She let out a bitter chuckle. "That's the first bit of good news that I've had all day," she whispered. I felt more than a little bit slighted by the comment, but I could understand where she was coming from. I would rather have her happy than as upset as she was. She paused for a second before she looked at me. "I'm on the pill," she said. "Does that mean anything?"
I couldn't recall seeing her take a pill during the storm, but I also didn't know if it mattered. I shrugged. "Maybe," I said. "I've never met a Lycan on the pill before," I confessed. "It isn't necessary for us on a normal basis."
"Okay," she said as she pulled away from me. She ran her hands through her hair a few more times before she looked at me. "Okay," she said again, this time with more strength to her voice. "What's next?" she asked.
"Have you had any martial arts training?" I asked.
She nodded, which surprised me. I remembered the conversation as she started to speak. "My mom put me through a Judo course when I was younger. I stuck with it for a couple of years. I was never very good at it," she said. "I would never put myself into a judo competition or anything like that, but I know how to hold my own."
I nodded. "Alright," I said. "So then, tomorrow, we'll head over to the gym and you can show me what you know," I said with a smile.
Chapter 13 ~Ceres~
The next morning, Wolfgang woke me up at the crack of dawn. We showered and dressed and made our way down to his truck. After a quick stop to get me some clothes to work out in, we headed to the gym.
He and I stood, facing each other. "How do you want to do this?" he asked. "I don't know judo."
I smiled. "The beautiful thing about judo is that you don't have to use it against someone who knows it," I said. "You come at me with what you've got, I'll fight you with what I've got."
"You're sure?" he asked. "I won't hold back much."
I nodded. "I'll let you know if it's too much," I said. "Keep in mind, I only know the basics."
Wolfgang nodded before he came at me. As he moved to grab me, I shifted my weight to send him over the top of me. He landed hard on the mat beneath our feet and let out a grunt. He stared up at me. "Holy shit," he said.
I smiled. "Judo's the trick a small person has to beat a big one," I said with a chuckle. I held out my hand and helped him to his feet.
"I might have to learn that," he said with a grin. He came at me again and we continued to spar. Each time I executed a move, he changed the game. He proved just how much he depended on his skills to make him a better fighter. He proved just how important it was to be able to fight well.
The time between that day and the week before the full moon flew by in a rush. I was so busy avoiding Alan's calls and following Wolfgang's training regimen that the days flew by. When I realized what day it was, it was almost time. I was about to find out if this was real, or if I had fallen for the biggest hoax of my life.
I wanted to talk to the twins about it more than I wanted anything else. I knew that they would be able to help me process the information and find a logical place to stand and look at everything, but I couldn't. The first law in this world was that humans stayed out. I didn't know for a fact that the twins were human, but I didn't know for a fact that they weren't either. That meant that I had to treat them as human, just in case. The most they could know about what was going on was that I had found the love of my life and I wasn't leaving Adamsville anytime soon. They didn't exactly approve of the last part, but they understood that it was my decision to make and they were there for me, no matter what. It was nice to have someone at my back.
My mom, on the other hand, knew nothing about what was happening, as I couldn't get in touch with her. I'd tried calling her cell phone, the house, and I'd sent her emails, but everything went unanswered. I wondered if she'd gone into labor and was at the hospital or something, but as no one was in contact with me, I couldn't know.
I was physically and mentally exhausted. I was sore from all the training that Wolfgang had been putting me through. I spent an afternoon while he was at the diner asleep. I kept dreaming of those wolves, the forest, and their battle against Alan. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the wolves were the Vanilla Moon pack and that the battle was with Alan's coven. Alan's role was clear. The oddest part of everything seemed to be that reality was making sense of my dreams. I didn't think dreams worked like that, but then again, my dreams weren't exactly what I'd call normal. They never had been.
In every dream I've ever had, I've always been a white wolf. My mother, whenever she was in my dreams, was also a white wolf. Alan has always been just himself. There have been other wolves in my dreams as well, but I couldn't ever say who they were in my life. There were other people in my dreams, like Alan. It's hard for me to decide if it was my subconscious's way of telling me who in my life are and aren't Lycan, or if it's all just dreams. There isn't a way to know for sure until I figure out who is and isn't human and who's who in my dreams. With my luck, I'll never know for sure.
I woke to the sound of my phone ringing. I couldn't make out what sound was playing but I answered it without opening my eyes. "Hello?" I asked, my voice lethargic from sleep.
"Ceres!" he cried. "Thank the gods you're alright!"
My eyes shot open in an instant and I bolted out of bed. I should have checked the screen.... "Alan," I said. I hadn't spoken to him since I informed him that I wasn't his daughter. "What..." I cleared my throat. "What do you want?" I asked.
"I want you to come home," he said. "Look, we can fix whatever's wrong with you. We know how to split the human from the wolf, and we can help you. Just come by the house, alone, and we'll fix you. I promise."
"I'm not broken," I argued. "I'm not injured. There isn't anything to fix. I'm fine. I'm happy. I don't ever want to speak to you again."
"What lies has that boy been feeding you?" he whispered.
"Assuming that they are lies, they're better than the ones you spoon-fed me for sixteen years," I spat. I hung up the phone and tossed it aside. Things were going to come to a head sooner or later, I knew that for certain. If I could just keep him away for a while longer, long enough to make it through the full moon, I’d have an advantage. I just needed to make it one more week.
There was a knock on the bedroom door. Riley worked nights at the diner, so he was home during the day. Unless Wolfgang had come home early, there was only one possibility on the other side. "Yeah?" I called with a cracking voice.
Riley pushed the door open with concern written all over his face. "Are you alright?" he asked. "I was just walking out of the bathroom and I heard...."
I sighed. "I just answered the call that I've been avoiding all month because I was too groggy to realize it," I said. "He thinks he can fix me," I spat. "Why is it that I feel like my situation is so much more complicated than everyone else's in the whole world?" I asked.
Riley chuckled. He looked like he wanted to come closer, but at the same time didn't. I knew why. Wolfgang would act on instinct if he saw Riley in the bedroom alone with me. I stood up and walked into the kitchen. I pulled a bottle of root beer out of the fridge before I sat down in the living room. This was a safe zone in Wolfgang's mind. He could control himself in this room. Riley followed me with an actual beer in his hand. He sat down, lit up a cigarette, and inhaled.
"Your story is the most complicated one that you know of," he said as he blew out the smoke from his first drag. "There aren't many people who can say that their mother married a Witch and kept it all a secret for seventeen years. While my story isn't the same as yours, it's also complicated. I assume you know that I came out here because Wolfgang abdicated Volsunga for a while, yes?" he asked. I nodded. "Well, the part I can't imagine him telling you is why they chose me and why I never went home after he reclaimed his birthright." I shook my head. I didn't know Riley's story because Wolfgang said that it wasn't his place to tell me. If Riley wanted me to know, Riley would say it.
He sighed. "About ten years ago, when I
was eighteen, I became involved with a woman who was a few years older than me," he explained. "It was the first time I'd even gotten a girl that hot to give me a second glance and she was going out on actual dates with me. She wanted others to see her in public with me. Of course, at the time, I didn't know that it was because I was the second son of the Enkidu. I was young, dumb, and, as my mother likes to say, full of cum." I chuckled. "Desert Moon is one of the few packs blessed with two sons close together in age.
"Anyway, back to the actual story. The girl that I got involved with wasn't the most faithful of partners. She wanted to be with the biggest, baddest, and strongest of us so that she could get somewhere in the pack beyond being a beta. At least, that's what I thought. Turned out that it wasn't just me that she was trying to get somewhere with. When the five of us found out what she was doing, we all ganged up on her. It was violent, bloody, and something that I abhor myself for being a part of."
Riley took in a deep drag from his cigarette. He ran his hands through his loose hair before he continued. "Turned out, she wasn't just some dumb beta. She was Chindi." I gasped. "True to her name, she sought vengeance for what we did to her. There were two people sentenced to death. There were two people expelled from the pack.
"The only reason the Neuri spared me was because of my position in the pack. I was one of the sons, which meant that if anything happened to Rodney, I'd have to step in as Volsunga. Up to that point, most of my life had been without any real responsibility because I wasn't Volsunga. My dad sent me out here because I needed to learn how to be responsible for my own actions. It also helped light a fire under Wolf's ass and make him step up to the plate and be the man he needed to be. He's come a long way since that night," he said. I didn't have to ask him what night. I saw the scars. I knew what night. "Most of us didn't even think he could come back from what they did to him. You've done a lot of good for that man. He has a purpose now. He has a goal. He has someone to focus on who loves him as much as he loves her. Whatever happens, don't let him lose sight of that."
I nodded. "I'll do my best," I promised.
Riley smiled. "That's all anyone can do," he said. "Did I help at all?" he asked.
I smiled. "A bit," I said. I chuckled before I took a sip from the long neck bottle of my root beer. I sighed as I set it back down on the coaster. "I still don't know what to do about Alan," I confessed. "There's this part of me that feels like I should never leave this apartment because, the second that I do, he's going to find me and catch me. I don't want to know what will happen if he ever does that."
Riley sighed. "Wolf can tell you exactly what will happen if Alan ever catches you," he said.
I thought about Wolfgang's scars as I nodded. "He already has," I whispered.
Wolfgang came home late that day with a bruise on his cheek that wasn't there when he'd left. Riley and I were watching a movie with popcorn when he walked in, looking haggard. Riley paused the movie as I stood. "What the hell happened to you?" I gasped.
Wolfgang exhaled and gave us an exasperated look. "Anica," he said.
"Oh boy," Riley chuckled as he set the remote down. "What happened this time?" he asked before he took a sip from his beer.
Wolfgang let out a disgruntled sound and gestured for me to sit back down. I sat as he walked toward us and took his own seat on the coffee table. He looked direct at me, which clued me into to the fact that I was getting a history lesson that Riley already knew.
"Anica is one of the Lycans I found in school," he said. I recognized her name from the few times that I had heard it. "Her family moved here from Glendale, California because a gang killed her brother in a drive-by shooting. Her life's goal since leaning the long-kept family secret has been to get me to fall for her and declare her my mate. She learned about you earlier today and wasn't happy to hear it. She came looking for me down at the diner and demanded an explanation. As one of my crazy exes, she feels that she has more of a claim to Skaapie than anyone else does. I took her out back to try to talk her down, but I only succeeded in making her more pissed off. She swung at me and then took off. I'll be willing to bet that she'll be looking for you sometime soon," he finished with a heavy sigh.
Great. I let out a bitter chuckle as I stood and started back to our bedroom. One person was bad enough, but to add a second person who wanted my blood to the list? Especially one driven by jealous anger? I was toast....
Wolfgang followed me and slipped into the bedroom before I could close the door. I felt numb as I sat down on the bed and wondered what the hell I had done to deserve this sort of thing in my life. Hadn't I been a good person? I'd always helped everyone I could, and I'd never broken the law. Everything I'd ever done in my life had been to help myself and others get ahead. Shouldn't that have racked up some good karma for me?
"What's the matter?" Wolfgang asked.
I shrugged, not in the mood to talk. "I'm fine," I mumbled. I knew that he'd see right through the lie. Even if he couldn't see it, I knew he could smell it. Emotions give off different pheromones and lying was just another form of nervousness. Even though I wasn't nervous, lying was still easy to catch. I just wasn't ready to fess up with the truth yet.
"You're not fine," he said as he moved closer to me. "What happened? What's going on?" he asked.
I let out a slow breath and looked up at him. The bruise marred his perfect face. It distorted his features and turned his beautiful face into something ugly and grotesque. Who would have thought that a bruise could do so much?
"Alan called again," I confessed. "This time I answered because I was asleep when the call came in...."
"Shit," he whispered as he sat down on the bed next to me. He pulled me into his lap. "Tell me," he said.
I felt the first tears burn at my eyes. "He said that he can fix me," I whispered. My throat tightened and it hurt to swallow. "He said that he could make it all better if I just went to him," I squeaked out as the tears began to fall. "I told him that I'm not broken, and I don't need him to fix me, but I don't think he's going to stay quiet.
Wolfgang hugged me tight. "I'll protect you," he whispered in my ear. "I won't let him touch you."
I knew it was too good to be true.
It was the next day. Wolfgang and I decided that we needed to get groceries. He had a plan for dinner for the two of us where he could show off his skills in the kitchen and we wouldn't have to go anywhere to make it happen. While we were at the grocery store, I found myself distracted by a book that I'd been waiting for. While I stopped to look it over and decide if I wanted to buy it, Wolfgang went on to get more of the ingredients he needed for the dinner.
I was so distracted, skimming through the pages, that the world around me seemed to melt away. I lost track of the aimless shoppers, the begging children, and the elevator music. The pages I held in my hands enchanted me, almost as if I was under some sort of real spell.
I felt a hand on my arm that gripped my flesh with such an unyielding tenacity that the charm broke. I inhaled a strange new scent that was coppery and sharp. It was acrid and made me want to vomit. My instincts wanted to call it magic. I felt the sudden fear take such a strong hold of me that I couldn't even access the muscle memory of years of judo practice. His grip tightened and I gasped in pain. I tried to cry out, but the sound disappeared in my throat. I turned to look at who had taken hold of me and felt the fear strike me frozen. The book fell from my hands. There was no way for me to have gotten anyone's attention, let alone Wolfgang's. He was too far away by the time Alan grabbed me.
"You will come with me without a struggle, or you will die right here and now," he said in my ear. "If you decide that your life is worth sacrificing, take into consideration that I will not only kill you. I will also kill every non-Witch in this store, innocents included. Nod if you understand me."
I nodded and Alan proceeded to guide me out of the store without loosening his grip on my arm. As we walked, he smiled at a few patrons, many of whom made an effort to look away from us
as we passed. It astonished me at how easy it was for him to kidnap me in plain sight. Dozens of people saw him lead me out of the store and not even one of them spoke up. I wondered if any of them were Lycans. I wondered how many of them were Witches. I wondered which ones were Hunters.
Did any of them care that Alan was breaking the one cardinal rule? Did any of them care that this was a "safe” area? Neutral ground. He shouldn't have been able to do this. I should have been safe.
I looked up at Alan's face as we exited the store. "Why?" I asked.
He glared down at me with anger flashing in his eyes. He refused to answer me. The hatred in him was overpowering and made me fear for my life in a way I didn't know was possible. In that moment, I knew that this man would kill me if it came to that, and it wouldn't matter that he had raised me. I was a Lycan now. Everything else was moot.
When we reached his car, he hit me in the back of my head with something solid. I felt the pain sear through my head, blinding me. I cried out again, but everything went black and I fell unconscious.
Chapter 14 ~Wolfgang~
When I realized that Ceres wasn't behind me any longer, I retraced my steps, using my nose to find her in case my eyes were lying to me. She'd stopped at a book display, but she hadn't been alone. The book she was looking at lay on the floor, the pages bent from the weight of the book pressing it open against the ceramic tile.
I bent down and picked it up, recognizing the second smell in the air that made my hair stand on end. When I straightened, I knew what had happened. I'd failed in my promise to protect her. She'd told me that she felt like he would find her the minute she stepped out of the house, and she'd been right. She was always right. She always knew.
I abandoned my cart and the book as I followed the scent out of the grocery store. I could sense her distress in the way that there was a bite to her normal chocolate and strawberries scent. Whatever happened here had terrified her. There was another scent in the air, one that was almost metallic in nature. The scent had a charge to it and made my hair stand on end. Magic. Not only was she afraid, she was under a spell. That explained why she hadn't tried to fight back or cry out. Alan likely made sure that she couldn't.
Vanilla Moon: Awakening Page 13