Ariel (14 page)

“Great,” Ariel said, stomping to Matt’s house. “Let me run in and check Matt’s bedroom. The man is a neat freak and I can’t get it out of my mind. I had laid them over the back of a chair last night. He refolded them and put them on some fancy dresser he has in there.”

Reed crossed his arms and nodded, even though Ariel didn’t see him. She was gone less than two minutes and reappeared loosely wearing her clothes, with the blanket tucked under one arm. He noticed she hadn’t bothered lacing the boots back or buttoned things up more than partially. She was obviously expecting more failures. It was all he could do to hold back his laughter as he thought of how angry she was going to be if she found she just couldn’t do it.

“Tell me again what it feels like when it happens correctly,” Ariel demanded. “Give me all the details you can. I have to envision it to figure it out.”

Reed took a deep breath and ordered himself not to laugh as he went through it for the millionth time. “I picture my human form dressed in my clothes and order it to stay dressed when I shift. It requires I completely know every piece I am wearing at the time it happens. For the most part, I wear the same kind of clothing every day. It’s helps me remember without working at it so hard.”

Ariel nodded. “I’m glad now I was never one of those scientists who thought she knew everything. Plenty of string theorists have postulated matter as being some sort of reality agreement your mind makes with the world. Maybe this is the same thing. I just have to believe my mind can order my clothes to stay on my human form. I have to let go of the idea when I change back that I’m going to always be naked when it happens.”

“Try shifting into an upright position too. It’s like doing a rolling somersault and landing on your feet,” Reed advised. If you do manage to keep your clothes, you don’t want them getting dirty on the ground.”

Ariel snorted as she handed Reed the blanket again. It was too cold out to stand around naked if it didn’t work. “I’d just be happy to keep them on my body no matter where I ended up.” She walked a few feet away from her teacher. “Does shifting ever stop hurting, Reed?”

Reed shook his head. “I don’t think so. It hasn’t for me in over three hundred years. But I always think it’s worth it.”

Ariel rolled her eyes. “You are just chock full of unhelpful advice today.”

“Not liking my advice does not mean it’s unhelpful,” Reed corrected.

Ariel snorted. She closed her eyes, pictured herself with her clothes, assembling her outfit piece by piece right down to her boots. “Okay. I’m ready. I can do this.”

She shifted into her wolf. The female she had been disappeared, as did all she was wearing. She prowled around a little, enjoying her wolf form as she always did. She had loved it from the beginning.

Her head raised as she sniffed a familiar scent. Two seconds later she saw Matt walk around the house to where they had been practicing near the woods. She called out in welcome, surprised once again at hearing herself howl so loudly. Matt’s laughter carried to her.

She swung back to Reed, who was grinning.
What’s so funny?

Reed smiled.
You. Your perfect innocence. Your enjoyment of your wolf. Your pleasure in the male who satisfies your cravings. The unquestioning way you have embraced your circumstances is very much like the way I deal with the unexpected. Many born werewolves don’t handle life as gracefully as you and your friends have.

Well, Grace is my middle name,
Ariel sent, hearing him laugh.
I’m not joking, Reed. My name is Ariel Grace Jones.

Reed nodded and tried—mostly without success—to stop laughing about her name being Grace.

Ariel huffed a breath, noting the steam rising from her nostrils as she did.
Okay. Let’s do this. No more naked shifting.

She ordered herself to shift back to a female. She did do the somersault move and managed to land on two feet instead of hands and knees. Feeling herself standing upright, she let out a whoop of happiness.

And then she looked down.

“Oh, fuck this shit. What the hell did I do wrong now?” she demanded. She was naked except for her unlaced boots.

Reed held out the blanket, his shoulders shaking. The moment she took it to wrap around her, he staggered away laughing his ass off.

Ariel lifted her chin as she tucked the blanket around her shivering body. “At least I kept some of my clothes. It’s only a matter of time until I keep the rest of them. I’m a positive thinker. I will get this done. Laugh all you want, but you’ll see.”

She marched to the back door where a grinning Matt was rubbing his nose and pretending not to care she was nude under the blanket.

“I have to go get dressed again. Apparently, my clothes keep showing up folded on your fancy dresser. At least I kept my boots this time.”

She stopped and glared as she passed by him.

“I can see you’re dying to comment. What’s on your mind?”

“Congratulations on keeping your boots,” Matt said, trying unsuccessfully not to laugh as he said it.

Shaking her head and rolling her eyes, Ariel moved passed him and into the house. Behind her, she heard Matt giving into his amusement at her expense. Knowing no one thought she would ever manage it only made her more determined.

***

“How about this one?” Eva asked, waiting until Heidi walked around the man on the examining table. She shook her head. “Try touching his arm or leg. Physical contact is usually needed. That’s why doctors touch their patients, even though some have forgotten to use all their senses.”

“Is it okay if I touch you?” Heidi asked the older man. At his silent nod, she placed a hand on his arm. Her other hand went to his side. “Something right around here isn’t right. It’s cracked or broken.”

Eva looked at the man. “What happened, Howard?”

Heidi swallowed hard as she watched his chin nod in her direction.

“I fell when I went to feed the sled dogs. My side has burned ever since in the place she said.”

“You probably fractured a rib. Have you tried shifting to fix it?” Eva asked.

Howard shook his head. “No. I don’t have any tolerance for my wolf these days. He’s always nagging me to do things I don’t want to do.”

“Better listen to him before he hurts you again,” Eva advised. “I’ll wrap your ribs for today, but if you shift a couple of times, you’ll heal faster. Settle things with your wolf, Howard.”

Howard grumbled, but nodded. Eva wrapped the bandages tightly around his midsection and then stepped back. When he was gone, Eva turned to a stunned Heidi.

“Why are you acting so shocked? You have a special gift.”

“Thank you. Would his wolf really hurt him?” Heidi asked.

Eva shrugged. “Even humans develop mental issues if they live in denial. The same is true for shifters who don’t honor their animal side. Sometimes your animal side knows better than the human what is needed.”

Heidi nodded as they walked to see their next patient. Not being super comfortable with the fact she had a wolf side now, she preferred not to think about it any more than she had to.

***

Ariel came back to the yard fully dressed with her boots completely laced this time. She stomped past a grinning Matt and back out to Reed, who was pondering the trees. Ariel stopped near him to gaze up into his serene face.

“You can come inside. I’m done for the day. I’m tired of dressing myself over and over. Are you always this calm about everything that happens?”

“I’ve been alive a long time and tend to prioritize a little differently than someone younger. At this stage of my existence, I find it’s best to conserve my energy whenever possible—though that was more necessary before you saved my life.”

Ariel snorted. “You never get angry and I’m always angry. I can’t say I wasn’t always like this a little bit, but I can say that I never let it out so much before I met my wolf.”

“I don’t like being angry. The emotion makes me irrational. If I had let anger rule me when I was captured, I would not have been alive to help you when you were turned. Edgar had already died the week before.”

“Edgar?”

Reed nodded. “Another werewolf. Crane captured many. Most died quickly and it was a blessing for them. Edgar and I were traveling companions. He was from a Canadian pack. We met one day when we were hunting. It suited us both to hang out together. Then one day, a pack of hunters on snowmobiles came through where we were. Edgar was captured and I escaped. I went after him and that’s when I found Feldspar Research. Edgar was one of several wolves they experimented on trying to learn all they could about our kind. I don’t know what they concluded. They cut him open, studied his insides, and then threw his remains out in the trash. I did get very angry that day.”

Ariel ran a hand through her hair, which had grown into a mane of thick blonde in less than a week. Her thin locks were no more.

“From what I read in Crane’s notes, none of the wolves they captured talked. So all they knew was some kind of molecular activity occurred during a transpecies shift from one form to another. They could never pinpoint the origin within the human form or the timing for the animal form. When a captured wolf died, they dissected it looking for abnormalities, like mutated DNA, which might provide clues. From what I read, they concluded the animal form was as normal as any regular wolf. Transpecies shifting remained a scientific mystery. The best I can determine is with us, Crane either got lucky, or someone specifically told him how to do it. Nothing in his data revealed anything close to what happened when we were converted. He hadn’t even documented the process he used on us in his notes.”

“His level of secrecy is even more troublesome. It means he was probably afraid of the one in power over him,” Reed said.

“Possibly. Crane talked to us about being military weapons in our wolf forms. I think he was planning to sell us…or at least the process to make us. But then he also mentioned needing to show proof that the process had worked.”

Reed rubbed his jaw. “There are many unanswered questions about Feldspar and my grandson. What would Hanuk gain from helping Crane, other than to make me look like I was being irresponsible in converting humans so needlessly? Discrediting me may have been his plan, but helping werewolves be created doesn’t seem to serve any purpose for him or the pack. Werewolves have a long legacy of organic propagation. Mating with a human is discouraged and a cause for discrimination when it happens. Our history says that most humans cannot survive the change when bitten. If this had not been true, the human species might have disappeared during the middle ages when werewolves weren’t living so peacefully with the other species.”

“If your grandson did assist in our conversions somehow, it seems like a lot to go through just to keep a position he already holds. What would stop other humans from coming after him and his people for the same kind of experiments?”

Reed shook his head, not really wanting to theorize about the reasons. Such mind games always seemed like a waste of energy to him, but it was Ariel’s method of understanding the world.

“For some, a war between werewolves and humans would be a welcome break from what they view as the monotony of pack life. Lazy males make war. Fighting is commonplace, and it takes less effort to earn glory.”

“What are you going to do about all this, Reed?”

He turned and looked down into her face. “I consider the three of you to be gifts from the Great Spirit. You have reminded me of my value to my pack and to the world. I have to go back and try to unseat Hanuk. There is no other choice.”

Ariel nodded. “I want to go with you. Brandi and I could be useful in your task. I don’t know about Heidi.”

“Heidi is becoming a healer. Healers are always welcome in every pack. They are considered the highest of blessings. I would gladly take you all with me. First though, we will contact Travis and get him to come escort us. Perhaps on the way, I can show him the wisdom of becoming the alpha.”

“What would a hot tempered, alpha scientist be considered to your pack?”

Reed laughed. “I don’t know. No pack has ever seen a werewolf like you. You look good in nothing but your boots. That’s always a plus—at least for the males.”

“Wonderful. You really know how to make an intelligent woman feel appreciated, Reed.”

Reed snickered and dropped an arm around her shoulders as they walked back to Matt.

Chapter 11

She was in Matt’s backyard practicing alone when her wolf picked up the scent of a stranger. It reminded her faintly of Reed, but contained something more. Looking at the house where Matt was hiding out and pretending not to watch her, she whimpered before trotting into the woods. She wouldn’t go far—just far enough to get a look at whoever was headed their way.

Picking her steps carefully, her paws were nearly silent as she trotted. Maybe she hadn’t perfected a fully clothed shift yet, but her wolf definitely knew how to move confidently through the world.