4
“Bg, wake up.” Phelan’s voice broke into my consciousness as I am startled awake and he moves back quickly. “It’s okay, it’s me, remember, Phelan. Thane and Phelan.” He says quickly, as the foggy haze of sleep lifts from my brain.
“What’s going on?” I reply, wrapping the blanket around myself tighter. As I looked around us. It looks like we’ve hit a township of some kind. In the backwoods of no-fucking-where. Great. Doesn’t this fucking country have real cities? Where the fuck are where we now? “Wait, where’s Thane?”
It was just Phelan and I sitting in the truck. Phelan is naked again. “Weren’t you wearing clothes before? I mean, some?”
The truck clearly belonged to a single male of some kind. Because Phelan had been in a flan-nel shirt and Thane had taken the spare jeans they’d found in the truck.
Phelan sat with his hands covering himself for modesty’s sake. “Thought it might be best if Thane went out fully dressed and tried to get us a little help.”
“What?”
“Relax, he’s just going to scrounge up some clothing options for us, food and find out where the hell we are.”
“Oh.”
“I just wanted you to be ready for if we have to bail in animal form again.”
“Right.” I reply back at him.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to rest here tonight without having to resort to shape shifting and sleeping out in the woods.”
“Yeah, it’s fucking freezing in these lands at night, even for werewolves.” I reply as we sit there together.
Normally in werewolf form, we didn’t feel the cold all that easily. We have tough hides and lots of fur. More than enough to keep us warm. But then again, I wasn’t exactly a country werewolf.
I grew up in New York City and there are places there I can shape shift, parklands, grounds, industrial areas. I’m not that used to woods and forests and the like anymore.
“Thought you being the new super werewolf and all, were tougher than that.” Phelan says with a smirk before looking out the truck window absently. “Than a little coldness.”
“You’re so cute when you’re jealous.” I taunt back.
He is referring to what he and Thane had theorized as we’d left the forest. That I was a trophy werewolf because as they’d said to me. I was the new Dorothy. As in the one only Doro-thy Gale from the Wonderful Wizard of Oz story.
The farm girl who gets swept up by a tornado and taken to a magical land far away, and manages to kills the wicked witch of the West, who wants dear old Dorothy dead. Because of some shoes.
Yep, women, we can be so damn petty can’t we? Only I hadn’t got swept up by a tornado and taken to a magical, faraway land filled with witches, munchkins and talking lions and dancing tin men who were best friends with scarecrows.
Still the title was perhaps a bit more apt that I’d admit out loud to anyone. I had survived a hurricane, more than survived it, I’d been where it hit land and survived its unrelenting wrath.
Of course, it wasn’t like I hadn’t come out unscathed and completely intact as such. I’d lost my pup that I’d only just learnt I’d been carrying.
I’d had a whole host of injuries, and in the turmoil of the hurricane I’d lost sight of the woman I’d been in New Jersey to see, Dr Marissa Marisini. Searchers hadn’t been able to find her afterwards. Not a clue.
So calling me the new Dorothy was somewhat of a cheap shot really. Dorothy Gale’s story was an adventure filled with action and triumph. Mine was an ordeal and I’d survived, we were about as different as could be.
Besides, I didn’t wear gingham.
“Jealous?” Phelan remarks after some time.
“Pft, what do I have to be jealous of?”
Insult. Injury. What is it with this werewolf? He seems to like to goad me. What is it with me? I seem to fall for it every fucking time.
“What have you ever done that’s as impressively legendary as standing in the middle of Hurricane and surviving it?” I throw at him because I’m feeling petty.
“It’s just a moment, right? Something that happened in your life. Things happen in each of our lives all the time. Significance is just a view point to the individual.”
“Jesus you should be a shrink.” I watch him smile before he turns his head back to me.
“You ever been to a head doctor?” He asks me. Probably the first real, personal, question he’s ever asked me.
“Yes.” I find myself replying honestly. After the attack I’d suffered when I was fourteen, at what should have been my first shape shift. “What about you?”
“Yeah.” He replies softly.
“Did it help going to the shrink?” I ask curiously.
Phelan shrugs his shoulders loosely. “Here comes Thane,” He said as his eye line diverts off mine and I turn my head to follow his gaze.
We watch as he walks closer to the truck and begins to pull clothing out from under the loose fitting flannelette shirt.
Thane opens the truck door roughly and throws bits of clothing at both of us. “Thanks.” I mutter looking right away at what he’d got me. Jeans and a long sleeved raglan top. It isn’t bad really, and I knew better to ask how he’d got them. Phelan is already wriggling around and doing up his jeans in the truck.
“I found out where we are.”
Phelan stops wriggling into the jeans and we both looked at Thane curiously.
“We’re not far from Edmonton.”
I smiled brightly at him and let out a breath I didn’t even know I’d been holding.
“As in Edmonton Canada?” I squeak.
Canada is good. Very good.
“As in.” Thane replies back at me.
It means I’m not so far from home really. It means we are till stateside, so to speak. Relief floods me and I soften into the seat behind me.
“Oh and I managed to swipe these.” He said pulling a wallet and a cell phone out of his shirt pocket. My smile gets bigger. “Got someone you want to call Bg?” He asks me holding out the cell phone.
“Hell yes.”
He hands it over to me. “Make it quick, before the guy I ripped that off realizes it’s gone and freezes his account.”
“Let’s get out of here.” Phelan says as Thane starts the truck up again. “Go home.”
Home.
Dorothy Gale from Kansas was in her home when it took her to the Land of Oz. I was ripped out of mine. Yes, home would be good. I’d like to leave this land now and go back to my regular werewolf pack life.
5
“Do you know how bad that is for you?” Phelan asks me as I take a soda from the a vending machine.
After being kidnapped, hunted and fighting my way to my freedom in Canada’s Rocky Mountain range, I should have been exhausted.
Because the forest we’d been in was huge. Large enough to get lost in for well over a life-time.
Or scared. Or something that made sense for having experienced such a trauma. But I wasn’t any of those things. It was odd I thought, sliding the change for my drink into the machine. That I should feel confident. Soda was a reward. Not a punishment. I intended to treat it as such.
“How many calories are in that?”
“I suddenly feel like two.” I say slotting more coins into the machine and grabbing a second one and popping the pullback ring on the can loudly and sculling one can in front of him, eye balling him the entire time.
What did I care? We’d stolen what we could off what we could find as we’d escaped. Making the most of what was at our disposal. A hunters truck and Thane had stolen our clothes form a coin laundry, raiding two machines and then we’d been on our way to freedom.
But really, nothing says freedom and enjoyment of freedom like some dumbass luxury item that you don’t need but you want all the same. For me, it was this soda drink.
I scull till the can is empty and crush it in my hand before him. He sighs and shakes his head and pulls out a bottle of water.
“Are y
ou, the diet police?” I ask him. “Or just judgmental?”
Maybe it was a case of finally trusting the two werewolves I was travelling with After all we’d gone through the kidnapping together. I was weirdly happy. By the fact was, I was rather enjoying the banter between us now, back in the forest it seemed tense and strained.
Probably because of our circumstances in being kidnapped, drugged and dumped in a Canadian forest that neither of us, were familiar with.
That and I didn’t like being hunted. This recent event, made it twice in my life I’d been hunted to date.
We both turned to leave and walk back towards our accommodation that a phone call to Paris had put in place for all of us, at the motel nearest us.
“Just because you’re a werewolf, doesn’t mean you should take it easy.” Phelan comments uncapping his water bottle.
“Are you saying I’m fat?” I turn on him sharply. Our newfound friendship is about to be tested by what came out of his mouth next.
Phelan’s face shows surprise as his eyebrows shoot up. “I’m not that stupid to ever say that to a girl, any girl, let alone a werewolf.”
We laugh. It feels good to laugh. I haven’t laughed in days. Shit. Just thinking about the past few days hurts me.
I’ve been apart from all that I’ve known of my life back in New York. I’d been torn apart, from my lover and pack mate Paris. I will soon be reunited with him, as he is racing his way towards me, but still, it hurts when I think about him and I being apart.
It’s more than missing him, its longing.
“What? What is it?” Phelan asks watching me closely.
Clearly I need to work on hiding the blues. “Just tired I guess.” Oh, I realise, I’m in shock. Damn.
“Well you should get some sleep. We’ll meet your friends as agreed.”
“Sleep, rendezvous, right.” I repeat as I walk into my room and I eye the bed. I look around from the doorway, we’re all tired and wired, Thane is on hyper alert mode and needs to stop. We’re just going to take a time out here before moving again.
But neither Phelan nor I feel like there is enough distance between us and the forest the three of us have managed to get out of before hitting civilization with our looted goods.
Paris immediately put into place a room reservation at the motel nearest us, paid for so all we had to do was sit tight and wait for the cavalry to arrive. Paris has been out of his mind with worry.
Having woken up after our kidnapping when he too had been tranquillized heavily. Hearing that made me want to burst into tears and touch him. Make sure he too hadn’t suffered be-cause of something, which I was involved in.
Whatever it was.
“I’ll take first watch.” Thane offers as Phelan walks towards his room, next to mine.
We each have our own room, but we didn’t really feel safe enough to be alone. I can tell, the way the guys still acted a bit agitated. But they would never admit it, they are tough were-wolves and it isn’t our way to admit weakness or fear. We are supposed to be completely fearless and downright fearsome when it comes to it.
“Right.” I utter again feeling heaviness drag me down.
Because the hunt that I’d been thrown into, isn’t over yet. Not really. Not when the hunted, the intended prey, me, Thane and Phelan have managed to escape and are at large.
I don’t care what either werewolf male does, they could sleep on the floor, in the chair in my room, I don’t mind. What I want however, is a hot shower and a bed and then to see my pack mate. In that order.
The rendezvous point isn’t the motel we’ve crashed the night in. Paris has arranged for us to meet up in Edmonton.
We’ll sleep a few hours in the motel, not even stay the full night, before driving all the way into Edmonton to then check into another motel he’s booked us into and wait for the Manhattan Maen werewolves to meet us there.
Hours were my enemy as much as my unknown captors and those that had hunted me were. Once again, I had to get through time apart from Paris.
6
I stand in the doorway of the motel room. Leaning against its frame. Sipping yet another soda. Watching the fight between the two males before me, unfold. I wonder how long I should let it go on for.
It’s kind of erotic to watch them go at it. Very primal.
Watching Paris in action was somewhat of a voyeuristic tendency of mine. He moves with ferocity and grace that beguiles his size. He is all power and speed. Although, Phelan was managing to move a fair bit and that in turn just seemed to fuel Paris’s anger at throwing punches at him. Which just meant, Phelan was getting his ass handed to him. And for what? I didn’t know.
“So I see you two have met.”
Paris stills upon hearing my voice before throwing Phelan to the ground in annoyance. Like he is a toy he is suddenly done with. He straightens up and looks over at me. Blue eyes darkening and his jaw clenching tight. His breathing laboured and heavy as he holds still.
Days apart, torn apart by others and I’d longed for this look. For him.
“B.” He pants and strides towards me quickly.
I stay where I am waiting for him. Gods I have missed this werewolf. His absence in my daily life was like an aching throughout my body. Bone deep.
“Hey,” I get out before he picks me out and squeezes me hard, his mouth coming down on mine and claiming it without hesitation or tenderness.
I understand as I drop my drink and respond to the wave of love that bursts out of me and reaches for him.
Our arms wrap around one another, pressing body to body, hip to hip, chest to chest. I can-not be without this werewolf nor him without me. Paris pulls back long enough to allow me to get some air into my lungs.
“You okay?” He asks me hoarsely as my fingers stroke the beginnings of a beard on his face.
It’s like his voice is stuck in his throat, constricted by the feelings he is wrestling with. Paris had problems dealing with feelings and around me he tends to try and be gentle with them. But when it came to me, those feelings double in intensity.
I nod my head, feeling my own throat tighten. I want to cry and laugh and hold on to him tight.
After what I’d been through, I just can’t think beyond the male werewolf in front of me. He is my world and my security and my future life. I can’t be torn apart from him again.
He kisses me again, deeply and longingly and picks me up, his hands on my jeans covered ass as I am pulled up, my legs hook around his hips.
He presses me into the door frame and the kissing becomes desperately fast and hard. He is hard, rock hard and my inner werewolf is whining with need. We’ve been apart for too long.
“Get a room already.” Phelan yells across at us as he dusts himself off and again we pause for air and to stare at one another.
“Got one.” I mutter softly nuzzling Paris’s face with the side of mine. He has a three o’clock shadow across his jawline. He’s normally clean shaven.
His hands press into me and feel me up and down me as he nuzzles back into me with a heavy sigh escaping his lips. “I need you little wolf, I need you so much.”
Little wolf, is his nickname for me. I used to hate it, when he called me it. I thought it was a put down. But it isn’t, its a term of endearment and more and more when he calls me it that is how he uses it. I am so happy to be called little wolf again. By him.
“Never thought I’d miss hearing being called little wolf.” I say softly back at him my fore-head resting against his as we keep holding one another.
“I’ve missed everything about you.” Paris replies. “Everything, your scent, your voice, the feel of you, your presence around me. Everything. You were so missed.” He says softly back at me.
I’m lost in his gaze and against the hold of him over me. It is consuming comfortable and endearing. I am so close to bursting into tears on him.
“Who’s that?” Another male voice asks from a distance. Paris lifts his head and plants a kiss on my forehead before l
ooking out to the other male.
“I gather it’s her pack mate.” Phelan answers his brother Thane as they stand side by side looking back at us. I slide back down him.
Paris pulls up straight, his face grim and serious as he loosens his arms around me and stands in front of me completely.
Ever the alpha and so damn protective of me. Thane is the one who clearly sees the need for diplomacy in the matter. He walks forward towards Paris, his arm outstretched.
“Thane and this is my brother Phelan.” He says pointing back to Phelan who was covered in dust and looking a little rough.
Paris doesn’t move from where he was with me. He probably can’t stand to have any more space between us than we’ve already had, put between us. I know I can’t.
“Thane and Phelan helped me, they were kidnapped too.” I say back at Paris softly giving him a small shove in the back. An indicator he needs to play nice with the other male wolves around me. Something that he’s finding hard to do, given the beating he’s just dished out on Phelan. “We all worked together.”
Paris takes a step forward, one hand still hanging back, holding my fingertips in it as he shakes Thane’s hand.
“Then I owe you thanks for looking after my mate.” Thane shakes hands with Paris and nods his head as he does so. They stop shaking hands and Paris looks beyond Thane, back at Phelan. “Sorry about that.” He says back at the younger wolf. “But you had her scent on you.”
Phelan glares back at Paris. “Hope she’s worth the trouble.” He mutters starting to walk off towards his room but stops when another two figures appear walking out of the motel reception and over to our group.
“Markus!” I push past Paris and run towards my brother. Flying at my brother I hug him tightly.
A taller figure stands alongside of him. “What about me, where’s the love?” Addison Harrington asks as he smiles from behind aviator glasses, whilst chewing gum. I wave an arm at Addison and he drops the overnight bag he is carrying and joins in a group hug with me as we all put our heads together and hug.
Red White and Werewolf Page 2
