Chapter 5
1900 Words
As soon as the man got into the car, Lewis became very active. If she didn’t know better, she’d have said he was trying to run away, but she’d seen this behavior before. In the company of some peculiar people, Lewis got restless, a sign she’d come to recognize meant they weren’t humans. He’d first shown the restlessness when he’d been a few days old and they were passing by a forest. Her gut had told her a werewolf had been in the area even before she’d seen the gray, furry wolf. And when the wolf had come close enough, her son had nearly leaped from her arms.
Now, even without her gut, she could always trust Lewis to know when a shifter was around, which was pretty disappointing. In all her conversations with the strange man driving, nothing had clicked to her which was strange. She could usually pick out the shifters in the room in less than 5 minutes, but she still hadn’t gotten any sign from him.
She sighed when Lewis refused to settle. This was the cause of another of her regrets. When she’d visited the fourth doctor and received the same clean bill of health about her son, she’d begun to suspect that his root was the problem. Typical, she’d tried to have fun and ended up putting an human being through torture. She should have learned her lesson about wanting things.
She’d been sure she’d heard of half breeds before, but apparently there was something about herself and Lucas that was crossing all the lines. Because the half-breed they’d created was certainly not like other shifters - not like she’d been around a young one before. Lewis had grown fast in his early days and been a lot more active when his temperature wasn’t fluctuating. But for the past six months, it was like he was getting lighter. His stomach rejected food, and he’d dropped a drastic amount of weight. He’d also become more passive and quiet. Sometimes when she thought he was sleeping, she’d suddenly look back to find his eyes on her. And it wasn’t just the gray color of his eyes. Sometimes his eyes would just suddenly blank to white. It usually changed back in a few seconds but the action never failed to raise her blood pressure.
She stretched her arms out. Now that she was no longer actively carrying Lewis and the bags, her arms seemed to grow heavier. His wiggling around most certainly contributed to that though. He squirmed violently again, letting out a near silent whimper and she hugged him closer. She was the worst mother on the planet. She wished she could understand exactly what was happening, but even if she got the opportunity to talk to someone who knew what was going on, she couldn’t have the information reaching the wrong channels.
After she’d fled the pack 2 months after that night, she hadn’t traveled long before she’d had to stop and settle. The journey back wouldn’t take anyone up to three hours, and her gut feeling told her that Lucas must never know about Lewis. If he had a conscience at all, she could imagine that he sometimes thought about her and the way he’d thrown her out when she mentioned her pregnancy, but even deeper than that, Lucas must never know what Lewis was experiencing. She didn’t know why but her subconscious screamed that it would put them both in danger.
She was jolted out of her head when the handsome stranger coughed and glanced back. She really should ask what his name was, but not yet. Lewis was still actively trying to tear himself out of her hands and all her ‘shh, shh’ wasn’t doing a thing to help.
“Is he always like that?” her hackles rose when she heard the slight condemnation in his voice.
“Mind your business” she snapped back and instantly felt guilty.
“Okay,” he nodded and there was a moment of tense silence before he spoke again, “I’m sorry, but could you describe where we’re headed. I’ve been circling around waiting for him to settle”
“I’m sorry,” she said softly, “Take a left at that turning up there. Our place is straight down from there”
“Got it” he replied, his attention on the road.
“Lewis!” she turned her attention back to her son and nearly jumped out of her skin, “s**t”
The car braked suddenly, “What is it?” he asked, and she burst into tears.
In the time she’d given the directions and turned back to him, his eyes had changed to that scary white. And not just that, she could see a hint of elongated teeth in his mouth.
“Hey, talk to me. What’s the problem?” she could hear the concern evident in his voice.
She just kept on crying, struggling desperately not to let him out of her hands. Maybe this was something else and the man wasn’t a shifter after all. Then what would become of the both of them? Most humans didn’t believe in the paranormal world, and if this man was one of them, she was sure they’d never see the light of day again.
She wasn’t even aware he’d parked the car until the door opened and he was suddenly there. She yelped, and he raised his hand in the universal ‘calm down’ motion.
“Hey, there’s nothing here, okay? Just me”
Yeah, that was the problem.
“Talk to me, sweetie. What’s your name? I just realized I didn’t know it” he coaxed gently.
“I don’t know yours either” she sniffed.
“I’m Darren. Some of my idiotic friends insist on shortening it to Law”
She smiled a watery smile at his comical, yet exasperated expression.
“What’s your name?” he prompted.
“Jamie,” she whispered.
“Alright, Jamie. And what do your friends call you?”
She sniffed again, “I don’t have friends” she cried.
“Okay. That’s perfectly normal,” he lied, “Can you tell me what the problem is?”
She shook her head ‘no’.
“What’s the name of your kid?” It wasn’t until he asked that she realized that his eyes had been solely on her. He hadn’t even spared a glance at her kid. She cried harder.
“Off-limits then, got it” he hurried to say.
Then he leaned closer to her as if sharing a secret, “You see sweetheart, right now I’m in a bit of a dilemma. There’s a pretty lady crying in my car, and I don’t know what to do. Do you have someone I can call?” he asked dubiously, and she shook her head again.
“Can I try something?” he asked and this time without waiting for an answer grabbed her palm and kissed the center of it.
She looked at him blankly, but he only smiled sheepishly, “I’m sorry. It should start working right about now”
“What?” she asked, and then she felt it. Her heart lightened in her chest and she felt 30 pounds lighter. She stopped struggling with Lewis, and stared outside longingly. She wanted to dance.
“Uh oh” she heard the amused sound of Darren’s voice echo, “I think I overcompensated”
He snapped his fingers in front of her, “Jamie!” she snapped to attention.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked.
“Handsome stranger,” her brain supplied and his lips twitched.
“Good enough. Now can you tell me what is wrong?”
She shook her head, but her lips started moving, “They’ll take us away”
“Who will?” he insisted.
“The people. Humans”
“Okay,” his calm voice made her feel lighter, “Why will they take you away?”
Her brain started kicking and she could tell something was wrong but her lips were still moving.
“Because Lewis isn’t normal”
Her brain kicked in and she jerked away from him.
“I’m sorry,” he rushed to say.
She rubbed her eyes, “What did you do to me?”
“I’m sorry, Jamie,” was all he repeated. He looked at her face, then deliberately glanced to her chest where to her surprise, she saw that Lewis was asleep. “He’s asleep now. Everything is fine”
His calm voice was familiar and soothing, and without thinking about it, she nodded.
He smiled. “Good girl”. Then, he stood up, closed the door behind him and headed back into the car.
Before he turned on the ignition, she gathered her courage, “Darren,” she called and he glanced back.
“What just happened? What are you?”
He smirked at her, “Should I give you the short or the long version?”
“The long one”
“Then tit for tat, darling. You have to answer one question for me”
“But I asked first,” she complained.
He shrugged then, “Alright then. I learnt a trick from my father before he left. There’s a nerve in some parts of the body that enhances calmness. I only manipulated one of them”
She nodded eagerly, but that was all he said. His smile was growing bigger though.
“That’s all you’re going to tell me?” she asked disbelievingly, “That’s bullshit”
“Tit for tat, princess. You tell me what I want to know, and I answer your questions. Deal?”
She growled in response. “One question. I answer one question and you tell me all I want to know”
He laughed, “Not quite. You answer one question, and I tell all you want to know about what happened just now”
“But that’s unfair,” she protested.
“So is life, darling. Deal with it. Do we have a deal?”
She thought about it. “And how do I know you’re going to honor your part of the deal”
He placed a hand over his hand, “You wound me princess. Fine, Cross my heart and hope to die”
She scoffed, “Nice try”
“Okay” he laughed. “Ask me one question now, and I’ll answer. Any question. Then I get to ask my question, and then you can ask about what happened now”
That was an opportunity she wouldn’t reject. She had a lot of questions. Questions like ‘where have we met before?’, ‘why are you being nice to me?’. ‘Are you in the market for a partner?’, 'You look rich, will you be my sugar daddy?’, ‘where do you buy your perfume?’, and others like that. But to her horror, what came out of her mouth was, “Why do you insist on calling me different names?”
The question was one she hadn’t known was bothering her, but as soon as it had come out of her mouth, she realized why she felt so at ease with him. He felt so familiar, and he acted a lot like the first man who had used her and then rejected her in public, Lucas.
- Writer
