“Congratulations!” I exchange a shocked look with Noah, but a part of me isn’t surprised. Though I wasn’t sure if Adam had hooked up with Brigette or Regina. Now I have my answer. “How long have you two been together?”
Brigette cast Noah and I a guilty glance. “Since before Noah was kidnapped, but we’ve been keeping our relationship a secret so my dad and those loyal to him in the pack wouldn’t find out.” She gives Adam a loving gaze. “Dad wouldn’t have approved, since Adam and he were at odds long before Malcolm was killed. I was afraid he’d murder Adam too.”
“So when’s the big day?” Noah asks.
Brigette’s eyes widen and she holds up her hand. “Whoa! We aren’t rushing it. We’ve both got a lot of other stuff on our plate to deal with first.”
“I’m glad you two decided to join the pack,” Adam says. “We can use all the allies we can get.”
“We don’t know what will happen when the wolves who were loyal to Dad are let out. They could still reject my alpha status and challenge the pack’s decision.”
“Which is why it’s also a good idea for you two to have extra protection on the outside,” Adam says. “There’s a chance these wolves could come after you eventually. We’re going to need to be cautious.”
“How long are they in for?” Noah frowns in obvious concern.
“Three years before they can apply for parole,” Brigette says. “But monsters have broken out of the lower levels before, or paid magic wielders to open doorways into your world from the lower levels. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.”
“Another reason why it’s so important for you to be a part of the pack and visit Glamour often,” Adam says. “To stay informed.”
A tight fist of worry knots in my gut. While life is great, I have to wonder how long it will be before we get tied up in another monster drama like the one we just escaped. I’m hoping it doesn’t arrive anytime soon.
Now there’s only one mystery left to solve. Who our potential new lead guitarist might be.
***
Chapter 16
We meet Regina at the studio where we’ve recorded our demos and online tunes. She’s her usually bubbly self, and when I remember her more mystical side I find the contrast so strange, in a good way. Inside Glamour, she was more reserved, always calm and in control. While she’s always in control in her human form too, she’s definitely more animated. And to think I never even knew about her secret life, the secret life of all my friends, until recently. I’ve gotten over being angry at them. After all, I’ve got a secret life now too, as a werewolf, so how can I judge what I’m a part of?
“Did you hear the news?” Her eyes widen and she beams.
I take a seat near the guitar stand that holds a black, V shaped Fender. “About Brigette and Adam? Yeah! That’s awesome!”
“Wait until you see their engagement party,” she chirps. “Werewolves really know how to throw a shebang you’ll never forget.”
Noah grins and raises and eyebrow. “So you know about us joining the pack then, I guess?”
She gives a slightly guilty look. “Yeah, Brigette phoned me about it last night. I’m so happy you decided to join! It’s better if us monsters stick together. If Pierre’s wolves have allies we don’t know about who aren’t in the lower levels, we might still have a fight on our hands.”
I nod, but I look away, afraid to think about another battle with supernatural creatures.
Regina mistakes this for anger directed at her. “I’m sorry I kept secrets from you for so long, Merry.” She walks close and puts a hand on my shoulder. “If I could’ve told you, I would’ve.”
“Like I said before, no worries.” I pat her hand.
While monsters are allowed to walk among humans, even interact with them, they can’t reveal their true nature, as I learned when I first encountered the world of Glamour. All my monster friends keep ramming this fact into my brain until I could recite it in my sleep. If they do reveal themselves to a human, said person must swear secrecy. And breaking that oath can result in death.
She gives me a big hug. “Cool. Thank you.” Then she glances between me and Noah, claps her hands, and gives a little jump. “Ready to meet your new lead guitarist?”
“I thought we were auditioning a couple people today?” Noah wears a curious frown as he walks up to the mike stand.
“You’ll like this one.” She winks. “Trust me.”
Then she flits out of the studio and through the control room before disappearing out of the door that leads to a main reception area.
“So who do you think it is?” I ask Noah, picking up my bass and plucking out a few chords while we wait. “Another werewolf? Maybe one of her fairy sisters?”
He laughs. “My money is on a harpy.”
“Wow, you have those, too? I really have no idea what I’ve gotten in to.”
He shakes his head and grins. “No, you don’t. But we’ll have fun figuring it out together.”
“I don’t know if anyone ever figures out Glamour.”
Our joking around stops as Regina enters the control room with a massive giant that wears a hoodie pulled low over his face. I’ve no doubt Regina talked him into this air of mystery presence. If there’s one thing I know about our manager, she’s all about putting on a performance. Taking his paw-like hand, she leads him toward the studio.
I look at my watch, wondering why Rita hasn’t shown up yet. She notoriously late, though. A few seconds later, just as Regina and the giant are walking in, she runs into the control room with her drumsticks. She smoothes a hand over her disheveled red hair and glances into the studio at me and Noah. Her eyes widen when her gaze sets on the giant.
Regina pauses in her introduction and crosses her arms under her breasts, looking mildly annoyed. Rita says nothing as she scurries behind the drum kit and sits on her stool.
I hold up a finger, indicating Regina should wait just a moment longer so I can talk to my best friend. Regina’s annoyance grows, and she taps her toe against the hardwood floor, but she waits.
“Is everything okay?” I whisper, bending close to Rita.
“Yeah, everything’s fine.” She gives a quick smile and avoids my eyes. “I just needed to feed and Andre and Brigette stayed a little longer than I thought they would.”
“You just fed,” I say, feeling a surge of suspicion. “You shouldn’t need to again already, should you?”
She rolls her eyes at me, but smiles when she says, “What’re you, my mother?”
I stare at her until she meets my gaze. When she does, I see a sheepish expression that worries me. “Are you with Andre? You know what he did to us…”
She sighs, peeks around me at the others to see how closely they’re listening. “No, I’m not with him, okay. Not technically. How’re we supposed to get busy with a werewolf nanny watching us anyway?”
“But you’re interested,” I hiss low. “Having feelings for him? Sympathy? Something is up.”
“I don’t know what’s going on,” she whisper-shouts, gesturing wildly with her hands. “Yeah, I feel something for him. Brigette said it’s probably due to the bond he and I now have. Like how you have a bond with Pierre ’cause he’s your maker. Only mine with Andre is growing stronger because he’s helping me. Look…” She glances down at her fingers then back at me. “He really is sorry for what he did. I know it’s hard to forgive him, but I think the more he proves himself, the more he deserves at least that—our forgiveness.”
I’m not impressed, to say the least. The one monster I’m not ready to forgive is Andre, but, for now, I have to let this go and trust Brigette won’t let Rita do anything stupid during the feeding and training sessions. After all, she wouldn’t want to put Glamour in any danger. Maybe Andre really can rehabilitate. Time will tell.
“Can we get this started?” the giant says in a deep, rumbling voice. “This hoodie is getting hot.” He pulls it off and I recognize our potential new band mate.
“Ugh, you
’ve completely ruined his entrance, Rita Calhoun.” Regina glares at our drummer.
Rita shrugs, looking like a shamed dog. “Sorry.”
The big guy standing near Regina is the troll bartender I met at the pub Adam took us to when we first entered Glamour. Sean, I think his name was.
Regina waves her hands in front of Sean like she’s one of those showcase girls on that old game show and he’s a brand new refrigerator. “Meet your new lead guitarist, Sean Drover.”
“You’re the troll from the bar.” I smile, and Rita gives me a confused glance.
“Nice to see you, Sean.” Noah gives him a knuckle bump. “You sure you wanna give up the pub for this place? That business has been in your family for centuries.”
The troll shrugs as he walks farther into the studio. “Change is good. Besides, Regina needs some help chaperoning you all, and it gives me an excuse to spend more time with her. Adam’s making sure the pub is taken care of.”
“So that’s who you’re with!” I blurt, and Regina starts to giggle. Now it made sense when Adam told her he’d take her back to his place, after she was drained from conjuring the portals. He meant the pub he helps Sean take care of. And here, all this time, I thought Regina was scooping up our groupies.
“I couldn’t tell you we were together before.” She glances at me and Rita. “I’ve been sneaking him into concerts for about a year now.”
I hand the Fender over to Sean as he thunders, “You guys are awesome. When Regina asked me if I wanted to try out for lead guitar, I didn’t hesitate.”
“Trolls are very musical,” Regina says proudly as she drapes an arm over Sean’s huge shoulders. “Wait till you hear him shred.”
The troll blushes and looks away. “Aww, thanks, sweetie. But I’m no Steve Vai or anything.”
“Play for us, dude!” I shout, urging on the shy troll.
He positions the guitar and adjusts his hand on the neck. Then his fingers sail over the strings and he makes the instrument wail expertly. My mouth drops open and Rita and Noah gape at him.
“I had no idea you could do that,” Noah says.
Looks like Glamour still holds a lot of surprises for all of us, I think to myself as I pick up my bass again.
“We should write a song about our new monster life,” Rita says, while she tunes her drums. “Shit, make that a whole album.”
“I get to read the lyrics first,” Regina pipes up. “Have to approve them, ya know? Can’t have human beans learning about us monster types.”
Laughing, Rita rolls her eyes. “Yeah, cause it’s not like hundreds of writers haven’t told stories about monsters before.”
“Make that millions, actually.” Sean winks and rips into another wild riff.
***
Enjoy a sizzling bonus story full of hot werewolf man love. Waking Up Werewolf is Part 1 of Waking Up Werewolf The Complete Series by C.J. Sneere, published by Wild and Lawless Writers. Please note, this is part of a serial novella, so it does have a cliffhanger ending.
Waking Up Werewolf
(Waking Up Werewolf Series Part 1)
By C.J. Sneere
Warren appreciated the perfect life he now possessed. He just doubted it would last. He chided the cynic in him for being unappreciative as he walked his and Tamara’s dog, Tulle--a Boston Terrier / Beagle mix who had to sniff everything within her path.
“That tulip smells the same as the last one you smelled,” he told the dog, bending down to give her short coat a pet. “And, anyway, tulips don’t even smell, do they?”
Yes, life was good. No, great. He’d just been promoted to head ad designer in his department at his advertising firm. Tamara had moved in with him six months ago, and their relationship had deepened. He’d decided it was time to pop the question. But, first, there was something Warren had to tell his girlfriend of two years.
It was time to come out of his closet and admit he was bisexual. If he and Tamara were going to spend the rest of their lives together--and Warren didn’t plan on getting divorced--then she needed to know everything about him. He wanted no surprises after they said ‘I do.’
He thought about their honeymoon as he and Tulle strolled down a walkway domed by hedges grown in arches.
“What about Queen Charlotte Islands, hmmm, girl?” The dog just sniffed another tulip and ignored Warren.
But he thought a trip to Haida Gwaii might be just the thing. He’d never seen the islands of his ancestors, though Grandma had told him what she remembered of Moresby. Even though he lived in Richmond, relatively close to the place of the Hadia Nation, it might as well have been a world away. Particularly when he was a kid, and he and Gran had to make due on her tiny pension and some left over from his parent’s insurance. He’d been a Surrey boy back then. How far he’d come, he mused.
Little Tulle stiffened, and the short hairs along her spine stood up. She curled her lip and focused forward as she let out a low, warning growl.
“What’s up there?”
Warren held the leash tightly and shielded his eyes against the harsh glow of the globular streetlamps. At first, he saw only darkness and hedges, but then something shifted in the shadows. Something with massive shoulders hunkered low at the end of the walkway. It rose up a bit, and he caught a glimpse of pointy ears atop a shaggy head.
“Hello?” he called, and instantly felt the fool for it. Haven’t you seen enough horror movies to know NOT to do that? he thought, then he turned on his heel and said, “Come on, Tulle. Let’s go home.”
But the thing at the end of the path growled, loud and ferocious. Fear tingled along the back of his neck. It zipped electric spikes up and down his spine. He picked up Tulle and walked faster.
The creature let out another angry snarl. Then it started to charge toward them. It’s lumbering gait made an ominous thuwp thuwp against the concrete sidewalk.
Warren put speed under his heels and ran. He dared only a quick glimpse behind him. “Oh fuck,” he blurted, when his gaze lit on a ball of powerful fur and muscle streaking closer.
Warren ran faster.
Claws dug deep into the meat of his back, tearing his t-shirt to shreds with an audible briiiiiiip. Tulle flew from his arms and landed on her feet. The dog took one look behind her, as if to say, “Sorry, dude!” and then she booked it out of there big time.
The creature smelled of wet dog and forest undergrowth. It sank powerful teeth into Warren’s shoulder and he screamed. He thrashed under the weight and strength of the beast, finally flipping onto his back and pinning the creature beneath him.
Warren reached behind him with one shaky hand, searching for his attacker’s eyeballs. With much effort, he managed to find them and jab a thumb deep into the soft, egg-like eyeball. The sensation was disgusting, but revulsion was the last thing on his mind. Survival occupied his every thought. He dug the thumb in deeper as the thing tried to thrash away. A soft pop sounded, and eyeball ran down his hand. The creature howled in pain and the claws in his back loosened then fell away.
Pain shrieked through the muscles of his back and neck. Warren touched the wetness that trickled down his clavicle. Blood, and lots of it, streaked his palm. Though his world was blurry, like someone smeared greasy fingers over his vision, he pulled a deep breath into his lungs, pushed down the weak feeling, and ran again.
The thing was in pursuit once more. He felt its hot breath on his heels. Warren thought it would take him down again, but then two gunshots sounded, followed by a whimper and a piercing series of yips. He turned to see the beast that pursued crumple into the green grass, just as he did. It looked like an oversized timber wolf, he thought, just before blackness bloomed over his sight, stealing consciousness away.
A short time later, face pressed in the cool, damp grass, Warren heard voices.
“Bastian will be happy we’ve brought down the rogue. That bastard almost got us neck deep in trouble with the humans.”
Someone nudged Warren’s knee with a foot. “Should we take thi
s one back with us, too?”
“Nah,” the man paused, and the sound of a match striking filtered into Warren’s ears. “Underground’s already overflowing. We’re gonna have to dig new tunnels at this rate. Leave him here. I’ll call an ambulance on our way out. I’m sure he’ll find his way to us eventually anyhow.”
Warren felt too weak to stand yet. He let himself drift off as the two men walked away. The next sound that awoke him was the screaming siren of an ambulance.
***
One Month Later
“Hey, babe.” Tamara rubbed Warren’s wrist. “How’re you feeling now?”
Hey took the glass of water she held out with her other hand, gulped down half of it, then replied, “I’m fine, sweetie. No worries. It was just some weird reaction to my meds, I’m sure.”
Her heart shaped face crinkled in a frown. “Weird reaction my ass. You woke up in the park again, naked and holding a headless raccoon.”
His throat went instantly dry, and he reached for the glass of water once more, draining it.
It had been one month since he’d suffered the attack in the park. His world turned upside down that evening, when he’d been mauled by a vicious, strange animal and left for dead by two mystery men. Thankfully he’d healed quickly, though he did have to take a leave from work. And Tulle was found not far off. The people who returned her kept her well fed and happy over her short stay. She gave Warren an apologetic look when he and Tamara picked her up, as if to say, “Sorry I deserted you, Dad, but he was skeery!” How could he hold a grudge against such warm, chocolate brown eyes? He forgave her without a thought.
The weirdness didn’t start again until the other night, when a full moon bloomed and climbed high in the sky. It seeped into his dreams and scratched across his brain. Illusion and reality melted together.
He was in the forest near the park, naked and alone. The moon shone silver down upon him. His limbs ached, felt separate from his body. They thrummed and stung, as if tiny beetles skittered beneath his flesh and gnawed on his nerves.
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