Vinny
As soon as I stepped away from the hospital, the aroma of jasmine started to dissipate, making it a little easier to breathe. Each breath in the hospital felt like razorblades to my throat but the further we got from the hospital, the more my lungs opened to receive the oxygen they were so badly struggling for. There was an icy void in my chest, but I had convinced Camille to come to a bar with me, so it was only a matter of time before I filled the chasm.I was starting my third glass of bourbon and I smiled as Camille amicably told me about herself, like this was a real date. As if I wasn’t trying to ignore the gaping hole in my chest. I kept sniffing the air, high on alert trying to detect the hints of jasmine before they arrived. I was convinced my bad luck had just started, that Roman would follow me into this bar, if only to make my life a living hell.
“I hate that she looks good,” Vali grumbled, placing unwanted images of Roman in my mind. Even standing in lilac-coloured scrubs with her hair tied back messily, she was sensational. Her curves were hidden beneath her uniform, but I could still make out her womanly figure beneath. The slight bagginess to her uniform created an unwanted but alluring fantasy in my mind. A kink I didn’t know I possessed. Her light brown skin looked creamy soft, and her heart-shaped mouth was dying to be kissed.
I took another large swig and growled at my wolf, “Vali!”“Sorry,” he mumbled sincerely. I could feel how sorry he was. His anguish was my anguish and vice versa. We were both in immense amounts of pain the moment we smelt her. And as much as I wanted to react to the pain, all I could do was stand, frozen in horror while she barely batted an eyelid. Her sweet voice which should have soothed me, cut deeply, leaving ugly scarring over my soul. I loathed her so fucking much. I slammed the rest of the bourbon back and threw my hand up for another. The bartender obliged immediately.“Whoa! I know there must be a story about the nurse at the hospital. But don’t you think you should slow down a little. I already saved your ass once. I don’t exactly want to do it again.”“I’m fine,” I muttered.“Sure you are. The speed of which you are drinking hard liquor really convinces me of that.” I huffed. “Look at it this way, if you keep drinking like that, I’ll have to take you back to the hospital to get your stomach pumped, and you know, your ex-girlfriend would be the one to do it.” I froze lifting the glass of bourbon to my lips and looked into Camille’s big blue eyes. She had a point. Or she would have if I was human and couldn’t handle my alcohol.“Sorry,” I mumbled lowering my glass and gazing at the table.“Hey, toxic ex, I get it.” No, you really don’t.“We never dated.”She tilted her head at me. “Well, she is obviously under your skin.”“Not in the way you are thinking,” I said then gave her a sheepish-apologetic look. “We have always hated each other. Actually, hate might be too soft of a word.”“Oh. So, there is no unrequited love story?”I snorted. “Not in the slightest. She really isn’t my type.”“Beautiful but vapid,” Vali said in agreement.“What is your type?” Camille sprung forward. I gave her a crooked smile which she returned with a slight blush staining her cheeks. Easy—way too easy.***
My dad was greyer than the last time I had seen him, the strands of silver weaving through the pitch black. His crows’ feet had deepened and he was now sporting a groomed beard where the grey hair rivalled the amount on his head. I tried to swallow my guilt, had it honestly been that long since I had video called my father?“Thanks for picking me up,” I grunted my appreciation. I picked up my feather-lite bike and hauled it roughly onto the back of his truck, securing it in place with some straps.
“Do I want to know what happened to your bike?”“Just took a corner a little too fast.”“Do I want to know why you were in a halls of residence?”“Oh don’t worry there Pops, I definitely didn’t take that too fast.” I grinned at him, and he shook his head exasperatedly, his eyes twinkling with mischief.“So are you bringing her home for dinner?”“Didn’t I tell you? I proposed right on the spot. She could do this pretzel thing and I decided that’s the woman I want to mate with and bear my pups.” I jumped off the back of the truck and pushed the tailgate back into its locked position.“Your sister will be thrilled. Assuming of course that the girl said yes.”“Over and over again.”Dad chuckled deeply. “Get in the truck Casanova.”The door whinnied a familiar sound as I climbed into the passenger side of the cab. “How has everything been?” Dad asked as he clambered into the driver’s seat and started the engine.
“Good up until I managed to total my bike.”“I am sure it isn’t totalled.”“Yeah, once we get back to Blackfern Valley I am going to see how much work it’s going to take to repair. Hopefully it won’t be too damaged, and I can get back on the road.”“Vinny. You are allowed to stay you know,” Dad said carefully. No, I wasn’t.“There is nothing for me here Dad. I can’t exactly hustle pool or count cards around here.” I shook my head. “Nope! As soon as I get a whiff of whoever is after my niece. I am out and hunting him down.”“You didn’t want to be a warrior Vinny. Leave it to the pack warriors and trackers."“Dad, this is family.”“Yes, it is. And you decided you wanted to be free and travel.” Dad reminded me unnecessarily.“It was never about leaving my family Dad,” I grumbled. “My family is the most important thing to me. Why the fuck do you think I am back?”“If family was so important to you, you wouldn’t be in such a hurry to leave!” Touché. I audibly snapped my mouth closed and glared out the window as we drove the windy highway back towards the Valley. Refusing to answer. Refusing to tell him the truth. The silence was bitter.There was a gentle scratch at my mind as my father’s voice travelled through it. It had been an age since I had communicated this way. The distance I had kept from my pack made it almost impossible. The further away I was, the harder and more painful it had become to try and mind-link. I was warned about this when I decided to leave, that my mental voice would have been dimmed to near nothing. I had tried it a couple of times when I was up with a pack near the border of Alaska and all I got back was harsh white-noise and a nosebleed. I could feel the connection to my pack, I just couldn’t contact them. I was in true solitude. I was truly nomadic.
“The prodigal son returned,” my fathers voice grunted to me and another. I felt the amber and honeysuckle aura of my sister on the mind-link. “Be home in an hour or so.”“Try not to kill each other.” I huffed and my father chuckled.
***
Dad pulled up to the ancient garage that looked out of place next to the more modernly designed house. Where the old house was a small bungalow that often felt cramped, the new house was architecturally designed with large windows that made it feel light and airy.
The fire was a blessing in a lot of ways. After Mom died, it was very obvious that Dad needed to keep busy. He needed a project. The bungalow became his project. A project that would have taken years and years to complete. That would have taken years and years of my patience. The fire had gutted the foundations and left dad with a blank canvas.
But that was not his only project. There was a reason he had moved his family to Blackfern Valley after the love of his life died, and it wasn’t just to overcompensate for a midlife crisis and fix up a house. His first project was trying to keep me from going off the deep end. His first project was to tell me he had been lying to me my entire life. And the omitted truth could have saved me a world of hurt. That was the first and only time I had ever punched my dad.
“Are you done?” he had growled, his eyes flashing with the silver rings of his… wolf. A gash in his lip glistening with drops of crimson. I wasn’t remotely done. I was furious. But after a few deep breaths the epiphany hit me— I wasn’t going crazy. The amplified sounds, the smells, the sweats and the uncontrollable rage; it was all because my wolf-spirit was waking up. It was as if everything suddenly clicked into place and unsurmountable relief ricocheted around my body.I threw my bag onto my bed of the room I had once called mine. It was empty now, a dresser, a bed and a desk was all that remained. I cleared out all of my personal junk the day after the full moon, trashing it. I didn’t need it anymore. I wasn’t coming back. Even if my sister didn’t grant me permission, I was leaving anyway. The difference would have been if I was just nomadic, or whether I was living as a pack less rogue. Thankfully my sister came through for me. And neither she nor my dad ever asked any questions. I knew the questions were burning into their essence, they had to have been.
My phone buzzed and I grinned as I placed it to my ear, but before I could get out any smartass comments, my best friend Sean bet me to it.
“I thought I smelt your odour polluting the air around here. What, you’ve been here for like five minutes? And you are already stinking up the joint.”“Come a little closer and I can make sure I trap you with my real odour.” The braying laughter echoed down the phone.“Fuck man! It has been an age. I have just finished up with training and I am about to meet Ryan for a drink. You should come along. Let people see that you haven’t fallen off a cliff and died somewhere.”“No cliff. Did come off my bike though.”“Ouch. Bad?”“A sweet piece of ass made it all worth while.” Another braying laughter.“So… Beer?”“Always!”Roman My eyes pinged open and I looked around the bedroom that wasn’t mine. The room looked like it belonged to a teenage boy, with clothes haphazardly tumbling out of semi open drawers and more piles on the floor-drobe. The walls were covered in car and music posters and an electric guitar was sitting on a stand in the corner. The owner of the room seemed like a teenage boy, but he was definitely older than that, I would never sleep with a teenage boy.I heard the shower turn off and rolled off the bed and started to dress myself quickly. I tugged on my black panties and scrub pants and had managed to clasp my bra before the bedroom door opened and in walked Murdoch, my saviour in my time of need, “Morning Rome.”“Hey,” I muttered, pulling my camisole over my head and looking around for my scrub top.“You want breakfast?” I froze. We didn’t usually do breakfast. We both knew what this was and canoodling over oatmeal was not part of the agreement. I schooled my face into a mundane exp
Vinny I entered the bar and my eyes instantly grazed over the flash of light brown skin of Roman’s lower back as she leant forward on a bar stool. It was like I had no control over the direction of my stare, or the length of time I was staring. The skin was smooth and flawless as it disappeared into the hem of her top and down into her tight as fuck jeans that showed off her glorious ass. Now that she wasn’t hidden under her uniform, I could really appreciate just how mesmerizing her curves were. Even from behind, just for a moment. When her eyes met mine, the flickering purple broke my trance. My legs which were frozen to the spot, moved me away as if a sudden determination had overridden my body. The ice in my heart solidified as I sat on a leathered booth seat and picked up a menu. I could feel her gaze. It was as if every cell in my body was tuned to her. Even the ones covered in ice. The smell of jasmine was irritating my nose as I tried in vain to keep my breathing shallow. An
Roman My skin itched and burned. My blood was boiling through my veins. The mechanical, fake and forced laughter died in my throat as the piercing green eyes met mine. Then there was silence. The conversation that I was desperately trying to ignore and listen to at the same time muted. I looked over again and saw that the conversation had turned telepathic. Rue was snarling and pacing, sending grotesque images through my mind— lots of bloody carnage. Sweaty muscular bodies slamming against each other, hard and dirty. Fingernails scraping, lips being painfully bitten and pulled. Teeth entering carotid arteries and ripping. Blood then even more blood. Hands running over nipples and tweaking them painfully. The building sensation of an orgasm being ripped away before the climax. Pools and pools of blood. A neck snapping. Lifeless green eyes. It was like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to rip him apart or fuck him senseless. Maybe fuck him then rip him apart? I forced the thoughts back
VinnyIt had been almost three weeks since I had been back in Blackfern Valley. The sound of tools tinkering on the garage floor echoed into the quiet solitude of my father’s empty garage. Usually, I would be blasting the terribly old FM-stereo on the backwall as I fiddled around in the grease and grim of motorcycle mechanics, but this time I wasn’t feeling it. This time I wanted to focus. I needed to focus.My body had been taut with tension ever since I stepped foot in Blackfern Valley. I was like a wound-up spring, ready to react at a second’s notice. Nothing felt right here. Even Vali was on high alert. I just couldn’t decide why we were so on edge. Maybe it was just because we hadn’t been back here in a long time, and this was a natural thing to feel? Or maybe it’s because my family was in danger, and I felt like I was sitting around doing nothing?“Leave it to the trackers and the warriors.” My sister had told me. I had argued and demanded why she had brought me back if she didn
Roman The bush was a blur as I sprinted through it. This time it wasn’t Rue that needed a release, it was me. What a fucking shit show this was! My life had turned into a well choreographed disaster, and I was barely holding it together. I wanted to take advantage of the last few warm weeks of summer and invited Murdoch to the swimming hole. It was an olive-branch. We had been fucking non-stop for weeks to try and keep Rue satiated. However, my wolf was more volatile than ever, and even if she didn’t want to burst out of my skin, she had made me irritable with uncontrollable mood swings. Each time he tried to talk to me about what was bothering me, I closed down and reminded him that I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend. That all I was after was distraction. He was happy enough to provide the distraction, but when the mood swings hit, he always looked torn.The swimming hole was supposed to be a non-confrontational day out. A day of relaxation. A day of friendship-bonding and hippy-like
VinnyI paced the living area of the packhouse as I waited. Back, forward, back, forward. Each footstep ricocheted my anger off the floorboards. In my mind, Vali was mimicking my pacing. We were both wound up and agitated. We were both ready to snap.My sister watched me pace as she bounced Lacey on her lap. I looked up towards the office door every so often and grumbled softly when the door remained tightly shut.“Would you stop pacing?” my sister murmured exasperatedly.“This close Clem!” I growled pushing my thumb and finger millimetres apart. “We were this close to getting one up on these fuckers. Then she had to go and get in the fucking way. If I wasn’t dealing with her, I could have helped the warriors—”“There were three trained warriors Vinny! Three. They should have had it handled. Even on the off chance you were there to help… honestly what more could have been done?”“He shouldn’t have got away.”“No, he shouldn’t have, which is why your Alpha and Beta are doing a debrief
RomanI was mad at Rue. She had almost gotten me killed and instead of being reproachful or candidly reprimanded, she was acting like it was no big deal. She had reverted into her delusional and obnoxious self and started acting like she could have taken on the rogue. Like she didn’t need help, especially from Vincent Stevens. That idea was abhorrent to her. She was obsessed with replaying the scene repeatedly, trying to twist or invent a way that resulted in her being victorious over the rogue without having to be saved. It didn’t help that the upcoming full moon was making her even more agitated and neurotic, flavouring her obsession bitterly on my tongue. I tried not to gag on the bitter saliva and I frowned at her for what felt like the millionth time she ran through her scenarios. She didn’t even notice my mood or seem to care that I was mad at her. Rue was angry and rabid, and fixated on something that was unobtainable. She was never going to listen, and unfortunately I could n
Vinny “Top Pocket,” I called as the white ball tapped against a red striped one. The number eleven bounced and off the felt wall of the table, rolling along a perfect angle towards the top right pocket. There was a light clunking sound as it found its way down the shoot back into the collection box underneath the table. “Nice shot,” Sean said as he chalked his cue tip. I said nothing as I lined up another shot and another; each shot entering their pockets with ease. I missed the third shot by a millimetre, the ball bounced off the corner and back into the middle of the table. Sean grinned and went to line up his move. It was extremely busy at Lupus’. I had forgotten that the weekend before the full moon was the busiest of the month. There was a buzz in the air as the Blackfern Valley Pack started to feel the affects of the approaching full moon. Each month as the moon crescents got closer and closer to its monthly peak, the werewolves started to react to the pull. Many got agitated,