Page 25 of The Wolf She Shouldn't Desire

A growl rumbles down from the two dark alleys to our right and left. Asher, Nolan, Kane, and Damien move closer to me and Danny facing the directions the growls are coming from while I also know they are keeping the alley we came through in their peripheral vision to see if others are coming to box us in. Yellow and brown eyes glow in the darkness providing the only indication that someone or something is in the alleys other than the scent the wind carries to me.

The slow thump of heavy boots comes from the alley directly in front of us. A figure appears out of the darkness and steps into the glow of the lonely lamp in the alley. He’s dressed in dark faded jeans and a brown leather jacket that is worn but well taken care of. The male himself is slim and tall with broad shoulders and a clean-shaven face that somewhat intrigues me with the various scars scattered on it as if a bear got ahold of him and decided to just start slicing. It isn’t grotesque but more shocking to see so many scars on his face. If the scarring looks like that, I can’t even imagine what it looked like when it first happened.

“Look at what we have here, boys.” His timber voice echoes off the brick walls around us. “A nice group of bloodsuckers we can have some fun with tonight.”

Oh goodie, he’s a scarred-up asshole.

“We don’t want any trouble,” Danny addresses the man in front of us. “We were just passing through.”

Speak for yourself,I tell Danny down the bond half-heartedly. I may be itching for a fight with the adrenaline and anticipation coursing through me in preparation of killing the men my father instructed me, but I still have my wits about me to know fighting with werewolves is never a smart move. He ignores me, completely focused on the scarred wolf in front of us.

“Passing throughmypart of the city, no doubt to drain some poor helpless sucker dry after you’ve had your fun in your sadistic games your kind likes to play.” The wolf sneers and it becomes more pronounced the more he talks.

“I didn’t realize this was your part of the city,” I speak up this time. “What pack are you a part of again?”

“I didn’t say and that’s none of your damn business.”

“It is if you are accusing us of…what? Trespassing? Just want to make sure I don’t overstep and intrude on your slice of what looks like prime real estate in the future.”

“You’re one mouthy bitch, aren’t you?”

“And you’re one cocky asshole needing to prove he’s the man when in fact you aren’t, aren’t you?”

I see his fists clench down at his sides and hear the distinct sound of claws scraping on pavement from either side of me, a clear indication the wolves are becoming agitated. My lips twitch in a semi smirk at the chaos I have no doubt is soon going to occur.

“You have no idea who you are talking to, do you bloodsucker?” the wolf in front of me growls.

“No one noteworthy, I’m sure, as I’ve never heard of you or seen you where it matters. And you wolves really have no better insult than bloodsucker huh? Doyouknow who you are talking to, wolf?”

“No one that will be missed no doubt.” He begins walking towards me, and I hold my ground as the others become tense around me, ready to jump between us. “The city and the world will be better off with a few less vampires. Wouldn’t you agree, boys?” Again, growls reverberate down the alleys off to my left and right side but distinctively louder revealing that there are more than the two I pinpointed earlier. Glancing over, I count two added sets in each alley to the ones I saw earlier making it a total of six wolves. Seven if you count the male in front of me.

I stare at said male unflinchingly. I think he is hoping to intimidate me or even scare me by thinking that just because they outnumber us by one that we can’t handle it. I’ve had worse odds. “Am I supposed to beg you now to let us pass without hurting us?”

“Begging from your kind does give me a little satisfaction, but it won’t do you any good. I relish in killing your kind.” He drops his voice and whispers. “There’s a satisfaction in watching you all drain of the stolen blood inside you. To watch the despair in your eyes as you watch that blood drain from you. The very essence you disgusting leaches take from others unwillingly. And then lastly, the realization that your pathetic lives were ended by the one creature you hate the most, the one creature that is better and stronger than you in every way.”

Nolan and Damien hiss behind me in the realization we all come to that this is an avid vampire killer who enjoys tormenting us. All because he is filled with a hatred we see too often from most werewolves towards our kind. He doesn’t care that we do not take from others unwillingly or that we are not as twisted and evil as he has been told or potentially witnessed. There are always a few bad apples in the mix, but wolves love to exaggerate it and lump us all into the same lot. I can’t say that vampires don’t do the same and that’s why there is so much hatred and prejudice between the two species. It still pisses me off, though.

“Sounds like there is a personal story there,” I lash out at the man. “Did a vampire take your ass down and try to take a bite out of your pathetic ass? Or maybe it was one that decided to give you a nice little makeover to that pretty face of yours?”

His eyes flash and claws tear through his fingers. He raises one hand in preparation to lash out at me as the wolves in the side alleys start to move towards us. Their growls intensify, creating a deadly symphony of building aggression around us.As much as I hate it, I can’t lash out at the wolf first. I have to allow him to take the first hit in order to claim self-defense so as to not bring war upon us.

“Enough!” A voice cracks through the air from behind me before the male in front of me can make contact with flesh.

An added edge of awareness washes over me. The pure power and dominance laced through that one word echoes through me and reverberates through my bones sending delicious tingles to my core.

Footsteps increase in sound as they become closer and closer to where I stand. As the source of the voice nears me, I turn my head to the right and make eye contact with Jordan. It’s been two weeks since the incident at the club, and like I suspected, I haven’t seen him at all until now.

He turns his head and brings his mouth to my right ear effectively hiding his mouth from the wolf in front of me as he whispers low enough that only I and maybe Danny can hear him. “Don’t get angry with me cause I know this is not a damsel in distress in need of saving moment, but I think I can help you avoid a headache here. Let a werewolf knock some sense into him. Plus, the little shithead is trying to claim this is his city when, in fact, it’s mine.” He pulls back and looks me in the eye, questioning if it’s okay for him to do as he is asking. I nod to him. I don’t need his help, but itwouldbe beneficial to let him handle this business in order to avoid a feud being sparked.

He stands slightly in front of me now and to the right as he looks at the wolf in front of us. I see his face shift into pure stone with none of the softness I didn’t realize until now that he was giving me just a second ago.

“Who the fuck are you?” the wolf snaps out before Jordan can say a word.

“I could ask the same thing of you, pup.”

The wolf doesn’t like the sound of being called a pup as his face flushes red and he stands straighter, trying to make himself taller or bigger. It isn’t working, of course. Not with Jordan here.

“Why don’t you fuck off old man and let the real wolves here take care of the parasites. They’re trespassing onmyterritory.”

---