Wolf’s Bane

“My… mate?”

Comfortably reclined in the bathtub, with some soft instrumental music as a background, Helena was still very much focused on that moment when she saw her man for the first time, so handsome, so sweet, that she couldn’t help but smile and allow herself to relax and continue to remember.

+++

“Well… yeah… I know that you’re aware you’re a werewolf, of course, because I…” he had to stop himself once again from telling her that the application on SilverClaw Enterprises was reviewed by him since he was the one who was going to be her boss, and he didn’t think she would be the type to like that sort of approach…

“Can you imagine, V? Day one at work, she stays at the office door, looks at you and sniffs, then turns back and leaves. We can’t let that happen,” Kodan had convinced him of that.

“I could bet our tail, bro, she won’t like that kind of story… Besides, look at her, I don’t believe she’s looking for a job because she needs the money…” the wolf said, literally making young Virgil unceremoniously scan the lady that was being interviewed not far from where they were standing, her smell still intoxicating them, as they looked, almost hypnotized, at her. From head to toe her clothes were Italian signature, and a couple of inches of slits on both sides of her pencil skirt, which wasn’t even short, made them drool like they were poisoned.

“Kodan, since when, my dear wolf, do you have any knowledge of women?” Virgil said, making an effort to control himself.

“Virgil, she’s not just any woman, she’s our mate! I can feel her… remember the mate bond?”

“Okay, okay, Mr. Brainy… I hope you have a plan…”

“Don’t worry, I do,” his wolf assured him. “I always do…”

And Virgil trusted the plan until he was standing at the door of the large Altieri house, listening to his future mother-in-law, or who he hoped would be, yell at his mate to come downstairs because a guy she’d never seen before, but who had scanned her over already, was at the door.

“Damn you, Kodan… What the hell was I thinking?” V told his wolf while looking at the awkward scene unfold in front of him.

“Trust me, okay? Aren’t you the powerful Alpha of the infamous SilverClaw Pack? The next leader of the Camden clan?”

“No… You know father is still unsure… even if my brother and I keep trying our best to please him, he’s still unsure of us. Even unsure of me if I should receive the title, and that’s after he’s trained me for that role during my entire lifetime… Eron will be 18 next month, and father’s expectations of him are now very high… Kodan, I feel father changing… he’s not the same man that I knew when we were kids…”

But right then and there, the young lady that was his mate finally came downstairs and looked at him, and he felt an almost magnetic impulse to go to her, hug her, and never let her go.

An impulse he did his best to resist… especially since she didn’t look like she felt the same for him.

And all that passed through Virgil’s mind that very second, and he had to stop before telling her how he got to know about her…

But sitting in her living room, face to face, a few inches from each other, she was looking at him like he was a creep who bribed his way to get her personal information.

“Helena, I… damn…okay, you know what? The best thing I can do is to come clean… my wolf made me rehearse all my lines, but I don’t think that would work,” he said, throwing his act to the winds.NôvelDrama.Org exclusive content.

He was not good at acting, but that actually worked to his advantage because his admission earned the first smile from her. It was that kind of smile that he would keep making constant efforts to get from her through the years.

“Rehearse? Why would you need something like that?”

“I know, right?” was V’s answer, more towards his wolf than to her… “But ok… I’ll… tell you this… as I should have from the beginning… I am Virgil Camden, the oldest son of Alpha Henkjan Camden, leader of the Clan Camden in SilverClaw’s pack. I saw you at the company because I have a position there, and I would have been your boss. My wolf Kodan said you wouldn’t like to find out that your boss is your mate, so he convinced me to pay you a visit and tell you that you’re our mate first. And I think… that’s all I can… say for now…”

She stayed speechless once again, sitting by his side and looking at him with a puzzled expression.

“I think I’ll have to thank your wolf,” she finally said after an eternal pause that almost killed Virgil. “It was a very good assessment, I gotta say… I’m Helena Altieri. I’m Italian, and we left our pack for a simpler life when I was just a baby, so I really don’t know anything about pack life. For some reason, my parents don’t talk too much about it, not even when teaching me about celebrations and history, or while explaining to me what we are… by the way, isn’t it true that an Alpha is usually paired with a very strong and prepared female? I mean, I don’t see myself like that.”

“Depends on the pack. Some Alphas do get married out of convenience, some for money, some to join the packs… but I found my mate… I’m 22 and I didn’t get married before, for any of those reasons. I hope I’m not being too forward, but I’m really happy that I found you, mate…”

And there were hardly any more honest words than those he said.

She smiled widely at him, who seemed to be as happy as a puppy who had seen his owner and was wiggling his tail at them.

His eyes shone bright, and only by her mere existence, he felt proud of who she was.

His father would have his doubts about her, and the fact that she was not even aware of a Luna’s duties to her pack. But that was a very different story…