Chapter 4
“What?” Dawn’s stomach dropped.
“I haven’t introduced myself, at least not this morning, but you just said my name. How is it that you know who I am if you do not remember last night?”
Dawn could remember how he had introduced himself in her dream but she could not think of when he would have done so in reality. Unless…
“What exactly happened last night?”
“What do you think happened?”
“Oh don’t give me that psychological bullshit. I’m not in the mood. Now, I can write last night off as a dream but if it was real then I need to know what the hell is going on. So, either tell me the truth or so help me…I will find some way to hurt you.”
“Do you frequently dream about turning into animals?” Jerrit could not keep the amusement out of his voice.
Dawn let out a long sigh. “It wouldn’t have been the first time.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her hands over her face. “How is this possible?”
“You were born with it. Being a werewolf is just one of the many great things that you inherited from your father. Both of your sisters have already cursed him for it, so don’t bother trying it obviously doesn’t work. Don’t ask me why you weren’t a wolf though, because I haven’t figured that out yet.”
“Fabulous. What was I?”
“You started as a house cat, but then you turned into a tiger. A very vocal tiger I might add. You sure gave those men a talking to. It’s too bad that they couldn’t understand you. I’ll bet your language was pretty creative.”
Dawn ignored his jibe. “So I’m feline while the rest of my family is canine? I’m no expert but isn’t that supposed to be impossible…genetically?”
“It’s not supposed to be possible. Your blood is wolf so you should be canine, but even if you were some other kind of dog, I would still be worried. The fact that you can change forms from one animal to another is troubling. Weres can change from human to animal. That’s it. Only one animal form per person, but you have two that I have seen so far and I have a feeling hat there are more to come.”
Dawn was having trouble breathing. Panic was consuming her with every new bit of information she was given. She set her elbow on the counter and placed her palm against her forehead. She was struggling to take everything in. She had never been normal, by any means, but she had no idea just how screwed up she really was.
“I’m the freak among freaks. Fabulous.” Dawn turned her head to look at Jerrit. “You said that this is genetic. What about my dad?”
Bob Saunders was a teddy bear of a man...sort of...he looked ferocious and had the tongue of a sailor when he got angry, but the truth was that he was a softy, at least when it came to his daughters. He was not one to verbalize his feelings, but all three of his girls knew that they were loved. At 5’8” he was an average height for a man with black hair, dark eyes and the solid build of an Italian. He was the kind of man who followed his gut and sometimes acted before thinking the whole plan through. Dawn shared his impulsive nature, and his road rage, but often made sure to have back up plans, and the windows rolled up and tinted, before she acted or spoke her mind.
“What about him?”
“I’ve never seen him turn into an animal. My dad is not subtle enough to hide something like that, especially from me.”
“He’s Dormant,” Jerrit stated simply.
Dawn put her arm down as she waited for him to elaborate. She laid her head on her outstretched elbow, keeping her eyes on Jerrit. After a moment of silence it was clear that he was not going to go on. “You say that like I am supposed to know what it means.”
Jerrit gave her a tight lipped smile. “Sorry. The wolf gene has been dormant in your father’s family for generations. We haven’t figured out why it suddenly came awake again but it was a big surprise when your sister shifted. Luckily, I found her and helped her figure out how to control it. I taught her how to use her abilities.”
Dawn smiled to herself. “Vanity must be upset that she wasn’t feline. She loves cats.”
“You don’t just turn into your favorite animal, Dawn.”
“I realize that Jerrit,” Dawn said, matching his condescending tone. “I just thought that her favorite animal should be a wolf because she can relate to them.”
“Rebel thinks that too. She relates to the ‘lone wolf’ analogy. Your eldest sister, Vanity, not so much. She is more the leader of the pack, but she would never admit to having anything in common with a dog. She’s far too sophisticated for that.”
Dawn chuckled. Her eldest sister was full of finesse, and was stubborn as a mule, which she got from their father. If anyone could find a way to make herself turn into a cat it would be Vanity. She was an extremely stubborn woman. That came with being the eldest in the family.
Her middle sister, Rebel, on the other hand, was very much the “lone wolf”, at least when it came to her family. She had become much more family oriented when she gave birth to her daughter less than a year before. It was something about having a family of her own that had made Rebel more open to accepting the family that she had been born into. Still, she was very bull-headed and had her moments of emotional breakdowns.
“Do Jason and Justin know?” Dawn would not be surprised if her bothers-in law had been kept in the dark about the family secret.
“Jason knew when Vanity changed. He could tell that something was different and she couldn’t work through it on her own so she let him know. He took it surprisingly well for a human. Justin on the other hand didn’t find out until after the wedding. Since Rebel had shifted before she’d met him, he didn’t know that she was different.”
“Poor Justin. Rebel waited till after he couldn’t get away before she told him. No wonder she was so worried about introducing him to the family.”
“She was extremely paranoid about that. But even after everything was said and done both men stayed. I have to give them credit for that.”
“They really found love.” Dawn smiled at how lucky her sisters were. “That is so romantic…and a little creepy if you think about it for too long.”
“I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks so.”
Dawn laughed. “So, how did Vanity take the news that she was a wolf? You said that her shift was a surprise.”
Jerrit shifted uneasily in his seat. “Vanity was not the first to shift?”
“What do you mean?”
“You have a very…interesting family, Dawn. Vanity should have been the first, but Rebel had a premature shift. You remember the hard years with your sister? Your parents told you that she was bipolar so that you wouldn’t know. It was a very good cover considering the mood swings that come with all of the animal hormones that suddenly bombard the body. She was too young to deal with the emotional changes that go along with shifting. She was impossible to control for the first month.
“Your parents wanted to cover it up so badly that they told you she ran away for a week when she was in fact with me. As I said, she was learning how to control her new gift. After the first week she was able to live with the family again, but her old life became too much for her. She dropped out of school because she couldn’t handle it with her animal instincts. It was too much stimulation. Those were hard times…”
Dawn lifted her hand to stop him without looking his way. She knew how hard it had been. Dawn had been thirteen at the time. She and Vanity had spent a lot of time away from home while Rebel went through what Dawn had been told was a bipolar episode. It was hard for Dawn to watch her middle sister during her episodes. Rebel would go into fits of rage that would end with the house being torn apart and sometimes even ended with physical damage to Vanity. Luckily Dawn had never been hurt, at least not physically. Rebel seemed determine to protect her. The entire thing had come on suddenly and it had changed something within Dawn that she still could not identify.
Dawn closed her eyes as she felt tears welling up over the memories. Rage had become Rebel’s primary emotion. Dawn had been the only witness to many fights between her two older sisters. She could do nothing as she watched Rebel yell at their mother for nothing at all. Dawn had seen most of her sister’s tantrums and remembered every single one.
Dawn spent a lot of time and energy trying to hide the change that she had gone through from her family. She suppressed the memories of that time in her life in order to remain as normal as possible. Well, normal for her. She didn’t know how successful she had been at convincing them but she did what she could to ignore the change that was still there, hidden from unknowing eyes.
Dawn let out a long slow breath. She opened her eyes to find Jerrit staring at her. She looked away from him, trying to keep herself from getting swept away in them. He stayed silent but she could feel those penetrating eyes on her. It took a lot of strength to ignore him.
“I remember, Jerrit. Better than I want to. I remember every outburst and every fight between Vanity and Rebel. I don’t need you to tell me what it was like. I was there. I have not been able to forget no matter how hard I try. Do not think, for one minute, that I need you to remind me.”
Jerrit did not know what to say. He knew that Rebel’s shift had been hard on Dawn but he had no idea just how much. He’d had trouble controlling Rebel throughout her training. The girl had lashed out at everyone, except for her little sister. Dawn was the one person that Rebel would not touch, no matter what the girl did. But Dawn saw everything. She had not been physically damaged, but emotionally she was permanently scarred. It was a wonder that Dawn was as normal as she was.
He wondered if it would have just been easier on Dawn if she had known the truth. Their parents had thought that she wouldn’t be able to handle it. Rebel disagreed. It was not easy convincing the wild child to keep the secret from her baby sister.
“She trusted you, Dawn,” Jerrit said softly, “She thought that you were the only one who would accept her for what she was. She thought that you would understand.”
“I would have,” Dawn whispered. She cleared her throat and began to pick at her food before she continued more strongly. “I have always been Baby Dawn to her…Her little sister who needs to be protected. To my family, I am still three years old. I have not been a child for a long time. I was forced to grow up when Rebel ran away. I took care of myself because I knew that Rebel needed the attention of our parents.
“I never held that against her. I would have liked to know the truth, but…what’s done is done. It doesn’t change anything. What happened made me who I am and for that I am grateful. So now that I have had my self discovery of today, let’s talk about you. What part do you play in all of this?”
Dawn stared at Jerrit intently. He could tell that she was not going to just accept the fact that he was there to help. That would be far too easy.
He smiled politely before he answered his well rehearsed speech that gave as little away about himself as he could. “My name is Jerrit Serenity. I met your parents a long time ago through a mutual friend. I have been looking after your family for years. Technically, my job was to keep an eye on your family and protect them if the situation called for it.”
“You should find a new career. That kind of sucks, and I cannot imagine that it pays well.”
“My ‘career’, as you call it, changed dramatically when your sister changed. I went from protecting to teaching.”
“Wow, so you went from bad to worse. Are you at paid well for it?”
“Not so much.”
Dawn smiled. She got a kick out of sarcasm. “Who was the mutual friend who introduced you to my parents?”
Jerrit’s expression turned dark. “That is between myself and your parents.”
Dawn almost expected Jerrit to laugh and say ‘just kidding’ but he didn’t. His reaction only made her more curious. It took a lot of control to keep herself from pressuring him, but the look in his eyes kept her mouth shut. It was as though he was looking into his own past and was extremely angry at what he saw.
“Do you mind if I call my mom? I just want to verify your story and make sure that you are not just some crazy guy who has been stalking me and knows that I am really into science fiction. You could just be biding your time before you attack me.”
“Wow, I’ve really thought this through in your mind.”
“Actually the story in my head is a lot longer and much more winded but I thought that the Readers Digest version would suffice.”
Jerrit shook his head with a smile as he pulled a cell phone out of his back pocket. Dawn took the phone when he offered it to her. She flipped it open and started dialing. The phone rang only twice before her mother’s frantic voice came on the other end.
“Jerrit? What’s wrong? Is Dawn alright?”
Hearing her mother;s voice put Dawn at ease. Donna Saunders was the one person that Dawn could count on to calm her with a simple hello. Reaching almost 5’2” Donna was a small woman with curly brown hair and hazel eyes that could look strait through a person, into their soul. The woman looked harmless but if you threatened one of her children, you were guaranteed to regret it. She was a momma bear with her cubs. Dawn got her temper, instincts and impulsiveness from her father, but she got her logic and passive aggression from her mother...they had to split the guilt for her sarcasm.
“I’m fine, mom,” Dawn said calmly.
“Dawn? How are you calling me?”
“Well, it’s really easy, actually. You see, I flipped open this new thing called a cell phone. Then I pushed these magic buttons which represent a certain person when arranged into a sequence.”
“Dawn!!! Stop being a smart-ass. You are supposed to be a…”
“A wolf?” Dawn finished for her mother. “Yeah, so I’ve been told. Now, what I wanna know is who the hell is Jerrit and why is he helping me?”
“Your father and I sent him to help you. He is there to guide you through all of this, honey. Are you alright? How do you feel?”
“Irritated, but I’ll live. Oh and confused. Yeah, I think that that about sums up how I feel right now. Maybe a little betrayed.”
“I know, baby, but you’ll understand everything in time. Just trust Jerrit for now. If he does anything that you think is threatening to you then you call me. I love you, Dawn. Can I talk to Jerrit?”
Dawn scoffed. Her mother was blowing her off. That had never happened before. “Sure…why not?” Dawn held the phone out to Jerrit who raised his eyebrows. “It’s for you. Apparently I’m not important enough to talk to anymore.”
A smirk formed at the edges of Jerrit’s mouth as he took the phone. “Donna...Yes she is fine.” Dawn could hear her mother’s voice over the phone but could not make out what she was saying. “Yes, she shifted…I don’t know…I haven’t. Yes, Donna, I am going to take care of everything. You just tell Bob that she is fine. Both of you can relax, she is in good hands. We’ll keep you posted,” Jerrit smiled at whatever her mom said, which Dawn was pretty sure was a threat, “Goodbye, Donna.”
Jerrit shook his head as he closed the phone. “You are one loved girl, Dawn. I don’t think that you realize how much your family cares about you.”
“Why didn’t you tell my mother about my felinism?” Dawn asked ignoring him. She knew exactly how much her family loved her.
“Nice word.” Jerrit stood up and picked up his plate. He grabbed Dawn’s empty plate as he passed on his way to the sink. “There’s no need to worry your mother any more than you already have. She doesn’t need to freak out over nothing.”
“You think that this is nothing?”
“I really don’t know what this is. So until we have more information, I am going to call it nothing.”
“Denial is always the best solution. So riddle me this, sensei, Why didn’t my mom come herself? Or my sisters.”
Jerrit started washing the dishes. “Your sisters have lives of their own and your parents wouldn’t dare try that again. You mother tried to help with Rebel but there was so much hostility toward her that she was not safe around your sister. Rebel blames your parents for her…condition. Ever since then, your parents have just kept their distance. No point putting having them around if they will just be in the way.”
“But I don’t feel angry. I’m feeling confused… scared… uncertain… excited… betrayed… skeptical…”
“I get it,” Jerrit interrupted her, turning off the water and turning to her.
“But I’m not angry. It’s not like they did this intentionally. They didn’t go to some geneticist and say, ‘Alright, we want a daughter with dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, a sarcastic attitude and we want her to be half animal.’ Being angry at them for this would be a waste of energy.”
“I must say that I am impressed.” Jerrit said drying his hands off on a towel. “Not many girls your age have that same mentality. They tend to blame their parents for all the troubles in their lives.”
“I’m twenty-one, Jerrit. I stopped blaming my parents for my problems like six years ago. I am not some stupid teenager who doesn’t know what’s going on, so please do not treat me like one.”
Jerrit inclined his head to her. “I’m sorry. I did not mean to insult you. I was trying to compliment you. I didn’t realize that I was talking down to you. I’ll try not to do that anymore.”
“How old are you anyway? I mean, you’ve trained both of my sisters and have had enough time to accumulate the knowledge to do so. You don’t look more than twenty-five.”
Jerrit smirk mischievously but did not answer. Dawn got the sinking suspicion that she did not want to know after all. “You know what? Never mind.”
A scream came from down the hall.
“Oh my god! Crystal!”
