Lucas shrugged and leaned forward, across the table. Quietly, he said, “We can both read each other’s thoughts anytime.”
“Eww! You’d never be able to have a private thought.”
“We can sense when the other wants privacy. We turn it off,” Kayla said.
I looked at Connor worriedly. “Is that the way it’s supposed to be? My parents never told me that.”
“Mine didn’t mention it either. Maybe it’s like sex. They’re not comfortable talking about it.”
“Actually,” Lucas began, “I think every bond is different. The first time I saw Kayla it was like I was standing too close to a bug zapper.”
“Oh, that’s romantic,” I said, while Connor chuckled gleefully at the gross image.
“It was like an electric charge,” Lucas explained. “It wasn’t unpleasant, but it was…a little unsettling.”
“No matter the species, it seems guys are all alike,” Kayla said, smiling. “Shy about the L-word.”
“I’m not,” Connor said. “I’ve loved Lindsey ever since she bloodied my nose because I took her chew toy.”
My heart stuttered at his casual use of the L-word. In our relationship I was the one who was shy about using it. I always had been. I adored Connor, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever told him I loved him. Now certainly wasn’t the time. I slapped his arm playfully. “It was a teething ring and I was only a year old. I don’t even remember it. But my parents always bring it up anytime our families get together.”
“That and the naked videos.”
“What’s this?” Kayla asked, laughing.
I groaned. “I was two, Connor was four. We’d been playing in a splash pool. We took off our clothes and got in the sandbox. Makes sense to me. You don’t get in a sandbox with wet clothes on.”
“And I haven’t seen her naked since,” Connor said.
But he would. During my first transformation. Clothes hamper our ability to transform. Despite what happens to the Incredible Hulk, shirts don’t rip off and pants don’t stretch. I felt myself blush as Connor wiggled his blond eyebrows at me. For a species that had to divest itself of its clothing under what we considered natural circumstances, we were a modest bunch.
Thank goodness, the waitress brought our burgers over and conversation stopped as we wolfed them down. So to speak. Generally, we enjoyed nothing as much as we did warm, red meat. Although I did also have a weakness for fudge and anything else remotely chocolate.
When we finished eating, Connor and I decided to join Brittany in the pool room to give Lucas and Kayla some privacy. Walking inside, I was disappointed to see that all the tables were occupied. At the one nearest to the door, the young guy leaning over the table about to make his shot looked up and met Connor’s gaze. With a shrug, he laid his cue stick down, bumped his partner on the shoulder—who set his stick on the table—and they both leaned against the wall, arms crossed defensively over their chests. Their reactions told me two things: they weren’t yet eighteen and they were one of us, because apparently they recognized an alpha wolf when they spotted one. It was like that with our kind. Until we had the ability to go all furry, we gave way to those who could. It was a sign of respect.
A Static might have felt sorry for the two guys. After all, they were there first. But in order for our culture to work, a hierarchy had been established. As a Dark Guardian, Connor was at the top of the food chain. I had to admit that I felt a swelling of pride as he put his hand on the small of my back and led me to the table.
“I’ll rack, you break,” he said as he began taking the balls out of the pockets and rolling them toward one end.
I picked up the cue stick the first guy had set down. It was the right size for me. As I began chalking it up, I shifted my gaze over to Brittany. She’d finished whipping the butt of the guy who’d followed her into the room—or maybe he’d let her win so she’d relax around him. They began to set up for another game.
“What’s wrong?” Connor asked quietly as he slid his arm around me and pulled me close. A possessive move. His question seemed to be a frequent one lately.
“I don’t know. That guy. I’m not getting good vibes off him. He’s not one of us.”
“A hiker maybe. Mountain climber.”
“A spy,” I added.
“I think he’s harmless.”
“That’s what we thought about Mason.” He’d managed to capture Lucas in wolf form. If not for Kayla, Lucas might still be living in a cage somewhere, on display like a prized possession.
“Good point.” He looked over at the young guys. It seemed to me that they had stopped breathing, waiting for his assessment. “Thanks for the table, but we changed our mind. We’re going to play with a friend.”
Brittany was leaning provocatively over the table when we arrived. She swept her gaze slowly over Connor, before taking her shot—and missing the corner pocket she’d been aiming for.
“All right!” the stranger said, with a grin. “Maybe this time I have a chance of winning.”
He handed his beer bottle to her, before taking up his position to make a shot. With a dare in her eyes directed at me, she took a swig.
“You’ll get kicked out if Mitch finds out you’re drinking,” I told her.
“He has to catch me first, and he’s busy.” She took another swallow, before tipping the bottle toward the guy lining up his shot. “This is Dallas. He’s new to the area, here to do some hiking. These are my friends, Lindsey and Connor. They’re destined for each other.” Her words were almost slurred, and I wondered how much beer she’d had.
“Cool,” Dallas said, amused. He nodded at me and touched two fingers to his brow in a salute to Connor, then sent two balls flying into opposite side pockets.
“He’s also very good at pool. Game over,” Brittany said.
“You don’t know that,” Dallas responded as he pocketed another ball. “I could miss if you come over and distract me.”
Smiling, Brittany shook her head. Maybe the reason none of the guys declared for her was because she gave the impression she was unavailable. She never flirted with anyone.
“Thought we could team up, challenge you guys,” Connor said.
“Sure. Nothing like a friendly game to get to know each other better. Let me just finish up here.” And Dallas quickly cleared the table of balls.
“See?” Brittany asked. “You guys don’t stand a chance.”
“We’ll see,” Connor muttered beneath his breath.
Our kind was nothing if not competitive.
While Connor and Dallas each rolled a ball across the table—whoever got it to stop closest to the far end would break—I nudged up against Brittany and said in a low voice, “So what’s his story?”
“Says he’s a hiker.”
“You believe him?”
“No way, too pale.”
“One of Mason’s minions?”
“Maybe.”
Nothing like spending all day in a lab to prevent a tan.
Connor won the right to break, and I felt that little spark of pride again. My guy. But as he made his move to strike the balls, I shifted my gaze over to Dallas. He was watching the room as though he was expecting trouble. I felt the wariness creep through me.
We were at a disadvantage. Our best warriors were here, but they wouldn’t be able to shift in front of all these tourists. We’d worked diligently to keep our special abilities a secret. But now I felt as though we were walking around with big signs taped to our backs saying, Caution: We shift at will.
Even though I couldn’t shift yet. Soon, though. Very soon.
Connor called my name, and I realized it was my turn to shoot. I moved over to stand beside him. He pointed toward a solid ball. “That should be an easy shot.”
I nodded jerkily.
He put his hand on the small of my back. “Relax.”
“I know it’s totally irrational, because I have no evidence for it, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s trouble coming,
” I whispered.
“We’ll handle it.”
I had this déjà vu moment from last summer when I’d been assigned my first group of campers to lead out into the wilderness. I’d been so worried that I’d do something to get one of them hurt. Connor was going with me. “If something happens, we’ll handle it,” he’d said. So calm. He never doubted his ability to take care of any situation.
With a nod, I bent over to line up my shot.
I knew the second Rafe walked into the room. I didn’t know how I knew. I wasn’t facing the door. It was just an awareness that shimmered through me. I glanced back over my shoulder to see him sauntering toward us.
“So who’s winning?” he asked.
“No one yet,” Brittany said, right before she made introductions.
I was acutely aware of Rafe studying Dallas—he didn’t trust him either. So that made all of us.
“Play already, will you?” Brittany prodded. I bent back over and aligned my cue stick.
“You’re not lined up right to make that shot,” Rafe said quietly, and before I could react, he was behind me, his arms coming around me. Everything within me went still. I wondered if he’d felt this same awakening when I’d been holding him on the bike last night.
I heard a low rumble. Anyone else might have mistaken the sound for someone clearing his throat, but I recognized it immediately as a warning growl coming from Connor. Completely ignoring him, Rafe adjusted my position slightly.
“You want to tap it low,” he said.
I nodded, feeling an acute sense of loss when he moved away. I smacked the white ball and watched as it knocked the solid-colored ball into a corner pocket.
“That might be cheating,” Dallas said.
“I’ll buy you a plate of buffalo wings to make up for it,” Rafe said.
“Sounds fair.”
Connor and I won the game fairly easily, which made me think that Dallas didn’t even try. Perhaps he really was using the occasion to just observe us. When we were finished playing, we returned to the booth, where Lucas and Kayla were waiting for us. Introductions were made. As we took our seats in the horseshoe shape, Dallas ended up being hemmed in on both sides.
He didn’t seem to realize the danger he was in, because he glanced around, smiled, and asked, “So are you the werewolves I’ve been hearing about?”
SEVEN
Everyone at our table went eerily still, the way a predator does in the wild right before leaping for its victim. Even my heart felt as though it had stopped.
Dallas released an uncomfortable laugh. “Just kidding. I’ve been hearing these crazy rumors about things that go on in this area. Then tonight, here are all these new faces. Thought maybe you had to hide away during certain phases of the moon or something.”
“We were at a family reunion,” Lucas said with a deadly calm that sent a shiver racing up my spine. I never wanted to be on his bad side. “Where’d you hear these rumors?”
“Around. Here and there. It’s insane, right? I mean the idea that someone could actually shift into another form.” Dallas held out his hands and studied them as though he’d never seen them before. “I mean, how could that even happen? How could a body change so drastically?”
Very slowly he looked around the table as though we had the answer. We did, but we sure weren’t going to share it.
“There are all kinds of crazy stories about things happening in the wilderness,” Brittany explained gently, and I wondered if she liked him. I’d never seen her show that much interest in a guy. How weird it would be to love a Static. Could it even happen?
My thoughts were drifting away from the problem at hand. Who was this guy, and what did he really want?
“Werewolves, vampires, ghosts,” Brittany continued. “People are always telling scary stories around campfires. But that’s all they are. Stories.”
Dallas laughed again, only this time it was laced with relief. “Yeah, I know that. Should have seen your faces, though. You looked at me like I was serious. It would be cool, though, don’t you think? If the ability to change our shape really existed?”
“I’d want to be a horse,” I said, hoping to take the subject even further away from the truth.
“Horses have to work too hard,” Connor said, taking my hand and squeezing it. “A dog. Sleep all day.”
“A cat,” Brittany said. “Only I’m allergic to them. Would I be allergic to myself?”
Dallas gave a more relaxed laugh. “Okay, I get it already. I shouldn’t listen to campfire tales.” He winked at Brittany. “So how about another game of pool?”
Once he and Brittany were back in the pool room, those of us left at the table looked uncomfortably at each other.
“What was that all about?” Kayla finally asked.
Lucas slowly shook his head. “I’m not sure. Rafe, keep an eye on him, especially while he’s with Brittany.”
My gaze jumped over to Rafe so I could judge his reaction. As usual, he didn’t give anything away. Neither did he look at me. He just gave Lucas a nod and slid out of the booth.
“Do you think he’s dangerous?” I asked.
Lucas shook his head. “If he is, we can handle him.”
When we left an hour later, the consensus was that Dallas was just a tourist drawn in by the myths of the forest. We’d seen it before—which was the reason that the people from Bio-Chrome had sneaked by us. We’d thought they were harmless, too.
Rafe was going to keep an eye on Dallas, but the rest of us headed for bed. We were scheduled for an early start the following day.
The next morning we gathered near our cabins to greet our scout group. More than a dozen girls were practically bouncing around with excitement at the thought of camping in the wilderness. Or maybe their enthusiasm was due to the fact that three of their guides were hot—and I wasn’t referring to Kayla, Brittany, and me.
Lucas, Connor, and Daniel were checking each girl’s backpack to make sure it was adjusted comfortably on her shoulders and wasn’t too heavy. We sherpas would be carrying the heavy or cumbersome supplies.
“Daniel is cute,” Kayla said.
He hadn’t gone to school with us, since his family lived near Seattle, but he’d joined the Dark Guardians earlier in the summer, so we already knew him. I hadn’t really paid much attention to him, though. He wore his black hair in a buzzed style, which was unusual. Most of the guys we knew wore their hair longer.
“Yeah, whatever,” Brittany said.
“You know it could be your attitude keeping the guys away,” I pointed out.
“I don’t want a guy who doesn’t want me.”
“Maybe he will…if you give him a chance,” Kayla said.
“Besides, the elders said you just have to have a guy with you. He doesn’t have to be the one,” I told her. “When the right one comes along, you can re-bond with him.”
She gave me an impatient glare. “They don’t know it’ll work that way. I’m the first girl who might have to go through it alone. They’re just guessing.”
Well, obviously she wasn’t the first. If we knew a girl could die if she went through her first transformation alone, then somewhere along the way a girl had gone through it alone. But I thought it best not to point out that part. No reason to add to Brittany’s worry.
“Of course they know what’ll happen,” I said, sounding more confident than I actually felt. Brittany might be giving me a hard time about my choices, but when all was said and done, we were friends. I wanted her to survive long past the next full moon. “They have the ancient texts, the books. They’re bound to have used them to find an answer for this dilemma.”
“You think?” she asked, and I heard the hope in her voice.
“Absolutely.” I put my hand on her shoulder. “You’re a Dark Guardian. They value you. They’re not going to guess about something this important.”
She shifted her gaze over to Daniel. He was crouched in front of three young scouts, explaining something to them.
He had a broad, warm smile. Brittany sighed. “I guess I could do worse than him.”
“That’s the spirit!” I exclaimed. Not. Would I be as difficult to please, as unwilling to settle, if I didn’t already have Connor?
Brittany rolled her eyes. “You don’t know what it’s like. Lately I’ve been worried about….” Her voice trailed off.
“Worried about what?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
Before I could convince her to tell me, she walked off into the group of girls and introduced herself to their leaders and chaperones.
I looked over at Kayla. Her face was set in a mask of worry.
“I have to believe she’ll be okay,” I told her.
Kayla gave me a soft smile. “I know. I had only forty-eight hours to prepare for my first full moon…I can’t imagine how nerve-racking it must be for you to have a much longer countdown. But especially for Brittany.”
A month ago I would have told her I couldn’t wait. Now, I wasn’t so sure.
“You said what you felt for Lucas was instantaneous—that you felt a strong bond immediately. Brittany has time to find someone.”
Kayla nodded, but I suspected she didn’t believe what I’d said about Brittany any more than I did. I didn’t know what would be worse: to go through it alone or to go through it with someone who didn’t really want to be there.
I looked back toward our group of girls. Brittany was actually talking to Daniel. Maybe there was hope for her after all.
Lucas gave the order for us to move out. I shifted my backpack and headed forward, bringing up the rear so I could make sure no little scouts got left behind or wandered off.
It seemed so odd not to have Rafe with us. I wondered where he was, what he was doing. I took a final, quick glance around, but I didn’t see him anywhere. I trudged into the forest, surprised by how lonely I felt.
And wishing, with a ferocity that stunned me, that Rafe was with us.
By the time the sun was beginning to set, most of the girls had lost their exuberance. Not that I blamed them. Lucas had pushed us pretty hard.
Because we were supposed to be watching the girls and keeping an eye out for danger, we didn’t pair up into couples until the camp was set up and everyone was seated around the campfire making our evening s’mores.