THE THREE MOONS PACK

14. 1 + 1 = 4

Gina and Erwan challenged each other.

One lurked on the floor, hands on the tiles. The other still on the bed, half on me. They exchanged threatening growls without taking their eyes off each other.

If I had doubts about this story of wolf shapeshifters, it was enough for me to look at this confrontation to sweep them away.

I tried to sit up, but Erwan prevented me by pushing me down with his hand (although tackling would be more adequate), without weakening his attention, locked on the luscious blond.

Thank goodness she was wearing denim shorts. I didn’t want to check Koran’s comments about her lack of underwear...

“You’ll not always be here, son of Angus from the second Bhrean branch...” Gina growled, her expression bad.

Erwan’s mouth twisted slightly and I stifled a cry of horror. His canines had doubled in size.

“Do me this pleasure. If Beth finds herself with even one hair out of place because of you, I swear to you that Koran will have to register on Tinder to satisfy his urges at the next full moon...”

Miss Barbie’s eyes narrowed.

“It’s funny you should talk about this. It just so happens that’s why I’m angry! Your little mutt is trying to steal my male!”

Erwan roars.

I was paralyzed. I was scared to death that one or the other would jump on me to check out the taste of my raw flesh.

The front door suddenly made a hellish noise. So much so that I thought I’d finally die of a heart attack, instead of the angry blond’s fangs.

Koran had a serious problem with the doors.

“Can we know what the two of you are doing here?” shouted the muscular giant at the entrance.

At a glance, he assessed the situation. His eyes lingered on my neck, still bearing the marks of Miss Gina-without-undies’s attack.

The air froze.

No kidding. As if it suddenly became palpable, like sand.

It was Koran’s power.

Terrifying.

We all stared at him, eyes bulging. Even his blond melted.

He walked slowly towards me, then, gently, touched with his fingertips the place where the meta-wolf had put her hands.

The impression of breathing with my head buried in the ground gave way to a burning wave.

I almost expected to see blisters blossom on my skin.

“Who?” asked Koran, in a strangely calm voice.

Nobody dared to answer.

A bit like when a teacher asks a student to denounce himself and thanks to an inexplicable loyalty, the others don’t say anything if he doesn’t do it himself.

The future Brunan of the pack turned to Erwan, then Gina.

“Who?”

He had repeated the question, still with this strange composure. However, you could feel that it wouldn’t take much for him to explode.

“It was me.”

There.

The guilty student had just accused herself to the relief of the others. A slightly hypocritical loyalty, perhaps... something to think about.

Koran didn’t jump at her throat, however. He stayed there for a long time, piercing her with his eyes.

Gina seemed to shrink from second to second.

Despite all this, even though she wanted to strangle me, I felt sorry for this pretty girl with a bad temper.

“I... I smelt her scent on you... It made me mad,” she tried to justify herself.

Koran didn’t move a millimetre, only his eyes went to focus on Erwan.

“Err... I don’t want you to intervene anymore to save the puppy from one of us. Understand?”

The dark-haired young man turned his head, then nodded in assent.

I didn’t understand anything anymore.

Now sure not to be gutted, the meta-wolf got up by removing imaginary dust from her tiny shorts.

Koran, on the other hand, grabbed me by the wrist and brutally tore me from the bed.

“Hey!” I exclaimed.

He dragged me outside, in the direction of the woods behind his bachelor pad.

There, away from the curious looks of the wandering members in the main square, he released me.

“You are really stupid, puppy!” he cried out.

“No, but wait! I’m the one being attacked by your sweetheart and I’m the stupid one!” I yelled back.

“Yes!”

“Crazy!”

I thought Koran was going to run at me, but he seemed to hold back at the last moment.

“You understand nothing. It’s normal, you weren’t brought up in the pack,” he murmured more for himself, to help calm himself down than for me.

I rubbed my wrist, not as a reflex but because it was really painful.

“Beth,” he said more softly. “If a member of the pack attacks you, you must defend yourself. Inflict damage, really try to beat them.”

“Are you trying to encourage me to kick your girlfriend's ass?”

Koran couldn’t help but smile at my words.

“Absolutely. It’s important. You have to earn your position within the hierarchy of the pack.”

“I don’t want to join the pack,” I grumbled.

“Well, it’s a little late.”

I met his eyes.

They glowed in the moonlight.

“What! I have no choice!”

“No,” he said simply.

“Received loud and clear, Brunan,” I said angrily.

Koran shuddered when I pronounced the term designating him as the leader of the pack.

When I turned my back on him to go back to his lair, he grabbed my arm and brought me against him.

The feeling behind me awoke the terrible tingling that made every centimetre of my skin sensitive. Thank you moon!

His arms wrapped around my waist, then he caressed my neck with his nose. I felt his steady, deep breath. He’s sniffing me.

“I know it’s hard. Your moving house, your true nature... it’s a lot to absorb in a short amount of time. And to top it all off, your father has run away from his responsibilities. However, it’s vital for you to fight with rage when you are attacked... others will think twice afterwards before attacking you physically. It’s the only way to earn their respect and ... their protection. It’s brutal, but the only way to get into the pack. Do you understand better?”

I nodded.

Fortunately, part of my brain remained functional because the rest focused on the warmth and proximity to his body. And the delicious feeling of numbness it caused.

Incredible.

The moon transformed me into a s*x maniac when I was still a virgin!

“Your smell is changing, puppy...” whispered Koran, amused.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Or how to lie with confidence.

“Are you sure?” he insisted.

“I... I think we... should go back.”

The blond giant’s arms relaxed enough for his fingers to rest on my waist.

Every cell in my body focused on them.

“We can take five minutes,” Koran offered in an excessively low voice.

I had a beautiful flight of butterflies in my stomach.

“I don’t think so. One strangulation per day is the maximum limit for assaults on me.”

I loved that my mouth said one thing and my body said another.

Yeah, I hated that.

“I want to bite you... here.”

He put his mouth gently on the base of my neck.

Result: I immediately turned into a statue.

“Bad idea,” I whispered.

“I want to take your clothes off and make you sing to the moon right now.”

To support his words, Koran pressed my hips to his.

Result: yes, it was obvious that he wanted to. Me too, by the way.

“Bad idea,” I repeated in a very small voice. “It’s... it’s because of the moon. And from your other bites... tomorrow, you’ll see more clearly, it is the last day of... well, you know.”

“I’m going to take your pants off,” he said.

“Noooo!” I exclaimed, leaping away from him, in total panic.

Now I was facing him, arms outstretched in front of me—as if that could prevent him from using force!

I congratulated myself on being too swift and quick for him to hold me back.

Oh, his beautiful yellow eyes!

“Koran. Gina is waiting...”

“And Erwan.”

“Yes, well, Gina and Erwan are waiting for you at your place. We can’t... do things...”

“What do you mean, things?”

I looked him straight in the eye, wanting to judge if he was joking by pretending not to know what I was referring to.

“You know very well what I mean,” I replied.

He crossed his arms over his chest.

“No, not really. Explain.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No. I’m curious to hear you talk about s*x with the appropriate vocabulary,” whispered Koran, with a sly look.

I uttered a magnificent curse before turning away from him.

As surprising as it may be, Koran didn't try to hold me back.

I tried not to run when I felt his presence behind me as if he were stalking me.

As soon as I passed through the doorway, Gina threw herself on me, screaming.

At first, paralyzed by the suddenness of the attack, I let myself fall, her on me. Before touching the ground completely, I instinctively brought my knees close to my chest. A tremendous push was enough to send her back thanks to my super-fast feet.

Her surprised expression as she made the return trip almost made me laugh.

I didn’t have time. My head hit the hard floor and it hurt like hell. For a few seconds, my vision became blurred.

Koran then appeared in front of me, full height, his face lowered in my direction. The expression he displayed could have terrified Conan the Barbarian himself.

He walked slowly over to Gina, clenching his fists.

“You have an explanation to give?” he growled.

Gina, still a little stunned too, could only go on all fours before handing the sketchbook to Koran.

The future Brunan of the pack took it in one hand, looked at it for several seconds before tapping the other with it.

As for me, it was extremely difficult to get back on my feet without feeling like I was on a boat in a storm.

Erwan waved helpful fingers under my nose, but looking up at him, I realized he more or less came to the same conclusion as Gina.

I recognized that it was easy to jump to conclusions when I saw that portrait of me.

“You know I’ve no explanation to give you, Gina,” Koran reminded her in a tense voice.

The young woman, head bowed, didn’t answer. Only her fingers, which clenched on the tiles, showed her anger.

“Just because I want to set the record straight and avoid unnecessary harassment on the puppy, Gina: I drew her like this to tease her. We didn’t sing to the moon.”

I remained silent in the face of his ability to lie with such confidence.

Why? Why? To protect me? Didn’t he just say that I had to manage on my own?

“Is that...? Is that true?” sniffed the blond, looking up at him.

In no way softened, Koran continued to stare at her as if he wanted to disintegrate her with his chocolate eyes. Then he forced her to get back on her feet by grabbing her arm.

Erwan pulled me out of the way just in time so that the dominant couple wouldn’t step on me.

The blond giant dragged his girlfriend after him and pushed her outside without care.

When I thought he was going to shut the door, Koran turned back, pointing a furious index finger at me.

“You, you stay here and don’t attempt to leave!” he roared.

“Beautiful tautology!” I mocked, bad-tempered.

On this coded message, understandable only by him and me, he brutally closed the door.

Clearly, he had just ordered me not to invite myself into his head, which left no doubt about what he was about to do with Gina.

Even if I wanted to ignore it, I was mad with jealousy that he marked her too.

As the future Alpha of the pack, he would refocus his aggressive little female, much to her delight.

I was angry inside.

A part of me violently desired to pay him back. I felt betrayed. To put it simply, I was going crazy.

“You feeling better?” Erwan said, returned to a better attitude.

Yes, for sure.

He too had guessed what Koran and Gina were up to and, suddenly, his mood had greatly improved.

I pulled away from Erwan, with a fake expression of indifference.

“Yes, at this rate, I’ll have to take some self-defence classes to survive in this village.”

My new half-brother half-smiled.

“Yes, Baby, here it's the law of the strongest!”

Then he stripped part of Koran’s bed and threw two cushions and a blanket on the floor.

“You enjoying yourself, Erwan?”

“Making our little den.”

I acknowledged the news in silence.

Certainly enough time to digest it.

“Are you planning to sleep here?”

To which he responded with a raised eyebrow before applying himself to transform the thin blanket into a welcoming bed.

I was wondering if Gina would also spend the rest of the night in this room.

Oh my God!

What a nightmare evening!

Erwan gave me a beautiful thug smile.

Sighing, I joined him in our makeshift bed. As soon as I lay down, I turned on my left side and realized my new status as a bedside rug.

Erwan had chosen the place between the window and the door, leaving me the one near Koran’s bed.

I wasn’t supposed to think about him.

Otherwise, I risked an unwanted mental connection.

And Koran had been very clear on the subject.

As I closed my eyes trying to think of something else I fell quietly into a dreamless sleep.

Suddenly my eyes opened, not knowing how long after.

Koran, stretched out on the bed on his right side facing me, was staring at me.

I returned his gaze, silently. No particular emotion was indicated on his impassive face.

He just looked into my eyes.

I didn’t blink.

Then slowly his eyes went down to my legs.

I choose this moment to lower my eyelids and dozed off again without too much difficulty.