by Luna James
“Do you have anything of his that would have his scent on it?” Lucien asked.
I thought for a minute. Damien ended up thinking of how to get his scent before I did. “He was in Tori’s apartment, and he was bleeding. His scent will still be there.”
“Cool!” Lucien stood. “Let’s go.”
When we got out of the car at my house, the smell of bleach was in the air. I looked over at Damien, and he nodded. “Someone’s been here.”
I opened the door to my apartment and found the kitchen and living room had been scrubbed with bleach. “That son of a bitch came back here and cleaned up his blood!” I scanned the rooms to see if he might have missed anything.
“He may have cleaned up his blood, but he didn’t cover his scent very well. I can smell him in the air,” Lucien said, sniffing the air in the apartment. “He underestimated werewolves’ ability to smell.”
“Yes!” I cheered. “You rock Lucien!”
“Thanks. I don’t understand much of this, but I do know that it’s wild as fuck to experience,” Lucien said, looking down at the floor.
I walked over to him and hugged him. “I know it can be overwhelming. Just know that I am here for you,” I whispered.
“You’re amazing Tori.” Lucien tightened his arms around me. Then he leaned his head back and gazed into my eyes. “Thank you for being so amazing. I don’t know what I would do without you right now.”
I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks. “You’re welcome.”
Damien cleared his throat. “So, we good here?”
Lucien broke his hold on me and stepped back. “Yeah, we’re good. I got his scent.”
“Good. Now wolf out and go find the bastard.” Damien opened the front door.
Lucien looked confused. “Wolf out? It’s not a full moon man. I can’t.”
Damien chuckled. “Man, you can wolf out anytime you want to. You don’t need the full moon to change.”
“No shit?” Lucien asked puzzled.
“No shit! Didn’t your family tell you anything about being a werewolf?”
Lucien put his hands in his pockets and looked down at the floor. “No…not till after I turned. I went home and told my father what happened to me. Only then did he tell me about our family being werewolves. I didn’t listen to half of what he said. I was too pissed off.”
“Well that’s fucked up. Why wait till you turned into one?” I asked Lucien. I thought it was odd his family never told him something as important as this.
Lucien looked at me. “My father said not everyone in our family turns. He didn’t wanna freak me out, so he kept it from me. He’s not a wolf, but his brother and father are.”
I shook my head. “That’s not right. You should’ve known. Did he tell you anything about how your family became werewolves?”
Lucien shrugged his shoulders. “He did, but I wasn’t listening very well. All I remember is that our heritage of being wolves goes back to our Native American ancestors.”
I hugged Lucien. “It’s going to be okay. I got your back.”
Damien shut the door. “Change in here. Tori can keep your clothes. When you find him, don’t let him see you or know you are around. Come back to my house and let us know where he is,” Damien instructed.
Lucien looked sad. “I don’t know how to change at will.”
Damien looked at me and then back at Lucien. “Imagine being the wolf. Think back to when you changed and how it felt. I’ve heard that helps.” How does he know how a wolf changes at will? Damien stared into my eyes when he heard my thoughts. “I’ve known a few.”
“Okay. I can try,” Lucien mumbled. “Do y’all mind if I do this alone?” he asked.
“I don’t mind hun.” I walked over to the front door and opened it. “We’ll be out here waiting for you,” I said smiling. “You got this!”
That made Lucien smile. Damien and I walked out to his car. It wasn’t long till we heard screams coming from my apartment. It broke my heart to know that Lucien was in there breaking his bones and changing to help me. I wanted to run in there and comfort him, but I knew better. He needed to do this on his own. It was his life now. Several minutes passed before his screams stopped. It was a good thing no one was home at my parents’ house. They would’ve freaked the hell out if they heard someone screaming from my apartment.
“You think he’s done?” I looked over at Damien standing next to me.
Damien looked in the direction of the apartment. Then he looked at me. “Take a look,” he said, nodding towards my apartment.
When I looked at the apartment, Lucien stood on my porch in wolf form. He’s so beautiful! The wolf strode down the steps and came to us. Damien tensed and moved closer to me. “It’s okay. I won’t let him hurt you,” I assured Damien.
When Lucien reached us, he just sat down and looked at us. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to get his clothes.” Damien took off towards my apartment.
I smiled at the wolf. “You are so beautiful, Lucien.” I reached my hand out. The wolf inched toward me. He rubbed his head into my hand. I stroked the top of his head. “Thank you for trusting me.”
There was a soft growl coming from the wolf. It didn’t sound like a mean growl; it seemed more like he was acknowledging what I was saying.
“Okay. Let’s go,” Damien said from behind me.
Chapter 15
Tori
I paced the floors in the living room at Sebastian and Damien’s house. They sat on the couch watching me. I couldn’t stop worrying about Lucien. The thought of the hunter seeing him and hurting him was heavy on my mind. If Lucien got injured or killed because of me, I didn’t think I could live with myself. He was out there risking his life to protect mine.
“Tori…” I heard Damien say.
I stopped pacing and turned over at him. “What?”
“You need to calm down.” He looked around the room. I followed his eye and found every object in the room was levitated. Even the couch that they were sitting on was floating.
“Sorry,” I said, as I closed my eyes. I shook my head and tried to clear my mind. I imagined the objects levitating back to their spots. When I opened my eyes, everything was back in its place. I sighed heavily. “I’m sorry y’all.” I sat down in the chair beside the couch. I put my head into my hands. “I am just so worried about Lucien.”
“He’ll be okay Victoria,” Sebastian promised. “His natural instincts will guide him.”
I removed my hands from my face and looked at him. “How do y’all know so much about werewolves?”
Sebastian and Damien looked at each other. Then they looked at me. Damien said, “We have been close to people who were werewolves.”
“Close?”
“Yes.” Damien looked at Sebastian. “We have both dated women who were werewolves.” Then he looked back at me. “They trusted us enough to tell us about their lives.”
“Oh…” was all I managed to say. My thoughts started running wild. One thought that stood out was how Sebastian got furious with me for making out with Lucien. What a damn hypocrite! “You piece of shit!” I stared into Sebastian. “How dare you get mad at me!”
“I only got mad because I knew from experience how werewolves can turn on you.” Sebastian stood and walked to the kitchen.
I wanted to follow him and cuss him out, but I decided to stay where I was. I didn’t want to do anything I would regret. My emotions were all over the place right now.
“Just let it go, for now, Tori,” Damien pleaded.
“Fine.”
“We both had bad breakups with the wolves we dated,” Damien said with a sad tone to his voice.
Suddenly, we heard a loud sound come from the back patio. Damien and I jumped up and ran out there. We found Sebastian in the pool and Lucien standing naked beside the pool. “Motherfucker, don’t ever put your hands on me again!” Lucien growled to Sebastian.
“Fuck you!” Sebastian hissed, as he got out of the pool.
/> “What the hell is going on out here?” I asked looking from Lucien to Sebastian.
Lucien covered his cock with his hands. “That bastard punched me.”
“Damnit!” I rushed over to Sebastian and pushed him down. “Get your shit together! We need him!”
Sebastian smiled. “Mmm…get rough with me baby.” Then he licked his lips.
“I’m serious!”
“Okay…fine. I’ll be on my best behavior from now on.” Sebastian got up and walked over to the bar. “Want a drink, Lucien?”
“Hell yes!” Lucien replied.
“Here are your clothes,” Damien said, walking towards Lucien. I didn’t even know he had run in the house and got Lucien’s clothes.
“Thanks,” Lucien said, as he took the clothes from Damien.
I turned around to give Lucien privacy. I had already seen him naked twice, but I still wanted to be respectful. Though I have to admit that I could have stood there and stared at his beautiful body all day.
Damien cleared his throat. “You can turn around now Tori.”
I turned to find Damien giving me a dirty look. He heard what I was thinking. “You’ll learn to stop listening in on my thoughts,” I said, walking over to the bar. “Pour me a double shot of tequila.” I sat down beside Lucien.
“I found him.” Lucien winked at me. “He is hiding out in an old, creepy house not far from here.” He took the shot of whiskey Sebastian handed him.
“Tell me everything!” I said.
“There ain’t much to tell…he’s just hanging out at this house.”
“Did you see him?” I asked.
“Yeah. He was walking around in one of the rooms upstairs.”
“Show us where the house is, and we will handle the rest,” Damien said to Lucien.
“I’m not leaving Tori!” Lucien looked at me. “I will not leave your side until this hunter is dead.” He leaned over and kissed me softly on the lips. It was just a small peck on the lips, but it set my entire body on fire.
I could hear low growls coming from Sebastian and Damien. A human would have not heard the growls. I knew they were jealous of Lucien. I ignored them. “Thanks, Lucien. You are the best!”
“As soon as you are ready Tori, we will go take care of this.” Sebastian passed me the double shot of tequila I wanted.
I looked at the time on a clock that hung behind the bar. “Shit! I gotta work soon.” I said, bringing my hand to my forehead and smacking it.
“I think today would be a good time to call in,” Damien said. “We need to get rid of this hunter as soon as possible. If we don’t, every second that goes by we will have to look over our shoulders.”
“Hand me your phone…I have no idea where mine is.” Damien gave me his phone. I called Rick and made up a lie that I was sick with a stomach bug. Rick was nice about it and told me he hoped I got better soon.
After I hung up, I handed Damien’s phone back to him. Our fingers grazed each other, and that familiar electric shock lit up the nerve endings in my hand. I looked at him and then at Sebastian and Lucien. I couldn’t believe I was in the presence of the three of them at the same time. They made me so horny. Calm your hormones! You got shit to do!
Damien smiled. “You ready to do this?”
“Do what?” Busted! I knew he heard my thoughts about the three of them.
“Kill the hunter.” Damien let out a little laugh.
“Oh…yeah. I am ready!”
Sebastian handed me a shot of tequila. “Drink this, and then we can figure out how we are going to do this.”
After I took the shot of tequila, we brainstormed on ways to kill Travis. I was thankful to have them playing nice and working together. I know they struggled with being near each other. I wondered why I didn’t struggle being around Lucien like Sebastian and Damien did. It felt completely natural for me to be near Lucien. By the way Lucien acted, he felt the same way.
The only conclusion we came to was that we would follow Lucien to the house and then figure it out once we got there. Damien having mind reading abilities would make it easy for him to know where Travis was.
“Do you think when it comes time to do the job, you can?” Sebastian asked me as we were getting ready to leave.
“Absolutely!” I affirmed. “If one of us doesn’t kill him, he will kill us.” I looked at Damien and Lucien and then back to Sebastian. “I will not let that happen. The three of you mean a lot to me, and I am not ready to lose y’all.”
“Okay…let’s go find this hunter!” Sebastian exclaimed.
Chapter 16
Tori
Before we left Sebastian and Damien’s, Lucien went into the woods beside the house and turned into his wolf form. He howled to signal us when he was ready. We joined him and trailed him to the house where Travis was hiding out. Lucien was right; it wasn’t far from Sebastian and Damien’s. Travis must have picked that house so he would be able to spy on us better. Bastard!
I didn’t feel nervous until we got there. Regardless of Travis being a hunter, I didn’t want to kill him. There was no other choice though.
Damien came over to me and hugged me. “You got this, Tori.”
“Thanks.” I hugged him back. “I know I can do this, but it still bothers me. Taking a life is never something I want to do.”
Damien loosened his embrace and looked down at me. “I know, but sometimes it’s necessary.” Then he placed a kiss on my forehead and stepped back.
Lucien prowled over to me and rubbed up against me. I reached over and patted his head. “Can I just make the house come crashing down?” I asked with a nervous chuckle.
Damien and Sebastian laughed. “If only it were that simple Love,” Sebastian noted. “We wouldn’t know if it killed him or not. We can’t take that chance.”
“Well, shit!” I exclaimed. As soon as those words left my lips, we heard a woman’s scream come from inside the house. We looked at each other. “We gotta get in there!” I hissed.
“Agreed.” Damien closed his eyes and listened. “Travis is upstairs in a bedroom. There is a woman there with him. She is his hostage.”
I lead the way to the house. When we arrived at the front door, I turned the knob and slowly opened the door. The door creaked loudly. Shit! I stepped into the house. The owners must be dead. Suddenly, something came flying in the air at me and hit me in the chest. The impact made me drop to my knees.
“Are you okay?” Damien asked, as he moved to the front of me.
I looked down to see what hit me and saw a wooden stake sticking out of my chest. Blood gushed out all around the stake. “No!” I cried out.
Damien examined my chest. “It looks like it barely missed your heart.”
“Bastard has traps in the house. We got to be careful how we move in here,” Sebastian said, as he inched towards the steps that led upstairs.
“HELP!” cried the woman upstairs.
I pulled the stake out of my chest. “Let’s go, guys!”
Damien and I followed behind Sebastian up the steps. Lucien stayed at the bottom of the steps. He was going to run interference downstairs if Travis tried to leave. It was our understanding that Travis didn’t know Lucien was a werewolf. He was going to be in for a big surprise when he goes down the steps and comes face to face with a wolf.
“He is in the bedroom on the left,” Damien whispered.
When Sebastian topped the steps, he turned left towards the bedroom. Travis came into the bedroom doorway and shot a stake from a crossbow at Sebastian. Using my ability, I stopped the stake from hitting Sebastian and threw it at Travis. It flew into his abdomen. Travis fell back onto the floor. I ran past Sebastian and went into the bedroom.
“Oh my God! Mom!” I screamed. Sitting in the corner of the room tied to a chair was my mother. I rushed over to her. “Mom…are you okay?”
“I’m hurt Sweetie,” she sobbed. “He hit me in the head and abducted me.”
I bit my wrist and held it to my mothers’ mou
th. “Drink my blood. It will heal you.”
“What?” she asked, looking at me in disbelief.
“Please…just trust me,” I begged.
My mother accepted my wrist and drank from me. I could hear Sebastian and Damien in the background struggling with Travis. After she drank enough of my blood, I took my wrist from her mouth and began untying her.
“Tori…what has happened to you?” she cried.
“I’ll explain later, Mom. There is no time right now.”
“That man told me you are a vampyre, but I know there is no such thing.”
“Shhh! Let’s get out of here and then I’ll tell you everything.”
I freed my mom from the last restraint on her leg and helped her stand up. When I turned around, Sebastian and Damien were both lying on the floor unconscious. Travis wasn’t in the room. I went to Sebastian and Damien and shook them to wake them. Neither of them responded to me. I closed my eyes and listen to see if I could hear Travis. I couldn’t hear him, but I could smell his blood.
“Stay here!” I said to my mom.
“Please Tori, you can’t go out there.” My mom pleaded sobbing. “He’ll kill you.”
I didn’t have time to deal with my mom’s pleas. I looked into her eyes. “Stay here! And be quiet!”
“Okay,” she sobbed.
I inched out of the bedroom and looked down the hallway. There was no one there, so I followed the scent of Travis’s blood. It led me to a bedroom down the hall. When I walked into the bedroom, it was empty. There was a rag lying on the floor that had blood on it. Travis must have put it there to throw me off.
“Where are you, you bastard?” I screamed.
There was a chuckle come from behind me. When I turned around, Travis was standing mere inches from me. He grabbed my wrist and quickly slid something on it before I could move. Damn, he’s fast. I looked down at my wrist. There was a small braided black leather bracelet on my wrist. In the center of it, there was a marble size bead. When I looked back up at Travis, he stood there with a smirk on his face.
“Do you like it?” he asked sarcastically.