Havermouth, Present Time“Okay,” Aislen said once August trotted down the stairs to the other level. “I hate him, he’s an arsehole, and I’m pretty sure that I am going to kick him in the balls at some stage in the future so hard he’ll vomit up his f-king next of kin.”“Yeah, Stella says that he’s a piece of work,” Bianca said under her breath. “Be careful, though, M. He’s a dangerous man. Stella says that there is a fine line between a king and a tyrant, and powerful men grow confused about what side of that line they stand on.”Aislen thought of Talen, and his quiet declaration in Rhett’s snug seemingly so long ago now: “Rank means little to me. I have been a king, and I have been a slave. I find that neither situation is to my liking. As the years pass, values change, and the first thing that is discarded is ambition. It adds little value. It does not keep a person warm at night, it does not make a castle a home, it does not give back those that have been lost…”“Not all powerful me
Havermouth, Present TimeHow the twin werewolf girls ran hand-in-hand, Rhett didn’t know, but he had to admire the co-ordination. He was far less co-ordinated with one hand on the arse of the boy riding him piggy-back and the other gripping the wrist of the wild-one that he didn’t trust not to run in the wrong direction because the lunatic had already done so once.How the f-k the seriousness of the situation escaped the blonde nutter Rhett didn’t know, but he’d only just managed to stop the idiot from running out in front of a pair of Van Helsings doing a patrol. The crazy kid thought the whole exercise was a great joke, an advanced game of hide and go seek, and Rhett was just a grown-up playmate who wasn’t really much fun.Rhett was drenched in sweat, and his heart was racing by the time he shoved his personal demon over the fence into Mr Claymont’s yard. He was not taking four in one go again, he told himself as he followed them over the fence. For a moment he braced one hand on th
Havermouth, Present Time“Hey,” Cameron started awake as Rhett lay down next him, coming out of a confusing dream of fog and darkness, into a space he didn’t remember, and grabbing hold of the one thing that he would know anywhere – one of his mates.It took him a moment to remember where they were, the shapes of the shelves and janitorial equipment in the darkness confusing. After Rhett’s last trip, Cameron had claimed a gym mat and carried it through the bathroom into the janitor’s closet. It was getting late, and Rhett had refused to leave without Cameron. As Cameron couldn’t leave with his hand intact, that meant Rhett would be spending the night in the gym too, so Cameron had reasoned that if they slept in the closet, and the Van Helsings did something, Cameron at least had a chance to shove his mate through the vent to safety.“I fell asleep, sorry,” Cameron was contrite for falling asleep in the middle of an emergency. He’d put the mattress in and sat down to wait for Rhett’s r
Havermouth, Present TimeMeguitte sat cross legged in the centre of the bed, her eyes locked with the blonde woman. The blonde was nervous, twisting the tail of her braid and raising it to her mouth to chew its end frequently. The first thing that she had done upon her arrival was draw a line across the floor and etch runes in chalk into the carpet. A ward between her and Meguitte.The fear should have been empowering. It was normal, Meguitte thought, for the person who was feared to feel strong and powerful. Except she was the one in chains. She only just had enough give to sit cross legged and doing so restricted her movements significantly. She might be feared, but she possessed no power or strength.“I have a daughter,” the blonde answered Meguitte’s question. Meguitte had been prodding her with questions since her arrival, but this was the first time the woman had answered her.“How nice.” Meguitte replied warmly. “What is her name?”“I… Ibis,” the woman whispered around the tail
The Coast of Alden, Nine Hundred and Forty Years BeforeThe ocean sparkled in the bright afternoon sun, the glare making it hard for Thaelen to make out the fishing ships that bobbed gently on the waves. He squinted, watching as a woman, basket on her hip, made her way from the beach up the sand dunes to where his hut was.“Ettel is coming,” he said.“Stay still,” Delwyn scolded, placing her fingers under his chin in order to change the angle of his head.Thaelen hummed his sigh wearily.“Looking very pretty, Thaelen,” Ettel smirked as she approached and set her basket down on the floor, taking the stool that Besafora had recently abandoned, and drawing it closer. “What is the occasion?”“He needed a haircut,” Besafora left the hut, holding a small wooden bowl and stirring its contents with the stylus that she had fashioned from the feather of a large seabird. “And Delwyn needed to practice her skills. This is the traditional way that a man of our people wears his hair and beard.”“It
The Coast of Alden, Nine Hundred and Forty Years BeforeThe sound of the army arriving woke Thaelen from a sound sleep. He lifted his head, frowning at the rumble of approaching horses, the clank of armour, and men’s voices. There was a crash, followed by a scream, and he shot out of the bed to the window, leaning out of the open frame, the wind catching his hair.The night glowed with hand-held torches. Soldiers moved between the houses, kicking in doors, causing the occupants to shriek and yell their protest. A bang drew his eyes down, to where the door to the widow’s house had been kicked in by two soldiers.“F-k!” He exclaimed and pulled on his still-damp clothing.“What is it?” Lisselt exclaimed, sitting up in the bed and clutching the covers to her chest.The bedroom door flew open, striking the wall, and a man laughed. “Well, well.”“What the f-k are you doing?” Thaelen demanded, moving to stand between the men and the widow.“How dare you!” Lisselt added. “I am a respectable w
The Coast of Alden, Nine Hundred and Forty Years BeforeThe ships’ holds were crowded and uncomfortable, but the villagers were not secured or restrained within and had access to both barrels of water and to the top deck for bodily eliminations. Many of the men and the young boys chose to remain above deck and helped the sailors with the ropes and sails, making themselves useful in the fresh air rather than remaining in the stuffiness of the hold.Most of the women chose to remain below and, as the ship left the mouth of the river and entered the ocean, Thaelen hovered at the stairs, waiting for the inevitable trouble that would arise. It was just a matter of time, he predicted grimly.Sure enough, as Etrait and Concordia became a dark shadow on the horizon, some of the soldiers decided to seek “comfort,” laughing as they nudged the youngest amongst them, joking that he should get some experience before battle and whilst the women were “fresh.”Thaelen had positioned himself with a cr
Etrait, Nine Hundred and Forty Years BeforeThe training camp was much like any army camp, Thaelen observed as he led the villagers forward, following the soldiers from their ship. There was a chaos of tents and camp fires with women and young children moving between preparing food, carrying clothing and linen, their faces bruised and eyes haunted, whilst the menfolk sat before their tents maintaining their weapons and armour, looking up at the new arrivals with derisive sneers.They were taken to the largest tent, where several priests worked as scribes. Their ship name, the village they were taken from, and their personal names were written down, and then they were escorted to be out-fitted with clothing, boots, and basic, padded armour before being allocated tents and blankets in a section of the camp set aside for the spearmen.Johil, the Sentinel, or captain, of their regiment, signalled for the village men to follow his soldiers to the training field – an area which had been so
Havermouth, Present Time Heath woke into darkness. His werewolf sight could not even determine a pinprick of light. The darkness was heavy, smothering. “Talen?” He asked. His voice sounded muted, as if he were in a closed, tight space. He reached out and felt nothing however… And that was terrifying. There was no floor, no walls. He did not understand how it was that he was not falling… or perhaps he was. His breathing was rasped through lungs constricted by panic. “Shh,” a woman murmured. “Hush now, do not fear. Nothing will harm you here. Indeed,” there was amusement to her voice. “There is nothing here to harm you.” “Who are you?” He demanded, fear turning into anger. “Some Van Helsing trick?” “Hmhmhm,” she chuckled softly. “No, white wolf.” “Where is Talen?” He sat up slowly, relying on his stomach muscles as there wasn’t a floor to brace his hands against. “Where are we? Why… isn’t there a floor?” “So many questions. We are in the beginning, the aether, the place where we
Havermouth, Present TimeCameron and Rhett stood by the front window of Mr Claymont’s house with the lace curtains pushed back, looking out at the street as the crowd began to clear. A riot had broken out in response to the explosion of the school and had blocked the Van Helsings’ efforts to reach their destroyed base. The Havermouth rioters had destroyed several of the Van Helsings’ vehicles until guns had been drawn and bullets had been fired.Just as things had been on the verge of turning into a massacre, the fire had begun to spread out from the school, and Havermouth’s residents had rushed to help the homeowners save their property whilst others had dragged those injured by the Van Helsings retaliation into nearby houses.Into the chaos and mania of it all, the fleeing werewolves had just been another strangeness of the day, with people shrieking and screaming as their fur brushed against them, but otherwise taking no action against them, too occupied with the fire and gunmen, a
Havermouth, Present TimeThe f-ker!Aislen woke angry and sore. Her whole body ached, but her head and throat most of all. She was f-king going to kill that arsehole of a torturer, she thought.She was lying on her back on a bed, but not somewhere private. Around her she could hear the murmur of voices, groans and moans, the rattle of metal against metal, and crying. It stank. Layers of sweat, urine, faeces and… rotten meat.She opened her eyes and looked through a mesh of metal bars at the pressed tin tile design within the coffered ceiling high above her and the elaborate chandelier that dangled from it. Not what she’d expected having smelled the room, she thought, sitting up.It was a large long room, with a heavy velvet curtained stage set on one end and a wall of double doors at the other. In between the two ends, rows of cages had been set, each one only long enough to fit a trundle bed and twice as wide. Many of the cages were empty, like the one directly next to Aislen’s bed,
Havermouth, One Week BeforeTony had the police officer tied by his wrists and dangling over an open oubliette in the barn when Talen arrived, and looked up from a toolbox which was set on the pushed back stone lid. “Alex, this is Talen. Talen, meet Alexander Grennith.”“F-k you,” the werewolf was in the policeman’s eyes, but with his weight on his shoulders, and his wrists tied, he could not shift without risking tearing his arms from the joint, an injury that would be both intensely painful and potentially life-alteringly disabling.“No thank you,” Talen replied as he rolled up his sleeves. “Did you have any trouble?” He asked Tony.“No,” Tony was amused. “I took Sigrid with me, and she distracted him at the front door whilst I took him from behind. He did not know what happened. We bundled him into his own car, and I wore his jacket and hat. Anyone who saw me would have thought he was going on a date. I dropped Sigrid at the Ute and she drove it home for me.”“I didn’t know that Si
Havermouth, Two Weeks BeforeCameron creeping out of the bed and around the room getting dressed woke Heath. He was pressed tightly to Talen’s back, half drowning in the vampire’s blonde hair, with his arm over Talen’s waist and he was disinclined to move from the position. Used to Cameron’s early mornings, once he’d registered what the movement was about, he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep only for Aislen to mutter a complaint as Rhett wriggled out from under her.“I have a client coming at nine,” Rhett explained his movement. “I have to go set up.”“Too early,” Aislen grumbled.“I know, but they work afternoons, and it will take a good three hours,” Rhett yawned widely as he slid out of the bed.Talen shifted in order to pull Aislen back against him, snuggling her into the spoon of his body. “Sleep some more, Morgana,” he murmured. “You need to rest in order to heal.”Rhett cursed as he stumbled and Cameron smothered his laughter. “Careful. F-k man, you’re not a good m
Havermouth, Two Weeks Before“I could do with a cigarette too,” Aislen announced. “And a glass of wine.”“It’s not even midday,” Heath protested immediately.Aislen’s eyeroll said it all. “I wasn’t asking for permission. I’ve had a pretty shitty couple of days, and I want to f-king have a cigarette and a glass of wine on the porch of my house and so that’s precisely what I am going to do,” she began to get dressed. “If you’re all going to be bitches you can leave.”Heath spotted her underwear tangled at the foot of the bed and retrieved them, untangling them as he handed them to her. “I’ll go open a bottle.” He stepped out into the hallway and closed the door before leaning against the wall and heaving out a sigh.Rhett and Cameron now knew about the miscarriage, but he felt as if the Triquetra had narrowly avoided disaster with the discussion that had followed, and the adrenaline spike had left him shaky with his heart racing against his ribs. The conversation had also shaken free a
Havermouth, Two Weeks BeforeRhett laughed. F-k this was going to be fun, he thought lifting up onto his elbows in order to improve his view.“Oh.” Aislen had realized that the double-sided dildo was for her.Talen’s shoulder shook with his silent laughter as he helped her into the harness and eased her end of the dildo into her.“F-k that’s hot,” Rhett groaned as Talen tightened the harness around her waist. There was something so naughty about Aislen with a c-k, and the leather straps compressing her soft skin, the contrast of white to black and soft to hard… “F-k,” he groaned, and Heath compliantly gripped his c-ck, stroking from base to tip so that he sighed out his pleasure.“Very nice,” Talen approved leaning back to inspect his workmanship. “Who would you like to f-k, little demon?”“Choices, choices,” Aislen’s response was pure devilry.“Me,” Rhett gasped out rolling up to sitting. “I want to try that.”“Why not?” Aislen was amused by his eagerness and by her new accessory, re
Havermouth, Two Weeks BeforeRhett used the trolley to herd Tabitha and her cameraman away from Cameron and Aislen so that they could make their escape, his vindicative ramming of the reporter’s heels fuelled by the nasty volley of questions she had just thrown at Aislen.“This is assault, Rhett Salem!” Tabitha snarled at him.“Oh, f-k off Tabitha,” he replied. “For a f-king desperate ambulance chasing vulture you are pretty righteous. F-king chasing down a woman who was just shot, and shouting out her personal business… You are slime. The worst type of slime. Just own it and shut the f-k up.”He abandoned the trolley inside the doors of the hospital and trotted across the carpark to where Heath was picking up shards of broken vase and ignoring Tabitha’s attempts to engage him into an interview. Heath surprised Tabitha by passing her the broken pieces. “Throw these away for me, please, like a good girl,” he told her.“Ah, shit, Heath, don’t call her a good girl,” Rhett laughed as he h
Havermouth, Two Weeks BeforeCameron almost stopped dead. From the corner of his eye, he saw Rhett fumble a vase of flowers that he was loading into his car, the vase shattering with a loud crash as it hit the ground and distracting the reporter and her cameraman.Miscarriage? What miscarriage? And… if Aislen couldn’t have a child… what did that mean for their Triquetra?“I don’t hit women,” Heath growled down at Tabitha. “But you are testing my resolve. Get the f-k away from us, and stay away.”Cameron pulled himself together and crossed the last distance to the Ute, easing Aislen into the passenger seat, and closing the door before turning back to help his Triquetra drive off the reporter and her cameraman. Rhett drove the now empty trolley directly at Tabitha and the cameraman, forcing them backwards, and used it to herd them towards the hospital and away from the Ute.“What the f-k?” Cameron asked Heath in shock. “What the f-k was that?”“Take her to her house, Cam, I’ll meet you