The Wolf's Call (Two-Natured London) (4 page)

Charly stared at Rafe, angry
and disappointed. She didn’t know why she had thought he would be different,
that he would be a man who didn’t need to dictate to women all the time,
someone self-confident and assertive. Did he think a kiss gave him a right to
start issuing orders to her?

Although
… what a kiss. A wave of heat surged through her when she remembered it, only
to turn into an embarrassed flush when she thought of how she had behaved. She
had answered his kiss with a ferocity she hadn’t known she had in her, grinding
against his hardness like a cat in heat, completely out of control of her body.

What
was wrong with her? Just because it had felt as if one of her fantasies had
come to life when he’d pulled her into the lift cage and started kissing her
like he’d been starving, it didn’t mean she had to behave like a hussy. And in
front of witnesses even. Her blush deepened when she imagined what the security
guards must think of her. She could only hope they wouldn’t tell her brother.
She did value his good opinion of her, if nothing else. That Rafe had managed
to compromise her standing again angered her and she stepped away from him,
retreating towards Jack’s door.

Only
then did it occur to her to wonder why he was there. She took the first good
look at him – she had barely had time to recognise his scent down at the lobby
when he was already on her – and saw that he was dressed in jogging gear. The
slightly damp t-shirt clinging to his body revealed abs even better than she
had imagined. His wide shoulders stretched the shirt to its limits; his bare
arms were strong with sinewy muscles and thick veins, and they were covered
with fair hair, sun-bleached, too. Would his chest be hairy as well?

Imagining
his bare chest made her arousal return and she inhaled sharply. A definite
mistake, for it brought his wonderful scent to her, as irresistible as earlier.
She couldn’t help glancing down and noticing the erection that still stretched
his sweatpants. Blushing, she lifted her gaze hastily. She wasn’t used to men
who were so unashamed of their sexuality.

The
look in his eyes was amused and self-satisfied. It had strength too, making it
very difficult for her to keep her eyes fixed on his, but she gritted her
teeth. She would not let him get the better of her twice.

His
smile deepened. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Charly
blinked. “What was that?”

“Why
are you walking Bob?”

She
looked down, remembering the dog only then. Bob was lying on the floor with its
big head resting on its front paws, looking bored. “I, ah, am looking after it
for my brother this week while he’s in New York.”

“Jack
Thornton is your brother?” He looked relieved, as if he had thought she was
Jack’s wife or something. She didn’t question how Rafe knew Jack. Important
businessmen all knew each other.

“And
why are you here?” Since he didn’t look disappointed at hearing Jack wasn’t
home, he couldn’t be here for him. Not that he would visit in sweaty jogging
gear anyway, she was sure.

“I
live there,” he said, indicating the flat next door, startling her. It hadn’t
even occurred to her that he might live here; his firm was based in Epsom. He
sneered at her surprise. “What, you didn’t think a construction worker could
afford a place like this?”

She
hadn’t thought anything like. He might look like he spent most of his time
outdoors like a construction worker would, but the air of authority surrounding
him made him exactly what he was, the owner. This was an expensive and
exclusive building for the extremely rich, and if he could afford the services
of Latimer & Holby, he could afford to live here too.

“I
just haven’t seen you here before.”

He
smiled, mollified. “Well, it’s a company flat we only use when we need to stay
in town. We built this place, you know.”

That
truly surprised her. “But that was almost a hundred years ago.”

“It’s
an old company.” And obviously one with a much higher profile than she had
thought. Then he got serious. “Do you usually walk Bob this late? Because I
meant what I said. It’s not safe.”

An
image of the wolf-shifter flashed in her mind and she nodded instead of getting
angry again. “I know. I just stayed later than I thought I would at work.”

“Because
of me?” His look was hopeful now, an oddly endearing expression on such a
strong face.

Absolutely.
And not because of his case either. Some of her fantasies returned, but they
seemed to pale in comparison with reality. “I got immersed in the papers,” she
said, refusing to blush again.

He
nodded, accepting her words. “I have a solution. Why
don’t you take my case home with you and work it here? You could come home
earlier that way and still bill the hours. And
I can keep you company.” He lifted his hands, mollifying, when she was about to
argue. “I won’t be a guard, I promise. But then I wouldn’t have to worry about
you when you go walking Bob.”

It
warmed her heart that he actually worried for her instead of just wanting to
boss her around. It was the only explanation for what came out of her mouth. “I
saw a wolf-shifter today.”

Raphael froze. Why would she
bring the wolf up when she had practically bitten his head off earlier for
showing concern for her safety? Her scent didn’t indicate fear, only the
remains of her arousal, making his body tighten in response. Was she appalled
or excited about what she had witnessed?

“Did
you now?” he drawled, deciding to play it safe. With the demonstrations going
on, there was no need to tell her what he was just yet. “Then you admit I’m
right and it’s dangerous out there.”

But
she wouldn’t cede to his superiority in anything, as he had known she wouldn’t.
“Everyone knows the park is full of shifters. Nothing has ever happened
before.”

“I’m
not actually worried about the shifters,” he said. It didn’t surprise him,
though, that she thought they would pose the greatest risk. “Only wolf clans
use Hyde Park and they’re pack creatures like natural wolves, only with the
human ability to reason to make them more predictable even in wolf form. They
have a standing order to steer clear of humans when in animal form, and that
will hold.”
Hopefully, anyway
. If the demonstrators aggravated the clan
leaders with their march, no one knew what would happen. “It’s the humans I’m
worried about.”

It was
her turn to sneer, slightly amused. “What, a few bigots armed with banners?”

He
gave her a stern look and, to his satisfaction, he hadn’t completely lost his
touch, because she finally averted her eyes first. “There are more than a
thousand of them and they’re pretty worked up. Unless you’re willing to declare
for human supremacy, they’ll take their anger out on you. Are you?”

He
held his breath, hoping for a negative answer. He could take up the challenge
of her without disclosing what he was, but he wanted her to want him, all of
him, otherwise it wouldn’t be a real victory. She was taken aback by the
strength of his question and she gave him a scrutinising look. The game might
be up already.

“No, I
don’t think I’m with them,” she finally said, and he released the breath he had
been holding. Too early. “But that doesn’t mean I’m with you either. It’s not
dangerous in the park.”

“You
just said you saw a wolf-shifter there.” To his surprise, he was getting a bit
angry again. He wasn’t very temperamental, but her obtuseness was starting to
aggravate him. “What if it had been someone riled by the demonstrators who
wanted to take it out on a lone female like you?”

“Didn’t
you just say the wolf-shifters aren’t allowed to attack humans?”

He
growled; he simply couldn’t help it. “There are exceptions to every rule.
Besides, the full moon is on us and that makes all shifters more
unpredictable.” He was a strong shifter, but even he felt the strain, as Might,
the energy that made all the two-natured more than human, poured into him in
full force.

Charlotte
straightened, excited by their argument, giving him a notion of what she would
look like in a courtroom. Magnificent. “So those people are right, shifters
aren’t capable of integrating to human society?”

It was
a deliberate provocation, but after being forced to flee the demonstrators
earlier, he couldn’t ignore it. “The two-natured people have been around for as
long as humans have. It’s not solely a human society and never has been. Humans
have just been allowed to think that way.”

In
Rafe’s opinion, being the weakest race around, humans shouldn’t be in charge
even this much, but they were more numerous, and the two-natured had always
been more interested in their own affairs. Since humans unaffected by Might
only recognised the human face of the two-natured, it had always been easier
for everyone to pretend that it was a human society.

Charly’s
mouth quivered in a small triumph. “So the wolf was you?”

He should have expected her to make that conclusion, but
faced with such a blatant attack, he did what he had thought he would never do.
He denied everything.

***

The October weather had been
colder than usual for the time of year, even though the sun had shone almost
every day. Shifters could shrug off the sharp bite of wind, but the old manor
the Greenwood clan called their home demonstrated the turn of the season by
getting excessively damp, forcing its occupants to build fires in every room to
ward it off. They were used to it though, and they looked forward to the long
hours spent in front of fireplaces every fall.

Rafe
was sitting in his brother’s study on the ground floor of the manor, enjoying
the heat radiating from the grate a few feet from his wingback chair, his long
legs stretched towards the warmth. Despite the cold wind, he had decided to
take his bike for a spin from London to Epsom, a whim he was now regretting.
The distance wasn’t great, but it had been long enough a ride to freeze him to
his bones.

Jamie,
Rafe’s older brother and the leader of their clan, sat in a similar chair on
the other side of the fireplace. They were old chairs, their leather worn from
use, but the brothers preferred them to pretty much all the other seats in the
entire manor. Rafe remembered their father sitting in this office in these same
chairs, and Jamie, who was almost a century older than him, could recall when
the chairs had been new. There was something very comforting about having
things older than you around to rely on.

“So,
what’s the solicitor like?” Jamie asked after Rafe had given him an update on
the case. The brothers looked greatly alike. Jamie had a few more lines around
his eyes, which made him look about forty in human years to Rafe’s thirty-five.
His colours were lighter too, flaxen blond instead of dark gold, and his eyes
were the colour of good whisky, like his wolf’s. “Will she get the job done?”

An
image of Charlotte flashed in Rafe’s mind. “Absolutely.”

The
brothers were equally strong, and were both very much dominant, but they had figured
out ages ago how to run the clan together efficiently without coming to
constant fights. Rafe dealt with the finances of the clan while Jamie saw to
its people and day-to-day operations. If Rafe told Jamie that things would get
done, Jamie wouldn’t question the statement.

But
today, a slow smile spread on Jamie’s face. “That good, huh?”

Rafe
frowned. He didn’t quite understand why he was having such trouble putting
Charlotte out of his mind, but he didn’t like what Jamie implied with the
question. “She’s human.”

Jamie
cocked an amused brow. “Humans are fair game too, you know.”

The
brothers were close and could talk about almost everything, but today Jamie’s
teasing irritated Rafe. He did have his reasons for steering clear of humans,
even if they weren’t set in stone. Charlotte was hot enough to warrant him
bending his own rules, but there was more to it. “The thing is, she’s very much
a dominant. My wolf is convinced she’s a wolf too and that we should go after
her in earnest.”

No
matter how much his wolf studied her, it wouldn’t change its mind.

Jamie’s
face went carefully blank and Rafe’s heart ached for him. With shifters, the
human half could like, lust, and love anyone he or she wanted, but if the beast
didn’t approve, nothing would come of it. Rafe had met any number of nice girls
during his long life that he had thought would do just fine for him. He didn’t
have any great demands. He would take care of a woman’s safety and wellbeing;
in turn, she would make sure he was fed and clothed and warm his bed at nights
– at least that had been his general idea about marriage in his youth. Only,
his wolf hadn’t accepted any of the women, and there had been no point in
pursuing them in earnest.

However,
once the beast made its choice, it was very difficult for the human half to
resist. Ideally, it chose another shifter whose beast reacted with equal
determination as Might pulled them together. Difficulties might arise if the
beast went after a different kind of a shifter – a wolf with a non-predatory
shifter was a troublesome equation – but it wasn’t impossible.

Sometimes
the beast chose from among the other two-natured species. Vampires weren’t as
strange a choice for a shifter as one might think. Both were long-living, and
after a century or two vampires were strong enough in Might to face the
daylight again. Sentients, for their part, lived only slightly longer than
ordinary humans, but at least they could see auras and knew what they were
dealing with. But the beasts seldom chose sentients. They were remembered as
traitors of all two-natureds for their co-operation with humans during the
Inquisition and the subsequent war that lasted for centuries.

Still,
even sentients might do. Humans, however, made for difficult partners. They
weren’t affected by Might so they didn’t react to the mating call the beast
sent out. In turn, the beast couldn’t understand why it wasn’t being answered
and would get very unhappy, affecting the host too. A shifter could woo a human
of course, and even win, but it was a sour victory. Even if a happy, lifelong
marriage followed, it would still leave the shifter to mourn for the loss of
its partner for far longer than the marriage lasted.

Sometimes
the human spouse didn’t adjust at all. That had happened to Jamie. Some thirty
years ago he had found a nice woman, won her over, and brought to the clan as
his wife. Man and wolf both had been ecstatic. But his wife hadn’t liked her
new life among the wolves, or the notion that she would grow old while he would
stay the same, and soon left him. She had been able to leave because she hadn’t
felt the wolf’s call, and had left their only offspring with Jamie too, to be
raised as a wolf with the clan. She later married a human man and birthed
purely human children with him; she was expecting the arrival of her first
grandchild shortly.

All
Jamie had been able to do was let her go and watch in impotent anger as his
woman went to another, unable to kill the human male as his beast demanded of
him. He couldn’t even mourn her, she was still alive, which really messed with
his wolf’s head. But as long as the wolf thought of her as theirs, it wouldn’t
let him look for another partner either. Rafe had sworn that the same would
never happen to him.

“Perhaps
she’s a latent shifter?” Jamie said. “The gene might be there, giving her some
extra willpower, and making your wolf react. She just hasn’t enough of a
shifter in her to make her more than human.” Since the gene pool was very
mixed, it was possible for human parents to have children who carried a two-natured
gene. They had had wolves in their clan, brought there by human parents unable
to give their shifter child what he or she needed. Sometimes the parents even
joined the clan with their children.

Rafe
was grateful to his brother for trying to help him, but he had to shake his
head. “She doesn’t smell anything but human.”

“Then
perhaps she’s just a very strong human. They do exist you know,” Jamie said
with a smile. Humans didn’t have the monopoly on stereotyping. Shifters tended
to think that all humans were weak.

Rafe
smiled too. “Perhaps.” But that didn’t mean he was willing to bind her to him,
no matter what his wolf said. At least it hadn’t put out the call yet. If that
happened, he would be truly screwed.