Chapter 19:

Unexpected

She Wolf will not find her mate; I curse the Spring that came too quickly. I won't fall in love!


“What does he want?” I couldn’t help but sound a little annoyed even in front of the Luna, and she picked up on it.

“I’m not sure but it’s rude to keep your guests waiting,” she said.

Caelestis stood up, “I’m curious about this too. Him of all people?”

Lucius, what could he want? Had he scurried here just for refuge, surely he would have let me know beforehand if that was the case though? Showing up invited, that was unusual.

I sighed and explained to Caelestis, “I made the mistake of inviting him back here.” Far too many times than I’d like to admit.

“I expect that you won't leave him waiting long,” The Luna said very strictly before walking off.

I looked at Caelestis, “Let’s see what he wants.”

“I’m more wondering how he got here and how he managed to leave that house,” Caelestis pondered.

“He’s a lone wolf no one cares where he is,” I dismissed and walked out of the library, Caelestis followed close behind me. It was so strange, I was honestly a little on edge.

We walked through the house and through a living room full of wolves, some without shirts because that is just their life apparently but whenever I did that it was considered ‘indecent'. Such bullshit. The wolves looked up at Caelestis as they walked through, some were curious but others were a little aggressive. In a way that was a little animalistic but also intimidating. I looked to Caelestis, he was unbothered. Good. He knew to stand his ground against them. If Caelestis flinched or looked meek they would judge him and look down on him. Perhaps I would too.

He walked over to the front door and I opened it to see Lucius standing outside. He looked fine, his clothes, while tacky, weren’t damaged in a way to suggest he’d fought his way to get here. The slippery little shit probably didn’t find it that hard to get past the myth hunters. And no one would notice his absence.

Lucius looked at Caelestis, “What is he doing here?”

Caelestis answered simply, “Refuge. A lot of us are here for that.”

“Pussy,” Lucius spat then looked to me, “Varinia I need to talk to you. Alone.”

I rolled my eyes, he was so dramatic, “Wait here Caelestis.”

Caelestis looked a little concerned but said, “I’m fine with that. Sort out whatever you need to.”

I walked out into the forest with Lucius, I was worried about what kind of stupid stunt he was about to pull. When we had gotten far enough away I turned to him, “What is it Lucius?”

Lucius didn’t say anything, with a wicked glint in his eye he grabbed me, pulled me close and kissed me.

It took me a second to react to it, it was so sudden, I pushed him off with as much strength as I could muster, “Fuck off I’m not in the mood.”

He stalked closer to me again, “Come on Varinia, you’re always in the mood.”

I glared back at him completely disgusted, he grabbed me again, more aggressively this time, his fingers digging into my flesh and kissed me. I pulled my head back.

“Seriously, get off me,” I shoved him off pushing him to the ground, “Creep.”

He was so disgusting, he had really come all this way just to do that, there was no begging me to shelter him, no it was just expecting that I’d want to make out. Gods he was vile. I stood over him glaring, making it known to him that if he stood up I’d shift and bite his throat.

Suddenly there was a rush of wind behind me and someone grabbed my wrists holding me tightly. I looked behind me and there was Mik, Lucius’ father. I couldn’t smell him at all. I had no idea he was there the entire time.

“What the fuck, how did you sneak up on me like that?” I exclaimed, struggling to get out of his grip. He was too strong, stronger than he should have been.

Mik said to his son, “Practice with someone more powerful.”

Lucius stood up, smiling wickedly as he approached me. I tried to head butt Mik, anything to get out of his grip but it was like iron. Lucius grabbed my throat and held my jaw steady before kissing me again. He grabbed my shirt and ripped the sleeve off it.

I struggled, thrashing about, “Let me go! I’m not going to have sex with you.”

“You’ve got no choice,” he said darkly.

“Like hell I don’t!” I screamed and I knew if I shifted it wouldn’t help and I don’t know if I could even do it with Mik holding me the way he was. But werewolves had the ability to shift halfway between wolf and human. It was our most monstrous form but it would give me access to my wolf teeth. I shifted half way, fur grew all over my body, I had a wolf tail, my ears appeared and I shifted my face to have the wolf snout, so not nice to kiss now Lucius. I was still restrained but I could bite back. I snipped at Lucius, trying to get at his throat. He was struggling to do anything with me fighting back so hard, he was dodging the claws that had now spouted on my feet.

Shizuka burst into the clearing with Caelestis. “Of course it’s like this,” Shizuka sounded pissed off, “Hey!”

Lucius growled at her, “Can’t you see I’m busy.”

Caelestis stalked towards us looking furious, “Please do be less busy and even go so far as to piss off.”

“Dad please go handle them,” Lucius grabbed my wrists.

Mik shifted into a huge golden wolf and ran toward Caelestis and Shizuka. Caelestis spun around and kicked Mik in the face, sending him careening into a tree.

Now that it was just Lucius I twisted out of his grip easily and shifted back to my human form so I could speak easily.

Caelestis ran over to me, “You alright?”

“No!” The hurt broke through my voice.

“Fuck off Caelestis!” Lucius yelled and kicked him.

Caelestis didn’t react to it, just took the blow without moving. He then grabbed the loser’s arm and twisted it, throwing the boy behind him. He then turned back to me and looked at me, making sure I wasn’t bleeding anywhere.

Mik however was growling at Shizuka in wolf form. She pulled out a sword from her coat, “As if you’d reach this low Mik. But then again, your kids get it from somewhere.”

The golden wolf charged at her ready to bite her with powerful jaws.

Shizuka was half vampire slayer, they had the ability to shoot light from their eyes, a very handy trick for fighting vampires but could also work very well with werewolves. Shizuka blasted Mik with light and he howled in pain. I hoped it stung.

Lucius ran back towards us, now having shifted half way between his wolf form. He slashed out at Caelestis with wolf claws completely ignoring me. Caelestis stepped out of the way but since he ignored me. I was so furious I just kicked him in the balls as hard as I could.

Lucius fell to the ground in pain.

“I hope I broke something dickhead,” I kicked him again, this time in the soft part under the jaw.

There was a rumble in the distance, Mik looked a little scared and I smiled.

Suddenly wolves surrounded us, the alpha Minato was standing at the front of the pack. There were so many of them and they all looked angry, ready for blood.

Mik looked panicked, he started whimpering and grabbed his son who was groaning in pain. He ran into the forest as fast as he could and the whole pack chased. The furry bodies of wolves rushed past us as they hunted. I started to feel a little safer.

Shizuka sighed, “I’m sick of seeing their faces.”

“They will be lucky to come back with their lives, stupid rogues,” my voice was thick with venom, I looked down at my ripped clothes sadly, “How dare he, I’m a teenage girl!”

“Mik is the one who angers me the most. He’s a toxic influence,” Shizuka said furiously.

Caelestis spoke softly to me, “Hey, sorry for my inability to really help. I’m not the hero type.”

“You did help, don't worry,” I gave him a small smile before looking to Shizuka, “He’s disgusting… “

“Luckily their plans are ineffective as they are a common enemy to all three of us,” Shizuka said looking at us.

“I’m going to find my siblings and make sure nothing has happened to them,” Caelestis told us and quickly walked off.

“Ok,” I said, I really wanted him to stay with me but I understood and I looked over at Shizuka, “That was really cool of you Shizuka. I’m sorry for being a dick earlier.”

“Like I said, common enemy. Going after him puts me in a better position than having him come in and sneak up on me.”

“Yeah I suppose. How do you live with such a person?”

“He’s honestly not even the worst one…” Shizuka was trying to be strong and emotionless but behind her words I could hear she was upset.

I walked over to her and hugged her, “I know all my clothes are ripped so this is weird but,” I hugged her tighter.

I honestly needed that hug just as much as she did. I was struggling to comprehend the audacity of those wolves.

Shizuka looked a bit surprised, “We hardly ever speak to each other, in fact you’re a bully.”

“I need a hug and so do you,” I still kept hugging her.

She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me back. Shizuka smelt of embers and sunflowers. She whispered sadly, “You couldn’t possibly understand…”

The next few hours were such a blur. So many doctors were examining me, making sure they hadn’t done anything strange to me. I appreciated it, I really did but it felt like a bit much. The Luna insisted that I saw a Psychologist to make sure I was ok. And I agreed but almost tragically I was so used to Lucius’ behaviour that it didn’t affect me that much. What bothered me the most was Mik. He was awful, I didn’t understand why he would do something, like a fucking father and son activity.

No wonder the Amanes were so awful.

Still what puzzled me even more is how Mik had managed not to smell like anything. His scent was just gone. That would require access to magic or something else that was powerful. He was also stronger than he should have been. Normally I would have been able to overpower a weak wolf like him. There was something strange going on there.

They had gotten some outside help. The question was, what kind of depraved individual would help the Amanes gain power.

Why the Amanes?