Page 112 of Not Your Ordinary Shifter

Nico pulled up to the parking lot of the Sheriff’s Department and stopped next to Johnathan’s motorcycle. He got out,thanked the deputy for the ride, then grabbed his helmet and donned the blacked-out safety device. He loved his bike, because in the dead of night, he could turn off everything on his motorcycle and no one would see him. Plus, he had exceptional sight at night.

He started the beast up, revving the engine a few times before dropping the bike into first gear. Jerome and Annabelle didn’t live far from the duplexes Rapier built the first couple of years he set down roots in Window Rock. He was so good at what he did. Even ten or fifteen years into those buildings being built, they still looked brand new. Then again, maybe he was biased because he too lived in one.

Johnathan followed Main Street to Tully Lane not far from the cul-de-sac he lived on and turned right. Three miles out toward the desert was a lone homestead. The house was a simple ranch-style house with an attached garage. Johnathan slowed as he got closer, doing a cursory look around the property. When he saw nothing, he pulled into the driveway and started his investigation.

If anything, or anyone had been out there, he’d find them.

The easiest way to search was to start away from the property and work back to the house. It might take a few hours, but at least he’d cover all his bases and have a sense of where the animal or person went. As he stepped around the corner of the white privacy fence, he noticed something so small, he didn’t believe anyone else would have caught it. Johnathan couldn’t say whether it was due to the time of day or if he’d been at the right distance to catch the flutter of the object caught on a piece of bramble twenty feet from where he stood. But now that he saw it, he had to grab it. After all, it could be his first clue.

He unlocked the seat of his bike and grabbed an evidence bag and his kit along with his magnified glasses. It wasn’t that hares didn’t have great eyesight, he did. However, he could only lock inon the object when he was less than twenty feet away. Anything beyond his target field of sight, the clarity sometimes faded. So, he had glasses custom-made for his eyes. They came in handy on many occasions, like now.

He stalked toward where he saw the flutter of the article and bent down after putting the glasses on. There undulating in the breeze was a mat of fur. The reddish-russet colored fur was coarse, thicker than his pelt. It didn’t smell like a wolf or any other canine he knew, nor feline either. Vulpes came to mind, but he wasn’t sure even then. They did have foxes in the area, but none of them true foxes. Still, vulpes would explain the whistle noise everyone heard. Sadly, when he processed the smell through his olfactory, the odor of fox didn’t emanate from the fur either.

But as he put the fur to his nose, inhaling for the second time, the hint of a familiar scent hit his senses, reminding him of a time not long ago. He sniffed again. No one with fur that red or that coarse had been with him when he traveled to China. Nor had anyone he saved smelled like the perfume coming off the evidence. Yet, the petrichor of the sounding mountains. The misting rains. The low-clinging clouds and the dirt and mud... He knew that place so well. He’d never forget it. Not after everything he and Maxine endured during that operation.

Instead of trying to figure out what or who the fur belonged to, he bagged the evidence and continued his walk, around the property to see if he could find anything else. When the streetlights in town started to come on, he gave up for the day. He’d bring the evidence back to Kalkin and let Annabelle know they weren’t crazy. Something had been outside their home.

What it was or how it got there...

That was the next question Johnathan would figure out.

Chapter

Two

Luka Novikov stood in the middle of the desert on the outskirts of Window Rock, Arizona, lost and worried about his little brother. He’d spent the better part of three days, crisscrossing the vast nothingness, trying to find Ilariy. His family hadn’t been in the United States long. It’d taken six months from the moment they left their home in the Irkut River basin, in the southernmost part of Siberia, until their arrival in the United States.

They’d smuggled themselves upon a ship in Bangladesh and when they arrived at the port of Los Angeles, his parents declared political asylum. As dhole, they were extremely rare, almost extinct shifters. They were so rare in fact, poaching them for their pelts, brought in millions of dollars to the illegal fur trade on the black market. Which caused them to live a life of constant running and trying to hide in place that hadn’t been shifter friendly.

His parents chose Window Rock after seeing several different news articles from the Alpha, Kalkin Raferty. There was no way to know how new the reports were or if, when they arrived, he’d still be alive. But they took their chances. They lived in an abandoned home not far from the center of town, with norunning water or electricity. His parents had worked hard to stay on the outskirts, to keep themselves hidden. They’d also wanted Luka and Ilariy to do the same.

Ilariy, however, wanted to go to school with the other children, especially after seeing the groups of children of all ages laughing and carrying on as they headed to school—which was why Luka was looking for him. Ilariy left early in the morning, before the sun came up, three days ago and never returned. His parents thought perhaps he’d gotten lost and sent Luka to find him. Then bring him back home. Unfortunately for them, that wasn’t the case. Between his parents and himself they’d traveled miles looking for his brother and now...

They stood at a crossroads.

Luka could go to the sheriff and ask for help or...he didn’t know what. At twenty-four, he was ten years older than his brother. They’d spent most of his life hiding from outsiders. He didn’t get to experience life before the poachers. Ilariy thought because he was in the US he could be free, but his parents still led with fear, until proven otherwise.

“Fuck it,” he said. Luka’s parents might not want him traveling into town, but after three days of searching day and night for his brother, with nothing to show for their efforts, Luka couldn’t wait any longer. If his parents got mad at him, so be it. They were supposed to be in a safe town. Why not test the theory?

He followed the dirt road, only a mile from the center of Window Rock, shoving his hands into his pockets. Immigration and charities had given the clothes he wore to him. The bus they took to Arizona, provided to them by the state of California. The food in their bellies which waned over the last few weeks, his father and he hunted for at dusk. They’d been in the country for such a short period, not even the money the government gavefor newly registered shifters, had arrived in an account of their choosing.

Luka knew his appearance was poor. He needed to bathe better than in the creek. He was half-starved, shabby in appearance, but his brother was missing and that was more important than dirty clothes and a rumbling belly. As he crossed the threshold of the town, he stared at the people carrying on about their day, not paying attention to him or his appearance. Children played in a small park. Others yipped and barked, tumbling in their puppy forms. Big cats and cubs pounced on the grass, chasing butterflies and grasshoppers, like it was normal to be seen in their shifter forms. Mothers and fathers sat on benches laughing and talking to others, enjoying their afternoon.

The scene unfolding before him overwhelmed Luka. He’d seen nothing like it before. He continued along the path, hiding himself by ducking his head and watching the sidewalk in front of him. Conversations carried on all around him as he trekked through town. He inhaled, and the smells assailed him. Fried foods, baked goods, and fresh fruit permeated the air. His stomach rumbled, reminding him he’d only eaten a couple of quail eggs his mother found while he and his father had been out foraging before dawn and after they’d searched all night for Ilariy.

Window Rock, it seemed, was nothing like Irkut.

So caught up in his thoughts and enjoying the aromas dancing in the air, he hadn’t been paying much attention to his surroundings. If he couldn’t find the Alpha, someone in the town had to help him find his brother, right? He’d only heard good things about Window Rock. Seeing the place up close confirmed what he was told. They’d be safe there.

So focused on his mission to find the Alpha, he had paid no mind to where he was going. The scent of sage mixedwith milkweed and juniper assailed him seconds before a hand grabbed his arm. In the next breath he bumped into the hard press of something solid like a wall, but also soft and fleshy. Luka glanced up, thinking he’d run into a muscular person and was about to apologize, when he realized the guy stood a few inches shorter than him. He took in the man’s appearance and his dhole sat up, noticing him as well. The man was pretty. Shifter by the smell of him. Athletic build, but not overly built. Dark, sun-kissed skin glittered in the warm fall afternoon, drawing his attention back to the man’s face. His features were severe in a way, all harsh lines and deep-set eyes. Full lips and high cheekbones. Something inside Luka twisted. His dick twitched, hardening, as he continued to breathe in the perfume emanating from the guy.

“Sorry.” The sweet, earthy smell enveloped Luka, knotting his gut as he continued to draw the heady mixture into his senses. Was it coming from the guy who stared at him with such curious blue-gray eyes? “Didn’t pay attention to where I was going.”

The guy inhaled, tilting his head. The curious look he gave Luka made him doubt his decision to walk into town for help. The grip on his arm tightened, surprising him with the ferocity of the man’s touch. “You’re new.”

He liked the guy’s voice. Deep, though not aggressively so. His accent wasn’t as pronounced as Luka’s, but he could tell the man wasn’t from the states either. “Very. Only a couple of weeks.”

“You seem lost.” The man released him, yet didn’t take his eyes off Luka. “What are you looking for?” There’d been no malice in his tone, only open curiosity and an eagerness to help him.

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