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Chapter 109 Part 2: Aiden
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2021-08-30 19:12:02That was probably a stupid idea. The threat level in the room just jumped from zero to eight. Maybe nine. Not ten, because nobody has attacked me. Yet. “Just so you know,” I say out loud, “anyone can choose not to hear me. I can’t force you to listen. You can block me out. I’m here to help, not to take charge.”
Russel in particular still looks furious. Christy places her hand on his arm.
“Think about this,” I say quickly, before someone tries taking a swing at me. “Haven’t you ever had to meet with a werewolf from another Pack to talk, when you’d much rather have been able to do it at a distance? Had times when things went bad because someone snapped and lashed out, mostly because the other person was right there in front of them? Or wanted to be able to talk to someone, couldn’t trust the
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Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 110: Sarah
The afternoon is disconcertingly normal after Mary’s visit. I have no new music of my own, and Roberto wants to spend the time on perfecting the pieces for the evening’s performance anyway so that works out well. The break between the rehearsal and the performance has, to my relief, returned to something like my pre-Holly-dating days, but with Holly’s friendship more prominent than before.It is not until the intermission on the performance that anything unusual happens. Then, for the first time, Aiden talks to me mentally while I am in public. I’m not right in the middle of a sentence, but I am in the middle of a conversation, so it’s not the most convenient of moments.“Sarah? Do you think if you asked, Bellmouth would appear to me? Right now, where I am? Not to fight, just to say
Last Updated : 2021-08-31Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 111: Aiden
I’m avoiding the whole Werewolf King thing by ignoring it. I go to college, I work on my scent project for Accessibility, I get the camera figured out for Photography, I hang out with my Pack, I work, I go home to Sarah. The Pack have figured out that something’s not quite right, of course. I tell them it’s a werewolf thing. I need to tell them about it, but it’s a long term thing. It will wait a bit. I’d like to just forget about it for now. Sunday rolls around quickly, grey but dry and likely to stay that way. Overcast is good. Jade’s hoping she can join us, and sunshine would make that impossible. Other than being able to catch up with Jade, Sunday is something else I’ve been trying to put off in my mind. Until now, Sarah has been one little world for me, and the rest of the Pack has been a different one. Now they’re bumping into each other. I roll out of bed early, too keyed up to stay lying around an
Last Updated : 2021-08-31Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 112: Sarah
I want to get this right. I know how important these people are to Aiden. They are not only friends, as Francesca and Holly are to me. They are also family to him. They have fought beside him. They have accepted all of him, not just the human parts. They are not purely human themselves. I hope they can accept me, too. For the moment, all I hope for is that we can get to know each other a little better on this outing. I could probably have placed names to faces even without Aiden’s introduction, from the descriptions that have crept into his conversations about them. It’s interesting to see how his descriptions contrast with what my own would have been. Tom, with the sort of white-boy tan that suggests holidays in expensive sunny locations and the accent of private-school-education privilege, in-your-face and brash; Tom, who has gone through life trying desperately to be seen because his Fae
Last Updated : 2021-09-06Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 113: Aiden
We’ve been shopping for an hour and only Tom has bought anything. Behind me, I can hear Shelley and Tala in deep discussion about theology, ethics and morality. In front of me, Jade, Sarah and Reese are discussing martial arts in movies and how realistic they are. Or not. Because of that, I might finally believe that the Pack really will work. They’re just chatting, like friends. Sarah’s had some combat training, I’m pretty sure. She’s talking about it like someone who doesn’t just know the theory.I eye Tom, who’s scuffing along beside me. “So, how ‘bout that Chelsea transfer?” he asks.I know I’m squinting at him in puzzlement. “The what now?”“Football? Wait, American. Soccer?”&
Last Updated : 2021-09-07Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 114: Sarah
A sudden chill washes over me. This will be harder to fix than a little bit of “Do you know who I am?” I have no doubts that Aiden is the better negotiator, but depending on who these people are, and what they think of werewolves, he may be at a disadvantage. It could be up to the humans. I feel inadequate. “We’re in public,” I say, fighting to keep my voice calm and steady. “Let’s keep this civil. We are here to solve problems, not to cause them. Or to be the problem.” Aiden has come up behind me, a solid presence at my back, helping me keep my mind clear of panic. I rummage through my memory for more of Rupert’s lessons. I never thought I’d be more grateful to listen through his grumbling about the amount of “interperso
Last Updated : 2021-09-08Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 115: Aiden
“I don’t need a suit!” I squawk, and wince at how squeaky my voice comes out. I don’t need a suit. I really don’t. I don’t like the way the rest of the Pack is looking at me, either.“Oh yes,” breathes Reese.Tom is also giving it an admiring look. “Can’t fault the style.”“Very Bond,” Jade says, the first I’ve heard from her for a while. I wonder what it has to do with Sarah and I being Mates. Most humans don’t have a Mate Bond.
Last Updated : 2021-09-09Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 116: Sarah
I cannot claim that I know the rest of the Pack that much better as a result of the shopping trip, but it has broken the ice. The situation with Jade, in particular, is less strained. I would not call her a friend, but she is a person to me now, not a cardboard cutout villain. She has a sense of humour. She also has a passionate desire to make the world a better place, which I cannot fault. We are all sprawled on the grass of St. James’s Park, licking our fingers and trying to decide whether we will burst if we eat any more. Seven Dials Market, just along from Covent Garden, has enough food stalls that I think you could try something different every day of the month, and between us we’ve probably bought one of everything. Even Jade has managed to find czernina and blotplättar, which she can tolerate. Now she’s carefully within a patch of tree-cast shade, helping to guard the small mountain of shopping bag
Last Updated : 2021-09-10Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 117: Aiden
This was a test, I think to myself. Cavendish could have warned us that Sutcliffe was planning revenge. If he’s here, then he knew about this attack. Cavendish is probably telling the truth as well. Just not the whole truth. I doubt he has only one reason for anything he does. He wanted to know how we took out Whitfield. Now he’s rattled. We’ve impressed him. We might even have scared him. Scared people tend to try to kill whatever it is that scares them, so having him scared of us now? That's not good. He’s probably got his big guns along with him. I don’t think he’s the sort of person to take stupid risks. I carry on as if he’s telling the truth. Let him save face. Let his people see us be polite to them. I’m glad my sword has already put itself away. Without it, I don’t look dangerous. Not the way someone like my father or my brother does.
Last Updated : 2021-09-14
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Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 139: Aiden
Everything is downhill now. Goldhawk’s mission is over pretty much as soon as they arrive. Everything else for them is just meeting people, and that doesn’t need much organisation. It’ll happen, with Badger’s Den giving them somewhere to stay for the night. The two new Mates are going to want the visit to go on longer, but Mark will need to get back. Either Paul will stay behind, or Caroline will visit London, probably. I hope it forces Ian into doing something. Join, Challenge, I don’t care as long as it becomes his job to keep the kids out of trouble until they’re a couple of years older. I finally get a bit of time without someone wanting me to do something,or decide something, or explain something. I prop myself against the wall of the building, and stuff my hands in my pockets. There’s a papery crinkle. I pull out the folded sheet, and remember why I put
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 138: Sarah
“Never rains but pours,” I sigh, linking my arm through Aiden and kissing his cheek with sympathy. “Or is it no rest for the wicked? My poor sweet Mate, pour yourself onto the quadbike, Reese can drive you to meet them, and I’ll come on one of the horses. Timothy’s perfectly capable of seeing our unwanted guests off, we can leave Shelley, Mary and Tom with him. Baxter too, unless he’s already seen more of Black than he wants to.”Aiden leans into me. I can fee him collecting himself before he speaks. “Goldhawk are here to talk to Badger’s Den anyway. I’ll talk to Caroline, or that other one, the one they had as spokesman. Let them know to expect guests and see if they can put the visitors up somewhere.”I elect myself to update Timothy and put him in charge of things in the village, and to give T
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“Fly?” I swap a puzzled look with Sarah. “That’s not one I know about. Command any werewolf, speak to any werewolf like a Pack link. And immunity to silver. Sort of. Still hurts like a… still hurts, but it’ll heal up as fast as any other wound, won’t knock me out. Been like that since forever.”Ian harrumphs. First time I’ve heard someone actually do that. “How long is forever?”“Few thousand years at least. Far back as I can remember any lives. Not that I’ve remembered all of them, there's way too many.”“That’s not a problem most werewolves have,” Ian says quietly, frowning. “What’s your… plan? Your intentions. Your Majesty.”I can feel my sho
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 136: Sarah
The earth is cool under my butocks and Aiden is a furnace above me. I’m pinned on the ground with my jeans around my ankles and I can’t quite remember how I got there. Rough bark tugs at my hair and prints itself into the back of my wrists. Urgent, demanding hands ruck my shirt and bra up and free my breasts.“Please. I need you.” Aiden’s voice is soft and pleading. His hands, his body, they are anything but. They don’t plead. They demand, they take. One hand tangles with my hair and wrists, yanking stray hairs, splitting fragments of bark from the tree bole beneath and behind us. The tang of sap fights against the musk of sweat and desire. Aiden’s hips thrust between my legs and my back scrapes against the dirt and leaves and brown pine needles beneath us.He’s inside me already, driving hard and fast. His sweat
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 135: Aiden
An angry opponent makes mistakes.That’s what my father and Caleb never understood. Anger is a weapon to their thinking, not a liability. Black is cast from the same mould. I’ve wound him up by staying calm, by being polite, and most of all by humiliating him, and he can’t see clearly through the red mist of fury. He’s three hundred pounds of muscle and rage, as unstoppable, dangerous and terrifying as a runaway locomotive, charging down on me. His free hand is out with claws ready, blocking any escape. Blinding sunlight flashes from the silver of his blade as it sweeps down.Now, Frost whispers, lending me his speed. I slip beneath Black’s raised elbow, drawing a line of fire across his exposed stomach with my sword. I spin and dance backwards as Black skids and stumbles before he crosses the outside edge of the duelling square. &
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 134: Sarah
Black’s arrogance wins out over any caution he might have. He signals to one of the werewolves with him, announcing his Second.“What’s he playing at?” Baxter mutters when he realises that Aiden isn’t just buying time with Black’s Challenge, but is actively looking to fight that way.Baxter isn’t Pack, not yet, not officially. I doubt I can speak to him with the Pack link. It’s Aiden himself who can do that. I don’t even want to risk whispering. Werewolves have good hearing. I nudge his arm, to get his attention, and take my phone out.Aiden is considering Baxter as a Packmate. Blackmarsh trusts him. I don’t think Aiden will mind. “immune 2 silver” I type. “knows sword”. I turn the screen so Baxter can see it but, hopefully, nobody e
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 133: Aiden
Nothing’s ever simple. Now I’ve got Caroline to look after. It’s irresponsible to bring her along, but it’d be worse telling her to stay out of it and expecting her to obey. There’s Alphas that nobody would dare disobey. My father, for example. I’m not him. “/Am I a bad Alpha?/” I make sure it’s just my Pack hearing that. The Peace Seekers. They’re not the right people to ask though. None of them are werewolves. “/You think we’d let you stick around if you were, boss?/” Sarah reaches over to give my hand a squeeze. “/If this is about Caroline, you said it yourself, if you tried sending her away
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 132: Sarah
I’ve never really watched war films. I’ve never really been that interested. It feels as if I’m in one now, although I have no idea how accurate that thought is. We’ve crossed the nature reserve as if it’s enemy territory, constantly on the alert even though we’re keeping to the public paths, so we’re not, technically, on Badger’s Den territory. “If we’re talking technicalities, that would be Aiden’s territory anyway,” Reese points out when I mention it. We see neither hide nor hair of the Pack that claims the surrounding land, and veer out of the reserve into farmland where we are coming up on the small coastal village where Baxter says he’s being held. It looks like one of those lost-in-time places where cosy TV murders are set, except half the houses are holiday cottages now and empty for most of the year. It’s ever so slightly spooky, riding past bl
