“Gabby’s gone Awol.” Addison mutters softly to Paris. “Her apartment’s barely been touched. Scent faded once it lead out into the street.”
But I still hear it and automatically put a hand to my hip, rubbing my thumb over the small area covered by clothing as I look over at him.
“She’s not getting anywhere near you, again.” He says determinedly looking me straight in the eyes. Trying to reassure me.
“Not a chance in hell.” Addison, another Alpha werewolf says backing him up and looking at me.
I just drink my water and look at them silently. I’m surrounded by Alpha wolves. The biggest, strongest, fiercest, smartest werewolves to be. They dominate my life, it seems. No Hay Igual like it that is so good and bad at the same time.
I come from a family that has three Alpha’s in it. A leading pack family no less. I think maybe part of me thought, when I started dating Paris and commuting to Manhattan that I’d maybe, escaped a bit of their dominance in my life. But it doesn’t matter if I’m in Manhattan, or Brooklyn. There are werewolves everywhere I go. And as opposed to other wolves of my pack, there are the Alpha’s. I’ve been accepted into their inner sanctum because I’m dating the Manhattan Maen pack leader.
I should feel safe. I should feel overly protected. I’m surrounded by males who are willing to protect me, fight for me.
Alpha werewolves who make the best possible body guards you could want on your side. Hell, even Bohm is here, the beta werewolf that said it was okay for me to use him for standing purposes when putting on a show in his own pack. He’s here with us now, in Paris’s house, the place that’s always been a sanctuary to me. But now, I just feel scrutinized, unsure. My comfort zone’s been invaded because he’s called an emergency get together from those werewolves he knows he can trust.
But once you’ve been personally attacked, physically attacked, kind of shatters that illusion. I don’t want to be skittish. But I’m a little jumpy at present.
Gabby Colton has turned from my enemy into my bogey-man. Something worth being afraid of. She’s become a big bad Alpha werewolf, that nobody saw coming. Only, I’m a werewolf and we’re not supposed to know fear.
Which is a thought that prompts me to say “I can handle Gabby.”
Which of course is naivety speaking. After all, she did manage to knife me. Quite literally.
Things have changed.
The simmering hate-hate relationship that Gabby and I have, has gone from bitchy to potentially fatal. I don’t know if she doesn’t actually want me dead now. The thought never occurred to me, prior to her deciding to take a knife to my hip. Maybe it never occurred to me, because werewolves aren’t well known for using weapons when they fight. They fight as the weapon. Using their bodies abilities against their enemies. Maybe that’s why I’m a little spaced still about the attack.
She acted more human than werewolf in that instant she grabbed the knife.
Because she thought to use it.
On me.
It seems more shocking to me, to be attacked by another werewolf, than it does by a lycan or a human. Especially one that you’ve been in the midst of for quite some time.
“Don’t worry, you won’t have to, ever again.” Paris replies. “One of the boys will be with you at all times if I can’t be. You won’t go anywhere without an escort.”
“Gabby’s not that big a threat, that you need to waste everyone’s time by putting them on personal wolf detail.” I reply looking at Addison, Jules, Wiatt and Bohm who has been called in.
“She stabbed you, in front of a room full of pack werewolves, who did nothing to stop her, when none of my guys were around. She stabbed you, and then subsequently kidnapped you and force fed you silver.”
I tilt my head and raise my eyebrows. He kind of has a point.
“Guess, I’m not as welcome here as I thought.”
Paris slides his hand across onto mine. I sit up a little straighter in bed.
“I suspect I know where she’s gone. But she’ll be back. Gabby is a pack werewolf through and through. She only knows the life of one and for all her false bravado and massive ego, and outwardly confidence, I don’t think she’s got it in her to truly break ties with her life here and all that she knows.” He picks up my hand and warps his around it. “And if she does, there are no boundaries that will stop me from making her accountable for this.”
“Maybe you don’t know Gabby as well as you think you do. I mean, if you thought I would ever be in danger in her company, would you have let me be somewhere without you there?”
I see the hurt flicker across his face. I’m not trying to take a swipe at him, I’m just trying to make a point. Nobody thought Gabby actually hated me enough to go beyond our regular bitch fight squabbles we’d had. We all thought, she’d make some sort of political play for Paris’s leadership by trying to manipulate me and him apart. Nobody thought she’d pick up a knife and stab me.
“You’ve got to trust me on this. We’re going to take care of this. You’re pack, whether she likes it or not. And you’re mine. I do not take kindly to what she’s tried to do to us, by hurting you.
“Paris, and eye for an eye and the world goes blind.” I hold his gaze. I have no idea how they’re going to handle Gabby. But there’s enough violence in werewolf world, that we don’t need to keep it rolling on, constantly.
“My battle.” I state at him as he sighs heavily and leans back, against his seat. Still looking at me. I’m a werewolf, I don’t sit around and have no say or control in my life.
I’m not forgiving her for what she did.
But if anyone deserves a shot at dishing out the punishment, saying something to her, or whatever it is, they think needs to be done to Gabby, than it’s this Breukelen beta wolf who’s going to be doing it.
You might think, that after being born a werewolf, growing up a werewolf and living in this world, that I’d be used to all things werewolf. Especially coming from the werewolf culture it’s self. But let me tell you, I’m a avid learner. Seems like there’s still plenty of surprises in this life, in the wolf culture, for me to continuously learn about. Like ex boyfriends. Well, not really Ex, because we never really did get around to hooking up and going out on a proper date together.
But maybe, would be Ex boyfriend is a better way to sum up Aaron.
I really shouldn’t be surprised, given my appalling track record with dating the male species. Especially when it comes to Nons. Yes, I’ve dated a few. And let me tell you, the reason it’s only a few, less than a handful is because of that appalling track record when it comes to love and dating. Takes forever to figure stuff out when you’re dating. You just make the same mistakes, the same choices, over and over again. Then you add the element of werewolf into the mix, and shit, it’s just a brain bust trying to figure out what the hell you’re doing, with a non.
So Aaron, I met Aaron, a human, through mutual friends– yes human friends, and I kind of developed, a crush on him. He seemed to reciprocate, but nothing ever happened. The boy never asked me out and ditto me to him.
So it’s all null and void right?
Incase you haven’t noticed, it’s lunar week this week. So I’m off doing my thing, being immersed in my werewolf nature, in werewolf world. Which means, some nights of the weeks, I’m in a sweatbox club, drinking in, drowning and soaking in the atmosphere of werewolf pheromones getting heightened for and by, love, sex, and shape shifting. I walked into Midnight Blue the other night, said I’d meet Paris there. The place was packed. I think almost every werewolf in Manhattan must’ve had the same thought about where to go that night. Because the crowd seemed huge.
I was looking around the club and walking towards Paris’s side of the main room, when a guy steps out suddenly and cuts me off. I was about say what the hell, when I look up and see, Aaron.
Aaron, the non in a designated werewolf club on a lunar night.
The odds of this supposedly happening, should be like zero to none. See, the whole point to the club scene for werewolves, is a form of control. So we don’t go all baser and rampage through the streets attacking people. And that means, on lunar weeks, the amount of humans allowed into a wolf club, are like a handful, if that. There’s all these waivers tey have to sign and costs involved and they have to be vouched for…hassle.
I’d already spotted Paris and the boys and they had already notice my entrance too.
“Hey,” He says smiling at me brightly. “You look great.”
Of course I look great, I just spent two and a half hours getting ready for my boyfriend to lust over me.
Smooth skin, shiny black hair, red lipstick, black eyeliner, killer red heels with ribbon wound around my feet, short black skirt, and black sleeveless top that dips, greatly at the back, to expose most of my back. Fun, flirty and fully ready for action. It only took me like an hour of throwing out half my clothes in my wardrobe and whining “I have nothing to wear” to myself repeatedly, to come up with the look.
Only.
So I fumble for a reply and smile brightly back at him.
“Uh hi.”
“I didn’t you knew about this place? I haven’t seen you here before.”
I shake my head and blink. The whole, he’s bordering on entering into my world on a lunar week has kind of thrown me. This boy knows absolutely nothing about me. And he sure as hell doesn’t know about werewolves in New York. Let alone that he’s smiling back at one, who’s starting to sweat.
“Um, not frequently.” I mutter back.
“Wow,” He laughs lightly. “I haven’t seen you in ages, you don’t really hang with the gang anymore.”
I just keep looking slightly, whatever I’m looking like at him.
“Was it me?” He laughs jokingly.
I avoid replying but yes, he was one of the catalysts for me breaking distance from my group of human friends, last year.
“Well, have a great night, I’m meeting someone here,” I start and go to walk around him. Aaron jumps across in one long stride in front of me.
What is it with this guy? Does he have ADD? Or is he looking for a fight?
Paris, Addison and Jules are moving now, towards us. They probably think I’m being hassled. Which is not a good thing for Aaron. Disrespecting an Alpha Werewolf’s pack mate is asking to be put through hell, for the fun of it.
“Who are you meeting? That Colin guy that I saw you with last time. Man, you could do so much better than him. He was an Asshole.”
I can’t help it, my eyes widen. I can not believe, I’m about to do what I do next. Seems unthinkable, me defending Conall. But once a werewolf…always a werewolf. We defend, play and stick together.
I step up close to Aaron. Making my voice as acidic as I can.
“You don’t get to call Conall, an Asshole when you don’t even know him. Or me.”
Aaron takes a step back.
“I remember him being mighty territorial about you, I’m surprised he hasn’t marked this place his territory if you’re in it.”
The boys are getting closer. A petite blonde girl is walking over towards Aaron also.
“Look who’s being an asshole now.” I fire back at him. The blonde walks up to his side and says his name. He glances at her.
“Wow, I am so glad we never hooked up.” He says back at me, flippantly, slipping a hand into the blonde girls hand.
“Who are you?” She asks me blankly.
“This is that girl I was telling you about.”
I frown, what the hell is that statement supposed to mean?
Paris and the boys are right behind Aaron when he says it, Jules and Addison literally shove both Aaron the blonde apart and aside from me. The blonde whines.
“You okay?” Paris asks, putting both his hands on my arms, looking down at me, as he steps through the space they’ve just created for him.
I nod my head.
“Can we get out of here, go somewhere else, no Nons allowed?” I mutter in a low voice at him.
He looks over at Aaron with a look that would normally be accompanied by a growl. But he’s silent, it’s just the presence of him, the look of anger in it, that makes Aaron shrink back into Addison, who’s already holding him back by his arms.
Addison chuckles.
“Yeah, let’s go find out own little world.”
Werewolves are not known to be prudes when it comes to nudity, or when having sex around other werewolves. But Alpha Werewolves, do tend to get mighty possessive at times, like say when they’re about to be interrupted in the throws of sex with their packmate.
Enter Addison.
“Fuck, make some noise or something next time, would you?”
And yes, it never occurred to him, to knock first.
Addison literally walked into the room we were in, when both Paris and I looked up at him, neither of us stopping the movement of our bodies. But Paris’s hands slipped around my breasts, gripping them, covering them. It’s not like Addison hasn’t seen them before, he’s seen them at least two times before that I can think of. But that’s not really the point.
Paris kept thrusting and started growling at Addison. He doesn’t get annoyed all that often that I’ve seen. I think I just looked a little surprised by the intrusion.
“People were asking.” Addison said shaking his head as Paris’s growl grew louder. His actions even harder. Faster.
I bit my lip.
Addison turned around and walked back out again.
It’s lunar week and we’re normally busily doing each other every night, but this week is different, it’s my birthday week and Paris and I have been all over each other, day and night.
“Now would be the time to remind you what happens if you make noise.” Paris’s throaty voice sounded slightly strained. He’d been hammering me for awhile. Hence why Addison had come looking for us. “If you cry out or groan or even ever so lightly sigh, I’ll be forced to keep this up, even longer. Keep you exactly where I want you, make those knees get friction burns on them while I ride this out.”
Paris was having a hard day of wanting, he’d told me earlier on. It’s what happens during lunar week. The sexual energy around us, in us, it just about explodes. Drives you wild.
We’d had plans, things to do, but he said every time he looked at me, he found himself wanting me. We’d come close to finding a lane way in the city and fucking behind a dumpster, he wanted me so badly. Instead, we managed to scramble to the party we were invitead to and nearby too, and get into it. Snuck off, found a room and he’d actually torn my clothing off me, because, he claims, I wasn’t moving fast enough for him.
Impatient Alpha.
What the hell was I supposed to wear out of there?
Things to figure out later, I guess, I could get through the now. My lip started to hurt from my teeth cutting into it. Even that act, made my lip start to sting, as the skin started to become cut. Blood would swell up from it soon. The thought of which would, only fuel our current round of dealing with our sexual needs, to make the party we were at, more than likely send out a search party for us. Blood, sex and werewolves are a wicked combination. Seriously wicked enjoyment.
As a beta wolf, I’m even more affected by lunar week’s sensations than Paris is and I knew, I couldn’t hold out. Part of me, didn’t want to.
I groaned, deep in my throat. Paris chuckled.
“Poor little wolf.”
I kept groaning. It felt just as good to be able to make noise as it was to be loved by my pack mate. The door to the room opened again and Gabby stumbled in, and stood watching us for a moment. My eyes went to hers and I held contact with them, Paris as before, didn’t stop.
“This wolf, and room is taken.” He panted at her.
Again, I ask myself, what is with the lack of knocking from these werewolves? Alpha’s, I guess they’re not used to being told to wait or what have you.
Gabby blinked slowly. Recognition or something, dawning across her face. She turned around and walked back out, without comment, bumping into another body we could half see through the slightly ajar door. Something was mumbled and the door was closed.
“Oh you wicked, wolf.” I grunted quickly. It was all I could get out, for I was too busy focusing on the sensation of Paris within me to care about anything else.
“You’re lucky.” My sister tells me, sighing as she lays down, an ice pack across her forehead.
“How so?” I ask curiously, already knowing what she’s going to say, but wanting to hear it all the same.
“You’re not an Alpha. You don’t have to put up with the same bullshit I do.” Bodil replies back at me, pressing the icepack to her forehead. She’s already shape shifted her injuries and aches and pains from fighting away. But she didn’t hold wolf form for long. “And you don’t get the side effects of a quick shape shift. Trust me, that makes you very lucky.” Bodil moans.
Because life moves on and requires her to be in her human form to get other pack business done, in an all too timely manner. Fast shape shifting, is an Alpha specialty. They can bring on they’re own shape shift and that of other wolves, too, rather fast if needed. And they can essentially, shut it down just as fast. But there are side affects from fast shape shifting, and not holding werewolf form long enough. They vary in degrees of severity, but it’s one of the drawbacks. Migraines, are a special side affect my sister often experiences, from one of these quick shape shifts.
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“You’re lucky.” My brother Markus says to me with a half smile. As I shovel the last piece of bacon off the plate and into my mouth. “That phone call distracted me, otherwise I’d have grabbed the bacon.”
“You snooze, you lose.” I reply back at him. He arches an eyebrow up at me in response. “Are you like the only werewolf I know who doesn’t know how to do two things at once?” His eyes go wide at me now and he laughs.
“Are you like the only werewolf I know, who doesn’t put all they’re attention and focus on the task at hand when required, instead of spreading themselves thin doing too much of everything?” Markus fires back at me.
My mouth clamps shut. Markus is a beta wolf like me. He’s a good solider wolf. He does what’s required of him, for the pack, for others, for himself. I always thought I was the golden child in our family, but now his statement makes me think I’ve been seeing myself in too eager a bright light. He makes me sound like the loose cannon in our family. We’re all quite different in personality and temperament and werewolf abilities and duties. But surely not?
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“You’re lucky.” Sonny the Seattle Alki sighs down the phone line at me. “You’ve got Paris, you’ve got a great packmate in him.”
“Thanks, I think. I am aware of how great a guy he is.”
“Not just the guy, the wolf too.” Sonny goes on. “He’s the whole package, a werewolf could ever want in a packmate.” I think about arguing the point, it depends what you want in a packmate back at Sonny, but decide not to. He is everything I want in a packmate. He’s beautiful, strong, dependable, fiercely loyal. He makes me feel desired, loved and wanted. He helps me shape shift, he lets me pick my battles and figures out ways to let me fight them, without insulting my intelligence by giving him all the control over them.
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“You’re lucky.” Gabby, the female Alpha from the Manhattan Maen pack mutters at me, her eyes glancing across at me, before darting away again. “That I don’t smash your face in.” She says fast enough for me to hear as she walks past me, without breaking stride. I have no idea why she’s being so hostile towards me now. We’ve been good lately, at least for the last four days. Maybe’s because the last time we had a run in, I kind of broke her nose and I didn’t get told off for it. I’ve deliberately avoided being around her. Maybe it’s a territorial thing. Me being from another pack, and being involved with the Alpha from her pack, really seems to irk her. Then again, it could be any number of reasons with Gabby as to why she dislikes me so. She wouldn’t be the first female werewolf I’ve come across who didn’t like me. Female wolves can be the ultimate bitches, trust me.
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“You’re lucky.” Bohm a beta wolf from the Manhattan Maen says to me with a warm smile. “That I was there for you.” I shake his hand and nod my head. It’s my first meeting with the werewolf male, I beat the crap out of, after my last run in with Gabby. Trust me when I say, circumstances called for it. Being a werewolf ain’t for the faint hearted, you will be tested, over and over again. I still can’t bring myself to feel good about beating him up, even though he and Paris assure me, all is well and good.
“Won’t happen again.” I reply. Bohm shrugs his shoulders and keeps smiling.
“No problems if it does, bit of a heads up would be good, but no probs.” He says back at me. Just like that, a good werewolf falls into line, does what he’s told, sucks it up and comes back for more. Maybe it’s just a male werewolf thing, I tend to think they embrace the violence that surrounds our lives, more than females. Well, me at least.
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“You’re lucky, I wasn’t settled yet.” Addison mock growls at me, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he raises up off his seat and heads back past the pool, towards the bar, to refill the sangria jug for me. I try not to look too pleased with myself, behind my wrap sunglasses. After all, a beta werewolf ordering an Alpha werewolf around, unheard of! Well, not unheard of, just unreal. There is a structure in a wolf pack, and that includes hierarchy and all werewolves adhere to it. It’s how the pack works. Beta wolves are not exactly considered lesser wolves than Alphas, since we tend to make up the majority of most packs. But it’s like having the rich and the middle class levels of society in a pack, kind of, if you get my meaning. Alpha’s are above us, and do not have to do, as we Beta wolves do. Generally speaking, because being an Alpha werewolf entails more than the average werewolf. So they’re under a whole other set of expectations, rules and circumstances as well as the normal things that apply to Beta wolves. But we Beta wolves, have to do as our Alpha would tell us to do. It’s how it works. Besides, I wasn’t ordering Addison around, I was whining and pleading cause I didn’t want to get out of the pool and Addison was closer to the bar than me.
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“I’m lucky.” I look up at Paris. “That you are never not up for this.” I’m being cheeky I know, but it’s true. The werewolf before me, only ever helps me and loves me and wants me and appreciates me, in all forms that I come in. Woman, human, werewolf, beta wolf, stupid girl, party girl, bad fighter, Breukelen pack wolf. I wrap my legs around his hips, pulling myself upwards with him. He kisses me hard and his face hovers close to mine. So All I can see is him.
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“I’m lucky.” Paris sighs, blue eyes looking down at me. “That you’re all mine.”
Some werewolf females are just bitches and should be treated as such.
It was left up to Jules, to tell Gabby that she couldn’t sit at the Alpha’s table in the club the other night. It didn’t go down well, that the Manhattan Maen Alpha female, was once again, being vanquished from the good graces of the leading pack’s Alpha male, Paris. See, status and hierarchy is a very important thing in a werewolf pack.
Being an Alpha automatically sets you up, as being far more superior and precious and better, than the majority of your fellow werewolves. So seeing a beta wolf, from a neighboring pack, sit at the leading Alpha’s table with him and his hierarchy before her, was never going to go down well with the likes of Gabby’s ego.
Especially since, awhile ago, when I was off the Manhattan scene, she seemed to be filling in the place of ‘female’ required seating at the pack leader’s table. But now I’m back, and that means, she has to go find other places to hang out in the clubs when I’m around. Paris and the boys know, we do not get along.
Werewolves, butt heads with them, if you’re bored or assured of your superiority.
I was in the female restroom when Gabby stormed in, slamming the door behind her, clearly, not taking the news that she was being shuffled around the club to accommodate my presence, all that well.
“Oh it’s you.” She said looking me over as I stood in front of the counter top.
“The feelings mutual.” I muttered back at her, not taking my eyes of the mirror before me. Which was my mistake. It’s like I forgot how feral a pissed of she wolf could be. She marched over to me.
“They treat you like you’re one of us!” She spat in my face, pushing me backwards so I stumbled over my own high heels, off balance slightly and hit the nearest wall.
“You’re not one of us!” She poked me in the chest sharply. “You’re not even an Alpha! I’m the freak’n Alpha female here and you’re the one they treat like the freaking queen of the wolves!” She said moving in front of me so I was backed into the wall with her blocking my escape.
“No, I’m not you. I’m better than you.” I replied smiling at her.
Remember kiddies, the golden rule when werewolves are fighting, is werewolves do not back down. Especially when confronted by pack. Or you know in this case, another, pack wolf bitch.
Her eyes widened, like she couldn’t believe I had the audacity to speak back, let alone throw a massive insult at her. Of course, that just made things worse.
She growled at me, I heard a sharp snap of something and Gabby showed me her fangs. I heard something similar to a popping sound and realized it was muscle and bone breaking. She was shape shifting part of herself, not smoothly or elegantly. But she was getting the job done.
Again, not a good sign, for me.
Gabby grabbed me by the throat with her still very human hand while her right hand slashed at my chest with razor sharp talons for claws. She moved fast. But not so fast I couldn’t see it coming and try and fight her off. She was stronger than me and had me in a bad position to be taken advantage of.
So I decided to play dirty.
You want bitchy, come see me when I’m pissed off. I can roll with the best of them.
I threw up my knee, hard into her body. And as she flinched in sharp pain – yes girls are just as sensitive to getting kicked in the crotch as boys, I threw out a right jab into the side of her face. This caught her off guard and she momentarily loosed her grip on my throat. Which was what I needed to get into a better position of attack, rather than defend.
Werewolf fighting one-o-one, we fight by attacking, not defending.
As she slashed back at my arm with her werewolf clawed hand, I had enough room to move off the wall and throw my elbow into face. She lost all sense of grip on me then as she cried out, her nose bursting with blood. I shoved her aside, into the counter top, which she hit hard, in the side of her body before falling down onto the floor, before she could stop herself.
I kicked her pointedly in the ribs, once, with my heels and got out.
I emerged in the club and it was only then that I realized I was in pain. That I seemed to allow the sensation through my brain haze. The stinging sensation across my arm and chest, was bleeding. I looked down at my top, which was just concealing my breast on one side.
That bitch, she’d cut the shoulder strap off it and had nicely slashed open the left side of my chest, with a wicked streak of claw marks.
When I looked up again, I swear every pair of eyes in that club was on me.
It was the blood.
Fresh blood and every werewolf in the place, could smell it.
My blood, still bleeding, enticing their inner beasts to want out. To want to bear fangs and fur and shred me even more. It’s a natural instinct, a really powerful one, that’s harder than hard to ignore or see reason through. Especially if you’re a werewolf with little self control or weakened will.
Potentially, a very bad situation to be in.
Because bleeding so obviously, out in the open, indicated I was injured. Injury assumes weakness and weakness to werewolves, means prey. Prey gets attacked or eaten.
I could not be seen as prey.
I saw Addison and Jules readying in the distance, throwing hand signals at one another and grabbing their people. But there was still around fifty or so werewolves between them and me. I looked at all the wolves around me, who had stopped whatever they were doing and were now staring at me hungrily, like they were just waiting for a green light to clean me up. Or for some one to make the first move.
So I did the only thing I could do.
I picked another fight, with another wolf. A male wolf nearest too me.
I started throwing punches at him, as hard as I could. Knocking him around, again and again. He threw out a few return punches, but they lacked power. He went down easily enough and I followed him down, continuing to smack his skin with my fists, until my knuckles split open from the hitting. I can not tell you how much that hurts. Werewolves, tough, but not completly oblivious to pain.
Werewolf.
Does not back down.
I couldn’t let this pack, see me as a weakness, or think they could somehow take advantage of me because I’m not one of them, or because I’m just a beta wolf. It was a show of strength, and I think the wolf I laid into understood that. Otherwise he’d have really fought back at me.
By this time, Jules was pulling the guy out from under me. Nobody touched me, as I slowly stood back up. Aching with throbbing pain in my hands, arms, stinging abrasions across my chest. Covered in blood.
Addison looked at me.
“I got you another drink, it’s at your table, if you’d like it.” He said loud enough for everyone around us to hear.
I sighed heavily and flicked my hair back over my shoulder. Like nothing was amiss.
Addison and Jules had a guard of older wolves, either side of the crowd that had formed. Like a formation guard for me to walk through. We were putting on a show of who was who, for the pack to see.
Addison started walking beside me. But once again, everything stopped when Gabby appeared from the restroom, holding her hand to her nose. She had blood smeared across her upper lip.
I looked back at her and she at me. If looks could kill, I’d have been dead and buried.
“I hope I broke it.” I said smiling at her.
Addison rolled his eyes at me. As if to say ‘you two are so immature’.
“Shall we?” He asked as I turned around and we walked back over to Paris, at his table.
If I’d have been in real trouble for starting a fight there, Paris himself would have been pulling me off that wolf. Berating me in front of everyone. Or at the very least, instructed Addison to yank me back off him.
But they hadn’t, so clearly, I’d done something right, in standing up for myself.
It’s the hottest day in New York in nine years.
And I’m in heat.
No, I’m not hot because of the heat, well, there’s a little bit of that, but I’m in heat because my werewolf is in heat. It just happens to coincide with the hottest day in nine years.
Being a werewolf is tricky, at the best of times.
Being a werewolf in heat, is harder.
My life is now on hold for how ever many hours, it needs to be until I can get this thing, under control. You seeing being in “heat” isn’t just about having your sex drive over sexed to the point of exhaustion.
Although seriously, that’s as fun as it sounds.
It affects other aspects of your wolf self too. Like for instance, if I get too turned on when getting sexed, I’m likely to shape shift, in the middle of some sexual foreplay and end up “wolfing out” on top of Paris. Usually before I even know it’s happening and by the time I do understand my shape shift is happening, then it’s over and done. Shape shifting in heat, is violently fast. Which seems to fit the rest of what my body is feeling at present. Violently fast.
Luckily, Paris is built for the hardship of having a crazed, over sexed, werewolf girlfriend out of control for a day or two, I’m loosing track of time here. It’s already been a good twenty four hours and counting. Longest dose of ‘heat’, yet. Paris can follow suit though, with shape shifting to his wolf self too. So it’s not like I can break him, or damage him. Although damn, if the desire isn’t there wanting me to try.
This being in heat thing is weird. Always different with me. Now this.
The urges crawling under my skin and through my foggy brain, make rough sex look tame, and safe, like a Volvo. My wolf wants to crash the shit out of that Volvo. My wolf is pushing at my skin, constantly. Making me edgy, restless like I’ve got cabin fever.
Caged.
Nobody can guess how I’ll react to this heat thing, so it’s better for all concerned if I’m taken off the streets and monitored. So I’m in a cage. A small part of me understands the logic. But most of me doesn’t care.
A big, freaking cage.
My wolf isn’t helped by the sight of it through my human eyes. We recognize what a cage is, understand it holds us in, holds us back and means I’m trapped in limited space, with no chance of freedom or whatever it is my wolf is seeking out in this mode. I’ve thrown myself against it a few times, I can tell, because I have wicked bruising along my arms. Like army camouflage. Doesn’t matter, it’ll disappear whenever I shape shift again.
If I shape shift again.
I growl.
Not happy.
Look through the cage bars back at Paris.
He’s standing on the other side of the bars, his chest is bare and has scratch marks all over it. Some on the side of his beautifully, otherwise smooth face too. Shit. I don’t remember doing that to him. Hope it didn’t hurt. What am I saying? Of course it wouldn’t have hurt him, much. He’s an Alpha werewolf, he’s got a higher pain threshold than I do. Even in human form. His body acts is like the strongest metal, it can endure almost anything.
And the man can handle little old me.
He’s drinking from a water bottle, Addison is talking to him when he looks over, back at me.
“Soon.” Is all he says to me. Addison keeps talking to him.
I start to pace, hair hanging down in my face. Wolf and me are not happy, probably because we keep fighting each other for control of this heat mode. The human side of my brain tells me I can control this thing, not have it control me. That I can get it under control if I just work on it. But the urges pound through me and those little thoughts of figuring out what to do go and I grip the cage bars, trying to rattle them. They don’t move or make any kind of sound.
Fucking cage.
Paris and Addison stop talking and Paris hands the water bottle back to Addison.
“Round two.”
Paris unlocks the cage door and steps inside with me.
Wonder Woman is getting rebooted. Twilight has become a “saga” and there is a new hot dog eating champion and some guy blew off his hands with fireworks.
Yeah the world I come from isn’t weird at all, when you look at all these headings.
Makes me glad I’m a werewolf on this fourth of July. It’s odd to think that my strange little world of fur, paws, fights and various issues is more sensible than the one I frequent daily amongst all the nons.
Of course, not everything is hunky dory normal. Well, I guess it depends on your version of what is normal anyway. I have a more open mind than most, since I kind of need to balance between two worlds. Human and werewolf alike – it’s a bit like being Taylor Lautner and occasionally having to wear a shirt in Twilight, so you don’t steal the entire show. Werewolves are after all, natural show stoppers.
Let’s see, first of all there’s the fact that Paris, Addison and I found an interesting little secret in the Appalachians. Turns out, it might have become some neutral territory of sorts, for lycans and shape shifters. We literally stumbled across the scent of a lycan there, an unknown lycan and went searching.
Werewolves do not like lycans being in their territory, it’s rarely ever good. But most of the time, lycans go out of their way, to stay out of our way, when in our territory. They’re sneaky and some would say, stealthy too. I prefer to use the term under-handed and manipulative. They usually don’t stay long in pack areas. Because it’s not healthy or wise for them.
I guess they’re like the street smarts of the supernatural animal world. They make do with whatever they must do, to get to whatever they want to.
And nobody ever stopped to think about it before, or pay the idea much attention, but the Appalachians the perfect area for lycans, shape shifters and whatever else goes bump in the night, to hide out. Sparse and unassuming, natural mountain range close to a major city. There’s enough space there for all of us to hide and hang out in, if required, without directly getting in to any Alpha or pack’s way.
Which is why, for now, Paris has decided to just monitor the situation. There’s not point to getting hot headed and attacking something without knowing fully well what you’re really getting yourself into.
I think it’s an interesting development, because I never really thought lycans all that smart. But then I guess I underestimated them. And because werewolves, are so involved in being werewolves and being werewolves in front of other werewolves, It’s easy to see how we lost sight of all the other things, that fringe on our werewolf world. Like lycans and shape shifters. Of course, it could be considered hard to keep a track or abreast of these beings, when they kindly, too kindly, if you ask me, keep to the shadows. So they can’t be monitored or learned up on by our kind.
Part of me thinks, that’s kind of smart. The other part of me is weary, the werewolf part. Thinks it means, that the lycans, the shifters, and others, are up to something.
A bit like Gabby really. Alpha bitch from the Manhattan Maen pack. I do not know what her agenda is and it’s beginning to shit me. I mean, other than she likes to play games with me by insulting me, flirting with my packmate and being an all round bitch whenever I’m around. She’s always and I do mean, always, being overtly sexual, playful, flirtatious with Paris.
Even when she’s hanging off his brother, Wiatt’s arm! What’s with that?
I keep wondering if she’s looking for a head to head confrontation with me. Because you know what? Compared to her sly manners, I think I’d like the chance to show her that a beta wolf like me can do a lot more than she thinks I can. After all, I attracted her pack’s Alpha, and she didn’t. If she keeps going on the way she is, with me, something will give and I can’t deny my claws won’t be sharpened and ready.
See a regular bitch fight over a guy. Far more normal than today’s headlines. Who’d have thought it?
Okay our bitch fight will literally include claws, and hair pulling will be more like fur shredding, but it’s pretty much the same thing.
Then there’s the regular annoyance that is Conall in my life. After our little pack intervention into the vargr situation, he seems to think this now means, I need him, and that we’re friends and on speaking terms or something.
He keeps texting me to tell me stuff, like, that there’s a fourth of july party on at so and so house in Red Hook. Or that he and his friends are going out for drinks at wherever. Like do I want to join them? Persistance was never a Conall trait before we broke up. And the way he words the messages, makes me think I’m the one being forgiven!! But I don’t see that I did anything wrong in the first place, to be forgiven for!
See just a regular girl, getting her head around, the male species.
The spurned, angry, werewolf species, but still…almost the same thing, right?
Paris’s eyes were dark and drilling into me. His face was taunt, and looked strained. Dare I say it, but I of course, was the cause of his distress. He’d made me sit down atop a table at Addison’s house in Alphabet City, where they’d taken me, because it was closest to the area the lycan bitch and I had been caught fighting in. I had a tissue to my constantly bleeding blood nose and my head slightly tilted back, trying to stop the flow.
So there I was, sitting still, my scrapped knees dangling over a table top, keeping my mouth shut, saying nothing, and looking grim, and coated in blood, namely my own, waiting for my reprimand from my boyfriend the Manhattan Pack leader, like I was under police investigation.
But it wasn’t coming, the reprimand.
He was holding my right hand, gently and wiping the blood off the broken skin on and around my knuckles and hand. Every now and then his eyes would wander up and down my arms, silently counting, I think, all the scratch marks along them. They went right up my arms. Pink lines of varying degrees of depth, colour, scaring and blood. She’d cut through my top, shredded the long sleeves.
Not that it bothered me. Nothing about what I’d done bothered me. I was lucky I figured, but didn’t care for lucky, the corner of my bottom lip was torn, slightly away from my mouth. But none of my injuries mattered.
Getting back into the fight with that lycan, that mattered to me.I was going numb to the pain, because my anger was keeping me warm inside.
Paris being silent towards me, bothered me. A lot. Still, I refused to break the silence. I was in no mood for talking anyway. I could barely bring myself to look at the Alpha male behind Paris in the kitchen, pacing away – Addison. As far as I was concerned, he was completely at fault.
What fucking werewolf interferes in a fight that isn’t their own?
The werewolf Addison, that’s who.
There’s no real politics or ruling on this type of thing, jumping in on a regular wolf street fight. It’s just not…wise, or appreciated and I guess you could say, that in terms of the fight I’d started with the lycan bitch, it undermined me in front of her. Again.
What fucking werewolf likes to look like a weakling in front of other werewolves or more insultingly, a lycan?
Not me. I have pride, in bucket loads.
Hence the staunchly silence of my unspoken anger.
“Wanna talk to me?” Paris finally asked, as he squeezed the red coated washer out in the warm bowl of water beside my hand. My eyes flicked past him and glared at Addison who’d decided to stop pacing long enough to lean against the kitchen bench top. He folded his arms over his chest and stared straight back at me.
“I did you a favor, that lycan was going to pummel you into a new existence.” Addison fired at me before I broke eye contact.
“Addison, why don’t you leave us in private.” Paris said half turning his head towards his second in command. We both watched as Addison marched out of the kitchen area loudly and unhappily.
“Now, wanna tell me what happened?” Paris said taking up my left hand and starting to wipe it with the warm liquid.
“He was going to break both my ankles you know.” I muttered. Knowing I was acting childishly and not caring.
Paris stopped cleaning my hand wound then and looked at me in earnest seriousness.
“I’d never let him get away with doing that to you. But you must’ve pushed him to his limit, Addison isn’t one to threaten violence easily. Kingsley on the other hand…” Paris said referring to another one of the Alpha warriors in the Manhattan Maen hierarchy.
“I got into a fight.”
Paris sighed heavily and started wiping down my hand again, gently. “Believe it or not, I can see the evidence of that. Believe me, from what Addison told me of what he and Jules saw of the fight, you’re lucky they intervened when they did.”
“I was holding my own.”
“You’re covered in your own blood. That lycan has scarred you all over.” He went on.“You’re going to have to shape shift to heal all this. Pretty soon too, I would think, as soon as your nose stops bleeding.”
I pulled the bright red soaked tissue away from my nose. It was practically falling apart in my hands it was so damp.
“I need to find that lycan.”
“Not gonna happen.” Paris replied firmly. “Jules is still out there, tracking her down. We’re on it. You’re not going anywhere until you shape shift and recover.”
I sighed heavily back at him.
“Don’t make me make you.”
I guess it was the only warning I was going to get. Alpha werewolves can force another werewolf in or out of a shape shift mode, as well as kind of interfering with the wolf’s will, if you want to call it that. We call it influencing. And if I didn’t do it myself, then Paris would do it to me. Which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a smooth ride. Especially when you’ve got fresh injuries, like mine. He didn’t even need to be in animal form to do it to me, if I understood correctly.
He put my hand back down and moved the bowl of water, which was now all watered red, not pick, away from us.
“Talk to me.” He pleaded, putting my head in his hand and turning it to face it.
“You ever been hunted?” I asked.
He dropped his hand and stood up straighter in front of me.
“No.”
“Yeah, well, I never told you I was when I was fourteen and that bitch of a lycan your guys let get away from me, was the hunter responsible.” I replied sliding off the table top.
Paris looked wounded, pained and wounded. But my anger was just so much greater.
I pushed past him out of the room. Maybe I could get through a fast shape shift, fast enough to recover and get back on my feet again to find that lycan. Or maybe I’d just go out after her in werewolf form. That’d probably be my better shot.