Harden
He shoved the phone into the back pocket of his pants, the standard black tactical outfit that was ubiquitous of a shifter. It didn’t hurt that they were comfortable as all hell. The door to his room rattled on its hinges as he slammed it behind him, rolling down the hallway at a quick trot.
Impatience almost got the better of him, but in the end he didn’t simply vault over the railing and drop to the floor. Instead he bounced down the stairs taking them five at a time. Three steps later he was on even floor again, striding across the tile toward Andrew’s office. If anyone was going to know how he could stay in Cloud Lake without Cadian interference, it would be him.
Questions built up in his mouth, threatening to come out in a word vomit the instant he walked into Andrew’s office. Knots formed in his shoulders, signs of the tension he’d been trying to ignore for the past week, hoping that it would all just work itself out. If Andrew could be of help, perhaps he had finally found a way to fix the situation. Despair had been his constant companion for days on end, but now he felt something else clawing at him, trying to tear its way through the layers of darkness.
Hope.
It was faint and weak, like a heart that was barely beating, but nonetheless it was there. He stoked it slightly, giving it just enough fuel to stay alive as he walked down the hallway to Andrew’s office, his fist raising to knock on the door. He never got the chance though.
The door was hanging open. A quick peek inside told him what seemed obvious. Andrew wasn’t there; the office was vacant.
“Shit,” he swore, moving out to the lobby, looking for the guard—what was his name? Hector that was it—but no one was there either. A quick check of the breakroom told him that no one was there either.
“Well fuck,” he cursed unhappily. Something must have happened that required their attention.
Harden knew his questions weren’t all that time-sensitive. Another hour wouldn’t make or break it; the answers would still be the same. But he wanted to ask them nonetheless, to hear Andrew tell him that yes, there was a way he could live in Cloud Lake. There had to be. There were several rumors of various groups of shifters having taken residence in the town. They didn’t frequent the embassy, he knew that, but the rumors wouldn’t be there if there weren’t some truth behind them.
Leaning against the welcome desk, he stared out the twin double doors at the front of the motel and beyond, at the town of Cloud Lake, ten thousand strong or so. Well, 10,300 now, I suppose. I wonder how the humans are adapting to such a large influx of population all at once.
Probably fairly well, he decided after a minute. The women were all spending funds provided to them by Cadia. They weren’t taking jobs from “locals,” and they had already been responsible for a huge boom in purchasing of construction materials, even if the labor had been done by the shifters, plenty of humans had still been involved. Shifters could work with concrete, but pouring roads was foreign to them. All the streets in Cadia were cobblestone. Well worked, enough to give the Romans pause to appreciate, but cobblestone nonetheless.
An idea struck him as he stood staring through the glass panes. If he was going to live here, he may as well get to know the town itself. What it was like, how it was laid out, where the places to go were, where the places to avoid happened to be. All he’d heard about were several pubs and two strip joints. The pubs could be good, but he no longer felt any draw toward the strip joints. Not when he had Erika.
“You know what, it’s time to go exploring,” he announced to himself, and strode out into the late afternoon sun.
Shimmying down the stairs, he decided to head right instead of left. Everyone always went left out of the Embassy. So today he went right, determined to explore some of the town he’d never seen before. Which wouldn’t be hard. During the week he’d only ventured out a couple of times, not wanting to risk running into Erika or other trouble. But by going right, away from the core of the town, he doubted he’d run into nearly as many issues. No shifters went that way, and Erika and the other women all lived on the exact opposite end of town. No, he should be safe.
The shop fronts swiftly gave way to residential neighborhoods, one after another, a miniature suburbia. But they were beautiful in their own way. Curved streets, sprawling lawns, and towering trees. Parks dotted the landscape frequently enough that one would never have to walk more than a few minutes to reach an open green space or a forested woodlot.
“Picturesque.” He was stopped in front of one particular park and forest combination, admiring the swooping contours of its perimeter, the way it avoided being just a square or rectangle.
Walking through it, he enjoyed the scents, relaxing even more once he reached the protective canopy of the forest, striding between the tree trunks, oblivious to his surroundings. It was short-lived—the woodlot only being a several hundred feet across—but it was still a nice little slice of home in the middle of a town. Emerging on the other side he found himself in an older neighborhood. The houses were smaller, the lots closer together, and the streets tighter. Things still looked maintained, just a little more worn.
At one point he passed a little side street between rows of houses, one used only for cars to access garages that were located in the rear of the buildings. He came to an abrupt halt, however, as a large figure ducked out of sight. Reversing his steps, he turned and headed down the side street, trying to convince himself he’d been seeing things.
Harden reached the location where he thought he’d spied someone. Turning in a circle he tested the air, his nostrils flaring wide as he registered the scent. A bear shifter had just been there! Not one he recognized, which meant it wasn’t the guy from Angelo’s crew, but there was absolutely no doubt in his mind that he’d just seen a bear shifter duck through the street.
Turning on his heel, he dashed off after it. What was a bear shifter doing in this part of town? Was he even supposed to be here? It wasn’t anyone that he’d met before. And at this point, Harden thought he knew all the shifters who were staying in the city. There weren’t many of them, and they were all like him, staying at the Embassy on extended passes.
So who was this?
The scent grew stronger as he closed in on his prey, but as he crept through another alley, having come to a small commercial zone within the residential areas, a stray cat was startled by his passing, letting out a shrill MRROW! as it scattered the trash can it was exploring and ran off.
In front of him he heard a sound. Harden took off in pursuit of his quarry. He was closing on them when out of nowhere a huge shape loomed up out of the shadows of a dumpster and tackled him to the ground. He got a brief glimpse of a huge bear shifter with a buzz cut, and what looked like a joker tattoo sticking out from under the tight sleeve of his T-shirt.
“Who are you?” the voice of his attacker snarled, pushing his face into the pavement as he pinned him down. “Why are you following me?”
The tone was that of someone in charge, someone used to being obeyed and having their commands followed. Harden wasn’t feeling in the mood to fall in line though.
“You first,” he forced out.
The knee on his head ground down harder and he was forced to suppress a whimper of pain.
“I’m not going to ask again. Why were you following me?”
An extra jolt on his neck made him yelp in pain. “Okay, okay. Relax. I was just out exploring the town, and thought I saw a shifter on the side street back there.” He waved vaguely in the direction with one hand, unable to really see where he was pointing. “So I followed you. Couldn’t catch up. Then you tackled me. Here we are. Ta-da.”
The pressure relented slightly, enough that he was no longer worried about the bear shifter sneezing and breaking his neck.
“Thanks,” he wheezed.
“What do you wanna do, M—”
“No names,” the big one holding him down snarled as another figure approached.
Harden tried to look around, but the person was out of his line of sight.
“Why were you out wandering the city?” the first one, M, asked. “Everyone just goes to the strip clubs or the bars. Nobody comes to this part of town.”
“Because I don’t care about those,” he said truthfully. “Well, maybe the bars a bit, but I wanted to get a feel for the rest of the city. What it’s like to be here.”
“Why?”
“Living in Cadia isn’t an option.”
Someone barked a laugh, and Harden suddenly realized there were more than just two people in the alleyway.
“Right. Try again. Cadia is lovely. It’s perfect. Plenty of open spaces, lots of land for everyone.”
“Sure,” he muttered sarcastically. “If you’re welcome there.”
“You got kicked out?”
“Not so much. Listen, can I at least sit up, my neck muscles are starting to cramp. I’m no threat to all of you. I’m just a wandering wolf shifter.”
And I can’t even shift.
There was a momentary hesitation as his captor considered it, and then the knee on his neck vanished.
“Thanks.” He sat up, massaging the muscles that had been screaming in protest, trying to soothe them.
“So why aren’t you allowed in Cadia?” the leader asked.
Harden peered up at him, but the afternoon sun was shining right down the alleyway, blinding him from seeing more than just outlines.
“I’m not from there,” he said bluntly.
Almost as one he saw the group lift their noses to the air. There were three of them. They tested the air, then he saw them stiffen visibly. Not sure what was going on, Harden prepared himself to run.
“Do we know you?” the leader asked.
“Uh, I don’t know. I can’t really see your faces, and I don’t think I recognized your scent,” he said.
The leader, the one with the joker tattoo on his arm, moved around until he was no longer blocked out by the sun.
Harden felt his jaw drop. He would recognize that face anywhere.
“Maximus?” he gasped. “Maximus Koche? Holy shit!”
“I recognize you,” he said. “But I…I can’t place it.”
Harden grinned. “Probably because the last time you saw me I was a broken heap of bones and little more, bathing in my own stench.”
A moment later recognition split their faces. “Harden! The Kronum Resistance guys!” The smiles were accompanied by back slaps and “How do you do’s?” as they reacquainted themselves with each other.
“Damn, it’s good to see you,” he said.
“Likewise,” Maximus agreed.
“I didn’t realize you guys were in Cloud Lake. I thought you were back in Cadia.”
Maximus shook his head and gestured for Harden to follow as they talked. He fell in step next to the big bear shifter, recalling the last time he’d run in to him. It wasn’t something he would likely ever forget. A broken and mangled ruin, his bones so destroyed it would take surgery to fix them, he’d been lying in a jail cell near his brothers in the Resistance. Nobody had cleaned it in days. All he’d had to survive on was a bowl of tepid water and a straw. It was torture at its finest, excruciating pain even to move his head enough to be able to sip the water.
Then, out of the darkness had come five angels. The Koche brothers. They had rescued him and the other survivors from that hellhole and brought them to Cadia, where he’d eventually recovered from his ordeal. But they’d never seen each other since.
“So you guys live here,” he repeated, thrilled at the knowledge.
“We do. Andrew the ambassador helped us set it up. We bought some land on the outskirts of town, which is where you now are, in case you hadn’t realized it, and built some properties for us and our mates. We keep out of the core, away from the normal shifter haunts, so that we don’t run into any issues. It’s nicer that way.”
The commercial zone had a bar in it, and they entered, the Koches all waving politely to the bartender. Harden followed suit, wanting to make a good impression, in hopes that maybe he would frequent the place one day.
“That sounds amazing. How?”
“We bought it and built it really. Andrew turned a blind eye, and we told the neighbors they could count on us for anything they really needed. It’s been pretty much smooth sailing ever since. We do odd jobs, repairs and such as best we can. Anything that doesn’t really involve modern technology,” Maximus said with a laugh.
Harden joined them. Shifters and technology were not a mix. He’d had a hard enough time figuring out the cell phones he’d bought with his meager funds to be able to talk to Erika.
“So, you aren’t welcome in Cadia, but you want to stay in Cloud Lake,” Maximus said while the other two brothers—he thought their names were Kassian and Gavin—got beers for everyone. “About right?”
“About right,” he confirmed.
“So who’s the girl?” Maximus grinned.
“What? I never said there was a girl,” he protested.
“I wasn’t born yesterday, Harden,” the eldest Koche brother said with an even bigger smile, enjoying the squirming.
“Of course not,” he sighed. “Her name is Erika. Let me tell you about how perfect she is…”