One True Mate 1: Shifter's Sacrifice (25 page)

“Not much,” he admitted.

“But Trevor, I don’t─ I don’t love you. I’m sorry.”

“Another human construct,” he said, but his voice was weak and unsure, as a spiritual knife cut through his heart, leaving it scarred and unsure of its next beat.

She touched him on the arm. “Do you … love me?”

Trevor swallowed hard, but couldn’t find a word to say.

***

Troy watched out the window in the falling darkness as a convention of
shiften
gathered on the front lawn. He counted two
felen
, a
bearen
, most of the KSRT, and someone he didn’t recognize. Someone big. He lifted his nose to better sort through the scents.

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear there was a dragen out there
, he told Trent.

Trent looked away from the documentary
Wolf Battlefield
to see for himself. He scented also.

Trevor, what do you know about a
dragen
on your front lawn?

Trevor clomped down the stairs heavily, the scent of despair pushing in front of him.
Wade’s idea. He can get into the Pravus, supposedly.

Troy lolled his tongue.
Useful ability.

I thought all the dragen were dead
, Trent said.

Ella came down the stairs after Trevor, her scent was indefinable, a mixture of many things, one of them determination. Troy didn’t like it, especially if it meant what he thought it meant.

“
Dragen
? Like a Dragon?”

Trevor headed into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, talking to Ella as he did so. “Yes, exactly.”

“I thought you said there were only three
shiften
. Wolves, bears, and the felons.”

“
Felen
.
Dragen
are somewhat of a mystery. There have never been many of them, but most of the ones that did exist worked alongside the
wolven
, just never in this country.”

“And you’re sure Khain never created them? They breathe fire, right? Didn’t you say Khain could make fire from nothing?”

Troy and Trent exchanged a glance. She was smart.

“It has been conjectured over the years that Khain had a hand in making dragons, but most of that stopped when news came from the UK of how fiercely they fought against Khain. How one
dragen
was enough to drive Khain off, when it takes a group of
wolven
to do it.”

Ella sat down at the table and accepted the lemonade Trevor brought her with a smile.

Tell her about
foxen, Trent sent in his low rumble.

Ella smiled as if she loved to hear his voice in her head, and everyone knew how rarely he spoke. “
Foxen
? Foxes?”

A snarl entered Trevor’s voice. “Yes, fox
shiften
. If anyone was created by Khain, it’s them. Sneaky, non-working, lie-to-your face fools. Sometimes they don’t even have a
renqua
.”

“But sometimes they do?”

“Yes. But it’s always faint.”

“Why don’t you ask Rhen? Or have Wade ask Rhen? Then you would know for sure.”

Trevor stopped cutting up whatever he was cutting on the counter and went to sit by Ella at the table. “I asked Wade that once and he explained it to me. I’ll try to tell it the way he told it. He said that talking to Rhen or the angels is not like this conversation you and I are having. It’s a steady stream of consciousness that the
Citlali
can tap into, and the message is always different. No one knows if they are getting a message meant directly for them, or just kind of─ eavesdropping on an internal conversation, or some kind of a dream. No one knows if they would have tapped in a minute later or earlier if the message would have been different. None of the
Citlali
can sit in repose for prophecy ─ that’s what they call it ─ for long. Wade says to do so for more than a few minutes a week is to invite madness. The energy that comes is so different than what they are used to. So what he was saying is, it’s very difficult to actually ask Rhen a question. If they get enough
Citlali
together, they sometimes can do so, but still, she rarely will talk directly about Khain. Or the
foxen
. Wade always said it seemed like she had some kind of block from doing so. Like she’s not allowed. Her messages always come in prophecy form about what the
shiften
should be doing or not doing, and they always need to be interpreted.”

“It’s all so complicated,” Ella said.

Troy had had enough of the conversation. He got off the couch and headed out his wolf door to the front lawn. Maybe things would be more interesting out there. And he’d get to smell a
dragen
up close. How many
wolven
could say that?

Up close though, the
dragen
didn’t look so good. He was big, but he looked sick and closed in on himself, like he’d shrunk recently. His smell had an undercurrent of something rotten in it. Like he was used up, worn out.

Mac was sitting on the hood of his car and the
dragen
was leaning against the side of it. The
felen
,
bearen
, and other
wolven
were congregating in a small group closer to the end of the road. Troy scented the air, separating Mac’s smell from the
dragen’s
. Mac smelled like fuck-yous and sex, but the
dragen
smelled like a strange mixture of fire and water, gold and scales, wind and royalty.

Mac raised a hand to him, then turned it into a one-finger salute. Troy lifted his leg and shot a stream of piss in the dirt at Mac’s feet, then showed Mac his ass.

The
dragen
laughed. “Who’s this?”

“That’s Troy, Trevor’s brother. Non-shifting.”

“Nice to meet you Troy, I’m Graeme.”

Troy turned back around and showed Graeme his teeth. Mac lifted his chin towards the house. “There really a one true mate in there?”

Troy nodded his head.

“Lucky bastard,” Mac breathed, spitting on the grass. “So what, now we all pull sentry duty till fuckwad can get it up?”

“Isn’t he your boss?” Graeme asked.

“So? He’s still a fuckwad.”

Graeme shook his head. “Our meeting was short, but I thought he seemed like a decent fellow. For a
wolven
.” He glanced sideways at Mac when he said it, almost a dare.

Troy laughed. He was starting to like this Greeme.

Gray-em, and I’m rather pleased to make your acquaintance, also. Your brother is no nonsense and all about the mission. I like that.

You speak ruhi
, Troy said, sitting down on his haunches.

I do. Dragens rather prefer it. Our throats get cold with speech.

Cool.

Troy saw Mac frowning at the two of them and he grinned and looked at the house. Anything that pissed Mac off was ok with him.

Troy walked back into the house. Night had fallen and no one was saying much outside anymore. Just sitting in their cars, quietly scenting the air.

Trevor and Ella were at the kitchen table, eating, seemingly recovered from their earlier fight. Trent was on the couch, his eyes closed, but his ears moving, an empty plate on the coffee table in front of him. Troy’s dinner was there. Burgers with a side of salad, not french fries. What the crap? A little splash of mayonnaise was on the corner of his plate and he frowned at it. Disgusting, fatty gel. How Trent ate that crap he didn’t know.

Ella’s phone buzzed and she looked at it, then an undercurrent of fear and resigned anger filled the room. Like something she’d been dreading had finally happened. She flipped the phone over and didn’t say a word.

“I’ll get you another burger,” Trevor said, standing up.

“I ate two already. I’m stuffed.” Her bad smell cleared quickly as she focused on Trevor.

“You don’t eat enough. How about some ice cream?”

“Trevor, did you watch me eat? I ate as much as you did. Do you want me fat?”

Trevor stopped mid-stride and turned around. “I want you happy. I want you full. I want you to eat dessert if you want it.”

Troy jumped up to the couch, ate his two burgers in two bites, and ignored his salad. He watched the two at the table, interested in the way their smells shifted in response to every word they said and every word the other said. Ella shook her head and gave Trevor a look, but her smell said she was pleased.

“How about coffee? Or tea? Or wine? What do you like after dinner?”

Troy snorted. Trevor was lost completely. Light help him if something ever happened to that woman.

“Tea. With lots of cream.”

“Coming up.”

Ella’s scent changed precipitously and even Trent raised his head to look at her. “I have to tell you something, Trevor. You tell me if it’s important or not.”

Trevor was the last to know how serious it really was. He moved about in the kitchen like he didn’t have a care in the world. Like they were two ordinary beings with no demon at their door.

“Go for it.”

“Ah─ yeah, well. Ok.”

Troy could see her gathering her thoughts and her will and he admired her for it. She looked down at the floor and spoke in a rush, the story that spilled out of her unbelievable, and yet totally believable at the same time.

Trevor had forgotten the tea and come to sit next to her, his hand on her leg. When she finished speaking he stared into her eyes for a few moments as she fidgeted, then spoke.

“How old were you?”

“I’m not totally sure. Ten, I think.”

“Was this here, in Serenity?”

“No, down south more. I think we lived in Champaign-Urbana.”

“You’re certain it was him?”

“Well no, I’m not. Can he do that? Make himself look like a kid?”

“He can make himself look like anything he wants to.”

Ella nodded, as if she expected that. “The voice was the same. I’ll never forget that my entire life. The way it sounded. Like rocks rubbing against a chalkboard.”

“Tell me again, how you repelled him?”

She shook her head, her face tight. “I don’t know. I just did. It was nothing I tried to do.”

“And last week, when you met him downtown. Was it the same way then?”

“Yes, I didn’t try to do anything. I was scared out of my mind. So scared I couldn’t even think. He touched me, and just like that, he was flying across the room into the wall. I felt the energy come out of me like a big pulse or something, but I didn’t command it.”

Trent’s voice rumbled through all their heads.
Wade needs to know. Someone needs to contact the felen and wolven down south. See if a report was ever made and if so, what the immediate aftermath was.

Trevor gathered Ella into his arms, smoothing her hair, massaging the muscles in her back.
I’ll call Wade in a minute
.

Troy watched Ella and Trevor, noting how Trevor’s scent mixed with Ella’s then transformed it, easing back Ella’s fear and upset with an overpowering, all-consuming concern and touching care.

He felt the first stirrings of jealousy in his own chest and he hated it. He hopped off the couch and headed back outside.

***

Mac and Graeme were out of the car, leaning against it and talking softly in the darkness, facing the house. Both had a careful go-along to get-along scent about them, as they talked and learned each other’s strength’s weaknesses, quirks, likes, and dislikes.

Mac threw his head back and laughed at something Graeme said. Troy heard himself growl involuntarily. If Mac weren’t such an asshole he wouldn’t be so bad. He had a good sense of humor and was a strong fighter, someone you wanted on your side. But until Mac got over whatever issue he had with Trevor, he would always be enemy number two.

Mac saw him. “What’s going on in there? Smells like dinner.”

Ella saw Khain as a child. He came after her and she repelled him somehow. Same as she did last week.

Graeme hauled his ass off the car and stared hard at him.

“No way─”

Mac took a step forward. “What, what did he say?”

Graeme repeated it and Mac gave a low whistle. “So it’s true. Not only do they exist, but they’re strong.”

Very strong
, Troy agreed.

Mac leaned back against the car again and waited for Graeme to look at him. “Do you think there’s a one true mate for you, fire-breath?”

Graeme raised an eyebrow. “Thanks for the compliment. And I dinna.
Dragen
sex is rather… complicated.
Dragen
birth and babies even moreso. I am afraid I am destined to remain alone until The Light claims me.”

“But ye got yer hand, right mate? Rosy and her five sisters won’t never leave ya!” Mac called out boisterously in a passable Scottish accent, his words hanging limply in the air as Graeme ignored them.

Troy smelled a deep layer of sadness coming off Graeme. He tried not to feel pity for the male, but the prospect of never mating made it hard. Until he realized he was in the same situation. That made his jealousy of his brother a triple-edged sword.

Mac broke the silence again, softer this time. “That’s hard.”

Troy looked up, surprised.

Graeme nodded silently in the night, as did Troy.

The lights in the house went dim. Mac snarled. “Damn slacker, going to bed already while the rest of us pull guard duty.”

The light in an upstairs window came on and a female form passed in front of it, then Trevor appeared, pulling the curtains. The light turned off, then a softer one flickered through the curtain, maybe a candle.

Graeme raised his chin. “I’d say he’s doing exactly what he’s supposed to be doing right about now to ensure the future of the
wolven
. More than any of the rest of us.”

Troy chuckled, then outright laughed when he smelled jealousy come off Mac in waves.

If he and Graeme weren’t getting any, at least Mac wasn’t either. Not at that moment, anyway.

Mac’s phone buzzed and he pulled it out and looked at it. “Damn. We gotta go.”

“All of us?”

“No, we’ll leave one
felen
, the
bearen
, Beckett, Trent and Troy. The
felen
are reporting Khain came through but just for a minute, not long enough for them to pinpoint his exact location, and now there’s another disturbance in the
Pravus
near the bluff. It was nothing last time, but we can’t take any chances.