Authors: Lucy Kelly
“The sisters were worried their sons weren’t strong enough to control the beast within. They needed the gentle touch of a woman to hold onto their humanity. So the sisters found human mates for their sons. It’s said that all shifters are descended from those sons and their mates.”
“What happened to the three sisters, the changelings?” Laura wanted to know. This was close to her dream and she was a little freaked out.
“Supposedly, they returned to their realm. Sorry, that’s the whole myth,” Mara said.
Laura took a few more bites of her sandwich as she tried to mesh what Mara had told her with the dream she’d had the night before.
“Next question…mates. How do you know when you’ve met your mate?”
“Our inner beast knows by the scent. Sometimes it takes our human half a little longer. Next question.”
“What about the whole biting thing. In the romances I’ve read the mated pair is always biting each other to lay claim,” Laura wanted to know.
“Ouch, totally false,” Mara laughed. “How easy it would be to know who was a shifter if that were true! Just look for the bite mark scars on their necks! I don’t know about you but I like to have more fashion choices than that would allow.”
Laura thought for a moment, some of these questions might sound stupid, but that’s how you got answers.
“What about the full moon and silver?” she asked next.
Mara couldn’t help smiling. It only proved that shifters over the years had done a good job of hiding their identities.
“Gravity doesn’t really affect shifters either way. So the moon doesn’t force a shift or anything like that. A lot of shifters go for a run when there’s a full moon because it’s easier to see where you’re going. Unless you’re a cat shifter it’s hard to see in the dark. As for silver, that’s harder to answer. I mean if we get shot, it doesn’t really matter what the bullet is made of, it’s still going to make a hole. We do seem to have an allergy to the element of silver though. We get every kind of reaction from a mild rash to anaphylactic shock and death. So I guess you could say silver is an issue.”
Laura gave Mara a chance to eat while she thought of her next question. Once again she was amazed at her appetite. She usually didn’t eat this much. When it came down to it, she didn’t have that many more questions.
“Okay, here’s a big one. Can a human be changed into a shifter?” Laura asked.
“Short answer is no. Your DNA isn’t going to change just because you exchanged bodily fluids with someone. Longer answer, is that it does happen sometimes and we haven’t figured out why ourselves. Shifters have some magic in them, we are supernatural beings. It’s our inner magic handed down from the changelings, remember they came from another realm other than Earth; that helps us shift,” Mara said.
“So you do change your own DNA when you shift. How long does it take to shift from one form to another?”
“It depends on the shifter. A strong shifter, and by strong I mean magical and mental strength as well as physical strength, will shift faster than a weak shifter,” Mara explained. She hoped Laura got that, she couldn’t think of a better way to explain it.
“Last question…for now…what’s the truth about healing from wounds and longevity?”
“That’s two questions,” said Mara as she started to clear the dishes. Laura waved her to her seat and took the dishes from her hands.
“Part one on healing. It’s true that we can heal from almost any wound if we shift. Part of that is the rewriting of our DNA thing and part shifter magic I guess. We do have to be awake and aware to shift so if we get knocked out it is possible for us to bleed to death. Wounds are just as painful for shifters as they are for humans so we can go into shock. From a young age we’re taught to shift for any injury.” She could see that Laura had thought of another question but she wanted to answer these first.
“We do tend to be long lived. I believe that’s linked to our ability to shift. With our DNA resetting, our cells don’t degrade as quickly. I’m not a doctor or a scientist, I’m just happy it works. Average life expectancy is about two hundred years. At least it was, it seems to be growing longer as we become more civilized. There’s less fighting for position,” she clarified. “You had another question?”
“Yeah, how soon do you get your first shift?” Laura asked, turning on the dishwasher.
“That depends on the type of shifter and also on the strength of the shifter. But most don’t shift until after age six. There have been stories of babies shifting or younger children but I don’t know any personally. So, is that it?” Mara asked.
“For now,” Laura answered.
“Okay, then let’s go into your office. I shipped out all your underwear for our males to sniff. We need to go online and get you some new stuff. I like your taste in lingerie, maybe I’ll pick up a few things for myself.”
Laura stopped her chair. She sat staring at Mara as she walked down the hallway. “Hold it right there missy! You did what with my underwear?” she shouted. Mara laughed and Laura started wheeling her chair after her. Obviously she hadn’t asked the right questions! “You got some splaining to do, Lucy!” she called as she went along.
Chapter Eleven
When Marshall got home after the meeting he decided to place a call to Alexander Marasov, the North American Alpha. The information Laura had collected was explosive. The summer solstice was less than two months away. She was the only one that currently had the knowledge to prevent the massacre of hundreds of shifters. They needed to find her mate, he would delay the sentence dictated by shifter law as long as he could and he fully intended to request that Alexander grant her extra time if necessary. He leaned back in his office chair and thought over the meeting, what had been said and what hadn’t been.
One thing she had touched upon was that members of the government might already know shifters existed. He didn’t say anything at the time but this was something they already knew. Another thing that only the National council and a few key others knew was that about twenty years past—their most accurate seers spoke of the time when shifters were to be revealed to the world, the time was coming. Plans were made and had already been put in motion. After studying history and how other large social classes had fared, they organized a long-term plan to win over instead of horrify the human population.
A small first step was myth and literature. Shifters were no longer the monsters of the fifties B-movies. Now they were romantic leads. The current adult generation enjoyed reading the racy paranormal books they had started with a trickle and was now a flood. But while they enjoyed reading about shifters as a fantasy, they might not accept the reality. The next younger generation was growing up with the idea, and that was their focus group. The generation currently in their tweens and twenties would hopefully be their allies. So they wrote their books and movie scripts, continuing to paint shifters as they were, humans with an extra genetic twist. Now human authors had jumped in, creating separate mythologies and different social rules and cultural ideas. That was fine so long as shifters continued to be portrayed in a positive heroic light.
Next they would start to have their older and more controlled shifters begin to work their way into public office. They needed politicians they knew would fight for their rights. When the big reveal takes place, they hoped it would be similar to when gays came out in force. Some would stay in the closet and some would step into the light, pave the way for their brothers and sisters under the skin, or fur.
None of these plans were shared with Laura, she knew too much already. She stood on the knife’s edge. One side was acceptance and possibly a seat on the council—the other was death.
He made a mountain of a sandwich, grabbed a couple of beers and a bag of chips before heading back to his office to call. After dialing the number he leaned back in his chair sipping his beer. It was answered on the second ring.
“Marshall, I need your report, how did it go?” Alexander asked, seeing the caller ID.
“Very well or very bad, depending on your point of view, she’s got a shit pile of stuff on us, Bob. She also has a shit pile of stuff on the SS,” he said, not wanting to name the Shayatin or The Society on an open line, they were learning to be more careful. “She could bury us or save us, she says she wants to save us. I believe her and more importantly, so does Mara.”
“Are you watching her?”
“Yeah, Mara is staying with her along with a member of Hunter’s pack and a member of the local clowder. They were the same two that helped Laura get moved in, they’re taking shifts watching her too. She’s never alone, not even in her own house,” he explained. “Mara sent out scent packs this morning to all the North American council members and all of the larger shifter towns and packs. She seems to feel strongly that Laura is going to have a shifter mate.”
“I’m going to come out there. I need to see this data myself. It’s too great of a risk transporting it,” he said.
“I agree, when can I expect you?” Marshall asked, he’d need to prepare the local council and clans for the visit. The National Alpha only came out once or twice a year, he was very busy. At the same time, they had a short window before a decision had to be made about Laura. In general humans who knew about shifters were their enemies and were trying to kill them. So stopping them wasn’t any big moral dilemma. Others tended to suffer fatal accidents within a week of discovery. Shifter law was harsh and the penalties against the shifter who’d revealed their existence were just as harsh. They suffered the same fate as the human. It was one of the reasons they led such isolated lives. Shifter parents went to extreme lengths to teach their children about secrecy. No one wanted blood on their hands. Alexander Marasov was proud of the fact that no human had died for discovering shifters in over two hundred years. None of them wanted this young woman to be the human to break that record. It would also help a great deal when they did decide to reveal their existence.
“I’ll need two or three days to arrange things here,” he said, half to himself as he went over his schedule. “You can expect me Saturday or Sunday. I’ll call back when I know for sure.”
“Good, I’ll see you then.” Hanging up the phone, he went to tell his housekeeper to expect an important guest. He knew she would do everything necessary to make the Alpha welcomed and comfortable. The Alpha had mentioned things he needed to do to clear his time. It reminded Marshall he would also have to clear his desk. He went to his own office to get to work.
*****
Back at the house Laura was worried about her dream and she still had a lot of things to get set in place before she’d feel totally moved in. She decided to talk to Mara about it and get her opinion. It had only been one day but she felt a connection to Mara, she was Laura’s first girlfriend. Sure her parents had made sure she had play dates with other children when she was small, only after time her illnesses and her intelligence combined to set her apart and she found she didn’t have enough in common with those little girls. Mara was her first real girlfriend, at least she hoped she was and Mara wasn’t just humoring the human chick.
“Mara?” she called out, wheeling down the hallway from her room where she’d been resting after lunch. She was still getting used to being up in the day and sleeping at night.
“I’m in here, hon,” Mara answered from the living room. When Laura rolled in she saw Mara putting books onto the bookcase. Looking around she noticed Mara had done a lot more than that. Pictures of her family had been hung on the walls. Her digital frame was on one of the end tables. From the door she could see the changing images. Mara was helping her turn her house into a home.
“Oh wow, Mara, you didn’t have to do all this,” she said.
“I didn’t mind, this is fun. And Lola has been helping too.”
“Lola…who’s that?” Laura asked.
Mara laughed, “You’re the one that hired her. She said she’s your interior designer and housekeeper. She was a little hurt that we cleaned the kitchen. She wanted me to ask you if you wanted her to leave.”
“Oh, no I’d love for her to stay. I had told her that she could. Why didn’t she come and talk to me?”
“I’m not sure, she said something about you not being awake yet,” said Mara. What the little Kobold had said was that until Laura’s magic had awakened, she’d be unable to see Lola. It was true that humans rarely had enough magic to see many of the world’s supernatural beings, especially those that were mostly magic themselves or from other realms. When Laura mated to a shifter, she’d pick up some of his magic from the mating. That would allow her to participate in supernatural society.
“Well, I’m awake now. I’d like to thank her for all her hard work,” Laura said.
“I’m sure you’ll get the opportunity. But first, what did you call me for?” Mara asked, placing the last book on the shelf from that particular box. She began to break the box flat so it could be put in a stack with others that Laura could see at the end of one couch.
“I’m supposed to have therapy on my legs every day, or at least every other day. It helps me with a lot of issues. I have a list of physical therapists that are in this area. Most of them have experience with sports injuries. I was hoping you might know some of them and help me decide who I should try,” Laura explained. She was perfectly capable of evaluating and choosing a therapist on her own. She wanted Mara to be included in the decision because it was another way of letting the shifters know that she trusted them and that they could have input into her life—for the moment.
“Sure, I’d be happy to take a look. Do you have a list?”
“I have all the information in a file on the computer. Is now a good time to take a look?” she asked.
“Absolutely, let me ask Tom to take these boxes out to the recycle container. I’ll meet you in the office.”
Laura decided to stop by the kitchen first to get a glass of milk and an apple. Amazingly, she was hungry again. Rounding the corner she noticed there was a fire in the pizza oven she had added in one corner. The fireplace below looked a little strange, she hadn’t noticed before. Instead of the insert she had ordered, there was a little door. It was open a few inches.