Lupa (Second Edition)
Page 29
*****
Max sat in the back seat with the oldest werewolf in existence listening to the two men in front carry on a conversation you’d hear in a college dorm by two drunken fraternity brothers. He was smiling; feeling fifty shades of dork, but couldn’t seem to wipe the grin off his face. It was just too cool. He looked at the Lycaon and saw the man had his own grin.
“Are they always this way?” Max asked.
“I’m afraid so,” he said.
Max discovered he was better at shielding against Josette. He still felt like he wanted to jump out the damn car and look at her with his own eyes, but he could feel her presence. It was a constant weight in the center of his body. It felt like a string pulling his insides backwards, because she was in the car behind them. He turned around and saw her facing the Nonakris. He concentrated on her, saw her turn her head and smile.
“I love you.”
He heard the words like she was sitting next to him. She hadn’t moved her lips, that beautiful smile never wavered. His grin turned into something that showed all twenty-eight of his teeth, his wisdom teeth still hadn’t come in.
“Is it uncomfortable being away from her even this short distance,” Jean Rene asked turning Max attention back to him.
“No,” he said turning around in his seat and facing the Frenchman. “It’s more like a pressure that tells me what direction she’s in.”
“No shit,” Wallace said. He and Thomas had been debating...loudly and boisterously, the best fights they had been in and how the upcoming event would compare.
“Yes, it’s like something pressing on my chest and stomach, pushing all my insides to my back.”
“And did she hear you or does she read lips?” Jean Rene asked.
“What?”
“Just then, you said, and I quote ‘I love you too Tehila,’”
Max had no idea he had spoken out loud. “I don’t know if she can read lips but we hear each other thoughts.”
The car swerved, enough for everyone to brace themselves. “What the fuck,” Wallace said.
“Watch the damn road!” Thomas said a second before the phone rang. He dug his cell phone out of his pocket. “We’re fine. Wallace doesn’t seem to be able to listen and drive,” he said giving Wallace the evil-eye. “I don’t think Constantine would like that very much, but I appreciate the offer.” Thomas laughed. “Tell your mother I heard that, and I love her too.” Thomas snapped the phone closed. “Virginia offered to castrate you and Lillian’s going to break both your arms if you scare her again.
“Damn Wolfe Hunters,” Wallace said.
“So I’m guessing you and your mate don’t hear each other’s thoughts.”
“No young wolf, we don’t. What other abilities do you share?”
“We can feel each other emotions. I can project mine onto her, usually it’s to calm her down if she’s upset or frightened.”
“Was it that way before you bit her?” Thomas asked turning around.
“Yes, but not as strong. We were picking up each other’s feelings, but hadn’t said anything until my first time turning in front of her. That’s when we found out she could understand my thoughts.”
“Holy hell,” Wallace said.
“You spoke to her with words,” Jean Rene asked.
“No. She was upset because she’d felt the pain I was in during the transformation from half to whole wolf. I was thinking about how I wished I’d told her that the pain was worth it for me. I never take half form because I love when I’m a wolf. I was thinking of how beautiful the world is through my wolf eyes and then I thought how much I loved her. She told me she loved me too and I knew she could understand me.”
“Incroyable,” Jean Rene said.
“You grew bigger back at the compound.” Thomas said.
“Yeah, that’s a first too. It seems like every time something happens to bind us closer together, something new happens.”
“You’d already mated with her, what happened last night to make you grow in size?” Thomas asked.
“One that she was kicking your ass in by the way,” Wallace added.
Max hesitated, didn’t know if he wanted to talk about sex with these men, especially Wallace, he seemed like the kind that would want details.
“I see,” Jean Rene said.
“See what,” Thomas said.
“The Ulric and Ulrich became lovers just last night.”
“Oh,” Thomas said looking a little embarrassed at having asked the question. “Sorry.”
“No problem,” Max said. “Josette was a virgin and I wanted to wait,” he said and stared the back of Wallace’s head down, waiting for a smart remark.
“You’ll get no word of disrespect from me little king. I show you and the Ulrich the respect due your title and station,” he said.
“That and the fact that he can feel the power of your beast pressing down on him like an anvil,” Jean Rene added.
“Sorry,” Max said. “I’m still getting use to everything.”
“You two are a unique pair that’s for certain. I thought myself the only of my kind. To find out differently, after all these years...I have no words.”
“I thought Diana said there are others.”
“She believed there are others like herself. I am more than five hundred years old. The oldest living man in existence, I’d come to think of myself as the original boy or a reincarnate.”
“So there’s really no one else like us?”
“None that we’ve found and none have come forth, even after Diana and I returned to France and showed the wolves what we truly were.”
“Did Diana have any effect on you at all,” Thomas asked.
Max shook his head. “No. I don’t think so. I’m drawn to Josette, she has the ability to change my form at her will.” he said.
“Are you sure of that,” Jean Rene asked.
“Yes, I can change if she’s threatened but she can also push me to become wolf. She did today. When she was standing next to you and the Nonakris, she changed my form. There was no threat. I was sitting there shocked with everyone else at the sight of the two of you changing when she called me.”
“She is more powerful than even I.”
The declaration hung in the air like a balloon; maybe a beach ball; the words bouncing around from man to man as they let them sink in and each tried to figure out what it meant for a seventeen year old, brand new werewolf, to be more powerful than an five hundred year old one.
“If she is stronger than you, how can Maxwell truly be her alpha?” Wallace said. “I’ve watched you and Nonakris for a long time. It may appear that she runs things, but I know your beast is stronger than hers. She is truly your wolf to call.”
“Because Max is stronger than all of them,” Thomas answered.
The Hummer swerved again when Wallace tried to turn to look at Max. “Shit,” he said turning back around. They all waited for the phone to ring. Each man had a little smile as they waited. A minute passed. “I guess they didn’t see, “Wallace said laughing.
Max smile widened. “No, they called the Nonakris to ask permission to bleed you.”
“Son of a...” Wallace said slamming his large palm down on the top of the steering wheel.
“Josette says if Nonakris does not give permission she’ll do it herself,” Max tilted his head and then looked out of the window next to him before finally whipping around in his seat to stare at Josette through the back of the truck. He was laughing when he straightened in his seat. No one asked him what his new bride had said or shown him.
******
Part Three
So the king made it known...
******