Soul Mates: Scent (The Soul Mates Series) (5 page)

“So what you are saying is Grandpa passed the gift to you, and you passed it to me, but not to Abbey?” I asked incredulous. How could she have done such a thing? Abbey was my baby sister and now I am going to outlive her by probably a hundred years or more!

Mom nodded, her eyes lowered. I knew this was the reason for her sadness. I could see the tears glistening on her eyelashes.

“It’s all right mom. I understand,” I said trying to comfort her. I tried to process all that she had told me, going back over her words, trying to make sense of it all. “Mom… when you said you could have, but something happened and you couldn’t, what did you mean?”

“Well it’s like this… Your grandpa did not relay that part of our history to me until after I had already turned eighteen. You have to make the shift before your eighteenth year. When he told me, I was furious. He didn’t think that I would be interested in shifting. He was wrong. I didn’t speak to him for many years. Then I met and married your father and became pregnant with you. By then I had figured out the long life part as well and I didn’t want you to grow up not knowing your family.”

“So…does dad know how old you really are?” I asked softly, afraid I knew the answer.

“No. I don’t think he would believe me Max, would you if I told you I was 63?”

“No, not without the whole story to go along with it, and maybe not even then.”

“Right. So your dad thinks I was born in the 1970’s and I am 35. He still says I don’t look a day older than the day I married him. And he is pretty much right. I don’t look old enough to have a 17 year old son.”

“So if Anna hadn’t found me, would you have told me before my birthday? Or would you have made the same choice as granddad?” I asked her, hoping my face did not betray my feelings.

“Oh Max,” Mom sighed and shook her head. “I would never do that to you dear. Grammy is coming this weekend. We were going to tell you then. I… I couldn’t tell you how the shifting works and I wanted Grammy to be here to help answer your questions.”

“So…so if I wanted to shape shift…” I asked tentatively.

“It is all right with me Max; you don’t need my permission to be what you are. But you do have to keep the secret. You can’t shift in front of humans; you must never hunt what belongs to someone else, and never make unnecessary kills. I do believe from what Great Grammy has told me that once you open up that side of you, well… your diet will change. You will crave more raw meat. Large cats are carnivores. Shape shifters are as well. You can live successfully among humans though, more so now than ever. At restaurants you will have to order things like a rare steak. You can eat other foods, but they won’t be as necessary. You will have to stay away from chocolate and caffeine. Alcohol will make you really loopy, worse than any human hangover.”

“Okay…” I said trying to take it all in. Ever since that moment, when Anna Lissa Felidae walked into my life, it had not been the same. I was suddenly living in this alternate universe where I was no longer just human. I was other. Thinking of Anna made me smile and I suddenly missed her. I sat quietly with my eyes closed seeing her looking over her shoulder at me, a sinful smile gracing her lips and fire dancing in her eyes.

“Max?”

“Hmmm?” I murmured, barely listening.

“Max, are you all right with all of this? Do you have any more questions?”

I blinked and looked over at my mom, and smiled. “Yeah, I think so. I’m just… trying to get used to the idea that I’m not human.” I glanced at her, her head bowed with a frown on her lips. “Its okay mom, I’ll be fine. I just need a few minutes to absorb it all. Are there many of us? I mean I know if I am a… shape shifter,” I said it trying to get used to thinking of myself as one, “then Anna must be one too right?”

“Most likely, especially if she is the one who told you to talk to me about the family and you are hearing her in your thoughts. Why don’t you tell me more about her? How did she find you?”

“Um, I don’t know how she found me. I don’t really know a whole lot about her yet I guess, except that she is in my head, I can feel her when she is close by and I miss her like crazy when she isn’t,” I said feeling that crazy missing her pain in my chest as I said it. “And I think she might be in trouble, I keep getting this feeling like I have to protect her from something.”

“She didn’t mention being in trouble?”

“No, she said that I am the one in danger and that she can take care of herself.” I frowned as I remembered the look on Anna’s face.

“You’re in danger? What kind of danger?” Mom asked. I could feel her anxiety growing at the thought.

“She didn’t say. She said I had to talk to you first.” I paused, thinking about it. “I suppose I need to know who and what I am before I can recognize the danger or understand it.” I paused again until a thought occurred to me. “Mom are there hunters? Ones that specifically come after shape shifters?”

“I suppose there are, but why would they be after you specifically Max? You have never shifted before.”

“I don’t know. It was just a thought.”

“Perhaps it is a different kind of threat. I will ask Grammy, she will know more about threats and dangers than me.”

“Thanks mom. I will talk to Anna and see if she can elaborate now that I know the family history.” I smiled at her.

“Max, what are you going to tell Jenny?” Mom asked after a few moments. “You know you can’t just tell her that your mate has shown up and that you are aren’t human.”

“I know. She sort of saw me with Anna today and we had words.”

“Max! Now that is really not fair. You have to straighten things out with her. The two of you have grown up together, I would hate to see your friendship ruined over this.”

“I think it’s a little too late for that, Mom. She was waiting for me after homeroom this morning and watched me walk out of class with Anna. She was pretty pissed. And then she overheard me telling Dean that Anna was going out with me on Friday night.”

“Max, you have to go straighten this out right now. Go on. Call her and ask her to meet you at the park or something. But talk to her. Tell her as much as you can. Be nice about it Max.”

I nodded. I knew being nice wasn’t going to help, but I wasn’t going to go into that with mom. “Okay, I’m going.” I sighed, pulled my cell phone out of my backpack and loped up the stairs for some privacy.

I waited nervously as the phone rang. I had no idea what I was going to say. What could I say? Sorry Jenny, the last three years have been great, but it’s time for me to move on? Yeah, I don’t think so either.

I held my breath as someone answered the phone. “Max?”

“Hello Mrs. Lupel, can I speak to Jenny?”

“I’m sorry Max, Jenny isn’t here right now. She went over to Katelyn’s house I believe. She mentioned Katelyn and Dean’s break-up. I think she was going to try and cheer her up. You know Jenny, always there for her friends. How are you? I noticed Steve brought Jenny home, are you… all right?

“I’m fine. I had something to take care of after school.” I paused trying to figure out how Jenny had managed to catch a ride with Steve without my seeing them together, and then shrugged. “I’m glad Steve gave her a ride,” I said.

“Ah, I see. Well I’m glad you are all right. You boys are going to win Friday night, right? You know we’re all counting on you to beat those darn Huskies! It’s the Panther’s year you know.”

I laughed. “Yeah apparently it is. We’ll do our best Mrs. Lupel. I’ll just call over to Katelyn’s and talk to Jenny there.”

“Okay Max, don’t be a stranger now. You come on by for dinner sometime this week. Bye now!”

“Bye.” I cringed as I hung up the phone. Mrs. Lupel was a nice lady. Jenny’s whole family was nice. I really hated that Jenny and I weren’t friends anymore. Part of me wished we had never started dating.

I decided to just go over to Katelyn’s instead of calling. Chances were Jenny wasn’t going to answer the phone if I called anyway. “Mom, I’ll be back!” I called as I headed out the door.

I drove slowly through the maze of streets to Katelyn’s house, and parked out front behind Steve’s truck. That really irked me. Steve shouldn’t be there. I got out of my Corvette and started walking toward the front door. I could hear voices and music coming from the back yard, so I changed directions.

Katelyn’s back yard was surrounded by a privacy fence, about eight feet high, but there were a few places that the boards were splintered and you could see into the back yard. I stood riveted next to the gate, not daring to breathe.

Jenny and Steve were dancing and kissing right there on the patio as if they had been together for years. And here I was worried about breaking her heart. Now I was ready to break more than that. It shouldn’t matter, we weren‘t really together, but it did. Did it break my heart to see her with Steve? No, it pissed me the hell off, but maybe… maybe this wasn’t what it looked like. Maybe Steve was just comforting her because of Anna. Maybe.

I continued to stare through the damaged slat at them, fighting the urge to confront them. I heard the sliding glass door open and watched Katelyn step out, cradling her cat.

“Hey guys, my mom’s gonna be home soon. You’re gonna have to go find somewhere else to make out, I mean I’m supposed to be grounded ya know,” Katelyn said.

“Okay,” Steve said a moment later as he buttoned up Jenny’s blouse. “Let’s go down to the lake again. It’s private there. No one will see us.” He took Jenny’s hand and started toward the gate.

Jenny dropped his hand in frustrated shrug. “I don’t care who sees us anymore. I am tired of hiding and sneaking around. God! Everyone thinks Max is this perfect guy,” she said, her voice filled with disgust. “And today,
finally
the Golden Boy falls off his throne. I am so sick of him. But if he thinks he is going to get away with flaunting that… that piece of trash in front of me, he has another think coming!”

“So are you done with him?”

“Maybe. Maybe Steve and I will just go to Carter’s and hang out. Maybe I’ll just let the gossips do their job. The lying jerk, thinking he can play me, when I‘ve been playing him for months!”

“I don’t know Jenny…”

I didn’t want to hear any more. If she was going to be childish I would let her. I no longer felt any need to break things off cleanly before starting anything with Anna. And to think, I hadn’t kissed Anna this afternoon out of some misplaced loyalty to Jenny. I slid behind the steering wheel and turned the key. I revved the engine just to hear its soothing purr and shifted into gear. I was out of there before Jenny and Steve walked out of the gate.

I drove. I don’t know how long I drove, but it felt like hours. I pushed the Corvette to go faster and faster. I had to have been going darn near a hundred ten when the cop, Mr. Davis, my neighbor, caught up to me. Okay, well he didn’t catch up to me, but I was probably doing a hundred when I passed him and started to slow down.

“Max? What the hell are you doing? You know darn well you shouldn’t be going that fast!”

“Sorry Mr. Davis. I know, I’ll slow down,” I said. “Are you going to give me a ticket?”

“I should. Driving that fast is dangerous Max. Especially on these old country roads, the deer don’t stop for Corvette’s, Max. I would hate to see you wreck this lovely piece of machinery.”

“I… I wasn’t thinking Mr. Davis. I promise to keep it below fifty on the country roads.”

“Max, the speed limit is thirty five,” Mr. Davis said dryly.

“Oh, right. Thirty-five. I’ll keep it at thirty five.”

“Okay, but if I catch you again, I will give you a ticket and haul your butt in to the sheriff station for reckless endangerment. You get me?”

“Yes sir. Thank you Mr. Davis.” I started the Vette back up, smiled at its answering purr, and turned it around. I drove the sedate thirty-five miles an hour back to my house. I didn’t see the panther tracking me through the woods, but I knew Anna was close by. I could feel her and I could hear her in my head again.

Max, love, are you trying to get yourself arrested?

“No, just felt the need to feel the wind racing by me,” I said it out loud; it was just easier than trying to think it. I still wasn’t sure how the whole talking in my head worked.

Soon Max you will not need your Vette to feel the wind racing by you. Soon, very soon you will move almost as fast as your Vette. We are faster than our animal equivalent. Much faster.

“Good.” I wanted speed; I wanted to go so fast that I couldn’t think anymore. It was hard to keep the Vette at thirty-five. “Where are you?” I asked into the wind.

Keeping pace with you my love, on your left side. I was tracking a deer when I felt you speed by me. It was glorious to race through the woods.

“Can I see you? I mean if I stop the Vette, will you come close to me?”

Mais oui, my love. If you wish it.

I slowed the Vette down and pulled onto the shoulder of the road. I shut off the engine and got out. I tried to peer into the dense woods across the road, but it had gotten dark and I couldn’t see much.

Do not worry Max, your eyesight will improve greatly too.

It was then that I saw her sleek black shape coming gracefully out of the woods. The sparkling of her gorgeous blue eyes told me it was her and I smiled uncertainly, nervous, half afraid of what she might do in her panther form. I watched her sit back on the other side of the road, her head tilted, as she seemed to stare at me. I could feel my heart begin to race in my chest, the adrenaline coursing fast through my veins as the anticipation of what was going to happen built inside of me and then finally she sprang into a leaping bound landing directly in front of me. It was the most incredible thing I had ever seen and I’d never been more afraid in my life.

Merci
beaucoup,
my
love,
for
I
must
take
it
as
a
compliment
that
you
find
my
ability
incredible,
however
you
have
nothing
to
fear
from
me
.