Friday, June 8th 2012

After leaving the Inn and Chien on his date with the cute Southern belle, Riley and David made their way through New Haven to Daniel's lakeside cabin. The last time Riley had been up there had been early Wednesday morning, and what she'd found had worried her.

The cabin stood empty and lifeless. In fact, Lelah and her dog's scents were faint; at least two days had passed since the last time the woman had been there. That made Riley's heart ache and stole the breath from her body. There was no sign of Danny, either. Riley began walking in an ever-widening spiral, nose to the wind, senses straining to find her erstwhile lover. Finally, she'd discovered him huddled beneath a small rocky outcrop near the top of the mountain to which his property backed up. He was in his Leopard form and had clearly been that way for a while. He refused to Shift back to human, so Riley spent a few hours with Jaguar firmly in the driver's seat, hunting with Leopard, playing a bit, but mostly cuddling together in the sun. Reluctantly, just after nightfall on Wednesday night, Riley Shifted back and promised Danny that she'd be back in a few days, and she'd take it as a personal favour if he'd be Human then. They had a lot to talk about.

When Riley had told him about finding Dan out in the mountains, seemingly unwilling to take human form, David had immediately started worrying. Riley had told him enough about life as a Lycan that he knew spending too much time Shifted was dangerous. He also knew that Dan had already spent more time than was normally considered healthy Shifted?which was why his voice and teeth weren't really human anymore. He didn't know if there was some kind of threshold; a point of no return where a Lycan would be stuck Shifted, but he couldn't imagine that Dan's refusal to go back to human form was a good sign.

It was late when they finally reached the clearing where the cabin stood. Riley paused for a moment at the treeline, her head tilted back a bit, nostrils working overtime. "He's here," she said to David and nodded towards the back porch of the cabin, where Danny had something he and Lelah called his Kitty Bed. "Human, too, I think, though it's kinda hard to tell."

David already started for the back of the house when she added that last bit. He paused, looking over his shoulder at her. "Hard to tell? What do you mean?"

"Either he's just now Shifted back to Human or...well, he's still too far gone." She shrugged a bit, unable to explain. "Just...be careful. Maybe I ought to approach him first. You know, just to be safe."

For most guys, that kind of statement would be taken as a challenge. Luckily, David wasn't most guys. His ego wasn't so delicate that he couldn't step back and let his wife handle a situation she was better equipped for. "All right," he said. "I'll stay here. Just, you know, call if you need me." If Dan was far enough gone to be dangerous, he didn't know if she could necessarily handle him alone. They were both Alphas, and Dan was a lot stronger than her.

She gave her husband a grateful smile, stepped in close to him and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Then she was off, crossing the clearing and making enough noise that there was no way Danny would feel she was sneaking up on him. When she rounded the edge of the cabin, she stopped and gasped. Daniel wasn't lying in his Kitty Bed this time. He was stretched out on the ground, naked and covered with the detritus of the forest?dirt, leaves, twigs, clumps of mud. There was some blood, too, from already-healed scratches and cuts. He was looking right at her, his grey eyes wide and wild-looking. She said softly, working hard to make herself as nonthreatening as possible, "Danny, love? It's me. Riley." She took a step forward, hands up, palms facing him, blinking with extreme exaggeration?in the Universal tongue of feline creatures everywhere, she was telling him, 'I'm okay, you're okay'.

Some of the tension in his muscles faded away as Leopard responded to the presence of His one-time mate. That they weren't together anymore didn't matter to Leopard. Riley was Safe. Riley was Home. He pushed himself up on his arms, still staring at her. His mouth worked for a moment before a word emerged, rough and low-pitched. "Riley."

She smiled at him, careful to keep her lips covering her teeth, and crossed the rest of the distance between them. Sinking down into a half-lotus pose, she reached out and touched his shoulder, just the barest of contact, which gave him ample opportunity to draw back out of the way if he wanted. "David's here, too. We're both so worried about you."

Daniel pushed his shoulder into her hand, rubbing along it as though he was still Shifted. "Sorry," he husked. The words came a little more easily as he continued. "I couldn't stand it, Riley." Being human, he meant. Feeling human emotion.

She scooted a little closer and wrapped her arms around him, drawing him into her lap as though he were a child. She pressed a kiss against his temple, made soft shushing sounds and rocked him. "It sucks, I know," she said, blinking back tears. "But...you can't... I mean, I can't let you slip away."

He didn't struggle against her arms, instead nestling against her instinctively. "It would be easier," he said softly. "Just to let it go." Give in to Leopard, Shift and never come back. Like his mother did.

"I don't get that. You?Alphas, I mean?keep your brains when you Shift. How do you lose the human part if you can still think?" He shook his head. "Never mind, we can talk about that later. He's not still heading that way, though, right? I mean, he's back in human form, so..."

"Think of it like a junkie coming down off smack," she said, cracking eggs into a bowl, adding a splash or two of milk, a grind or three of black pepper and sprinkling some fresh herbs over the top before stirring it all together. "It's...addictive to be that primal, that feral, that powerful, you know? To do whatever the hell you want because you're an animal. To not have any sort of morality or ethics or any of those complicated, sticky human situations." She slanted a look at him out of the corner of her eye. "Does that make sense?"

"Sure," he replied. "I get it. If that's what's going on with Dan, though...the fact that he came back is important, right?"

She nodded and then dumped the eggs onto a buttered griddle. "Oh, yeah. Very important. Means he figures he's got something here to live for, something to come back for." Carefully testing the eggs to see if they were sticking, she put a portion of the meat and cheese into the centre and then flipped the top half over. "Probably us."

"Good. I'd have to kick his ass if he tried to run out on us." David was kidding, obviously, but the sentiment was there.

She smiled softly and slid the finished omelet off the griddle and put it on a large plate before placing it into a warming oven. Then she repeated the whole process with the second one. "I hate her," she said softly, her voice vehement. "I hate that she did this to him. I hate that she was so f*cking selfish and split. What the hell was she thinking? Asking him to marry her and then just...packing up and leaving?"

He put his hands on her shoulders, pressing his fingers into the muscles there. "We still don't know the whole story," he said, his voice low. "But...I know exactly how you feel. I can't believe she'd ditch him like that. He's the nicest guy around."

"F*cking selfish, egotistical..." She trailed off, lapsing into gutter Japanese, which was heavily sprinkled with equally harsh French epithets. She finished the omelets and left them in the warming oven until Danny was downstairs and then set about making coffee, adding a healthy dose of chai spices to the bean grinder. "Wonder if he'd come stay with us for a while?"

"Maybe," he replied. "We should ask him."

After he'd finished with the shower, Daniel glanced at himself in the mirror, seeing the signs of a week's worth of staying Shifted had left on his face. Part of him knew that he was pushing it?he'd spent a lot more time letting Leopard run free than most Lycans could manage and still come back, but it would catch up with him one of these days if he kept it up. He sighed softly, and went out to the kitchen, following the rather pleasant smell of omelets.

The coffee was done, the omelets and toast on the table, and Riley and David were sitting down, nursing coffee as they waited for the Leopard to make his entrance. The Jaguar looked up and gave Daniel a soft smile before nodding to the empty place across from her. "Midnight omelets and chai lattes. Just like old times, huh?"

"Like old times," Daniel agreed, giving them both a faint smile. "I'm sorry for pulling a vanishing act," he said slowly. "When she left, I just...needed to be away for a while."

"I understand," Riley said softly, reaching out to give Daniel's hand a soft squeeze before digging into the eggs. She gave David a Significant Look as she ate, one that asked him to broach the subject of Lelah's leaving and maybe try to get some of the details out of him.

David had never been one to beat around the bush, especially with people he really cared about, so he just came out and asked it. "Dan...what happened? I know 21twelve went under, but...you two were so happy together. Why'd she leave without you?" It was blunt, but he really needed to understand.

"She left without me because I wouldn't go with her," Daniel said quietly, looking down at his omelet. He didn't touch it yet, though.

"You wouldn't go where with her?" Riley butted in, no doubt interrupting the flow of the conversation, but she'd never been particularly patient.

"Earth," he answered. "New York. She said that there was no way a movie studio could make it here?not enough of a market. It's true. So she'd never be able to follow her dream if she stayed here."