arms. “Don't think about it another second. Just go to sleep. No one is taking my mate.”

  * * * *

  The wind kicked up, bending the tall grass into stinging whips at my knees. Where are my clothes? Brutus had shown me the Plains cacti. Why am I standing naked on the prairie?

  A whirring sound hummed.

  The aliens.

  A chill gripped my bones.

  I turned, scanning the blue sky.

  The disk zipped toward where I stood on the top of a swelling mound of grass-covered Earth.

  Slowing. Unlike my pounding heart. I had to run. Had to hide. I tried to move. Tried to take one bloody step.

  My legs were frozen.

  Nude. So damned trapped. Locked in place. Incapable of saving myself.

  The sky darkened.

  Went absolutely black except for the ray of white light shining down from where the saucer edged toward my immobile feet. Bare feet. Feet that felt like they were part of the helpless

  Earth. Unable to run. Powerless in the way the universe ensnared a planet.

  The spacecraft's brilliant beam of light moved across the darkness as if intent on finding me.

  As if it knew my location. What I did. That I couldn't run.

  God, to move a foot. To save myself. To escape. To find my mate, my Brutus. My sweet sweet

  Brutus. How could I live without him?

  * * * *

  Wolf woke with a start, focusing through my eyes with a growl chugging inside my chest.

  Beauty jerked against my heart.

  Against Wolf beneath my ribcage with both palms pressing into his throbbing presence. Like she tried to shove away from me. In a dream. Not the insects again. I slid a palm to the jutting ridge of her shoulder blade and pressed my lips against the firm rim of her ear.

  “Lorelei.”

  Her body flinched. “Brutus,” she cried out weakly.

  A fraction of a moment passed before her hands slid beneath my arms and clung to my back.

  What bothered her? I kissed the warm velvet of her cheek. “The insects again?”

  “No,” she gasped and whimpered. “The aliens. Outside. Beyond the trees. They were coming for me.”

  No. She will not have nightmares about the extraterrestrials coming to capture her. I curled my fingers into her hair and cradled the curve of her head. “Speak no more of them.” I

  planted a kiss on her cheek, rubbing my flesh against her smooth skin. “No more bad dreams,

  Kitten.”

  “But the premonitions.” Her lips brushed my cheek.

  “No more.” I tilted her chin up to gaze into my eyes. “See Wolf in my eyes? He won't allow the aliens to take you.”

  She smacked her lips together thoughtfully. “I was nude, trapped in an ocean of whipping grass. Because of the cacti you warned me about. And the flying saucer was coming as if it knew where I stood.”

  Maybe the dream was merely a warning? Or her subconscious chomping for us to run. To fear the inevitable? “They can only know where we are once they find us. Any Shifter following your trail will dread the consequences of leading them to you and the Black Hills Shifters. Do not worry. We are safe here.” Or as safe as I could lead her to believe.

  “I love you, Brutus.” Her hot b
reath burned the skin of my neck where Wolf's pulse throbbed for existence. “Love you.” Her arms tightened around me. “Please be right. I need you to be right.”

  I did too. “Sleep.” I tucked my nose into the warmth of her neck and sucked in a deep breath filled with the aroma of her salty metallic blood and Wolf's scent.

  Mine, Wolf snarled.

  She burrowed deeper into Wolf's possessive gurgle as if she associated security with his beastly antics.

  Quiet, Wolf. But was she right? Did her dream equate to a premonition? Could I be wrong? Or did I just wish I were in control? Pretend to have some say in what unfolded around me? Fuck

  Yale and the aliens. And discussing her dream with Dark Cloud might shed some light on her psyche's warning. I'd catch him tomorrow. Without Beauty. The clan head's thunder would only disturb her more. Better avoid the crash and burn of a thunderstorm.

  * * * *

  Brutus had gone off to speak with Dark Cloud. Left me with the women. Lots of happy women. Who had taken me to Horseshoe Lake, a nice long stretch of blue water at the base of some Ponderosa-Pine-covered hills. Beautiful? Yes. But a niggling itch to run kept me wondering why Brutus thought it best I spend the afternoon with the Shifter encampment's mates. Smiling laughing women. Many had bulging bellies. All the children were back in the village though. Guarded by many mothers and older siblings as well as fathers. The two fathers who had brought us here were hidden up on the hill crests. Protecting us. So why did I

  feel so worried?

  “Come on, Lorelei,” Strawberry laughed, pulling my elbow toward the glimmering water. “We didn't come here to feed mosquitoes.” The redhead's ponytail dangled down to her waist.

  Well, if they thought I was stripping for the two guards to watch my naked butt, they were wrong. “Look, I didn't bring anything to swim in.”

  Strawberry shot me a grin. “Nobody's watching. There's a code between the warriors. They don't spy when the women swim. Come on.”

  The golden blonde Rita snatched a foothold before Strawberry. Her straight-lipped scowl reflected the age her blonde hair hadn't revealed by turning gray. “Leave her alone. She'll get used to us. When she does, she can swim.”

  The younger woman sighed and released my arm. “Alright.” She shot me a weak smile. “If you change your mind, join us.”