Whoever was coming towards me was radiating power. Flaunting it. I understood how it was done, so I let my own power flare for a short moment and then masked it again. I wanted them to know that I wasn’t intimidated. Well, not scared anyway. Okay, not terrified then.

  I figured it worked the same as it always did – flexing the muscles to show strength. Not that flexing the muscles was any real indication of strength, but that seemed to be how both human and supernatural society worked.

  Then a woman walked out from the trees. She was muscular and fit, smartly dressed. A classy outfit. She looked like she was in her thirties. At least she didn’t have a long leather coat. She walked with the absolute confidence of a top predator.

  “With what right do you hunt here?” She asked harshly.

  I looked at her and shrugged. “None, but then I do not hunt. I’m merely defending myself. If that’s not permitted, then that’s too bad.”

  I didn’t challenge her in any way. Not with voice or movement. Why start a fight when you don’t have to. And everything she told me would allow me to understand more of this world I had joined.

  She looked at the two weres I had shot. She knelt down beside the wolfman I had shot in the face and with a finger she wiped up some blood and tasted it. “Hmm… have you run afoul of Derek?”

  “You might say that.” I agreed. I watched with fascination as the last wolfman slowly turned human.

  “That still doesn’t make it right, that you bring this into a preserve. I decide who hunts or not in this city! I’m Prime Guardian here. I make sure no incidents like this occur. If I hadn’t strengthen the barrier, the humans might have noticed. So how will you make amends?” She looked at me with piercing eyes. The color of her eyes threw me off. They were a pale, pale grey, bordering on white, and the shimmered as she spoke.

  “I’m not.” I answered.

  “And why is that?” She moved closer. I noticed that she, like Gemini, had very little scent. And, as with Gemini, what little I could smell, smelled of flowers.

  The thought of Gemini made me less tense. Perhaps because as soon as I thought of Gemini, every other thought disappeared. I didn’t understand it, but I wanted Gemini with a fire that even a fight with weres couldn’t erase. She was driving me nuts. And just the thought of her made me horny. It’s very hard to be fearful and horny at the same time. Embarrassed was no problem though. “Because if you want reparations, you take it up with Dominic or Gemini. I’m not going to pay up for defending myself. It might be your park, lady, but it’s my life.” I took a relaxed step towards her.

  “Ahh,” she whispered with a voice that seemed to come from everywhere, “you’re not afraid of me? How quaint.” She walked around me sizing me up.

  It never occurred to me to really be afraid. I knew she was powerful, definitely more powerful than me, but I believed she was just trying to see how far she could push me. It was something in her stance and tone that told me that.

  I guess I was betting my life on it.

  “Why should I be? I’ve may have trespassed, but aside from that you cannot fault me for defending myself.” I suppressed a shiver as I felt her breath on my neck.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Can I not?” I noticed that she smelled of lavender. Faint, but recognizable.

  “You can, but that wouldn’t be nice.” I smiled at her without showing teeth. I didn’t know what she was, so I decided to err on the side of caution. Because while I wasn’t afraid, this lady was definitely someone to be cautious of. And with lady, I mean it like old royalty or nobility. She had that air around her.

  “Now to the big question, my dear; who are you?” She was still standing behind me.

  “I am Maria Smith.” I answered, knowing instinctively that it wouldn’t be a good idea to lie to her.

  “An unassuming name, but yours I sense...what are you then? You have the smell of Breed, but it seems old and faint. It doesn’t really give anything away.” Her tongue licked the back of my neck and goose bumps rose all over my body.

  “I’m a shifter with a unique ability to mask my scent. I have never met anyone else like me, and I don’t really think there is one. It’s a freak thing.” It was more freakish than she would ever know.

  “Again, you speak the truth, but there is something else about you. You’re dominant, but not aggressive. If you are a shifter, you’re an extremely powerful one. But you’re not challenging me or trying for dominance... You let one run away, even though he tried to kill you. Why?”

  I scratched my head, trying to think of how to explain it. I knew too little to bullshit her, and I wasn’t about tell her I was a mimic. If she knew already, she hadn’t said anything so I would just leave it out of the explanation. Now, how to answer all her questions, without giving too much away?

  “Hmm, well…as I said, I’m an oddball, freakish I’ve been told, but I’ve always believed that you control what you are if your will is strong enough. Sort of.” I was trying to explain to her as well as to myself why I was so damn single-minded. “I will not give in to what I think is stupidity. I will not react without thought, because it will get you killed.”

  “And the one you let go?” She asked, scratching me lightly with a nail at the base of my scull. It was a threat.

  I shivered again. “Well…he was weak. Why kill something weak if you’re not going to eat it?”

  She laughed at that. “So you’re running errands for the A’Kurios, the Outsiders?”

  “Let us just say that my doings and their errands have the same goal.” I relaxed and rubbed my eyes.

  I got a flashback from Freaky Fred’s visit as she stepped in front of me and cocked her head to the side, in the same manner Freaky Fred had. “And that would be?”

  “Why whould I tell you?” I asked.

  “My my…” she muttered almost to herself. “You must be young. I will keep your secrets, my word on that, but you have to tell me.”

  She said it such dignity that I believed her word was more worth to her than anything else. There was something very compelling about her, something I responded to on a subconscious level, but I had no idea what it was. Perhaps I could ask Gemini later. If I could find her.

  “I took a Blood-Oath! The Mael Derek and four of his pack are dust for killing what was not theirs to kill. I will take them down!” I had tried to say it in normal tone of voice, but it came out as a growl.

  The woman didn’t even move. No sign that she even thought I could be threat and perhaps I wasn’t.

  She just looked at me for a very long time, standing absolutely still. “Hmm…you tell Gemeret to visit me some time. I’ve not seen her for many years,“ she said walking back from whence she came. “And you may hunt in Chicago, but I still want some reparations for the trespassing!”

  “As you wish, lady.” I answered.

  “It’s Nahanha, Maria Smith.”

  “As you wish, Nahanha.” I said.

  “Who said that good manners are no more…Oh, and do take out the trash.” Nahanha’s faint voice called out.

  “I bet everyone is nice to you, Nahanha.” I muttered to myself.

  “Of course they are, Maria Smith.” A voice in my head answered.

  “Shit!” I almost jumped out of my skin in surprise. Like a scared rabbit, I was two meters up in the air before I realized I was scared.

  I could feel Nahanha’s soft laughter, even though I couldn’t hear it. That was a surprise I could have done without. Telepathic and powerful – I had better be nice to her.

  Suddenly another thing made sense – that parks were guarded and bystanders herded away. Otherwise there would have been many more stories about monsters and wild animals running loose. As there were, there were quite a lot of those stories anyways. I had always looked at those stories as urban myths, but now I was sure that most of them were true and that many of them hid worse things.

  Like the two almost dead guys lying on the gravel behind me.

  It was time to tidy up.