Unknown Touch (28 page)

I mentally told her,
Rachel, you said you were determined to come with us on the hunt. Once we catch up to Stephen and David, and Daniel and Isaac tackle Stephen to the ground, David is probably going to be stunned by all the action and the sheer number in our group. I think you should blurt it out at that point that you're pregnant. It will catch everyone off guard. And with David viewing what I'm afraid will be a pretty violent take-down of Stephen, you will have your own little element of surprise to throw at David. It will get his attention as he's trying to decide whether to go all-out bad boy and attack or to back away from the commotion with Stephen. You should be able to draw him to you. Reach out to him. Even attempt to use your own psychic power, no matter how limited it is.

Rachel then spoke aloud, "We've got our own plan, don't we?" She smiled. I sensed determination and a feeling of camaraderie.

"Yes, we do. There are several plans all needing to fall into place, but certain people will be in charge of different plans. You know which plan you're responsible for now. And I know you will handle yourself perfectly with your announcement," I smiled back at her. We shared a secret that was going to be blown sky high within the next few hours.

Daniel wandered over to us, curious as to what we had been mentally discussing for so long. I chose to keep the secret to myself, which meant I had to temporarily put up a tiny mental block around this new knowledge of Rachel's pregnancy. The confession from Rachel had to have maximum shock value in order to create the effect we wanted to achieve, mostly on David.

"Kara, as you two have been getting all buddy-buddy over here, which is great I might add," Daniel announced, "Simon and I realized you needed to be made aware of a werewolf phenomenon that Isaac and I are most likely going to use today. It has to do with transforming from human to wolf form. You've seen me as a wolf, which is the form we almost always transform to. But, there is another shape we can take. Rarely do any of us choose this other form, as it isn't necessary and if any humans happened to see it, our exposure to society would be greatly at risk. At least when we appear as wolves, we may be much larger than the average wolf, but if a human catches us, it's not as likely to draw as much attention as this other shape we can take. It's more man and less wolf but quite terrifying to the human eye. It could be considered an in between stage of transforming. Half human, half wolf. You see me now as a human man. And you've seen the large wolf I can become. But, you haven't seen this beast shape I can take. I am just forewarning you so you don't freak out at a critical moment during our attack on Stephen."

"Thanks for the advance notice," I grimly stated. And here I thought I knew everything about werewolves by now.

Chapter 22

Caught

Daniel dropped a bomb with his revelation to me. I thought werewolves were either in human form or wolf form, not an alternate option of a half-man, half-wolf creature. No one had ever mentioned this to me. I replayed in my head Daniel's process of transforming into a wolf. It had always occurred in the blink of an eye and the next thing you were staring at was a large wolf. If I slowed down the process in my head, I vaguely could picture what did resemble a horrific looking beast, just for a brief second, as his body magically converted itself into a four-legged animal.

"So, when were you planning on showing me this side of yourself?" I gruffly asked. I felt hurt that he had never explained this to me. I looked over at the rest of The Liaison members as they stood and shrugged their shoulders as if this wasn't a big deal.

Daniel explained, "As I said, we rarely take that shape. During part of a normal transformation, we can decide to make a clear and conscious effort to pause it mid-way through, before turning into a wolf. At that point, we'll be in the shape of a true beast."

"I want you or someone to show me right now," I insisted. I, again, looked over at my team of humans and asked, "Have any of you seen this alternate shape shifting?"

Eli admitted, "Actually, no, we haven't. We are aware of their ability to take that shape, though."

Daniel and Isaac had brought extra clothes along in case of any spur of the moment body changing since that tended to destroy any clothes they were wearing at the time. I knew this information, and since I felt they owed me this, I didn't care how many clothes they ruined. I wasn't expecting both of them to show me, but together they walked away a few feet, made sure they had everyone's attention, and proceeded to let their bodies ripple and reshape themselves. I swear they had grown about six inches taller, shirts burst off, but their pants only ripped slightly, as powerful muscles and dark furry hair made an appearance all over their bodies. Their heads turned into that of vicious wolves, very gruesome, with huge muzzles and sharp teeth. They had rigid, tall, pointy ears that twitched, trying to capture the sounds around them. Hands became deadly claws. I remembered Cassius had turned his hands into that form when he and Daniel had fought. Before this display, Daniel and Isaac had luckily kicked their shoes off, knowing their feet would also change into a cross between feet and paws. They stood up right, towering over me.

Needless to say, I was shocked. I had to keep telling myself not to be scared, they were not going to hurt me. Eli, Dom, Zac and Tessa were also intrigued to get the opportunity to see this phenomenon. At least they were already aware of this side to the werewolves, so they weren't quite as freaked out as myself. I thought to test my mental connection with Daniel.

Daniel, can you still hear me in this form?

He immediately answered,
Yes, I can hear you. So, I doubt you would still consider me a cute wolf anymore, huh? Don't flip out, though. I realize I look like a monster, but this change was completely voluntary with no underlying aggression. I'm in control.

He reached out to caress my face, ever so carefully, as he now had razor sharp fingernails that could slice through my skin. I sensed that almost everyone held their breath and a few gasps slipped out as Daniel touched me. My peripheral vision caught Dominic moving towards us, as he suddenly feared for my life. I quickly sent Dom a mental message indicating everything was fine. I closed my eyes for a few brief seconds while Daniel's hand cupped my chin. I felt strangely safe. I don't think Daniel could ever hurt me. He would do something to himself first, to prevent any harm coming to me. He was positively wild to look at, but I had to allow acceptance of what stood before me. I did love Daniel and this was a part of him I could not be in denial of.

I asked him, "Can you speak out loud?"

Daniel cleared his throat, which sounded more like a dog coughing, and attempted speech, "Rough."

I smiled. "Okay, was that word rough or was that like ruff, ruff? Tell me psychically." I could not believe I made a joke of this.

Nice one.
His facial expression appeared to take on some form of a smile, or at the least, it had a contented look to it.
The word was meant to be 'rough'. As you can see, speaking out loud is very difficult. The shape of my mouth has changed into a long muzzle plus there are other internal differences as compared to a human mouth. Sometimes I can bark or growl out a word or two, but it's usually hard to understand what I'm trying to say. My mind still functions the same, as I'm able to speak to you with our normal mental link without any problems. Okay, I'm going to step away and transform back to human shape now.

Daniel and Isaac were like synchronized swimmers as they instantly appeared in their human shape once again, both at the exact same time. Personally, I think they were showing off.

Isaac explained, "As you can imagine, we can kick ass better in that form. We're stronger, faster, and have full use of our hands, plus our size is an advantage that will help bring down Stephen. We're much more dangerous as a beast, and can be extremely destructive. We don't think he has enough control over his emotions and transforming skills to even take the shape of a beast right now. He just switches between human and wolf form. But, you never know. He could have been practicing and learning how to take that shape over the last few months."

Daniel started up, "Enough show and tell until later. Good chance you'll get to see this act again. Isaac and I are going to the truck to change into new clothes. Then, let's get Stephen's scent and follow the trail."

Partially ripped jeans was about all that remained on them. They quickly made the trip back to the truck, changed clothes, and rejoined the group. Daniel brought with him a small backpack for me to carry. Inside were clothes for himself and Isaac, obviously they were prepared for future shape shifting. Zac and Tessa retrieved their weapons, once again handing Eli, Dom and me knives or guns for self protection.

Simon pointed out the direction into the woods that Stephen and David had taken that morning. Daniel and Isaac knelt down to the ground and sniffed four or five times. They wanted to have those scents accumulate in their nasal passages to ensure better success with tracking. Daniel announced, "Let the games begin."

The rest of us followed Daniel and Isaac into the heavily wooded area. We stayed fairly close to one another, with Eli, Dom and me more centrally located within the group. This was for our protection since we were the weakest links, the ones less able to defend ourselves against an attack. Dom and I had never met David, so there was absolutely no mind reading capability with him. Any time we tried to connect to Stephen's mind, it always ended up being the same scenario. He still had a mental block erected against anyone trying to gain access and all we could gather were the usual emotions he emitted pertaining to aggression. Occasionally, I'd get a glimpse, just basic images, such as trees or another werewolf he spoke to, which I assumed was David, or an animal he was tracking. None of that was helpful at the moment. It didn't give us an exact location to catch him. Simon had informed us that Stephen was going hunting for deer. And that meant in his wolf form, not as a human hunter with a gun.

We slowly plodded through the woods. Daniel and Isaac were on high alert and had a definite scent they were following. It was odd but interesting to observe their behavior. They were still in human form, but took on some traits of a dog or wolf. Daniel would pause to take in several quick sniffs, then raise his head to the breeze which would confirm that he was heading in the correct direction. Some of the scents were actually urine markings on trees or simply the ground; after all, Stephen and David were in the form of wolves, and they did feel the need to mark their territory. Daniel and Isaac had taken in the scents of both wolves, although each tried to concentrate on only one. Daniel, I knew, would insist on tracking Stephen, and Isaac would focus more on David. If the wolves split up, they would know right away.

We were only in the woods for about fifteen minutes, when both Daniel and Isaac stopped abruptly, their heads cocked to the side, listening intently with their acute hearing. Daniel bent low to the ground and once again checked all the scents available. Something was up.

Daniel signaled for everyone to come close, and he whispered, "Stephen and David are together. I believe they are just around those trees up there. The sound we heard was them attacking a deer. I can smell the blood. It just happened within the last minute or so. They are completely distracted with their kill and feeding at the moment, so I'm fairly sure we are undetected for now. But, we need to make a strategic move. There isn't enough time to surround them and they would become aware of the sounds of our approach by the time we could even try to do that. So, we'll spread out our line somewhat, and surge in on them while they're still finishing off the deer. Most of this will be a play it by ear situation. But we each have designated roles to fill, so, everyone, get prepared quietly and move in."

Daniel immediately hugged me, gave me a kiss, and mentally said,
Kara, I love you. Please be careful. Don't get close to Stephen until Isaac and I have him under our control. Good luck.

Daniel,
I responded promptly,
I love you, too.
You
are heading into a fight.
You
be careful.

Daniel and Isaac removed their clothes and shoes and transformed into the beast – half human, half wolf. United, we stealthily crept forward and peered through the trees and bushes into the clearing at the scene. Stephen and David were feeding on the deer. They were about done, just picking at it, shoving it around with their noses, looking for any spare morsels. I could not comprehend that they didn't sense our impending attack. I suppose they were so confidant in themselves, so arrogant and were thoroughly engrossed in this feeding frenzy that they truly didn't have a clue what was about to happen. I wasn't about to try a mental link with Stephen right then, as that could draw his attention away from the deer and tip him off to my close proximity.

Daniel and Isaac nodded and signaled to everyone along the line to make their move. As we entered the small clearing, some of us were tight up against the trees, and all, but two, made sure their presence was well known. Stephen and David, still in wolf form, jerked their heads up from the deer carcass. They looked left and right, taking in all the individuals showing themselves. I could sense their fear, anger, and confusion as to what to do next. Stephen's body was slightly sloped forward, feet braced, hair bristled on the shoulders, back and tail. His lips were curled up which exposed the gums and sharp teeth, visible wrinkles could be seen above his nose, ears were held aggressively forward. We could hear a slow, low-pitched growl that seemed to come from the chest and finally direct eye contact was made with Daniel.

At the same time, David had taken on some similar body signs, but with much less dominance and a very unsure nature. His feet were braced, hair bristled up only on his shoulders, his tail wagged slowly in a low position, and his lips curled up revealing some teeth. David's eyes were blinking, not really staring directly at any one in particular. His ears were pulled back flat, with some wrinkling on the forehead. I could hear a higher-pitched growl that was almost a bark. He was not expecting to be hunted down by so many humans and werewolves. I had a feeling we wouldn't have much trouble from him.