Bleeding Nights

Prologue: In Which We Meet Selwyn


Winter in Cascade might have meant longer nights, but it also meant bitter cold and less game for the predators that stalked the streets after the sun went down. As a young Timber wolf shifter was finding out as he stalked a scrawny hare in the city’s largest park. His current prey would not be more than a few mouthfuls at most, but even that much was better than not eating at all for another night. 'I hate winter,' he grumbled to himself as he thought about the past three nights he had gone without food.

Just as he pounced and was about to gobble up his prize a falcoln's shriek startled him into missing and he watched helplessly as his dinner was plucked away from under his nose. Unable to stop his forward momentum the young shifter ended up plowing headlong into a snowdrift. The falcon seemed to give a self satisfied smirk before it used its sharp beak and talons to make quick work of the morsel. Below the tree the wolf managed to free himself from the snow and shook his body to get the stuff out of his fur. Satisfied that he was as snow free as he was going to getat the moment he went and sat on the path with a dejected slump to his shoulders.

“What’s wrong Puppy?” The falcon asked, her mental words holding more than a slightly mocking edge to them. There was a brief pause and the raptor features shifted into those of a fifteen-year-old girl, she looked down at the wolf who had also shifted into human form.

“Dammit Myra! That was my kill!” the blonde boy who now stood under the tree looked around seventeen years old, but his tone of voice made him sound three years younger.

“Really? I don’t see your name anywhere on it, Selwyn,” Myra taunted as she turned the bloddy hide over in her hands as though she were looking for a name tag. She was confident that she was high enough in the tree that the canine shifter would not attempt to reach her perch, which left her free to taunt to her heart's content.

Selwyn snarled and reached into the pocket of his leather jacket where he always stored at least one throwing knife; however, just as his fingers closed around the cold metal, a bronzed hand clamped down around his pale and fragile wrist.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the words were breathed into his ear, though the quietness did nothing to diminish the feral quality of the tone. He noticed that the hold on his wrist tightened when he did not let go of the knife right away, so he opened his fingers and let it fall back to the bottom corner of his pocket. The grip was lessened at this action but not removed.

The tiny hairs at the nape of his neck stood at attention and he took care to keep perfectly still since that's what his instincts were insisting he do . He steadied his breathing and took in the various smells of earth, musk, blood, and violence that blended together to make up the scent of the male behind him. “Kazan,” he acknowledged the strongest Werewolf and closest thing to a territory alpha in the city. ‘I should have remembered that Myra goes nowhere without him,’ he cursed to himself.

Kazan was the oldest rogue Were in Cascade and had he really desired it he could have the entire lupine population bowing to his every whim, luckily he did not seem to want that so Selwyn had no true obligation to kiss his ass.

“Why are you hunting hares for your supper anyway?" Kazan demanded with one last squeeze to the wrist captured in his grasp, "You're a thief, so go steal something," he released the younger male and gave him a shove in between his shoulder blades to encourage him to obey.

'There are no normal humans out and about to steal from,' Selwyn bit back both the words and the snarl that wanted to escape from his throat, and nodded his understanding with a silent sigh instead. After all there was no point in issuing a challenge that he already knew he hadn't a prayer's chance in Hell of walking away in one piece from. Maybe he could find a nice rat for tonight that noone would steal from him...or perhaps he'd just go to the beach and see how Miska was doing without Bronwren being in the city. His mind made up he beat a retreat from the park and headed towards the beach.


After half an hour of walking Selwyn arrived at the beach and breathed in the warmer air, as usual no matter how hard or long it had snowed in the rest of the city the sandy shores were completely free of it. The blonde scanned the area then smirked when his gaze caught on a black panther who was splashing in the surf and occasionally coming back with a fish that was added to the growing pile. He gave his head a quick shake and let his form change into a wolf once more before he loped towards the water.

“Miska!” He called mentally as he tackled her into the aforementioned water and pinned her there. His victory was destined to be short lived as she easily shook him off into the wave then bopped him over the head with a heavy paw.

“Dammit Selwyn! How many times have I told you not to do that?!" she demanded almost angrily as she waded to shore then sat and groomed her sopping wet fur while her green eyes glared at the lupine who followed her example.

“Aw, Miska come on, I was just messin’ with ya,” Selwyn protested apologetically before he gave a light sneeze and slowly wagged his tail with the hope of charming his way back into her good graces.

“Oh really? That's a shame seeing as I was going to share my fish with you," there was a faked nonchalance to her tone that made Selwyn's ears oerk up hopefully before the words themselves forced them to droop under the weight of disappointment.

He let a soft whimper escape his throat as he slunk closer to her with his tail tucked under his belly and a pleading light in his eyes, "Would it help if I said I was sorry?" he inquired timidly. Since he knew that she was genuinely a little bit pissed off at him he had no problem with kissing up to a feline as long as it got him fed, although aforementioned feline simply pretended to ignore him as she washed her paws and he made another pleading sound.

Miska was now amused by her companion's antics; however, she decided to make him grovel a bit more before she even thought of giving in since she could not afford to have her reputation even slightly tarnished. "What happened to your plan to hunt rabbits?" she casually asked and abandoned her grooming in order to watch his reaction instead.

A snarl curled his lips away from his teeth, "Myra took the only one I managed to find, then Kazan kept me from killing his slutty mate," normally he would have been able to keep the whine out of his voice but he was too upset at what he recalled to even try.

He had said the magic word and jade eyes narrowed in response to what he had just revealed, "I'm sorry pup. You should have said so sooner," Miska told him as she brushed against his side to comfort him, "Come help me eat some of this fish, it seems that I've caught too many to eat by myself anyway."

Selwyn carefully stood so as to not get any wet sand on her and wagged his tail eagerly, "Thank you," his words were completely sincere as he followed her over to the large pile that would make one of the biggest meals he had eaten since the stupid season had begun.

It was a well-known fact in Cascade that Miska and Kazan did not get... along at all. There were whispers amongst the other inhabitants that the wereolf was responsible for the slight but constant limp the panther shifter walked with. What the murmmurs never mentioned was what the brutal confrontation had been about, and while almost everyone was curious about it nobody was foolish enough to ask.

Naturally this fight put a major strain on the relationship between the lupine and feline communities simply because the two combatants were the strongest members of their respective species. The vampires on the other hand found the entire thing to be too hilarious for words and often placed wagers on when the next fight would break out between the two groups and which side would start it this time.

Selwyn counted himself lucky that Miska's obvious distaste for canines in general did not include himself, he also was at least slightly grateful that Kazan more or less ignored his relation to the feline's mate. Of course the rest of his species refused to have anything to do with him because of it, but he really didn't give a damn about them.

Some time later the night found the two shifters curled around eachother in a small outcropping of boulders while they slept a dreamless sleep that was made possible by full stomachs. In fact they were so deeply asleep that except for the rise and fall of their ribs that was caused by their deep breathing and the occasional flick of an ear or a tail once would have thought that they were no longer among the living since they were so still.