by Sean Thomas
I didn’t speak for a minute, because I physically couldn’t remember how.
“You alright?” Marco cautiously asked.
“I mean, it’s been four years, right? So, whatever,” I lied right through my scrunched up face. It wasn’t like I hadn’t had sex, or at least tried to have sex, in the past four years. We were broken up. I couldn’t expect him to be celibate forever, even though I sported a mark that made it almost impossible for me to have any emotional connection to anybody but Dash.
“Uh, yeah. It’s been more recent actually. I think he’s sort of fucking the pain away. He’s never gotten over you, Tan.”
Dash is trying to get over me by screwing a bunch of guys. I snorted.
“Really?”
“I’m being serious. He wasn’t himself for that first year and a half and then he slowly began to go on dates. Here and there, with guys from Western State. Then one day he changed.”
“Changed how?” I flicked my fingers towards me, urging his excuse to me.
“I dunno. He was angrier. Pulled away from the pack more, kind of like he did when you first left. I just wanted you to know, you know, in case things got serious between you two.”
“Don’t worry, there’s nothing between us.” The words were flat and dead, similar to the excitement of connecting with Dash again.
“Okay.” He spoke quickly and I could tell he regretted telling me.
“Thanks for telling me.” I forced the words out because I was thankful that my friend was honest, but that didn’t mean they didn’t hurt.
Marco pulled off the main street of the downtown into the police station lot. The memorial barbeque for Richton started in forty minutes and I wanted to see my dad before I headed over. Marco offered to wait, but I needed the ten blocks to Dash’s house to think.
Dash’s house. The memorial would be held in the same place where Dash had his sexcapades, otherwise known as the last place I ever wanted to be. On some level I understood he and I were broken up, but why act so happy to see me when he’s banging other dudes. I don’t know what I expected, though. I guess I thought the damn mark on my shoulder meant something after all this time. That it connected us in some way. I should have known better.
“Asshole,” I whispered the words to the universe, letting them carry on the wind to Dash or whoever created wolves and their supernatural markings. I took a breath, pushed the pain into a box for later, and walked forward to see my father.
The inside of the station smelled just like polished wood and lemon cleaner. Just how I remembered it. My father was meticulous when it came to keeping the place clean and I realized just how much I loved this scent. A young blonde man with one of those adult baby faces looked up from the counter.
“May I help you?” he asked and I recognized his voice from the phone call.
“I’m Sheriff Settino’s son,” I said, holding my hand out.
The man gave it a firm shake. “Tanner, right? Your dad talks about you often.”
“I believe that,” I said, nodding as I admiring his bright green eyes and tall build. Maybe he could pound out some of the feelings I had? At this point I don’t care that I wouldn’t be emotionally attached to him.
“Likewise. I’m Officer Patton.”
“You must be new?” I asked, clearing the image out of mind.
The young officer couldn’t have been much older than myself and in a small town like Amber Pines, I had never seen him before.
“Second week on the job.” He laughed, husky and warm. “Hence the desk duty.”
He walked around the desk and motioned for me to follow. “Your dad’s in the back. I’ll walk you.”
There were only a couple of officers in the main room, both on the phone, and they too engrossed in their conversations to look up. Officer Patton stopped outside of my father’s office, where I could see him flipping through a folder on the other side of the glass.
Officer Patton nodded and walked away and I stood there a moment, watching the man I respected more than any other. My father had always been my biggest supporter in everything I did. I was his pride and joy and he taught me what it meant to be a good man in a bad world.
I suddenly remembered the day I finally came out to him and how anxious I had been. Dash and I had been seeing each other unofficially for a couple of months and I couldn’t hold back the secret any longer. I had approached my father at the breakfast table one morning, before school, and bluntly stated that I was gay. My father set his coffee cup on the table, dropped his newspaper, and wrapped me into a hug.
“I’m so proud of you for telling me, son,” he said, and I could feel the warm tears spill onto my cheeks. “I am so proud of you.”
Standing outside his office now I felt the same tears of relief and respect well up. Tall and lean, my father had always been naturally fit. He was a good looking man for 48 and his hair had grayed more since the last time I saw him.
I knocked and opened the door. My father looked up from his folder as the biggest smile spread across his face. He stood and wrapped me into a hug, his forever scent of black coffee filling my nose.
“God, I’ve missed you,” he said, squeezing me.
“You too, dad,” I agreed, meaning it.
We stood there for a few moments, father and son, before he released me and gave me a look over.
“You’re one good looking fella, you know that?” he said, giving my shoulder a light squeeze.
“You’ve always said that,” I laughed. “Even before I had braces.”
“This time I mean it though.” He grinned. “Before your braces I was just helping build your self-esteem.”
He walked back around his desk and sat in his chair, closing up the folders and pushing them aside.
“Sorry I missed you this morning,” he said, as I took a seat across from him. “Got a call early this morning.”
I could tell by his voice that something was wrong. Whenever he wanted to reassure me that things were ok his voice would become chirpy and cheerful. He was a terrible liar.
“What is it?” I asked.
He hesitated a moment and shook his head. “Nothing. Just work stuff. I don’t want to talk about that right now, though. I want to catch up with you.”
My eyes darted to the file folder that he had pushed aside. I reached for it but he grabbed it and pulled it out of reach.
“Tanner…I’m serious.” He pronounced each word carefully.
“So am I, dad. You know why I came back and I have a feeling that there’s more to the story here.”
My father bit his lip and nodded in agreement, having come to some internal conclusion.
“This is strictly confidential,” he said, looking behind me to the main room where the officers sat. “I mean it, Tanner. Nothing has been released to the public yet.”
“I gotcha. I gotcha.” I waved him on with my hand.
“Someone was attacked early this morning on the north side of the woods,” he said, avoiding my eyes. “Could have been a bear or coyote is what we’re thinking.”
Oh please. My father knew it was one of the neighboring packs just as well as I did.
“Who died?” The Hunter blood flowing through my veins turned to molten lava.
“You wouldn’t know the name.” He pushed the file folder across the desk to me. “Duncan Thomas. 64 years old. Walking home from the bar around 4:30 this morning.”
“Son of a bitch,” I mumbled.
“Hey.” My father chastised me. I knew he hated cussing.
“Sorry, sorry,” I said, flipping through the folder. There were pictures of what could only be described as scraps of a man. Duncan Thomas was nothing but shredded bits and the sight of these pictures enraged me. It was one thing to attack me, a Hunter who could defend himself against supernatural creatures, but it was another to attack an innocent man.
“Dad, you know what’s going on, right?” I asked.
“I don’t want to believe that’s what this is bu
t I would be a fool to think otherwise.”
He opened one of the drawers to his desk and pulled another file folder and held it out to me.
I was confused at first, taking the folder from him and opening it to see almost the exact scene as the previous folder.
“This is another victim?” I asked, hoping that I was wrong.
My father wouldn’t meet my eyes. “We don’t have exact test results yet but we believe it might be a missing teen from a couple of days ago.”
“A teenager?” I nearly yelled.
“Maria Evans. 16 years old. Her parents called in a day ago saying Maria hadn’t checked in. Apparently they had a fight and Maria said she was going to a friend’s house for the night. She never showed up.” His voice was heavy with despair.
I stared at the business card holder on the edge of the desk. I kept reading Sheriff Settino but it wouldn’t register in my head. An elderly man and a teenager. Not just murdered, but torn to shreds. Gutted. Slaughtered. All because a rogue pack wanted to threaten the Amber Pines wolves to show them what they were capable of. They attacked me for some reason and they knew this meant war. This was breaking the golden rule with wolf packs: you didn’t enter into another pack’s territory and you certainly didn’t kill innocent residents.
The images from the folders flooded through my brain. My mouth began to salivate and I stood up before I vomited on the desk. Even after all of the gore I had seen in my life, I still was not used to it.
“You alright, son?” My father asked, standing as well.
“This is war, Dad.” The words sounded foreign coming from my mouth. “There’s a rogue pack out there attacking people in our territory. The pack will be going after them.”
“What do you mean war? What’s going to happen?”
I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t the person with the answers. Dash would know. Marco would know.
I was almost out the door before my father grabbed me gently by my arm.
“What’s going to happen?” he asked, concern and uncertainty in his voice.
“I don’t know, Dad. I need to tell Dash or Marco. They’ll know.”
I walked out of the office and headed towards the lobby.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“The memorial. I need to tell the pack that these wolves have killed.”
“Wait,” he said. “Tanner, wait.”
Looking around, my father pushed me down a hall away from the other officers. I caught a glimpse of Officer Patton staring at us questioningly.
“What is going on? Dash is outside right now?” he asked, forehead crunched.
The sound that came from my mouth was a mix of ‘ugh’ and ‘no’. I ignored the confused look on my father’s face and corrected myself. “Everyone’s at Dash’s house for Richton’s memorial barbeque. I’ll tell them there.”
“I thought we agreed we weren’t going to talk about the bodies?” He leaned forward, waiting for my answer.
“That was before rogue wolves started killing Amber Pines residents,” I whispered back, looking down the hall to make sure nobody was within earshot.
“When did you and Dash see each other?” he asked, his voice fluctuating between curiosity and happiness.
“We didn’t,” I lied, not about to discuss the wolves or the fact that my ex-boyfriend, who was magically my life mate, was currently on a sex spree.
“But you saw Marco?”
“Yes, and Dad, I really have to let them know what’s going on.” I felt guilty for leaving him so soon but people’s lives were in danger.
“Okay, okay,” my father said, looking expectant.
“Dad, promise me you won’t go after these wolves.” I stared at his gentle face that was frosted with light wrinkles.
“I’m the Sheriff here, Tanner.”
“I know that, Dad, but these are supernatural wolves. Please leave this to the pack.”
“I’m supposed to be the one worrying about you. I’m the father here.” He softened his stance, his shoulders relaxing.
“I know.” I made sure the words held a respectful tone.
CHAPTER FIVE
Richton’s memorial service was in full-swing when I walked around the house and into the backyard. The idea with the pack was to celebrate the Alpha’s life with food, drinks, and memories. Richton wouldn’t have wanted sappy music and flowers.
Even though it was Dash’s house, Marco stood behind the grill with a tattered apron that read- Whose Your Daddy? He held tongs in one hand and a beer in the other.
“Look who it is,” Grady called out, jumping off the picnic table and jogging over to me. I don’t know how it was possible, but he got taller and more buff since I last saw him. With skin the color of licorice and most likely 6’6’’, Grady was a beautiful mountain of a man.
“Hey friend.” He wrapped me up in a bear hug and lifted me easily from the ground.
“Jesus, man. You do know steroids are bad for your health, right?”
“You’re one to talk.” I smacked my hand against his 12 pack.
“No. Way.” Jacey was behind me, bewilderment in her wide eyes. “What happened to you?”
“Look at you.” I laughed, running my fingers through a strand of her fire truck red hair.
“Do you like it?” She peered at me out of one eye, hesitantly.
“Of course. You look like a bombshell.”
She jumped up and down, clapping her hands. “Yay.”
She latched her arm through mine and dragged me towards the picnic table. I made a quick scan of the backyard, a lump in my throat, as I looked for Dash. Besides him, the only other person I hadn’t seen yet was Carson. The redhead was hot tempered and the only pack member I never fully connected with. Carson was the type of person who enjoyed being a dick for no reason, and apparently, like Dash, enjoyed using his dick just as much. He and I had clashed more than once in the past.
The screen door opened on queue and Carson walked out with two cases of beer. Behind him, Dash stepped onto the porch with a bag of hamburger buns. Speaking of buns, there were Dash’s, crammed inside his too-tight jeans. I silently cursed my quickly wavering feelings and accepted the fact that for a man who was all legs, Dash could fill out a pair of jeans like nobody else.
“Hey.” Carson nodded towards me and walked past. That was typical.
“Hello to you, too.” I flashed him a forced smile and glanced at Dash’s legs again. I could see him looking at me as he walked towards the grill, but I couldn’t bring myself to raise my eyes. I desperately wanted to smile at him, see what I imagined was the curved grin on his face, but I couldn’t. Call me on overreacting, but I felt betrayed.
“Come and get it,” Marco called, and then looked past me. “Oh hey, just in time.”
Sylvia Night. A whole lot of boobs and a bunch of bad ass. She walked around the house in a black dress and a red trench coat. Talk about channeling Carmen Sandiego. Behind her trailed three men who neared Grady’s gigantic size. She was Alpha of Hartwood, one of the three Rocky Mountain packs, and looked just as sexy as I knew she was deadly.
She was friends with Richton and it made sense that she would attend the memorial barbeque in his honor. The goons behind her were obviously her muscle and from the dumb looks on their faces, they were just following orders.
“We’re gonna need more burgers.” Jacey squeezed my arm and I chuckled.
Sylvia walked past Jacey and I, throwing me a suspicious glance, before giving Dash a fake half hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you for inviting me, Mr. Howell.” Her voice was a rich velvet, both smooth and bold. She sounded exactly like an Alpha would, with confidence and power.
“You’re always a guest here, Sylvia.” Dash made things more casual and despite knowing he’s a gay man, jealousy still scratched at my gut.
You’re always a guest, I repeated in my head. Ugh.
“Please come eat.” Marco brought a plate of burgers over to the picn
ic table and motioned with his hand for Sylvia to sit at the patio table with Dash.
It wasn’t a secret that Dash was the obvious choice for Alpha. Richton would have picked him, I was certain of that. He would probably be talking Alpha business with Sylvia and I was fine with that, because it meant I could catch up with old friends.
We ate and talked, laughed and retold old stories. Marco was in tears, slapping the table, as he tried to tell the story of the time a spirit latched onto me.
“That was not funny, dude.” I laughed, remembering how terrified I had been. “That was scary.”
Marco waved his hand in front of his face. “No, no…oh man, you wouldn’t even look in a mirror. Like, you were a mess for a week.”
“I had a ghost following me around.” I looked to Jacey for backup.
She held her hand over her mouth, but I could see she was stifling a laugh. “The ghost just had a little crush on you.”
Grady snickered and nearly spit out his beer.
“It was a female ghost who tried to watch me shower. She would appear out of nowhere. It freaked me out.”
Everybody broke into laughter again.
“I don’t know if you guys know this or not.” Marco gave me an apologetic look. “But Tanner had me stand in the bathroom with him so he could shower.”
“Marco.” I let the end of his name drag out.
“I’m sorry, bro.”
I took another swig of my beer and glanced around the table. Pride and lightheartedness filled me up as much as the food did. I had missed this, truly missed this. Marco’s jokes, Grady’s acceptance, and Jacey’s gentle ability to make anyone feel special. Being back, right now, made me realize how different my life was in California. Sure, I had friends and a job, but this was rooted much deeper. This was natural to me. I could truly be myself.
I smiled on the outside, listening to another of Marco’s stories, but a piece of me questioned how I would be able to leave. How I would walk away from these guys again.
“Anyone need a refill?” I asked, needing a moment to feel the guilt out of sight.
“I’ll take another.” Grady raised his bottle.
“Same.” Jacey winked.
