Wild Ones (15 page)

"That's a
shame."

"Yeah, but it
is what it is. We'd better get out of here now. Later, baby," he
said, and then I was released and they were gone.

I stood
trembling while I did my jeans up, and contemplated reporting this
to the hospital authorities and the police. The whole conversation
between those three had made no sense. And how had they known about
Hugo? From
smell
? And wolves,
what bloody wolves? Where did that all fit in? I tried to figure
out how much I could tell the police about this conversation
without sounding completely nuts, and gave up. I wanted to go home,
and leave all this madness behind me. So I did. I climbed into my
car, and drove off.

I went straight
home, promising myself that I'd stop by a pharmacy tomorrow for the
morning after pill. Those creeps had reminded me that we had not
used condoms last night, and I wasn't ready to have a baby. I had
decided long ago that I would only have one when I really wanted
one, and that time had definitely not come yet. The matter of fact
way they had talked about me being pregnant had freaked me out
almost as much as the way that they'd figured out that Hugo and I
had slept together. And who the hell was Cade Grantham? Had he
killed wolves? Was that even legal?

I took a long
hot shower when I got home, dressed in pyjamas, and settled back in
bed to start reading Tintinalli's latest edition. It was a very
welcome dose of reality for me. I was starting to nod off when the
doorbell rang. I stood up, irritated at being disturbed at this
time of night. It was nine pm, for God's sake. I was only slightly
less annoyed when I looked through the peephole and saw Hugo. He
had some explaining to do.

I opened the
door and let him in. He stepped inside, shaking a few drops of rain
from his dark hair. I closed the door behind him and turned towards
him, wondering where to start with the questions. His expression
froze me in my tracks. His features had hardened, and his eyes were
flashing with a barely suppressed rage. I stood and watched as he
inhaled deeply and stalked off in the direction of the bathroom. He
returned a few seconds later holding the clothes I had been wearing
that day. I blushed slightly at the sight of my panties dangling
from his hand.

"What
happened?" he asked shortly.

"Good
question," I said. "Three guys accosted me in the car park,
sexually assaulted me, and then they left. They said a load of
weird shit too, which I am hoping you could explain."

"Sexually
assaulted how?" he grated, the muscles at the side of his jaw
clenching.

"One of them
stuck a finger inside me, and then he sniffed it and said
Hugo-fucking-Grantham. Like he knew you. Then they spoke about your
brother who apparently kills wolves, and then they left."

"Did the one
who assaulted you have dark brown hair and a small scar on his left
cheek?"

"So you do know
them," I said sourly. "You can tell them when you see them again
that they should keep their goddamn hands to themselves in
future."

"I'm going to
do a lot more than that," he said in a measured tone, his face
stony. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine." I
could see the concern in his eyes. It was touching, considering how
brief our relationship had been. "So who is Cade Grantham?"

"He's my
brother."

"Those guys
said he killed wolves. Aren't they endangered or something?"

"You have no
idea," he chuckled. "We need wine. I have a lot I need to tell
you."

"I have to work
tomorrow."

"You can't.
It's too risky. If those bastards found you, there will be more on
the way. And they don't take no for an answer." He looked at my
outraged expression with faint amusement. "It's only temporary,
little love. A few more days and none of them will ever be able to
touch you again."

"I have to
work," I said stubbornly. I had never called in sick for a shift,
and I wasn't about to start.

"Hear me out,
and then you can decide," he said reasonably, grinning now.

"OK," I said,
too curious to refuse. "Wine's in the kitchen. Give me my clothes
back."

He grinned
wider, and held my panties up to his nose, inhaling deeply. I
blushed.

"Pervert!"

"You have no
idea," he said quietly, handing me my clothes. "But only for you,
Liv."

I took them
from him, and went to deposit them in the washing machine. I was
weirdly affected by his words. I returned to find him lounging on
my couch, his long legs stretched out and a glass of red wine in
his hands. He patted the seat next to him, and I plonked myself
down, tucking my legs under me, and accepted the proffered glass
from him. I took a small sip, and sat, watching him
expectantly.

He said nothing
for a minute or two, and then he spoke carefully, as if everything
hinged on these words.

"I'm going to
ask you to suspend disbelief while I try to explain this, Liv. I
know that you believe in the scientific method. Every doctor must.
It is the basis for everything we do. I am going to explain
something that will seem impossible, but remember this as you
listen. I have irrefutable proof. If you need it, I will give it to
you."

He paused,
watching my face, but I said nothing as I watched him back.

"About eight
thousand years ago a meteor landed a few thousand miles from here.
It carried a substance of some kind. Current thinking believes it
may have been a type of bastardised amino acid, one which survived
the freezing cold of outer space and searing heat of its journey
through earth's atmosphere. Nobody knows where it came from, or
what its exact composition was. What we do know, though, is that
two brothers found a strange lump of rock. How it broke open is
anyone's guess, but it did, and they got some of what it contained
on their hands, and they ingested it. It changed them both, but in
different ways."

He stopped
there, and glanced at my face. "Drink more wine," he suggested,
smiling wryly.

"Sounds like I
am going to need it," I said dryly.

"Remember, I
have proof," he reminded me. I nodded.

"Anyway, back
to the brothers. The amino acid became incorporated into the
proteins that made up their DNA, and they both became stronger and
faster. It was almost impossible to kill them. But they were also
very different from each other in a couple of very significant
ways. The older brother developed retractable fangs and started
feeding off the blood of others. The younger developed the ability
to transform himself into a wolf at will. Why a wolf, and not some
other animal, nobody knows."

"They also
developed an obsessive urge to reproduce, and they spent a lot of
time and energy on this. They learned to recognise by smell the
women whom they were able to impregnate, the women who possessed
the so called wild gene, which enabled them to combine their DNA
with that of the brothers. They bred with these women, and their
offspring retained the same characteristics as their fathers. And
they were always male."

"After a few
generations it was recognised that the laws of humans could never
govern these creatures, and they developed their own Law, which is
still in place and strictly enforced to this day. A large part of
that Law governs the treatment and possession of those special
women, the wild ones."

"Those creeps
called me a wild one," I frowned at the memory. "And so did you
when we first met."

"Yes, I did.
You are a wild one, Liv, and the descendents of those brothers will
not leave you in peace until you are acknowledged by Law to belong
to one of them. They will hunt you each and every day that you
live."

My expression
must have conveyed my incredulity, because he poured more wine into
my glass, and said, "Suspend disbelief, little love. Remember the
proof."

I took a big
gulp of wine while he continued.

"The Law
governs both the vampires and the wolves, and is strictly enforced
by both groups when it comes to these women. A wild one does not
belong to any specific male until she carries his child. Once that
occurs, she can never be touched by another vampire or wolf again.
This is an absolute. If you carried my child, or had borne me one
in the past, and a wolf laid even a hand on you, he would be
executed."

I was starting
to feel a bit drunk then. I had never been a heavy drinker, and I'd
forgotten to have supper in all the drama of the evening, so my
head had begun to spin a little. But I still retained most of my
reason, and everything I knew and was rejected what this man was
telling me. He must have read the scepticism in my expression,
because he smiled gently.

"Do you need
proof, Liv?"

"Yes." I
started wondering what sort of
proof
he was going to produce, and whether he was actually having
an acute psychosis of some sort. Had I invited a dangerous maniac
into my home?

As if on cue he
stood up and started undressing. In spite of myself, I enjoyed the
show. He was a fine looking man, big and strong and beautiful. I
wondered if it was wrong to lust after someone with mental health
issues.

"Watch
me, Liv," he commanded, and then he fucking
changed
right there in my sitting room. It was
over in less than a second, but all the steps in between the naked
man and the enormous wolf were burned into my mind. I gasped and
dropped my glass, but sat frozen in position on the couch, my heart
fluttering in panic in my chest. The wolf walked slowly towards me,
its eyes on mine, and then it laid its head in my lap and closed
its eyes. I reached out and stroked the rough fur, my fear receding
in the face of the wonder that filled me. Jesus, he really was
beautiful.

And I guess
that was when I knew that everything he'd said was true.

We sat like
that for a few minutes, and then he backed away and shrugged back
into his human form. It was disconcerting and fascinating at the
same time. I watched him pensively as he dressed.

"More wine?" he
asked eventually, his eyes crinkling at the edges in amusement at
my obvious speechlessness.

"Oh crap,
I spilled my wine," I said, suddenly remembering the glass of
Shiraz I had dropped on the floor when he'd changed into a wolf.
A
wolf,
I thought to myself. A
huge goddamn wolf.

"I'll get the
salt," he said.

"Right."
A great big fucking
wolf
. I
sat dwelling on the enormity of this while Hugo retrieved the salt
and poured it over the plate sized stain on the carpet. I watched
absentmindedly as the salt started to leach the wine from the
wool.

"Liv," he said
gently. I looked up at him in wonder and consternation. Everything
I believed to be true had been challenged by the events of this
night, and now this man was standing here speaking to me as if the
world was still a rational place. It made no sense.

"Come
with me, my little love," he held out his hand and I took it
automatically, content for the moment not to make any decisions
about anything while my poor feverish brain tried to process all
of
this
. He pulled me to my
feet and I followed him dumbly upstairs, where he made me brush my
teeth and climb into bed. He lay down beside me, his arm around my
waist.

"Right," I said
eventually, my voice unsteady. "So you're what, a werewolf?"

"I prefer the
term shapeshifter. We can change at will, day or night, and
independently of the moon. We own a lot of land, so we can do our
own thing without being discovered. The vampires are pretty similar
that way. We stay hidden most of the time, but we can mingle with
you humans pretty well if we have to. Or if, like me, we have
outside interests."

"You humans," I
said. "Wow. Sounds so wrong. Why did you become a surgeon?"

"I got bored.
Plus I really like the smell of blood. And my skills come in handy
every now and then. My brother was stabbed in the abdomen recently,
and I got to stitch him up so you can hardly see a scar. We heal
very well, so his life wasn't threatened by the stabbing, but our
skin scars like human skin if its not closed properly."

"But those guys
today said he killed two wolves. How is that possible if you heal
so well?"

"He attacked
them as a wolf, and wolves can kill wolves. Humans would struggle
to kill us."

"So who stabbed
your brother?"

"His woman
did," Hugo smiled wryly. "He'd been keeping an eye on her for
months, fighting off all the wolves that sniffed around her, and
waiting for an opportunity to ask her out. You have to see my
brother to understand how incongruous the whole situation was. He's
huge and fucking scary, but he was too nervous to approach her.
Then she accidentally stumbled onto a tract of our land, and he had
to claim her there and then, because otherwise she would have been
fair game for any of the others. And some of those boys like to
share, if you know what I mean."

"That's
disgusting."

"Yeah, I know.
Cade had her taken to one of his cabins, and he basically forced
himself on her. She stabbed him later that night while he slept and
drove off in his new SUV. You should have seen him. He was torn
between frustration and admiration for her, but mostly he hated
himself for what he did, even though he really had no choice. I
told him he should have tried to explain it all to her, and he
agrees, but it doesn't make him feel any better. He's been keeping
an eye on her since, but from a distance. She's pregnant too, so
the others have backed off. But now we've heard from the vampires
that one of theirs has gone rogue, so he's started fretting
again."