Hyena Moon, page 4
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.
Chapter Seven
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.
Cormac sat in the chair closest to hers, while Finn slumped into a wingback across the room. Kess tucked her feet underneath her, knowing that she probably would be pacing before too long. Movement helped her think.
"So what's up? I'm missing quality pool time." Finn's voice was lazy, but Kess noticed his eyes were alert. He may feign indifference, but Kess had learned that not much got past Finn if he didn't want it to.
"Sorry to disturb your plans for the day," she began, "but I need your big brains to help me figure some things out."
Cormac was leaning forward, forearms braced against his knees. "Let's hear it."
She took a deep breath. "I've been thinking a lot about the problem with the borders here in Miami and the more I think about it, the more I realize that it's stupid to try and keep everyone out." She paused, waiting for either of them to say something. When they didn't, she plowed on. "So what if I just stop trying?"
She looked at each of them in turn. Cormac looked thoughtful, as if this were a particularly knotty word problem on a test he had to solve. Finn's brows were drawn down in a half-scowl, like he was trying to make sense of what she was proposing. "Stop trying to do what exactly?"
"Stop trying to keep the borders secure. What if I just open Miami up to any were interested in coming here?" Kess got up from her chair and began her circuit around the room. She found it hard to sit still when they were going to end up discussing the future of her people.
She saw Cormac's eyes following her progress. "What will that mean for you and your clan?"
That was the problem. "I'm not sure. I haven't figured that part out yet. But we can't keep going like we are. We--as a clan--aren't big enough and Miami is way too large to keep track of every inch of it on a given day." She stopped to meet his eyes. "I've got to figure out something that will work. And it looks like opening the borders is the only way."
Finn spoke up, also leaning forward, his stance a mimic of his cousin's. "What would you do about Samara? You can't open the borders while she's around. That's just asking her to swarm in here and take over."
Kess nodded. "I know that. Let's face it, I can't just let her continue to send her raiding parties in here, and I know she won't rest until all my clan is dead and she's got the city for herself." Cormac and Finn nodded. She resumed her pacing again, running her fingers through her hair. "Let's take that off the table for right now. We're talking about what happens after I deal with her."
Cormac was frowning. "Okay, so hypothetically, Samara is out of the picture somehow. Miami is all yours." He paused and picked at his shorts."Then what?"
"Exactly. That's my point." Kess shrugged. "Your thoughts?" She looked from one to the other.
Cormac was looking down at his hands, or maybe the carpet at his feet, as though he could divine answers there. Finn was lounging in the chair, head back. She stopped her pacing and leaned a hip against one of the empty chairs in the room, her arms folded across her chest. Here's where she ran into problems and this was why she'd wanted to talk to Finn and Cormac. Maybe a brainstorming session with brains other than hers would be more effective.
Cormac spoke slowly, thinking out loud. "So the idea is that you'd open the borders. How do you plan to monitor everybody that comes in? Are you going to require that they report to you upon entry into the city? How do you enforce it?"
"Yeah," Finn piped in, eyes flicking back and forth between the two of them. "A bunch of strange weres in town could cause a lot of problems, especially if they think no one is going to police them. You could have a much bigger problem on your hands."
Kess chewed the side of her lip thoughtfully. She knew that most weres were concerned about their anonymity and that they would be circumspect in both their hunting and in hiding what they were. But what about the ones who weren't? "We've got that problem now with Samara. I don't know when her hyenas come and go. If they wanted to, they could cause no end of problems. We're lucky we've got safeguards. You guys saw how we handled those hyenas when Laila was here."
The last time Samara was in Miami, Finn and Laila had been kidnapped at gunpoint when they were on the beach late at night by a bunch of her werehyenas. Laila and Finn had managed to escape, but they'd left a bloody mess of bodies--some human, some hyena. Kess had the number for Sek's old cleaning crew on speed dial since that night to make sure any signs of were-activity were swiftly erased.
"So you've got some methods in place already," Cormac offered. Then he spread his hands out in front of him. "How are you going to handle pack law?"
"Come again?" Kess started another circuit around the room.
"Right now it's easy to deal with were problems--they're either your clan or they're interlopers. The interlopers know the rules about coming into your territory so they know the punishment and accept the risk. And your clan knows the punishment for stepping out of line. You can control both of those things. But you get some strangers in here--let's say a couple of wolves, maybe a bear, some more cats--and how are you going to enforce the rules? It isn't like there's one pack that they could all belong to. Hell, how are you even going to get the rules out there for them to know what they are?"
Kess resisted the urge to tear her hair out in frustration. This was what was driving her nuts; all of these what ifs and how will yous were enough to make her want to run away as fast and as far as she could. Unfortunately, she didn't have that luxury anymore. It was almost easier when Sekhmet had been chasing her. She never wanted to go back to that time in her life--the fear, the running, the upheaval--but at least he took care of the clan. Now there was no one but her to do it.
"And you can't assume that everyone is just going to get along," Cormac continued. He got up to pace too, so Kess altered her own route to make room for his. "You could have were conflict just because different species are trying to share territory."
"We've got three different species sharing a roof right now and we seem able to get along."
Finn stretched hugely. "That's because we all knew each other beforehand. We're friends. Well, except for Rafe. He's a late addition. But he's not real into conflict from everything I've seen." He paused, and then asked, "And where is Bro 2.0?"
