A Werewolf's Saga Books 1, 2, & 3 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets)

by Michael Lampman

  “Good morning.” Jimmy looked at the thin old man and smiled. He reminded him of an old man that he knew back in Ireland when he was still Collins. All of his memories grew stronger every day, until now, he felt more comfortable with all of them. It felt magical understanding them, now as he was. It felt like such a magical time to be alive, so in other words, the old man reminded him of everything he ever once was and still is.

  “What can I do for you, my fine young friends?” The old man, maybe well into his eighties by now, smiled a perfect denture smile. With the sun coming in through the window of the door behind them, his teeth looked beyond ivory pearl in color; they looked almost bleached.

  The look almost made Jimmy laugh out, but he held the temptation back, because he had no intention of offending someone that didn’t deserve it.

  “We’re looking for a room for the day. My b—,” Sasha began but paused. For a brief moment, she almost called Jimmy what she started to think of him as—her boyfriend. With her almost doing it, it made her feel shocked, and realizing that, it made her have to stop before she said it.

  Jimmy looked at her and smiled. “My sister and I would like to have a room.” He looked to her pale white skin, thinking that her pause was only because she had trouble coming up with something to call each other in front of strangers, so he felt the need to come up with something himself. Of course, he had no idea what she was actually about to call him. As far as he felt about everything, they had to be something to each other, more than just two friends hiking up north. She was, after all, young enough to be what he thought of her as—a daughter. Being that he looked like he was in his early twenties, he knew that that wouldn’t fly either, so being brother and sister would have to work.

  Sasha turned back, and looked to the old man. Was what he said about her, what he truly thought? She didn’t know what to think or what to say about it, so she tried to do none of both, and stayed quiet instead.

  The old man smiled. He didn’t seem to care about anything they said.

  To Jimmy, he probably didn’t hear any of it anyway.

  “Sign the register here.” The man smiled, sliding a journal type of book over towards them to their side of the counter. Once there, he pulled his rather shaky right hand back towards himself. “We take MasterCard or Visa.” His pearly white teeth sparkled back to both of them.

  Jimmy watched the book. He watched his hand. He listened to what he asked him. The book he didn’t mind signing, but as for the credit card, he had nothing to give him. “You don’t take cash?” He looked to the old man and smiled.

  The old man shook his head as he answered him. “I’m sorry, but I have to have a credit card, just in case something happens to the room.” He sighed. “Is there a problem?”

  Sasha brought her mind back to where she was, so she turned from the old man and looked back to Jimmy. She could feel him tense up. “I’ll get it—brother.”

  Jimmy could easily hear her voice turn high. He looked back to her and watched only the side of her face as she reached down and pulled out a wad of money and other things from the right front pocket of her jeans. He then watched her unfold the money, revealing several crisp hundred-dollar bills and a credit card beneath the money. She took out the card and handed it to the old man. He couldn’t do anything but shrug watching all of it.

  The old man reached a trembling right hand back over the counter and took the card. “It’ll be a solid forty.” He smiled.

  Sasha nodded.

  Jimmy shrugged again. Where in the hell did she get a credit card? As soon as he thought about it, he corrected himself. After all, she was probably not all that much younger than the old man was.

  The old man turned his back to the two of them, to a counter behind him and walked over to it with a slide in his steps.

  With his back turned, it gave Jimmy the time to ask her some things. Her voice, and the way she said brother was on the forefront part of his thoughts. “What was that about?” he whispered, trying to keep his voice down. He probably didn’t even have to do that. The old man probably wouldn’t hear a word he said anyway.

  “What?” her voice whined again, keeping high, keeping distant.

  “The brother thing?”

  “What about it?”

  “Are you all right with that? I had to come up with something. You didn’t seem to be having any luck with coming up with something yourself.”

  She bowed her head down some towards the countertop. “It’s nothing.” Her voice turned from its highness, to something that sounded more like a low and bashful tone.

  At least it sounded that way to him. “You can tell me anything, you know that?” He reached out with his right hand and took her left hand into his.

  “It’s nothing. Just drop it.” She pulled her hand out of his. After she looked back at him, but kept her chin down low. “I’m just in a type of a mood.” She tried to smile but obviously failed at it.

  “You’re right.” It was his turn to nod. “We do need to get some rest.” He looked back to the old man, who was now turning back around to both of them. Whatever was bothering her, he knew now wasn’t the time to talk about it anyway. Even with knowing that the old man probably didn’t hear a damn thing they said.

  “All set folks.” The old man smiled. “Here’s the key to room four.” His left hand came up from behind the counter with a key on a large plastic keychain, which he handed to Jimmy, and he handed the credit card back to Sasha. “It’s on the other side of the building, around the corner. There are fresh towels in the bathroom, and new sheets on the beds. Check out time in eleven AM.”

  Jimmy took the keys with a nod and a smile. “Thank you.”

  Sasha put her card back in with the money and replaced it all back inside her jeans. Finished, she turned and left back outside through the door quickly.

  Jimmy just barely saw her flannel shirt wave some just as the door closed back shut behind her.

  Watching it all, the old man smiled. “Moody huh?”

  That surprised him some. “Excuse me?” His eyebrows flared up.

  “Women. Can’t live with them, but can’t live without them either.” His pearly teeth sparkled. His lips went from a pinkish hue to a white color all too fast.

  Jimmy chuckled some under his breath. He said nothing else; he just nodded one final time, left the old man behind the counter, and went back outside.

  Sasha stood at the corner of the building, and waited for him there. “I’m sorry Jimmy.” She bowed her head down some, and stared at the sidewalk, which ended at her feet and turned back into the stone of the parking lot just in front of her.

  “For what?” He approached her from behind and stopped. He truly meant what he asked. He had no idea what was bothering her, but knew that it had to be something. She’d been acting strange all night. He didn’t know if it had anything to do with the daylight coming or something more than that, but he could only assume that it was because she just felt tired from the trip.

  She kept her head down. “I shouldn’t have acted that way.”

  “What way is that?”

  “Angry.”

  He now bowed his eyes to the tops of his sneakers. “You’re just tired that’s all. It’s been a long night.” Why is she angry? More yet, Why didn’t I catch onto the fact that she is? How did I miss that? He surely did miss it. He could smell emotions almost like seeing the colors of people’s eyes. Being that way, he should have caught it. He should have seen it. He should have tried to, if it was there, but obviously didn’t.

  “It’s not that.” She crossed her arms over her chest, and hugged herself tightly. She grimaced some because of it. The wounds across her chest now felt completely healed, but they still bothered her some. She knew it would be some time before she felt completely normal again.

  He could see that she became uncomfortable all too quickly, and he had to find out why she did. “What is it then?”

  She breathed heavily into the morning air. The damp
ness of that air already started to warm with the sun. “I shouldn’t have assumed anything.”

  “Assumed what?” He placed his hands to the waist of his jeans. He now knew that he surely missed more than he originally thought he did, and now, he felt completely lost because of it. He felt dumbfounded and more. He had no idea what was going on, and that made the feelings he felt grow stronger yet. They also made his mind flare into several different directions at once. With them, he began to realize that he still couldn’t understand women. They were probably one of the greatest mysteries of all time, as far as he ever felt concerned about it, even with him now being what he was. In fact, it seemed the wolf wasn’t able to understand them either.

  She spun around and faced him. “If I have to tell you, then I know that I am.”

  “What?” His eyebrows went up. His brown eyes sparkled in the sun.

  She could feel herself almost melt some from the sight of those eyes alone. “I’m falling in love with you Jimmy.” There, she finally said it. She finally spoke it. Let the pieces of the puzzle fall where they may.

  With that, he gasped. He had to. He had no idea she began to feel that way for him. He did know she began to feel something, but didn’t think it went that far yet. Hearing it, he now knew that today was the day to have that talk. Besides, it did explain a lot. It answered her mood. He now understood her. He called her something, and felt for her in a way, that hurt her when he did it. “I’m sorry. I never intended,” he began stuttering some, dumfounded as to what to say—as to what to think next.

  Luckily, for him, she cut him off in mid-sentence. “It’s okay, really. I understand.” She exhaled again, and in doing so, the air left her lungs so hard, it pushed away the strands of her red hair from her face.

  “No, it’s not okay.” He reached out with both hands and took her shoulders into the palms of his hands. He held her firmly, almost holding her in place. “I won’t hurt you like that.” He smiled.

  She huffed again. “It’s her, isn’t it?” She uncrossed her arms and placed her hands into the front pockets of her jeans. Doing so, it made her look frumpy. She looked depressed. She looked almost like a schoolgirl that had just been dumped two weeks before the prom. She looked so bashful to him at that moment, and it made him blush. She looked so innocent. She looked so pure. The look on her face said it all. “It’s the human, Rachel, isn’t it?” She puffed again. This time her wind flashed across his eyes.

  Doing so, it made him exhale again, stronger this time. “Not all.” He swallowed and dropped his hands back to his sides. “Not all of it.”

  She brought her emerald green eyes up to his. “What else then?”

  That one was easy to answer. “You’re like a daughter to me, Sasha. I love you as that. I can‘t think of you as anything else. You‘re very special to me, pure, with Rachel it‘s different. With you, it is what it is.” He swallowed, and hoped what he said would be enough.

  Her eyes sparkled like jewels. “A daughter?” That sounded nice. “You see me as something that close to you?”

  He nodded. “I love you as that, yes.”

  That word sounded almost like he just cast a spell on her with a trance. Her heart exploded some in her chest. She thought that his lack of emotions for her had everything to do with the human woman, and about how he felt for her. In fact, she convinced herself of that and that alone. Hearing that he did feel something for her made her calm almost instantly. It almost made her day. It gave her something, and having it felt better than having nothing at all. With all of it, she breathed again, taking him in.

  Her breath caught his face again and it made him have to blink. “Yes, I do. You’re very special to me Sasha. You’re a part of me. You are someone that will always be a part of who and what I am.”

  She smiled, and her face lit up. Before he said anything else, she reached out for him with a flare, and hugged him tightly to her chest. He was just tall enough that her cheek sat comfortably at the nape of his neck.

  With her embrace, he felt completely caught off guard by it. He didn’t expect it, but still felt happy she did do it. He just accepted the hug for what it was worth—a teenage girl’s desire to have something, anything, other than having nothing at all. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. After a few moments, she released him and stood back away from him some.

  Seeing her pale creamy face, he smiled. “I will never leave you, Sasha. I will always stand by you, no matter what.”

  She grinned again, her childlike smile lit up her face almost like the sun lighting up a cloud-strewn day.

  Her power flared strongly to him, almost until he felt it scorch his face. He felt her relax. He felt her calm. She felt like herself again, it all said to him. “Should we go and get some rest then?” He took her chin with the palm of his right hand and held her face up to his.

  She returned it all with another smile.

  He nodded, took his right arm, and wrapped it around her shoulders. He led her off the sidewalk, turned the corner of the building to their respective right, and there, they walked on until they found the door to room four and he used the key the old man gave him and opened the door. She went inside the room first.

  Two single sized beds welcomed them into the room. Sasha went to the furthest bed and sat down on it with speed. She then crossed her legs together in front of her. “We should spend some of the time here to get you ready for Kenny,” she said so calmly and so content, that he almost couldn’t believe who said it. All of the thoughts she had now seemed to be completely gone. In fact, she sounded like they were never there in the first place.

  Hearing it, he knew that all of the doubt she had for him vanished with it. It made him breathe. It made him relax. How nice it is for a teenager to forget something so quickly? “What do I need to get ready about? You told me quite a bit already.” He closed the only door to the room behind him, left it, and made it to the bed sitting closest to him, sat down and faced her, on her side of it.

  “I’ve told you some things, but not everything.” She smiled. The smile vanished fast and she replaced it with a slight bow of her head.

  “Okay.” He tried to get comfortable. Curiosity grew within him. She told him about the fact that Kenny was someone called a Wanderer. She told him that Wanderers were humans that had the gifts of the walkers. Some could read minds. Others could see things that only walkers could see. Others could control the four elements of the world— earth, air, fire, and water. They could use those powers, as she called them, with the purest of ease. They could also control nature. All of the wanderers had differences, and that made them all strong in their own right.

  Now what she had to tell him was the rest of everything else. She had to tell him about the past times. He needed to understand all of it, before he met with Kenny. “A long time ago, the wanderers were friends of the walkers. They stood with us against the humans,” she began, paused some, thinking about what she was going to say, and being that this was the first time he heard it, she wanted to make sure she got it right. She heard the stories before, but never told them to anyone else before now. This was now her time to tell it, and she could only hope that she did justice to its telling. When she finished the pause, and she took a deep breath, she started again, “They kept with us through the wars.”

  He listened and his mind froze on her last word, “Wars?”

  She bowed her head again. “Many years ago, there was a war fought between the walkers and the humans. I’m not too sure about it, but what I was told was that it was fought for the control of the world. It was fought for the control of life itself.”

  He sat forwards on the bed and brought his elbows down to the tops of his knees. What he heard so far completely fascinated him.

  She saw his actions and turned so that she now faced him straight on. “The wanderers stood with the walkers and because of that, they controlled the world. They were victorious for the most part.” She paused again, and swallowed. When she finished,
she began again, “Then one day, the wanderers turned on the walkers. The reason for it was lost many years ago with those that were the oldest of our kind, but when they did, the humans took the advantage. With it, they fought a great battle, and the humans destroyed the walkers. One by one, they fell to their once human prey. With it, what was left of the walkers, the humans forced them into hiding. They kept to the shadows. They stayed out of the way of the humans. They became their myths. They became their nightmares. They became their stories they told to children to frighten them. With that, they became what we are today.”

  Listening, he couldn’t believe what he heard. What she said made total sense with everything he already knew. He, like everyone else, heard the stories of vampires and werewolves ever since being a small boy. He could even remember being afraid of them when he was a kid. Hell, he even dressed as a vampire one time for Halloween, so it all made complete sense. They were the myths of the ages. They were stories told for generations. Hearing this, only confirmed everything all together in his thoughts. Even so, thinking about it, he now couldn’t figure out what this had to do with what they were doing now. More importantly, if the wanderers did what they had obviously did, then why would one of them help them now? “So why are we going to see one of them then?” he asked that thought.

  She pulled her legs in towards her body, and showed him that she obviously tightened up. “Kenny is one of those rare wanderers that befriended a walker at one time. It happened when he was a small boy. This walker helped him, he even saved his life, and because of that generosity, he now helps us.”