by Dean Murray
I was close enough to hear the whisper of velvet on clothing as people passed by the rich, burgundy drapes that framed the archways deeper into the house. I could have stayed there enjoying the visual and auditory buffet for quite some time, but I could hear the sound of the orchestra warming up, so I finally moved away from my wall and proceeded to my seat.
I slipped into the back row, and quickly found Adri sitting two rows ahead of me. She was stunning in a pale sun dress, not as formal as the full tux Rachel had forced upon me, but still a definite step up from what most of the patrons were wearing.
Now that the time was here, I almost couldn't bring myself to act. After several seconds I finally loosened the leash I'd been using to try and hold my power in check, and let it roll out and down towards Adri.
I heard her heartbeat, difficult though it was to pick out among so many, race slightly at the sensation, but that wasn't any different than dozens of others. She didn't turn and throw herself at me, there was no answering lash of power from her, nothing that would have indicated she was anything other than the lovely teenage girl she seemed to be.
I felt a black mood descend upon me as I realized just how badly I'd handled things. If I'd behaved differently, if I hadn't assumed she was a Fir'shan out to destroy my family, maybe I'd have had a chance at winning her interest, but the opportunity was long past now. She'd already accepted Brandon's invitation to the Ashure Day dance, which he'd executed in his typically ostentatious style.
I almost left before the performance started, but super-human reflexes or not it was a bad idea to be on the road in such a mood. A few seconds later the house lights came down, the orchestra finished warming up, and it was too late to leave.
Unfortunately, not everyone was as worried about courtesy. The two college kids immediately in front of me had been going on and on about their supposed escapades since before I'd walked in. I'd been ignoring them up until now, but their testosterone-poisoned brains were quickly using up my store of patience.
Almost against my will, another wave of power arched away from me with enough snap that even the humans shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Adriana looked back and caught me staring at her, but even worse, her action afforded the pair sitting in front of me their first view of her lovely face.
"Dog, get a load of the looker."
"Oh, baby, it almost hurts. I need to tap me some of that."
Their whispers carried back to me, but I could only hope they were too faint for Adri to hear. As the production started, the entire audience quieted down and I temporarily lost myself in the experience.
The lead actor had a force of personality that validated his selection for the part. He wasn't quite Broadway material, but it was quickly apparent that the cast was going to give us a quality performance.
The music helped lull my beast back into a state of near dormancy and even went a little ways towards improving my mood until it came time for Fantine's descent into prostitution.
The idiots sitting in front of me fixed not on the tragedy her life had become, but on the baser nature of the events, and quickly were whispering the kinds of things that weren't brought up in polite society.
The patrons in the immediate area were starting to evidence signs of discontent, but predictably that just egged them on to greater efforts and additional volume. Adri turned around and shot them both a dirty look, but that just served to give them a new target.
"Oh sweetie, don't you worry, we've been aching to get our hands on you all night. We're saving plenty of loving for you later. Meet us out back after this crap is over and we'll give you a real show."
My control snapped as I saw her blush in embarrassment. The integral instincts, the ones that I'd fought to keep suppressed all night roared to the forefront and I reached down and placed a hand on each of their shoulders.
My grip wasn't as hard as I could have made it, but it was still forceful enough to cause them pain. They both tried to turn around to confront me, but I increased the pressure and yanked them back into their chairs as another snap of power filled the area around me.
The hiss of pain I drew out of the one on the right was fortunately drowned out by a sudden crescendo in the music, and then I was leaning forward and speaking deliberately into their ears.
"You're both not worth the effort it would take to kill you. You can either shut up and stay, or you can leave, but either way you will show respect to everyone here or I will hunt you down and rip your arms out of your shoulders."
As threats went it didn't feel especially impressive, but it was backed up by the steadily increasing pressure from my hands, and enough metaphysical juice to make them nearly wet themselves. I released them and then leaned back to see what they would do next.
I half expected them to turn and confront me, but they were so unnerved that they remained shaking in their seats for several seconds. The arrival of an usher shook them out of their shock and they turned back as though intending to demand my ejection from the theater.
I allowed the waves of power hammering at them to peak again. A few seconds later they got up and left, leaving behind a noticeably relieved audience.
The rest of the play was well performed. In another time and place I would have enjoyed it immensely, but my thoughts returned again and again to the simple fact that I'd misjudged Adri. Only now, when it was too late to do anything about it, did I realize just how badly I wanted her to think more of me than she did.
The sense of desolation quickly grew, and when the curtain finally closed on the performers for the last time I exited the theater with such speed that I got questioning looks from both of the ushers I slipped by.
It wasn't until I handed my token to the valet that I realized just how tired I was. It'd been so long since I'd spent time among humans on the night of a full moon that I'd forgotten how exhausting it was to try and keep up the facade of humanity.
I climbed into my car as soon as it was brought around and let my control slip somewhat as I dropped it into gear and pulled out in to traffic. It was an incredible relief to let the power run off me in sheets, but I had nearly two hours of driving still ahead of me, and as the night progressed I found that even the effort of just retaining my form was becoming increasingly draining.
When I finally pulled up to the estate I didn't even bother pulling my clothes off. I simply staggered out of my car and let the change rip through me. I drunkenly speared the scraps of clothing with my claws, and then stumbled back to the grotto and curled up on the hard rock surrounding the pool.
Mere seconds later I was asleep and dreaming. It'd been a very long time since I'd shared a dream with Adri but it no longer bothered me when I saw her running through the underbrush ahead of me. I wasn't positive it was the real Adri, but I knew she wasn't a shape shifter.
Lost in the perfect joy of running and being with someone I couldn't be with in real life, I bounded along behind her. I maintained enough distance that she wouldn't realize she was being followed, but stayed close enough to watch the lithe perfection of her form as she skipped from rock to rock across the stream or jumped a large ravine that would be impassable to any mere human.
I wanted to stay there, to follow her forever, but reality called me back all too soon, and I awoke to Rachel shaking me.
"Alec, you need to get up. Jasmin and the others are back and they're not very happy."
I thought about shrinking back down to my normal shape, but decided against it. If they were truly unhappy then I'd be better off remaining as a hybrid.
"How was the opera?"
"It was good. Exhausting, but good. She's not a moon born."
Rachel's smile was sincere without being smug. "I knew that, Alec, but I'm glad you're convinced finally."
Jasmin and the others came around a corner as we finished speaking, and they were all in their human forms so I allowed mine to shrink down as well.
"So was your little field trip worth all of the bleeding we went through?"
I didn't like her tone, especially not on the night of a full moon when my beast was so close to the surface, but I forced the anger away.
"She's definitely not a shape shifter. What happened tonight?"
Isaac came to the fore and I realized that his arm was heavily bandaged. Jasmin didn't give me much of a chance to process the information. "Oh nothing much, we just ran your patrol and then got jumped by nearly the entire pack while still in neutral territory."
I rechecked to make sure everyone was standing there, and felt a wave of relief as I verified that nobody had been killed, or even wounded so badly as to be confined to bed.
"Not Brandon though?"
Now Isaac spoke up, as befitted his right as second of the pack. "No, but Vincent and the others pressed us pretty hard. This time they had the initiative and we were heavily outnumbered. Vincent used one of the submissives as a distraction and then nearly chewed my arm off before we managed to beat a fighting retreat."
If Vincent had managed to get fangs into Isaac's arm then the odds were very good that Isaac had some fairly deep gashes to his chest and back. I'd have to be mindful of that and ensure that James didn't challenge until Isaac was fully healed.
I bowed my head slightly in respect for what the pack had accomplished without me, and then clasp Isaac on the uninjured shoulder. "I appreciate what you all did, and I'm sorry for the injuries you sustained. Now that we know for sure Adriana isn't from the Coun'hij we can begin laying long-term plans again."
Jess crowded next to her boyfriend, shooting me a dark look as she led Isaac away, but she didn't voice whatever she was thinking, and they all split up to go to their rooms. A human would have assumed that was it, but I knew we'd just experienced a shifting point. I'd burned up some of the goodwill I'd garnered with them over the years, and there wasn't anything I could do in the short term to affect that.
Rachel hugged me again and headed into the house. I knew I had things inside that needed done, but my nap had refreshed me more than I would have expected and I found myself wanting to stretch out my legs and run.
I dropped down onto my hands and knees and shifted over to my wolf form, taking off through the darkness with all of the speed inherent to my kind. I thought I was running just to run, that there was no purpose to my direction, but all too soon I found myself close to the tree where I'd told Adri I would check for notes if her situation worsened again.
I approached it cautiously, but there were still no scent traces to indicate that Brandon's pack had come through the area. There wasn't anything to indicate Adri had been here either.
It was a foolish, pointless thing to do, but I found myself jumping up to the burnt out crook of the tree to verify that there really wasn't a note from her. I'd spent most of the night with her and yet still more time while I'd been asleep, but I found myself wanting more, like an addict who'd just come down off of a high and needed another dose to avoid facing the world once more.
I loped slowly in the direction of her house, unsure what I'd do once I finally arrived. I slithered between trees as I got closer, careful to stay out of sight of the pool of light from the pole-mounted light off to the side of the house. The lights were all off inside, but I could smell the hot metal of their Jeep's engine even from here, so I knew that Adri had safely arrived.
It almost seemed like I could feel her presence calling out to me. I somehow knew exactly which window was hers and without really thinking about what I was doing I allowed my forms to shift once again and resumed my hybrid form. I crept close enough to the house to hear both heartbeats. The constant, slow beating of sleep assured me enough to climb the thirty-foot pole and carefully unscrew the large light bulb just enough for it to go dark. I looked down at the house and realized I could see into Adri's room less than ten feet away.
I meant to leave, I told my body to lower itself to the ground, but something about the view had sent my heart racing. The view was familiar somehow, but I needed to be closer.
It was a pretty good reach, even for a six and a half foot hybrid, but I sunk the talons on my feet into the pole and carefully reached out with first one hand and then the other, fastening my claws into the wooden overhang of her roof.
I spread my weight as broadly as possible and then let go of the pole and swung across the empty space. I sunk my newly-freed talons into another section of the roof and finally looked down through the window.
I almost lost my grip and plummeted to the ground as I realized what I was seeing. Adri was peacefully asleep on her bed, covered in a thin tank top and a well-worn pair of shorts. The full moon made it easy to make out the graceful curve of her arm and the slow rise of her chest.
She glowed with the light of life, the only living thing in the dark room, and I knew that somehow this was what I'd been trying to draw. The window frame, the vague details I'd filled into the corners of the room, they were all the same. The only thing lacking was the beautiful figure that, despite my best efforts, seemed to be more and more central to my life.
I stayed too long. I lost track of time, as I watched her breathing and listened to the sweet gurgle of her heartbeat. By the time I came back to myself even my tremendous strength was starting to flag as my arms began to shake. Suddenly I wanted nothing so much as to be home, to be in my studio painting the unearthly beauty before me. I took one last long look at Adri and then quietly dropped the twenty feet to the ground and headed for home.
Chapter 16
I was a man possessed. My sense of duty and Donovan's respectful nagging served to tear me away from my painting long enough to accomplish most of the tasks waiting on me. We caught up on a number of different items pertaining to the family holdings, I spent some time with each member of the pack, ground through all the homework that had to be finished up, and then retreated back into my studio and locked the door.
I mixed paints until I had a range of silvers and whites that seemed like they might do Adri justice, and then became frustrated when I failed to get the curve of her side or the angle of her head right. Normally I had a visually photographic memory, but as my lack of success continued I began to wonder if it'd failed me or if my talent just wasn't equal to the task.
It was a quiet night with no sign of Brandon's pack. I released everyone to range about our territory as they willed, and then snuck off towards Adri's house. It was a stupid thing to do. She was an incredible distance outside of our territory, but it was almost like I wasn't in control of myself anymore.
The light hadn't been fixed, so I shifted to my hybrid form and quietly scaled the pole. A few seconds later I was once again able to see the source of my inspiration. I'd only had a few moments to drink in her beauty before a stray breeze brought me the smell of Vincent and Simon rapidly approaching from the direction of town.
The dreamy, unpractical side that'd led me out into the trap was instantly displaced as I realized there was a reasonable chance I was going to die out here. I dropped to the ground and shifted back to wolf form on the fly.
It didn't matter whether they'd come by last night and smelled me, or if they'd just chanced upon me tonight. My only concern now had to be getting back to our territory before they caught me.
I could hear them now, panting as they ran several hundred feet back. They weren't gaining, but there was still a lot of ground to cover before I was safe. The underbrush that normally slid by with only the merest whisper of contact now seemed to be pulling at me, trying to slow my progress.
I was less than a minute short of our land when they sprung the second prong of their trap. I smelled Nathanial a split second before he pounced, which was the only thing that allowed me to dodge his attack. He still got a piece of my shoulder, but he missed the neck hold he'd been going for, and even as we went rolling from the force of the impact I let my hybrid form explode out.
His fangs lost their hold on my shifting flesh, but not before they tore huge, bloody gashes in the muscles that shielded the joint. I chose flight r
ather than attempting to kill Nathanial, but still only made it fifteen or twenty seconds further before I heard the others closing in.
I spun around just in time to catch Simon as he lunged at me, but Vincent shifted forms and hit me like a wrecking ball. Simon let loose with a pained howl as I took him to the ground, but I was forced to let him go in order to roll back to my feet.
It was a hopeless fight. Nathanial was mobile again and circling to my right at the same time that Simon was arcing around to the left. Vincent was dancing just out of striking range as he waited for his companions to get into position.
I attacked before they could get set, moving into Nathanial with every bit of speed I could muster. I caught him with the claws of my right hand and nearly managed to make it back around in time to catch Simon. The motion threw off Simon's aim. He wasn't used to lunging at targets so tall, and his fangs fastened on my arm with accompanying spikes of agony.
Vincent was only a half-step behind, but I brought Nathanial up and used him as a club. The attack nearly succeeded in knocking Vincent over, but he barreled on in and knocked me to the ground again.
I scrambled furiously, attempting to get out from under Vincent. My talons and claws were finding purchase on his body, but he'd fastened his fangs onto my arm, clamping down with enough force that I knew I only had a few seconds before he'd manage to rip it off.
I redoubled my efforts, raking him with such frenzy that hot blood washed over me, but he didn't even flinch. I felt his teeth meet inside my arm, and then suddenly a loud shriek caused both of us to start.
I lunged back to my feet as Vincent released me and spun around to meet Isaac's attack. On paper the others had the edge against us, but Isaac was fresh, and I was still more than capable of handling whichever of the wolves got too close.
I knocked Nathanial away again as he sprang at Isaac, and then Isaac and Vincent clinched in a whirlwind of claws and blood. I spun just in time to duck Simon's attack, and then Nathanial was back again. Somehow he'd locked on my leg without me seeing the attack coming, and Simon spun around and hit me in the chest hard enough to knock me over.
