Exasperated, he dismisses me, and I leave without argument. I promised Sherry I would take a shift at the bar, and I have an hour before I have to be there. Situated on the remote end of a plot of land belonging to the pack for more than a century sits a large three-story contemporary mansion. The pack house is modern, and has all the bells and whistles, conference rooms, office space, 17 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, a fancy security system, full kitchen, the works.
West of the house is a path that leads to the previous pack house. Its older, and doesn’t have a complete gym for training, but it does have running water and electricity. It was my home, the only place I ever knew, and it’s where my mother is still present. Everything in this house belonged to her. A three-bedroom farmhouse with a wrap around porch. My mom loved the country style of decor, and its functionality. She made everyone feel at home here, and my dad loved that about her.
I remember he would bring her little gifts just to show his appreciation for her. Once, he brought her a jar of honey from a hive he found on the property. She loved it so much. This was the only thing that I wanted to inherit from my parents, not becoming Alpha of the pack. We are a small pack now, only 23 of us left after my dad died. Before that, only the Alpha, my grandfather, and his family lived in the pack house. My dad wanted to modernize our pack. He said that the world was always changing and growing, and he wanted to open everything up for people to enjoy. After he died his plans lost momentum, and a lot of folks went to join another pack an hour drive north of here.
Bob is a good man, and he means well, but he isn’t business savvy or near as ambitious as my dad was. Everyone that remains moved into the new pack house. Everyone but me. I’m not a pariah, no one treats me badly, there are just a lot of memories in this house. I change into a clean pair of jeans and a black “Sherry’s” t-shirt throw on my boots and head out the door.
The sun was setting when I drove my 87 Dodge pickup into the parking lot of Sherry’s bar. A little hole in the wall bar at the edge of a small town of only about eight thousand people. There is a small grocery store, two crappy motels, a small clinic, a K-12 school, and Sherry’s bar. I get out of the truck and notice a familiar car in the parking lot of the motel across the street. One whiff in that direction and I know its her. She walks out of the lobby, and I watch her walk over to her car grab her bag and walk around to the back side of the motel.
“Dang, Gabe you sure are happy to see me.” Joe, the short order cook says through his window as he backs his car in next to my truck.
“Huh, what no, what are you talking about man?” I stumble over my words.
“what’s with the pup tent?” he adds. Pointing towards my crotch.
I look down and realize that it does appear that I am in fact happy to see…. someone.
“Might want to go take care of that ‘for someone gets hurt son”, he says.
Joe is an old cowboy that has lived in the area for about thirty years. There aren’t many people in this town that know about the pack, but old Joe is one of them. “All God’s creatures got a purpose on this earth” is what he told me when I found myself in a particularly sticky situation and he saved my ass. That was when I found out that he knew that werewolves and other things exist. “Well, ‘cept pedos’ all them sick sons’a’bitches can go straight to hell”.
Joe was a sheriff deputy for 25 years. He was one of the first responders for the car accident my mom and I were in. When my uncle told my dad that I had my wolf, Joe was the one that they trusted to help get me released from the hospital before the doctors realized that I was healing far too quickly for a human. Joe’s wife Molly was the head nurse, and he was able to get her help getting me discharged and back to the pack doctors. That’s how Joe and Molly met. She is a nurse at the clinic in town now and has been a good sport patching up pack members from time to time. Needless to say, Joe has seen how crazy and violent being a werewolf is. Now, he is giving me advice about how to deal with a raging boner.
“Joe, I’ll be right back”, he nods an acknowledgement as he settles in for a cigarette before heading into work. I run across the street following her, and peek around the corner just in time to see her close the door to her room. I make my way back over to Sherry’s and see Joe still standing there, lighting another cigarette from the cherry of the one he just smoked.
“Hey, let Sherry know I am going to be a few minutes late.” I shout as I grab a jar of honey I was supposed to sell tomorrow from the crate in the back of the truck and pluck a flower from the flowerpot on the window.
“Sure, but don’t let her catch you picking her roses. She’s likely to skin you alive Boy.” He says.
I make my way back across the street and take a look before rounding the corner to her room. I tuck the rose into the piece of twine tied around the jar and set it on the ground in front of her door. I knock on the door and make a mad dash for the woods about fifty yards from the door. I quickly take off my clothes and toss them across a branch before shifting into my wolf. I make my way out of the brush in time to see her slowly open the door. She is standing there wearing nothing but an oversized t-shirt that falls just below the apex of her long thick legs. Her hair is wet, I assume from taking a shower and falls around her shoulders down full and perfect breasts. She looks at me and my wolf grumbles, urging me to go to her.
His excitement at the sight of her standing there is almost too much for me to control. I know that he wants to run over there and mark her, but I reason with him that she would not appreciate that. Though I know there is something different about her, I’m fairly certain she is not a she-wolf. My wolf would be able to sense it. She closes her eyes as a warm breeze carries over my scent and I can tell it is effecting her. The look, and smell of her is almost more than I can take, and I run back into the woods before Theo gets his way. I grab my clothes, get dressed and make my way back over to Sherry’s. “Theo, what is she?” I mind link to my wolf. “She is our mate” is the only reply.
I quickly get dressed and shove my knife in its sheath tucking it into my boot. I grab my keys and the jar that was left at my door before I walk out of my room, making my way to the lobby. The same young lady is at the desk, and she smiles brightly when she sees me walk in. “Is everything alright with your room?”, she asks. “It’s perfect Melissa” taking time to look at her name tag this time. “I do have a question though. I found this in my room. Maybe whoever was here before me forgot it, and was wondering where I can get some more?” I ask. “Oh, I’m not sure where that jar came from, but I do know where you can get some more. There is a guy out on the market road north of town that keeps bees. He sells it at the local grocery store.” She replies. “You know, it’s kind of a local tradition for a guy to give his sweetheart a jar of honey. Maybe you have a secret admirer.” “Well, that wou
It's a slow night at Sherry's. The last customers left about an hour ago and Joe has been huffing and puffing in the kitchen. He's taking extra care to make as much noise chopping extra prep items for tomorrow. By the smell of it we have enough onions to last the next month. I don’t know what has gotten into him lately, but it seems like he does everything he can to be obnoxious to get Sherry’s attention in an effort to go home. I’ve talked to her about switching him to days, but she says that the daytime cook is a single dad and doesn’t have anybody to watch his kids at night. Joe's usually pretty chipper till about nine o’clock. That’s when he turns into the grouch, we all know and love. The one that takes his time picking the strongest smelling onions to chop up loudly and throw pans in the storage area. Sherry walks out of the office and looks at me with a questioning look. I shrug my shoulders and go back to washing the beer mugs. It’s 11:30 when Sherry asks, “Ya’ll rea
I walk to the door and just as I am about to open it, it swings open and tall slender man steps out. I can feel his disappointment at the realization that I am headed inside. From the looks of it, and the smell of him he is likely the guy that works in the kitchen and is heading out. It doesn’t surprise me when he says, “honey, I hope you’re looking for liquid lunch cuz the kitchens closed.” I put on my warmest smile, he has kind eyes, and I don’t want to keep him from whoever he is trying to get home to. I can feel the devotion and love radiating from him, and I know that he cherishes them.Before I have a chance to reassure him, I step inside the door and freeze. As soon as I see him, I know that Lily was not bullshitting me. He stands up and faces me. He is tall, taller than me, a lot taller than me. I’m six feet tall and he has to be about 6’7”. His long golde
I want her. Badly. I don’t just want a midnight romp though. I never want to have a day that I don’t see her beautiful face. I want to know what it is about her that makes people feel at ease when she is around. The minute she walked in that door everything changed. Not only for me, she is my mate, so that is a given. I suppose part of me knows that there is a tether between us that I won’t be able to resist, but Joe leaving the kitchen when someone has come in. He wouldn’t normally do that. He prides himself of his work ethic. Not a big deal though. We all have our off days, so I didn’t think anything of it. Sherry leaving me to close the bar without her I didn’t see coming, but the real kicker was Frank and Josh. Those two crotchety old bastards don’t care about anything but their lawn, their wallets and closing Sherry’s Bar. For one, they are frequent customers here and they know the price of a beer. They wouldn’t fall for what she pulled with the daytime bar tender L
“It wasn’t your fault, you know that right”, I say to him feeling his sadness, mixed with guilt. I can feel his hurt and I want to take it away. I can, but that would never truly heal him. It would all come rushing back out of nowhere. A memory, something familiar that reminds him of the thing causing him pain will have it all come rushing back with a fury. It would be worse, cruel even. He lowers me back down so that I am standing in front of him.Worried that I stepped over a boundary I look up to him searching his eyes for what I should do. I open a boundary just a little bit to see if I can get a hint of what he is feeling. Maybe I can do some damage control, and salvage this, whatever this is. He raises his hand to the back of his neck and forces a smile. I can tell whatever it is, it’s a sensitive subject. “I’m sorry,” I tell him “That was probably int
Driving around waiting for the pull, I feel around in my head for Lily but she still hasn’t returned with any news. It’s after noon so Gabe has been missing for almost twelve hours. Out of nowhere Lily pops into my head telling me to turn right; now. I slam on my brakes and almost miss the turn. The car behind me honking its horn in protest to my sudden diversion. “Lily, what did you find?” I ask her. “Nada from the guy that snatched him, but lucky for us Gabe knows where he is.” She tells me, explaining that she was able to contact a very pissed off inner wolf.“Ok, where is he?” I ask. “There is an old barn about a mile up on the left. He’s in there” she tells me “But Hannah, I think you should call the deputy, these people are dangerous” she warns me. “How many are there?” I ask her. “Two, but Hannah,
I hear a strangled howl from below the floor under Jeff. Looking at me they both make a move to grab me. Dodging Jeff and snatching the other guy’s wrist I twist him around and shove his face into the grill of the tractor. His head making a sickening thud and he falls to the ground down for the count. That was too easy. I turn to face Jeff and he is on me before I can dodge him again. He tackles me to the floor and lands on top of me. He stinks, like halitosis and mildew. He maneuvers his legs so he is straddling me and grabs my neck with both hands choking me. I use my arms, thrusting them up between his breaking his choke hold on me and knocking him off balance. I am able to jump up before he has time to recover and kick him in the face as hard as I can. Twice.With them both out cold I reach down and remove the laces from my boots, and hog tie them both. Fucking animals, serves them right.&
The last thing I remember is dropping the keys to Sherry’s in the mail slot. Beating myself up for not going after Hannah, I was considering going over to her room to explain. It wasn’t anything against her, I just wasn’t expecting it. It was like she was reading my mind and it threw me off. I woke up to the sound of Ray, the pack doc telling someone that I’m damn lucky to be alive. The amount of wolfsbane in my system was enough to kill our whole pack. “Those idiot meth heads were trying to get a ransom for him to feed their habit, and almost killed him.” I hear Deputy Scott say. “She saved his life?” Uncle Bob asks.“Hannah” My voice sounds ragged and harsh like I haven’t spoken in weeks. I don’t know how long I have been out, or if she even stuck around. I open my eyes and see that I am home in my own bed. I have a splitting headache, an