Unnaturals (46 page)

`Sure,' the girl purred, holding up hand. `Take me.'

`Right,' he muttered, grabbing her hand. The aroma coming off her was… His groin throbbed.

`Nice,' she said with a wink. `You're perfect. Can we mate?'

He tried to step back, but a hand cupped his sex. Fine claws pricked even through the suit. Intense.

`What are you doing?' Renee yelled, landing beside him. `You're—' She faltered.

Scarla pulled him closer. `Is he yours?' she asked Renee. Bright purple eyes stared at him. `Do you share him with Hunter?'

Ralph choked. He had never seen Renee lost for words and the image he pictured of the two of them making love didn't help. `No, she doesn't,' he said, reaching down to release himself carefully from her grip.

She held his hand instead. `We need to move from here; much is happening.' She looked over her shoulder for a moment, tone soft. `Hunter is awakening. He came for me. I knew he would. He is a True Hunter.'

Ralph pulled Scarla away from Mason, aware of Renee's eyes hot on him. `Is he hurt?'

`No,' Scarla said. `His wounds I healed. He needs to be strong for the battle tonight.'

`
You
healed him?' Renee asked, touching Mason carefully. He had begun to stir.

Ralph looked down at Scarla and felt that persistent throb once more. Before this moment he'd never have believed it wouldn't have hurt to see Renee with Mason, so connected and in love. He still wanted Renee, and she hadn't said no, but somehow Scarla's presence changed everything.

`I have the gift, Huntress. One of many. He will be strong again soon, and ready.'

Ready? Wait. A battle tonigh? `What's happening tonight?'

Scarla looked up at him. No smile this time. Her scales flashed black and her scent changed; sharp, hard. Like Mason's. `We fight. To live. To keep Bemeon out of this world.'

She was so desirable. And cold. But desirable. He couldn't let her distract him. Movement caught his eye and he tore his gaze from Scarla to Mason, now standing unmarked, with Renee.

`So it is happening tonight?'

`Yes, my Lord,' Scarla squeaked, and curtsied. `Bemeon comes this night. The Bloodells are here, making their Stronghold for his coming.'

`Where?'

Mason moved towards Scarla, and Ralph pushed down the impulse step between them. To protect her. This was not good.

`In the city you call Sydney. They intend to crush the Darkells first. Bemeon will kill all who stand against him and feed upon the humans of Sydney. Then he will be unstoppable.'

`How is this possible?' Renee asked, looking more like Huntress. Scales raced across Mason.

`A portal will be opened by his priestess and he will come. It was she went to your home seeking her child.' She leaned against Ralph. `I had planned that you would kill her there, but my plan failed.' A sob shook her. `Ruth was taken.'

Ralph put his arms around her. What was it about her?

`It is not your fault,' Mason said, touching her arm gently. `You helped her—'

`We still cannot trust her,' Renee snapped. Her fingers dug into Mason's shoulder. Anger clouded her eyes. `She is not one of us. Her story has too many holes in it.'

Mason flexed his shoulders. `Scarla is with us, understood?' Ralph heard the finality in his voice.

Renee's lips went white.

`Sirens. Time to leave,' Ralph said, breaking the moment.

Mason glanced at him, nostrils flared. He can taste it too, Ralph thought. Conflict.

`Agreed. Hands,' Mason said.

Renee was still wrapped around him, fuming. Jumping was something Ralph had still to get used to. But he trusted Mason. He gripped Mason's arm, and Scarla reached out to touch him.

`Back to the warehouse?'

`Yes. Scarla, hold on please,' Mason extended a hand.

`Okay,' she said, taking his hand and looking straight at Renee. `You have the gift?'

Mason looked at the tiny scaled hand wrapped in his.

Don't linger on it, please, Ralph thought, aware of his own discomfort in seeing Mason touching her. What was Renee feeling?

`Interesting,' Mason said, looking closely at Scarla. `We have much to talk about.'

Sirens wailed. Hurry, man, Ralph thought. Many footsteps approached, then his senses cut short and there was only the cold of the jump.

 

Wolf. It was everywhere, covering him. Mason exhaled, focusing on the faces around him. All Wolf. Everywhere.

Excitement and anger blended with the wall of Wolf surrounding him. His vision bled red. Hunter shifted in him.

`Steady,' Renee said, pulling at his arm. `We're at the warehouse. Some of the packs are here.'

Another breath and his vision cleared, less Hunter and more Mason. They were just faces, men, women. All staring. The familiar grey walls of the warehouse rose in the background. Asphalt warmed under his feet. He had jumped back to the car park.

Movement. Ricco, at his side, guarded. `Mason. Eleanor explained it to me. This spot is kept clear. It is your jump spot. We will always ensure none stand here.'

`Inside.' The anger and excitement fed his own. He felt humanity on the verge of slipping away. He wanted to be Hunter, to kill and take his revenge.

`Um. My hand.'

Fine scaled fingers wriggled in his hand. It was Scarla, naked and watching him with wide purple eyes. `Stick with Ralph. Go get some clothes on.'

`Okay.' She blinked and smiled with teeth that invoked a soft rumble from him. Scarla made him feel more like Hunter. `Will this do?'

Scales rippled. Her hard pink nipples vanished and the soft curve of her sex disappeared under a shimmer of colour while they watched. Clothing made of scales covered her, barely. Renee's nails dug into his skin.

`Just.' Mason nodded at Ralph and turned away, eyes closed. He had felt Ruth's touch for an instant. A whisper perhaps?

`Dad!' Wilson stood in the doorway, waving, face conflicted. `This way, quick.'

Mason headed for the door. Ricco and Ralph brushed past him, acting as an escort through the crowd. He could see the glances from the watching crowd, some stiff, others excited.

`They're with us,' Renee whispered beside him. `Stop looking at people as if they're a threat. You make them nervous.'

`I don't have the time to make friends here,' he said, looking at her.

`You don't have to,' Ralph said, letting Mason past into the warehouse. `These are my kind — Wolves. When the elders get here it will be me who speaks to them, not you. Understand?'

`Agree with him,' Renee said.

`Done.' Mason didn't stop or ask Renee why. He could see Wilson pacing inside. Nikki stood beside her mother, looking pale. Heat greeted him as he entered. Tiny fingers of white flame crackled over Wilson. `You're doing that? The fire?'

`Yes!' Wilson snapped back.

Mason paused. The fire was not the cause of Wilson's agitation. He was stressed in a way that went a lot deeper. All the sounds and voices around him faded; Wilson's voice was all he wanted to hear.

`They're coming here, to Sydney.' Wilson didn't ask, he knew. `This isn't about us any more, Dad. I know that. Something very bad is going to happen. It's big.' He stopped pacing and stood, looking right into Mason's eyes.

`Nikki's child, I can feel him. He's frightened. My brother speaks to me when he can. Dad, my brother can speak to me. He knows what's coming. That's why he is growing so fast.' Wilson's voice trailed off. Mason could see his eye glaze over for a moment. Then he grinned. `And so is my sister.'

`What?' Mason glanced at Nikki. Twins?

`Mum's pregnant, Dad.' Wilson took him by the shoulders, his hands hot, intense. `You hear me? Mum's pregnant.'

A daughter? Ruth? Tears warmed his eyes. For so long after Wilson, he and Ruth had tried for another child and he'd dreamed of a daughter. Somehow, in this chaos, the impossible had happened.

`Dad?' Wilson leaned in, eyes closed. `Promise me,' Wilson pressed his forehead against Mason's, `promise you're going to be here after all this. Don't lose yourself to the thing inside you.'

Mason hugged him. He struggling to speak, his heart was so full of love. How could he manage to say what burnt hot in his heart? The words stopped his throat.

`I hear you, Dad,' Wilson whispered, holding tight.

He sighed, so grateful words weren't needed. Everything he wanted to say could be said in the way they held each other. He would do anything for family, the most precious gift of all.

`We all can hear you,' Renee whispered, her hands on his shoulder.

`That's why,' Eleanor said softly as she joined them, Nikki by her side, `I and so many of our kind are drawn to you, Mason. Under that warrior is a real person, fighting for a purpose we believe in ourselves. We too want to protect our children, our family, regardless of who we are.'

`Truth,' Ralph and Ricco said in unison, their Wolf heat touching him on the back.

`You understand, Dad?' Wilson let him go. `We need you to be that savage darkness. We need Hunter. But it is you we want back. Give me your word. Say it.'

Mason hesitated. Many eyes rested on him, waiting.

They knew he could be lost to the darkness, become the monster. Love would bring him back.

To his family. His children.

Wilson had asked for his word knowing that for him, a Douglas, it would be binding in every way, down to the genetic level.

`I give you my word. I will come back.'

Pete leant against a cold, shadowed wall and listened to the howl fading in the cool evening air. The Fund warehouse loomed across the street. He shivered.

`I hear you,' he muttered, watching the steel security gate close again. He knew the men and women flocking to the warehouse were Wolves. All of them moved with the same fluidity his brother had displayed after his Wolf had tried to come.

`Why are you here?'

He twisted. The youngest of Ralph's boys watched him warily. Justin? He was bigger though, and his eyes had changed. Flecks of yellow floated across the iris.

`You're not one of us.'

`No.' Pete forced himself to relax, keeping his hands visible. At ease. No sudden movements with a Wolf, he remembered. Especially one suited up, looking like he was ready to jump.

The Wolf tilted his head, as if listening. `You want Mason.'

Pete hesitated, recognising he hadn't been asked a question.

`He's busy right now.' Justin lifted his head and looked at Pete, eyes brightening. He grinned, more kid than Wolf. `He knows you're here, but now is
so
not a good time.'

Pete took a deep breath, not caring how busy Mason was.

`I have something I think he'll need.'

The kid disappeared and the Wolf stared back at him. Pete willed himself still, under the sudden shaft of cold spiking his arm. For a moment of madness he wondered if the leather had burnt away under the assault, but of course it hadn't. He struggled against checking the concealed sheath strapped on his forearm.

`You do know what's happening?' Justin looked past him.

Sounds that could only be claws on concrete filled the air. Wolves moved about the city openly and unafraid, their howls as much a part of the cityscape as the sound of traffic had been.

After the attack on the Douglas home, the Fund mobilising and the media frenzy that followed, he had an idea something big was happening. `Not exactly. It's about Bloodells, and I'd say you expect it's going to get a lot uglier.'

Justin nodded, Wolf shifting under his skin. `They have Mason's wife. They have Ruth.'

Pete sucked in a breath. Shit.

The Wolf closed his eyes and a distant chorus rose in the night air. `An ancient darkness comes. Hunter calls us to fight and the streets will run red with the blood of our enemy. War is coming, and you need to leave, to find a safe place to be with your family.'

When he opened his eyes, the Wolf was under control and he was Justin again.

Pete shook his head, sure that what he had Mason would need. `I have something belonging to the Bloodells,' he said, watching Justin closely.

Wolf flared. Justin studied him, nostrils flaring. His gaze seemed to linger on Pete's arm.

Here it comes, Pete thought. He'll sense it.

`Your brother was one of us,' Justin said, relaxing. `Huntress shared her thoughts about you. She likes you a lot. Her compassion for our kin runs deep.' His eyes glowed bright, and then faded as he spoke.

`Come,' he said. `She says to bring you to her.'

She says?
Pete double-checked, searching for signs of a comms device on Justin. There was nothing. Goosebumps tightened across his body.

What had he just witnessed? He would have expected Mason to have eyes everywhere, but this was weird. He had to ask.

`So,' he managed to say as Justin loped towards the warehouse. `It's a Wolf thing then? You being able to communicate with Renee and Mason?'

Justin stopped, stiffening, and glanced back. `Huntress is like us, born to hunt and live free.' He turned to face Pete, eyes bright yellow. `You're a cop. You've seen the worst of humankind. That's a fraction of what Mason has seen. Or done.'

Pete wondered at the look of desolation on the young Wolf's face.

`The part of him that has the darkness, that is Hunter. We fight at Hunter's side, but never share his mind. Only she can do that. Only she can look into the abyss and bring Mason, the man, back.'

Pete blinked. Justin strode off. Breathe, he told himself and he did, surprised Justin had so rattled him. He jogged to catch up, reaching the Wolf as the security gate began to slide open. `Mason is Hunter?'

`The man is Mason,' Justin said, not looking at him. `When you see Hunter in battle — then you will understand. Trust your instincts.' He stopped. `Be warned, Pete. Make no eye contact here.'

Pete's questions stalled — except for the one that was answered as soon as they stepped into the compound. He could feel the many eyes fell on him. The Wolves numbered over a hundred.

Making no eye contact here!

 

`So we're sure they're coming to Sydney?' Max looked up from his desk. Mason nodded, watching Wilson sit down beside Sally. Promises had been made. Now they all had to be strong.