Did they think the naturals were us? Had they mistaken the natural pack for mine?
I knew hyenas’ senses weren’t the strongest. In a pecking order of sagest animals to dumbest, they were definitely closer to the bottom of the pile, but were they that fucking dumb?
The wind stirred even more, turning into a shocking gust that stung my eyes as I tore out the throat of a hyena I attacked, and Sabina’s scream turned higher in pitch, until even the humans were clutching at their ears. I had no idea how she was doing it, but damn, I needed her to keep it going until this disaster was over.
The taste of iron collided with my tongue, permeating my mouth, making everything taste stark and metallic, but I gloried in it as I tore and shredded, my paws and claws slicing into hyena hides as I bit chunks out of those who attacked me.
When a chorus of howls sounded from nearby, I recognized them, and I realized what I’d been hearing before, what Sabina had translated for me—they’d been far away. But Berry had been warning us of their imminent arrival. In her own way, she’d been telling us not to lose hope.
In the adrenaline buzz of the battle, of the war, as I killed and attacked the endless swathes of hyenas, who felt as if they were a wave of ants cresting a hill as we shredded them into dust, I felt the totem’s power once the supernaturals appeared.
Amid the chaos of downed bodies, blood, and viscera on the ground, some of which I knew I was coated in, I tried to find the clan leader.
I knew she had to be here.
She just had to be.
Peering into the crowds for the distinctive markings that decorated the females—dots on their heads and scruffs, dashes for the males—I tried to find one who was being shielded, and I saw her.
She wasn’t a hyena however.
It was a human female.
My head tipped to the side at the sight of her, especially as I saw her irritation at how my wolves and Berry’s were decimating her troops. But as I looked at her, wondering why she appeared familiar, two males attacked me.
One dove onto my back, digging in with claws and teeth, while the other snapped for my throat. I leaped at him, shaking off the pesky bastard who thought he could take me down by tearing into my hide, and when another two did the same thing, I snarled, tossing them off of me as rage turned me feral, as I allowed the wolf I’d contained all my life to take total control of me.
I jerked forward, then swiftly reared back, which loosened the hold two had on me, but then Sabina screamed yet again, and this time, it was more powerful than before. A hundred times stronger. It felt like it was going to shatter my ear drums, make my skull cave in, but the female whose face I recognized released a shriek so piercing, it was almost as powerful as Sabina’s.
I twisted around, needing to keep an eye on the enemy, when I saw Berry rounding up to her. My eyes flared wide, but everything inside me froze as her howl intertwined with Sabina’s scream, as jaws snapped and guns cocked as they aimed at the creature that was somehow my mother, when she sprang off the ground and threw herself into the fray.
Fourteen
Lara
As he veered onto the road and we left the diner behind, the question at the forefront of my mind was why I saw a fox spirit inside him and not a wolf.
So, it didn’t make him a mind reader when the second we were on the highway, Todd, realizing I was about to burst with curiosity, said, “I’ll tell you everything you need to know, but first, I need to ask you a few things.”
I scowled at him. “That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”
He smiled at me, irritating me further, because I could tell he thought I was cute.
I wasn’t fucking cute. I was a freak! I was insane. A whole slew of words, and none of them had a similar definition as ‘cute.’ Sure, I’d been fighting those labels all my life, but I was going to fight ‘cute’ too. Until the day I goddamn died.
“I can only explain things once I have an understanding of how much you’re aware of,” was his explanation.
While I wanted to disagree, because I wanted answers more than I wanted to be bombarded with questions, I couldn’t argue with his logic, so I shrugged. “I know nothing.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.”
“No. It’s true. I have very little idea of why I can do what I can do, and most of the time, I don’t even know how. I just dive in headfirst and figure things out from there.”
He twisted his head, shifting his attention off the road for a second to look at me. I didn’t look back. Just carried on staring at the central white lines as they flashed in his headlights.
We were in his truck, which was a surprisingly nice ride. A total gas guzzler, which had my inner eco-warrior pouting, but damn, it was cool to be this high up and with the space of a whole seat between me and him. Instead of my beat-up old junker where a passenger would have practically been sitting on my lap. If I’d ever driven anyone in it, of course…
As fancy as all the room was, something in me wanted no space between us. And when I said no space, I meant even clothes were too much. Which was something I’d never felt before.
For most of my adult life, I’d been able to live in a cabin in the middle of a forest like Little Red Riding Hood, doing my level best to stay away from humankind before they drove me crazy with all the feeling they did, or before they sent me to a psychiatric hospital when they figured out the weird shit I could do. So, to enjoy his company, to want more of it, was infinitely surprising.
“Is that what happened when you came to me the other night? As a she-wolf? You were trying something out?”
Preferring the topic of conversation to my train of thought, I shrugged. “Pretty much. I knew Sabina was scared for Daniel, and I figured that if I was the same as her, that would be two people to protect him, to defend him. No one fought for us,” I said, my tone sadder than I’d have liked. “I’ll always fight for people who need it.”
A shaky breath escaped him. “If I could kiss you now, I would.”
Startled, I whipped around to look at him. “What?”
“You embody everything that means anything to me.” He shook his head, another shaken exhalation rushing from his lips. “But I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“You didn’t.” Actually, I was quite touched.
I’d never been ‘the embodiment of everything that means anything’ to someone before.
It was kinda nice.
“I’m glad. It wasn’t my intention.” He cleared his throat. “How did you do it?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I have all the time in the world for you.”
Kali Sara, did he know what it meant to me, what it did to me, when he said stuff like that?
I gulped, because he sounded so earnest. So genuine. It messed with my mind.
“There’s a mother and a son living with Sabina and her mates.”
“Related to you?”
“No. I don’t know who they are, just know they’re a part of their pack. But the boy, he’s different. Unusual.”
“In a bad way?” he surmised from my tone.
“Yes. She’s pregnant, and he tried to push her down the stairs.”
“What?” The wheel jerked under his touch, and I yelped as we drifted off the road and almost squealed into the embankment before he righted us, then parked up on the side so he could stare into the distance. “Are you telling me she’s pregnant? With another child?”
I blinked at him, surprised by the urgency in his tone.
“Yes, but that’s not that weird, is it?”
A flurry of what I assumed was Korean whispered from his lips, and his hands tightened around the steering wheel to the point where his skin bled white and it creaked under his hold. I wanted to help him, but could see he was processing whatever it was that was weird about a mom having two kids.
I mean, hell, my mama had four living kids, and she’d had a few miscarriages along the way.
It wasn’t that strange,
was it?
Of course, his surprise made it clear that it was.
He was freaked out. His skin paler than usual, his eyes wide as he stared at nothing.
“I wonder if that’s what people feel like when they figure out I can sense their emotions,” I muttered softly.
My voice had him twisting around to look at me, and this time, he cocked his leg so that he could twist better in his seat and face me totally.
“Why’s the boy strange?” His voice was guttural, and the urgency in him, an urgency that I’d never felt before, when I’d always sensed how calm he was, made my heart pick up in pace.
I bit my lip. “Remember I said when I look at you, I can see a fox?”
He nodded. “How could I forget?”
“Well, all my life, I’ve been able to see inside people. For a long time, I thought I was going insane, but now I know about shifters, it makes sense.” I shrugged. “In him, I see shadows. I know that sounds strange, but I do. He’s tainted, and he’s powerful. I caught him controlling Ethan today. Putting thoughts in his mind.”
“Dear Mother,” he rasped. “It’s actually happening.”
“What is?” I sputtered, tired of being kept in the dark. “Tell me!”
“Carry on first. How did you turn into a wolf?” he asked, his voice insistent.
Though I scowled at him, I muttered, “When Seth tried to hurt his mother, I looked into him and saw a spirit, but I couldn’t make sense of what it was. That isn’t so surprising. I mean, I don’t understand a lot of what I see. But Sabina, she can read auras and things, so she, I mean, well… I don’t really know what we did. She touched me, and it was like we synced up.” I shrugged. “It was like a burden was taken off my shoulders, and she looked at Seth through my eyes. I guess I registered how she did it, and when Daniel needed us, it felt only natural to do the reverse. To call on her like she called on me.”
“And that’s how you shifted?”
I nodded. “Pretty much.”
His nostrils flared, and he inhaled deeply, looking at me all the while, which was kind of weird as he muttered, “And she, of two creeds, will reign through instinct and knowledge.”
“Huh?”
“You have to understand something, Lara, what you see in me, it’s true. I’m not a wolf shifter.”
“I know,” I told him uneasily. Was this the kind of stuff someone could get killed over? I mean, I’d watched enough crime dramas on Netflix to know that motives didn’t always have to make sense.
“I can project myself as a wolf though. Eli, Ethan, and Austin, did you notice how wary they are around me?”
I frowned. “Not really.”
“Well, it’s because they can’t get a read on me. I project as a wolf, and they know something is strange, but they can’t tell what because it’s outside of the scope of their understanding.”
“Makes sense.” Sort of.
He nodded. “It’s what everyone thinks. But in the Rainford pack, people are just grateful that I present as an alpha without the nasty side effects that come as part and parcel of the role.”
“I can understand that, especially if they’re used to horrible men leading them.”
“Yes. They are.” He reached for my hand and twisted his fingers about mine. When I didn’t protest, he squeezed them and said, “I’m kumiho.”
My brows arched. “Really?”
He sighed. “Yes. It’s like a Korean kitsune.”
“Dude, I’ve watched Nae Yeojachinguneun Gumiho,” I retorted. “I know what a kumiho is.”
A laugh escaped him. “Not a bad accent there, Lara.”
I shrugged. “K-Dramas are my thing. When you live in a forest by yourself, you get real friendly with Netflix.” Then, my nose crinkled. “I thought they were bad. Like evil spirits and stuff.”
He shook his head. “No. We’re a fountain of wisdom. We offer guidance in times of trouble. But we’re powerful. There are only two alive at any given time.”
A nasty thought filtered through me. “Your grandfather is still alive, isn’t he?”
“Yes.” His smile was sad. “I only ascended to the position when my father died.”
“That’s how you killed the other alpha, isn’t it?”
He nodded, then reached for my other hand, squeezing on my fingers some more like he was imploring me to listen, to hear him. “I only shifted for the first time that night my father passed over. Until then, my family had to hide that I couldn’t shift.”
“Why didn’t he defend himself?” I rasped, hurting for him. “Surely he could have stopped the Rainford alpha?”
“He could, but he chose not to. We’re pacifists. It’s not good what I did, but I couldn’t stop it from happening. Not after the way Kingsley Rainford treated my family.”
“I understand,” I told him softly. “Vengeance is the only thing that can give you closure sometimes.”
“It didn’t work,” he muttered, lowering his head. “I spent all my life learning from my grandfather and father, listening to their stories, and in every single one, change starts when a female wolf shifter mothers two children—a boy and a girl child.”
My nose crinkled. “That makes no sense. There have to be plenty of moms who have two kids.”
“No. You don’t understand. Since the birth of time, two wolf shifters have only been able to beget one child. On rare occasions, there’ll be a twin birth, and those twins are reviled.”
“Austin and Ethan are twins,” I pointed out. “They’re high up in the pack.”
“Because of Eli. Because of Sabina. They were loathed. Everyone knows about them in the state. Twins are few and far between, and whenever they crop up, they’re universally hated. There’s a reason for it, but still, it sucks for them.”
“What’s the reason?”
He sighed. “You’re getting a condensed lesson, Lara. There are several lifetimes of stories I’m compressing for you. Let me pick and choose what you need to know for the moment, until I can share everything with you?”
My heart sped up at those seven words—until I can share everything with you.
Why did that sound so delicious?
His nostrils flared again, and he shook his head. “Now isn’t the time to get turned on, Lara. This is important. Do you have another sister?”
Though his words took me aback, enough to have me wanting to protest—no way was I getting turned on—I just grumbled, “Yes. Well, I did. She died a long time ago.”
He frowned at that, shaking his head slightly as I watched him try to piece things together. “The Mother and Father of all,” he said eventually, “gave birth to everything we know. They’re brother and sister—few know that they’re siblings. The Mother gave birth to nature and created animals and those who could turn into them, she controls the wind, the rain—the elements. The Father, on the other hand, created humans. His firstborn were a pair of twins.
“One of the Mother’s children attacked one of the human brothers, killing him, and in apology, she promised the Father that she would control the population of her children so that his never had to live in fear. She did that by making sure only one child was born to each couple and that a lot of shifters have to find their mates amid the human population.”
“Is that why shifter twins are really hated?” I asked curiously. It was quite clear he believed all this, so I was willing to go along for the ride. Especially as he was telling me all about a world my sister had dive-bombed into and one that I wanted to become a part of.
“Yes. It’s instinctual for people to revile something they’re taught to misunderstand. Every now and then, twins crop up, and it shows even the Mother isn’t infallible. Twins are visible proof of that, and that’s why twins are surrounded with such distrust and hatred.”
“That’s shitty,” I rasped, feeling sorry for my brothers-in-law.
“Yeah. It is.” He squeezed my fingers. “The Mother knew all along that the Father’s grief turned him. The story goes that
she set things in stone a long time ago, just in case the day came where the Father sought to bring about a change where humans could overcome her children.”
“What did she set in stone?”
“The birth of three daughters,” he rasped, his eyes on mine. They were stark with awareness, and it made the song that filtered in from the radio, “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus, seem even more apt.
“One, who shall reign through nurture,” he intoned, like this was a story he’d had to learn by heart. Like he was reciting his multiplication tables. “Through her, she will bear the child that triggers the new dawn.
The second, who will reign over her people through fear of a future she can see. She will be tied to one skin, but her powers will bring about the catalyst for the third daughter’s ascension. The Moon Child.” He swallowed, and I knew his words affected him just as much as they were freaking me out. “She will reign through instinct and knowledge. She will make waves with her first child.”
His words resonated with me in a way I couldn’t begin to describe, but the driving urge to get out, to get away, was something I couldn’t fight. I needed space, distance, and it hurt when I thought about how I’d wanted no space between us at all. But I tugged my hands away from his, fighting his hold on me when he tried to keep them clasped. “No!” I snapped at him. “Let me go. You said there’d be no force between us—”
He flinched at my words, but immediately backed up, his hands raised like I had a gun on him.
“I know what you’re trying to do, what you’re trying to make me think I am, but I can’t be… Jana’s dead, for God’s sake.”
“You told me that Sabina can see auras, and that you can see spirits inside people. What was Jana’s gift?”
My jaw tensed, and I shook my head, trying to blot out the memories of what Jana could do.
Moon Child: A PNR Shifter Romance (The Year of the Wolf Book 2) Page 22
