The Crimson Coat

Locker Lust

CHAPTER 6

SETH'S P.O.V

I don’t raise the subject of Stella with Leon for the next few days.  She promised to behave, although a promise of Stella’s can never be ensured to count for much.  I decide to give her a chance, thus avoiding conflict with the pack.  She doesn’t deserve the courtesy but I haven’t been in a mood to deal with it all lately.

The run-in I had with Red did not go down well.  My exhaustion and curiosity overtook my common sense.  In my right mind I wouldn’t have entered that house unless I was 100% per cent (and then some) sure that no one lived there.  The second I realised that the place looked used, I should have bolted.  Instead, I dozed off on the couch.  Could I have been any more careless? 

I paid for it the next morning with a green and blue bruise blooming on my calf.  That coffee table sure was solid. 

With both hands I push against the frame of my bed and lever myself onto two feet.  Rubbing my face with the palms of my hands, I bring myself fully out of slumber.  A blast of frosty air burrows into my thin tee and I whirl to see that somehow my window had been left open.  I stagger over and bring the glass down with a snap, latching it shut. 

First day of school.  Term One.  Joy.  Groaning outwardly, I trudge downstairs where I meet the rest of the pack in the kitchen. 

The first thing that hits me is a smell that almost has drool spilling over my lips.  Stella is wolfing down (pun not intended) a plate of crispy meat alongside Julian who is doing the same.  Smears of grease sit at the corner of their mouths while they shove piece after piece down their throat.  Sage is idly playing with his food while his attention remains in the book he has held up to his eyes.  Rhett pokes the meat with his long, dark fingers before finally admitting defeat and nibbling at it.  A smile spreads across his face and he clamps his teeth down, tearing a chuck away, his jaws chewing at rapid pace.  Leon is bent over the stove with a pan of the stuff sizzling over heat.

“What are we having?” I ask, rubbing my hands together in anticipation.

“It’s called-” Leon begins.

“Heaven,” Stella finishes, cutting him off.  Several small lumps of meat fly from her lips as she speaks, having not yet swallowed her mouthful. 

“Bacon,” Leon clarifies, “it’s pig.”

With a raised eyebrow I lick my lips, pulling up a seat next to Sage.  He doesn’t register my presence as Leon slips me a plate piled with bacon.  My hunger prevents me from hesitating.  I grasp a strip and taste it. 

“Why is this the first time we’ve had this?” I ask accusingly.

“I didn’t want us to rely on human food bought at the market, Seth,” Leon drops another handful into the pan before turning around, “if we become accustomed to not having to work for our fill we’ll loose the motivation to hunt.  The hunt is what makes us who we are and in future I want us to remember how to feed ourselves.”

I nod absentmindedly, following Stella’s lead by shovelling food into my open muzzle.  Leon lifts the pan from the flame of the stove. 

“Third helpings anyone?”

***

I jog to my beat up Camaro and clamber into the front seat.  Stella takes shotgun, and I almost pull out of the driveway before Julian jumps in the back.  With us being the only ones in the pack who still attend school, I throw the car into reverse and back away from the tree line until I hit the dirt driveway.