Chapter One #2
Unlike folklore, we don’t turn into some man/wolf hybrid, but generally look much more like a wolf when we shift, and we can shift anytime we like, though we don’t have a choice during a full moon.
Most of us wolves are drawn to each other, wanting a pack to call home…
except for me. I have absolutely no interest in a pack or any of those dynamics, much to my father’s misery.
Since I’m the only other family member who’s a wolf, my father has tried his hardest to drag me into his life…
which I don’t always want to be a part of.
He thinks it’s ridiculous that I’m not part of his pack—which he hopes I’ll take over when he backs down.
Honestly, I have absolutely no plans at all to take over.
“You know you could help prevent your kind from being stomped down by the vampires,” Dad says. He’d probably expire right here if I told him what we’d actually just been doing with the vampires.
“What if I like being stomped down? What if it tickles my fancy to be walked on by vampires?”
Dad scrutinizes me. Honestly, it’s a wonder he even claims me as his son. “Julian.”
“Father.”
He sighs loudly and starts using his extra anger power to throw some candy bars into a box. He’s almost powerful enough to send them through the box and down into hell with the way he’s fuming.
“Will you please just listen?”
“I am listening. I don’t want to be part of your pack or any pack. I’m happy on my own. And… no, I really don’t have any desire to go fight a vampire for some territory we already lost. It really hasn’t been that bad since the bat brigade came out, has it?”
“I wanna be a werewolf!” Nina decides.
“No, no you don’t,” Dad says.
Nina growls in response. “Yes, I do. If I was a werewolf, I’d chase Emily because she’s mean,” she decides before slowly looking over at me. “What are you doing after school tomorrow, Julian?”
“Not chasing an eight-year-old,” I say as I set a box of candy bars in her arms.
“What about a nine-year-old?”
“This whole city is uneasy,” Dad says, ignoring Nina.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” I respond. But let’s be real… I’d rather chase the nine-year-old than deal with his bullshit.
“Why couldn’t your brother have been the damn werewolf?” he complains.
“Go gnaw on him, see how that goes,” I say as I carry the second box up to the house.
The door opens as we reach it and Mel, who’s Nina’s mother and my sister-in-law, smiles at us. “Aww, didn’t get them sold?”
“NO, we did! Julian forced a vampire to give us FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS.”
Dad’s head snaps around so fast that I’m not going to be surprised if he has whiplash. “You did what ?”
I just smile away. “We had a blast. Sold all the candy. Super nice guy said we could keep these ones for ourselves! Have fun.”
With a pat on Nina’s head, I rush off to my car and drive home, quite concerned that my father is going to glower a hole into the back of my head.
CASIMIR
“Do you mind explaining why I just gave a mutt five hundred dollars ?” Dan grumbles.
“Because you’re too weak to tell me no,” I say as I continue down the street.
The werewolf and the human child are thankfully gone, so I’m free to continue my search after hearing a rumor floating around that a couple of vampires had waltzed into my territory without my permission.
Why anyone would choose to do such a thing is ridiculous.
It’s like they woke up and decided on death.
To keep things civil, I only allow those who have permission to reside here.
The wolves were already here when I arrived, but they are well aware that they don’t have permission to make more or allow more into the area.
There are enough new weres made accidentally; to allow them to make more werewolves purposely would leave the city overrun with them.
In order to be fair, that also means that I don’t allow vampires to change humans, and I sure as hell don’t permit new vampires to enter without permission.
“What the hell am I supposed to do with all of this chocolate?” Dan asks, like that’s the concern here.
“Give it away,” I say.
He groans before pulling out a bar and holding it out to a child. “Do you want some candy?” he asks.
The girl shrieks and rushes for her mother.
“I hate children. This is why we should be allowed to eat them,” he decides.
“Don’t eat the children,” I order as I keep walking.
A few tourists have gone missing, last seen in this area.
While I don’t sense or smell any vampires, it doesn’t mean that there’s not one or two hanging around here, persuading the drunks to wander off with them where they’ll likely dump their body in the river somewhere.
“I’m not going to eat the children… I said I wish we could. They’re so pesky and honestly, downright creepy.” Dan shudders at the thought.
I hesitate, catching a scent that leads me away from the main area and down an alley.
As Dan trots after me with his boxes of candy, I make my way over to a run-down building that looks abandoned.
The front door is locked, but I see the window on the second floor is open.
Glancing around, I don’t see any humans or devices that could track me, so I jump up, grabbing the edge of the brick before scaling my way up the wall and in through the open window with ease.
When I land, the smell of rot immediately attacks my senses.
And while there are no bodies in the room, I find myself following the scent of the vampires inward to a room that has no windows—no way for light to shine in.
This must be where they’ve been sleeping during the day. Their scent seems a bit old, though, making me wonder if they’ve recently moved on. Even so, I’m going to have some vampires waiting here until near dawn, in case they show.
Wandering down the stairs, I find myself in what used to be an old restaurant. It doesn’t take me long to find the source of the rotting stench, and when I open the industrial freezer, I’m greeted with a pile of human bodies.
I’m seething that someone could actually be foolish enough to come into my territory and cause an issue like this one. Have I been too lax?
When I return to Dan, he’s staring at an opened candy bar.
“Don’t you ever just… want a taste? Ohhhh, I miss chocolate.”
“Get four vampires here to watch this spot. If they see the rogue vampires, they need to bring them to me immediately or kill them.”
“Yes, sir! Of course!”
As he tries to figure out how to pull out his phone while juggling the chocolate, I head back toward my car.
About halfway there, I see an attractive woman walking down the street.
Her eyes flick over to mine and she gives me a seductive grin.
All I have to do is smile at her and she immediately works her way toward me.
I draw her off into a dark corner because all sense of wariness has left her.
Her walls have completely dropped to the point where she doesn’t see any issue with any of this.
“Hello, handsome,” she purrs.
“Good evening,” I say as I back her up against a wall. I tip her chin to the side as she wraps her arms around me, like she wants to pull me into her and hold me captive.
I simply brush her hair back before sinking my fangs into her throat. She moans like this is the best sex she’s ever had, one hundred percent enamored by me.
While I’ll only take enough to sate my thirst, I know that even if I wanted to take it all, she’d give every last drop to me.
She either won’t remember what happened or might feel like it was nothing more than a vague dream, because the goal is to keep the humans from knowing what we are so everything stays as peaceful as it can.
The issue is when someone decides that they don’t like the way I do things.
And then we have the werewolves. They’re pesky and irritating, just like the one from earlier.