Destiny Binds (25 page)

Alex was immediately there, his mouth saying hello to mine without the assistance of words. “ I wasnʼt sure you were coming,” he said as Talley drove away, kicking up a cloud of dust in her wake. “I thought you might have changed your mind.”

“Not a chance.” I pulled him in for another kiss. This time when we pulled apart I held his eyes with mine. My hand brushed his hair across his forehead. “I love you.”

“You do?”

“Of course I do. How could you not know that?”

“I just thought...you know, with Charlie last night...”

“Last night I did what you asked me to do. I weighed my options and...” I kissed the tip of his nose. “I choose you, Pikachu.”

Alex lifted me into the air and spun me around, a testament to his lycan strength. He was still laughing when his mouth closed over mine. As I ran my hands greedily over his back I felt a muscle twitch against my fingers.

“While this is very entertaining, itʼs not the show I came for,” I said, disentangling myself from his arms. I made a shooing motion with my hand. “Go. Change.” Alex flashed his perfect dimples. “Not here.” He grabbed my hand and led me towards what could have passed for a mountain compared to the low hills that surrounded it. “I want to show you something.”

There was no trail leading up, but that didnʼt bother either of us. It was a beautiful evening for a hike. The air hung heavy with the sickeningly sweet smell of honeysuckle. The newly green grass was adorned with hundreds of yellow daffodils.

“So, whatʼs with the chicken?” he asked when I handed him the bag so I could pull myself up the rocky embankment that he easily leapt atop of.

“Talleyʼs idea. She said you would need food post Change, and she didnʼt like the idea of you leaving me alone in the woods in order to hunt. I only took it to be polite.” I finally managed to hoist myself up to where Alex waited. “You donʼt have to eat it. Iʼll be fine while you go snag a rabbit or squirrel or whatever. I know how much you love to hunt.” I reached out to take the bag back, but he grabbed my proffered hand to drag me further up the hill. “Correction, hunting I like. You, I love. Well, you and KFC extra-crispy. So much better than raw rabbit.”

We reached the spot where the trees began to thin. Once we rounded a large rock, I found myself in a clearing that had been prepared for my arrival. A blanket was spread on the ground next to a rolled up sleeping bag and pillow. A dozen white pillar candles were scattered about.

“Itʼs our first real date,” Alex said, blushing ever so slightly. “I wanted it to be nice.” I squeezed his hand, staring in awe at the view. The summit of the hill broke off into the lake, creating a scene that looked more like Colorado than Kentucky. “This is beautiful. You definitely win the Best First Date Location award.”

“Iʼm glad you like it.” He guided me over to the blanket, and then helped me take off the backpack I had been carrying.

“So, Iʼm curious, what did you bring?” he asked as he began lighting the candles.

“Oh, you know, frisbees, tennis balls, rawhides. Iʼm really excited. Iʼve never had a puppy before.”

The look of horror on Alexʼs face was priceless.

“A sweater, some flashlights, and my calculus book. I told my parents I was studying for tomorrowʼs test, and thatʼs what I plan on doing. Not all of us--” Alexʼs body convulsed violently causing a small shriek to escape my lips.

“Iʼm fine,” he said. I had trouble believing him since he wasnʼt quite through shaking yet. I read in Dr. Smithʼs book that postponing the change was possible, but it was both difficult and painful. If a Shifter waited too long to begin the process on his own, he would begin the Change involuntarily, which never went smoothly.

“Go. Change. Now.”

“No, I can wait a little longer. Iʼm fine. Really.”

He looked the exact opposite of fine. I could see muscles shifting beneath his skin. “This is insane. Youʼre hurting yourself for no good reason. Please, go change. Iʼll be right here when you get back.”

I donʼt know if it was my plea or the second convulsion that changed his mind. He stopped to kiss me one last time on his way back into the woods. “I donʼt want you to be scared of me.” How could I ever be scared of him? “I wonʼt be. Promise.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too. Now, go make me a wolf.”

I waited until Alex was out of sight and then went over to the edge of the cliff. The setting sun cast long shadows down below, causing the gnarled old oak tree on the opposite shore to look like a Halloween decoration.

The oak tree that looked strangely familiar.

I walked several yards along the edge, trying see it from a different angle, but something wasnʼt right. I crouched down and looked sharply over the edge. Much as I suspected, the hill did not drop straight down into the water. A cliff actually jutted out over a little strip of rocky beach, littered with driftwood and fallen limbs. It was a strip of beach I knew very well. I had stood on it many nights since November.

Well, that was perplexing.

I sat down and surveyed the opposite shore, matching up details from my dreams with what was there as the suns rays faded out. There was no doubt. This was definitely the spot I had been dreaming about.

Six months ago I would have chalked it all up to coincidence and gone on without another thought. In my logical, Shifter-and-Seer-free world, dreams had no hidden agendas or underlying meanings. But now?

What did I believe now? I sat for a long time, buried deep in thought.

Alex was perfectly silent when he came up beside me. It was only the smell of Colonel Sanderʼs secret recipe that alerted me to his presence. His wolf form was even more majestic than I remembered. Every inch of him was sleek and lean. Dark fur surrounded his eyes, making them glow silver.

“Hey, you. Welcome back.” I reached out, but paused with my hand inches from him. “Is it going to be offensive if I pet you?”

Alex ducked his head and brought it back up so my out-stretched hand landed between his ears. I gave it a good pat or two before running my fingers down through the soft, thick fur of his neck.

“Do you want to hear something weird? Well, itʼs weird to me. You might just think that Iʼm stupid for getting so worked up about it.” I continued to stroke his fur as I babbled on. “Iʼve dreamt of this place. A lot. And in my dreams youʼre always over there,” I indicated the opposite shore with a wave of my arm, “and Iʼm on the beach down below. And even though itʼs obviously not very far across, we canʼt ever hear each other.” Alex stared at me with his silvery grey eyes. “Do you think thatʼs weird?”

Wolf stare.

Was he trying to tell me something with that stare?

“Ummm... tap your paw once for yes?”

That look was telling me something. Something that sounded an awful lot like,
Youʼve got to
be kidding me
, but he tapped his paw once all the same.

“Yeah, I thought so too.” I draped my arm over his back and leaned against his neck. “Of course, Iʼm having this conversation with a wolf, so I guess weird is a relative term.”#

We stayed like that for a long time. Night settled over the lake, and the clear sky filled with a million stars. The full moon hung heavily over the nearby hills, lighting up my tiny piece of paradise.

Alex worried that I would be frightened of his wolf form, and maybe I should have been. He was, after all, a huge carnivorous animal with sharp claws, pointy teeth, and outweighed me by at least twenty-five pounds. The only thing I was feeling, though, was peacefulness. A small part of me still grieved over what happened with Charlie, and it probably always would, but I was happy with the choice I made. I was happy with Alex.

“I suppose we should really open that stupid calculus book at some point,” I finally said, not happy at the prospect of leaving the perfect moment we created. Alex whined, obviously feeling the same way, but got to his feet. As I walked over to the blanket he followed obediently. I resisted the urge to tell him to sit or heel.

We actually did study for a while. I would read aloud from the book and my notes and try to talk my way through an example problem. Alex would shake his head at me when I got something wrong, a trick he could have shown me earlier.

I donʼt know how we got distracted. I think I made some disparaging remark about a dogʼs ability to do math when he disagreed with the way I was finding the derivative of
f
using tangent lines and Alex had responded by tackling me. Before long the night air was filled with my shrieks and Alexʼs snarls as he stood over me, licking my very ticklish neck. I let out a yelp as his nose nudged down the top of my shirt. “Stop that,” I gasped, weakly pushing against his chest. “Your nose is cold.”

I was trying to determine where exactly a wolf might be ticklish when I felt Alexʼs muscles tense under my hands. His head snapped up and a growl reverberated in his throat. As he stared off into the distance, he flattened his ears back. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

When I began to push my way up, Alex barked at me. The sound of it drove me back to the ground and kicked my heart rate up another notch. It was a bark of warning, one that I could feel in my bones, but it wasnʼt nearly as disturbing as the chorus of snarls that came from behind my head.

The part of me that lived in fear, the part that cowed to teachers and hid for hours in the bathroom last night, wanted to disappear into a hole, or at least close my eyes and wait for it all to be over. Instead, I clung to what little strength I had, and craned my neck around to determine the nature of the threat. Along the edge of the clearing I saw two more canines.

They were both much smaller than Alex, close to a whole foot shorter, and not nearly as bulky.

They both had brown fur, although the larger one seemed to have tan highlights in his coat. His eyes were a painfully familiar shade of green.

“Alex, let me up.”

The wolf above me hesitated before stepping forward, allowing me to get to my feet.

Looking at the coyotes from an improved angle didnʼt change my estimation of their size. They were
tiny
. It was like David and Goliath. What were they thinking?

Of course, I knew what they were thinking. They were thinking that two to one was pretty good odds, no matter how much bigger that one might be. They were thinking they had speed and agility on their side. They were thinking that together they could take Alex down.

I was so not going to let that happen.

“Jase, stop this right now.”

The animal that was my brother yipped at me. It was a sound that seemed to be colored with something closer to surprise or annoyance than a threat. He whipped his head to the side with a whine and looked at me anxiously. I felt a bubble of hysteria as the words,
Whatʼs that,
Boy? Did Timmy fall down the well?
popped into my head.

I wasnʼt doing whatever it was Jase wanted me to do. Charlie gave an agitated snort and moved towards me, causing Alex to let out a threatening snarl.

Faced with an unmistakable adversary, the coyotes abandoned their attempts to communicate with me and focused on the danger Alex represented. They stalked off in opposite directions, moving further into the clearing, and positioned themselves on either side of Alex. The world seemed to slow down as I watched the animals in front of me. They all stood within five yards of one another, each of them tensed for action. Charlie was snarling and growling out the canine equivalent of mother-related comments, his curses capturing Alexʼs attention, but I kept my focus on Jase, knowing he would lead the attack. How many times had the two of them tried this same tactic on me over the years?

Jase shifted his weight and I bolted. We collided inches away from Alex. I felt his claws graze me as I brought my knee up into his soft underbelly, sending him flying.

I saw a flash of fur as Alex leapt past me. He landed short, giving Jase just enough time to regain his footing and bound into the forest. Under normal circumstances, the coyote would have been able to quickly put a sizable distance between himself and the wolf barreling after him, but his gait was uneven, as if one of his front legs had been injured.

Instead of leading Alex deeper into the forest, Jase circled around the clearing, darting between trees and rocks. Alex was practically on top of him when Charlie caught Alexʼs hind leg, dropping him to the ground. I saw blood fly as Alex wrenched himself from Charlieʼs mouth, yet he gave no indication of injury as he rightened himself, never favoring one side over the other.

Once again, the three Shifters found themselves in a triangulated stand-off, tensed for the next attack, an attack I couldnʼt let happen. There would be no winners in this fight. No matter what happened, someone I loved was going to end up hurt.

I didnʼt really have a plan other than
stop them
. Maybe I would have tried to reason with them. Or maybe I would have yelled and raged. I might have even smacked them all upside the head for being such chauvinistic morons. Instead, I collapsed onto my knees after attempting a single step. A pain, white hot and searing, tore through my stomach, robbing my lungs of oxygen and distorting the world in front of my eyes. The bottom half of my shirt was shredded, strips of cotton glued to my body with a disturbing amount of thick, warm blood.

“Jase.” My voice was choked, full of astonishment, hurt, and fear. I slowly raised my head to meet the gaze of the three Shifters, each forgetting the others as their attentions focused on me. “Oh God, Jase. What did you do?”

The world spun. I heard a yelp. A whine. Then a growl vibrated through my body, spreading dread down to the marrow.

Alex lunged. Jase scampered backwards, but not quickly enough. Alex was on top of him, his massive body easily pinning the smaller animal to the ground. He bared his teeth with an angry snarl before striking at Jaseʼs throat.

Charlie was almost too late, pounding into Alexʼs side just as his teeth sank into the vulnerable skin of Jaseʼs neck. The two went rolling across the clearing from the force of the impact, clawing and snapping as they went. Charlie dug his nails into the dirt, gaining just enough traction to sling his body around, narrowly avoiding plunging over the edge of the cliff.