Dream Unchained (29 page)

Read Dream Unchained Online

Authors: Kate Douglas

BOOK: Dream Unchained
12.4Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
“I am.” His voice rumbled in Mac's ear. “And so are you.” He kissed Mac on the shoulder. “This reminds me of another time, another place, when we all awakened together.”
Mac chuckled softly. He pulled Zianne into his arms and held her close, loving her so much he ached, but he couldn't stop laughing. The tears were merely incidental. Dink wrapped his arms around both of them and the three of them lay there in the big bed, hugging one another, laughing and crying at absolutely nothing.
At everything. Her people were safe. The world was safe, and he had the woman he loved. He had Dink at his back, and Zianne to hold, and life couldn't get any better.
Then he felt Dink's fingers trailing along the crease of his ass. Zianne stroked his shaft and cupped his balls, and he decided that, yes, it could get better. A lot better.
It already was.
 
Dink, Zianne, and Mac were the last ones into the dining hall. Mac glanced at the buffet table and grinned. Meg had outdone herself, and there was enough food for an army. Of course, with all the Nyrians here for breakfast, they just about had an army of their own.
The moment the three of them reached the bottom of the stairs, every single person in the dining hall came to their feet. The applause embarrassed him, but he was touched, too, by the way everyone rushed them when they realized Zianne was alive, that she'd made it after all. She was hugged and kissed and passed from person to person until she finally ended up in front of Nattoch.
He was still too weak to stand, and she knelt at his feet, wrapped her arms around his waist, and hugged him. Mac walked over and gently rubbed Nattoch's shoulder. “How are you doing today? Are you feeling better?”
Nattoch stroked his hand over Zianne's hair, but he didn't answer Mac for a moment. Finally, he raised his head and wiped tears from his face with a paper napkin. “I am still learning to work with the emotions that appear to be a part of this body.” He laughed softly. “As a creature of energy, I felt them but had no way to express my deepest feelings.”
He glanced up at Mac. “This body expresses everything, all too easily. It will take me many years of study before I feel I know it well, but I am well, thanks to your people. We are all well. All alive.” He slipped his fingers beneath Zianne's chin and raised her face. “This one is alive, thanks be to Nyria. I worried we were too late.”
Zianne turned her lips to the elder's hand and kissed his palm. “Nyria lives, Nattoch. While I lingered between life and death, she came to me. She's been helping us as much as she could, all along. She told me she gave Cam his visions so this world would know how evil the Gar were. She helped me find my strength after Rodie brought my soulstone back. Then Mac's love brought me home.”
Zianne smiled up at him and then broke into laughter. It was a sound Mac thought he'd never hear again, but her words opened an entirely new set of possibilities.
“Nyria is still helping us. In a few more months, once our bodies have adjusted to life as humans, we will be able to have children. Children who carry our Nyrian heritage.” She turned those beautiful amethyst eyes on Mac. “Sons and daughters, Mac.”
Stunned, Mac was still trying to assimilate what Zianne had just said when she squeezed his hand and returned her attention to Nattoch.
“Nattoch, I am so glad you survived. I was angry with you! You were much too ready to sacrifice yourself.”
“As were you, child. I've discovered that you and I have much in common. We also have much to live for. So much.”
Mac's head spun with possibilities, with dreams he'd never dared as he helped Zianne to her feet. She leaned close to Nattoch and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Be well, Nattoch.”
She straightened, and Mac grabbed her shoulders, forced her to look at him. “Do you mean it? We can have children?”
Slowly, she nodded. “Not for a while. Nyria says we're too new in this world, but soon.” She stretched up on her toes and kissed his chin. “She'll tell us when. You would like that?”
It took him a minute to find his voice. “I would. Very much.” Little girls with amethyst eyes and brilliant minds like their mother, little boys who had to take things apart to see how they worked. He raised his head and caught Dink staring at him. Imagined a son with Dink's blond hair and silvery eyes. Possibilities. So many possibilities he'd never allowed himself to consider.
Zianne held Mac's hand as they turned away from Nattoch. “Look, Mac!” Tugging him along, she walked quickly over to a table where Rodie and Morgan sat with Bolt, Kiera, and Tor. Sitting in the middle of the table was the little gray squirrel, munching on peanuts.
“She came back.” Zianne ran her finger over the squirrel's sleek back. “If not for your generosity, I might not have survived.” The squirrel chattered, stood up on her hind legs, and wrapped her tiny paws around Zianne's finger. Then she turned around and went back to her pile of nuts.
Morgan nudged Rodie. “Well, we know what she prefers.”
Rodie leaned against his shoulder. “You know women. We're all fickle.” Morgan kissed her while the others at the table laughed.
Mac tugged Zianne's hand and they walked over to the buffet. Dink was already filling his plate, but he paused a moment and they gazed about the crowded dining hall, at the men and women who had been creatures of energy as well as the ones who were merely ordinary humans with extraordinary abilities.
Zianne touched the side of his face. He turned and gazed at the face of the woman he thought he'd lost forever.
“You did it, Mac. I hoped, but never did I believe that all would be saved, that the Gar would be stopped forever.” Her eyes filled with tears. “That I would have the chance, finally, to love you.”
She reached around Mac and grabbed Dink's hand. “And you, too, Nils Dinkemann.” She tugged him close, kissed Dink, and then wrapped her arms around Mac's neck and kissed him soundly.
There was no doubt in his mind. She was real. She was alive, and she was his. He wasn't sure what the future held for any of them—the world knew all about the Nyrians and would soon know more about their abilities.
He hoped they'd be welcome. He hoped the Bart Roberts of the world could be kept under control. He'd promised his team six months here at the DEO-MAP site, and he hoped they all planned to stay. There was a lot left to do, but considering what they'd accomplished in less than five full days, his dream team had proved they could do whatever they set their collective minds to.
There was so much the Nyrians needed to learn about humans and humanity, and even more that the human race needed to learn about Nyrians.
And then there was Dink. Mac felt as if he'd rediscovered what they could be to each other. He'd mentioned that to Dink, that he didn't know how he was going to handle it when the newscaster returned to his work and life on the opposite side of the country.
Dink had merely smiled and said not to worry. He had a plan. Of course, Dink always had a plan, but maybe this time it would bring him closer, not take him so far away.
So many things to think about. So much going on. So many possibilities. Mac's mind spun glorious circles with plans for the site, for the dream team, for their new batch of American citizens.
For Zianne and Dink and Mac.
For children—a dream he'd put aside so many years ago. A dream Zianne had simply and suddenly resurrected.
“Mac?”
He gazed into Zianne's twinkling violet eyes. “Yes?”
“You can make plans later. Right now, we need to eat.”
“Ah.” He glanced about the room. Everyone had gone back to their food. The room was filled with laughter and chatter, and it reminded him, in a way, of the student cafeteria so many years ago when he was still in college. He'd dreamed big then, too.
He'd made those dreams come true. There was no reason to cut back on any of his dreams for the future. He grabbed a tray at the long buffet table, and as he was loading his plate with bacon and eggs and fried potatoes and all the things a man his age probably shouldn't be eating, his mind went to more mundane things.
Finishing breakfast, a walk around the plateau with Dink and Zianne to check out the site, maybe a return call to the president of the United States. Then he paused to savor the most important item of all—enjoying the first day of a lifetime to come with Zianne.
The phone call could wait. After so many years, Mac finally felt as if he had his priorities straight.
Turn the page for a special preview
of the first book of
Kate Douglas's brand-new series:
DARK WOLF
Featuring the next generation of Chanku,
from the wildly popular and long-running
WOLF TALES series.
 
A trade paperback on sale May 2013.
1
C
rickets chirped. An owl hooted. A dusting of starlight shimmered faintly against granite peaks, but here at the forest's edge, all was dark. Shivering slightly in the cool night air, Sebastian Xenakis stood beneath the gnarled oak, just one more shadow among many. With great humility and as much confidence as he could muster while standing naked in the darkness, he raised his arms, drew on the magic coursing through his veins, and called on the spirit within the tree, humbly asking for her strength.
Nothing.
“Damn it all.” He exhaled a huge blast of frustration, stared at the massive tree towering overhead, and then methodically emptied his mind of all thoughts, all distractions. He put aside anger and frustration, fears and hopes, leaving room for nothing but
here
and
now
. Focusing everything within, he opened his heart to possibilities, and waited.
A few long, frustrating minutes later, he felt her warmth envelop him. An unexpected frisson raced across his bare shoulders, along his arms. It caressed his naked buttocks and swirled over his belly, lifting the dark line of body hair that trailed from navel to groin. Then it slithered along his thighs, circled his calves, and tickled across his bare feet.
Sliding away as soft as a whisper, the intimate sense of touch, of sentient communion, bled off into the damp loam and returned to its source through thickly tangled roots. Sebastian sighed, a shuddering acceptance of sensual pleasure, the gift of contact with such a powerful force.
Ancient beyond belief, her thick and twisted branches spreading far and wide, the mother oak had stood here, a silent sentinel of the forest since long before the dawn of modern history. A few heavy branches had fallen over time, but he knew her roots were strong, her branches healthy.
As if challenging time itself, the graceful beauty and symmetry of the tree remained.
He remembered the first time he saw the oak, recalled the sense of life, the sure knowledge of her power.
It was on that day he'd learned his father wielded the kind of power Sebastian had quickly begun to crave.
Standing just beyond the reach of the great branches, unsure of his relationship with a man he barely knew, Sebastian had watched Aldo Xenakis call lightning out of a clear, star-filled sky—call it and control it with the deft hands of a master.
He'd been seduced so easily, so quickly by that flashy show of power. So thoroughly he knew he might never break free of its siren call.
Might never break free of the man he'd consciously sought, despite his mother's warning. Now, it was much too late, and he was almost glad his mother was dead.
Glad she couldn't see what he'd become.
Sebastian quickly shoved thoughts of his moral weakness and his failures—and his father—aside. There was no need to mar the beauty of this night. He took a deep breath and then, almost as an afterthought, drew more power to him. Pulled it from the earth, from the sky, from the water of a nearby stream. The fire must come from within, but he called on that as well and felt the power build.
Then he buffered the swirling energy with the strength of the oak until it was entirely under his control. Until he was the one holding the power.
Unlike his father, unwilling to display such arrogance, Sebastian turned and bowed his head toward the oak, giving the tree's spirit his grateful thanks for her help. Then, spreading his fingers wide, he consciously breathed deeply and opened himself to the energy flowing into him from all directions. A brilliant glow surrounded him, but it wasn't lightning that lit the dark night.
It was power. Raw power he'd pulled from the earth, from the air and water. From the fire burning in his soul.
Within seconds, the light blinked out. Gone as if it had never existed at all.
As did the man. In his place, a wolf darker than night raised its head and sniffed the air. Then it turned away and raced into the forest.
 
“Lily? Have you seen this morning's news?”
Lily Cheval fumbled with the phone and squinted at the bedside clock in the early-morning darkness. Blue numbers blurred into focus. Her best buddy looked at her out of the screen on her phone. “Alex, it's six fifteen in the morning. On a Sunday. What can possibly be important enough to . . .”
“There's been another one. Just inside the entrance to the park this time.”
Lily bit back a growl and sat up. The last body, discovered less than a week ago, had been found along the highway leading into Glacier National Park. The one before that on the outskirts of Kalispell. “What have you got?”
Alex sighed and wiped a hand across his eyes. Poor Alex. How he'd ever ended up as the pack's liaison to the Flathead County sheriff's department was beyond understanding. He might be brilliant and charismatic, but he was not cut out to deal with—much less deliver—bad news, especially early on a Sunday morning.
His eyes looked bloodshot. She wondered if he'd even made it to bed the night before. Alex did love his social life on a Saturday night.
Even in Kalispell.
“Same as the last seven,” he said. “Young woman, beaten, brutally raped. Throat torn out. Just like the others, probably killed somewhere else and dumped. A park ranger found her body beside the road.”
“Shit. I hope you've got an alibi.”
She hated having to ask, but with public sentiment the way it had been heading . . .
“I was with Jennifer last night. I got the call on the way home.”
Jennifer. Poor choice of woman, but at least she could account for Alex's time when the attack occurred. Frustrated, Lily dug her fingers into her tangled hair and tugged. Anything to help focus her thoughts. “Let me know what you find out. Check with the pack, see if they've got any new leads. I'm stuck in San Francisco until after the reception, but I'll try and get up there by the weekend.”
“Okay. Be careful. Whoever's behind this, they've hit the Bay Area just as hard. I'll find out what I can. Thanks, Lil.”
Quietly, Lily set the phone back in the charger and leaned against the headboard. Another young woman dead. Another murder with all the signs of a wild animal attack—except for the rape.
Just like the other seven.
Eight young women, dead by a combination of man and beast. Five in or near Glacier National Park. Three in the San Francisco Bay Area. And where were the largest populations of Chanku shapeshifters?
“Glacier National Park and the San Francisco Bay Area. Shit.” A chilling sense of premonition shuddered along Lily's spine. If they didn't find the one behind this, and find him soon, someone was going to be hunting Chanku.
 
The sharp click of Lily's heels echoed against the pale gray walls of Cheval International, one of the more profitable branches of Chanku Global Industries. She walked quickly toward her office, wishing she could ignore the tension headache pounding in sharp counterpoint to her footsteps.
Her father insisted headaches were purely psychosomatic—according to Anton Cheval, Chanku shapeshifters were impervious to human frailties. “Tell that to my head,” she muttered, timing the steady throbbing between her eyes against the click of her heels.
Damn. She did not need a headache. Not on a Monday, not with a full day of meetings ahead, including lunch with the mayor and a one-on-one with the head of security.
Resentment of the long-lived Chanku shapeshifters had been simmering for years, but the recent series of attacks against young women had brought that simmer to a boil. It didn't help that a local celebrity had taken a very public stance against the Chanku, blaming them for everything from the current downturn in the economy to the vicious rapes and murders.
Aldo Xenakis had been a thorn in Lily's side ever since she'd assumed leadership of Cheval International. Recently, his verbal attacks had taken on a frighteningly personal slant.
It didn't help that he owned a massive amount of land that abutted her father's vast holdings in Montana. It was bad enough he was stirring up resentment here in California, but Montana was home. Having longtime friends and neighbors turn against them hurt Lily and the rest of the pack on a much more personal level. They'd worked hard at being good neighbors, at integrating themselves into the community.
Now this.
“Good morning, Ms. Cheval.”
“G'morning, Jean.” Lily paused in front of her secretary's desk. “Have you got today's calendar?”
Jean nodded. Gray-haired, round-faced, and very human, she'd been Lily's secretary since she'd been named CEO of the company seven years earlier. And, while Jean continued to age, Lily still looked as youthful and fresh as the day she'd walked out of Berkley with her MBA.
One more reason for humans to resent shapeshifters, though she'd never noticed any resentment at all from Jean. Considering the good pay and generous benefit packages all CGI employees received, she didn't expect it to become an issue.
Lily glanced over the daily calendar Jean handed to her. The morning wasn't too busy, but . . . “Why have you got a question mark by my lunch date with the mayor?”
Jean shook her head. “Her office called a few minutes ago. When the mayor's schedule went out to the media yesterday, they forgot to black out your lunch appointment. Reporters know when and where you're meeting, and the mayor said she'd understand if you decide to cancel.”
The pounding between her eyes got worse. Goddess, but it had been too long since she'd shifted and run. Right now, Lily really wanted to chase down something furry and kill it. “Not necessary,” she said, rubbing her temple. “We really need to talk. Maybe I'll wear a disguise.”
Jean grinned as she gave her an appraising look. “Don't think that would help. You're hard to miss.”
Lily raised her eyebrows and glanced at Jean. “Thank you. I think.” She grabbed the mail Jean handed to her and headed toward her office, but paused at the door. “I'm expecting a call from Alex Aragat. Be sure and put him through even if I'm on something else.”
“Okay.” The phone rang, but before answering it, Jean added, “You'll find a list of the calls you need to return on your desk. Uhm, more than a few from your father.” She laughed.
Lily just shook her head when Jean added, “He wanted to remind you not to forget the reception Thursday night.”
“I wish,” she muttered, but she turned and smiled at Jean. “I won't. And even if I wanted to, dear old Dad would make sure I got there on time.”
Lily shut the office door as Jean took her call. She glanced at the clock over the bookcase. Seven thirty, which meant that, with any luck, she'd have time to get her desk cleared before lunch. Her head was still pounding like a damned jackhammer, but she flopped down in the comfortable chair behind her desk and read through Jean's messages. All were carefully organized by importance. The stack from her father—and damn, but how many times had the man called?—was set off to one side.
She knew he'd be up. Might as well check in with the boss first. The phone rang as she reached for it. She glanced at the caller ID and sighed. “Hello, Dad. I was just getting ready to call you.”
“How's your headache?”
She frowned at his smug image. “How do you know I've got a headache?”
“Because I've been trying to mindspeak all morning and I know you're blocking me.”
“Oh.” No wonder her head hurt. She'd developed the habit of keeping her shields high and tight since she was just a child, but that never kept her father from trying. “Well, if you knew you were giving me a headache, why'd you keep pushing?”
No answer. Typical. She was convinced he heard only what he wanted to.
“You've talked to Alex.”
Not a question. He'd know, of course. Anton Cheval knew everything. “Yes. He called first thing Sunday morning, but he didn't have any details. I expect to hear more today. Have you learned anything else?”
“How well do you know Aldo Xenakis?”
“Not well at all,” she said, used to her father's non sequiturs. Amazing . . . her headache was gone. She almost laughed. Her father'd been the cause of it all along. “Why do you ask?”
“His son will be attending the reception Thursday night. I want you to meet him.”
“He has a son? Since when? I thought Xenakis lived alone.”
“The younger Xenakis has stayed in the background. From what I've learned, he didn't even know Aldo was his father until a couple of years ago. When the boy's mother died, he traced Aldo through her private papers.”
“Interesting. Why do you think the son's important?”
“He's been staying at his father's home up here for the past month. You know where the house is. It's a few miles from our place, though our property shares the southern boundary. Tinker thought he smelled an unfamiliar wolf near the edge of our holdings night before last. He traced the scent to a ridge on the Xenakis property. The wolf scent disappeared, but he picked up the trail of a man and followed it to the house. The only one there was a young man who appeared to be Xenakis's son.”

Other books

THE GATE KEEPER by GABRIEL, JULES
Lessons in Rule-Breaking by Christy McKellen
If Looks Could Kill by M. William Phelps
Bound to a Warrior by Donna Fletcher
Candice Hern by Lady Be Bad
Traitors' Gate by Kate Elliott
There Is No Otherwise by Ardin Lalui
South Wind by Theodore A. Tinsley
Next August by Kelly Moore