by Stacey Mewse
‘That’s very nice of you miss… But I’m not sure I recognize you from anywhere. May I ask how you know of me?’ He danced around the subject he wanted to tackle, wanting to tell her that he knew exactly what she was, but not daring to be the first to mention the secret that was so obvious.
Audra smirked at his response, apparently finding it amusing. ‘Oh, you are quite the local celebrity in certain circles. My family have been keeping track of you for quite some time, and have decided that now the time is right for us to introduce ourselves to you.’
Hunters mind began to race, running at a thousand miles an hour as question after question popped into his head. Who were they and what did they want from him? Why had they been keeping tabs on him and how was it possible he had not noticed their surveillance? Why had he not been approached until now? How many of them were there and why had he never scented them? … Were there more females…?
He shook his head to clear the hormone driven wolf from the forefront of his mind, his face dark beneath his then scowling brows as he spoke.
‘I think you have some explaining to do.’ His voice rumbled from his chest, he felt backed into a corner by the intrusion into his privacy and it had his wolven hackles standing on end. ‘I’m not some kind of lab specimen and I do not appreciate being watched.’ He remembered the hot, wet sensation of the beast in him burying its muzzle into the belly of that rotting male were all that time ago, and felt shame burn through him. Had they been there? Had the man been one of theirs?
Audra flinched back at the grumbling tone of his voice and curled her lip in unsuppressed fright. ‘It is necessary to keep tabs on your kind for the good of us all, whether you like it or not is entirely irrelevant.’
Hunter lurched to his feet, towering over the petite brunette and bristling with rage; biting back a smile of satisfaction when she visibly cowered away from him. ‘I think we need to have this conversation somewhere else.’ He snarled, grabbing her arm and very conscious of the wolf in him desperately begging to be released. It clamored at him to be set free, and to be allowed its revenge for the intrusion into their life.
She shrunk away from his sudden flare of aggression, digging her heels into the ground and clawing at his steely grip with desperate fingers. Her heeled shoes scuffed against the uprooted floor, and dust kicked up around them as she tried in vain to halt his motions.
Having dragged her no more than two paces Hunter stopped in his tracks, turning his head to stare down at the hand that was his own doing the beast’s bidding. His fingers were gripping so tightly that he could feel her muscles crunching beneath his grip; and suddenly he was filled with utter disgust at himself. Slowly he released her, peeling away his fingers as he pushed the beast to the back of his mind. All of a sudden he was acutely aware of how easy it would be for him to snap and lose control of himself.
Seeing the look in his eyes become less feral Audra seized her opportunity, and stumbled backwards away from him as he stared at his finger as though they were alien. For another long moment they stood in and uncomfortable silence before he looked up at her from under his eyebrows; and lowered both hands pointedly to his sides.
‘I’m sorry…’ He mumbled, shocked by his own actions and embarrassed to have let the beast in him begin to gain control so easily. ‘I don’t know what came over me…’
Audra looked him over, he looked ashamed and deflated; the weight of his secret and his apparent inability to control it hanging heavily on his shoulders. With a tiny sigh she reached out and brushed his arm with her fingertips, studying his face with apparent concern. ‘Its alright, I can understand why you might be angry, and perhaps my wording was not the best… But you are right, we must have this conversation elsewhere… Should we return to your cabin? Perhaps more familiar surroundings will help you to relax?’
Hunter nodded slowly. He highly doubted he would feel any more comfortable with a strange wolf in his home. In fact he found himself beginning to bristle at the very idea, and he suspected he was about to be delivered some bad news. Forcing a polite smile he replied with a voice laced with tension. ‘ I think it would definitely be better for us to converse in private… But the idea of you in my home has my hackles up… If you catch my drift?’
Audra’s face displayed total lack of emotion as she replied. ‘That is a fairly normal reaction which I expected from you Mr.Dalton. Just let me know if at any point you feel your emotions are starting to run out of hand, and I’ll step outside for a moment until you feel calmer.’
Hunter moved to the door and held it open for her without replying. He was trying to be a gentleman to cover the fact that he was unhappy with her proposal, and did not wish to talk about it any further. He watched her sashay past and wondered disjointedly why; despite her good looks he felt not even the slightest stir of interest. His wolf was interested in the prospect of other females that might potentially come along with her, but she herself was not even registering on its radar.
They climbed into his van in silence and spent the majority of the journey back to his home that way. Hunter attempted to break the tense quiet only once, asking her with a lopsided smile ‘so you’re what, a kind of public relations officer?’
Audra’s gaze had not even flickered in his direction as she answered, her voice flat though he knew she was irritated by his question from her expression. ‘I suppose I am in a sense, yes.’
Hunter opened his mouth to reply and then thought better of it; she clearly was not interested in small talk or pretending to be polite, despite her rude invasion into his perfect little world. Instead of trying to drag out the painful attempt at conversation he reached for the CD player and flicked it on, smirking when the sudden burst of music made her visibly jump.
They spent the remainder of the journey with him tapping his fingers along to the tunes on the steering wheel, and her grimacing in silence at his taste in music. Thankfully the van ride was not overly long and soon enough the familiar shape of the cabin had loomed into the distance.
The silence became momentarily less uncomfortable as they climbed out of the vehicle in unison; their proximities not being forced together allowing them both the comfort of a little physical distance. Neither were in any way threatening towards each other, but the nature of what they were dictated that being forced into a confined space with one another left them feeling on edge.
Tensely Hunter swung open the door to his home and kicked off his work boots once inside, stretching one arm back to hold the way open for Audra to follow. He could feel her presence almost burning into his back as she slipped past him and into the dingy hallway. Her closeness had every nerve ending in his body tingling on high alert.
‘Shoes’ he flatly stated, and could have sworn he saw her cheeks colour as she slipped off her heels and nudged them over to his boots with her foot. He could smell that she was irritated and despite himself it amused him. She had sought him out, all business like and severe in her manner and she didn’t seem to like it when the tables were turned. Well she was in his home and would abide by his rules. It was an unwelcome intrusion after all. Flicking on a light switch he ambled casually past her and turned into the lounge area, dropping heavily onto the sofa and patting the empty seat next to him.
‘You may as well make yourself comfy’ he instructed ‘I suspect this isn’t going to be a quick chat?’
She shook her head and moved to take the seat that was offered to her. ’I’m afraid not, we have a lot to discuss Mr. Dalton.’
Chapter 7
Hunter watched Audra prissily smooth down her skirt over her knees and raised an eyebrow. ‘You may as well call me Hunter if we’re going to be spending any significant amount of time together, I feel as though I’ve done something wrong when people use my last name.’
Audra smiled a taught and uncomfortable smile ‘very well Hunter, first name terms it is then. Before I begin is there anything specifically that you would like to ask me?’
Hunter shook his head ‘
I’ve got a hell of a lot of questions but I’d rather you said your piece first. This kind of thing is very new to me and I suspect you’ve got plenty more experience of dealing with other werewolves than I have.’ The word almost made him cringe, it sounded so outlandish, so fake, but there was no denying what he was.
Audra nodded ‘very well.’ She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, clasping her hands tightly in her lap. ‘Its always difficult to know where to begin with these things… um –‘
Hunter nodded, cutting her off with an un-amused snort ‘I can imagine.’ Seeing her expression fall still further a part of him felt a pang of guilt and he continued with a sigh ‘why don’t you start at the beginning… How do you know about me? How did you come across me in the first place?’
Audra quirked an eyebrow ‘Well we have always known of you Mr. Dalton.’
Hunter cut her off again ‘You’ve watched me since the day I was born?’ Anger rose in his voice, confusion and irritation his most predominant emotions.
Audra smiled tightly and shook her head ‘no, only since the day of your making. What sense would there be in monitoring a human child?’ She chuckled dryly.
Hunter scowled fiercely ‘you tell me, you’re the ones who have been doing the spying!’
Audra’s hands visibly tightened together on her lap, her knuckles whitening. ‘Please lets try and keep tempers in check Mr. Dalton, and hopefully we’ll be able to get this over with faster and you will have all the answers you need.’
Hunter nodded tensely and listened to her continue, his lips pressed tightly together in a firm line of agitation.
Trying to ignore his obvious irritation Audra ploughed ahead with her speech, carefully avoiding eye contact as she spoke. ‘We have known of you since the day of your making as we were tracking the beast who attacked you through our territory. Our scouts had followed his scent trail for days without once catching sight of him, and curiosity and indignation had our beta of the time following him beyond our borders… He and another of ours carefully followed in an attempt to drive the beast out of the county but he was always one step ahead.’
Hunter interjected ‘That doesn’t say much for the skill of your lot does it?’ And promptly clamped his lips back shut.
Audra’s lip curled of its own accord ‘with all due respect you know nothing of us and we everything of you. Does that not count for anything at all in your eyes…?’
Hunter clenched his jaw, the conversation had barely begun and already she was irritating him just as much as he had suspected she would.
Audra continued relentlessly, obviously a little riled herself. ‘The beast who found you is very old… One of the oldest of us. He has had plenty of time to perfect the art of remaining free and undetected. Our Alpha has had dealings with him in the distant past but he was not heard of in so long that it was thought that he had died. What we know of him is that nobody living knows his true age and there is no detailed record of what it may be. His true name is Nickolai Varulv, though he uses many varied aliases. From as far back as we can look into his past he has always been pack-less, and he has always been dangerous and cruel. The first record we can find of him that we know for certain is him is from his home country of Norway… A set of writings by a monk documenting a slew of savage murders committed by a beast in the night…’
Hunter’s expression softened ever so slightly to accommodate concern amidst his anger. ‘What is he doing here if he isn’t native?’
‘His chosen lifestyle does not allow him the luxury of remaining in one place for any great length of time.’ She explained ‘he is a wanderer in the truest sense of the word. He has never sought to carve out a territory or join a pack, or even start his own. For as long as he has existed as one of us he has lived as a traveller and a murderer, and his crimes have become steadily more savage over time.’
Hunter’s face contorted back to anger ‘so why are you tracking me and not him?!’
‘We have been keeping tabs on you both Mr. Dalton’ Audra continued flatly. ‘We have been waiting for him to return to our soil so we can attempt to rid the world of him; and following you as you are something of a special case…How much do you know about our kind?’
Hunter shrugged tensely ‘next to nothing, and most of what I do know is self taught.’ What did she expect him to know when he had been totally isolated since his first turning?
Audra continued ‘I expected as much… It may surprise you to know that the vast majority of us are born this way… Only around two percent of our population are bite victims like yourself, and you are the only survivor on record of an attack by Varulv.’
Hunter’s eyebrows raised but he did not interrupt her.
‘Considering that he has been around since at least the middle ages this is no mean feat Mr. Dalton. It is very, very rare for people who are attacked to survive the incident, and even more rare for them to survive their first transformation. Almost all attacks are committed by wandering, packless werewolves and most of these are simply unfortunate souls with no guidance who go mad after their first change… One rogue attack leads to another, and another and so on and so forth… Though there are a few exceptions to this rule. Every so often a wolf, or any of the other numerous types of shape changers for that matter, will pop up who plays by their own set of rules. Varulv is one of these.’
Hunter could not help but interrupt her ‘other types?’
Audra nodded ‘Oh yes Mr. Dalton, there are shape changers from all over the world, not just us wolves. There are tigers, leopards, lions, hyenas and many others… even crocodiles. Though their kind are becoming incredibly rare nowadays… But that is not what I am here to discuss. Varulv is one of a select few who helped to make our kind as abhorrent to humanity a we have become today; it is thanks to he and just three others that the werewolf hysteria of the dark ages occurred. Between them these four can be accurately traced as wholly responsible for nearly every documented attack in Europe in that time period, and those that were not performed by them were performed by their survivors.’
Hunter cut in ‘I thought you said –‘
‘Varulv was careful and meticulous’ Audra spoke over him, anticipating his comment. ‘His fellows were not, but I can tell you more about them later. Now we must stick to our topic.’ She paused and took a long slow breath before continuing. ‘We do not know how you managed to avoid death as our old beta did not return from his tracking of Nickolai… We assume that he thought you dead as you were so young and the injuries you suffered were so severe. We know that he was shot by one of your parents, and think that his wound must have distracted him sufficiently that he left more quickly than he otherwise would have… To the best of our knowledge this was the first serious injury he had received at the hands of a human in over a hundred years, and we suspect that it shocked him a little. The only thing that we are really certain of is that he does not know of your existence. As far as he is concerned he did as he always had and eliminated each and every victim and witness. We always look for tales of animal attacks; it is something our kind have to keep an eye out for in order to protect ourselves from renegades. When we discovered that you were alive and hospitalised after the incident, we began our observations through close human friends so that you would not scent and detect us. One of the nurses at the hospital who treated you was a friend of ours, as was a lecturer at your university and your most local gamekeeper also. We were surprised by how late your form shifting started, it is the latest start ever recorded… We assume it is something to do with Varulv’s age and the strength of the contaminant in his system, though we are well aware that this does not affect your wolf’s prowess. You have done an exceptional job of keeping our territory free of dangerous and aggressive lone werewolves… Which is in fact why we have not been in touch sooner. We even gifted you the woodlands in which you roam as a kind of territory within our own –’
Hunter’s eyebrows knitted into a fierce scowl and he could not help the snarl that burst fr
om between his lips. ‘You’ve been using me as a fucking guard dog?!’
Audra shrunk back and resisted her tongues natural inclination to mutter ‘down boy.’ She could feel his anger rising like a palpable being and the scent of it filled her nostrils… She would have to pick her words more carefully. ‘Not at all Mr. Dalton, we were merely pleasantly surprised that you did not cause problems yourself, and so we chose not to go down the traditional route and drive you away. It is very rare that loners do not go ‘rogue’ when left to their own devices, and we have been proudly defending your presence in our land. Other Alpha’s have barraged us with letters and phone calls over the years but our pack stood firm and united in our decision to leave you be. You are a very individual case after all… There is something special about you Mr. Dalton, and who were we to kill you or drive you out when one so seasoned as Varulv had failed.’
‘Kill me?!’ Hunter exploded ‘and call me by my first fucking name would you? I’ve already asked you once and this whole fucking thing is already too formal and serious as it is! Too fucking right you’ve got no right to fucking kill a child based on the fact they were attacked… I know you’re fucking animals but that is beyond barbaric!’ He could not help the barrage of obscenities that escaped him. He was so angry that his internal dictionary almost entirely failed him.