How Many More

"Okay," I reply, closing my eyes to take a deep breath. This can't be it, I'm a smart woman. I can get out of this, "Maybe I'm not a GPS and I can't find your brother with magic, but you can still use me.”

"How? Your magic is useless," he mumbles with an unimpressed eyebrow up, "I think you're just a scammer."

"I'm not a scammer," I mumble back, starting to get angry. I hate being called that, "It feels like you and your twin brother are connected, like you're a part of each other's soul. I think that... somehow, I could... I don't know, walk around town feeling energy and when I feel it's similar to yours, maybe your brother is out there."

Rio looks at me with narrowed eyes, completely skeptical.

"Just give up, Lunanci, you're making everything sadder and more pathetic than it has to be. Keep your human dignity and die without begging," he advises and lifts another slice of pizza to continue eating, like a bottomless barrel, "I like you, you have guts, you smell nice and you're not annoying. I promise I'll make it quick, one bite on your little head and boom, you're dead."

"But why?" I ask, my voice starting to crack again. This guy just won't give up, "Why do you have to kill me? Just because I saw you transforming into a wolf? I promise I won't tell anyone. There's no point, they'd send me to an asylum if I tried."

"I can't trust you even if you promise me whatever it is you want to promise me. There's too much at stake and I simply don't care about your life as much as I care about my family and my people," he explains, shrugging.

"You seriously don't know humans, Rio. No one would believe me, no one. I could scream it out loud, I could call the government, I could make a damn viral video and absolutely no one would believe me without proof. And even if I had proof, simply no one would believe me,"

"I am not going to risk it," he repeats slowly, "People say I'm impulsive and I'd be proving them right if I trust you and walk out of here without killing you."

"Are you kidding?! Killing me would be doing something impulsive!" I exclaim, Rio frowns and looks down, considering it a bit, "Please, at least give me more time. Give it some thought. I'll be the perfect prisoner, quiet and not annoying at all. And in the meantime, I can help you find your brother."

{ Rio }

Lunanci's words make me hesitate a little. Now I'm not so sure about my decision. I think I need to talk to Laurie... actually, talking to Alex would be the best thing to do right now, but that son of a bïtch (Lucinda) is not available. Laurie and I tend to think alike, but Alex always has a different perspective.

Still, I need someone else's imput.

"Congratulations, witch. I won't kill you... yet," I say to Lunanci, letting out a tired sigh. The girl opens her eyes wide with excitement before releasing all the air from her body and leaning back in her chair. She managed to convince me to think about it for a bit, but that doesn't mean I won't kill her, she shouldn't be so happy, "Where do you live?"

"I have an apartment nearby," she answers, "Why?"

"Take me there, I'm tired. This day has been endless," I blurt out. The girl looks unsure, "What? I told you I'm not going to kill you yet."

"Still, it's not the smartest thing to bring a complete stranger into my house," she mutters with a grimace.

"Well you don't have a choice, girl, so start moving," I order and get up. I need to get out of here and stop smelling her incense before I pass out.

Lunanci nods and gets up too, grabbing her bag before leaving this strange shop. The girl sells candles, crystals, and other witchy stuff I don't know about. And yet she only has fifty dollars in her possession.

We leave the shop and Lunanci starts walking down the lonely and dangerous street. I'm waiting for her to lead me to some car, but she just keeps walking.

"Do you leave this late every day?" I ask, looking around. Lunanci just nods, making me frown. This place is completely shady, "Do you know what danger is? Don't you read the news?"

"I am aware, Rio, that's why I have this," she says and pulls a small cell phone out of her purse. When she presses a button, I realize it's a taser.

"And you think that's going to accomplish anything?" I snort, shaking my head. Lunanci squints her eyes. I can tell what she's going to do from a mile away before she brings her taser closer and smashes it into my arm. The taser burns my skin, sends a small shock to my arm and my hairs scorch, but that's all, "Pathetic, invest in something better."

"What for? If you're going to kill me anyway," she spits, hiding her taser again.

"Oh, right," I say and burst out laughing, for some reason she's not laughing with me. I'm starting to annoy her, I think.

We walk for over ten minutes until we reach a shady building just like everything around it. Lunanci opens the front door to the building with a key and takes me to the third floor. When she opens the door to her home, my eyebrows shoot up.

"You said you lived in an apartment, not a shoebox," I complain, closing the door behind me and dropping my backpack on the floor. The 'apartment' is actually just one room with a large bed in the middle, a kitchenette to the right, a vanity with a mirror and drawers, a small hallway leading to a bathroom and.... that's it.

"Can you stop judging me?" She spits, super annoyed with me, kicking off her shoes and plopping down on her bed to cover her eyes, "You're a fucking bully, is that part of the experience of killing me or is that just your personality? Some of us are poor."

"I can see that," I mutter under my breath, but she still hears me, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend... where am I going to sleep?"

"Oh, wait, sir," she gets up from her bed, walks to one of her drawers to pull out a blanket and I just watch her as she drops it on the floor beside her bed, "There you go, I hope that's enough for you, Mr. Millionaire Wolf Royalty."

"Funny," I blurt out, rolling my eyes and taking off my shoes as well before pulling my pajamas out of my backpack, "You can lay there yourself, I need to sleep in a bed. I'll go take a shower."

"I hope you don't mind the cold water," she murmurs and I pause to look at her, trying to figure out if she's joking, but she doesn't seem to be, "There's only hot water in the morning."

"Holy mother, what a miserable life," I mumble, but I can't sleep without taking a shower... a hot shower, usually, but this will have to do for today.

Lunanci's bathroom is so small that I feel claustrophobic as soon as I close the door. Poor girl, seriously, what a shitty life she has. She's a scammer, poor, she lives in a small room in a horrible place and she's an orphan too. I feel so sorry for her, I think killing her will be less cruel than letting her continue living in these conditions.

The shower head is at the level of my fücking chest and when I bend down to wet my hair, my butt hits the freezing wall, making me hiss and jump. As soon as I find Alex, I'm going to grab his stupid head and smash it against my knee for putting me through all of this, seriously.

I come out of the bathroom with my nïpples hard like rocks, my balls up in my throat and smelling like a woman. Lunanci is sitting on the bed when I return, wearing pink fluffy pajamas. She gets up when she sees me and takes over the bathroom.

Maybe the apartment is small and horrible, but one good thing is that the bed is very big and quite comfortable. Besides, Lunanci doesn't have a window in this horrible place so I don't have to worry about daylight bothering me tomorrow.

I pull open Lunanci's covers to get into the bed and I push her pillows to the floor because I was smart enough to bring my own pillow. The bed smells really good, like her girly products.

"Are you serious? You're going to let me sleep on the floor?" Lunanci asks a few minutes later when she returns. I lift up my sleeping mask to look at her, she is standing to the side of me with her hands on her hips like my dad when he gets mad, "Aren't you a gentleman?"

"I'm a perfect gentleman, actually," I defend myself, "Just not with you."

"Why not? I'm a woman," she states with a pout, "At least let me sleep with you. The bed is big enough for both of us."

"You're a human woman, so you don't count."

"Pretend I'm a werewolf woman then," she begs, not taking that pout off her face. I roll my eyes and don't move, "Who are you a gentleman to, then?"

"Omegas," I answer and just stare at her. To be honest... she looks like an omega. She's small and cute and doesn't smell as horribly human as the others, she doesn’t have that much of a personal scent actually, "Okay, you can sleep with me."

"Thank you for giving me permission to sleep in my own bed," she mutters and walks over to turn off the light, leaving us completely in the dark. A few seconds later, the bed sinks with her weight and she lies down next to me. I grab my phone and set an alarm for ten am, an hour after Laurie's presentation in Tallahide, then set it aside and pull the mask back over my eyes, "Hey... thanks for not killing me."

"Yet," I remind her, "You're welcome."

"Still, thanks. You're a good person, I just wish you'd stop judging me for being poor because it triggers ugly memories from my ch..."

"Lunanci, we can keep talking about your sad life tomorrow. Be quiet, please," I beg, turning my back to her to pretend she's not here.

➿➿➿➿

I wake up to my alarm the next morning and I'm all alone in bed. That gives me the freedom to stretch out completely.

"Good morning, Mister Wolf," says a female voice from somewhere, interrupting my morning stretch.

"Good morning, witch," I say and sit up to remove my mask. Lunanci is sitting at her small kitchen table eating something, "You made breakfast for me too, right?"

"Of course," she replies and points to the other plate on the table. I get out of bed and walk the three steps necessary to get to her kitchen and sit next to her in the tiny table, "What's the plan for today?"

"First, I need to call my cousin," I answer and grab my phone to do just that, "Silence, please."

"Hey!" Laurie answers, his goofy face appearing on my screen. His hair is completely tousled, more than usual and he's not wearing a shirt, "Everything went super well. Everyone loves me, I'm the best alpha they've ever had."

"That's a slight exaggeration," Kingsley mutters, sounding close, "Hi, Rio."

"Hi, King. That's good, you have to tell me everything," I ask him and once he does I feel better. My cousin being a good alpha isn't a complete surprise, but it's good to hear. Tallahide will be our clan after all, we need to do things right, "That’s perfect, dude. Now, I have to tell you... you haven't talked to the family about me and Alex?"

"Mmh, no, why?" he asks, frowning. I look down at my plate and stuff my mouth before telling him everything. How Alex lost his mind and decided to come with the humans, how I had to follow him and my stupid mother cut me off, I crashed the car and shifted in front of a human, "What the hell?! Rio, what the fucking hell?! Where is that human now, hopefully fucking dead."

"Hey," Lunanci suddenly complains with a scowl, moving closer to me to look at my screen, showing part of her face and causing Laurie to drop his mouth open, "I'm right here."

"Kill her," my cousin commands, "Now."

"Please, I beg you to reconsider..." Lunanci starts, but I silence her with a glare. Laurie looks completely shocked.

"Rio, you're an idiot," Kingsley complains, stealing Laurie's phone to give me a look full of reproach, "This is why your mother didn't want you to go alone, you realize that? She was right. You're the wrong person to go out into the human world."

"I told him killing me would be impulsive," Lunanci cuts in again, now I give her a warning growl and this time she presses her lips together tightly.

"What do you think, King? I need an omega opinion," I beg, lifting my fork to take another bite.

"I think you're being completely stupid. And you still dare to take offense when you're called that," he complains with a shake of his head, his white hair just as tousled as Laurie's. And his shoulders are bare, too. Come to think of it, they totally just fücked, "You can't kill someone just like that. And you're being extremely cruel to the girl, you're just dragging her along with you until you decide to kill her?"

"Mmhm, maybe," I mutter, glancing sideways at Lunanci. She gives me another pout and nods to King's words, "What else should I do? Besides kill her. I have to make sure she won't open her big mouth."

"I'm of the opinion that you should kill her, there's no other option. It's not like it matters much," my cousin says and I nod, but I already knew he was going to give me the same advice I came up with. Alex would give me a full analysis.

"No. You should take some time and think about it more deeply before you end up in human prison for manslaughter. If you want my advice, call your mother and tell her what you've done," Kingsley says, but I shake my head immediately. That's a complete and utter no, "Or at least tell your most trusted alpha... actually, no. No alpha in your family would take it well."

"I have another idea," Laurie says, "Bring her to Tallahide. I'm the boss of this place, if you kill her here you won't get in trouble and we can get rid of the body easily."

I close my eyes and nod deeply. They are both right, I have to take more time and definitely not kill her in human territory.

God, I just saved myself from a potential problem. I could have done something totally... impulsive last night.