THE STRAGGLERS Book 2 OWN

by Misha Anderson

  I put the two bottles on the living room table and get a glass, still hesitating in taking a sip. My mind swirls around one question: why not? What I have to lose, if I already lost what was most important in my life? Why be sober, is sanity doesn’t do anything to me? I open the bottle and pour a good shot of the “anesthetic” in my glass. When the first sip goes down ripping my throat, I say in a low voice to myself, “it will pass”... I just have to drink a little more, just another shot... and everything I feel, the pain mocking my soul will leave my skin. In the end of this bottle I’ll find the relief to my agony.

  My eyelids seemed glued together and my eyes burn when I open them slowly. I close them trying to stand the intense light that almost blinds me.

  Slap!!! I scream scared and fall on the floor receiving the first jet of cold water on my face.

  “Wake up, you son of a bitch, hell, wake up, Hunter.”

  I rub my eyes and Adam is in front of me, screaming in anger, I lean on the coffee table and look around: the walls are spinning and I bend over by the strength of the vomit coming.

  Adam and Sam drag me to the bathroom, each one holding an arm, I moan and murmur swear words and meaning less sentences in the moment I feel cold slower hitting my head.

  “Fuck, Maggie, Mel, daddy’s baby.”

  I hear Sam complaining with Adam, trying to take my head from under the cold shower.

  “Easy, Damy, otherwise you are going to drown him in this much water.”

  Adam replies hurtfully slapping my arms.

  “There’s no fucking way, this son of bitch can take it, how could you do this to us, how could you fill your ass with booze, you bastard? Wash your moth before saying your daughter’s name, is this the exemple you wanna give her? Is this how you want to fix your marriage? Going back to be a fucking drunk? Open your eyes Hunt and at me, look at me, fuck!”

  I looked him trying to bow my head and he raised my chin so I was facing him.

  “Is this the way you want to honor our parents, you think old Jerry and missus Kamy would like to see you like this, defeated?”

  I shake my head, trying to stand on my legs. The pain I feel in my stomach it doesn’t hurt more than the embarrassment of facing my brother, the leader of my pack.

  “Then, react, fuck! You fall, you get up! It’s almost time to visit Mel, take a shower and make yourself presentable to your daughter and your wife before you lost them completely. Sam, excuse us, I’ll help him take his clothes off and take a shower.”

  Adam helped me taking off my close and then in the shower, he shaved me, I looked him through the mirror and he pierced me with his eyes, speaking in a firm voice:

  “It’s not embarrassing to fall, Hunt, I know all the hell you’re going through, but if you weaken and anesthetize your plain with booze, you’ll end up losing your wife’s respect, is that what you want?”

  “No, Damy.”

  “Then close your mouth for fucking drinks and be strong, your girl is still stuck in the hospital, fighting to survive, help her by standing up, don’t do you it for me not for your brother, but your daughter deserves a sober father.”

  I put on jeans and Sam knocked on my door, giving me an ironed plaid shirt.

  “Now you’re handsome, your girls will like it, come here and give me a hug.”

  Sam hugged me and then let me go with teary eyes, letting me go away. I got the car and went to the hospital, I really wanted to see Mel and my Maggie. before going up the elevator to the Neonatal ICU, I went by the hospital delicatessen and bought some gum to disguise the smell of booze in my mouth. Getting there I found Maggie sitting on the arm chair feeding Mel, I got near hypnotized, looking my little girl sucking her mother’s breast, Maggie turned to me and smiled talking about Mel’s appetite.

  “She’s an avid eater like you, now that she has learned how to suck, she doesn’t want to come out from the breast.”

  I caressed Mel’s cheek while she was eating and she opened her eyes to stare at me.

  “Look at her, filling her belly, my love? Enjoy mommy’s milk and drink it, so you can be strong to come home, my little princess. Her cheeks are rosier, don’t you think, baby? Can I make her burp?”

  Maggie agreed, looking me up and down, analyzing my features, I looked away in a mixed feeling of fear and embarrassment, she raised my chin making me look at her, barking in disappointment.

  “And is it possible for you not to drop her? Why these tired red eyes? Are you drinking again, Hunter?”

  I answered trying to escape from her look of reprove.

  “Give me a break, Maggie, I would never drop my daughter. Please, let me have Mel just a little.”

  Maggie hesitated for a few moments and then handed me Mel. I got up and held her carefully, making her cozy on my chest and massaging her back to make her burp. Maggie approached both of us with a firm voice:

  “You said my grandma was a wolf, then never forget my blood, Hunter, I’ll defend my daughter from who may come, even from you, the day you put another drop of booze in your moth, don’t come near us anymore, are we understood?”

  I nodded without saying a word, thinking about a way of getting up fro this fall, the next day I went to AA (Alcoholics Anonymous).

  TWO WEEKS LATER

  MAGGIE

  The news couldn’t be better: Mel’s lungs are working better everyday, more mature, she’s healthy and doctor Swan, the pediatrician, thinks that by the end of the week she’ll be discharged. My happiness would be complete if Hunter had come back home, but that hasn’t happened... Everyday when we meet at the hospital, his eyes tell me more than his lips, chasing my movements, wanting me every time he sees me, I know what he wants, what I want hurts, but none of us steps forwards. Sometimes his hands touch mine when holding Melanie and yesterday the teasing son of a bitch even smelt my neck, growling when dragging the nose under my ear, but saying the day he’ll come home, hasn’t happened yet!

  It has been a week since I faced the reality I was trying to forget: a wolf lives in Hunter. The first time this “moment” between me and “him” happened, was four days ago, when I was leaving the clinic, late at night.

  The street was deserted and I went back home walking, grabbing my coat, having a feeling I was was being watched. I crossed the garden fast and looked behind, on the other side of the sidewalk, a huge black wolf stared me, attentive and in guard.

  Years could go by, but I would never forget that animal: it was the shot wolf from that night. By seeing you again, all now started to fit together: the wolf I saved and the wolf on the road are the same, only one, Hunter.

  After that night, he showed up every night, always late at night, in vigil, protecting me. When Hunter and I saw each other during the day we didn’t say anything about his “nightly visits”, it was always the same, he and I looked at each other and it was as if he could see each other’s soul.

  This afternoon I got an unexpected visit and very welcomed from: Samantha.

  We had coffee together, and Samantha said understandingly:

  “I imagine you have a lot of questions, you can ask them, Maggie, I’ll help you in what I can, you can count on me.”

  “Hunter told me about my ascendancy, about my grandma being a wolf, I was wondering, will I one day be like Hunter?”

  Sam smiled calming me down.

  “For what Adam explained to me, your blood is too diluted, too human, there’s no risk in you growing fur and howling to the moon like when the boys hunt.”

  Seeing my scared look, Sam tried to explain laughing at my surprised face.

  “Most of times you’re married to a common man, Maggie, just like the others, full of flaws, but what it’s different is his lycan essence, the wolf that lives inside them is what makes them special. You have no idea of how protective they are, faithful, united, how they were only one, a real pack. And I feel honored to be part of this group: Hunt, Connie and Kay are my family, they protect me, they defend me and they welcomed me when everybody
turned their backs to me. It hurts me when Hunter is suffering, everyday when he’s back from visiting Melanie, the sadness he’s in by leaving you two in the hospital breaks my heart.”

  “But then, why doesn’t he come back? He was the one who decided to give it some time, Sam, it’s up to him to return.”

  I gathered courage and told her about the wolf that was keeping vigil every night, from the other side of the side walk after listening me Samantha pondered.

  “Maybe you need to accept him whole, Maggie, both, the man and the wolf?”

  I spoke in a low voice, thinking about what Samantha said.

  “I accept him, Sam, I love him the way he is, hasn’t he noticed that yet?”

  Sam said good bye, saying before leaving:

  “Then open your door, your heart and let him in.”

  Since Sam left here, all that we talked is hammering in my head. I took a long shower and put on a nightgown, anxious to see him.

  I look at the the living room clock and it’s already midnight, the sky is full of stars and a smooth breeze give me shivers. I go to the porch and I walk through the lawn barefoot.

  A little fence separate us, and once more, on the other side of the street the black wolf, watching me. I remember Sam words: “open your door, your heart and let him in”.

  I open the fence gate, with my eyes on his, black and somber.

  I turn my back but I can feel him approaching slow. The noise of the gate indicates that he’s already on the garden. I go up the steps on the porch and open the living room door, waiting for him to come in.

  He walks towards me and to the doors, hesitating.

  Close by he’s even more frighting, beautiful, imposing, I stop in front of him and I crouch, with my hands on my thighs. A step at a time and we are face to face, he lowers his huge head and rests it on my lap, I take my hand to his hot ear and he grunts satisfied, a big needy dog. My hands go through his silky thick fur, it’s delicious, inexplicable cosy in touch with the skin.

  I caress his jaw, under his mouth and he licks my hand begging for care, for being loved, accepted.

  His eyes are wet and I dry them, consoling him like he was a puppy.

  “Shhh, it’s over, now it’s alright, what matters is that you’re back.”

  We feel asleep on the carpet, entangled and warmth by the corresponding love.

  I woke up in the middle one the night, lying beside Hunter, naked as he was born, grabbing me from behind.

  “Hunt, wake up, love, let me close the door.”

  Hunter got up and locked the door, then he came towards me, languid and muscle like a predator.

  “What, baby, are you intending to escape?”

  “No, I, I...”

  “Shhh, quiet, give me your mouth, I’m was missing you so much.”

  He reached me and grabbed me by the waist, taking my mouth in a primitive way, palpable despair.

  Our mouths fit perfectly together like if we kissed for the first time. I climbed his body grabbing him by the neck and wrapped my thighs around his waist, dizzy with the feeling of his delicious mouth nibbling mine.

  Hunter took me to the bedroom and laid me on the bed carefully, taking my nightgown and panties in a hurry. He narrowed his eyes when he saw me naked and dragged his fingers between my thighs, saying all the delicious things the will do to my body.

  “I know you’re still recovering, but I can’t resist, fuck, I need to suck you pussy, Maggie, so sweet, wet and all mine... Oh! God, so long without having you, please, Maggie, let me taste you.”

  I spread my thighs inviting him to satisfy himself from my pleasure.

  “Take it, Big Guy, it’s all yours.”

  “Oh, fuck, it’s so good...”

  I closed my eyes to take the maddening feeling of Hunter’s mouth fucking me whole, sucking my throbbing flesh as if I were a succulent ripe fruit.

  He whipped the pulsing nerves of my clitoris with his tongue in the exact moment of torture and heaven, masturbating me in a crazy rhythm, the long fingers going through his hard and moist flesh, while he licked me more and more, till making me cum screaming his name in ecstasy.

  We went on caressing ourself through the night, lost in a sea of mouths, tongues, saliva and cum, without being able to satisfy one another.

  Ah! The longing for each other was hurting so much that one night is not enough, is so little.

  EPILOGUE

  HUNTER VAUGH

  “Come here, Mel, come here with daddy.”

  Melanie smiles one of her smiles that disarms me, with four teeth and she crawls on the ranch porch. She supports herself on Adam’s legs and gets up slowly, one little step after the other, falling five steps later.

  “That’s it, my princess, one step at the time.”

  Damy opens the living room door with Jeremiah on his neck, I get Jerry from his father’s arms and I nibble his fat little belly, while Mel in wrapped around Damy’s legs and stretches out her arms asking to be picked up. Adam carries Melanie to the back of the ranch, to our yard, this little piece of land where my brothers and I lived the best years of our lives and became men.

  Today we are celebrating Jerry’s one year birthday, cooking a typical American barbecue: hamburgers, hot dogs, meat chops and corn cobs, a lot of food, family together and good talk... Typical Vaughs.

  I search for Maggie between our guests and don’t find her. Adam gives me back Mel who’s pouting and I hand him Jerry, my godson.

  Uncle Quinn, aunt Adobe and aunt Viola talk to Kayden and I go greet them. It has been a long time since I haven’t seen them, since uncle Ronan’s burial. Dad, mom, Anika and now uncle Ronan, the wolves that left us and sleep in Eitihona’s arms, the mother earth. I hug aunt Viola tight and she throws her arm around my waist, remembering my uncle, touched.

  “Ronan would be happy to see the family united. It was a beautiful atitute of your wife, to return the reserve land her father stole from our people.”

  I smile agreeing with my aunt, thinking that Maggie’s decision of returning the land to the reserve didn’t surprise me: bigger than her beauty, only her character. My baby is one of those people that makes you proud in meeting her: a fantastic woman, sweet, generous, my little hot wolf that makes me believe being happy is possible.

  I leave Mel playing with Jerry and go look for Maggie. I find her in the kitchen with Sam, making salads to go with the barbecue. The two of them whisper and laugh out loud and Sam chokes laughing, her cheeks are red like tomatoes, when I catch them.

  By the way Sam looks me, embarrassed, I’m sure Maggie is talking dirty... Ah! Baby, you naughty girl.

  “Am I bothering?”

  “No,” Sam answers.

  “Yes,” Maggie replies laughing.

  I get near this little naughty girl with soft skin narrowing my eyes, and she sustains my look raising her face for me to kiss it. Maggie open her lips and I slide my tongue inside her mouth, tasting our delicious connection, that not even going years by, centuries I’ll get used to the cold I fell in my stomach when this woman puts her small little hands on me, heaven... This the correct definition of Maggie. I trip, with no hurry in her kisses, tasting the nuances of her sweet taste: flavor of cosiness, temptation, sin.

  I ask what she and Sam were laughing about and Maggie tells me shamelessly:

  “Sam asked me if your piercing doesn’t hurt me, and I answered that if you ever remove it, I’ll divorce you.”

  I raise an eyebrow thinking its funny and I throw my mouth on her neck whispering in her ear:

  “Ah, yeah? So you like my pierced cock, don’t you, baby?”

  Maggie squeezes my ass, running her tongue on my lips.

  “Very much, later I’ll show you how much.”

  Ah! Damn fuck, this little smooth voice fucks my sanity, my cock throbs horny, but I get back to reality as soon as I hear Kayden clean his throat.

  “Fuck, old man! Get a room.”

  I grunt to Kayden, annoyed of having to take my han
ds off Maggie.

  “What do you want, you brat?”

  “Damy is calling you to sing happy birthday.”

  Maggie goes by me shaking her ass, looking me up and down, fuck! It’s better for me to get our of here before my cock getting even harder, at the point of being able to cut this cake.

  After my uncle and aunts left, only our family, we stayed sitting in the back yard around the fire, remembering the time with our parents in the Alaska reserve. Damy offered me a cup of hot chocolate and asked me if I still remembered the story that mom used you tell, the legend of the Cherokee elder, and I nodded. Kayden asked me to tell it, saying:

  “Tell us, Hunter, we want to hear it.”

  I held my daughter tight on my lap, remembering what mom used to say to my brothers, because of our explosive temperament, this legend seemed to be made specially for me.

  “The Cherokee elders were worried with one of the boys from the tribe that, for feeling wronged became aggressive. The boy’s grandfather brings the boy to himself and says:

  “I understand you anger. There’s a terrible battle between the wolves that live inside me. These two wolves are trying to conquer the spirit of all of us.

  “One is Bad: its teeth are strong like rage, jealously, sadness, self pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, pride, superiority and ego.

  “The other is Good: his look is strong like joy, hope, serenity, peace, humility, kindness, goodness, generosity, truth, forgiveness, compassion, harmony and faith.

  The grandson thought about this fight and asked the grandfather:

  “Which wolf wins?”

  The old indian answered:

  “The one you feed!”

  Looking Maggie, the female that mother nature gifted me and I love more than everything, and hugging Mel, my little miracle, this silly memory, touches me, because today I’m sure that after so many high and lows, so many fights I’ve been through, in the octagon of life, I only got out of it a winner, for one reason: I learned to feed the wolf.