Half Wolf (15 page)

He would have felt Kaitlin’s closeness in a crowd of Weres.

Erecting a mental barrier to temporarily seal himself off from her, Michael waited beside Tory for whatever she was going to show him. He was to be an observer on this occasion, and not the wolf who wanted very badly to be Kaitlin’s lover. Holding himself back from rushing to gather Kate into his arms was added to the growing list of the toughest challenges he had ever faced.

Seconds
, he told himself.
Just wait for a few more seconds. Another Lycan has suggested that I see this.

Kaitlin stood with her back to a tree. Her hands were on her face, hiding her eyes. Though she was shaded from the moonlight by the canopy of leaves and branches, light shot through her as if she had been pierced by that light. As if she had swallowed it and the moonlight shone from her pores.

He didn’t realize he had moved until Tory’s hand stopped him. Michael stared at Kaitlin, wondering, not for the first time, what the hell was going on. His little wolf began to look transparent. She glowed now with the refracted colors of a crystal, dispersing light from no visible, perceivable light source. For a full minute, he didn’t realize that she was that source.

Did you know about this?
Tory silently asked him.

Michael shook his head without asking the question faltering on his lips.
What are we seeing?

I’ve never found anything like this
, Tory said.
Nor, I gather, have you?

He could not reply. Michael was sure what they were facing had nothing to do with Kaitlin becoming a wolf.

It’s beautiful
, Tory said.
She’s beautiful.

Yes. Kaitlin, like this, was a beautiful surprise. A stunning surprise.

What was happening to Kaitlin here was no wolfish reaction. She looked to have swallowed a star.

He tried hard to remain calm, and was failing miserably. Michael groped for answers for this new turn of events without finding any.

The way she looked. That light shining through her wasn’t like any wolf transition he’d ever seen or heard of. Kaitlin exhibited none of the pain of a body’s rearranging molecules—things all Weres had to go through. Earlier, he had chalked that up to being merely strangely inexplicable.

Who was he to argue with details about the birth of a wolf inside a possible nonhuman species he wasn’t familiar with?

What was absolutely clear to him and the she-wolf standing beside him was that Kaitlin Davies had truly been special from the start, and that specialness was making itself known here, perhaps with very bad timing.

She wasn’t just different. She was an enigma. And he, along with a host of others passing her in school hallways and issuing grades for however many years now, had been fooled.

She is what she is, and also wolf
, Tory said.

Yes
, was all that Michael was able to reply.

Kaitlin isn’t like the other one that came through Landau’s gates a while ago. The light she shines isn’t meant to delude others into thinking she is something she’s not. It’s pure, and feels airy. Her brightness hurts my eyes.

She doesn’t know
, Michael explained.
Kaitlin has to be as surprised by this as we are.

Tory nodded.
She will need protection until she figures it out. Even I am attracted to whatever she is. No wonder you’ve had a rush of vampire problems.

A vamp invasion that I might only right now be comprehending
, Michael confessed.
It has to be the light. Her light. They can’t resist it.

May I make a suggestion, Michael?

He waited for Tory to go on. His nerves were jittery.

Bring her to Miami. She will be safe there for as long as she needs to be. Or until...

Michael glanced sideways.
Until what?

Until her people come for her.

Michael’s stomach turned over its nonexistent contents. He began to ache inside. He wanted to howl at the thought of Kaitlin hiding behind Landau’s carefully guarded Miami gates. He refused to think about Tory’s other statement.

He hadn’t stopped to consider the ramifications of Kaitlin’s other half being so Other, beyond how special she already was to him. As he observed her, sadness filled him.

That other wolf hybrid you and Dylan mentioned
, he said to Tory.
What was it? What did that turn out to be?

Banshee. Rosalind was a wolf and banshee mix, through no fault of her own. Her bloodline carried the secret for centuries. She was a dark soul able to mimic whoever she was with, and whatever species faced her. It was an incredible thing. A dark miracle.

She. Another female had appeared in Miami, with a unique side.

Banshees were dark spirits that announced death. Celtic spirits. Devlin has spoken of such things on occasion
, he said.

Jesus. Did he want to think of Kaitlin like that, or know more? He rushed on.

How well did that pairing work out for this dark hybrid, if in fact it could? Spirit and wolf? I can’t begin to imagine that, Tory.

And yet it worked out well in the end, or as well as could be expected. She helped our pack get rid of a savage nest of vampires, and in doing so, found her mate.

Michael didn’t want to ask the big question eating him up, and had to.
Did her kind come for her? Was she taken away at some point?

Tory shook her head.
Rosalind took herself away, knowing what she was and how others would react to her. Her mate went with her into isolation, and was happy to do so, since he was unique, as well. It was a happy ending to a very weird tale.

Your pack helped her, in turn?

All decent wolves are welcome in our pack, and Rosalind was both wolf born and the lover of a very good Lycan.

Michael didn’t have time to consider her words further. Kaitlin, finally sensing company, turned toward where he and Tory stood. Her hands no longer covered her face. The light they had witnessed had faded and was rapidly disappearing, leaving a stunned little half wolf, half something else, standing on wobbling legs.

Chapter 16

S
ensing movement around her, Kaitlin dropped to a crouch, remembering seeing Michael doing the same thing once or twice before.

Night sounds had not ceased. Birds, crickets and rustlings from overhead formed a symphony that filled her with a different sort of longing than the one ready to take her over. But Michael was nearby, and what she felt for him each time they were together was highly charged. Those feelings prevented her from spinning out.

Her body vibrated with the need to get closer to him, this latest round of emotion spawned by nothing more than a few minutes of alone time. She’d growl in a minute, speak his language, encourage Michael to take her someplace private where passions could be explored and put to rest...at least until she could breathe without thinking of him.

Until she could forget what had just happened to her, here.

In the midst of all the bad stuff, longing for sex with her Alpha should have brought shame. Instead, the picture of what a session like that would be like revved her up. She had become someone else altogether; someone with little regard for the plight of others. Someone self-serving and greedy.

But she cared about what happened to Rena and Devlin and Cade after having just met them. So she wasn’t so bad. Her morals weren’t pushing her in a new physical direction, her treacherous body was. That and the desire, the need, to not focus on the rest of what was going on.

She scented Michael’s approach, able to smell the wolf in him and the woman he was with. Seconds after discovering him, Michael was by her side.

Her legs gave out. She sank to her knees.

“It’s all right, Kate,” Michael soothed, crouching down to look into her eyes. “I was worried. I’m relieved to find you unharmed, and can’t even begin to explain how scared I was.”

“Cade?” she managed to say.

“He’s all right. Cade took care of himself.”

Her relief over that news was like a sweeping tide of joy. She had been right in letting Michael fight for his pack.

He was looking at her strangely.

“What is happening to me?” Her throat was tight.

“What does it feel like?”

“It feels like a wolf is holding me hostage, and if it weren’t for that, I might fade away.”

“What do you mean by
fade
?”

“Lose myself altogether. Lose what’s left of me.”

She watched pain contort Michael’s beautiful face as he asked, “Have you experienced this before?”

“Not like this. Never like this. Before, I merely wanted to hide from others.”

Michael was silent for a few beats, probably thinking over what she had said. Kaitlin glanced to the female Lycan with the wild red curls. Tory was her name. “You saw this. You witnessed what was going on with me. I felt you nearby.”

“Yes,” Tory replied. “I was here.”

“Can you tell me what it is? Give me a clue?”

“I’ve never seen anything quite like what happened. I’ve suggested that Michael bring you to Miami once the situation here eases, so that the Elders can try to answer your questions. Would you like that, Kaitlin?”

“I’m not sure I can get through two more nights, let alone plan for the future.” Her teeth were chattering from a buildup of fear.

“Nothing about this night is usual.” Michael captured her attention again with his liquid green gaze. “We’ll get through it.”

He was sincere, and trying to help. Kaitlin just wasn’t sure anyone could help her if wolf turned out not to be her dominant half. She was beginning to doubt that it was.

“I’m not following the usual going-to-be-a-werewolf routine, by the looks on your faces,” Kaitlin said, positive that she was right about this one thing. “If you can’t tell what I am—this other part of me you know isn’t human—then maybe you can tell me why the monsters are behaving as if they have the answer we lack.”

“It’s your scent.” Tory’s voice dragged Kaitlin’s attention away from Michael. “There’s no night in it. Not like ours. You have wolf in you, and therefore should smell like one. You don’t.”

Kaitlin tossed her head to try to relax her rigid neck muscles, and found that moving did no good. Stress was mounting. A scream was imminent.

“What do I smell like to you, Tory?”

The she-wolf didn’t hesitate to answer that question. “Grass. And trees.”

“Because I’ve been standing here, beneath the branches?”

“No. Those things are separate and familiar smells. What you are is altogether new to me and wouldn’t be of too much concern except for the fact that you’re being chased by two different species, one of which is a dreadful offshoot of mine,” Tory said. “Because of that, you need help, and helping others with wolf in their blood is what we do for each other.”

“What you do in order to protect your secrets.”

“In order to welcome new Weres into the fold,” Tory clarified.

“Even part Weres housing an unfamiliar other part?”

“You’d be surprised if Tory answered that,” Michael said. “Miami isn’t Clement. Things aren’t as simple there.”

“I was under the impression things weren’t simple here,” Kaitlin said earnestly.

Michael got to his feet. “Until we do know what’s happening, it might be best if we keep you out of range of anyone else who might come along thinking they know something we don’t.”

She looked up at him with wide eyes. “Is there a place where they won’t be able to find me?”

“Yes. My place.”

Images of a brown comforter with white stitching appeared in Kaitlin’s mind. In memory she heard Michael say,
You’re in my room. In truth, taking you anywhere else might have been bad for both of us.

She now understood that a hospital would have found the anomaly in her blood if she had been taken there and treated. What form would that anomaly take? Did it have the characteristics of a virus? She would have become a freak show.

She was going to be stashed away so the monsters couldn’t find her. She would go along with this so that Michael and the others could get on with their search for a killer.

After that, how normal could things be?

Like kids who were adopted and spent lifetimes searching for their real parents, needing to connect those dots and yearning to understand their genetics, she also would want to find out what else swam in her DNA.

Michael’s expression mirrored what she was sure showed in hers. Lust and need and fear were all there, pasted onto the beautifully crafted, chiseled features that had caused her to believe Michael was an angel.

His bronze skin was flushed from running and shifting. His muscles quivered and danced with telling signals she could only interpret as passion held in check, because her muscles were doing the same thing.

They were like two pieces of the same puzzle, in need of uniting in order to present a unified whole. When they were together, the pull to merge was overpowering. If they followed through on those needs, would that union be as dangerous as everything else going on in Clement?

“I’m here, Kaitlin,” he said, reading her thoughts, wanting to reassure her.

Michael’s concern for her was evident. He would override his duties if she were to crawl into his lap. If she didn’t watch out, if she wasn’t careful, Kaitlin Davies could prove to be the ruination of his pack.

“That won’t happen,” he said. “I won’t let it.”

A flush of heat crept up her neck. He read her so easily.

“Why wouldn’t they find me at your place?” she asked him.

“Special walls and scent-proof insulation. I did the renovation myself.”

He had told her he was a carpenter. She remembered that, though thoughts of day jobs and thesis preparation had no place in what was transpiring.

“Smart move to do that,” Tory said. “We’ve done the same thing, mostly rebuilding from the ground up. It gives us a sense of isolation and peace in a world where there isn’t much chance of either.”

Kaitlin took the hand Michael offered, and stood up, no longer surprised by the electrical charge skimming the surface of her palm as it met with his.

“You think I’ll be safer there?” she asked him.

“For a while,” Michael replied. “Until this mess clears up.”

“And if I don’t want to be left behind?”

“You’ll have to trust me. Until we know the reason for monsters invading Clement, and what else your body is trying to tell us, we have to take you out of the picture.”

She got that, and found the truth depressing. If she was something new, that thing came with the title of
hindrance.

“Will I be there alone? In your home?” She dreaded that scenario.

Michael nodded. “Are you going to be all right with that?”

“Yes,” she replied, lying through clenched teeth, wondering how many other eyes peered at them from the shadows.

She didn’t perceive anything else out there in the dark at the moment. Michael’s vibe was too heady, too strong, to look beyond. Tory’s presence was nearly as bold. Both Lycans stood out from their surroundings as if they’d been pasted onto the landscape.

How werewolves had come into being was anyone’s guess, and the stuff of mythology and legend. She wanted to ask if Weres knew the history of their species. If some kind of spell had caused this man-wolf union.

She had a lot to learn, and wasn’t going to do so by touching Michael. If her hand lingered in his, the balance would shift from a reassuring caress to their passion making an appearance. She had no doubts about that. Since Michael had arrived, things had started to tumble inside her, growing claws, creating waves of pain.

She looked away from Michael, wondering how she could have made it this far, this long, without figuring out about the inhuman part. Without being shaken from a sleepy state by Lycan blood, another side of her might never have appeared.

Michael was zoning in on her, trying to look past her skin and see what she was hiding. She wished he’d tell her what he found. She wished somebody would.

At that moment, her quaking muscles had nothing to do with species frustration. These quakes were precursors, premonitions, forebodings, foreshadows, pointing to what lay ahead.

“I’ll take Kaitlin to my house, and then join you,” Michael was saying to Tory. “Hopefully the others will have picked up Chavez’s trail by now, and the chaos will soon end.”

When Tory smiled, Kaitlin noticed that her teeth were very white against her pale, flawless Lycan skin. Tory’s face was equally as perfect. Kaitlin experienced a pang of jealousy that made her stomach flutter. This Miami she-wolf was like Michael. Tory was of his kind, and there had to be countless others like Tory more suited to a union with this Alpha than she was.

Maybe my fading away would be a good thing. The best thing.

She blinked slowly. When she opened her eyes, Tory was gone. She was pressed to the tree and Michael’s face was close to hers.

“Don’t even consider fading away, whatever that means,” he advised huskily. “I read you like a book and I’m going to stay one step ahead of you. You’re not going anywhere, except to safety.”

“We don’t belong together.” Kaitlin heard the pleading quality in her tone.

“Who says we’re together?”

In the midst of all the chaos and uncertainty, the hint of a smile lifted the corners of Michael’s lips. This was a glimpse of the Michael she didn’t really know, and hadn’t yet met. This was what Michael was like in better times, and to his friends.

She wanted to know that guy, see that grinning expression on his face often, directed at her. She wanted all this to be over so there was a chance that could happen.

Michael was in balance. He was man and wolf in a mixture that didn’t rule him or make him immune to the problems of others. She wrapped her arms around him, unable to resist the power of his allure.

“You’re needed elsewhere,” she said breathlessly.

“I also need to know you won’t do anything stupid while I attend to those other problems.”

“I’m one of those problems.”

“No. Never.”

“A liability.”

“Someone who simply needs to be safeguarded for a while,” he said. “Is that going to be a problem for you, Kate?”

“Yes, if it takes your attention away from others who need it.”

“Will it help if I ask you to get over that and comply just this once? Listen this one time?”

When she shook her head, her cheek brushed his. Kaitlin’s breath caught. She was sure that her inner wolf twisted. She wasn’t the only one craving what this magnificent male had to offer. The beast her body was creating desired him, too. At least that much was clear.

Michael didn’t escape the rawness of the emotions she was radiating. Like her, he was caught in an inexplicable craving for a female who was, in reality, a stranger, and who obviously had her own special power. The power to attract others.

His muscles flexed as if they realized that what he wanted to do to her, with her, wasn’t a good thing. But he rested his mouth on hers anyway.

The night itself seemed to hold its breath. A surge of electricity sparked as his lips moved over hers...and then the other thing—that uncertain, nebulous something else—took hold of her, wrangling her desires into submission and blinding Michael with the force of its unexpected appearance.