by H. T. Night
“How could I not? You were a knight in shining armor. You literally swept in and saved me from a truly sad and hard life.”
“Let me get this straight,” Tommy said. “Josiah saved you in Mexico a few months ago, before he and I fought in that underground fight club?”
Yomaida looked at Tommy and said, “He saved me from having to be a prostitute. I was a prisoner in a brothel. And he was to be my first customer. Instead, he became my rescuer.”
That shut Tommy up. He nodded his head. “Cool.”
I looked over at Yomaida and asked, “When did this happen? That you turned into a werewolf.”
“Last month.”
“You said you turned on the first night. What happened to you the other two nights?”
“I’m not sure, both times I woke up outside with ripped clothes. One of the times I didn’t even have a shirt on. God knows what happened to it.”
“You were naked above the waist,” Tommy said, with a bit of lechery in his voice.
“Enough, Tom,” I said. “That is obviously not the point of the story.”
“I’m just an extremely detail-oriented. Visualizing it.”
“I bet you are. Just try to keep your hormones reined in for one second.” I could tell Yomaida kind of liked him, and that was why he turned on his Tommy switch, the one that seems to make every woman within a two-mile radius crazy to get next to him. But, he seriously needed to tone it down. I knew Tommy well. He was acting so goofy because he liked her, but it seemed like the more time went on, the less smooth this guy was around women. His inner werewolf was an extremely horny dog.
Yomaida continued her story. “At first, I wanted to find you. I just had to see you again. Just so I could go on with my life. But now, I needed to find you so that you can help me.”
“Help you?” I asked.
“I’ve heard you did something amazing with Tommy. I heard you trained him.”
“Who told you that?”
“It’s not spoken about in public settings, but privately, people know that Tommy has a gift. A gift that was given to him by you. In private circles, you are called the werewolf whisperer. And he is called the king of the werewolves.”
“Shit,” Tommy said, inflating his chest. “Imagine that.”
I shook my head at Tommy, a signal to chill.
I looked at Yomaida, and I knew that she wanted me to become the werewolf whisperer one more time for her. I couldn’t do that. I needed for Tommy to be the only werewolf that possessed that gift. The more werewolves that knew how to control how they transition, the worse it would be for Mani. Not everyone had a heart for Mani as Tommy does. “I’m sorry, Yomaida, I can’t help you in the way you want.”
“Why not?”
“I just can’t do it. Tommy and I had years of bonding as best friends before I ever trained him as a werewolf. If you need a safe place to stay, I can keep you safe when the full moon hits. We have cages.”
Yomaida shuddered.
“It’s not that bad. The cage. I just can’t teach you what I taught Tommy... not at this point. I’m sorry.”
“Because at this point you don’t trust me,” Yomaida said.
“I trust you very much. Trust and loyalty don’t necessarily go hand in hand. I trust you in the sense that I believe your intentions are pure. But, that also doesn’t mean that you’ll be loyal later. Tommy’s loyalty runs deep. We’ve had years of friendship to build that trust on. Training someone to be like him is giving a gift that is beyond even the immortal realms. In time, you might prove to have that kind of loyalty, but for now, I can’t do that for you. I don’t know you to the core like Tommy and I know each other. I don’t even know if it is possible to repeat our success with Tommy. I don’t aim to use you as a guinea pig for any further werewolf whispering. It’s dangerous to both werewolf and to me.”
“Are you serious?” Yomaida sounded extremely insulted. “You can’t or won’t?”
“Yomaida, I have thirty werewolves in bunkers who would each give their right paw for me to teach them what I taught Tommy. I get asked every day by one of those guys to help them. All I can tell them is that when the time comes, I will teach them, but their loyalty to me needs to take priority. I’m a Mani first, above everything else. I can’t afford to have this knowledge and power to get into the wrong hands. And, like I said, I don’t know if I can repeat the success or even the exact process that I used. When I trained Tommy, it was a labor of love, for my best friend, and I risked my life to do it.”
“He did,” Tommy said. “I could have killed him, ripped him apart. As you know, in the werewolf form, we don’t have a social consciousness, only instinct.”
Yomaida chewed her lip.
I nodded and continued, “That’s right. I don’t see how I can apply that depth of personal connection or personal risk to a step-by-step workshop for thirty unruly werewolves or even just for you. I’m not running a werewolf whispering clinic. We use cages here and if you stay, you must agree to this because that is our security protocol. We have to lock up all untrained werewolves during the full moon. This is still new, that a werewolf can be controlled. It may be that Tommy is the only one who will ever be trained. Further, it may be that I want him to be the only one. I have thirty werewolves ahead of you, all wanting the same thing and they are already on my team and all risked their lives to be here, surrendered to a Mani leader. They have to prove their loyalty before I even will consider training them. And I have to have a sense of personal security, that I won’t be torn limb from limb, when getting in a cage with a fully functional werewolf.”
Yomaida nodded her head slowly. She seemed highly disappointed. “I understand.”
“Yomaida,” I said, “you’re welcome to stay here. We will protect you during the full moon, and make sure you’re taken good care of. The cage seems daunting, but it protects others from you and protects you from others. After it is over, you’ll be let out. From my understanding, the full moon is in a couple of days.”
“Five days to be exact,” Yomaida said.
“I’ll try to take you under my wing,” Tommy offered, “and help you to feel at home here, as a Carni. It seems like you need a mentor right now, a friend of your own race, with a true understanding of what you face now.”
She smiled and said, “Thank you, Tommy. That means a lot to me.”
When she turned to me, I gave her a hug and said, “It’s great to see you again. I’m sorry it is under these circumstances. But welcome to our crazy, mixed-up creature world.”
Chapter Four
Like an animal shelter busting at the seams with barking dogs and meowing cats, our house was becoming a home for every misfit paranormal creature person who needed help.
Yomaida was our newest tenant who needed a place to stay. Tommy had taken an immense liking to her. The two of them seem to be getting along and they chased each other in the hallway and played in the swimming pool in the bunker like two puppies in love.
Tommy had never been one to take anything slowly. Yomaida also struck me as a person who was in need of affection and love. So, combining those three elements tended to make for fast-track lovers. I think that was the case we were dealing with. The fact that they were both werewolves in a house of vampires probably gave them comfort in one another, with their werewolf state being a type of glue that bound them together in a common understanding of what they had to conquer every day. I was also highly aware that there was more than that going on between them, something tender and sweet with a glimpse of magic. All I could say was, “Here we go again, Tommy boy. A pretty girl, looking up to you. It’s Yomaida, with her pretty dark eyes that say, ‘I want you bad, big boy’ or maybe they say, ‘I want you, big, bad boy.’”
Tommy just smiled big when I said that to him while we were powerlifting in the gym, just the two of us—for maybe the first time, didn’t seem to be open with me about his feelings for a woman. He kind of kept his heart guarded and I didn’t blame him. After our
competition for Lena, and the fallout that followed, he kept his intentions for Yomaida close to his vest.
Tommy gave Yomaida his bedroom. I figured it would only be a matter of time until it became their room. I did give him credit for being a gentleman and not assuming that she would want to share the bed with him. He crashed in my old room the first couple of nights, but I had a feeling that wasn’t going to last much longer, not the way she was looking at him and twisting her hair around a finger. I had been sleeping in Lena’s room for almost six months now. So, the room was just being used as my storage unit for my vampire wardrobe. My wardrobe had become more badass over the past few months than ever before. I figured it was time to dress the part. I had a number of trench coats and Goth gear that I bought online. I lived the part.
I woke up at 5:00 p.m. and it was almost dark outside. I rolled over and kissed Lena right smack on her lips. She gently opened her eyes and smiled at me. “So, what’s on your agenda today?”
“Crib buying!” I said with obvious fake enthusiasm.
“Crib buying? I thought you wanted to wait.”
“I think I waited long enough. I’m not sure if you’ve seen yourself recently, but you’re about to burst.”
“Trust me. I see myself every day. I just can’t see my toes.”
“Well, aside from a little toe jam, your toes are beautiful.”
“You always say the nicest things.”
“You know I think you have sexy feet, and your toes are a big part of that.”
“Thank you.”
“I know you have to be near a bathroom at this stage in the pregnancy, so I’m going to ask Tommy to go with me.”
“Sounds good. So, is Tommy still sleeping in your old room?”
“Unless he sneaked out and crawled into bed with Yomaida, I’m pretty sure that’s where he is.”
Lena sat up and said, “I’m a bit confused still on how you knew her.”
“I told you, I met her in Mexico. She needed help, so, I brought her out of there. It’s really not a big deal.”
“Did you sleep with her?” Lena asked.
“Why would you ask that?”
“You and I weren’t together when you took that trip. If you slept with her, I feel I deserve to know, if she is living in my house.”
“Your house, huh?”
“Well, it’s all of our house. It’s just as much mine as anybody’s.”
“Sweetheart, you have nothing to worry about. I never slept with her. I saved her from a bad situation. I gave her back to her family in Anaheim. She is a real good person. Also, I think Tommy is crazy about her. He showered three times yesterday.”
“Wow, it is serious. Tommy thinks showering is taking a dip in the pool or sitting in the Jacuzzi for an hour. I swear I saw him take a bar of soap in the Jacuzzi last week. He’s like an animal.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he was an animal.”
“That’s not funny.” Lena stared at me and said, “I don’t want him to get hurt. Tommy is a fantastic person, and he deserves a remarkable woman.”
I grinned at Lena and said, “Well, if this doesn’t work out between you and me, it’s good to know you have a backup plan.”
“Don’t go there, Josiah. You know how much I love you. Tommy is dear to both of us for so many reasons.” Lena paused then said, “And, none of those reasons are that I am secretly in love with him. All I am is a friend who wants the best for him.”
“So do I, babe,” I said. “Trust me on that one.” I started putting on a pair of jeans. I had my tighty-whiteys on. Before Lena, I used to sleep in the nude. Lena now has me wear underwear when I sleep next to her. She says that she hates having my tallywhacker poking her in the back all night. I told her, my constant erection is a compliment to all that good estrogen she oozes. Somehow, being the Mani Chosen One had amped up my sex drive exponentially and my performance was one of a long-lasting nature. It might have been my imagination, but it seemed like I might have even grown an inch in that department. Just being near Lena had me in a state of near-constant arousal. I was practically sex on tap.
Lena and I had a phenomenal sex life. We had been making love multiple times a day, all the way up to two weeks ago. I think we could still get it on if we wanted to, but I didn’t want her to go into early labor from all of those multiple orgasms. I thought I would exercise some semblance of self-control a couple of weeks before she was to deliver and just let her woman parts rest until the big event. She was going to need her strength for the delivery. So, I was leaving her in peace below the waist. For now.
“Josiah?” Lena asked. “Can I talk with you before you take off with Tommy?”
“Of course. Are you feeling okay, babydoll?”
“I’m doing all right. This isn’t about me. This is about us. You understand that when the twins are born that we will instantly be a family.”
“We’re a family now,” I assured her.
“Are we?”
“Why would you ask that?”
Lena sighed. Something was obviously weighing heavily on her mind.
“Josiah, why haven’t you asked me to marry you?”
I looked at Lena, terribly surprised. Oh shit! Where did that come from?
“You haven’t even hinted that is something you would want to do, Josiah,” she continued and her voice rose in pitch and volume, as if she was headed for tears.
Lena’s statement shocked me. I wasn’t exactly sure what brought this on, but I needed to give her an answer quickly. “I don’t know why we haven’t talked about it,” I said, equally as unsure as the question itself.
“We have never talked about the elephant in the room and I am almost done with the pregnancy. We say words like ‘always and forever,’ and ‘you’re the one.’ But, we never have talked about getting married. Why not?”
Oy. This was unquestionably bothering Lena. I shouldn’t be surprised that she felt this way. The truth of the matter was that I didn’t even know the protocol for the Mani, when it came to marriage. Did we even get married after we became Mani? I had never heard of it.
“Lena,” I said, “I have never talked about it because I didn’t think it was an option for us.”
“Why wouldn’t it be? We aren’t animals. We have a highly developed society. Not like the Carni.”
I ignored that slam to Tommy’s kind. I said gently, “Lena, do you know of any two Mani who are married?”
Lena thought about it. “I don’t know any off the top of my head. But I’m pretty sure there is no creed against it. There must be some Mani who are married, somewhere!” Lena seemed unusually adamant about this particular subject matter. I wanted to respect her feelings, but at the same time, this subject matter had taken me by surprise. If she expected me to have all the answers, it wasn’t going to happen in a split second.
“Look, Lena, I love you with all my heart. By all accounts, I already feel we’re married. I realize now just saying that isn’t enough. You need to understand that you’re the love of my life. Hell, you’re the love of any life I have from now and till eternity.”
Lena smiled, but she needed more. “Sometimes, Josiah, I look at you and feel like you’re no longer mine. Everybody needs something from you. I want to know this: when is it my turn? When is it my time to have you all to myself? You’re always training with the guys. You’re always running off with Tommy, doing God knows what. I understand that you have a calling on your life that is greater than I am. All I am asking is for you to see me as the last love of your life and make a commitment.”
“Wow, you don’t think I see you that way?” It broke my heart, hearing Lena say that.
“Right now, we’re ships passing in the night on most days. Just once, I want you to take the time you spend on helping others, and give that same attention to detail to me. Is that too much to ask?”
“Of course it isn’t.” I felt awful. How could I do this to her? I thought I was giving myself to her. “Lena, I am so sorry you f
eel this way. I promise to make it up to you.”
“You don’t have to make anything up to me. I just want you to, every once in a while, stop and see me for what I am to you, for who I am to you: someone who is hopelessly devoted to you and committed in my heart. Why can’t we make it official?” she nearly whined. And I had to feel compassion for her. She was as big as a house with my kids squirming inside of her. Of course, she wanted the validation of a wedding, a ring, the whole long white dress thing that was ingrained in her previous Tandra upbringing and mine, too. I just didn’t want her turning into Bridezilla.
I crawled back into bed and lay right next to my girl. “Look, sweetie. I do see you. I see you every day, every minute of the day.” I crawled up next to her face and leaned in and gave her an emotionally passionate and deep kiss. It was one of my better ones.
Lena looked at me with a bit of sultry sass in her eye. “You better watch kissing me like that. I just might make you stay back here in the bedroom, and we can figure out a way to make my water break. We can get this show on the road.”
I kissed her forehead. “That sounds hot and extremely disgusting.”
Chapter Five
I cuddled with Lena for about an hour, until her voice dropped back to normal levels, and then made my way over to Tommy, who was staying in my old bedroom. I knocked on the door.
“Hold on!” Tommy hollered from inside my room.
“What are you doing in there?” I asked. I heard a couple of hefty grunts and, seriously, did not want to know the answer to my question.
I was about to walk away when Tommy called out, “Come in.”
I was nervous. I fully expected to open the door to find my best friends underneath my covers sweating. Nope, Tommy was standing in front of my full-length mirror on the closet lifting weights. He had two 50-pound dumbbells and was curling them as if they were 10 pounds. He looked ripped. He had cut down a few pounds over the past few months. He probably could have posed for his own calendar with the body he was sporting these days. “You’re looking cut, bro,” I said. “I can actually count to four on your six pack.”
