THE THREE MOONS PACK

19. Even at the bottom of a hole, you can dig even more!

I let the hot jet of water run over me, glancing from time to time at my cell phone prominently on the bathroom sink. It was balancing against the toothbrush glass. I still had this stupid hope of getting a phone call from my father.

As I swallowed my tears, I turned away from my phone to start shampooing my hair.

Besides the pleasant almond smell of my soap, another scent tickled my nostrils. A kind of sixth sense alerted me to a presence in the room.

Panic-stricken, I started to turn slowly toward the bathroom door... and I screamed.

“God in Heaven!”

Koran.

A smiling Koran, but an entirely naked Koran.

“You obsessed bastard! Can’t you wait five minutes for me to finish my shower before waving your male attributes!” I gasped.

I found myself blushing and ashamed to have dared to take a look at the famous male attributes.

Yes, however, unless I’m mistaken, I have never seen one outside of biology class.

Without even bothering to appear embarrassed, the blond giant just shrugged his broad shoulders.

“I knocked on the front door. No answer. Then I tracked you to this here...”

“Tracked? What do you mean, tracked? You didn’t sniff like a... Oh. Well, you have to wait for me in the living room! Like a civilized guy and not like a horny meta-wolf!”

“I am a horny meta-wolf.”

I opened and closed my mouth several times without finding an adequate reply.

While trying not to throw myself on a towel to hide my body from his sight, I offered him the back panorama.

Finishing this shower very quickly seemed to be a great idea before things got out of hand.

Of course, the complete opposite happened!

The future Alpha also entered the shower cubicle.

It's impossible in such a small space not to touch each other with each movement.

I made a strangled sound when I felt his chest against my shoulder blades, not to mention the rest of him.

“Koran! Get out! At once!” I asked her in a shrill voice. I scolded him and his wandering hands. “Get out! Pr-On-To!”

Without my being able to prevent the gesture, Koran’s jaw closed on my shoulder in a low growl.

I stopped immediately.

Both because of the influence of this gesture on the canine part of my being, and because of the thought of undergoing, at this moment, the terrible third bite.

My eyes met those of Koran's.

They were yellow, lively, and brilliant.

For a moment, he looked as stunned as I did, and then the beast took over. Or at least, I think he preferred to let it direct operations to clear himself of what was going to happen.

He revealed his teeth and planted them in the flesh of my neck.

I had become a rag doll, unable to physically rebel.

Koran slid onto the shower floor, dragging me gently with him, his fingers digging into my waist.

When he was certain of his dominance, his jaw released the pressure slightly, finally giving way to long licks on the wound he had just inflicted on me.

“Forgive me... Forgive me...” he groaned. “I don’t know what to do anymore... I’m afraid that you will escape me completely. My wolf can’t stand it.”

I couldn’t move, let alone speak.

His hands went down my thighs, trembling.

“Koran from the Bhrean pack! What have you done!” cried a female voice from the bathroom door.

A total stranger, wearing a neck brace whose whiteness contrasted with her blood-red blouse, watched us, horrified.

Far from calming Koran, this presence made his territorial instinct worse and he began to growl furiously at the intruder.

“And what’s more, he rebels, the little brat!” said the pretty little brunette with the doll face.

Nevertheless, a furious doll.

Her face softened when her brown eyes met mine.

“Honey, I’m Janice, your mother’s sister. I’ll look after you from now on. Well, first I have to get you out of this depraved wolf’s mouth. Koran, let go of her.”

“Mea banish arksam! Nour ‘sil? [She is my she-wolf soul mate! You understand?] Kerslim! [Go away!] KERSLIM!” spat Koran.

The one who claimed to be my aunt turned pale.

“Lord... He speaks the sacred language...” she said in a flat voice.

Suddenly, the blond giant delicately placed me on the cold floor of the cubicle, then came out, moving forward like an animal, hands against the tiles.

He was clearly showing my mother’s sister his teeth. From where I was, I could see a line of red-brown hair along his spine.

He was transforming!

However, Janice held firm, she didn’t back away as he approached in an aggressive posture.

“Kerslim... s’ash.” [Go away... now.]

The voice of the blond giant was no longer human.

Then, to my great surprise, my aunt put the palm of her hand on Koran’s forehead, which caused a real roar. There was a crackling sound and a terrible smell of burning hung in the air.

The meta-wolf collapsed heavily.

Janice put her other hand to her throat, surrounded by the neck brace.

“By Aphea! He has changed a lot since the last time I saw him...” whispered the young woman, before directing her attention to me again. “My sweet girl, we have no time to lose: we must erase this bite, it announces for miles you belong to this man. I don’t promise you that it will be a pleasure... But at least you’ll keep your free will, darling.”

With that, she stepped over Koran’s bare, muscular mass to join me in the shower.

Raising the same hand with which Janice had knocked out the blond giant, the brunette took a long breath before expelling all the air from her lungs. In doing so, her dark eyes met mine, no doubt expressing my fear of suffering.

“It’s just a bad time to pass.”

An excruciating burning to the point that I started to scream and everything went black... I let the darkness envelop me in its gloom.

When I woke up, I easily recognized my room. But also the reassuring and familiar smell of Erwan.

A glance to my right was enough to check if my sense of smell wasn’t playing tricks on me. No, it was the cute little thug sleeping, his cheek against my shoulder.

“Being in contact with your loved ones eases the pain and helps you to regenerate, darling. I called Err right after I cleared the third bite.”

“I didn’t know it was possible to remove it,” I said in a hoarse voice, worthy of a smoker. "Why didn’t you lie down with me, you’re my aunt, right? You must also have this medicinal quality!”

Janice laughed.

“My nature is a little different, just like yours. And Erwan has Alpha blood, which I don’t have. Pack Alphas have a lot of verbal and emotional, even regenerative, influence over their own people,” she added, more seriously.

I nodded, trying to free myself from the embrace of my dear and tender thug brother. Luckily, he turned to the opposite side, muttering a few unintelligible words.

“Where’s Koran?” I said, getting out of bed.

Janice pursed her lips for half a second, probably in disapproval.

“On the living room sofa, out of it. I contacted his two seconds, Ulrich and Elliot. He’ll not be able to drive.”

Once I was standing, a little shaky, I was glad to see that my aunt had put on my pyjamas, the ones usually placed on my desk chair.

“What did you do to him, exactly?”

Janice cleared her throat.

“I... pushed his wolf soul deep into his unconscious. The brutal shock caused him to be taken out of service... in a way.”

“And... is it painful?”

“Very,” she said, soberly.

I resented her. As absurd as it sounds, I hated her right then. She hurt Koran.

To prevent me from becoming the official wolf of this mountain of authoritarian muscles, of course... but the end doesn’t always justify the means.

“Stay with Erwan, I’ll go see him.”

“Honey... I don’t think that's a good idea...”

“Everything will be fine. I’m going to see him, that’s all.”

My aunt kept quiet and sat down on my chair while crossing her arms.

“As you wish, if he shows himself too enterprising, shout. There are two family members here to defend your honour.”

I left her there, without answering.

His feet extended far beyond the edge of the sofa. Lying on his stomach, an arm had fallen from the sofa, and his hand was half lying on the tiled floor.

I walked closer on tiptoes, not wishing to wake him up.

He seemed so peaceful. The usual crease that crossed his angry forehead had disappeared in favour of a simple furrow, a mark of this bad habit.

With the tip of my index finger, I touched it, not without a certain tenderness. I gasped in surprise when his hand closed quickly on my wrist.

My eyes were fixed on his.

“I’m sorry.”

These were his first words.

“Why did you make your third mark? Don’t I remember you couldn’t marry, in the wolf sense of the word, just anyone you liked?”

Koran released me, then settled on his back, an arm folded over the upper part of his face.

Maybe to hide from me. This guy hated showing any weakness. Or what he thought was a weakness.

“I don’t know. I lost control... I think. First of all, seeing you in your birthday clothes, an erotic soapy foam as a bonus, made my blood boil. And when you rebelled... my wolf couldn’t bear it. There was no way in hell my cousin was going to put his dirty paws on you. You are mea Banish arksam. Mea Banish arksam! It makes me crazy that Cahl has an affinity with your wolf. I just want to disembowel him.”

The meta laughed softly, more to make fun of himself than because he found his words hilarious.

“Suppose you aren't mine. Suppose you are not meo Tanish arksam…” [my wolf soul mate...]

Koran flinched and looked at me, lifting his forearm slightly.

“Yes,” I continued. “You would have condemned me to a partnership without being sure that I was the right one? Knowing that I'll only be able to know after the third-change?”

“I couldn’t control it!” he got angry, looking away. “At least not completely. Yes! Yes, there! So what? Between the Cahl monster and me, I’m frankly the best choice, anyway.”

“You’ve got some nerve, you! Unbelievable!” I exclaimed.

“It’s not...”

Here, he grabbed me, encircling his arms around me, as quick as lightning, and then put me on top of him.

I found myself lying against Koran, my face close to his.

“... nerve. But an Alpha’s decision,” Koran finished, bringing his mouth to my lips.

“The same,” I replied.

Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes.

“Janice is very strong. She managed to remove my mark. Your aunt has just found a devoted friend in my father...” he sneered.

“I don’t think she did it for that reason,” I said, trying to get up from this mass of muscles.

Oddly, Koran didn’t try to hold me back.

“Erwan is here?”

Although he asked the question in a playful tone, I could feel that he hated the fact that his cousin was still at my house.

“Yes, he’s asleep in my room...”

The meta uttered a grunt of discontent.

“Aunt Janice called him to give me an Alpha family cure, one hundred per cent natural and guaranteed GMO-free,” I said with humour.

Once on my two feet, at a reasonable distance from Koran, I felt again in control of myself.

The blond giant sat up, a movement that slightly opened the side of his towel. Yes, my mother’s sister had preferred to just cover it with a square of terry cloth. Which was understandable given the scale of the guy!

“Speaking of family...” he began with a gloomy look that said nothing worthwhile to me. “I explained the situation to my father to have his support in finding Carvin.”

“Let me guess: he refused?”

Koran’s look was more eloquent than an answer.

A surge of anger suddenly took hold of me.

“A hate crime! Because he’s not a wolf but a meta-dog, we don’t care about his fate!”

I was going to continue spitting my fury when the doorbell cut me off.

So I walked towards the door, with a furious step and clenching my teeth.

When I opened the door, I came face to face with Ulrich and the very friendly Elliot. Elliot gave me a surprised look.

“Well, you’re still alive?”

“Hello, to you too, Elliot, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” I hissed, venomously.

To which he shrugged his shoulders. Ulrich gave a half-smile, before greeting me, throwing two fingers from his temple.

“We came to get Koran,” he explained.

“I know,” I sighed, stepping aside so they could enter.

Koran’s two acolytes followed me into the living room. If their companions’ lack of clothes at least surprised them, they didn’t let anything show.

“You give me time to dress, guys...”

“A general assembly of young wolves agitated by the moon and no one wakes me up to participate?! I’m offended!”

This cheerful voice, although a little sleepy, belonged to only one person: Erwan.

He finished coming down the stairs, all perky, then went to greet Elliot and Ulrich with clapping hands, including pats on the back.

Janice was following him closely, but with her sombre look, I figured she wouldn’t hug them.

Finally, my mother’s sister came to stand beside me. It was weird for me to think of her as my next of kin, after my father and Erwan.

I was there with my thoughts when the doorbell started to ring, once again, but in a completely wild way: several times, as if we were being hammered.

Everyone in the room fell silent, the meta males looked at each other before sniffing loudly toward the entrance.

Their expressions were surprisingly similar: hatred and absolute rejection.

A little unsettled and suddenly anxious, I was still going towards the door when Koran’s fingers fell on my shoulder.

“Let me welcome them. They are...”

I stepped clear.

“This is my house, so I’ll open it.”

I was wondering who could trigger such hostility.

I turned the handle... a strange feeling came over me. There was something behind this piece of wood, both familiar and unknown.

I opened it.

And shouted.

Two Rottweilers pushed past me to besiege my house, followed by a huge German shepherd and an impressive mastiff.

All growling, drooling, upturned lips.

Someone stopped me from falling on my butt.

Even though he had the mischievous face of an elf, his icy green eyes nailed me to the spot.

His reddish-brown, wavy, medium-long hair was tied around his neck.

Then he bluntly pushed me toward the living room.

The scene could have seemed comical: on one side, in a line, all the meta wolves, in a threatening posture, and in front of them, an equally warlike row of colossal-sized dogs.

Instinctively, I rushed between Koran and Erwan, which triggered a hateful grin from the one who came in his human form.

“We are here for only one reason. Give us our pack member and we’ll leave as quickly as possible,” announced the redhead in a deep voice.

“If you think you can take Beth away without us lifting a finger, you’re dreaming, dog!” spat Erwan, his eyes suddenly yellowish.

The meta-dog murdered him with his green eyes.

“Don’t you understand! We don’t care about that bastard! We want the son of our pack leader! We want Carvin Barrem!”

My blood flowed backwards.

My father wasn’t among the meta dogs...

Then where was he?!