Authors: Gina Marie Long
Daniel sat me up on the bed as he brought himself to a sitting position. He almost had a look of terror on his face. He had to expect this conversation at some point. We couldn't keep skirting the issue of our future and what it actually meant. And what decisions would have to be made. Choices. We couldn't be together, have a life together and live in denial of the facts. I'm human. Daniel is a werewolf. Those were the facts.
I was absolutely serious about wanting some answers from him. I made it clear by the look on my face that I wasn't being funny or making jokes. He kept staring at me. I'm sure he was debating back and forth in his head what to tell me. I let him have his privacy and did not invade his thoughts. And he seemed aware that I was allowing him this time.
He grabbed me, held me close to his chest, and sweetly whispered in my ear with absolute conviction, "Baby, if that is what you truly desire in your heart and soul, then yes, I give you my word, when you are ready, I will turn you into a werewolf."
Chapter 18
Eavesdropping
Daniel kept holding me tightly. I think he wasn't sure if I was about to ask him to bite me or not. Well, I wasn't planning any such endeavor at that moment. I just wanted to be clear on his stand, his feelings, about that issue. If I came to him and requested he turn me into a werewolf, I wanted to know in advance that he would go through with it for me. That he wouldn't pitch a fit and argue over the situation. I knew he was terrified and shocked with my bluntness on the subject. In fact, I wasn't sure if he was going to ease up on hugging me or squeeze all the air out of my lungs.
"Daniel, relax," I attempted to calm him verbally instead of entering his mind. I pushed at his chest. "I am not making any split second decisions right now. I only wanted to know if you honestly would turn me if I asked you to. And you forgot to answer one of my questions..."
He reviewed in his mind what I had previously asked him. It was the very first question of my rantings. He smiled mischievously and said, "If you are the same as I am, a werewolf, I would
not
have to be so careful and cautious with you. You, too, would have all the abilities and attributes that I possess. I am including the animal side of being a werewolf: strength, speed, immortality, super healing powers, heightened senses. I would have to help you learn how to control the beast that would reside within you, depending on what we're doing at the time. If we are both werewolves, it is highly unlikely we could cause any real harm to each other in the act of passion. Now, on the flip side, if you got really, really mad at me for not taking out the trash or picking my clothes up off the floor, that's a different story in itself. You could probably do some physical damage to me, as Cassius did." He laughed.
"I can see many advantages in choosing to convert, Daniel," I seductively smiled as I ran my hand over his chest and settled down by his side. "And, I can understand the disadvantages, too."
Daniel and I were reclined back on the huge, supportive pillows propped against the headboard. We behaved ourselves, and simply relished being in the company of each other. It was late in the evening, around 11:00. The others were probably worried about me, wondering why I hadn't come back to the cabin yet. They should know that if Daniel and I were together, I would be safe, protected by him. But since he was a werewolf, I'm positive they held some fear
for
my safety, even though Daniel was one of the good guys.
I felt a tiny thud at my mind, not in my mind, but at it, like a little "knock, knock". Dominic. He was checking in on me, but trying to do so mildly, without completely invading my privacy. He wanted to make that mental contact to ensure that I wasn't in any trouble. At first, I was aggravated that he was being nosy again, but it was late, and I thought it would be polite and respectful to alleviate his concerns.
Yes, Dom, I know you're there. I am fine,
I had opened up my mind freely to him.
He responded with relief,
What are you doing? It's late. Don't you think you should be back at the cabin by now?
Great. He was reenacting the role of a father figure. Again. Or that of a would-be boyfriend.
I am with Daniel, as I'm sure you already know. We are watching TV and talking about things. I swear to you, that's all. I'll be back at the cabin before the clock strikes midnight. Hmm, was that in Cinderella?
I don't know! I'm just concerned about you and I can guess what the two of you have been discussing. That's all.
He sounded a little depressed. Poor Dom.
I'll be paying attention to whether you get back on time.
With that, he drifted out of my mind, breaking the connection.
Daniel sensed my distraction by how quiet I had become during those moments Dom and I were mentally talking. With Daniel's light psychic ability, and our close emotional ties to each other, he could put two and two together. Daniel may not have been able to totally read my mind all of the time, but could pick up enough emotions, sensations, and partial images that led him to the conclusion it was Dom speaking to me.
"Let me take a wild guess. Dominic?" Daniel laughed, rolling his eyes upward.
I answered, "Yes, he was worried about me and wondering when I was going to return to the cabin. I would love to just stay here, sleeping next to you all night, Daniel. Just sleep. Nothing else that could make you flip out, although you do seem to have your emotions controlled rather well tonight. I'm impressed. Regardless, to be thoughtful of my team, I should go back to the cabin. I told Dom I'd be back by midnight."
Daniel sat up on the edge of the bed, nodding his head in agreement. I was gazing at his back as he reached for his shirt. The muscles rippled in his biceps and forearms as the shirt was pulled on over his head and down over his powerful torso. He turned and looked at me.
"What?" He innocently said as if he had no clue at all as to why I became so silent. Why my eyes were glazed over with lust and a tremendous amount of love for him.
I threw a pillow at him. "You know what. Don't give me that, 'I didn't do anything' look of yours!"
He reached for my leg and dragged me across the bed. He politely bopped me upside the head with the pillow I had thrown at him. It was all out war now. I nabbed that pillow back up and before I could take a swing at him with it, he tackled me backwards on the bed. He had my arms above my head and the pillow had gone flying across the room. I tried to wrestle my way free. Then he had to show-off. He used just one of his giant hands to hold my arms in place, still above my head. His body was possessively covering my body, firmly but carefully, so as not to crush me. I couldn't budge an inch. To top it off, he faked a yawn, as if this was no exertion on his part whatsoever. So unfair and I was very vulnerable in this position...but I loved every minute of it.
Instead of wrestling to break free, I would use my latest technique of distraction. Since his face was only inches from mine, I leaned up and started to kiss him. I felt many things shift their positions at that point, which included his hand losing its grip on my wrists. I made my move, my attempt, to win this wrestling match. I quickly slipped my arms down to his waist in hopes he was ticklish. Daniel started to smile as he kept kissing me and squirmed around from my tickling, breaking lip contact. As fast as humanly possible, I grabbed at his waist, wrapped a leg around his body, and with all my strength rolled him over so I had the dominant position on top of him.
"Ha! Victory!" I barely got the words out of my mouth when the next thing I knew I was on my back again and he was on top. It was a blur – it happened so fast. I was stunned with his superhuman speed. I didn't even have a chance to realize what was happening to me until it was over. I think I blinked once.
He grinned down at me. "No, baby, I think you're mistaken. The victory is mine."
"Yeah, yeah. You win this time. Look, we better get going. It's close to midnight and Dominic will have a temper tantrum if I'm not back at the time I promised. I'm assuming you'll be a gentleman and walk me back to my cabin, right?"
"Of course! You think I'd let you walk around in the dark with a crazed werewolf on the loose?" Daniel was totally serious with that statement.
And that reminded me...I should have sought out Stephen's mind that evening. Maybe Dominic had already done so. To just lightly touch at Stephen to make sure he wasn't up to something terrible. Sometimes I could completely forget about the psychic stuff I was capable of doing. Daniel and I could have attempted this together. I told him my thoughts on this and he said he would at least do a perimeter check on the resort before going to bed. He would explain what he meant by that after he dropped me off at the cabin.
We headed back to the main office first where I had placed all my birthday gifts for safekeeping. Daniel helped me carry some of the items. I again thanked him for the beautiful necklace and let him know how much it meant to me. He walked me to the cabin, gave me a long kiss and hug, and handed me the gifts he had helped carry.
We were still ahead of the midnight deadline I had promised Dominic by about ten minutes. Daniel explained he was going to do a quick patrol of the resort's perimeter. He would use his senses to try to detect anything out of the ordinary, which meant Stephen. Daniel told me to stay on the safety of the lighted porch but to watch him as he walked off the edge of the sidewalk onto the grass and out of any direct lighting. I about melted with his next action. He was only twenty feet away and started to strip off all of his clothes. He was somewhat in the shadows, standing next to a tree, but the moon was bright enough to make him quite visible to my eyes.
In the next instant, he had transformed into that silky, black, majestic werewolf. It was incredible. He took a few steps in my direction. I laid my gifts down and walked to the very corner of the porch. He requested that I not leave the porch area, and so I sat down on the porch step. Daniel accepted my invitation as I reached my hands out to him as I would a dog. He padded over to me and placed his head on my lap, looking up into my eyes. I ran my hand over his head and down the length of his back. I rubbed behind his ears, and his eyes went half closed. I knew he enjoyed what I was doing. I gave him a quick, playful kiss on his nose and the top of his head. He rubbed his head one last time against my leg, and off he trotted into the woods. How absolutely cool.
I knew I had to get inside before Dominic came storming out to look for me. Sure enough, by the time I made it into my room, he was standing in my door frame. He was wide awake and waiting up for me. I tried to keep the conversation light, as I was tired and it was now midnight. He finally walked away and went to bed, wishing me happy birthday one last time. And what a birthday it was!
* * * *
The next morning, Zac and Tessa dressed the part of hunters, and drove over to Simon and Stephen's general area. Since the two locations were not that far apart, they would keep surveillance on both throughout the day. Daniel's sister, Rebecca, and brother, Isaac, came by to visit and check on any progress or developments with Stephen. Between Daniel, Dominic and me, we were able to bring them up to speed on Stephen's situation.
Rebecca reinforced what she had told us a few days earlier. At least two people would have to be in agreement that Stephen had totally turned evil before disposing of him. She didn't want one person to just carelessly make a snap decision and take it upon himself to kill him. I specifically told her that Stephen was definitely aggressive, wild, out of control, but not necessarily evil. He had a chance to kill me and chose not to. And when Cassius and Daniel fought, Stephen held back and did not join in the fight. We think he knew that we weren't going to take any dirt from him, especially after the earlier incident when Zac shot him in the shoulder. Daniel felt that if he was in the vicinity of Stephen, close enough to read him, then he needed to be one of the two people to determine Stephen's fate.
Rebecca seemed relieved to hear all of this. We weren't making it sound like we had to hunt and kill Stephen. There was a good chance he could be saved. Daniel informed Isaac to be on alert if we called for his help. In fact, Eli had recommended that strategically, within a day, we should seek out Stephen, capture him if need be, and have an intervention with him. Isaac reminded us, not that we needed to be reminded, that Stephen wasn't going to be too thrilled about our hunting him.
Between the psychic capabilities of myself and Dominic, and the power and brute strength of Daniel and Isaac combined, we had a fair chance of making this work. We had to try to save Stephen from the dark side. If he chose that path, it would ultimately lead to his death. And if he had turned evil, how many violent crimes would he commit in the interim before we could capture and kill him? Of course, it hadn't come to that yet. He hadn't gone on a killing spree. Another reason we had to intervene was for the sake of keeping the existence of werewolves a secret from society. Stephen and Cassius had drawn too much attention to this area with their antics. They had already risked their exposure too frequently.
The group meeting, minus Zac and Tessa, started to fizzle. Rebecca and Abigail wandered off together, whispering back and forth in some deep conversation. I happened to sense from Abigail feelings of weariness, sadness and fear. It never occurred to me to try reading her mind. There was never a need for it. She suddenly saw me staring at her, gave me a big smile, and then she and Rebecca disappeared around the corner. I thought of dropping into one of their minds to see what was up, but Isaac distracted me as he started talking.
"Hey, I heard you turned 21! Happy belated birthday, Kara! Sorry I missed it, but my brother didn't bother to inform me until today."
I gushed, "Thanks, Isaac. Did you hear what everyone gave me for presents? I'm still freaking out from it all. And look what Daniel gave me!" I held up the necklace that I wore so proudly.