All We See & Seem (Timber Wolves)

by Blackwell, Tammy

  A chorus of laughter moving towards them made up her mind for her. “Come inside and close the door. Try anything, and we’ll see which is faster, a Shifter or a speeding bullet.”

  “What the Hades are you doing?” The voice in her head sounded like Scout. “You don’t point guns at people and order them around. Shouldn’t you be apologizing or crying right about now?”

  A few months ago, she would have. She clearly remembered the first time Charlie placed a gun in her hand. Her stomach had rolled, and she thought she might puke. But that was before. That was when life was still somewhat normal and she believed herself to be safe in the world. Now the feel of steel in her hands gave her a sense of peace and a dose of courage she’d never had before.

  Plus, Jase had been making her practice that stance and speeding bullet line for the past three weeks.

  Walker stepped into the room, stopping just a few feet inside. Since his hands were still up in surrender, he had to kick the door shut with his foot. It was the first time a guy had been in Talley’s room. Her roommate, Allie, was very vocal about her feelings on having guys over, so whenever she and Jase got together, it was always in his room. Since Allie declared it an all-girls-all-the-time space, she wasn’t concerned with the placement of her undergarments. Two bras hung from her bedpost and a pair of bright yellow underwear hung out of a dresser drawer. Talley was embarrassed for her, but only a tiny bit. It was hard to feel much in the way of empathy with a person who liked to watch countless hours of Fox News and left half-eaten food lying all over the room.

  Talley cleared her throat and searched for what to say next. Jase hadn’t really planned anything beyond the threat. What did she do now? Her mind filtered through every single action movie she’d ever seen. “Talk,” she finally said, deciding to keep it simple.

  “I knew where you lived because I stopped by the housing office and asked.” Walker’s hands were still up, but he squared his shoulders and looked straight ahead as he answered, reminding Talley that ‘not dominant’ wasn’t the same thing as ‘weak’. “I told the lady working the desk that I was your boyfriend and drove over 1800 miles to surprise you. She wouldn’t tell me your room number, but she did suggest I hang out around the Honor’s dorms. Once I got here, I started asking around. A girl with pink hair and purple glasses told me where to find you.”

  Talley blinked at his explanation. Could he really not know what he was doing?

  “You do know that approaching the home of a member or potential of the Alpha Pack without an invitation is considered a hostile act, right?”

  The color drained from Walker’s face. “I didn’t mean to… I was just…” His chin quivered. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I swear to God, I didn’t know. I just wanted to see you again.”

  Talley dropped the gun. Jase’s voice barked in her head that it was an act and to pick the damn thing back up, but she just couldn’t. Somewhere over the past year she’d begun to read people’s faces almost as well as she could read their minds. Walker really didn’t know. He was just a Shifter from a small pack who had no idea how things worked in the Alpha Pack. It was like a kid from a small town getting dropped in the middle of New York City. He might have some of the basics down, but he didn’t actually know how to navigate the strange world he was suddenly thrust into the middle of.

  Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t and wouldn’t do something to hurt her or someone she loved. “We’re going to talk,” she said, flicking on the safety and placing the gun on her desk. “And while we’re talking, I’m going to need to touch you. You understand why?”

  “You want to See if I’m telling the truth.”

  “Right.” She wished she could also See what the best set-up would be. The easiest thing would be to hold his hand, but that would be way too awkward with some guy she didn’t know. Actually, it was often awkward with the guys she did know. Awkwardness aside, there was also the issue of personal safety. Without her gun, she had no advantage, and by getting close enough to touch him, she was pretty much at his mercy. She’d picked up a few self-defense tactics over the summer, but she knew she couldn’t actually take on a fully grown Shifter, even if he was completely submissive.

  But he doesn’t know that. Jase’s voice reminded her. You’re only as badass as people think you are. Fake it.

  “Sit in that chair,” she said, pointing towards her roommate’s desk. “Keep your hands palm down on the desk. Move them and it may very well be the last thing you do. Are we clear?”

  “Crystal.”

  Talley squared her shoulders, and in her mind, imagined herself as Agent Romanoff from The Avengers. Strong. Lethal. Incapable of taking crap off of anyone. She could do that, couldn’t she? Pretend to be that kind of girl? At the very least, she could give it a try. What’s the worst that could happen?

  The words “raped” and “pillaged” come to mind.

  Shut up.

  You know, you always say, “shut up” when you mean, “please stop being right.”

  There were times when Talley wasn’t sure if these mental conversations with Jase were a sign she was spending too much time with him or evidence that she was going insane.

  Still, the Jase voice had a horrible habit of making sense she decided as she walked behind where Walker was sitting, his hands sprawled out across Allie’s World Civ notes. There were a number of bad things that could happen, including being raped and pillaged. She looked across the room to where her gun still sat and regretted leaving it out of reach. Thankfully, the first impression she got when she placed a hand on Walker’s shoulder wasn’t one of malice or ill will, but genuine fear, which made her feel all kinds of guilty.

  There are all types of Seers in the world. Some women can See simple, everyday things which can easily be misinterpreted as a normal, human talent. Talley’s mother, for example, could See colors and patterns. It made her quite good at math and mind-blowingly amazing at costume design. Though Mrs. Matthews lived in a modest house in Timber, Talley’s mother was actually exceedingly comfortable financially. Despite sending half of all the money she made to the Alpha Pack due to her belief that any earnings made based on your Sight was to be shared with the entire world of Shifters and Seers, Talley knew she could have gone to college anywhere and her mother would have just wrote a check to cover tuition.

  While Sights like Mrs. Matthews could be profitable, they were considered minor and weak in the eyes of the Shifter and Seer world. The Sights which had a decidedly more supernatural tint were considered stronger and more enviable. Talley’s ability to See emotions and thoughts with a single touch was considered one of the most prestigious. Only one or two Seers every generation possessed the power, and each was given great respect. Most of the women could only get a glimmer of an emotion or a whisper of thought, but still they were treated like royalty, most earning a spot in the Alpha Pack. Talley didn’t catch glimmers. No, when Talley Matthews touched someone she got it all. Every thought running through their head. Every emotion pouring through their soul. If she concentrated long enough, she could even pull memories from the vault where they normally resided in a person’s subconscious.

  When her Sight first manifested the summer before her senior year of high school, it had been overwhelming. She’d briefly considered dropping out of school and living the remainder of her life as a hermit to keep the noise of other people’s brains out of her head. Then Jase had stepped in, challenging her to get it under control. Believing she was stronger than her power.

  To her amazement, he had been right. She was able to control it, getting to the point where she could block a person’s inner-voices even when clasping their hand in hers. However, she’d always been able to pull down that barrier from her mind with little to no thought and delve right into the other person’s brain.

  Until now.

  “Who are you?” Talley wasn’t sure if she was asking for him to confirm his identity, or if she was inquiring as to what kind of person could block her Sig
ht. Walker took it as the first and once again told her his name and pack. Again she got a whisper of emotion, enough to tell her he wasn’t lying, but clear thoughts were beyond her reach.

  “Why are you here?”

  “To see you.” Again, it felt like a truth, but Talley could have sworn there was something he wasn’t saying. It was in the trace of anxiety she Saw. She tried to follow that thread of emotion, hoping it would show her something more, but she lost it. It was like the emotion tapered off into a thick fog.

  “And what do you hope to accomplish by seeing me?”

  More anxiety, and this time a healthy dose of embarrassment. “I would like for you to become my mate,” he said after some hesitation.

  Talley froze in place. Not because of what he said. Six guys had already told her the same thing, although several of them had just announced that she would become their mate as if she’d just won a million dollars. No, Talley froze because of the emotion attached to his admission. Walker didn’t feel disgust or resignation at asking Talley to be his mate. He felt hope, desire, and fear of rejection. All the emotions she imagined someone would feel if they were interested in Talley Matthews, person, instead of Talley Matthews, Seer.

  “Why?” When Walker didn’t immediately answer, she became uncharacteristically impatient. “Why?” she asked again. “Why do you want me to be your mate?”

  This time she didn’t have to use her Sight to know his reaction. His hands told the whole story, tensing and slacking on the desk until big, angry blood vessels popped out along the backs of his fingers.

  “This isn’t what I wanted to happen,” he said. “I just wanted to meet you and get to know you. I wanted to see if it might have been possible for us to maybe work out. I swear, if it wasn’t so important, I would leave right now and never bother you again, but I’m begging you to please give me a chance.” He turned his head so Talley could see into his eyes, which she noticed were the color of watered down soda pop. “Please.”

  Chapter 5

  Jase’s roommate looked like a bug. It wasn’t just that his too-big-for-his-face eyes were coupled with sharp cheekbones and a pointy chin, but his whole body had an insect quality to it. His overly long and thin limbs looked better suited for balancing on the end of a twig than pacing about their twelve by nineteen foot room.

  “Have you seen Suzie?” Joshua asked, looking under books and empty soda cans.

  Jase looked up from his math book. “And Suzie is…?”

  “My iPad.”

  “Your iPad?” Jase wondered exactly how much pot Joshua had smoked over the course of his life. “You mean that thing in your hand?”

  Joshua looked down as if just noticing he was holding something. “This is Alfred.” He held up the device, and sure enough, “Alfred” was written across the back in black Sharpie. “Suzie is smaller and more compact, which is exactly how I like my women.”

  “You have two iPads?” Jase didn’t even have one. He’d asked his parents for one at Christmas last year and got a generic knock-off instead.

  “No, I have four.”

  “Four? Why on earth would anyone need four iPads?” The CEO of Apple probably didn’t have four iPads.

  Joshua stopped mid-step, swung his head around to peer at his bed, and then practically leapt across the room. “Because three weren’t enough,” he said, pulling an iPad Mini out from under his pillow. “There you are, Suzie. Come now, dear. We’re going to be late for class.” Without another word to Jase, he spun to the door, swung it open, and came to a halt as if he’d just plowed into a wall of glass.

  “Miss Matthews, you look positively gorgeous,” he said to Talley, who was standing in the doorway with one hand balancing a box of pizza and the other clutched against her chest.

  “Thanks,” she said with a nervous laugh. “And you are stunning, Joshua.”

  His smile was the kind that stretched all the way across his face, rearranging his features to transform him into a whole new person. “I do try my hardest,” he said, sweeping past her and into the hall. “Good night, Jase Donovan. Sleep well. I may kill you in the morning.”

  “See ya,” Jase said even though Joshua was already halfway down the hall. Once the door was completely closed he turned to Talley. “That guy gets weirder every single time I see him.”

  “True, but then again, you only see him for five minutes every three days. As far as roommates go, it could be worse.”

  Jase knew he didn’t have it bad in the roommate department, certainly not as bad as Talley’s she-woman-man-hater who left fingernail clippings all over the place and lectured anyone who would listen on how declining morals would be the downfall of America, but even Talley had to admit there was something off about Joshua. For one thing, the guy lived like a vampire. He only took evening classes, worked the midnight to eight shift sitting at the front desk in their dorm, and slept during the day while Jase was in class. Most of the time when the two of them were in the room at the same time, at least one of them was asleep. The rare moments they saw each other in the waking world, Jase felt like he had stepped into some bizarre comedy act. Joshua wasn’t so much flighty as distracted. He always seemed to be focusing on fifteen things at once, and none of those fifteen things were ever the conversation he was having at the moment. Jase figured it was either some sort of AD/HD or the result of abusing AD/HD medication.

  “He has four iPads, Tal. Four. Who needs four iPads?”

  Talley grabbed a towel off the floor and spread it across his bed, the only semi-clean space in the entire room. “Joshua?” she answered, sitting the pizza box on the towel.

  “It’s just weird. And excessive. And he is, in many ways, excessively weird.”

  “He’s not that bad.”

  Jase flipped back the lid of the pizza box and grabbed a slice. “He’s a slob...”

  “You do realize you’re worse than he is, right?”

  “…And he likes Star Trek….”

  “I like Star Trek.”

  “…And he never goes anywhere or hangs out with friends. He sleeps, works, and goes to class. No social life whatsoever. Isn’t that the sign of a serial killer or something?”

  Talley looked up from peeling the pepperonis off her slice of pizza. “He works a full time job and is taking twenty hours. He doesn’t have time to go anywhere or hang out with friends.”

  “He’s got the weekends.”

  “To study,” she said. “And how do you know he doesn’t party all weekend? He might be hitting every frat house in the Six Pack on Saturday nights when you’re not around.”

  She had a point. Jase and Talley hadn’t spent a weekend in town since school began. Instead, every Friday after Talley’s last class they made the three hour drive to Nashville to see Charlie. While other college students tested their alcohol tolerance, Jase and Talley fastidiously watched monitors and checked progress reports. When their classmates were crashing in the bed of their latest one night stand, they took turns sleeping in the medieval torture device the hospital tried to pass off as a recliner.

  Jase folded up his second slice of pizza and devoured half of it in one bite. “Quit trying to defend the weirdo, Tal,” he said around a mouthful of greasy goodness. When Talley didn’t immediately jump to Joshua’s aide, he glanced over at her for the first time since she’d entered the room. Not looking at Talley was a new habit of his, and when his eyes found her, he was reminded why. Just one glance in her direction and unwelcome images flashed in his head…

  Talley’s back pressed against the wall, her too-blue eyes widening with pleasure as he covered her mouth with his.

  Talley leaning over him close enough that her shoulder length black hair brushes his cheek as she licks her kiss-swollen lips.

  Talley gasping out his name as he nibbles the shell of her ear.

  Not that any of those things had ever or would ever happen. Jase felt like a molester for even thinking about it, but he just couldn’t stop the scenes from playing through his h
ead over and over again, especially when she was standing in front of him in a shirt that matched her eyes and showed off a tempting glimpse of cleavage. Revealing clothing wasn’t the norm for her, nor was the make-up lining her eyes and drawing attention to her perfectly shaped lips.

  “Why are you dressed up?” It came out sounding a little choked. Jase grabbed a can of soda and guzzled, hoping the fizzy goodness would dislodge the awkward lodged in his throat.

  Talley was oblivious to his discomfort since she was completely and totally focused on the slice of pizza in her hand. “I’m not dressed up.”

  “You’re wearing heels, Tal.”

  “Lots of girls wear heels. You wear heels.”

  Jase’s face flushed red even though it was an old joke between friends. Some humiliations refuse to die no matter how much time passes.

  “You aren’t one of those heel-wearing girls, and you know it,” he said.

  Talley pushed her hair behind her ear before telling the floor, “I have a date.”

  “I’m sorry. A what?”

  Clear blue eyes met his own. “A date. I’m going to get coffee at eight.”

  “Coffee?”

  “Coffee. A drink made from filtering water through crushed beans. Usually served warm. I like mine with milk and caramel syrup.”

  “I know what coffee is,” Jase said through clenched teeth. “Who on earth is taking you out for coffee?”

  “Really, Jase, what does—”

  “Who?” It shouldn’t have mattered. She was, after all, eighteen years old and in no way his, but he had to know. He needed a name so that he could hunt the guy down and break all of his fingers should he attempt to touch her.

  “Why do you care?”

  “A name, Talley.”

  “Walker,” she said. “Walker Helkamp.”

  It took Jase a minute to realize why the name sounded familiar.

  “The pup from that tiny pack down in Arizona? He’s still in town? And you’re going out with him?”

  Talley’s fingers went to her hair. “Don’t have an aneurysm. It’s just coffee.”