ChangingPaths (3 page)

I can’t wait.
Dropping his jaw open in their version
of a wolfy grin, he backed up a bit so that some of the other late arrivals
could greet their Alphas. He knew he’d definitely have some serious groveling
to do with Talia.

Micah and Olivia’s adopted daughter had been scared shitless
of him when she’d first met him, but now they were buddies. He’d taken her
fishing a couple of times and let her help him with the sled dogs. When he’d
given her pick of the litter of one of those sled dogs, the deal had been
sealed. Talia had decided he was okay to have around. The little girl was one
of his favorite people in the world.

Moving through the Pack, he could feel animosity from his
right and instinctively turned his body to meet the threat. He barely held back
his snarl.

Same old, same old from the three wolves growling softly at
him. They hadn’t gotten over the last ass-whipping he’d doled out and it looked
as if he’d be doing it again. Those three just didn’t understand that as long as
he had Micah’s favor and was one of the seconds in the Pack that they’d never
be able to fully defeat him. Sure, they could hurt him, they had in the past,
but they’d never be able to get rid of him, which was what they really wanted
to do. He stared at them as they paced toward him.

He let out his own growl then, baring his teeth at them to
let them know this was neither the time nor the place for their juvenile
bullshit. A presence at his left let him know that another wolf had joined
them. The three in front of him suddenly dropped to their sides then rolled,
exposing their bellies. He knew without doubt that Micah was the wolf at his
side. Even without the familiar scent, the submissive posturing of the three
would have given it away.

Are we going to have to have another talk about this?
If Micah had been in human form, Gareth knew one eyebrow would be raised and
his normally stoic face would have been somewhat pinched-looking.

No, Micah. Everything’s fine. We’re all just glad you’re
back, right boys?

He glared at the three, before letting his attention sharpen
on Luke, the usual leader of that group. All of them were still whining a bit
as they stayed on their backs. They didn’t answer him, just gave Micah his due
as their leader. The middle one urinated just a bit, making Gareth’s inner jerk
dance with pleasure. Yeah, they wouldn’t fuck with him anymore.

Blowing out some air, Micah turned and left. He waited just
a moment then followed. He could still feel some anger, but most of it had
waned in the face of their Alpha’s displeasure. They might not mind ganging up
on him at a Gathering but there is no way in hell they’d dare to do it with
Micah right there.

He turned his mind to enjoying the rest of the Gathering.
For now he’d forget all about lesser wolves with mischief on their minds,
females who smelled of honeysuckle, and sullen teenagers. For now he’d simply
enjoy the night.

“So, tell me about your life, Niece.” Willow hadn’t asked
any questions when they’d first arrived. She’d sent both mother and daughter
straight to bed after a light snack. They’d needed the nap. Now Harmony was
glad the wait for the inquisition to begin was over. Willow had returned from
her afternoon shopping with that direct question.

Now she repeated it. “I gave you the time you asked for. We’ve
had dinner. What happened?” The tone was gentle but the gaze was intense.
Harmony sighed, looking away from her aunt.

“Really? You want me to recap the last sixteen years? How
much time do we have?” She glanced toward the living room, where Rain had
flopped onto the couch after helping clear the dinner dishes. They’d spent the
time they’d been awake and alone getting their bearings. Mentally Harmony noted
that she’d have to get them both cell phones since there wasn’t a landline at
the cabin, it was just too isolated to go to the expense of installation.
Glancing toward the living room where Rain sat with closed eyes and arms
crossed over her chest, Harmony realized she could hear the tinny sound of the
music from Rain’s earphones even from this distance.

“No need to take that tone with me. I’m not the reason you
left.” Willow’s voice was firm.

“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Harmony rubbed her forehead. It
was harder than she’d thought it would be, being back here. Too many memories,
not all of them pleasant, warring for her attention. When her own parents had
died, Aunt Willow and Uncle Jake had taken her in without question. Uncle Pete
and his wife Aunt Margie had also always been there for her, people she could
depend on no matter what. They’d been the ones who would have stood sponsor for
her entry into the Pack.

And then Tom Marks had come into her life. She’d been
sixteen years old and hadn’t known yet that the moon would deny her. Though
most teens shifted right after reaching puberty her family had always taken a
bit longer. She had been looking forward to that, until Tom, then her entire
focus had been on him. He’d been so wonderful then.

With his smooth city ways and his promises of showing her
the world, he’d swept her right off her feet and into his bed. She’d lost her
virginity to him before she’d lost her heart. Then nearly lost more than that
before she’d finally gotten away from him. The only good thing he’d ever given
her now sat in the next room.

“The first couple of years weren’t so bad. I managed to get
my GED even though I was working full-time. We moved a lot. I thought it was
because Tom couldn’t catch a break, you know? He always had an excuse for
losing whatever job he’d found.”

She paused, taking a deep breath, knowing she had to get
this out of the way but not liking it at all. Fortunately Aunt Willow knew the
reason she’d returned. From her desperate reaction to that first phone call to
the last time they’d spoken right after she and Rain had reached the Wisconsin
state line, Willow had been nothing but encouraging. She’d also never taken no
for an answer.

“We’d been together for a while before things got really
bad.”

“Was that when he put you in the hospital?”

“Rain was three the first time. She’d spilled some milk and
when I didn’t get it cleaned up fast enough he just went crazy.” Yes, just like
so many other women she hadn’t learned her lesson. It had taken three more
severe beatings for her to realize that he wasn’t going to change.

With the help of her sympathetic female boss she’d left him.
She’d taken their daughter and just kept moving farther away from him until she’d
wound up in California. There she’d managed to start rebuilding her life. She
and Rain had been happy there. Until Tom had shown up in their lives again.

He’d claimed he had changed, that he still loved her and
their daughter. He’d said he wanted them back. She was no longer naive or
desperate enough to believe him but she’d wanted her daughter to know her
father. The first time Rain came home with a bruise on her arm Harmony had lost
her mind. She glanced toward the living room again. Rain hadn’t moved but she
couldn’t be sure the child wasn’t listening to their conversation instead of
her music. It seemed to her that the volume had gone down a bit.

She felt sure Rain remembered some of her father’s violent
outbursts but hoped her daughter had forgotten the more virulent ones. She knew
she’d never forget the time he’d hurt her though. Rain had told her that he’d
grabbed her arm when she told him she didn’t want to do something. The next day
Harmony had gotten an order of protection to keep him out of their lives.

It wasn’t until Tom threatened Rain again that she knew the
cops couldn’t, wouldn’t help. He always found a way to get back at them, at
her. That coupled with the fact that she felt certain Rain was going to be able
to shift had been the inducement to get her back to the res and her Pack. Rain
needed Pack. She needed someone to help her through her first shift, if that
was her fate and that someone couldn’t be either of her parents. Not only was
he too dangerous and crazy to be responsible for their daughter, Tom was also
one of the Moon-Denied.

“We’ve put that behind us, Aunt Willow. Though he’s recently
tried to get in touch with us Tom hasn’t been a welcome part of our lives for a
long time. He tried to…I gave him a chance to try to be a dad when she was
eight. That was a mistake.”

Willow’s sage nod and sad eyes told her that she understood
all the unsaid things. “Does he know you’ve come home?”

“We don’t have any contact with him. It took me too long to
get clear of him and get his parental rights revoked. I don’t care where he is.
I came back for Rain. She needs…she needs Pack.”

“Showing signs, is she?”

“Other than the typical mood swings and teen angst? Oh yes.
Her appetite has increased by more than half but she doesn’t gain any weight.
She’s not sleeping much and when she does sleep she’s restless. She’s having
what she calls ‘weird’ dreams but she won’t tell me about them.” Both women
glanced toward the living room and as though feeling their regard Rain turned
to look at them. Rolling her eyes, she got to her feet.

“Do you have Wi-Fi out here or is this place as lame as the
last motel we were in?”

“I don’t even have a computer, child.” Aunt Willow laughed
at the expression on Rain’s face but Harmony frowned. She’d already dragged
Rain thousands of miles from what she considered home, she hadn’t even thought
about everything they’d be giving up. Honestly she’d thought life on the res
might have improved since she’d last been here.

“If you want to get on the internet you have to go to the
tribal council building or the lodge. They do have it at the school you’ll be going
to and a lot of the kids from the res hang out in town after school.”

“Well, can I go for a walk or something? I don’t want to sit
around here while you two talk.” The “about me” went unspoken but Harmony saw
it in her clouded eyes.

She shook her head, prepared for the firestorm to follow,
even as Willow put a hand on her arm. “Let her go.”

Facing the teen, Willow folded her arms and assumed what
Harmony had always thought of as her “wise old lady” face. “You stay on the
paths around the cabin. Don’t venture too far into the woods. You’re not
familiar enough with the area. Don’t want you to wander off and get lost like
some pup might. There’s a sweat lodge at the back of the property. Don’t go
beyond it. And come back before it gets too dark, I’m too old to be tripping
over that uneven ground looking for you tonight.”

Rain rolled her eyes and left, closing the front door loudly
behind her. It wasn’t a full slam, because she knew that would get her in
trouble, but it was darn close. Harmony sighed as her aunt sat back down and
patted her arm again. “She can’t get into too much mischief out back, child.”

“Really? Seems as if I remember meeting a certain guy right
outside that sweat lodge about sixteen years ago.”

“Yes, but that was a special occasion. If you remember, your
grandfather was hosting a celebration then, everyone from the res was here as
well as those from outside of the Pack. Tonight most everyone’s in town or at
the lodge.” There was no need to guard their speech now. Rain wasn’t in the
room any longer.

“Speaking of which, why aren’t you there? You missed the
Gathering and you’ve been with us most of the day today. Won’t the Alpha be
angry?”

“Your uncle went to convey our respects last night. It wasn’t
necessary for both of us to be there. Besides, Micah Keeps Vigil already knows
about your return, he knew I was waiting for you to arrive. You should go to
the lodge soon with the other Moon-Denied to pay your respects and introduce
yourself to our Alpha.”

She drew in a deep breath at the casual way Willow tossed
that hated description into the room. She should have been one of the lucky
ones. Her genetic makeup was strong and true but for some reason she’d
been…denied. She felt the call of the moon, felt the Moonlust rise in her body,
but she wasn’t able to shift, had never been able to run as a wolf. Even now,
she felt as though her skin was stretched too tight over her bones. She ached
and yearned to go outside and just be in the woods. Even if she couldn’t run
with the Moon-Called, she just wanted to be…something.

Every full moon brought her pain and dreams of running and
howling that she knew would never be reality. She no longer woke in tears—well,
not every month, since she’d learned to knock herself out with over-the-counter
sleep aids. Now she needed to find out if her daughter was also one of the
Denied or if she would be one of the Moon-Called. Her belly clenched. Rain
should
be chosen. If she could give up her life for her child to have that ability,
she knew she would.

Since Tom couldn’t shift and neither could she, odds were
good that Rain wouldn’t either, but she couldn’t take that chance. Rain needed
Pack. She needed to be with others who knew what she was going through and who
could help her where her mother couldn’t.

Her aunt watched her silently. “Harmony, I said should.
Micah knows you’ve only just arrived. He’s different than the last Alpha—not as
idiotic about Moon-Denied. He’s given you a week before you must come to see
him.”

She hugged her aunt in gratitude. One week to gather up her
courage to meet this Alpha. She knew her aunt wouldn’t lie about something this
important but it was hard to believe in an Alpha who didn’t relegate the Denied
to the back of the shifter bus.

Rain turned the volume back up on her MP3 player, stomping
through the grass as she thought about what she’d heard. Her mom and her
great-aunt didn’t know for sure that she’d been listening. The earbuds fooled
people a lot of the time. Being here was totally lame. And the explanation that
her mother gave her about some stupid freaking genetic thing in their family
was just as stupid.

There was no way she was sick. She felt fine. She was
fine
.

So what if her appetite had increased. She wasn’t gaining
weight. It wasn’t as if she had some stupid eating disorder. She didn’t want to
think about the dreams that had been waking her up and keeping her awake. Teeth
and claws. Things that belonged in some horror movie, not her bed.

Looking around, she realized she’d reached the end of the
mown lawn. A lumpy-looking structure caught her eye and she veered toward it.
This must be the sweat lodge Aunt Willow had mentioned. She’d read about them
but had never seen one in real life.

Walking around the outside, she trailed her hand over the
structure. A pleasant herbal smell wafted around the lodge, mixing with the
sweet scent of the grass and even the muskier odor of the dirt around her. She
had never really noticed stuff like that before. Rain sighed. Before all the
weird in her life, her eyes had been her main source of learning about a new
place. Now it was her nose. Everything had a signature scent—like some crazy
perfume store. And no way could she go into one of those places—it was like
stuffing a thousand different things up her nose. Gross.

She tilted her head back, looking up at the trees, and
pulled her earbuds out. The trees were taller and thicker than she’d ever seen
but she’d never lived in the middle of a forest before. That guy who had picked
them up was all pine like this place. He must spend a lot of time in the woods.
Her mother smelled too. She was the honeysuckle bush that had bloomed behind
their house in California. Then Aunt Willow was all gingerbread and cookies.

It was totally weird to think of people that way.
Gingerbread. Pine. Flowers. She wondered about her own scent, what others
thought about her. Or was it just her? Did everyone go around sniffing each
other? Maybe she was sick. Maybe she did have some bizarre disease.

She shoved her hood back then spun toward the house.
Movement at the tree line caused her to still. Someone was over there, just at
the edge of the woods. Someone just standing there, watching her. She tensed
when a guy moved out of the shadows. Rain drew in a deep breath, ready to
scream.

He held his hands out to the sides and moved slowly,
obviously aware that he’d scared her. “Hey.”

His voice came out soft but she could hear him. He smiled in
the gathering darkness as he stopped. He was close enough for her to see him
clearly, not so close that he was making her nervous. “Hey.”

“You must be Willow’s great-niece. I’m Keme Cloud. I was
just on my way home from the council building. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

She couldn’t think of a single thing to say. He was the best-looking
guy she’d ever seen. Coming from California, where every other kid was trying
to be a model or an actor, that was saying something. Black hair, natural, not
dyed as hers had been before she’d changed to pink, brushed his shoulders. Dark
eyes, she couldn’t really tell if they were brown or a dark green or even
black, just that they were dark.