Roman
I stretched deeply, groaning with appreciation as I felt each vertebrae pop and click throughout my back. I removed my hairband from my hair then flipped my head upside down to place a messy top knot on my head. Nightshift was dragging on at Kempthorne Memorial Hospital. It was four in the morning and not one person had come in to be triaged in the last few hours. Two more hours before I could head home, collapse into the pillowy down of my bed and sleep for eternity.
Home time couldn’t come soon enough after pulling a double shift. People thought I was crazy for pulling double shifts all the time. But the truth was I loved being a nurse. Scrap that. I loved being an emergency department nurse. Usually, the emergency room was chaotic with drunken students and their stupid decisions, which gave me a great distraction from my life. Helping the doctors reset dislocated shoulders or pulling artifacts from places they shouldn’t be, was like a drug; addictive adrenaline that coursed through my veins.
I was used to distracting myself these days. When I wasn’t at work, I was training and when I wasn’t training, I was having hot sex. Eventually I would tire myself into a state that would sedate my wolf and I would be able to sleep.
My wolf Rue was volatile, hence why I needed the constant supply of distraction. She had always been a little on the bitchy side, the complete opposite of my happy-go-lucky character. But over the last five or six years she seemed to have gotten progressively worse, and now I was using any means necessary to keep her calm.
We hadn’t merged which I had long accepted that it was never going to happen. I had even gone along to see Doctor Todd, the pack doctor to discuss a theory that I couldn’t merge with her because she was rabid. He chuckled lowly and told me that my wolf was high-energy and dramatic but not rabid.
Dramatic. That was the biggest understatement of the century. For a while, I had repeatedly woken up and found that I wasn’t in my bed. Not only was I not in my bed, but Rue had taken me halfway across the province while I slept. I didn’t even know that it was possible for her to do that! The first few times it happened, I full on panicked. The next few times I was angry, then I became resigned to the fact my wolf was untrustworthy.
We would argue heatedly each time this happened. Each fighting for dominance when I tried to return to Blackfern Valley. It wasn’t that she wanted to be rogue, that idea was abhorrent even to her. She just physically didn’t want to be in Blackfern Valley. She wanted to be elsewhere. She needed to be elsewhere.
I would have said it was the mate-bond that was making her act this way. But I couldn’t feel the mate-bond. It froze and shattered into a million pieces the moment the words left my mouth, Rue’s voice echoing through mine. I think that was the first time we had ever been on the same page; the moment we rejected our true-mate.
No, there was definitely something else wrong with Rue.
“Nothing is wrong with me,” she grumbled sleepily, her black ears twitching as she lay her head between her front paws. I rolled my eyes and walked towards the vending machine by the front door. Being a werewolf meant that I had an enormous appetite, and the majority of my pay was transferred straight into the big black box of junk-food.Boredom also did not help in this situation. I scanned through the glass front tossing up between Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and a bag of All-Dressed potato chips. Both. I smashed the keypad and watched as the little springs released each item in turn.
I bent over and a sterile scent wafted by my nose seconds before I heard the voice say, “Salty and sweet?” I snapped upright and looked over my shoulder, flashing a megawatt smile at Simon, a ward nurse. Very sweet, very human, very breakable. His eyes groped my body before landing on my face as they often did when he saw me. I knew he was interested in me, but the feeling was definitely one-sided. It had nothing to do with the fact Simon was human, and more to do with the fact that I would break him both physically and mentally. I used sex as a tool, a weapon, and an escape but I also had a firm rule: No one from my workplace.
“Just something to tie me over for the next couple of hours.”
“You should let me take you out for a proper meal. We both finish at six and you know the new pancake house is now open?” His eyes were full of suggestive intent which made me certain that pancakes weren’t the only thing on his mind.“Excuse me, but this is a proper meal! It covers all the food groups, carbs, protein and chocolate.”“So I see.” He smiled at me again, adjusting his gold-rimmed frames and nervously running his hand through his hair.“How is the world of the surgical ward going?” I asked directing us both out of the doorway and back into the nurse’s station. The TV screens were flickering between the ambulance bay, the public entrance and the foyer. No movement was seen on either screen. I suppressed the urge to sigh.“About at quiet as down here, but you know, it’s supposed to be quiet up there.” I nodded but said nothing. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three... “Extremely dead down here tonight, eh?” Chirp. Chirp. Chirp. Crickets would have had better conversations. An eyeroll almost escaped.“Yeah it is a bit, hence the junk-food fix.” Rue let out a big fake snore and I suppressed the urge to grin and laugh at her.“You know maybe if we show him what’s between your legs he would come up with more interesting topics.” I pretended to focus on opening my potato chips. It was a trick I had learnt to do around humans to hide my wolf spirit. Thankfully Rue was too exhausted most of the time to push forward and show her lilac aura.“What are you on about?”“Your pussy is the holy grail. He wants to worship at its altar. I say let him, that way these dead-end conversations get better.”“My pussy isn’t that special.”“Then even better, fuck him and maybe he will leave us alone.”“Or cling harder.”“Shit. It’s a lose-lose, we are never getting rid of this guy.” She huffed and flicked her tail.“He is a nice guy, Rue. Most girls would kill for the opportunity to date a nice guy. Just not me.”“That is because he is a bore, and you know it! I can always come out and play for a bit, you know if you want me to.” Her voice had taken on a sultry playful quality which made me instantly flash her a warning look and she responded with a wolfy chuckle.“Oh it looks like duty calls,” Simon said morosely, nodding towards the screens where a bus had just pulled into the ambulance bay. “Think about having a meal with me, okay?” I scoffed my mouth full of chips instead of answering and tossed the bag into the trash can, wiping my hands on my purple scrub-pants and sanitizing before I walked out the side door to see if they needed a hand. I was more than grateful for the interlude. If I had stayed talking to Simon any longer, I may have taken pity on him enough to actually go to the Pancake House with him. I may have given in and shown him my holy grail. I may have broken him in like a horse and then broken him, just because the boredom was killing me so much. Thankfully my action came in a different form—a gushing headwound. Yup, that will do.***
I drove up the gravel road that led to my cabin. The sun penetrated through the canopy above me and twinkled through the leaves, creating a mottled effect on the road as I turned around the bend.A large log cabin burst out of the woods, and I smiled as I parked my car and cut the engine. My bed was awaiting me. I closed the car door with a small bang and took a gentle sniff, appreciating the earthy smell after the harshly sterile scent of the hospital. The strong chemicals irritated my nasal passage and often burned my nose so badly that it often took a while for Rue to heal it. Either that or she was just being a bitch.
I sniffed the air again as I turned the door handle of my front door— was that lasagne? I followed my nose to the kitchen as my stomach vibrated at the smell. Sitting in the warm oven was a large pasta dish. Familial smells wafted at me, and I knew that my elder sister Arizona had been here. Trust the smell of real food to make Rue heal my nose faster. I sniffed again and detected the tones of my brothers, Israel and Jordan. I looked around and saw the telltale signs that my family had been in here. The couch cushions were fluffed, the floor had been vacuumed and my laundry had been washed and folded. I opened the hide-a-away trashcan and rolled my eyes at its sparklyness. It wasn’t that I was a slob, I just didn’t really have time to clean with my busy schedule. Or shop. Or cook. Or eat proper food. Canned tuna or brown beans on toast was fine for me, as I was constantly running between the hospital and Blackfern Valley.
I didn’t live in the Valley anymore. I lived alone in my log cabin in the middle of nowhere. Blackfern Valley and Kempthorne were in the middle of nowhere too, but my cabin was even more secluded than them. This place was my first attempt to stop the erratic behaviour of my volatile wolf. It didn’t work, but the independence and isolation grew on me, so I stayed. I stayed in the hope that one day I could bring my kid sister Indiana here to live with me.
But that hope was in vain, my baby sister was gone. And my so-called true-mate was the reason I was never going to live with her again.
Vinny I opened the throttle and leaned forward, hollering out a whoop of delight, which was met with Vali’s yippy howls of excitement. He loved this as much as I did. All I wanted to do was take my helmet off and feel the wind in my hair as I zoomed down the country. I wore a helmet not because it kept my brain inside my skull, but because it really sucks when you get a mouthful of bugs. I tried not to think of my destination too much and just enjoy the open road. I estimated that it would take four days to get back to Blackfern Valley. As I got closer to my dreaded destination, my thought process betrayed me. It kept bringing me back to my final few days in Blackfern Valley. I tried to force my brain to think about my dad, my sister, my niece, God—even my mother who died when I was fifteen. Each time my brain would start to behave, little snippets of unwanted memories and thoughts would intertwine themselves, popping forward and back like little poltergeists of doom. Vali was be
RomanI smiled at my patient as I offered him his discharge papers, reminding him to take his medication and directed him out through the emergency waiting area. There was the sudden aroma of peppermint followed by canine and human and a loud bantering conversation that made me freeze in my spot. The girl’s voice was loud and squeaky and even though I hadn’t heard her companion speak yet, I instantly knew who it was.My heart spasmed and pounded erratically as I looked up and took in the stunning specimen standing before me. His blond hair was longer than I had seen it, sitting between his chin and shoulders, flicking at odd angles at the end. His broad shoulders fit snuggly into his leather jacket and his jeans were ripped in a way that was not intentional. His green and silver eyes found mine and I felt as though I had been hit with a blast of frosty air. The malice contempt could not be mistaken for anything else. Rue stood in shock, gaping and unable to make a comment or a sound.
VinnyAs soon as I stepped away from the hospital, the aroma of jasmine started to dissipate, making it a little easier to breathe. Each breath in the hospital felt like razorblades to my throat but the further we got from the hospital, the more my lungs opened to receive the oxygen they were so badly struggling for. There was an icy void in my chest, but I had convinced Camille to come to a bar with me, so it was only a matter of time before I filled the chasm. I was starting my third glass of bourbon and I smiled as Camille amicably told me about herself, like this was a real date. As if I wasn’t trying to ignore the gaping hole in my chest. I kept sniffing the air, high on alert trying to detect the hints of jasmine before they arrived. I was convinced my bad luck had just started, that Roman would follow me into this bar, if only to make my life a living hell. “I hate that she looks good,” Vali grumbled, placing unwanted images of Roman in my mind. Even standing in lilac-coloured
Roman My eyes pinged open and I looked around the bedroom that wasn’t mine. The room looked like it belonged to a teenage boy, with clothes haphazardly tumbling out of semi open drawers and more piles on the floor-drobe. The walls were covered in car and music posters and an electric guitar was sitting on a stand in the corner. The owner of the room seemed like a teenage boy, but he was definitely older than that, I would never sleep with a teenage boy.I heard the shower turn off and rolled off the bed and started to dress myself quickly. I tugged on my black panties and scrub pants and had managed to clasp my bra before the bedroom door opened and in walked Murdoch, my saviour in my time of need, “Morning Rome.”“Hey,” I muttered, pulling my camisole over my head and looking around for my scrub top.“You want breakfast?” I froze. We didn’t usually do breakfast. We both knew what this was and canoodling over oatmeal was not part of the agreement. I schooled my face into a mundane exp
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
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