by Dean Murray
Mother noticed my stare and shrugged away my concern. "It's not as though we can avoid talking about him. I actually relish the withdrawal symptoms. It means that I've succeeded in staying away from him for longer than I thought possible at one point."
Of all the things I hated Kaleb for, addicting my mother to his touch was at the very top of the list. All shape shifters gave off an energy that provided a subtle high for the humans who came into contact with their skin, but the effect was magnified for the most powerful hybrids and Kaleb was one of the most powerful shape shifters currently living.
"Why do you let him re-addict you?"
She sighed and then looked towards the door that led to the kitchen where I could just hear Rachel pulling together a light snack for us.
"I wish I could give you an answer and feel like it was the full truth, but I'm not sure I really know. I keep telling myself that I stay because of you and Rachel, that I stay because of the innocents that are born into the pack every month, that I'm doing all of this because, although Kaleb has a terrible hold over me, I also have a different kind of hold over him. I'm doing good by being here. I wrangle concessions out of him that make life better for the weakest members of the pack, but there is a tiny part of me that whispers late at night that I don't leave because I don't want to, because his hold over me is stronger even than I want to admit."
It was a rare moment of vulnerability for my mother and I didn't know how to respond, but she shook off the brooding air that had come over her while she'd been talking and smiled at me as Rachel walked back into the room.
"Sorry, Alec. I'm afraid that we're fresh out of baby elephants in there, but I did round up some cheese and crackers."
"Thanks, Rach. That sounds perfect."
Rachel set the large silver tray down on the low table that our chairs were arranged around and then frowned.
"You guys have paused like you were having a conversation that I'm not allowed to participate in."
I saw a flash of alarm in Mother's eyes, but lying to Rachel was a simple matter compared to dealing with other shape shifters.
"It wasn't anything big, Rach. I was just telling Mom about my latest run-in with Dad."
There was an innocence to Rachel that usually made me refer to Kaleb as our father in her presence. At fifteen she was more than old enough to understand all of the ways in which he didn't deserve the familial title, but she still held out some kind of childlike hope that we'd find some kind of justification for the worst of what he did and that would in turn allow us to be one big happy family again.
"How did things go?"
I shrugged, unwilling to disillusion her further. "About like normal. He told me that I'm not measuring up and threatened to punish me if I can't get my act together."
Rachel frowned, but Mother had pulled herself together enough to defuse the situation. "Rachel, dear, why don't you go to my bedroom and grab the bags from our last trip down to Vegas. I've been thinking about that black cashmere sweater we bought. I think we should give it to Jasmin, but let's see what Alec thinks before we actually wrap it up."
Rachel rolled her eyes at us. "I know that you're just trying to lose me so that you can go back to talking about stuff you don't want me to know, but I'll go as long as you agree to take me shopping again next week."
Mother smiled. "I should know better by now than to try to pull the wool over your eyes, my darling. It's a deal. Will Las Vegas suit or do you want to range further afield than that?"
Rachel shrugged. "I'll think about that and get back to you tomorrow." A second later she'd disappeared into the hall that led towards Mother's bedroom.
"I'm glad that your conversation with your father went okay, Alec. How did you feel about his offer to set you up as a pack leader?"
"It was tempting, but the more I think about it the more I realize that you can't be set up as a pack leader. It's the kind of thing that you have to earn yourself or you'll always be looking to whoever installed you as alpha in the first place to secure your position."
Mother's smile and nod was like a ray of sunshine. "I think you're absolutely right there, and I think that you would find that the arrangement your father has in mind is less about you helping put the brakes on Brandon and more about you and Brandon occupying each other so that he can remain in ultimate control with the minimum amount of effort possible."
I picked some crackers up off of the tray and nodded as I chewed. She watched me for several seconds before frowning.
"There is something else bothering you."
"Yeah, I guess there is. Kaleb said that he is working for a greater good again. What if Rachel is right, what if there is just some kind of misunderstanding that's making us view his actions in the worst possible light?"
"I…well, I think that it reflects well upon you and Rachel that you both want to believe the best of your father. I'm not going to tell you that he's completely evil, but you've had enough interaction with him to know at least some of the things that he's capable of. The only caution I can give you is that in the more than twenty years that I've known him I've found myself wanting to trust him again and again, but each time that happened he used my trust to further some goal of his own at my expense. Be careful, Alec."
I swallowed past a lump in my throat. "You're right. He as much as said that I should have let Vincent kill Jasmin today rather than putting myself at risk like that."
I could hear Rachel making her way back to us, so I let the subject drop. Rachel reappeared a few seconds later with the black sweater that Mother had sent her for, and a black, long-sleeved t-shirt for me which I slipped over my head with relief.
I wasn't anywhere near as powerful as Kaleb, but there were times when I was pretty sure it was all that Mother could do to stop herself from brushing up against my skin regardless. Now that my arm was safe to touch, Mother reached over and patted it.
"Alec, there's something else bothering you still. What is it?"
Rachel frowned. "Does this mean I have to leave again?"
I shook my head. I hadn't realized it until it had been pointed out to me, but my mother was right. There was something else bothering me.
"No, Rach, you can stay. It's not any kind of big deal, I just had that dream again."
"The one with the blonde girl?"
"Yeah, the one with the blonde girl."
"Did the two of you talk this time? If you're having the same dream, of the same person, this frequently then it's significant."
I snorted. "It's just a dream, Mother. My power hasn't activated yet, so there's nothing significant there. I didn't talk to her in the dream because she's not a real person."
"Alec, you live in a world that most people would tell you was impossible, a world where people shift into wolves and hybrids and go off to do battle against werewolves. Just because you can't explain it doesn't mean it's not important or any less real for having occurred entirely inside of your own mind. What do you remember? Was there anything new at all this time?"
"I don't think so. It was pretty much the same as always. I watched her from a distance and then she disappeared. The only thing odd about it is how she made me feel. It was like I was supposed to be with her, like she was important, but in a way that I knew I wouldn't remember when I woke up."
"Did she feel familiar?"
"I think so. She felt like someone I'd known for years. It was like she was an anchor I could latch onto and feel really safe for the first time since I was a kid."
Mother patted my arm again. "I think that these dreams are significant, but I don't know how exactly. For now I think you should write down everything you remember of them when you wake up and keep an eye out for the girl in case you run into her in real life. You never know…"
Whatever else she'd been about to say was cut off by a knock on her door. Donovan, our butler, stepped inside the room a half second later.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, my lady, but I'm afraid that I must announce a visitor. Y
our husband is on his way."
The tremor was back in Mother's hands as she picked up a large bottle of perfume and sprayed it into the air, but she kept her composure admirably. "Thank you, Donovan."
I was already standing by the time that Mother turned back to Rachel and me.
"The two of you should leave now. You can take the garden exit."
I helped a greatly subdued Rachel to her feet and then followed her out of the solarium. We threaded our way towards the west garden door, but some impulse made me stop short of the exit.
"Go ahead, Rachel. I'll be along in a couple of minutes."
"Alec…"
"It's fine, Kaleb probably hasn't arrived yet and I need to tell Mother one last thing."
Rachel didn't have the advantages of one of the moonborn, the shape shifters, but she seemed to know that I was lying regardless. She shot me an unhappy look and then opened the garden door and disappeared behind one of the tall hedges that were liberally sprinkled throughout the garden.
I crept back towards the solarium, stopping with enough doors between Mother and I that I could just barely make out her heartbeat. With the fountain positioned as it was in the middle of the solarium it would tend to push the sounds of her and Kaleb's voices towards me at the same time that it muffled and prevented the sound of my heartbeat from making it to Kaleb. I'd noticed months ago that everyone in the pack seemed to assume that once a white noise generator was activated they were safe from being overheard, but it actually mattered quite a bit where the noise generator was positioned.
I didn't have to wait very long before Kaleb arrived.
"I was right, you did have visitors. You never spray that damn perfume unless you've had someone here within a few hours of my visit."
Kaleb took a deep breath. "Alec and Rachel. I suppose that shouldn't come as any surprise. Rachel hardly leaves your side and Alec usually comes running to you after every time we meet."
"You're guessing, just like always. You know that I've sprinkled scents from nearly all of the pack into that perfume mixture. I don't know why you bother trying to ascertain who I'm entertaining, you know I won't confirm or deny any of the names that you throw out there."
"I guess, as you call it, because I want you to know how ineffective your little efforts at subterfuge really are."
"No, you guess because you want to see my reaction each time. You continue to hope that I'll give something away on one of your visits. You know I won't do anything of the kind."
"You're a magnificent woman, Samantha. Few humans are so adept at concealing their thoughts and feelings from the moonborn, but your control over yourself isn't perfect. You let things slip still, not as much as I might like, but much, much more than you realize."
"What do you want, Kaleb?"
"I've honored your wishes. I allowed Donovan to announce me well in advance of my arrival, I gave you time to send our children scurrying to safety, and I entered through the designated door, leaving all of your other bolt-holes unwatched. I've complied with all of your little rules and in return I'd like to spend some quality time together with my wife."
"I have some demands that will need to be met before that can take place."
"Of course you do. Not surprisingly I have a few demands of my own. Shall we let the games begin?"
The tremble from before had made it into my mother's voice now.
"You're a complete monster, Kaleb."
"Of course I am. Just be glad that I've never decided to put your willpower to the test, my love. I've considered doing so a thousand times, but I have a feeling that in the end you'd break and if that were to happen, then you'd be so much less fun than you are now."
"You greatly overestimate your charms, Kaleb. You're welcome to try to break me any time. My willpower is equal to anything you can bring yourself to visit on me. The mere fact that you've waited so long to try is plenty of evidence to the fact that you know you'd fail, that you'd finally free me of the last hold you have over me. You just can't bring yourself to destroy one of the few remaining spots of decency in your life."
"That's an interesting theory, my dear, but the truth is that I'm simply reluctant to risk permanently damaging you. I rather suspect that I would have to look far and wide in order to find another woman able to fight the skin addiction, the Ja'tell bond so well. I've taken other lovers over the years and I can honestly say that once they are addicted most of the sport is gone. You on the other hand provide me an unending source of fun."
It sounded like she threw something at him, but he must have caught it because he was laughing as he set it down.
"It's been quite a while since you've gotten that riled up so quickly. The withdrawal effects must be especially bad this time around. You know, the mere fact that you've stayed around for so many years is the best evidence of all that you can't bring yourself to let go of your shameful little addiction. You'd have left years ago if you'd had the willpower required to truly kick the habit."
"No, Kaleb, it isn't your touch that keeps me here, it's the thought of what you'd do to the few remaining decent people in this pack if I weren't here to negotiate concessions from you. If I thought that I could take them all with me and disappear to someplace where you'd never find me, I'd do so in a heartbeat."
"There's your first mistake. There is no place where you could go that I couldn't find you."
I turned and crept back towards the garden door. I'd heard enough. If I'd had any doubts about the fact that my father, that Kaleb, presented a different face to Rachel than he did to my mother or others, they were settled.
I no longer had any questions where Kaleb was concerned. If only it was as easy to solve the riddle of my recurring dream. I had a lot of other things that I knew should be more important, but the question that kept surfacing inside my mind was who was she?
Chapter 4
Alec Graves
Lambert – St. Louis International Airport
St. Louis, Missouri
I actually hadn't flown much considering that our family owned two private jets. A lot of the pack liked to claim that it was the tithe from the pack that supported some of the more extravagant trappings of wealth that Kaleb indulged in, but I had it on good authority from Donovan that the tithe was an almost insignificant percentage of the income that my father had him managing.
Our family had been in positions of power for centuries and they'd been gifted with a large number of able financial managers during that time. The actual origins of the family's wealth had been lost in the mists of time, but I suspected that it had a lot to do with the tithe, in some form or another, which had been paid by early members of the pack and the monarchy to my ancient ancestors.
My father claimed to be working towards some greater good, but I suspected that more than anything else he just wanted to see himself restored as the ultimate power over our people. A lot of the expenditures that Kaleb made were absolutely done to maintain the kind of opulence that went with ultimate power. I didn't agree with that on a number of levels, but the planes had actually been a good purchase, one which I supported entirely—not that my approval meant anything.
Neither of the planes were the kind of hangar queens that only rarely made it up into the air. Both planes were worked and worked hard. Other than the occasional shopping trip for Mom and Rachel, nearly all of the rest of the usage came down to operations like the one that we were currently on.
Kaleb had apparently been serious when he'd said that he was going to start sending my friends and me into the field. He'd called us all into his office yesterday and told us that we were being deployed to St. Louis today.
Jasmin had actually been excited at the prospect of getting out of the manor house and seeing some action. Jess had been doing her best to hide just how scared she was, while James was obviously worried about his mother. Addison had long been one of my mother's most staunch supporters inside of the pack.
Back when my parents had first gotten married Addison's
support, contrasted against the grudging acceptance nearly everyone else had displayed, had garnered no small amount of favor with Kaleb. As the years had gone by and Mother had become further and further estranged from Kaleb, Addison had become more and more tormented by the rest of the pack.
Mother had done her best to protect Addison, and Kaleb had agreed to forbid the rest of the pack from challenging Addison to any kind of dominance fight, but that hadn't stopped some of his people from tormenting her in a thousand smaller ways.
James had been a fierce protector of his mother for as long as I could remember. Back even before he'd manifested the ability to change to a wolf, he'd still gotten in the face of anyone who harassed his mother when he was around. It had earned him far more than his fair share of beatings over the years, but things had just escalated once he could shift. A wolf was almost never a match for a hybrid, so his aggressive defense of his mother had meant that he had taken a lot more damage from the few hybrids who'd still had it out for his mother after so many years.
Jasmin and I had both been worried that James would end up dead before he hit sixteen, but his relentless refusal to back down where his mother was concerned, combined with his complete disinterest in fighting for almost any other cause, had earned him a kind of grudging acceptance from the hybrids that he tangled with.
They all knew that they could wipe the floor with him at any time, but after a while they'd stopped doing the things that caused him to get in their faces. That would have been a tremendous win for a young wolf, but he also tore into any and every wolf he even suspected was tormenting his mother.
He was too young and inexperienced to win very many of even those fights, but they were always much closer affairs and his opponents quickly realized that it was a lot easier to just avoid a fight with James than it was to continue to tangle with him and risk getting beaten and losing their current position inside of the pack dominance hierarchy.
It was an admirable display of James' loyalty to his mother, and it was when I'd first realized that dominance inside of the pack wasn't just about who could beat who in a fight, it was also about who was the most passionate about what they were fighting for.
