LRR Hood

by Cassandra Johnson

  “No, I don’t think I can eat right now.” Gallen said running his hand through his hair slowly as he held up a picture for his son to look at.

  “He was in love with her, I can see why.” He said laughing faintly

  Looking at the picture, there were three adults and one child that was being held for the camera to see. Marik knew right away that the baby was Elle and the man and woman holding her were her parents. Her grandmother a sharp looking woman with a gleam in her eye leaning into the frame with them. A broad smile on her face as she welcomed her granddaughter to the world. It didn’t look like the picture was taken in a hospital. However, the setting was familiar though he couldn’t quite pin point the place.

  “So he cheated on grandma?” Marik asked handing the picture back.

  “No, your grandfather was much too honorable for that. But he did love her from afar though. He claims in his writings that neither one of them ever wanted to hurt Maria.”

  “Was he ever in contact with Elle’s grandmother after he sent her away?”

  “Only when he took Elle to her at the safe house. After that, he only mentions how he misses her and that he knows they are well.”

  ~

  Elle turned in her sleep, whimpering softly as the darkness swarmed around her in strange wisps of ink that dominated her view but she could hear the growl of beasts and screams wet and gurgling like someone was choking. Shivering a little she pulled her arms and legs up into her body, cradling herself as her bottom lip puckered out. Her dreams taking a strange shift back to the moment when Gallen’s body disappeared and was instead replaced by the flashes of the monsters that had dominated her nightmares since she was too young to remember. Jerking her eyes faintly fluttered open looking around the room. It was day light, but the sun that was creeping in through the window seemed higher in the sky casting longer shadows around the bedroom. Sitting up she rubbed her eyes as she slid the covers back and stood up, her shoes were on the floor next to the bed, and her feet felt unbearably cold in the socks she wore as she walked across the room opening the door. Stepping out into the hall-way she slowly moved down the stairs clutching the railing.

  Elle remembered coming here with Marik to his father’s house but how she ended up in bed didn’t make sense. She smiled faintly walking into the study to see Gallen, such a handsome man even for his age. He reminded her of one of the wolves in her books. Older, distinguished, smart and smelled of peppermints and Old English. A pleasant grandfather of a man whom she sometimes dreamt of holding in her in his arms and rocking her. As she came to the door watching him bent over an old book, he looked frustrated and enraptured all at the same time as a small choking gasp caught in her throat.

  She hadn’t been having one of her funny dreams. Her eyes scanned the room as if she had seen a ghost as she looked towards the fire place remembering the massive wolf that exploded from within the man right there on that spot.

  “Please, don’t be afraid Elle,” Gallen said upon hearing her gasp. He knew she was reliving the moment when he had transformed right in front of her. It was a lot to take in, and he should have eased her into it with an explanation. However, he didn’t think she would faint at the sight of him. Admittedly, it was not his finest moment.

  “How, did you do it? Y-you’re not supposed to be real.” Elle’s face held something akin to sadness and awe as she slowly moved into the room and stood in front of the desk, so she was looking at Gallen's head on.

  “I was born this way…and I assure you dear, I am quite real. Your grandmother knew that.” Gallen said looking at her, his gaze gently probing. He didn’t want to frighten her any more than she already was.

  “My grandmother?” Elle’s eyes searched his features as she looked at him.

  “Yes,” Gallen said taking the picture from his desk and handing it to her. “Your grandmother was a friend to our pack, I dare say she was like a member of the family. My father knew her in those days before she and you were sent away.”

  Blinking she swallowed trying to stop the swirling in her head as she slowly sat down in one of the two chairs in front of his desk and stared at the picture of her grandmother. The picture was one from the day she was born, smiling softly her grandmother looked younger here than she had in the days that Elle knew her, her mother exhausted but happy, her father looking thoroughly pleased with himself.

  “She always told me stories about wolves, but she never told me they were real,” Elle said her fingers gently tracing over her mother and father. “What happened?” Elle looked up at him then, holding onto the picture.

  “There was a fight between our pack and another one, and unfortunately your parents were there. So were you, you are one of the very few that survived the bloodshed. My father loved your grandmother a great deal and sent her away someplace where he knew that she would be safe. When he found you, he took you there to be raised by her.”

  Sitting back in her seat Elle took a deep breath. This was incredible, she’d always loved werewolves but of course in the world that they lived in was there room for such a creature? It all made perfect sense to her now. Suddenly gasping she sat up in her seat slowly looking at Gallen with bright shining feverish eyes.

  “The night my grandmother passed away…outside wolves started howling. Does that mean anything?” Elle asked sitting up on the edge of her seat.

  Gallen’s smile slowly widened before sitting back in his seat with a small laugh, his head shaking from side to side as he came to rest his hand against his cheek.

  “It means a great deal, my dear,” Gallen said looking down at the journal before closing it and setting it aside. “When a werewolf leaves this plain for the next, especially if they have been mated there is a chorus of wolves who send them off to the other side. Mates typically pass hours or even days apart from each other. Wolves howled the night my father died as well.” While the thought of his father not loving his mother as he had always perceived hurt, the sheer romanticism that he had loved someone that much was like a soothing balm to his heart. Lucian had been a man of honor, and while he was married to one woman and in love, with another, he had never skipped out on his responsibilities but instead had shouldered his burdens silently without once complaining or treating his wife poorly.

  “That’s beautiful,” Elle said slowly her head tilting softly as she thought back to that night. At first, she’d been frightened but as the howling continued it felt more like the wolves were sending her grandmother off, mourning her as Elle did because of all the stories she told her about them.

  “I believe that my father has always been looking after you and your grandmother whether he was there physically or not. Wolves in the area probably checked up on you from time to time as well as guardians too.”

  Perking up in her seat there was that word again. Elle didn’t know what it meant as she looked into Gallen’s eyes for some form of confirmation.

  “The dogs that came to your home? Were there a lot?”

  “Yes, at any given time there might be as many as ten dogs. Not all of them stayed.” She admitted turning her head as Gregory came into the room almost as if on cue like his name had been spoken. He came up to her settling by her side as he laid his head on her leg looking up at her.

  “You’re my guardian.” Laughing it felt so strange to say it as she laid her hand down on Gregory’s head and gently rubbed behind his ears evoking a low rumble of satisfaction from his throat.

  “Guardians are in the most basic sense a canine with the spirit of a wolf. They are strong and loyal, but they aren’t werewolves though they can communicate with us,” he explained as Elle listened, though her attention was focused on the guardian at her side.

  “Does that mean I should stop the baby talk? Is that demeaning to his status?” Elle asked suddenly afraid that for years she had been insulting him and not even realizing she was doing it.

  “Well, if he hasn’t shown any signs that he doesn’t like it I wouldn’t.” He laughed sitting up fr
om his chair once more.

  “We have a lot to discuss, and I am sure that Marik would like to be a part of it. Why don’t we go into the kitchen for some lunch and we can answer all of your questions as well as explain the whole reason why you are here now.”

  ~

  “Fuck.” The wolf smoldered as he stood within the empty kitchen of Elle’ s home; he had already been through every room, and no one was here except for the familiar scent of a Chaliceman. Gaerik had already gotten to her, and he was left with no clues as to where the devil he’d gotten off to. Somehow while he wasn’t looking the bastard had leapt several paces ahead of him and cut him off at the pace.

  Growling his arms swept the counter top as a canister set flew across the room, flour and sugar spraying the room in a gritty white mess. All of his careful planning, finding the one person Gaerik wanted so badly and he was a step behind getting her. His palms itched as his fists shook with rage.

  Eyes glowing red he went through the house once more tearing it apart for anything that might assist him in finding the wolf he pursued. For months since he began to hatch this plan all he had dreamt of was seeing the life fade from Gaerik’s eyes as his brother ripped his throat out. He knew that Marik would never survive killing his brother, even believing that he had killed wouldn’t stop the emptiness that would flood his body as his other halves life was taken at his own hands.

  Chapter Seventeen

  His muscles tightened, coiling together and shooting pains throbbed as he turned onto his back, his blue eyes staring wide at the ceiling above him. When was the last time he shifted? His body ached as if it had been ages, the runs with the pack always released so much tension but now Gaerik couldn’t remember the last time he had shed his skin for a fur coat and felt the heat radiate through his muscles as he sprinted through the tree line. Before he was too afraid to shift, or the entire pack might have felt it and come looking for him, staying in his two-legged form was safer.

  Standing up out of bed he grabbed a pair of jeans he’d bought and drug them up his legs, grimacing at the sensation of the denim riding up his legs as he slid the zipper up, clasping the button just below his navel. Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror he was tall, six foot four, muscles defined beneath the tanned skin. His hair was a mess, the slight curl in the dark locks made him look even wilder with the beard that was shadowing the bottom portion of his face, his chest rose beneath a capital T formation of dark hair. He reached for the phone and flipped it open. He had to speak with his father, there was no putting it off anymore.

  Selecting the number from the list of code names he placed the phone against his ear, his chest tightening as he waited for him to pick up on the other end of the line.

  “Hello?” Marik answered, holding the kitchen phone to his ear as the room dropped to silence as Elle and Gallen both looked up from their bare stools, thickly built sandwiches half way to their mouths.

  It seemed that Gallen and Elle were like old spirits meeting one another again for the first time in years. Like a teacher and his student Gallen carefully explained their lives, the formation of the Council after her parent’s death and Gaerik. He would pause allowing her time to soak all of the information in before he asked if she had any questions, knowing that of course, she would.

  “Hello?” Marik asked again two pairs of eyes watching him curiously as the silence that had come out of courtesy now became somewhat tense.

  “Hello, brother,” Gaerik said, finding his voice at last and his heart began to beat again. He had feared that Marik would be at his fathers, but he didn’t believe that his fear would be confirmed.

  “Gaerik.” His voice came out slowly for a moment before Gallen was suddenly out of his chair and taking the phone away from his son holding it to his ear.

  “Son, it’s your father.” He blurted out as if he wouldn’t have known if he didn’t identify himself. “Where are you? No, don’t tell me. Listen a lot has happened, but you must keep going. Your brother and I …as well as a friend are working on clearing your name.”

  “You mean Marik doesn’t want to drag me to the council by my balls and behead me anymore? That seems hard to believe.” He said with a laugh of pure amusement, the first one in the last twenty-four hours he’d been at liberty to enjoy.

  “It’s all very confusing, but it’s true. I don’t want you to come back until we can prove you are being set up.”

  “Why the hell should I have to run with my tail tucked between my legs, I want to come back and see who this bastard is,” Gaerik growled into the phone.

  “You will listen to me.” Gallen’s voice deepened. “You will not come back to this house until I say you can.”

  “Fine, fine. I won’t come back to the house.” Gaerik smirked, scrubbing one of his toes along the roughened carpet. “So how are you two planning on clearing my name anyway?”

  “We’re still discussing that. Your brother is going to start by going to the crime scenes and see if he can find anything that might have been over looked by the police and I am going to be digging into the archives.”

  “That all sounds very promising.” Gaerik rolled his eyes up before clearing his throat somewhat as he thought of something. “You mean crime scenes right? There was another murder. I saw it on the news. A woman was found in her car.”

  “I’ve been so caught up I haven’t even been watching the news. This is great. We have more to go on. Where was the car? If your brother goes there now maybe he can catch a scent.”

  “Exit five.” Gaerik’s voice came through muffled as he pulled a long sleeve sweat shirt on over his head, prying a bag of socks open with one hand as he sat back down on the bed, getting dressed.

  “Alright, I’ll send him out right now. Keep in contact Gaerik but do not tell me or anyone where you are or where you are going. I don’t want to take any chances that whoever is doing this is closer to us than we think.”

  “You got it.”

  Snapping the phone shut he pulled his socks on before stuffing his feet back into his shoes, he’d only slept for a few hours but his energy felt renewed as he packed everything inside of his duffel bag before taking out a few thousand dollars and dropping it inside the nightstand drawer on top of the King James Bible. Taking his things out to the SUV he walked into the front office to drop his key off.

  Mr. Onion sitting in the same place he’d left him a few hours before.

  “Excuse me sir, but could you tell me where the nearest airport is?” He smiled.

  Gallen had told him not to come to the house, but the Alpha needed to be a bit more specific in his command. Gaerik wouldn’t go to the house, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t go to his brother’s house or any one of the many women he’d bedded over the years, he just needed to use a little charm on them.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Placing the phone back onto its receiver Gallen turned to look to Marik and Elle who seemed to be staring at him like two open mouthed guppies. Marik with the sensitivity of his hearing from this close heard his brother telling his father about another victim; already moving into the hall to get his coat.

  “Son, perhaps I should come with you?” Gallen asked feeling almost hesitant to send his son out on this mission alone.

  “I think I can handle it,” Marik said as he shrugged into his jacket.

  Elle came down the hall slowly as well as her guardian following closely behind her. Elle had a whole new appreciation for the animal now that she knew he had been watching over her family since she was just a little girl – her grandmother had always been kind to him. Pausing at the banister of the stairs she wondered if her grandma had known what Gregory was from the moment she set eyes on him. It certainly was an interesting concept. Grace was a member of this pack, with Gallen she was learning so much about the woman who raised her, it only made sense that she knew about Gregory.

  “Do you think it might be possible for you to drop me off at home on your way? I’m pretty tired.” Elle said g
lancing at Gallen before a warm smile revealed her teeth.

  “You have my phone number, and I have your cell too so we can call each other. Maybe this time I won’t fall asleep in the car, so I know how to get back here.” Elle laughed gently.

  She had only just met the man but there was something so warm and inviting about Gallen, he felt more like an uncle or a father to her than he did a stranger.

  “Yeah, I can take you back,” Marik said pulling his coat on before grabbing her own from the closet and helped her into it.

  “I wish you weren’t going,” Gallen said honestly as he smiled carefully taking her shoulders into his chest as he leaned in hugging her gently before letting her go.

  “Call me the minute you get home, and we can continue our previous conversation. You have a lot of history to catch up on.”

  Though there were gaps in her history, Elle knew more about werewolves than one could give her credit for. As she stepped out of the house following Marik to the Range Rover, Gregory at her side she thought of all the times when her grandmother had told her those stories, and it occurred to her for the first time that while she never told her that werewolves were real, her grandma never had bluntly looked her in the eyes and told her they weren’t real either.

  Climbing into the passenger side of the SUV she had to smile somewhat, it was like she was a baby bird and her grandmother was just spoon feeding it to her waiting for the day when she would begin to ask questions – but she never had. Those stories were so natural to her that it never struck her to question them.

  “Do you think you’ll find anything?” Elle asked as she pulled her seat belt on, watching Gregory bounce into the back seat and shake himself off, cold, wet wisps of snow flicked all over the place from his fur.

  “I won’t know until I get out there.” He admitted climbing into the driver’s seat and turned the heater on letting the Range Rover warm up before he threw a rod trying to drive it while the engine was still frozen.