I needed to hunt...I needed to remember what it was like and what it meant to be a werewolf, that way maybe I wouldn’t have been questioning if Jerk-face was right or not.
I opened my bedroom window and took off my clothes. I looked at myself in the full length mirror and sighed.
Just like vampires, werewolves needed blood to survive. Some needed it on a daily basis, usually the larger males, because our bodies burn through calories at an accelerated rate. Phasing burned a large amount of calories due to the extreme physical change, so I braced myself for the draining process.
When I was younger, I was able to tell when I phased. The feeling of my body changing, reshapening, smooth skin bursting with fine, white hairs, maw elongating, teeth sharpening and elongating, razor sharp claws tearing through the soft skin at what used to be my fingers and toes. But the older I got, the more seamless it became; what once took a measurable amount of time was now seamlessly done in a blur of movement comparable to those of a vampire. Mom said that type of fluidity doesn’t happen until you reach fifty or sixty years old, sometimes older: apparently I was an overachiever.
In the full length mirror, my black eyes were staring back at me; snow-white fur covered my slender, muscular body, my black nose had a cute dark rose shaped heart which Jarvis always teased me about when I was younger.
I was a good-looking wolf, even though being a wolf was the reason behind my heartbreak and current situation.
Oh well, it is what it is, I silently mumbled to myself.
I took a step forward and collapsed...
...the amber-eyed vampire swaddled the pale child in his shirt, with no time to clean the child of the afterbirth, he held her tight to his chest and ran.
The Aslak army swarmed the cave, the ringing of metal against metal and the howls of the dying guards flowed along the breeze behind them.
The vampire ran as fast as his ancient legs could carry him, effortlessly floating across the snow, through the woods, and a snowy mountain pass, leaving no trail behind them.
When the fires from the burning city and villages were far behind them, he sought shelter from the impending storm which was licking at his skin. The only shelter to be found was a deep cave with a hibernating bear gently snoring in the deepest recesses of it. Toran quickly took care of the bear and used its fur as a blanket for the crying child. The closest human city was more than a thousand miles away, and all of the smaller villages with werewolf inhabitants were destroyed by the Aslak on their march to the Holy City.
The Aslak attacked more quickly than the Valkyrie had anticipated. More than three-thousand villagers lost their lives in the Holy City alone, and five-thousand warriors died defending the outer region. The Aslak split the Valkyrie forces, spreading them thin, and in a single precision strike, the Valkyrie were destroyed and the Holy City was left vulnerable.
Toran hadn’t seen anything like it in centuries, not since the Dark Wars which nearly tore the mythical world apart hundreds of years ago. He saw his friends killed, the royal family of the rare and beautiful race of white werewolves, the Varulv, murdered. Kaia, the small newborn in his arms, was the last of Varulv, thus she had to survive no matter what.
With no milk, and the crying child refusing the bear’s blood, Toran was running out of options. The howling wind would keep their location from the Aslak for the moment, but the child was in need of nourishment or she would surely perish.
As a last resort, Toran slid his dagger from his boot and pulled it across his forearm. He presented it to the child, and without hesitation, she drank...
...“Sis, can you hear me?” Jarvis asked and he poked me repeatedly in the cheek.
“No, leave me alone,” I groaned and fought against my eyelids. “What happened?”
“You tried to phase,” he whispered. “But since you haven’t fed or eaten anything in days, you collapsed. I found you when I came home.”
“Huh, that sucks…”
Wait, his voice is an octave higher than it should be.
I forced my eyes open and looked at him but he was looking across the room; he was lying.
“Who found me?” I demanded.
When he didn’t answer, I followed the scent of flowers to my nightstand. A delicate blue vase sat with a breathtaking arrangement of blue and white orchids. In front of it sat a card with a coiled up snake chain necklace with a red diamond ring in the center of it.
“That sonuvabitch, he broke into our house?” I groaned. “Please tell me he didn’t take my suggestion seriously and attempt to tan without his ring.”
“No, it’s supposed to be a token of how you are his world, and now that you have turned from him, he is in perpetual darkness until the light of your heart can once again illuminate his existence…he didn’t pay me enough to recite this romantic shit,” Jarvis mumbled and folded up the piece of paper he was trying to hide in the palm of his hand and shoved it in his pocket. “I would like to point out, Sis, that he only broke into your room,” he said. “It’s a good thing he did, otherwise I’d still be in Vancouver.”
“What were you doing there?” I mumbled.
“It doesn’t matter. I do have friends, y’know,” he said and made a face at me. “He called me and said he found you. I rushed back as soon as I could. I met Mom and Dad and the doctor here at the house. Tanis didn’t leave until Dr. Summer Wheat checked you out, hence the IVs in your hand.”
Lovely, now I owe that jerk. Great.
“Wait, how did he call you in Canada?” I snorted; obviously they were pumping me full of more than just saline.
“Um….well,” he chewed on his bottom lip as he cracked his knuckles.
“Bro?” I whispered.
“When we went shopping for your presents, he wanted to get what you really wanted, which was crap for me. So we went to an electronics store and he got me a really nice laptop, camera, a second pocket camera, and an MP3 player. He got you the same, and a cell phone, but it’s all in the car you won’t touch.”
“That didn’t answer my questions,” I pointed out.
Softly he growled in frustration. “He got me a satellite phone so you and Mom can call me no matter where I am in the world. That way we can keep in touch, because he knows how much you miss me when I’m gone, and with the cost of calls to Russia, he thought it’d make you happy. For being a suckhead who took your virginity then broke up with you the same day, not to mention, insulted your entire species and family, he isn’t a bad dude.”
Oh god. This can’t get any worse. Seriously? Prince Suck Head Heartless Rat Bastard just keeps doing shit to make himself look even better. Why can’t he be like normal boys and just get over it, or at the very least, stand by his words and initial breakup? Instead, he keeps being the good guy, minus the whole breaking-and-entering-stalker thing.
Not happening.
“I’m starting to dislike you as much as I dislike him,” I groaned.
“At least you can call me and bitch about it, that is, as long as you’re still talking to me.” He smirked, and stretched out on the bed next to me and pulled me into his arms. Absently I caressed my fingers over the new thin, white scar on the inside of his arm: number seven. “The doctor said you need to eat for a couple of days and get stronger before you try to phase again. She also suggested that you hunt with a buddy, in case you crash again. I could suggest a vampire who would love to watch you like a hawk, or a stalker, or a love crazed suckhead, either way, he would do it and not think twice. Give him a chance to see you as the beautiful wolf you are.”
Not happening.
“Bite me,” I mumbled so he did, and I flicked his nose for it.
I hated this bloody movie when it first came out. However, Bridget Jones has the right idea. Get monged out and sing the classics.
“All by myself! Don’t want to be, all by myself, anymore!” I sang along at the top of my lungs with the tele.
Miss Jones is not an entire munter; if she lost like two stone, did not talk, or tr
y to act, and kept a paper bag over her head, she would be slightly agreeable.
Then again, what would I know? I had the love of a bloody six-foot super model, a goddess among mere immortals, who loved me despite me heritage and species, and accepted all of my little flaws and issues.
Bloody hell, she did not even get narked when me dim bitch of a sister tried to eat her!
“Sing it Bridget... All by myself! Don’t want to be, all by myself, anymore!”
“I told you he went completely insane,” Steffen whispered from the doorway.
I spun around to see who he was talking to, my heart raced with hope that it was Jay Dee, and I stepped on an empty bottle of whatever I had been drinking for the past eight hours, slipped, and my feet disappeared from under me, and I landed on my back.
“Ow,” I whined. “That bloody hurt.”
Jarvis and Steffen stood over me and each looked as is they were ready to laugh before having me committed.
“Dude, seriously? I thought Steffen was exaggerating when he said Bridget Jones Diary,” Jarvis said.
Steffen nodded. “Trust me, it’s getting worse. He ordered the best of Céline Dion and made Mom suffer through Titanic with him.”
“I will never let go,” I reminded them, then cringed. “I did let go, in fact, I shoved her off of the bloody boat.” I kissed the Polaroid picture of Jay Dee and me before I broke her heart.
“Dude, get up and get sober,” Jarvis said and tossed a wad of metal at me and it smacked me in the face.
I picked it up and unraveled the chain before looking at my ring.
“I’m taking Jay Dee out hunting in the morning so you’ll need that,” he explained. “It’ll be the only chance you’ll get to talk to her before I go back to school. After that, Yahto will be your only hope, and frankly, he hates you because of what you said and did. Yahto loves Jay Dee, he’s just too stupid to realize it.”
I groaned even louder; I had figured as much.
“She will run to the arms of her best mate, even though he is beyond daft,” I sniveled. “That is just bloody brilliant!”
Jarvis rolled his eyes. “It would never work between them, they’re too similar and he’s way too airheaded, and the biggest problem with their potential relationship is that she loves you. But, that’s beside the point. Get up and showered... Dude, you smell like my Uncle Alex after he drowned in that still of moonshine.”
“Ha ha,” I snorted and eventually pulled myself up into a sitting position. “Is she well?”
He shrugged, and cleared off a place on the couch to sit. “Exhausted, but that’s to be expected. She hadn’t eaten, fed, or slept in days. The doctor said she would be fine once she got her caloric intake regulated, and it appears to have worked for the most part.”
“Thank God,” I whispered and forced a smile.
I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t stand not getting something to Jay Dee to let her know how sorry I truly was. I broke into her home like a common thief, a vampire stalker, and snuck in her bedroom window. When I found her naked and unconscious on the floor, I knew that something was terribly wrong. Every possible scenario involving the woman I loved being hurt or killed raced through my mind. The one that stood out above all was that she hurt herself because of me. Yes, I was giving myself way more credit than I was due. Jay Dee was a strong, self-sufficient and independent werewolf and would never hurt herself because of a daft vampire like me.
While I held her, waiting for her family to come with the doctor, her beautiful lips muttered quickly in Norwegian. I couldn’t completely make out what she was saying, but what I could understand confused me.
“Jarvis, does your sister speak any other languages?” I asked.
He looked at my curiously. “Just English, Jicarilla Apache, Salishan and a few other tribal languages...why?”
“No Norwegian?”
He laughed hysterically. “No. I don’t think she’s even heard it before. Are you that drunk?”
How peculiar.
“I will admit I am arseholed.”
Jarvis made a face. “Dude, open a window or light a match or something. I don’t want to smell that.”
Steffen laughed. “He means really drunk,” he translated. “Cousin, you might want to work on that,” he suggested and Jarvis nodded his agreement, still giving me a weird look.
Bloody Americans.
All night I tried to figure out what to say. Condensing over three hundred years of emotions and feelings, plus five days of Heaven on Earth, into sixty seconds was impossible. Mum sat up with me and listened as I rambled, took notes and then scratched them off as I went. Her only words of encouragement were to speak from the heart.
Jarvis suggested that I dress casually so Jay Dee wouldn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that it was an arranged meeting. If he wouldn’t have suggested it, I would have been wearing a tuxedo out of stupidity and desperation—who could tell a James Bond lookalike to sod off?
I waited in the field of lavender in an attempt to mask my scent; Jay Dee didn’t particularly care for the smell of the calming purple and green flowers.
I had been waiting for more than three hours, and was ready to give up hope and go looking for her, when there came a soft rustling of brush and snapping of twigs, and it made my heart race.
A snow-white wolf slowly strolled from the edge of the woods to the clearing, her large black eyes scanned the area many times, and her black and pink nose wildly sniffed before a menacing growl of a snarl rolled from the base of her throat.
Buggers, she caught my scent.
Just then, Jarvis’ large, black fur-covered body smashed into her, sending both of them rolling across the ground.
Jay Dee ended up on top of him, her lips pulled back over her razor sharp teeth and a threatening snarl rolled from her throat.
Needless to say, she wasn’t amused in the least.
Jarvis whimpered and playfully swatted at her with his paw.
She huffed and strolled away from him to the tall grass and flowers, then slumped down on the ground, resting her head on her paws.
Jarvis snorted and sulked away, seemingly disappearing into the woods.
It was now or never.
“I beg of your, do not attack me,” I pleaded as I got to my feet.
Instantly Jay Dee was snarling and growling at me.
“Please, Duckie, just sixty seconds.”
She picked her head up and continued to growl but didn’t run or attack. I was hoping and praying that she would at least be willing to listen.
“I was daft,” I explained.
She snorted.
Her silent, one-sided sarcasm wasn’t lost on me.
“Agree, that is putting it mildly,” I said. “I am the biggest arsehole who has ever walked the earth! There has not been a moment that has gone by since the words left me lips that I have not regretted them…been ashamed of them. Those are not me thoughts or feelings, I was surprised is all, and it just spewed out. One moment I was holding you, the woman whom I love more than anything in the world, thinking that the person I have waited over three-hundred years to hold, to love, to make love to and be one with, was going to die because some arsehole stabbed her, and the next she was healed and acted as if nothing happened. I was gobsmacked! Rage, fear, loss, and so many other emotions to the likes of nothing I have ever experienced before ripped through me, putting me on an emotional roller coaster from hell… Bloody hell, Duckie, I am not articulating this very well. I fucked up. Majorly. Most likely it was the biggest clanger in the history of the world. Miss Jay Dee, I love you with every fiber of me being. I have never loved anyone like this before, not even Sam. You are the woman I have been patiently waiting me entire life for. And at the first sign of complication-”
She growled.
“I mean it...it is not a complication,” I stammered, struggling to find the words but it was near impossible. “Buggers. Only you can make me a rambling, incoherent, blurts out whatever is in hi
s head, arsehole like this.”
She huffed.
“I betrayed your trust and I hurt you, and for that I can never forgive meself,” I whispered as I knelt in front of her. It wasn’t that strange apologizing to a wolf once I started doing it. The eyes are unmistakably Jay Dee’s; large, black, warm, and burning with intelligence and anger.
“Me Duckie, I love you. I need you. I simply cannot go through life without you. I am not strong enough to do this without you anymore. It was only five days…five days which you were actually speaking to me, but in those few days I felt alive and happy for the first time in over three hundred years. I cannot be happy without you, it is simply not possible.”
Jay Dee closed her eyes and shook her head.
“Duckie, you once asked me if I could have anything in the world, purchasable or not, what would it be? I did not know then, however, I unquestionably know now: it would be you. You are all that I want.”
She got up and shook her head before turning away from me and headed towards the woods.
“I cannot and will not stop loving you,” I called after her. “Even if it takes until the end of time, I will make this right. I will prove to you just how very sorry I am and now much you mean to me. I promise you, I shall do whatever it takes to earn your trust again.”
Jay Dee continued away from me, only pausing for a brief moment to snap at Jarvis as he approached.
Jarvis shook his head and sulked towards me.
“Do you believe that she will one day forgive me?” I whispered.
“I don’t know,” he admitted and plopped down next to me, naked.
Bloody werewolves and their casual acceptance of nudity.
“I’ve never seen her hold a grudge like this before,” he said, watching his sister’s retreating form completely disappear into the woods. “Usually she forgives everyone in ten minutes, a day at the most. I don’t know what to tell you, Dude.”
“Lovely,” I groaned and wrapped my arms over my head. “If me mum and dad could do it, and get past their issues, so can Jay Dee and I.”
Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) Page 28