Running From the Vampire Into the Arms of the Wolf: (2 page)

Since her first encounter with him she had lost weight dramatically.  She worried herself
thin, she was half her former size.  She always used to want to be thin, and now she was she thought she looked malnourished.  As much as she used to fret about her ample size she had never actually been unhappy with it, in fact she couldn’t ever remember being truly unhappy before she met
Him
.  Perhaps now her appetite would come back and she could work about putting a little more meat back on her bones. 
She wondered if Jerry would like that
.

She fidgeted with the strap of her dress it was a little loose.
  She’d done her best to alter her clothes but they were still a little baggy.  Maybe she could just grow back into them.

She realised Jerry was staring at her.

“So?”  He prompted.  “You ready to go?”

“Sure.”  She said and swallowed down the rest of her wine.

Jerry looked pleased and went to take care of the check.  He helped her put on her jacket and led her out of the restaurant. 

He drove her home in silence.  He kept looking at her
anxiously.  She worried about what he actually expected at the end of a first date.

When they finally arrived
outside her condo she turned to him.  “Thanks for dinner, it was really nice.”

He
laughed nervously.  “You know the date doesn’t have to end here...”  He quickly leaned over and pressed a sloppy kiss to her lips, his hand fumbling with her breasts.

She
pulled back from him and sucked in a breath.  “I’m kind of tired... and I don’t do that on a first date...”  She wasn’t lying, she’d never had sex on a first date.
Or consensually for that matter...

He looked disappointed.  He opened his mouth to say something but before he could his car window shattered.  Melanie screamed.  A large hand reached into the car and grabbed
Jerry by his shirt.

Jerry
whimpered, his eyes wide in terror.  He was dragged from the car which shook as he was thrown up against it.

Melanie stumbled out of the car, her heart racing.  On shaky legs she ran round the car
, confirming what she already knew. 
It was Him
.

He was
holding a beaten and bloody looking Jerry up by his shirt.  He turned his head toward her, a vicious smile curling his lips.

“
Hello princess
.”  His smile turned into a mocking pout.  “
I’m very disappointed in you, I’m gone for a couple of months and you try to replace me with this?”
  He jutted his chin at Jerry who was crying.

She felt her own tears prickle her eyes.  “Please... please... don’t hurt him.”  She begged
. She could never forgive herself if Jerry was killed because of her.

He hit Jerry
knocking him out.  Carelessly he dropped Jerry’s body to the ground.  He sidled over to her and stood inches from her.  She openly wept and he stooped down so he could lick them away.

He moaned at the taste of them. 
The fucker gets off on my misery she thought bitterly
.

He leaned in close to her and smoothed his hands down her body.

“
Only I am allowed to touch you princess.  Remember that.  You’re mine.  Say it!
”

She choked back a sob
.  “
I’m yours
”.

*

26
th
August

Melanie Ramirez looked at her driver
’s licence.  No, not Melanie. 
Melody
.  Now she was Melody James.  It was as close to her real name as she dared risk.

After a lot of research she had found a glamour spell and had enchanted her licence
so that the details would be altered.

Now instead of Melanie Ramirez, age 24, weight 185 pounds, she was Melody James, age 26,
weight 120 pounds.  At least the weight change was actually accurate.

She had cut off her long brown hair and her locks now fell down to her chin, naturally curling slightly.
  She had thrown out all her old clothes, all her sundresses, all her cardigans, all her flowery pyjamas, all her sandals and heeled shoes.  She had replaced everything with pairs of jeans, t-shirts, boots and a few daring miniskirts.  She’d painted her nails black and had amped up her eye make-up. Rather than the cute young girly look, she was going to project a sexy grungy woman.

She barely recognised herself anymore
.  Gone was the plump and pretty romantic, replaced with a harder more cynical woman.

She ought to
be sad but after three years of running she was pretty numb.  She’d lost everything in her life, even her own identity, and yet she couldn’t bring herself to cry over it.  If the last years had taught her anything, she was a survivor.

She hadn’t seen
Him
in over a month, and now she was going to disappear completely.  She had found a tiny little town in northern Virginia called Rose.  She had tentatively reached out to the local witches Circle.  She had found them through enquires with the CoS (Council of Supernaturals).

After having met with their leader, a particularly cold witch called Emerald Cole,
and proved her admittedly limited talents as a witch she was grudgingly invited to join the Circle.  She was now sat in her new bedroom in the boarding house that housed a large number of the Circle.

She had felt nervous
, but now sitting in her spartan room her confidence started to ebb back.  She could do this.  She could be Melody James.  She was certainly not the old Melanie Ramirez anymore, so changing her name wasn’t such a big leap.

Yep, she could do this.

Chapter One

23
rd
September

Melody
reread the sign in Pizza Moon’s window. 
Help wanted please apply within
.  She debated going in.

Emerald Cole
the leader of the witches Circle had died recently. 
Well actually she had been killed after she had tried to murder her niece Liv who happened to be the mate of the local wolf pack’s Beta
.  It had been decided that the Circle would disband. 

Nobody really had the heart to keep it going after discovering the things that Emerald had been up to.  So now the witches were allowing the lease on the boarding house to run out
and they were each looking for their own places to live.  They had a few months left, so there was no hurry, but Melody was keen to get a job and get some ready money.

On the one hand she had plenty of waitressing experience from the past three years.  But she couldn’t actually supply any reference from any of those jobs
.  They all knew her as Melanie Ramirez.

She wasn’t really dressed for an interview.  She had a tight pair of jeans on, a pair of knee high flat boots and a stripy jersey shirt that said ‘
witchiepoo’ on it. 

She grunted.  Either they were going to give her a job or they weren’t.  What she was wearing wouldn’t make that much of a
difference, after all it was just a pizza parlour.

She pushed the door open and braced herself.
  It was a pack owned business after all.  She knew witches weren’t particularly loved by the pack, but since Liv had mated with the Beta Alec things seemed to have thawed.  Plus as bad as it sounds Emerald dying had improved things a great deal too. 
Emerald hated the pack.

It was pretty busy in there.  She noticed
Kayleigh and Dena, fellow witches from the boarding house and waved.

She snagged a harassed looking waitress, a pretty wolf who looked to be about 16.  “Hey, I’m Melody.  I wanted to talk to someone about the help wanted sign.”

“Oh thank god!”  Said the young wolf.  She deposited the order she was carrying on a nearby table ignoring the young wolves leers.  “Come with me.”  She ordered.

Melody
followed her to a back office.  “I’m Gwen, here put this on.”  She threw a Pizza Moon t-shirt and an apron to her. 

Melody blinked at her a few times before shrugging and doing as she asked.
  “Our regular waitress flaked out on us and my sister Britt is at band practice, you are a life saver.  Have you done any waitressing before?”

“Yes
I...”

“Great, I’ll get you a pad and show you which tables are yours.
”  Gwen stormed out of the room gesturing Melody to follow.  “Come on I’ll introduce you to mom, she’s one of the chefs.  Usually my idiot brother’s here too but he took off, said he had something he had to do.”  She huffed and muttered.

Okay, so far so good.

*

Melody handed another order to
Ilse Lucas who smiled warmly.

Melody had discovered th
rough Gwen’s irritated tirades that Ilse, her mother, ran Pizza Moon with her family.  Ilse was the manager and second chef and sometime waitress, whilst her two youngest daughters, Gwen and Britt twin 16 year old girls, took waitressing shifts when they could.  Her eldest son Hans was the main chef at the parlour but had not made it in that day.

They also hired a full time waitress, but she had apparently quit un
expectedly yesterday. 

Ilse
was human but she had mated with a wolf and all her five children were wolves.  Gwen had another older sister called Noa currently away at University and another older brother called Acksel who was the Chief Enforcer for the pack.

Gwen was pretty chatty.

Ilse had been a little taken aback when Gwen had proclaimed that Melody was working there but noting her daughter’s obvious stress she had not said anything.  She was glad she hadn’t.  Melody worked quickly and diligently.  She was a vast improvement on all the previous waitresses they had hired.

After the lunchtime rush there was a slight lull and
Ilse was glad to actually get a chance to talk to Melody about the job.  They sat down in a booth together and chatted while Gwen dealt with the stragglers.  Ilse explained that the working hours would be 11am to 11pm with the parlour shutting between 2pm and 5pm.  She would get two half hour breaks in between.  She would get one night off and one day off per week.

Ilse
asked her for references but Melody shook her head and said she couldn’t provide any.  Ilse debated what to do.  On one hand Melody was obviously very good and had no problem mucking in and helping out.  On the other Melody might have been fired from her previous job for god knows what, she could have been stealing from the tills or she might have assaulted a customer. 
How could she know?  Did she really want to risk it?

The door to the restaurant pushed open and in flew her other 16 year old daughter Britt followed by her second son
Acksel. 

Britt panted heavily.  “I’m here, I had to run all the way but I’m here now.”  Gwen had rung her ranting about how busy they were and that she needed
her to come and help right away. 
Gwen tended to be a bit dramatic.

Gwen chuckled.  “
It’s fine, Melody was here. She helped out.”  Gwen gestured to Melody.  “Melody that’s Britt, obviously she’s my sister and that’s my brother Acksel.”

Melody looked between the two girls, they were carbon copies.  No way would she be able to tell them apart. 
What she wouldn’t give for a wolf’s sense of smell. 
“Hi it’s nice to meet you.” 

She looked
Acksel up and down. 
Damn he was handsome
.  From his rusty coloured hair and chiselled face right down past his tight muscled torso, he was definitely a fine specimen.  Not as tall or beefy as the Alpha or Beta of the pack, but then she didn’t really like that in a man.  Guys who looked like pro wrestlers really didn’t do anything for her, men built more like Bruce Lee however... that she could get on board with.

Britt muttered a hello whilst staring at Gwen with ill concealed annoyance.

Acksel gave her an appraising look and a twinkling smile.  “You too Melody, hey mom.”  He kissed his mother on her head.  “So you the new waitress?”

Melody cocked her head at
Ilse.  “Well...”

The door was suddenly pushed open
and in stomped a man bearing a slight resemblance to Acksel, but he was a couple of years older and a hell of a lot more moody looking. 

Melody felt her mouth go dry.
 
The moody looking man sure was attractive
.  Wait where had that come from?  She had barely even looked at a guy since she had first met
Him
, and now she was practically drooling.

This must be the other brother, Hans. 
He was the same height as Acksel, she guessed about six foot two, but his muscles seemed tighter, more deadly.  He looked like he was coiled, ready to explode.  His hair was a reddish blonde colour, like his sisters.  No one would think to call his handsome, but there was certainly something appealing about his hawk like features.  And his eyes were startling green.

He had a long thin silver scar down the right hand side of his face, and he had a multitude of tattoos extending up his right arm that Melody imagined reached over to his chest.  Perhaps she should ask him to take off his shirt to see.
 
No, no, no get a grip!

She’d thought that
Acksel was handsome, but Hans was
sexy
.

She could feel her sex stirring.
  Not a reaction she’d actually ever had to just the physical presence of a man.  She crossed her legs quickly and tried not to blush.

“Where have you been?” 
Asked Gwen crossly.

Hans growled at her. 
Properly growled, baring his fangs.
  Melody’s eyes widened in surprise.  She’d met numerous pack members but none had been quite so openly aggressive.

“I was busy.”  He said
rougly.

His guttural voice made her sex twitch even more.
  He scowled at his family members.

Ilse
rolled her eyes.  “Hans this is Melody, she’s applied for the waitress job.”  She said hesitantly.

Melody got up and stood before him.
  Hans narrowed his eyes and sniffed the air.  He gave her a murderous look.

“Witch!”
  He spat out.

Wow, okay so he was sexy but clearly he
had a repellent personality
.  “Wolf!”  She retorted before she could stop herself.

Hans’ nostrils flared. 
“Shouldn’t you be at home washing your cauldron?”

Melody pursed her lips.
 
Asshole
.  “Shouldn’t you be taking a flea bath?”  She surprised herself, she always stood up for herself but she had never been quite so
mean
before.

“What?!”
  Roared Hans.

The last few remaining customers scurried out of the shop. 
Hans’ mood swings were legendary.

“I thought you guys had good hearing...”  She taunted.  The twins stifled their laughs at their brother’s obvious ire.

His face started to turn a nasty shade of red.  Acksel place a hand on his shoulder.  “Hans come on man...” 

Hans violently shrugged him off.
  He looked at his mother.  “Are you really hiring this
crone
to work here?”

Ilse
looked between Melody and Hans, pleasantly surprised by how much gumption Melody had.  Her last few waitresses had all quit because of her temperamental son.  “Yes, yes I am.”