Cat Scratch Fever; Blue-Collar Werewolves V (10 page)

“And werewolves aren’t called that. They’re
wolven.” Matthew stated, trying to get it all straight in his head.
The whole were-animal culture naming scheme was a lot to
absorb.

“You mean when you’re not trying to be
rude?” Brandon replied, then shook his head at Matthew’s obvious
confusion. “Never mind. Yeah, like I said before, we call ourselves
wolven. Others refer to us by our species. Wolf.” Matthew leaned
his head back against the wall. Right. That made sense. He would
have been happy to drift and sort through the urges that pressed at
him, except for the low sound of someone clearing his throat. He
opened his eyes, focusing on Brandon again.

“You need to try and Change back into your
human form,” Brandon told him. The wolven, or wolf, had carefully
kept his distance. “Normally, I’d say, let nature take its course,
but it’s going to be a tight fit. Plus, a naked man will be easier
to explain than…” he waved a hand at Matthew’s huge golden furred,
striped, and spotted form.

He nodded, shifting his weight and girth to
gain his huge clawed feet with Morrow and Naomi’s help. The heavy
mane fell around his shoulders, feeling both protective and
claustrophobic at the same time.

Brandon shook his head, moving back as
Matthew stood up. “I don’t know how, but your cats are helping you
hold it together. You should be a rampaging maniac until you pass
out and revert back to your base human form. I’m just hoping you’ll
be able to take control of the Change.”

“He can do it.” Naomi stated with utter
confidence Matthew didn’t feel. Morrow and Nathan seemed pretty
confident of his untried abilities as well. The pressure made him
antsy and he edged back from them as the need to be free surged
through him.

“Matthew,” Naomi’s hands were small and
delicate as they closed around his huge paw/hand. A claw meant for
destruction. “Shhh. Look at me. Can you feel the connection?”

He did, and tilted his head a bit as he
noticed all the tiny magical threads that flowed out of him. No not
actual threads, but hundreds and hundreds of nerves made up of
magic. At the end one of those threads was a living breathing
person, like Naomi.

“I found you,” he whispered then
concentrated, using his power to lightly attach the three links to
himself. Morrow gasped while Naomi beamed like a proud parent.
Matthew grinned at the achievement. “I found you,” he repeated,
amazed. “And Morrow. And Nathan.”

“Very good. Now watch,
with all your
senses.
” Naomi stripped off her cotton scrubs and began to
Change right before his eyes. Golden fur washed down her skin. The
shape of her face pushed out, forming the lioness’s muzzle and the
round tufts of her ears. Her hands and body bulked up, just as
beautiful as before, but with the alluring sleek gracefulness of a
cat’s form.

Even the hair on her chest and belly, was
beautiful. Gold lightening to a paler almost white color that
covered her neck, most of her small breasts and belly with an
exotic beauty all her own. Except for the odd patch of fur the size
of her palm where the color was two different shades of gold,
richer than her main body covering. The outside shape was the
unmistakable shape of a shield. The inside swirled into the shape
of a cat’s eye, reminiscent of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

“That is the Change to our fighting form,”
Naomi said in her new, deeper lioness’s voice, distracting him for
a second from the fur tattoo on her breast. She met the others’
eyes and lifted her chin. “Any questions?” Morrow flushed and
stared at his feet.

Nathan smirked, crossing his arms over his
tattered shirt. “No, my Lia. I think you’ve pretty much proven my
point best with your,” he glanced pointedly at her chest, making
Matthew want to rumble a territorial warning that he barely held
back. “demonstration. Nothing like a map from the goddess to point
the way.”

“Very funny,” Naomi snarled the words
flashing a warning fang at the panther. The low rumble vibrated in
Matthew’s body as she tightened her grasp on his hand. He sensed
that she wanted a strip of Nathan’s hide for his remark, but let it
go for his lesson in Changing. “Now to Change back. Close your eyes
and let the power take you to your human form.” Matthew closed his
eyes and took a deep breath. Nothing happened.

“You are not letting go of the energy,” she
admonished. He squeezed his eyes harder and tried to remember what
he looked like in the mirror that morning. Lean, tall guy with
lines starting to fan from the sides of his eyes. Yeah. Dark hair
and eyes. Two arms, two legs and all the parts between.

“Stop. You’re just standing there.” Brandon
interrupted.

Naomi glared at the wolven. “And you think
you can do better?”

“Yeah,” he said brushing her aside and out
of Matthew’s reach. “I can.”

Matthew began to protest as Brandon waved
the cats back. “No,” he waved a hand in Matthew’s face to gain his
attention. “You’re just too damn calm for this. Changing is
power.
Its life and death. It’s fucking
magic.
And
you can’t do it if you can’t feel it. Got it?” he waited for
Matthew’s hesitant nod. “No!” he snapped as Matthew’s attention
slid to Naomi. “You can’t touch her until you’re human.”

Matthew snarled at the tone of the wolf’s
voice. Primal arrogance rose up inside him. How dare the wolf try
to keep him from her.
A wolf
. The wolf stepped into his path
as he turned to her, breaking the line of sight, agitating him
further.

Threads of concern filtered to him from the
others. Matthew lowered his head and growled at his newly perceived
enemy. He stretched his hands, reveling in the powerful weapons
built right into the ends. Stupid wolf, he wasn’t just one cat, but
many. He discarded the lion’s method of crushing its enemy. The
razor sharp leopard’s claws would shred this interloper fine. He
swiped a claw at the wolf, surprised when the blow was dodged.

“Matthew!” he pulled up short at the
female’s voice. “Matthew, Change back.”
Come back to me.
He
heard the words without his ears, in the deep recess of his mind.
The wolf stepped out of range and Matthew let go, plunging under
the power that roared over him. He fell, drowning under the magic
that ripped his fur through his skin backward and shoved his body
into a smaller box.

Matthew hit the ground hard, retching and
gasping for air. Every muscle in his body hurt. Even his skin was
tender. He winced and flinched at the touch of fire on his
shoulder, then looked up to see Naomi crouched next to him. Drained
as he was, he couldn’t help but respond to her. Comfortable in her
nakedness, she hadn’t bothered to put the plain scrubs back on. The
tattoo/birthmark was the same on her breast, only now hairless and
golden against her human skin. She was beautiful in every way.

“You did it.” The way her simple praise
reached inside of him, Matthew imagined he would do anything to
hear that tone in her voice again. Instead, he gave in to the
exhaustion and dropped to the cold concrete, rolling to his back to
preserve some of his more tender parts. Since there was nothing he
could do about flashing the room at large, he tried not to worry
about it. Much. Still he had to work at resisting the urge to cover
himself with his hands.

“Take a couple of moments to catch your
breath. Then we need to move out.” Brandon’s face moved into his
vision as the man crouched above his head. Bloody red lines marred
the wolven’s chest where his claws had raked him, but he didn’t
seem upset about the injury. Matthew imagined he’d be pissed to be
on the receiving end of what amounted to five switchblades raked
over your torso. “Don’t worry about it,” Brandon said, as if
reading his mind. “I’ve had worse.” He stood up, still looking
down. “Your couple of moments are up. Time to get moving.”

“He needs to rest,” Naomi protested.

“You can play kissy-face later.” Brandon’s
face emptied of what little compassion was there, leaving an icy
determination that Matthew didn’t like aimed at Naomi. “Move
it.”

Matthew sat up, keeping himself between
them. After a wobbly moment of nearly falling on is bare ass, he
let Naomi and Morrow assist him in finding his balance. Hadn’t
Brandon said he was ahead of the game? If so, it didn’t feel like
it. Matthew didn’t like not being in control of his own body.
Brandon turned and walked away, leading the way out.

“What a jerk,” Naomi muttered, though if his
brother-in-law’s hearing was half as good as Matthew’s new and
improved ears, then she might as well have shouted.

“It’s okay,” he assured her. “I think
brothers-in-laws are supposed to give each other a hard time.”

She was silent as she obviously processed
the news, then huffed. “First Drake and Nathan, and now the wolf
and you are connected to the Anderson County Pack. I wonder if the
rumors are true?”

Brandon stopped, his dark hair falling over
his hair. A feral gleam shone from the dark brown gaze. “Rumors?”
His laugh grated against Matthew’s nerve endings, making him pull
Naomi a bit closer, under his protection. Brandon flashed a quick
toothy smile.

“Yeah, Anderson County’s rep was paid for in
blood and flesh, long before you were born.” He shook his head and
returned to leading the way, nowhere near as calm as before. Animal
rage stirred in the air. The emotion that seethed under the
werewolf’s skin called to Matthew’s own barely contained urges.

“Let it go, my Lia,” Nathan advised. “He
can’t help it. Brandon was born that way. Besides he missed this
week’s AA meeting.” Mathew concentrated on just moving. Living with
the effects of his father’s alcoholism made him respect the other
man’s decisions a bit more.

Naomi nearly stumbled, embarrassment rolling
off of her. “
Oh.”
The small sound of surprise and compassion
exposed her tender heart. She paused dragging them back further
from Brandon’s retreating back.

“He means Asshole’s Anonymous,” Brandon
called back. Laughter at their gullibility thickened the wolven’s
voice. Morrow snickered from Matthew’s opposite side.

“Grrr. You’re all jerks. Every one of you.”
said the lioness as she ushered Matthew forward with a new
determination. Apparently, she’d finally used up all her sympathy
for the day.

* * * *

The trip up to the street through a
relatively new sewer addition was anticlimactic. No goons with
tranq guns. No police wondering why they were wandering under the
street. No aliens from space waiting to put them in a galactic
petting zoo. If he hadn’t been so exhausted, Matthew would have
been suspicious. As it was, he waited for Brandon to hot-wire a van
to take them to a safe house.

Matthew would have liked to go to his house,
but any idiot who’d ever seen a spy or gangster movie knew that the
first place the bad guys checked was your home, followed by your
family. It said something about his relationship with his father
that he was more worried about his cat than Richard.

Chapter Seven

Bradley Starr smoothed the crease flat on
the shirt he was folding. Laundry, as mundane a task as it was,
offered him a break to settle his thoughts without the intrusion of
the Pack. His twin brother’s disappearance, then the strange phone
call he’d intercepted last night worried him. The others might
assume that Brandon was feeling the need to run free, but Bradley
knew better.

His brother would never leave his mate to
cope with their litter of rug rats on her own. On top of that,
Brandon’s phone went straight to voice mail and he’d closed himself
off from the bonds of the Pack.

It reminded Bradley of the past, before Adam
took over the Pack. Everyone had been so messed up, especially
Brandon who’d suffered as omega in a Pack run by a sadist. His twin
had to isolate himself to rebuild his core self. Brandon Weis was
no omega now.

Bradley folded another shirt, pausing at the
slight sound in the unfinished kitchen beyond the mud and laundry
room. Six months after the fire that burned down Packhome,
construction on the new house was coming along steadily, if not
swiftly. Adam Weis, alpha of the Anderson County Pack, might own
his own construction company, but that didn’t mean they could stop
earning a living to rebuild. They’d had to take time to grieve for
the loss of their home.

Then there was moving past Rick’s death.
Bradley blamed himself. He should have known their Pack brother
would have put his students’ needs first and gone around the
alpha’s edict to stay home. Bradley had been so sure that the
Hunter was stalking other game than the Pack that he’d overlooked
the possibility that they had two enemies, not just one. Rick, the
kid he’d helped protect and raise, paid for that mistake with his
life.

The Hunter may not have killed him, but the
fanatic who’d followed him to town had. In that respect, Bradley
felt that Carter Hunter, ex-Hunter and brand new Pack member should
share in the blame for Rick’s murder. He had no intention of
welcoming Carter with the same open arms and forgiveness that the
alphas seem to have.

“I can’t believe he just took off like
that,” commented Diana, the undisputed alpha female of the Pack and
Adam’s wife. “Especially now that Karen has her hands full with the
babies. There’s plenty of work here.”

“Brandon has to have space,” the Pack leader
returned. The opening and closing of the brand new refrigerator
punctuated the sentiment. “He’s made a name for himself as a damn
good architect. He’ll be back soon. And it’s not like you weren’t
foaming at the mouth to move them into the temporary guest house
and to keep an eye on our little girl.”

“Karen’s a grown woman. But still, Adam.”
Diana protested. The refrigerator door slammed shut again, more
forcefully this time. “Stay out of the icebox. Dinner is in a
couple of hours.
But still
, Brandon wouldn’t just go off
like that. And he already has a good business selling the furniture
he makes. I know my sons,
all of them.
And he wouldn’t do
that.”