Under the Blood Moon

Wolves?

Scarlet

“I-it’s ok” I stammer, how little talking did we actually do last night.

“It’s so hard to get to know someone from another pack before the sun comes up” he explains, before taking another drink.

“Another pack?” I ask, my brows furrowed in confusion.

“Yeah, I’m not from round here, so I’m really lucky to meet a friendly wolf on my first night run, I’ve heard some real horror stories about pack wars being triggered by wandering into the wrong place” he takes another sip of his coffee before continuing “I know I shouldn’t have gone out, but I needed to run”

My confusion must have been apparent as he stopped. He looks directly at me his eyes concerned. “How many times have you changed now?”

“Sorry Stefan I have no idea what you’re talking about, I don’t remember anything about last night” I smile trying to not look like a complete i***t “I remember waking up happy and muddy, my brother tells me I’ve disappeared on a night a few times before, but I just don’t remember anything”

“Oh ok” he looks so confused “Are your parents not helping you through it at all”

“My mum doesn’t know about it, and my dad well he disappeared when my brother was born” I reply, the confusion isn’t lifting at all, what do mum and dad have to do with my sleep walking?

“What’s your surname Scarlet?” He asks in a very straightforward manner.

“Dolphus” I reply.

“From your mum or your dad?”

“Dad’s name, mum was a Smith before they got married.” This seems to clear things up for him somehow and he nods thoughtfully.

“Ok Scarlet, we need to talk properly, somewhere private would that be ok?” I nod, doubting myself as I do, he could still be a bad guy so why do I feel that I can trust him so much.

Stefan

Sh!t could this actually be going any worse, she definitely seems to be reacting to me in all the right ways, but she has absolutely no clue what she is!

Once she told me her surname a few pieces fell into place, the Dolphus family are from my pack, or they were until around 14 years ago when the old couple simply stopped appearing in our records. They had one son, I don’t recall his name, he had left the year before with his mate and child. I wonder if Red might be the child?

How on earth to handle this? I’m going to have to tell her, letting her shift in her sleep is just downright dangerous. Then I’m going to have to pull rank on her mother, she has a responsibility to make sure that not only their daughter is safe but that everyone around her is too.

We’ll have this chat and then I’ll call Dad to find out which pack they joined on leaving so I can do some digging as to which pack is letting this sh!t happen on their watch.

Scarlet

We stand together and he leads me out of the coffee shop leaving a £10 note on the table to cover the drinks. Jan will be happy with that tip at least. As we leave the door, he takes my hand leading me to a black 4x4 parked just up the road. The heat of his hand around mine is all consuming, my head slips back into the vision of him striping in front of me. I shake my head to clear it

before I fall over a matchstick in front of him.

Slipping into the passenger seat I take a deep breath to clear the fog surrounding me as he moves around the front of the car. The minute he sits beside me the fog descends again, the car fills with the scent of cedar and something deeper, more masculine and raw as he closes the driver side door. My breath hitches in my throat as I berate myself for behaving like a horny teenager just because I’m sat in a car with an actual Adonis.

We drive to the woods, parking alongside the picnic area, which is thankfully empty. I stumble out of the car, escaping the overwhelming scents and physical closeness before I leap into his lap and beg him to take me there and then.

We walk to a picnic table and sit opposite each other, I may be imagining it but he seems momentarily agitated as we separate to sit down.

He takes a deep breath before he starts to talk.

“My name is Stefan Fenrir, my family are originally from rural Italy, but we’ve been in England for a few generations now. My father tells stories of the family being run out of town at the end of the last century by a group of superstitious locals.

I’m travelling from the South Coast where the family has a few restaurants to meet with a new supplier in Scotland. With the Full Moon this week, I thought the drive could be fun before I got myself stuck in a city.”

“Urm OK” I nod, listening intently. I couldn’t peel my eyes from him if I wanted to at this point, it’s like he’s a magnet and I’m made of metal.

“So, here’s why this needs to be a private conversation” he swallows deeply, adjusting his gaze to meet my eyes. I try to hold his position despite the flush rising over my chest. “My family is more than a mum, dad, me and my sister and brothers. We’re a pack, there are around 10 families who all live together on a single estate. Really you should have been brought up the same. I

don’t know why you weren’t, but I can look into it for you if you want.”

I nod, knowing what had happened to my dad would be great.

“We live together to make sure that the pack is protected, people can still be pretty nasty when they start to suspect something supernatural around them. Mostly they don’t even know why, the just sense something off and bad things

can happen to lone wolves when this happens”

Wolf again, what the hell obsession has he got about wolves, I smile to mask my confusion.

“It’s not like the fairy tales though, we don’t eat people, we don’t only change on a full moon although it does feel awesome to run under the moonlight when it is full” he looks to me to check my understanding and sees through my masking smile “You have questions?”

“Urm, well yeah, what do you mean by wolf exactly?” I feel like scratching my head, trying to make any of this sink in and make sense. So far this guy has admitted to living in some weird commune and liking to jog during the full moon, not sure what the need for secrecy is!

“Jeez Red, you really have no clue?” There’s a little frustration in his question but mostly it sounds like absolute disbelief.

“About what Stefan?” I just don’t get what he’s saying and I’m starting to feel more than a little pi$$ed off at just how baffled he is by all this. I want to scream. Why’s it so difficult to believe my mum isn’t some dippy hippy?? I bite it back though, breathe in that gorgeous male smell once more and feel a wave of calm infuse my entire body.

“ OK, so to make this plain for you, last night when we met, I was a 5-foot tall, 350lb black wolf.”

I laugh shacking my head “Come on, no matter how asleep I was, I’d remember meeting a huge freaking wolf!”

“Let me finish. You were a 4-foot tall, maybe 240lb ebony red wolf” he pauses for a moment. “You were busy munching on a coop of hens when you caught my scent and came running after me”

Oh s**t Lou’s hens. I ate Lou’s hens. I threw my hands up around my head in a desperate mixture of disbelief and recognition. The taste of blood and feathers was almost visceral to me as I stared at the picnic table.

“I-I-I’m a werewolf?” I look up asking him the single weirdest question I’ve ever asked another person in my life.

“Well we prefer to be called Lycan’s but yeah you are.”