Never Again – 9

 

"Thank God," Joseph whispered, reaching to take Rawleigh's hand. "I was so terrified of what you would think, how you would… would react to all of this."

"I shouldn't wonder," Rawleigh replied with a small smile. "I'm more than certain most people would have run, screaming, then returned to hunt you down in either form." He laced his fingers with Joseph's, giving a gentle tug. Joseph responded, sitting down beside him lover, leaning into to him when Rawleigh wrapped his arms tightly around him, shivering as a cool September breeze rustled the leaves on the trees and brushed over them. Rawleigh laughed softly. "You might be warm enough in that thick coat of fur, but naked and human, to all intents and purposes at least, you must be freezing." He leaned down to pick up Joseph's shirt and trousers, still keeping his other arm around him. "Put these on and then, well, I think we should talk about what comes next."

When Joseph was dressed and once again sitting next to Rawleigh he asked, "What does come next, as far as you're concerned?"

"I suppose, to start with, you tell me why you are… what do you call yourself, a werewolf? As in the legends?"

"A shifter. I was born human, but with shifter genes passed down from my mother and father." Joseph chuckled. "No one bit me. I wasn't attacked by a feral werewolf the way the stories tell. I was, to all intents and purposes, fully human until I hit puberty. Then the shifter genes began to take over. I was somewhat stronger than my peers, more agile, and when I'd get angry, my eyes would seem to glow. Still, I wasn't able to shift. That happened when I was twenty. We were living in New Orleans in 1814. When rumors abounded that the British were going to attack the city, my parents sent me and Elizabeth north. We were supposed to end up with our grandparents in Nashville." He smiled ruefully. "That didn't happen."

Rawleigh, listening intently, said when Joseph paused, "Don't stop now."

"I wasn't planning on it. But I will make a long story shorter. We were attacked by a group of renegade soldiers. They thought to capture Elizabeth and use her… well, I think you understand. The need to protect her triggered my shifting abilities."

"Did you know?"

"That I had the ability to shift? Yes. After all it was passed down from our parents and father was a full shifter, unlike mother who just carried the gene. So yes, I knew, and I knew what to expect. However I was unprepared for how painful it would be. It almost undid me but the need to save Elizabeth kept me sane, I suppose you could say. I dealt with the soldiers as they deserved. Once I had, however, I vowed to myself that never again would I attack and kill anyone in my shifter form. It terrified me, Rawleigh. The feeling of power—the need to destroy. I've learned since, it is rarely like that unless I'm protecting someone."

"So you don't shift too often anymore?"

"Oh I do. As Elizabeth pointed out just days ago, shifting is part of what I am. It's in my nature to do so and denying it has consequences."

"Then you've waited until I was gone to do it."

"At first, yes. But recently…" Joseph stared silently out across the glade.

"You stopped? Why, Joseph?"

"Because I love you and I didn't want to lose you. I, well, all shifters, age much more slowly than humans because each time we shift our bodies regenerate with the transformation. In time you would have begun to realize I still looked the way I did the day we met."

"You fool!" Rawleigh looked at him in horrified dismay. "You were willing to suffer whatever the consequences are that come from not shifting just because of me? You're insane."

"No, Rawleigh, I'm a man who loves you with all my heart. I thought I could control the negative sides of not shifting. Apparently, according to Elizabeth, I was doing a very poor job of it."

"Then it's a damned good thing you told me, isn't it?" Rawleigh reached for him and when Joseph didn't move away he pulled him into his arms, saying quietly, "You should shift again, now, and make up for all the time you've lost."

"You wouldn't mind?"

"No, you silly man, I wouldn't mind. It is, as you said, in your nature and who am I to deny you that."

Joseph chuckled. "Actually it was Elizabeth who said that."

"Ahh yes, so you said. Is she a shifter too?"

"She carries the gene, and with it some small benefits, but she doesn't seem to have the shifting ability, just as our mother didn't."

"Then she'd have to marry a full shifter to produce one. I guess that leaves me out." Rawleigh grinned when Joseph pulled away to look at him in horror. "Just teasing, my love. Just teasing. Now shift and go run or whatever it is you do." He pulled Joseph back to him, kissing him deeply. "I'll be right here when you return, I swear."

"I'm holding you to that," Joseph replied with a look filled with the promise of more to come when they returned to the city. Then he stripped off his clothes once again and shifted.