The Mercenary Read online

  “While training I became aware that I am unique in my ‘other life’. I can change into two forms; neither tied to the moon. Some shifters can be both Lycan and Therian though it is rare. I am solely Therian and yet I can still become two different animals. None of my sisters can do this. They are either tiger or leopard, not both. My trainers had never come across a double Therian before. Nobody even knew it had been possible.

  “I learned that I’m faster than most at completing the change, and have an un-natural resistance to silver. It still poisons me, but I’m able to survive more than the average shifter. I know Eddie has already told you a few things, so before I continue, do you have any questions?”

  Danny paused but Jodie said nothing, she really wanted him to keep talking. No matter how many questions Jodie might have had, she finally felt as though she’d started to grasp the man that he was, and wanted to know everything he would willingly share.

  He massaged his brow as he considered how to proceed. “Jodie I’m just not sure you are ready for the next part. Once I tell you this, you won’t be able to un-learn the information and it’s not exactly my story to tell.”

  “That’s just what Eddie said!” She cried. “Please keep going, I have to know whatever it is you are trying to hide from me.”

  “It’s not what I am trying to hide from you, it’s what you are hiding from yourself,” he said carefully, turning in his seat so that he could grasp both her hands. Lifting his gaze, Danny looked her right in the eyes. “When I said that it was rare but possible for someone to be both a Lycan and a Therian, what I didn’t mention is that I know of a few. Your brother is one of them.”

  “What?” Jodie bellowed.

  “I knew that talking about this was a bad idea,” he muttered.

  “How could Luke be Therian?” She demanded hotly, choosing a defensive position. “Nobody in my family has ever changed into anything. Not until Luke became Lycan.”

  “Well it’s there,” Danny insisted. “He has it, and so do you.”

  Jodie hadn’t even thought of that. “No, you’re wrong. You have to be! I’m not Therian, I can’t be – I would know!”

  “Jodie,” he said, pity clouding his expression. “Why would I lie about something like this? You’re one of us honey, whether you want to be or not.”

  Looking at him at last, she could see in his eyes that he truly believed what he’d suggested. Is it really so far-fetched that I could be Therian? Tears welled up in her eyes and she blinked them away. I won’t cry, I won’t cry, damn it I won’t cry.

  “How could you possibly know this?” She turned her face away to hide the emotion.

  “Shifters smell different than humans. Some shifters, including me, can go a step further and smell the difference between Therians and Lycans. Luke smells of both but you only smell of Therian. It’s what drew me to you in the beginning. When I realized that you didn’t know, it intrigued me. I couldn’t understand how you could be like I am and not know about it.

  “So what am I then?” She drilled him, bitterness creeping into her voice. Looking down at her hands clasped tightly in her lap, Jodie couldn’t even bring herself to look at him. It didn’t matter how much she loved his leopard, she didn’t want to accept that she had a beast of her own.

  “It doesn’t work that way honey. I can’t tell what you are, only that you are Therian. I will say this, for my leopard to be so attracted to you, you’d have to be a member of the cat family. Interspecies relations are virtually non-existent.”

  “How could this happen?” She moaned in bewilderment. “Do you think my parents know?”

  “I can’t be sure. You get this from your Dad’s side of the family. I could smell it the day they came to visit you.”

  Cogs moved in her brain. “That’s why you were acting strangely. I saw the way you kept looking at him!”

  “You noticed? You’re more perceptive than I thought.”

  Jodie chewed her lip as other things started falling into place. “So this is what Rufus and Eddie were referring to. That I am like you, and unaware?”

  “Yes that is part of it. It amazed me so much, that I had to tell them about you. They didn’t believe me. The thing they found the most incredible was the pull you have on my beast. My leopard is even more infatuated with you than the human side of me. So much so, that I have to fight the urge to change almost constantly when I’m with you. Rufus could smell my other form rising beneath my skin when you were in my room.”

  “Oh,” she said, struggling to keep up her end of the conversation.

  “I must say, you are taking this remarkably well,” Danny’s head cocked to one side as he watched her.

  “Believe me, I’m freaking out on the inside.”

  ‘There’s only so much I can tell you unfortunately. News like this should have come from your family and at some point; you’re going to have to talk to them about this. Are your father’s parents alive? That might be a good place for you to begin.”

  “My Gran lives at Seaview,” Jodie began and then stopped.

  Her grandmother knew about shifters and was so calm about it. She knew! Jodie felt wronged; inside she burned over the injustice of it all. How dare she keep something like this from me! How could she not allow me the choice of embracing or denying the other side of my life? A cacophony of thoughts and emotions flooded her mind and a headache began to form. Everything had happened much too fast, she had more questions than she knew what to do with.

  “Danny?” She murmured.

  “Yes honey?” Still holding her hands, he squeezed gently.

  “How come I don’t have any of the extra abilities that you do? Why can’t I heal fast and why don’t I have a heightened sense of hearing or smell?’

  “That won’t happen until you’ve had your first change.”

  “So I could have done this any time from puberty?”

  “No,” he shook his head. “Born Lycans do change for the first time at puberty. For them shifting is hormonal and the pubertal changes trigger it. Human hormones are also tied to lunar rhythms; therefore, this is when the ability to resist the change is at its lowest. Other emotional times increase the chances of change. Therianthropy is not like that. For us, our beast is something that is a part of who we are from conception. It’s in our DNA. We don’t have to learn to live with our beast; we need only to learn how to let it out. Take a musician for example: The ability to be remarkable is there from birth. It’s all about learning to utilize the talent.”

  “Is there an appropriate age to learn this?”

  “I learned at eight years old. Many parents wait until their kids are teenagers, as it is hard to be discreet when you are a child. I’ve never heard of a Therian not passing down the knowledge at all. There should be no reason stopping you from changing, except for someone to show you how.”

  “Could you show me?” She asked in a small voice. Jodie didn’t want to be changing into anything right now, but her curiosity took over and she had to know everything. The idea still terrified Jodie but her thirst for answers threatened to outweigh her desire to flee the scene and pretend it had never happened.

  “That isn’t how it’s done. Usually it has to be someone who shares your genetics, or the head of your clan. It’s something that happens between father and son, mother and daughter, or vice-versa. Other people have been known to step in if the parents aren’t available, but it’s rare.”

  Jodie chewed on her lip, trying to hold back a frown. “Okay.” Withdrawing her hands from his, she leaned back against the seat. “I think I’m done talking now.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  They sat in silence for a few minutes before Danny got out of the vehicle. He went around back and started unloading things. Jodie watched as he laid a blanket on the grass a short distance away and began pulling things out of a cooler bag. He really had brought a picnic. Taking a deep breath to suppress her inner panic, she went to join him.

&nbs
p; Sitting down beside Danny, Jodie began to toy with her hair. She couldn’t stop fingering the little tail at the bottom of her braid, twirling it between her fingers and stroking the end.

  “Are you all right? I’m worried.”

  “I’m just trying to take it all in,” she said, her voice quiet.

  “I know it’s a big shock and I’m so sorry you had to hear something like that from me, this is not at all how I wanted you to find out. I hope you can understand that I had to say something. It was the only way to open the lines of communication as you said you wanted. Everything else is connected to this part of who you are.”

  “I’m not thrilled with any of this, but I will try to forgive you for being secretive.”

  “Thank you.” He said sincerely.

  Jodie surveyed the food laid out in front of them and selected a sandwich, wondering if he’d made it himself. Her appetite disappeared the moment she’d learned a beast of her own lurked beneath the surface somewhere, but he had gone to so much effort.

  “It occurred to me this morning,” He said as he popped open a can of soft drink. “That we haven’t actually had a proper date.”

  “We had the rendezvous in the forest, and this picnic

  is sort of like a date, isn’t it?”

  “Neither of those count.” He waved away her ideas as he took a swig of soda. “It can’t be a date when one of us is human and the other isn’t. And today we came here to talk. That isn’t a date either. So I’m officially asking you out.”

  Jodie huffed. “That’s silly after everything we’ve been through.”

  “Really?” He raised an eyebrow, seeming astonished at her reaction. “I thought after the mess I made of everything else I’d better get something right for a change. I thought you females liked things to be official.”

  “We do,” she smiled just a little. “So yes, Mr. Archer, I will definitely go out with you.”

  “Fantastic. I’ll pick you up at seven.”

  “Today?” Jodie panicked. “I don’t have anything to wear.”

  “I’ve seen your closet. You have plenty of clothes.”

  Jodie gave an eye roll and replied with a shake of her head, “that’s not even close to the same thing as having something to wear.”

  Danny chuckled as he helped himself to a sandwich. “I have no doubt that whatever you choose, you will look ravishing.”

  Chapter 14

  Ainsley welcomed Jodie into the house with a hug. Laura’s sardonic tone drifted toward them from further inside, followed by Jessie’s laughter. A drink appeared in her hand as they entered the room and the upbeat atmosphere caught Jodie’s attention at once.

  “What’s going on?” She asked.

  “Laura just made Assistant Nursing Manager in the Emergency Department.” Ainsley gushed.

  “Thanks,” Laura said with a wry smile. “I don’t know how I could have told Jodie without your help.”

  “Sorry Laura, I’m just so excited for you!” Ains teetered on the verge of bouncing up and down on the spot. “It’s the best day ever!”

  “That’s great! Did something else happen?” Jodie felt excited for Laura too, but not bouncing off the walls excited. This seemed over the top, even for Ainsley.

  Ains turned to Jodie, her eyes glittery and bright, “Eddie and I had sex!”

  “Um, hasn’t that already happened before?” Jessie asked in confusion as she breezed through the room.

  “Yes. But they had a fight, and now they’ve made up.” Jodie explained.

  Jessie grinned, “oh sweet! Make-up sex is awesome.”

  “And was it?” Laura asked. She knew of Eddie’s other form, and the reason why this had become a big deal.

  “The best ever.” Ainsley sighed, sporting a dreamy expression.

  Glad to see her friend in such good spirits, Jodie hugged her. She knew how much the situation with Eddie had weighed on her mind, and until Danny’s recent revelation, it had clouded Jodie’s mind too.

  “How’s your back?” Laura changed the subject abruptly watching the ease in which Jodie moved.

  “I’m still sore, but I can do most things without too much trouble.” Jodie sipped her drink, which seemed out to be some kind of pink fizzy wine.

  “How are things going with Danny?” Ainsley wanted to know.

  “It’s been a rocky road so far,” she replied. “I worried that things were starting to get too crazy with everything that’s been happening; now I think maybe we’ll be okay. We have our first official date tonight. It feels so weird to be having a first date after all we’ve been through.”

  “A first date is good.” Laura nodded in approval, her blonde ponytail swishing back and forth. “You could do with a sizable dose of normal in your life. Since that’s out of the question, a real date is an adequate consolation. It’s better than what you’ve been putting up with so far.”

  “Ooh, so where’s he taking you?” Ains wanted to know.

  “Oh shit, I’ve got no idea.” Jodie’s eyes widened. “How am I going to decide what to wear?”

  “Relax Jodie.” Laura laughed. “What time is he picking you up?”

  “Um, 7:00 pm.”

  Ainsley and Laura looked at each other. “Dinner,” they said in unison.

  “So what should I wear?”

  “Come and take a walk in my closet,” instructed Ainsley with a flippant wave of her hand before picking up her wine.

  “Man, I wish I was her size.” Jessie pouted. “I would love to be let loose in her closet.”

  Smiling, Jodie followed Ainsley to her room. After much debate, they selected a cream-colored dress with black piped seams. Sleeveless, strapless and with its own built in bra, it came down to mid-thigh. Jodie didn’t have suitable shoes, but Ains let her borrow the black shoes she’d worn last time with the red dress. She also found a little black bolero jacket for Jodie to wear over the dress in case they spent any length of time outside.

  Knowing that Danny liked her hair loose, Jodie pulled back a tiny portion with the gold hair clip Ains had found and put on some gold hoop earrings. After Ains had put on her makeup, Jodie stepped in front of the mirror, surprised at how great she looked.

  After one more drink with the girls, Jodie called a taxi. She didn’t want to walk back home all dressed up like that. Zach didn’t work Monday nights, so he was there when she let herself in. He did a double take and let out a low whistle.

  “Man Jodie, you look incredible.”

  “Thank you,” she said from behind a shy smile. “I have a date with Danny so I raided Ainsley’s closet.”

  “You made the right choice.” Zach couldn’t seem to stop looking at Jodie. However, he must have realized that he’d crossed over from admiring her outfit to downright staring, because he suddenly became very interested in the pile of newspapers in his hand.

  Smiling to herself, Jodie went to put away her work satchel and dab on some perfume. Digging out her black evening purse, Jodie transferred her ATM card, driver’s license, phone and lipstick over, then went back to the living room to wait.

  Even though she’d gotten ready early, Jodie couldn’t relax. She got up, walked around and sat down again, thumbed through magazines without reading the pages and sighed several times. Zach grinned, amused by her impatience and kept glancing over as though waiting for her to sigh yet again.

  JODIE HAD HALF-EXPECTED Danny to be late, or not to show up at all. I mean, let’s face it – he doesn’t have a great track record so far. Nevertheless, he arrived right on time. The low rumble of his car was audible long before he pulled into the driveway, it sounded like it belonged on a racetrack. Knowing it had to be expensive; she wondered why nobody questioned how a barman could afford a car like that.

  Her thoughts about the car evaporated as he got out. Jodie still could not believe how much he affected her. Just looking at his neatly combed hair and playful expression drove her wild. A tailored shirt a shade lighter than his hair complimented his black trousers
. With black stitching and buttons, and a black Chinese style design down one side of the front, he looked very stylish. Without even trying to, they had coordinated perfectly.

  Danny got out of his car and strolled up to the house with a spring in his step. He’d spoken to the guys about women having ideas over the way they’d like to be treated and needing a proper date, but in reality he did this as much for himself. Of course, he would never let Jodie know that he looked forward to the fuss as much as she did. He pulled up his hand to knock as she threw open the door with a high wattage grin.

  He drank in her appearance, not bothering to hide the smolder from his eyes as he enjoyed the view. “You look breathtaking.” Danny told her as he stepped into the house.

  “You look pretty good yourself.” She threw back, shyness creeping into her smile.

  Danny leaned in to kiss her, but at the last minute changed his mind and brushed her cheek instead. “I would hate to ruin that sexy lipstick.” His voice sounded husky, as Jodie wrapped her arms around his waist in a tight hug. “What did I do to deserve that?” He asked in bemusement.

  “You showed up.” Zach called from the other side of the room. “I hope you plan to take her somewhere nice.”

  Jodie looked utterly mortified. Danny could tell that Zach just wanted to look out for her, but Jodie didn’t seem to see it that way. From the way she’d looked at the poor guy, anyone would have thought he had made some sort of verbal attack.

  “I’m not certain that ‘nice’ is the right word to describe it, but I know that Jodie will have a great time.” Moving to stand behind her, Danny stroked her long dark hair. Its sleek and shiny texture more than he could resist, he stroked a hand across it, the sensation like satin cloth.