Chapter 22 #2
Tens of red, beady eyes stared unblinking from the shady pines. A familiar, hot and heavy sensation pressed in from all around, more intense than when Willa had escorted me through her restaurant. It was the same primal screaming from the wolf to take cover, and this time, I wouldn’t ignore it.
Trying to stay calm, I stood and made my way to the door. When the knob clicked, the woods fell silent and the voices vanished.
Adam and Austin’s bedroom door was closed, but there weren’t any sounds coming from the other side.
The bathroom door was also shut, and I assumed Roscoe was still working off an impacted bowel from all the meat he’d consumed.
As I approached the kitchen, however, I found Roscoe at the dining room table, nodding to music while peeling potatoes.
“I thought you were still in the bathroom,” I said, sitting in the chair next to him. “Why are you making more food?”
Roscoe turned down the small bluetooth radio next to him. “These are gonna go bad soon if I don’t cook ‘em now.” He looked over at me. “You hungry?”
“Not at the moment.” I turned the radio all the way off. “What you did last night was really sweet.”
“I knew you’d like it. You always pretend like you hate somethin’ until you actually give it a chance.” He smiled and dropped a peeled potato in the bowl, pointing to himself with the dull side of his paring knife. “Like me.”
“That all depends on if you’re going to clean that nasty couch today. I saw roaches in the kitchen this morning.”
“A little more protein wouldn’t hurt ya,” Roscoe said, picking up another potato before noticing the disgust on my face. “Ya know I’m kidding. I’ll clean it.”
“Am I an asshole?” I asked, gauging Roscoe’s shifty eyes.
“Uh…” He set the knife on the other side of the table. “That depends. Do you know where I hid that bag?”
“I guess that’s my answer.”
“Listen. Ever since that night with the mayor, you’ve been a little short.”
“I’m on edge,” I responded, resting my head against my knuckles.
“You gotta learn how to deal with that stuff in a constructive way instead of takin’ it out on the pack.” He nudged my arm. “You should take it out on me in bed.”
“It’s always about sex, isn’t it?”
“Naw. I’m just telling you to start using me the way yer supposed to. That’s why we’re kuu mates. You think all this is just to get free housing? All half-turns need a trusty werewolf that’ll be there when they need to blow off steam.”
“I thought the whole kuu thing was a recent policy.”
Roscoe nodded. “Yeah, but this stuff’s been happening well before that.”
“Then why do we even need these?” I pointed at my earrings, which I found out from Mosavi didn’t really work for me. “If half-turns and werewolves end up together anyway, why do we need some kind of magical bond?”
Roscoe paused for a moment and shrugged. “I ain’t an elder, so I don’t know what the purpose is for any of this shit. I just know that we’ll get a free ride when it’s over.”
“And you know this, how?”
“Because—” He paused again, stumbling over his words. “Because that’s what we’ve been told.”
“Have you actually seen any of these places? Do you know anyone who’s reached the end of the contract?”
“No, I guess not,” he muttered. “You think it’s all a lie?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore. Just some of the shit Mosavi said makes me wonder.
He mentioned kuu-bound werewolves being easier to control.
You were passed out drunk, so you didn’t hear it, but that’s been bothering me a lot.
” I unclasped one of the golden hoop earrings, and it came out effortlessly. “These don’t work on me, by the way.”
“Whoa! Shit, Cody you broke our kuu?” His wide eyes teared up.
“No. It never worked to begin with. Whatever makes me different nullifies this stuff.” I quickly put the earring back in before the hole closed. “They’ve grown on me, though.”
“That’s cause you look good in ‘em.” Roscoe’s sad eyes turned squinty when a smile pinched the sides of his maw. “So this whole time we weren’t kuu-bonded, but you stayed anyway.”
I slipped my arms around him. “I guess I did. You’re just too damn comfortable, even if you are a slob.
” I pushed him away. “That feral elder in the woods was the only one that didn’t seem to have some kind of agenda.
When I was around him, I was more comfortable than when I was around Mosavi or his wife. ”
“Ooo, I meant to ask. What was she like?” he asked, picking up another potato.
“She’s definitely a witch—I think.”
Roscoe fumbled as he sliced, letting the knife fall into the bowl.
“What makes you think that?”
“A feeling,” I responded. “There’s weird shit going on in the woods now, too.
The confusing thing is, she warned me not to go out there because of the witches.
If she’s a witch herself, she’s either a good one who protects werewolves from other witches, or she’s really greedy.
Both explanations would make sense seeing how Norwich has such a huge werewolf population. ”
“If yer right, the mayor ain’t the one running the town. Witches are bad news, man.”
“‘I’m still not one hundred percent sure.” I looked back up at Roscoe. “You know something, don’t you?”
He scratched his head. “I wish I could remember. Don’t know why I’m so scared of ‘em, but I know something happened when I was younger. It wasn’t good though.”
The bathroom door opened, and Austin crept into the dining room, his eyes wide as he stared at me.
“I need you to… do that thing you do.”
“What?” I asked as he got closer to the table.
“I can’t get in the mood, and Adam’s waiting for me.”
“Ain’t never seen that happen before,” Roscoe said. “I bet I can get it nice and hard for ya.”
“That’s a good way for you to die,” he muttered before turning back to me. “I tried everything. You know what I need.”
“All right. Fine.” I stood and pointed to the bedroom. “Get in there and fuck your mate, soldier!”
Austin stood still, his eyes not changing color like they usually did when I gave him a command.
“Uh oh,” he said.
“I don’t know how to do this on the fly,” I said, trying to stare directly into his yellow eyes. It seemed Mosavi’s vironoct effect had worn off. “Do you feel any different?”
“No,” he whispered. “Try slapping me around.”
“What the fuck?” Roscoe asked. “Did I miss something really funny?”
“You could say that,” I said, shakily gripping the back of Austin’s neck as he got down on one knee. “This doesn’t feel right.”
Austin turned to Roscoe. “Can you fuck my kuu mate?”
“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Roscoe said eagerly as he stood from the table.
A shot of jealousy made the room turn silver.
“Sit the hell down, Roscoe,” I growled and turned back to Austin, my hand now clamped tightly on the loose skin of his neck.
I leaned in, baring my teeth, and his eyes began to lighten.
“Get in there. I want you to fuck him so hard that he begs you to stop, and when he does, you fuck him more. Understand?”
“Yes… sir…” Austin whispered, his tone breathless as he stumbled to his feet, now uncomfortably erect. He ran to the bedroom and slammed the door behind him, and my vision returned to a normal hue as I took a deep, calming breath.
“I thought you weren’t gonna do that no more,” Roscoe said, sitting back down. He sounded disappointed.
“He needed it.”
Adam shouted something unintelligible as their headboard slammed repeatedly against the wall.
“Goddamn,” I added. “I’ll sort out Austin’s problem later, but this might be something I can’t fix.”
Roscoe started drooling.
“When I’m done with these potatoes, you want me to do that to you?”
As the sounds from Austin and Adam’s room ramped up, I hastily removed my shirt, and unbuttoned my pants, which fell to the floor.
“The potatoes can wait,” I said, rushing to our bedroom with Roscoe running to catch up.
Hours had passed, and it was mid-afternoon. The way Roscoe made love to me earlier was unusually rough, which I decided I didn’t really like. However, I certainly wasn’t going to complain since it was good exercise for him.
He lay asleep, and I rolled over him out of bed for the second time that day.
I needed to check on Austin, because I remembered the command I’d given him hadn’t exactly told him to stop.
Would he have continued, even when he probably should have passed out?
After all, the guy had been willing to punch himself in the face last night.
If Austin took something a bit too literally, this could end up being dangerous.
I threw on my discarded clothes and rushed into their bedroom. Adam was sound asleep with a smile on his face. The sight was a relief. Even though he was probably still pissed at me, it was nice to see him happy.
Now I needed to find where Austin had wandered off to. He wasn’t in the living room, and the garage was empty when I opened the door. Perhaps he was outside, staring out into the woods again. A sudden sick feeling hit my stomach as I thought the worst, and I tore off toward the back door.
Austin sat cross-legged on a lawn chair in front of a lit fire pit, his attention snapping to me as he jumped up.
“What’s wrong? Did you catch the house on fire again?”
I held my chest and ambled toward another chair across the pit.
“No,” I replied with a glare before sitting. “Nothing’s wrong. You and Adam okay?”
He grinned and sat back down in his chair without a response.
“We really need to talk about this.”
“What’s there to talk about?”
“Something’s wrong, Austin. I don’t like you relying on this shit so much.”
“I disagree.”
“So I’m just supposed to keep doing this for the rest of your life?” I shook my head. “We need to find another solution. Also, if Adam finds out about this—he already resents me enough, and if you’re thinking about me while fucking him…” I trailed off. “You’re not still thinking that, are you?”
“I don’t know what the big deal is. It’s not like we’re sleeping together.”
“It’s a huge deal. He’s insecure, and he’s about to go through a change that might devastate him. Do you really not understand, or do you not care?”
“I told you already. I’m not a good guy.”
“Nah, you’re just being a dipshit.”
“How about this,” Austin said, throwing a stick into the fire. “You keep doing that thing to me until Adam shifts, then I’ll talk to him about what I want him to do—if he even stays with me. Deal?”
I let out a sigh and stroked my fuzzy chin.
This was obviously so wrong, and we both knew it.
However, Adam wasn’t going to be a half-turn for much longer either.
I wondered if he would even be willing to do what Austin wanted, but no one really knew how anyone would end up after the change.
Adam was showing a lot of aggression, and while that was irritating, it might actually work in his favor to keep the two together.
“We do it in secret without Adam knowing. I’ll give you commands, but after all this is over, no more. I don’t know the long-term effects of this.”
Austin smiled again. “I know you care about me, which is why it feels better when you do it. It’s like a fog lifts, and I can see things clearer. I think it helps.”
“I don’t know enough about any of this stuff to fully trust it. It almost sounds like addiction.”
“Maybe. Drugs aren’t all bad, you know?”
I stared at him for a moment, gauging his expression. He did seem a little less blank, but I still didn’t like any of this.
“You’re a good friend, Cody.”
“You are too, and that’s why I’m worried,” I said. “Also, don’t let what Adam said back then stop you from trying to talk to him. He’s older now, and he’s going through enough that I think he’ll listen. You should tell him everything about yourself.”
“Not yet. I wanna wait and see what happens after he shifts. If we’re still together, I’ll tell him.”
The back door opened, and Adam limped outside before catching sight of me. He turned around, about to walk back inside.
“C’mere,” Austin shouted.
Adam froze. “What?”
Austin gave me a nod, and I stood before walking back to the house.
“Let’s, uh… hang out,” he said, prompting a very confused expression from the half-turn. “If you want.”
“What’s going on?” He looked at me, but I shrugged. His little tail wagged. “What did you say to him?”
“Nothing. Must have been some really good sex,” I replied before walking through the back door.
The next day
I walked alone on the road near our neighborhood, staying clear of the town.
The streets on the outskirts of Norwich were less traveled, and I ended up near the place where Roscoe taught me how to drive.
The woods were on one side of the road, but there was a hilly field on the other.
It was nice to have some alone time for once.
As I made my way through the tall, golden grass, I climbed to the top of the hill.
I lay on my back, staring up at the cloudless blue sky.
It was around sixty degrees, but the wind made it feel much colder.
I closed my eyes and let the sun warm me as I relaxed.
Norwich was so rural that there weren’t any other noises aside from birds.
The tranquility actually made me drift off, but I jolted awake as footsteps grew near.
A dark man in a black suit looked down at me.
“What a coincidence,” Mosavi growled out, kneeling, his eyes glowing silver as he grinned, the sharper canines peeking from his lips. I tried to sit up, but he pressed his large hand into my chest, pinning me to the ground. “It is a beautiful day. We should stay here and enjoy it.”