Wolverton - Julie Steimle (fb2 epub reader .TXT) 📗

a mouthful of chicken sandwich, “Uh, the girls are gonna be at the Lot aren’t they?”

Kurt broke into a laugh.

Farkas shook his head, swallowing what was in his mouth. “It doesn’t matter. After last night, they’ll all leave you alone.”

Stiffening, Rick then jogged down after them. “Wha—why is that?”

The both cast him a ‘come-on’ look.

“Because of you and Daisy,” Farkas explained.

Rick’s face flushed. He turned to Kurt who lifted up his hands. “Does everybody know?”

“Man, it was obvious,” Farkas said. He then laughed. “I mean, the way you went after her, we all knew what was going to happen.”

Pressing a hand to his forehead, Rick moaned. His face felt hot.

“What? Is he having morning-after regrets?” Farkas turned to Kurt.

Kurt nodded.

Reaching out, Farkas said to Rick who joined them, “Come on, wolf. Time to take your training wheels off and face it like a man.”

Rick groaned. He couldn’t believe he was getting advice from a sixteen-year-old wolf. But then he never had grown up in a pack.

“Let me tell you something about the full moon,” Farkas said.

“I know enough about the full moon, thank you,” Rick replied, not wishing to be talked down by a boy two years younger than him.

“No, you don’t,” Farkas said. He wrapped his arm around Rick’s shoulders. “You didn’t change until you were thirteen. That’s only five years’ worth of moons. I’ve had three times as much as that, so I know a thing or two that you don’t.”

He had a point. Rick stuffed his mouth with chicken and listened.

“The moon can make you do crazy things,” Farkas said.

“That was the first time I did a crazy thing because of the moon,” Rick muttered, but then painfully added, “…Besides, of course, turning into a wolf and hunting rabbit in our home gym. But other than that—”

Farkas laughed loud with complete amusement. He shook his head. “Don’t deny it, boy. You were totally whipped last night. The moon only brings out your innermost desires.”

Rick stared at him. Honestly, that freaked him out.

“What you gotta do is decide if you want to dance with the moon, or go back to the bonfire and have barbecue.”

“Go back and have barbecue?” Rick stared at him. Had that been an option?

Kurt nodded. “If you want to avoid the frisky she-wolves once the hunt is done, you go back and have barbecue. That’s what we do.”

“Oh my gosh.” Rick put his hands over his face. “It was that simple? I could have just….”

But Kurt and Farkas exchanged looks. Farkas pulled Rick tighter in, saying, “But did you really want to? I mean, last night you were free to go anywhere. But when we went back to the bonfire and the horny wolves played in the grass, you didn’t follow us. You went off with Daisy.”

Paling, Rick tried to rethink that night. Yes. He had been free to go anywhere, but he had not known returning to the bonfire was an option.

Farkas whispered, “You could have gone swimming like you did the first night. You could have chased fireflies with the little pups, ‘cause that is what they like to do. You could have done so many things. No one was making you. But you chose to go off with Daisy.”

Deep guilt settled in Rick’s gut. It was true. No one had made him run off after the sweet smelling she-wolf with the soft golden fur. And no one had forced him into what had happened next.

“So, you gotta ask yourself,” Farkas said, “What do you really want? We’ve got another hunt tonight. And the moon makes you follow your deepest innermost desires. So, do you want barbecue with us? Or are you really craving she-wolf?”

Kurt pushed him away from Rick. “Enough. He’s had enough pressure.” He turned to Rick. “Come have barbecue with us after the hunt. It’s way fun, and you have a great deal less regret from it.”

“Except for heartburn,” Farkas laughed.

They tramped down to the Lot. Rick had a heap load to think about as they went down. What did he really want? Just to hunt, or was something more primal climbing out of him, demanding its place in his existence as a wolf? One thing was for certain, he didn’t want to get Daisy pregnant. He didn’t mind being with her. He had actually enjoyed that. Just being with her made him feel whole. But to get a she-wolf pregnant was not something he wanted to have happen.

He still felt ashamed. Not just because Eve would be angry, but also because he realized he would not be able to face his friends back home, as well as his father. What could he tell his father? That he had made the same mistake as his father had with the French, only a year younger? He could only imagine that conversation. His only consolation was that it had happened with just one girl. His father had been conned into sleeping with fifteen she-wolves. And what a disaster that had been for everyone involved.

The boys started up a game on the grass. Touch football, the same as last time. The wolves of this pack seemed to love this kind of game, and it was no wonder as it felt a lot like the wolf tag from the night before. Rick got into it, but he soon was distracted by the gathering crowd… especially when Daisy showed up. Watching him from the sidelines, she looked embarrassed, and sheepish, and a little hurt. Reproachful.

He had just left there in the grass that morning. That’s wasn’t exactly gentlemanly. It was just that he had to get away in that very moment before it went to far.

A ball whopped him on the side of the head.

“Oh!” Rick clenched his skull, hunching down.

“Why weren’t you looking?” Thomas Blaidd called out, jogging up to get the ball.

The other boys converged, laughing. Kurt then pointed out Daisy. They all nodded, cat calling.

“Stop it,” Rick muttered, rising.

“That enough!” Kurt called to them, urging them away. “Let’s get back to the game.”

Farkas snickered, rubbing Rick on the head. “You are so whipped.”

Rick batted his hands off.

From the group, Wilk stepped up to him, leaning near and whispering, “You should go talk to her.”

Looking up at Daisy’s brother, Rick cringed, cheeks flushing. Wilk’s eyes were in earnest as he gazed on him. He looked neither angry nor upset over the news about what happened between him and his sister. But he did urge Rick on, possibly to fix hurt feelings.

Obeying, Rick left the group and walked over to the girls. He ignored everyone except for Daisy. With tunnel vision, he was drawn to her like a magnet.

“I’m sorry I left you like that,” he said. “I just…”

Daisy took his hand, her fingers weaving between his, and said, “We need to talk.”

Nodding, he walked with her. His heart was already racing. And as before, she smelled amazing. In fact, he was so drawn to her that as they walked he naturally drifted close to her even though he knew it was dangerous.

But she walked a little slower than yesterday, kind of sad. She didn’t say anything for a while, just walking with him until she pulled him between two houses, heading toward the creek.

“You just left,” she whispered.

Closing his eyes, breathing deeply, Rick fought the guilt that tightened in his chest and twisted in his gut.

“I…” She sighed. “Are you afraid of me? I know you’ve been hiding from me.”

Rick cringed. He shook his head. “Not from you. From me.”

She stared up at him with her wide blue eyes, questioning that.

“I…” He shook his head again. “I don’t know if I can control myself with you. Last night… this morning… Even right now, it’s just…”

Daisy nodded. “I see.”

She then tugged him past the houses toward the large tree next to the pond. When they reached the shade, she sat down and urged him to sit with her—not close—but to face her. Looking about, brushing her soft golden hair from her face, her periwinkle eyes unhappy, she sighed again. Then facing him, she said, “I really had no idea I had that effect on you. I like you. Admittedly, I wanted to see where our relationship could go. I even wanted to convince you to stay here for the summer, if you can. I mean, you treated me like a person. And I don’t often get that from boys. And I kind of liked the idea that you liked me. But… I really hadn’t intended for it to go that fast… or that far. It had also surprised me because you said you didn’t want it.”

He nodded, staring at the ground.

“Was it just a game?” Daisy asked. “Something you say to girls and then…”

Rick quickly lifted his eyes to her. “No. I’ve never been with another girl.”

“You had a girlfriend,” Daisy said accusatorily, still hurt.

Shaking his head, Rick moaned. “She and I never….  We really didn't even hold hands. I'm not usually that kind of guy. We just went to public functions together. Posed for cameras. It wasn’t actually real. And even then…”

“What about that girl, Eve?” Daisy jealously asked. “Is this why she put you in the friend-zone? You moved too fast and she freaked?”

Closing his eyes, Rick cringed, realizing that he was the one who had moved fast with Daisy. “No. Actually, I am normally a very slow mover. And ours is a long distance friendship. She lives on the other side of the country, and it just never went anywhere. Besides, I figured she and I were still so young.”

Nodding, Daisy frowned at the grass. “So, then why with me? When you said you didn’t want to?”

Opening his eyes, he stared at her, his heart thundering. All his wolf instincts said for him to take her into the grass now and make her his. It took everything in him to resist it.

“I don’t…” He shook his head, trying not to look at her. “I don’t know. I just…”

She sighed. “I see.”

They sat in silence for a while. Rick didn’t know what to say. She seemed to be thinking over it all. She finally turned to him with a look in her eyes that took his breath away.

“I’m curious. Last night, how did you imagine it would go?” she finally asked. “I mean, the hunt and everything. You must have had expectations, right?”

Rick lifted his eyes on her beautiful form and said, shrugging, “I imagined going out as a group, making the kill, and then…  I don’t know. I usually became human again once the curse was satisfied.”

She stared at him, her eyes saying that last part was unfamiliar. But then, the curse was not in the pack wolf moon cult ideology. They didn’t believe they were cursed.

Rick leaned nearer to her, wanting to be nearer to her so he could explain and she could understand. “I know my origins, Daisy. The hunt for wolves like me is just to fulfill part of the witch curse that created us. Once I have made my kill and eaten it, my human consciousness returns and the urge to kill something leaves me. Don’t you ever feel that when you finish your hunt?”

Daisy shook her head, her sad, pitying eyes drawing him in. “No. I guess I have given myself so fully to the moon that I don’t feel that at all. But I think you have always fought the moon and thought it was a curse, which is rather sad.”

He sighed. “I supposed to you it would be sad, but—”

“Did you feel that way last night?” Daisy asked, scooting nearer. She smelled so delicious.

Nodding, then shaking his head, Rick puzzled over it, breathing her in. “I… a little, but then I somehow let it go.”

She nodded, leaning back. She seemed relieved for his sake.  

He stared into space, thinking on that. But then he looked to her. “But I lost control of myself. I was completely lost sense of who I was and just …” He took hold of her hand. “You could