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Chapter 75: Aiden
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2021-07-19 19:45:53I’m expecting the slap. I’m sure I’ve earned it, from Sarah’s point of view, although I don’t know what else I could have done. I’m not expecting the kiss. My scalp stings with the clutch of her fingers. I stumble back a little, and she pushes into me. My legs catch against the couch. As I overbalance she pulls her head away but follows me down. I thud into the couch back and she wrenches me sideways so I slither down the cushions onto my back. She’s on top of me, her mouth back on mine, biting into my lower lip.
I think I make a sound of protest, my hands fumbling to find her shoulders and lift her away from me. She snatches her hands back from my head, dragging hairs out as she does so. She bats at my hands, grabbing my wrists and shoving my hands up above my head, against the couch arm. Her kiss is like a punch in the mouth, wild and angry.
My legs are twisted to one side. Sarah straddles my stomach, knees bracketing my ribs
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Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 76: Sarah
I’m an idiot... Aiden’s an idiot... I’m walking myself right back into this impossible idea of destined soulmates… my God I’m a bad romance trope… he didn’t trust me… I didn’t trust him… he thought I was leaving him… I was leaving him, because he didn’t trust me… but he was right not to trust me… I brought the ghosts… I killed all of them… the ghosts followed my orders… They’re not people, they’re monsters… Aiden thinks he’s a monster… He’s not the monster…I’m the monster.I called the ghosts. I commanded them. Everything they did, they did because I willed it. There were dozens of vampires-things-maybe people in that building. Maybe even hundreds. Now it’s empty.The power at my command is terrifying.I haven’t cried like that since I as a child.
Last Updated : 2021-07-20Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 77: Frost
I am in my Mate’s den. Everything smells of her. That’s good. That means we’re safe. She’s found water that’s good to drink, and she’s found human stuff that has made my wound heal faster. She’s a good Mate, even though she has no wolf. I’m glad she’s not angry with us any more. Aiden thought she was going to Reject us because she was so angry. That’s a thought so bad I can hardly think about it. Aiden made her angry because he didn’t kill all the vampires. Why didn’t he kill all the vampires? Vampires smell of dust and death, and I don’t like them. I suppose we don’t have to kill them if they’re not hunting us, even though they’re dangerous. Like mountain lions, or grizzly bears. We kill them if they threaten us or our pups. We keep them away from our dens. If one starts killing too many of the human’s animals it can make the humans chase them into our territory with guns, so we hunt them too. Vampires are like mountain lions and grizzly bears. They’re all dangerous
Last Updated : 2021-07-21Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 78: Sarah
I sleep well. My furry wolven teddy-bear seems to have been just the thing to quiet my chaotic thoughts. I wake well rested but with a sense of dread. I have to face the orchestra again today. I’m sure everything will die down eventually, but right now I feel as if I am waiting to have salt thrown into fresh wounds. I have less figurative wounds to worry about. I extract myself from the duvet and the wolf- and there is something I could never have imagined happening not much more than a week ago- and peer at Frost’s belly. The scabs look old, and are starting to peel. They probably itch, but he’s not scratching at them, just peering at me sleepily and thumping his tail on the sofa when I run my hands through his fur. Frost is a bit of an attention-junkie, I think as I remember my younger brothers and sisters clustered around him. “Breakfast on four legs or two?” I ask him, the end of my question almost lost in the huge yawn that cracks my jaw. “I can find yo
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I’m guessing my face is bright red. It feels hot enough to cook an egg on it. It’s not often I feel like disowning my own wolf, but Frost seems to be aiming to get me there. I have to speak, all the same. I think part of the reason Sarah was so angry with me was that we haven’t talked enough about things to understand each other properly. It’s hard, it’s really, really hard, but I’m doing my best to talk now. I could curl up into a ball and die of embarrassment, but I’m doing my best. She’s gone sort of distant, but not in a bad way. Her feelings are kind of fuzzy, out of focus. Distracted. It’s probably because of what I just told her, not about her orchestra. That was a different sort of distraction. Worried, guilty and angry. We should hunt them all down and make them pay, Frost tells me. Then she wouldn’t have an orchestra to play with, I point out to him. I think she likes making music. She just doesn’t like how they’re treating her
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The flat seems empty with Aiden gone, yet twelve hours ago I was not at all sure that I ever wanted to see him again. Twenty-four hours ago, I was terrified for his life. I’m self-aware enough to know that my feelings about him, and my reactions to him, have swung alarmingly from one extreme to the other and back within only a handful of time. It seems we have had no time to just exist around each other. No time to do all the mundane and everyday things that allow two people to learn about each other. Every time we stop to draw breath, some other calamity befalls one of us.I do not have time to slow down even now. I start up my laptop to confirm my recollections of the names Aiden mentioned, and to find out how many of yesterday’s adventures have made it into news and social media. The names in my spreadsheet match my memory. It makes sense, I suppose, that vampires are as diverse as the humans they prey on, and that they have their own rivalries among themselves
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I haven’t thought this through properly. I’ve been thinking like a werewolf, not like a human. I shouldn’t even be here. I should be at the college office, letting them know I’m safe and I’m back. I don’t know how much Reese knows or guesses. The only person from college who knows I’m a werewolf, that I’m sure of, is Shelley. Jade too, if she manages to find a way to come back. I should have checked with Shelley to find out if she’s told Reese anything.“Did you know that werewolves run a degree or two hotter than humans?” Reese asks. They’re trying to sound casual, but I can pick up the tension in them. They’ve got something tucked in their hand and sleeve. There’s silver on them, somewhere. I can sense it, all werewolves can, but I haven’t been paying attention since I got to London. So many people wear silver jewellery that the sense would be bugging me the whole time if I didn’
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“Make. Them. Stop!” Watch his chest. I remember my instructor’s voice. Watch his chest, not his hands or his eyes. The chest telegraphs your opponent’s moves. I don’t want to give away how much training I’ve had, but I’m not about to let Amos hit me. His hand, clenched in my clothes, bunches more tightly. I relax and let my weight sink into my toes. “Stop it!” The demand is snapped at us from right beside us. Francesca has come storming up to us, waving her mobile phone. “Back off, Amos, or I’m calling the police to report an assault in progress.” Amos’s head turns abruptly to glare at Francesca, but he doesn’t let go of me or lower his other hand. “It’s not an assault-” “Looks like assault from here,” Francesca says, starting to tap numbers in on her phone. “Where’s your fist, Amos? What exactly is it doing there?” It’s still in the air, and it might still come my way. I’m not taking my eyes off hi
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“Seriously?” Reese looks like they just found a winning lottery ticket stuck to their shoe. “My parents would really, really hate that. I’d love to! So… do you have to ask permission, or are you the Alpha?” “I’m not Alpha,” I say automatically, then heave a sigh. “But people keep putting me in charge anyway.” Reese gives me a weird look. “So… you are the Alpha?” “It’s complicated. I don’t have a proper werewolf Pack. There’s a London Pack that asked me to join, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to so I didn’t. Then… well, long story, and that Pack’s miles away anyway. The only other werewolf who might count as Pack keeps calling me ‘boss’,
Last Updated : 2021-07-28
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*** 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
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“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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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. &
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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
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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
