Finley“Hey Finley, long time,” Stuart said to me.“Hey Stuart,” I smiled and sat down at the bar as he poured me a vodka and lime on ice.“Where’s Brian?” I asked him.“Upstairs in his office, he’ll probably be down as soon as he sees you on the cameras,” he said.“I want a bottle for later,” I said to him and he smiled and nodded as he placed the bottle to one side.The usual mix of locals that I knew were there and soon we were playing pool for drinks. We were laughing and joking and Perry was licking the table in an effort to break my concentration as I laughed and missed the shot.“You’re an asshole!” I yelled at him as he laughed.“It worked didn’t it,” he said as he touched himself.“Stop doing that!” I laughed at him.He started stalking me from around the pool table and I started backtracking as he ran towards me and caught me as I tried to run away. He bit me lightly in my neck as I screamed and laughed and struggled in his hold.“Perry! I’m calling Brian if you don’t stop!”
Damon“Wow I thought you were trying to befriend her,” Kat said as I sighed and we both watched Finley leave the restaurant.“It’s complicated,” I said to her and finished the beer in front of me.“Why don’t you just tie her to a chair and get a witch to go through her memories and then you’ll know what you want to know,” she said.“It’s not that easy Kat,” I said to her as the waitress brought another round of drinks.“Why not? Obviously someone’s sharing secrets with her and if you don’t act soon the Elders might send someone else to do your job for you,” she said.“There’s no evidence of that,” I said to her.“So come back home and let someone else watch her,” she said.“Axel won’t let me, he’s protective as hell,” I said to her and watched her face transform.“What!” she yelled so loudly that everyone looked at us.“Keep it down!” I whispered at her as I looked around.“Everything makes sense now, I couldn’t really understand why you were so mad about the whole Chastity thing, but
FinleyI slammed the front door closed and wondered why I had felt jealous before I knew that Kat was his sister. This was insane to say the least, I wasn’t interested. Right? Right! I wasn’t! I settled on the couch and switched the television on, something I hadn’t done in at least three weeks.The knock on the door woke me from the nap I had taken on the couch and I opened the door with a glare on my face sure that it would be Damon and his interfering in my life ways. Kat stood there smiling holding a large brown envelope.“Hey, you forgot this at the restaurant,” she said and held the envelope for me to take.“Thanks,” I said as I took it from her.“Would you mind if I came in?” she asked me and I looked across the street but I didn’t see Damon.“Sure, do you want something to drink?” I asked her as she stepped inside and I closed the front door.I poured wine for the both of us as Kat kicked off her shoes and made herself comfortable in the living room. I sat on the other couch a
DamonI sat upright in bed and checked my watch, it was five am and the sound of a vacuum cleaner was what woke me. If Kat’s vacuuming at five am I’m going to kill her. I realized it wasn’t Kat making all this noise the moment I started descending the stairs.I stood in the living room and watched Finley as she vacuumed her driveway and I shook my head as I pulled a t-shirt over my head and walked across the street. She had earphones plugged into her ears but I could hear the music blasting away.“Finley!” I said loudly and tapped her on the shoulder.“Shit! Damon,” she said and her hand went up to her heart as she looked at me.“Why are you vacuuming your driveway?” I asked her.“To keep the neighbours from talking to me,” she said and switched the vacuum on again.I looked at her as she turned her back to me and I had just about had enough of her antics and ignoring me. Axel being team Finley wasn’t helping much either and he was meddling with my feelings to the point that I didn’t
FinleyI remained seated on the couch for a long time after Damon left and thought about everything he had said. I couldn’t believe that I’d said all those things to him, he must think I’m some kind of freak, ‘I can smell your cologne.’ I cringed inwardly at how I confessed that his presence made me feel better. My phone pinged and then started ringing and I smiled when I saw who it was.“Hey Archer,” I said.“Hey Luce, I just sent you my flight details, we’re about to board now,” he said.“I can’t wait to see you,” I said to him as he chuckled.“I missed you too, just a few more hours,” he said.“See you soon, I love you,” I said to him.“Love you too,” he said. We said goodbye and I jumped up and ran up the stairs, almost breaking my neck as I tripped over my own shoes and headed for the bathroom.Excitement bubbled up in me as I checked the time and got dressed after I showered. I still had some time to kill so I went down to the basement to get my fill of writing until noon when I
Exactly ten minutes later Alpha Calvin walked into the meeting room wearing jeans and a t-shirt and sat down across from me. I liked that he didn’t take the head of the table, putting us on equal terms in his territory.“My Beta says that this is an unofficial visit,” Calvin said as he broke the silence first.“In a manner yes. I want to know what your interest in Finley Blake is,” I said to him.“If this is an unofficial visit I don’t really have to explain to you what my interest in her is,” he said a bit guarded.“Calvin, I’ll just be frank with you, the Oracles have already denied her killing as unjustified to all the Councils,” I said.“What gave you the idea that I would want her dead?” he asked me.“She writes about wolf packs, there have already been two attempts at contact that has been dealt with,” I said.“Damon, let me be frank with you now, I don’t want her dead, I intend to take her as my bonded half,” he said.“Excuse me?” I said as Axel sat up right in my head.“This i
FinleyIt was now day four and Damon hadn’t been home. Kat said he had an emergency at work and I couldn’t bring myself to send him a message. We had just agreed to try and be friends but somehow I felt that something was wrong with him and I didn’t want to interfere.Archer and I spent every moment together and I introduced him to Harley, Wells and Scarlett, separately of course, he wouldn’t be able to handle them all together, nobody would. Wells was practically drooling in his lap but I could see that his attention had shifted more towards Kat.“I don’t really want to leave,” Archer said as we lay on the couches on Sunday morning.“Then don’t,” I said to him.“I have book signings and tours coming up, at some point I have to get my lazy ass back home and start working again,” he said with a satisfied sigh.“Do you like doing it?” I asked him.“The tours and the signings?” he asked.“Yes.”“It’s fun to meet fans, people that appreciate what you write, it keeps me busy and I like hea
DamonI stood in the pouring rain as I watched Iris’s casket slide into the hearse. The Elders had done her burial ceremony as per our custom and she would be taken to be cremated and then placed into our memorial wall at the back of the packhouse. Her loss hurt but less than before and Axel was anxious to return to St Albans City.I could feel the pull towards Finley stronger now that Iris’s bond had broken and I hadn't talked to Jared yet, not really talked like we used to do. I knew he was hurting too, everyone in our clowder had felt that bond break with her when she died.The Elders have tried speaking to me one on one but I’ve refused to see anyone other than Kat. She had come home the moment she felt that bond snap and she kept a close eye on me, afraid that I might snap again.I knew that the Elders would probably give it about a week before they started bombarding me about marrying Nina or Chastity now that Iris was laid to rest. For most of them she had died a little more th
I stood in the front of the ballroom as Connor grinned at me. Soft music was playing and the ballroom was packed to capacity. The doors opened and everyone turned simultaneously to catch a glimpse of her.Finley walked towards me as Archer held her hand and Griffin held her other hand. He had just started walking and his happiness was bubbling over. I couldn’t breathe properly as I looked at them, the two people that I loved the most in this world.“Members of the Woods Clowder, friends and guests, welcome to this auspicious occasion as our Alpha takes and acknowledges his true fated half for all to see. We gather here tonight to join these two in our sacred union by accepting each other as bonded halves for the rest of their lives,” Elder Matthews said as he welcome our guests and started the ceremony.Elder Matthews had been appointed as one of our Elders just a month ago and I was surprised that I really liked him as he proved his loyalty and his worth to all of us.“By joining you
DamonI couldn’t believe Finley let me mark her. The bond that had snapped in place was even stronger than the one we had previously shared and I woke up the following morning feeling like myself again. I had waited months for her to start treating me like a person again.I had loved her the first time before the bond and I loved her again the second time after I remembered her, all without the bond. I had been mean to her, but it was all to just keep her with me. I didn’t want her not to be in my life and the thought of her dating some other man nearly choked me as the pain ripped through me.I knew she was awake even though her back was to me. We were still in her bed and the sun would start making its appearance soon. I breathed her scent in as I placed my face in the crook of her neck and I felt her shudder.“What have we done?” she asked me softly.“What we should’ve done months ago,” I said.“We fight more than anything else,” she whispered.“Not really, we only fight when we’re
FinleyAfter our little confrontation in the kitchen Damon seemed to avoid me at all costs. We’d bump into each other during the night as we both got up for Griffin and I implemented a system where I’d get up for him before midnight and Damon would get up after midnight.I was mad at him but worse than that was that I was hurt. I understood his need to be a part of Griffin’s life but he had no right to interfere in mine. I just had one problem with everything that was going on, I still found him attractive and that infuriated me as well because I was sure the asshole knew it.He’d walk around the house with no shirt on and a few times he caught me staring at him. My feelings towards him varied between being in love and really hating him. Our routine consisted mostly of him cooking all the meals since he didn’t trust me in the kitchen and me doing things like the laundry.I had moved my laptop back down to the basement where I wrote in the past but I promised myself I wouldn’t give him
DamonI organized someone to come to East Whiteland and drive Finley’s car back to St Albans. She was quiet as we drove away from the house and I promised her that someone would pack it up and bring it in a truck back to St Albans.“I think we should move into your house,” I said to her.“You mean your house,” she said as she looked out of the window.“I meant our house,” I said to her.“Will you be sleeping in the basement?” she asked me and I grinned at her.“How big a house do you want?” I asked her.“Four bedrooms at least,” she said.“Why?” I asked.“My room, Griffin’s room, your room and an office, I still write Damon,” she said to me sounding somewhat bitter.“Finley, this is only going to work if you really give it a chance, I’m willing to do that for Griffin, aren’t you?” he asked me.“You know I’ve had just about enough of your insults and making me feel like I’m not good enough to be his mother. I did all of this alone, without any of your help,” she said angrily.“Can you
FinleyI didn’t dare call Archer again, knowing that Damon was there at the packhouse. My days spent with Griffin was absolute bliss. Every morning we went for a stroll in the park as I pushed him in his stroller and got to know the area better.Our house looked more lived in now and my house had been sold after being on the market for one day, above asking price. I didn’t care who bought it, I was just glad that Griffin and I had settled down now. I had phoned my friends and told them where I had settled down and they promised to come and visit soon.“Hi there,” a man said and I turned around as I looked at him.He was supernatural and I got the idea that he was feline but I couldn’t be sure. He obviously greeted me since he sensed that Griffin was feline too and that I was a familial.“Hi,” I said and looked around.“I’m sorry, it was just so odd finding a familial with a feline baby,” he said with a smile, “I’m Arthur.”“Finley,” I said as I shook his hand warily.“I won’t bite, I
DamonI watched Finley’s house for the rest of the night but she never came back. I continued to watch her house for the rest of that week and eventually I drifted off to sleep only to be tortured in my dreams. In the first dream she was straddling me, naked, as I held on to her hips. In a split second I was in the ocean looking back at her, then I was picking her up from the floor covered in blood, throwing her over my shoulder in a bar.In yet another dream I told her I loved her as we held hands and walked into the Council building in New York, the dreams were random and there were no order to them. I dreamt about my hearing but in this dream Finley was there as I was sentenced.In the last dream I had her pushed against a shower wall, her legs wrapped around me as my canines pushed into her shoulder and I marked her. I sat up straight in my bed as sweat covered my forehead and Axel growled in my head.“She’s our bonded half,” he said as the memories he had stored flooded through m
Finley“Finley, I’m so sorry,” Connor said as Damon slammed the front door closed.“Why would you tell him that?” I asked him.“He wouldn’t let it go, he had me up against the wall, slamming my head in!” Connor defended himself.“I’m sorry,” I said to him as he sat down and I took the first aid kit out of the cupboard.“It’ll heal, don’t worry,” he said but I cleaned it anyway.“You shouldn’t have said anything, he doesn’t remember Connor,” I said to him.“I know and I’m sorry because now everything’s a shit storm,” he said as he looked down.“It’s okay,” I said to him.“I’ll go finish the crib, it’s almost done,” he said as he stood up.I sat in the kitchen for almost an hour before Connor was done. He came back downstairs with his toolbox and picked up his jacket where I’d hung it over one of the barstools. He looked at me before putting his jacket back down.“I can stay with you,” he offered.“I’ll be fine,” I said to him.“I don’t know, Damon was pretty angry when he left,” he sai
DamonIt felt odd talking to Finley and for some reason I actually talked to her, normally I didn’t really like other people but she was easy to talk to and I guess it helped that she already knew what I was. I kept myself busy with stripping the inside of the house and starting with one room at a time, retiling, painting and so forth.I sat and waited for her to go on her afternoon walk but she didn’t leave the house for the rest of the week and I wondered what she did all day. I worked myself tired so that I could sleep at night, although I was sleeping better here than I was at the packhouse.I was just finishing my cup of coffee to head to the store to buy more tiles when I saw Connor’s truck park in front of her house. I watched him as he climbed out and frowned when he hugged and kissed her hello, touching her stomach and then it all fell into place.He was the father of her baby. That would account for him being so closed off in my presence, this was what he was hiding! Instant
FinleyI couldn’t control my beating heart. I could literally hear the blood rushing through my veins. He was here, he’d been standing just here a second ago before leaving. He must think I’m insane for staring at him like that! I couldn’t believe it, Damon was back.“He doesn’t remember me,” I whispered to myself as I felt my heart breaking just a little.I blinked away the tears as I sat down in the living room and rubbed my hand over my protruding stomach. I was thirty-two weeks pregnant and the only people that knew was Harley, Wells and Mimi. I hadn’t told Archer or Kat yet and I wasn’t exactly sure why, I guess I was afraid that the clowder would have some sort of claim on the baby.“Hello,” I answered my phone still staring into space.“Finley, it’s Connor,” he said.“Hey,” I said and snapped back to reality.“Are you okay?” he asked me.“I just saw Damon and he really doesn’t remember me,” I said to him.“I’m sorry, I just heard that he went to St Albans,” he said to me.“It’s