Well, THAT was a bad idea, Dominic thought to himself once all was said and done.
Dominic put on his clothes in a mad, furious haste with intent to pursue the younger boy. Who knew that humans could be so fast when they wanted to be? He didn't have a chance - by the time he shift, Liam was out the door, screaming like a nine-year-old girl who watched "The Exorcist" thanks in part to her snotty older sister. It didn't help that he screamed out "holy shit, he's a wolf, he's a freakin' wolf" over and over again before stealing away into the neighborhood.
He was pretty sure that the neighbors would pay no mind to it, but still - privacy was very sacred to a werewolf, especially in the city.
Dominic was beside himself with worry, wondering if he'd done the right thing. Unlike his dear loba he'd never been uneasy about being a wolf. So when Liam questioned it, he had no trouble showing him the truth. But now, he couldn't help but wonder if he was being too cocky. Yes, he carried his mate's scent within his nostril and he would no double be able to track him, but that didn't mean Liam would want to be found easily.
This was definitely a case of when keeping it real goes terribly wrong.
I wish I could call Georgia right now, he thought sadly as he headed to his car. He'd been meaning to tell Georgia the truth, but he'd never gotten around to it. He was just so happy to be blessed with a mate, really, and she'd been busy with her own mate, getting closer and closer to him with each passing day no doubt. And then there was the little fact that his mate just happened to be the roommate of her mate. He knew that fact would not sit well with Georgia - it was pretty freaky after all - and really, he wanted Liam to himself for a while. But as calmness gave way to anxiety and fear, Dominic felt even further alienated from his friend, the friend he needed so badly right now...
No - don't be a bitch about this, Dominic scolded himself, nodding in resolve. You just need to go out and find him, and when you do, you need to make it up to him. He needs to understand, but you also need to understand that this won't be easy for him.
Whatever happened, Dominic just hoped that at the end of the day, he'd get those pets somehow.
------
This...was going to be a problem.
For Julian, it was one thing to be turned on by the sight of Georgia in nothing but a bra and panties. It was something very to see her completely dressed save for her bare arms uncovered by layered tanks of white and gray yet still wanting to carry her into the bedroom with the intent of doing very naughty things.
Who needed pornography when watching a woman tidy up her house elicited the same reaction?
God, did she have to be beautiful all the time? He was going to need to see an optometrist if this kept up. He found it difficult to keep his eyes off her, and sometimes he stared at her so hard it hurt and her vision gave way to stark whiteness temporarily. But he couldn't help himself. He craved seeing her any chance he got, and it filled him with elation knowing that she chose him, and he would never be without her. Living with her for the past week only exacerbated this feeling. Now that he'd come home to her, picked up the house with her, woke up in the morning with her, and fell asleep beside her, he didn't know how he could ever return to that apartment of his.
It was all happening so fast but he knew that he never wanted to be without her. Hell, he felt like he couldn't be without her - it would be too hard.
The wildness inside him, the beast with passionate urges that he never realized he had until the night he felt compelled to bite her on the neck, absolutely refused to leave this place. The beast's possessiveness toward Georgia would not allow for them to be apart. In its mind, she belonged to him and no one else, and its duty was to protect her and to give her everything she needed. Whenever Julian caught sight of the mark he gave her, the feelings intensified. Georgia turned out to be right - the mark was permanent and refused to go away. This pleased the wildness - the mark showed the world that she was bonded to him and would never be bonded to anyone else.
The feelings troubled and excited him all at once. It amazed him how he could feel so strongly about someone after knowing them for just one month.
Julian tore his eyes away from Georgia, gather his thoughts. What the hell was going on with him? He used to think that he was such a laidback person. He was not a monk in the least and had his share of untamed desires, but they paled in comparison to what he felt now. Is this what it's supposed to be like when you found the one? He didn't know. All he'd ever been taught was to find a nice girl that made him happy and work hard to make a good life for himself. No one had ever warmed him about this.
Julian had no problem feeling this way. He really did want to protect her, and he really did want to give her the world. Georgia deserved nothing less. It was the other urges - the primal urges, the ones that demanded an intimate connection that worried him. Julian found them harder and harder to resist, even as he reminded himself over and over of his girlfriend's virginity.
Girlfriend? His girlfriend?
That seemed like a juvenile word for her - "girlfriend". When he thought of the word "girlfriend", it reminded him of high school and maybe the first year of college and all those couples who stood a little too close, held hands a little too tightly, and made disgusting sounds while kissing that made his stomach turn.
Never mind that he was guilty for some of those infractions.
Georgia was much more than that. "Girfriend" just didn't seem like a strong enough word. He wasn't even sure that there was a word invented to sufficent describe his feelings. It went deeper than hand holding, French-kissing, and cuddling. It was a meeting a souls, different yet linked by one common need, one soul complimenting the other. While he knew it wouldn't always be so happy, he knew that somehow they'd manage to get through it all...
After all, he loved her, and she loved - loves - him.
"Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to come out here and say 'hello'?" Julian snapped up to see Georgia staring at him, a soft smirk on her face. "Or has the mere sight of me mopping my kitchen floor just that enchanting?"
"Ah..." Damn it. If it was hard to resist sexy thoughts due to watching her cleaning, it was damn near impossible whenever she smiled that wicked smile. "What can I say - I want to see you more than I want to see Must See TV."
"Good lord, Julian!" she giggled as he made his way over, taking her into his arms. Resisting her on a daily basis was quite possible the most difficult task he'd ever had in his young life, but he could think of nothing else better. "That was bad, even for you!"
------
He might not have seen anything, but Liam still felt like he was being followed.
No - followed wasn't too weak a word. Pursued was more like it.
He might have taken a train and a bus to get as far away from Dominic as possible, but he still felt like a complete escape eluded him. The racing of his heart and the shallowness of breath told him that he needed to run further and further away, to the end of the earth if that's what it took. Even as Liam looked around over and over again and told himself that he wasn't alone, he still felt like Dominic was only a few steps away.
The mark on his neck radiated with tender frenzy, begging for understanding yet intensifying his fears even more.
It was true - everything Dominic told him about himself was true. He was a wolf - a wolf! What the fuck? What did that even mean? How did that even happen? Dominic someone managed to turn himself into a wolf right in front of him. It wasn't an act of illusion or anything. He literally watched skin give way to fur, height give way to shortness, and two hand and legs transform into four legs and golden paws. Dominic wasn't crazy, and that's what made it even worse. He was telling the truth, and now that Liam realized this, he was even more confused than he had been before.
Why the hell couldn't he just stick to the girls? Girls could be crazy, but they kept the fur in one predictable place and when they were on all fours, it normally a good thing.
Dominic...he knew he was too good to be true. Why did he get so caught up in that in the first place? Dominic was a male, and Liam was a noted ladies' man? Was his craving for love so intense that he needed to mess with a guy who chase him down and rip him apart in a matter of seconds? After all, that's what real wolves did. He saw "Frozen" and "The Gray" - and both movies scared the piss out of him. Wolves were fierce creatures capable of violence and bloodshed when angry...
Holy shit! Dominic was probably angry at him for running away. He even told him not to scream.
He's gonna kill me! Liam thought frantically. He's going to grow fur and kill me! But I don't want to die!
Liam had to do something. He had to figure out a way to get out of this. But who could he turn to about this? If there anything he learned from watching "True Blood" or even "Being Human", it was that it odds were stacked against him. If he told anyone anything, he'd probably get the infamous "Bitch, you crazy" stink eye before being sent away. And if Dominic caught wind of him telling his "fabulous secrets" to everyone, well, it would give him even more a reason to kill him.
He wanted to grab his hair and rip it all out, he was so keyed up with terror right now. What was he going to do? What was he going to do?
Julian... The image of his roommate came into his mind, and Liam knew what he had to do. Julian - he was the only person he could think of the help him and the only person he could think of who would take him seriously. It was risky since Dominic knew who Julian was, but what choice did he have? He needed to find someone who could help him, and he was sure that his roommate would, even if he seemed to be hanging out with Georgia all the time...
Georgia! He'd totally forgotten that Georgia was Dominic's best friend. Did she know what he was? Or was she just as much in the dark as he'd been? Or did she know something more? No, that couldn't have been right. She was always taking about how good a person Dominic was, especially that night at the club. She had to be in the dark if she thought so highly of him...
In any case, he needed to see her to. Anything to help him get out of this hairy situation.
Ugh, that was just awful, Liam thought, reaching for his cell phone.
------
Julian's arms were a dangerous place to be in, but did she ever love being within them.
George wrapped her arms around him, greedily taking in all his warmth. She could definitely get used to all this. She'd begun to forget what it was like to live alone. For the one week that he'd stay with her, her understanding of the mate bond increased. With him around, living her life didn't seem to take as much effort to live. Her co-workers commented on the change in her - she was much calmer, much more relaxed, and while she was still socially awkward, it wasn't nearly as bad now.
There was something about knowing she had Julian to come home to that made it easier for her to just chill.
George might have told him that he could stay as long as he wanted, but she wanted him here forever, truth be told. She was so happy to have him here, whether watching her clean the house or standing beside her. Her initial resistence seemed so far away now, even if the fears were still bubbling underneath the surface.
I don't want this to end, she thought, inhaling his scent.
George's wolf growled, pawing at her repeatedly. The wolf wanted her mate too, and was agitated at the human's reluctance to summon her forth. With her phase coming, the wolf's urges grew stronger and much more annoying to deal with. But the wolf wouldn't be denied. The wolf wanted its mate, and if there was a time when the wolf got exactly what it wanted, it was this time.
But I'm not ready, George thought as her heart skipped several beats. I'm not ready, and I don't want to lose him, either...
You tell him now! Her wolf, on the other hand, was fearless. My mate, too! Want mate! You tell now or I show myself...
"You're going to make me want to keep you at home today instead of kindly doing my laundry," she murmured, ignoring her wolf's demands. "I'm okay with you not doing the laundry if you get to be my personal hug pillow."
"As tempting as that sounds, I don't mind doing a little work if it means I get to play later." His words aroused her more than they should have. "Besides, it shouldn't take that long, and I want to do this for you. I'll feel like a lazy bum otherwise."
"I know, but you can't fault me for trying." She felt his eyes drift down the curve of face and then down the curve of her neck, right to where his mark was nestle. Her body grew tender and warm. "Hey, eyes up here, sir!"
"I can't help it." Julian reached over, his fingers brushing against the moon-shaped mark. George's eyes fluttered closed, his touch akin to paradise. "I just want to touch it whenever I see it."
"But it's still pretty tender, even after a week. And whenever you touch it..." She allowed her words to drift away.
"What?" I should have know he wouldn't let me get away so easily. "Tell me."
George took a few steps back, timid. "It's going to sound so silly, coming out of my mouth."
"No, it won't," he assured. "So, just tell me." When she remained silent, he pulled her back into his arms. "Please."
I can't believe I'm about to say this. Well, here goes nothing. "Since I can't put it delicately, I'm just going to come out and say it."
"Yeah..."
"When you touch me like that," she began to purr, "it make me wish you'd just deflower me already."
She'd never seen his eyes grow so wide. It pleased her way more than she thought it would. "Oh...I see."
"Ummhmm. And I also feel like I don't care how you do it, just as long as you do it." With the way his heart was racing, she expected it to go flying out of his chest. That pleased her more than his wide eyes did. "But since you insist on doing the laundry, I'll guess we'll just have to file it for another day."
"What?!" She laughed as she pulled herself away form him, pleased with herself. "Hey, you get back here! I'm not done with you!"
"You are for now," she snickered back. "Besides, I'd like to finish up with my chores. I'm feeling really dirty after all that talk and I want to showering up and get clean."
"Why, you little..." The faint buzz of Julian's cell phone filled her ears before he registered it. She watched as Julian fished it out of his pocket, his antics akin to a game of "Hot Potato". "Hold that thought, it's Liam. I should take this."
"Don't worry, I'm more than happy to save my teasing for later, anyway," she taunted.
Even as she turned away to tidy up her living room, she could hear their conversation, though Liam's voice was very quiet. Julian's roommate didn't sound happy at all - in fact, he sounded urgent, worried, maybe even terrified of something. George was never so heartless as to remain unresponsive to someone's fear, but there was something about Liam's that troubled her more than it should...
"Georgia." She turned to Julian, visibly shaken by his conversation. "I really don't mean to trouble you so much, but can Liam swing by here for a bit? He doesn't sound so good and he wants to talk to both of us."
"Yeah, sure, of course," she said with a nod. "I'm just about finished here."
She listened as Julian gave him the address and ended the call. She could feel Julian's concern for his friend pulsing through him. That should have been enough to trouble here, but there was something else that she couldn't but her finger on that really bothered her.
"What do you think he wants to talk to us about?" she asked softly, rushing to his side.
"I don't know." The fear on his face nearly broke her heart. "But whatever it is, it must be bad. I've never heard him like that - he sounds messed up."
"It's a good thing that he has a friend like you, Julian. I'm sure that whatever it is, we'll help him as best as we can."
Her words seemed to ease his mind. "Really?"
"Yes, really."
Julian sighed in relief as he pulled her into another hug. "I'm so glad I'm with you here, Georgia. I don't know how I could ever live without you now."
George pressed against him, even as she grew further unsettled. I hope you're right, Julian. I really hope that's true.