Chapter Eight
That Friday night, the five of us piled into one of the vans from the store with all the gear piled high in the back. I was in the middle seat with Amber, Jason and Patrik rode in the back, and Clint and Ian were in the front. Most of our gear was from the store, but Sarah didn’t seem to mind.
“Now, just be sure you bring everything back with you this time,” Sarah teased as we put the last of the items in the van.
“That happened once.” Clint protested with a smile.
“Yeah, but you had to go back, and the animals had ripped most of it apart.” Jason laughed.
“Animals?” I questioned. “Do we have to worry…” I started to ask them then realized how absurd that question would be. The amused faces around me said it as well. I was going to the woods with three panthers, a cougar, and tiger. I scoffed internally. That sounded like the start of a bad joke.
“Don’t worry little wolf,” Clint put his arm around me caringly. “We’ll be sure to keep all the big, bad, monsters away.”
“I feel so safe now,” I replied sarcastically.
“Promise to scout out some other areas for possible camping sites.” Sarah commented as we turned to leave. “We need to keep up with new and exciting areas to stay ahead of the game.”
“Aye aye, captain,” Clint said with a salute. Sarah rolled her eyes and waved us off.
We drove for about an hour up into the hills. I was glad to be out of the town for a little bit since I was used to the woods behind the McCoy house. We would spend half our time out in the woods and by the waterfall behind their house. Leaving city limits, I felt my muscles relax and realized this past week being cooped up in classes or at work had been grating on my nerves. Taking a deep, calming breath, I tuned back into the conversation just in time to hear Amber giving Clint gruff about a girl back home.
“You know she’s into you, why don’t you just date her?” Amber was asking.
“Emma is a nice girl and I don’t want to lead her on when it can’t go anywhere.” Clint replied.
“Who says it can’t go anywhere?” Amber pointed out.
“If we did date, and one of us found our lifemate?” Clint asked, “then what?”
Amber shrugged. “I’m sure either party would understand.”
“Excuse me for not wanting to go through that heartache.” Clint replied with a shake of his head.
“Can’t say I blame you,” Jason agreed. “It kind of seems pointless to be in a long-term relationship if it’s not meant to last.”
“What if you don’t find your lifemate?” I asked. The van fell silent at my words. “What? Is that bad?”
“Lifemates are sacred.” Ian replied quietly. “All shifters are raised to look for their lifemate until they find that one person that completes their soul.”
“I see.” I replied, waiting a beat to ask my next question in the silence. “Has a human ever been a lifemate to a shifter?” I asked curiously.
“Not that I know of.” Patrik replied. “But I’m sure that wouldn’t be common knowledge if it did happen. The High Council would be none too happy if a human was found to be a lifemate.”
“You think they would stop it?” I asked, thinking of what I knew of the High Council, they would do everything in their power to make that disappear.
“They wouldn’t acknowledge that it even existed.” Amber stated. I nodded sadly, knowing that was exactly what would happen.
“Oh, come on, this is supposed to be a fun trip!” Jason yelled. “Who’s excited to teach Kendra how to start a fire?”
“Uh, with a match?” I laughed and everyone else joined in. The rest of the journey was light-hearted, and we joked about camping in the wild. When we arrived at the camp site, I found out it was located near the river. We transferred everything to the site and split into groups to tackle the setup. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, I was helping with tents.
“I’ve never put up a tent.” I reminded Jason, eyeing the thing with trepidation.
“Don’t worry, it’s easy. Just help hold the ends while I work on the rest.” He smiled. I thought that sounded easy enough.
“So, how come I haven’t seen any of you shift yet? Well, besides Amber.” I smiled at the memory of her pouncing on Clint that first morning.
“The woods behind the house aren’t ideal for us. We can’t monitor who goes in to keep our secret. Makes it hard to shift that way.” Jason moved to the other side and motioned me to move to the opposite side to hold the tent.
“Oh, I see.”
“You on the other hand, if you shift, you could probably get away with it, being a wolf. Panthers kind of stick out like a sore thumb in these woods.”
“If I shift, I think running through the forest will be the least of my problems.” I mumbled.
“Of course, we can usually sneak out when there’s no moon.” Jason smirked, not making any remark on my comment. “The panthers can blend in, and I can usually pass off as a native.”
“Being a cougar and all.” I smiled.
“Exactly.” He grinned back. “What about you? Getting any closer to shifting?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I think I might be making progress, but who really knows.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” he added encouragingly.
“Yeah,” Clint chimed in from near the campfire that was now blazing. “With Amber giving lessons you might be able to shift before you’re fifty.”
“Gee thanks.” I mumbled.
“Hey! Let’s see you do any better!” Amber argued.
“Nope, I already told you, I’m not any good at teaching. No patience.”
“So, keep your mouth shut,” Amber growled.
“Aw come on,” Clint put his arm around his sister and gave her a hug. “I was just kidding.” Amber pushed Clint away, which just made him grab for her again. They tussled near the fire with occasional barbs thrown at each other while the rest of us watched with amusement and continued setting up camp.
“Besides, you come home with us and you can meet Luke.” Patrik added, ignoring the sibling quarreling.
“Who’s Luke?” I asked.
“The latent shifter I think you should meet.” Amber said, pushing Clint away from her with a glare as a warning. Clint grinned but walked back to the fire.
“Oh, okay.What’s his animal?”
“Tiger.” Ian offered from the woods as he was bringing back an armload of wood.
“Related to you?” I asked, curious. Ian was always tightlipped that any information he was willing to share, I was willing to soak up.
“No,” was Ian’s clipped reply before he disappeared back into the woods. Silence fell over the group as we watched him walk away and I looked around at the others.
“Something I said?”
“Ian’s family was killed when he was young.” Clint offered. “Orphaned at four.” Oh, that was awful. I looked back to the woods but didn’t see Ian. He was probably out of earshot by now.
“What happened to his family?” I asked quietly. None of them seemed like they wanted to answer, but Amber finally spoke up.
“They were murdered,” Amber answered. “The killer was never found.”
“That’s horrible!” I exclaimed, thinking about losing your family so young and in such a horrible way. Shaking my head, I was still curious about his upbringing. “So, who raised him?”
“Luke did.” Jason replied as we finished one tent and moved to another. “He never found his lifemate, not that he really tried, but took in Ian and raised him as his own.”
“And you all grew up near each other?” I asked, as I followed Jason to another tent.
“Neighbors, basically.” Clint answered. “A few miles between our homes but nothing a shifter can’t manage quickly.”
“So, I know Amber and Clint’s siblings, what about you guys?” I looked to Jason and Patrik.
“I have a younger brother.” Jason answered. “He’s out of school but wanted to stay close to home. He works with Dad at the logging mill.”
“And I have two older sisters,” Patrik offered. “One is mated and has two kids. The other is a pain in the-”
“Oh, come on, Kayla isn’t that bad.” Amber protested.
“Sure.She’s not your sister.”Patrik grumbled.
“You know, I’ve been curious. Do other shifters find lifemates across, um, species?” I wasn’t sure how to ask about that.
“You mean like a panther and wolf?” Clint asked, with an amused gleam in his eye as he gave me flirty look.
“Sure,” I chose to ignore his look and asked, “or panther and cougar, or something like that.”
“Yes, it does happen,” Patrick answered. “But not with wolves. They stick to their own.”
“And the High Council doesn’t regulate that?” I asked curiously. They seem to have their hand in everything else.
“As long as wolves aren’t involved, they don’t bat an eye.” Clint stated matter-of-factly.
“They start messing with too many lifemate matches and that would be the quickest way to civil war,” Amber pointed out.
“So, everything else you guys put up with, pales in comparison?” I asked curiously.
“It’s a lot. And many of us aren’t happy, don’t get me wrong. But lifemates are sacred. If the High Council started prohibiting those matches, then…” Clint shrugged, leaving me to envision a full-scale war between the High Council Enforcers and all other shifters.
“So, what if a wolf was a lifemate to another non-wolf shifter? I didn’t think that was something they could help.”
“No, it would be a done deal, but the two would never be a true lifemate pair,” Clint answered.
“They wouldn’t be able to live together or raise a family together,” Amber added.
“The High Council would find out,” Jason pointed out.
“And that would be the end of the pair.” Ian added, appearing from the woods again with another armload of wood, this time, he stayed after dropping it off.
“Come on,” Clint sat down near the fire. “Let’s talk of happier things.” He looked over at me and grinned. “You want to see us shift?”
My eyes widened. See them in their shifter form? Absolutely. I nodded enthusiastically.
Chuckling, Clint smiled and turned toward the tent. “I’ll change first.” He disappeared into the tent while the others waited.
“So, I’m curious. Do you normally change in front of each other?” I was thinking of my pack and how they were cautious at first of changing in front of me, but to them, it was perfectly normal.
“We do, yes. Most shifters are not modest.” Jason grinned.
“Then, by all means,” I motioned for them to go ahead. “I’ll just close my eyes.” I sat down at the fire and closed my eyes. I felt silly. But I didn’t really want to see a bunch of naked people around me. I wasn’t ready for that. I supposed at some point, I would have to get used to it, if I was finally going to shift with everyone else.
I heard a few chuckles around, then clothes rustling, then suddenly, it was quiet. I debated opening my eyes in case they hadn’t all shifted yet, when I felt soft fur against my hand, my eyes popped open.
In front of me was Amber, in panther form. I recognized her features from the last time she had shifted in the house. I looked up at the others and caught my breath. It was something to be surrounded by three panthers, a cougar, and a tiger. Even knowing that they were my friends.
I compared Amber to Clint and Patrik. She was finer featured and slightly more slender than the other two. Clint and Patrik packed on some muscle on their frames. They looked so much like each other, I wasn’t positive who was who.
“Clint?” I motioned to the one on the right. He bobbed his head up and down. Looking closely between the two, I was finally able to distinguish that Clint’s face was little broader than Patrik’s. I glanced over at Jason who was stretching his back, as cats do, enjoying the sunshine. His cougar form was sleek and long. He shook his body then padded over to me and not so gently pushed Amber out of the way to put his head under my hand. Reflexively, I started petting and rubbing his neck. A rumbling purr emanated from deep in his chest.
“Guess you like that,” I laughed. I put both hands behind his ears and touched foreheads with him. Even though I’d been close with my pack, this was still hard to take in. A chuff sound caught my attention and I turned toward Ian. While focusing on the other four, I hadn’t really taken in Ian’s tiger form. With all my attention centered on him, my eyes widened.
Ian’s tiger was big. I mean, really big. I wasn’t sure how big tigers were in the wild, but his shoulders had to come up to my chest if I was standing. Since I was still sitting, he easily towered over me. His frame was solid, and his paws alone had to be bigger than my hand. His orange and white stripes stood out in the landscape and I could understand how running in the forest in shifter form would be difficult. Everyone would be able to see him. I could just imagine the headlines. ‘Tiger seen stalking woods. Keep children indoors.”
She can’t.
I was thrown off by the voice. I looked around, thinking another human had walked into our camp, which would be horrible considering the motley crew standing around me. I didn’t see anyone, and I looked back at the group. Clint had his head cocked to the side, as if asking a question.
“Thought I heard something,” I muttered, glancing around the woods again. I swear I heard a voice.
The panthers lifted their heads, trying to scent something, while Jason padded softly to the edge of our camp and started walking the edge.
Nothing. I heard the voice again. I glanced around the clearing and near the woods. Maybe I was finally losing it. I shook my head.
“You guys are going to think I’m crazy, but I’m hearing voices.” I shrugged at Clint’s quizzical look. He glanced around their group, his eyes landing on each one in turn. When he looked at Ian, I heard a voice again.
What do you want me to say?
“Oh my God, there it was again!” I exclaimed. Clint looked between Ian and me. I glanced at Ian, who took a step toward me and narrowed his tiger eyes.
Can you hear me? The male voice asked. I gasped.
“Shit, no way.” I shook my head. “That’s you?” I asked Ian.
You can hear me. He replied, not seeming entirely too pleased by the idea.
“Yeah, every word.” I nodded, completely shocked. I could never talk with Cade or any of my pack like that. Maybe my senses were improving, and I was making more progress than I thought.
Can you hear Clint talking to you?
I looked over at Clint and waited for him to say something. After a few seconds, I asked, “Is he saying anything?” Patrik chuffed, laughing it seemed.
Yeah, he was. Ian answered. So, you can only hear me?
“Yeah, I guess. Why is that?” I wondered.
No idea, Ian shook his big head side to side. He didn’t seem very pleased by the idea to be sharing thoughts with me.
“Wait, let me see if I can talk to you in my head.” I paused before adding, can you hear me now? I like your tiger, by the way.
Thanks. Ian replied while ducking his head.
“This is so cool!” I smiled brightly and grinned ear to ear.
Amber wants to know if you can hear any of the others.
“No,” I shook my head. “I can only hear Ian. Maybe it means my shifter abilities are improving?” I offered. I watched Amber shake her head and look at Ian.
She thinks if that was the case, you should be able to communicate with all of them, not just me.
“Well, either way. I’m super excited.” I grinned. There was a bit of anticipation in the air, and not just from me. The cats were starting to prowl back and forth with suppressed energy.
They want to run, Ian explained.
“Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll stay around here.” I offered.
It’s not a good idea for you to stay alone. Why don’t you and I take a walk through the forest while they go stretch their legs?
“What about you?” I asked.
I’ll be fine, he lifted one shoulder in a very human like shrug.
“Okay.” I nodded and followed Ian to the edge of the woods. He found a trail and I followed behind him as the others disappeared silently into the brush. Cats really were stealthy. I smiled as I watched Ian pick his way through the bushes along the side, being careful to step lightly. Must be a cat thing. I smiled thinking that I was walking through the woods with tiger. A year ago, I wouldn’t have even thought that was possible.
Ian wasn’t all that talkative, surprise surprise, so our trip down the trail was quiet. It took me a while to realize that my eyes had adjusted enough that I had no trouble seeing the path in front of me, even though little light filtered through the canopy overhead. I glanced around at the underbrush and noticed that I could see just about as well as if I was traveling through in the daylight.
“Hey Ian?”
Yeah?
“I can see in the dark.” He paused and looked back at me.
Is that new?
“Well, I haven’t really been anywhere to test it, but I don’t remember being able to see this well in the past.”
He turned back to the path without saying anything and continued on his way. Huh, great conversationalist, I thought.
I heard that.
I winced.Sorry.
I continued following him on the trail while listening to the night around me. At least with my pack, I could hear them in the distance when they passed through the forest. I had no clue if any of the cats were around us.
So, did the others go another direction?
No, Clint and Jason are a few paces on either side of us.
My eyes widened in surprise. I glanced to my right and left, trying to find them in the darkness. Clint must have seen what I was trying to do, as he appeared from the brush and rubbed against me before disappearing back into the undergrowth.
How come I can’t hear them?
Cats are silent stalkers. Even seasoned shifters have a hard time picking up any sound from a cat.
That was an interesting tidbit of information. You would think the High Council would prize that ability in their Enforcers, if nothing else. But then I realized that would mean they would have to acknowledge that cats, at least, were superior to wolves in some ways. That would never happen, I shook my head.
We stepped out into a small clearing, and the three panthers and cougar appeared from the edges and merged into one group in the middle. Jason sidled up to Amber and lightly tapped her with his paw, leaping away and waiting for a response. He didn’t have to wait long. Amber turned and gathered her legs under her, before leaping into the air to pounce on Jason. He moved at the last minute and they continued their cat and mouse game while I watched, laughing at their antics. Clint and Patrik soon joined in and it became more chaotic with more people in the game. Ian was watching with all his attention. I grinned with I saw his tail swatting back in forth.
You going to join? I asked.
Only if you do.
Not sure I’ll be as fast or as good. I laughed.
Still.
Yeah, I can play.
We both joined the game and I was surprised at how graceful Ian was even when he was easily twice the size of any of the other cats. I wasn’t as fast as the rest, obviously, but there was something about the game that pulled out my competitive side. Amber had tagged me as she grazed by me, so I caught Clint off guard just as he was changing directions. He turned and mock glowered at me before slowly stalking my way.
“You were right there!” I protested, laughing. He stopped and gathered his feet under him in the universal sign of a pounce waiting to happen. I didn’t want all that cat landing on top of me, so as soon as I saw him leap, I turned and ran. Clint had to adjust after he barely missed me and took off in pursuit. We ran through the woods, me laughing all the way because I knew that Clint could catch me at any time. The rest of the group was hot on our tail, running around us. This type of running prevented any kind of stealth, so we all crashed through the woods at a breakneck speed. Up ahead, I could see our camp and had just about made it to the site, when Clint pounced on my back. It wasn’t graceful, but I managed to turn at the last second and roll to cushion my fall. When I came to a stop, Clint stood over me with a cheshire grin. The others glided past to their clothes, and I knew our romp in the woods was over for the night. I looked back at Clint who had an evil look in his eye right before he licked the side of my face.
“Ew, Clint! That’s gross.” I protested while trying to rub cat slobber off my face. He rubbed his head against mine before walking over to the tent where he had left his clothes. By that time, the rest of the group had changed back into theirs. I picked myself off the ground and brushed off any lingering dirt from my tumble.
“How the heck did you run that fast?” Amber asked as she took a seat around the fire that was still burning low.
“What do you mean?” I asked confused, taking another seat around the fire.
“There’s no way you normally run that fast. Especially when you yourself said you’re not a runner.” Amber pointed out.
“I thought Clint was just taking it easy on me.” I stated, looking around the group, trying to see if Amber was just messing with me. Was I really running that fast?
“Nope,” Clint emerged from the tent fully clothed. “I was doing all I could just to keep even with you.”
“Really?” The group nodded around me. “Huh. Well, my pack said that might be one sign that my shifter abilities were surfacing.”
“That’s good!” Amber exclaimed, then looked over at her brother. “See, I am doing well,” she preened.
Laughing, Clint replied, “Yeah, sure.” He smiled good-naturedly at his sister.
“But what about this other talent?” Patrik asked. “How can she talk to Ian and not any of us?”
“No idea.” Jason shrugged. “Seems weird that it works for one and not the rest.”
“Maybe Ian and Kendra are lifemates?” Amber asked. My heart skipped a beat. The entire group froze, considering that aspect. I glanced sideways at Ian to gauge his reaction. He seemed just as shocked as me. Thinking of Ian as my lifemate, just seemed wrong. I felt it in my gut. If anything, I felt like Cade and I had a better connection that way than Ian and I ever could.
“I don’t think that’s it.” Ian replied, then glanced at me. “No offense.”
“None taken.” I agreed, relief coursing through me. Ian and me lifemates? No, that would just be too weird.
“Can you guys talk to each other now?” Patrik asked. I glanced at Ian again and thought, sorry but we can only be friends, but didn’t get a response from him. Ian shook his head.
“Apparently not.” He grabbed a nearby bag that had our stores for food and started pulling out ingredients. Seeing the food, I realized how hungry I was.
“Huh,” Clint said, then looked at me with thought. “You are just full of surprises, aren’t you?”
“Unwillingly, trust me.” I grinned. It was cool I could talk to Ian, but that just added to the long list of unknowns about me.
“We’ll have to ask Luke the next time we see him if he had any special talents regarding talking to other shifters in his head.” Clint offered. “I don’t remember him ever mentioning it.”
“Neither do I,” Ian stated.
“Just another thing that’s special about Kendra,” Jason quipped.
“Yay me.” I mock exclaimed. Everyone chuckled at my joke. The rest of the night was spent preparing our meal and conversation around the fire. I was glad they were used to cooking large portions because after that run, I had a quite an appetite myself. Amber and I ended up sharing a tent while the boys split between the other two. My head barely hit the pillow and I was out like a light.