Pack Gems by Kuro Kusai, WhiteWolf Aura (free ereaders TXT) 📖

they didn't have WereBirds, their human mass was just too heavy to transform into delicate bird bones, tendons and such.

She thought for a minute before deciding it was safer to check, it's wasn't like she knew everything in the wide Were World.

Leaning out the window, she cranked her neck up to look at the clear sky. The most threatening thing up there being the sun, which she looked directly into, blinding her momentarily,

"Aw, shit." She rubbed her eyes against her folded arm resting on the car window frame, trying to clear the white spots dancing behind her lids.

"Why'd you do that?" A high voice sounded very close to her right.

Startled, Taylor whipped her head up…right into the top of the window frame.

"Double shit!" She grabbed the back of her head with one hand while letting her eyes adjust and take in the small girl in front of her window.

The girl was small, too small to be threatening to Taylor.

In fact, at that painful moment, she wanted to kick her ass into next Tuesday— tempting, knowing she could probably manage it with only one hand.

"My name's Cleo." The small Were extended her hand, barely reaching up into the tall cab of the Landrover.

Taylor realized why she didn't spot the runt sooner.

She was too short to see from the atop the passenger seat of the vehicle.

Taylor took in her hand, splotched with chipped lime green nail polish, "What do you want?" she opted for a less than polite greeting, more annoyed that someone had snuck up on her.

The girl seemed unfazed as she retracted her hand and scratched the back of her neck while looking off in the distance like she was trying to think of an actual answer, one that Taylor really wasn't interested in.

"Well," she finally worked out.

But Taylor was too busy studying her odd choice of clothing to really hear the rest.

She had on a baggy cyan colored shirt, its light cotton fabric hanging loosely off one slim shoulder, paired with maroon polyester capris, a patched grey scarf threaded through it's loops like a make-shift belt, and chunky galoshes with red and blue bird silhouettes across the fronts.

"—and that's when I thought, well I should say hi!" She finished enthusiastically.

 

Taylor opened and shut her mouth for the second time, each time she was about to reply she noticed a new accessory that was so out of place she could only gape.

Finally, feeling a bit rude, she opened her mouth to reply when she noticed another fashion faux pas, "…You have two different earrings. More specifically, one of said earrings is a fishing lure…isn't it?"

"Yup! My special pike jiggin' spoon." She fingered the lure, letting it flash in the light.

Now, Taylor wasn't the expert fisherwoman, even before the change; as a child she hadn't liked dooming the poor little minnows to a hook to await their death as bait for a bigger fish.

It wasn't fair in her mind, she liked something with more sport—something that had a fighting chance. It was ironic that now she lived in a world where all she did was fight, usually against all the odds—she was the damn minnows on the hook now.

"Well, hi." Taylor finally answered back flatly, making her greeting sound as much like a farewell as she could manage without telling the girl to go away.

"Hi!"

Taylor narrowed her eyes, exhaustion coming fast.

"Bye" was on the tip of her tongue when a slam from the house door distracted her.

"I swear to you, I won't ever do that again—Rock, paper, scissor be damned! We will use our blood and you-will-like-it!"

Taylor couldn't stamp down the grin blooming on her face, "That bad?"

"I am not the diplomatic one! What the hell were you thinking?!" Kaden wasn't even going to acknowledge Taylor yet—let alone the new girl standing wide-eyed next to their car.

"What did you do?" It was more of a hostile accusation than a curious question, "We just got here!"

Kaden marched up to Taylor's window and practically threw the pen at her,"Here! You take the pink one! And don't you go lecturing me ab— who is that?"

It was about time she noticed Runt—er, Cleo. Her mind was already subconsciously dubbing the poor thing.

"Cleo. Apparently." Taylor blandly replied, her gaze drifting downward to the girl watching both of them with large auburn doe eyes.

"Hi!"

"Hello…" Kaden elongated the greeting while she sized the girl up.

To Cleo's credit, she didn't so much as blink.

Either this girl was extremely brave or stupid.

"What are you?" Kaden had no finesse about it.

Cleo gave her an offended look before replying, "I'm a girl, obviously."

Taylor couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips.

Yes. She was stupid, not brave.

Still chuckling, Taylor tried even more directly, "No, what kind of WereAnimal are you?"

"Oooh," Cleo brightened, "My genus, Lynx Rufus."

"…Pardon?"

"Gesundheit." Kaden offered.

"Bobcat."

Ah. That explained some of it.

At least her stature, her personality was a different story.

"Well, aren't you a friendly cat." Kaden mused.

Friendly wouldn't have been the word Taylor would have used.

Kooky, crazy, a few fruit loops shy of a full bowl, a few Brady's short of a bunch, a nice house, but not much furniture…really, she could go on and on with idioms—it was actually quite entertaining.

"And you two aren't so bad for wolves," Cleo stated unabashed.

"So everyone says…" She snapped herself out of her mildly entertaining insult list that had begun to grow in size and creativity.

They had to meet these wolves who were giving them a bad name here.

Sure, most lupines were a bit domineering, low temperance, haughty…Okay, so the odds were against the wolves.

Oh well, they were cool enough to be the exception it seemed.

Cleo continued as if Taylor hadn't spoken at all,

"I mean, Tessa told me not to bother the wolves and then everyone's worried about you two—I don't know why. You guys are uber chill, not at all bloodthirsty or insane."

"What?!" Kaden and Taylor voiced in utter disbelief.

Now Taylor wouldn't deny they weren't the most stable of company…But among Weres? Hell, they were as docile as lambs comparatively. They didn't care about rankings or dominance, therefore violence wasn't as regularly invoked.

"Oh yeaah," Cleo was pleased she had so effectively gotten their attention, "I heard from Leon that you two single-handedly broke into the Fresno pack and took down big bad alpha Chase. You did, didn't you?"

"Well, yea—"

"Oh, he deserved it! Murdered him, cold blood, huh? Forcing the whole pack to bathe in his slowly draining life blood as he—"

"Woah, woah, you vicious little runt." Kaden interjected.

Taylor didn't feel so bad at dubbing her runt if Kaden thought so too.…besides, she was quite the deceiving package, and maybe a touch psychotic?

"We didn't kill the bastard, no matter how much we wanted to." Kaden growled and Taylor joined in on the brief growl.

"Oh. Well…that's just what they were saying. Also, word outside the walls are you guys are wanted by, like, six packs."

"Six?! Try…two."

Lie. Blatant lie, it was actually four but did Mason and Axel really count? She had to stop this rumor mill, Taylor didn't want a lynch mob showing up at their door randomly for something blown out of proportion.

"Huh. Well, you guys are significantly less interesting." Cleo pouted.

"I bet you're beat up a lot for being so…frank." Taylor found herself stating.

Cleo pursed her lips, not looking offended in the slightest, "Yes, but I'm quite quick. They had to catch me first, and usually it wasn't worth their time. And then Tessa came, she takes good care of me and my big mouth."

"Uh huh," Kaden gave the girl one last look of dismissal before turning to deposit her completed form in the drop-box, "See you around, kid."

"I'm fifteen."

"Right. Kid." Kaden didn't look back to see the outrage on Cleo's face as she walked around the vehicle to get into the driver seat.

Taylor copied Kaden's action, depositing the form and giving Cleo a three-fingered wave of nonchalance for a goodbye.

She didn't move.

She only stared, watching them drive away so intently like only a cat could do.

=Mason's POV=

He wanted to jump for joy, howl at the moon…toss the next nearest alpha out of the car.

Why hadn't Axel had noticed and come to this conclusion sooner?

He always had those damn tags—actually, kudos to Kaden for snagging them.

He supposed he should thank his lucky stars they had a lead at all, but he had been too close to losing himself to the terrifying thought that he might never see Taylor again—even more blood chilling, she might be dead or seriously hurt in some Were's claws for petty pack gain.

"What were the coordinates?" Mason asked for the millionth time.

The cool timbre of Daren met his ears, trying to soothe his beast unconsciously,"The same as the last two readings, alpha."

He was amazingly patient. Mason absently wondered why he wasn't a higher rank.

Daren seemed like he possessed more control than Calvin had. Maybe he didn't want the pressure that came with the Beta role.

Mason was actually starting to trust both knuckle-heads, depend on them fully, something he rarely did with any of his pack members.

Plus, it was hard to snap at them when they genuinely cared for Taylor's well-being too.…but that didn't mean he didn't get jealous of them from time to time.

Mason glowered, looking into the driving mirror and spying Daren's oblivious eyes watching the road as he drove.

"Good." He snapped out of his petty thoughts, "That means they are staying somewhere. Hopefully in a stable, safe location."

"Yeah, in Texas." Akira snorted.

"Did you call the other alphas in the surrounding territories? Dig around?"

"Yeah, but here's the funny thing, there are no controlled territories around those coordinates." Akira twisted around in the front passenger seat to look at him.

"What?" Mason and Daren both echoed their disbelief.

"Yep, no Alpha's go near—and I quote, 'That crazy place'."

"Oh, great…" Mason buried his head in his hands.

Lovely.His mate would pick an uncharted free-range where anything goes.

"How long do we have?"Mason felt a headache coming on.

"A few hours yet." Daren answered.

"Call Axel, let him know what you found." Mason's voice was wary as he looked out the window for a solace he wouldn't find.

Axel and Mason each had taken separate vehicles, for obvious reasons.Axel had brought along Connor, Jordan and Gaby.

Mason had opted for the only three he had with him, Daren, Akira and Bree.

Bree sat stone-still, as far from Mason as possible, on the back seat they were sharing.

He allowed himself the briefest amusement that, in the past, she would have been stuck to him like glue.

It spoke volumes of how guilty she was feeling for selling out Taylor and Kaden—If not direct guilt for them but for betraying Mason, her Alpha.

She hadn't looked at him since she'd arrived and the only reason she wasn't black and blue while being sent packing back to the den was the fact that she had redeemed herself enough to be trustworthy, dependable.

"You think we'll be enough?" Akira voiced his concerns.

"Yes. If not brute force, we'll fly under the radar." They couldn't bring both of their packs into what could be a slaughter. No matter how much they wanted their mates, they had to at least think of their pack members' safety.They wouldn't risk unnecessary lives for such a personal reason.

Although it touched him to know that a number of them volunteered freely for the job.

It seemed the duo had made an impression on their packs. Whether they knew it or not, the little snots had an endearing and infectious personality.

The most telling example being Calvin; Mason's stern, current second ranking wolf.

He had been the most earnest and persistent in Mason's pack to offer assistance in finding the girls.

Which was humorous considering Calvin's opinion on the "rabid rogues" in the past

Cal had been the first he'd called to help herd the girls to their den.He had also been the first to voice his complaint at the stability of the girls, calling them a dangerous liability.

However, Cal's attitude seemed to do a 180 after the second ambush at the house when another pack abducted Kaden.

Taylor had been on the scene first, discovering Calvin's silver riddled body and