Chapter 2
The bar was loud as Luke walked in alone. Kevin had offered to come with him, but Luke had declined. As he wandered in he noticed the scantily-clad women and, although they were attractive, he did not find them all that appealing. Bear shifters had a very high, and aggressive, sex drive that most humans could not handle, so they mostly stayed away.
Aside from going to human universities and making use of their facilities, Luke made sure that the pack kept a healthy distance from them. However, these teenagers always went for the forbidden fruit. He felt forced to keep an eye on Kayla’s new ‘friend.’ The girl was not stupid, but like a typical female, she enjoyed the attention showered on her by a human male who treated them like delicate pieces of china.
Luke snorted. Females, he thought.
He ordered a drink. When the waitress winked at him he forced a smile which must have looked horrific, seeing as how she moved away quickly.
Hands on his drink, he looked around. The elders were so insistent he either find a mate, or just ‘let loose’, that it was starting to piss him off. Could not they see that he was busy trying to pull the pack back together after last year? He did not have time for women. One of the nosy ones, Heather, had demanded to know whether he was gay.
That had been the most humiliating experience ever.
As he threw the gin and tonic down his throat, a soft scent assailed him. Slamming the glass down on the table, he looked around quickly. The scent was fading. He did not see anyone new. However, he kept his eyes open. The amount of perfume these humans insisted on wearing was making him gag.
He made his way towards the bar where a lone woman was sitting and sat down a few seats away from her. Ordering a beer, he looked at her. Her eyes were brown, as was her hair. She wore very simple clothes, which confused him. A loose, beige blouse which hid anything and everything, paired with black pants that were far from form fitting, it felt like she was making an actual effort to be inconspicuous.
Then, someone opened the door and with the direction of the wind changing, her scent hit him like a brick wall. It was soft and spicy, making his mouth water. She must have seen him gape at her because she gave him a dirty look.
He chugged down the beer and ordered another one. ‘Maybe I should talk to her,’ he thought to himself. This human had a unique scent. As he picked up his drink and took a seat closer to hers, he realized that, although she did not have the scent of a supernatural being, she did not smell completely human. He frowned. ‘Was she human?’
The woman ignored him, pointedly.
“Nice dress.”
Luke winced inside. He had zero skills when it came to flirting.
His lack of confidence was proven when the woman gave him a dirty look, and sarcastically asked, “Really?”
He tried again. “Are you from around here?”
He could see the bartender trying his best not to laugh, and that just put him in a bad mood.
Before the woman could retort with a stormy look on her face, two girls that he was sure were underage sidled up to him.
“Hey! Can we buy you a drink?” they asked.
Lucas frowned. They were both drunk, and they smelled like they had been doused in a tub of perfume. When they grabbed onto his arms, he shook them off.
“No thank you,” he responded.
The one with the short, pink dress, which barely covered her boobs, pressed them against his arms and gave him a coy look, “Are you sure?”
“As sure as I’ll ever be,” he said, pulling away from her.
He heard the woman he had been trying to flirt with, unsuccessfully, snicker. He scowled at her, but she looked amused.
The other girl pouted, “Don’t be like that.”
“Look, kids,” he said, ignoring the insulted huff from one of them, “it’s past your bedtime, so get lost. Are they even old enough to be drinking?” he demanded from the bartender who eyed the two girls, no longer grinning.
As the bartender asked them to show their IDs, Luke saw that the seat beside him was empty. The woman was gone.
He scowled and ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. He sipped at his beer. Her scent had been so addicting.
Brooding, he looked at the vacated spot and then noticed that her half-finished drink hadn’t been removed yet. He saw her pale hand first and then watched her return to her seat, wearing a dark scowl. She threw back her unfinished drink in a single gulp.
She did not pay any attention to him, and he might have been offended had he not found himself extremely distracted by her. She gave the impression that she did not want to stand out in the room and went the extra mile to do so. He sniffed inconspicuously, and raised a brow when he smelled her hair dye. It was one of very bad quality. He recognized this brand as one he had banned amongst the teenage pups.
Some of the teenage girls had decided to opt for a different hair color each day. They had been very eye catching, but had caused the entire den to evacuate because of the terrible smell. He had personally destroyed each hair dye box left in the vicinity.
He studied her hair. If she was a shifter, then she wouldn’t have been able to stand the smell. Luke frowned. Her hair seemed ordinary – black. Why had she dyed it? Maybe she was one of those females who liked to change hair color on a frequent basis.
“What’s your name?”
She seemed a bit tipsy when she turned to look at him, and Luke hid his amusement. “Why should I tell you?”
Luke shrugged, “So that I know who I’m talking to?”
“Good thing we’re not talking then.”
For a woman who had just tossed down quite a few shots of tequila, she certainly was not out of her senses. But Luke had seen stranger things, so he just watched her.
The bartender seemed comfortable to her, so Luke assumed that she must be a regular client. As he ordered a coke, he asked the man, “With the number of drinks she has had, isn’t she drunk yet?”
The bartender shook his head. “I have never seen a person more able to hold her liquor than Cassie. She has come by once a week for the past three months.” He started cleaning a glass with a rag, “Same day, same time. She’ll probably have a beer now and leave.”
But, she did not. She had more than one beer, and, an hour later, she was quite well, and truly, drunk and even the bartender was eyeing her worriedly.
‘Cassie.’
Luke rolled the name on his tongue. It fit her. Her hair was short, and roughly cut, as if she had taken a pair of scissors to it. He wondered what it would be like to run his hand through it. He did not understand why she had caught his eye. It was not just her bewildering scent, there was something about her that made him want to stroke his hands over her body and make her purr.
It wasn’t like Luke had never taken lovers before. He was not overly promiscuous, but shifters were different from humans. Shifters were in touch with their softer side, needing to be touched, and to feel accepted and wanted. It was a natural instinct for them, one that Luke had never fought. When he felt the need, he would take a lover.
Bear shifters, like the rest of their kind, would keep looking for a mate their animal would accept. There was no female in his pack who could appease the snarling bear that lived inside him. He had healed himself and become a strength for his pack, but the wounds that the animal wore inside remained raw as ever. Each woman he took to his bed was not enough to soothe his inner beast.
However, today, he felt the bear inside him sit quietly and attentively.
Cassie struggled to her feet, and Luke wondered if she would accept his assistance. He leaned forward when she stumbled, but, apparently, he was not needed. He watched her as she steadied herself, blinked, and then slapped herself.
A few people snickered, but nobody paid much attention to her. Luke’s eyes followed her as she made her way towards the door. Would she make it home safe?
He hardly knew her, but he spontaneously put some money on the bar and left.
If Kevin knew he had decided to babysit a drunk woman, rather than hooking up with one, he would be annoyed, to put it mildly. This woman was interesting. If she made his beast sit up and take notice, then he wanted to find out what it was about her that was so special.
Cassie seemed to have an idea of where she wanted to go, but as he followed her, he wondered why she hadn’t noticed him. It wasn’t like he was hiding behind every street light pole. She seemed to have a goal in mind, and Luke’s smile slipped off his face when he saw her make her way into the woods.
The woods were dangerous at night. Paranormal activity was not limited to shifters alone, there were other creatures out there who lived in the night. He increased his pace, planning to stop her when he saw a tree sprite clinging onto the branch of an oak tree.
Tree sprites were spiteful creatures, and they liked to cause mischief if someone entered their territory. Their tricks were not harmless. However, this particular tree sprite eyed Cassie and clambered onto the branch it had been hanging from. It watched Cassie as one would a predator – wary and tense. Once Cassie stumbled past the tree, Luke was sure that the creature relaxed.
His eyes narrowed.
He kept a distance from her and observed.
Sprites were not the only things out there. The woods at night were not a safe place for humans, but as she ventured deeper into the woods, into areas that even shifters liked to avoid at night, he noted that no one bothered her. The few creatures that noticed her either left her alone or watched her in silence.
She was not human.
She could not be.
He watched her stop by an old tree. The tree sprite that hovered over the branches climbed higher and peeked down. Cassie knelt down, paying no attention to the wary sprite. Her fingers dug in the ground, and Luke frowned.
She was digging near the roots of the tree. Sprites hated it when their trees, their territories, were messed with. But this one did nothing as it merely kept an eye on the woman.
She did not even have a spade, or a tool. Had she been a shifter, this would have taken her a mere thirty seconds. Luke winced as she dug with her nails. That had to hurt.
Whatever she had been looking for she must have found, because she stopped digging and then turned around and leaned back against the tree, a large, wooden box in her hands. Her eyes were clearer now. Whatever Cassie was, her metabolism was at the same rate as shifters.
Luke walked back a little further and shifted.
The transformation from human to bear was not uncomfortable, contrary to what the stories said. It made one want to stretch out and shake themselves to get rid of the strangeness of it. The animal was more aware of its senses than the man was.
However, the man had not anticipated the reaction the beast would have. The bear wanted to go to her and cover the girl in his scent. His intelligence made him keep still, and watch from the shadows as Cassie took something out from the box and cram it into her mouth. She then put the box back in its place and started covering it with dirt.
As she walked away, the bear followed her and then glanced back at the tree sprite.
It did not move towards the box, which was strange. It was almost as if the sprite was either too scared or too respectful to let its curiosity take hold.
Luke followed Cassie for a distance and realized that she was going back the same way she had come, which meant that he needed to change back into his human skin. The animal was reluctant.
She was still chewing on what she had in her mouth. This time, he kept his distance.
She did not make sense to him, and he wondered what he was doing. He had better things to do. He should go back and find a woman, and relieve his need for touch, but this girl was so much more interesting.
When the new scent hit the air, Luke snarled.
Danger.
He smelled danger in the air.
Cassie must have scented the same thing, because she stood stock-still and looked around. The street remained empty, but it was the lack of sounds from the usual night critters that had the hair on the back of Luke’s neck rising.
There is a predator in the vicinity, and it must be a deadly one.
The attack came out of nowhere, and he whirled around just in time to see Cassie fly through the air and land on the ground in such a brutal manner that he was sure she must have broken some bones. His face contorted in anger as he felt the animal inside him snarl.
He was about to jump into the situation when there was a shrieking in the wind. The air in front of where Cassie was struggling to get up was shimmering, and he caught a glimpse of a large and vicious-looking eye.
Just what is that thing? He thought to himself.
A swipe of a monstrous hand appeared that was visible one moment and a shimmering reflection of light the next. However, the creature was not true to its aim. It shrieked again, and Luke saw Cassie’s neck glow. Her face contorted with pain, but her neck was glowing and it was hurting the creature.
It must have retreated because Cassie leaned down, her hands on her knees as she panted for breath.
Witch? She was a witch?
That would make sense, because witches were respected by most paranormal beings. However, shifters and witches were not on the best of terms. They tended to avoid each other. If she was a witch, he should stay away from her. The last thing he needed was another complication on his hands.
Luke turned his back on her.
She could defend herself.
Something moved in the air, and when he looked back, the creature had returned and now it was visible.
He had heard of wraiths before, and had certainly read about them, but he had never seen one in person.
They were extremely rare and were a very dangerous species.
Even witches did not meddle with wraiths, so why was this thing after someone like Cassie?
Witch, or no witch, even she could not take on a wraith alone. Maybe having a witch indebted to you could turn out to be an asset.
But, she was not a witch.
Cassie snarled, and she swiped her hand at the wraith and her hand transformed into one with claws. Luke watched – stunned – as her neck glowed almost viciously, and her claws met their target, making the wraith shriek in anger.
It looked like a mass of black shadows with a large, yellow eye in the middle of it. Luke had once seen a picture of it that had been hand drawn in a history book. The real thing was enough to strike fear into a stern heart. Cassie was not frightened. She did not cry or scream. She met its blows with her own.
Luke wanted to help her – his beast was clawing to get out – but he maintained a rigid control over himself. Cassie was holding her own. However, a blow at her abdomen had her staggering back, forcing Luke to intervene.
He smelled the girl’s blood on the ground and noticed that her eyes had closed. When the wraith came in for the final blow, Luke let his animal out, and the alpha bear exploded with a red rage, the kind of rage that he had not felt in quite a while.
He attacked the wraith at its weakest point, which was the eye. As the creature tried to escape the hold Luke had on it, the alpha bit down and tasted the wrongness in the blood. Leaping away, he spat out the blood, giving the wraith enough time to escape.
Shifting back, Luke looked down at the injured girl.
So, did that mean she was a shifter? He leaned down and pushed her hair away from her cheek, “You have a lot of secrets, don’t you? Let’s see if we can’t get some out of you.”