by Mia Rose
The wallpaper on the fourth floor of the Clifton Towers was far more pleasant than any other floor in the building. It wasn’t decorated with the older, tan wallpaper -littered with coffee stains and hand prints that covered all the other floors. Instead, it included a darker wallpaper with thinner stripes of silver.
Declan moved past the other apartments, and muffled sounds could be heard even without Declan’s superior hearing. He approached the last door in the hall, and a gold plaque hung above his door. On the plaque, SUPER had been printed in a serious, black font.
He opened the door and the usual smell that came from leaving the bedroom window ajar was absent. The air felt stiff and stale, it clung to Declan as he moved past the living room and into his bedroom.
“Cassidy? Are you around? I’ve got some bad news.”
A low moan escaped from the restroom and Cassidy stepped out. Her long, blonde hair was loose around her neck and her skin was drenched in sweat. Declan rushed to her side, and he scooped her legs out from underneath her and moved over to the bed.
“What’s wrong? Are you sick? Did you eat something bad?”
Cassidy shook her head and rolled on her side. Her fingers were unsteady as they searched for the bottom of the thin, spaghetti strap, tank top that she wore. She rolled it up and a big, nasty gash sat on top of her back. Declan narrowed his eyes, noting that parts of the gash had already begun to heal.
“What happened?” he whispered.
Cassidy rolled over so that she could face him and parted her lips to say, “I went out for a hunt alone last night.”
Declan’s eyes widened, he’d been in his office all night the night before and remembered turning Cassidy down for a hunt and a romp upstairs after. He fought through the feelings of guilt that were trying to settle into his mind.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I thought you came to bed late last night, I didn’t think that you went out.”
Cassidy shook her head, “I came to bed late because I spent an hour in the woods licking my wounds.”
The saliva of a female alpha like Cassidy could speed up the healing process for injuries that weren’t fatal. It was a trait that Declan admired, and one that his particular breed of wolf could not replicate.
“I was hunting, and I tried to run through a clearing, but a woman jumped out and cut me with her blade. Declan, I think that she was waiting for me.”
Her eyes were wide and bright with fear.
Declan wrapped his arm around her neck and said, “I’m sorry. Was it just a regular human woman?” He kissed soft skin in between her neck and shoulder.
“She had to have been some sort of hunter. It seemed like she really knew how to track me. I didn’t get a glimpse at her face because things would have turned ugly if I didn’t run to tend to my wounds.”
“Was she alone?”
Cassidy nodded, “That’s what’s even stranger. I know that most humans don’t even believe in werewolves but here was someone that waited for who knows how long for a wolf to appear.” She raised her bright blue eyes to Declan’s face, “Are they hunting again?”
The question came out like a whisper, as if she was afraid that saying it any louder might make it too real. Thoughts of Aster’s stupidity crept up in the back of Declan’s mind and he batted it away.
There’s no reason to make her worry even more. I’m going to have to handle him on my own.
“I don’t know,” he said, carefully moving his arm underneath her body and pulling her close to him. Cassidy’s natural smell had always been more soothing than a prescription chill-pill. He inhaled, running his hands through her hair.
“I won’t let them come for us. Not any of us.”
Chapter 4
Please
“I need to, please…”
Declan brushed past Gabriel in the hallways of Clifton Towers.
Gabriel whipped around and called after him, “Declan! I need to know what you need me to do about our problem.”
Declan slowed his steps and sighed. “Right now? I’ve barely started my day.”
Declan could hear the shit-eating grin that Gabriel wore as he said, “Are you too tied up in playing super to handle your alpha duties?”
You’re making me regret pulling you out of that ditch every day, Gabriel.
About five years ago, shortly after Cassidy joined Declan’s rapidly growing pack, Gabriel had been recently turned and was wreaking havoc on the wildlife in the woods. He pawed through the thick nests of birds, devoured does and bucks, leaving their rotting corpses in his wake. As if daring someone to find him. However, fate would have it that Declan and Cassidy did try to find him. It took two days of nose to the ground searching, but they found him; he had fallen into a man-made ditch.
Declan suspected that humans must have driven out at one point and wanted to bury something that they didn’t want anyone else to find, but then backed out after digging a sizable hole. At the time, Declan debated with Cassidy to decide whether he was just a common wolf with a big appetite, or a small threat that they would have to eliminate so that he didn’t eat all the food available in the woods. Cassidy had been the one to jump inside of the hole, despite Declan’s protests, and inspect him. When Gabriel opened his tired hazel eyes to see another wolf hovering over him, he snapped at her. Declan propelled himself into the hole as well, where both wolves had a stare down with Cassidy in between them.
Gabriel was the first to look away, and with a split-second of hesitation, Declan reverted to his human state. Gabriel’s eyes widened upon realizing that not only were they werewolves, they were superior werewolves. They were far more skilled, and more comfortable being a wolf and a human. Gabriel traveled back to Clifton Towers with them, and he’d been a pain in Declan’s ass ever since. At the very least, Gabriel was a useful pain in the ass, being the second strongest male in their pack. And making him just right for the role of beta.
Most days, Declan was confident that everything would be fine if he were killed while out on a hunt. Gabriel would step up and protect the pack, protect Cassidy, and protect their secret. It was on days like today, where Gabriel’s ambition was a niggling reminder that Declan was only one screw up away from losing control of his pack.
He turned around said, “I’m still thinking about it. I’m going to grab a coffee first, how about you wait in my office?”
Gabriel scowled, but nodded and replied, “I’ll be down there in a bit.”
Declan escaped the hallway before Gabriel could come up with another way to question him. Declan burst through the front doors of the Clifton Towers and braced himself for another day of relentless heat. He opened the doors of the cafe, and nodded at the barista from the other day. Declan had snatched a crumpled twenty off his end table before leaving; today’s drink probably wouldn’t be free.
He approached the counter and flashed the twenty at her, “It’s on me today,” he teased.
She blushed and said, “What are we having today?”
“The usual.”
He handed over the bill and stretched as she cashed him out. He turned his head to the left, and then to the right; stretching the muscles on either side. Declan groaned and lowered his arms but not before having caught a glimpse of the woman from yesterday.
He hovered near the espresso bar but tried to keep his gaze anything but suspicious as he inspected her. One of her legs was neatly tucked underneath the other. She peeled the pages of an old magazine back as she sipped from an iced coffee that dangled precariously from her fingertips.
Everything about her was so perfectly poised. Not a single hair was out of place, and she seemed completely unaffected by the summer humidity. She brought her drink closer to her lips and took a long sip. A pair of plump, pinkish lips grasped the straw. Declan’s mind went wild with ideas of how those lips would look wrapped around an erect shaft, or maybe as they planted butterfly kisses down his chest.
“Declan?”
Declan shook his head, shaking the tho
ughts loose.
What’s wrong with you? It’s like you’ve never seen an attractive woman before.
He turned to the barista and took his drink, “Thank you.”
He turned to leave, and that's when the mysterious woman rose out of her seat and walked toward him. He couldn’t peel his gaze off her as she moved forward; her snug, yellow sundress highlighted every subtle curve that her lean frame possessed.
She smiled, her eyes connecting with his… as if she knew that he’d been staring the whole time. Maybe she did know. She chewed on her lip as she moved toward the counter, then fell in line behind a regular preparing to order their breakfast sandwich.
“Good Morning,” she said.
He nodded at her, his hands tightening around his drink.
“Morning,” Declan replied. He headed straight for the front door. He could feel her piercing blue eyes staring a hole into his back as he left.
Exactly twenty minutes from when Declan agreed to meet with Gabriel, Gabriel pushed the door open and barged inside of his office. Instead of walking around Declan’s desk, he relaxed against the wall and folded his arms.
“So, who’s going to do it?”
“I was thinking that I would. Why? Did you want to watch or something?” Declan remarked. He rotated his office chair so that he could extend his legs freely.
Gabriel considered that for a moment before replying, “I feel like it couldn’t hurt. Being dismissed by the alpha and the beta of the pack.”
Declan took a sip of his coffee, noting how it tasted a little sweeter today. The chocolate notes lingered on his tongue, similar to how the woman from the coffee shop still ran wild in his mind. He couldn’t escape the way his mind replayed how her dress swished against her body. Her skin looked like it might feel like silk, and taste sweet, like a juicy strawberry or a dash of chocolate.
“Declan! Are you even listening? Or are you just letting me talk until I get bored?”
“You’re welcome to do that, but I figured you might want to discuss Aster.” Declan smirked upon watching Gabriel struggle to contain his frustrated groan.
It’s fun, being the boss.
“We’ll take care of Aster, maybe we’ll take him out to the woods and do what we need to do. Someone might think that a frighteningly large wolf just ‘happened to die.’”
Gabriel sighed, and took out his phone. His thumb scrolled through bright-white pages on the internet before Declan spoke.
“What are you doing?”
Gabriel’s eyes widened and he held up his phone, “Checking news alerts. Check this out.”
Gabriel handed his phone over to Declan who read the headline.
Local Teen Dies from Injuries Sustained in a Fight with a High School Student
“If Aster had any chance of living before, it’s completely gone now.” Gabriel said.
Declan’s eyes scanned the rest of the news posts, the reporter rehashed the grisly details of Aster’s fight with the other boy. There were eyewitness accounts from other students, saying that it was like something they had never seen before. Fortunately, doctors at the local hospital surmised that the football player, Riley Howard, had died from some sensitive tissue being ravaged during the fight. That infection had spread because Riley didn’t go to the hospital soon enough afterward.
“I can’t believe this.” Declan said, and Gabriel’s angry eyes stared back at him. His nostrils flared, and his eyes darted all over the room, looking anywhere but Declan’s face.
“I know that you want to do it now. We’ll wait until later, meanwhile, I’ll let everyone know that we need to lie low for the next week or so. No one can be seen leaving this building at night,” Declan said, running ideas through his mind.
He tried to remember if he’d thought of a plan for this before, or for one member of the pack potentially compromising everyone else. Declan turned toward his monitor and logged onto his email client.
He sent a message to every member of the pack:
Good Morning,
I’d like to express that we will be taking extra care in being unseen and unsuspected for the next few weeks. No one leave the building past midnight, it looks very suspicious.
He pressed the send button and opened his mouth to tell Gabriel what he expected, and the door flung open and Cassidy collapsed in the doorway.
Gabriel slid his arms around her middle and pulled her up, then she rested against his shoulder and took big gulps of air.
“Declan, there’s a bunch of press outside.”
Declan stood up so fast that his office chair behind him was sent toppling to the floor.
“What?!”
He leaped across the desk and transferred Cassidy from Gabriel’s arms to his. She blinked, then she lifted her eyebrows as if they both weighed ten pounds each.
“There’s press outside because of the boy that died from the high school,” she said.
“I know that, but you’re getting worse.”
Gabriel turned his head as Declan pulled up Cassidy’s shirt and revealed a pulsing, angry, red welt. It was emanating in the center of her back. The wound that appeared to be healing the day before was leagues worse now, and the skin looked as if it could separate if Declan so much as flicked it too hard.
“Get her upstairs,” Declan commanded and handed Cassidy over to Gabriel.
Gabriel nodded, and left the office with Cassidy in his arms. Declan hissed in pain and the crescent moon-shaped scar behind his ear burned.
His hand drifted up to the sensitive skin, and he rubbed it with the pad of his thumb. This isn’t good. Declan took a deep breath, and headed toward the front entrance of the Clifton. A group of eight to twelve reporters were outside, shoving their microphones in Declan’s face. News trucks were parked on the opposite side of the street, hoping to pick up snippets of the story.
Declan pushed the doors open and said, “I’m the building super, what are you doing here? You’re blocking the entrance to the apartments. I’m going to have to call the police to clear things up if you guys don’t clear out.”
“Sir, do you know anything personal about the young man that killed Riley Howard? He’s reported to live in this building.”
Another reporter chimed, “Do you think that Aster’s previous runaway status is part of why he savagely attacked that young man? From a life of living on the streets?”
More like from a life of unpunished stupidity.
Declan waved his hands and said, “Clear off my property or I will have each reporter here forcibly removed.”
The crowd buzzed with protests, and the reporters did their best to elbow their way further up the steps and inside the Clifton Towers. Declan took his phone out of his pocket and held it out in front of the crowd.
“I’m calling the cops!”
The reporters dispersed in twos, a few stubborn journalists returned to their parked cars but didn’t leave the building. That was part of what Declan expected but he at least could get them away from the front door. They had managed to stay in Clifton Towers for years without being discovered, and now everyone that was a werewolf in Declan’s care was at risk.
I don’t know what I can do. We need to get all this attention off the building. I won’t let them take my pack.
He scanned the area, and upon noting that most of the reports had cleared out, he sought out Gabriel.
“Gabriel! We’re moving, now!” Declan shouted, as he moved up the steps and sprinted to the second floor.
Gabriel met him outside of Aster’s door a moment later, and Declan gave him a nod of encouragement.
Gabriel lifted his muscled leg and forced it into the door. Aster’s head popped out of a thick bundle of blankets and a terrified yelp escaped him as Gabriel rushed his bed. Declan hovered close behind, watching as Aster struggled against Gabriel’s grasp.
Aster, while he was gifted with abilities that would give him more strength than the average teenage boy, he could not compare to the hulking mass of man that
was Gabriel. Gabriel had been a werewolf for too long and was far too good at it to let Aster wriggle out of his grasp.
Gabriel brandished his claws and dragged them down Aster’s face; the boy’s eyes turned a fierce bright blue as his body attempted to become a wolf to preserve his life. His hands jumped at his sides, unable to reach any vulnerable spot on Gabriel. Declan walked forward as Aster’s bloody face continued to fall apart. He sighed, extending his own hauntingly long claws.
“Please,” passed Aster’s lips and Declan shook his head.
“I’ve got more than you to think about. I can’t let this one go, Aster.”
Declan smiled before his face stretched, and then his jaw morphed into a pair of large wolf jaws. As Aster howled in fear, Declan leaned forward and captured Aster’s head inside of his jaw. His teeth pressed into Aster’s cheeks and Gabriel gripped the body.
Declan resurfaced with Aster’s head between his teeth and tossed it on the ground. Within that same moment, Declan’s face returned to his handsome human features.
He wiped his mouth clean and said, “Get someone from the pack in here to clean that up. I’ll take care of the press.”
“I need to, please…”
Chapter 5
Staying Put
“We will not be going anywhere!”
Noelle lifted a hot cup of coffee to her lips, her eyes were trained on the group outside. So much excitement for this early in the day. She looked over to everyone else in the coffee shop. Teens were gathered and obsessing over something on a pretty girl’s phone screen. Their shrill voices were just a bit higher than the chatter coming from the espresso bar. Noelle shook her head. I think that I’ve lost my taste for this kind of interaction. She smoothed the folds of her pale, yellow sundress.