Temptation (Journal of the Wolves of Spruce Hollow)

by Tarrah Betts

  It was going to be a good night, I could feel it.

  I was sitting at our booth two hours later, my head buzzing and my crotch slightly hard from watching these two girls grinding against one another on the dance floor. Two blondes with big breasts, Caver’s favorite.

  I’m sure he would be bringing one or possibly both of them home later.

  They were fairly entertaining and had been making out with one another on the dance floor while running their hands all over each other. The beat pounded in my ears as they rolled their hips in time to the music.

  It was hypnotic and called to the basest of my urges and I vaguely wondered if they were really lesbians or was it just for show? Because I’d seen plenty of young women exploring their sexuality while intoxicated in an attempt to garner male attention.

  Lesbian or not, it was interesting to watch and turned me on.

  I usually dulled my senses when we were out in public like this but I could smell these two girls, it was hard to tone them out with their sexuality rolling off them in undulating waves, so I opened my senses wide and let their smell wash over me. Their scent was feminine and musky and my wolf growled in appreciation as it hit my nostrils.

  He liked to act all prissy and responsible but deep down, my wolf was a sexual animal, just like I was. He liked it when I was buried deep between a woman’s legs almost as much as I did.

  We both couldn’t help it, it was in our Were nature to dominate and possess.

  From the looks these two blondes had been throwing our way throughout the night, I’m sure anyone of us, not just Caver, could have walked up to them and taken them both home.

  But not me though, no freaking way. Not with these two. Not even if you paid me.

  I cocked my head and looked at them. They were still shaking their hips and undulating in time to the music. They both looked to be about twenty; maybe twenty-one at the most and I didn’t do little girls.

  Seriously, I had enough of that poison waiting for me at home if I wanted to taste it.

  At twenty-six years old, I’d reached the point where twenty-four was my age limit and most times I didn’t even like to go that young.

  Seriously, I was a really “old” twenty-six because of everything I’d had to go through with Aspen. Finding my mate as a six year old girl had switched me into parent mode well before my time and because of that, I was strictly a “look but don’t touch anyone younger than me” type of guy. Period.

  There were just too many problems hooking up with someone young like that, the words “hot mess” immediately came to mind too. Also, way too much drama and possessiveness, for one thing.

  And then there was the crying that invariably accompanied young women. Oh jesus, the crying.

  Hearing women cry always made me feel like blowing my brains out. I hated it; women’s tears manipulated me and messed with my head. Thank god, Aspen hadn’t made that connection yet; otherwise I’d be putty in her tiny little hands.

  Plus, you never knew with younger girls, you could always accidentally run into a “I’m saving myself for my knight in shinning armor…and you’re him” type of girl.

  Ugh, virgins. Now that would be a nightmare. I just steered clear of young girls altogether, they were trouble with a capital “T”.

  As we watched the girls dance, I noticed Caver was ignoring them. I wonder if this was one of his pick up tactics? Instead, he was entertaining us with a story about the Widow Jenkins, who lived just outside of town.

  The Widow Jenkins was an attractive middle-aged woman who had married a much older man when she was in her twenties. He had invariably kicked the bucket seven years after they said “I do”, leaving her with a large farm that bred championship blood line Lipizzaner stallions and more than three million dollars in assets.

  She had come into the auto body shop about a year ago to pick up her Mercedes, which was also just around the same time that Caver had started working for me and The Widow Jenkins took one look at the tall, dark haired and muscular Caver and got this look in her eyes.

  I believe it was one that said, “I want you to be my boy toy and money is no object” and she had been chasing him relentlessly like a bitch in heat ever since.

  Caver tried to steer clear of her, which was surprising because The Widow Jenkins wasn’t a bad looking woman. If I had to narrow it down to one thing, I think it was because Caver was looking for fun, while the Widow Jenkins was looking for a companion to occupy her time and since Caver enjoyed his freedom and variety way too much to settle down with one woman, no matter how much money or gifts were involved in the deal, The Widow Jenkins was out of luck.

  Caver had us all laughing when I felt my cell phone vibrating in my jeans pocket against my thigh. I reached for it, expecting it to be Andie wanting a late night bootie call.

  Good.

  I had been kind of avoiding her and hadn’t seen her all week and was feeling pretty worked up and in need of sexual release.

  After watching Aspen walking around the house in her tiny little booty shorts earlier today and then staring at the two blond nympho’s gyrating on the dance floor for the past hour, I wanted sex.

  I’m sure most of the guys sitting at our table would probably have someone lined up for sex before we even left the bar. Nothing like a quickie in the bathroom or the backseat of a car. Hell, even shoved up against the back wall of the building would do in a pinch.

  “Hello?” “Roan, this is Slade. We have a problem. Gather whoever is there with you and meet back at the house. I’ll explain then.”

  “Yeah, okay, we’ll leave now. See you in a few.”

  It’s funny how a great night can go downhill so quickly. Just one phone call is all it takes. I brought my glass up to my mouth and downed my beer in one swift motion, then got up and grabbed my leather jacket from the back of the booth.

  “It’s time to go boys, there’s a problem. The Alpha said to meet him at the Big house and he’ll give us the details there.”

  “Are you fucking serious? Jesus, we get one night a week to be normal and mingle with single females. My mate could be here for cripes sake!” Caver said in mock anger.

  “If she was here, you missed her buddy because you were too busy trying to pretend that you weren’t ogling those two large breasted blond chicks on the dance floor all night,” Griff said as he clapped Caver on the back.

  “Holy shit, I know! The one in the black was freaking hot!”

  Everybody laughed as they got up and grabbed their jackets. There were no complaints, no one would dare disobey an order from the Alpha not with me right there, that is.

  Not unless they wanted an ass kicking.

  I was the pack Beta and making sure that all Weres in my pack followed the Alpha’s orders was my duty and was something that I took very seriously.

  The crowd opened and parted for us as we left. It had no choice, really. It was either move or we would move you. We were large men individually and therefore commanded respect. Put us in a large group all together and we were an unstoppable force.

  I turned back and winked at the two blond girls on the dance floor as we all left the bar. They both gave me a little pout, upset that their audience was leaving. I laughed and gave them a wolfish grin as I pushed open the door and stepped out into the night.

  “You guys wanna run or does everyone want to pile into my truck?” I asked as we stood in a loose huddle on the outskirts of the parking lot.

  “Man, what are you guys, Weres or a bunch of sissy’s? Let’s run, we’ll get there faster anyway,” Caver said, a touch of sarcasm in his tone.

  He had way too much testosterone flowing through his blood and was prone to posturing. Caver’s love of running his mouth off had landed him in hot water more times than I’d care to count.

  “Now, that is someone who needs to find his mate,” I said silently to my wolf. “Yes, I agree. A mate would mellow Caver out and temper his aggression nicely,” my wolf nodded sagely.

  “I’ll
show you a friggin sissy, you little prick. See you there, ladies,” Griff said as he took off into the woods behind my truck.

  “Bastard, now he has a head start! Come back here, you asshole!” Caver sputtered as he headed off after Griff.

  The rest of the guys and I were still laughing as we stepped into the black cover of the woods. The sky was jet black with a million stars twinkling down upon us. Stopping to appreciate the beauty of the night sky, I stopped and looked up at the moon high in the sky. You didn’t see such beauty in the city, even on a clear night. I really questioned whether a Were could live in the city and be truly happy with his surroundings.

  Tonight, I felt the strong pull of our lunar guide. It was spiritual and mesmerizing.

  The moon beckoned to me in a way that nothing else ever has. Well, maybe except for Aspen, her attractive force drew me in like a gravitational magnet.

  I cracked a smile as I heard Griff howling gleefully in the distance.

  He must be still leading ahead of Caver. He’d better enjoy his brief celebration because I was coming for him, and I was the fastest runner in the pack.

  Leaving thoughts of Aspen and the moon behind, I felt a familiar electrical pull tingling all the way up my spine. I dropped onto all fours as my clawed wolf paws hit the forest floor and I flexed my claws and dug in as I let out an excited “Yip” and chased my brothers down through the darkened woods.

  I was bigger, I was stronger.

  I was my pack’s Beta and I would not lose this race. There was no way in hell that I was going to lose as I put my hind legs into it and easily caught up to my lagging Were brothers.

  I knew Caver wasn’t far ahead, I could hear him off in the distance, his paws thudding and snapping branches against the forest floor. I listened hard, pinpointed his exact location and gave chase.

  “He is not far ahead. We will catch up to him shortly,” my wolf said excitedly. I smiled internally at this; Caver was not going to take my catching up to him and eventually passing him, lying down. He was a tough little bugger and my wolf was excited at the prospect of competition.

  It didn’t take me long to catch up, not more than a minute or two, when I saw the tail end of Caver’s gray wolf streaking across my line of vision. My wolf let out a sharp bark and I closed the distance easily and prepared to overtake Caver’s gray wolf.

  It was entertaining listening to mine and Caver’s wolf trade barbs about their prowess and strength. My wolf nipped at his heels playfully but Caver was all business as he turned and snarled at me as I gained on him.

  He was annoyed that I had gained on him.

  I snarled right back and bared my impressive teeth at him. “Show off,” he taunted as his wolf snarled and snapped at my hind legs as I overtook him. I knew he was seething inside, but he was too slow to catch me and do anything about it.

  I was like the wind in my wolf form, a black, deadly force of nature. I easily overtook Griff’s brown wolf up ahead and soon left my pack mates behind in the dark.

  Chapter 5

  ***

  I saw the Big house in the distance. Well, at least that’s what we all called it. The Big house was really the Alpha’s home, a sprawling two-story ranch style log home built on high ground on the outskirts of the pack acreage.

  I loved it and considered the Big House my home as I had lived with the Alpha and his wife since the age of twelve, soon after my father died. The house was enormous with the front of the house facing the mountains. The view was spectacular from the main “great room” with its floor to ceiling windows.

  Tonight, the house was lit up like a beacon, against the darkness. I could see cars lining the driveway all the way up to the end of the road. It must be a full pack meeting with all Weres required to be in attendance.

  Human spouses and children that lived on the acreage were considered to be under our protection and therefore were not invited to attend pack meetings because they typically did not have the physical strength or resources to contend with or resolve issues that pertained to the protection of the pack.

  Therefore, they had to wait until their mates returned home to hear of the latest threat to the pack.

  The Big house’s outbuildings consisted of two smaller guest houses, a four-car garage and a horse stable. The house had originally been built many years ago to house the pack’s third Alpha and his family but it was so big that, over the years, we starting using it for pack meetings, weddings or for any large pack gathering we might have had.

  The house was always teeming with life and the Alpha’s wife always kept everyone who walked through the door stuffed full of her cookies, breads and pies. If you were ever feeling lonely or bored, you could always head on over to the Alpha’s house.

  Chances were, you wouldn’t be the only one who’d come to pay a visit.

  I wondered what the Alpha wanted to talk to the pack about? I ran over the conversation I’d had with him earlier in the day when he’d called me at work to tell me about a young, newly turned male that would be joining the pack and arriving early tomorrow morning.

  The Alpha wanted me to pick the new Were up at the train station and then bring him up to the training camp.

  It certainly seemed that he was turning over more and more of his former duties to me and expecting more and more out of me, while expanding my role as Beta as showing new recruits around and taking them into the wilderness for their month long crash course in “How to be a Were 101” had always been the Alpha’s job.

  But he was slowly making it mine.

  New Weres were unpredictable at best and were not permitted to live within the pack until they had successfully made contact with their wolf, phased at least once and been evaluated for their response to anger.

  Those who still had difficulty with any of those three criteria were required to stay at the training camp until it was resolved.

  When all was said and done, this translated into at least a month long stay away from the pack for me.

  I wasn’t looking forward to taking this new Were into the woods. I found that as Aspen got older, I found it harder and harder to leave her. It didn’t seem to bother me as much, even just a year ago, but the thought of leaving her now had my stomach tied up in knots.

  The longest I’d ever had to keep a new Were with me at the training camp was three months. That was Caver, the little shit.

  He was a tough nut to crack. He was wild and completely out of control as a human teenager but as an eighteen year old Were, he was a hundred times worse and was only the third Were that I had ever brought up to the training camp by myself. At the time, I was worried that we might have to stay a fourth month but he finally came around in the end.

  Thank god because I was ready to beat him into submission.

  The safety of the pack, as a whole, had always been always my first concern when dealing with new recruits. It was hazardous to have an uncontrolled Were running around the acreage. It wasn’t safe for our pack and it wasn’t safe for the humans who lived in Spruce Hollow either.

  New Weres were too fast; they were very strong and had no impulse control. And they were stupid too.

  Let me rephrase that. New Weres were unbelievably stupid and I could say that because I’d been there at one time too. I suppose it was because they made rash decisions supported by their baser emotions.

  I didn’t worry about it too much while we were out in the woods though, because I was always faster and stronger than any of them. I could always catch them, if need be, and drag them back to the training camp with me anytime they tried to take off but here on the acreage was another issue entirely.

  There were too many places for them to hide on the acreage and it was easier for them to escape towards Spruce Hollow or the highway and then make their way towards even larger concentrations of humans.

  The new female Weres were typically the easiest to deal with, by far. They normally weren’t as aggressive as the males and were generally smaller in size too. Of course, small
in size sometimes equaled agile and quick too.

  New Weres needed to be taught everything, from the ground up. Most were terrified at first.

  Or angry.

  Those seemed to be the two most common emotions for first timers. My job was to take them deep into the woods until I got them straightened around. It usually wasn’t difficult once they learned how to get a handle on their newfound strength, speed and heightened senses.

  The heightened senses were, by far, the hardest skill for a new Were to master. The problem was that they felt overwhelmed by everything around them.

  Imagine waking up one day, to a horrible cacophony of intense sight, sounds and smells. It was pretty awful and some newbies went a little crazy until I taught them how to tone it down.

  But I never worried much about it. Male, female, young, old, it didn’t matter. I could handle them all and I’m sure this new male was no exception and I’d be back in Spruce Hollow within a month.

  That was my expectation, at least.

  The Alpha hadn’t said anything, but I knew what he was doing by passing these tasks onto me.

  He was grooming me to take over for him.

  Slade had been Alpha when my grandfather was a boy and I think he was finally tired and ready to submit to a younger Were.

  He had served our Pack well over the years and I loved him like a father. He had taken me in as an unruly prepubescent teen, after my father died and my human mother had run off and left the acreage.

  She couldn’t accept living out the rest of her life in Spruce Hollow without my father. He was the only thing that kept her here, in my opinion.

  Never mind that she had a son who still needed her around.

  But that was a long time ago now and even though I’d never spoken to her once since the day she’d left, I’d long since forgiven my mother and moved on with my life.

  However, my mother abandoning me had left me with a hefty dose of mistrust for women though. I kind of regarded them like ticking time bombs, just waiting for them to explode and wreak havoc on everything in their path.