Change For Me (Werewolf Romance) (The Alpha's Kiss) (7 page)

And on top of
all that
, when I finally pulled in to the driveway hoping for a few minutes of quiet before I could sit my grandpa down and ask him a few questions, there was a car sitting out front.

So much for getting started on the story.

“Lily! Why didn’t you ever answer me!” smug, irritating Caitlyn Hodges was sitting in the swing outside the house. In
my
swing. “Devin’s gone, I haven’t heard from him in a week – ever since graduation – and you’re not talking. What’s going on, Lily?”

Great
.

For once, I wished that those dying clicks as the Bronco went to rest lasted a whole lot longer.

“Hey Cat,” I said, trying my best to keep from rolling my eyes too hard. “Why do you think I have any idea where your boyfriend is?”

––––––––

“C
hrist,” Damon swore, standing up for the first time since he went to all fours for a reason he didn’t understand, and ran away from the girl he’d loved for the last two years. He didn’t know why he’d done that, either.

As broken and bloody as he was when he woke up that morning, every single one of his cuts, scrapes, bruises and blisters was gone. His skin was perfect, untouched; his muscles larger than they’d ever been, but not sore even though he just ran about three miles in a bear crawl.

Life for him was up and down, as it can be. Since he and Lily split last year, it had been mostly down. When his parents moved to Fort Branch, they never said why exactly, just that it was closer to “home” whatever that meant. Only weeks after they’d moved and four days after he and Lily first laid eyes on each other, he met the man he was going to see.

At first, he went to the shriveled, ancient man who went only by Poko from time to time, mostly when his father insisted. Slowly, he’d been told about his people, and why he was different from all his friends. Poko became kind of a rock for Damon, in the years when nothing else helped.

He’d come here – to this cave – and hear stories and tales and parables.

But why was he going to see Poko? Why now? The last time he saw the old man with the tight, dry, leathery skin was almost six months ago. And back then, Poko said he’d call when the time was right.

None of it made the first damn bit of sense, but there he was, pulling himself off the ground and plucking little sticks and bits of pine nettle and tiny rocks out of the skin on his knees – skin that not long ago, was cut so deeply it was hanging open.

The ancient man sat in the dark, next to a fire, deep in the belly of a cave that was a whole lot bigger inside than it looked from the outside. Damon made his way through the winding path and followed the orange flicker until he found where he was going. Sitting down, he watched Poko stroke the faded lines tattooed on his cheeks.

“Sit,” he said. “Look at me.”

Wordlessly, Damon did what he was told. He learned the first time he was brought here that questioning Poko was the quickest way to get hit on the back of the head with a board that he’d ever found.

The cave was orange with the fire’s glow. Poko’s membranous, tanned skin pulled tight over his cheeks and around his eyes, but hung loose under his chin. He sat in this cave, and every time Damon had ever come, he’d been waiting for him.

I wonder if he ever leaves? Or eats?

A smile drifted across Poko’s lips, then vanished with the next lick of flame on the rocks near his feet. His eyes remained closed, which made Damon feel at least a little at peace. As much as he looked up to the old man, those eyes, they did things to Damon he didn’t like.

“You’re here about the,” Poko drifted and turned his head to one side, listening to something Damon couldn’t hear. “Ah, yes, that.” He chuckled softly. “That’s why they always come at first. This one is different though. He’ll make it.”

“I—”

“Quiet,” Poko whispered. “I’m listening to wiser souls than mine. If you want to interrupt them, keep on chattering. Otherwise,” he flattened his palms against the floor of the cave, pushing a bit of straw nearer the fire. “Good.”

Poko turned his head back and forth, leaning each way in time with a rhythm only he could hear.

“You’ve been fighting,” he finally said. “Do you know this?”

“I – what? I don’t remember anything, that’s why I’m here. I think. I don’t know why I’m here actually, I just got the feeling I
should
be.”

Poko bounced with a dry, rattling laugh. “I remember.  Yes, I remember not remembering. Not knowing why I would wake up in one place cut up and bleeding, and go about to different... What?” He asked the air. “This one...? No, no, that can’t be. He’s a cub.”

God I wish this would just stop.

“You’ve been fighting.” That time it wasn’t a question. “You’ve been fighting and even more than that, you’ve been fighting over your mate. You know this?”

“I’ve been what?” Damon’s jaw dropped open. “Fighting who? And my mate? What are you talking about? I came here to find out why I kept blacking out and waking up in places I didn’t remember going and you’re talking about mates?”

“Hush.”

That whispered words clapped Damon’s mouth shut. The old man had the power to close his mouth
for
him if he chose to keep on, but he never required that level discipline. Not since the first time, anyway, when Poko clapped his mouth shut so quickly he’d bit his lip bloody. He stared in wonder at the living mummy before him.

Poko’s body was weak with age, but he could transcend that without a second thought.

Damon knew
what
he was for his whole life, but the changes hadn’t started until he turned fifteen and they’d never been this bad. The first time his dad dragged him down into this cave to meet Poko, it was a week before his fifteenth birthday, and the old man told him everything that was about to happen to his body. If not for that, he would have been lost.

“Who is,” Poko turned his head almost all the way around. “What did you say?” Returning his attention to Damon, he said, “What do you know of Devin?”

A heavy silence hung between them as a plume of ash tree smoke curled upwards and a leaf popped as it caught.

“I... he’s just a guy from school. Never liked me much. I keep having visions of him and I don’t know why.” He took a deep breath to calm his shaking hands. That’s the other thing Poko always did to him; frazzled his nerves. “It’s always during my blackouts. I have these visions of him when I wake up, but I don’t have any idea why.”

The old man rocked back and forth. In the firelight, Damon watched his eyes dart back and forth beneath the lids. “Well?” He asked impatiently. “Why do I keep seeing him and why can’t I get him out of my mind?” He didn’t bother to ask how Poko knew.

Poko swallowed and his throat clicked. “You need to go, Damon. The girl, your mate, she’s—”

“Wait, what? You keep saying this stuff and I don’t know what you mean, Poko, just use names. Are you talking about Lily? Because I ruined any chance of that happening.”

“No,” Poko whispered. “Destiny isn’t something you can ruin. Even when you want to go down a different path, it isn’t possible unless something prevents it from coming true.”

Damon squeezed his fists so tight his knuckles went white. “I’m so tired of this. All I want is to be a normal guy. I want to stop blacking out for a week at a time. I missed graduation! I don’t know who I am or where I am half the time.” He stopped for a breath.

After clucking a laugh, Poko said, “I remember these things, too. It isn’t an easy path we must go weather. Especially not those who are like
us
.” The word had a deep gravity that made Damon uncomfortable.

“Please just tell me about Devin and why I can’t get that jackass out of my mind.” He was practically begging by then, but it had no effect on the old man, who was going to go at his pace, no matter what.

One time, he’d told Damon that time only matters when you’re young enough to see things change. Maybe that was true.

“What do you think these visions are telling you?” Poko said.

“Ugh,” Damon scratched his knee through the torn fabric, where he used to have a cut. “I don’t know. I don’t... I don’t even know if they
are
visions. Is that what you’re getting at?”

Poko cocked an eyebrow, and Damon’s rage boiled up even as he sat there fuming. “Why won’t you just tell me?”

“Breathe, Damon,” the old man said in that voice that was so calm it made Damon even angrier. “You are one of the forest, Damon, that’s why your mother and father brought you here. You’re almost grown.  You’ll be halfway between man and wolf, and soon, unless you claim your mate, you will be stuck as such without her touch. You recall Devin because... because he aims to claim her too.”

“No,” Damon groaned, the blood pounding in his head. “No that’s impossible, I’ll... I’ll kill him first.”

“You will
not
.” Poko spat, his voice suddenly harsh. “You will not kill him, nor anyone else. If you do, you’ll be outcast. We of the forest may live on the outside of what normal humanity understands. But you must
never
kill. People might not understand us, but murder, that’s for the others. Not for us. Skarachee protect. Carak... they’re the uncontrolled ones.” He opened those horrible, sightless eyes, those grotesque white orbs, and stared into Damon’s soul.

“Do you understand?”

“Y – yes,” Damon replied, hardly able to contain his rage but knowing well he best not cross the elder.

The old man coughed. “You’re my young. You are the young of my pack, the next of my line. We, the Skarachee, do not kill. The others, though, they have less control over their emotions.”

“Others?” this was the first Damon had heard of anyone – anything – like himself that wasn’t Poko’s pack.

“Ah, I see I’ve neglected to mention this to you. Come closer, my voice, it’s weakening.”

Damon leaned in, reticent to get any closer to the old man, but knowing there was nothing he could do to stop it.

“There are other packs, and they converge here. Your friend, your rival, I mean, he is Carak. The
others
.”

“Whoa, whoa, wait a minute,” Damon put his hands up and gnawed on his lip. “Devin? The greaseball from school with the motorcycle and the horrible attitude... is one of
us
?”

Poko shook his head emphatically. “No, he is Carak.
We
are Skarachee. Now go. Go to your mate, I fear something is happening she can’t control, but you must.”

Slowly, the old man fell into a back and forth rocking, moaning and inhaling the scent from powder he tossed into the fire. When Damon tried to rouse him, there was no response except the fluttering of his eyelids, and a slightly louder chant.

As he turned to leave, the old man spoke into his mind, not through his ears.
“Remember what I said, Damon. If nothing else, you must never, never kill. The only thing that keeps us from becoming like them – like your rival... is that we won’t... kill.”

And then his voice faded.

*

D
amon reached the brushy shrubs around Lily’s house just as the sun had started to set.

For several minutes Damon lay on the ground and stared at the house, intent on seeing what he could before charging headlong into some sort of danger.

And that’s what he was convinced awaited him. After all, the elder told him he had to go to her
right then
without a moment’s delay. She was in danger, he said, though he hadn’t been exactly clear about what sort of danger it was. When Damon’s eyes adjusted to the dark, he wasn’t quite sure what he was watching.

Two women, one of whom he knew was Lily, though the other had her back turned, were arguing. He wished for one of his spells of heightened senses, so he might have listened. Damon strained to hear whatever he could, wondering if
this
was what the elder meant.

“How many times do I have to say it?” It was Lily talking, and from the sound of it, she was
pissed
. That was a tone Damon was quite familiar with. He couldn’t help but wince and grin every time she delivered another punchy, accusatory question. “Why would I know where
your
boyfriend is?”

Is that Caitlyn Hodges? What the hell are they doing together? They can’t stand each other.

Caitlyn looked so defeated that Damon felt a little bad for her.

“I don’t know,” she said. “All I know is that I haven’t heard from him in over a week and the last time anyone saw him, Craig Willis said he was drinking at the barn party after graduation, and saw your ex-boyfriend beating the shit out of him.”

“Well, no, Caitlyn, I haven’t seen him.” Lily put her hands on her hips. She was serious. “And just so you know, I haven’t seen... what did you call him? My ex-boyfriend? Whatever. I haven’t seen him in almost a week either.”

Damon furrowed his brow at her lie. Why would she say that? What did she have to hide? Unless she was trying to protect him from whatever might happen if his connection to Devin was made clear. But how could she possibly know about that? Had all those texts he sent gave it away? Why would she lie though? How could she know?

“Look, Lily, I’m not trying to start a fight with you, all I want—”

Lily crossed her arms. Even from his distance, Damon saw the slouch in her shoulders.
God she’s mad. I’m glad it’s not at me
.

“You came to my house, and you accused me of running around with your boyfriend. When I asked you why the hell you’d think me and
Devin
of all people, who I can hardly stand, mind you, would be running around behind your back, you start spewing stuff at me about my boyfr – my ex-boyfriend beating him up? What
are you?
”

Her slip of the tongue wasn’t lost on either Damon or Caitlyn. Lily edged toward the house. “You know what?” she continued. “I think you better just go, Cat. I think it’s best if you went on your way. I’ll tell you this though, I promise that if I see or hear or anything, of Devin, I’ll let you know. I might not like you very much, but I can tell you’re worried, so I’m not gonna be queen bitch and keep things from you if I hear them. Okay?”