Her Dark Protector

Chapter 9

Velvet woke in her own bed but felt no comfort in it. She had been plagued by nightmares all night and had slept poorly because of it. Even waking a few times, thinking someone was trying to break into her apartment.

She sat up with a headache and rubbed her forehead. Before looking at her phone, she decided she couldn’t go to the club tonight. Even if Julian said he would protect her, she didn’t know him, and he was a wolf as well. Realising now there probably wasn’t anyone she could really trust in her life.

Sitting in her bed wasn’t going to get her anywhere though. She got up and dressed. For comfort, in sweats and jumper. There was no way she was leaving her apartment. First, she checked all the windows to make sure they were all still locked properly. When she was satisfied, she turned on the coffee machine.

Looking at her phone, there were numerous messages from Carl, Thomas and Julian. Before turning her phone off, she sent a message to Carl to say she wouldn’t be in tonight and that she was turning off her phone. She switched it off before he had a chance to reply. There was no way she wanted to talk to anyone today before she had sorted things out in her head.

Finally, the coffee machine was ready, and she made her first coffee of the day. She knew there would be a few today.

The coffee smelt amazing, and she inhaled deeply. It was strong, even just the smell was starting to wake her up. She sighed as she had her first sip. It warmed her through, and she could almost feel it travel through her body.

Once the first one was finished, she made a second one and started to get some breakfast. All she could stomach today was eggs and toast. So that was exactly what she had. A simple but comforting meal. It was something her mum made her as a child. Every Saturday morning the house smelt of eggs, bacon and coffee. The bacon was for her parents. She had refused to eat most meats since she could talk.

When the breakfast was eaten and the second coffee consumed, she felt ready to figure things out in her head. She sat on the lounge with a pen and notebook to write it all down.

She started with Julian Black. She felt that he was pretty much the center of all of this. He was different to Carl and Thomas. There was a greater air of power to him; Thomas had cowered in front of the larger wolf.

Thinking about Julian and the way he came in to help her. She felt grateful to him, but would having him a part of her life, bring greater danger to her. Even more than the danger she was in last night. Then she realised that if Julian hadn’t found Thomas last night, then he might try to attack her again, and it might not end as it did last night. The fear from last night returned. She wasn’t going to be safe anyway. Perhaps the best solution was to just disappear from here. Leave behind the life she had built and find a place to start again. It wasn’t the first time she had started over; she could do it again.

She knew nothing about Julian, except that he had returned to the city six months ago, and he was the head of some investment banking company.

Then there was Carl. He was the manager of the club. He looked after all the girls but spent most of the time in his office taking meetings or having a drink with the VIPs. He never fraternised with girls. As far as she knew, he wasn’t married or had a girlfriend. Actually, she knew very little about him outside the club, except that he also happened to be a werewolf.

Finally, Thomas. He was married. She assumed to a werewolf. He had two kids. He was a tech guy and became quite wealthy from it. She didn’t know what the tech was. She had thought that they would take time to get to know each other. Well, her getting to know more about him. There was no way she was going to tell him too much about her past. Now she never wanted to see him again.

In terms of other wolves or who the other men with Thomas last night were, she was at a loss. There was too much she didn’t know. It didn’t help that they were a secretive group of people. That was annoying. So, she figured the only thing she could do was look into folklore about them. She got out her laptop and got to research.

There were myths of how to become a werewolf. Some lore said they were born, others said they were bitten. But everything said they lived as a pack with an Alpha at its head. An Alpha was either born into it or was challenged for leadership. Then she remembered some of the whispering around Julian, that he had returned six months ago after his father died, and she wondered if perhaps he was the Alpha.

She kept going down the rabbit hole of myth, looking into art and stories from centuries ago. Some said that wolves had immortal lives, some said that they had only human length lives. So many of the stories were contradictory that she didn’t know what to believe. What she needed was to have a conversation with one of them.

She slammed her laptop shut and turned her phone back on. There was ding after ding with messages.

Carl replied "no worries; I will check on you later.

Thomas sent message after message and there were a few missed calls. She didn’t read any of them, just deleted them instead.

Then she came to a message from Julian.

I hope you are well, Velvet. I am sorry about what happened last night. Please let me know if you need anything.

She just stared at her phone, unsure what to do. There was something about him she couldn’t place. Although she felt fear, she also felt like she could trust him. The girls at the club had all spoken about him with awe and desire, perhaps a little fear. She saw a man, someone she wanted to know more about.

So, she decided to respond.

"Hi Julian. Thank you for last night, I appreciate your help." She sent it and went to make another coffee. Then her phone went off. Her heart even jumped a little, hoping it was Julian. She picked up her phone and it was.

"Good morning. I am glad you are okay. I am truly sorry about Thomas. I have spoken to him, and he has been dealt with." She was relieved to hear about Thomas.

"Thank you for letting me know, that makes me feel better." She sent it with a smiley emoji. When she heard a knock at her door, she assumed it was Julian. But something still told her to look through the peephole before opening the door. She gasped at who she saw. It was Thomas. He may have been covered in bruises, but she still recognised him. While fumbling with her phone, she desperately typed a message to Julian and could only hope that he got it in time.

This time they knocked louder and tried turning the doorknob. They were desperate to get into her apartment. She ran to her bedroom and locked the door and managed to push the drawers in front of the door. The only thing she could think of was to crawl under her bed and curl up, which is exactly what she did. Then she prayed that Julian, or someone, would get here in time.