Moon 01 - Leopard Moon

by Jeanette Battista

  Kess knew what he was talking about. You couldn't live in Miami and not see some amazing houses on the waterway or ocean-side that fit that description. Those houses usually cost millions of dollars. Kess had lived in one. "How do your folks feel about it?"

  "I haven't talked about it much with them. I mean, they know. But it isn't something we've sat down and talked about. I think they worry--it's dangerous for weres out there alone. But I don't have to tell you that."

  Kess caught his eyes with her own. "Depends on how dangerous home is. Sometimes it's better to be on your own." She got up, pacing behind the couch. She found pacing soothed her when she had to think about unpleasant things. Movement helped her, and pacing was better than rocking in a corner and eating her hair.

  Cormac sat up to track her, the light from the kitchen throwing half his face in shadow. She looked down, tucking her hair behind her ears. When she didn't say anything, he asked, "How was it?"

  Kess shrugged. "I know it's going to sound weird, but it wasn't all bad. Managing the changes was the hardest part. I had to make sure I was close enough to somewhere I could go to hunt. It was hardest in the cities." And it hadn’t been food that had been the problem. Leopards could hunt and eat almost anything, from mid-sized mammals to insects, fish, rats and snakes—they were imminently adaptable. It was trying to stay hidden in an urban area that didn’t have a lot of cover or natural area. She didn’t want to wind up dead or in a cage.

  "Like Memphis?" He grinned up at her.

  "Yeah, like Memphis. There's not a lot to hunt in the Jungle Room." She took a smack at his head.

  Cormac grabbed her hand and pulled her over the back of the couch. "Much better," he announced once she lay sprawled on top of him.

  Kess pushed off his chest, torn between wanting to stay there, draped over him like a blanket and needing to keep her distance. Cormac made that hard, both by being so damned attractive to her and by his desire for close physical contact. She wondered if it was because he was a guy or because he was a wolf. The closest thing she could compare wolves to—that she had any experience with, Cormac excepting-- were dogs, and while that would probably be insulting, she knew that dogs liked companionship and physical touch. Cats seemed far more solitary and didn’t need the close contact. Even though her clan had lived in the same city, only she and her brother and her father had shared the sprawling estate that could have housed a family six times the size of theirs. Wereleopards enjoyed their space.

  But there was a part of her that enjoyed the closeness Cormac gave to her and that craved his touch. There were certain passions that weres seemed to have, that could only be met by another were. In a way, Kess understood Sek’s idea that weres should only mate with other weres, although she didn’t think it was important for breeding nor did she share his hang up about diluting the bloodlines. It made sense that you’d want to be with someone who could match you in every way, to not have to hide a part of yourself away.

  Rivaling that need though was her fear, both of herself and for herself. She was afraid of what could happen if she allowed her passions to drive her, to rule her; she’d seen it happen to those in her own clan. Some of them had become cruel and twisted, passion a dark and painful thing, while others had thoughts for nothing but their own pleasure to the exclusion of everything else. Then there was Sek. Because of him she was tied in knots; everything had been warped and twisted, and things that should have come naturally were now unnatural. She knew she was broken. She just didn’t know how to fix it.

  She realized she’d gone quiet. Cormac was looking at her, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Sorry," she said, sitting up so she could watch him. She crossed her legs Indian style.

  He sat up too, resting his back against the arm of the sofa, shifting his legs so his feet now crossed behind the small of her back. "You were far away there for a minute."

  Kess pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around them and rested her head on them. He asked, "Want to talk about it?"

  "Not particularly," came her muffled reply.

  "Okay," he said easily. She heard him maneuvering around on the couch so that when she looked up, he was face to face with her. "So I’ll talk."

  Kess listened as he told her about his life here; his classes, his friends who weren’t pack, Burke and Finn, the tensions between him and his father, Alaric, over leaving the mountains. He spoke of his mother, Emmeline, who was full were and of his brother and sister, who were not. He smiled a lot when he spoke of his baby sister, Lenore; he obviously doted on her. His husky baritone was the only noise in the room and Kess felt herself falling into a kind of trance where she saw the moonlit woods, trees limned in the light of the full moon, and through it streaked Cormac and his family, fur silvered and molten and so free and beautiful it made the heart stop.

  He said more names that she didn’t recognize and she assumed it was more of his cousins and uncles and aunts. They were a productive group, certainly. Some seemed to live in other areas—Colorado was mentioned, and Vermont—but all of them kept in touch. Kess sighed and tried not to feel envious.

  When he had stopped talking, they sat in a pleasant silence. Cormac had his arms around her and was tracing patterns on the back of her shirt absently when she asked, "So Bran’s one, right?"

  "Mmmm-mmmm," Cormac hummed. Kess felt him gathering up her hair. He laid it gently over her shoulder and then continued his patterns.

  Kess shivered with a wary delight. She was enjoying the mindless feeling of his fingers on her shirt, wanting more but worried about where it might lead. It reminded her a little of being out by the pool on a Florida summer day and having a masseuse tease tired muscles after a particularly grueling night in the swamps. She forced herself to continue with the thread of conversation.

  "That’s a surprise. The man is huge."

  "He carries the gene--he’s a cousin on my mother’s side. But he’s never changed. He never had any kids, but there's a slim chance they would have been were because he has that gene."

  She felt his breath as he lowered his head to hers. She heard him inhale and then breathe out, "You smell so great."

  Kess turned and found his eyes were like pools of mercury, alternately scorching and drowning her. This time she initiated the kiss and what started out soft and sweet didn’t stay that way for long. She pressed him back, her lips hungry for his. She noticed that he seemed to hesitate then returned the kiss with enthusiasm. She closed her eyes, giving herself up to sensation alone; no overthinking, no worrying, just touch and caress and the tropical heat of his mouth on hers. He was everything she’d ever wanted but wouldn’t allow herself—temptation fashioned in gorgeous flesh.

  Her mouth moved along the strong cords of his throat and she could feel the beat of his pulse beneath her lips. He made a growling sound as she nipped lightly at it, wanting but staying the impulse to bite harder, to rend and tear, and then his hands had tangled in her hair and he was saying, "My turn."

  She lost the capacity for conscious thought as he wrapped his arms around her and brought his lips to her throat. His mouth trailed hot kisses along her collarbone, his teeth grazing lightly across it in a way that made her shudder and close her eyes in pleasure. He moved forward, pushing her back against the cushions, his knee between hers, but he kept the weight of his body off of her. His hand skimmed up her leg, coming to rest on her hip and Kess remembered her brother: his hand on her hip as he tried to pull off her shorts, his mouth on hers, her narrow escape from her bedroom in Miami.

  "Stop it!" she yelled, slamming her palms into Cormac's chest, shoving him away from her. Then she was racing out the door and into the woods beyond.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Cormac sat on the couch, stunned for a half second, before bolting after Kess. He had no idea what had just happened, but he knew it couldn't be anything good. He tried to see where she had gone and saw her sweater lying on the ground near the edge of the woods, along with one of her shoes. He gathered them up, try
ing to figure out what he should do so he didn't spook her further when he heard the howls of several wolves rise up from the forest.

  "Shit," he muttered, putting her clothes on the hood of his Jeep. He shucked off his clothes quickly, shoving them on top of hers, before jogging to the edge of the wood and changing.

  He was off, following the signs of her passing. He howled to let the others know he was out here. He had no idea how they'd react to a black leopard in the woods—in their woods, for this was on the compound proper. An unknown werecreature showing up uninvited in their territory--on their property--would not be well received and Cormac knew it. And with Kess freaking out, he had no idea what she would do if she felt threatened. Or what the pack would do to her to protect themselves.

  He ran, a streak of silver-tipped fur beneath the dark canopy of evergreens. His huge front paws thudded into the frozen ground. He heard another howl, this one different from the first, a call to hunt. He recognized Burke's answering howl--he could always pick out his cousin's wolf voice, even if he had problems with some of the others. If Burke was out, that meant Finn was too. So at least two of them were running tonight. He heard a third howl, but this one was farther away and Cormac hoped it stayed that way. He hoped to find Kess well before the pack did.

  Another howl, this time closer and Cormac pushed himself to go faster. Burke's scent crossed over Kess' tracks so he knew his cousin had found her. Kess was fast, but he didn't know much about her endurance; wolves were used to covering a lot of ground in a day. Burke could follow her for hours unless she could give him the slip, which he doubted she’d be able to do—not in their own backyard. Burke was tenacious and if he thought the safety of the pack was threatened he wasn't likely to let that go.

  The sounds of snarling and a feline roaring came to him over the still night air from somewhere far ahead of him and to his left. He bounded off, big paws thudding into the barren ground, eating up the distance in a ground-devouring sprint. He didn't hear the sounds of fighting yet, which gave him hope that he could make it in time to prevent anything stupid from happening.

  He found Burke and Finn snapping at a dark shape that was backed against a tree. The leopard batted at the two wolves who bristled and snarled back, angling for an opening to take the beast down. He heard the low rumble of Kess' growl. He barked at the other two, trying to get their attention. The slight distraction allowed Kess to climb up the tree and crouch in the low braches. Finn howled and kept scrabbling at the trunk, doing nothing but tearing off bark in long strips, but Burke finally turned his head in Cormac's direction. He loped over, and followed Cormac a few feet away, but kept his eyes on his brother and the tree.

  Cormac changed, the cold night air chilling him. "Burke. We need to talk." Burke-wolf whined, looking back again at his brother. "Trust me."

  Burke changed, but the look on his face told Cormac that he needed to talk fast. "What the hell, man? There's some kind of big cat we ran across..."

  "It's Kess."

  Burke gaped at him. "What?!"

  "Kess is the cat. Wereleopard actually. She's scared and I need to get her down but I need you two to back off before somebody gets hurt."

  "How long have you known about this?" Burke's face went still, eyes narrowed. "You haven't told your dad." He shook his head. "You are in some serious shit, you know that?"

  Cormac nodded in agreement. He needed a way to make Burke understand. Things were so clear to his cousin—you did what you were supposed to do. Burke was probably going to be the next Beta after Griff. Burke's eyes were accusatory.

  "I know I am. And I'll tell my dad tomorrow, I swear," Cormac said, glancing at Finn who was just prowling the base of the tree now. "I'm sorry, man. Just let me get her down."

  "Finn!" Burke beckoned his brother to him as Cormac walked over to stand beneath the tree.

  Cormac stared up, barely making out the dark outline of the wereleopard. "Kess, you can come down now. It's okay." He saw the glint of her green-gold eyes, then he heard a rustling as she began to move. He backed up, giving her plenty of space. He checked on Burke and Finn, both back in human form. Finn looked like he'd been struck on the back of the head with a board, so Burke must have filled him in.

  The leopard climbed down the tree head-first, then leaped lightly to the ground. She came to stand at Cormac's right, not quite within touching distance. Her ears were laid back, but she didn't snarl or growl, content to watch and wait.

  "Holy crap," Finn breathed, eyes huge.

  "I'm going to take her home," Cormac said, looking at his cousins in turn. "You don't need to worry about her tonight."

  "Tell your dad," Burke warned. "Or I will." He grabbed his brother and led them back into the woods.

  "Come on, Kess. Let's go." Cormac changed back into a wolf and led the way back to his cabin.

  At the Jeep he changed back, pulling on his frigid clothes. Kess disappeared behind the vehicle, and groped for her sweater and jeans after her own change. They walked in silence back to the house, both barefoot. Cormac lit a fire in the fireplace before heading to the hall closet to snag a blanket for Kess.

  She looked miserable. She was still stunning, but sadness enveloped her, making her seem small. Her eyes were red and swollen and she hadn't stopped shaking. He was worried about her, but worse, he was worried about them. He would have to talk to his father—to tell him what Kess was. And now that Burke and Finn knew, it would have to be soon—tomorrow. He wasn't sure if he was ready. Or if she was.

  He draped the blanket over her shoulders and put a kettle on the stove. She was clutching the blanket like it was a lifeline, but otherwise hadn't moved. She didn't look up when he sat at the other end of the couch from her. He was still trying to figure out where to begin when she spoke.

  "Thank you. I'm sorry I got you into trouble."

  He rubbed the back of his neck. "Can you tell me what happened? I mean, did I do something..."

  "No, no, it wasn't you," she whispered. In a small voice, she said, "You are wonderful." Cormac couldn't help but smile at this stroke to his male pride. He saw the muscles in her jaw jump as she gritted her teeth and he wondered exactly what was going on in her head. A tear leaked out of her eye and she dashed it away angrily. Finally she spoke again, as if she had come to some kind of decision. "It's my brother, Sekhmet.

  "My brother, he has these ideas. About purity of the line and a lot of old Egyptian stuff. He wants the clan to breed true. He used to talk about it all the time when we were together in Miami." She shuddered and Cormac stiffened. He had a bad feeling about where this was headed. Were/were pairings were more likely to produce a were offspring, although it wasn't guaranteed. It was like a recessive gene--you could try and stack the deck in your favor by only mating with a known werecreature, especially if they descended from a full were-pairing themselves. "He was a little too interested in me, I think, because of it. I tried to talk to my dad about that, but Sek was somehow always there. I didn't get to see much of my dad without Sek."

  Cormac listened to the story of Kess and her brother, of what happened that set her off running in the first place. She didn't go into detail, didn't seem ready to do that, and Cormac was grateful that she didn't because he wasn't quite sure if he was going to be able to sit still very much longer. To take a trust like that and twist it, it was unfathomable to him. He thought of his younger sister and couldn't understand how Sekhmet could do that to Kess.

  "He's unbalanced, I think," Kess finished. Cormac had to bite his tongue from saying what he thought Sek was. She didn't need his anger. "I've done some research about his behavior patterns, some of the changes that he went through. I think there’s something mentally wrong, maybe bipolar, maybe something else. Then he’s got all these ideas about ways the clan should be and I just don’t know what's wrong with him. But his obsession is not normal, even for us." She shivered and he got up to bring her a cup of tea.

  She accepted it with murmured thanks. He sat back down. "And you neve
r told your dad what he did?"

  Kess took a sip, then shook her head. "I was afraid of what would happen. The clan isn't in the best of shape, and this would probably only make things worse. I didn't want to be the cause of it." She looked down. "And I was afraid. Of what he'd think of me."

  Cormac looked at her, trying to read what was going on inside her head. He thought that she was in earnest when she said she didn't want to cause any more upheaval in the clan. But the idea that she was worried that her father might blame her for what happened, or take Sek's side against her, or worse, not believe her at all, was far worse than any thought of clan upheaval to him. He didn't know what to say that. He put his arm around her.

  She finally looked at him. "I shouldn't have brought you into my mess. Now you're in trouble with the whole pack."

  "Last I checked, it was me chasing you," he said, trying to lighten the mood. He'd known what he was doing when he decided to keep the information about her to himself. He didn't regret it.

  "Bet you wish you never caught me."

  "Not even a little bit." He smiled at her startled expression. He put his hands on her shoulders, rubbing them through the blanket. "I'm not going anywhere."

  He got up, taking her hand, leading her back to his bedroom. She hung back when she realized where they were going. He gestured for her to go in, but didn't follow her. "Get some rest in here, okay. I'm fine on the couch. If you want to change, there's t-shirts in the top drawer."

  He was turning to leave when her light touch on his arm stopped him. "Cormac," she said, lifting her eyes to meet his, "I had a really good time tonight. You know, before...," and she leaned up and lightly kissed him on the mouth.

  He brushed the back of his hand across her cheek. "Me too," he answered, a soft smile playing around his lips. "Good night, Kess."

  The door closed softly behind him. He went out to the living room, grabbing another blanket and pillow as he went. Stripping down to his underwear, he lay staring at the fire for a long time as it jumped and flickered. He had no idea what he was going to say to his father.