A pile of burnt toast was stacked nearly a foot high, threatening to teeter over like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Next to it, a cauldron of soupy oatmeal sat, probably needing another twenty minutes on the stove. But the most befuddling was a plate of translucent floppy bacon, so raw that I could still hear it oink.
“Dritt!” Sven said, attending to a pan on the stove. He whipped a spatula to and fro, trying to delicately flip eggs that were cemented to the pan.
“Breakfast? You shouldn’t have,” Helmut said from behind me.
“Good morning!” Sven said. “Did you two have a nice run?”
“I needed a change of pace, and boy did I get it,” I said. “Took a spill and bumped my head, though.”
“Poor thing. Helmut, you should take better care of our Grace. We want to get a lot of mileage out of her,” he said, grinning. His grin disappeared when a stubborn egg refused to give up it’s grasp on the pan. “Lille jaevelen!”
I walked over to Sven, my hand resting on the small of his back. I looked into the pan and had to stifle a sigh. The eggs were smashed and smeared, burnt rubbery whites and yolks turned solid. “It’s a day full of new experiences,” I said, getting on my tiptoe to plant a kiss on his cheek. “Next time put some butter in the pan before the eggs.” I gave his ass an appreciative spank and walked to the small kitchen table to sit down.
Helmut put a mug of hot coffee in front of me. Cream and Splenda, exactly how I liked it. I let it cool, enjoying the hot ceramic between my hands.
Sven walked over, putting plates of food down in front of Helmut and I. Then he got his own and joined us.
“Looks great,” I said. I sank my fork into a piece of egg and watched it bounce out. I resorted to using it as a scoop, bringing a chewy white slice of egg white to my mouth. I chewed and chewed and finally got it down. I had to follow it up with a slam of coffee, still too hot to drink but a relief after the burnt taste of the egg.
“Smells wonderful, Sven,” Helmut said. He dipped his spoon into his bowl of oatmeal, but what came out was a milky water with sparse oats floating in it. He swallowed the watery slurry and quickly moved onto the bacon.
“I remember you two telling me I didn’t do enough around the house. All the time I get the little yippy barks from you,” he said to me, “and the stern looks from you,” he said to Helmut. “So, fine, I said. I’ll take up the cooking.” He shoveled a huge fork of eggs into his mouth. “Mmmm,” he said, chewing with apparent relish.
“Well, maybe we were too quick to judge,” I said, looking over at Helmut for support. He held a piece of bacon up in front of his face, like he’d just found an artifact from a bygone era. “Right, Helmut?”
“Err,” Helmut said, dropping the bacon. “Yes. I agree,” he said as he wiped his hand on his napkin. “Maybe cooking would be better handled by someone else.”
“Hmm…no, I think I like it,” Sven said, twisting a slice of bacon around his fork like spaghetti. “I don’t say this lightly, but I feel like I might have found my calling.” He popped the wad of undercooked bacon into his mouth.
Helmut and I stared at him slack jawed.
A knock from the front door knocked me out of my trance. “I’ll get it,” I said, rising to answer the front door.
A middle aged couple stood on our doorstep. The woman, Ulpi, had brown curly hair and more than her share of frown lines, which she was engaging now. Next to her was her husband, Griggen, a disheveled man with thinning black hair and clothes that he’d obviously slept in. They were members of our Pack, and I remember them both kneeling before me when I was initiated as Grace. They hadn’t as much as said hello in the months since then.
“Where is Helmut?” Ulpi said.
“We don’t need to involve them,” Griggen said sharply. His eyes were cast downward.
“I’m at my end with you, you good for nothing!” Ulpi said to him.
Griggen’s shoulders slumped forward in silent surrender.
“What’s this about?” Helmut said, walking up to the door. “Griggen. Ulpi. Good morning.”
“Helmut, I need you to do something. I can’t go on like this, with this…good for nothing!” Ulpi said, gesturing to her husband like a pile of filth.
“Domestic matters are matters for our Grace,” Helmut said, putting a hand on my shoulder.
I stood up a little straighter, trying to look regal in my still damp track suit.
Ulpi eyed me up and down. “But…you always judged in the past,” she said. “No, Clarissa will not do. I demand an audience with you.”
“Ulpi, my door is always open to you and Griggen, but this is a matter for the Grace. I used to do this in the past, true, but now we have a Grace. This is one of the Grace’s duties,” he said.
“I refuse!” Ulpi said, crossing her arms. Her brow was a furrow of angry lines.
“You’ll take my help or learn to solve your problem yourself, whatever it is,” I said, puffing my chest out.
Her mouth turned to a sneer. “Fine,” she said through gritted teeth.
Griggen’s shoulders shook briefly with a chuckle.
Ulpi turned to unleash a savage belt of words against the poor man.
“Excellent,” I said with authority. “Wait here on the porch while I change into something more suitable. Keep your voices down: some people are still enjoying their breakfast.”
“If only we were one of them,” Helmut said, so quietly that only I could hear him.
I gave him a soft elbow, not wanting to laugh in front of Ulpi and Griggen. I closed the front door and leaned back against it, sighing.
“You’re going to do fine,” Helmut said, kissing my forehead. “Just remember that if both parties hate you afterwards, you probably made the right decision.”
I looked at him in shock. “What have I gotten myself into?”
“Responsibility. Leadership. Power. That’s what you’ve gotten yourself into,” he said, pulling me into his arms. His strong arms wrapped around me, comforting me. “Sometimes they just need someone to listen to their sorrows. Most of your job will just be to hear them out.”
“Breakfast is getting cold,” Sven called from the kitchen.
“I’m full, dear,” I called into the kitchen. “Helmut will finish my plate.” I freed myself from Helmut’s embrace.
Helmut’s eyes went wide with my betrayal, his hands reaching out to grab me. Probably to tickle me for my insolence. I took the stairs up to the bedroom two at a time, thankful to not have to return to that table.
I shook my head as Clarissa ran up the stairs, leaving me to face both our plates alone. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, as they say. She also left me alone with my thoughts, and I needed to talk to someone about what she saw.
“Sven, I’m headed out for a bit. I’ll be back later on,” I called into the kitchen.
“Want something for the road?” he said.
“No, that early morning run killed my appetite,” I said as I headed out the front door. I nodded briefly at Ulpi and Griggen as they sat on our porch bench. No doubt there’s been drinking involved. Probably something else as well. Whatever it was, Clarissa could handle it.
I knocked on my uncle Ezekel’s front door and waited. I heard something fall and a sharp curse come from behind the house. I walked around it and saw him in the garage, underneath his old Chevrolet truck. He’d won it in a city poker game twenty years ago, and everyone in the village loved to tease him that he got the short end of the stick. It would probably never run again, but that didn’t stop him. He just loved to tinker.
“Uncle,” I said.
“Number six,” he said, thrusting an open hand up to me.
“Ok,” I said, digging around in his red toolbox along the wall until I found the wrench he needed. I handed it to him. “Do you have a moment to talk?”
“I have many of those moments. All day, in fact. But right now, I’m close to figuring out this ignition. Hammer,” he said.
I handed him the ball
peen hammer. “It’s rather important,” I said.
“You young people think everything is important,” he said. A loud clank echoed through the garage as he hit the wrench with the hammer. “Whether it’s women, money or pride, it’s never as important as it seems.” Clank! “That’s the gift of age that I can bestow upon you, but I know it will be wasted.” Clank!
“Clarissa was out in the woods,” I said.
“Ha! Relationship problems, those are best nipped in the bud,” he said. Dropping the hammer. “Flowers and wine mend all bridges.”
“She saw a Redcap,” I said.
Ezekel rolled out from under the car and stood, giving his back a stretch. He walked past me to his tool bench, grabbing a rag. He wiped the thick black grease from his hands. “You don’t hear that every day.”
“When was the last time a Redcap was seen?” I said. “I had written them off as fairy tales.”
“Most people have. When they are seen, it’s often by,” he said, hesitating, “touched people. Special people. People favored by the Moon. A woman over on the Russian side claimed she saw one about twenty years ago, but no one believed her.”
“She said it threatened her,” I said, my pulse racing. “She said it was going to hurt her,” I said, balling my hand into a fist. My fingernails dug into my palm painfully.
He nodded slowly. “Make no mistake, they are mischievous at best and deadly at worst. More troubling, though, is the why. Why is it here? Who summoned it?”
I looked up at him. “Summoned it? Someone brought it here?”
“Don’t you remember the fairy tale? Leave a shoe filled with bloody meat outside your door and the Redcap will come,” he said.
“But Clarissa didn’t…” I said.
“Yes, so someone else did. You said it threatened her. Did it say anything else?” he said. “Sometimes they harm the body, and sometimes they harm the soul.”
“I don’t know, Uncle. Can I find it somehow? Get rid of it?” I said.
“I’ve never heard of a Redcap being killed. They can be banished, but those means were lost millennia ago. If you know where she saw it, you might be able to taunt it into showing itself,” he said, rubbing his chin. “They’re oddly vain. But if you succeed, then what?”
“Thanks, Uncle,” I said, shaking his hand then leaving the garage.
It was harder than I thought, finding the spot. Our scents had faded, and the wind had blown the dried leaves around, obscuring our earlier footsteps. I had to backtrack many times, but I finally found the spot. The sun showed it was late in the afternoon.
I saw no cave. I pulled at the overgrowth that ran up the side of the hill, long vines of ivy coming up like wires. Nothing was hidden beneath them. I clawed at the earth, almost expecting to find some kind of hobbit door. But there was nothing there. I stood up, sweat pouring down my face.
“Where is this ugly little fucker?” I whispered to myself.
“Ugly?” A small voice shrieked. “The big oaf calls us ugly.”
I spun around, looking for the source of the voice, but it was everywhere. “Show yourself!” I demanded.
“The big oaf is too blind to see us! Ha! Too blind to see how handsome we are,” it said. “We should show it how wrong it is.”
I heard some rustling from behind a tree. A small head peaked out from behind it. It was just as hideous as I imagined. Yellow syphilitic eyes took me in, a stubby tongue licking it’s endless row of sharp teeth. His red cap was flopped to the side. “There you are,” I said, walking towards it.
“Or are we here?” a voice said from behind me.
I spun around too see the Redcap now behind another tree. “So you do have your tricks,” I said.
“Aye, we do. Tricks of the mind and tricks of the tongue. We will see if you are as blind as you seem,” it said, cackling with glee. “You are the one,” it said plainly.
“What does that mean?” I said. My patience was running thin, but this creature was slippery.
“You will see, or you will not see. Big oaf. Big hairy oaf. Your failures will haunt you all your nights. Ha!” it said.
Those words…I’d heard them before. From Helga, when she and her sons were banished. “What did you say?” I said.
“Now the oaf is hard of hearing. No ears, no eyes, no brains. It’s a mercy that it’s seed is hollow,” it said.
It’s words struck me like a freight train. “You lie,” I said, leaping towards the little monster.
It disappeared before my hands could reach it’s neck.
“Ha! The big oaf doesn’t know! It sticks its big oafish prick into everything that moves, yet has fathered no children,” it said. “Blind, deaf, sterile and stupid!”
“Liar!” I screamed.
The voice grew quiet. “Oh, but there will be more pain in store for you,” it said. “With your blind eyes you will see your legacy end. With your deaf ears you will hear the screams of all whom you love. And with your big oafish muscles you’ll strike out and do nothing to change your fate,” it said. “You’re cursed, mutt.”
“All lies,” I said, turning away to leave. “You’re just the wind blowing through the leaves.”
No more lies followed me.
I looked out the front window, the setting sun running deep shadows across our massive log cabin. I knew it was stupid to worry: Helmut was fine. He had to be. He had been gone all day, but he had important Pack Alpha things to attend to all the time.
I was relieved to be done with Ulpi and Griggen. Those were hours of my life I would never get back, and in the end both of them looked at me with measures of contempt. I felt like a failure, but that probably meant I’d done my job.
“He’ll be back soon,” Sven said from behind me. He put his hands on my shoulders and kissed the back of my head. His hands kneaded my neck muscles.
I closed my eyes. “That’s it. You know,” I said, “your time in the kitchen is a waste of your skills as a masseur.” I leaned back against him, enjoying his unmovable presence.
“You just want me for my body,” he quipped, his ministrations unlocking the stress in my neck.
“Oh, not just for your body,” I said, my hand dipping back behind me. I felt his manhood through his jeans, relaxed and powerful. I tried to grab around it’s circumference but it was too thick. “Just mostly for your body.”
“Naughty, naughty,” he said, his thumbs rubbing tiny circles along the base of my scalp.
“Mmm,” I moaned, leaning my head forward so he had better access. I pressed my ass back against him and slowly gyrated myself against his cock. “I love waking little Sven up.”
He laughed. “Little?”.
“Just an expression,” I said, my hands going to my aching nipples. I noticed I’d become hornier lately as well, something well appreciated by my men.
Flickering flames came to life behind us. We turned and saw Helmut in the back yard, standing over our fire pit. Sven took me by the hand and we walked outside to meet our Alpha.
“Where were you?” I said, walking up to him.
Helmut smiled at me. “Just out taking care of something minor. Turned out it was a waste of time,” he said.
Knox (BBW Bear Shifter Moonshiner Romance) (120 Proof Honey) Page 121
