Authors: Jeanette Battista
Rafe stared at Kess' back. She'd turned to work on another omelet so she didn't see the brief feral expression that crossed the werehyena's face like a streak of late day heat lightning. Finn caught it though. He watched the kid carefully, fully aware that this young man came equipped with teeth and claws, just like the rest of them.
Rafe flicked his eyes at Finn. "Okay," was all he said before going back to his food.
Kess slid a second omelet on Finn's empty plate. Thanks, she mouthed, her face turned so Rafe wouldn’t see her. Finn accepted the food with a nod, but was more interested in what the hell Kess was trying to do here. Rafe was volatile; if she wanted a pet, Finn could think of a dozen more stable people she could collect. Heck, even Laila was more stable than Rafe and she wasn't what anyone would consider a model of self-control.
He took a bite, chewing thoughtfully. Well, if nothing else, the run would prove interesting.
**********
Finn set a steady pace as they began their run. The sun was still climbing its relentless path overhead, but it was already hotter than the hinges of hell on the beach. He could feel the sweat running down his body and they'd barely been at it a mile. Rafe was trying to keep up, but even at this slow speed the kid was having a hard time. He panted behind Finn, his stride uneven. Finn could tell the kid wasn't used to running and had no experience with anything that might require any kind of endurance. Good to know.
Finn could run all morning like this. Wolves could run for many miles and Finn, though only a wolf when he chose to be, was no different. He wasn't digging the humidity, but he needed to move, to run. He was amazed that Rafe was able to keep up as well as he was doing if he didn't have a lot of miles under him.
He saw Rafe out of the corner of his eye. The kid pushed himself even with Finn, apparently no longer content to trail in his wake and eat sand. His shirt was sticking to him, making the werehyena look like he had taken a shower fully clothed. Finn had already shucked off his shirt.
Rafe pulled his shirt over his head and tucked it into the belt loops of his shorts, then sprinted to make up for the lost distance. As he came up alongside, Finn did a double take. The kid was skinny, they all recognized that, but Finn had never realized how skinny he actually was.
He could count Rafe's ribs easily, and the points of his hip bones jutted out like wings above his low slung shorts. The knobs of his spine against the skin of his back looked like a mountain range on a globe. Interspersed were silvery scars, clear holdovers of fights with other weres. The kid clearly didn't get enough to eat where he came from, which explained why he seemed to be eating his weight in protein every chance he got. It was tough on a were to be underfed; you didn't have enough energy to fuel your changes and your body began to feed off of itself. Rafe looked half-starved.
Rafe didn't acknowledge Finn's stare, instead looking straight ahead and putting one foot in front of the other. Finn could hear the breath wheeze in Rafe's lungs, and knew the werehyena was pushing himself to keep up. Running in the sand was additional effort, designed to make muscles do more work, but the kid sounded like he might pass out at any moment. Finn eyed him cautiously, hoping that Rafe would know when to quit and not keel over.
Finn slowed his pace a bit, trying to ease up. He was taller than the werehyena, so Rafe was working harder to just stay with him. They kept going at an easy rhythm until Finn reached the end point of his usual circuit and turned around to head back to the car. He kept to a light jog, waiting as Rafe got his breath back so he stopped wheezing like a bellows.
Finn decided now was as good a time as any to start. And he didn't believe in subtle, so he just asked, "Don't they feed you at home?" He kept his eyes turned to the ocean.
Rafe was already flushed from the run, but Finn thought he might have gotten redder. Still, he didn't sound too hostile when he answered. "No."
"Sucks."
"Yeah. Pretty much." Rafe ran a hand through his sweaty hair, slicking it back away from his face. The white scars were evident. "So that girl that was here when I first came--who was she?"
Finn's head whipped around and now he did look at the werehyena. He didn't like Rafe asking about Laila. Not that she needed his or anyone's protection, but he still felt a streak of it when Rafe mentioned her. Rafe's face was relaxed, almost mild. Finn tried not to be paranoid, but he had to admit that he didn't trust the werehyena completely and agreed with Mac that they needed to be careful around him.
"Why do you want to know?" He let a little of his suspicion color his voice.
Rafe held his hands up in a gesture clearly meant to placate the werewolf. "She's awesome in a fight—I got to see a little bit at the nightclub. I'm pretty sure my sister hates her." Finn tried to hide a smile of pure pride. That was his girl right there. Rafe continued thoughtfully. "I bet my mother does too." Finn remembered that Laila had smarted off to Samara during the meeting that had ended with Rafe becoming a permanent addition. He imagined that Samara wasn't used to many people talking back to her.
Finn grinned hugely. "That would be Laila." He had a hard time keeping the pride from his voice. "She has that effect on a lot of people."
"She your girlfriend?"
Finn stopped jogging and looked at Rafe carefully. He wasn't sure where the kid was going with this. When Finn took a while to answer, Rafe said, "Look, I'm just making conversation. We can go back to staring straight ahead and randomly grunting at each other if that's more your speed."
Finn began jogging again, and Rafe followed along beside him. "Why are you still here?" Finn asked. It had been bothering him since the very beginning. Why would you knowingly stay in the house of your enemy unless you were a spy? Why wouldn't you leave if you had the chance? It didn't make sense to him.
Rafe startled at the question. His eyes shifted to look at the sea for a second, then danced back to Finn. "What do you mean?" was his cautious reply.
"Why. Are. You. Still. Here?" Finn punctuated each word with a footfall. "Kess said you didn't have to stay—that you could go home at any time, right? So why haven’t you left? I wouldn't think you'd be too comfortable staying with your mom's enemy."
Rafe looked like he'd he tasted something foul. He was silent for a few moments. When he spoke, his words held a kind of angry finality. "I can't go home."
Finn cocked a brow at him. The boy's face was a hard mask, his jaw clenched tightly and his eyes narrowed. Finn pushed a bit more. "You still don't have to stay here."
Finn could read the tension in him, the muscles bunched beneath pale, scarred skin. He knew it wasn't easy for a pack were to be solitary. It was a dangerous existence. Kess had been lucky when she'd been on the run.
Rafe, his voice heavy with sarcasm, said, "Let's just go back to the whole manly silence thing."
Finn snorted out a laugh. "Fair enough." There was a pause. In a needling voice, he observed, "Your mom is pretty hot."
Rafe made a choking sound. He stared at Finn, shock and disgust written plain on his face. "That's gross, man. She's my mom!"
Finn laughed again. He'd finally gotten what he thought was an honest reaction out of the kid. He filed it away to compare with other reactions later. "Alright, alright. Don't get your knickers in a bunch, sweetheart."
"You're the one who won't talk about your girlfriend, princess." Rafe's voice held the faintest hint of mockery.
Finn could appreciate a good comeback and liked someone who could give as good as they got. It was a survival skill in his family. "Because I'm not a gigantic girl. What, you want to braid each other's hair while we analyze our feelings?"
Rafe glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, almost like he was checking Finn's reaction to see how he was doing. "No, I thought we'd polish each other's nails while we waited to sprout boobs."
Finn nodded, coming to his own conclusion. There was certainly more to Rafe than was apparent at first glance. The kid might be okay after all. Or he might be an excellent actor. He certainly had the brains for it. Finn shoved him companionably, like he would have Burke or Mac. Rafe staggered sideways, nearly falling on his ass in the sand.
He caught the kid's upper arm to steady him. "Dude, you have got to get some more weight on you. A stiff breeze could take you down."
Rafe righted himself and they continued walking in companionable silence. Finn wasn't surprised when the werehyena spoke. "Hey, let me know the next time you run. I'd like to come with."
Finn nodded and they continued on to the car. He didn’t mind if Rafe tagged along with him on his runs. If Rafe was a spy and was hoping to get useful information out of him, Finn wondered if he'd considered that it went both ways. These runs might be a good way to figure out if the face Rafe was showing them was his true one after all.
Kess stared at Bomani and Masud carefully. They brought reports from each of the clan members: twelve total. The wereleopards were not a large clan, not anymore, and unless they were able to successful breed more of them, the clan was in danger of dying out. The situation was not helped by the war of attrition that threatened with the hyenas. Kess' clan was strong and had controlled the territory of Miami for generations, but with their shrinking numbers, they'd be hard-pressed to hold out against Samara and her pack.
Each wereleopard had his or her own run within the territory that they were in charge of patrolling and guarding. Kess had asked that each clan member report to her any strange visitors or activity within their respective areas. They only came to the house for clan meetings or to report urgent business; Kess' father had run the clan this way and it seemed to work best. Cats weren't communal or social creatures, preferring their own space. Living in a group was not an option.
"So everything's been quiet?" That was odd. She expected Samara to redouble her efforts to take control of Miami, especially after the fiasco that was her last attempt.
Bomani nodded, but let Masud do the talking. Kess still wasn't sure how she felt about Bomani—he had been the one to engineer her brother's death, and he had been the one responsible for getting her back home. It wasn't something she was inclined to thank him for, but she needed his knowledge and expertise. Still, it was easier dealing with Masud, who was being groomed to take Bomani's place as clan counselor. She didn't have any weird baggage when it came to him.
"Remarkably so. There have been a small number of incursions in the outlying areas, but these have been tentative and the hyenas have broken off quickly once they've sensed our presence."
She gave the two older wereleopards a look that indicated how little she believed that. "Thoughts?" Kess had her own ideas about what Samara might be up to but she wanted to hear what her counselors had to say.
"She's planning something." Masud walked over to look out the window. "She's biding her time."
"For what?" Bomani prompted, although he looked at Kess as if he knew the answer.
Rafe. The thought flickered through her head, but she refused to give voice to it. He hadn't done anything that indicated he was in contact with his mother; Kess got the bill for his cell phone so she'd see if he were calling Samara. And he never left the house unattended to be able to arrange for a meeting. "She's cautious. She came out badly the last time she tried to be sly. She's not going to make that mistake again."
"Full on assault." Masud turned from his perusal of the lawn. Kess nodded.
Bomani agreed. "She's marshaling her forces. She'll attack when she thinks she has enough hyenas that she can't lose."
"We can't fight the numbers that she can bring." Masud looked at Kess.
"Do we have a count?"
Bomani shook his head. "A rough estimate at best and that is probably out of date now." He paused, as though debating if he should put sound to his next thought. "But we have access to someone who may know more."
Kess cocked her head, thinking about what the older wereleopard was suggesting. She'd told Rafe that she wasn't going to press him for details about his mother or her plans and she didn't want to. But she owed it to her clan to do everything she could to protect them. She wasn't sure how to balance both. She was gaining a new respect for Alaric—if this was what being an Alpha was like--even if her clan didn't call her that--she didn't know how he did it. How were you supposed to balance your own personal promises with what was best for the clan?
Kess avoided answering Bomani's unspoken question. "We're going to need to have a meeting with everyone."
The clan counselor frowned, but held his tongue. There was a lot he clearly didn't agree with her on, but he did respect her authority. At least until he felt the need to put a hit out on her, like he did her brother, she thought sourly. "We can't do it here. Find one of the clan who's willing to host. I don’t want to risk anyone overhearing something they shouldn't." She looked at Bomani when she said this.
He bowed his head in acknowledgement, content to let the matter rest. Masud said, "I'll set it up. Is there anything else you need?"
"No. Just the meeting. Thank you." She watched as the two men filed out, then lowered herself into the chair behind the desk. Kess wondered, and not for the first time, what she'd gotten herself into.
**********
Kess waited for the guys to get settled. They were all in the library which had turned into their default meeting area since they'd been here. She didn't like meeting in the office; it felt way too formal and it never really felt like hers anyway. There were too many reminders of her brother and her father for her to feel comfortable there. She needed to redecorate it into something more uniquely hers, but that would have to wait until after she'd dealt with the hyena threat.