by E. M. Shmitz
Later Marcus exited the bathroom after a shower and a shave of his own to find her curled in the blankets, with the covers pulled high under her chin. He presumed she was attempting to screen out the smell of the antiseptic. He slipped into the bed and pried some of the blankets out from under her, chuckling again to himself.
Sabine woke slowly, disoriented. Her cheek and stomach were warm, and there was a band of pressure along her side and down her back. She snuggled into the warmth. As she slowly became more aware of herself, she realized that she was curled over Marcus’ chest while he cradled her against him. She froze in horror.
After craning her head up agonizingly slowly she saw that he was still deep in sleep and relaxed a little. Instead of getting off him she laid there for a second, enjoying the feeling of being held there. She could hear his steady heart beat and his intriguing scent made her want to press her nose against his collar bone and taste him. She saw that he had shaved and wanted to run her hand over the smooth skin to see what he felt like.
Marcus’ breathing changed and Sabine realized that he was awake. She panicked, throwing herself off him. She meant to land on her side of the bed. Instead she used too much push and threw herself off the bed entirely. He feet were tangled in the sheet, making it impossible for her to find her footing. Instead her ass found the floor and she sprawled there doing her very best impression of a human with absolutely no sense of balance or grace. Marcus’ face and shoulders came into view over the side of the bed. He was grinning like mad.
“Laugh and die Lovure,” she snarled.
“Geeze, calm down cat. You crawled onto me at about two o’clock this morning. You didn’t stop moving and crying out until an hour ago. I think I’m entitled to a little laughing. Besides, the rest of my day is pretty much guaranteed to suck.” At her confused look, he continued. There was no point in keeping her in the dark.
“I’m breaking my relationship with the head bitch, Ange. I’ve been looking for a valid excuse that won’t get me swamped by horny werewolves for a few months now and you are the perfect excuse.”
He had to be kidding. “Whoa there pony. Remember the deal. There is no way that I’m replacing this Ange person.”
“You won’t actually be replacing her. You’ll just be taking her bedroom and not leaving any space for actual replacements. You get the highly-desired job of running interference on any females that get too close. Use it as a chance to work on your stare of death.”
Sabine sighed and began untangling herself, wrinkling her nose at the antiseptic smell that lingered on her skin. Shifters healed fast and most of her cuts had done a fair amount of healing overnight. Her bruises had blossomed and become much darker, but she could live with them.
“I’ll go check out, you get ready to leave.” Marcus said before throwing on his shirt and heading for the door.
Oh, good she thought. Just enough time for the world’s fastest shower. There was no way Sabine was sitting in a car without adequate ventilation covered in antiseptic. She’d be car sick before they left the parking lot.
CHAPTER THREE
Marcus let her drive and spent most of the trip napping. The shower really had been the fastest she’d ever taken, so the antiseptic smell still hung around a bit enough for her sensitive nose to pick out. She has all four windows down and had stopped at every large town for ‘snack breaks’. She’d stopped eating the junk food she bought four towns back, and so was wondering what her next excuse for a breather was going to be when Marcus piped up from the seat next to her.
“Take a left here; it will take us through Ashton. We need to get onto the main highway heading south, and the house is ten minutes down the road. Number 490, but you can’t see the mailbox; it’s hidden in the trees.”
Sabine followed his directions listening intently as they drove through the town. He pointed out where each of the wolves worked, lived, and even drank. There were only two bars in town, one was a more generic beer/sports/restaurant type place called Gingers and the other one was a seedy motorcycle club called Howlers. The Spanish man from the warehouse, Theo, lounged against the door menacingly. One guess as to which the wolves hang out was.
The town was a small one; she would have estimated the population to be around four hundred. Almost forty of those were members of Marcus’ pack. They worked with the humans and a few even socialized with them. Most of the wolves lived right on the edges of the suburbs, where the town turned to thousands upon thousands of acres of nationally protected forest. It was the perfect spot for a werewolf community, a sleepy town almost entirely off the radar, right in the center of Dermott’s largest national park.
Marcus’ place was a big two story villa. It had a nice run-down air about it, although there were clearly some attempts to brightening it up. Someone had recently retiled the roof and the lawn had been mowed. The driveway was a little pitted in places, and you could tell the parking areas got a lot of use. At one point, there had been a fence between the house and the forest. That had been pulled out years ago and paths had been beaten between the trees heading out in all directions like roots spreading from a tree. Her feet itched with the desire to explore the forest but she held herself beside the car, waiting for Marcus.
As they entered the house he explained that three other wolves lived with him, Ange as his mate, Bucky and Finn. Bucky was probably in town working, but Finn was home waiting in the hall for Marcus. He was a little younger looking than the rest of them and blonde. Sabine put him at twenty-three.
It was plain to see Finn had a good friendship with Marcus, and it was also plain to see that he was an excellent second in command for him. Marcus introduced them and gave a brief explanation of her reason for being there. Finn gave her a long evaluating look and then shook her hand, warmly welcoming her to the house. She instantly decided she liked him, despite the tough guy act that he put on.
As soon as they reached the kitchen and took a seat Marcus was given a detailed run down of the events of the past day. Some of the bitches had been fighting, although surprisingly not over Marcus. This time it was over Theo. Ange was in a shitty mood and had been at the center of a few of the fights. Theo was lapping up all the attention and generally abusing any power he thought he had.
“Damn it, I really did think he was going to be alright. I’m going to have to do something about him soon. Ange isn’t going to be much of a problem in this house anymore.”
Finns eyes lit up when he heard that. His eyes slid to her questioningly and Marcus explained the plan. Finn got it immediately and smiled cunningly.
“I gotta tell ya mate, I’ve been waiting a long time to hear you say that. That girl looks real sweet on the outside, but you turn your back and the bitch bites down hard,” Finn said.
Finn took Sabine on a tour of the lower house and garden while Marcus went to deal with Ange. They had just reached the back yard when a tall willowy redhead came streaking out of the house towards them.
“Bitch, you think you have him, but I’m telling you now there’s no way you’ll ever be able to keep him. I’ll challenge you for him,” she snarled.
Marcus came after her, shaking his head.
“What, seriously? You’re going to challenge me to a dual for him? You do that here?” Sabine asked.
“No, we don’t do that here. You’re welcome to refuse her. Ange leave now,” Marcus said.
He looked like he was at the limits of his patience. Sabine smiled her barbarian smile and turned back to Ange.
“Now why would I refuse her a chance to win you back? This is going to be fun.”
She felt ruthless. This was what she needed, after being stuck in the car for what felt like hours. Plus, it would put the word out among the rest of them that she was not the right tiger to fuck around with.
Marcus shook his hair back from his eyes and stood back. Finn looked pleased as anything and grinned savagely at her. He was looking forward to seeing Ange be beaten just as much as she would enjoy doing it.
>
Both women stripped down and changed to their animal forms. Sabine took great pleasure in shifting to her beast much faster than Ange could. When they were standing, sizing each other up, a delicate looking wolf and a darkly colored tiger, Sabine let out a roar that rattle the glass in the window panes. Any sensible opponent would have realized she was hopelessly out classed, but the war cry had the intended effect. The wolf launched into an ill thought out attack.
Sabine didn’t make any allowances for Ange; she slashed at her and drew blood, using her agility and balance to literally run circles around the smaller wolf. Ange couldn’t get her claws or teeth anywhere near the ruthless tiger. The fight was over in minutes.
Worse yet for the wolf Sabine forced Ange to acknowledge her win by submitting to her, an act Ange had only ever done half-heartedly for Marcus. Almost never in the sight of the other members of the pack. The blonde changed back into her human form, stiffly moving away from Sabine, who didn’t take her eyes off her for a second.
Marcus, Finn and another man, Bucky, clapped. Finn openly cheered.
After Ange’s departure Bucky cleaned out her old room on the second floor and Sabine moved her few possessions up there. The room was nice, very tidy and painted a mossy green color that accentuated the deep brown floors and furnishings. Bucky had found her an antique looking white bed cover and matching white sheets. Out of nowhere he had produced a pile of fresh new pillows, she really hated sleeping on used ones.
The room had two doors, one into the hallway and the other lead right into Marcus’ room. The first thing she did was drag the heavy dressed in front of the door leading to Marcus’ room. The last thing she needed was an achingly hot wolf one bedroom over and easy to access.
Next, she emptied her shopping bags until she had found her new diary. Writing was the one indulgence she allowed herself, through years of living with Royce and a house full of tigers she knew the importance of a good hiding place. She explored every nook and cranny of her bedroom before stashing the creamy white book in a cavity under the dresser.
That night she wrote a quick summary of the events to date, emphatically assuring herself that she didn’t have a thing for Marcus and paced the room until early morning. She had been expecting a difficult wait for sleep, but surprisingly the new surroundings weren’t enough to put her off sleeping for long.
CHAPTER FOUR
The next few weeks had been boring by Sabine’s standards. Ange had disappeared from the house swiftly after her loss to Sabine, and the word had gotten out about how badly outclassed she had been in the fight. The only time Sabine saw her was when she was slinking around with Theo. Those times Ange cringed and left the general are as quickly as possible. Her lesson had been learnt.
Theo only cropped up occasionally, but those times made her skin crawl. She looked at him with her mind one afternoon and he scared her.
Many shifters had some very small power to enhance their own natural one. Hers was a bit of a temperamental gift, sometimes she’d look and see nothing and sometimes she’d get a small glimpse of power or inner thoughts. In her head, Theo had looked like a black oil covered wolf, slowly advancing on her. She explored the similarities between him and her not so fond memories of Robbie in her diary. She decided to stay the fuck away from him for as long as possible.
Theo hadn’t made any moves yet, but she was beginning to doubt that Marcus’ influence would hold him back much longer. Marcus didn’t seem to have the iron hold on his entire pack that he once did. She didn’t for a second discount Ange’s influence in Marcus’ waning leadership. The woman was cunning and well liked for unknown reasons amongst the pack, and many still considered her an Alpha, despite her loss at Sabine’s hands. It didn’t help Sabine’s suspicions that she could be found on the fringes of any trouble that erupted.
Marcus had fallen into a new routine with Sabine in the house. Usually he was more of a late morning sleeper, but he had adjusted his schedule to hers, it was more out of necessity than anything else. He had discovered Sabine to be a loud morning person. It wasn’t intentional, she was just extremely clumsy for a cat. From the moment, her feet hit the floor at five o’clock on the dot every morning until the moment she got outside for her morning run she crashed into walls, stumbled over her own feet and slammed doors.
He found sleep somewhat impossible through all the noise and so ended up running most mornings with her. It was not a company thing, she was barely there in the morning so spoke very little and did not have much of a reaction to his presence but he found it incredibly peaceful. At that time in the morning he could almost believe that today’s trials would be nonexistent and the Pack would take some strides towards going back into its previously tight-knit family unit.
They had suffered huge losses while on the Council’s mission, as he’d known they would. His original second and third in command had been brought down leaving him in a vulnerable position. Theo’s father was killed early in the mission, and Marcus had seen the changes this brought about in his former friend. Many of the partnered male wolves had been killed, leaving Marcus with far too many widowed women. He was aware of how they looked at him, and when the bitch fights had begun to crop up he had been forced to choose a mate. He had gone for Ange, who at the time seemed like a sensible choice. She was beautiful, unassuming, the women respected her, and the men wanted her. Looking back now he could see the blaring mistake he had made in assuming that she didn’t want him for his power. She had wanted power, she was just better at hiding it than some.
Sabine enjoyed their morning runs a little more than she probably should have. Mornings made her feel foggy and stupid, so the first-time Marcus had met her at the door and joined in she had blinked stupidly at him and strived to appear unaware of him for the rest of the run. Ignoring his was hard at times, like when he shook his hair out of his eyes, or when he stripped off his t-shirt to cool down. But then no self-respecting woman would ignore those things.
Running was a good excuse to map out the areas around her and familiarize herself with the normal scents and sounds of the area. But more importantly it established a routine. If any wolf or cat did a little homework they could see that morning was clearly the best time to ambush her. She was loud and clumsy in the morning, but some of it was played up for the wolves around her. She could be surprisingly onto it when she had to be, and preferred to fight in the morning. With the routine set up the way it was, chances were, if she was attacked at any time, while she was running would be it.
She slowly eased into the wolves lives, and despite her reservations, she found that she liked quite a few of them. Finn was very funny and great company, and Bucky was a true heart of gold. Marcus’ third in command, Rob, spent a fair nit of time around the house, mostly with Bucky and the three of them got her into the habit of drinking scotch with them semi-regularly.
She did wonder, when seeing Rob and Bucky together for the first time, if there wasn’t a little more than friendship happening. Both wolves were older than her, in their early thirties. Bucky was short and on the slender side with a serious dislike of fighting, and so was almost at the bottom of the pack hierarchy. Living with Marcus gave him enough protection to avoid being bullied by most of the other wolves.
Rob was a big Cuban looking man, and seemed to have appointed himself as Bucky’s official protector. She couldn’t find a tactful way to enquire about their relationship, so didn’t end up asking anyone.
The house was a bit of a meeting spot for all the wolves, and they often stopped in to chat to their leader before heading out for a run. Marcus encouraged it, and spent large amounts of time circulating through his pack. Finn had explained to her that a wolf pack leader was constantly proving his leadership to his pack, and could be de-powered at any time. It was a little more unstable than the pack Sabine had come from. Marcus was working harder than usual because of the new rifts in his pack.
Sabine thought that many of the problems in the pack could have been healed by
the banishment of Theo, but understood Marcus’ reasons for not driving the man away to an extent. Theo made her skin crawl, and she was extra vigilant about knowing where he was at all times. She didn’t trust him, but had no clear evidence to take to Marcus, not that she was sure he’d listen to her.
Finally, one night about a month after she had arrived in the house she found a genuine reason to hate Theo. Finn, Bucky and Sabine had been watching old movies in the recreation room and she had fallen asleep on one of the couches. The men, not wanting to wake her, had left her there and turned out the lights.
It was late when she had woken up, and she could hear someone moving inside the house. She sat up, ready to investigate when Theo swung around the corner.
“Sabine, nice to see you,” he grinned his predatory grin.
“I was just looking around for our glorious leader. Where is Marcus?”
“He’s out on a run with Rob and a few of the girls,” she said as Theo moved further into the room.
“You aren’t jealous, are you? He’s entitled to his friendships. As are you. We all know that you two certainly aren’t claiming each other as mates,” Theo said greasily.
She injected a little sarcasm and scorn into her words. “Thank you for your concern Theo, but no I’m not jealous of Marcus and I feel no need to embark on any ‘friendships’ here.”
“So, then we are not friends?” he asked blatantly raking his eyes over her body.
“That would really be a pity Sabine, because I have been dying to take a taste of what Marcus has been refusing these past weeks. You certainly are a good-looking piece of ass, even if you’re not quite broken yet. To tell you the truth I like ‘em a little wild, and I think you’d enjoy a little pain,” he grinned wider, and she saw his teeth lengthening.
“Not a chance in hell. Back off,” she growled circling away from the couch and more to the center of the room. Marcus would be pissed if Theo bled on his couch.
