The Taint of Wolves

A Morning of Sunlight

He looked like he wanted to ask or say more, but the tension growing in the hall was obvious. "Follow me."

It was another hallway in this twisting house of carpeted floors and empty walls. There were no pictures on the wall. "That's the hall where Darren and Sunny stay. And Blav stays down that hallway there – tucked in the corner because his snoring would wake the dead."

"Earbuds work wonders." I shot back.

"That they do," He stopped in front of a darker corridor, his jaw tense. "There is just one bedroom down here and the bathroom is across the hall. If you like the room, I will have someone come and prepare it for you."

"Thank you," I approached the door. "I'm no good at dressing beds. I tend to shred the sheets."

I didn't miss his shaky breath, glancing back at him in confusion. He looked visibly pained – must love his damn sheets.

I popped open the door. The room wasn't half of the size of the last room – a cosy little thing where the floorboards were exposed, but the square window overlooked a corner of his massive garden. The walls had been painted a soft yellow, and one side was painted with a mural of flowers- reds, oranges and golds all twisted together. On another, one section had been painted with tall pines and then, a dragon of crimson and gold twisted along the yellow wall.

"It's a bit of a mess," He told me, watching as I drew a hand down the dark wood of the poster-bed. "Nothing matches, but I used it as a practice room for the other's bedrooms."

He had painted stars on the ceiling. Lazy stars that held no definition, but sat as blurred brushes, scattering wild and free.

"Who wanted the dragon?" I cleared my throat, drawing my attention away from the night sky.

He propped his shoulder against the door frame, smiling at the painting fondly. "Sunny. She's obsessed with them."

"And the trees?"

"For Blav. He didn't like the pines in the end, so I painted an oak tree on his wall. And snuck a few flowers on it."

I wanted to ask about the stars, but instead said, "You're very talented." What had I ever created that was this beautiful? I had only ever destroyed and brutalised.

His cheeks darkened. "Thank you. You can take this room if you like until I get the other one painted over."

"No – I like it here." I turned to face him fully, "Nothing matches and everything is just colour and light. That's right down my alley."

"Then it's yours." His tone was warm and I was reminded of mornings that I had spent wandering, lost but delighted to bask into the sun that freckled my cheeks. I stared at him for a beat too long, disconnected. Suspicious. This male didn't fit in with my idea of the Alpha Supreme, or even of my ideal of the male who had torn into my throat all those years ago.

It was like, we had switched positions somehow. I was brutality and vicious wildness and he was just a man who painted and drank too sweet coffee.

But, I didn't know him.

And he didn't know me.

We could have been bigger monsters than either of us realised.

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I was glad for my private corridor when my dreams brought me to a white-walled room with leather around my wrists and a bit shoved into my mouth.

Doc-Mai lingered in the corner as lightening consumed me and I screamed into the bit, back arching. I woke in a dark room, blinking rapidly. My night-clothes stuck to me but I was careful with my leg as I reached for the light-switch.