The Legacy of Kilkenny (13 page)

Abel’s ability to heal quickly ruled out any obvious accidents.
 
We all agreed a suicide would be too traumatic on the family and could cause a negative effect on all of them.
 
Living with ”what if’s” would only cause the grieving process to be prolonged.
 
I picked up the book
When Bad Things Happen To Good People
, to get a grasp of the process they would go through.
 
I had been born amongst the werewolves, I knew no other way of life, or death if truth be told.
 
Most
weres
just happened and were found by Pack members or brought to our attention by some other supernatural type of being.
 
So what was I going to do?

I had been sitting on the back deck enjoying the mild evening, listening to the limbs crack and pinecones fall.
 
The back door opened and Oakley came and stood over me, his scent was all man, his cologne was
intoxicating
…. Oh he is another problem on my growing list. Sigh.

“Hey girl” His cute accent making it sound more like ‘
heyyyy
girrrrrl
’.
 

“Hey back
atcha
, you tired of listening to everyone freak out about the visitors?”
 
I knew we all were just wishing we could hurry it up and be done with it.

He sat down with one swift motion, not making any noise except the deck creaking under his weight.
 
“I was worried about you.
 
I know you’ve been taking on a lot lately and I know this is just adding to the stress.”
 
He reached across the table and put his hand over mine.
 
I was use to boys touching me, but I wasn’t use to the electricity that sparked between us.
 
I knew he felt it to because he flinched ever so slightly

“Hey, what’s a little stress, only the biggest
baddest
pack wolves in the world have decided to come and figure out if we really have the Great Wolf and to strong arm us around.
 
Nah, no stress for me,” I say and drop my head onto the table in an over dramatic slump.

“Well, if it’s any consolation to you, everyone is a little stressed about the situation.
 
I don’t think anyone has doubts about Abel, I just think they are worried he isn’t ready to come face to face with them.
 
They have a way of being obnoxious self-righteous asses and will without a doubt intimidate him, but with a little forewarning to him on our part will help ease the situation along.”
 
He stopped to take a sip of his root beer.
 
“He isn’t stupid, he just has to learn our politics.
 
All they are here to do is sniff our asses and try to make themselves sound like it would be better to live in Ireland.
 
Your dad isn’t going to let them get too far with that.
 
The General is one bad ass wolf and your mom?
 
Well, I pity the fool that goes up against them.
 
I will send Abel a text later and see if he can come over and go over some mug shots with us.
 
I figure if I show him some of their profile
pics
, and go over their different positions within their pack, it will help.”

“That’s a great idea.
 
I don’t know if his mom will let him back out of the house tonight though.
 
His sister is in town and they are all about the family time and no outsiders.
 
I don’t really blame them, it will be good for them to make some memories together. You know?”
 
I took a sip of my coke and looked out into the trees.
 
I thought I’d heard something but I didn’t smell anyone.
 

“I guess he’ll have to sneak out.
 
I’ll send him a text to let him know to meet me at the little park by his house. It’s too risky having him out and about alone anyway.”

“Of course,” I wink at him and he winked back.
 
My heart was going to explode.
 
“I’ve got something I want to run past you.” He leaned in to me in agreement so I went on.
 
“I’ve been thinking about Abel and how he should, ah, you know, die.
 
What do you think would be the best way for me to do it?
 
Should I just break his neck when we’re doing some martial arts?”

“Nah, I think that’s too risky.
 
We want you to stay in contact with the family in the future, and we don’t want them to blame you.
 
I think you’ll have to come up with something a little more natural if you get my drift.”
 
Did he really just say his drift?
 
Okay, that was a little old fashioned.
 
He must have been watching too many reruns on Nick at night.

“Good point.
 
I just keep thinking about it and I don’t know.
 
I didn’t plan on liking him.
 
Not like ‘that’ just you know, I like him.
 
I like his family and I don’t want to tell my parents I’m stressed about it or they’ll think I’m too young and assign it to another pack member.
 
I just don’t know what to do.”
 
Maybe I was just sleep deprived I thought.
 
I sounded so whiney I was annoying myself.
 
“I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be a whiney ass, I’m just trying to make sure I do the right thing.
 
I’ve spent my entire existence knowing I’d find him and now I just want to make sure it all goes right.
 
I’m afraid the O’Connell’s will convince him to go with them and then everything will be for naught,” I say as I get head for the door.
 
Oakley came up from behind putting his arms around me.
 
He bent his head over and I could feel his breath on my ear.
 

“Pru, don’t stress about it.
 
You’ll figure it out.
 
I promise.” He lightly squeezed and released me but not before Josie came to the door and saw us.
 
I smelled her tension so I’d been right in thinking she was attracted to Oakley.
 
Great, just what I needed.

There was so much I didn’t know about her.
 
I mean, really, Oakley is 22 and she had to be around 40.
 
She flirted so much with all of the guys, it didn’t seem she had her sights on him until I mentioned thinking he was cute to her one time when we went swimming.
 
She grew up in Oklahoma City, she was raised by her mother, and was secretive about her dad.
 
I’d asked my mom about it one time but she told me it wasn’t any of my concern.
 
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her, I did, and I just
knew
something wasn’t being said.

Abel snuck out of his house and met with Oakley and me as we looked over picture after picture and drilled into his head who everyone was in the pack.
 
We told him about the different affairs, wolves are horn dogs not much different than regular dogs.
 
Although there are mates for life, there is also mate just to mate and it wasn’t frowned upon.
 
It sounds worse than it really is, but we live together all of the time.
 
We don’t inbreed like dogs do, we are part human so we know who is our brother, cousin or parents and all of it was off limits.
 
It wasn’t unheard of for the Alpha to find an omega and mate or when another pack was in town for the Alpha to offer one of his for the other Alpha to enjoy running with for the night.
 
I was special in the pack so no one tried mating with me, probably because I didn’t send out the pheromones that I was willing to mate with anyone yet.
 
Civilized packs lived as such but when you traveled and ran across rogue wolves or other packs, they had some
skank
low lives.

We played a flash card game with all of the key players so Abel would catch on.
 
For every right answer he got a gas card to help fuel up his tank.
 
He worked really hard and I knew he was getting fatigued but we had to make sure he was armed with info.

“Hey Abe, you ready for us to take you home?
 
You’re looking a little tired.”

We all said good night and drove him to the end of the street.

I turned and looked at Oakley, “Do you smell that?”
 
I took a big whiff out the window and he did too.

“It smells like Parker.
 
Was he over here tonight Abe?”
 

“No, but I’ve been meaning to ask you about that.
 
What is his beef with me?
 
Ever since the first night I found out about the werewolf stuff, he has been coming and lurking around the neighborhood.
 
Hell, the dogs don’t even make as much of a hissy fit over him anymore.
 
I don’t think they like him but they don’t howl as much as they did when he first came around.
 
You’ve seemed a little tense so I haven’t said anything.
 
It hasn’t like he has done anything so I figured no foul no harm.”

“What the hell Abel!
 
I wish you would have told us.
 
You can’t keep secrets like that from me.
 
I’m going to find out what he’s doing here.
 
I wondered where he was running to.
 
Dad had said he wasn’t staying out there at night and had got a small house on the outskirts of Yukon.
 
That slimy good for nothing mutt.
 
I’m going to kick his ass.” Like it or not, it was about time for a good ass
kickin
’.

“Slow down there Sparky,” Oakley said to me.

“Oh no you didn’t, you just called me Sparky, and I’ll kick your ass too.
 
I’m going for a run!”
 
I hopped out of the car and shifted before either of them could stop me.
 

ABEL

Just what I need,
freakin
dog fights going on outside my window.
 
When Pru got serious she means business.
 
Oakley said bye to me and before I knew it he is naked outside his truck and off he ran after her.
 
I am trying to get in the window before Allie realizes I’m not home.
 

I pull the screen closed and lowered the window but not all the way down because I want to hear what is going on outside.
 
I am beginning to like the enhanced me, the one that can see in the dark, hear everything and smell like a bloodhound.
 
Too bad I didn’t use any of those new senses when I crawled in the window.
 

“So, you
wanna
tell me why you’re coming through the window at 2 in the morning?”
 
Allie asked.

“Hey Allie, would you believe me if I said I just wanted some fresh air?”
 
I kick off my shoes and go to sit down to brace myself for the sister dialogue.
 
“Why are you sitting in the dark?”

“Well, I guess I’m sitting in the dark because my dumbass little brother disappeared.
 
I came in his room to talk to him, so I’ve been sitting and waiting for his sorry butt to get home for the last hour.
 
I was about to go get mom up and tell her you are missing but lucky for you this big
freakin'dog
was out there I’ve been keeping an eye on him in case he tried to get you.
 
Back to the question.
 
Where have you been?
 
That girl Pru?”

“You about gave me a heart attack Allie.
 
They were having a get together at their house and I wanted to go, but I knew mom wouldn’t let me with you here so I went anyway.
 
When did you become the Abel police?”
 
I bounced to a sitting position on the bed and threw my arm around her.
 
She feels so skinny.
 
“Aren’t you eating?
 
Don’t try telling me your fat, we both know you’re not.”

“If you like this girl so much, why didn’t you just take me with you?
 
Mom would have let you go if I were going with you, I’m an angel.”
 
She makes her best innocent angel face.
 
“The skinny part is
kinda
what I came home for.
 
I’ve not been feeling well, look at my neck.
 
I think I had a tick bite or something, I’ve been feeling sick every time I try to eat.”
 
She holds up her hair where I see a small puncture wound at the nape of her neck.