Running From the Vampire Into the Arms of the Wolf: (8 page)

He lay on his back and slung an arm over his face.

“How come you don’t live on pack land?”  She asked boldly.

He lifted his arm slightly and looked at her coolly.  “How come you decided to move to this backwater town?”

She flinched.  “None of my business anyway,” she muttered before turning over so her back was to him. 

“I don’t want anyone to know about what we’ve been doing.”  His voice was
sudden and hard.  He was glad she wasn’t looking at him, seeing her beautiful face right now while he was still revelling in the previous night’s love making might test his resolve.  He might do something stupid like beg her to marry him.  “It’s just a temporary thing and I don’t want people to get the wrong idea.”

She was glad he
wasn’t looking at her.  She didn’t want him to see her look of disappointment.  Instead she could put on a bit of bravado for him.  “Fine with me, you think I want anyone to know I’ve been sleeping with the town’s resident asshole, what does that say about me?”

He stared at her for a few moments
, a little frustrated with her reply.  What had he expected?  Did he think she was going to break down and cry and beg him to be her boyfriend?
Tell him that no other man could make her feel the way he did, especially his brother Acksel...

H
e began tracing his fingers down her back.  She shuddered and blood started to rush to his groin.  When he reached her buttocks he caressed and nipped them.  He could smell her arousal starting to blossom.  He scooted closer to her careful not to touch her with his shaft. 
Not yet anyway
.

He reached round and
began massaging her breasts.  His other hand reached past her cheeks to her sex.  Pushing two fingers into her tight channel he then applied pressure with his thumb to her puckered hole.  She almost shot off the bed but he kept hold of her.

“I’m still tender
there...”  She moaned.

He bit her neck with blunt teeth
, whilst grinding his fingers into her.  “I know sugar, we’ll give it a few days to recover.”

She opened her mouth in surprise.  He had told her they’d still be having this quasi-relationship in a few days.
  Her heart soared, and feeling pleased she pushed back against his hand.  He growled his approval.

Glancing at the clock he was surprised to see it was 10am.  He hadn’t slept so late since he was a kid.
  Usually he awoke at dawn unable to get back to sleep and instead exercised or worked on his bike.  Then again she had kept him up half the night, she was almost insatiable. 
Almost
.

He removed his fingers. 
They both had to be at work at 11am, and they still had to shower and Melody would need to get some fresh clothes from home.

She turned back to him, a flush already spreading from her cheeks to her breasts.
  He was rock hard with need.  “Why’d you stop?”

“It’s already
10, we need to get ready for work...”

Her eyes widened.  “Shit.
  We better get up, we’re going to be late.”

She moved to push him away but he held her steady and he
gave her a coldly sensual smile.  “Which is why we will fuck in the shower. 
Two birds, one stone
.”

Chapter Seven

Melody settled into one of the booths at Pizza Moon to take a break.
  It was 9pm, she’d been working since 11am, taking one thirty minute break at 4pm she could now take her second thirty minute break.

Her first break hadn’t exactly been restful.  Hans had cornered her in the store room. 
Again
.  She was just thankful how well insulated the room was, she had gotten a little noisy...  She was actually thankful of a little rest, her body felt well and truly spent.

Ilse
had made her a small hawaiin pizza, grabbing a cream soda she resolved to relax and read her book. 
That was the plan
. 

She found her relaxation rudely interrupted as Hans
plonked a large meat lovers pizza and two cream sodas on to the table before pushing into the booth next to her, forcing her to budge along. 

She looked at him sourly.  The
restaurant was only half full.  There were lots of empty tables.  “You can’t sit anywhere else?”

“
I could but I’m not gonna.”  He grinned at her between mouthfuls.

She rolled her eyes.  “Let me guess, misery loves company?”

“Naw, misery hates company.  Misery just can’t stand missing an opportunity to piss company off.”

She groaned. 
“Wolf.”

“Witch.”

“Asshole.”

“Bitch.”

“Dick head.” 

“Cow.”

Melody stopped to take a bit of pizza and a swig of soda, Hans took advantage and did the same.  She found herself not getting even remotely angry, her tired body was heating up for an entirely different reason.  She needed to pace herself or she might work herself up so much that she orgasmed right then and there. 
Hans would probably love that
.

“Jock strap.”
  She bit out.

Hans chuckled heartily, the sound was so unexpected a number of customers turned round and openly gaped at him. 

She cocked an eyebrow.  “People are staring at you.”

He gave the staring customers a hard look before turning back to Melody.  “They’ve probably never heard me laugh.”

“Wow, so a laugh from you is a bit of a mythical creature huh?  Like a fairy or a unicorn?”

He scowled.  “Or something other than you find on
the cover of a 12 year old girl’s diary.”

She snorted and almost choked on the soda she had been sipping.
  “Asshole.”

“You already said that.”

“It’s doubly true.”

He smirked.  “You just ran out of insults.”

“Ha!  I can go all night.”

“
Me too sugar.”  He winked and leered at her.

She blushed furiously and he laughed again.  It was starting to freak the customers out.

She regained a little of her composure.  “So you say, you were looking decidedly peaky at 3am this morning.”

Hans grunted. 
“You could always put me to the test.  Tonight?”  He looked at her suspiciously.  “Unless you have other plans...”

She placed a hand on her heart. 
“Oh me oh my! Let me check my unicorn diary.”

Hans bellowed with laughter.  Some of the customers decided to leave before he did something really crazy.

Alec the pack Beta and Acksel came into the restaurant.  Spying Hans, Acksel came over to the booth.

“Hey guys” he said a look of surprise on his face at finding them sitting together and actually laughing. 
Perhaps it was hysterical laughter
.

Mel
ody returned his greeting with a smile, Hans glowered at his younger brother.  Alec nodded at them both coolly.

Melody and Hans were bunched round one side of the circular booth. 
Acksel and Alec slid in, much to Hans’ displeasure Acksel was sitting close to Melody.

Alec looked at Melody for a few moments.  “A woman was killed last night.”  Again he paused looking at Melody.
  Acksel’s smile was immediately replaced with a grim expression, he was suddenly all business.  “Her throat was ripped out.”

“
Oh shit!”  Melody put her hands over her mouth. 
Not Him, please not Him.
 

Hans watched her reaction with some concern. 
Under the table Hans put a hand on her thigh and rubbed gently.  She was grateful for the comforting feel of his body next to her.  She reached down one hand and covered his.  They intertwined their fingers slightly.

Acksel
put a hand on her shoulder but she tensed slightly and shifted a little closer to Hans so he dropped it.  He watched his brother closely, who in turn was eyeing him guardedly.  Acksel had smelt Melody’s arousal when he arrived and had hopefully thought it might be for him, but for once he was the one stood on the sidelines while his brother got the girl.
Well well well...

Alec continued. 
“It was a woman from Alexandria, she was visiting a friend.  We don’t know what happened yet.”

“Do you know what
... I mean who could have done it?  I mean could it have been a shifter, or a vampire...?”  She shivered a little in fear.  Hans kept his face blank but squeezed her thigh a little tighter.

Alec narrowed his eyes at the little witch.
  He recalled she’d had shown the same fear of vampires when Iris Bennett, another witch, had disappeared.  A little fear of vampires in general was not a bad thing but he did wonder about it...  “We can’t really say for sure yet.  The scene was covered in wolfsbane, not even Don could get anything.”

Don Cross was
a wolf shifter and an excellent tracker but when it came to toxic wolfsbane even he had his limits.

Acksel
looked directly at his brother.  “We’re upping patrols, getting as many volunteers as we can.  I wouldn’t normally ask but...”

“
I’ll do it.”

Alec raised his eyebrows.
  Hans had never agreed to anything so quickly in his life.  The wolf disagreed with everything just out of spite.

“Thanks man.
  If you could take the shift from 10 ‘til 3...”

“No.  I want a later shifter.” 
Alright, Hans hadn’t changed that much.

Acksel
acquiesced.  “3 ‘til 8 then.  You’re on the east border.”

Hans nodded and openly glared at the Beta and his brother, willing them to get lost.
  Thankfully they did, wishing them both goodbye Alec and Acksel left.  Acksel stared at Melody a little wistfully but decided not to say anything. 

Melody stared at the table.
  Reluctantly she withdrew her hand from his.  He lamented the loss of her tiny hand on his.

“Finish your pizza.” 
Hans ordered.

Without thinking she did as she was told.
  He looked at her thoughtfully, he didn’t like this quiet and subdued Melody.  It was unnatural.  His wolf whined at her evident melancholy.

All she could think was it might be
Him
. 
He
might have found her. 
He
might be here. 
He
might try to rip her away from Hans.  Not that it would take much, Hans would probably gift wrap her and send her to
Him
. 
He’d be glad to be rid of me she thought despondently
. 

T
he warmth of his hand on her thigh had been nice, it had hinted at an intimacy of more than just casual sex.  No, he was probably just horny, and she was available.  Not to mention how horny he made her.  He probably laughed at how wet he made her, how aroused she was for him, and how little he cared for her. 
She wanted to cry
.

After they finished eating
Hans cleared away the plates and glasses and, before giving her an uncomfortable look, got back to work.  He was downcast for the rest of his shift, worrying about the mood change in Melody.  He watched her as often as he could.

She had a fake smile plastered over her face as she served customers.
  Nobody else seemed to notice the difference but Hans did.  The fake smile was all teeth.  When she really smiled he didn’t show teeth, her cheeks dimpled and her eyes sparkled.  Just like they did last night in bed right after they had sex, then again in the shower right after sex, then again today in the store room after a quick fumble...  His cocked stirred at the memories. 
Fuck
.

He rearranged himself unobtrusively and tried to focus on making pizzas.  He had purposefully asked for a later shift
so that he could walk Melody home.  He didn’t like the idea of her walking home late at night when potentially something was out there ripping women’s throats out.

As an added bonus he could
perhaps spend a little time testing out the sturdiness of her bed.  He wasn’t usually a happy-go-lucky kind of guy,
but he saw the silver lining in his plan
. 

*

The walk to Melody’s house had been quiet.  Neither one of them felt like talking.  Hans had walked closely to her, their sleeves brushing against one another.

When they arrived they stood in the kitchen
awkwardly.  His large frame making the room seem tiny.  “You want a drink or something to eat?”  She offered.

He ignored her and
came to stand in front of her.  Leaning over her he placed his hands on either side of her head and gently raised her to look at him.  “You’ve been crying. “  He accused her coldly.

His wolf howled at him. 
Howled at him to make it better, to make her happy, and worried that it had been him who had made her cry.

Her eyes darted out of his gaze.  She had, but she didn’t want him to know.
  She’d cried for the dead woman, for the fact that one day that would be her.  One day
He
would find her. 
If He hadn’t already.

Whilst part of h
er desperately wanted Hans to love her and for them to be together another more logical part realised it was for the best that he didn’t want that.  If Hans was attached to her
He
would kill Hans when
He
found her, which
He
would eventually...

“Just sad about that woman who was killed.”
 
Which was a half truth.

She was lying to him again. 
She carried a lot of pain and sadness within her and she wouldn’t share it with him. 
Why would she? 
He made himself clear that they were just screwing around, he made it clear he didn’t want to get involved with her, so why would she share the intimate parts of her life?

“Why do you hate witches?”
  She asked suddenly.

He let go of her face and turned his back to her.  His first instinct was to bellow and tell her it was none of her business but he soon recovered himself.

Why not tell her?
  It wasn’t exactly a secret.

The bitter memories flooded his mind. 
“A witch killed my dad.  I was 13.  She was a healer, a good one too. She kept giving away potions to she-wolves who were expecting pups.  Told them the potion would make the babies stronger.  But it was poison.  She killed a few unborn pups and almost made a few of the she-wolves infertile.  She was nuts.  Said she hated wolves and didn’t want any more being born.  My dad tried to stop her and she killed him, he was an Enforcer.  The old Alpha and two other Enforcers finally took her down.”

She tugged his arm and he allowed her to
turn him back to face her.  The look of sorrow on his face nearly broke her heart.  She stroked his cheek, running her fingers over the angry scar. “I’m sorry about that.”  She kissed him deeply.  “I would never do anything like that.  That woman was a monster.”

He pressed her to him, kissing her firmly.
  She curled her fingers into his t-shirt.  He rubbed his hands down her back and rested at her ass.  The kiss deepened and clutching her cheeks he dragged her up his body.  She clamped her legs round his waist, her sex rubbed against his arousal.

Breaking away from her mouth he kissed his way over her jaw down to her neck and shoulder.
  He took in a deep gulp of her scent, his wolf immediately started prancing round like a puppy.

She nipped at his shoulder with blunt teeth
and he yelped in delight raising his head, eyes rolling to the back of his head. 

His head snapped toward the window and his body went rigid.  He’d seen a flash of movement outside.
  It was gone in a flash but it had looked like a face, but then not even wolves could move that fast.

She writhed in his arms but noticed he wasn’t reciprocating.  She gently bit his earlobe.  “What’
s wrong?”

“I thought I saw someone at the window...”