Vamp, Wolf, or Shifter 2: The Prophecy

Quinn’s POV “I think she’s going to be a female kickboxer,” Dean announces. “That’s a thing, right? Julia, can you say ‘female kickboxer?’” Our daughter Julia’s eyebrows thread together in intense concentration as she parts her lips and gives it her best attempt. “Fe…male… kissaropter?” Dean and I both cackle as he reaches out to muss her hair. He loves to tease her with big words, but in all honesty, she’s incredibly advanced for her age. “I’m not sure ‘female kickboxer’ quite fits under the ‘safe career’ umbrella we’re trying to implement,” I point out. “Didn’t we say we don’t want her fighting and punching things like her parents?” We’ve had the conversation many times by now, and I know that ultimately, my husband feels the same way I do: we want to try our damnedest to keep our daughter safe in spite of the fact that her father is an Alpha, her mother is a Luna-s***h-guardian, and she lives on a wolf compound. Julia isn’t a wolf, nor is she a guardian. Some people—including Lucy, my mother-in-law—like to insist that she’s got a bit of each of those species in her. I have my doubts, though, and I’m glad for that, because being one of either of those species is far more dangerous than just being human. Besides, Calypso the sea witch told me herself that guardianship isn’t passed down from parent to child unless the parent clips their wings. I haven’t done that, so Julia can’t be a guardian. I’m less confident about the wolf of it all, not having grown up in a wolf pack myself, but Dean maintains that, while a few extra strengths and defenses are given to part-wolves, they never gain the most useful ability: shifting. I am glad for all of it, like I said. A part of me is sad, too, though. A part of me knows that she’ll grow up feeling different from those around her—not quite wolf, but not quite human, either—not really fitting in anywhere. I hate it for her, but I love the hell out of her. Julia is unlike anyone else I’ve ever known. She’s got the same messy, sandy-brown hair as her dad, but the same violet eyes as me—well, as me before I went full-blown-amethyst guardian-eyes. Lucy says that the violet eyes are exactly why she knows there’s more to Julia than mere “humanity”—that violet is the color of dormant guardianship. I recall from my own research into guardianship before I transitioned that she isn’t wrong, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned during my time in the supernatural world, it’s that nothing is certain. There are no hard and fast rules for this stuff. Sometimes violet eyes really are just violet eyes. It isn’t just Julia’s appearance that’s so special. Like I said, she’s smarter than most toddlers her age, too, and so much more attentive. Sometimes when I talk to her, I look into those eyes and swear I can see her processing every word I’m saying—like her brain’s keeping up with me, even if her lips can’t quite process the right words to reply to me. She’s funny, too—all laughs and smiles and playing around. And, of course, punching things. Which leads us back to the current conversation. “You’re right,” Dean says. “We shouldn't encourage her to hit people for money.” I rest my head on his shoulder, smiling to myself as we watch her play in her little sandbox behind our house. “Life is good,” he says softly, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “Isn’t it?” It would be impossible to say no. In the three years since Dean proposed to me, everything has gone exactly the way it should. We got married, we had Julia, and we led the pack with grace, happiness, and peace. Life is good—really good. Unfortunately, nothing is ever quite that simple. I haven’t seen Finn or Cooper in over two years. That isn’t entirely true, I suppose. Finn came and visited once, about a year and a half ago. He and Maddy, his shifter girlfriend, were passing through on their way south. I can’t remember where they actually call home these days—it sounds like they travel quite a bit. They didn’t stay for long, and it didn’t feel as easy and carefree as it once did. Too much time had passed, maybe—or maybe he just saw how much my life had changed since he last saw me. I’m a mother now, and that’s the most important thing. That’s everything. I’ve seen Cooper, too, though only ever unintentionally. He’s still at the Estate, of course, with Max and the rest of the Refugee Coven. Since Pewter is a small town, we’re all bound to run into each other from time to time—at the grocery store; at the pub; things like that. Never on purpose, though. It’s not that he’s mad at me, nor I him. Nothing specific happened to cause our falling out; it was more just a series of small, but significant, dominoes. He and Marie were having problems; he found out I was pregnant; he and Marie had worse problems; she left him; he stopped coming around, and even missed our wedding. Marie claims he never got over me, and that the look on his face when he found out I was pregnant was too much for her. He’s her true mate, of course, but she isn’t his—just like me and Dean. It took him a long time to come to terms with that—Dean, I mean. No matter what I did or said to encourage him that my love for him was very real, it didn’t change the fact that it’s impossible for my species to feel that innate, fatalistic pull that his does. It’s not just a guardian thing; it’s an everyone-except-wolves thing. Which is why it was a problem for Cooper and Marie. It isn’t a problem for me and Dean anymore. We were so frantic back then—so overwhelmed and frightened by the intensity of our own love. It was all so new and exciting and terrifying. Now that we’re settled and have baby Julia, our love has settled, too. We trust each other completely. Besides, the guardian-Alpha bond gives us something even more special than the “true mate” one. It allows us to hear each other’s thoughts, feel each other’s feelings, and even sense each other’s presence and location when the other isn’t around. It’s a blessing granted to us by the Moon Gods themselves, and I cherish that sacred bond as much as I cherish my beautiful daughter. He still gets jealous, of course. He’s too hot-blooded not to. I don’t really mind it—except on occasions like this. “You’re thinking about him,” he says darkly. “Aren’t you?” Like I said, we hear each other’s thoughts the majority of the time. For better and for worse. I sigh, running a hand through my hair. “I was thinking about him and Marie, actually.” It isn’t the first time we’ve had this conversation. I don’t buy that Cooper loved me more than he loved her. It was taking him longer to fall for her than it had for her to fall for him, but I could see it in his eyes: he was falling for her. It's the same reason I pulled away from our friendship when he did. I didn't want to force Cooper and Marie to be around each other and feel the force of their heartbreak just so I could see my friend. Dean, of course, doesn’t buy it. He can’t fathom the thought of anyone loving another girl more than me. It sweet; it’s just silly, too. “I worry about her,” he admits, squeezing me a bit tighter. “She hasn’t been the same since they split.” He’s right about that much. Marie and I grew very close around the time she and Cooper got together, so it was easy for me to see the change in her when they broke up. She’s far too fierce and independent a gal to sink into some sort of hole of depression, but the hurt still shows. She threw herself into her position within the pack—which, unofficially, is basically being my Beta. “The Luna doesn’t have a Beta,” I told her years ago when she told me she wanted the position. “Yeah, but the guardian could, if she wanted,” she insisted. “Let me protect you, Quinn. Let me be the Garrett to your Dean.” I told her yes, of course. I had never had anyone like that besides Finn, who had already left by then to go and live with Maddy. Dean and the growing baby inside me made it impossible for me to feel lonely, but I still valued friendship. “I worry about her, too,” I tell Dean, watching our beautiful daughter build an impressive sandcastle. “But I don’t know what can be done about it.” He removes his arm from my shoulder so that he can turn and face me fully. We’re seated on the bench behind our house—the one that faces into the incredible swing set/sandbox/kiddie pool backyard that the pack put together for us shortly before Julia was born. The gorgeous Japanese maple trees behind him frame his handsome face. Even with an overgrown beard and his usual messy hair, he looks hotter than ever. I swear, he's like a fine wine that only gets better with age. “Well, back atcha, babe,” he murmurs with a soft smile as he lifts his hands to cup my cheeks. Guess he heard that last thought. I don’t think a day will ever come that I don’t feel Dean's touch all the way down to my toes. The electricity that surges through me when he looks at me the way he’s looking at me now is as addictive as it is exhilarating, and the urge to kiss him is so strong, everything else seems to fall away. Everything except my daughter, of course, who starts shouting “Eww!” within a few seconds of our make-out session. Both of us laugh as we pull reluctantly away. I’ll finish that thought after we put her to bed, he says in my head as he rises to his feet to scoop her up. I grin back at him, but my grin fades when I hear something coming from the other side of the house—the side that faces the dirt road that leads from the main road up the wolf compound. “…told you, I need to talk to them alone. It’s important.” “And I told you, you can’t just barge onto our compound without any warning and expect to see them right away. They’re busy people. They’re—” “Oh, unclench already, would you? I’ve been friends with your precious Luna since long before you knew she existed.” Dean turns to face me, Julia clutched easily in his strong arms. “I know that voice.” I do, too. “Finn?” I shout. I hear a bit of a scramble, followed by Finn coming around the side of the house. His girlfriend Maddy is right behind him, with Jason, Dean’s Delta, hot on their heels. “Sorry,” Jason says reluctantly to Dean as they all close in on us. “Slippery little shifters, these two.” Dean waves a hand, dismissing the security breach, but my eyes are peeled to Finn. He’s grown significantly since the last time I saw him. He’s been working out, I can tell, and is much more toned than his usual, scrawny self as a result. He’s cut his golden hair shorter than its usual long, straggly mess, and it shows off his bright, green eyes and smiling face. He looks undeniably good. Sometimes I wish we couldn't hear each other’s every thought, Dean grumbles in my head. I do my best to think about my complete lack of romantic feelings for Finn as I refocus my attention to the matter at hand. “What’s going on, Finn? Why the lack of warning?” Finn glances at Jason, then over at Maddy, then back to us. His chest is heaving, as if they ran a very long distance very quickly to get to us. “Alaina Hayworth got her hands on a guardian,” he says. “And they’re headed this way as we speak.”