6. Madelyne
“You should really be sleeping,” Nathan said with gentle reproach when he came in for fresh beers and saw me folding laundry on the couch. “What’s up?”
“My dreams aren’t good,” I admitted. “I did get a couple of hours while you guys were working. It’s easier with you here, don’t think otherwise, but I guess my brain’s still… processing.”
Processing trauma.Matthias’ rage. Those bodies. The “note” the sicko left me. It was all in my dreams and wouldn’t let me go. But this was temporary–it had to be. It would fade, like my dreams of Ben’s loss had faded.
One day, I wouldn’t even remember what it was like to be with Matthias. I wouldn’t remember loving him, I wouldn’t remember believing him, and even the things that were giving me nightmares now would one day be just a memory.
“That’s normal. Ben used to have dreams about Afghanistan, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, yeah, he did. For a while, I had to wake him up from nightmares a few times a month. He said they used to be weekly, and before that daily. He talked about it like a wound healing.”
“That’s it exactly.” He came over and sat down next to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. I almost dropped the shirt I was folding but caught myself after a moment. “It’ll go away.”
“You knew my dad?” It was Aidan on the stairs, still in his sleep shorts and a t-shirt that looked giant on him.
“Yeah, we were buddies. You get any sleep, kiddo?”
“Yeah, I slept some. I wanted to see what you guys were doing.” He finished padding down the stairs, stifling a yawn. I wondered if he was dealing with nightmares, too. I would have to ask him in private later. He seemed pretty concerned with impressing Nathan and the others.
“We’re putting up new cameras, lights, and sensors so we can see this Matthias guy coming.” He smiled at my son as Aidan plopped down on my other side and leaned on my shoulder. I could tell he was still upset by what had happened, but I also knew my little man was checking on me. He did that a lot these days.
”Do you think that he”s gonna come back?” Aidan looked across at Nathan, who smiled tightly.
”Well, kiddo, the problem is, guys like Matthias don”t know when to quit. You see, sometimes, when a person gets power of some kind, it goes straight to his head. He becomes selfish, mean, stops seeing other people as people. Matthias is a shifter, but he”s not like us. His kind likes to hurt people. They”ve been causing problems for humans and other shifters for a long, long time.”
”You said he can become a tiger? That would be so cool if he wasn”t mean.” He peered at Nathan. ”Ulf says you guys can be Wolves. How come you”re not Wolves now?”
Nathan wiggled the fingers of one hand. ”No opposable thumbs as a Wolf, so we can”t do fiddly stuff like putting up cameras. Besides, I couldn”t talk to you if I was all fuzzy right now.”
Aidan giggled, and I hid a small smile as I kept working.
”So, did Dad know you”re a Werewolf?”
”Wolf shifter, honey,” I corrected gently.
Nathan nodded. ”Yeah, Werewolves are under a curse, and as far as I know, they only exist in stories. We”re born this way naturally, and our Wolf half is just part of us.”
”Oh. Okay. So, did Dad know you”re a Wolf shifter?” Not even a pause. A little pride tugged at my heart.
”Yeah, Ben did. He saw me change once. It was kinda dumb.” He chuckled and shook his head.
Aidan perked up. ”What happened?”
Nathan looked at me briefly. I nodded, and he cleared his throat. ”Well, your dad and I were out in the desert back when we were both in the military, and we got cut off from the rest of our guys. We were up in these high, dry hills that were like a maze, and boom, some of the bad guys set off a bomb and caused a landslide. It blocked one end of the little canyon we were in. Made it so we couldn”t go back.”
His eyes got big. ”Uh oh. How did you get out?”
”Well, your dad did some covering fire, which is when you make everybody duck so they can”t shoot at you or move forward. Meanwhile, I was taking off my clothes because I didn”t want to rip them.”
He blinked. ”You have to get naked before you turn into a wolf?” My son burst out laughing. ”What happens if you don”t?”
”Well, all of a sudden you have a four-legged person trying to wear clothes made for a two-legged person. You end up tearing them getting out. And that gets really tiring after a while. Like, imagine having your favorite shirt on. If you want to save it, you have to take it off first.”
”Ohh. Okay. I get it.” Aidan still giggled a little. ”Except, didn’t all the bad guys see your butt?”
I choked laughing. “Oh my God, Aidan!” But I couldn’t sound stern enough when I was snickering that hard.
Aidan grinned, and Nathan squinted in amusement.
“Yep, I had both cheeks in the breeze for a few seconds there. The shooting actually slowed down because everyone was confused. Including your dad. He was all ‘What the hell are you doing, Nate?’ And I said, ”Changing!” And he said ”Now?””
I coughed into my fist, the corners of my eyes tearing up. Actually, what Ben had said had been ”What did you do, shit yourself?” But of course, until he was older, Aidan was getting the clean version.
“Oh. Oh! I get it! You meant changing into a Wolf and he thought you meant changing your pants!” Aidan looked proud of himself and laughed again. “That’s funny!”
Nate just grinned. The sight of it made me feel a deep warmth in my belly. “Yup,” he said cheerfully. “Anyway, there I was, out of my pants in a free fire zone, and then I changed. Now, I’m tougher as a Wolf––”
“Did the bad guys get scared?” Aidan was starting to bounce a little with excitement.
“Well, you see, a lot of people in that part of the world think all of us supernatural types are demons. Part of it is culture and religion, and the other part is that the Tigers are all from that region. South and East of there, too. So, the only shifters they’d ever known about or believed in were mean shifters.”
“But you’re not mean. You’re nice!”
“Yeah, but they didn’t know that. And that was probably good, because there were way more of them than there were of us. But none of them wanted any part of me once they put a few bullet holes through me and watched them close up.”
“So, they ran away?”
“Once I chased them enough, yeah. See, shifters can jump pretty high and far, and with the claws, we’re good at climbing.” He glanced at me, brows drawing slightly together as he looked at my face. “So, I went right up the cliff at the side of the canyon after them.”
“And Dad? What did Dad do?”
Tried not to pee himself, from his version of this. But Nathan tactfully left that out. “He covered me! Took a lot of shots to make ‘em run faster. But afterward, he wanted to know why I didn’t tell him.”
“Why didn’t you?” Aidan tilted his head.
“Back then, shifters couldn’t serve in the military. I mean, there were no treaties saying that, but it was policy in the US. I’d already been in for years by keeping my secret. It would be another two before they changed the law.”
“So, Dad wasn’t mad once you told him why?” Aidan wiggled a little next to me.
“He understood once I said so, yeah.” Nathan glanced at me. His eyes twinkled. “Pretty soon we were laughing over it.”
“Did you get in trouble when you got back though? For being a We–a Wolf shifter?”
“Nah, your dad never said what he’d seen, and my bosses never tested me or anything. I kept quiet until the law was changed, then came out and got switched to Special Division.” He opened the beer in his hand and took a swallow.
“What’s Special Division?”
I was almost done with the basket of laundry. Somehow, doing such a boring domestic chore was soothing. It was so normal when nothing else was.
“Special Division is where the military puts its shifters. A bunch of us wanted to serve, especially once things opened up to us. But only a few normal humans like your dad can serve next to us without getting hurt.”
“Did all you guys go do military stuff?” Aidan looked outside the window to where Bela was climbing down the ladder just beyond. He grinned and waved at us.
I waved back. Damn, thinking about it, they’re all pretty cute. If “cute” was really the right word for a bunch of highly trained soldier-bodyguards who turned into giant Wolves and could shrug off bullet wounds like an eighties action hero.
“Yeah. Three of us did it for America. Bela used to work for the same kind of outfit in Russia.”
Bela opened the door and stuck his head in. “Hey, I thought you were going in for beer, Boss? What gives?” He was grinning teasingly, as though he knew damn well what was going on.
“Got caught up telling Aidan one of his dad’s old war stories,” Nathan replied, getting up and dusting off the thighs of his jeans. “Grab some beers. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“How come you guys drink beer all day?” Aidan chirped.
Bela burst out laughing. “Because we can! We can’t get all the way drunk on beer. Besides, it’s a soft drink.”
“Oh.” Aidan looked at me. “Can I have a beer then?”
Bela snickered and Nathan gave him a Look.
“No,” I said gently. “It’s not good for kids.”
“But he said––”
“He’s Russian, kiddo,” Nathan said while Bela pressed his lips together to keep from bursting out laughing. “They’re a little different.”
Aidan just blinked at us. “I don’t get it.”
“You probably wouldn’t like beer, anyway. Not until you grow up and your tastes do, too.” Nathan smiled down at my son. “Don’t worry about it for now.”
“Okay. Can I watch you guys work?”
“Get dressed first, sweetie,” I instructed, handing him a stack of fresh clothes. “I’ll come out with you for a while.”