And what those vampires had hinted at, someone else in Seattle willing to buy female werewolves... clearly it was not a place I should stay.
I flung open the door and stopped dead, one foot in the house, the other still on the welcome mat. Sitting in the living room in the dark were two huge men, shirtless despite the cool, early spring weather, both bulging with muscle and hard abs. One had short dark hair and a serious expression. He looked a little older. In his thirties maybe. The other had longer sandy hair, a bit of a scruffy beard and a roguish grin. He looked younger, not much older than me. The werewolves from the alley, surely.
"Don't run," the older one said. My eyes flicked to him. "We only want to talk."
"And we would catch you," the other one said, grinning.
The older one gave the younger one a disapproving glance, then looked back at me, "why don't you come in," he said.
My mind raced with possible escapes. But they had beaten me here. They could turn whenever they wanted. And the entire neighborhood was one big foreclosed ghost town. I wouldn't even make it to the end of the street, and there wasn't a single soul around to hear me scream. Worse, my knife was still laying in a puddle in that alley. I almost ran anyway, just to make them chase me, but better to wait for a real chance to escape, because I would probably only get one chance.
I sighed and stepped in, shutting the door behind me. I took a seat on the arm of the couch, close to the door and far away from the two of them.
"My name is Marcus," the older one said. "This is Connor. What's your name?"
"Sara," I said. Marcus seemed to be doing most of the talking, but my eyes kept drifting back to Connor. That playful grin, his intense eyes drilling in to me... he didn't to say anything, his look said it all. It was a look I had seen before. A hungry look.
"Sara," Marcus said, "it's nice to meet you."
"How did you change when the moon isn't full?" I asked. If they were going to insist that I stay and talk then I was going to get some answers of my own.
"Trade secret," Connor said, giving me a devilish grin.
"Connor is half right," Marcus said. "We would be happy to teach you, but it would take some time. It's a difficult skill to master. It took me a decade to discover it, and a month to teach Connor."
"I'm not a very good student though," Connor said.
Maybe they were sincere with that offer to teach me, but maybe they were trying to lure me in to some kind of trap. Still, it would be invaluable to know how to do that. Even if I just got the basics of it, I was sure I could figure out the rest on my own. "Well thank you, for intervening," I said. "I really appreciate it." I was still sitting on the edge of the arm rest, every muscle tight and ready to run at the slightest sign of danger, though so far neither of them seemed to be much of a threat.
"The pleasure was all ours," Connor said. "Killing vampires is great fun."
"So what is this?" I said. "Why did you follow me back here?"
Marcus nodded, "I've been looking for other wolves for almost a decade now. I found Connor a few years back, being held captive by a coven of vampires."
For the first time since I had come in the room Connor looked away from me, to the floor. I could only guess at what they had done to him. And whatever I might have guessed, it had probably been ten times worse.
"I taught him to turn at will," Marcus continued, "and the two of us have been looking for others ever since. We were traveling through the city and we caught your scent. We followed that scent here, and then to the alley. It really is amazing though, in my decade of searching you are the very first female I have ever scented. I had all but given up on finding one."
Here it came. I stood up and scooted around behind the couch.
Marcus held up his hand, "we're not interested in forcing you to do anything you don't want to do Sara. The urge to mate for our species is strong, as I'm sure you're well aware, and there are so few werewolves left... But if neither Connor or I are to your liking then that's where we will leave it. I'm sure other male werewolves that have come before us have made you wary of our gender, and rightfully so, but we are not them, I assure you. But above all we want you to join us. There is safety in numbers, for you and for us. And truthfully, Connor and I could use someone new to talk to." Marcus smiled for the first time since I had walked in the door.
"So I join you and what?" I said. I had to admit, the idea was tempting. I felt like I could trust Marcus, and he was saying all the right things. Connor... well it was obvious he only had one thing on his mind, and he was definitely attractive. They both were. But I had learned my lessons about not trusting male werewolves the hard way. I wasn't about to throw that all away for some pretty words and promises.
"I own several hundred acres of land adjacent to the Olympic National Park. There is a residence --"
"A mansion," Connor said.
"And it is very secluded," Marcus continued. "My family has lived there for several generations and no vampire has ever discovered us there. You would be safe."
"And we would teach you to turn whenever you want," Connor said. "I'm sure you're a quick study, I bet I could have you doing it in two weeks."
"After that," Marcus said, "if you aren't interested in mating with either of us, we would continue searching for others."
A real life, that was what they were offering me. Or as close to real as a werewolf was going to get. I had given up on anything resembling that so long ago that the idea seemed foreign. What would I do with myself?
"Our species is on the brink of being wiped out," Marcus continued. "I want to gather together the few werewolves that are still left. I want to teach them what I've learned. I want to make packs. I want to give our species a future."
"And kill every last vampire," Connor said, and he wasn't smiling anymore.
"Yes," Marcus said, "
after
we have increased our numbers, we will make it clear to the vampires that we are not their prey anymore."
I could see Connor biting his tongue, clearly wanting to say something more. I sensed an argument that had been had many times before.
"So what do you think?" Connor said, all roguish grins again.
How much longer could I really last on my own? I had no idea if I could trust Connor and Marcus, but I wanted to. I
really
wanted to. Marcus was by far the oldest werewolf I had ever come across, so he must have known how to survive. He seemed responsible, and confident, like someone I could trust. Like the father I had never had.
And if they had wanted to have their way with me they could have done it already. They were both at least a foot taller than me, and even with my curves at least a hundred pounds heavier. And there were two of them. But they only wanted to talk. They didn't seem like the male werewolves I had come across before. Those other males had been as much animal as human. Feral and primitive and dangerous. Connor and Marcus weren't that.
And there was something about Connor that pulled at me. He hadn't said much the entire time, but I wasn't sure he had even blinked since I had stepped through the front door. He was intense, and completely stunning to look at, and I got the feeling that he wanted me in a bad way. Which was crazy. I wasn't completely unattractive, but I was definitely curvy. Men who looked like Connor didn't look at me like he did, even with our powerful werewolf pheromones thrown in to the mix. And that hungry way he looked at me was worrying. But he was controlling himself. So far.
And I was just so tired of running. I could go with them for a little while maybe. Get a good meal, a shower, a decent night of sleep. And if I got a bad feeling, I could run. I was good at running.
"Okay," I said, "I'm in."
Marcus called us a cab. When he arrived, the cabbie gave Marcus and Connor a weird look, and I didn't blame him. The two of them looked like professional athletes, and neither was wearing a shirt. Or shoes. And just thin sweatpants. With the way the two of them were dressed, and the neighborhood we were in, I wouldn't have been surprised if the cab kept on going. But even only half dressed, there was something commanding about Marcus, and the cab stopped.
Marcus got in the front seat and Connor got in the back with me. As we started driving Connor kept glancing over at me, always grinning, his eyes roaming up and down my body. He wasn't exactly subtle, and I got the feeling that was on purpose. But the only reason I kept catching him looking at me was because I was constantly stealing glances over at him. I
was
trying to be subtle though, and after the fourth or fifth time he caught me checking out his chest and abs I was really starting to blush, so I turned around and very deliberately looked out the window for the rest of the ride. I was already breaking my own rules. So he was hot. I still had no idea if I could trust him.
Soon enough we were downtown, stopped in front of a very modern looking high rise. It definitely didn't look much like a secluded mansion in the forest.
Marcus paid the cabbie and the two of them started heading inside.
"What are we doing here?" I said, not moving from the sidewalk.
The two of them turned around. "Sorry," Marcus said, "I should have explained. We only travel to and from the property during the day. It prevents the vampires from tracking us there. I maintain a penthouse here that we use to wait in."
He just
maintained
a penthouse here. Who was this guy? I didn't move from the sidewalk, still considering what I should do, if I was crazy to go inside with them willingly.
"Hot shower," Connor said, waking back to me, "fridge full of food, silk sheets..." he grinned and reached out his hand, "and I promise, we don't bite. Not unless you want us to."
I was trying to stay smart, and suspicious, but I couldn't help but smile a little at that.
"Okay," I said, but swatted his hand away.
But he just shrugged and fell in beside me. I got the feeling that he wasn't going to be rejected quite that easily.
As we walked across the lobby I noticed some sort of security guard stationed behind a desk. I thought for sure we were busted, that he was never going to let in a couple of shirtless guys wearing nothing but sweatpants and a girl who probably looked homeless, but he just smiled as Marcus walked over.
"Good evening Mr. Horne," the security guard said.
"Evening Alan," Marcus said as he signed some sort of book.
"Will you be with us long Mr. Thorne?"
"No," Marcus said, "just the night."
"Very good sir."
Marcus came back to us, and together we walked over to the elevators. Marcus produced a key-card from somewhere in his sweatpants and held it against a little black box next to the elevator. The doors opened, and then Marcus repeated the process with the key-card on another sensor inside the elevator, then finally pressed the button labeled 'P'.
"They take security very seriously here," Marcus said, noticing me staring, "which suits our needs."
I nodded. I could count on two hands all the times in my life that I had even had a door that locked, let alone a security guard and a penthouse. I could get used to that. But I wasn't going to. Not yet. At least that's what I kept trying to tell myself. What worried me more was whether I would need a key-card like that to leave. I pushed down the worry though. I was going to try and trust these two until they have me a reason not to. I had to try.
And then the elevator doors opened and I couldn't really believe what I was seeing. The wall opposite was floor to ceiling windows, with a view that looked out over the entire city. It was breathtaking. As Marcus stepped out of the elevator the lights came on automatically, and the view disappeared, but the inside was even more amazing than the view.
I had lived in foster homes and foreclosed homes and a few crappy motels when I could afford it. But I had never seen anything quite like that. And they didn't even live there, they just stopped in when they needed somewhere to spend the night.
"Would you like something to eat perhaps?" Marcus said. "Maybe a shower, or a bath?"
"Or a napkin to wipe off the drool?" Connor said.
I rolled my eyes at Connor. "How can you afford this place Marcus? I mean, if you don't mind me asking." I had never even bothered looking for a real job. I had been too busy running from vampires. How had he found the time to become incredibly wealthy?
"Not at all. My great grandfather started a pharmaceutical research company around the turn of the twentieth century, mostly as a cover to research a cure for werewolf... condition."
The look on my face must have said everything that I was thinking.
Marcus smiled, "no, to answer your next question, we have never been able to synthesize a cure. In that sense the company was a failure. However, somewhere along the way it did become a rather successful pharmaceutical research company. Now, we are contracted to do research for some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, as well as various branches of the US government, including the military. For the most part I am a figurehead, and the board runs the company."
"You hardly seem old enough to be running your own major company," I said. He couldn't have been older than early thirties.
Marcus frowned, "no, but it is the family business and I am the only one left. Running the company is not something I chose, but the world is rarely kind to our species. A lesson I know better than most."
"Oh I'm sorry," I started to say, "I--"
"Let's get something to eat," Connor said, taking me by the arm and dragging me past Marcus as I tried to get a better apology out. But Marcus was already walking away, towards the stairs, and the bedrooms.
"I'll see you two in the morning," he called out as he ascended the stairs.
~~~
I put my head down on the kitchen counter. "Is he mad at me? Did I say something wrong?"
All that time I had been keeping one foot out the door with Marcus and Connor, ready to run at the first sign of trouble, and now all of a sudden I was almost frantic that I had hurt Marcus' feelings and maybe screwed it all up. Maybe I was a little more eager to join with them than I realized.