Hyena Moon (6 page)

Cormac sat in the chair closest to hers, while Finn slumped into a wingback across the room. Kess tucked her feet underneath her, knowing that she probably would be pacing before too long. Movement helped her think.

"So what's up? I'm missing quality pool time." Finn's voice was lazy, but Kess noticed his eyes were alert. He may feign indifference, but Kess had learned that not much got past Finn if he didn't want it to.

"Sorry to disturb your plans for the day," she began, "but I need your big brains to help me figure some things out."

Cormac was leaning forward, forearms braced against his knees. "Let's hear it."

She took a deep breath. "I've been thinking a lot about the problem with the borders here in Miami and the more I think about it, the more I realize that it's stupid to try and keep everyone out." She paused, waiting for either of them to say something. When they didn't, she plowed on. "So what if I just stop trying?"

She looked at each of them in turn. Cormac looked thoughtful, as if this were a particularly knotty word problem on a test he had to solve. Finn's brows were drawn down in a half-scowl, like he was trying to make sense of what she was proposing. "Stop trying to do what exactly?"

"Stop trying to keep the borders secure. What if I just open Miami up to any were interested in coming here?" Kess got up from her chair and began her circuit around the room. She found it hard to sit still when they were going to end up discussing the future of her people.

She saw Cormac's eyes following her progress. "What will that mean for you and your clan?"

That was the problem. "I'm not sure. I haven't figured that part out yet. But we can't keep going like we are. We--as a clan--aren't big enough and Miami is way too large to keep track of every inch of it on a given day." She stopped to meet his eyes. "I've got to figure out something that will work. And it looks like opening the borders is the only way."

Finn spoke up, also leaning forward, his stance a mimic of his cousin's. "What would you do about Samara? You can't open the borders while she's around. That's just asking her to swarm in here and take over."

Kess nodded. "I know that. Let's face it, I can't just let her continue to send her raiding parties in here, and I know she won't rest until all my clan is dead and she's got the city for herself." Cormac and Finn nodded. She resumed her pacing again, running her fingers through her hair. "Let's take that off the table for right now. We're talking about what happens after I deal with her."

Cormac was frowning. "Okay, so hypothetically, Samara is out of the picture somehow. Miami is all yours." He paused and picked at his shorts."Then what?"

"Exactly. That's my point." Kess shrugged. "Your thoughts?" She looked from one to the other.

Cormac was looking down at his hands, or maybe the carpet at his feet, as though he could divine answers there. Finn was lounging in the chair, head back. She stopped her pacing and leaned a hip against one of the empty chairs in the room, her arms folded across her chest. Here's where she ran into problems and this was why she'd wanted to talk to Finn and Cormac. Maybe a brainstorming session with brains other than hers would be more effective.

Cormac spoke slowly, thinking out loud. "So the idea is that you'd open the borders. How do you plan to monitor everybody that comes in? Are you going to require that they report to you upon entry into the city? How do you enforce it?"

"Yeah," Finn piped in, eyes flicking back and forth between the two of them. "A bunch of strange weres in town could cause a lot of problems, especially if they think no one is going to police them. You could have a much bigger problem on your hands."

Kess chewed the side of her lip thoughtfully. She knew that most weres were concerned about their anonymity and that they would be circumspect in both their hunting and in hiding what they were. But what about the ones who weren't? "We've got that problem now with Samara. I don't know when her hyenas come and go. If they wanted to, they could cause no end of problems. We're lucky we've got safeguards. You guys saw how we handled those hyenas when Laila was here."

The last time Samara was in Miami, Finn and Laila had been kidnapped at gunpoint when they were on the beach late at night by a bunch of her werehyenas. Laila and Finn had managed to escape, but they'd left a bloody mess of bodies--some human, some hyena. Kess had the number for Sek's old cleaning crew on speed dial since that night to make sure any signs of were-activity were swiftly erased.

"So you've got some methods in place already," Cormac offered. Then he spread his hands out in front of him. "How are you going to handle pack law?"

"Come again?" Kess started another circuit around the room.

"Right now it's easy to deal with were problems--they're either your clan or they're interlopers. The interlopers know the rules about coming into your territory so they know the punishment and accept the risk. And your clan knows the punishment for stepping out of line. You can control both of those things. But you get some strangers in here--let's say a couple of wolves, maybe a bear, some more cats--and how are you going to enforce the rules? It isn't like there's one pack that they could all belong to. Hell, how are you even going to get the rules out there for them to know what they are?"

Kess resisted the urge to tear her hair out in frustration. This was what was driving her nuts; all of these what ifs and how will yous were enough to make her want to run away as fast and as far as she could. Unfortunately, she didn't have that luxury anymore. It was almost easier when Sekhmet had been chasing her. She never wanted to go back to that time in her life--the fear, the running, the upheaval--but at least he took care of the clan. Now there was no one but her to do it.

"And you can't assume that everyone is just going to get along," Cormac continued. He got up to pace too, so Kess altered her own route to make room for his. "You could have were conflict just because different species are trying to share territory."

"We've got three different species sharing a roof right now and we seem able to get along."

Finn stretched hugely. "That's because we all knew each other beforehand. We're friends. Well, except for Rafe. He's a late addition. But he's not real into conflict from everything I've seen." He paused, and then asked, "And where is Bro 2.0?"

She looked at Finn sharply. He was pulling this now too? "What's that supposed to mean?" Had Cormac been talking to everyone about his idea that she was substituting Rafe for Sek?

"What?" Finn seemed truly shocked.

"Never mind." She tamped down on her irritation. Half the time, Finn didn't even know what came out of his mouth. Still, it bothered her that two people thought she wasn't being objective where Rafe was concerned.

Kess saw Cormac frown. She wasn't sure if it was the mention of Rafe or if it was Cormac's continued unhappiness with the way she was dealing with the werehyena. He'd made it clear that he thought she was too close to the situation to make solid decisions, and she knew he thought she wasn't acting enough like an Alpha. She was trying to look at it objectively, that Cormac only had her best interests at heart but it was difficult sometimes. Like now, especially when it felt like he was talking about her behind her back.

All he said though was, "Finn's right. Our situation is probably not the best example for something like this. You can't count on the different species being able to get along."

"Yeah, it's not like we have a were United Nations or something like that," Finn added.

Kess froze. A were United Nations? She stayed still, letting her mind work at it for a moment. Usually you could dismiss most of what Finn said because it was flip or off the cuff, but occasionally he came up with good ideas. He might be on to something with this. What if they established a were council, something that encouraged buy-in from all of the different were groups out there? They already had the leopards represented, and the wolves. Mebis was still in town and he could speak for both the jackals and the Keepers of Divine Order--if they wanted to have a say.

There was still the problem of Samara, but Kess already knew how that would have to end. She and the werehyena leader were going to have to resolve their territorial dispute permanently and in the very near future. All of Kess' planning might turn out to be useless if Samara had her way, but she knew she had to try. Her clan needed a better solution to their problems going forward.

Her clan's numbers were not getting any larger. They had not had a wereleopard born into the clan since Kess and she knew that it was only a matter of time before Samara or some other were struck at them. She needed to get her clan back into a position of strength. Finn's idea may just be the way to do that.

"Kess?" Cormac's voice shook her from her reverie. She looked at him and smiled.

"Finn may have actually had a good idea." She gave the other werewolf a grin.

"I did? What did I say?" He pulled out of his laze on the chair and sat up straighter.

"The were UN. Why couldn't we do something like that here?"

The two of them looked at her like she had announced she was going to take up naked parasailing. Cormac cleared his throat. "Um, probably because something like that wouldn't work."

"Has anyone ever tried?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest and gave Finn and Cormac a hard look.

The two of them just looked back at her, unable to answer her question. "I didn't think so," she finished, a small note of triumph in her voice.

Chapter Eight

It was past time for them all to change. Kess knew it. She was feeling it, the tugging on her insides that warned of worse to come if she didn't let her leopard self free; she suspected that Cormac and Finn were feeling it worse than she was, as used as they were to being able to change whenever the mood struck them. They all needed to hunt.

She'd suggested a trip to the Everglades that night and it had been met with relieved agreement. Kess understood then what staying human was costing her boyfriend and his cousin. She had gotten used to ignoring the need for change until absolutely necessary--being on the run from her brother had forced her to get used to any number of things that weren't exactly ideal. The guys were used to having the run of several hundred acres to hunt and tear through whenever the mood struck them. Miami didn't afford them that luxury.

There was someone else who might need to change: Rafe. The werehyena hadn't changed since he'd been here. He had to be feeling it too. Kess invited him as well. Cormac hadn't been thrilled, but had raised no objection to the boy coming along. There was plenty of game still left in the Everglades for all of them to eat their fill tonight. She found herself looking forward to hunting with Cormac on her home territory.

It was a small party that headed out to the Everglades in the dense night. Her clan hunted on their own and would only join her at her invitation. The Glades were big enough that her entire clan could be out here and they'd never run into each other.

Now her ragtag group raced through the undergrowth, each of them tracking the scent that interested them the most. Kess picked up smells of deer and wild pig and the musty smell of reptile. There'd been a problem with people letting their snakes go in the Everglades when they got tired of taking care of their pets, and now former pet pythons grew unchecked. She ignored those scents but reminded herself to be careful.

Cormac and Finn flanked her, with Rafe bringing up the rear. His transformation had been the most startling. Hyenas were, to be charitable, not the prettiest of werecreatures. He kind of ducked his head after his transformation and waited for everyone to turn before he followed after them. Kess was glad they were sticking together. Cormac and Finn weren't familiar with the swampy terrain, and she thought it a good idea that they all stay pretty close in case anyone ran across a problem.

Kess took point. She knew they were all well-fed, so it wasn't imperative that they all make a kill. They could probably share what one of them brought down, especially if it was a large enough buck or pig. She was used to hunting alone, so hunting in a group was still a novelty, and she was the one best positioned to sneak up on prey. Her clan of leopards had no scent--there would be nothing to alert the animal that it was being tracked. If it got away from her, the wolves would be able to follow tirelessly behind until they could bring it down.

She slunk through the low undergrowth, tracking a particular tasty smelling deer. Everyone had dropped back, content to leave her to it, and Kess took great pleasure in the stalk. Her feet made no sound as she slid along the trail after the deer. Her long whiskers helped to guide her in the darkness, as did her night vision. She saw the animal lower its head to drink from a still pool of water. Kess considered for a second, eventually deciding the water was too small and shallow to hold an alligator that might cause trouble for her.

She lunged forward, back legs pulsing with the predator's twitch that propelled her forward. As a leopard, she was very fast over a short distance, but would choke in a long chase. That's what the wolves were built for. If she lost it, she knew Cormac and Finn would be on the deer so they wouldn't lose their meal.

But she had no intention of losing her quarry. Mine. Her animal self wanted the hunt
and
the kill.

She caught the deer in its first bound, taking it in the hindquarters to bring it down so she could get a good grip on its throat with her teeth. Leopards strangled their prey for the most part and once Kess latched on there were very few things that could get her to let go. The deer struggled so she used her legs to keep the deer from kicking her and held on until the animal's struggles subsided.

Kess released her hold on its throat so she could drag it farther away from the water. She roared, alerting the guys that dinner was served. Then she set to work opening the deer up and removing the organs she wasn't interested in.