POV
Avery
Love is strange, how you ask?... Well, for one thing, it puts you in the most life-changing situations, take me for example. Maybe six weeks before I ever stepped foot onto the Devil's Wolves territory. I was as innocent as anyone could be, I was also a nervous wreck. Let me explain... Growing up I was sociable, my twin brother Adam was always more of the dominant twin, I followed him everywhere.
Then on a regular Tuesday, my entire life changed. We lived on a rather nice farm, and I was outside riding my horse, it was something I did often, and the only thing I did without Adam. That day I was out way past the creek, Mama told me I wasn't supposed to go out that far. And Daddy commanded me not to, yet they always told me to be braver, break the rules from time to time. So that's what I called myself doing.
We lived in a very rural area, lots of woods and space, and I was out there with just my horse. I wasn't out there for more than ten minutes, sitting on the back of my Appaloosa, a grayish-white creature called Honey. I felt so free. The sun was shining through the trees and all was calm, but with a quiet crack of wood and a twitch of Honey's nose, my serenity was broken as my horse kicked up dirt. She was bred for speed, and she was using all of it to get away from something I hadn't yet seen.
When we broke from the woods and got to a familiar point, I was still scared but I felt safer, I started yelling for my dad, he was strong and not afraid of anything. As soon as my house came into view I screamed louder, the scream was snatched from my throat when I was plucked from the back of Honey. I was wrapped inside something warm for only a second, before tossing out into the dirt, ruining my new pants.
I was dizzy but unharmed, looking around I could see Honey running back to the house, she would be found an hour later shivering in the barn. Within seconds my heart seemed to stop in my chest. A golden brown wolf the size of a small horse stood before my young eyes.
My lungs became a cage and trapped my breath inside. The beast snarled softly when I backed up in fear, his bright brown eyes glaring at me, seeming to dare me to move. He crept towards me, as I started to have my first ever panic attack. After what felt like hours, and three hundred shallow breaths, I heard Adam calling my name. The wolf looked off, then back at me, seeming to contemplate his next move. The move, was a quick and sharp bite to my side, diagonal to my belly button.
I can't say it hurt, but I screamed more so in fear, there was some pain, but mostly fear. My scream caught Adam's ear and he screamed for our parents. The wolf took off and I was left panicking. Of course, after my parents got me in the house, calmed me down and cleaned me up, I explained through a stutter that wouldn't go away, exactly what happened, but I could see in their eyes that they didn't believe me and it hurt.
My daddy listened more than mama or Adam, that first night he didn't leave me and Adam's room until he was sure I'd sleep through the night, and believe me I didn't sleep through, I tossed and turned, shrieking and yelling. But my father was there each time. It's memories like that, that make me believe Adam when he says I was favored more by our parents.
The nightmares went on for weeks, for weeks I was afraid to go outside, for weeks I was scared to be alone. When my parents took all they could reasonably take, they found me a therapist who tried to help me, but she too didn't believe my werewolf story. That was my first panic attack, and I've lived with them for ten years. When Adam and I were fifteen we came out to each other, after some months we agreed to come out together to our religious parents. Yet when the moment came I chickened out, never afraid to face anything Adam went ahead with it.
Our parents reacted horribly, telling him, he'd always been trouble and that for as long as he lived in sin he couldn't stay in their house. I watched Adam pack a bag and leave, I watched them let him leave. And I didn't see him again until our parent's funeral, he didn't speak to me for more than two minutes, enough time for him to tell me he didn't want to see me ever again.
We didn't see each other again for another two years, during that time after our parents died, I lived off the insurance money which they left me. Adam and I both would split their three million dollar estate when we turned twenty-one, but they left him penniless in the meantime. I moved from Texas to Arizona, while there I stayed with a small tribe of the Hopi people.
They were a family, led by a powerful conjuror or Shaman, my friend Ahote. His story is long and complicated, it took me close to a year and a half to find out most of the details of his past. He like me is a student of Ma'jik, not the one taught but the real one, the kind that use to exist in abundance on this plain but has since lost its power... At least most of it. We met a few months after my parents died, he was broken down on the highway, nine miles from home.
The guy doesn't use cellphones, so calling for help wasn't an option, I'd find out later he could have gotten home easily if he wanted to. Luckily I came along when I did, or we never would have met. As I drove him along in my powder blue Volkswagen Beetle, we made idle chit-chat. I told him about my travels, and somewhere along the way we began to talk about our beliefs, he told me some of his peoples' teachings, and I listened, before telling him some of the things I believed in and some of what I was taught.
I was not worried about what he thought about me, no, in six more miles he would be out of my car and out of my life, so I told him all about my belief in magic, real magic. I still remember his exact words, "Magic isn't real but Ma'jik (Energy) is... We don't really have it in this world anymore, some of us know how to tap into what's left though." At that moment I knew I wanted to know everything about him.
I stayed with him in his tribe, all of them had been shunned for one reason or another. Mostly because they were considered dangerous by their people, and Ahote said they weren't wrong. While staying with Ahote in the six-bedroom home he and his friends built, I learned a little of the secrets of the world, I learned about Spirit Ma'jik.
Ma'jik is dying in this world, but there are primordial powers which true witches draw from, life and death, nature, the elements... The sun, the moon, even blood can help manifest real Ma'jik. (Energy) Spirits themselves are a manifestation of pure energy, and when one allows that energy to flow through them, they became imbued with it.
I stayed with Ahote, and learned a great deal about Ma'jik and myself, Ahote introduced me to spirit work and taught me to conjure them. I admit I was not very good, but Ahote said he foresaw great power in me. He told me about Shawn, we'd been drinking the night I told him about my experience. He is a gifted seer, not great but gifted, he saw that the wolf was my mate, he told me he was out there somewhere still.
Time went by and after almost two years I decided to move on, I moved back to Texas and I started a local group circle, Marius was the first to sign up. He was highly ma'jikil (energetical) raised in a family of voodoo practitioners, his grandmother taught him. He wanted to break out from Voodoo and explore other ma'jik.
I remember the day A'mosh's mom found me, she walked into the little shop that my friend Athena and I were renting. She was so regal, the way she carried her head high, it reminded me of my mother. I thought at first she was a customer, so I asked Marius to take it. She asked for me by name right away, and Marius had to almost pull me over to her.
"Avery?" She asked and I nodded. "Do you have a brother named Adam?" She asked. "H-he's my twin," I answered. "Yes well, do you know where he is, you see Adam and my son our involved, they had a spat and my son misses your brother desperately." She explained. "How do you know about Avery though, he hasn't spoken to his brother in close to two years," Marius said. "The answer depends on how much of this stuff you believe in." She said, gesturing around the room, at the candles and books on ma'jik.
"Try us," Marius said, leaning his tall form down and across the counter. Smiling while Mrs. Chambers gave him a curious look. "I have reason to believe Adam and my son are soul mates." She said, and I inhaled sharply, I looked at her trying to gauge and see what she meant, was she talking normal soul mates or the real eternal bond between a wolf and his mate. "So, what can Avery do to help you?" Marius asked, knowing I hated to stutter in front of strangers.
"I have a friend searching for Adam, but there is something clouding his sight. A protective amulet." She said, and I knew the answer to my earlier thought. "I-Is your s-son a super?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound crazy. "An Alpha." She said, and I don't know why but I smiled, I was happy there was someone out there who could love and protect my brother. I knew from oral legends that most Alpha's treated their mates with the utmost respect.
"The only thing strong enough to block out a seer would be your ring," Marius said, and I took it off handing it to Mrs. Chambers, asking her to call me when she found Adam. That call came two months later, she explained that Adam was her son's mate and that he was to be Luna to an entire pack of werewolves. She said that since I was a wise human, who knew about the existence of the unseen world, I was welcome to visit the pack.
Skip forward to me getting to the pack, you already know all about my panic attack, after meeting Shawn. See my story, my part in the packs' history started when I first summoned a light spirit. It was an intense feeling like I could do anything, fly or summon a tornado, it was incredible. And I loved the side effects. The king of the light spirits, Lumen. He gave me real power, while he was inside me, all it took was thought and the words seemed to pour out and bang there was the ma'jik. And I felt comfortable, strong, and somehow protected, my stutter even vanished after the first summoning.
Lumen even opened my mind to reveal to me the truth about Shawn, he was afraid of me, afraid of everything that came along with having a mate, he was afraid of himself and his wolf. Without my fear hindering me, I allowed myself to get to know Shawn. The night I snuck off with Adam and went to convene with my circle, Adam and I returned to find our mates waiting for us.
We were pulling up the long gravel driveway, inside Amosh's stolen car. He and Shawn stood there with different, but equally pissed scowls. "Are we in trouble?" I asked Adam, still in awe of my recently banished stutter. "Fuck yeah, but don't worry I'll get us out of it." He assured, parkin the truck. As soon as we climbed out Shawn started drilling me, asking me why I left without his permission. A'mosh said nothing to Adam. "You are moving into my suite, where I can keep my eyes on you, and Luna with all due respect... You had no right to take my mate out of this territory after I decided he couldn't leave." Shawn fumed, and something inside of my newfound braveness sparked up.
"Hey! Don't yell at my brother. Maybe he wouldn't have had to sneak me away if I was free to go, you don't own me, you know that right?" I asked, and Shawn looked stunned, those were the first words I spoke to him without stuttering incessantly. He just stared at me, and I will admit, I was buzzed from the summoning. Having Lumen dwell in me was like twenty cups of high caffeine coffee, but that feeling was balanced by what felt like, a weed high strong enough to stop a charging rhino.
Watching Adam go after a retreating A'mosh, trying to convince him that he was sorry for taking me out. "Where did you go?" Shawn asked, standing there six foot I don't know what. He was attractive when I wasn't blinded by my fear. It didn't hurt that he was black, there I said it. He kept his hair cut low and from the way his short-sleeve shirt clung to his arms he was clearly more than fit. His powerful forearms were covered in script tattoos; a voice inside me marveled in the fact that he was mine.
"Answer my question, Avery." He said, giving me a tone, not realizing that the Avery he was accustomed to was starting to fade, and would soon be gone altogether. "Why did you mark me all those years ago, didn't you think about what that would do to a kid, did you care?" I inquired; I'd wanted to ask that the moment we met, but fear was in the way. "I-I wasn't myself when the wolf takes over, I have no control." He answered, and I got the strong sense that he was being honest. "What do you want from me?" I asked.
"Wow, okay... I want to get to know you, I want to try and make you happy." He said, and I couldn't help but blush. A voice inside, a still and quiet voice that sounded so semi-similar to my own consciousness that I almost couldn't tell the difference, a voice I would come to learn belonged to the king of the light spirits. It told me to give Shawn a chance, that he wouldn't hurt me, that voice showed me that Shawn could protect me, he could keep me safe if I let him.
"Proposition?" I offered. "I'll give you a chance, but I need to be able to come and go as I please," I said, he gave me a hard, suspicion filled look, before a sly grin broke out on his handsome face. "Deal, so long as I know where you're going and who you're going there with, you can do whatever you want." He said. I nodded agreeing.
"Where's this sudden change coming from?" He asked. "An invocation. Ma'jek." I said, he smirked at me in what seemed to be disbelief. "Ohhhhh... So you're crazy?" He laughed, and I sucked my teeth. "I'm not crazy... If I hadn't used the little energy Lumen gave me, I'd prove it to you." I said and he smirked, taking my hand in his, and I wasn't scared, in fact, I felt sparks.
It was like static electricity, it traveled from our connected palms, the tingling sparks traveled up my arm and into my chest, it warmed me up. My nipples became painfully hard. After sitting in my chest for a few moments, the sparks shot down to my groin and a lewd moan poured out of me. I was embarrassed, no one had ever heard me make that sort of sound, you see, I was also innocent in the sexual sense, a virgin. A nineteen-year-old virgin; mated to a thirty-three-year-old werewolf.
I found myself looking down at my shoes, my face hot. Shawn pulled me closer to him, my body completely against his. "Look at me." He commanded. I forced my eyes to meet his, and I was lost in the dark brown orbs. "Can I kiss you?" He asked, and I didn't need a voice to tell me the answer, I wanted to kiss him, I wanted to kiss the moment I met him. "Y-yes." I stuttered, but out of nervousness, not fear.
His strong hand gently cupped my neck, and he leaned into me, my head tilting back so our lips could meet. The sparks from touch were nothing compared to his lips on mine, my whole body seemed to hum. I let my hands go around his neck, and that seemed to cause something in him to snap. He picked me up, kissing me harder, clearly, he'd been restraining himself. He bit and suck on my lips, doing things to me that no man had ever done. My eyes opened when he parted our lips. "What?" I asked, panting with desire.
"I don't want to rush you." He said, and I realized what I was about to do. "Th-thank you," I said, as he put me down, allowing me to clear my head. "I-I'm a virgin," I said, looking at him, waiting for a reaction. Shawn's eyes flashed black, then back to brown and my eyes widened, but I said nothing. "Thank you for telling me, I must admit I like the thought of being your only. Let's go inside, I want to get you to our suite, we can talk some more." He invited.
# # #
The Beta suite was really big, it had a private kitchen, which I gathered from the empty fridge never got any use. There was a living area, an office, a second bathroom, and then the bedroom. Luckily, the bedroom wasn't a complete bachelor pad. It was big, and like the rest of the house, made entirely out of wood logs.
As I looked around, taking in the fireplace, which seemed to have been wood petrified and coated in some sort of shiny stained paint. I turned around to find Shawn standing in the mirror beside what seemed to be a rather large walk-in closet. He stood there undressing, looking at his own reflection. My eyes traced up and down his shirtless back, my face flushed when his pants came off and I got to see his muscular ass.
I watched him lift his head, and sniff the air twice, before asking, "Are you enjoying yourself?" His southern accent was almost musical and I couldn't find my voice. He turned around, and I couldn't look away, I saw him smirking, my face was on fire but I couldn't look away. He was ripped in the way I imagined, hard abs and a perfect chest, but my eyes weren't there, they were on the massive bulge in his briefs.
Fear, excitement, lust, envy... They all went through me, I wanted to see it, but I was too embarrassed to ask, Shawn smirked, slowly, stalkingly he approached me. "I am going to take a shower, dinner is about to be served over at the pack dining house, do you want to join me?" He asked, so close to me that I could smell him. Mrs. Chambers had helped me open the senses being Shawn's mate gave me, and I could smell him, his musk. God, it was an addictive scent, like warm cinnamon filled hot chocolate and something unique, something him.
"W-which one, the eating or the shower?" I asked, curbing my desire to actually touch him took all my effort, (How had I ignored him this long I wondered?) "Both." He answered, closing the distance and kissing me. "Answer me, Avery." My name in his mouth sounded like a symphony of orgasmic notes. "B-be gentle." I moaned, giving him the green light.
"Avery, we aren't doing that, at least not yet... I like that we're bonding, and it feels easier with you when you aren't afraid of me. I don't want to mate, not yet at least, because... You and my wolf ain't exactly on good terms." He said, pulling back. Something in me snapped, like when you blurt out a random thought, only this was physical. Without a thought, my hand grabbed all of Shawn's nuts. My eyes shot down to observe the weight in my hand.
His balls were heavy and tight, and from the twitch of his meat, I realized his dick was thick and long, maybe six-seven inches soft. I looked up at the sound of a soft long snarl, Shawn was watching me, with low seductive eyes. "Let's get to that shower." He groaned. He walked off, his ass jiggling with each step, it was so round and tight, I was obsessing over it. I followed that ass, as it bounced its way into the bathroom.
Inside the bathroom, the shower was running, Shawn stood to wait for me. "Come here." He commanded, and I liked the controlling sound in his voice. I walked over to him standing there, looking up into his bright brown eyes. His eyes took in my clothes, looking at them like they offended him. "Lift your arms." He said, pulling my loose-fitting shirt over my head. His eyes tried to take in every part of my torso, they lingered on the bite mark on my side.
The bite was large, a wolf's bite, it was right on the side of my stomach, it was healed over but it still felt weird, like only the skin above the open wounds had healed. Which was probably true. Watching him stare transfixed at the mark, I could smell his scent change, it was woodsy but with notes of burnt charcoal, I would come to recognize that scent as guilt. Before he could ruin the moment and my buzz, I unbuttoned my pants, keeping my eyes on him, watching him register the movements then meet my gaze.
I slipped off my jeans, pulling my underwear off with them. I wasn't shy where my nakedness was a concern, years of open circle meetings broke that taboo for me. Shawn looked like he would swallow me whole if he could. I walked boldly past him and into the open shower, it was big and spacious, there were two showerheads, but the one running hung straight down in the middle of the closet-sized shower.
I stepped beneath the water, closing my eyes at the warmth. As the water ran over me, I washed it away from my face, opening my eyes to find Shawn standing directly in front of me, his eyes rapidly flashing from his to a dark, hollow and vacant black. "Avery, Meeko is fighting me for control... ... ... ... Maybe we shouldn't be this intimate yet." He said through deep heavy breaths, clearly using a lot of mental strain to stop his wolf from surfacing.
I was afraid, I was nervous, Shawn and his wolf were two different and complex personalities. Whereas I could see myself use to Shawn, especially when under Lumen's energy, his wolf was a beast I still had nightmares about. But I didn't want to stop, Shawn was the first man I'd ever gotten that close to and I wasn't ready to stop, and so I said the words, "Let him out." Shawn's flickering eyes widened, then his eyes stopped flickering the warm comforting brown replaced by darkness.
"Mate." The wolf's voice called, it was deeper than Shawn's and there wasn't much of an accent, but it still sent shivers down my spine, even as hot water showered me. Shamefully as he crept towards me, I backed away, until my back was against a wall and the wall showerhead poured over us. My hands found his chest, and he grabbed them in one hand, my heart racing when he held them above my head. He nuzzled my face, going down into my neck, I could hear him taking deep whiffs of me.
A snarling sound came from his chest, and I could feel the tip of his dick, digging into the spaces, between my balls. I moaned when he ran a sharp canine, over my shoulder blade. "So pure... So ripe... I want to taste you." Meeko said, before using his free hand to stroke me, I hadn't noticed how hard I was, I was leaking, and I could feel my ass throbbing. "P-please." I pleaded, not knowing what I was asking for. "My human doesn't think you're ready, maybe he'll change his mind if you're begging." He said, running his thumb over the tip of my wet dickhead.
"Mmmm ... Please ... I need to ... Please ... Pl-fuck!" I shouted, growing agitated. I was surprised by my language, but the wolf smiled through Shawn, encouraging my foul words, loving how he was corrupting me. "Keep these hands right here," Meeko commanded, letting go of my clenched hands, and kissing my chest. He kissed each nipple, tonguing and toying them both. "Please." I whimpered in a whispering voice.
Meeko chuckled the sound deep, dark, and rich. In excitement I watched him go down, kissing lower until he was forced to go on his knees. Kisses to my thighs and all around my dick, it drove me crazy, without my control one of my hands found my nipple and I squeezed it. "Put it back " Meeko snapped in that authoritative voice and I instantly obeyed.
Gasping when he took me slowly inside his mouth, he held my hips keeping them against the wall while he worked on my tip, making greedy suckling noises, that only made me leak more. "I'm gonna... Shit... Shawn!" I screamed, as my body was smacked with a super head high, my thighs were shaking as he kept sucking. I wanted him then, and if Shawn hadn't regained control and stopped everything, I would have given Meeko my virginity. Maybe his wolf wasn't so bad after all, I liked the power he had over my body, I loved that such a powerful beast wanted me.
# # #
The rest of that night, after we ate and hung out at the pack bond fire, we couldn't keep our hands off each other. He let me touch him all over and after we both climaxed a bunch of times, I felt I knew his body well. The days after that were spent with us getting to know each other more.
He knew I hated storms, because of my parent's accident. I knew his father wasn't much of a father, he was abusive to Shawn's mom, Shawn felt he would end up like his father. He knew my favorite color was blue, and I knew his favorite was green. He taught me some pack history, teaching me about werewolf culture and all that came with being the mate to a ranking pack's Beta. Adam and A'mosh were barely speaking, they were both intolerable, so Shawn and I kept to our suite in a sort of honeymoon phase.
I felt free for the first time in years like I wasn't alone, and I felt like I had nothing to fear, I felt real love for the first time, not the kind that had conditions, like my parents, and not the brotherly kind Adam gave, real love, I felt it, but we didn't say the words, still, it was there, however surprisingly easy, it was there.
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