Shatter Scatter

Book #2 of the Emerald Necklace series -- from Mundania Press

Index

Scatter, all companions blown. / All is new and heart is gone. / Scatter to the mirror world / Destiny and need unfurled.

Chapter One

"It’s a crime," Brody muttered, and twined his fingers through the mesh wire enclosing Wolf Wilderness at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

Aggie just shook her head, knowing better than to ask her twin what was going through his head now. She hadn’t stopped him when he stepped off the zoo path and went around the far side of the exhibit, had she? She hadn’t said anything, just followed, even though she was the elder. Fortunately, with their ability to blend with the shadows even when they weren’t in wolf shape, they probably wouldn’t get caught. Maybe it had been a bad idea to come to the zoo to try to work off some of their nervous energy. Did it help or hurt to see wolves in captivity? It had definitely been a mistake to come here without Allison. Brody always behaved himself when Allison was around.

Every week that went by, Brody grew surlier, ready to bite anything and anyone who crossed him. Except for Allison, of course. Aggie wondered if male Werelings went through a hormonal overload like she had done a few years ago. She knew better than to ask. How would Brody know? They had grown up in a different world from the one where they had been born, and the only person who knew their histories, their identities, even how to get home, wasn’t telling.

That was the root of her brother’s problem. And hers, Aggie admitted. Anton Dorayn had given them a hint to their pasts, a hint of the answers to all their questions weeks ago, when Aggie’s adopted parents, the Harseys, had been murdered. Since then, nothing. June had turned into July. In only a few days, it would be ten years to the day since Aggie, Brody and their friend, Lara Munroe, had appeared in this world in the middle of a freak storm.

"They only have gray wolves. This place needs some black wolves," Brody said, when Aggie refused to respond. He glanced over his shoulder at her and grinned, baring his teeth, hazel eyes glinting in mischief.

"Brody…you are so dead if you even think -- " Aggie closed her eyes as her twin shifted to a black wolf. She counted to ten, praying he had shifted back, that he had done it just to tease her.

The first law of survival in this foreign world of Cleveland, Ohio, was never, ever, shift to their wolf form in broad daylight. Certainly not a public place. And the middle of the zoo was a very public place. Besides, what if someone had a handy net, caught Brody and threw him into the exhibit with the other wolves?

She wasn’t afraid for her brother. Aggie actually pitied the poor, confused wolves. She dreaded the uproar that would ensue if her twin shifted back to Human inside the exhibit. Dorayn would blast them both, and she just didn’t need the hassle and the lecture she would get for not controlling her twin. Dorayn kept insisting she was the elder, the leader, the responsible one, her father’s daughter and the authority.

It really hacked her off that that was all Dorayn ever told her. Maybe she should let Brody cause trouble here?

When she opened her eyes, he wasn’t there. A howl of panic caught in her throat as she turned, looking for him. The tip of his tail disappeared behind the bushes, around the bend in the path, heading into the main building of the wolf exhibit.

Behind the mesh chain enclosure, keeping the birds of prey and the wolves in their pseudo-natural habitat, five gray wolves looked out from their hiding places and met Aggie’s eyes. As always, she felt their crumpled spirits and the pain of their captivity. As if they expected her to do something about it.

"Don’t you start on me," she muttered, and ran down the path, looking for her troublemaker twin.

She came around the front of the cabin façade that was the entrance for the exhibit, in time to see Brody-wolf sit down by the front door. A family with three children came up the curved path, past the bronze wolf statue. The oldest child, a girl with strawberry-blond ponytails, crowed delight, ran up to Brody and sank her grimy hands into the fur around his neck.

Don’t you dare, Aggie warned, as her twin’s ears went flat against his skull.

These idiots don’t know a wolf when they see it, he retorted. Faint echoes of pain from little fists yanking on his fur leaped the gap between their minds.

You aren’t the one to teach them. Kaenarr! Aggie raced down the last ten feet of path and reached out to stop him.

Brody jumped to his feet, shedding the little girl when she swung her leg over his back to ride him. The child squealed, laughing, and tumbled to the ground.

"Is that your dog?" the father asked, as Aggie leaped and wrapped both arms around Brody’s neck, to hold him in place.

"I thought they didn’t allow pets in the zoo," the mother muttered, as she struggled to keep the two younger ones from attaching themselves to the ‘big doggie.’

"He’s not exactly a pet." Aggie managed a grimace. And winced as Brody tipped his head back and howled.

The wolves in the exhibit joined the chorus. A solid, cold stillness rippled through the entire Northern Track section of the zoo. The parents froze and as one, turned to look at the bronze statue of the wolf. It wasn’t very realistic, Aggie had to admit, but shouldn’t they have caught on before this?

"Okay…." Aggie grabbed Brody’s ear. He yipped, but he didn’t resist when she led him down the path, out of sight. "Change now, or so help me -- " She hissed when a ripple of magic stung her fingers and Brody stood up in Human shape again. "Okay, now just what were you trying to prove?"