Animal Instincts Ch. 03

"Yes and no." Sydney slightly blushed as Natalie gaped at her, "he took me home last night, but he didn't come up."

"Syd, you have no idea who he is, he could be a serial killer!" Natalie was incredulous as her friend simply laughed off her far-fetched assumptions - okay so maybe he wasn't a serial killer, but that didn't mean he wasn't potentially dangerous. Just look at the way all three of those men had handled those rowdy guys who had been manhandling Skye. Speaking of which where the hell was she?

"Did you see Skye before you left last night?" Sydney swallowed her mouthful and sipped at her coffee, before answering.

"No, the last time I'd seen her she was with that James guy" Sydney frowned slightly as she tried to place whether she'd seen her friend any other time afterwards.

Sydney retrieved her phone as another series of chimes rang out, skimming the message, "So did you get Nathaniel's number last night?"

"No, I didn't" Natalie glanced out the window again, absently pulling her pastry into a million pieces, "it slipped my mind."

"Well you're in luck!" Sydney beamed, again wearing her Cheshire cat grin.

Natalie watched her for a moment with narrowed eyes, "why do you say that?"

"Because he's a good friend of Daniel's, I can get you his number if you want" she smiled, she could easily read Natalie's expression as disbelief crossed her features only to be replaced with a hint of excitement moments later. "Or -- I could simply forward you the message I just got."

Natalie sat stunned - speechless even - Sydney was literally bouncing out of her chair with glee and chattering away incessantly about how wonderful Daniel was and how he was such a gentleman; and she couldn't even piece together two words.

"Nat... Earth to Natalie"

"Huh?" Sydney rolled her eyes as Natalie just sat there gawking at her.

"Jeez, you'd think that you'd never had a guy interested in you before with the way you're carrying on" Sydney couldn't help but laugh at her friend's expression, she looked like a pre-teen with the innocent act that she was putting on. "So do you want his number or not?"

"Ugh sure I guess." She frowned slightly as she watched Natalie finish her coffee and wipe her mouth on a napkin. For some reason the other girl seemed utterly shaken up by the idea that Nathaniel was so keen to see her again. Oh well it wasn't her problem to be concerned with, Natalie could deal with her own issues on her own time.

She on the other hand had a very charming guy frothing at the mouth; he had escorted her to her apartment then had practically fallen over himself with eagerness as he asked to see her again.

'Kitten, at some time or another in your life there will be a time when others will look down on you. But if you always respect yourself and act with dignity, then you will always be able to hold your head high.

Sydney blinked as tears suddenly filled her green eyes, she was five when her gran had passed down those precious words of wisdom and she made sure that she lived by them.

Sydney couldn't resist smiling to herself as she remembered the stunned look on Daniel's face as she very firmly told him that she refused to be 'just another piece of ass' -- Mitchell may have thought of her that way but she had set him straight last night too. She wasn't that kind of girl and she never would be.

Instead of being discouraged, Daniel had almost seemed to be relieved by her matter of fact comment, and had pleasantly surprised her when he had given her his number and asked her to text him when she would be available for dinner.

"So what are your plans for the rest of the afternoon?" Sydney asked wiping her fingers on her napkin.

"Not much, I wanted to catch up with Skye so we could settle some of these moving plans but she hasn't replied to the message I sent you two earlier" It was unusual for Skye to not reply, but Sydney assumed that she was somewhere nursing her hangover, they all knew that Skye didn't mix well with liquor and it would often come back to kick her in the arse the next day.

"She's probably just sleeping off that hangover, she did have a lot to drink last night."

Natalie smiled at the memories of all the monumental hangovers Skye had had over the years. "Yeah, you're probably right. What did you have planned?"

"Well Daniel asked me to dinner, but I have nothing to wear" Natalie couldn't suppress a chuckle at the idea of Sydney having nothing to wear, "what?"

"Oh nothing, you only have a closet the size of my living room full of gorgeous clothes and you say you have nothing to wear? If that's true then there's definitely no hope for the rest of us." Sydney glared as Natalie continued to chuckle.

"Well the problem is I don't know where he is taking me, so I don't know what to wear."

"Why don't you ask him?" Sydney stared at her friend, what Natalie suggested wasn't an utterly stupid idea it just never occurred to her to do so.

After a few moments she grabbed her phone, quickly tapping out a message and sending it to Daniel. He responded just as quickly, with an explanation about warm clothes and closed in comfortable shoes.

Huh?! Sydney sat blinking stupidly at her phone, what the hell did that mean?

"What did he say?" Natalie enquired, Sydney just held her phone out to her "warm clothes and closed in comfortable shoes, huh? Well that's simple enough, did you want to go shopping?" Natalie was pretty certain the shoes Daniel mentioned we clearly cross trainers -- and there was no way in hell that Sydney owned a pair.

Sydney was a stunned mute when Natalie asked if she wanted to go shopping, she could only nod, as she was still trying to get her head around the strange clothing requirements Daniel requested. Where was he taking her?

Nathaniel stalked through his apartment, trickles of sweat running down between the creases of his muscled torso. He opened the double doors of the stainless steel refrigerator, grabbing the ingredients he was looking and unceremoniously dumped them on the counter top, a few short minutes later he leant back as he listened to the whirl of the blender whipping up his banana smoothie.

It had been hours since he'd sent his message - via Daniel and Sydney - to Natalie, why hadn't she contacted him yet? Out of respect he hadn't requested that Sydney hand over the leggy brunette's number, but in his agitation he was now wishing he had. It was partly due to his restlessness that he had spent the last four hours beating the living daylights out of several high grade punching bags and running a half marathon on a treadmill.

Not like he or any of his pack needed to work out to stay in shape, but he liked to be active and he thoroughly enjoyed the feeling that came with physical activity. He was proud of the fact that he was a master of some three dozen styles of martial combat, including many which were once closely guarded secrets in their regions of origin.

As young men Nathaniel, James and Daniel were initially trained by James' father, Phillip, since then all three had been continually ambushing each other before proceeding to throttle and pound each other to within an inch of their lives with the various skills they implemented. Nathaniel favoured styles which involved freestyle and improvised tactics to fight like krav maga, where his cousins preferred to use more structured methods like judo or tae kwon do.

Nathaniel glanced at the clock as he poured out his smoothie; it was a quarter past four. He sighed as he gulped down his drink, she was obviously either too busy or was not interested enough to call or text him. He felt his beast prickle at the thought that Natalie might not be interested in them, but there was little he could do if that was how she felt; he wouldn't force his attentions on her.

Groaning, Nathaniel had to grip the marble bench top in order to steady himself as his beast bombarded him with image after image, each more provocative then the last, of how exactly he would solve the issue of her not being interested.

"Sit'ka... you know well enough that that is considered to be sexual assault if not rape in almost every part of the civilised world."

Who said you had to force her? Maybe she would be willing?

"Yeah, you wish buddy" Nathaniel turned to rinse his glass, and place it on the dish rack.

The gigantic dusty grey hound lay slumped against the side of the kitchen counter, his long powerfully muscled legs sprawling out in every direction from his body; his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth from where he grinned at Nathaniel. To most people he appeared to be a grossly oversized -- however ordinary looking - Great Dane, but appearances could definitely be deceiving.

With a quick lick of his chops, Sit'ka huffed as he sent a particularly titillating image -- complete with other sensory effects - to Nathaniel, in an effort to push his man's self-control and get a better reaction from him. Again his tongue lolled out of his mouth as Nathaniel groaned again; leaning down to bury his face against his arms where he held onto the sink.

The phantom girl giggled and squealed shrilly as she darted from room to room as she made her way through the spacious apartment. He ensured that Nathaniel ghosted after her through the various rooms towards his bedroom, by the time Nathaniel opened the bedroom door she was naked, lying on her back, and panting heavily across the middle of the king size bed. Turning her head to look at him standing in the doorway, she reached out her hand and silently beckoned him to join her.

The distance between them disappeared in the blink of an eye, as Nathaniel lay down beside her, she smiled up at him and his breath caught dead in his chest. The phantom appeared exactly as she had in the flesh the night before; breathtakingly beautiful with her long dark brown hair loose around her face and body where she lay. Nathaniel -- and Sit'ka through Nathaniel's eyes - lay watching her for long minutes, too scared to touch her less the image disappear completely; his eyes drinking in every feature of her face.

The curve of her jaw line, the light rosy pink of her full lips; his eyes traced further upwards to the light smattering of small freckles across her nose and soft cheeks, the way her long dark lashes framed her sparkling eyes.

Nathaniel swallowed hard and braced himself against the bench, forcing the image from his mind; rounding on where Sitka lay sprawled on the tiles. It was bad enough that she hadn't contacted him, without his beast adding to his problems.

"That was not nice," the hound hauled itself up from the tiles and sat staring at him with a mask of innocence, "oh don't look at me like that you knew exactly what you were doing. And you, above all else, should know damn well how I feel about the situation. I don't need your god damn reminders Sitka." Nathaniel couldn't prevent raising his tone of voice, nor could he could keep the sharpness out of his words as he spoke.

Nathaniel, I...

Sitka whined and dropped his head to his paws, but Nathaniel stood impassive - stunned by his own reaction - he rarely ever raised his voice, let alone yelled at his beast. He stomped past the hound without looking back; he needed to clear his head without any distractions, and Sitka had just proven to be a definite distraction. Nathaniel made his way towards his bathroom, kicking off his shoes and stripping down his track pants as he went; standing in front of the vanity he began unwinding the cotton strips he had wrapped around each of his hands and forearms, before dropping them into the sink.

Raking his long fingers through his tousled hair and down his weary face, Nathaniel began to reflect on his outburst at Sitka. He was still furious at his beast for his careless lack of foresight, but nevertheless what the hell had gotten into him today? All he could think about was Natalie and the way her sexy body -- clad in that intoxicating black dress - had felt as she moved in his arms the night before, Nathaniel felt himself instantly hardening as he remembered each of her curves and how she had reacted as he pulled her against him.

Turning Nathaniel quickly stepped into the shower cubical and adjusted the water til steam billowed around the room; easing himself against the tiles with closed eyes, he rubbed himself with firm strokes content for the moment to do the one thing he knew would help get Natalie out of his head.

"So what did you want to discuss?" James strode down the hall to where Rachael was leaning against the wall - Indra slumped at her feet - with a defined frown marring her usually soft features.

"James I'm not going to bullshit you okay? I honestly don't know what we're looking at here." James sighed as she shrugged her shoulders and crossed her arms before continuing, "Something else happened, I can almost smell it. But for whatever reason Skye either doesn't remember or doesn't want to discuss it. Either way there's not much more I can do for her, she is stable enough, with some rest and a good meal she should be fine."

"What do you think happened? I mean it's not every day that someone goes into a coma while having sex, surely there has to be some medical reason for it. Perhaps she has some undiagnosed condition?" Leaning back against the opposite wall, James watched as Rachael processed the idea.

"Maybe she does, but my instincts are telling me that it's not the cau-" James's eyes narrowed sharply as Indra hissed loudly, her coat raised on end down her back, as she bunched herself protectively in front of Rachael. Rachael visibly tensed, her head snapping to the side.

Following her gaze James gaped as Ka'tah appeared and slowly edged down the hallway back toward the bedroom door, scenting the air as he went; James frowned at the unusual behaviour of the beasts, before following his beast. Quietly he opened the door, Ka'tah pushing his nose through the gap, a low rumble vibrating his chest as his hackles rose. James rested his hand on his beast's head as he pushed the door open wider and stepped inside; he stopped mid-step as he gasped at the sight of what lay before him.

Skye lay sound asleep in the middle of the bed, her chest gently rising and falling with each breathe; but beside her lay the most stunning long haired white dog James had ever laid eyes on. Ka'tah edged a step closer to stand in front of James; the motion causing the other beast's head to jerk in alarm as it pulled its lips back to display its impressive teeth while continuing to eye off the possible threat. Realisation hit James hard, and he edged back out of the room leaving the door where he opened it.

"Rachael," he turned to the other woman and found her clutching a much smaller form of her beast -- she appeared only slightly larger than a house cat - than he'd previously seen to her chest; her eyes darting between the open door and his face. "Did you see?"

Rachael nodded mutely at his words; she couldn't process this new revelation. It wasn't possible, unless...? "You bit her?"

"No. She passed out before long before that was even possible." The deadly serious tone to his words made Rachael instantly believe James.

"But how?" James appeared lost in thought, which was probably good considering her own thoughts were uselessly scrambled up into a jumbled mess inside her head.

"Unless she was already an Other?" James's eyes flashed with understanding and something else Rachael couldn't quite pick.

"Surely she would have known, perhaps that's why she did want to discuss it earlier." Clinging to James' words, in a similar way to how she was clinging to Indra, was like a lifeline in the dark; allowing her to carefully start to arrange her thoughts into a more organised manner.

"Or not, wait here for a moment" Rachael stared after him as he darted down the hallway toward the kitchen, returning moments later digging through his wallet. Grabbing one of her hands he dropped a small charm into her palm; her eyes widened as she saw the intricately woven pattern of interlocking loops and knots - she knew that it was made of pure silver, even without having to feel its weight.

"James, do you realise what this is?" He shook his head and tucked his arms across his chest once more.

"When I found it I had initially thought it to be an unusual design for a charm bracelet, so I did a little research. Sadly there's not a lot documented about that particular pattern."

"And little wonder, it's a closely guarded secret, belonging to a long lost branch of one particular Scottish clan. Where on earth did you get this?"

"Rachael what does it mean?" Rachael looked up from the bauble she held to find James staring at her intently, "I'd have to check your library to be certain, but I'm pretty sure that it's a Shield. From what I understand it's a protection charm."

"I see, so it protects its wearer from harm?" James' thoughts were whirling at a million miles per second, the more he learnt the more questions he had; Rachael was clearly short on the answers he was looking for, as she seemed just as confused as he was.

"Honestly I'm not sure, as I said a moment ago I'd need to check out your library to be certain." Rachael replied holding out her hand with the charm in it for him. James just shook his head and closed her fingers around the beautiful object.

"You keep it for the time being, I need some answers. Help yourself to whatever you need."

He waited for long moments as she nodded, dropping her hand and slowly making her way down the hall towards his private library. Watching her retreating back, he sighed as he rubbed at his chin, trying to decide what he was going to do with the woman and beast laying in his bed.

"What about this one?" Natalie held out a long sleeved button-down shirt for Sydney's scrutiny.

"I guess" Sydney was beginning to have serious reservations regarding Daniel's ideas of what constituted as a date, "so you really think I should go with jeans?"

Natalie didn't even look up from where she rifled through the rack of garments, "Well, since he didn't exactly tell you where he was taking you then yeah the safe bet would be jeans. Aha! This one." Holding out a pretty turquoise cotton blouse, with three quarter length sleeves.

"Oh I like that colour, it's pretty." Natalie beamed, and hooked the hanger onto her wrist with the other two she held.

The department store wasn't Sydney's usual haunt for shopping, but Natalie had insisted on coming here, and she was starting to see why; the clothes were certainly far from being the designer threads she was accustomed to but they were well made and comfortable, intended to be purpose built and practical.

Grabbing a couple of pairs of jeans from the neatly folded stacks she followed Natalie through to the shoe department, with a mental shake she prepared herself to try on and ultimately purchase the first pair of cross trainers she'd owned since she was six. She tried not to remember how hideous looking and uncomfortable those shoes her grandmother had bought for her were.

After sweeping through the shelves a few times she grabbed a pair of mocha and tan coloured trainers, then turned towards the cashier counter.

"Aren't you going to try them on for size?" Sydney stopped where she was, her shoulders slumping in defeat. Natalie rolled her eyes and tugged her towards a bench, holding out her arms for the garments and bag that Sydney was holding on to.