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Chapter 113: Aiden
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2021-09-07 20:50:27We’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?”
&
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Rhapsody 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 : 2021-09-14Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 118: Sarah
That suit. That suit! Aiden clearly has no idea at all how damn sexy he looks in it. He looks pretty hot in his battered leather jacket, in a rough-around-the-edges and slightly dangerous sort of way. It’s a look that tells the world that he can look after himself so don’t try anything funny. Aiden in the suit? That’s the look that says: you should never have underestimated him, because he has now outwitted and defeated all your goons, dismantled your secret mountain lair, stolen the blueprints to your secrets and strolled out of the front door with the keys to your Ferrari dangling from his finger, while the mountainside explodes behind him.I manage to keep my libido under wraps as the Pack piles into my flat and fills the lounge up with shopping bags. While they eat the promised ice cream- passing th
Last Updated : 2021-09-15Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 119: Aiden
I start on the commission the very next day. Well, kind of. We have Tutor Group, so I ask Mrs Bird’s advice on the best place to get supplies for a private commission. I figured the college might’ve arranged discounts for students at one of the local art supply stores or something. She just writes me a note for college supplies. As long as you don’t empty the store cupboards or knick stuff to sell it, they’re cool with it.Then I get quizzed on the commission, and I’m kind of stuck to start with, because from what Reese said about how hard it was for his ancestors to track him down, Cavendish can be a private sort of guy. I don’t want to splash his name around if he’s trying to keep it quiet. He’s a patron of Sarah’s orchestra, though, so I just describe him that way. A guy who goes to watch my girlfriend’s orchestra a lot. I almost say “my
Last Updated : 2021-09-20Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 120: Sarah
I have never in my life spent time speculating on what it might be like to be part of a werewolf pack. I am aware that there is a whole genre of fiction devoted to it, but that has never been my interest. I don’t suppose, if I had ever pictured it, that my imagination would have come close to the reality. It is not really a Pack as werewolves know it, anyway, and the Alpha has much more to him than the average werewolf. More to him than even the average Alpha werewolf. Despite that, nothing really changes in my everyday life.The next few days after the shopping trip are a return to routine, for both myself and for Aiden, albeit with a slight sense of the surreal. We are continuing with our mundane lives after oh-so-casually destroying a vengeful gang of vampires and earning ourselves formal recognition by what sounded like the vampire ruler of most of Europe. Mary drops by to visit, so happy to have
Last Updated : 2021-09-21Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 121: Aiden
I am nervous. More than I have ever been. It’s not the same as being scared. Being scared was standing at the top of that cliff, trying to make myself jump. This time I can’t point at one thing and say, “that’s what I’m scared of.” There’s too much that could go wrong. There’s too much that could go right, that I’ll be angry at myself about if it doesn’t. Sarah’s with me. I never really… feel totally comfortable. I know how to behave when I have to be formal because I was taught that way all my life, but it’s still like I’m wearing a mask. It’s something I put on when I need it. Sarah just… is. Even when she’s in jeans and sneakers, it’s like she’s been polished ready for display. Not because she’s vain. Because she’s… naturally classy, I guess. My Mate is way out of my league, but she’s chosen me anyway. I’m the luckiest guy in the whole world. And now
Last Updated : 2021-09-22
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Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 140: Epilogue
*** Some Time Later...*** “/Aiden? Can you hear me? Aiden? Please?/” “/Huh? Who? Imogen? That you?/” I really wasn't expecting to hear from my sister. Not this way. A text, sure. I’ve been bad at texting her, despite my promises. A message from her complaining about it wouldn’t surprise me. “/Aiden, thank the Goddess!/” Is she crying? My little sister? “/Imogen, what’s wrong
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
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 137: Aiden
“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
