Three Little Wolves

Chapter 7

Jesper
Two weeks later:
I didn't expect her to give up so easily on whether or not she would let us protect her. The look on her face when we even mentioned it was priceless if I do say so myself. So when she actually agreed to it with little to no persuading I was a little shocked. And her agreeing to it, but with a list of conditions that she didn't inform us of till later, was how I ended up outside her apartment in the nearby woods as a wolf. This was becoming a nightly thing and it was very awkward. I felt like a teenager sneaking around and slipping into a girls' room into the dead of night.
Apparently with all the creativity she claims to have as a writer, yeah I know eavesdropping is horrible, she couldn't come up with a good enough reason for me being around her to her roommates and friends that wasn't family related. Uh no. I do not want to be thought of as a relative. I know I was worried and unsure about her possibly being my mate, but just in case she is my mate I really wanted to make sure that those around her didn't think we were into incest. To each his own, but it is not my thing and hopefully for me in this case not her's either.
Her twenty-first birthday was a week after we started our arrangement, but she chose to stay in and spend the night with her friends, while I observed from outside. She said that why spend the night surrounded by drunk guys she wasn't in the mood to handle when she could spend the night with her best girls doing the most important things at their apartment. They had a movie marathon and the theme was princesses. It was interesting to say the least especially the text messages I end up getting.
I think the most notable about it apart from that was the necklace she was sent, by one of her family members. It gave off a weird vibe to me, but I couldn't really figure it out. She hasn't taken it off since.
Besides that, even though we have been at this for about a week now, the first night was the most awkward out of all of it. Her roommates couldn't know about me and he couldn't claim that she met someone knew this soon in the game because she had just broken up with Sir Prickington (Yes I know he has a real name, but he is jerk, a hunter, and really, need I say more) and she was supposed to have been getting serious with him and she was supposed to have met his parents that night and blah, blah, blah the list was endless and went on and on.
Anyways, the first night, I was sitting in the woods as inconspicuously as a rather large wolf can and watching the building for any suspicious peeps. As I was doing this my wolf was freaking out. He kept trying to get us to go upstairs and be with Louvenia. He was freaking out especially because we couldn't see her. I understand this is probably the worst way for me to protect her, but in reality it is the only way I got her to allow me to watch over. I got a text on my phone that was sitting next to me just in case and when I looked at the text it read:
Louvenia: Hey I know you are probably in wolf form and can't really text me back, but I just wanted to say thank you for putting up with my whims and whatnot. I am sorry that you ended up outside like this. I hear it is going to rain tonight, so after my roommates go to sleep I will text you, you change and get dressed and I will sneak you in. Kay. See you in a few :)
I couldn't help, but chuckle, or try to considering I was still a wolf, because of the little things in the text. I could already tell that she was an exceptionally quirky person. I know that she spent the day with her roommates dealing with the break up (If you can even call it that) and how she felt about it. I just wonder what she told them.
I was sitting there as it got cloudier and cloudier and eventually started raining. It was a full on torrential down pour and I got the text telling me coast was clear. At this point it was around 1 and I was sure her roommates are night owls. I shifted and changed into my clothes and grabbed my soaked stuff.
I approached her building and when I got there she was standing at the door looking at me with amusement, attraction, and something else I couldn't quite pin down in her eyes. "Are you going to let me in or are you going to stand there ogling me all night?" I said through a laugh.
She stepped aside and we walked to her apartment. We got there and she snuck me to her room and I laughed because her trying to be sneaky was making more noise than if she just calmly walked through. Suffice to say she knocked several things over in her quest to sneak me into her room.
We get there she goes to bed and I sleep on her floor on a nest of blankets and pillows she set up for me. I felt something at that moment that I wanted to ignore and I chose to do so, and concentrated on the fact that she has so many blankets and pillows. I found it amusing that one person had so many of them. And not only did she have them, but the fact that she had them all in her bedroom. I knew at some point I would be using this little fact to my advantage and not just because that would probably be what was to be my bed for a while.
We both laid down and got ready to sleep the best we could in the situation. And just as I was about to close my eyes she said, "Jesper,..... Um I know you probably have your own motivations for doing this, but I just wanted to say thank you. I-I know that I haven't made this easy for you guys, but thanks for trying to protect me even if we aren't sure if there is a threat or why I was attacked and nearly abducted in the first place. So, uh goo night." she the just rolled over and put her back to me before I could even respond.
It was adorable. That feeling I had been feeling from the very moment I heard her scream the first time, was blooming in my chest no matter how hard I was fighting it. I didn't want to feel anything for her. I just wanted to make sure she was safe and not have to worry about true mates or love or anything. It was bad enough that Balthy was on my tail about all of those things, but I couldn't deal with my own emotions turning on me. My fear was what would happen if the girl who lay sleeping peacefully on mere feet away from me started in on the same things. We went to sleep and started what would become the routine for the next two weeks.
Each day we would get up early and I would sneak out the apartment building. I would follow her from class to class and to the activities she had and her job, by the way she is the cutest little cashier ever, and when she wasn't doing any of those things she would come with me to the pack house. It's funny because over the course of the two weeks she got comfortable with the rest of the pack and got closer to all of us. She even ended up with her own room, for the weekends she just didn't want to go back on. Which was both weekends.
One day in particular while we were sitting in the living room in the pack house she was curled up adorably (hey what can I say the girl is growing on me) on a chaise reading for one of her classes and I was watching some show. We were just chilling and in bursts in Emilia. "Where's Balthazar!" she says urgently. "Chill, Emmy he went out to run some errands, why what's going on?" I say calmly. "The witches have gotten back to me and they need to meet up with him and Lou as soon as possible. They are in a flurry right now and it worries me what that could possibly mean. Plus, I know that Balthazar wanted to know about this as soon as possible." She says nervously. I feel the worry coming off of her in waves. The entire time Louvenia just looks curious as to what is going on.
She gets a weird look in her eyes and then she says, "why would they want to see me, I know I am a sort of enigma to you guys, but am I really that big of a deal to you guys?"
"Well I am not sure but it seems like the witches think so and based off of that we need to be cautious, especially since we already know that the hunters have their eyes on you and have no idea why." Emilia says calmly realizing that in freaking out about this she is thus freaking out poor Louvenia. Finally understanding what that weird look in Louvenia's eye is uncertainty,
I walk over and wrap my arms around her and at first she stiffens as if she is shocked by the contact. Seconds later she melts in my arms and returns the hug. "Thank you. Through this all you guys have been here for me. And even though it has only been two weeks for some reason I feel so safe and at home with the pack. I don't get it why is this all happening-" Louvenia starts to rant, but before she can go into full panic, I stop her, "Shhh, Shhh calm down we don't need you having another episode or else I am going to think you just really want to stay in my arms but don't want to admit it."
She squirms at my statement but stays there and somehow wiggles to cuddle closer. "Ha ha, it's not my fault you are so cuddly or that I always seem to be panicking when you are there. Anyways, thank you again." She says with a laugh. I know that once again that she is putting on a brave face. I knew she was acting to calm about this whole thing.
This entire time she has been trying to stay strong and keep a brave face, but what she showed us earlier in that quick slip into panic mode was definitely how she feels on the inside. I pull her into my lap and hug her closer to me and she squeaks. I look down at her with a smile on my face to see a blush has dusted across her cheeks. I know she knows she's blushing and the best part is that instead of looking away shyly she glares at me and I can't help but laugh harder.
Just as I am dying from laughter I hear the door and in comes Balthazar. He sees the scene in front of him and smirks. "What is going on in here. I mean while hate to see you guys cuddling without me, it is strange to see poor Louvenia with such a look on her face." says Balthazar. Louvenia only blushes harder at his comment, which part I have no idea. She removes herself from my arms and sits up straight trying not to make eye contact with either of us, but still stays in my lap. This makes my wolf grumble in contentment. I can't help but smirk.
Clearing her throat, which kind of startled me because I forgot she was there, Emilia goes on to tell Balthazar everything she told us earlier. As soon as Balthazar heard all of it he immediately went into alpha mode.
"Okay, when are we supposed to meet them?" Balthazar said immediately taking charge of the situation. "They said soon as possible but I can see if they have a specific time that works" Emilia says. "That would be helpful Emmy. Thanks." Balthazar said. Emilia got up and started to walk towards her room and says, "I'll go see to that right now."
"Okay Emmy. Thank you and you can relax now. At least we have a chance to figure this whole thing out right?" Balthazar says calmingly, even though I can see the stress coming off of him in waves.
Emilia nods and continues on out of the room.
Balthazar makes his way over to us and sits down on an arm chair nearby. "Louvenia at this moment I have no idea when the witches are going to want to meet us. Most likely it will be at night and at that point you are normally over here anyways, but I think it would best if you stay over here until we go to see them. Especially because I have a bad feeling about this and what this could mean. This is a very important meeting for all of us, especially you because this may answer all of you questions that have come up from all of this." he states.
Louvenia merely nods and gets a very pensive look in her eyes. I am shocked that she hasn't even put up an ounce of pushback. I look deeper into her eyes and for a moment I am confused, what could possibly be going on in her head at this instance. I reach to shake her and right before I touch her she shakes out of it and says, "Sorry, I spaced, but I think I got the gist of what is going on." I couldn't help but chuckle and was rewarded with a glare from both of them.
"Anyways, now that you are back with us I hope I can answer any questions you have about what is going on and what this means for you in the next upcoming days," Balthazar says. "I-I do have a few questions." Louvenia says tentatively. "Okay, lay them on me." he says and I know he is trying to make her as comfortable with this situation as she can be in unfamiliar territory. Then she launches into a thousand questions, and I can't even keep up and from Balthazar's face he can't either. "And what am I supposed to say in greeting-"
"Whoa, whoa slow down there Lou. I can't answer your questions if I have no idea what they are, okay!" Balthazar cuts her off and I groan. I know that this is going to be a while and know this is the best time for me to make my exit since she will be with Balthazar and we are kind of still on rocky terms right now. I know, I now it has been two weeks, but I just still can't deal with how all of this makes me feel and I don't want to.
I shift Louvenia from my lap as gently as I can. Hey I can be a jerk and a goofball, but I am still a gentleman. "Since you guys are playing 120 questions I will be heading to my room to take a nap while I have the chance. Come and get me Lou when you are ready to go back to your place, kay?" I say as I make my way out of the room and I just barely see her nod before she launches back into her questions for Balthazar.
It makes me even happier that I am not him with the amount and specificness of the questions she is asking. I could already feel the headache forming from what this trip to the local witches will cost me. That is especially since I am well known as a player by both the men and women of that coven, so I might not be welcomed by everyone with welcome arms. What can I say, I get bored.
I head to my room and lay down for my nap and I try to clear my thoughts and slowly drift to sleep and as a result the last thing I think about before I am unconscious is Louvenia and Balthazar and it scares me.
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Hunter
We had been following her for the past two weeks and there was never an opportunity to get even remotely close to her. All I wanted to do was fix everything, but I know that this is the lot we were dealt. I have no clue what my mother wants with Louvenia, but I do know that the only way I can even begin to redeem myself is by finding a way to get her and bring her back to the headquarters a.k.a. my parents' house or in this case it's more like a castle.
I think the worst part isn't that I am hunting her down, but that they won't let me do it alone. Diana is with me all the time now just waiting for me to slip up. Why she is part of this lets all gang up on Hunter bandwagon I will never know, but she is really worse than she has ever been lately. She is constantly on my case and permanently ready to snap at me.
The main problem really is that I don't really have much of a chance right now. Not because Louvenia has probably going to kill me the next time she sees me or that Diana is in the way (because she would never be), but because she had a pack of guard dogs now and they never leave her side. They even go out of their way, as if they know we are following them, to go back ways and random routes so we can't follow them wherever it is they go when they aren't on campus, at her job or even when her place. I have no chance because of the way it is such tight ship. Every once and a while I see more than one dog and I am almost certain one of them is the one of the ones who stopped me before.
Now I am sitting in my car near her apartment with my sister, just waiting for Louvenia to show up and considering she has a class at 7:15 am. And no I am not a weirdo who has her schedule down, well maybe I am, but more of that has to do with me being a hunter rather than a weirdo. I know mostly because I was actually a pretty good boyfriend, if I do say so myself, and actually listened (mostly) whenever she would complain about having such an early class and how morning people will forever be the bane of her existence.
"Are you sure she is even going to be here; she may be taking a skip day like a normal college student." Diana says annoyed, never actually looking at me and her eyes searching like a hawk for any sign of Louvenia.
"I am sure, Louvenia never misses a class, but when she does it is only for a super important reason like the world is ending, fire raining from the sky, or jury duty." I quip back. "Jury duty?"
"Yeah, jury duty, you can go to jail or get a fine if you don't go." I explain to her, not really understanding her confusion.
"I know that, moron. I just was confused why that is up there with the end of the world and fiery rain. Actually, you know what, no, don't even bother explaining what goes through that pea sized thing between your ears, you call a brain. Just stop with the useless drabble. That is probably what got you into this and forced me to have to cl--" Diana stops midsentence, while she was getting riled up and her face was getting angrier and angrier with me, now the look on her face is almost pleased as something catches her eye outside of the car. I am about to question what is going on, but she beats me to the catch. "Well, Well, well look what we have here I guess you're not completely useless, brother." she says with a bit of a chuckle.
She opens the door and I grab her arm "Where are you going?" she looks at me as if I am clueless.
"I am going to go follow them because we are obviously getting nowhere sitting in this car." she says. "Plus, I have a feeling this may be the best time to do this."
So following her lead, we approach Louvenia's apartment building.
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Louvenia
Jesper and I were back at my apartment and something told new this time not to leave him behind. So for the first time I didn't sneak him into my apartment. I instead, I decided to bring him into my apartment to introduce him to my roommates as the new guy I am dating because it had been enough time and to be not look weird that I was dating so soon. Plus, they were pushing me to get back out there and I kind of felt bad. I was forcing Jesper to protect me under my terms, not theirs.
Which I know for a fact made them nervous. Especially because they had no control over these things. I should have been more gracious about all of this. And don't get me wrong I am supremely grateful for the fact that they are taking me into their pack and not putting me in a holding cell. So I decided that I would start to make small concessions gradually to them and this one would be the start.
So as he prepares to stay outside, I pull him along and say, "What are you doing?"
"I was-"
"No, you are coming with me. I think it is time you have met the girls. They have been wondering where I have been lately. I think we should be grateful that Maura didn't call my parents. If that happened then, we would definitely have some issues." I started to ramble as we kept going to stop him from responding or truly reacting.
We reach my apartment and it is just our luck that the girls are all there watching Cupcake Wars. As we enter all of their eyes are on us simultaneously.
I could feel Jesper tense for just a split second behind me before he steps out from behind me and put on that charming smile of his that made me feel something I wasn't quite sure I even wanted to identify. He walked into the apartment and waves to them. "Hi, I'm Jessie. I have heard so much about all of you from Lou." He starts to point to them and identifying them like its nothing, and I am pretty sure it is by using his werewolf sense of smell.
They are unsure of what to make of him so I jump in.
"So, this is the new guy I have been seeing." which isn't a complete lie because I have been seeing quite a lot of him.
"We just stopped by because I need to grab a few things. Come on Jesper." I turn and start heading to my room, knowing that he will follow me.
"Let me just grab my laptop and some clothes and stuff. How much do you thing I will need?" I ask Jesper.
"I don't think you will need too much just pack for the week and if you forget anything you know we can make sure to get it for you, it's not as if we can't come back for it or buy you what you need."
"Okay then pack the essentials and then some is what you are saying. Kay"
I start to pack my things and I suddenly remember to something, "Crap I am going to have to email my professors about the classes I am missing and I need to make sure I tell Maura something to make sure she doesn't think you are kidnapping me, and I need to make sure that-"
"Louvenia stop. Calm down we can help you with all of this don't worry too much. I know I give good hugs, but I think the last thing you need is another panic attack, especially now. Let me help you pack and then we can go tell Maura something and go back to the house okay." all I can do is nod to his little talk me off the ledge moment.
I take a deep breath and set him to help me finish packing which didn't take long and wouldn't have taken long if it was just me anyways.
As we are just finishing up Jesper looks over at the pictures of my family and picks one up of me with my mom, dad, and brother. My mom with her light skin that could pass for pretty much anything even though both her parents are black like my father's. My father being of a darker complexion and is shades darker than mine own like my brother's is. And all of them are giants compared to me. And No I am not adopted before I could even go that route I remembered the videos and pictures or every part of my life from birth to now.
"Have you talked to your family lately?" he asked. "Yes, I talk to my family at least once a week. We are kind of close." I retort. I then go on to say before he can ask, "And before you start, I have subtly inquired and pulled up nothing strange about my family, except that I have a great aunt on my dad's side who apparently dabbled into voodoo and hoodoo. Which I think we're good to keep away from. Plus, I doubt, considering the way that my family is super tight that they could hide that much from me. I don't know if you can tell but I tend to be a little too curious for my own good."
He puts the photo back and says, "You ready?" I nod and we grab my stuff and I knock on Maura's door. "Come in" she says through the door.  "Hey, Mar something's come up and I probably won't be around. I just wanted to let you know that-" "It's not because of him is it?" she interrupts me and nods towards Jesper. I know for a fact that even though he is waiting in the hall way and a normal person wouldn't be able to, he can hear everything we are saying.
"No, Mar it is not because of him, well it is and it isn't and before you can even try to say you think I am getting in too deep to quickly after he who shall never be named again. Stop. You know me I am too responsible and sensible to do something stupid like let a guy control me and block me off from my friends."
"I know, but-"
"No, buts Mar, we both know that I would never let anything of the sort happen. Something happened with his family and I am going with him for emotional support." Funny thing is I should feel bad for lying to Maura, but in reality everything that I have said to her and the girls have been the truth with a little bit of a spin on it.
Maura looks into my eyes really hard one more time and gets up and gives me a big hug. "I know we have both been really busy lately, but I still care and I just wanted to make sure you weren't doing anything stupid because of he who shall never be named again. Well, since I know you are going to do this no matter what I say, have a nice trip. And she shouts to the hall way, "You better take good care of her you hear!" Jesper pops his head into the door way and says, "Ma'am, yes ma'am," he says jokingly with a salute included. I start to chuckle at his goofiness and even Maura smirks at him while trying to maintain the stern look.
I hug her one last time tell her I will see her when I get back and we head to car with my stuff.
As we are putting my stuff in my car, I see a blur before I hear Jesper shout, "Louvenia, get back into the apartment! NOW!"
Before I can even react I feel someone grab my arm. At first I think that it is Hunter, but at second glance I see that it is a girl. One who just happens to look a lot like Hunter.
Hunter is fighting with Jesper. I from that I will not be getting any help from him. I know that if this girl is a hunter like Hunter, that chances are that if I try to fight her that I will lose. I try to pull away and she holds fast. I struggle, but she holds steadfast. I hear a yelp and I panic and as thins happens something strange happens and I feel a strange tingle down my spine.
The huntress yelps and let's go of my hands and immediately let's go like I burned her.
She looks at me and fear and starts to slowly back away from me and I start to notice a purple mist engulfing me and I can' help but stare at it in amazement. Everyone around me stops and I turn to look at Hunter and Jesper. I see Jesper on the ground, breathing labored and Hunter looking back and forth between Jesper and me, uncertain. Something inside me starts to guide my actions and I start to control the mist. Using the mist, I collect the two hunters up and sent them flying the power I had in my control was dizzying.
Once I had the hunters out of the way I went towards Jesper and the mist engulfed him. The wounds on him started to fade and I ran my hands through his fur and he turned back to a human and he was healed.
Once Jesper was healed I noticed I saw a car coming towards us. It stopped and as I saw Balthazar run towards me everything went black. The last thing I heard was my name on Balthazar's lips.
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Thanks for reading guys sorry about the delay working in the next chapter right now. Hope you enjoyed this chapter please add, fav, comment, whatever. I would love to hear from you guys.
-CoralReef