Gypsy Moon

Chapter Thirty: Aiden

. . . . . . (early July)

Rick headed back home three days later. Bryce was in a great mood; Rick was apparently a very enthusiastic partner. I refused to let him give me any details, but I'm pretty sure he got Rick's number before he left.

Derek and Marie came back from the lake house with their kids the day after Rick left. The first thing Derek did was sucker punch me in the gut, 'for the general' he said.

Kyle and Lilian spent most of their days together in the library, pouring over our history books and working with the librarian to transfer tons of information to the tablet she'd bought. The pair worked together as flawlessly as if they had been together for years.

Sinah slept a lot. Selene reassured us that the significance of the healing determines the energy requirement. Simpler healing, like repairing a minor wound, would be nothing a cup of coffee couldn't recover.

The little she-wolf woke up and couldn't remember anything her mate had done to her. She said that anytime she tried to think about anything he had done, it felt like she was trying to see the bottom of a well. She knew it was there, but she couldn't remember any details. She said she just had a vague feeling of distaste.

Her mate was stripped of his rank and made an omega. He was forced to be collared and forbidden to shift to his wolf form until such time as he earned his mate's forgiveness. She surprised everyone by not rejecting him, so he wasn't cast out of the pack, made rogue, and murdered, to several wolves' disappointment.

Nothing crazy happened in a couple of days. Derek and our parents had the pack running smoothly, and I had a sudden wealth of free time. I hadn't thought about how active my day was traveling with the troupe, and I was bored hanging around the packhouse with nothing to do. I paced through the woods, irritated at my own restlessness.

The scent of something sour right next to the borderline caught my attention and I tracked the curious, lemony smell for half an hour. It never crossed into River Talon territory but came right to the borderline several times before it abruptly vanished. I stopped and looked around, pulling in a slow deep breath.

I could feel my curiosity getting the better of me, but I couldn't pick out the scent again. I closed my eyes and gently touched the minds of my pack; everyone was calm and content. Another light touch told me that Derek and our parents were calm as well.

/:What do you think, Rhys?:/

/:Our mate is asleep, and we have nothing better to do.:/

I needed no further encouragement and rapidly shed my clothing, joining Rhys as we shifted to our wolf. The forest lit up to our gaze, and we scanned around us slowly. The woods were strangely quiet. Our ears flicked up and we focused hard. Extremely quiet. The nearest birdsong seemed miles away, we couldn't hear a single creature in possibly a quarter mile radius.

Our hackles rose and a low growl rumbled from us, a harsh whisper in the unnerving silence. We lifted our head and pulled a sharp breath into the back of our throat, there! We bolted after the citrus hint we'd caught. Whatever it came from had taken to the trees. A snapping tree branch had us sliding to a stop, all of our senses focused on the sound.

A shadow shifted on a branch, easily fifty feet from the ground. A really big shadow. We took a deep breath, yeah, the lemony smell was definitely coming from the big shadow, but we could not focus on it clearly enough to see what it was, which was odd at that distance. The oppressive silence seemed to centralize from it as well, the only sounds were our heartbeats and breathing.

/:We found a Predator!:/

/:That is not f*****g funny.:/

We stood on our hindlegs next to the tree, staring up at the now motionless Citrus Shadow.

/:Hmmm, I think we did.:/

We sat back on our haunches and tilted our head to the side.

/:I feel like we treed a cat.:/

We sneezed a laugh at ourselves, and the Citrus Shadow shifted slightly, a clear head was now angled at us curiously. We let our muzzle relax and allowed our tongue to loll carelessly out the side in a huge canine grin and the shadow sneezed, suspiciously similar to our laugh earlier. We sat still for a long moment, grinning as the shadow considered us.

A decidedly cold chill ran down our spine as the Shadow moved fluidly from branch to branch, completely silently. We blinked hard and felt ourselves drop into a defensive posture; the Shadow stilled on a fat branch just beyond where we had been able to reach a moment earlier.

Its fur was almost the same color as ours was, the pale golden tan of desert sand, but very short and a bit darker across his back. The massive feline, for we had indeed treed a cat, stretched itself along the branch and stared at us with eyes of the clearest golden amber. It stared at us unblinkingly, and the odd fear chill slowly faded.

We shook our fur and sat back on our haunches and stared at the remarkably large mountain lion. It practically glared back at us, clearly confused by our openly friendly behavior, as well as our ability to track it. It growled softly, not a threat, but a question. It occurred to us we wouldn't have known the difference before meeting Bryce. We slowly lifted one of our paws and yipped softly, obviously mimicking a human wave, and the giant cougar's eyes narrowed.

I raised my hands in surrender as Rhys parted from me and I shifted to my human form. I smiled up at the cougar.

"I'm a good dog, I promise." The sneeze was definitely a laugh that time and I grinned shamelessly at him as he dropped silently to the ground in front of me. He shifted and I found myself a few feet from an extremely well-built young man, one that looked strikingly like Bryce.

He had the same caramel tanned skin, and the same raven black hair, even the same mohawk hairstyle. His features were sharper though, more prominent like my own, and he was built much more like I was.

/:He looks like you and Bryce had a creepy love child.:/

I gave the young man a lopsided grin.

"I'm Aiden, my best friend is a cat. I won't harm you." He nodded slowly.

"I don't often meet tolerant dogs." I nodded and shrugged.

"I seem incapable of being a normal one." He glared at me. "Dog, that is."

"How did you track me?" I crossed my arms behind my head, leaving my abdomen stretched long and sighed deeply. His eyes flickered briefly.

"I'm used to hanging out with a cat. I might not have thought about checking the trees otherwise. I almost missed your scent, to be perfectly honest." He furrowed his brow at me.

"How are you not afraid of me?"

"Oh, so that is coming from you, weird. Alphas don't intimidate easily, so whatever your creepy aura is, isn't going to work on me as well as others, I guess." He was quiet for a very long time; his unfaltering gaze would have been an irritating challenge if I weren't used to Bryce doing the same thing. Cats are big on staring, less so on the whole blinking thing.

"How can you be so relaxed around me?" I chuckled.

"A werejaguar is my best friend. I can tell you are just as curious as I am, particularly because I'm not being aggressive." He raised an eyebrow suspiciously and I grinned again. "Again, to be honest, before meeting him I would have been just another stupid dog incapable of seeing the difference. We aren't really known for being cat people."

A derisive chuckle escaped him, and he stared at me for a few seconds before tilting his head and a look of confusion crossed his face. His nostrils flared and he leaned towards me, inhaling deeply, and his confusion deepened.

"Wait... Him?" He stepped close to me in his confusion, sniffing me curiously. "But you smell like..." I laughed as the reason for his confusion occurred to me. I had Bryce's scent on me.

"I promise your nose isn't playing tricks on you, my entire pack is a deviation from the ordinary." His eyes traveled slowly over my body, assessing me carefully. I allowed my eyelids to lower slightly and gazed at him levelly, waiting for him to finish his consideration.

"I did not pass into your territory, wolf, and I have no quarrel with you or your pack." I shrugged carelessly.

"I bear you no ill will. You are free to go in peace." He didn't move and I shrugged again. "If you want to visit my family's territory, for rest or recreation, you wouldn't be the first stray cat I've brought home, and you don't even come close to the oddest thing we've dealt with this week, so keep it in mind." I turned and took a few steps back towards River Talon. "I will alert the border patrols to your scent; they shouldn't attack you. Just, you know, stay out of reach until they get used to your weird aura." I was about to shift back to my wolf when he spoke up again.

"What is the oddest thing you've dealt with this week, if not me?" I barked a laugh, turned back to him and sat on the ground, waving for him to sit near me.

"Oh man, where do I begin?"

. . . . . .