Page 62 of Shrouded in the Dark
“Oooowwww. What was that?” My head was tender where I rubbed the spot that had hit something.
“That would be my chin.”
As I looked to my left, I found Cody sitting on the ottoman leaning away from me, rubbing his chin.
“Damn, girl. If your head is this hard, you must have a mean left hook.” His eyes sparked at me with a strained grin.
I found myself laying on the couch. Seth was near my feet. Jasper was leaning on the back of the couch looking over it to meet my eyes.
“What happened? Where’s Axel?” I fired rapidly. “Where’s that monster?”
“Woah. Take a breath.” Jasper placed a gentle hand on the shoulder closest to him. “We’ll explain everything. Have some water.” He offered me a bottled water that had condensation running off of it.
The top twisted off and I had half of it finished in a few seconds. The fight went flying through my head all over again. Axel wasn’t human. Odds were that none of these guys were. The hand holding the water clenched tightly, causing some of the cool water to spill into my lap, yet I barely noticed as I narrowed my eyes on each of them.
“Start explaining! What was that thing? Where’s Axel? Is he okay?” I pointed at Seth, even as my head spun. “What are YOU?!”
Seth kept his face blank all the while as I started to lose it, mainly directing it at him, which I knew wasn’t fair. He waited until I stopped firing my questions. My hands had started to shake again.
“First,” he kept his voice low, trying to calm me down, “Axel was in the shower. He’ll be here once he’s put some clothes on. He’s healing. He’ll be fine by tomorrow morning, at the latest.” He reached out slowly to my left foot. When he saw that I wouldn’t jerk away, he wrapped his hand around my ankle, his thumb running circles gently. “Second and third are similar only in the explanation. Do you remember when I asked you if you believed as your stepfather does?”
I nodded warily at him. “Yes.” I knew where this was going. It was as obvious as Axel being able to turn into a very large teddy bear with fangs and claws.
Seth running his thumb along my ankle was soothing. My shoulders pressed deeper into the couch’s cushions.
“We are some of those other things that exist out there.”
He made eye contact with me. This time, I finally let myself see what swirled within his eyes that I always played off as a trick of the light or that I hadn’t seen it. Stunning azure eyes made me feel like I was drowning in my feelings before another stepped forward within them. His eyes darkened as whatever was there stared back at me. I sucked in a breath.
“It’s true.” My whisper sounded like a shout in my ears. “What are you guys? Werebears? Was that other thing a werewolf?” This time I asked the question without the panic that I had before. I met each of their eyes as they peered at me.
“Well,” Axel walked into the room slowly, “you already know that I’m a grizzly.” He really had just stepped out of the shower because he was wearing gym shorts only. Water droplets still glistened on his chest. He ran a hand through his damp hair. “We aren’t werebears or wolves, like the movies or books like to call us. We are shifters.” He walked over to the couch; his gaze fell to my feet to Seth. “Can I sit here?”
“Oh, yeah. Of course.” As I shifted so that I could sit up, Axel just took my feet in both of his hands as he sat down next to Seth before putting my feet in his lap. Seth reached out again to my left foot and continued his caressing. I noticed that Axel leaned heavily into Seth’s side.
“So, shifters.”
Axel nodded at his friends. “We’re all shifters. So was that thing that attacked us. He’s a rogue, meaning he’s not part of a pack of any kind. He’s been trespassing on our territory. We thought he might be rabid with the way he attacked that human, but the thing we fought yesterday was not rabid. He was too smart for it.”
Yesterday? How long had I been sleeping?
“It’s early, hun, barely past five in the morning. You only slept about ten hours.” Jasper squeezed my shoulder again. “You needed it.”
“Alright. You’re all shifters. That monster was also a shifter.” I needed coffee for this conversation but I wasn’t moving. “You said that you’re a pack? Isn’t that a wolf thing? But you’re a bear? Does that make all of you bears? Axel, how are you okay after that fight? How are you healing so quickly?”
Axel chuckled. “As shifters, we have accelerated healing. We are faster, stronger, and have super hearing. Overall, we’re better at everything than most humans.” His chest puffed out a bit as he spoke. “The worst of my wounds was my neck. I’ll be slow for the rest of the day as my internal injuries heal. I shifted back into my bear before back to human again. The change helps boost our healing powers.” His big hand touched my cheek briefly. “We’re all different animals, but we’re all a pack.”
If my eyes could show what was going on in my head, they’d be swirling. “Okay.”
“It’s a lot of information, guys. I think we need to just give the basics right now so we don’t overload her,” Jasper mumbled. He leaned over the couch to brush some of my hair from my face.
“I can do that,” Cody jumped into the conversation. “Becca, the things that go bump in the night? Are real. Just like how there are bad humans, there are bad things that go bump in the night. Equally the same for good humans, etc. Our pack is unique because most shifters tend to stay within their own species. We formed our pack outside of different species because our bonds were stronger than blood. We’re trying to find out why this rogue is hellbent on hurting humans and drawing unnecessary attention.” He paused to take a deep breath. “I’m a Canadian Timber Wolf, Seth is a Siberian Tiger, and Jasper is a Sierra Nevada Red Fox. We’ll tell you more about our pasts perhaps down the road.”
I was beginning to get a headache. The animals they shifted into made sense, though. Especially Seth’s. I kissed a tiger, twice. I’d been held by a wolf and a fox. I’d masturbated about a grizzly bear. Giggles started to come from me slowly, but it wasn’t long until I was just laughing outright. Tears leaked from my eyes.
I felt their eyes on me as I cracked up.
“Guys, did we break her?” Cody warily asked. “Is there a reset button on her?”
