The Victorian Wolf Effect (Book III)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - Stalker

"This is so frustrating! You could have at least done something!"

Kendra, Lilly, Bates, and Timber were at Timber's home that Saturday. They were all sitting at the dining room table with mismatched mugs of hot apple cider and plates of spiced molasses cookies. They were supposed to be getting work done on their group project but as Lilly suspected, Bates had done practically nothing. He provided a link that he had copied and pasted into Word and printed. It wasn't in English. When Bates went to the restroom, Timber put the link into her computer. She closed her laptop immediately.

"What is it?" asked Lilly.

"Naked people," said Timber in disgust.

"Ewe!" cried Kendra. "Ewe! Ewe! Ewe! Ewe! Ewe! Ewe!"

"No wonder he looks at girls the way he does!" said Lilly.

Bates came back into the room with an air of just having done something he shouldn't have been doing but being proud of it. Being an animal, Timber could smell the hormones. She knew exactly what had just happened in her bathroom. She needed backup.

"Is anyone still hungry?" Timber offered.

"I am," said Kendra.

"I could eat more," said Lilly.

"I'll get some more food," said Timber before Bates could respond.

She went through the kitchen and out to the backyard where Dresden and Henry were enjoying a beer and talking.

"Henry, we need Bates gone."

"Why?" he asked.

"He gave us one link for the project. It was a website full of naked people. Then he violated our bathroom and now I need to disinfect it about a million times. He's making us all uncomfortable. Can you get him to leave?"

"Done," said Henry. "Dresden?"

"I think pervert chasing sounds like fun."

The men got to their feet. Henry grabbed his empty beer can and led the way inside. Bates had never seen Henry before but when he did, he looked intimidated. He tried to cover it up.

"So you think you're funny," said Henry, "giving the girls a link to porn?"

"Turn them on a little bit? Pretty smooth, right?"

"Pretty stupid," said Dresden.

"Get out. You aren't welcome in my home again," said Henry.

He easily crushed the beer can with an expression of open violence on his face. Dresden flexed his muscles and growled low. They both took a step toward Bates. He got to his feet.

"I get it! I'll go!"

He hurriedly gathered his stuff and left. The group watched him leave. The girls sighed in relief and thanked the guys.

"Mr. Santelli," said Lilly.

"Henry is fine, Lilly. I'm not your teacher anymore."

"Right. Henry. Thanks for getting rid of him. You're scary, you know that, right?"

"I know."

"It's one of the many reasons why I love him," said Timber fondly.

"Wait, what?" said Henry.

"You're my knight in shining armor," said Timber, which made Dresden burst into laughter.

"OK, for the record, I'm a soldier, not a knight, thank you very much."

"Sure you're a soldier for everyone else, but you're a knight to me."

Henry shrugged in defeat.

"You're a soldier? What branch?" asked Lilly.