Entwined (Vukodlak Brew Book 1)

by Christine M. Butler

  “Sorry,” I mumbled as I pushed past the both of them with my hands full of the girls’ belongings. As soon as I put them down in front Liz I added, “check everything. Let us know what’s missing.” Then, like a damn coward, I took off for my room and slammed the door shut behind me. Okay, it wasn’t completely out of cowardice, I had to get control of myself, and I wasn’t sure I could manage that with a captive audience.

  “Hey boss man,” Granger started as he walked in my room despite the closed door that obviously meant I didn’t want intruders. “That was a little harsh earlier.”

  “Yeah, I said sorry.”

  “Dre, man, I get that this shit is frustrating, but lashing out at the girl you want to convince to be with you forever and always probably isn’t the best way to go about things.”

  “You think I don’t know that?” Okay, so I was lashing out again, and this time at my long time friend. It didn’t matter. I still hadn’t pulled myself together completely. There was no way I was going to be able to do it while living under the same roof with the girls either. “Think I can bunk out on your couch for a while?” I finally managed to ask.

  “Why don’t you just take Gage’s room since he’ll be gone for the summer.” Granger offered up his cousin’s room in their place a little too quickly. When he spoke again I realized why. He never thought I’d accept. “Although, I have to wonder at the logic of that since the girls are staying here. Don’t you think being in forced close proximity will play to your advantage?”

  “No, I really don’t.”

  “Oh, you’re afraid she’ll see you’re a crabby bastard, then?” Granger laughed, then, looking more and more like his brother in that moment than anything else.

  “Yeah, something like that,” I admitted.

  Chapter Eleven

  ~*~ IZZY~*~

  It took me a moment to catch my breath, but I followed Granger inside the house, and went to sit on the couch, only to startle as Dre slammed his bedroom door shut. Great. Just great. He had opened his home to us, offered us his protection, and I’d managed to piss him off to the point of shouting and slamming doors. Yeah, I could see that this Kindred Mate stuff was really going to work out well for the future.

  “What crawled up his ass?” My sister asked.

  “I think that would be me?” I meant it as a statement, but it came out sounding more like a question.

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart, it’s not really about you. Dre’s just under a little stress. That other pack has apparently been snooping around a little longer than we all assumed they were, that’s all. It really wasn’t anything you said or did, just misplaced frustration.”

  While Granger was obviously trying to make me feel better, it wasn’t working. “Sure it was,” I spat out stiffly. He flinched and turned to walk down the hallway that Dre disappeared down earlier.

  “Make yourselves at home. I’m going to go see where Dre wants to put the two of you so that you can start going through your things in private.”

  “Not that privacy matters much considering you packed our things for us,” my sister called out to him.

  “Well, you know perceived privacy then,” he chuckled. Granger sounded a lot like Garrett when he was laughing. I hadn’t noticed before, and now that I had it was obvious they were related even if I hadn’t paid attention to their similar looks before.

  As Granger disappeared behind the door Dre had slammed earlier, I felt tingles start to form in my lower belly. Not the good kind either. It was obvious from the start that whatever was being said in that room was a bit heated in the beginning. When Granger came out he wore a forlorn look on his face that he attempted to school as he turned to my sister and I. “You guys can bring your stuff to the spare room to go through it.” He turned his back to us and continued down the hall. Liz and I picked up some of our bags and took off in the same direction. We both cautiously skated by the closed door to where Dre had disappeared earlier. I think each of us was afraid coming to close to it would lead to a horrid encounter with the man who seemed to get moodier as the day went on.

  Two doors further down in the hall and we ducked into the same room Granger disappeared in a moment ago. “There’s only one bed in here. You can sort through your stuff here, and later, after Dre leaves you can take that room,” he was looking at me specifically when he said that.

  “No, we can both stay in here.” Liz looked like she was about to disagree with me so I spoke up quickly. “We’re twins, it’s not like we haven’t shared space before. It’ll be fine, and we don’t want to put anyone out any more than we already have.”

  “Yeah, what she said,” my sister reluctantly agreed while giving me the raised eyebrows that meant she was questioning what was going on with me.

  “Well, I’ll leave you two to sort through your things then. Pay special attention to any clothing items that might be missing, and let me know. I’ll be out in the living room until you’re done.” He closed the bedroom door behind him as he high tailed it out of the room. Before he got too far, I opened the door, and called out to him.

  “There is one BIG thing missing,” I spoke softly, so as not to rouse the beast in the room down the hall.”

  Granger looked back at me puzzled, because we obviously hadn’t had time to look through anything in the two point five seconds he’d been out of the room. “My Jeep?” I questioned.

  “Oh, was it supposed to be at the cottage?”

  I paled at his words. “Please, tell me you’re kidding. That Jeep is my baby, and has been with me since I got my license in high school.” My heart physically hurt at the idea that someone may have taken or damaged my baby.

  Granger smiled then, “your baby is just fine. Garrett is snagging it with one of the guys when he heads back this way later. They already have it over at the brewery now.”

  “Um, might I ask how you managed that when I still have my keys?”

  “Do you?” He asked and turned to head to the living room again without further comment.

  I went back into the room, and looked through the daypack I carried with me everywhere. Sure enough my keys were missing. “Those sneaky bastards!” I huffed out. “This pack is like a purse to me. Who violates the purse code? Seriously!”

  Liz was laughing now. “Probably Garrett. I’d bet money he’s spent time honing his skills as a pickpocket at some point.”

  “Damn it, this isn’t funny.” I turned to my sister then. “I really don’t plan on staying here any longer than we have to. I’m going to call mom and dad and let them know we’re heading back to the apartment. You can get ready for next semester, and I can start looking for a job in the area there until you’re done with school.”

  Liz’s jaw was hanging open as she stared at me in disbelief. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Dead serious. I’m not sticking around here to see if we cause some werewolf war over whether or not we want to be introduced to some idiots we’re not even interested in. And I certainly don’t want to stick around to see how much moodier he can get.” I pointed to the wall, but in the general direction of the room down the hall where I thought Dre was still hanging out. “I’m tired of all this. I don’t want to be anyone’s burden, Liz. I certainly don’t want to be someone’s only option, because of some stupid chemical attraction, or whatever. To be honest, I don’t know if I want any parts in a world that involves our dad. He’s lied to us our whole lives.”

  “We’ll be at risk from others, especially since they know about us now. It’s not like we’ll be hard to track down at the University I’ve been attending for the past three years, and you just graduated from.” Liz countered.

  “At least we’ll be on our own turf, or whatever.” I plopped down on the edge of the queen bed and stared at my own feet for a minute, lost in my own head. “I feel so trapped with dad’s lies, the crap with Lana, and now this other pack of werewolves trying to hunt us down.” I sighed deeply. “I don’t want this life, Liz.”

  “You
don’t have to have it. You could choose to mate with the moody guy in there, you know.”

  “Really? Is that the option you would take?” Liz shrugged at me in a very non-committal way. “Seriously, Liz, if the roles were reversed here would you choose to just give yourself over completely to a random stranger who claims to have superpowers, and some uber-weird connection to you?”

  “Well, when you put it like that it sounds nuts.” She smiled at me then. “But I remember watching my sister fawn over a damn cell phone picture for years. I watched you deny yourself a good time repeatedly because of some silly picture, and the crazy attachment you felt to the person in it. You tell me, does it sound like the crazy-weird connection is a fake thing? We watched our dad turn into a wolf. Hell, we watched Garrett go from wolf to man. These are things I would have never believed in if I couldn’t see them with my own eyes, but we’ve seen evidence of all of it.”

  “Not the connection thing.”

  “Haven’t you? What about the picture? What about that feeling you get in your gut when he’s close by? Come on, Izzy, there’s evidence that the bond is real too. You just have to give yourself over to something, and that scares you.”

  “Yeah, it does.”

  “Come on, let’s just go through our things, and worry about the future when we’re done here, okay?”

  “Yeah, sure,” I know I sounded dejected, and yet I couldn’t bring myself to perk up at all. Going through all of our things was going to be a chore. I honestly couldn’t tell you what I packed for the trip now, and what I’d left behind in my old apartment with my sister. Hell, I was already thinking of it as my “old” apartment. Maybe I was more resigned to my current set of circumstances than I wanted to believe. My sister had a lot of good points, but that didn’t stop me from worrying about every possible way it could all go wrong.

  ~*~DRE ~*~

  Listening to the girls in the other room was making me sick. I literally wanted to vomit as the hope diminished inside me. She wanted to leave. She wanted to run away from here, and escape from my life. I couldn’t say that I blamed her, but I had been hoping for more. Hell, I had hope this morning before that damn introduction with her sister. Before Morris stuck his slimy little nose in our pack business she was coming around. I felt it this morning. She was giving in a little bit, wanting to get to know me. Izzy had said as much herself. She wanted us to get to know one another.

  Now, suddenly, she didn’t want to know anything else except how to escape back to her old life. If I could give it to her, I would. Even though it would break my heart, but her old life was no longer an option. It didn’t matter how much she wanted it or how I’d break my own heart to give it to her. Her name was known among the packs now, her scent was out there too. Things could never go back to normal for either of the girls now.

  I texted Granger that I was heading to meet Garrett, and that he needed to keep a close eye on both girls, because they were planning their escape. Granger’s response came back before I could even get the truck started.

  Granger: Damn, that’s tough. No worries, I heard the plotting, I’m watching, and I have a few of the others heading in to keep an eye on the perimeter of your place. They’re not going anywhere & no one else is getting in.

  Dre: Good.

  What else could I say to him? I was at a loss about so many things, and it wasn’t something I was used to. In fact, I’d never really had to be tested as our pack Alpha before with any major concerns. Sure, there was the occasional scuffle with the other packs when they tried to encroach on our territory, but beyond that, my pack generally ran smooth. We had several business ventures that kept us financed, our pack didn’t prey on humans in a way that would draw attention to us. Beyond the obvious hook-ups for consensual sex there wasn’t a worry among my pack-mates trying to harm anyone or give away our secrets. We’d banished one member since I took over the pack, and he’d been such a shit-bag it wasn’t really a hard thing to do.

  My phone rang and I answered it with my hands free device before I even looked down to see who it was. “Yeah?”

  “Where are my girls?” Jackson sounded less than thrilled with me at the moment.

  “They’re at my place. Dreklin Morris’s Pack, at least a few of them including Morris, showed up at the brewery today when I was introducing Liz to the pack. Morris made demands for introductions to both girls since I haven’t officially claimed and bonded with Izzy yet. I sent them on their way, but we’re pretty certain they took souvenirs with them before they left the territory. We’re keeping them both secure.”

  “Son of a bitch!” His voice flew from my speakers so heavily there was no missing the rage brewing there now. “Why wasn’t I informed?”

  “They’re both adults. If they wanted to inform you, they could have. It’s not like I locked them up without means of communication. And while we’re talking about the efforts to inform people…” I heard him growl on the other end. Were we in a face-to-face meeting it might have been misconstrued as a challenge issued. “Izzy suggested I claim her officially in public, as in cement the bond, because she had no clue what she was asking for. I thought I made it perfectly clear you were supposed to explain to your girls what a claiming entailed?”

  “Damn it,” he huffed out a frustrated sigh. “It’s not like they’d give me the chance. I kept calling and messaging. Neither of them is really talking to me since I revealed myself and our world.”

  “Did you try going to where they were staying? Don’t tell me they never told you where they were. It’s a small town. We found them about thirty minutes after they signed the rental agreement on that place.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t want to push my luck with either of them. I figured giving them a little more time to cool off was best. I’ve had a lifetime of seeing how they react to things. I know my daughters.” He sounded confident about that.

  “Apparently, not well enough to tell them the truth about you sooner, when it would have mattered most.”

  “Fuck you, Andre!” I let his seething tone go by without censure. “One day, you’ll see what it’s like. If my daughter refuses you, your only option for offspring will be of the female variety, and you’ll see that you would do anything in your power to protect them, even from yourself.”

  “That’s not going to happen!” I growled out with vehemence. I couldn’t picture a future without my mate in it. Not that I cared one damn bit whether I had male or female children in the future, but I cared a whole hell of a lot that it happen with her and no one else. “They’re at my place, Jackson. I suggest you go make shit right over there, and help keep them safe. Granger is there. Morris and his boys were already sniffing around at their cottage. The girls were discussing the possibility of running and heading back to their old life at college. You need to let them know how impossible it is to step into their old lives anonymously again.”

  “Shit! I can’t believe this is happening.” The anger was waning from Jackson now, because all I could hear was the defeat in his voice. He’d caused this problem, and it was like an avalanche, getting worse and more destructive as all the shit kept rolling down hill and piling up around us.

  “Go try to make this shit right.”

  “Did you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “Claim my daughter already.”

  “Do you really think she’s relented that quickly, especially after I explained to her what it meant and how it was done?” I sighed. “Hell, why do you think they’re ready to run? I didn’t even get to go in depth on what it really means, because she was freaking out so hard about how it happens.” Now my anger was building again. “You fucked me over yet again, Jackson. I get that you’re their dad. I do. But you of all people should know how it feels to have your Kindred within your grasp and not be able to do a damn thing about it.”

  “Dre,” he started, but I’d had enough.

  “Get over to my place, help keep an eye on your girls, and explain our world to them in te
rms they’ll understand and learn to deal with. If you do nothing else right, make sure they get the gravity of their situation, and how their lives aren’t capable of going back to normal now.” With that I hung up and pulled into the brewery where Garrett’s truck and Izzy’s Jeep were now parked.

  Lou, one of our younger pups in the pack was just about to hop into Izzy’s Jeep as I got out of my truck. “What’s up, Lou?”

  “Oh, hey, Dre! I was just about to drive this Jeep over to your place. Garrett said you were heading this way and could give me a ride back. I guess I’ll be running instead.” He laughed as he hopped into Izzy’s seat and grumbled about the girly steering wheel cover.

  “Hold on, Lou.” I reached out and took the keys from him then. “I’m not ready for Izzy to get her Jeep back just yet.” The kid looked startled by my admission so I made the attempt to ease his worry. “I’m going to get some detailing on it. She’s staying at my place anyway, so it’s not like she doesn’t have access to a ride.” I smiled a big toothy grin at the young pup that quickly put him at ease. The last thing I needed was for any of the younger wolves to think it was okay to hold a woman captive, but they also didn’t need to know the dynamics of everything going on right now. The little ones still hadn’t learned to keep their mouths shut when they were out in public. I couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t say something that another wolf, especially from another pack, might overhear.

  “Let’s go see if Garrett had any other errands you could help out with.”

  “Sure thing. Sucks though, I was kind of looking forward to taking the Jeep for a spin. I keep asking my parents when I can get a car, and they keep telling me when I can pass that damn calculus class with more than a barely there C.” I laughed at the kid remembering the days when my dad was up my ass about my grades in school too. Our pack mainstreamed into life around us more so than others did. Most had homeschooling down to a science, because once puberty hit, the change could be hell on werewolves. As luck would have it, most of our boys ended up with a rather unhealthy dose of mono as an excuse for why they missed more than a month of school. Luckily for us, we didn’t have a lot of boys born that we had to worry about. There were currently two in either middle or high school, and Lou was one of them.