Werewolves of Chicago: Howard: The Underdog

by Faleena Hopkins

  I nod and endure the process without swearing at him a few times when it gets really bad, which is a miracle. Finally, Howard applies a gel salve that smells like Eucalyptus, onto both my knees. The gauze is placed on top with such care that I have to lean in and whisper, “I’m not going to break.”

  He smiles and turns red again. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  This hits me in a way that’s unexpected. “Say it again, please.”

  Smoothing an air bubble out from the white medical tape, he looks up and his eyes darken. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Melting, I reach out and touch his chin. “Where do you come from? You’re a werewolf, aren’t you? Did I imagine all of that? That’s what you guys were arguing about, right? I have to ask because you don’t know me, like at all, but I have a very vivid imagination. It is entirely possible that none of this is really happening.”

  He covers my hand with his and brings it to hold between us. He starts to massage my palm, and his eyes drop to watch. His hair falls forward with the motion, so I push it back and he smiles at me from under his eyebrows. “You didn’t imagine it. You can’t tell anyone. Not even family.”

  I assure him with a whisper, “I won’t. Not even my best friend. I won’t even tell her.” He looks satisfied that I mean it. “But why would you trust me? We’re complete strangers. And I was a bitch to you.”

  He shrugs, “I don’t have a choice. You already know.” He places my hand over his heart. My eyelashes drift there. His t-shirt is soft like it’s been washed a thousand times, but the muscles below are the exact opposite, hard and very warm.

  I ask him, “Do you have a fever?” suddenly aware of certain parts of my own body and how they’re heating up in response.

  “This is my normal temperature,” he says with a deep, throaty volume. His lips are parted. I can’t stop staring at them. His tongue is visible again and I want to run mine along it so badly I’m beginning to ache down there for him. I try to pull my hand away…but he holds it more tightly, resisting.

  We blink at each other and then he shoves my hand off him. He jumps up, looming over me. “Sorry, God, I’m so sorry. After what you went through, I should have let you go as soon as you tried to pull back.”

  “It’s okay!”

  “It’s not okay. I shouldn’t even be touching you right now.”

  “It’s really okay, Howard,” I insist as he begins to pace, holding onto his head like he’s disgusted with himself.

  “I wasn’t thinking. I have such a hard time not being close to you. It’s like…”

  “It’s okay! I’m serious. It is!”

  “…you have this pull over me. I have no control over myself when I’m with you, or even when I’m just thinking about you! You don’t even have to be there!”

  I go to object again, but his words steal my voice. All I can do is stare at him wondering if he’s messing with me right now. Jadedly hopeful, I watch him rant but I am searching for any sign of dishonesty.

  “First I’m like a wild dog out in front of your place. And at the club, too, when I went back for you last night and you were gone! It was like my legs didn’t belong to me anymore! And then tonight when you told me to fuck off, the last thing I wanted to do was heed your words and go away!”

  I’m clutching the blanket around me, stunned at the wonderful things I’m hearing. I’m searching his eyes, his gestures, his jaw, everything. I keep coming up with the same result.

  There is nothing dishonest about him.

  Not one thing.

  “If Xavier and Draik weren’t there, I wouldn’t have left! I would have stayed and forced you to talk to me! Hell, I might have even dragged you out of that fucking closet myself just so we could go somewhere and talk without interruption! And then when I knew you were in danger, when I sensed it, I almost tore my friends apart to get out of the car! What the fuck is going on?!”

  “Howard…”

  “Draik was going to kick my ass and I wanted to take him on!”

  “Howard…”

  “And I was shouting at Xavier, telling him how to drive! I’ve never told Xavier how to do anything, ever!”

  “War,” I whisper.

  He spins around to face me, and his hands drop.

  I offer a small smile and hold out mine for him to take. “Come here please.”

  He kneels down in front of me so fast I gasp. I take his face in my hands and lean in. He realizes I’m about to kiss him, and starts blinking like crazy.

  “Oh my God. I just realized why,” he murmurs. His lips part slightly, as do mine, and we lean in an inch at a time, watching each other until right before we kiss. Our eyes close, and he pulls me up off the bed in one fluid motion, standing us up. His arms fold around me so tightly, and my feet are not touching the ground. His kiss grows hungry and all of my skeptic restraint falls away. Completely forgetting my wounded knees as they rest against his legs, I return the kisses with equal abandon. Our mouths become one and I feel the separation of bodies disappear. He feels so good. Then his kisses begin to slow like he knows I’m not going anywhere, that we have some time. They transform to gentle yet firm presses of his lips against mine. Tiny licks with his tongue through a smile that only grows. His eyes are glowing slightly and I can’t stop looking at him.

  “Guess what?” I whisper.

  “What?” He reaches up and traces the angles of my face with two fingertips.

  “That feels good,” I breathe, closing my eyes and enjoying the feathery sensation.

  “I like to touch you,” he says, kissing me once. “What were you going to tell me?”

  “That I think your name is War now.”

  His eyes flash to mine as he realizes what I discovered, that it was the only name he answered to. He blinks really hard as though resisting it. A sober look comes over him and he gives a little nod. “I guess it is.”

  24

  Howard

  I know for an absolute fact I have never been this happy. During training I was excited. Ecstatic even. There was happiness, definitely.

  But this?

  This is something different. I just realized it when we were about to kiss for the first time. I saw my mate. I saw forever looking back at me from her bright blue eyes. It locked inside my soul, and in that instant the questions I’d been asking cleared away as my wolf and I came together in what he already knew. I will never leave her. I will never want another. I am hers.

  But fuck me if I’m going to scare her away by telling her that. That’s the problem with her being human—she doesn’t know about mating. She doesn’t know that if you’re lucky enough to find your forever mate, it’s for life. When the wolf finds his soul-partner he usually knows it before the man and will do everything in his power to bring about that bond, awareness, and claiming.

  Reaching down for the blanket to wrap around her, I lift her up and carry her to the couch. “Let’s get you some food.”

  “Not hungry,” she whispers. “My throat hurts, too. I don’t think I can eat anything right now.” She watches me tuck the blanket around her body.

  “Your knees okay?” She nods. “Let’s warm up that throat. You’ll feel better. I’ll boil some water.”

  As I go to leave, she grabs my arm. “No! Stay.”

  “Okay,” I smile, sitting down beside her. “What do you want to talk about?”

  Her eyes are warm and slightly hooded as she shakes her head. “I don’t want to talk.”

  “Oh, okay. We can just sit here then.” I take her hand and caress it. After a few moments, she pulls it under the blankets and lays my hand high up on her thigh. My cock thickens and I meet her eyes with surprise. “Oh.”

  “I’m sorry.” She lets go of my hand, pushing it out of the blanket and looking away. “I’m being too forward.”

  “No! You’re fine. I just…I haven’t…wasn’t…”I stare at the coffee table for two beats then come back to her. She’s far away and as I watch her thinking it dawns on m
e we’re both very much alike, not the most confident beings who ever walked on Earth, which is crazy because she’s so fucking cool I can’t even believe my luck!

  I push my hand under the blanket again and lay it back on her thigh. My blood is quickening, and hers is, too. I can hear her heart miss a beat as her breath catches and her eyelashes flutter my way. She searches my face again, looking to see if I’m an asshole or not. “Is this okay?” I ask her, my voice throatier than I’ve ever heard it. The bulge in the jeans I had to borrow from Xavier is growing insistent, but after what she’s been through I’m not rushing, and I’m ready to pull back entirely.

  The frown vanishes and she nods.

  “Your skin, Alisa, so soft.”

  She smiles and reaches under the covers, too, to place her hand over mine. With my thumb I caress her as I give her a slow, deep kiss. She leans back on the couch and her legs open for me. My cock throbs as I move the blanket to get under it with her and catch her scent, the arousal thickening the air as only a wolf can smell.

  Alisa takes my hand and guides it up and I touch her for the first time. Breathing in scented air through gritted teeth, I close my eyes. “Fuck, you feel amazing.” She grabs me by my head and brings me in for a hard kiss while her other hand guides my fingers into her warm folds. It’s intoxicating how smooth and wet her inner lips are. My chest threatens to explode from the pounding of my racing heart. I groan and bury my face in her neck, stroking her pussy slowly. “Alisa…” Her fingers have woven into my hair and she holds me firmly to her, a soft moan escaping her lips as her body arches slightly.

  Nothing has ever felt this good until she reaches over and rests her hand on my crotch, pressing down on the swollen rise of it. A guttural sound comes out of me and we lock eyes. My beautiful girl begins to massage my cock through the jeans, her soft lips parted as she watches my reactions. We’re both rubbing each other and I can feel my wolf thrashing about. I close my eyes and crack my neck, asking her in a deep voice, “You okay?” She wants me. I can tell. I want her so badly I could hurt her. I feel that. My wolf is chomping at the bit for me to be inside my mate, and this is my first time. His, too, unfortunately, and with the female he wants not only to fuck, but to own. I have to make sure I’m the one in charge. “Alisa?”

  She nods, “Yes. I’m good.” I take her permission and slip one of my fingers into her tight little tunnel. We both groan and she leans into me for another kiss. I grab her mouth in a hungry embrace, starving for everything she has. “Stop!” I look at her with meaning, and she gives me a crooked smile.

  “Sorry.” She pulls her hand away from my bulge. Her expression is welcoming and relaxed. “War?”

  A smile spreads on my face and I kiss her. “Yeah?”

  “Would you please fuck me?”

  My chest twists as my wolf growls his answer. “It’s all I want to do.”

  She pushes the blanket onto the floor, sits up and unleashes me, pulling the jeans down over my ass as I stand up to help. She stares at my generous length and girth. One more thing happened after what I did at Kruglov’s…my cock grew. I was always pretty normal there, but after that night when my body filled out in less than two hours my cock became what it was meant to be, too. What it is right now. Courage can do great things.

  Leaning in, Alisa brings it to her mouth. I’m staring at her in disbelief at how great this feels. My body sparks as she kisses the tip and licks my cock from base up, twice. Flames shoot into my core. “Fuck!” I growl, grabbing onto her head with both hands. I am throbbing and when she takes me into her mouth all the way and sucks I yank away from her, gasping for air. “Stop! This is my first time. I will blow if we keep this up.”

  She looks up at me looming over her, dumbfounded. “But you’re so…I mean you’re gorgeous! You’ve really never…?” Embarrassment flushes my face. She recovers quickly on seeing my reaction, and her hand begins to move, stroking me. “I get to be your first?” she whispers.

  Biting my inner cheek I just nod while I take her hand off me and kneel on the couch in front of her. “Yeah. I’ve never—”

  From out of nowhere she throws her arms around me and kisses me with complete abandon. All thoughts of inexperience vanish as I grab her ass and plunge my tongue into her mouth. I lower us onto the couch, spreading her legs with my knee. As the blunt tip of my cock presses against her hot and swollen pussy, she moans into my mouth, “Oh, please!”

  Groaning, inch by inch I enter her body, listening to her shortened breaths, her rapid heartbeat, and inhaling all of the scents that make her mine. Her legs are clutching around me as I hit the deepest part of her and growl in her ear, “You’re so wet, Fuck, I can’t believe how good this feels.” Her nails claw into my shoulder blades as we begin to move. My hips roll and grind, following the pleasure as a guide. Her skin is getting hotter by the second and she’s so slick with need for me that I can’t help but pound her deep and rough for a few long, drawn out slams. Bringing her up and sitting with her on my lap, I pull her dress off over her head. In awe of her breasts, I start to touch them but she throws her arms around my neck, and buries her fingers into my hair, kissing me roughly. I thrust my hips up with her riding me, our mouths moving on each other. As it gets fevered, her back arches sharply and she gives the sexiest moan. My hands search and grab every soft square inch of skin I can find. Grabbing her hair with one hand, her arched lower back with the other, I rise up and thrust into her long and deep until she cries out and begins to shake. Her pussy pulses on an orgasm that doesn’t want to end. I groan into her neck then bite her and feel the jerking pull of climax grow inside me, too. It unleashes as she pulls me by my hair and shoves her tongue in my mouth. With our lips molded together, our breaths robbed of air, I cum inside her, crumbling into her arms and groaning in shock as the beats ebb away. Feather kisses whisper down my ear, jaw and neck as she holds me. “That was…” she whispers, still hoarse.

  Gently, I lay the sweet girl down on the couch and embrace her, murmuring into her skin, “It was the best thing I’ve ever experienced.”

  She starts to chuckle, but I kiss it away, my face serious. Her smile vanishes and she swallows hard before confessing, “Me too.” She looks troubled. It was hard for her to tell me that. She doesn’t know what I know, and she will have to learn it in time. But until then I can help her feel safe.

  “Alisa…”

  “Yes?”

  “I will never let anyone hurt you.” She stares at me, tracing the lines of my face. “I know you don’t believe me, but I mean it. I’m sorry I was late tonight. It won’t happen again…not now that I know.”

  Her eyelashes flicker with curiosity. “Now that you know what?”

  “Um…where you work,” I improvise. “I’ll be there to walk you home every night from now on.”

  A little smile plays on her lips. “I live really close by it. You don’t have to do that.”

  “I do have to do it. And I will.” Closing my eyes, I wedge close to her, keeping us both warm with my body heat. After a few breaths, sleep finds me.

  25

  Alisa

  War napped for a little while but I couldn’t sleep. When he woke up and found me looking at him, he smiled and made me some tea, and now we’re lying on the mattress together, still naked. My hurt legs are over his and he’s caressing my breasts, unable to stop staring at them. He’s finishing the story of how he came to be who he is, how he was small compared to other werewolves and how it all changed. I had to ask him why he’d never had sex before. A guy in his mid-twenties who’s never had it, and one who looks like he does is like finding a unicorn.

  Or a werewolf.

  Smiling at my lazy, distracted and happy thoughts, I ask him, “You never had some older woman who wanted to show you the ropes?”

  A flush rises to his cheeks and he shakes his head. “I wish.” I smack his chest and he laughs. “Ow!”

  “Yeah. I hurt you badly. I’m really strong,” I tease. “Where are you a docto
r?”

  “The morgue.”

  My eyebrows fly up. “Wow.”

  He nods like it’s no big deal or weird. “Yep. There’s usually a doctor in every pack, or something like one. Some just have wolves who work with holistic remedies because they live in rural areas and don’t want to go away to school. They learn methods like the ones the Native Americans have been using for centuries. Others just wing it and do their best when the shit hits the fan.” He looks at me, remembering himself. “I’m saying a lot.”

  “I love it! I want to know. Don’t stop.”

  “You don’t understand. These are things we don’t share with humans,” he frowns and looks at me. “I guess I can’t control my mouth when it comes to you, either.”

  I touch his forearm. “You don’t have to. I promise your secret is safe.”

  “I know it is.” He shrugs, then a small smile appears. “I like telling you.”

  “Good, tell me more. Were you born this way? Did you want to be a doctor? Tell me everything.”

  He kisses me quickly, then inhales with his light brown eyes alight with excitement. “I was born a wolf, yeah. Most of us are.”

  “Most? You mean you can become one…”

  He misjudges my excitement for fear. “Not by being scratched or bitten! That’s all myth. You’re safe.”

  “Oh,” I say, quietly. “How then?”

  “It’s rare, but some turn do to a drastic tragedy. I’ve never met one of them, but I’ve heard about it happening.”

  “So you guys live together because you’re all the same, or…?”

  He smiles, snuggling close to me. “They just asked me to move in. I don’t live here yet. I only recently got accepted as one of them.” He makes a noise. “You have no idea how hard that was.”

  I love watching him think. He does this cute thing with his lips like he’s about to smile but doesn’t, a quick upturn as he searches for words. “Was it worth it?”