Chapter Five
Maisey
The betas’ eyes are practically canine despite being in their human bodies. Sharp and intelligent and all-seeing.
But I see them too. And this situation as it unfolds before me. Rival clans are being forced to connect. This world of shifters is going to have to work together in order for them all to survive.
Val tosses a piece of raw meat into the air and catches it, then chews it open-mouthed as he stares at me. His tongue is pink, the meat is bloody, and suddenly a heat rises up my chest and throat. My skin prickles as though a thousand needles are prodding me and my stomach rolls.
“Maisey.”
Elias’s face blurs and I reach for him.
“What is it?”
“I ... I...” I close my eyes. “There is...” A sudden image confronts me.
It’s the Museum of Natural History, a back delivery entrance.
There is a woman there, terrified, she’s pressing against a wall and looking around as though trapped and searching for escape.
I don’t see what’s scaring her but I feel it, strong and menacing and with a taste for blood.
I flick open my eyes.
“Tell me.” Elias grips my shoulder. “What is it?”
“You have to get to the Museum of Natural History, one of them is there ... an infected shifter, I’m sure of it, and he’s about to attack a woman.”
“How can you possibly know?” Fraser asks.
“I don’t for definite. But this kind of thing has happened to me in the past. A place pops into my head and I know there’s something bad happening there. Usually I see it on the news after the event, but this time I’m trusting my instincts and speaking up.”
Fraser stands, his expression grim. “I trust your instincts.” He makes a low growling sound. “Everyone except Elias, with me, now.”
He drags off his t-shirt then springs onto the table, his body elongating and his pants shredding. His skin becomes thick black fur and the shape of his face switches to that of a long-featured wolf with snarling teeth.
In a flurry the other shifters in the room burst upward and become their wolf selves. I gasp as the shockwave of magical energy hits me full force.
Elias is close, his arm is around me, and I cling to his leg as the huge animals rush from the room, chairs falling and candles flickering. The door slams behind them.
“Do you think they’ll get there in time?” I manage.
“They’re fast, very fast, and they know the warren of secret underground passages as well as they know their own paws.” He nods though his eyebrows draw together. “We have to hope.”
I take a shaky breath. “We can’t have three innocents attacked, that’s just...”
“They’ll get there. And perhaps they’ll return with new information.”
“Or get infected themselves.”
He grimaces. “They’ll be careful. I hope.”
“I know there isn’t a cure, but is there a vaccine?”
He rubs his temples. “Not that I can think of, but perhaps the elders will know.”
I look around and suddenly feel chilled despite being hot only moments ago. “I think we should go.”
“Yes.” He stands. “You’re safest at home.”
We leave the room and as we step outside into the tunnel-like corridor, an elderly man walks toward us with a gnarled stick. His face is wizened with lines and his eyelids droopy. When he sees us, he stops and his chin snaps up. He breathes deep, big nostrils flaring.
“Raif.” Elias nods his way. “Good to see you.”
“Who is she?” Raif steps closer with his attention glued to me.
“This is Maisey Shaw.”
He comes closer still and takes my hand. “You remind me of someone I used to know.”
“I do?”
“Yes, but...” He shakes his head. “I can’t place who right now.”
I stare into his eyes, he has one vivid blue and one chestnut brown.
“Perhaps we have met before.” He frowns.
“I can’t recall where, sir.”
And then he lifts my wrist to his nose and sniffs. I’m becoming used to this.
“Ahh, yes.” He frowns at Elias. “It is coming back to me. A cold, cold night long ago and—”
“We have to go.” Elias curls his arm around my waist. “I’m really sorry, but there’s lots going on, Fraser will fill you in as soon as he’s back.”
“Yes, yes, I’m sure he will.” Raif continues to study me as though I am an intriguing puzzle he’s busy solving.
But Elias doesn’t want to hang around, and soon we are rushing back the way we came. I’m breathing hard by the time we reach the outside world and I’m glad of the nip of cold on my cheeks.
Elias scans the alleyway then urges me toward the light of the main street. It’s snowing, not heavily, just tiny ballerina flakes dancing in the air.
“The moon has gone behind the clouds,” Elias says as we head toward my apartment. “But the wolves can see well in the dark, so don’t worry about it hindering them.”
“I hope they are where they need to be.” I shiver and hold my coat closer to my throat. I wish I had brought a scarf.
The street is deserted as my apartment entrance comes into view. There is a sudden rush of air to my right, and a big object lands in front of me. A shocked scream erupts from my throat and adrenaline punches into my veins. I snap backward.
“What the fuck, Branson,” Elias snarls.
He’s landed in front of me in his panther form. Deadly, silent, and utterly beautiful. His yellow eyes flash and he bares his teeth and looks left and right. A few snowflakes have caught in his whiskers.
“I am keeping an eye out,” Elias says. “I wouldn’t leave her alone. Not a chance.”
“Have you heard too?” I ask.
Branson stares at me.
“About the moon fever,” I elaborate.
His head dips down and back up again.
“It’s bad news,” Elias says, stepping past him with me in tow. “Come on, let’s all get inside.”
I stick to Elias as we go into my apartment block.
Branson takes the stairs at speed, galloping up them in an impressive display of muscle and agility. I hope my neighbors don’t decide to poke their heads from their doors. They’d get quite the shock to see a panther in the stairwell.
Soon we are in the warmth and I remove my coat and boots and turn up the heat. I set coffee on and then draw the curtains.
Elias puts his phone on the table and shoves his hand through his damp hair causing it to stick up at all angles. He’s worried, it’s etched on his features.
“I think I’ll take a shower,” I say. “Warm myself up.”
“Sure, you do that. I’ll make the coffee.”
Branson is sniffing in the corner of the room, his kinked tail low and his pointed ears flicking forward and backward.
I head into my bathroom and twist on the shower faucet.
I sigh and look in the mirror. I’m a mess, my hair as wild as the wolves I’ve met tonight, and there are dark rings beneath my eyes.
But there’s something different. A sense of calm despite the chaos.
It’s as if I’m seeing myself for the first time.
All these years I’ve had odd feelings, known things I shouldn’t have known, seemed to have a sixth sense I was embarrassed to even acknowledge to myself, let alone tell anyone else about. And now. Now I understand.
I am different.
I am magical.
And this new world I’ve discovered. Perhaps it’s my world. The place I’ve been looking for all these years but didn’t know where the key was.
I strip and step under the hot water, hold my face to the stream. I wash my hair and condition it. My shower gel is lavender-scented and that calms me further.
Soon I am stepping out and drying. After my hair is brushed, I wrap myself in a fluffy white towel and head out of the steam-filled room in search of sweats and a sweater.
Branson is in his human form now and sipping coffee on my sofa. He’s wearing a pair of pale cream pants, I don’t know where he got them. His dark eyes follow me as I walk to the kitchen area and I’m hyperaware of my bare shoulders and the fact the towel hits mid-thigh and I have no underwear on.
“Coffee.” Elias hands me a steaming red mug.
“Thanks.”
“Feel better?”
“Yes.” I take a sip and walk into my bedroom.
He follows me. “The panthers had a similar meeting to ours about moon fever.”
I nod and open a drawer. “Good, the more shifters who know about it, the better.”
“I filled Branson in on your premonition.”
“Is that what it was? Or was it a window only I can see through that shows me what’s happening somewhere else?”
He sits on the end of the bed, knees apart and hands behind himself. “I don’t have the answer to that.”
I pull out a pair of black sweats.
“Come here.”
“What?”
“You heard.” His mouth curls into a devilishly sexy grin that instantly softens his features and his eyes flash with dark desire.
My heart does a little flip and I remember the intensity of his kiss earlier. It was a delicious connection that fed the hunger in me that has been unsated for so long.
“Come here,” he says again, his voice a little lower, almost a growl. He’s expecting to be obeyed. “Now.”
I do as he asks, a sense of being wanted coming over me as his gaze roams my body.
“Long time since I’ve been with a woman,” he says, curling his fingers into the front of the towel wrapped around my torso. His warm knuckles touch my flesh.
“Long time since I’ve been with anyone,” I say, looking down at him.
He looks up into my eyes. “By choice, not from lack of opportunity.”
“Yes, by choice.”
His attention flicks to the right.
I follow his line of vision. Branson is standing in the doorway with his dark shoulder bunched on the frame. His broad chest is beautiful. Strong pecs and small black nipples. He doesn’t speak, just appears curious as to what is going on in the bedroom.
“Maisey.” With his other hand Elias turns me back to look at him. “I want you. I want to be with you as much as a man can be with a woman.”
I swallow, a flutter of nerves suddenly attacking me. He’s in his human form now, but the thought of him turning into a huge wolf at any moment is somewhat intimidating.
“I’ll make it good for you,” he says. “I promise.”
“And Branson?” I whisper.
“I’m guessing he wants to watch.”