57. Leviathan
LEVIATHAN
The sky was still dark outside, which didn’t come as a surprise since the clock in the small kitchen said it was only a few minutes past four in the morning.
I’d already been awake for over an hour.
My mind wouldn’t slow down, wouldn’t stop flying through everything that had happened.
I’d left Idlewild a disgraced alpha and alleged criminal; now I’d returned a century later as a legend, a monster people warned their kids about to get them to behave.
Not only that, but after all that time living in the forest, the world had sped forward with a rapidity that was mind boggling.
I’d left with Model-Ts and Studebakers rumbling up and down gravel and dirt roads, and many houses were still not fully electric.
Now? God, it was like the future I’d read about in books by H.G.
Wells and Jules Verne. It wasn’t fully surprising.
As I brought people into Hidden Grove, word trickled in of changes in the outside world.
I knew what cell phones and the internet were, even though I’d never used them.
The same was true for television, solar power, and electric cars.
Now that I was in it, I had the weird sensation of being a time traveler, stepping out of his magic machine to find a wholly changed planet.
A low growl rumbled through my chest. There was no going back to bed tonight.
I might as well go burn off the ill feelings I had.
Out on the porch, I took a deep breath and leaped off the porch, shifting in mid-air.
The sharpness of the cold wind dulled as my fur insulated me.
My paws hit the ground, and I took off for the tree line, desperate to get into nature.
The thin forests that surrounded this side of Idlewild were less wild and dark, with more new growth than old, like my lands, but it didn’t matter. Simply being in the wilderness helped alleviate some of the stress that had been building in me since seeing June at Anders’ place.
A fuming and hissing anger roiled inside me as I thought about her with that prick.
Try as I might, I had a hard time not wondering if they’d already had sex.
Anders said the mating ceremony, which meant they were still courting, but times had changed.
Perhaps that old tradition had fallen by the wayside?
Unbidden, an image flashed across my mind. June bent over and screaming in delight, with Anders behind her, thrusting and slapping her ass.
Skidding to a halt, leaves and dirt slipping under my paws, I threw my head back and howled at the sky in disgust, rage, and pain. My inner wolf blind with fury, I snapped and bit at the thin tree limbs hanging near me, my teeth shattering the wood.
My temper and mood weren’t helped by how difficult it had been to find Naphele.
When I’d first begun this quest through time, I’d assumed I’d find her in one, maybe two, generations.
When that had passed, it made me question the whole thing.
It also seemed that the old stories of your closest love returning in an almost exact copy of themselves in a new body really was nothing more than a legend.
Rainier was right, I’d have to look deeper to find that spark that told me Naphele was inside someone.
Even then, it was harder than anticipated.
So far, none of the women I’d spoken to had any spark.
The only spark I’d had in a century was with June.
Based on the ritual we’d done and her own assertion, she was not Naphele, and she had left me for what appeared to be a narcissist asshole.
Life was really looking up, I thought bitterly.
My self-pity vanished when I got the sudden sensation of being watched.
Freezing in place, I looked around and sniffed at the air.
Could the Red Maw have ventured this close?
Was Anders thinking of going back on his word and attacking me here?
There was no scent, but the faint breeze blew against my face.
I was obviously downwind of whoever was following me.
Suppressing a growl of anger and challenge, I ran, sprinting into the foliage. The sound of crackling leaves and breaking twigs erupted behind me, signaling that I was right, and a pursuer was chasing me. I unleashed the growl.
Whoever this was, they were about to have the worst fucking time of their life. Part of me hoped it really was Anders, then I could take out my rage on the man who now had the woman I loved.
I ran in a large circle, making my way to flank my pursuer.
Whoever they were, they’d obviously never attacked someone before.
Already, I could hear them following my exact route, unsure or confused why I was going in the direction I was.
Cutting sharply to the left, I made a beeline for them, leaping over an evergreen shrub and tackling them.
My shoulder clipped theirs, sending them tumbling across the ground. Landing hard and rolling, I quickly righted myself, lips peeled back, ready to bite their throat out before they could jump me.
“Levi, it’s me!”
I nearly collapsed in shock. Before me, instead of an attacking and murderous assassin, was June. She’d reverted to her human form. There were leaves and twigs stuck in her hair.
Shifting back, I rushed over to help her up.
“Jesus Christ, June, I almost killed you,” I growled. “Why did you sneak up on me and chase me like that?”
June allowed me to help her up, then brushed off her pants before plucking all the debris from her hair.
When she looked up, we were only a few inches apart.
Our eyes locked, and I wanted to reach out and touch her, to run my hands across her body and pull her even closer before kissing those soft lips.
June also had a look in her eye that made me think she might be picturing the same thing. Her hand drifted forward, brushing my stomach. The contact sent a jolt of excitement through me.
Then, as if snapping out of a dream, she pulled her hand back and took a step away from me.
“Uh…” She shook her head. “What did you say?”
I let out a small sigh of frustration and disappointment.
“I said, what were you thinking sneaking up on me and chasing me? I thought you were some asshole coming to attack me.”
“I didn’t know you were running from me. I thought you’d decided to run for fun, you know? When you weren’t at the rental house, I followed your scent.”
Letting out a sigh of frustration, I said, “But you still haven’t said why. Why are you following me into the woods, June?” Then, simply to be spiteful, I added, “Don’t you have a mate who’ll be worried about you?”
Even in the gray light of predawn, I could read her face easily. She looked hurt and sad. My wolf whined, pissed off at me for making her upset. Sending a mental wave of irritation to him, I begged him to shut up and let me deal with this my way.
“I need to talk to you, okay?” June said at last, visibly straightening and trying to meet my eyes with what I could only describe as determination.
“About what, June?” I said, unable to hold back my anger. “I tried to talk to you when I saw you at Anders’s house, but you didn’t want to. What’s different now?”
She cast her eyes down, twisting her fingers together as she shifted from foot to foot. Usually, I found her fidgeting cute, but with so much weighing on me, I had a hard time not shouting at her to get on with whatever it was she wanted to tell me.
“I’ve been having visions,” she said at last.
“Excuse me?” I frowned, unsure I’d heard her correctly.
“Dreams,” she said. “Dreams that I think are actually visions of things that have happened in the past. My grandfather’s side of the family was gifted with the sight. It’s when—”
“I know what it is, June,” I said quickly, though not unkindly. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about this?”
She shrugged, flinging her arms out and letting them flop back at her sides.
“It never came up. I’d never had anything resembling the gift, and neither did my grandfather.
I had no reason to mention it when I’d shown no hint of being able to see anything.
Gran thinks that becoming a shifter so late caused some deeper magical gifts to come out. ”
“Okay, okay,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “What the hell does this have to do with me?”
Again, she paused before speaking, taking a moment to avert her eyes. “I saw…uh…you and Naphele. Back then. Before she died.”
An icy cold clutched at my heart.
“You what?” I said, gaping at her.
“It’s worse than that,” she whispered. “I, um, saw her the night she died. I watched the attack happen.”
As the words slammed into me, my knees became like jelly, and I had to reach out, grabbing a tree to steady myself.
“You…you saw it?” My voice was thick with emotion, my head spinning.
For a century, I’d wanted to know who had killed the woman I love. To this day, there were still mornings when I woke up in a cold sweat from nightmares about holding Naphele as she died.
The horror and shock vanished, and unmitigated rage swept in to replace it. I took a step forward, and the look on my face must have been terrifying, because June took a quick step back as if she thought I was going to hurt her.
“Who was it! Tell me,” I shouted, barely able to contain myself, even though I knew deep down whoever had done it was most likely long dead. It didn’t change the fact that I needed closure.
“I don’t know,” June said, holding her hands up as if to ward me off.
Her reaction forced me to calm myself. Hands still quivering in clenched fists, I took a few deep breaths, shoving my emotions back, burying them so that I could function and not scare June.
“Okay,” I said, moderating my voice but still speaking through clenched teeth. “Do you at least have a description?”
“It was dark, and it happened fast,” she said. “They were in their wolf form, and there were no distinct markings.”
Nodding, I pressed my fist against my mouth, doing my best not to bite down on the flesh of my knuckles. My wolf wanted to bite something, to tear and rend flesh and make whoever had killed Naphele scream until blood burst from their lungs.
“Why are you telling me this?” I whispered.
“I have a theory,” she said slowly. “Would you like to hear it?”
“Go ahead,” I grunted, old thoughts and memories flooding through my head.
“We did that ritual with Rainier. That was when I had my first visions of Naphele. I saw lots of stuff, like the day you gave her this,” she said and touched the necklace. I barely held back a sob; I recalled that day so well. So long ago, but it seemed like yesterday in some ways.
“When it was done, it didn’t feel like I was her reincarnation, but like I’d made some sort of contact with her. I think she gave me those visions. I think she’s stuck in some sort of limbo, unable to reincarnate until her murder is solved.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Why else would she keep showing me her death? I had another vision of it tonight. I think she’s telling me we need to find out who killed her. Then, maybe, she can be at peace, and finally reincarnate. You two can…uh…finally be together, since I know that’s what you really want.”
“She could be showing you that because she’s within you,” I said, unable to help myself. A small part of me still desperately hoped that was true.
June shook her head, letting out a humorless chuckle. “We’ve been over this, Levi. The ritual—”
“Isn’t one hundred percent accurate. You heard what Rainier said. There’s a chance it was wrong.”
“A very low chance,” June said. “It’s probably one in a million.”
I smiled at her, but I knew it didn’t reach my eyes. “That’s still a chance. Maybe it’s an even better chance now that you’re a full shifter?”
She shook her head. “Will you help me find out who killed her and why? I’m afraid that these visions are going to keep happening until we do. I don’t know for sure that it will work, but I have to do something.” She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “I don’t want to keep seeing that.”
After all these years, I’d been granted access to Idlewild.
Not only was I in the town where Naphele and I had lived, where she’d died, but I could go about my business without worrying about some vigilante killing me.
I’d been wrongfully accused of her murder, but time had glossed over that crime.
With June helping me, I might be able to dig into the mystery of why Naphele had been brutally murdered a century before. How could I say no?
I growled low in my chest and nodded once. “Okay. Deal. Let’s find the fucker.”