by Jess Haines
However, the guy was a vampire, and I should’ve known better than to think that he’d forgotten about me over the last month. He’d used threats and coercion to get me to sign a contract that bound me to him by letter of the law, and then later bound me to him in a much more tangible way–by blood–in order to save my life. While I was grateful for being saved, the method he used to get me out of the clutches of Max Carlyle still gave me nightmares. The remembered taste of his blood on my lips made me shiver, and not entirely in a bad way. Disgusted and horrified as I was, it had been an electrifying experience to feel so needed, so safe, so complete, while under his sway.
As you might imagine, I’d done everything possible to keep the hell away from him since then.
I thought changing my cell phone number might have helped my efforts to keep him and some of the other undesirable elements of my past from contacting me, but the number to my office was plastered all over the Yellow Pages and the Internet. I wasn’t thrilled to know he wanted to talk to me again, but having him call me was marginally better than having him show up here at my office or, worse yet, at my apartment.
Grumbling under my breath, I lifted the receiver and punched in the password to listen to the messages. There were a couple others I had to wade through before Royce’s smooth, cultured voice came on the line.
“This is Alec, and I’m leaving a message for Ms. Waynest. Shiarra, I just wanted to make sure you know that whatever happens while you are out of town is not my doing. If someone tries to make it appear otherwise, I’d appreciate being informed so that I can take action. I hope all is well with you, and enjoy your vacation.”
Well that was confusing. Both Jack and Royce were telling me they weren’t responsible for whatever was going to happen while I was out of town. First and foremost, how the hell did either of them find out I was travelling? I don’t post my itinerary on the ten o’clock news. Second, what was it they were so worried about?
It wasn’t unusual for Royce to cover his bases. Though he hadn’t tried contacting me since I’d run away from his home after the blood bond wore off, it wasn’t entirely out of character for him to make efforts to keep his name out of anything potentially nefarious. If he was worried that something might upset some plans of his or make him look bad, he’d take action.
Jack covering his ass didn’t make any sense to me. We hadn’t parted on the best of terms. Actually, the last time I’d seen him, I was walking out of the White Hat Super Secret Ninja Hideout after announcing that I felt safer with the monsters than I did with the hunters.
Yeah, I do need to brush up on my people skills a bit.
Regardless, it didn’t matter. Whatever it was they were worried about couldn’t possibly be any worse than what I’d already been through. Fighting mad sorcerers and psychotic vampires was not on the to-do list while I was on vacation. I was anticipating a few awkward moments since this trip was geared around me getting to know Chaz’s unofficial family better, but that shouldn’t have been enough to make either Royce or Jack stir themselves into giving me some kind of warning.
Chaz and I had been discussing doing something like this for a while. The biggest problem with our relationship is that Chaz is a werewolf. He’s the leader of the Sunstriker tribe, one of a few packs that live in and around New York City. The Moonwalkers have the biggest pack in town and they’d laid claim to Central Park, along with a bunch of the parks and reserves all up and down Long Island. That meant the Sunstrikers and many of the other smaller packs had to head out to places like Caumsett State Park, the Blue Mountain Reservation, or even as far as the Catskill Mountains when getting together as a group to run as a pack or to hunt. All that travel just to avoid difficulties with the Moonwalkers.
It was pretty inconvenient for the smaller packs. Not everyone can explain away needing to take three or four days off from work every month around the full moon without people getting suspicious about what they’re doing in their time off or why they keep going out of town.
So, as you might imagine, the parks and preserves not claimed by the Moonwalkers were always coveted and fiercely protected. Sometimes the smaller packs get into skirmishes with each other when they end up vying for the same hunting grounds on the full moon. It generally didn’t get so out of hand that humans, like me, got caught up in their problems. However, if Chaz and I ended up staying close together during the height of the moon cycle, I would need to be prepared to have lots and lots of furry critters around. There was also the possibility that he might take pack problems home with him now and again, and neither one of us were too keen to have me get involved in that sort of thing.
This vacation was our “trial run” to see how I might handle having a whole crapload of shifted Weres around me during the full moon. We’d drive up there tonight, and the daylight hours would be devoted to getting to know the people that made up his tribe. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night, the moon would be full, and I would get to see them together as a pack. I’d have to be careful, though. Tempers would be short and some of them might change before the full moon.
No doubt, this would be one weird four-day weekend. I was reasonably certain I could handle it. As long as Chaz was with me, I would be fine.
To be honest, I was more excited about the prospect of staying in a cabin out in the woods with Chaz than seeing a bunch of furry people running around in the dark but, hey, I could handle it.
Though I was awfully nervous about the contract I’d been in the process of signing when Jack called. While we’d resumed dating, Chaz and I hadn’t slept together since he revealed what he was. Legally, he couldn’t touch me. Even sleeping in the same cabin would be pushing it–but I was tired of how careful we had to be, how distant he was with me after both Royce and that psycho vampire, Max Carlyle, had temporarily bound me to them by blood. By offering to sign a Notice of Mutual Consent to Human/Other Citizen Relationship and Contractual Binding Agreement with him, it should make him sit up and take notice that I wasn’t going anywhere, that I truly wanted to be with him, and prove that I trusted him again.
My worry was whether or not he trusted me enough to sign it, too.
This little camping trip seemed like the perfect opportunity to make things right between us. We’d gotten a good group discount at a small resort up in the Catskills. It was too early for snow, and it would be too cold to tempt many vacationers. Plus, now that school was back in session, tourist season was officially over. Chaz had assured me that the guy who owned the property wouldn’t have any problem with the Sunstrikers–he was also Were. One well known among the supernatural community for having bought a bunch of forestland out in the mountains and cordoning off his borders to keep out hunters and tourists while letting any packs staying with him know exactly how far out they could safely range on the hunt.
It was hard to picture anything going wrong. After all, I’d been introduced to Chaz’s pack before. We’d even gone out to dinner or the movies with a few of them. The only other time I’d seen the entire pack in one place was when we showed up to fight David Borowsky, the crazed sorcerer who meant to enslave all of the Weres and vampires in New York using a weird magic artifact. Sure, they were dangerous, but since I was the pack leader’s girlfriend and had helped save their furry butts, as long as I didn’t do anything too stupid, they should be able to hold their hungers and tempers in check.
What could go wrong?
I pondered these things while I stared at the contract. Screw it. I tucked the papers away in my bag and followed Jen’s example, amusing myself with a card game while I waited for the clock to tick by and Chaz to come pick me up.
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