Sun and Earth Ch. 04

Micah knocked on the door and waited. He ran his hands through his hair a few times and paced back and forth on the porch. He looked over at me and I shrugged. He raised his hand up to knock again and the door opened. Micah was greeted by the barrel of a shotgun. My heart stopped, I put the puppy on the ground and raced up in front of Micah using my speed. My eyes were bleeding black and I growled at the gun.

"Parker, stop. It's ok...sshhhh. Stand down, Parker." Micah rubbed my shoulder and I breathed in deep. The man holding the gun had put it up the moment he had seen Micah, but I couldn't control my girl from reacting to seeing her mate threatened by a stranger. I looked back at Micah and he nodded his reassurance. I moved away and went back to the car giving him room to deal with the man I could only assume was his father.

I picked up the puppy who had continued to sleep, I occasionally had that effect on dogs. Sometimes when I touched them it was as if they fell asleep laying in the sun.

The old man was staring at Micah "You shouldn't be here." Was the first thing out of his mouth. I realized it wasn't directed at Micah...but at me.

"Dad, this is Parker. Parker this is my father, Emile" I looked at the man standing on the porch. He was slightly taller than Micah with darker skin. He looked no older than a young 50 and stood ram-rod straight as though there was a plank of wood attached to his spine. His features were slightly sharper than Micah's and his eyes were strangely blue. I gave him a curt nod for a hello. He clearly did not want me here, my girl began to shift within me again.

"She shouldn't be here, what are you doing bringing a werewolf into these parts? Usually we would help her if we could but it's the first of September, son." Micah's father put the gun inside the door and his right arm rested on the door frame.

Micah's face went ashen again and my heart turned cold feeling his dread. "September..."

"What happens in September?" I asked cautiously

"The coven comes for their annual visit..." Micah pushed his fingers through his hair and stared at me.

"You have to go darling." Emile said to me. "Micah you stay, I got a call from London yesterday saying they were looking for you. This could explain it, saying you needed to reconnect with us or something. You'll still be in trouble but not as much if you were found with a werewolf." He took Micah's arm and started to drag him inside

"We can't leave each other, dad." He pulled away from his father

"Of course you can, you'll see her in a few days it will be nothing." He went to reach for Micah again but he dodged his father's grasp and came to stand my side.

"We're Mated, Dad!" Micah yelled causing my girl to become further agitated. The focus of my eyes sharpened letting me know they were changing to black again. I took deep breaths and leaned into the heat of Micah's body for comfort.

"That's impossible...there hasn't been a mated couple since before-"

"Before the war, 500 years ago, blah blah blah." I yelled, agitated. "Yes we know! But listen we can't go further than 100 yards from each other without experiencing excruciating pain...so either we both leave or you hide me. Done." I shuddered as claws began to rake themselves along the inside of my skin. "Micah..." I murmured pressing myself further against him. I needed to feed or I would lose myself.

Micah took me in his arms and pressed his lips to my forehead. "Shhh. It's ok, I'm here. You are in control Parker, we are both in control." I felt him shift against me. "Please, dad. She needs to rest."

"Oh get inside." A female voice yelled from the side of the ranch "She needs food that's what she needs."

I held the puppy close to my chest and let Micah guide me inside.

"Barbara, they'll be here by sunrise...mated...god damned." I heard his father say

"Is it true?" the mother looked at Micah. He nodded at her as he placed me in a chair. I look up to see the mother, Barbara, coming towards him. They embraced each other in a binding hug. I cried out as my body continuously fevered and I felt the change begin. I smelled raw meat placed in front of me on a table and the puppy in my arms was removed by an unknown source. My girl took control over my body and grabbed for the meat. The feel of my teeth sinking into the meat was heaven. I ate as I heard movement around me. I opened my eyes as I finished the first steak and saw Micah kneeling in front of me. His hands were on my knees and I felt a trail of blood leaking down my face. My body became my own again.

"Thank you." I muttered taking deep breaths of relief as the claws receded.

"Are you all right?" he asked. I nodded wiping the blood from my mouth

"I am now." He kissed my forehead and stood facing his parents.

"Mother, Father, this is Parker...oh gods...I don't even know your last name..."

"Don't have one...Werewolf, remember? We are who our packs are." I was thoroughly embarrassed that the first time meeting essentially my in-laws I was bloodied and ravaging a piece of meat.

"And what pack are you from, Parker?" Micah's mother asked as she handed me a wet cloth to clean up.

"Sol solis gens." I smiled slightly at her in thanks

"The Sun Clan. Very impressive...Parker ex sol solis gens..." Emile said running his hands through his thinning hair, not unlike Micah's nervous gesture.

"You are the missing wolf..." He turned to Micah "You have mated with the missing wolf? If you are still connected by the proximity restrictions then this must be fairly new yes?"

"We joined 2 days ago." Emile stared at me like I was a science experiment, my blood ran cold

"You both must be starving...and exhausted. Please come eat some more and then get some sleep or sleep then eat, whichever you like." Barbara laughed nervously and then suddenly turned to Micah, tears glistening in her eyes. "Oh Micah it is so good to see that you are well. We haven't heard from you for 5 years why do you no longer write?"

Her speech made it clear to me that it wasn't just Micah who spoke as if there was a stick up his ass.

Micah sighed "We'd like to get some food Mom, if that's all right." He glimpsed at me and a grinned pricked at the sides of his lips "Do you have any more steak?"

I stifled a laugh. Micah's parents proceeded to make us a delicious meal; my steaks were of course extremely rare and bleeding. The wolf finally settled back down and the growing urge to hunt was quelled, I could breathe easy again. Once my stomach was full I noticed the puppy batting at my feet, I smiled and picked it up bringing it to rest in my lap. The thing immediately fell asleep. I looked up and saw Micah staring at me with a pensive look I had not seen on his face since I had met him. There was still so much more for me to learn about this man.

"So Parker...." The father began "Have you been to see your family recently?"

"I'm sorry but I don't feel comfortable talking about my family with people I just met" Micah frowned at me slightly. "...no offense." I added with a shrug. I didn't owe these people anything, and their first instinct had been to throw me off their property. Probably just wanting to get a werewolf like me away from their son.

"Of course, we understand-" he continued looking undeterred by my rudeness

"Stop it, Emile. The girl must be exhausted, let them get some rest. You both can take Micah's old room. We've remodeled it into a guest bedroom." She said to Micah with a slight air of guilt about her expression.

"What did you do with all my old stuff?" Micah looked a little put off which made me smile inwardly. It didn't matter that he was over 100 years old, he still acted like the kid coming home from college and seeing his parents had transformed his room into a storage closet. It was more than endearing.

"Boxed up in the attic...after you left it was a bit painful to keep your room looking like a tomb." Barbara looked away from Micah and started to clean up the plates from the table.

"I wasn't dead, mom...you could have come and visited me in London." I noticed the fork Micah held in his hand was beginning to bend from his squeezing it.

"You know that was not possible, son." Emile piped up, giving him a hard look.

"I know..." I put my hand on Micah's thigh to quell his rising anger.

"Thank you for the food, will you wake us an hour before the council comes and we'll go and hide. Once they leave though we need to ask you some questions about the mating bond. Micah seems to think you know much about it."

"Not unlike what Micah does now, I was a historian or researcher of sorts for the Coven. I studied everything about the origins of the war, all the information on the mating bond I have will have a lot to do with the mated pair that started the war." Emile stood and started to help his wife clean up as he spoke to us.

"That would help us a great deal. Thanks again for the meal." I stood taking Micah's hand and leading him further into the house. It wasn't hard to pick out the guest room. If you've seen one house you've seen them all. I guided him into the room and left him at the door. I threw my backpack down and flopped on the bed with a sigh. Micah stood looking dazed in what used to be his childhood bedroom.

"Micah...go talk to them. You haven't seen them for so long." I sat up and faced him.

"I don't know what to say to them anymore." He shrugged moving from the door frame. "It has been so long and I've experienced so much but I can't think of a damn thing to say to them. Not even one story comes to mind that I think they would like." Micah sat on the bed next to me. I wanted to give him comfort, rub my hand along his back and tell him soothing words. I really wasn't equipped for this shit.

"I guess it doesn't matter...it's only been over 100 years. That's not too long I suppose." I laid back on the bed putting my hands behind my head.

Micah looked back at me with a frown. "That's all you have to say?"

I sat up with a sigh and turned to him. "You are so lucky do you know that?"

"How so?" he asked

"I've completely forgotten what it's like."

"Stop being cryptic, what what's like?"

"To have a family and people who care whether you stay or go. Even though you haven't seen them for such a long time, I can smell the passion they carry for you. They seem really proud...you're lucky you have such unbiased and proud parents. My father would probably try to kill you on the spot if he ever met you." I started to unbraid my tangled mess of hair

"Try being the operative word...and Parker?" I smiled at his response

"Yeah?" Micah took my hands in his and brought them to his lips.

"You have someone who cares whether you stay or go." His lips touched my knuckles sending a chill down my spine.

"You care because if I go you feel as if your soul is being torn apart." I took my hands from his only to be pulled into his lap all too quickly. He gave me a moment to adjust and then he nuzzled his face in my neck.

"No. I care because I'm falling in love with you and it's not just the mating" I tried to pull away thinking we've had one too many touching moments for the day. "Stop doing that, Parker it's driving me up the wall!"

"Doing what?" I knew full well what.

Micah gave me an exasperated look. "Stop pulling away." He grabbed me, firmly this time so I would have to use full strength to get away and I didn't want to hurt him. "I love you."

"Now you stop!" I cried frustrated

"You can't tell me you don't love me."

"What if it's not real? What if this mating thing is making us infatuated with each other and it will be over when the proximity restrictions are removed. I-"

"What?" I looked back at him, not ready to spill my heart to a stranger.

"I can't give you what you want Micah...not yet I'm sorry. Now go talk to your parents before they fall asleep." He let me pull away this time. I lay back down in the bed and turned away from him. I couldn't let him see the hot tears that were needling their way into my eyes. I felt the bed move as he laid his body behind mine, spooning me. His arm slipped around my waist and underneath my shirt. Fingers caressed my skin slowly, soothing the ache in my bones.

"Parker, after watching your lithe body move around the redwoods for months, I don't think I would have been able to take that killing shot even if we hadn't mated. I was watching you from afar and falling in love with you. I'd like to think that if our positions were reversed you would have done the same" His hand was gone from my waist as quick as it came. He got up from the bed and moved to the door. "I'm going to go talk to my parents...I'll be back in a bit."

As he walked out the door I let the stress of the past two days overwhelm me and the tears flowed from my eyes like waterfalls. "I would have done the same." I fell asleep to the distant sounds of talking within the house.

I awoke to pain. There are different types of pain a werewolf will experience in their long lifetime, to be immortal is to feel an endless amount of pain. Physical, mental, emotional, no matter how hard you tried there will be a time in a wolf's life that pain becomes familiar. But there is no pain as acute or excruciating as that of silver.

I awoke to a silver knife being pressed into my chest. Not stabbed but a slow thrusting into my chest cavity, hot smoke from my burning flesh flew past the blade and I screamed. I screamed as if the force of my scream could possibly fling the knife out. I flung my hands up trying to ward off the attacker with my claws, but since the blade was pushed so far into my skin already it inhibited the change. My hands were instantly pinned to my sides by another person, my legs as well. They then proceeded to tie me up with silver wire, tying it tight where I felt the thin silver melting my flesh. It was agony.

I looked up expecting to see a man in black with a hockey mask on or something. What I saw instead was a woman dressed in all leather, a katana strapped to her back and multiple weapons attached to her person around her body. When I growled at her she flicked the blade in my chest slightly forcing a guttural sound to expel from my throat. I felt something shift in the blade and a hot liquid that was most definitely not my blood started to drip into my veins. Luckily for me, silver did not inhibit my sun gift.

I stopped moving and closed my eyes hoping to make them think they had quelled me. The pressure on my legs and arms lightened and the woman let go of the blade, although she left it in my chest. I opened my eyes and counted there were three of them in the room. Three was easy, no problem. But I had to operate in a manner that if there were others in the house, they wouldn't hear.

So I imagined a warm summer's day in a meadow. Sun streaming down upon the grass, a warm breeze making the leaves of a nearby tree rustle in the wind. This was the type of day you would picnic in, the type of day you would take a blanket and lay down in a tall field of grass just to feel the warmth of the sun on your face. As you soaked in the sun, the warmth begins to trickle down your skin making you tired. The lethargy you felt was beautiful and welcome. You turn onto your side, put your hand under your head to act as a pillow and you go to sleep. A deep sleep. A sleep only rain would awaken you from.

I opened my eyes and looked on the floor. Sure enough there were the three goons fast asleep in the fetal position on the carpet. I wheezed and tried not to cough not wanting to alert any others. Where is Micah?

I sat up and used my energy to push the blade from my chest. Instant relief, I could breathe easy again aside from the steady stream of blood coursing from my body. I figured that the silver on my wrists and ankles were preventing me from healing quickly. I again harnessed the sun gift and created heat on my wrists...the silver started to weaken and melt. It took all my strength not to scream when hot liquid silver touched my skin where the wire used to be.

Once my wrists were free I cleaned them off on one of the attacker's jeans so that the silver wouldn't continue to burn me. I then undid the wire on my ankles. My wrists were seriously burned and I was still bleeding from the chest which meant I was nowhere near full strength, but the only thought coursing through my brain was where the hell was Micah?

I gently pulled a shoulder rig carrying two guns off the female's body. She was slightly taller than me but I didn't care to adjust it...the need to get out of this room and find him was so great. As I started to pull arm sheaths on with some pretty wicked looking daggers attached to them I heard a heart wrenching scream. It came from somewhere outside; I pushed my sense of smell outward and found four unfamiliar scents in the backyard. Micah's parents were sitting towards the back gate with one of the unfamiliars at their heels...Micah was in the center of the other three...he was the one screaming.

Rage so blind and pure overcame me.

I ran from the room quickly and quietly, letting my girl start to take over. She was a stalker and we were now stalking our prey, she would know what to do better than I would. We found an entrance to an upstairs compartment that I hadn't noticed earlier, I pulled the folding stairs down and climbed up. The upper ground, they wouldn't think we would come from above.

I found myself in a tiny attic with a sky window. I opened it and pulled myself through carefully. Once on the roof I reassessed where I was and began to move. I crouched by the edge of the house looking down over the scene. As my scent had confirmed Micah was in the center of three men. One stood in front of him chanting something and sending waves of shock into his body. The other two were slightly to the side and behind Micah forming a circle to hold him. I had to take those two out first so Micah could defend himself. A quick glance to the back gate told me his parents were fine if not a little bruised up.

I un-holstered one of the guns and took aim at the man closest to me controlling the circle. I don't usually use guns since I have such a foundation of strength and speed behind me, but something about that silver blade was making me continuously bleed. I was getting weaker by the second and had to do this quickly...guns were quick.

I took my first shot letting it land in the shoulder of the man. He screamed and went down to the ground, howling in pain. I quickly took aim at the next and shot him in the knee, thank goodness my speed hadn't been too hindered from the blade. I shot those two men within 1 second.

I would have liked for Micah to be able to start defending himself at this point but he seemed too weakened to be able to help himself. I jumped off the roof landing behind the man sending shocks into Micah but he heard me land and with a quick readiness spun around to aim a shot of something at me. I ducked and kicked his feet out from underneath him.

I aimed my gun at his chest wanting to hurt this man beyond all reason when a sharp pain pierced my side, I looked down to find a fresh stream of blood trickling down my hip...Gods it hurt so much. I turned around seeing I had forgotten about the man with Micah's parents. We had been shot before, my girl and I...she was never really fond of being shot.

The rage took over completely and I shrugged myself out of the shoulder holster and arm sheaths as quickly as possible. My back bent over first, my spine changing and strengthening to support the body of a wolf. Claws spread out along feet and my hands which were now widening to become paw-like. It would have been a terrifying sight for someone who had never seen a change. The worst part for me was always my jaw, to feel the bones in my skull re-shape and re-form to decide on a length and width was literally bone shattering agony. I couldn't breathe.