During the day, the people of Pinewood and I were relatively safe.
Etienne couldn't go into the sunlight, and it wasn't cold enough in autumn to simply walk into town covered by a coat, hat, and scarf without looking suspicious. Besides, he was sulking in his room after the garage incident, anyway.
I used my precious hours of freedom to head outside, and headed for the Apple supermarket first.
Aquila and Xavier were going to have their first class about humans with the young werewolves tomorrow evening. And on the off-chance I couldn't get rid of Mr. and Mrs. Davis and they insisted we had our dinner date, I needed ingredients for a vegan meal as well.
I avoided people in the streets as they'd definitely ask about my brand new boyfriend, and thankfully, Mrs. Apple from the supermarket had her own issues. The moment I walked in, she immediately started ranting about her own daughter, who had finally broken the news that she wanted to leave Pinewood and was applying for college. Mrs. Apple was so preoccupied with suddenly losing the heiress to her grocery store, she completely forgot to ask me anything.
Instead, it was Xavier who caught up to me on the street while I was on my way home again.
His lips curled up in a wide grin. "What is this I hear from my parents?" he asked. "You've found yourself a boyfriend?"
Xavier looked far too pleased with himself. So eager at the chance to turn the tables on me and giving me crap for a change. I'd teased him plenty of times when he and my nephew Aquila clearly liked each other, but both couldn't seem to spit it out. It was only fair he'd get to do it back, I supposed.
I chuckled, shaking my head. "Alright, fine, go ahead. Lay it on me. What did you hear?"
Xavier's nudged me between the ribs with his elbow. "That a very pale, extremely pretty man has moved into your house while nobody even knew he existed."
I snorted. "I'd say he thinks he's pretty more than he is actually pretty."
Xavier darted a glance around, then leaned in and asked in a lower voice, "What is he? A fey?"
"Not quite. My 'brand new lover', Etienne, is a vampire and he's dangerous. Stay away from my place and tell others in town to stay away, subtly, if you can too."
"A vampire?" Xavier's smile disappeared and his eyes grew wide. "Like, one that drinks... blood?"
"Yes. That's what a vampire is," I replied dryly.
Xavier's eyes grew even wider. "But why? Is he actually your lover?"
I wish I had a good explanation to give. I didn't, so I could only shake my head. "No. Just stay out of trouble and try to keep others out of trouble too, alright? I have to go."
I patted Xavier on the shoulder and continued walking. Slowly.
After bringing the groceries home, I'd have a pack meeting to attend to in the woods nearby, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to explaining why I suddenly had a 'new lover' nor that the vampire had talked to the townsfolk in the first place. It'd probably be an hour filled with lots of complaining and people getting upset over this matter. I was already tired at the thought.
Etienne's blatantly manipulative and threatening behaviour wasn't in his favour. Still, I had to give it to him: he hadn't broken any rules. I couldn't send him away for licking the blood off my thumb. Hell, even a werewolf might do that if he was new to transforming. We were no strangers to bloodlust and getting high on the scent of fresh blood from a prey. It'd be hypocritical, even if our cravings were more under control as we grew older and more experienced with being in our wolf form. No adult werewolf lusted after human blood. If they did, they were an anomaly and not the rule.
I delivered my groceries home. Etienne was still in his room and didn't acknowledge my presence when I peeked into his room. If he was happy to ignore me, I was even happier to ignore him. One less unpleasant thing I needed to deal with today. There was already the pack meeting and was more than enough trouble.
Sighing deeply, I closed my front door behind me and walked to the clearing in the woods where my pack and I had agreed to gather.
The pack meetings were typically unexciting. I guarded a small, sleepy town. The other nearby villages weren't much larger than Pinewood. The rest of the wolves who weren't assigned a village weren't required to come to these meetings, so they didn't because it was a snooze fest. Usually, nothing noteworthy happened. We'd spend five minutes updating each other with the latest news from our area, and then we'd move on to the fun conversations. Maybe play some board games if someone brought them.
Xavier accidentally seeing Aquila shapeshifting into a wolf was the most excitement we'd had in years. But even that incident was quickly solved when I clarified it was likely Xavier would become Aquila's mate, and then did become Aquila's mate. He was part of our community now. A vampire, however, would never be a part of our community.
The moment I reached our meeting place in the woods, I could immediately tell Ivana had already told our pack about Etienne. Frey, who always wore an angry glower. Nathaniel had his arms crossed, sulking like a child. Trisha had her lips pressed to a thin line. The others didn't look any more cheerful, but they showed more restraint than usual by not immediately jumping me and demanding explanations about the vampire trying to lure humans into my house.
Eyes burned on me as I walked over to Ivana and took a seat beside her.
Ivana let out a deep sigh. "Now that Boris is here, I won't keep you waiting any longer. Boris, you can go first. Tell us about what's going on in Pinewood."
I cleared my throat. "As you undoubtedly already know, judging from the look on your faces, we have a vampire who invoked the rights of the accords. He wants to try to live with humans, and he wants to do it in Pinewood."
I paused, not expecting I needed to say any more to trigger an outrage. I gave the rest of my pack the chance to voice their anger, which they immediately made good on.
"This can't stand!" Frey protested, looking at Ivana. "Why are we humouring a leech? It is a threat, and we should have rejected his presence in our territory outright."
"The accords are here to protect all of us, humans included," Nathaniel added. "If the rules force us to do something that goes against what they were made to achieve in the first place... With all due respect, to hell with them."
I grabbed a salami sandwich from the picnic basket in the centre of the group and munched on it while a huge discussion broke out. There was lots of shouting, which lasted a surprisingly long time, considering everyone here agreed with each other.
Ivana and I exchanged a glance as the volume raised further and further. She shook her head and also grabbed a sandwich, waiting for the yelling to end.
I needed all my patience today. Even after finishing my salami sandwich, people were still busy summing up all the wrongs vampires could do to the people of Pinewood if we let them loose. They summed up names of vampires who were suspected of taking humans and keeping them as cattle. I already knew all the stories.
I was ready to intervene, but Ivana's patience ran out before mine did. With a low warning growl, she silenced the pack. Then she turned to me. "Boris, what is your first impression of the vampire?"
I cleared my throat. "Honestly? Etienne is dangerous."
"Oh? It's 'Etienne' already? Not vampire?" Frey pointed out with narrowed eyes. "You better be careful, Boris. He'll try to get you on his side."
"If that's his goal, so far, he's failing miserably," I replied crisply. "As I was saying, Etienne is dangerous. He knows very well how to manipulate situations to get his way. Within a day, he tried to change the playing field. I told him he needed to stay isolated for a month, but he took the first chance he got to reach out to humans and make them go to my house. At least I was there too, but..."
"See? This is a terrible idea. We have to send him away with an excuse, Ivana," Trisha said.
"I'm hoping to have a reason soon," I said. "I've been trying to make him lose control... But he didn't bite me, despite an open, bleeding wound."
I saw many eyebrows raise in surprise, and I had to admit Etienne had surprised me too with his restraint.
"The thing that worries me most is that I don't know what he wants," I continued. "Not exactly. Obviously, he's saying he wants to study humans and see if there can be a way to achieve a partnership, but I don't know if that's true."
"Of course it's not." Nathaniel scoffed.
"Vampires are one of the few species who don't technically need humans to live," Ivana mused. "They can drink animal blood. They don't need to procreate since they don't die off quickly like the rest of us do. Vampires are unique in many ways, and maybe they shouldn't have been included in the accords at their conception."
"Finally, reason," Nathaniel started. "So, can we agree that—"
"Nonetheless," Ivana cut him off. "The accords exist and we will honour them. It's the one thing that connects all of us and keeps order, and we're not throwing it away for no reason. The question Boris posed is a good one, however." She looked at me. "What does he really want? If we can figure that out, maybe we can figure out a way to bring this to an end."
"I can't imagine it's anything other than human blood," I offered with a wry smile. "Vampires can feed on animals, sure. But it's like asking us to live on chopped liver while there are juicy steaks available."
"But the truth remains that we don't know," Ivana insisted. She narrowed her eyes, appraising me. "If Etienne insists on getting closer to people... go ahead and give him that Boris. Become his friend. Butter him up even further than that, if you must."
I raised a brow. "What?"
"You can do that, can't you?" Ivana asked. "I mean, you can be charming if you want."
I resisted the urge to snort. When Ivana started calling me charming and gave me compliments, that's when I knew she was desperate. I also saw the rage and disgust on the faces of the other werewolves, even if they wouldn't openly protest against a direct order from our leader. She would have her hands full trying to stop our other pack members from making their own plans to get rid of the vampire.
But my work was cut out for me as well if she was serious about me gaining Etienne's trust. I had no moral issues deceiving the vampire a little, but he was a slippery little mosquito. He would undoubtedly be on to me and my plans if I suddenly changed my attitude.
I sighed. "I can try to butter him up if that's what you want me to do," I told Ivana.
"Then it's better you return home now," Ivana replied. "You shouldn't be away too long."
"Indeed," I agreed.
As I stood and walked away, I already heard the angry whispers starting up again. I caught a few words—mostly others thinking I shouldn't be made to do something this disgusting.
I wasn't quite sure what I thought about Ivana's plan either. But orders were orders and I did see some sense in it. The vampire was far away from home. He didn't have anyone here and nobody, not even a vampire, was above feeling loneliness and wanting companionship.
I heard quick footsteps follow me. Ivana caught up to me and walked beside me.
"Boris," she said with a frown. "I just wanted to apologise again for saddling you up with this."
I shrugged at her concerns and offered her a smile. "I knew what I signed up for when I decided to live in Pinewood and became its primary protector. The job involves hard decisions and actually having to protect people at times."
"Still... I'll make sure your job will be made easier soon. I'm arranging a location further away from the village where you and Etienne can stay for the rest of the month. It's still in the woods so he can't complain, and you won't be stuck trying to keep curious folks away from your house."
"Appreciate it," I said with a nod. "Don't look so worried, though. I'll be fine. I'll charm this man and get him to give up his secrets willingly. You'll see."
Ivana sighed and gave me a quick one-armed hug before letting me leave. I went home, knowing I had to be really damn careful about how I was going to do this.
But if Etienne wanted me to pretend we were involved? I guessed we were going to be involved now.