Vinny
I entered the bar and my eyes instantly grazed over the flash of light brown skin of Roman’s lower back as she leant forward on a bar stool. It was like I had no control over the direction of my stare, or the length of time I was staring. The skin was smooth and flawless as it disappeared into the hem of her top and down into her tight as fuck jeans that showed off her glorious ass. Now that she wasn’t hidden under her uniform, I could really appreciate just how mesmerizing her curves were. Even from behind, just for a moment.
When her eyes met mine, the flickering purple broke my trance. My legs which were frozen to the spot, moved me away as if a sudden determination had overridden my body. The ice in my heart solidified as I sat on a leathered booth seat and picked up a menu. I could feel her gaze. It was as if every cell in my body was tuned to her. Even the ones covered in ice. The smell of jasmine was irritating my nose as I tried in vain to keep my breathing shallow.
An icy burn was travelling around my bloodstream, sharp and jagged making Vali itch in irritation. The door opened and I looked up to see two large units coming through the door. Sean’s face broke into a grin as he saw me. I was enveloped in a bone-crushing hug and a rough pat on the back. I turned to my old mentor Ryan and embraced him quickly too. Alright, enough hugging.
“So you’re alive?” Ryan grunted at me.“It appears so.” Fingers whipped the edges of my hair as I ducked my head out of range. My wolf senses had felt the hand coming milliseconds before and reacted accordingly. I glared at Ryan who pushed me playfully before sitting down in the booth I had selected.The beers were cold and frothy as we chatted, but I could barely enjoy the taste. Jasmine seemed to be coagulating against the hops and barley, choking me slightly. Vali paced my mind in agitation. I braved a look in her direction and even though her body was taut with tension, her smile was radiant as she chatted with the barmaid, Liv. There was a flash of her white teeth as her husky laughter echoed and vibrated straight into my crotch. I felt myself twitch. Well at least that wasn’t frozen by the ice queen.“Geeze you are only back in town ten minutes, and you are already looking for some ass!” Sean laughed.“What?” I snapped my eyes away.“You are staring at Liv and basically dry humping the table.”“Doesn’t Liv bat for the other team?” I asked distractedly. Before I left, Liv was in a relationship with a she-wolf.“She likes to play both sides. And she does play well.” Sean grinned. Ryan just shook his head at the turn of the conversation. I often forgot that he was happily mated with a toddler at home. His irresponsible single days were far behind him, even though that’s basically how he met his mate. “What about this other chick who rescued you like a damsel in distress?”“Rescued you?” Ryan enquired; his eyebrows high on his forehead. “That sounds like a story.”“I came off my bike and she happened across me… so I happened across her.” I shrugged nonchalantly as I casually scanned the room. Roman was staring directly at me, all laughter in her face gone, her face stone cold. The purple of her eyes swirling like rapids hitting a rock in a stream. I blinked at her curiously. She turned her attention back to Liv and the cold seeped through me once again. What the fuck is her problem?I turned back to my companions and took a swig of my beer. “So, tell me about this fucker after Lacey. What do we know?”“Shh!” Ryan growled looking around. I raised a singular brow at him. “Alpha is trying to keep it quiet.” He finished down the mind-link.“Why doesn’t he want people to know, surely a pack full of wolves protecting the pack-princess is better?”“He is very protective of his daughter. He wants to make sure that no one in the pack is helping the rogue,” Sean offered through the connection as he gave the waitress walking past a wink.“So it is a rogue then?” I asked.“Intel says that a band of rogues have been sniffing around.” Ryan grunted through the mind-link.“A band? As in more than one?” I raised my eyebrow again. It was almost unheard of for rogues to band together. Rogues were solitary wolves by nature— usually because they hated the idea of a pack structure and taking orders. Collaborating was rare.“We are unsure whether it is related. But we are keeping an eye on them,” Ryan said.“How many?”“Last count was about thirty.”“Thirty!” I choked on my beer and Vali raised his hackles. “What the fuck!”“Tell him the rest,” Sean said closing his eyes in an almost bored fashion. Ryan looked over at him and huffed. Vali mirrored the sentiment.“One of our scouts has indicated that there is a rumour floating around, that Lacey basically is the next messiah.” This time I spat my beer all over the table. Sean opened an eye and wiped spittle off his arm in disgust.“Where do people come up with this crap?” Sean grunted out loud.I looked between them both and then asked through the mind-link, “Why do they think that Lacey is the next messiah?”“I think you better talk to your sister.”***
I strolled into the large, cavernous kitchen of the pack house and smiled at the baby toys that cluttered every other surface. I could hear cooing coming from the upper level. It was impolite to head up the stairs to the Alpha-quarters, so I called out, “Clem!”
Within seconds my short-statured, dark-haired sister bounded down the stairs with a baby on her hip. Even juggling a baby, she managed to pull me into a bone-crushing hug.“About time!” she growled. “Why am I the last person you have come to see? You have seen Ryan, Sean and Dad. But you chose to see me last?”“Because you my dear sister are a pain in my ass,” I said looking at my niece affectionately. Dark brown hair and large eyes popping adorably from her pudgy face.“Did you want to hold her?” Ugh. Shit. Um. Before I could deny, my niece was thrust into my arms. I fumbled a little before I managed to get her into what I hoped was a comfortable position and followed Clem towards the kitchen.“Tell me,” I said as I watched Clem twitter around the kitchen turning on a kettle and pulling out coffee mugs.“Rogues have been trying to get in every month for almost a year, like clockwork. We assumed they were trying to find a weak entry point.”
“They have been snooping for a year?” I snarled.“We were handling it. We assumed that they were trying to infiltrate. It didn’t become a concern until a scout came back with some harrowing information— they were after Lacey.” Vali raised his hackles.“Ryan and Sean mentioned something about her being a messiah?” She nodded curtly as she handed me my cup of coffee. I put Lacey down in fear of burning her and she instantly wiggled away.“Apparently there is a prophecy that the one true alpha would be born on a solar eclipse.” I raised aneyebrow at her, then she sighed before reciting it. “Twice born under solar moon light of alpha blood washes and wanes. Twice born under solar moon light mounds and twists in the earth’s grain. Twice born under solar moon light bends nature and spirit at will. Twice born under solar moonlight bounds and ties until all is still.”“What the hell does that even mean?” I asked as Vali tilted his head in confusion.“Well if you listen to these crazy rogues, the most powerful alpha in the history of alphas will be born under a solar eclipse. Lacey was born during a solar eclipse.”“Many wolves must be born under a solar eclipse,” I reasoned diplomatically, my head buzzing with confusion.“Yes, which is why we were not worried initially. But the threat kept coming. So, Ryan sent out a few scouts to gather more intel. Allegedly it’s the twice born part of the prophecy that has them all agitated.”“Twice born?”“I didn’t have a wolf Vinny. My wolf was born under the light of a solar eclipse. My direct descendent was born under the light of a solar eclipse. Twice born. It also doesn’t help that her father is Alpha of one of the biggest packs in Canada and her half-breed mother was also descended from some line of lost alpha lineage.”“So they put two and two together and got fifty?” I growled. This was insane!“You don’t believe in the prophecy then?” She smirked a me.“That Lacey is the next alpha of alphas? One, wrong gender. And two, I mean has she shown any phenomenal earth moving powers?”“No, of course not.” Clem chuckled then sobered. “But I guess at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if she is or isn’t this prophetic Alpha. The threat thinks she is, and that is all that matters.”Roman My skin itched and burned. My blood was boiling through my veins. The mechanical, fake and forced laughter died in my throat as the piercing green eyes met mine. Then there was silence. The conversation that I was desperately trying to ignore and listen to at the same time muted. I looked over again and saw that the conversation had turned telepathic. Rue was snarling and pacing, sending grotesque images through my mind— lots of bloody carnage. Sweaty muscular bodies slamming against each other, hard and dirty. Fingernails scraping, lips being painfully bitten and pulled. Teeth entering carotid arteries and ripping. Blood then even more blood. Hands running over nipples and tweaking them painfully. The building sensation of an orgasm being ripped away before the climax. Pools and pools of blood. A neck snapping. Lifeless green eyes. It was like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to rip him apart or fuck him senseless. Maybe fuck him then rip him apart? I forced the thoughts back
VinnyIt had been almost three weeks since I had been back in Blackfern Valley. The sound of tools tinkering on the garage floor echoed into the quiet solitude of my father’s empty garage. Usually, I would be blasting the terribly old FM-stereo on the backwall as I fiddled around in the grease and grim of motorcycle mechanics, but this time I wasn’t feeling it. This time I wanted to focus. I needed to focus.My body had been taut with tension ever since I stepped foot in Blackfern Valley. I was like a wound-up spring, ready to react at a second’s notice. Nothing felt right here. Even Vali was on high alert. I just couldn’t decide why we were so on edge. Maybe it was just because we hadn’t been back here in a long time, and this was a natural thing to feel? Or maybe it’s because my family was in danger, and I felt like I was sitting around doing nothing?“Leave it to the trackers and the warriors.” My sister had told me. I had argued and demanded why she had brought me back if she didn
Roman The bush was a blur as I sprinted through it. This time it wasn’t Rue that needed a release, it was me. What a fucking shit show this was! My life had turned into a well choreographed disaster, and I was barely holding it together. I wanted to take advantage of the last few warm weeks of summer and invited Murdoch to the swimming hole. It was an olive-branch. We had been fucking non-stop for weeks to try and keep Rue satiated. However, my wolf was more volatile than ever, and even if she didn’t want to burst out of my skin, she had made me irritable with uncontrollable mood swings. Each time he tried to talk to me about what was bothering me, I closed down and reminded him that I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend. That all I was after was distraction. He was happy enough to provide the distraction, but when the mood swings hit, he always looked torn.The swimming hole was supposed to be a non-confrontational day out. A day of relaxation. A day of friendship-bonding and hippy-like
VinnyI paced the living area of the packhouse as I waited. Back, forward, back, forward. Each footstep ricocheted my anger off the floorboards. In my mind, Vali was mimicking my pacing. We were both wound up and agitated. We were both ready to snap.My sister watched me pace as she bounced Lacey on her lap. I looked up towards the office door every so often and grumbled softly when the door remained tightly shut.“Would you stop pacing?” my sister murmured exasperatedly.“This close Clem!” I growled pushing my thumb and finger millimetres apart. “We were this close to getting one up on these fuckers. Then she had to go and get in the fucking way. If I wasn’t dealing with her, I could have helped the warriors—”“There were three trained warriors Vinny! Three. They should have had it handled. Even on the off chance you were there to help… honestly what more could have been done?”“He shouldn’t have got away.”“No, he shouldn’t have, which is why your Alpha and Beta are doing a debrief
RomanI was mad at Rue. She had almost gotten me killed and instead of being reproachful or candidly reprimanded, she was acting like it was no big deal. She had reverted into her delusional and obnoxious self and started acting like she could have taken on the rogue. Like she didn’t need help, especially from Vincent Stevens. That idea was abhorrent to her. She was obsessed with replaying the scene repeatedly, trying to twist or invent a way that resulted in her being victorious over the rogue without having to be saved. It didn’t help that the upcoming full moon was making her even more agitated and neurotic, flavouring her obsession bitterly on my tongue. I tried not to gag on the bitter saliva and I frowned at her for what felt like the millionth time she ran through her scenarios. She didn’t even notice my mood or seem to care that I was mad at her. Rue was angry and rabid, and fixated on something that was unobtainable. She was never going to listen, and unfortunately I could n
Vinny “Top Pocket,” I called as the white ball tapped against a red striped one. The number eleven bounced and off the felt wall of the table, rolling along a perfect angle towards the top right pocket. There was a light clunking sound as it found its way down the shoot back into the collection box underneath the table. “Nice shot,” Sean said as he chalked his cue tip. I said nothing as I lined up another shot and another; each shot entering their pockets with ease. I missed the third shot by a millimetre, the ball bounced off the corner and back into the middle of the table. Sean grinned and went to line up his move. It was extremely busy at Lupus’. I had forgotten that the weekend before the full moon was the busiest of the month. There was a buzz in the air as the Blackfern Valley Pack started to feel the affects of the approaching full moon. Each month as the moon crescents got closer and closer to its monthly peak, the werewolves started to react to the pull. Many got agitated,
Roman “Are you sure you don’t want to come to the pack run?” I asked for what felt like the millionth time. I frowned at the anxious whingy tone to my voice. I was beginning to sound desperate. Not a good look.“Why? Are you asking me to run with you?” Murdoch said, with a teasing lilt to his voice. I grimaced at him. A long time ago, when I was a different person, I probably would have said yes. But that was before my wolf became toxic and my needs changed. Asking someone to run with you as a hopeless romantic teenager was one thing, asking someone to run with you at our age was a sign of commitment. And as Murdoch and I had established many, many times, I was never going to commit. I couldn’t commit. It wouldn’t be fair to subject anyone else to Rue permanently. And if I was honest, I was already committed to Rue; to spending all my energy trying to keep her contained. I made a scoffing noise in my throat. “You would be so lucky.” Murdoch let out a bark of a laugh and shook his h
VinnyI wasn’t to join the pack run.Even after Clem had suggested it was a good idea, on the morning of the full moon she had explicitly asked me not to. I raised an eyebrow at her change in attitude, wondering what could have changed her attitude. Vali flicked an image forward of when I had asked her to leave the pack and her face was almost a mirror image of her expression five years ago. “There is no way she could know,” I said to him. “There must be another reason she doesn’t want me in the pack run.” But even as I said that my gut was telling me that it was indeed something to do with Roman, even if there was no way Clem knew the degree of animosity between us. There was absolutely no way my sister knew that Roman was once my fated mate and that she rejected me. My brain buzzed as I tried to quickly decipher another reason for banning me.Maybe it was because Roman was unmerged and unhinged. If her wolf was still fizzing about our altercation, then it was very likely we could e