Running From the Vampire Into the Arms of the Wolf: (6 page)

The wolf suddenly sprang out in front of her growling and drooling at her.
  She halted and studied him carefully.  He had a dusting of reddish brown fur down his back and she knew who it was.

She smirked and
made cooing noises.  “Hey puppy, you want your tummy rubbed?  You want me to throw a stick for you?”

The wolf
trotted forward and nipped at her ankle playfully.

“Alright!
  Alright, settle down Acksel.”

The air shimmered and the wolf was replaced by a very hands
ome and very nude man.  He was hooting with laughter.  “How did you know it was me?”

She shrugged.  “Witch
remember, can’t get much past me.”

Her eyes involuntarily strayed down his body
. 
Yep completely naked. 
She snapped her eyes to his face.  She couldn’t help but compare him to Hans.  They were both the same size and shape, and definitely both well endowed.  Although she hadn’t really got a good look at Hans in the dimly lit store room, she’d quite like to see him again in full daylight, see him in all his glory...  She blushed as her thoughts turned x-rated.

Acksel
grinned at her, thinking she was blushing at him. 
Sorry buddy, just lusting after your older brother who happens to hate me, but apparently didn’t have a problem giving me a mercy fuck.

“You just finished your shift?”  He asked innocuously.

Was that a trick question?  Did he know she had actually spent the better part of the last half hour getting screwed by his brother?  “Ummm, yep.”

“So you like working at the restaurant?”

“Ye
ah, your mom and your sisters are great.  Plus free pizza, what’s not to like?”  Plus there was the orgasm she’d just received,
she’d liked that a hell of a lot.

“Good, my mom had three waitresses all quit on her
within six weeks before you arrived.  I think she was at her wits end.”

“Oh?  Why’d they quit?”
  She tried to sound nonchalant so that he would think that the fact that he was stood in front of her completely naked wasn’t bothering her at all.

Acksel
blew out a long breath.  “Hans.  They found him a bit... aggressive.  He hasn’t been riding you too hard has he?”  His face held a look of concern.

Melody
’s eyes widened at his choice of words, the lewd connotations immediately jumping to the forefront of her mind.  “Not at all.”  She managed to choke out. 
Not too hard at all...

“
Good, you have any problems you let me know.”  She murmured that she would.

A wolf howled in the distance and
Acksel stared in the direction it came from.  She took a moment to study his handsome face.  Chiselled with smooth skin, a strong straight nose, sculpted lips and emerald green eyes.  What wasn’t to like?  And she did like him. 
Truly
. 

He rubbed the back of his head and turned back to her.
  “So I was wondering if you wanted to go with me to the pack Halloween party?”  His usual look of confidence was slightly tinted by hopefulness. 

She held her breath. 
Acksel was nice, funny, but also serious and responsible when he had to be.  Thinking about him made her smile.  Any woman would be lucky to have him.  But...
then there was Hans
. 

With his scar
, tattoos, broken nose and repellent personality Hans could easily be dismissed as being the poor relation to Acksel. 
Not that Hans cared about that
. 
He didn’t give a fuck about anything.
Asshole
. 

In Melody’s head, and heart,
Acksel paled just due to the fact that he wasn’t Hans. 
Hans
.  With his taut muscles, interesting tattoos, troubled face and deep soulful green eyes, Melody just wanted to curl around him and hold him to her.  Thinking about him made her knees weak and another part of her anatomy, that felt quite sore from their store room antics, sit up and take notice.

“I
ummm, kind of just started seeing someone.”  Lying was easier.  What else could she say, ‘sorry Acksel, I just had mind blowing sex with your brother and even though he hates me I’m kind of hung up on him, so I don’t think it would be appropriate’. 
No, that wouldn’t go down well
.

Disappointment flashed across his face.  “Too bad, maybe we can go out as friends some time.”

“I’d like that.”

He placed a hand on her shoulder.  “Come on, I’ll walk you home.”

“Ummm, don’t you want to put on some clothes?”

“Nah
, I’m pretty comfortable au natural.”

She sniggered.  “Yes I see that.”

When they arrived at her door they bid each other good night and Acksel shifted.  His massive wolf padded away into the night.

Melody surveyed the area, the darkened house and flickering street lamps.  Everything was calm.  But still she felt a prickling on her neck.  Maybe
Acksel was still hanging around.  She hoped so.  The idea of who else might be out there made her stomach churn.

He shook her head and went into the cottage. 
Locking the door tightly.

She stretched out her aching muscles, rubbing her painful back.
  She had hit the wall pretty hard,
repeatedly
.  She was tired, so she took a long shower and crept into bed, cocooning herself in the covers.

Stupid Hans
, she thought bitterly
.  She thought of Acksel and she smiled.  She wasn’t interested in him but she had to admit that it felt nice to be wanted. 

Well if Hans didn’t want her then she just needed to show him what he was missing.
  She thought of her favourite item of clothing hanging in her wardrobe, her black mini skirt.  It was well cut and very flattering, wearing it always made her feel sexy and confident.

Perhaps tomorrow she should wear it to work.  Her lips curled upwards.
Yep, tomorrow she’d show him.

Chapter Five

29
th
October

Hans looked at
Acksel with loathing.  Acksel had stopped by before Pizza Moon was due to open to see their mother Ilse. 
Mama’s boy
.

Acksel
had slapped him on the back and asked him a few questions about how things were going, how he was... honestly Hans barely listened.  He had sneered and snarled his responses to all his tedious questions, barely able to control himself from shifting and challenging him.

Acksel
, so accustomed to his moody older brother, hadn’t even batted an eyelid.

Last night after Melody had left the restaurant Hans had worried about her walking home on her own after 11pm.  Plus he might have felt a smidge of guilt about the things he said to her.
 
Who was he kidding?  He had followed her home every night since he met her...

He had quickly locked up and
trailed after her, keeping his distance, staying to the shadows.  He didn’t imagine that she wanted to talk to him.  Plus she had drenched herself with a particularly noxious perfume.  He wouldn’t enjoy smelling that up close.  It irritated him.  He wanted to smell her natural scent, and more than anything he wanted to scent himself on her. 

Soon he had realised his brother was also following her.  He watched as his brother shifted and chatted with her. 
Acksel stood there in front of her, completely naked talking to her.  He couldn’t hear their words, if he were any closer Acksel would have noticed him, but he had heard the trill of her laughter. 
Yeah, Acksel was fucking hilarious.

Then
Acksel put his hand on her, he was naked and he had put his hand on her.  Less than an hour after they had been together she was allowing another man to touch her. 

Hans’
mood had darkened even more and he could barely stop himself from racing over to them and tearing her away from him.  His wolf was barely contained.  His skin had tightened and quivered as his body tried to shift. 

He had followed them back to Melody’s house and made sure that
Acksel left.  He couldn’t think about what he might have done to his brother if Acksel had gone inside with her.

Hans had
waited while she showered, which was quite frankly tortuous.  He then stood beneath her bedroom window and listened carefully until her breathing slowed and he was sure she had fallen asleep.

He had walked away hurriedly into the woods stripping his clothes off.  He had needed to go for a run, his wolf had been hounding him and Hans had needed to appease him somehow.  The run had taken the edge off... sort of.
  After three hours he had returned somewhat more relaxed to retrieve his clothes, and checking that Melody was still asleep had then gone home to collapse exhausted.

His ire at his brother had not abated though.  In spite of the venomous perfume she wore
Acksel surely must have scented Hans on Melody, their potent sex filled the store room.  He had already spent ten minutes in there that morning revelling in it.  He felt for her panties in his jeans pocket and smiled, or at least glowered less. 
God he really was a perv
.

So either his brother had been too distracted by Melody to scent him on her or he hadn’t cared
.  Both of those scenarios royally pissed him off.

Hans had claimed her body first.
 
She was his
.  His wolf rolled around like a puppy.  No, no, no she wasn’t
his
.  She just wasn’t free to be Acksel’s.  Hans groaned at his own twisted logic. 

He hated what Melody was and didn’t want to be with her, yet he wanted to murder anyone else who might even show a tiny,
iddy biddy bit of interest in her. 
Was he really that selfish?  His wolf snarled proprietarily and Hans realised that yes, he was.

His mind went back to their encounter in the store room.  She had been so eager, so compliant. 
Her body accepting him, stroking him, urging him on.  It was the greatest relief he’d felt in... well that he’d ever felt.   His body yearned to crush her against him and wrap her around him. 

No, what happened was a mistake.
  Witches were evil, they were deceitful and tricked men into giving them what they wanted.  Hans had to stop thinking of her as anything other than a great fuck.  A fantastic fuck, the best he’d ever had in fact. 
No, he had to stop thinking of her full stop
.   

Acksel
though... it hadn’t occurred to him that his younger handsome brother would take an interest in her.  He’d never been jealous of Acksel before, but the thought that Melody might find his brother more attractive than him sent hot bolts of rage through his body.  Women flocked to Acksel, women ran from Hans. 
At least the smart ones did
.  The thought that Melody would choose Acksel over him was painful, and made him want to punch Acksel. 
Repeatedly
.

He glanced at the clock.  It was 11.15am.  Melody had been due in for her shift 15 minutes ago.
  She was late, she’d never been late before.  Guilt spread through him.  Maybe after the way he had treated her she couldn’t face him.  Maybe she was going to quit. 
Maybe she was leaving town!

“Where’s Melody?” 
Asked Acksel.  “Isn’t she working today?”

Hans’ wolf snarled.
 
Why the hell did he want to know?

“She’s probably just running late, I’ll give her a call.” 
Said Ilse.  “Oh speak of the devil!”

Melody burst through the door panting.  She leaned over bracing her hands on her legs trying to regain her breath.  “Sorry... overslept...  ran here.”
 
She’d been having a marvellous dream that she didn’t want to end
.

Ilse
laughed.  “Honey why don’t you take a seat?  I’ll get you a cold drink.  Steam’s practically coming out of your ears.”

“Thanks.
.. hey guys.”  She waved absently at the brothers.

They both gawped at her. 
She was wearing her Pizza Moon t-shirt but today instead of her normal jeans she had on a short black mini skirt, showing off a large expanse of her luscious legs.

Acksel
cleared his throat.  “I uh, gotta go.”  He clapped Hans on the back.  “Bye bro’, bye mom.  Nice to see you again Melody.”  He gave her a flashy smile and left, ignoring the stink eye from Hans.

Ilse
gave Melody a drink and retreated to her office in the back.

Hans looked at Melody awkwardly.
  He scowled, he didn’t like apologising.  He’d only done it once or twice before and only because his mother guilt-tripped him into doing it.  “Look, about yesterday...”

“Don’t.”  She interrupted him.  “Let’s just forget it happened, okay?”
  She shifted under his gaze uncomfortably, knowing that she’d remember every detail of it for the rest of her life.

He glowered.  “Whatever.”  He muttered and went back to the kitchen.  She wants to pretend it never happened then that’s fine with him. 
More than fine. 
Fucking a-okay.

*

Melody swung her hips, smiled widely at all her male customers and laughed like a hyena at every tiny joke they made.  She was acting like a total flirt and it was killing Hans. 
Good, she thought smugly.

Throughout the day he had thrown her angry glances and scowls.  He’d been so distracted by her antics that he’d gotten
loads of orders wrong.  His mother was kind of worried about him.

Alright so she
did feel a bit like a silly teenager but... his behaviour towards her had hardly been that of a mature adult she reasoned. 
You reap what you sow
.

She glided over to
her favourite customers, Terri and Mal Tanner who, much to Terri’s annoyance, had been joined by Mal’s erstwhile best friend Casey.  Since mating with Terri and finding out they were going to have a baby Mal had grown up a lot whilst Casey... hadn’t.

Casey was still immature and obnoxious
, Terri could barely stand him.

Terri nestled into
Mal’s side, he had his arm around her shoulders tightly.  They were beaming and looking at a picture.  Mal placed a tender kiss on Terri’s head.  Melody felt a wave of jealousy flow through her. 

Casey just looked bored.

“Hey guys!”  Called out Melody.

Terri flashed a smile at her. 
“Hi Melody.” 

“
Melody, look it’s our baby!”  Mal thrust the picture in her direction, his excitement barely contained.

Melody studied the photo, it was still early days for the pregnancy
so there really wasn’t anything to see, but she certainly didn’t want to burst their enthusiasm.  The two women had become quite close in the last few weeks. 

Terri had previously lost a baby during pregnancy and was
currently struggling with nausea, she had been very tentative about celebrating so it was heart warming to see her so happy.

“
Oh, it’s lovely.” 

Casey snorted and Mal threw him a dirty look.
  Casey ignored him and looked Melody up and down with an exaggerated leer.  “Nice to see so much of you Melody.”

Oh brother
.  She gave him a toothy smile.  “You guys ready to order?”

“What would you recommend?” 
Asked Casey lasciviously.

Mal grunted impatiently.  “You eat here
all the time, and you order the same thing every time.”

Casey eyed Melody. 
“Well maybe I want to try something new...”

Terri groaned.  “I feel nauseous.”  She muttered.

I second that, thought Melody
.  Casey raised his eyebrows in question.  Melody leaned over and started pointing to things on the menu that she thought were good.  Casey shifted a bit closer to her so his bicep rubbed against her thigh and her breast dusted his shoulder.

Hans
chose that moment came back from supervising a delivery.  He stood stock still as he caught sight of Melody practically rubbing herself against that idiot boy Casey.  His wolf snarled and Hans snapped. 
Enough was enough
.

Hans marched over to the table. 

“Melody!”

Casey almost leapt out his seat and when he saw Hans looming over him he wanted to run out the door.  There were very few members of the pack who weren’t terrified of him.  Hans prided himself on it.

Melody barely reacted, like she expected him to come over.  She raised an eyebrow.  “Yes?”

“
I need your help, we’ve just had a delivery.”

“I’m serving customers...”

Hans’ flared his nostrils and emitted a low growl.  Mal braced himself, if Hans lost control Mal would have to step in and fight him. 
Not a thought he relished.

“That wasn’
t a request that was an order.”  Said Hans through gritted teeth.

Melody pursed her lips before relaxing.
  Feeling naughty she said “sir!  Yes sir!”  She gave him a salute before turning back to the table.  “I’ll be back soon.”

She sashayed away from them, feeling both
Hans angry eyes and the groups astonished gazes boring into her. 
She had a feeling she was going to pay for that
.

She got to the store room without being stopped and began organising the new stock.  Hans came in quietly and shut the door
, she ignored him and continued.

“You need to stop what you’re doing.”  His voice was low and dangerous.

“I thought you wanted help with this...”

Hans moved in front of her until they were only inches apart.  He was seething.  “You need to stop flirting with customers, it’s embarrassing.”

She looked at him blankly.  “Really?  I haven’t had any complaints.”

He growled at her again, more forcefully.  “I find it embarrassing.”

She scoffed.  “Why would I care what you think?”

A muscle in Hans’ jaw ticked.
  “You don’t want people thinking you’re easy.”

She jutted her chin at him.  “After yesterday’s fumble in here I’m surprised you already don’t.”

He stepped back slightly and smiled smugly.  “Thought you wanted to forget that happened.”

“It’s forgotten.”  She gave him a growl of her own.

He folded his arms over his chest, and his muscles and tattoos stretched.  She felt a fluttering in her sex. 
Damn traitorous body
.

“Surprised you can forget.”  He thought of her panties in his pocket and the way her body had felt, his erection started to grow.  “You seemed pretty
satisfied yesterday.”

Melody’s lips curled wickedly.  
“I wouldn’t say that, it happened so fast it was kind of a blur.”