Wild Ones (18 page)

I was led into
the main house by a young witch called Jess, who seemed to be the
complete antithesis of all things witchy. She was young and pretty
and painfully cheerful, and chattered excitedly all the way from
the front door to a small bedroom on the second floor.

"Your bedroom,"
she explained. "There's a bathroom down the passage, and we have a
selection of clothes that you can help yourself to. There are a
couple of other wild ones here at the moment, and once you've
settled in I can take you to the sitting room where they are, and
introduce you."

"Great,
thanks." I was absurdly pleased by the offer of fresh clothes, and
the bedroom, though simply furnished in pine and calico, looked
comfortable enough. I was desperate for a shower and a change of
clothes and a toothbrush. The small things in life.

"Soap, shampoo,
toothbrushes, everything you might need will be in the bathroom.
Just look in the cupboard under the basin. I'll come back for you
in, say, twenty minutes?"

"That sounds
good. Clothes?"

"This way," she
said, and showed me to a bedroom sized cupboard filled with jeans
and t-shirts and warm looking jumpers. There were a few drawers
filled with underwear, some of it a bit too daring for my fairly
conservative tastes. Jess disappeared tactfully, and I selected
about a dozen items in my size, and wandered back to my assigned
bedroom, where I removed all the labels, and packed some of the
clothes into a small wooden chest of drawers. I gathered up a bra,
panties, jeans and a t-shirt and went to find the bathroom.

Twenty minutes
later I felt like a new person, and padded down a carpeted passage
behind Jess as she led me to a large sitting room near the centre
of the house. She paused on the threshold of the room, as if about
to perform a momentous ritual, and then she waved me into the room
with a flourish. Drama queen, I thought.

"Ladies," she
said annoyingly. "This is Cassie. Cassie was brought here by Leif
Grantham. Cassie," she turned to me. "These are, from left,
Madeleine Grantham, the Lady Milla Blake, Jenna Blake and
Olivia."

I smiled
nervously at the women, who all wore jeans and t-shirts, and
occupied a couch and two armchairs. They all stared back at me with
friendly expressions.

"Go away,
Jess," the woman sitting second from the left suggested in a soft
voice. "And close the door behind you, please."

Jess bobbed a
curtsey, and left.

"I'm Maddie,"
said the woman on the far left. She had long dark hair and
startling blue eyes, and an attitude. I liked her immediately.
"That's a load of crap about my surname being Grantham, by the way.
The witches insist on calling me by that name, but Cade is not my
mate or husband or whatever these nutjobs want to call him.
Pregnancy or no pregnancy." I grinned to myself. This woman was
perfect for what I'd seen of Cade. She would take him on. Or not,
as she was insisting. I almost felt sorry for him.

"Millie," said
the woman sitting next to her with the same blue eyes and dark
hair, but a softer expression. "And this is Jen and Liv. Liv
arrived just before you did, and we were about to share some
information. You're welcome to join us."

"Thanks," I
said, sitting in an old leather wingback chair opposite them, and
waiting expectantly.

"Right," Millie
began. "I'm not sure if you've been told about the wild gene." Nods
all around the room. "Well, I discovered I had the wild gene after
I was abducted by a couple of vampires and raped by one of them
while the other held me down." She said the words flatly, but I
could tell that she was still distressed by what had happened. I
wondered if this was going to turn into a weird support group. I
glanced at the faces of the other women, and thought that it
wouldn't be a bad idea, actually.

"I found out I
was pregnant a couple of days later, and was tattooed with the name
of the vampire who had impregnated me. Left wrist, left thigh. And
now apparently I belong to him, and cannot be touched by any other
vampire or wolf for as long as Atticus is alive. Which sucks in one
way, because who wants to be tied to someone who raped you, no
matter how careful they were, or how well intentioned. But in most
ways it's actually a good thing. The vampire that they're all
hunting found me when I went shopping, and he was going to try to
abduct me, but unlike Atticus, who tried desperately not to hurt
me, this Marcus wanted to rape and kill me. I could see he would
get a kick out of something like that. I showed Marcus and his
brother the tattoo on my wrist, and they basically crapped their
pants and ran. Marcus will be executed simply for touching me." She
paused. "Good riddance."

"I met Marcus
too," said Olivia quietly. We waited for her to continue.

"He stabbed me
in the leg and abducted me, and he was going to rape me too. I
injected him with a drug we use to anaesthetise patients, and
managed to escape. Hugo told Atticus and Julius where I left him,
but he wasn't there anymore. I hope they get him soon. He is
evil."

"He would have
killed you, Liv," said Millie. "Sex with a vampire is a
life-threatening exercise, and if they're not very careful, you'd
end up being badly damaged. And if, like Marcus, they're not
careful at all, you would die."

"Yeah," said
Maddie, noting our confused expressions. "They have massive dicks
with spikes on them. Not for the faint hearted."

Millie and
Jenna nodded emphatically. Olivia paled. Jenna cleared her throat,
and spoke then, hesitantly at first.

"I was almost
raped by four of them. Marcus and his three brothers. But Julius
and Atticus rescued me by shooting them to pieces. I was surprised
they'd survived that, but apparently they heal amazingly well.
Millie explained everything to me when they took me back to their
place. So I asked if Julius would do the honours for me, and he
did, and it wasn't that bad. It was pretty good, actually," she
said with a shy smile. "I would have died that day, no doubt about
it, but Julius and Atticus rescued me, and now I will hopefully be
protected, just like Millie here. I also really like Julius, and my
daughter Sophie will have a little brother. I had a husband, but he
turned out to be not the nicest man, so no loss there."

"And you,
Cassie?" Maddie directed her question at me. Gosh, what to say.

"Well, I met
Leif when he rescued me from another wolf that wanted to abduct me
too." I stopped for a few seconds. "I'm starting to see a theme
here."

"Yeah," said
Maddie. "Sucks to have the wild gene."

"True," I said.
"Sucks big time. But we can't change our genetics, and if the way
we smell is going to make us a target for every sex starved vampire
or wolf, we will always be in terrible danger. So I made the
decision to accept what is, and to make the best of a crappy
situation. Luckily Leif was the one who rescued me, so the decision
wasn't as hard as some of the ones you guys have had to make. But I
am safe now, and in a few days, with any luck, I will be out of
reach of all but a few nutcases like Marcus, and that is something
I can live with. If I have to bear a child for a man I hardly know,
then so be it. I will live, and even though I hardly know Leif, I
am comfortable enough with that decision. Plus he's seriously hot,"
I added, trying to inject a touch of flippancy into a sombre
conversation. I saw Maddie's eyes narrow.

"I know what
Cade did to you, Maddie," Liv added in her quiet voice. "Hugo told
me. But I'm not sure if you know why he did what he did. Apparently
he'd been watching you for a while, but was too shy to ask you
out."

"Cade? Shy?"
Maddie said incredulously.

"I know. Sounds
bizarre. But there were four wolves hanging around watching you,
and Cade took them all on when he heard that they were going to
take you. He saved you from that, at least. And apparently there is
a code in their pack that says that if a wild one strays onto their
land, and the pack leader doesn't claim her that night, and by
claim, I mean.."

"I know what
you mean," interjected Maddie wryly.

"Well, if he
didn't claim you, the rest of the pack would have had dibs, and
Hugo says they like to share." Maddie paled at that, and looked
sick.

"He did
say that he couldn't let the pack have me," she whispered. "I wish
he'd bloody explained
before
..."

"You
know, I told Atticus the same thing," said Millie. "He told me that
they didn't think I'd believe them. Well maybe I wouldn't have
believed them, but I still think they could have
tried
to explain."

"Typical men,"
said Jen sourly. "If Millie hadn't been there to explain things for
me, I would have been in the same boat. I was so grateful to you,"
she smiled at Millie.

"Well," I said.
"We have an opportunity here."

"What, to form
a special unit that goes around hunting vampires and
shapeshifters?" said Millie, grinning. "I hear they're pretty hard
to kill."

"God, no. I met
Cade, and he scared the bejeezus out of me. I wouldn't take him on
for anything."

"I'm not scared
of him," said Maddie flatly. "He bleeds the same as all men do. I
stabbed him in the gut," she explained when she saw my bewildered
expression. I grinned widely. Yup, she was perfect for him.

"The
opportunity..." I tried again, and this time they sat silently
while I tried to think of a way to explain what I was thinking.

"Two things.
The first is easy enough. We have knowledge that should be
available to all wild ones. It shouldn't be hard to do that. I've
been meaning to write a book, and this could really make a
difference to women like us, women with the wild gene."

"I see it now,"
grinned Maddie. "An Idiot's Guide to the Wild Gene."

"Smartass,"
Millie told her, chuckling. "It's a damn fine idea, though. But it
has to be a book that people would read. Maybe a story. Non-fiction
disguised as fiction?"

"You could tell
my story," Liv offered. "But you'd have to change my name and not
mention any places that could identify where we live. I'm a doctor,
and I really would like to avoid any attention that might affect my
professional reputation."

"OK," I
said.

"You could tell
all our stories," suggested Millie. "We have a couple of days
together while our men are chasing that freak."

"OK," I said
again, pleased and stunned that they had accepted the idea so
easily. I had been worried that they would laugh it off, but
apparently they also saw the value in it.

"The second
thing," I started slightly more hesitantly than before.

"Spit it out,
Cass" said Maddie teasingly.

" We could
change things. Together we could make them change their goddamn
precious Law so wild ones would be protected from the kinds of
abuses some of us have had to endure." I stopped and looked around
the room, expecting incredulity. But they were nodding.

"I would make
Cade change the rules governing his pack. The would be no more
fucking sharing," Maddie's expression was resolute. "If he wants
me, he's going to have to make a bloody big effort." She glanced at
Millie who sat next to her, open mouthed in amazement at her
statement. "I can't stay here forever. I'm bored shitless, and
there's something wrong with these witches. I don't trust
them."

"I know
what you mean," said Liv. "They seemed very keen to know if I was
pregnant yet. One of them, Meredith I think her name was, suggested
that she could knew of another wolf looking for a mate. I told her
no, but she said we'd have to wait and see, and there was a twenty
percent chance it didn't
take
,
whatever that means. She creeps me out."

"Also," added
Maddie. "I think Millie is secretly a bit in love with Atticus, and
I would not be surprised if she abandoned me here." She softened
her words with a big grin. Millie blushed, but admitted
nothing.

"It's
really hard
not
to like them,"
I said, the voice of reason. "They look so good and they have so
much, er, talent. And if they weren't such a bunch of dicks about
this, if they actually asked first, they'd be impossible to resist.
They need to be
told
."

"Let's do this
then," said Maggie with a wolfish grin. I thought of the child in
her belly, the combination of her and Cade, and decided, no matter
what, I would make sure to be his favourite aunt. Self
preservation, see.

"I need a
laptop."

Millie managed
to persuade the witches to give me an old laptop that was gathering
dust in one of the many storage barns that littered the extensive
acreage surrounding the alleged sanctuary. I think she actually
ordered them to do it. She seemed to be getting used to being the
wife of a powerful vampire. I was just pleased with my score - it
was a lot bigger and newer than the one I'd left in that cabin in
the woods.

I fired it up
and sat in that sitting room, listening to their stories. Some of
them were excruciatingly hard to hear. Maddie and Millie sat
together, cousins, but in a far more real sense, sisters too, and
best friends. Their stories were the hardest of all. I made frantic
notes during these sessions, and sat into the early hours of the
morning, typing and remembering the expressions on their faces as
they had spoken the words that appeared in black and white on my
screen.

The sessions
became a kind of therapy for all of us, and at the end of five days
we had formed a bond beyond anything I could ever have imagined. We
were all determined to make the best of the situations we had been
catapulted into. Even Maddie seemed to be looking forward to Cade
returning. Probably so she could yell at him, and boss him about,
but it was progress of a sort.