Wolf’s Bane

The first, very light vibration of his cell phone that rested on the nightstand had awakened Hiromoto, who stealthily moved out of the bed and sneaked out of the house, taking with him one of the light bed sheets that slipped to the floor during his night ‘activities’ so he could wrap his naked body.

He quickly twisted it around his waist, allowing a full view of his muscular upper torso, and then he sat up on the porch swing where he thought he wouldn’t be heard.

The morning breeze played with his hair, arranging and rearranging it, bringing the smell of soil wet with the night dew to him and deeply relaxing him.

For a moment, while he felt the few first rays of sun on his skin, he smiled.

A light of hope sparkled in him during those mornings when he could be nothing but a loving husband in a farmhouse, far away from the city and its noise.

The phone rang for the fifth time, and then he answered to the well-known name that was flashing on the screen.

“Good morning, bro, hope you’ve had an easy night,” Virgil greeted his long-time friend with a smile on his face that could be heard through the other side of the line.

Virgil was cheery as well. That’s the usual happy-go-lucky way he woke up every morning that followed the date night with his beloved mate.

He had been awake for just about five minutes, and covered his nudity with a light robe, so he could lazily walk to the balcony of the bedroom while looking at the canopied bed where his mate still tried to catch a few more minutes of sleep.

She turned her body, allowing her mate a full view of her bare back, down to her rounded butt cheeks as the silky white sheets slipped from her body. He smiled widely, feeling his morning mood asking for attention while he made a call that he was actually happy to make…

Even if he was hungry.This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

If the small plan that he and his friend had ended up with their expected outcome, then they could move on to bigger plans with total freedom.

That could also mean that the two Organization heads could be having the last few minutes of peace and quiet that could be easily seen as the peace right before the storm.

But that wasn’t a problem.

They would gladly go through the storm to keep the people who mattered the most to them safe, comfortable and happy.

Speaking of being happy…

“You sound happy, I guess you had a good night. Then that makes two of us. I’m still at the farm, but I’m not completely comfortable staying and risking the Arger who might come looking for me, or leaving when they do come to look for me and find Alicia and the kids.”

“Say no more.” V’s grin grew bigger. “I talked to Helena last night. She agreed to go and talk to Alicia. We’ll go pay a visit later today. She was actually kind of surprised when I told her that you suggested it. I guess she remembers well the day she met you,” V said with a chuckle.

“Excellent news, bro. I can’t remember being so happy to see anyone other than my mate, ever. And yeah… I think that was enough experience, for me, and for Alicia… Your mate can talk to walls, bro.”

“I know, she’s awesome, but damn… Ouch, bro, that hurt… you mean that you don’t feel happy to see me!? Sheesh! … you’re a cold bastard.”

“Relax Camden, you’ve always known that I like you, but not that much,” the Ogre said, with an evident smile in his face, that weird, uncommon happening that was more usual with the Camden Clan brothers, with whom he had the best childhood memories.

As well as the most painful…

Whatever he remembered from that time, they would always be there…

+++

Back then, when his parents were alive, Hero would beg for them to join their pack. Virgil, Eron, and even Henkjan have mentioned the possibility to Hero’s parents, but they were never convinced.

Pack life didn’t seem so promising for them, even if they were practically part of SilverClaw already anyway, with both of them working for the SC Business Conglomerate and visiting or even staying at the packhouse more and more often, due to the frequent slumber parties that the three children had and the tight friendship between Eline Camden, the Luna of the pack that Virgil resembled so much with her deep blue eyes and dark blond hair, and Hiromoto’s mother, Bianca, a tall, beautiful lady with natural strawberry blond hair and hazel eyes that looked a lot more like Eron’s mother than Hero’s.

They joked about that often, that H and Virgil looked more like biological brothers – and acted as such, in their playing and their fighting – and Eron looked more like the beloved visitor’s best friend.

Especially true when Eron’s bond with Mrs. Bianca Konig grew tighter and he would run to her when the two older kids would go on “missions” and, from time to time, unintentionally forgetting about him.

Mrs. Konig would hug the young boy and take her time to sit and play with him.

On some of those occasions, both Eline and Bianca would play with Eron, especially hide and seek, which was one of his favorite games.

Eline would laugh about the resemblance her friend and her youngest child had, as the three boys grew up together, and the two ladies became closer and closer.

“Hey Eron, it’s Hero!” Virgil called his younger brother when their friend finally called. They had been waiting for hours for the arrival of their friend and were starting to get worried, even Virgil had called him a few times already. “H, when are you co-”

“V… they’re gone,” was heard on the other side of the line.

Virgil noticed the distressed tone in Hero’s voice, but could not understand what happened, even if he started to feel his insides knotting tightly.

“What? Who’s gone? What are you talking about? Aren’t you coming here today? We’re all waiting for you,” the older brother would say to his friend then, not understanding what he was telling him.

“They’re dead…”

Virgil felt a tight twisting in his chest.

“What is he saying? Why haven’t they arrived?” Eron whispered, getting closer as soon as he noticed the pale, ashen look on his always-collected older brother’s face.

“Where are you?” was the only coherent thing that Virgil managed to say at the moment.

“There was an accident… They… they were coming to pick me up at a classmate’s house. They dropped me off because I had a class project with him, but when I called to let them know that we already finished and I was going to the packhouse on my own, they said they’d come get me. I insisted they didn’t have to, that I was old enough to go to your house alone… they fought me, so I waited for them… I was called by the hospital an hour later… they said that mom and dad were injured, and I got here as soon as I could… but they… they… didn’t wait for me…”

Hero was obviously toughening himself up, holding on so he would not break there, while he was all alone…

Alone. He had no one left after what happened…

“Wait there. Will see you in ten minutes.”

Teen Virgil ended the call and ran to his mother, with Eron still closely following, trying to ask more about what was happening.

When Virgil told his mother, it was very easy to see how close they all were.

V was cold, and collected, acting as the circumstances required. His seriousness and controlled reactions were as expected, after years of training had taught him already, yet, the worry could be seen through his ’emergency mode’ while Eron looked, and felt like a grenade had just exploded near him. He could hear nothing and the world became a blur of confusion and pain.

He saw his mother getting up from her chair and walking with Virgil, but he couldn’t follow them anymore.

It felt like it was his own parents who had had the accident.

He knew his friend needed him, but at the moment it was impossible for him to think and feel at the same time.

Besides, he had Virgil.

Not long after, the helicopter would leave the helipad at the packhouse and would arrive at the hospital where Hero was. Eline took care of all the paperwork and payments, while V took care of H.

Those were very difficult days.

Hero was taken to the packhouse for a while, and Henkjan took him in as his own son, back then, when he was still a caring father and a loving mate. He also took care of every detail of the funeral in the traditional way of the pack, with all the honours that higher-ranking members of their Clan had.

But the pain never left Hero. If anything, it kept growing bigger, hardening the young man and making him bitter. Then one morning, when Eron went to look for him in his room, he was gone, and a few labelled envelopes rested on his desk.

“A man does what he thinks he has to do,” Henkjan would say back then, in understanding, after reading the letter that was left for him.

Eron and V kept looking for their missing friend, but there was no trace of him. Both kids would see him again until that day when he would show up with a feral human mate who demanded to be transformed into a Werewolf.