Laura's Secret (22 page)

'That is evident,'
answered a voice in her head.

'Who said that?'

'I did, I’m your dragon, a physical manifestation of your magic. And not bad looking if I do say so myself!'

'How do you know? You haven’t seen any other dragons to compare yourself to.'

'I know because you have seen dragons in movies and in artworks throughout your life. I’m much better than any of them. Why did you manifest me?' the dragon asked.

'Oh, Frieda said you would be able to tell me if I’m pregnant.'

'Can’t
you
tell?' asked the dragon.

'No, that’s why I shifted into you, or us or whatever.'

'Well then, I see. It’s nice to be needed. And yes, you are carrying two young dragonlings. We will have to watch over them carefully,' said the dragon.

'Twins! I’m carrying twins?'

'Didn’t I just explain that to you? Are you having trouble understanding me?'

Laura felt her body curl up on the ground. She then knew she was no longer in control, she was just along for the ride. It was kind of a freaky feeling.

'Um, dragon? What are you doing?'

'That should be obvious, I’m curling up for warmth. This cavern is nice but it’s not very well heated. We must keep the eggs warm. Don’t you know anything?'

This is what Frieda warned her about. The dragon was taking over. Remembering Frieda, she looked around but she didn’t see the older changeling. She went back to her conversation with her other half.

'It’s much warmer upstairs, I have a heater and can set the rooms to any temperature I want.'

'Maybe later, right now the eggs are fine. I like this cavern and I would like to explore my magic,' said the dragon.

'What should I call you, I can’t just think of you as me. You have your own ideas and personality.'

'You may call me Incanta, I’m made of magic after all.'

Laura started trying to convince Incanta it was time to shift back into her human form. She even tried visualizing her shape the way Frieda had taught her earlier in the day. Nothing seemed to be working.

Upstairs, Frieda emerged from the elevator and saw Alex coming down the hallway.

“Where’s Laura?” he asked.

“She needed to have a word with her dragon. She’s down in the training cavern. I must say, I was very impressed with her dragon. She is a very strong changeling, much stronger than I was at her age. She still has a great deal to learn of course.”

“Did you say dragon?” Alex asked interrupting her.

“Yes, her dragon. A dragon is different. It’s pure magic. This one is so strong because Laura has such strong magic. Don’t worry, they’ll be fine, she couldn’t be safer,” said Frieda, patting him on the arm. “Now what was it you wanted to ask me?”

Alex put the thoughts of dragons away for a moment. He did need to speak with Frieda. “Earlier, for awhile it seemed as if Laura’s legs were strong. Then they went weak again. I wondered if you could explain that,” he asked.

Frieda nodded. “It’s another form of her magic. She can shift into anything, that includes a fully healed version of herself. She most likely really wanted to use her legs for something and did so without giving it another thought. She will still need to strengthen her legs as the muscles she showed you earlier were not her true self, at least not the true self of this moment in time. Do you see what I mean?” she said.

“You mean she could shift and walk right now if she concentrated?” he asked.

“Yes, let me demonstrate.” One moment old Frieda with white hair and wrinkled skin was standing in front of him wearing an orange tracksuit and the next moment he was looking at a much younger version of Frieda with smooth skin and dark hair. Moments later she shifted back.

“As you saw, I can shift into an earlier version of myself. I can even hold the image for a time. However, like other shifts, I need to hold it and it uses magic and energy. Shifting to a younger form helps me live longer because like shifting, it heals up tiny wounds and any damaged cells. But nothing stops age, my dear, and I’m a very old woman.”

Alex reached out a hand to cup Frieda’s cheek. “I still think you’re beautiful and if I weren’t so happily mated I’d chase after you. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a mate to find,” he said.

Frieda, who hadn’t blushed in centuries, did then. “Oh go on with you,” she said, waving him on his way.

Alex headed down to the cavern. When he saw the enormous creature, he was in awe. Incanta spotted him before Laura did and she let out a rumble of pleasure.

Laura misunderstood and cried out. '
Don’t hurt him, that’s Alex, my mate!'

'Didn’t you hear my purr of pleasure? He smells yummy!'
said Incanta.

'You do mean yummy in a sexy way right? Not a take-a-bite way?'

'Of course, I’m not going to eat our mate. I smell bear shifter, you have chosen a strong one. Pity he’s not a dragon, I would enjoy a mating flight.'

“Laura, you’re magnificent!” said Alex.

Thank you!'
said Incanta and Alex was surprised when he heard the voice in his head. “Laura, you can communicate telepathically in this form?” he asked.

'Yes,'
said Incanta.

'Yes, but that wasn’t me. That was Incanta talking.'

“Incanta?” he asked and the dragon lowered her head so one large eye was trained on him. The eye was almost as big as he was.

'Incanta is the name of my magic dragon. Incanta, I want to kiss my mate,'
Laura spoke back to her dragon.

The dragon slid out her tongue and tasted the air.

'Mmm, delicious
,' she said.

'I’d like to mate with my man and I can’t do that in this shape, Incanta. Let me shift back. I promise I’ll shift into your shape again soon.'

'Very well, I will watch over the eggs,' she said.

Laura concentrated on shifting back. She hoped Alex only heard thoughts directed at him. She wanted to save the announcement about the babies for the right moment. Lying inelegantly on the floor in dirty sweats wasn’t the look she was going for. She had to think of a more suitable way of telling him.

She put that aside for now. Alex was picking her up and she had something else to think about.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The last week of May finds the Donahue family together again. Evan was home for the summer after returning to school to take finals from their last get together. He had decided to skip his graduation ceremony. Laura was more important. She had been gone for nearly seven weeks since she left in mid-April. Though the rest had all gone back to their jobs, Mr. Donahue had been able to get all of his sons stationed stateside for the time being with Josh taking a leave of absence and heading the search at this point.

Josh called a meeting. The Donahue men were all sitting around the dining room table. The room had been turned into search control center when Laura had first left. They had only received one more message, an email, which they were unable to trace. It was several pages long and mostly had to do with Laura falling in love with some dude named Alex.

It seemed things had gotten serious between them awfully quick and none of her brothers were happy with her. All of them wanted a few private words with “Alex”.

“You called this meeting. We’re all here, so what’s up?” asked Aaron.

Josh didn’t waste any time getting to the point. “She’s in Montana. Her camper has been donated to a charity in Denver, Colorado and they said it was acquired from Montana. Unfortunately, she donated it before it was ever registered in the state, leaving the lead dead. I started looking at our other search options. I’m finding the narrowest search parameter is permits for house remodeling to include handicapped accessibility. We all know if she moved into a new place, it would have to suit all of her needs. We can also checked for people who had utility service turned on around the time she said she had arrived. But parts of Montana are really rural and she may not be relying on municipal utilities.”

There was a great deal of discussion about how to proceed but the consensus was they would have her located by the end of July, middle of August at the latest.

Back in Montana Roland Gantry was also making plans. His Shayatin contact had finally made an appearance in town. “It’s about time you got here. Starting next week she won’t be coming to the therapist’s office anymore. This is the only time she leaves the house.”

“You haven’t given me enough information to make me hurry, wolf man. All you’ve said is the woman is human. As you know, humans are basically worthless to me,” sneered the sorcerer.

“Well if the rumors I’ve heard are true, and there isn’t any reason why they wouldn’t be, she’s mated to the National Alpha. Alex Marasov is moving here to be with her instead of taking her back east so there must be something important about her. They were looking all over the country for her mate. She has guards with her all the time. That chick don’t take a piss without someone there to wipe her ass,” said Roland.

“And why are you so interested in giving her to me?”

“The bitch was my ticket to the easy life. Now I’m being hunted, they’ve declared me a rogue. I can’t show my face in any shifter town or territories on this continent or Marasov will have my ass.”

“I’m not interested in the woman. Marasov however, would be a real coup. He must hold incredible magic to be the National Alpha. We take her and he will be easy to get,” said the Shayatin.

“Fine, then I want the bitch. She dared to turn me down, looked at me like I was dirt. I deserve some payback,” growled Roland.

“She has taste, I might need to take a second look at her. Don’t worry, puppy, I’ll let you have her after I get her mate,” he said.

The two of them got down to making serious plans. The two guards would have to be dealt with. The sorcerer planned a spell to take their magic. It would give him the power he needed to overpower the alpha. He would be able to rise within the Shayatin ranks. Pity he owed this mongrel for the information.

*****

Laura woke the last day of May, early in the morning. She’d quickly gotten used to sleeping with her mate. He’d been out of town for the past three days but he was coming home today and she was really excited to see him. It was the first time they’d been separated since they had mated and she was very surprised at how much she missed him.

Reaching over to the bedside table, she grabbed a pair of ankle weights, sitting up to put them on. Her core muscles had always been strong. In the past she used them to help her sit up in her chair. She was looking forward to her legs being as toned and muscled as the rest of her body.

She had been bummed about the lack of progress she had been making. Every time she looked at her legs, they were the same. It was Frieda who pointed out she was not allowing herself to see the change. Laura thought she was tired all the time because of the babies. She was turning out to be her own worst enemy. She expected her legs to be thin and boney because she’d seen them that way for as long as she could remember. That was the image of herself she kept in her head. Frieda pointed out when she shifted back to human after her lessons in the morning she was actually shifting into that form and then maintaining it, draining her energy.

With Frieda’s help, she had learned to tell the difference when she was using her changeling powers and when she wasn’t. Now as she lay back down and began doing her morning exercises she could see the changes in her legs. JoAnne felt her changeling healing abilities were helping her in a positive way too and she might be walking sooner than expected.

Laura planned on sooner. She had decided to combine two pieces of good news, the babies and her walking for the first time. She’d had a close call the prior week when Alex wanted to roam the woods in bear form together. She had remembered at the last minute that shifted he would be able to tell she was pregnant and she had begged off. He had been disappointed but figured it stemmed from her not being able to stay shifted for long periods.

That wasn’t true, she could actually hold a shift for several hours now. When Frieda had pointed out what she was doing with her human body it was also a lesson for her changes. More in tune with mind and body than she had ever been before, she was finally getting the hang of changing form and holding it. Still, she didn’t like lying to her mate so she needed to tell him about the babies.

Besides, he was bound to notice when she didn’t have a period. She gave herself a mental head slap. They had been mated for nearly four weeks now and she hadn’t had a period!
Did men notice things like that? Well yeah, especially if it meant they weren’t getting any sex!

Laura changed her mind, she would tell him tonight. She’d have Lola make a really special dinner.
Oh, and a baby cake! I wonder if Incanta can tell me the sex of the babies? Then Lola could color the frosting inside the cake!

After thirty minutes of leg lifts she was ready for her shower. Today was also the last day she’d be driving to JoAnne’s for therapy. Starting tomorrow, JoAnne and her mate would be moving into the house until she was walking again. She couldn't wait.

Laura was also coming along with learning to use magic. All of her many years as a programmer helped her to remember long strings of code. That same skill helped her to remember long strings of words and movements for using her changeling magic. The two of them spent an hour each day in the chamber of magic as she called it, the place of power. Frieda said it was an old gateway into the changeling realm and that's the reason why the magic there was so strong.

They had also moved her shifting lessons into the big cavern she had used to shift into her dragon. Alex had brought some of his staff from West Virginia and he and Marshall were going through applications for the underground facility. They had a few shifters in mind for leadership positions. But the analysts and soldiers would be coming from all over. The best and brightest would be working with Laura.