Leopard Moon (10 page)

The man was speaking to the grizzly, slowly and softly. The bear snuffled, coming back down on all fours and lowering its huge head so that the man could pet him. Okay, this was going from confusing to really strange. Then the bear was shrinking, changing, and before long a naked teenage boy stood before the group of men and wolves.

Cormac stared. A werebear? Here?

"This is my charge," the man was saying, hugging the boy. "He didn’t mean any harm."

"I’m really sorry." The kid ducked his head. "I didn’t know about wolves being up here. I got scared." He looked at Cormac. "Sorry I hit you."

Cormac rolled his shoulders in the wolf approximation of a shrug. His mind was too caught up trying to process werebear to be angry. If the kid was new to changing, and it looked like he was, he hadn’t even known his own strength. It made him more dangerous, but not necessarily malicious.

"Go on home, boys," Alaric said, dismissing them. Cormac, Burke and Finn turned and melted into the woods, leaving the werebear and the Alpha behind to sort things out.

They made decent time back to the Lodge, despite Cormac’s slower pace. He was starting to get sore now that the adrenaline was wearing off. He dropped back behind the other two, content to walk and let his mind wander.

Finn was already babbling when they got to their clothes. "Holy crap! That was a werebear!"

Cormac triggered his change back to human. It was more painful this time, the change readjusting already sore bones and muscles. He pulled on his pants, leaving his shirt off so he could test out his ribs to make sure none of them were cracked.

"Yes Finn, we know. We were there." Burke came over and inspected Cormac's ribs and back. "How’s it feel?"

"Nothing broken." Cormac raised his arms above his head, checking for range of motion. There was a twinge of pain, but nothing he couldn’t handle. He’d be all healed up in a day or two.

"Dude, you should have seen the way you flew when he hit you!" Finn sounded giddy and Cormac had to resist the urge to punch him. "It was awesome!"

"I felt it, thanks. And awesome is not how I would describe it." Cormac pulled his shirt on.

"Right, right. Sorry."

They trooped to the house in silence. Cormac was tired and starving. Two changes in a short time had ramped up his metabolism. Lunch was a distant memory and dinner was far too many hours away. He knew his cousins would be feeling the same.

His mom was prepared. She may be out with the pack, but she knew what would be needed most when they returned. Tray after tray of cold cuts and rolls were laid out on the counters in the kitchen. Burke went to the fridge and pulled out giant buckets of potato salad, coleslaw and macaroni salad. Cormac peeled the plastic wrap off the trays while Finn grabbed condiments and sodas.

They took their plates into the living room, propping themselves up on various couches, feet up on low tables and ottomans. Finn took a huge bite of one of the five sandwiches piled on his plate and asked between chews, "What are we doing now?"

"Eating," Burke answered.

Finn shot his brother a dark look. "I meant after, jackass."

Cormac swallowed a forkful of potato salad. "I had talked about going to the Parkway."

"With who?"

"Kess," Cormac mumbled into his sandwich.

Finn leaned forward, dark eyes interested. "You dog! Have you gotten her number yet?"

Cormac shook his head. "I thought I might be able to get her to come out with me, but then the call came."

"Sorry, man." Burke shrugged.

"No problem. Pack business comes first." Cormac understood that, but he still felt like he had missed a chance with her. She’d seemed pretty close to saying she’d go when Burke had called.

"Have you made any headway with her?" Finn thought he was the resident ladies man. Cormac thought he had a very limited view of male/female relationships.

Cormac shoveled another bite of coleslaw into his mouth. He thought he had. He’d helped her fix her car. She didn’t seem to hate him for the staring thing. He had sat with her while she ate dinner and walked her out to her car. These were all good things, right? Then why did he feel like he was no closer to her than before?

When Cormac didn’t answer, Finn laughed. "You are so screwed."

"What? Why?"

"She’s not interested, man. And you’re obsessing over her. Just give it up. There are plenty of other girls out there that aren’t as much work."

"I’m not obsessed. I just think she’s…intriguing."

Finn rolled his eyes, then bit into his sandwich. "Whatever."

"Don’t listen to asshat over there," Burke said from his corner of the couch. "If she’s who you want, then she’s who you want."

Cormac nodded to himself. Now if he could just figure out if he was who Kess wanted. That was going to be the harder part.

***********

It was Monday evening when he finally got a chance to see her again. It was towards the end of the dinner shift, so he waited in the bar until she was free. He sat drinking a cup of coffee and folding and unfolding a cocktail napkin into freeform origami shapes.
Here's a goat and this one's a pterodactyl and this one's a remarkably accurate depiction of the Buddha during his moment of Enlightenment complete with tree and snake.
Cormac dropped his head into his palm and hoped he wouldn't make an ass of himself.

He scanned the bar for what felt like the hundredth time and saw her sit down at her usual table in the corner. He waved to catch her attention. She looked surprised to see him, but then she waved him over.

"Hi," he said, taking the seat across from her.

"Hey, how'd everything go the other day? With the family stuff?" She took a bite of steak.

"Oh that. Fine. Totally fine." If you count a teenager turning into a really pissed off bear that can hand me my ass fine, then yes, the family stuff was a rousing success. "So, um, about that family stuff. I believe I offered you a raincheck on the Parkway."

"I never said I'd go with you, if you remember." A slight smile played around her lips. She rested her fork on her plate and tucked her hands under her chin. She looked positively devilish and Cormac had to resist the urge to touch her lips with his fingertips to feel her smile.

"Ah, but you never said you wouldn't." Cormac took a breath and plunged on. "And since the weather is somewhat erratic this time of year…"

"It rains all the damn time…" She sounded grumpy.

"…I thought raincheck coffee would be a better, drier option." He waited.

Kess sat there for a second. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

Cormac tried not to grin stupidly. "Yes. Yes I am."

She toyed with one of the chopsticks she'd been wearing in her hair. He wanted to put his hand over hers, to somehow reassure her. She seemed to be holding some kind of inner debate and Cormac wondered what she could be thinking about. It was coffee and him. She was either into one or both of those things or she wasn't.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea. I mean, I work for your uncle." Her hands had stilled.

"Oh, are you talking about the Finn rule? Don't worry about that." He waved his hand around dismissively.

"What Finn rule?" She sounded amused.

"Finn's not allowed to date the servers here. Griff says none of us are, but it's really just so Finn doesn't feel bad about it."

Kess burst out laughing. "Seriously? There's a rule for him?" Cormac nodded, pleased that he'd gotten her to laugh. "He's that bad?"

Cormac nodded. "Burke and I are the good ones." That wasn't even remotely true, but he tried to look angelic.

He saw Kess shake her head. "Yeah, right. You just don't get caught." She smiled, as if coming to some kind of decision. "Okay. I'll get raincheck coffee with you."

"Excellent. You free Wednesday?" He didn't want to wait too long before he saw her again.

"I'm working lunch, but I'm off that night."

"I'll pick you up."

Kess' face went blank for a minute and then she said in a tight voice, "I'll meet you. Just give me the time and place."

What was that about? Was she afraid to get in a car with him? Afraid for him to know where she lived? If he really wanted to know that, all he had to do was ask around. The town wasn't so big that he wouldn't be able to find out where someone new was staying. Still, if it bothered her, he wasn't going to force the issue. He gave her directions to the coffee shop and they settled on seven for the time.

He felt it would be good to leave now before he did something stupid that made her want to renege on the whole raincheck coffee date. But he had one more thing to give her. He reached behind him into the waist of his jeans and pulled out a book. He held it out to her.

"Here. I thought you might like this after I saw you in the laundromat."

Kess took the book from him, eyeing the grotesque cover curiously. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?"

He grinned at her. "Because everything is better with zombies. Didn't they teach you that in school?"

She smiled at him. "Thanks, Cormac."

"See you Wednesday."

*********

Cormac settled himself on the couch. His dad had a called a meeting of the full pack to go over the werebear incident. Cormac wasn't sure what there was left to go over—they'd discovered the bear they had been trying to relocate was actually a werebear, and that the werebear had someone looking out for him. They'd had were-visitors before, and while the pack usually had notice of them being in the area beforehand, it wasn't unusual to find out about it after the fact from a friend of the family.

He checked his watch. He still had about an hour before he needed to meet Kess for coffee. He hoped that the meeting wouldn't be a long one. His father would be ticked if he tried to sneak out early for a girl, but Cormac wasn't going to miss this opportunity with Kess.

Burke dropped down onto the other side of the couch. The large room was beginning to fill up. Griff and Finn had also arrived. Finn joined them, but Griff went to stand next to Cormac's father. The two older men stood silently, staring out the large picture window. Cormac watched the rest of the pack trickle into the room in twos and threes.

When everyone finally arrived, they numbered fifteen. It was large for a pack, one of the largest on the east coast. The core group was Cormac's family, but there were some distant relatives and friends who filled it out. The low murmur of conversation made the room sound like a bee hive, which died when Alaric turned around to address the assembled group. Griff stood behind him and to the right.

"You all are aware that we had an unknown werebear in our territory a few days ago. The issue has been resolved. He's under Bob Garrett's watchful eye now—some of you know him—so I don't think we need to worry too much about him."

Cormac nodded. He'd never met Bob, but knew that werebears tended to be solitary creatures, not gathering in familial packs like wolves did. It was possible this new werebear had only come to the mountains to get a handle on his changing and then would be moving on; he didn't think two male werebears were likely to get along in the same space for long periods of time.

His father continued. "This does bring to light something Griff and I have been concerned about. Our borders become harder to secure the more the world shrinks. This werebear is a testament to that. We had no idea that a strange were had come into our territory. We were lucky in that this one was not an enemy. But it's dangerous to have an unknown werebeast in our mountains. If any one of us had been caught out by this werebear on our own and he did mean harm, the encounter would end in something bloodier than just getting thrown into a tree."

Gee, thanks Dad. I'm so happy to be reminded of that particular highlight. He felt Finn nudge him in the ribs and had to resist snapping his teeth at his cousin. Next time he'd make sure Finn was the one that got smacked around by a bear.

Alaric paused, letting that sink in. Cormac had to give it to his father; the man was good at speeches. He waited like all the rest of the pack for his father to continue. But Alaric turned to Griff, who took up where the Alpha left off.

"We need to know about every were that comes into our territory so they can be evaluated as a threat. We don't want to get blindsided like we were with the bear. We were lucky, but we can't count on luck."

Burke raised his hand, waiting to be acknowledged. "How can we tell if there's an unknown were in town? It's not like there's anything that marks weres as different from regular humans."

Cormac looked at his cousin. That was the problem right there. There was no good way of telling someone was a were until they changed, and even then, unless they changed right in front of you it would still be hard to tell. Even in animal form, a were didn't look much different from the animal they changed into. Even their scent changed when in animal form.

"You can't and that's not what we're asking you to do," Griff answered with a wry smile. "We're upping the patrols. Keep your noses peeled for the scent of anything strange in the woods. Animals that shouldn't be here, non-pack wolves, anything out of the ordinary. You smell, see, or hear something strange, you report it to me and the Alpha."