I pulled away from him with difficulty and looked into his amber eyes. While it had been unnerving at first, I now found the changing in his eyes comforting. It was almost like a mood ring for him. I knew that he was calm when his eyes were blue. I knew that they were dark amber when he became aroused. I knew that he was nervous when they were somewhere between blue and amber. I knew that they were more golden in color when he was trying to be sly and slip something passed me. I didn't tell him that I knew there were moments when he wasn't being one-hundred percent honest with me. I let those moments slide for now because we were such a new couple that it was too hard to put everything on the table. There were things I wasn't telling him yet either. I knew that if there was going to be something big that I would be able to call him on it, just by his eyes. They were more than just a window into his soul, they were the book I could read him with. Part of me wasn't sure how comfortable I was with how easy it was for me to read him so soon. However, knowing that I would know if he was lying to me was what mattered most.
I ran my fingers through his loose, wild, black hair. I gave him a deep kiss and pressed my body against his. "I'm going to take a shower," I whispered in his ear.
He grinned down at me. "Want some company?" he whispered in my ear. His breath sent a shiver down my spine and my body tightened in response to the anticipation.
I let out a shaking breath. "If you come with me, I won't accomplish the purpose of the shower," I replied.
He winked at me. "I'm sure we can get clean," he promised. "No one ever said that you couldn't be dirty when cleaning up."
I laughed, but he was right. I gave him a sly smile. I started backing up to the bathroom. "Catch me," I whispered before I turned and sprinted to the bathroom.
He chased after me and swooped me up just as I crossed the threshold of the bathroom. I screamed and laughed as he lifted me up. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he kicked the door of the bathroom shut. I flipped on the light and met his eyes. My laughter died all the sudden because he was staring at me with an intensity that I could only describe as predatory. It reminded me of the girl at Denny's with Alan and Addie. I stared at him, panting. Something in the air changed between us in this moment and I didn't know what it was. I couldn't put my thumb on it.
Wolfgang shifted his hold of me as he pressed me against the wall, wrapping my legs around his waist. I never felt like he was going to drop me. I never felt like he would lose his grip. I never felt like I had to worry about crashing to the floor while I was in his arms.
He kissed me with a slow burning passion. The intensity surrounded us in the bathroom, but he paced every movement. I raised my sweater up over my head and caught a glimpse of us in the mirror.
His strong arms held me secure. I could see the muscles in his back. I could see the scars on his back, and, for the first time, I realized that he had a star in the scars. I stared at it in wonderment. How had I not noticed it before?
My black-clad legs were like a belt around his waist. His boxers were all that he wore. There were scars on the backs of his legs.
I held his head in my hands, my fingers tangling in his hair. He looked at me with intense amber eyes. Without a word, I kissed him and decided that this overwhelming sea of emotion was much better than the bleak world I lived in before him.
I was so much like the wintery world that I saw on the other side of the window in the airplane. Everything was a muted shade of gray. Everything was monotonous. Every day I fought battles for people who didn't want to do things the right way. I protected the corporations when someone sued them for embezzlement and despised every single one of them. I wanted to protect the little guy. I wanted to represent the Mom 'n' Pop stores that were struggling to survive. I wanted to be the kind of lawyer who made a real difference in the world.
Somehow, in Wolfgang's arms, I finally felt as though color entered my world. I felt like I could make a difference in this town. I felt like I mattered. Nothing made me happier than that.
Chapter 7 ~Wolfgang~
I woke up to the feeling of Ceres getting out of bed the next morning. I'd been hearing the knocking in my dream, but it never registered that it was coming from the real world until she moved. I turned my head to watch her as she found clothes and put them on, covering the milky skin of her body. The fluidity and grace of her movements mesmerized me, and I was even more certain now than ever before that she was one of us. Her dream... She had to be.
She opened the door, letting in a flood of light and a rush of cold air. The breeze carried the smell before I could see anything, and I knew that a Witch was standing at the door.
Two Witches. Alan and Abigail.
"What's this?" Ceres asked.
"The two of you should talk," Alan said. I'd hoped to never hear his voice again, but since he had been Ceres's father for so long, it was inevitable that our paths would cross again. Of course, every time I thought I was in the clear, Alan found a way to remind me that he was still here. He always made sure to remind me of the real reason the scars crisscrossed my body. "You two are sisters and I can't have Abby moping around the house because you don't want to spend time with her. Treat her like you do the twins."
I could picture Abigail's smirk. Despite doing everything I could to get her and what I went through out of my nightmares, there were moments when I could not forget her. Abigail didn't give a damn about a relationship with Ceres. She cared only about being superior to Ceres. Superiority was the thing Abigail wanted most out of life. Since they were at an angle I couldn't see, I could only picture her smiling behind Alan like the cat that ate the canary.
"I'm a little busy right now," Ceres said. I recognized the effort to protect us from them.
"With what?" Abigail asked. I watched her head peak around the doorframe and her eyes went wide when she saw me. "Oh my god!" she cried. She pushed Ceres back and out of the way as she barged in. Ceres almost stumbled into the dresser but regained her balance before she reached it. I sat up in the bed and felt very under-dressed. Abigail stood at the foot of the bed. "What the fuck are you doing here?" she demanded with her hands on her hips.
I smiled at her as Alan walked in, shock written on his face. He shut the door with more force than was necessary. "I could ask you the same question," I replied, trying to keep the fear out of my voice. I was in a room with two Witches. My mate and I were in danger. If I kept the thought on Ceres being in danger, I could keep the fear at bay. I could survive a fight one on one, but not with both of them. Of course, with Ceres here, any fighting would likely hold off until later. I didn't know if they wanted her to know the truth yet.
Alan rounded on Ceres. "Are you telling me that you're involved with this... delinquent?" he shouted. My eyebrows rose as I stared at him in shock. Me? The delinquent? I was the only one of us who had attempted to find peace between our families.
"Yes," Ceres said with a shy smile on her face. Her eyes met mine from across the room. "I am," she said as she turned back to them. "And since you're already acquainted, I'll skip the introductions."
"Do you hate me?" Alan asked, finding a way to make it all about him, as usual. I wasn't surprised that he did it. Everything he involved himself in, he made sure that everyone saw him as the victim. "Why would you do this to me?"
Ceres barked out a laugh. "To you?" she asked. "What on earth makes you think that this has anything to do with you?"
"You don't know the first thing about him!" Alan cried, pointing at me as if I couldn't hear him. In all actuality, it was probable that he thought of me as the stray dog his daughter brought home and wouldn't go away. In his mind, they were the superior beings and so there was no possible way that I could understand a thing they were saying. "For all you know, he's a rapist!"
Ceres burst out in full, riotous laughter. She knew me well enough now to know that wasn't true. "I bet you would say that about anyone who deflowered your daughter," she said through the chuckles. She chuckled a few more times before she looke
d at Alan square in the eyes. "Do you say that about Todd too?" she asked. "He's the one who had me first. I've been alone with Wolfgang for five days. If he were a rapist, I wouldn't be here right now. To be frank, I can't wait to see where my life with him goes."
Alan looked at me. "She knows nothing," he said.
"I'm aware," I replied as I made sure that the sheet covered me from them. Although everyone in this room had already seen me in my birthday suit, a little privacy went a long way. "She doesn't need to know yet."
"Oh?" Alan asked with his hands on his hips. Ceres stared at us, knowing that we were leaving her out of the conversation's big secret on purpose. Abigail smirked at me as she folded her arms in front of her, hip jutting out to the side. "Perhaps we should just tell her everything, right now," Alan continued. "Then she'll know what a miscreant you are and why she can never be happy with you. What do you think, Abby?" he asked, looking at his only child.
"Oh, I think that's a fantastic idea," she sneered. "It's only fair."
"No," I replied with a lot more of my dad in my voice than I'd intended. "It's not fair and you know it. She's seen the scars. If you want to keep your demons in the closet, you'll leave mine there too."
Alan tensed and I was ready to leap out of the bed if I needed to. I hated that they had maneuvered themselves between Ceres and me. The last thing I needed was for Alan to throw Witchfire at me in such a vulnerable condition. Still, I preferred his attention focused on me rather than her.
Alan relaxed just as suddenly as he'd tensed. We weren't going to fight today. He knew as well as I did that whoever started the fight here today would lose Ceres's loyalty and they wanted her almost as much as I needed her. As far as Alan knew, Ceres was his golden protégé that would save his coven and liberate this town.
"What's going on?" Ceres asked, staring at us with wide eyes.
I didn't take my eyes off the Witches and they didn't look away from me. "Nothing," the three of us said. Ceres was smarter than that. She was anxious and knew that we were all lying through our teeth. Finally, Alan shook his head. "Call me when you've sent your dog home," he spat before he looked at Abigail and guided her through the door of the motel room. He slammed the door shut behind him and I could hear him kick the door of his car. He and Abigail argued over whether they should have just attacked me and finished me off or not. She pointed out that I'd never have stood a chance. Alan snapped back at her to mind her own business because he was still their coven leader, not her.
Ceres stared at me, waiting for an explanation. "Do you want to tell me what the fuck just happened here, or should I go back out there and make Alan do it?" she asked.
"Rival families," I said with a shrug. "I told you this." I got out of bed and started getting dressed because I was feeling much too vulnerable to be having this conversation naked. "Our families have hated each other for generations. Most of the time, we pretend that we don't cohabitate this town, but then there are moments like today when we don't have a choice. It's ironic that he has nicer words for me than my family has for Abigail."
"I would imagine that it's because I'm around," she said. "I don't think he would have been as nice otherwise."
I nodded. "You're probably right," I agreed, thinking of how lucky I was to have escaped the fight. He could have killed me more than once while he was here. If Abigail was at his side, Alan was unstoppable. She was his protégé, and he'd made sure that he had primed her to take over the coven when he dies.
Ceres sighed. "Don't lie to me, okay?" she asked. "What were you three talking about? What did he want to tell me that you don't want me to know?"
I met her eyes, hoping that I could convince her. "It doesn't matter," I insisted.
She shook her head and I could smell the rage coming off her. She turned away from me and reached for a bottle of water. She needed to trust me, and I was giving her a perfect reason not to. She wasn't ready yet. Unfortunately, ready or not, she was about to push me into the corner. Ceres threw the water bottle at me and I ducked it just in time.
"After everything that's happened between us, you should know that there's nothing I hate more than someone lying to me," she growled. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She kept her eyes closed as she exhaled. "I'll say this one time: if it's not important then get the fuck out of here," she growled as she pointed to the door. "For five days I have trusted you with everything!" she shouted. "I've told you my entire life's story! You can't even trust me now?" she raged. "You want to marry me, but you won't fucking tell me this?"
I stared at her, overcome with a sense of helplessness. I tried to say the words, but they wouldn't form. My voice died in my throat. How could I tell her? How could I tell her everything she would need to know to survive in our world? Could I find a way to lie to her, to make her believe that there was nothing preternatural going on? Was I going to be able to convince her to stay with me even though doing so would put her life in danger? What would I say when I told her that her stepfather was about to want her dead?
"Get out," she whispered. There were tears in her eyes. I saw a tear fall.
"No," I whispered with desperation. I rushed to her and held her close as she fell apart in my arms. "Please, let me think," I whispered.
"GO!" she screamed as her knees buckled. I dropped to the floor with her and held on with all my soul. I couldn't let her go.
"Please," I whispered, kissing her. "Please trust me." I had my own tears. My throat was tight, and I had to fight not to scream. I could feel my heart breaking. "It's so hard to tell you the truth," I said as I kissed her again. "I don't want to scare you away..."
She pulled away enough to meet my eyes. Tears spilled from her red-rimmed chocolate eyes. Her cheeks were damp. Hair was clinging to her face. She was still the most beautiful woman in the world. "The only thing I hate more than someone cheating on me is someone lying to me," she whispered through her tears. "You are the person who isn't supposed to do that to me...."
My gods, she was right. I swore and held her face in my hands. I kissed her hard and was grateful that she responded in kind. "I'm so sorry," I whispered against her lips. I kissed her again. "I know this is important. You don't understand how important this is. It's hard to explain and easy to show you, but I'm terrified of what happens when you see it."
She looked at me with an expression that was just as helpless as I felt. This was too big. This was too important. We had connected on such a primal level that the point of no return was long behind us. I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Tell me," she said. "Show me. Do whatever you have to do. Do anything, because if you don't, I will walk out that door and get on the next plane back to New York. I will forget that Adamsville ever existed."
I nodded again and sent a silent prayer off to my gods that she wouldn't leave me. I prayed for her to understand. I prayed that she wouldn't think of me as some crazed idiot and kick me out on my ass.
I started the best way I knew how. "It's impossible for you to be Alan's biological child," I said. "It's the reason why he and your mother were never able to have the son they tried years for. It's the reason she was able to have Derek's kid so soon after they married. Alan is a different race than we are," I said. I watched her eyes widen. I knew mine had been amber from the moment I smelled Abigail and Alan. "He's a Witch," I continued. "He can wield magic and he hunts our kind."
"Our kind?" she whispered, trying to focus on what I was saying.
"Werewolves," I whispered, meeting her eyes so that she knew I was telling her the truth.
She laughed out in surprise. I could tell that this wasn't the answer she had seen coming. She must think I had gone crazy or something. "What?" she asked as she wiped her tears away with her sweater.
I sighed. "I knew you'd think I'm crazy," I muttered, holding my head in my hands. I stood up and stretched. Her eyes locked on me. I wondered if what I was about to do would send her to the asylum. I took my clothes back off because I didn't want to destroy them. I
stood in front of her again, this time naked. She stared up at me with doubt and need in her gaze. I took in another deep breath and let it out slow. I concentrated on the beast that lived just beneath the surface. I called the wolf up from the depths of my soul and felt it begin to take over my body. My skin tingled as thick, black fur sprouted all over it. I could feel my bones shift, pop, and distort until I was no longer a man, but a large black wolf.
Ceres sucked in a breath and almost screamed as she tried to backpedal away from me but didn't have anywhere to go. She smacked her head against the corner of the breakfast table with so much force that it knocked her out.
I shifted back into my human form, using way more energy than I could spare. I was gentile as I picked her up and laid her on the bed, wondering how I was going to make sense of all of this when she woke up.
She was out for hours. I put my clothes back on after I'd gotten her situated and paced the room as I waited for her to wake up. When she finally opened her eyes, I was there. She hesitated for a moment before she rolled onto her side and started to retch. I already had the garbage bin next to the bed since I had expected it to happen. She'd hit her head hard when she crashed into the table.
I left her to vomit into the garbage while I wet a washcloth with cold water. I returned to her side, placed the washcloth on the back of her neck, and watched the Goosebumps form on her skin. She shivered and groaned. "You might have a concussion," I informed her. I rubbed her shoulder and back until her breathing slowed. "Can you sit up?" I asked.
She moved with extreme caution until she was sitting, keeping her eyes clenched shut as she did so. "Did I hit my head?" she whispered.
Vanilla Moon: Awakening Page 7