by SJ Himes
Kane gave him a quirky smile as Ghost washed his hands and dried them on the fluffy white towels hanging on the wall. He found the clothes he’d dropped, and after a moment, he figured out how the socks went on, then the pants. Kane handed him a shirt much like the one he was wearing, but when he put it on, the sensation of the shirt around his neck and shoulders made him squirm. He grumbled and yanked the shirt back off, putting it carefully on the counter.
Kane raised a brow in question, and Ghost shrugged, making himself blink at the odd sensation of that purely human movement.
“I don’t like things around my neck. Cat tried that a lot when I was a cub.” Kane’s face darkened for a second, but the anger quickly left him. He reached for the door and opened it, waving for Ghost to go first. He went to walk past the alpha, but he saw movement and stopped midstride.
It was a mirror. He knew what they were, hard not to, as Cat had plenty. He remembered them from his childhood home, and he’d seen his reflection plenty of times over the years. But he’d seen himself as a wolf, not a man, and he backed up fast, beyond startled by what he was seeing.
“Is that…is that me?” he asked, pointing at the young male he saw in the glass.
“Yes, that’s you,” Kane said gently, as if sensing how unnerved he was. Ghost watched in the silvered glass as the tall, dark-haired alpha put a hand on the shoulder of the shorter male, and he tilted his head, seeing himself move in the mirror at the same time.
Of all the things he’d pined for over the years, knowing what he’d look like as an adult had never once crossed his mind. He would never have been able to guess, really, as he barely recalled what his parents looked like, and his grandfathers featured prominently in his memories as wolves, not in their human-forms.
He was shorter than Kane by quite a bit, the top of his head coming to rest an inch or so under the alpha’s chin, and he was definitely not as wide in the shoulders. He was slim and lean, his skin a pale gold and smooth. And he was all muscle. There was no part of him given over to the softness of youth, not like the lazy summer interns that used to work at the sanctuary. He had no hair on his body from what he recalled in the shower, but for a fine light brown dusting on his groin, and the hair on his head was a light brown, similar in color to the warm golden walls of the cabin. His face was lean as well, with high cheekbones, a straight, slim nose, and eyebrows that matched his hair. He leaned in and saw thick eyelashes that framed his eyes. His mouth was not too wide or too small, and his jaw was set in a way that said he was far more stubborn than he gave himself credit for.
He put a hand up and ran it over his hair, tugging on the wet shoulder-length strands. Kane chuckled and leaned back on the doorframe, and he saw the alpha smile at him in the mirror.
“Your hair used to be blonde when you were a kid and your eyes were a dark brown. Not anymore, though.” Kane put a hand under his chin and tilted his face. His eyes flashed in the lights over the mirror, silver-white and brilliant. A part of him wondered why that was, because he thought wolfkin eyes darkened and dulled in their human forms, only becoming more when they called on the wilder sides of their nature. He blinked, and his eyes stayed the same. He shrugged and gave Kane a smile in the mirror, enjoying the feel of Kane’s hand on his flesh.
“Ready to eat, my little wolf?”
He nodded as Kane took his hand, and he turned his back on the young man in the mirror, the scent of bacon and maple syrup calling to him. He heard the sound of many voices speaking, the clink of silverware, and he was nearly giddy at the prospect of using a knife and fork again.
ANDROMEDA stopped him in the hall before they entered the kitchen; numerous wolves were milling back and forth in the large space, carrying plates, utensils, and platters of food. Kane felt a humming in the air, a residual power leakage of some kind from the Clan Leader. She was deeply affected by something, and the way her gaze lit on Ghost, where he peered with innocent curiosity at a dimmer switch next to the doorway, told Kane that her thoughts were focused on the newly restored shaman.
The touch of her mind confirmed his suspicions.
*We must talk, you and me. Later,* she whispered in his mind, carefully, her thoughts withheld from Ghost’s silvery-white presence in the back of his mind.
*About how he managed to Change like that?* Kane replied, one eye on Ghost as he spoke, but the younger wolfkin was too busy playing with the switch, illuminating the hallway before sending it back into shadow.
*That, and something else. I sense something…* she trailed off when Ghost grew bored with the dimmer switch and snuggled up to Kane’s side, peering up at him with his liquid-silver eyes. Kane’s heart jumped, and he smiled down at his little wolf, pleased by the way he fit so perfectly under his arm.
*Doesn’t matter right now. He wants a kiss, alpha. We will talk later,* Andromeda chuckled, her mindvoice pulling away, and she stepped into the kitchen; her actual voice ordering the chaos as she disappeared from sight.
Kane leaned down and touched his lips to Ghost’s, his innocent and eager response enough to make his cock harden to half-mast. He was sweet and responsive, wholly uninhibited, and Kane groaned as he pulled away, not wanting a full raging hard-on to accompany his breakfast.
KANE LED his little wolf into the kitchen, and through it to the morning room, where over a dozen wolves were eating breakfast at the long oak table. Andromeda sat at the head of the table, and there were two empty seats beside her, thankfully side by side and not across from each other. He didn’t want to make someone move so he could sit beside his little wolf.
He took the seat beside Burke and put Ghost on his left, between him and Andromeda, the safest place in the room. His little wolf stared at the chair he pulled out for him, and Kane caught a flash of uncertainty from the shaman before he looked up, saw everyone staring at him and sat hurriedly. Kane pushed his chair in, making him jump just a little, and he put a hand on his bare shoulder, rubbing it to soothe him. He sat down and watched in amusement as Ghost picked up the silverware, a piece at a time, staring at it happily and picking at the tines of the fork to make them hum. He ran a finger over the fine porcelain plate and got wide-eyed at the tall glass next to it.
Kane grinned and reached for a platter of breakfast sausage and bacon, piling the meat high on Ghost’s plate, before reaching for the serving bowl full of scrambled eggs, adding a healthy wolfkin-sized portion of that as well. Ghost was whip-lean and no inch of him carried any fat, aside from his delectable rear, and he wanted his little wolf to eat up. He was fit, but almost too lean. It was very obvious he’d gotten most of his sustenance over the years by hunting for it himself. Kane didn’t even want to think about the humans feeding Ghost kibble.
Next he grabbed the pitcher of orange juice and filled up his glass and Ghost’s, before tending to his own breakfast. He saw Burke smirking at him, and he stole a piece of bacon off his friend’s plate, giving him a wink. Burke growled good-naturedly, and Kane turned his attention to his plate. He picked up his fork and watched as Ghost mimicked his actions. He was relearning how to use a fork and what the napkin was for; Ghost would look around the table at the others eating before using his own utensils. Kane thought it was one of the sweetest thing he’d seen in years, and the way Burke was snickering over his own food told Kane he wasn’t being subtle in how he felt.
“Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?”
Kane looked up at the little voice that asked and held his breath. The little Suarez female cub, the girl found in the back room of the Worcester apartment, was standing in the doorway, half in and half out. She was still bruised and beaten, her healing abilities slower pre-Change, and her hair was hiding parts of her face. She wore one of Andromeda’s seamless gray wraps, which covered her short body far more than it did the White Wolf. Kane held very still, afraid to move lest he scare her and knew everyone in the room was doing the same. She carried the scent of fear and pain on
her, but her eyes, a light green, were locked on Ghost, and they held a gleam of curiosity.
“She said you wouldn’t be wearing a shirt,” the cub spoke again, calm as could be, but somehow seeming proud of her observation that Ghost was wearing only pants and socks. Kane was too afraid of speaking to ask who ‘she’ was.
“Who said?” Andromeda asked instead, gently. The little cub gave the pale wolf a quick glance and sent her eyes back to Ghost, not answering.
Ghost was chewing on some bacon, and he looked around at everyone staring at him, then looked down, as if noticing that he was, indeed, shirtless. Ghost swallowed the bacon and said calmly, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for her to ask, “I just learned how to put clothes on this morning, and the shirt feels too tight around my neck, like I’m choking.”
The little cub cocked her head at him and took a step into the room, letting go of the doorway.
“You didn’t wear clothes before?” She seemed to think Ghost was playing with her, her little brow wrinkling.
“I spent the last fifteen years as a wolf, and I didn’t wear clothes.” Ghost grabbed another piece of bacon, biting it in half before holding the rest of it out to the girl. Kane bit back a warning, afraid the girl would shy away. Andromeda raised a single finger, subtle and slow, and he stilled.
The girl gave Ghost a look he couldn’t translate, but she stepped into the room and went straight to Ghost’s side. She took the bacon and chewed on it, staring at Ghost in a very peculiar manner.
“I can’t find my wolf yet. It’s why I’m still hurt,” she said, as if she had to explain why she was injured. Her little face had a sad cast to it, and Kane wanted to howl in rage that such a precious thing as she had to suffer.
“We all find our wolves when we’re ready. Don’t end up like me, I found mine too early and got stuck,” Ghost told her, sharing his bacon piece by piece, everyone in the room still watching, totally silent. The cub hadn’t been seen by anyone but the shaman and Andromeda since the rescue, supposedly too traumatized to come out of the suite given to the Suarez wolves. For her to be out now, and speaking to a stranger, was a miracle.
“That was silly,” she said in all seriousness, and Kane smiled. She sounded like a mother beta scolding a cub for touching a hot burner.
“Yes, it was, but I was hurt and alone, and I had to do it, or I would die. Why are you hurt?” Ghost asked, and Kane stiffened, about to warn his little wolf. He was going to get up and tug Ghost out of the room, but the little cub just took another piece of bacon from Ghost’s hand and bit off the end.
“Bad humans hurt me. See?” She held out one arm, and showed her wrist to Ghost, where the dark purple and blues of slowly healing bruises littered her golden skin. River had managed to heal the worst of the cuts and contusions, but he couldn’t spare the energy on the lesser injuries, saving his limited healing abilities for the larger hurts.
Ghost took her tiny hand in his, as she picked the bacon off his plate with her other, and Kane held his breath, waiting for the tears and screaming. Yet she did neither, and Kane jolted as a warm breeze rushed over the meal, fluttering napkins and moving hair, and he looked up to see surprise cross River’s face, where he sat across the table. The breeze smelled like warm summer nights and pine trees, and it blew gently over them, pulling in from all corners of the room. It was soft enough it didn’t knock anything over, but strong enough to really feel it. Kane saw, in the corners of his eyes, a faint shimmer in the air, as if the light was bending through tiny prisms hanging suspended around the room.
“Can you do my other arm?”
Kane looked back to the cub, and bit back a cussword at the blemish free expanse on her arm, the same one Ghost was holding. She offered her other wrist, and Ghost took it, the breeze rose again, faster. Kane held his breath as he watched the evil looking bruises on her thin arms fade, to a blue, then greenish brown, then a pale yellow, then vanish all together in a matter of seconds.
Ghost dropped her arm, then put a hand on her face, lightly cupping her cheek. The breeze rose again, harder, faster, now a soft wind, and it spun through the room, lifting the cub’s black hair off and away from her face, revealing the dark bruises that marred her features. Gasps and exclamations of surprise rose from around the table as the wind threatened to knock over glasses, but no one said a word, all of them watching in astonishment.
The bruises faded away as she stared into Ghost’s eyes, and she glowed. Her eyes, her skin, shining softly through the cotton dress she wore. She blinked, and Ghost dropped his hand. The glow under her skin faded, the luster of youth remained unblemished. Her face, her neck, every inch of her that wasn’t covered by cloth, was free of injury. Kane had a feeling if they were to check, every inch of her would be healed, without injury or scar. Perfect.
She smiled at Ghost, who turned back to the table, picking up his orange juice and taking a sip. He groaned in approval, closing his eyes as he swallowed and turned to the cub, offering her his glass.
“Orange juice? It’s really good.”
She took his glass in both hands, and took a tiny sip, then nodded once, handing back the glass.
“It’s really good. Can I have some more bacon?”
Ghost grabbed the serving platter and dropped it on the corner of the table next to his seat. He sat back in his chair, and the little cub, as calm as anything, hopped up in his lap and ate the bacon.
GHOST CHEWED, loving the taste of the greasy bacon exploding on his tongue. Somehow it tasted better eating it as a man, and he gave up using his fork in favor of his hands. The little cub wasn’t using utensils either, so he figured it was acceptable. He scooped his eggs up with his toast, and made happy growls as he chewed. She giggled, feeling them where she was leaning back on his chest. She grabbed his orange juice, and it almost slipped, he steadied it for her as she drank. She sighed loudly once she was done, and he picked up the pitcher, refilling his glass.
She sat in his lap, eating half his breakfast, but he didn’t mind. This was his first experience with cubs, and he liked her solid weight on his leg. It made him feel like he was home, and he thought about sleeping in a pile with his siblings as a cub. He wondered where they were, if they were alive, but he didn’t want to ask that in front of the cub. She seemed okay now, but she was sad and really good at hiding it, and he didn’t want to make her sadder. There was a wound he couldn’t heal, hidden behind the light green gems of her eyes.
“What’s your name?” she asked him, and he swallowed his toast before answering.
“I was born Luca, but I go by Ghost now.”
“Is that cuz you’re a shaman? Momma said that shamans had funny names.”
“I go by Ghost because that’s the name my human alpha gave me.”
“Humans are mean,” she told him with a tiny frown, tilting her head back to look at him.
“I haven’t met many. Most of the humans I’ve met were either boring or mean, but mine are nice. They raised me.”
“You have humans? Weird.” Kane made a choking sound, coughing into his hand, but he quickly silenced himself when Ghost gave him a questioning look. She went back to eating off his plate, and he grabbed a muffin, blueberry by the scent, and gave it to her when she ran out of bacon. She smiled at him and nibbled on it, making little growly noises just like he did. She wasn’t far away from finding her wolf if she could make those noises. He wondered for a second how he knew that, but he just shrugged and went back to eating.
“My name is Sarah,” she tilted her head back again, far enough to see his face, and she almost fell off his lap. His hand came up automatically, and he steadied her on his leg. Talking to her was easy, and he found the words he wanted coming back to him with each exchange.
“That’s a nice name.”
“I guess. Momma gave it to me. Everyone is staring at us.”
Ghost looked up from
his plate, and she was right, everyone was indeed staring at them. There were more wolves in the doorway, and everyone at the table was staring at him and the cub on his knee. He shrugged because he could and it felt wonderful to do something so human. He grabbed another muffin, breaking it in half, giving her one piece as he chewed on the other.
“Probably because I’m not wearing a shirt.”
He heard Kane snort with laughter, and he looked at his alpha, who was staring at him with a wide smile on his face, dark eyes glowing. He smiled back and leaned over, careful not to tip Sarah off his knee, and kissed Kane on the cheek before sitting back.
Andromeda made a weird motion with her hand, and the wolves in the doorway scattered, while the wolves at the table slowly stopped staring at him and Sarah, returning their attention to their own plates. He looked around at the other wolves, noticing that only half of them were pale like the powerful female beta. The others were dark, and he saw the female from last night across the table from him, sitting next to the other shaman. He thought her name was Sophia, but he wasn’t sure. Her wolfkin form was black and dark brown, he recalled. She was eating and watching him, her expression cool yet without a harsh edge, as if she were reserving judgment. Burke, the brown wolf, was on the other side of Kane, and his attention was split between the Heir and his plate. There was another alpha at the table, a large wolf with sad and haunted eyes, sitting down at the opposite corner. The alpha looked familiar, it was there in the way his head tilted to the side as he gazed back down the length of the table at Ghost. He felt like saying this alpha’s name, it hovered on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t make the name cohesive enough to speak. He just couldn’t place the alpha’s name. He probably hadn’t been introduced yet and got his name from an overheard conversation. Ghost nodded to the alpha and went back to looking at the other wolves.
