Havermouth, Present Time Rhett paused in the shadows of Rohan’s rose garden. He felt the warm weight of Cameron against his side as his mate crouched and could smell the distinct scent of their wet fur warmed from their body heat. He badly wanted to shake, the drag of his rain-heavy coat uncomfortable although the wet had not penetrated the undercoat to the skin, but he knew that he would be fighting a losing battle – the rain was coming down too heavily for him to shake himself free of the annoying wetness. Wolves were not rain-friendly, usually preferring to den and wait for the weather to clear. The rain affected his sense of smell, he didn’t like the wetness of the bitumen under his paws, and his coat would only hold up for so long before the cold and wet penetrated. Cameron whinged, as unhappy with the weather as Rhett was. But, better in wolf form than human, Rhett told himself. Not only were wolves more resilient against the weather than humans, they were faster and able to

Havermouth, Five Years BeforeCameron had held it together all night at the drive-in, letting the distraction of beer, Rhett’s almost-fight with the university pledges, and sex push the memory of that plastic wrapped body from his mind. They’d f-ked themselves to sleep, and for a few hours, the alcohol and physical exertion had given him ease, but as the night turned to morning, the change of tone in the sounds of the wildlife around the house woke him, and he lay, looking up at the ceiling, and saw the little shoes in the darkness.He was going to be sick, he thought, if he didn’t get some fresh air.Heath was wrapped around Aislen, and Rhett had his back to Cameron, so Cameron eased off the mattress carefully. None of the three reacted, and he grabbed someone’s jeans and top off the floor, and a bottle of water, before making his way out of the bedroom.The floorboards creaked underfoot as he made his way down the hallway, but the whole house creaked and groaned in the night, the ol

Havermouth, Five Years BeforeThe Triquetra met at the lockers before the first bell. Heath reached out and fixed Cameron’s collar and tie. “You have first class with her, right?” He murmured.“Yep,” Cameron wiped his palms on his trousers. “You have second?”“Mhm,” Heath nodded, his eyes going to Aislen’s locker.“What if Aislen doesn’t come to school?” Rhett wondered, leaning against the locker, and dragging at his lip piercing with his teeth. “We’ll be stuck with the decoy human bitch for no reason.”“She’ll come,” Heath replied confidently. “Yesterday was just Aislen being defiant. She’ll come, see us with Charlotte, and she’ll beg us to forgive her, which we will, of course, do on the condition that she stop f-king around with us and follow our rules.”“There’s the target, let’s get ourselves a decoy,” Cameron grinned and ran his hands through his hair, before grabbing his bag from the locker. “I’ll see you at recess.”Heath and Rhett watched him swagger over to a group of girls,

Havermouth, Present TimeThere was a knock on the door, a heavy confident thud that repeated three times and then waited, expectantly.Aislen grabbed hold of Talen’s hand. “Don’t answer it daddy,” she whispered. “Let’s pretend we’re not home.” The night was crawling with face-eating monsters, heavy with cold rain, and bodies that came and went. With a sudden, gut-wrenching intensity, she wanted her werewolf mates to return, and all five of them to be back to the river house.“Please, don’t answer the door,” she repeated.The knock came again.Talen looked down at her, and then at the door. “Who is there?” He called out. A compromise, she thought, between her sudden dread and the demand of whoever stood behind the door. What did she expect? She didn’t know. If the other person was frightening enough that she had to worry about her vampire, than a thin wooden door wouldn’t prevent their entry, she admitted to herself.It was like in a horror movie, however, she thought, and if you answe

Havermouth, Five Years Before“If people see that we’re trying to get Aislen back,” Heath explained under his breath as they met up at the car park at the end of the school day. “Then Charlie and the council will say that we don’t have her under control. We need to make her come back to us, not the other way around.”“And Charlotte’s going to do what?” Rhett was not happy, his face twisted in a frown as he cupped his cigarette to light it. The car park around them was emptying as the students fled the school gleefully, music pounding out of windows and horns honking.“If we’re seen with Charlotte, it will look like we’ve just lost interest in Aislen, rather than that we’re not in control of her,” Heath explained patiently, speaking up as the crowd thinned and there was no one around them, giving them privacy. “Then when we’ve got Aislen back, well, she begged us to take her back, didn’t she?”“F-k man,” Cameron admired his scheming. “You have a f-ked up brain, you know that don’t you?