Once Bitten Twice Smitten: BBW Werewolf Shifter Menage Romance (6 page)

“Even when being their
own kind
is the result of them biting you!” her father said angrily.

“Pat, calm down,” her mother said. “This isn’t helping.” She turned back to Aspen. “Our friends warned us that they might try to kidnap you. So we did everything we could to prevent that from happening. We left Gila as soon as you’d recovered. We changed our names, our identities, as far as we could. It was like we were in a witness protection program. We made the house as secure as possible.”

“Hence the multiple locks on the door,” Aspen said. “I thought you were just OCD.”

“We trained you to be strong and ready to defend yourself. We were so glad when you took up boxing in your teens, and then roller derby.”

“But, despite all our efforts, it looks like they found you anyway!” her father said.

Aspen put her head in her hands. There were so many things to absorb.

“I – I just can’t believe all this is true. It sounds crazy,” she faltered.

“That’s because we raised you up here, where people don’t think about werewolves, and don’t hear the legends. Down in the towns around Gila, it’s far more accepted.”

“I think I want to go and lie down for a while,” Aspen said. “But I’m scared that, if I do, the pains will start again.” Just then the locks on the front door clunked open and Venus, her younger sister, bounded into the room. As usual, she looked like she should be hosting a teen music show. She was stick-thin, with tiny hips, huge, cartoon-character eyes, and a cloud of immaculately-styled dark hair. It was only her sweet nature that stopped Aspen from bitterly resenting her. Venus froze as she entered the living room.

“What’s going on?” she said, her eyes darting from one person to another.

“Nothing, honey,” their mom said. Aspen stood up. She couldn’t deal with Venus’ curiosity right now. She waved at everyone vaguely and went back up to her room.

Chapter Five

Chase sighed with satisfaction. He was once again driving into Williston just as night was falling, but the trip had been a success. The National Federation had been very helpful, locating six houses within the town that had been purchased at around the time that the girl’s family had come to live there. He was dying to visit each house on the list and have a good sniff through the letterbox, but his belly was protesting, as was his wolf. Reluctantly, he took a right and drove back to the hotel.

As he reached the cabin, he saw that Brad had left a rabbit for him, laid out on the doormat. It was typical of him to pay back his favors, Chase thought, with a wry smile. Bringing it inside, he noted that Brad’s things had gone.
He must’ve moved to another cabin. Good
. Chase valued his privacy from other packs as much as the next werewolf. He stripped his clothes off and shifted, letting out excitable little yips as his body stretched out into its wolf form. Then he devoured the rabbit. It was gone in a few bites, and he was still hungry. He padded towards the door of the cabin, glad for any excuse to run in the forest.

Half an hour later, with his hunger sated and his fur groomed, Chase shifted back into his human form and hit the shower. As always, he wished he didn’t have to attend to his hygiene in
both
his wolf and human forms. Oh, well. It was a pretty good trade off for all the benefits he gained from being a shifter.

Brad was staying three cabins away from him, Chase’s nose told him, but he wasn’t home when Chase passed by on his way to his car.
That slacker has probably been lazing around all day, waiting for me to come up with a solution. And I’m damned if I’m going to help him out!
he thought with a chuckle. Brad was probably in a bar now, knocking back bourbons and chatting to a cute girl.

Chase got into his car and pulled out the list of addresses that the Federation had given him. He figured out the directions to the first one, and headed off, tingling with excitement at the prospect of seeing the girl for the first time.

He pulled up in front of the address. It was a small house, with a tidy front garden. The curtains were closed, and there were no lights inside. Chase got out of the car. If the girl was truly on the cusp of her first shift, as the Federation had informed his parents she would be, all he had to do was sniff, and he’d know whether she lived there or not. He took a deep snort of the cool air. There was nothing much. A faint human smell, dry, like old newspaper. He bent to open the little gate, and walked along the path that led to the front door. He put his nose to the letterbox and sniffed again. There was the same dry smell, just stronger. There was no young female living there, whether human or werewolf. He turned back, vaulted over the gate and got back in his car.

The second place he came to was a hectic, brightly-lit house. He could hear people shouting all the way from the sidewalk. They must be having a party. There were so many humans in there that his nose was temporarily confused. He identified at least three very young females, and two older females. But there was no hint of werewolf.

The third house was occupied by a single old lady, the fourth by a human couple, and the fifth by four young men, who ate a lot of takeaway pizza.

“Damnit!” Chase yelled into the confines of the car. It was starting to look like those bozos at the Federation had given him crappy information. He’d been so excited when he’d got his hands on those addresses, and now it was coming to nothing. He slammed his fist down on the steering wheel. And where was Brad? A bolt of panic shot through Chase’s chest that Brad might somehow have managed to get ahead of him.
What if he’s actually been out all day, sniffing every single house in the town?
The thought sent Chase off down the road with a squealing of rubber.

He came to the final address on the list. It was a cottage, well looked-after, with a red door and lots of flowers outside. Chase opened the window. He thought he caught a whiff of something, but he couldn’t be sure. He climbed out of the car. He could see people moving behind the curtains, so he crept along the pathway. Just as he reached the porch, it hit him. It wasn’t very strong, probably because she hadn’t fully turned yet, but there was a werewolf-to-be in there! He took a deep snort and let the delicious scent fill his nostrils. It was the scent of a female in her early twenties, and ripe for mating. His nose seemed to have a direct link to his cock, as he felt himself growing hard. His mind filled with images of the girl, as he’d imagined her. He calmed himself down and took another sniff. His nostrils identified two other females – a mother, and a young girl, not yet ready for mating – and a male – her father. Checking that there was no-one near the window, who might catch a glimpse of him, he slunk right up to the front door. It had a spyhole! He put his eye to it. Humans only see a dot of an image from the reverse of a spyhole, too small to interpret, but wolves don’t suffer that limitation. Chase could see inside the house – the hallway, the stairs, and a door leading off to the left.

Voices came closer to the door, and suddenly, the door leading off from the hallway was yanked open, and a girl hurtled into the hall. She was yelling something like,
“I’m going! I don’t care what you say!”
But it was lost to Chase. He was transfixed by her looks. She was stunning. Her body was full of lush curves, like the undulating hills of his hometown. She had real breasts and an ass, unlike the skinny-bodied were-females in his pack. He longed to sink his teeth into her opulent flesh, free those buxom breasts from her bra, and suck on her nipples. Blood rushed to his ears. Her face was beautiful as well, with lovely soft eyes, and a deep pink rose of a mouth. He imagined how that mouth would feel on his while he was buried deep inside her. His cock surged again. The sight of her was almost more than he could cope with. Here was his fated mate, the destiny he had created for himself that one day, so long ago. She was the girl his father had spoken of, almost every day of his life, reminding him of the prize that awaited him.

There was a sound behind him, near the gate. In the tenth of a second it took him to whip around, Brad was on his back. His wolf let out a snarl, but it was too late. Brad had totally caught him by surprise, and he fell to the ground. Brad threw himself on top of him, and landed a punch in his face. Chase’s wolf growled. It was poised, just beneath his skin, on the point of shifting.

“Stop it, you moron!” he hissed at Brad. “I’m not going to be able to control my wolf if you carry on!” Brad glared down at him, with a wildness in his eyes that Chase had never seen before. His wolf retreated a smidgen. At last, Brad pulled himself off Chase and stood up, brushing himself down.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Chase said in a low voice.

“I don’t want you turning up and mucking things up for me!” Brad said.

“
Me
mucking things up for
you
? It’s the fucking opposite, you retard! She’s mine. My fated mate. My destiny. All mine, and not yours!” Chase’s voice had become louder, and, as he reached the end of his proclamation, the door swung open, and a man’s head popped out.

“Can I help you?” he asked with a frown. He was in his mid-forties, and healthy-looking, with a tanned, weather-beaten face, and large, calloused hands. Chase and Brad stared at him, dumbstruck.

“I was wondering if I could have a word with your daughter, the elder one?” Chase said at last, flashing the man his most charming grin. Brad’s wolf sniggered as he noticed that Chase had a few lumps of earth clinging to his jacket.

“Who are you?” the man asked, his suspicion not dropping an inch.

“We’re friends from college,” Chase continued.

“She doesn’t go to college, and you obviously don’t even know her name!” the man said. He emerged from the house, shutting the door tight behind him. “You’d better tell me what your business is here, or you’re going to be very sorry that you ever set foot on my property!” he hissed. Adrenaline surged through Brad’s body. It was now or never.

“We’re very sorry to have turned up unannounced, sir,” he said. “We just weren’t sure of the correct address. We’re from Gila, and we would just like the opportunity to get to know your daughter.” Recognition, fear, and fury flashed across the man’s face, all at the same time. He drew himself up to his full height.

“I know who you are!” he boomed. “And I don’t want you animals around my daughter!” Chase and Brad recoiled at being referred to in such derogatory terms, but kept silent. The man pinched the bridge of his nose, and took a long, shaky breath. “God knows I’ve done everything in my power to protect her from you. It’s cost my family so much over the years, changing our names, hiding away from our relatives, leaving behind everything we knew in Gila. But you’ve found us anyway!” His voice cracked, and he seemed on the point of breaking down. He stared at them in turn. “How on earth did you find us here?”

“We have a national network that assists us with this kind of thing,” Chase said, unusually gently. Brad cast a glance at him, and saw that he was equally shaken by the man’s evident pain.

“Sir, your daughter needs our help,” Brad began. “We know she’s begun the process that will soon culminate in a full shift into her wolf form. Being around her own kind will ease her distress in this difficult time.”

“She is not your kind!” The man bellowed, his shoulders flexing and his hands bunching into fists. “She is one of us! Part of our family! I don’t know which one of you sank your filthy teeth into her and almost killed her in the process, but I’m telling you this: biting her does not make her your own!” His voice had become so loud that it echoed up and down the quiet street. Brad and Chase’s wolves whined at the insults being leveled at them. They were unused to being described with anything other than glowing praise.

Just then the door opened.
The girl
poked her head out. Brad and Chase both inhaled sharply. She was even prettier than the image that had been flitting through Brad’s mind for the past few hours. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes were flashing.

“Dad, what’s going – ” she started to say, then she caught sight of the two of them over her father’s shoulder. Her lips pursed as she looked at Brad. “You again!” she said. Chase flashed him a furious glance, but Brad ignored it. “My dad’s told me the whole story.”

“And?” Brad said.

“And nothing!” Her father yelled, pushing his face right up into Brad’s. Brad’s wolf could’ve snapped his neck with a single bite, but he backed away, showing the man due respect, as the father of his future mate. “Get the hell out of this town! We’ll take care of our daughter, whatever happens. And if I ever see you here again, I’ll have you shot, and your secrets exposed to the whole world!” Chase and Brad shuddered. If the man made good on his threat, the lives of all the werewolves in the US, as they knew them, would be over. Their wolves whimpered, tails dropping between their legs. They turned, in unison, and left without a word.

*

“Well, that went well,” Brad said, stretching his feet out in front of him. Chase had grudgingly given him a ride, too beaten by the recent events to be hostile. Chase grunted, non-committally.

They passed the rest of the journey in a dejected silence, but, as they turned into the hotel grounds, a recollection pinged in Chase’s brain.

“How on earth did you find her before me?” he demanded. “I had the information from the Federation!” Brad shrugged.