Bleeding Hearts
A Seattle Alki Werewolf Pack Novel
By Breukelen Girl
Smashwords Edition
© Copyright 2013
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may contain violent and sexual content. By reading and purchasing this book and downloading it, you consent to being of legal age for such material.
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Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. You can find more of Bg’s free writing on her blog “A Werewolf Blog in Brooklyn”
http://altijdbreukelen.wordpress.com
Growing up Werewolf
Perception
Lycan La Vida Loca
Alpha
Lunar Nights
Of Wolf and Male
Beasts of Burden
Nature Of The Beast – coming in 2013
Reasons
Revenge
Wild Life
The Pack
Lunar Night Stand
Werewolf Storm
Bleeding Hearts
Werewolf Bites
1
“Hungry?” Doll asked.
“Always.” Jeremy smiled at her.
“Alright, let’s get us a meal then.” She said looking about the street they were on looking for their best option. Shops were closing up, people were getting into cars and others were ending their working day, heading home. There were no homeless people here, save for her and Jeremy. Everyone else looked like they belonged there, or had somewhere to be. They were so full of the hustle and bustle of life.
It still got to Doll and hurt to see that. The obviousness of her exclusion from the normalcy of life. Doll’s life was nothing like she’d ever thought it would be. Since the demise of her werewolf pack, her life had been one dark, vast, existence that she endured rather than enjoyed. There was only one reason she endured it and one reason alone. Jeremy. Without her, he wouldn’t survive. Without him…the same could be said of her, on a different level of appreciation.
Jeremy and Doll walked slowly, surveying all around them. Taking in every little detail. Vigilance was key to their opportunity for food and well, any opportunity that worked in their favour. Doll had learnt that lesson very fast. She glanced across at Jeremy. He was of medium height had a medium build. But Doll knew what lay underneath the layers of clothing he wore. He was malnourished and underweight. His face could be mistaken for thin, but it didn’t really give away how unhealthy thin he was until he you saw his wrists or the rest of his torso. Jeremy like her, lacked weight.
The wind whipped at them and Jeremy shivered deeper into his parker, his face hiding behind the fake fur lined hood. They’d stolen the parker form a careless tourist at a bus depot before hitch hiking to the nearest truck stop and getting a ride with a trucker who was grateful for some company to talk to. He said it helped keep him sane on his long drive. Of course, the trucker did most of the talking while Doll politely nodded her head and stayed alert, as Jeremy slept against her shoulder. But she knew what the trucker meant.
Jeremy kept her sane and she in return kept them together and alive. It was like an unspoken deal. She was the muscle and brains and he was all heart and soul. Together, Doll figured, they almost made a complete werewolf and a somewhat fractured, human being. After a year of being habitually abused and treated as a sex slave, she didn’t see much good in anyone other than Jeremy. He never left her even when he’d been given the chance to go. He’d stayed on to be by her side and as a result, had suffered too at the dominance of a pack of alpha werewolves taking over what was once their pack.
They no longer had a werewolf pack to be a part of and they no longer had a home. They only had each other and really, that wasn’t much when she looked at where they were now. Homeless, starving and getting desperate for food with fairly weak survival skills if she was honest with herself.
They were barely anything when it came to being werewolves. They’re identity of individuality, almost entirely stripped from them. They were broken, Doll knew that and she wasn’t about attempting to put them back together again. She was just about getting by in the life they’d been dealt.
Doll had figured once they’d gotten out that they’re best shot at survival was to move away from the world they’d grown up in, out of the woods so to speak and into a big city. It was less likely a werewolf pack like those that had owned her and Jeremy would be able to do and get away with the things they had done to them, should they try to come after them, in a city. They’d ended up in Seattle. Jeremy had no objections. Because Jeremy would follow Doll to the ends of the earth if it meant he could be with her.
They’d been in Seattle less than a few hours and Doll already felt more relaxed in the cityscape than she did looking over her shoulder all the time in the country. Jeremy seemed as nervous and twitchy as ever though. She couldn’t blame him it was like they were new to the rest of the world at large. It was a bit scary.
They’d been kept in constant starved state; barely feed by the Alpha Pack who had taken them captive. But Jeremy never complained to her. Never once whined when there was nothing to eat. They both did what they could to get buy and they always looked out for one another.
Doll knew they couldn’t relay on their werewolf skills to hunt for game in their werewolf forms. They both found it was hard to do. They’d never really been trained in how to be werewolves in touch with nature. They’d been brought up as humans first, werewolves second. So hunting for food was left as a last desperate measure. Normally they just scavenged, like the homeless that they were.
“Doll?” Jeremy said and pointed out what looked to be an Irish Bar further down the street, just in view for them. Doll nodded her head and smiled at Jeremy.
“Good get.” She replied as they waked close together, bracing against the wind and striding towards the bar.
Doll mentally assed their money situation in her head as Jeremy leaned in to look through the bar’s front windows at the interior. He turned to Doll and nodded his head. They walked into the bar and an immediate wave of warmth, loud chatter and music.
Doll’s eyes ran over the layout of the room automatically and Jeremy slunk off towards the back of the bar, looking like he was heading to the male toilets. It was a routine they’d quickly made habit. Wherever they went they sized up potential danger elements and always knew their exits. Doll walked over to the bar even as she looked around the room and saw what they had come for. A pool table with two guys looking like they were halfway through a game on it. Jeremy walked back to her, his head still hunched down, his hands still in his pockets.
“Two doors – one fire exit on the side and one back entrance with stairs.” He said in a low voice glancing up at her. Doll nodded her head. It was a standard layout. “What do you want to drink?”
Jeremy looked over at the bar. “Do I have to?” He asked wrinkling up his nose. The smells of the bar were strong and fairly overwhelming when coming from a clean environment like the country. Alcohol reeked out of the pores of the patrons in the bar. Jeremy didn’t see the glamour of the purpose in drinking that stuff. Doll kind of figured the heavy smells of the bar probably hid the stink of not having washed in a while off them.
“Of course not. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to Jer.” Doll said in a low, warm voice, holding eye contact with him. They both weren�
�t yet used to life outside of what they’d known. Jeremy looked down and away automatically. Doll sensed his shame. He’d been beaten into submissiveness even when he was submissive. They both had.
But Doll knew they had to blend or they’d stand out. She would never force Jeremy to do anything he did not want to do of his own free will. What little he had left of it. And she knew he felt the same way towards her. The Alpha Pack had forced them to do everything and as a result it had taken almost everything from who they were, that was why they leaned on each other so heavily. That was how they survived.
“Soft drink?” She asked gently.
“Sure. Lemonade please. No ice cubes.” Doll turned around to the bar and waited till she had the attention of the bar girl and ordered Jeremy’s lemonade with no ice cubes and a beer for herself. She paid the girl and handed Jeremy his drink.
They both looked over at the pool table area. The game she’d noticed earlier had finished and anew game had started up. Doll and Jeremy watched from a distance. Doll’s eyes taking in the two male pool players and everything about them. Both males were fairly tall, definitely taller than her five foot eight inches. But that was okay. One male had blonde hair and blue eyes, the other was the opposite with his brown hair and brown eyes combination.
She looked at the way their hair was styled, the stubble on their face, the clothes they wore, and the body language they used unconsciously in playing the pool game. Doll took her time sipping her bottled beer, watching the pool game. If she’d honed one ability from all her time at the hands of the Alpha Pack, it was patience. The ability to wait things out. When you had nothing else, it was what you did. And it was something she now knew, she could use to hers and Jeremy’s advantage.
By the time the game was nearing its end the bar girl leaned on the bar top from behind the other side next to her. “Don’t worry about Luke and Dale, they always hog that thing, just go over there and demand a game. Unless that’s not what actually interests you.” There was a slight laugh to the end of her words and Doll turned her head to look back at the bar girl and straightened up taller. No humour in her face. Doll could smell that the bar attendant was human.
“Sex, humans take it so lightly. Like it’s everything, and means nothing. Like it’s the only reason to look at another being.” There was nothing sexual in the way she studied the two males playing pool. She could care less about sex. Sex for Doll was just something you used or had used against you. It was that simple.
“Whatever.” The bar girl muttered and put up her hands in mock surrender and wandered back off to the other end of the bar.
When Doll turned back around the two guys, Luke and Dale had finished their game and were clasping hands. Pool cues were rested against the pool table. One of the males picked up his beer and sculled the remainder of it before putting it back down on the table and slipping his Jacket on. As he turned to go, the remaining male, spotted Doll looking at him. He smiled at her. Doll’s eyes widened.
She felt trapped, even though nothing held her down. She didn’t think for a moment or two that she could move. Her heat beat raced. She wasn’t used to the attention of another male like this. Never like this. She fought the urge to lower her head and subvert her eyes. Panic raced through her, before she mentally told herself to get a god damn grip. She hated being the way she was. A scared pathetic being and a lonely, scared werewolf.
“Want a game?” Luke Charleston spotted the female at the bar as his friend turned to leave their regular hangout. It was hard not to notice her, she was the only person in the room, staring at him, hard. He didn’t know what to make of it.
He was fairly certain he didn’t know her. She was pretty enough though. Her face was slightly flushed, probably from coming in out of the cold night air and her brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she was in tight jeans and a heavy woollen winter coat that came to her hip height.
There was nothing particularly stand out special about her, that made Luke think he should know who she was. So he decided to do what he did best with female company. Flirt. It was kind of a natural reaction for him, no matter who the female was. That was when he noticed the guy next to her who’s back had been to him, turn his head to the side to look at the female. Luke opened his mouth ready to apologise, not realising she was clearly with someone when she cut him off.
“Shouldn’t that be, aren’t you game?” Doll fired back flippantly. She carried her half drunk beer over to the pool table and set it down on it’s edge. It was time to man up or shut up, she silently told herself.
The brunette male with brown eyes smiled widened and he laughed lightly. “Always.” He replied watching her walk over to the table. She was around five foot eight. When she was at the table, he could smell the werewolf scent on her. Which probably explained why she was open to his obvious flirtation attempt. Most werewolves were fairly sexual creatures. Luke thought more so than humans. Werewolves did tend to gravitate towards one another. Although he’d never had a problem attracting either species amongst other things.
“So what are the stakes?” Doll asked picking up the abandoned pool cue at the far end of the table. Ensuring she kept distance from him, that she was at least half a pool table length between them. He was a tall guy, around six foot six if she had to guess.
“Stakes?” Luke repeated back at her, picking up his own pool cue and chalking the end of it.
Doll looked around the table at him and tried her hardest to smile sweetly. “And you looked like a guy who would make this worth my while.” She said back at him. Luke felt his werewolf stir, he liked being playful. And this werewolf was kind of flirting back with him, but she seemed kind of angry too.
“Well now,” He said gathering up the pool balls and placing them in the black triangle in the centre of the table. “That depends on what you consider worthwhile. A drink maybe?” He pulled the black triangle away from the balls in the centre of the table.
Doll looked at the clock on the wall. Her stomach was starting to hurt. She was hungry. If she started at drinks with this guy, it could go on all night. She didn’t want to keep Jeremy waiting. She would give him money to get a meal, but she knew he’d never leave the bar without her to get it. But she doubted they had enough money for food and a roof over their heads for the night ahead. And Seattle seemed to be unbearably cold. And after travelling all day and for the most of the day before, they needed to rest, somewhere.
“What about first game, loser decides.” She said looking up at him. He looked harmless, like a good guy. But Doll knew how much looks could be deceiving. She could smell the werewolf in him. He was the first werewolf since being free of the Alpha Pack that Doll and Jeremy had crossed paths with.
Whilst the idea of being anywhere near another werewolf that wasn’t Jeremy silently terrified her, Doll figured she could handle a one on one situation if it came down to that, when she wasn’t being ganged up on. Especially in a public setting, where she could always scream her lungs out if she needed to. Not that she ever wanted to. Or even wanted to think like that, but she did and it was how it was. All because of what she’d become, a shadow of her former self if she’d even existed before the entrapment with the Alpha Pack.
“Interesting.” Luke murmured in a low but audible voice, surveying the table and then looking at her. She either was giving him the opportunity to lose the game and therefore call the shots on what would be won, but at a price, he had to give up control of the game.
Luke wasn’t used to losing very much. Luke also wasn’t used to not being in control of situations, or women for that matter. He lead, they followed, everyone had a good time, that was basically how it went. Or she was already giving herself the chance to do just that, so she was in control of what was at stake.
Luke knew she would know he was a werewolf and barely any werewolf he knew, ever let anyone call the shots on them. They were always in control, even the beta werewolves had more sense of control than humans did. He sensed the spike of f
ear in her, but it seemed to still. She looked tense and yet she flirted with him suggestively? She didn’t make sense. Luke couldn’t get an immediate read on her. She seemed like a contradiction. Or maybe she was just the type of woman he wasn’t used to. Maybe she was trouble. Luke’s werewolf paced, it liked trouble and he wasn’t exactly adverse to it either.
“I’m Luke, by the way. Luke Charleston.” He said falling back into charming mode and raising his hand for her to shake, like a good sportsman.
“Doll.” She replied, extending her own hand and shaking his. She held his gaze as they shook. No way was she backing out of this opportunity to rip him off out of some much needed money.
“Doll?” He repeated.
“Doll, easy to remember.” She replied quickly.
Luke looked at her, like he was likely to forget that attitude. Hostile yet challenging all wrapped in a black winter coat and a pretty face bereft of make-up. She wasn’t like the females who normally chased him that was for sure.
Luke nodded his head. “You break.” He said stepping back from the table. Doll’s eyes darted over his face and she walked alongside the pool table to the head of it.
The trick to hustling someone out of his or her money was to not make it too obvious. Even if you did come on strong like she had. But she had done that for a reason. She’d assessed the type of guy he was by his body language and game play. She’d made a call on it. And whilst from the bar she hadn’t been able to tell he was a werewolf, she could tell he was a competitive guy.
She couldn’t do a weak and timid approach if she were really going to hook a competitive guy before getting him to layout the cash her and Jeremy desperately needed. The thing she’d learned whilst being held by the Alpha Pack, was how to read men. In particular, alpha males, since she had been surrounded by them, constantly.
She was getting all kinds of alpha signals off Luke. Of course by telling her she could break first, Luke had shown her two things. That he was used to control, and that he wanted to see her form. That was the point to letting a stranger break first. Which meant he probably suspected she was hustling him already.
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