Could I Be A Werewolf? [BOOK 2]

"My wife has every right," Lorenzo interrupted. "And perhaps it would do you both good to spend some time apart."

I smirked. And made sure my thoughts were loud and clear. I hoped Bane woke up with blue balls. I hoped his dick fell off in the middle of the night. I hoped he could never get it up again. My thoughts were like that for a while, but hey, he deserved it.

Chapter Nine: This Is What's Happening So Shut Up

I liked the pack. I mean, once the Alpha got over his hate-on for me, I really started to like it. The wolves were cool, Canaan Valley was pretty awesome, and the kids were just too cute. All around, it was a pretty nice prison.

Yeah, I hadn't exactly gotten over that fact. Four days later and I was still griping about it, but whatever. It wasn't like Luther and Samantha had made it better. Instead of letting me enjoy the kids and freedom, they'd decided to Yoda me and become my masters. Yup, I was a Star Wars fan. Who wasn't? Man, that scene with Anakin and Padme in front of the fire... Ha, fugget about it.

That was the other thing: I was horny. Bane had gotten me addicted to him, and that Leslie Ryan song was playing in my head on repeat. I wanted Bane back in my bed, against the wall, in the tub: really anywhere was fine. I just wanted him and all his lower parts.

But that wasn't going to happen until I got over his whole lying-to-me thing, which was probably going to take a while, bordering on never.

Ah, got off topic again. Anyway, Luther and Samantha started to train me. I liked it, at first. It took my mind off Bane and all the other crap floating around in there. But then it got hard, and I don't do hard unless it's in the form of a dick; Bane's dick to be precise. I could do that man any where, time, position...

Off topic again. It'd been happening a lot more than normal, too. Casper just started tuning me out while Luther tried to rein me back in—pretty unsuccessfully, I might add—and Samantha was just happy she couldn't read my mind.

But I could read hers. Yup, three days and three more things were abundantly clear. I was definitely not a werewolf. I was sort of happy about that because turning into a dog is not what I'd call cool. Then there was the fact that I could pretty much read anybody's mind I wanted; I just had to concentrate. And that's when I realized, it hadn't been that I was talking in Bane's mind or Luther's mind, but that I'd just been broadcasting my thoughts to them. It was when they were in my head or I was pushing my way into theirs that other vamps couldn't hear us. I'd had to learn the difference, and it hadn't been a fun lesson. For pretty much the entire first day of being with the pack, I'd sat with Samantha, held her hand like we were about to break into "Kumbaya," and practiced reading her mind. The best thing I could compare it to was eating hot soup. The stuff on the top, i.e., the cool and safe stuff, was the stuff I wanted to get from Samantha. But if my mental spoon went deeper, than I got into the hot stuff and burned myself—which is to say I went back in their body and fused with their memory. Cool in theory, but deadly in practice. Thankfully, Samantha hadn't gotten herself hurt in any of the memories I'd accidentally dived into. Well, not really, but she had hurt a lot of people. That's when I realized she wasn't like my mom at all, because my mom couldn't do half the stuff Samantha had done to survive and still be able to smile.

Mind diving practice had been followed by learning to channel my acid spitting power so I could do it whenever. We also found out that only when I was in danger, or my body thought I was in danger, did my blood become poisonous. I'd been fighting with Casper to try to get better at physically defending myself, and his nails had gotten a little close to my throat. I'd thought he was going to shred me, but his nails had only nicked my skin. Then his fingertips (the ones with my blood on them) had started to turn black and he'd started screaming in pain. Samantha has done some witchy voodoo and taken the poison out as a gelatinous, floating blob. Instead of the red my blood was supposed to be, it was nearly black.

The only reason we knew—I really should say suspected—fear-for-my-life equaled poisonous blood was because I'd been scratched, bit, and cut a bunch of times before and nothing happened. Well, except that I'd healed a lot faster. Good thing, too, because if I hadn't healed we wouldn't have continued. A little dangerous and hard-headed at times I may be, but when it came to pain, I was out.

There was one other important thing that happened... Hmm, what was it? Oh, yeah! Every night I woke up with fur and dead skin on my bed. Strange thing was, fur (or whatever is was) was still on my arm in the morning. I asked if anyone had seen some kind of weird creature roaming around, like maybe a Kanima, but (1) no one watched Teen Wolf here therefore no one knew what that was, and (2) their answer was a resounding no. So I was just shedding to shed. Fun.

"Focus!" Casper yelled at me as he kicked his leg out. I jumped over it like I used to jump over my ankle Skipper toy when I was nine and playing in my front yard. "Keep your guard up," Casper bellowed as he threw me a right hook.

Despite the long hours of training, I hadn't lost a single pound. It was frustrating, but then again, the mammoth meals I ate before and after each session probably didn't help. I jumped back from his attack, twisted, and held up my hand. "Can we stop, please?"

I was sweating buckets, soaking the mats of the gym we practiced in. That's right, along with the mansion came a state-of-the-art kitchen, lap pool, and, yes, gym. Alpha's house was a hotel and the maids wandering around really drove that point home.

Casper smirked, his eyes a touch red. There was no sweat on his body, though we'd been working out for a good three hours on and off. I was jealous of him. I looked like a hot ass mess, and the guy still looked like a male model getting ready for a photo shoot. Even the sweatpants and green t-shirt he had on looked name brand and fit his body like a glove.

Casper tossed back his blonde hair, hit me with a killer smile, and nodded. "Sure. Five minutes."

I groaned and collapsed back on the mat in a pool of my own sweat. I kept my arms down because I could smell myself and I stunk. I peered over my boobs at Casper as he joined Samantha and Luther in the corner. The two usually watched us and gave me pointers on how to do things better or told me when I was sucking eggs.

Samantha was dressed in a red and white flowered dress with a sweetheart neckline and matching red kitten heels. Apparently no one had told her it was early March and we were on a cold mountain top, sister looked ready to step out into the sun and start singing with the birds and the bees. Luther looked a tad better in a sky blue fisherman's sweater and faded black-gray jeans. Neither of them looked like they were about to train me or had trained me.

It was three in the afternoon, yet I'd woken up at eight in the morning and begun my grueling practice. First up was Samantha, mind-reading and emotion control for my eyes for two hours, followed by breakfast. After that Luther made me spit acid at mannequins and tried to figure out what other powers I had.

The first two days, he'd tried to see if I had any of the 'normal' powers like super speed, super healing, flying, and so on. This consisted of a three-mile run around the alphas' home, meadow, and the mini houses scattered around the place. I'd stopped after a mile and a half and started walking, a mile later I was staggering, and the last few feet I just wanted to crawl. I did not run and I did not jog. I sat inside.

Luther, unfortunately, hadn't gotten that memo. He hadn't gotten the other memo that said I didn't do heights and that I couldn't fly. He'd taken me to the base of the bat cave we'd come out of and then said, "Jump."

I'd looked at him and said, "You jump."

After he pushed me, he did just that. But wings didn't sprout off my back and I didn't suddenly become able to command the wind so I really did just fall. Thank goodness Luther was there to catch me or I would have been a Peaches pancake.

After Luther, I went to the rec room and trained with Casper. Funny thing was, even though Casper dressed like a rich douche who only knew how to weight lift and not actually defend himself, he was really good at hand-to-hand combat.

After the first hour of fighting him, or rather, getting my ass kicked by him, I'd asked how he knew all those moves. He'd told me that he used to work for different militaries, which he joined for the money. That was how Bane and Casper met, actually; they were on different sides of the Anglo-French war, fighting in the Battle of Mirebeau. Casper had been on the side of the German and Flemish soldiers, while Bane had been on the side of the French. Apparently both armies had demolished each other, or so Casper said, leaving only him and Bane alive.

Casper had laughed as he'd told the story. "There I was, holding my sword faced with another vampire, this one as dark as night. I thought he was the Devil incarnate." He shook his head. "There was blood everywhere, dead bodies strewn around, and Bane and I faced each other head on. But instead of fighting, or taunting me, Bane nodded to his side and said: 'I have a flagon of wine.'"

Casper had laughed then and run a hand threw his hair. "I remember thinking: Is he offering me his wine? Then I said: 'I have two beakers.'" His eyes turned to me, and I saw some of that warrior in him, the man strengthened on a battlefield. "The smell was awful, piss and shit and blood. But we sat right where we were, put our swords down, poured a drink, and laughed. We've been friends ever since."

"Alright." Casper's voice interrupted my thoughts. "Break's over."

I lifted my head an inch above the mat I was still lying on. "Come on! That was barely anything. Just five more minutes."

He snorted as he came over to me. He started to roll his head and stretch his muscles. "Sorry, princess, but it's time to move it."

Everything hurt. Like, everything. My hair hurt, because it was too heavy, and my toes hurt from jumping around. I slowly pulled myself up, praying that this would be over fast so I could go soak in the hot tub. Yup, they had a hot tub too.

"Why don't you sit this one out, Casper," a voice I recognized all too well said smoothly. "I'll take it from here."

I was on my feet in a heartbeat, anger fueling my actions. "No. Why don't you stay, Casper," I returned angrily.

Bane eyed me up and down and I swear he was picturing me naked. Too bad picturing was all he'd be able to do. He looked over his shoulder at everyone. "Can we have a moment alone?"

I threw my arm out. "Anyone besides Bane leaves and you're back on my shit list. Permanently."

Luther, Samantha, and Casper paused. I couldn't read what they were thinking from their faces and I was too exhausted to push into their minds. Bane sighed. "You really want to drag them into our spat?"

I waved my arm between us. "This is not a spat. This is about you being a lying, manipulative bastard who doesn't tell anyone anything." I made a gesture to encompass the whole room and the mountain we were on. "This is all about you having people following your every command and never testing you because you're some vampire king."

"The vampire king," he corrected.

"I don't give a shit if you're God," I raged. "You don't get to treat people like they don't matter, like they're dispensable or they're only tools to be used. Did you ever once think of what you were putting Casper, Luther, or Samantha through with all your manipulations and lies? Did you ever take anyone else's feelings and thoughts into consideration?"

I'd had four days to perfect my little speech and I was damn proud of myself. I didn't go with what I wanted to say, which was that he'd hurt me, because he'd only see it as my issue. If I involved all of his friends, made it everyone's issue, he might actually see the problem.

Bane eyed me, angrily. "What I did was for—"

"I don't care what you did." I didn't really. I'd had a lot of time to think it over, and Bane had acted, pretty much, like a dude. He'd wanted to protect me, thought it would be easier if I didn't know that he was coddling me, and that was it. I could see his point of view, even though I didn't like it. It just took me a little while to get there. "It's how you did it that's the problem."

"Can we, uh..." Casper asked uncomfortably. I looked over at the trio of trainers and nodded. They were gone with a small whoosh of wind, leaving me with Bane.

His eyes were wide, mouth agape, and I realized, with a small internal smile, that I'd actually gotten his goose. He hadn't expected this was how our conversation would go. Score one for me.

Tension ferried between us, on a current of things that still hadn't been said; but they were his things. Me? I was good. I'd aired my grievances. Sure, I'd thought about running away through the passage that little Penny had told me about, but what would that solve? Nothing. I'd be out on my own. I realized it was a stupid idea after I'd thought about it for a while, considering I had no ID, no money, and no way to get anywhere or do anything—and I would still be married to Bane.

My mom used to say that marriage was a two-way street, a give and take. It was about how much both sides wanted it to work. Cars were constantly coming down the street, and sometimes they'd get stuck, fears and insecurities and anger would get stuck, but both sides had to be willing to help move that emotion-laden car out of the way. There were gonna be cracks and dips in the road with tear and wear, but it was all about sustaining it, putting in hard work and time, that made a marriage work.

"Your mother is a smart woman," Bane said finally. He didn't make a move towards me, but that was fine, because I didn't move toward him, either.

"She is." This was it. Our first real car stuck in the road. Either we'd figure out a way to move it together or it would stay there, break down, and fall apart.

"I..." he started, then stopped, ran a hand over his head, and blew out a frustrated breath. "I should have told you about...everything," he said quietly, though by the look on his face I knew it hurt his very masculine soul and pride to admit it.

"I should have reacted better when I found out."

We stood there for a second, slowly pushing that car and moving it together. "Can you..." Bane looked around awkwardly and scratched the back of his neck. "Forgive me." It was forced out through gritted teeth. Not a question, but a command. Knowing Bane, it was the best he could do, and it was a huge step for us.

I was the one to break down the final barrier and walk over and touch him. Man, I missed touching Bane. He really was like an addiction. My hand stroked his cheek. He leaned into the caress, reaching up for my hand and placing a kiss in my palm.

I looked into his eyes, dark brown almost black. Something moved near my heart or in my heart. I was pretty sure I knew what it was, but wasn't it too early in our relationship to be feeling that emotion? We'd only known each other for ten days now, and for four of those, I'd been pissed off at him and giving him the silent treatment. Plus we'd just had a fight.

I pushed my thoughts away and moved my hand to the back of his head to bring him down for a kiss. Now that we'd resolved our issues, or at least the glaring one, I was ready for some old fashioned nookie. Bane seemed to think so, too.

I felt his hands at my waist as he dragged me closer. Forget that I smelled and was sweaty and gross: we wanted each other. I kissed Bane like he was water and I'd just walked through a desert. And maybe I had, because four days without him had felt like a desert.

"For me too," he growled, when he pulled away and trailed kisses down my neck. "Couldn't fucking sleep or feed. Only thought about you."

I groaned and molded myself closer to him. Oh, did I want him. Badly. "There's a shower on the other..."

Water was suddenly cascading over me in a dark room. I blinked and the room came into focus. Damn, vampire speed was impressive. Bane had me pinned up against the shower wall, face buried in the crook of my neck. I felt his fangs graze once, twice. I knew what he wanted.

"Go ahead," I whispered. "I promise it's not poisonous."

He chuckled, but it was strained. "Let's hope not."

I felt his fangs dig into my neck. It wasn't like I came or pleasure flooded me. Being bit by a vampire kind of felt like, well, being bit by a vampire. That was a crappy description. It was just, I didn't have some kind of euphoric feeling pass over me or drugs go through my system. I just had my vampire husband feeding from my neck and it felt right. Like that was what was supposed to happen.

His fingers were on my nipples, tweaking the stiff peaks. I didn't need any stimulation; I was ready. I'd been ready for days. Every night, I'd lain in bed, hand down my panties, back arched as I rubbed one out and screamed Bane's name in my head. Sure, the other vamps and my husband had heard me, but I didn't care about them. I wanted Bane.

I'd hoped he'd come and take me, too, just so I'd get satisfied and have another grievance to add to my list. This morning I'd woken up and realized how stupid that was. People messed up; it happened. Torturing myself and Bane for days didn't help anything. I wanted him, and from the thing pressing hard at my thigh, he wanted me, too.

"I'm ready," I panted.

My sports top and pants were gone in a flash, and I was on my knees against the cool tile of the floor in a second. Warm water splashed where we'd just been, bounced off the wall and hit me a few degrees cooler than it would have been if I'd had direct contact. I spread my thighs wide and lifted my ass high as I pulled my elbows in and lowered my head. I looked back and saw Bane's dark thighs against my own, his dick almost flat against his abdomen.

He rubbed himself between my ass cheeks as his hands clenched and unclenched against my waist. I rubbed back against him, a willing participant in our lovemaking.

He pushed inside of me, taking up every nook and cranny of my body. His chest against my back, my wet hair around my face, and my eyes trained on the spot of our joining. I watched, engrossed as he pushed slowly into me. I saw and felt every inch of him. The minute his hips ground into mine and he buried himself as deep as he could go, I closed my eyes and moaned.

This was what I'd been missing. This feeling of being filled, letting another person, for a few minutes—or in Bane's case, hours—have my body whatever way they wanted. Because sex wasn't just about one person; it was about two or three or however many people. It was about entrusting someone else with a piece of you and letting go.

"And letting me in," Bane ground out. I think he meant for it to be sexy, but it came out tortured.

I squeezed my inner muscles as he slowly withdrew, clenching and unclenching. His hand came down on my butt and smacked me lightly. "Naughty girl."

I smiled coyly and bit my lip. My eyes were still closed and my head was down, but that was fine. I clenched hard again, and he spanked me again. "Like that, Bane?"

He thrust back in, same slow, torturous pace. "I should be asking you."

I lifted my head finally and moved my hair over my shoulder to look at him. I moved my hips in a small figure eight. "I'll tell you when you start taking things seriously."

His hand came around my body and squeezed my breast, tugging my nipple. "You think I'm not taking this seriously?"