Chapter 18 Chapter 18
Chapter 18 Chapter 18
The light in the lobby of Predtech began to warp, to onlookers it seemed as though the entire colour spectrum was shifting out of alignment, red became blue, blue became yellow and so on, Valor stood from his desk and walked towards the apparition.
“It’s ok everyone, it’s just our new employee trying to shimmer into the complex without authorization, what you are seeing is our defense system keeping her out.”
As he spoke he typed a key code into a microcomputer on his wrist, the distortion stopped and there stood Stacy, she was dressed in a fitted pantsuit with grey pinstripes and a black blouse, her hair was tied up in a neat bun and she wore a necklace with a Nordic pendant hanging from it.
“Sorry about the entrance Valor, I forgot about the security shielding.”
“That is quite all right miss Stacy, just be sure it doesn’t happen again, your lab is ready for you and your team is assembled waiting for you.”
Valor smiled graciously as Stacy moved passed him towards the elevators.
“Thank you Valor, I’ll go introduce myself.”
As Stacy entered the lab she was greeted by five people in white coats, each of them smelled of a different species, but one smelled wrong, he had the scent of a wolf but it was masking something else, Human, well this should be interesting.
“Hello everyone, I know that I don’t know any of you, so to change that I am going to have a private chat with each of you, so, when you are ready, please come to my office.”
Stacy smiled and walked to her office, it was cold and bland, crisp white walls never sat well with Stacy and her Wolf didn’t approve either, she took a seat at her desk and sighed heavily, Chloe still wasn’t here, she wasn’t even sure if her Eagle lover would turn up. Her thoughts were broken by a knock at the door, it was the odd one, the one that was masking his Human scent with that of a Wolf.
“Please, come in.” Stacy gestured to the seat opposite her and the tall male took his seat, he was actually quite handsome, he had a topknot haircut and a well-trimmed beard, Stacy thought he would make a very good modern Viking.
“So. I’m guessing you want to know why I smell like Wolf.”
The male was straight to the point, Stacy liked that, she looked into his dark brown eyes and swears she could see a tinge of orange.
“Well, yes actually, I have to say it’s a pretty stupid disguise, any Wolf would be able to distinguish between your scents.” Stacy didn’t even sound mad just curious.
“That’s because it’s not a disguise, my family are wolves,”
With those words Stacy’s eyes turned pure black, her makeup seemed to smoke and her voice became ragged and deep, “Don’t lie to me! I can smell it on you!”
The human jumped back in his seat, the sound of fear rang in his voice, “I’m not lying, I swear it, my family were wolves!”
And there it was, the truth, Stacy returned to her normal self, “Were?”
“Y...Yes, they were killed in the Manhattan culling, they raised me from birth, the scent kind of clang to me like a perfume if you wear it too often.”
Stacy relaxed in her seat and sighed inwardly, “Your parents were members of the Akai Pack.” It was a statement rather than a question.
“They were the Alphas, Bernie and Tessa, I was away at the time.” He seemed to pass the subject of where.
“Doing what? If it’s not too personal.”
“I was serving in Afghanistan, I was a Navy Seal, until I heard about the culling, then I went AWOL, I joined Predtech as a mail boy, worked my way up to weapons research, in hopes…”
“In hopes that you could spare others from your parent’s fate, I am truly sorry for your loss, what do you know of your birth parents?” Stacy broached the question carefully.
The human sighed sadly, “Only that they lived out here, and that they were friends with Bernie before he became Alpha.”
“I was fortunate enough to meet Bernie once, it was at a Pack leaders meeting, I was still an Enforcer back then but Bernie made sure to welcome everyone individually, regardless of rank or station,” Stacy dwelled on the thought for a moment, “I assume you have a place in town?”
He shook his head, “No, I live in the dorm here at Predtech, I know it is usually reserved for visitors but Valor gave the Ok,”
It suddenly dawned on Stacy that she hadn’t even asked the human his name, she felt crappy for missing such a base concept, was her Demon really so controlling that she would miss that?
“My name is Kyle,” He said without Stacy even asking the question aloud.
“How did you?”
“I may be human, but I do have a telepathic gift, well sort of, a witch ‘blessed me’ while I was out in the middle east, I can tune in on Pack links, as if I were a member of them, I’m sorry if I overstepped.”
Stacy shook her head, “No its fine, I know all too well that Witch magic can have, unwanted side affects.” She thought inwardly for a moment about how she was carrying a Demon inside her, a Demon that did not belong to Mal, how could it? Mal wasn’t a human with a Demon inside him, he was a Demon prince, unable to be separated from his body, whatever the Witch did to her, it didn’t bind her to Mal, but let a piece of Mal’s world bind with her.
“I know you are not just a Wolf, you clearly have a Demon too, I have speculated that, in theory at least, a strong enough host could carry multiple creatures, I also know that Mal, your lover, was working on a similar theory, he hoped that one day there would be someone with every form of preternatural living in one vessel, harmoniously.”
Stacy interrupted, “No, Mal wanted to create a Pack of every living creature, not a person.”
“I think that was the start, to get all Preternatural working together so that the merging could take place, think about it, the same month that your Pack invited other creatures into its ranks, you became what you are.”
“And what the Fuck do you think I am?” Stacy’s voice took on the Demonic tone once again.
“You call yourself a Hellhound, because you are part Wolf and part Demon, I call you the first stage of evolution, you Stacy could one day be the being that Mal theorized about, you could be the one to unite everyone, even us mere humans.”
Stacy gaped at the thought and quickly shook it off, “Mere humans? There is nothing simple about you, Kyle, I’m going to ask you something, will you please be the first Human to join our Pack?”
It was Kyle’s turn to gape, “You do realize that I am not a Preter, born or bitten.”
“Yes, but who is to say you couldn’t be?”
“Who is to say I want to be? There hasn’t been a bitten Wolf in decades, and for bloody good reason, they are often hated by their own packs for being lower, the only bitten that are accepted is Vampires, and I sure as hell don’t want to become one of them.”
Stacy chuckled, “We have a bitten wolf in our Pack, two actually, one is an Enforcer, the other is a medic, I trust both of them with my life, if it is something you have considered, what is the harm in joining our Pack and asking the questions that only they have the answers to?”
Kyle mulled it over in his head before nodding his agreement, “I will come to your Pack house, I will talk with them and your Alpha’s of course, but I make no promises that I will want to become a bitten.”
Stacy smiled, “No promises are expected, but you have given me more answers as to what I am in the past five minutes than I have gotten in two years, I will take you back after work, I’ll introduce you to Dominic and Valaria, and then to Micky and Charlie our bitten brothers, once you have your answers, you can make your decision, to stay a Human with telepathic abilities within the Pack our to become what Bernie and his mate would have wanted you to become when you reached the proper age. See born Wolves, age until we reach our peak, then everything slows down, but bitten have to be turned at their peak or close to it, otherwise we would have a bunch of children running around for centuries.”
“Ok, I will get back to work and look forward to meeting your Pack mates.”
“After tonight, they will be your Pack mates too.”
Valaria and Dominic were cuddled up together in the lounge, the room that Valaria affectionately called sofa central, it wasn’t quite as large as the one they had at riverside but there was space for the entire Pack, Charlie was watching a documentary on Preternaturals in the military, Valaria was only half watching, she had heard enough military stories from Charlie and even Tyrone when he was still alive, she knew that Charlie missed his time in the service, and half wished he would consider re-enlisting, just so he would be happy.
Stacy walked into the lounge with a stranger in tow, she was smiling, it had been a while since Valaria had seen the young Wolf smile, and it was infectious, Dominic smiled at his Beta and asked,
“So, who is the new face?” then it hit him, the mixed scent of Wolf and Human, but the Wolf he smelt was long dead, “Bernie?”
“This is Kyle, he was a member of Bernie’s Pack, before the culling, I wondered if Charlie might talk to him about,”
“About being a bitten?” Dominic finished Stacy’s sentence for her.
Valaria shifted in Dominic’s lap, looking over her shoulder to him, “A Bitten?”
Dominic was still shocked at how little Valaria knew about Wolves, “It’s a non-born Wolf shifter, they are bitten by an Alpha and if they are strong enough to survive the first shift then they are just as much Wolf as a born.”
Valaria looked confused, her brow creased as she spoke, “I didn’t think that was a thing, I thought that was just a story in romantic novels.”
Dominic chuckled, “Charlie and his brother are both bitten, there is some stigma around it, and some Wolves believe that bitten Wolves are lower class, or even mongrels, but you know as well as I do, Charlie and Micky are two of the most loyal, we have.”
Valaria nodded and turned to Kyle, “You want to become a Wolf, well I have one question for you, Why?” her tone was sympathetic, she could feel the raw emotion emanating from him, all the pain of losing his adoptive parents was close to the surface.
“Well, if I’m honest, I hadn’t given it much thought, until Stacy reminded me that Bernie wouldn’t have taken me in unless he was going to bite me, he was just waiting for me to come of age, unfortunately he died before he got the chance, I want to honor what he wanted, he knew that me becoming a bitten was my destiny, who am I to argue?”
Valaria and Dominic both smiled at the new comer, Dominic spoke first, “This won’t be easy, it’s not just a bite then you are one of us, you need to know everything that is going to happen to you,”
“Which is why Stacy brought you here,” Valaria interrupted, “Sit with Charlie, ask the questions that are burning, if your answer is still yes afterwards then come find us, and we will, well, my Mate will talk you through it, I will be in the same seat as you, learning all I can.”
Kyle smiled and nodded to the Alpha pair, “Thank you, both, and thank you for inviting me into your home, Bernie spoke of you Dominic, he had a respect for you that I have never seen,”
Dominic waved off the comment, “Bernie was a good friend, we trusted one another that is all, stay the night, Stacy will arrange a room for you, and we will see you at breakfast.”
With those words Charlie stood from his seat and lead Stacy and Kyle out of the room to somewhere a bit more private to talk about the process of becoming a bitten, a talk that he knew could take all night, at least Kyle had some experience with Wolves, which would halt a few questions at least.