The Truth About Kadenburg (2 page)

Presley’s gaze lingered on Lorcan. She could see the sadness embedded in
his chocolate hues. The sparkle she remembered from the past had dimmed
considerably, but why wouldn’t it? His older brother had just died.
She couldn’t imagine what that felt like. Her father died before she was
even born, so she couldn’t begin to fathom what it was like to know someone for
such a long time and have them ripped away.

“Presley?” Arnold repeated.

She blinked a few times as she finally tore her gaze from Lorcan’s face to gaze
at her uncle’s kind face. “Huh?”

“I asked if you’re ready to go.”

When did he pay for their food? She didn’t
see
him pay
for it.

“Oh,” Again, her face heated up as she looked back to Lorcan and offered the
warmest smile she could muster. “Yeah. It was great seeing you
again, Lorcan. Send my condolences to your parents.”

“I will,” Lorcan nodded as a small grin played at his lips. “Welcome
back, Pretz.”

A surge of energy expanded in Presley’s chest when she heard the shortened nickname
and she smiled shyly. “Thanks, Orc. I’ll see you around.”

She had every intention of moving to follow her uncle out the door, but her
feet stayed firmly planted against the tiled floor as her eyes connected with
Lorcan’s again. She was frozen under his gaze, unable to look away as
easily when he smiled.
What beautiful eyes,
she thought
to herself as her head tilted slightly.
I don’t remember his eyes
looking that warm before.

The deep chocolate swirled around his pupils, mixing with soft crème-like
colors that contrasted like oil and water. His eyes reminded her of a
Reese’s peanut butter cup and Presley felt the energy surging throughout her
entire body. It made her toes tingle. Her mouth went dry as she
watched his lips move. What was he saying?

“Pretz?”

“What?” She blinked.

“I think your uncle is ready to go,” Lorcan offered in a lower voice.

“Oh,” The realization cut through the fog in her brain as her eyes
widened and she snapped out of whatever daze she’d been in. “Oh.
Right. I’m sorry. I must be tired from the long trip back home.”

Lorcan chuckled again as he shrugged his muscular shoulders. “Go get some
rest, Pretz. I’m sure we’ll catch up later.”

“Sounds great,” Presley nodded as she felt her face turning red. “See you around.
Bye.”

She turned as quickly as she could, nearly running into Old Man Peters and she
stammered a quick apology before she exited the noisy diner. What
happened back there? She’d never fumbled over herself like that before,
with anyone. She’d been like an obsessed fan who’d just met her biggest
idol in life. Lorcan was just Lorcan, wasn’t he? Why was she acting
like that?

Just then Uncle Arnold pulled up beside of her in his old clunker
Chevrolet truck and he grinned at her. “You gonna get in or do you want
to go back in there and gawk at him a bit more?”

If her face was red before, it was probably an entirely different color at this
point. She glared at him and pursed her lips. “Shut up,” she
hurried around to get in on the other side, putting on her seatbelt as she
waited for him to put the truck into gear. When he didn’t, she
frowned. “What are you waiting for?”

Arnold grinned again as he lifted a brow, turning his head to gaze at
her. “I never knew you had a thing for Baby Bamey.”

“I don’t!” She insisted quickly, becoming flustered as she sank down in her
seat.

“Are you sure?” He asked with a playful nudge of his elbow to her side.
“Because I think you’ve got some drool right there.” He lifted his hand
to wipe a finger against her chin and she swatted his hand away.

“I’m sure!” She replied as an uncontrollable smile slid across her lips.
“He just looks different. That’s all it is.”

“Uh huh,” Arnold nodded as he put the truck into drive. “I don’t believe
you one bit.”

Two

H
e hadn’t been expecting to see Presley Goult
again. Her uncle had been so sure that she was gone for good and for the last
three years, Lorcan had forced himself to accept it. Of course it sucked. In
a lot of ways, it bit the big one. From the first moment he’d laid eyes upon
her on the school bus many years before, an invisible thread connected his soul
to hers and he thought they would end up together. But as his father always
said, “you don’t get paid for thinking”.

He’d had moments in the past where he wished he’d gone
with her. He wished that he could’ve accompanied her to wherever she wanted to
go. He envied that she got a ticket to freedom while he was left behind. A
normal man would have chased after her, but Lorcan was never defined as
normal.

There were certain laws that he upheld and one of them
involved allowing a woman to make her choice willingly.
No ursithrope
shall force his self upon a female, for it will be her choice of whom she will mate.
Uphold and respect the women of our kind, for they are sacred. Through her
body and guidance, our purity flourishes into the next generation. Protect
her, cherish her, and value her life above your own.

It was a rule that his father drilled into his head at
an early age, but Lorcan had the feeling it was instilled in his blood before
he even left the womb. His love and respect for his mother was far greater
than most human males would ever show for their own. Even though ursithropes
looked exactly like humans physically, that’s as far as the similarities
went.

Even as a child, before his first transformation,
Lorcan knew he was different from the other kids in Kadenburg. It had nothing
to do with being placed in AP classes at a young age due to his higher IQ
level. It wasn’t even about being extremely athletic and having the ability to
outrun almost every kid he ever met. His determination of being different came
from his heightened sense of hearing, smelling, and his insatiable craving for
fish.
No one
ate that much fish.

Keeping his family’s secret had been genetically imbedded
in his system since birth. He knew the importance of keeping their true nature
in the dark. He would never put his family in danger like that. Humans really
thought they had issues with the government? They weren’t the ones that would
be strapped down to tables and sliced open for experimentation. Revealing his
secret to a human was punishable by death.

No ursithrope will endanger his brethren or children
by exposing the existence of our kind to humans. Any ursithrope who violates
the Clandestine Code will be put to death without a trial, along with any
humans who have witnessed the transformation take place.
Our secrecy
keeps us safe.

Every law of their kind was
burned into his memory. It was his duty as a man to abide by those laws, but
sometimes it was
hard
; es
pecially when
it came to letting the woman have control over choosing who she wanted to be
with.
How
could he ever convince Presley he was good enough for her? Human males had it
lucky. They could easily walk up to a woman and ask her out on a date, or they
could propose and hope that she would say yes. It didn’t work that way for
ursithrope men. He could admire her from afar, but she would have to make the
first move. And if she didn’t express interest in him, well..tough luck.

As his father’s son, Lorcan was feeling the pressures
since his brother’s death. The continuation of their family lineage now rested
on his shoulders and Lorcan was crumbling from the weight. How was he supposed
to attract a female who had only ever viewed him as a friend? It was the
dreaded “friend zone” that many socially inadequate humans spoke of. He
couldn’t win over a female who only saw him as a childhood play mate.

Oh, but what a play mate I could be now,
Lorcan
thought to himself. He crouched down to pluck up a single leaf from the
thousands that had fallen from the trees to signal the winter’s approach. He
wasn’t the biggest fan of the snow, but then again, he didn’t know an
ursithrope alive who did; aside from their distant relatives in the arctic.

He lifted the leaf to be level with his chin, nostrils
flaring as he inhaled the scent. His senses immediately kicked into overdrive
as his brain began to decipher various smells, separating the deer from
raccoons and the foxes from the squirrels. He caught a whiff of something that
made his nose crinkle and he frowned. Why was Mrs. Waterbaker’s old dog
wandering so far out here? He’d have to remind her to keep him indoors again.

His lungs began to burn from the scent of something
else and a growl sounded low in his throat. He finally found the scent
he had been looking for as it became more distinct and
caused his eyes to darken from recognition.
Lycanthrope.
The
pressure in his temples throbbed as he felt his incisors sharpening behind his
tight lips
.

He groaned and dropped the leaf to the
ground once more. Ursithropes were very good at controlling their shifting
urges-but that was before the damn lycanthrope had decided to invade their
territory. It was before they murdered his brother.

Lorcan could feel the rage boiling
up from deep in his belly. His grief mixed in with the fury as heat flooded
his large frame. He could feel his body trying to swell in anticipation of the
change, fur sprouting from every hair follicle available upon his skin. He panted
heavily as he slammed his fists against the earth.

Get it together. You can’t
lose it right now. Concentrate. You have to find those responsible for taking
Liam away.

He shut his eyes tightly as he
opened his mouth, allowing the incisors to lower to their full length as the
bones in his fingers began to break. The pain was always brief-no more intense
than stubbing a toe against the bed post at night time. His chest ached as he
sucked in more oxygen, sending it straight to his overstimulated brain as his
back began to curve.

Think of Liam!
His mind
screamed as he watched his hands transform into monstrous brown paws; the
curved white claws protruding from the thick brown fur as he cried out. The
stretching of his body was always the most uncomfortable. Bones cracked, broke,
and lengthened as his vision began to blur.
No, no! Stop it! Liam. Think
of your brother, damn it!

As his eyes closed, one image
became more vivid than he expected. He could see her heart shaped face, the
fullness of her red lips. The sunlight reflected beautifully against her
golden curls as the spirals rested upon her shoulders. Her eyes sparkled like
dew covered grass. Her sweet scent fogged his brain, calming the beast
within. He felt his body shrinking back to size, claws retracting into his
fingertips as fur faded to flesh. His animalistic growls became groans as he
collapsed against the moist earth beneath himself. He panted quietly as he
took a few minutes to regain his composure. Tiny tremors ran through his frame
as he finally opened his eyes to gaze up towards the treetops.

“Presley,” he whispered.

Shortly after his
near-transformation, Lorcan had ventured further into the woods. He was deep
enough that he could hear the gentle rush of the small falls located dead center
in the Kadenburg Woodlands. Not many humans cared to hike that far, mostly
because it was an extremely dangerous thing to do. There were ravines
everywhere and more than one fatality had resulted because of tourists who had
ignored the warning signs in the past.

Lorcan wasn’t afraid to travel
through the woods because it was in his nature to do so. He could scout
through the mass of trees without difficulty, even at night time. The soles of
his boots sank into the soft earth as he reached out to grab a branch, pushing
it away from his face before he continued forward. The ache in his chest
returned, but not because he felt the need to change. No, it was because he
was nearing the spot where his brother’s body had been found.

Lorcan wasn’t sure if he’d ever
be able to get the image out of his mind. Liam had gone out early in the
evening with the promise of returning before midnight. He and Lorcan had
gotten their own small house a few years before hand, and for some reason,
despite the fact he was the older brother, Liam felt the need to let Lorcan
know when to expect him home.

Lorcan had gone to bed without
any intention of waiting up to see if his brother would be home on time, but an
odd sensation overcame him during his deep slumber. He bolted straight up in
bed with cold sweat dripping down his temple. His heart had been beating so
fast…

When he checked Liam’s bed at
2:47 and found that he still wasn’t home, he
did
worry. Liam was a big
guy and could take care of himself, but there was a certain fear that crushed
Lorcan’s soul and he just knew something was wrong. He
knew.

He called his father to tell
him that Liam wasn’t home yet and his worries were confirmed when his father claimed
that he felt it, too. They both sensed that Liam was in peril, and they were
too late. As father and son hiked out into the deep center of the woods, they
came across Liam’s body. The look in his eyes was what bothered Lorcan the
most. They were wide with fear and so damn empty, lifeless.

The lower half of Liam’s body
was mutilated beyond recognition. His organs had been pulled from his stomach
and were spilled against the bloodied leaves surrounding him. The deep gash
across his throat told Lorcan he’d died from choking on his own blood. Lorcan
emptied the contents of his stomach right then and there, unable to handle the
sight of his brother’s mangled body.

The sheriff’s department ruled
it as a mountain lion attack, but Lorcan and his father knew better. The scent
that lingered around where Liam was found didn’t smell like any animal they’d
come across before. It was a stench that Lorcan forced himself to remember.
If he ever came across it again…

Mid-step, Lorcan froze. It was
a combination of hearing shoes crushing against leaves and the familiar scent
invading his nostrils again. It was one of
them
, nearby. His jawline clenched
as his eyes darkened. He balled his hands into fists.
Don’t change,
he
told himself.
Attacking one of them will make things worse.

It was sound
advice. His conscience was trying to keep him calm, but there was another
voice in Lorcan’s head that spoke on a louder volume. The voice fueled by the
rage and anguish of losing his only brother.
Kill it,
the voice
hissed.
It deserves to die for what happened to Liam.

Lorcan
snarled as his blunt nails began to dig into his palms. He was conflicted.
His father had warned him about this.

“Don’t go out there without
me,” Mr. Bamey had said. “We don’t know how many of them are here.”

I can take them,
Lorcan
thought to himself as his dark eyes scanned the area around him. The scent was
getting stronger. That vile scent of mangy dog-even though he’d never come in
contact with a dog that stunk as badly as lycanthrope-became stronger.
Domestic dogs, he could handle-but this..this was a smell that made Lorcan’s
inner animal wild with the need to
kill
.

Lorcan had never killed
anything other than deer before. Sometimes it was nice to let his claws out and
give chase to a mature buck; it kept him in practice, but for what? His kind
had never been challenged like this. There were so few ursithropes and they
were peaceful creatures. He’d learned quickly that bears and wolves did not
get along-especially those who walked among mankind.

Kadenburg was the perfect
location for an ursithrope family. It was small, secluded, and the span of the
Cumberland Gap nearby provided more than enough roaming ground for a man’s need
to give in to his true bear nature.

He heard the rustling of leaves
again, the pressure of a boot stomping against them as his unseen enemy
approached. His head quickly turned to the North as his eyes fell upon the
tall, red haired male who stopped short when his gaze connected with Lorcan’s.
They stared at one another for what seemed to be an eternity, one sizing up the
other as tension blanketed the air around them.

He’s not human,
Lorcan
thought as the corner of his mouth began to twitch. He tightened his fist once
again as his eyes darkened in warning. He expected the other male to at least
challenge him, and he was a little caught off guard when he spoke.

“You’re Liam’s brother, aren’t
you?” The male asked, leaning against the tree as he stared at him. He didn’t
attempt to step forward. He stayed firmly put as he shoved his hands into the
front pockets of his jeans. “You look just like him.”

Lorcan was hesitant as his
brows furrowed. Why was this damn mutt trying to talk to him after what had
happened? Lorcan wasn’t stupid. He’d memorized the scent for a reason. This
was one of the bastards responsible for his brother’s death.

Lorcan didn’t speak as he
observed the other male. He was possibly taller than Lorcan, but size didn’t
matter. Lorcan was confident he could take him in either form, though he’d
prefer to do it with his bare hands. His upper lip began to curl as that same
low, threatening growl began to rise in his throat.