Chosen: Shifters of London

by Hanna Maria Jones

  Trade You.

  That was succinct. I covered my mouth, unsure if I was holding in laughter or a sob. Someone actually broke in, took my parents, and was offering them for me. It was hysterical and awful and I didn’t even resist when Lyall led me back outside.

  It wasn’t until I stood on my front porch that I took a deep breath and allowed myself to simply think again. “Are they still alive?”

  Lyall stepped beside me, scanning my face before nodding. “He’ll keep them alive for days.”

  I missed the deeper meaning behind his words entirely as I made my way down the steps. “Alright. He left the note for the Pack, clearly. Is there a way to contact them to make the trade?” I was nearly to the car when I noticed he wasn’t following.

  He was still at the top of the steps, cocking an eyebrow. “Your parents wouldn’t want that.”

  “But we’re not asking them. Besides, you’ll need all the werewolves you can for the Summit. I’m just in the way.”

  “And how useful do you think your parents will be, knowing he has both of their children?” He started down the steps, holding out one hand.

  I handed him the keys without a second thought. “I don’t think you should tell them about him just now.” I climbed into the passenger’s side.

  After Lyall started the car and put it into gear with ease, he shook his head. “There isn’t a chance that Septimus won’t reveal Andrew in the worst possible way. They know by now.”

  I worried at my lower lip as we drove. It felt like the return trip took much longer than the drive there. Twisting around in my seat, I looked for my book. I never did finish the ending. “Have you ever found anyone in time before? Before they...died?”

  His initial silence did not boost my confidence. When he finally spoke, his tone was careful. “They have hidden places, like we do. We’ll hit the ones we’ve kept our knowledge about secret. It’ll be fine.”

  If Septimus needed to bring the two together, I knew who would have to come to whom. “I hope so.”

  When we reached the house I made sure to look preoccupied as I walked up the path.

  Lyall even patted my shoulder comfortingly as he opened the door for me. “Why don't you go upstairs and rest? I’ll handle informing the others.”

  “Thanks.” I made sure to sound grateful, and stopped and patted my pockets. “Do you still have my keys?”

  “Rest first.” His eyebrow twitched upward, his smile fond and knowing all at once.

  Still playing along, I reminded myself. I simply nodded and went to go upstairs like a good girl. Admittedly, it delayed my plans somewhat. Though in hindsight, dashing out the second his back was turned would have been foolhardy. I had to plan for the right moment.

  Once upstairs I gathered my dirty laundry and, upon asking for directions, took it to the room adjoining the kitchen to wash. Closing my eyes, I listened to the gentle thumping of the washer and thought. I had one person who might help me navigate the house. While I wasn’t sure why I kept trusting him, I did trust in his love for his cousin. I had the same love for mine.

  Rose didn’t understand because whatever her kind had done to her family and her, it seemed to have broken her faith in anyone being true to her. Even without knowing the specific reason Pandorea left, I was sure it wasn’t to embarrass Rose. Thinking of Marius sent a cold shiver ran over my bare arms.

  I chose my darkest colors and bundled them aside as I folded my finished clothes, choosing to stay secluded even as voices wandered in and out of the kitchen.

  A certain someone spoke up within earshot and I went very still, clutching my clothes to my chest.

  “There hasn’t been any movement at the house on Launceston Place. Keeping an eye on it, though.”

  I’d know that growl anywhere. That and I didn’t know anyone else with that deep and raspy of a register.

  “I hope we found out early enough. Any time we lose now is precious,” Lyall said regretfully. “I want you to stay here for now. I’ve got plenty of other nose’s on the prowl.”

  “Understood. Where’s Gemma?” Kurt asked.

  “Upstairs.”

  “You sure?”

  I cursed Kurt silently in my mind.

  He continued dourly. “She has been known to leave on her own. That is precisely why we don’t tell the pups too much.”

  Nobody else infuriated me like him. I slammed the dryer door shut, straightening the clothes in my arms and marched out to the kitchen room. “I’m doing laundry, actually. Does that meet your approval?”

  Lyall looked amused, while Kurt was unrepentant.

  “Sneaky little bird, aren’t you?”

  I gave him my most withering look.

  “Do you have anything you’d like me to clean? Like your mouth?” I shot at him as I walked past them. Hearing an irritated rumble as I made my way upstairs was imminently satisfying.

  Chapter 15

  One point I hadn’t considered while biding my time was the friendly, gregarious mood of the house.

  Specifically Clover.

  “Aren’t you coming down for dinner?” she leaned in the door, giving me a mostly sympathetic look.

  “No, I’m not hungry.” I even sighed, forlornly making notes from my textbook. Normally this would earn me a quiet ‘of course’ and a closed door.

  Not Clover. She came in further and pranced forward to bounce her tiny self at the foot of my bed. “You didn’t eat lunch. If I can sit here for five minutes and your stomach doesn’t growl, I’ll leave you alone.” She grinned.

  I eyed her over the top of my textbook, trying to judge internally if I would win that bet. My body had other thoughts, because it decided for me.

  Clover held out her hand as if she just won money. “I knew it, you’re hungry. Girls like me and you, we need sustenance.”

  I glanced over her petite frame. “Well, you do anyway,” I teased, closing my book. I could admit defeat gracefully.

  She flitted around her half of the room as I combed my hair and delayed the inevitable. As I followed her downstairs, the smell of sizzling red meat filled the air. In a causation I couldn’t have noticed before, my parents loved steaks and roasts.

  “Do werewolves prefer beef?” I asked at exactly the wrong time, not realizing till I hit the bottom step how many people were in the kitchen.

  William was the first to run with it. “Clover does.” He grinned roguishly at her.

  “Willie does, but only when he’s pissed,” Clover returned, smirking.

  “I hear I used to.” Heath winked at me.

  I laughed along with them until I saw the new face in the kitchen; Simon. Simon, the plain named guy who was hanging around Rose and her psychotic friends. He was just sitting there chuckling at them, face turning away from me, but not quick enough.

  Heath came up and gave me a warm side-hug. “We’ll manage, duckie. Have you met Alec, by the way? Alec, this is my cousin.”

  Simon’s shoulders tensed, but he looked over his shoulder at me, expression changing to an easy smile that fit his friendly seeming face so well.

  Neither of us did anything more than stare for a moment.

  “Hi, sorry I haven’t met you before.” He sounded utterly natural, nothing amiss here people.

  “Of course you haven’t, he’s always working.” Heath was at complete ease.

  I wish I could say I immediately questioned his presence here in front of everyone, but that would be a lie. I only smiled, said hello, then looked anywhere else. Taking a seat at the mostly unoccupied table, I listened to them continue the meat joke until it reached ridiculous and wild proportions.

  I managed a smile when someone caught my eye, but otherwise I was mired in uncertainty. I could be wrong, and he could be...what? Lying to the other side? They seemed like a real trusting lot.

  “Heath, keys.” Kurt tossed the keys at my cousin as he entered the lively crowd. A few jokingly grabbed for them, but they ended up at their proper destination.

  Hea
th stuffed them in his back pocket, blowing Kurt a kiss. “Thanks. Next time I’ll join you in the backseat.”

  His response was a rude gesture, and everyone else joined in this new story.

  “For the sake of the Queen and Moon, do take it to the backseat next time. I’ve never looked at our couch the same way.”

  “Yes, think of those of us who haven’t had a shag recently, seeing you two rutting is enough to make anyone lonely.”

  “Or nauseous.”

  “Like any one of you slappers hasn’t had a shag lately.” Heath laughed.

  “Except,” Willie grinned, “maybe Alec. He’s always on the job or making the Change with his old friends. You have a girl back home?”

  Of course he hadn’t, Simon wouldn’t have a girl amongst one of our kind. We were dirty mongrels, after all.

  The liar in question shrugged sheepishly. “I wish I had time.”

  “He only has time for work and tossing it.” Willie made a crude motion with his hand, and the others dissolved in laughter.

  I did as well, but I ducked my head to hide my flushed cheeks. This is what I was missing without friends I could hang around, and all the other pressing concerns crowding my mind were quiet for the time being.

  Dinner was a slab of tender roast, roasted potatoes and parsnips. I didn’t see who did the prep work, just everyone checking the clock to see if it was almost time to take it all out of the oven.

  “Gemma, what are you studying at Uni?” Clover asked, chasing a vegetable around the plate with her fork.

  “Writer and Teacher. I want to run workshops and seminars, preferably with travel.” I waffled between what kind of classes I wanted to teach, I wasn’t so much into fiction writing as I was biographies and colorful nonfiction.

  “Maybe you could hold seminars on safety,” came Kurt’s dry suggestion.

  Reminding myself that I could ignore that, I shoved a piece of potato in my mouth, chewed, and stuck my tongue out at him.

  He made a face at the sight of partially masticated food. “Real mature.”

  I brought it all back in and smiled at him while swallowing. He started it, not me.

  “Is there any food left?” Finally Lyall was here, looking dusty and careworn, but here. He checked the stove, and grabbed himself a plate.

  From the corner of my eye I saw Simon looking at me again. He wasn’t anymore when I turned my head.

  “I better get back to work.” Simon stood up, glancing at me again. His voice wasn’t challenging or mocking.

  Doubt nagged in the back of my head. What if he came here to relax away from that pit of duplicity and awkward meals? What if Rose and friends were blackmailing him to hang around them for information?

  That all hinged on what kind of shifter he was. Couldn’t they just smell it on each other?

  If he was in trouble, then talking to Lyall would solve that as well. That was my decision. My fearful, cowardly decision. I ate the last of my food as best I could, forcing myself to get it down.

  The moment Lyall’s plate was empty and he started down the hall I followed him. I hadn’t quite planned on him stepping inside the bathroom. I waited as long as I could on the other side of the door, feeling like the worst sort of creep. I couldn’t hear anything, but still.

  “Lyall?” I whispered. “Lyall?”

  “...yes?”

  I raised my voice a bit, leaning closer to the wall. “I really need to talk to you.”

  “I’m gathering.” Then his tone gentled. “Did you want an update?”

  “Yes. No.“ I frowned. “It’s--it’s not about that, but yes, I do want to know what’s going on.”

  The door opened finally, and he seemed rather amused by my proximity to the door. “What’s going on, Gemma?”

  I fidgeted my weight from one side to another. “Huh, so, how...alright, no, I just saw, I wanted to…”

  “Has something happened?” he asked seriously, scanning my features.

  Scrutiny from adults always made me nervous. “I saw Alec with Rose and Marius.” I wasn’t sure if Tiberius was a hunter, but I was quite sure the blond man was. Just just had that ‘I kill with my bare hands’ vibe.

  “Were they hurting him?” Lyall asked, a touch of confusion wrinkling his forehead.

  “No,” I shook my head, “he was there when they came to the flat looking for Heath. They called him Simon.”

  “Did he look to be under duress?”

  “No.” His lack of panic did help me calm down. “Who is he? Is he a werewolf, or…?”

  Lyall leaned against the wall next to me, looking upward for a moment. “He came over from the Liverpool Pack because he found a good job in London. We even called the House to confirm he wasn’t fleeing any crime. They confirmed that someone was coming down, but we didn’t ask for a picture...” He closed his eyes in realization. “Poor Alec.”

  I was puzzled by that for several naive seconds. Oh. Poor bloke indeed. The other shifters were utterly awful, weren’t they? Now was the time to tell him about Andrew. But then he’d figure out what I was and monitor my whereabouts stringently.

  “Thank you, Gemma. I need to go and begin evacuating.”

  “Evacuating? Here?”

  “No, if he was going to pass on information about this location, he would have. I’m afraid that he’s discovered a lot about our other safe houses.”

  I bit my lip as he walked away, fishing out his mobile. That was going to take up the time of a lot of people. I felt guilty that I was going to take advantage of the uproar soon.

  I ducked back upstairs, checking for my bundle of dark clothes again. I just had to wait a little longer. It took forever. I occupied myself the best I could, reading over old essays and written work.

  When she finally trudged in, I knew Clover heard about Simon.

  Her tiny shoulders were slumped and she was watching the floor as she shuffled over to her bed to yank some pajamas out. She wasn’t angry, just dejected.

  I waited until she was redressed before I chanced a glance at her.

  “Communal bed tonight.” She announced certainly, and left the door open for me to follow.

  Of course they wanted comfort from each other. It was nice to be included, and I wish I could have stayed. I quickly closed the door and changed, grabbing my bundle of clothes. It was so quiet as I crossed the hall to the large room.

  Heath was holding Pandorea, stroking her hair. I hadn’t ever got a chance to talk with her, but I felt for her. Nothing like having the illusion of safety ripped away without warning.

  I dropped my bundle of clothes by the bed and crawled behind Clover. This time it took a long time for the breathing around me to deepen and even in the dark.Bathroom, that was my excuse if I woke anyone up. I inched my arm out from under Clover’s head, extending a leg so I could turn and land as quietly as possible.

  My clothes were right next to Heath’s, and I checked his pockets.

  Wrapping my fingers around the keys to muffle the sound, I placed the clothes around it for good measure and crept out.

  Nobody raised the alarm. I padded quietly downstairs to the kitchen, my new excuse was I had to get a drink of water in case someone was downstairs.

  I stopped at the sound of breathing from the sitting room. Too difficult to open and close the front door. Checking the bathroom down the hall from the kitchen, I breathed a sigh at the adjustable window.

  I pulled on my trousers and long sleeve shirt, placing the mobile in my shirt and the keys in pocket before climbing over the sill. Never had I used windows as exits this much in my life.

  Heath’s car wasn’t directly in front of the house, but several houses down. At this point if anyone was watching outside of the house, I was out of luck.

  However, nobody sprang out of the dark crying foul or runaway, so I unlocked his car and pulled out my phone.

  He wasn’t like the others. That’s what I kept reminding myself as I sent out a text saying ‘Your cousin is safe. Meet me at th
e big house.’ Without waiting for a response I began to drive back to the other place I had escaped so recently.

  ‘Now?’

  ‘Ten minutes.’ I practiced safe texting, I waited until I was at a red light. The last thing I needed was to be the one who wrecked his car after all the risks it survived.

  He hadn’t respond yet. I hoped he was getting ready to meet me. I don’t know why I trusted him, except simply that he wasn’t like them.

  I parked several blocks away from the house. It was a mild night, the air not too chilly. Tucking my phone away back under my shirt, I stuck my hands in my pocket and looked nonchalant walking in the shadows. In hindsight, I should have walked closer to the sideway.

  Not even a full block away from their humongous front lawn, a pale hand shot out from around the neighbor’s fence and yanked me around.

  My back hit the wood planks with a flat thud, a hand clamping firmly over my mouth. I tried to pull away, but he pushed me back again hard enough to knock the breath out of me.

  I stared, wide-eyed, at the sneering face of Tiberius.

  Chapter 16

  Screaming was useless, so I raised my hands to rake my nails down his face. It was only marginally successful, he had a much superior arm length to mine.

  “Were you expecting someone else?” he sneered after shaking me off him.

  That stopped me short, and I gave him wounded eyes.

  He made a sound of complete disgust. “Such faith. Quit squirming, we’re wasting time.” He lifted his hand away from my mouth.

  “Why--oh, wait!” The moment I begin to talk he turned on his heel and walked away. He had stupendously long legs as well, so I had to jog to catch up with him. “Why are you helping me?”

  That got him to stop and give me a look worthy of the word scorn. “I’m not doing this for you.”

  After that angry statement I just followed him, alternating between lagging behind and hurrying to close the gap.

  He took us around the edge of the lawns into the side garden until we reached a narrow door beneath the raised veranda. It was nearly pitch black as we entered the silent entry. “I need you to stay here until they bring them to the holding room.”