"Come on," Wolfgang said. He took the broom and dustpan away from me and put them back in their corner. He looked at Riley. "Take the garbage out and vacuum, will you?" he asked. Riley nodded waved a hand at him as he lit up a cigarette. Wolfgang led me toward the back of the apartment. It had a nice floor plan. The front door opened directly in front of the coat closet. To the left of that was the living room, which separated from the kitchen via a breakfast bar. Opposite of the kitchen was a dining room with another closet behind the first coat closet. To the left of the dining room was a small room with a washer and dryer as well as the water heater. Next to that was the main bathroom, which had a door that lead to a Jack and Jane shower. Across from the main bathroom was Riley's room. On the other side of the shower was another closet holding a toilet. Beyond that was a sort of vanity in Wolfgang's room. There were two sinks and a large mirror. Behind that was the rest of Wolfgang's room.
Unlike the rest of the apartment, his bedroom was already immaculate. Nothing was out of place on the floor, and his bed was in perfect condition. He had a television in the corner between the closet and window. Under the window were two bookshelves, one holding movies and the other holding books. There was a nightstand on either side of his bed, and a dresser rest against the wall between the nightstand and the bathroom area.
Hanging above his bed on the wall was a woven tapestry. I stared at it because it was so hauntingly familiar that, again, I felt as though the wolves came from my dream. I stared at it and didn't realize I was moving until my fingers brushed the fabric.
"My mom had that made," he said. "She painted that picture, took it in, and asked them to turn it into that. It's one of the things I value above anything else in this apartment."
I let my hand fall to my side. "It's beautiful," I said.
"She did the mural in the diner too," he informed me. "It took her about three months to finish."
"Your mother is quite an artist," I said.
Wolfgang sighed. "That she is," he said with a note of pride in his voice.
I smiled at him as I looked around a little more. Everything in here seemed to be green, which I already knew was his favorite color. There were green curtains hanging from the window over the blinds. His blanket and sheets were green. There were green runners over the bookcases and nightstands. "You didn't lie when you said it was your favorite color," I said, looking at him with a smile.
"I suppose we'll have to get more red in here," he added.
I chuckled as my gaze found the one frame on the nightstand. I picked it up and saw Wolfgang with a little girl on his back, her smiling face at his shoulder. They both looked quite happy.
"That's Mira," he said. His sister. "She had just turned four when we took that."
"She's beautiful," I said as I put the picture back down.
Wolfgang grinned from his perch on the bed. "Yeah, she is," he agreed. "Come here," he said, holding his hand out to me. I accepted his hand and he guided me closer to him.
I came to a stop between his legs. He wrapped his arms around my waist and looked up at me with those pale blue eyes. "I love you," he said. "I want you to stay here in Adamsville with me, but I'll understand if you don't. I can't express enough how much I care about you and want you to be happy. I will protect you until the day I die if you let me," he said. "I have to be sure; will you stay here with me? Will you join my pack?"
What other answer was there? If I said no, it would have gotten me nowhere. I felt safe with Wolfgang in a way that I didn't feel with anyone else. As much as the logical side of me said it was too soon for love and things like that, I felt it and he knew it. This was what finding your soul mate was about. It was throwing caution into the wind, saying 'I love you', and just going for it without letting anyone discourage you or try and tell you otherwise.
I gave him a smile and felt the tension leave his body. I leaned in and kissed him. "Yes," I whispered. "I'll stay. I'll join your pack. I'll stand by your side until the day I die. I love you," I told him, saying the words for the first time. I couldn't help but think about the hundreds of times that Todd had said those three little words to me and I'd never repeated them. I couldn't. I always told him that I wouldn't say the words until I knew for certain that I meant them. I didn't even have to guess with Wolfgang. I loved him. There was no doubt.
Wolfgang smiled up at me before we kissed again. I felt his hands move along my body and I knew where this was going before he even moved to lay me on the bed. It was only afterward, basking in the afterglow, that I sabotaged the good feeling by wondering how many women had been in this bed with him....
The question was out of my mouth before I had a chance to filter it. I asked while I curled around him, my head resting on his well-toned chest. I felt him tense with my words. It was obvious that he didn't expect to have this conversation today.
He took in a deep breath and let it out. "None," he replied. "You're the first woman I've brought home with me," he said. "I always went to their place or somewhere else. I never brought one here."
"How many were there all together?" I asked. I knew about the three crazies, but none of the others.
"Relationships or trysts?" he asked.
I closed my eyes and geared up for the inevitable heartache. "Both," I whispered.
He sighed. For a moment, he wouldn't answer me. I looked up at him and saw the hesitation in his eyes. "I don't know," he confessed. His answer astonished me. "I've had five relationships, all of them lasting nine months or less. I've been around the block more times than I care to admit, and it is not something that I'm proud of."
"Why would you do it then?" I whispered. I could swear that I felt my heart breaking.
Wolfgang exhaled as he sat up. I sat with him and stared at him. "Expectations," he said. "A girl hears your reputation, so she seeks you out. You think she's in it for something serious, but it turns out that she only wants to know which rumors are true and which ones aren't. Whoever she was would rush me into her bedroom or car and then right back out as soon as morning hits or I've pulled up my pants. Had the urge to be with you not been controlling every aspect of me as strong as it was, I would have waited. It's one of the reasons I held off as long as I could. I had to break the cycle."
I sighed and looked down at my hands. "Then I'm glad you did," I said.
"Hey," he said, tilting my chin up so that I would meet his eyes. "Those girls in my past are not important," he said. "They were manipulative bitches who couldn't bother with the real thing. I was just one victim on a long list of many. I would take them all back in a heartbeat if I could. As far as I'm concerned, you are the only woman I've ever been with because you are the only woman who matters."
I gave him a weak smile before he leaned forward and kissed me with so much tenderness that I wanted to cry. I felt myself drawn to him again, and the kiss ended long before I wanted it to. Wolfgang pulled away from me and kissed the tip of my nose. "Can't do that right now," he whispered.
I chuckled. "Why not?" I asked.
He stood up. "Well, if you're going to stick around, you have to meet my parents," he said. "And join the pack."
"Oh," I said, having taken a moment to forget about all things Lycan. "Yeah...."
"It needs to happen," he said, looking down at me. "The sooner we do this, the safer you'll be. You told Alan that you're not his daughter and your mere proximity to me is going to make him jump to the conclusion that you're Lycan. Since his biggest goal in life is to eradicate all Lycans, he's going to hunt for you. You're the perfect insult to his plans. Right now, your life is in serious danger."
I sat back up and stared at him in shock that made an easy transition into belief. I trusted Wolfgang more than I trusted anyone, which meant that I believed him when he said my life hung in the balance. A huge part of me hadn't thought about that when I told Alan the truth about my lineage. That same part of me counted on the fact that he had cared for me as a daughter for so long to save me. Wolfgang was telling m
e that those feelings now counted for nothing because Alan's goal was to see every Lycan suffer and die. I would not be an exception.
"Can we shower first?" I asked.
Wolfgang nodded and held out his hand for me.
Chapter 10 ~Ceres~
Another two hours later, Wolfgang pulled up in front of the largest house I had seen in Adamsville thus far. His truck ripped through the fresh feet of snow and pressed forward along a driveway that guided us to a mansion set away from the road. The house was beautiful. The exterior was log with green trim, making it blend in with the forest around it. Where there weren't logs or green trim, there were massive stones for the chimney and foundation. There were four stories above ground, the fourth being the attic at the top that looked like it was only one room. There was likely a basement as well, but I couldn't tell from this angle with the depth of the snow.
Wolfgang opened his door and looked at me. "They won't bite," he said. "At least not yet," he added with a smirk.
I let out a nervous chuckle before I opened the door. I got out of the truck and dropped to the ground, where the snow came up to my knees. "Holy shit," I whispered.
"Welcome to the mountains," Wolfgang called out from the other side of the truck. He came around to the front of me and knelt with his back toward me. "Climb up," he said. "I'll give you a ride to the house."
I laughed as he picked me up onto his back. He carried me through the snow up to the front of the house. The trail he cut through the snow was deep and I was glad that I didn't have to walk it.
He opened the front door and we came into a mudroom. He set me down and stomped off as much of the snow as he could. I kicked the snow off my boots as well and knocked a bit of snow into them. I groaned as the icy water melted down my leg. Wolfgang chuckled at me before he took his coat off. He reached for mine as well and hung them up on the coat rack. He took my hand and guided me into the house.
I only had a glimpse the foyer before Wolfgang pulled me to a pair of grand double doors. There were wolves carved into the rich wood and a mist swirled around them. Above the scene was a huge full moon. Two wolves seemed to stand out above all the rest, but it looked like a hierarchy system. The seam of the doors cut the whole scene in half. Wolfgang didn't seem to pay it any mind. He opened one of the doors and continued on, pulling me along for the ride.
I stopped dead in my tracks the moment I entered that room. It was the largest personal library I had ever seen. The walls were floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, filled to bursting with thousands of books. There was a fireplace between two huge windows and a wrought iron spiral staircase leading to a landing above that circled the room.
My gaze followed that staircase up to the second floor and then the books further up to the ceiling. There was a massive chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling and painted above was a moonlit sky. The full moon was peeking out from behind a few clouds and stars dotted the rest of the canvas. I could have laid down in that room, stared up at the ceiling, and never moved again.
"Wolfgang, what are you doing here?" a man asked.
His voice startled me from my awe, and my gaze snapped to the man who had spoken. He was standing at a large desk covered in papers, folders, and a computer. Wolfgang wrapped an arm around my waist and made me walk toward him. I was apprehensive in a way that I didn't understand. I didn't mind meeting new people and I knew this wasn't about meeting the father of my fiancé for the first time. This was about meeting the father of my mate and the leader of the pack I was about to commit my life to. This one man would decide my fate from this point forward. I felt powerless, which was something I had never felt before. It was odd, but that was the most comforting part about standing there in front of him.
They looked almost like they should have been brothers. It was clear that this man was older than Wolfgang, but he didn't look that much older. He had three scars cutting across his face from the left side of his forehead, across his eye and nose to his right cheek. His eye was somehow whole after that kind of damage and I had to wonder if it was because of his preternatural powers.
"Dad, this is Ceres," Wolfgang said. "I told you about her."
"Ah," he said. "Yes. Your mate."
Wolfgang nodded. "Yes," he said. He looked at me. "Ceres, this is my father, Leon. He is the Enkidu of Vanilla Moon."
Wolfgang's father gave him a sharp look before he reached out a hand to me. I placed my hand in his and he brought my wrist up to his nose and sniffed. His eyes went from the same pale blue of Wolfgang's to amber in an instant. He let my wrist go and looked at Wolfgang. "She smells of magic," he said with a note of anger in his voice.
"We had a run-in with Alan this morning," Wolfgang informed him. The Enkidu's eyes widened. "We were civil," Wolfgang added. "Ceres was his stepdaughter until ten years ago, but he always believed that she was his biological daughter. He's the reason she came to town in the first place. He is now, unfortunately, aware that she is not his daughter. She's in danger. You should smell the wolf in her. She's one of us, Dad."
Leon sighed and met my eyes. "He's told you everything?" he asked.
"The basics," I replied with a nod. "It was only a few hours ago that he told me the stories and everything else..."
Wolfgang squeezed my hand, encouraging me to show strength and resolve. I gave him a smile and squeezed his hand back, letting him know that I understood.
"Do you believe him?"
I nodded. "Yes," I answered, even though I still wasn't sure how all of this was even possible.
"When the moon turns full, you'll shift for the first time. Before that happens, you need to know as much as possible about who and what we are. Wolfgang, as both your mate and Volsunga of this pack, will be the one to teach you everything you need to know. If you are to join this pack, you will need a residence. Everyone contributes in one way or another to the survival of this pack, even if it is as muscle. Do you have something that you can contribute?"
"I'm a lawyer with a specialty in business law," I said. "I speak five languages, and I'm good at talking to people. My team picked me as spokesperson for debate more than once and I've been able to negotiate and haggle to get what I want."
"What are your languages?"
"I'm fluent in English, Latin, Italian, German, and French," I informed him. "I know bits and pieces of Gaelic because of my father, and Russian because my..." I didn't know what word to use to describe what she was to our family. Was it nanny? Cook? Housekeeper? Confidant? Surrogate mother? She did so many things for my parents and me while I was growing up in New York. Without her, I don't think we would have survived. I decided that only her name would do her justice as she was still so much more than all those things. "Jalena was from there," I said.
"That's quite refreshing," Leon said with a broad grin. "Most people around here speak only English and French because the town's roots are French. It's tradition in our family to teach it to our young as they learn to speak, and others have picked it up as well. It's almost a requirement for the pack."
Wolfgang's father sighed, which was my clue that the conversation was going to turn serious again. "Your stepfather, Alan, how much does he know about you?" he asked.
"Just about everything," I replied with a chuckle. "He and I were somewhat close when I was a child. He was always sort of cold and distant and always precise, but he was still my father in a lot of ways. When I was a teenager, that started to change. With my parents' divorce, he and I kind of lost touch because my mom had custody of me. He started living his life here and I started living mine. We've been distant from each other for the last eight years or so, so he doesn't know as much about me now as he used to. He found out a few hours ago that I'm not his daughter. The entire time he and my mom were together, my mom let him believe that I was his because it was easier than just telling him the truth."
"Why did you tell him the truth?"
I shrugged. "I'm not sure," I confessed. "I was in shock, I guess. I wasn't expecting to fin
d out that I'm not human. Wolfgang had just finished telling me that I'm Lycan and I didn't know what to think. Part of me wanted him to be crazy, but the other part of me knew it was true. Then Alan called and tried to tell me that everything Wolfgang said to me was a lie. When I asked him, point blank, if he was a Witch, he confessed. It cemented everything as fact and I just wasn't quite ready for it all."
The Enkidu smiled. "Yes, I can imagine that it came as quite a surprise."
I let out a breathless laugh. "I think the word 'surprise' is a bit of an understatement," I said.
Wolfgang's father chuckled. "Yes, I agree," he replied. "I think the only person in this house who can relate to your situation is my mate. Ravyn didn't know of our race's uniqueness until shortly before she reached puberty. It was her family's way. Ours has always been to tell our children from the beginning. That way, they are aware of it, understand it, and accept it before the time comes for their first shift."
"I can see how that would be easier," I replied. "Are there others who are like me?" I asked. "People who weren't told until they were well passed the time they should have been?"
"A few. Anica, who is a few years younger than you are, didn't know until she was sixteen years old. Her parents were unaware themselves. They are still unaware."
I looked at Wolfgang. Anica was one of the crazy exes. "How did she find out then?" I asked.
"One of Wolfgang's jobs as Volsunga in this pack is to find others in the area who have yet to Awaken. He brings them to us. He was most successful in this aspect while in school, as he was always meeting new people. While this isn't one of his most important duties to the pack, he has always had an exceptional talent for it."
"How can you tell?" I said, looking at the man who promised me that I was his mate. "I know you mentioned smell to me, but how is that you were able to smell wolf while he only smelled Witch?'
Vanilla Moon: Awakening Page 10