Three Wild Werewolf Tales (15 page)

“Sure,” Stephen agreed, then went to grab what he needed for work. Most of it was already on-site. “Just take it easy today, and I’ll see you when I get back.” It would be good to be away from Daniel for a bit, clear his head and focus on his job.

Daniel nodded, then smiled. “I’ll cook dinner, that’s the least I can do.” He must’ve noticed the slight frown on Stephen’s face. “I can cook, don’t worry.”

“All right,” Stephen replied, amused at Daniel’s reaction. “I’ll go to work, you can do the cooking.” He walked down the hallway, Daniel following him.

“Just don’t think I’m gonna do any cleaning,” Daniel warned him, smiling again. “I’m not that much of a housewife.”

“That’s a shame,” Stephen said, then immediately wished he hadn’t.

Daniel started to snigger, which added to Stephen’s embarrassment. “I’ll see you tonight, Stephen.”

“Take it easy,” he said, then checked his keys, more an excuse not to have to look at Daniel.

“Dinner’ll be ready when you get back,” Daniel promised as Stephen closed his front door.

He walked back to his car, feeling a mixture of emotions. The wolf inside of him, never dormant on the days between the full moon, wanted nothing more than to go back in there to keep Daniel safe, tear off the clothes he’d borrowed from Richard and replace Richard’s scent with his own. Maybe, Stephen thought to himself as he started his truck, it hadn’t been the best idea to invite Daniel to stay with him. He considered the alternatives, Daniel staying with Nathan, or Richard, and he felt briefly, ridiculously, jealous.

He told himself that it was stupid to feel jealous as he drove to work. Just because he was attracted to Daniel didn’t mean Daniel was attracted to him. For all he knew, Daniel wasn’t even into guys.

~*~

Work was a good distraction, something to take his mind off Daniel and McClanahan. He liked his colleagues, and it was good to talk to people who weren’t werewolves. The other upside was that he had something to channel his restless energy into. Normally, he was tired on the days between the transformations, but he guessed that sleeping while a wolf had left him better rested than usual. He headed back home about an hour before sunset, earlier than usual, but he’d finished his work for the day and he’d make up for it the coming week. Stephen stayed in his truck for a moment after parking it in his driveway, telling himself that Daniel needed their help, not Stephen and his libido sniffing around.

He went inside, shouting out a greeting and smiling when Daniel called back from the kitchen. It was nice not to come back to an empty house, and his stomach rumbled when the delicious scents wafted from the kitchen. “Tuna?”

Daniel appeared in the doorway, grinning at him. “Yeah, I made a casserole. Best thing I could come up with the contents of your cupboards and fridge.”

Stephen wasn’t complaining. “Great, let’s eat.” He grabbed the plates, waiting for Daniel to put the casserole on his table, and noticed that his counter looked cleaner than it had this morning. “Wait, did you also do the dishes?” There were still some suds in the sink.

“Well, the casserole had to be in the oven for ten minutes, so I thought I might as well. It wasn’t that much.”

“Thought you said you weren’t going to do any cleaning?” he remarked. The casserole smelled wonderful, he couldn’t wait to taste it.

Daniel laughed. “Only fair if it’s a mess I made, right?”

Stephen sat down. It really was nice, having someone to eat with, and with a pang he thought that he could get used to this. Richard’s scent had faded slightly from Daniel’s borrowed clothes, but it was still strong enough to throw Stephen off. It was like trying to listen to someone at a loud party, you could make out some of the words, but it was difficult to hear what they were saying.

Daniel served them both generous portions, clearly as ravenous as Stephen was. “I swear, ever since I became a werewolf, I eat twice as much this time of the month,” he said. “It’s so weird.”

“I always make sure to stock up,” Stephen replied. Daniel hadn’t been a werewolf for very long, and he sympathised. “Look, the transformation, it gets easier. Less painful.”

Daniel swallowed his bite. “I’ve noticed that. A bit, anyway.” He poked at his tuna. “Does it ever become completely painless?”

“No.” He knew from Karen and Lily that it still hurt, even for them. “Not that I know.”

“And there’s no cure?” Daniel looked vaguely hopeful as he sipped his orange juice.

Stephen sighed. “No.” He wasn’t surprised Daniel asked, it had been his first question too.

“Oh.” Daniel stared at his plate for a moment, then shrugged. “That’s what McClanahan said too, but I was hoping since he was lying about how werewolves treat each other…”

“You were hoping he was lying about other things.”

“Yeah.” Daniel took another bite. “It’s not that I hate being a werewolf. I don’t. But I’m still adjusting. There’s things I can smell now that I never could before. Like you.”

Stephen suddenly felt self-conscious. “Me?” Daniel hadn’t smelled any arousal, had he?

Daniel nodded, gesturing with his fork at Stephen. “I can smell that you’ve been near the forest; I can smell some sawdust and obviously your sweat.”

Stephen wanted to bang his face against the table. Of course he was smelly after a day of working. Normally, he didn’t bother to take a shower on these nights, preferring to do that in the morning after the transformation. But he had been running late this morning and there hadn’t been any time. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,” Daniel replied, smiling slightly. “I’ve smelled worse. Way worse.” He shuddered, then went back to eating.

Stephen was tempted to ask what that something was, but then decided he didn’t want to know. “But you’re getting used to being a werewolf?”

“Slowly but surely, yes,” Daniel said. “It has screwed up my social life a little, though. Thanks to my nose I now know stuff about my friends I didn’t used to. Or wanted to. And then the dating! Oh, God, the dating.”

Stephen quietly kept eating, not sure if he wanted to know.

Daniel continued talking. “I’d been going out with this guy for about a month before I got bitten, y’know, casual, nothing serious, definitely not exclusive. So then I got bitten and I freak out, obviously, cancel a date, no big deal, he bought my excuse of being ill.”

Stephen wanted to shout with happiness that Daniel wasn’t straight. He remained quiet, because from the looks of it, Daniel had kept this rant pent up for a long time.

“Anyway, we agree to go out to a club, have some fun, see what happens. And it was a couple of nights before the full moon, so my sense of smell was better than normal. Seriously, not a good idea in a nightclub. So, I wasn’t feeling like dancing, but he was. And like I said, it was casual, so I didn’t care that he went to dance with some other guy.” Daniel sighed as he stared at his food. “Except when he did, I got angry and jealous. I actually went up and growled at the other guy, dragging him away. I’m pretty sure that if my date hadn’t stepped in, I would’ve punched him. It was so stupid, I’m not usually an aggressive kind of guy, and I wasn’t even that into him, but I still - I still got jealous. And I know that’s because of the werewolf, it’s like what Richard said about Alex. Territorial and possessive. My date wasn’t exactly impressed, haven’t really heard from him since.” Daniel stabbed at a piece of his casserole angrily.

“That’s too bad,” Stephen said, his tone neutral while he felt immensely relieved. He wanted to ask what this guy was like, why Daniel had done out with him and if Daniel had a type.

Daniel looked up, and leaned back, as if he only now realised Stephen was there. “Shit, I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to ramble on like that. Uhm, you don’t mind that I’m into guys, right?”

“No, not at all,” Stephen immediately replied when he saw Daniel looking worried. “And I’m guessing there’s not a lot of other people you can talk to about things like that?” he added, when Daniel remained silent.

“Not really, no,” Daniel replied after a moment, as if he’d been expecting Stephen to say something else. “Obviously, my human friends don’t know why I acted like an asshole, and McClanahan… he doesn’t know I’m gay. It’s not something I’ve got round to telling him. Not sure if I want to tell him, to be honest.”

Stephen didn’t blame him. It was hard enough coming out to people you trusted and liked, never mind to someone who treated you like garbage. “You’re welcome to come back next month, if you want to.”

“Really?”

“Alex doesn’t live here either, he has to drive two hours to get here,” Stephen explained swiftly. “He’s done that every month since - since I know him.” He hated himself for being a coward, but he was reluctant to tell Daniel that he had been responsible for biting Alex. He didn’t want Daniel to think he was like McClanahan in any way.

Daniel considered that as he finished his food. “Maybe. I don’t know, I can’t avoid him forever.”

“You can avoid him tonight,” Stephen said, giving him an encouraging smile. He was going to make sure Daniel would have a great night. One that would convince him to come back more often.

~*~

“Your fur grew back,” Stephen told Daniel, once the entire pack had finished their transformation at Richard’s cabin. He was still a little sore from shifting, but had wandered over to Daniel to see how he was doing.

“Did it?” Daniel twisted to see for himself, and ended up walking in a circle for a while before he gave up with a huff. “I’ll have to take your word for it.”

Alex ran over to them. “How’re you feeling?”

“Not bad,” Daniel replied, his tail wagging once to express his gratitude. “Resting today helped. I’m not gonna run all night, but thank your boyfriend for helping out last night.”

“He’ll be pleased to hear it; he was worried about you,” Alex said. “I told him Stephen would take good care of you. Did he?”

“I went to work,” Stephen said, glaring briefly at Alex. “Daniel mostly took care of himself.”

“And I cooked,” Daniel added.

Karen and Lily briefly went up to Daniel to wish him a good night, then the duo ran off. “If we see any strange wolves, we’ll howl,”Lily promised.

“You don’t think…” Daniel’s tail drooped slightly and Stephen knew what he was thinking.

Holly and Peter ran up to them. “Will you stay alert as well?” she asked. “If McClanahan shows up, we have to know.”

“Do you think he will?” Stephen asked. He resisted the urge to snarl at the thought.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Peter said. “Daniel, from what you said, he sounded very controlling. He said he was the alpha and should be obeyed, right?”

“Right.”

“So,” Holly continued, “he doesn’t want to lose a follower. And he probably doesn’t want to risk you running into other werewolves who might help. He has to establish dominance. I’m surprised he didn’t come here last night.”

Stephen moved closer to Daniel when he whined softly. “We won’t let him hurt you.”

Daniel was cowering slightly now, his good mood from earlier gone. “I shouldn’t have run away,” he muttered. “Now he’s gonna come here and hurt you.”

“Let ‘em try, I’ll gnaw his tail off if he comes here,” Stephen growled, low and dangerous, then froze when the others all looked at him. “What?”

“No one is fighting anyone,” Holly told him sternly. “We’ll look for a peaceful solution.”

Peaceful? With that asshole? “You saw what he did to Daniel!”

“Yes, but fighting another werewolf isn’t going to solve anything,” Holly told him. “Daniel can’t stay here forever.”

“You think McClanahan lives anywhere near you?” Alex asked.

“I don’t know,” Daniel replied quietly. “Probably. But he knows where I live.”

Holly gave Stephen another warning look. “Another reason to avoid fighting him. He might take it out on you when you’re back home,” she told Daniel.

“So what do we do if he shows up?” Stephen demanded. Daniel was radiating misery. “Talk with him?”

“Yes,” Peter told him. “We talk to him, see if we can’t reason with him.”

Stephen huffed. He wanted nothing more than to tear McClanahan limb from limb for what he had done, for the bullshit he had fed Daniel, and here Peter and Holly were, suggesting they have a nice talk.

“I know,” Richard said, who had come up after checking his cabin was locked up. “But they’re right, Stephen. Let’s try and avoid getting any more werewolves hurt.”

“Fine,” Stephen snapped. “If I come across that asshole, I’ll howl and let you all know.”

“Let’s all head out into the forest,” Richard said. “If any of us smell or see any strange wolves, howl.”

After Stephen promised, again, to do that, he ran after Daniel. “Wait up.”

Daniel was moving slowly as he wandered further into the forest. “Don’t you want to do your own hunting? I’ll only slow you down.”

“I don’t need to hunt every night,” Stephen said, after catching up with him. “Besides, someone should be with you if McClanahan shows up.” He wasn’t going to let Daniel face him alone.

“You probably think I’m a massive idiot,” Daniel replied, his tail hanging low. “For staying with McClanahan for so long.”