by Mia Rose
“Morning,” Edmund said slowly.
“We should probably talk.” Noelle yawned.
“Yes, I think so,” Edmund nodded as he spoke.
He walked over to the bed and sat on the edge of it, with his back facing Noelle. He could feel her shifting as she sat up in the bed, but then to Edmund’s surprise, she wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace.
“I know that sharing all of that with me last night must have been a hard thing to do,” Noelle said. “I just wanted to say thank you for trusting me with your secret.”
Edmund felt like he was going to burst. He could not understand her blanket acceptance of all of this. In truth, he himself, still had countless questions regarding everything that happened.
“Noelle.” Edmund sighed. “Did you understand what I told you last night? I’m really not sure how you are so okay with it.”
Noelle nodded and explained, “I know, it must be weird coming from me since I am so hard pressed to find a cure for my family, but I guess it’s time I share a secret, too. You are not the first one I have been with.”
“Not the first one you have been with? What in the world are you talking about?” Edmund could feel his frustrations starting to bubble up.
He was tired of beating around the bush with her and he needed her to fully understand what he was saying. This would be paramount in order for them to move forward in finding the cure.
“Edmund, you are not the first werewolf I have been with, it’s okay.” Noelle smiled at him in an effort to comfort him.
Edmund stared at Noelle —he was speechless. He hadn’t known what to expect from her, but he could honestly say that this was not something that he ever thought she would say. A part of him felt betrayed in a way —how could someone who so vehemently went against werewolves find herself sleeping with one?
“Okay,” Edmund said, rubbing his face with his hands. “Okay, let’s back up here because I think that you and I are on two separate pages.”
Noelle finally released him from her hug and she stood up from the bed. Edmund did the same and they faced each other with only the bed separating them, but to Edmund it felt like the world.
“I’m really not following you,” Noelle said, clearly frustrated with the conversation. “Last night, you told me that you had been bitten by one of your test subjects. So, what am I missing here?”
Edmund nodded. “You asked me before if I’d ever tried the cure before on a person, and I told you that I had. I have tried it on a few people —one of them being myself.”
Noelle took a step back. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, although it made perfect sense. The werewolf had bitten him, but he had a cure for it, so of course he was not a werewolf. She felt so incredibly stupid —how could she have told him the truth about her and Declan.
“So,” Noelle said as she struggled to find the right words —to find any words. “So, you are not a werewolf. You are a hunter who has been cured.”
Edmund nodded, and his lips were drawn into a tight line. Noelle could tell that it was going to be a battle to convince him that this was not typical behavior —she didn’t go around sleeping with werewolves at every chance she got.
“Edmund, I’m sorry,” Noelle said, walking around the bed to try to get closer to him. But he took a few steps back away from her. She shook her head, feeling ridiculous that tears were coming into her eyes. “Edmund, I…”
He held up his hand to stop her from talking. “We will have to deal with your confession later. Right now, it’s imperative that you understand what it is you will need to be prepared for with this cure.”
Noelle nodded, wiping away the stubborn tears from her face. Just then, there was a small knock at the door. Her nana opened the door a crack and stuck her head inside.
“Good morning, everyone,” Nana said.
“Good morning,” Edmund said, walking over to the door and pulling it open enough for her to walk inside the room.
“So,” Nana said excitedly, “what’s our plan of attack?”
Edmund looked over at Noelle and Noelle looked right back at him. He shrugged his shoulders and made his way out of the room.
Her nana looked between Noelle and Edmund and said, “Uh oh. Looks like trouble in paradise to me.”
“He knew that he would never find it in a human woman again.”
Chapter 10
Discoveries
“Sometimes, you say too much, too soon.”
Declan drove home and didn’t even think twice about Amanda. She was beautiful, granted, but there was nothing truly striking about her to him. He wanted so badly to forget about the night with Noelle, but this only served to make things worse because it highlighted just how special Noelle was, as both a person and a lover.
Declan stared straight ahead as he pulled into the parking lot. He had his game plan in order. First, he would need to contact Edmund to speak with him about the money that they had gathered. Second of all, he would need to bring up their little battle in the woods. After that, he would need to call together a pack meeting to announce some very important news.
He got out of his car and went upstairs to Gabriel’s apartment. When Gabriel pulled open the door, Declan was surprised to find Megan sitting there.
“Gabriel?” Declan said as way of an introduction.
“Hey, man.” Gabriel smiled sheepishly, running his hands through his hair, very nervously. Declan looked at Megan who just pretended not to see him standing in the doorway.
“Um, when you’re finished here, can you meet me in my office? We need to come up with a plan of action.”
“Sure.” Gabriel nodded and then he closed the door.
Declan could hear hushed whispers on the other side, followed by giggling. Although Declan was happy that Gabriel was able to find someone, he also felt a bit envious. And of course, it didn’t help that the woman Gabriel wound up with was Noelle’s cousin.
Declan made his way to his office and pulled open the door, he was dreading the amount of paper work sitting there for him. He sat down at his desk, and just as he feared, he saw many envelopes with a red stamp on them announcing that they were past due.
“Fuck,” Declan muttered under his breath. It was becoming impossible for him to be the manager of this place and be the alpha of the pack. He was trying to squeeze himself into two separate lives and it was not working out.
He began sorting out the mail into three piles. A “This can wait” pile, a “This needs attention immediately” pile and a “This is so late we’re fucked” pile. Once that was finished, he pulled up the apartment portal to see the status of the rental payments for the current month. Not surprisingly, he found that over ten different tenants had not paid yet, for the month. Looking closer at the list of names, he saw that seven of those were the pack members who had been killed. A small lump formed in his throat and he had to push away the thought, immediately.
There was knock on the door and Declan (expecting it to be Gabriel) yelled for him to come in. Instead of seeing Gabriel there, he saw Avril.
“Hey, Declan.” Avril smiled at him, her eyes huge.
“Avril, hey, what’s up? What can I do you for?”
Her eyes lit up and she said, “I was just wondering if there was anything I could do to, you know, help you out or something.”
“Actually,” Declan said, “there is something you can do.”
He began scribbling on a piece of paper the names of people who hadn’t paid rent and their unit numbers.
He handed it to Avril and said, “I need you to knock on these tenant’s doors and let them know that if we don’t receive their payments by the end of the week, we will have to evict them. Can you do that for me?”
Declan thought that she might protest, but to his surprise she took the paper from his hand and nodded emphatically. She left his office and shut the door closed behind her.
Declan looked down at his desk and began opening the past due pieces first. He was
about halfway through when there was another knock on his door.
“Come in,” Declan shouted. Gabriel pushed open the door and stepped inside. “Ah, good of you to join me, Gabriel. Thank goodness it wasn’t a life and death situation.”
Gabriel half-smiled and shrugged. He said, “We got a little carried away.”
“Save me the details.” Declan laughed. “You sure know how to pick them!”
Gabriel smiled again and said, “The heart wants what the heart wants.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Declan mumbled. “So, on to our first order of business. How soon can we get the money for Edmund?”
“I can go to the bank today to have it wired into my account. It usually takes a few days before the funds can become available for use, so I’d say by the beginning of next week.”
“Okay, that will have to work.” Declan looked down and said, “I will have to reach out to him to let him know about this. He can let us know when he will be able to get started and when we can expect to have this cure.”
Gabriel looked at Declan and asked, “How do you know we can trust him?”
“We don’t,” Declan admitted, “but it’s all we have. All we have right now.” Gabriel nodded in agreement, fully understanding their situation.
“Next,” Declan said, “we will need to call a pack meeting for tomorrow so it will give me enough time to meet with Edmund. We will have to discuss this and also, two other important things.”
“What two things?”
“Well, first of all, I need an assistant or someone to help me handle both jobs. You are my beta wolf, so you’ve got my back in regard to training and such, but I can’t keep up with all of this office shit. We’ll need someone who knows about us.”
“Right.” Gabriel nodded. “So, someone from the pack.”
“Exactly,” Declan said.
“And the second thing?” Gabriel asked.
Declan smiled and shook his head slightly. “That will have to wait for the meeting.”
Gabriel laughed and said, “Okay, boss man.”
“Now, there’s final thing I wanted to talk to you about. How are the newest members doing? Obviously, Megan has had no trouble adjusting here.” Gabriel smiled at the mention of her name and Declan found it difficult to keep himself from rolling his eyes.
“They’re coming around, I think,” Gabriel started. “The other pack members were not thrilled about them joining the trainings to watch, but I think everyone has come to terms with it at this point.”
Declan nodded and asked, “Has anyone transformed yet?”
“No one yet,” Gabriel said. “Except for Garett when he was first here. We are going to wait until we go out on a hunt together.”
“Good idea,” Declan said. “Any idea as to when that will be?”
“I was actually hoping to take them, tonight?”
“You think that they’re ready?”
“I don’t think any of us are ever ready until it happens.”
Declan nodded. He knew exactly what Gabriel meant. Turning for the first time was excruciating, but once it was done and you were finally able to feel the intensity of your senses, you felt a connection. And not only within yourself, but also with the world around you. It was a beautiful experience and Declan had never come across a wolf who hadn’t completely enjoyed the freedom of it all.
“Alright then,” Declan said, “tonight they turn.”
Edmund felt his phone vibrating in his pocket as he drove to the hospital. He made up some excuse to Noelle about being called into work so that he could leave the house. He just wanted time and space to really think about things —mainly concerning her unexpected confession.
It now made sense to him why she had been so calm and rational after he had told her his story. He honestly didn’t know how to feel about it —he had spent his entire adult life researching ways to kill werewolves more efficiently. Including putting the hunter in less danger, and he thought that Noelle shared that same ultimate goal. Now, he wasn’t so sure anymore.
Edmund pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and climbed out of his car. He flashed his badge at the door and he was granted access through the employee only entrance. He made his way up to his office and locked the door behind him.
He thought back to the last time that he had been in here. The young woman —Aria, had been standing in the hallway, pretending to be waiting for him. He led her into his office where they’d talked about random side effects and illnesses. It didn’t take long at all before Edmund knew that Aria was not sick with anything. He had thought that maybe she had just taken a liking to him. In truth, Edmund would be stupid to say that he was not at all affected by her beauty. He’d come to find that she was actually a werewolf. And now she was dead.
He considered the idea that (maybe) he had gone out to dinner with her for a reason. So that when they went back to his house and he had his way with her —then he too would have been with a werewolf. What would he have done if he’d found out after the fact about what she was? Would he have been able to kill her? He wanted so badly for the answer to be yes —but he knew it was not that simple. Edmund imagined how difficult it must have been for Noelle, especially once she found out that it was a werewolf. Did she give herself away as a hunter? Did she kill the wolf after? How did you even come to terms with all that?
Edmund’s brain was working at full speed now that he was by himself. He was considering all sides and trying to come up with a list of questions which would help him understand the situation better. Ones that might guide him as far as how he should react.
He felt his phone vibrating once again, but this time it was a text message. He pulled out his phone and it read, “We have the money.”
Edmund knew that this was Declan. He still did not know what Declan had figured out about the previous night, but he had to face the music at some point, at one time or another.
Edmund pressed the call button and the phone rang a few times before Declan answered, “Hello?”
“Declan, can you meet somewhere in an hour?”
“Tell me where and I’ll be there.”
Edmund hung up the phone and sent him the address to the hospital library. There was a room all the way at the back of the library where Edmund would usually sit to focus on whatever case he was working on at that time.
Edmund called Noelle and she picked up her phone on the first ring. “Edmund?”
“Yes, hi Noelle,” he said, “can you meet me in forty-five minutes? We should talk.”
“Sure.” Noelle and Edmund both hung up the phone and he forwarded the same address to her.
Edmund walked over to the library room and sat down, thinking about how he wanted to handle the situation. This is what he knew: He had the money to start his lab, now he needed the space; he needed to create a cure for Noelle’s family as soon as possible because their window was ending, and fast; he would need to create a cure for silver poisoning for Declan, or at least something that he would believe was a cure.
Noelle arrived first just as Edmund had wanted. She sat down at the table across from Edmund and didn’t say anything.
Edmund spoke first, “I understand it must have been hard for you to admit that to me and I understand that it was probably a mistake. You didn’t know that the person was a werewolf until after the fact, am I correct?”
Noelle nodded, but didn’t speak. Although that was partly true, it definitely didn’t lead him to believe that she carried on the relationship, even after finding out what he was.
“Right,” Edmund said, “so, now about the cure. Here’s what you need to know. As I told you before, we need to get this to them before they turn. Once they turn, there is no way to reverse the genetic mutation. I know this because after I tried the cure, I tried to use it on some of my patients to turn them human again, but it never worked. It never worked after they became a wolf.”
“Okay,” Noelle said, “so, how can we make sure that they don’t tu
rn before we can get them the cure?”
“Well, this leads me to my next point. I was contacted recently by someone seeking out a cure for silver. It is my understanding that he is the alpha of a local pack of werewolves, so I believe that he is probably the one who can help us with this, if we play our cards right.”
Noelle’s head was beginning to spin. Edmund had been contacted by a local alpha? Edmund knew Declan?
“He will be meeting us here shortly, to discuss how we all want to move forward with this,” Edmund said. “I told you yesterday that I would need funding, and he has somehow managed to pull it together.”
Noelle nodded her head, unable to speak. She could not believe the reality of the situation. She had just let Edmund believe that she had sex with a werewolf as a one-off situation, and now, the man that she had been with was coming to meet both of them.
“So, last night…” Noelle trailed off, “you didn’t kill him because you knew that he was the man you were trying to help?”
Edmund shook his head. “Don’t misunderstand me, Noelle. I have little interest in helping him, but I do have every interest in helping you and your family. So, once we get the money, we can start working on the cure.”
“Okay,” Noelle said dumbly.
“And just so you are aware, the longer that we wait to administer the cure, the more werewolf traits will stick with them for the rest of their lives.”
“What does that mean?” Noelle asked. “I thought you said this will turn them human again?”
“No,” Edmund corrected, “I said it would reverse the effects of the genetic mutation. But, as I said, the longer we wait, the harder that reversal becomes. I waited a few days before I created a cure for myself and I still maintain some traits.”
“What… traits?” Noelle asked, afraid of what his answer might be.
“Well, I am able to see and hear better than most humans, which I have to say definitely helps as a doctor. And then on top of that —I heal quickly.”