“I promise not to bite or scratch anyone,” he said bitterly.
The pain in his voice stung. I hadn’t meant to offend.
“I’m sorry, but you are contagious in this form.”
“And I’m not hurting anyone,” he said.
He looked at me then and my heart beat faster, but not entirely with fear. I recognized the dark chocolate eyes that looked down at me, and they were kind. He reached out a clawed hand and I gasped when he threw back my hood.
“You look beautiful, Red.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
I trembled as his fur brushed against my cheek. Seeing Bade as a man, and then a werewolf had not affected me this way. You’d think that after nearly eight years of werewolf hunting I’d have gotten used to the sight. But I’d never had someone I cared about show up at a party as a werewolf. A
real
werewolf. I had known what Marco was, but seeing the beast frightened me. I remembered Sam’s warning again and was just thankful I hadn’t seen him change.
If I could understand something or make it familiar to me, I would no longer be afraid. I reached trembling hands toward his face and Marco lowered his head so that I could stroke him.
“Don’t be afraid of me, Red. I can’t bear to see that look on your face.”
“I’m sorry,” I said shakily. “I can’t help it.”
I pulled his enormous muzzle closer and looked into the eyes of a man I thought I hadn’t missed. “Your eyes....”
“I can keep them from turning,” he said softly. “I thought the amber would frighten too many people.”
“If they could make it past this,” I stroked his face, “I think the eyes wouldn’t faze them.
“I needed to see you. Don’t punish me, Red.” His voice was kind, but I was still afraid. Marco put down the punch.
The look in his eyes was determined as he turned back to me.
He extended one clawed hand toward me and I hesitated.
“You can trust me, Red,” he almost whispered.
I placed my small hand in his and let Marco lead me into the nearby trees, away from the crowd. How drastically my judgment had changed and all because of him. It would never have occurred to me even just a year ago to have let a werewolf get me alone. But this was no mere werewolf. This was the alpha male of the local wolf pack, and he was scarier than I could have ever anticipated judging from the handsome face I was accustomed to.
“Close your eyes,” he said gently.
At first I just shook, but I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I felt his powerful arms wrap around me and the fur of his chest touched my face. I whimpered.
“Shh,” he said as he stroked my hair. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think that you would feel this way. Not after what you’ve been through and the things you’ve seen.”
I focused on his voice and felt my heartbeat begin to slow to a more normal pace.
“Red, I know you’ve seen other werewolves.
It’s me
,” he pleaded.
I wanted to cry. I knew I was hurting Marco’s feelings, but I couldn’t seem to get a grip. “I have seen others,” I said, my voice was breathy. “But in my defense, you’re the scariest, and you’re hugging me.” I gulped.
He laughed and that deep masculine rumble helped to break the illusion. It was Marco that held me, not a monster.
I rubbed my face against the fur of his chest and breathed in his familiar scent. I let the smell of him wash over my mind and comfort me like it had before, when I was hurt and I had needed him. This beast that held me was Marco and I was in no danger.
“Marco,” I breathed as I embraced him.
“Are you alright?” he asked softly. “I hear your heartbeat slowing down.”
“Yes. I think I’ll be alright, but don’t let me go.”
My eyes filled with unexpected tears as he squeezed me tighter. I brushed against his inner thigh and realized Marco had dropped to one knee to embrace me. God, I’d missed him. Even the beast who stood before me could not change that, for underneath his fur was the man that I remembered.
We stayed that way for several minutes with my face pressed tightly against his chest, listening to his heartbeat.
His fur was soft. By the time I started to pet him, I think he figured out it was safe to speak.
“Kat told me what you’d be wearing,” he confessed. “In light of what I am, and what she’s named me, I couldn’t resist,” he said, obviously referring to Kat nicknaming him The Big Bad Wolf.
I laughed softly and he said, “We’re a perfect match.”
After a few more moments of silence he asked, “Where’s Alfred?”
“He couldn’t be here. But I’m sure Kat told you that, or you wouldn’t be here like this.”
“Are you happy?” he asked. “Kat said that you were happy.”
“You’ve been talking to Kat?”
“Just once.”
“Sometimes I wonder whose side she’s on.”
“She’s on yours,” he said gently. “Kat loves you. She wants you to be happy. But she’s a romantic at heart ... and I think she feels sorry for me.”
“I won’t lie to you Marco, I really am happy ... But, I’ve missed you,” I breathed against his fur. “I didn’t think I had until I saw you again.”
“I’ll continue to keep my distance,” he said sadly. “But if you’re ever not happy ... you know where to find me.”
“Yes,” I whispered. “I know where to find you. But what you and Kat don’t realize is that I cannot resist forbidden fruit when the tree grows in my back yard.”
He laughed again and it made his fur vibrate against my face. In spite of the situation Marco’s laughter made me feel good. It lightened the mood and my heart. He let me pull back from him and I looked into his eyes once more.
“Can Bade keep his eyes from turning, too?” I asked.
I saw Marco’s brow knit in thought. “No, he can’t. Bade’s eyes just never turn. And when have you seen Bade?”
I told Marco about everything that had happened with Richard and all that went on the night he’d been abducted.
“I knew about everything else. David told me. But he left out the fact that Bade was there.”
I heard a threat in Marco’s voice. “You won’t hurt him?” I asked about David.
“He was deliberately consorting with someone who openly threatens me.”
“But, Marco....”
“That’s why he left it out of his story, and why he must be punished.”
I looked horrified and he explained, “That’s how the pack works. I can’t go easy on someone just because I like them.
David knew better.”
I could see the logic in what Marco said, but I still felt sorry for David. Marco really was the scariest werewolf I’d ever seen, and I would hate to see him angry.
“There’s one more thing. After Bade helped us he said, ‘tell Marco we’re even.’ What was he talking about?”
Marco sighed and looked at the ground. “Do you remember the night when you and the cop were kidnapped?”
“Of course.”
“Well, word of what he’d done had just reached me, and I was an hour away. I changed in order to travel more quickly and made my way to you.”
“You were coming to save me?”
“Yes, but Alfred beat me to it. When I arrived you were struggling with Bade while Alfred shot down the others.”
I had a flashback of a large dark male werewolf knocking Bade off of me.
“You saved me.”
“And him, when I unintentionally knocked him out of the way of Alfred’s gunfire. When he thanked me, I pretended I’d saved him on purpose.”
“Why?”
“In the hopes that there might be some peace between us.” He looked at me as he pleaded, “Understand, Red, this man was my brother. No matter what he might do, or even if I end up having to kill him, I love him.”
“I understand.”
I also understood that somewhere in the battle going on that night Marco might have seen Julie’s crumpled body. I felt guilty for his sake, but not hers.
As we walked back into the clearing Marco froze.
“Who’s the wolf in sheep’s clothing?”
I followed his eyes and saw Charles. “That’s Charles Xander. He’s Kat’s boyfriend.”
“He’s a werewolf,” Marco growled. “And he’s one of Bade’s.”
“What?”
“How long have they been dating?”
I counted on my fingers. “About six months.”
“And you didn’t know?”
“I’ve never met him.”
“Is there some place we can talk to Kat in private?”
I sent Marco to the back of the house and met him there after I found Kat. She took one look at Marco and jumped.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s alright, Kat. It’s Marco,” I explained.
She nodded, but still looked uneasy. She was clearly afraid, but reacted much better than I had. I suppose my feelings for Marco had made seeing his wolfman form more difficult for me.
“We need to talk,” his deep voice rumbled.
We followed Kat into the kitchen where Marco said, “You might want to sit down.”
Kat took a seat, but her eyes never left Marco. The top of his head nearly reached the large beams in her ceiling.
“Whatever it is, just tell me. The suspense is killing me,”
she insisted. I touched her shoulder comfortingly as I walked past and heard her thoughts
, “And you’re scaring me.”
“How long have you been seeing Charles Xander?”
“What has that got to do with anything?”
“Have you been having sex with him?” He asked bluntly.
“Of course,” she said.
“Rough sex?” Marco pressed.
Apparently having a werewolf question her about her sex life was a bit much for Kat. “Just what are you getting at?”
she asked indignantly.
“Your boyfriend is a werewolf,” Marco said.
Kat just stared at us both like she was waiting for the punch line.
“You’re serious.”
Marco knelt beside her chair. “Has he ever scratched you?”
“No,” she almost whispered.
“But you’ve been having sex, and you didn’t know?” he pressed.
“That’s right. But why do you keep asking about the sex? I don’t understand.”
“Most new werewolves have to learn control in order to prevent at least a partial, if not complete transformation during orgasm.”
“Excuse me?” Kat and I both asked.
“It takes practice.” He glanced at me and I blushed.
“There’s a temporary loss of awareness then, and the sex calls out the beast. That’s one of the main reasons werewolves don’t normally date humans. That and the fact that their strength alone might accidentally break something.”
“What are you saying exactly?” Kat asked.
“Charles Xander has not been a werewolf for very long.”
“And?”
“And he’s either a fast learner....”
“Or?”
“Or he was faking it.”
“That’s it!” Kat yelled, pointing at Marco. “He doesn’t get to talk anymore.” She looked at me and her eyes were wide.
“Lilith, please tell me what the hell is going on.”
I did my best to explain what I knew. Once Kat had calmed down a little Marco asked, “When did you meet him?”
“He came in the shop looking for some picture frames.”
“After he’d seen the pictures of Lilith in the window?”
“Yes.
Son of a bitch.
He came in because of you,” she said to me.
“I’m sorry,” I replied.
“Don’t be. I’ll deal with his ass,” she snarled.
“Maybe we should all have a word with him,” Marco suggested.
Kat stormed outside to get Charles and Marco turned to me. “Could you help me please? I’m dying of thirst.”
I decided that a glass was too small and filled a large vase with water instead.
“So, how long did it take for you to be able to control the beast?” I asked.
“Are you asking how long it took for me to gain the level of control needed to become alpha, or how long it took before I didn’t transform during sex?”
“Both.”
“Most will never have the level of control that I possess, in either area,” he added the last with a wink and it looked odd to see Marco’s facial expressions on a werewolf.
“But you partially transformed that night in the tub.”
“You truly have no idea what your presence does to my control,” he growled seductively.
I held out the vase. While Marco lapped at the water I said, “I don’t mind helping you, but why not just change back?”
“Because it takes a lot of energy and the night is young.
Once I change, I try to stay in wolf form for at least a few hours. I’ll change back somewhere in the woods before I leave.”
“That makes sense.” I sighed. “Want some more water?”
“Yes,” he panted.
There we stood, Little Red Riding Hood holding a large decorative vase for The Big Bad Wolf to drink. We were standing like this when Kathryn came back with Charles. He cringed at the sight of Marco and hit the floor, abasing himself in the wolf king’s presence. I’d never seen anything like it. I also wasn’t used to seeing how other people reacted to Marco. I began to understand what he had meant when Marco suggested I was allowed to take many liberties with my treatment of him that others did not enjoy. Charles’ reaction said clearly that we were in the presence of a king.
Marco didn’t really have to ask for an explanation. Charles rolled his eyes upward from where he crouched on the floor and took one good look at Marco. He spilled the whole story.
He had come into the shop and asked Kat out in order to spy on me for Bade. However, when Bade gave up on obtaining a sample of my blood, Charles stuck around. He insisted that he cared for Kat and that’s why he had stayed. Charles also insisted that no harm had been done. But from the look on Kathryn’s face I knew that wasn’t true. At the end of his lengthy explanation Kat said to Charles quietly, “I think you should go.”
He looked to Marco and when the king did not object, he backed out of the room, still abasing himself.
“You feel like company?” I asked Kat.
She just stood there for a moment, clearly still in shock.
“Would you like us to stay for a while?” Marco asked gently.
She nodded, but seemed incapable of speech for the time being. Kat sat back down while I fixed her a drink, looking numb. Marco propped against the door frame that opened into the living room, looking like the most unusual bodyguard I’d ever seen. The party went on outside without us. Most everyone had been there before and would disperse on their own near dawn. Marco excused himself after hearing that Kathryn hadn’t eaten yet and returned with a large vegetable tray and some sandwiches.