The Doctor's Five Alphas (Steamy BBW Werewolf Pack Menage Romance) (2 page)

“That’s the
Palace of the Parliament
,” Pensley told me. “Second-largest building in the world, behind the Pentagon. The architect was a bright young lass, only 28 years old at the time!
Anco…Anna…Petro…
oh, sorry to say I’ve misplaced her name. You can look it up later if you want.”

I took in the magnificent sight. “How old is this building?”

“Started building it in the eighties, to my knowledge,” Pensley explained. “Finished over a decade later, right before the turn of the millennium.”

“It’s beautiful,” I commented. “And such a young engineer…fascinating.”

“Yes, I like to think so too,” my driver concurred. “Bit of a shame though, they didn’t exactly have the
room
for it…if I recall correctly, there were already things there. That architect made a career of wiping away the old and decrepit, and replacing with the new and stable.”

“Is she still with us?”

“Car accident, just a few years ago,” Pensley noted. “Coma a month later, and then shuffled off this mortal coil the next.”

“I see,” I replied, watching the last glimpse of the building pass out of view. “That’s unfortunate.”

“Quite,” Pensley agreed, glancing at me in the rearview mirror. “Well, that’s enough of a history lesson for now! I’m sure you must be positively
drained
from your flight…not a bad idea to get some shut-eye for a while.”

“That’s not a bad idea, actually…”

Pensley smiled sincerely and fumbled around for a small cassette in the console. “We still have a couple of hours of driving ahead of us. Care for some relaxing music?”

“Sure,” I answered. “What do you have in mind?”

“I have what the kids call a
mix tape
here. The classics…Brahms, Vivaldi, Mozart, Tchaikovsky…little bit of everybody, really. You just relax as best you can, and let old Pensley take care of the boring driving pomp.”

Gratefully, I nodded and rested my head against the window, quickly checking that the door was locked and not about to empty me onto the street. I heard the clicking of the cassette player in the center console, the slight whirring of the mechanisms, and then the opening to one overture or another.

The flutes and violins began to cheerily fill the space, the instruments softly summoning forth the impending intensity of their bombastic cousins in the rising orchestra. As other players in the grand music slowly mustered from their silence, I felt the weight of my journey begin to droop at my eyes. Finally, as the piano entered the fray, I drifted to my slumber.

~

I awoke with a start, realizing that it was dark out and that we had parked. Lifting my dazed and confused face from the window and massaging my neck, I glanced over at the empty driver’s seat.

There was a tap at my window, and I turned my gaze to see the smiling face of Pensley.

“Ah, you’re awake! Excellent timing. We’re here!”

“Are we?” I asked drowsily. He passed out of view, and gazing past him I saw a couple of wolves, standing in the road and staring at me. Suddenly alert, I popped open the door and panicked.

“Oh heavens, what’s the matter?” He asked, holding onto my shoulders.

“I saw…wolves…” I murmured, gazing into the street. They were gone, all of a sudden.

He followed my stare to the empty road, then back to me. “Oh, you must have had bad dreams, love. Bumpy ride, eh? Hard to sleep? It’s alright, you’ll be fine. We’ll get you settled and go over the details inside.”

The distant, setting sun bathed the area in just enough light to take stock of my surroundings. Very clearly no wolves, nor anywhere wolves could be – unless they were perhaps hiding behind posts and fences, where the elderly sitting on their porches and watching us could see them.

While Pensley opened the trunk and retrieved my luggage, I glanced around at the village. We were parked on a small street, just outside a small, modern hut of some sort. There appeared to be many others in the area, connected by small streets. To the side was an incline, with larger buildings up the hill – probably the center of the village.

It was clear that we weren’t exactly on the fringe of civilization, but that this was a predominantly rural community. My gaze drifted to two boys, watching the car and the two of us around it. As soon as they realized I was returning their gaze, they resumed playing with their leather soccer ball – well,
futbol
outside of the States.

I guess that settles it. If there really WERE wolves, the boys would have seen them.

“Well, come on then! Time to get you situated,” Pensley told me cheerfully. I followed him around the car to the front of the hut, and he withdrew a spare key from his pocket and unlocked the door.

“Women first,” he chuckled softheartedly as I stepped inside. It was dark inside, and but I could see that the area was one large room, with minimal furniture.

“Ah, there we go,” Pensley spoke aloud as he found the oil lantern on the counter. Lighting and flicking it on, he held it up to add a little more light to the room. “A bit on the sparse side, yes. I’m afraid the Chair was a bit rushed in securing things, and needed you here – where this
friend
of his apparently is.”

I nodded, taking in the layout. The bed – standing out in the middle of the room, against the wall – was a full-size, perched in a thick, wooden frame. Two thick pillows helmed the bare but reasonable mattress, with a folded pile of sheets and pillowcases sitting neatly on the corner. To the right was the counter, stretching across the wall between a pair of thick cabinets, with a sink inset beneath a window. To the left sat a chair, tucked away behind the door and facing in, and another window in the center of the otherwise bare wall. Well, bare with the exception of a small dresser, diagonally positioned beside the bed.

“It’ll do nicely,” I told him politely. “I can’t say I’ll need very much here…do you know anything about the water quality?”

“The water in these parts is fresh, completely untouched by pesticides or chemicals – you shouldn’t have a problem with any of it.

“Good. One less thing to worry about.” I realized the conspicuous lack of refrigerator and laundry…or power at all. “Where do I store my food?”

“The cupboards will have to do the trick, I suppose.”

“And cleaning my clothes?”

“There’s a washline out back if you really need it, close to the well. But the Chair didn’t seem to think you’d be here long…I’m supposed to retrieve you in four days. You’ll probably be fine until then. Oh, before I forget…” he reached out his hand, “give me your phone. I’ll need to plug my number in, in case you run into any trouble.”

“Yeah, sure thing.” I retrieved it from my pocket, unlocking it and switching to the contacts app. He input his number under the name
Lionel Pensley
.

“Here you are! That would have been a problem, had we not sorted that little detail out!”

I heard shuffling outside, and both of us turned our heads. A young village woman, just a few years younger than me, popped her head in through the door.

“And here she is. Here’s your guide now!”

“Hi,” the girl waved. “I’m Camilla – I live next door. Who are you?” Her accent was thick, her wording careful. English wasn’t her first language, but I doubted that much of the surrounding community spoke any English anyway.

“I’m Alaina,” I told her, waving back. “I’m going to be here a few days.”

“Yes, to take care of the wolf,” Camilla answered.

“I’m sorry, the what?” I asked.
A wolf? The Chairman knows I don’t have any veterinarian experience…surely this girl’s making a joke.

“The wolf?” Pensley asked.

“Yes, Dane and his pack,” she continued to explain. “The wolves are among our people here.”

“Romania is a rich land, still very steeped in its rich mythology,” Pensley chuckled. “Legends abound of witches, wolves, and all manners of things in the night. This
Dane
, he’s the associate of Harry?”

I nodded quickly. “Yes, that’s the name I was given before. No surname, though.”

“He must be quite the fellow if the locals are calling him a wolf!” He chuckled lightheartedly, but let the good-natured laughter die quietly when he saw Camilla’s stony face. “Well, it looks like you’re in good hands, then. Camilla seems to know him, which will make things easier. And on that note, I’ve got to head back to Bucharest! After this little spot of adventure, I’ll be ready to get back to London I’m sure.”

“Thanks for all your help,” I smiled, shaking his hand. He grinned back and gave Camilla a quick nod on the way out the door, before pausing with his hand on the doorway. “Camilla will be your translator and guide around here. Let her know if you need anything – and I’ll be back here at dusk four days for you. Give me a ring if you need anything.”

I whipped my phone out quickly. Oddly enough, I had a small scrap of signal, even way out here.
There must be a tower somewhere
in the area.

“Thanks a ton. Have a safe trip back,” I waved, and he disappeared from view. I heard the car start up shortly, and the thrumming engine disappeared into the distance.

I turned to my guest politely. “I’m sorry, Camilla – he told me there was a well. Could you show me how to use it?”

“Yes, it is back here,” she motioned, having me follow her out the back door beside the bed. She flicked on a lantern that lit the back area, exposing a scrap of small green land and a well prominently positioned in the center. Two tall posts to the side, sticking out at opposite angles, held a taut line between them.

Camilla showed me the simple workings of the covered well, including the best positioning for leverage on retrieving the bucket. It was easier than I thought, if not heavy work.

“What is that word the man said?” Camilla asked suddenly, as we made our way back indoors.

“Which word was that?”

“
Mith-hollow-gee
,” she answered, feeling the syllables out as she spoke. “I do not know this word.”

“Oh,
mythology
. That’s the stories people tell, about their gods and their folklore. The tales you give down to your children from long ago. Things that are always made up.”

“Made up?” She quizzically tilted her head.

“Not true. Just stories, not real.”

“The man is wrong,” she replied, staring me dead in the eyes. “Dane and his wolves, they are very powerful. You will meet them soon, I think. The wolf is not
meth hollogy
…the wolf is very real.”

~

In the middle of the night, I awoke to the distinct feeling of another presence nearby. Reaching over to flick on the oil lamp, I watched the dim light flood my housing, illuminating all in a low glow. The shadows hovered, barely kept bay…relinquishing their grip just enough to reveal the man, seated in the chair across the room.

“Who the fuck are you?” I screeched, pulling my blanket close and withdrawing against the back wall against the bed.

But the man wasn’t watching me, nor did he move an inch at my outburst. Instead, I realized that he was slumped in the chair, his head dully hanging to the side. He was shirtless, dressed only in ragged leather slacks. Even in the minimal light of the room, I could instinctively tell that he was in some sorry shape, whomever he was. From here, I couldn’t determine what was the matter with him…I was going to have to get closer.

Fearfully, I pulled myself from the bed and slowly approached, grabbing the knife from my bedside drawer. Summoning every ounce of courage that I had, I cautiously closed the distance between us in the room, watching his body in the shadows for even the slightest movement.