Dawn's Shelter

"I'm a lycanthrope. A werewolf." She winced and looked away expecting Thomas to laugh or call the boys in the white coats and to haul her off. His silence. His acceptance of what she said as the absolute truth stunned her.

"Can you keep a secret?" Thomas asked. He had his suppositions that while she claimed to be, and probably was a werewolf. She was not of the same genetic line as the wolves he was used to dealing with. She shared some similarities, the dark hair and russet skin. But, she was lacking the characteristic high cheekbones, arched nose, of the people he was acquainted with.

She may be like Gina, Hunter's wife, a werewolf genetically. But, distant enough from her original genetic pool to erase the physical resemblances she shared with her long lost distant relation. Meeting Hunter and his family would give Jan someplace safe to stay. It could also provide her family with the genetic diversity they so desperately needed. Not only making the future safe for Jan, but all other firstborns to come.

"I think so," Jan answered. Arching her eyebrows, she waited for him to explain. She was not sure of where Thomas was headed with this conversation.

"I know someone who can help you." Thomas was almost eager as he dug for the cell phone in his hip pocket. One call and he could get the show on the road. Help her in ways she or even he could not imagine. There were other secrets. Secrets and lives that depended on his keeping of their secret, he had to protect and could not share. Despite the fact that she'd trusted him with hers. The secrets weren't his to divulge.

"There isn't anybody. I have to disappear. I won't go back. I have to leave town as soon as possible."

"No, you don't. Jan, you are not as alone or nearly as helpless as you think. You've already trusted me once. Can't you make it twice? The way I see it. You've got nothing to lose by sticking around till morning."

"Nothing but my freedom. Thomas, if they come for me... I can't protect you." Jan knew what she was. She'd received the markings on her eighteenth birthday. Forced into it. Forced into her first shift. But, she refused to allow it to happen again. Going away to school had kept her free from the pull of the wolf. She'd never forgotten how to give her body over. She simply refused to do so. And didn't know if she could give her body over to her wolf now, if she had to. Her mother only had to prove that her daughter could shift, once Jan had, the only thing that interested her mother was marrying her off.

"I'm not asking you to." He flipped open his cell phone and pushed speed dial, waiting for someone to pick up. "I'm only asking you to trust me."

"Fine." Jan settled back on the pillows. Wanting to believe that Thomas knew what he was talking about and that he had an idea of how to help her. She wanted to believe. She really did.

Chapter 5

Kacie ended the call with a curse. She'd been on the phone for over an hour giving report and getting not so much as a word of thanks. Only her mother barking more orders as she made ridiculous demand Kacie didn't have a hope in hell of fulfilling. Bring Jan home, now. Sure. No problem, Mommy Dearest. What was she supposed to do? Yank Jan out of her apartment by her ponytail and drag her back to Texas? Kacie knew what her mother's answer would be to that question. So, she hadn't bothered to ask. If that's what it took to get Jan home, yes.

Was the bitch even relieved that Jan was safe and alive? Yes, of course she was. Because her mother's precious genetic line was still intact. Not because she actually cared about Jan or her, for that matter. After Jan was back where she belonged and doing what she was supposed to do, Kacie was so gone. She slid her arms into her parka and slammed the hotel room door shut with a loud satisfying bang. Stomping out into the blasted cold, she steeled her determination. Time to let dear sis know that she was in town.

She cranked the Honda's engine over. In this cold, it took a couple of tries before the engine clattered to life. She sat rubbing her gloved hands together as the windows defrosted and the heater warmed the car. Kacie couldn't blame her mother for being the way she was. There was a lot at stake and perhaps, too much riding on Jan.

She should just tell her mother that if she wanted Jan she should come up here with her precious omegas and get her herself. Her mom was not the queen of subtlety though. And the omegas, men with necks and biceps thick as tree stumps, unwaveringly followed her mother's every command. Kacie had to believe that somewhere in all those muscles and blind loyalty was a heart and a mind capable of independent thought. They wouldn't hurt Jan. Her mother would never allow her prize to be permanently damaged. But, they weren't exactly kings of gentleness either.

This place was a paranormal hot bed of tingling magic and deep secrets. Kacie had not discovered the source. But, the power sizzling over her skin was not dark. It was light, as light as air. And for some reason, the sensation of it felt like coming home after a long journey away. This was the last place she wanted her mother. Whatever the source of this energy and magic of such lightness and welcoming, her mother didn't need to know about it. Acquisition was another cruelty of their world. And Kacie would never risk this peace and light energy to her mother's ambition.

Her mother and her father were firstborns. Paired and mated. Charged with the business of producing heirs. Jan was supposed to be a boy. A firstborn male who would take over and lead the pack and when a girl popped out instead, her mother was considered a failure. When another baby wasn't conceived right after Jan was born and Kacie didn't come along till six years later and she was a girl at that. She was another strike against her mother. When no more children followed behind Kacie, her father left. Declaring that her mother was an unfit mate. Nobody had seen him since.

She didn't hold her mother's perpetual bitchiness against her. The woman had been forced into marriage. Forced into having children. And forced into raising children that she didn't want and living with a man she didn't love. Jan and her superior genetics were the only card her mother had to play. Luckily, she'd played the card very well. Securing her position and the very lives of her pack with that ace up her sleeve. When Jan had run off and her mother hadn't been able to produce her. She'd placed all of them in danger. Jan had to do what she was supposed to do, whether she wanted to or not.

Kacie wound through the frozen streets and parked the car a block away from Jan's apartment. Hiking the distance in between. There was a light on in the living room and Jan's beat up car was in the driveway. Good signs. The neighborhood was quiet. The little families bedded down for the night. Good. There wouldn't be any witnesses when she hauled Jan down the stairs and stuffed her in the car.

Kacie huddled down into her parka and picked her way across the icy walkway. Her nose picked up the scent of fresh blood as she got closer to the stairway. At the foot of the stairs was the source of the scent. A small, frozen, rusty red puddle stained the snow. The blood was Jan's. Kacie bolted up the stairs and pounded on the door. When nobody answered, worry became panic and she kicked the door in with the solid sole of her boot.

She searched the apartment. The roses that she'd sent her sister as a peace offering littered the floor in heap of red petals, leafy bits, and shattered crystal. Drawers hung empty. Vacant hangers swung on the closet rod. Her sister was gone. And apparently, she'd left in a hurry. "Shit!" Kacie hissed under her breath. She'd pissed away the last year of her life trying to find her sister. She'd never have the kind of luck it took to find her twice.

Jan couldn't have gotten that far. Her car was in the driveway and she was injured. She had to be someplace close by. Unlike Jan, Kacie had been eager to embrace the wolf that shared her skin. She had the wolf's heightened senses. But, she was not a good enough tracker to follow her sister's trail in her human form. Her wolf would be able to scent her sister. There was still a chance to find Jan before it was too late. Kacie couldn't go back to Texas empty handed.

She stood in Jan's living room and stripped. There was a surge of pain and magic as she gave her body over to her wolf. Waves of energy rippled along her bare skin as she unleashed the ancient power. Flesh peeled away and yielded to a thick layer of plush walnut colored fur. Hands and feet molded into paws, nails shaped into claws. Her face elongated, making room for a powerful set of jaws and two rows of sharp teeth. Bone shortened and thickened, muscle bunched and was torn away, reformed into powerful bands of tendon and sinew. Shaking loose her fur, the wolf steadied herself on four legs. She knew what to do. Trotting out the open door, sniffing and following the imperceptible trail of scent and randomly scattered droplets of blood.

Patrick ducked deeper into the shadows. Sheltered in between two of the row of tightly packed houses lining the neighborhood street. He hated it when he was right. Something was off about Jan, way off. He'd been out on patrol and witnessed the exchange in the driveway and he had stuck around, just out of curiosity.

His night vision wasn't infallible. But, when a woman, a younger version of Jan had shown up and kicked in the apartment door. In she went, and out came a wolf, he knew his suspicions were right on track. He kept his distance. Stalking through back yards and over privacy fences. Trekking on silent feet over the soft snow, following the wolf to see where it was she went.

This wasn't one of the wolves he was used to dealing with or smelling, for that matter. She didn't smell the same as the Pack. She had the same powerful set of jaws and graceful, stealthy way of moving. But, she was different. Her magic, the raw, primal, ancient source that made her what she was, felt different on his skin. Patrick didn't waste time thinking about calling for back up when the wolf tracked a scent trail up to Thomas's front door. Thomas and Jan were holed up inside like two of the three little pigs. And who knew, if this wolf would huff and puff and blow their house down.

Patrick couldn't have been happier when the wolf, paused to leave a puddle of yellow in the snow that had drifted over the front stoop and trotted off into the night. Leaving her scent behind. He for one was glad that he wasn't a werewolf. On a night like tonight, he'd freeze his tail off, if he had one. His body temperature was decidedly lower than that of his distant cousins. He barely noticed the wind chill or the bitterly cold breeze gusting down from due north.

He wasn't surprised when the wolf skulked through the shadows and ended up where she had started out. And even less surprised when a female emerged fully dressed and jerked closed the door behind her. She lifted her head, scenting the wind and stared into the shadows. He thought for a minute his hiding place had been discovered. Instead of confronting him though she jogged down the slippery sidewalk to her car a block away.

Chapter 6

Nash guided the SUV along the narrow side streets to Thomas's house. Carefully following the directions he'd been given. Tristen rode shotgun. Grinning eagerly at the chance for a little excitement. Thomas's phone call was vague. He'd only given hint that he had a 'situation' and needed Nash to come over right away. What the 'situation' was, Nash didn't have a clue. But, it'd better be good, given the fact that he'd given up his favorite easy chair for the drive into town.

He parked in the driveway and climbed out. Tristen bounced out of the passenger side, sniffing the cold night air. Picking up the scents that Nash had detected the minute they rolled into the neighborhood. Vampires. What were they doing here? Positioned around Thomas's house posting guard. "Dane." He nodded his head in a bow as the brotherhood's Prime appeared out of the shadows.

"Nash," Dane reciprocated the greeting. "Are you missing one of your pack?"

"No. We don't venture into town in our wolf forms." Nash's eyes locked onto the paw prints tracking through the snow. "Too easy to be spotted." The prints were deep and large. Could be a dog, a very big and heavy dog. He followed the prints to the front stoop where the animal had left its calling card. Kneeling to catch a better whiff of the fresh scent and soiling the snow, he knew right away they weren't tracking any dog. The scent was a blend of wolf and human. But, the scent wasn't familiar and it wasn't from one of his.

He let his nose do its thing. The scent belonged to a female and definitely not one of his pack. He knew the scents of his own. There was another scent, muted and coming from the house. Another wolf, a latent wolf, and of course, he smelled Thomas and the acrid aroma of worry mixed with fear. "Perhaps, we should go inside."

Dane tipped his head subtly. Gesturing to the guard he'd posted around the periphery, he nodded, "That's a good idea." Patrick was on the woman, the she-wolf. Or whatever she was. Tracking her. John Mark was across the street perched on a rooftop. Will was directly above them, impersonating a bird, a huge blackbird, hanging out in the highest branches of a tall oak, well out of sight.

Thomas jumped up at the soft knock on his front door. "That'll be my... I mean our friends." He smiled reassuringly at Jan. "Don't worry. Everything will be fine."

Jan wished she had Thomas's optimism. Everything was not going to be fine. Ever. At least until she was well past breeding age, in another twenty years or so, then, she'd be safe. She listened in as male voices exchanged a greeting. Cringing as the heavy sound of boots stomped up the hallway toward her room.

"Jan, I'd like for you to meet my friends." Thomas said, leading the men into the bedroom. "This is Nash, Dane, and Tristen. They're here to help."

Jan looked up at the men. They looked like a miniature swat team. Nash had weatherworn, bronzed skin, engraved by deep wrinkles at the corners of his mouth and eyes. A furrowed, worry line ran across his forehead, made all the deeper as he met her eyes. His long salt and pepper hair was pulled back into a tight braid across his back. She huddled on the bed wishing she were anywhere else but here. His was the magic she borrowed. And this close and personal, tasting it on the tip of her tongue and feeling the burn of power on her skin, she had no doubt that this man, so seemingly human was a wolf and a very powerful wolf, perhaps an alpha, at that.

Dane was tall, built like a tank, clad in black leather and armed to the teeth with an assortment of daggers and blades. His black hair was styled in spikes not doing a thing to soften the hard chiseled planes of his face or the intensity of his brown eyes. Her skin crawled as his dark eyes took in everything around him. His power was different, more subtle and cooler without the heated tingle of wolf magic. But, there was no missing his aura of authority. He too, was an alpha, just of a different kind. Though he was not wolf, he wasn't human either.

Tristen was younger than the other two, not just chronologically. He didn't possess the battle weary expression of the other two men. Theirs was an aura of men that had seen too much and had taken their fair share of losses. Tristen's was one of youthful enthusiasm and eagerness. Clad in jeans and a brown canvas jacket, he was tall and lanky, not quite filled out into his full-grown body yet. His brown eyes twinkled with unassuming friendliness and excitement for life. His dark hair hung loosely around his angular jaw. And instead of the curious, cautious trepidation the other two men studied her with, he could barely contain himself when it came to her, the new stranger in town.

Jan meekly said, "Hi," as she huddled down onto the mattress. She rarely used her other senses, often denying or doubting the information they relayed. These men, their scents weren't right. The men looked human, but their scents were not that of an ordinary human. They smelled of woods and wild, a combination of beast and man. Dane's scent really tipped her radar and sent alarm bells ringing in her head. He smelled sweet, beneath the undertone of pine and wilderness that clung to his skin. He was something else entirely. Something...other she hadn't known existed. She'd caught the strange smell in town...here and there, and hadn't paid it any attention. She just assumed her nose was wrong. "What are you?" she asked, pinning him with a wide-eyed look.

Nash looked down at the frightened woman with her eyes as round as quarters. Detecting the subtle difference in her scent, he wrinkled his nose. She didn't bear the scent markings so similar to his Pack. She lacked certain physical characteristics as well. But, so had Gina with her green eyes and pale skin. Obviously, the woman had a touch of Native American in her DNA. But, without the high cheekbones and russet hue to her tanned skin it was impossible to tell what else had been thrown into the mix or how far removed from the original family line she actually was.

Weak power leaked from her only to be squashed behind her mock humanity. She was wolf...and she knew it. She just chose to hide the truth of what she was behind an almost completely human exterior. Gina hadn't known what her DNA housed. And whether this small, terrified woman embraced her wolf or not. He was certain he'd found another lost child to bring back into the fold. "We could ask you the same thing," he said.

Nash was not a man to waste time with subtlety. Too many lives depended on him to worry about niceties. The woman was a wolf and he needed to know where it was she came from and if there were others like her in his territory. He already knew the answer to that question though. There was at least one more wolf besides this frightened woman on his lands. His was a peaceful pack. They searched for lost children in an attempt to bring them home where they belonged. But, this woman was no stray. She knew too much. Much more than what she let on. And if he was about to fight to keep what was his, he needed to garner her cooperation.

He'd always assumed that his was the only organized pack. His scouts had spent almost two centuries seeking out the lost children. And other than a handful of strays they accidentally happened across. Of another pack as large or possibly larger than his, not a trace had ever been found. Nash didn't use his alpha power often. He didn't enjoy taking away free will and choice. Just because he could didn't give him the right to do it. But, when it came to defending his home and his family, he would do anything necessary to protect them including unleashing his alpha.

Jan snapped her jaw shut. How had he been able to pick up on her scent? How had he known? Given that she didn't shift, the scent of her wilder side was barely perceptible to those of her kind, and not to humans at all. His question confirmed her suspicions. She'd never searched out any of her kind. She borrowed their magic. But, she ignored the source. She shouldn't have. And how she'd gotten lucky enough to avoid their radar was nothing short of a miracle. There was another pack nearby. She should have guessed it by the tingling sting of his powerful aura and the taste of wolf on her tongue.

The man she'd asked the question of stood stoically in the background. There was something unnerving about the way Dane tracked her with his eyes. It was as if he could see straight through her, right down to the blood pulsing through her veins. He moved with a fluid grace he was unable to mask by his human face. Whatever he was, he wasn't wolf, and he was not a man to be toyed with or dismissed lightly. Thomas was the only human in the room. And with the kind of company he kept, she had to wonder if she was one hundred percent certain of that or not.