by Lucy Kelly
“You didn’t show me this part of the house yesterday,” said Mara from beside her.
“I didn’t have anything to move in down here. It was already set up by my builder and my decorator. They knew about my sun sensitivity. I told them I’d be moving my corporate offices here. I had them both sign confidentiality agreements because I like my privacy and didn’t want to have architectural digest showing up at my door.”
“Did you think that would be an issue?” Marshall asked.
“Better safe than sorry, I’m not too worried though,” she said.
“Why not,” Mara wanted to know.
“Because I’m pretty sure the builder was a shifter and I know the decorator is either a Brownie or a Kobold. She may still be here; I gave her the option of staying when she asked but I haven’t seen her,” she said with a smug smile, causing Mara to laugh. “And furthermore, I know you would have gotten your people on the construction teams. You probably know the way better than me.”
Before anyone could answer either way, the elevator doors opened. Rolling out she led the way down the hallway to a set of double doors on the left. Marshall did the honors opening both doors. They stood at the end of a large conference room. The table in front of them was long enough to seat twenty comfortably. It was shaped rather like an eye, the ends came to points with chairs only on either side. The wall on the left had a long credenza, in dark wood, about three feet high, that ran the length of the room. Above the cabinet, on the wall were a series of dark wall screens. Mara decided the way they were set up, an image could be stretched across all the screens or individual images could be shown. The opposite wall, on the right, had a long window. Whatever was on the other side of the glass wasn’t lit so the glass reflected the room in its dark surface. The wall opposite the doors held another large screen in the center and electronic white boards on either side.
“I haven’t had time to stock any refreshments down here. Why don’t you all get comfortable and I’ll bring some things from upstairs,” she said.
“Laura, I have no idea why you would have built all this. I’m just really glad it’s here,” said Marshall, bending down to brush a kiss over her forehead. He was already feeling protective and brotherly. His affection was a strong signal to the other alphas present. She couldn’t help the blush that stained her cheeks. Mara came to her rescue.
“Come on, I’ll help,” she said. The two of them left the room while the others got settled in around the table.
“What’s up? Or can’t you tell me?” asked Laura as they got back on the elevator.
“I’m not sure. I was called for the meeting the same as the others. Marshall must have something he wants to say. In that room—you have all of the Alphas in the surrounding area,” she explained.
“I thought Marshall was the Alpha?”
“He’s the Alpha over all shifters in this region. But each pack, clan, or pride has its own Alpha or leader. Not all groups use the term Alpha. Together they form the shifter council for this region. They are responsible for seeing that all of our laws are followed.”
“It’s like the shifter government?” Laura asked and Mara nodded.
Laura found a rolling cart at the back of the pantry and they loaded a case of bottled water. From a pantry cupboard they pulled out coffee, filter packets, mugs, spoons and sugar. They got a quart of half-and-half from the fridge and with the cart loaded they went back.
“One of the cupboards in the credenza should hold an industrial coffee maker. And the tall doors, next to the wall screen, hide a small kitchenette, just a sink and a fridge. We can get water for the coffee there. Remind me to make a shopping list to stock up on supplies,” said Laura. This time they went to the regular elevator as there was only the two of them plus the cart.
“Because the freight elevator is off the tram stop, Marshall can hold meetings there without a bunch of people going through your house. You planned this didn’t you,” said Mara.
“Yeah, I don’t know what kind of facilities you already have and I knew you’d need a secure location for review and planning,” said Laura.
Mara was continually astounded at the things Laura had thought of. It’s too bad she wasn’t the Alpha’s mate, she would be a strong leader. Most of the other Alphas who came today were already mated. Perhaps one of the few single men was her mate. If so, they should know pretty soon.
Chapter Ten
Reentering the conference room with Mara pushing the cart beside her, Laura turned to the left to speak with Marshall who was sitting at the end of the left side of the conference table. Mara followed, stopping at each chair along the way to pass out refreshments.
“Is this a private meeting?” Laura asked.
“Actually, I called the other Alphas here to review the data you spoke of last night,” he explained. “With your permission, I’d also like a few of them to scent you,” he added.
She nodded and pushed her chair into the room. Each of the three single alphas came over and Laura cooperated by tilting her head and pulling her long hair to the side. None of the three were her mate. After they went back to their own seats Laura wheeled into position, midway down the right side, where there was no chair. She had the window at her back. She pressed a latch under the surface of the table and a three-foot section dropped to a level easily accessible from her chair. Then she opened a small drawer that was seamlessly hidden in the edge of the table and pulled out a small remote. Pressing a button, the large wall screen lit up. The alphas turned in their seats to face the screen.
She put the remote to the side and reached back into the drawer for a small device. When she turned it on they could see that it generated a virtual keyboard in front of her hands. She quickly accessed the main frame and started pulling files up on the screen.
As she showed them more and more information, and they began to understand the depth of the knowledge she had accumulated on not only their enemies—but on shifters as well, many of the alphas grew nervous. Most important were some immediate plans the Shayatin had for the summer solstice. They would be able to stop them now.
“How do we know she hasn’t shared this information with the human government,” one of them said what many of them were thinking.
Before Marshall could speak, Laura spoke up for herself.
“I believe it’s foolish to think that no one in the government is aware that shifters exist. You just aren’t very good at keeping it secret. I was thirteen when I figured it out. For whatever reason, it’s not widely known and if I had to guess I’d say the knowledge is only known and believed to be true by few.”
Marshall looked down at the young human. She looked so young and he knew how vulnerable she was. If any of the Alphas in the room decided to kill her, he wouldn’t be able to get to her fast enough to prevent it.
“I can see you have only shown us a fraction of the data you’ve compiled over the years. It’s going to take time to assimilate it all,” he said. He was giving the others hints so when he made the decision to extend her life they would back him up.
“It would take you years to digest and assimilate all the data I have. There are offices on this level. The levels below this one hold barracks, a commercial kitchen, training facilities, additional offices, and smaller conference rooms. You are in a war, all the knowledge you need to fight this war is now housed here and can be accessed as needed. The exterior elevator means you can set up a command center here in safety. That’s why I had it built, for you,” she explained. She had not been able to discover if the shifters had any kind of central command of a sort like this. She knew there were local and national shifter councils. Theirs were the transmissions she’d most often intercepted. Based on her research, they needed a place like this. It was her big surprise and where she had spent the most money. She had made this grand gesture to prove her sincerity to them. “The top five floors, one above ground and four below, are mine, the rest can be put to whatever use you see fit. Now I’m going to go upstairs so you can
talk about me and decide my fate. I’m still moving in and have a lot to do,” she said. Once again she was full of bravado on the outside and nervous as hell on the inside.
She waited to see if any of them would stop her, when they didn’t, she shut down the computer and put away her tools. Moments later, she was wheeling her way out of the room. So much drama and it was barely nine o’clock in the morning!
Marc Hunter, Alpha of the local wolf pack, turned to Marshall after she had left the room and they all heard the doors to the elevator in the hallway open and close again. “Are you sure she is paralyzed?” he asked.
“Yes, Mara checked out her background yesterday. It’s unfortunate none of you scented her as your mate? That would have solved all our problems,” he said in a somewhat disgruntled voice.
Marc chuckled, “She is beautiful enough and her strength of spirit is a real turn on,” he said. “I can see why you’ve become so protective of her. I agree that she’s too valuable. I believe the fates have given her a shifter mate. Now we need to find him.”
“I also agree. She needs to be mated as quickly as possible. Ben, one of my cougars helped her yesterday and has already requested a permanent posting as her guard. He was really impressed with her knowledge and thinks he can learn a great deal from her,” said John Carpenter. He was the Alpha or in his case Rex of the Clowder. All of the smaller cat breeds belonged, lynx, bobcat, etcetera.
“Mara prepared scent packets. They went out this morning. With luck we’ll have more information by tomorrow,” Marshall explained about the laundry.
A few of the men made the obvious jokes about sniffing underwear and Marshall called an end to the meeting on that note.
*****
Upstairs, Mara had handed off all of the envelopes to a courier early that morning. Part of her hoped Laura would find a mate locally, though she suspected that wasn’t the case. Ben had already offered to mate with Laura if she didn’t find her true mate. Mara could see that Ben had developed a serious crush.
She heard the elevator in the hallway and walked out of the kitchen. The meeting must be over, but since it was the internal elevator it must be Laura. Mara knew Laura had questions, she hoped the two of them could sit down for some girl chat.
“Hey, Laura, ready for some lunch?” Mara asked.
“Yes, that would be great. Especially if some answers come with the meal,” she said.
“Yep, that’s what I’m here for.”
“Okay, I’m going to head to my room to clean up a little. I’ll be right back,” Laura said, wheeling her way down the hall.
Mara hated that she was still under suspicion, but she had her orders. So she followed Laura until she was sure Laura had entered her bedroom and then her bathroom. She remained within hearing distance until she heard Laura returning. Then she hurried back to the kitchen so Laura wouldn’t be aware how closely she was being monitored. The meal was actually being prepared by Lola, the Kobold. Laura hadn’t seen her earlier and would think Mara cooked the meal when she was actually lurking in the hallway the entire time.
When Laura wheeled into the kitchen, she saw Mara sitting at the table with a mini feast. There was tomato soup and a large pile of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.
“It was really nice of you to cook again. Especially since I told you I’d make lunch. How did you find out one of my cold weather favorites?” Laura asked, pulling her chair up to the table.
“I just looked at what you bought and then decided on one of my favorites. I guess that means we’ll be getting along okay.”
“Are you my jailer?” Laura wanted to know.
“I am keeping an eye on you. We’ve kept our secret for too long to just let you be. You could still be a plant of the Shayatin, even a member of The Society,” Mara explained apologetically. She didn’t believe Laura was a part of either of those groups. All of the castings of runes she’d done had shown her that Laura would bring great change, for the good.
Laura ate her soup and tried to get her thoughts together. She had a lot of questions. She wanted to put them into some semblance of order in her head. It was like this for her sometimes, her head would be so crowded with questions and ideas. This time though, she had to get them from a person instead of a computer.
Finishing her soup, she put her bowl aside and reached for a sandwich. It was time to start the inquisition.
“Okay, give me your version of shifter 101 and then I’ll ask questions,” said Laura.
“Nope, sorry I can’t do it that way. There’s just too much. So ask what’s on your mind and I’ll do my best to answer,” said Mara as she cleared the empty bowls from the table.
“First question, where do shifters come from?” she asked.
“Didn’t your parents have this conversation with you?” Mara said, raising an eyebrow.
Laura snickered, “Come on, you know what I mean.”
“Okay, I’ll be serious. There’s a mythology of where the first shifters came from. We can’t say for sure because we only have an oral history and it doesn’t go back more than a thousand years or so. We still don’t write down anything about ourselves as a species, it’s too dangerous.”
“So what’s the myth?”
“It starts out with three sisters from another realm. They came here already heavily pregnant with young. Each of them gave birth to several sons. The sisters were changelings and had the ability to take any form they desired. They passed on the ability to shift to their sons, each son choosing a different animal. Then as time passed and their sons aged they grew more and more wild, losing their humanity.
“The sisters were worried their sons weren’t strong enough to control the beast within. They needed the gentle touch of a woman to hold onto their humanity. So the sisters found human mates for their sons. It’s said that all shifters are descended from those sons and their mates.”
“What happened to the three sisters, the changelings?” Laura wanted to know. This was close to her dream and she was a little freaked out.
“Supposedly, they returned to their realm. Sorry, that’s the whole myth,” Mara said.
Laura took a few more bites of her sandwich as she tried to mesh what Mara had told her with the dream she’d had the night before.
“Next question…mates. How do you know when you’ve met your mate?”
“Our inner beast knows by the scent. Sometimes it takes our human half a little longer. Next question.”
“What about the whole biting thing. In the romances I’ve read the mated pair is always biting each other to lay claim,” Laura wanted to know.
“Ouch, totally false,” Mara laughed. “How easy it would be to know who was a shifter if that were true! Just look for the bite mark scars on their necks! I don’t know about you but I like to have more fashion choices than that would allow.”
Laura thought for a moment, some of these questions might sound stupid, but that’s how you got answers.
“What about the full moon and silver?” she asked next.
Mara couldn’t help smiling. It only proved that shifters over the years had done a good job of hiding their identities.
“Gravity doesn’t really affect shifters either way. So the moon doesn’t force a shift or anything like that. A lot of shifters go for a run when there’s a full moon because it’s easier to see where you’re going. Unless you’re a cat shifter it’s hard to see in the dark. As for silver, that’s harder to answer. I mean if we get shot, it doesn’t really matter what the bullet is made of, it’s still going to make a hole. We do seem to have an allergy to the element of silver though. We get every kind of reaction from a mild rash to anaphylactic shock and death. So I guess you could say silver is an issue.”
Laura gave Mara a chance to eat while she thought of her next question. Once again she was amazed at her appetite. She usually didn’t eat this much. When it came down to it, she didn’t have that many more questions.
“Okay, here’s a big one. Can a human be changed
into a shifter?” Laura asked.
“Short answer is no. Your DNA isn’t going to change just because you exchanged bodily fluids with someone. Longer answer, is that it does happen sometimes and we haven’t figured out why ourselves. Shifters have some magic in them, we are supernatural beings. It’s our inner magic handed down from the changelings, remember they came from another realm other than Earth; that helps us shift,” Mara said.
“So you do change your own DNA when you shift. How long does it take to shift from one form to another?”
“It depends on the shifter. A strong shifter, and by strong I mean magical and mental strength as well as physical strength, will shift faster than a weak shifter,” Mara explained. She hoped Laura got that, she couldn’t think of a better way to explain it.
“Last question…for now…what’s the truth about healing from wounds and longevity?”
“That’s two questions,” said Mara as she started to clear the dishes. Laura waved her to her seat and took the dishes from her hands.
“Part one on healing. It’s true that we can heal from almost any wound if we shift. Part of that is the rewriting of our DNA thing and part shifter magic I guess. We do have to be awake and aware to shift so if we get knocked out it is possible for us to bleed to death. Wounds are just as painful for shifters as they are for humans so we can go into shock. From a young age we’re taught to shift for any injury.” She could see that Laura had thought of another question but she wanted to answer these first.
“We do tend to be long lived. I believe that’s linked to our ability to shift. With our DNA resetting, our cells don’t degrade as quickly. I’m not a doctor or a scientist, I’m just happy it works. Average life expectancy is about two hundred years. At least it was, it seems to be growing longer as we become more civilized. There’s less fighting for position,” she clarified. “You had another question?”
“Yeah, how soon do you get your first shift?” Laura asked, turning on the dishwasher.
“That depends on the type of shifter and also on the strength of the shifter. But most don’t shift until after age six. There have been stories of babies shifting or younger children but I don’t know any personally. So, is that it?” Mara asked.
