Alpha's Solace (Black Moon Saga Book 1)

Strange Bedfellows

Kieran wakes to find himself in the back yard of the Logans’ house in town, before realizing that he is dreaming once again. He turns his head to the side where he knows he will find his mate as this is the same scene they’ve been dreaming together every night. He is excited to see that sure enough, Kylie is right beside him and smiling to see him as well, but as he tries to get a closer look at her she shifts into the form of a wolf, the same wolf as pictured in her shoulder tattoo. She doesn’t shift in the same way as a werewolf shifts from human form to wolf form. Instead, she seems to phase in and out, at once a human and in the next moment a wolf. This phasing back and forth goes on for a few seconds while Kieran looks on in wonder, before finally the wolf form stabilizes, and he can feel a mind-link opening between them.

 ‘Good morning, Kieran,’ the wolf greets him, her voice distinctly different from Kylie’s, coming to him in a deeper, velvety tone with a purr to it. ‘I’m so glad to see you. I’ve missed you.’

‘You have?’ he returns in his deep, gruff voice.

Kylie is puzzled as to why he would think she doesn’t miss hanging out with him, but laughs and reassures him, ‘of course. You’re my favorite and it always puts me in a good mood when we get to spend time together. Being able to talk to you is even better.’

Kieran just blinks at her for a moment, trying to make sense of what exactly is going on. The last thing she said sounded like Kylie, but she still looks like the wolf. But then he remembers this is some weird mate-bond dream and shakes it off. He nuzzles closer to what he assumes is still his mate and presses his nose into her fur. It’s actually nice imagining her as a wolf. It feels more natural to him.

‘Kieran,’ the velvety voice interrupts his thoughts, ‘Kylie doesn’t know I’m here. I’ve been trying but she’s too strong. I need your help, but I might only have a few seconds. She needs to …”

Kylie returns Kieran’s hug and when she looks to where their bodies meet, she realizes that her body is covered in fur. Then she looks down and realizes she is resting on her front paws, which are chocolaty brown and black. ‘Hey, do you see this?’ she asks him, but when she looks back up to where he was, she realizes that he has disappeared.

Adam opens his eyes and is greeted by the morning sunlight streaming through the window, as well as an intense demand from his bladder. He gently untangles himself from Kylie and carefully gets out of the bed, trying not to disturb her.

Hey! Kieran chimes in indignantly.

Good morning to you too, sunshine, Adam responds, amused, as he makes his way to the bathroom.

I was in the middle of what I think might have been an important dream, Kieran explains.

Sorry, nature called. Important how?

I think Kylie’s wolf is trying to communicate with me. She might only be able to do it when she’s sleeping.

Well, she’s still sleeping. Can’t you try to go back somehow?

I have no idea how this works, but maybe.

“Adam?” They hear Kylie call out from the bedroom.

Or maybe not, Kieran comments, annoyed.

“Bathroom,” Adam announces, wondering why she sounds concerned. They’ve been pretty inseparable since the first day here, but not to the extent that she should worry if he’s not there the moment she wakes. He hurries to finish and return to her in the bedroom.

She is out of the bed and searching through her luggage for a fresh shirt when he returns. She smiles when she sees him and sits on the bed. “Good morning!” she greets him cheerfully.

He returns her smile and her greeting. “Morning. I thought maybe something was wrong. Everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry about that. I just had this weird dream experience I wanted to tell you about. It’s probably because of our conversation last night, but I had another one of those dreams about Kieran, except this time I think I was a wolf too. I had paws!”

It’s true, Kieran interjects in confirmation. She looked just like the wolf in her tattoo.

Adam chuckles at her enthusiasm for being a wolf, wondering if it will carry through to when he tells her that she is one, and moves to help her with putting her shirt on. “You seem excited about those paws.”

“Well, they were pretty nice paws.” She is quiet for a moment, thinking and chewing her bottom lip, then asks, “Do you think those dreams will stop once you let Kieran out?”

He considers what she is thinking before responding. “I’m not sure. In the spirit of full disclosure, Kieran has those same dreams. We think it might actually be the two of you communicating during sleep, and I don’t think it has anything to do with whether he is able to see you in person, but I’ve also never heard of anything like that happening to werewolves before so I can’t say for certain. I’ve been thinking about asking my friend Gertie about it. She knows a lot more about werewolves than I do.”

“Oh, I remember Gertie. She makes the best cookies.”  Kylie smiles as she remembers the older woman that she used to go visit with Marc when they were kids. “So, I’m guessing she’s a werewolf too.”

“Yeah, honestly, pretty much everyone who lives in town is as well. It’s actually a place where humans can’t even go except in exceptionally rare circumstances.”

“Like me?”

“Yeah. You were the first any of us could remember being able to do that.” It occurs to him that that might not even be true, since Anya is fairly certain she is not human. “Actually, Kylie, there’s something I don’t know if I should tell you until Anya is able to confirm it beyond a doubt, but in my heart I know it’s true and I’m tired of all the secrets, so here goes.”

He sits beside her on the side of the bed and takes her hand in his, relishing for a moment the gentle tingles that even such a slight touch stirs throughout his body. “She isn’t just a holistic healer, though I suppose in a way that’s not untrue. She’s one of those other ‘beings’ I alluded to, and her craft uses magic. I know the word ‘magic’ probably means very little to you because of all the fiction out there about it, but suffice it to say for now that she can sense a lot of things about a person.” He hesitates, trying to figure out exactly how to word what he needs to tell her.

Kylie notices how uncomfortable this line of conversation is making Adam, so she squeezes his hand in reassurance and tries to catch his attention so she can look him in the eye. “I’m following you so far. Anya kind of explained herself a little bit to me, and I could tell there was more to it than what she felt comfortable saying, so just know I believe you. I felt what she was doing, and it wasn’t normal medicine. I trusted that you wouldn’t let someone have access to me if you didn’t trust them, though, so I kept an open mind and just let her do her thing. It made very little sense then, but it’s making more now, if that helps. Whatever else you have to tell me, just say it. I can take it.”

He smiles at her, grateful for the reassurance. “Well, one of the things she can sense is whether a person is human or something else. Usually, she can even tell what sort of something else a person might be, but sometimes there is some sort of influence that makes it difficult.” He takes a breath and continues. “She doesn’t think you’re human like we all thought for all these years. She thinks you’re a werewolf, but that something is blocking the wolf part of you.”

“Oh wow,” is Kylie’s only response for a moment. Adam stays quiet to let her process what he just told her, assessing her face and body language for what her reaction might be. He feels comforted that at least she hasn’t pulled her hand away from him, and she seems to be taking it better than the news from last night.

“Well, I just hope that my paws are at least as pretty as the ones in my dream,” she jokes to relieve the tension. He is relieved to see her humor return, but also senses that she is still troubled. “I still have so many questions, and it feels like each answer creates new questions.”

“Yeah, I can see that. I can’t imagine what you’re going through, having all this sprung on you like this. Most werewolves are born and raised that way, and we learn all of this gradually through the years. We thought you were human, though, and supernatural law prevents us from telling humans anything about any of us, no matter how much we desperately want to.”

Kylie can see the sincerity of that statement in his eyes and appreciates that he obviously wanted to tell her long before now. “That makes sense. People tend to hate what they don’t understand, so you have to protect yourselves.”

“Exactly,” he agrees, relieved that she doesn’t seem to be angry to have been kept in the dark and impressed that she intuitively understands the dilemma all supernaturals face. “Though, I’ve argued many times in the past that there should be some room to allow exceptions, like in your case. Everyone you know and love is a werewolf or supernatural of some sort. That’s a big ask to make all of us have to keep lying to your face and hiding who we really are for your whole life.”

“I don’t disagree. It must have been really hard, not just emotionally but also difficult to manage to go on living your lives and not accidentally slip up with something you said or did and risk me finding out that way.”

“Well, actually, we were terrible at it,” he chuckles to himself, remembering what an inquisitive youngster Kylie was. “Especially at first. You’re very observant. But there are rules and procedures for accidental exposure to a human we had to follow. You won’t like them.”

“Yikes,” she exclaims dramatically. “I can only imagine what those might be, which is why you should probably just tell me.”

He sighs, dreading how she will feel about memory interference. “Just remember I hate this part and would never have agreed to it if not forced to, but basically, whenever you started to get suspicious I had to alert our supernatural governing body, which we call ‘The Council,’ and they would send someone with special talents who would take you aside, figure out what you witnessed, and get rid of it.”

“Get rid of it?” She internally cringes, wondering what that could possibly mean.

He sighs again. “Yeah. Some people have this ability to connect with someone’s mind which can be used to go in and find the pertinent memories, and then remove or change them so that you had no idea you ever figured anything out.” He feels her stiffen slightly at this revelation. “I’m so sorry, Kylie.”

She looks down at the floor as she contemplates this a moment, then returns her gaze to his and gives his hand another gentle squeeze. “Yeah, I do hate that part, but I get why you had to do it. But If I understand the timeline of this, then you basically learned about me not being human yesterday and couldn’t even wait a whole day to tell me the truth, and you don’t know how much I appreciate that you value honesty that much.”

“Of course. Secrets and lies are how you hurt people and ruin relationships. Remember your falling out with Marc? That basically boils down to him not knowing how to tell you about all the werewolf developments going on in his life at that time. Becoming an adult is a pretty big deal for us, maybe even more than it is for humans, and it killed him to not be able to include you.”

She tilts her head back and closes her eyes as the full impact of the realization hits her. “Oh man. That makes so much sense. It was so weird how he suddenly pulled away from me. I feel so bad that he was going through things that he couldn’t share with his best friend, and I took it personally.”

He gives her hand a final squeeze before letting it go so he can put his arm around her shoulders instead, then leans his head against the top of hers. “You didn’t do anything wrong, though. There’s no way you could have understood what was really going on or felt any other way than you did about it. He knows that and understands it. I’m just glad you guys got the opportunity to reconcile finally.”

She exhales, again experiencing the relief of being on good terms with her best friend. “Me too. You don’t know how much.”

He decides to take advantage of the slight lull in their conversation, remembering that they only recently woke up and still haven’t made it out of the bedroom. “Listen, Kylie. I know you have tons more questions and I have lots more I want to tell you, but let’s go to the kitchen and get some breakfast. We can spend the rest of the day talking and take our time with all this. There’s no rush.”

“Sure, sounds good.” Her stomach rumbles in agreement just then, and they both laugh. “But don’t think I’ve forgotten that you promised me a wolf to cuddle with at some point.”

“Trust me, he won’t let me forget. Food first, cuddles later.”