Her Perilous Wolf, Julie Steimle [howl and other poems TXT] 📗

to see me naked.”

The man laughed at him. “A sense of humor, even now? Is this your attempt to laugh in the face of death?”

Rick shrugged then unbuttoned his shirt, loosening his tie. “Death is a friend of mine. But she has a sense of humor you would not get.”

The man shoved him further, snatching away Rick’s tie, then yanking off Rick’s shirt, destroying the rest of his buttons. Underneath it was a white tee shirt, perfectly modest for a businessman. He shot Audry a sorry look as he pulled it off.

Nearly everyone drew in breaths as they stared at his Frankenstein level of scars over his fit musculature. Most of the long ones crisscrossed his back, the wolf claw marks and bites more on his front. Audry stared, taking them in more clearly in the daylight. Seeing his scars that night on the beach had been a surreal one. But in the light, it looked so much worse. Never did one guy deserve more of a break than Rick.

“This is just evil.” Rick said, unfastening his belt then his pants button. “She’s just an animal rescue worker who had save my life.”

“Twice,” Matthew Hague responded with smug enjoyment. He really did seem to enjoy watching Rick strip. Rick was fit, but this felt more perverse. Audry shot the thug an ugly look. She would have kicked him, but they had finally zip-tied her ankles together to stop her from trying to escape.

“She didn’t know I was the wolf!” Rick shouted, halting in his strip show. “Let her go!”

“She knows now,” George’s friend said.

“That’s no reason to hurt her.” Rick’s eyes set on Audry again, utterly grieving that this had happened to her. They would not have touched her if it weren’t for him.

“Anyone who protects a werewolf is a collaborator,” Matthew Hague snapped back.

“She wasn’t protecting me. She was doing what she does for all animals,” Rick retorted, hands on waistband. “She rescues lions, cheetahs, rhinoceroses… elephants.”

“Yeah. But rumor is she is in love with the wolf.” the Van Helsing friend of George replied near his ear. 

Rick nearly melted down on that, still hanging onto this pants. “The wolf! Not me! She hardly likes me! She’s a vegan! She hates the fact that I eat meat, for pity’s sake! Let her go! She’s not involved—”

“No. Take it all off!” that hunger shouted, kicking him in the back of his legs.

Rick staggered to keep from falling over.

The hunter nodded to Matthew Hague who grabbed Audry’s neck like he would snap it. She yelped.

“I’m not standing nude in the street!” Rick protested despite the threat. He had to drag it out. He needed to give his friends more time.

“What? You wear pants as the wolf?” The man shot him a mocking look.

“Yes!” But then his eyes flickered to Audry who was crying. “Most of the time.”

She rolled her eyes despite her grief, as the wolf was most definitely naked both hairy times she had saved him. It would have been weird to find a wolf in shorts. She probably would have believed he was werewolf much earlier if he had.

“But not with her.” the SRA hunter laughed. “Oooh. You must really like her.”

“Shut up! If you really want to know, I started going a’ natural after I met more wolves. They thought my boxers were weird, ok?” Rick pulled off his pants. They made him kick off his shoes next, pointing also to his socks.

Some of the hunters snickered. His socks had holes in the toes.

“Well, it’d be weird now,” that man ordered, gesturing to Rick’s green boxers. “Take it all off.”

Rick shuddered, putting his hands on the waistband. This was the end—the embarrassing end.

But then he really got chills from an instant cold, and so did Audry. Shivers went up her arms and all her exposed skin as the air temperature seemed to plummet.

With loud sirens, abruptly sounding and surrounding them, police cars pulled up from all roads into that desolate underpass. JJ hopped out of one, gun up and aimed at Matthew Hague. Matthew Calamori hopped out of another, Tom Brown springing out through the roof of this one. Both had guns.

“Try anything and I break her neck!” Matthew Hague roared, his eye most especially on Tom.

Yet Tom winked at him. “Is that supposed to be a threat?”

“Tom!” Rick shouted, going pale.

But the very next second a thousand things happened at once. Guns flew out of SRA hands. Shorts were being pulled over their heads—most especially Matthew Hague’s who found his fingers getting bitten by tiny invisible mouths and his eyes poked by tiny invisible fingers. The SRA man yowled as he reflexively let Audry go.

Audry dropped straight into the arms of Rick who had run up to her, pulling her into his bare chest. He dragged her far to the side, out of the reach of her captor and gently peeled the duct tape from off her mouth as the invisible onslaught continued their attack on her captors. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

Into the fray rushed Silvia and Randon who let Darth loose. The dog jumped  upon Matthew Hague who had drawn out a knife, rounding on both Rick and Audry. Darth’s jaws clamped down on that wrist.

Under the yowl of Matthew Hague, Daniel and some foreign elvish woman arrived, both running in with swords drawn, going in between the hostiles and the barely freed hostages to guard them. Daniel tossed Rick a knife, which he caught. With it, Rick cut off the zip ties around Audry’s wrists then her ankles. He felt over the bruising, checking her face as she trembled in shock.

“Are you ok?” Rick whispered her, not quite holding her, as if he were afraid he was carrying a plague he might give to her—yet at the same time desperate to see if she was unharmed. “They didn’t hurt you worse than just this, did they?”

She lifted her eyes to his somber and worried grays. Her wolf. And he was worried about her. Though she knew he would show up and be diplomatic with his way of talking and negotiating—he had come for her and had stripped near naked to save her.  

Audry looked to the fight, specifically those who had kidnapped her. Without their guns and bullets, the SRA thugs resorted to other weapons, knives out, crossbows out, demon wards out. They fought back against the NYPD, their friends, and that peculiar elfish woman—up until Matthew Calamori lifted his gun and shot Mr. Hague-the-Special-Ops-thug in the shoulder. The crack of it reminded her captors that the police were still armed with modern arsenal, and they could be dead very quickly.

Immediately the fight was over.

“Audry?” Rick’s hands were on her face, trying to get a response. “Are you ok?”

Quaking out of the shock, she shook her head. “They were going to kill me.”

Pulling her close to him, he whispered, “They can’t now. It’s ok. You’re safe. We’re here.”

The ‘We’ he was talking about definitely had a capital W. Through her tears, Audry could see Tom, Matthew, JJ, Jessica, Andrew, Daniel, Silvia, Randon, and a wild-haired woman she did not recognize at all, but had to be an elf (she just emanated that sort of power and beauty). On the skirts of the scene, Audry noticed Piranha also. She had knocked out Fake Van Helsing.

“We’ll fix this,” Rick murmured, rocking her, his wolfish musk filling her senses. “I’ll make sure no one can hurt you again.”

Audry shook her head, pushing out of his embrace, no matter how nice it felt to be held like that by him. “You can’t do that. It’s impossible.”

He shuddered, staring at her yet holding on as one who did not want to lose her. “No. No. I can get you a bodyguard. I can make sure nobody lays a finger on you ever again.”

Her fingers traced his healed scars. She looked at the one along his jugular made by wolves, the one that could have killed him. He shivered under her touch. She whispered, “Can’t you just do it?”

Rick’s eyes widened on her, his body trembling. His breathing grew heavier. “What?”

She shook her head, resting it against his chest. “Can’t you just protect me?”

Abruptly, in a panic, Rick rose, letting go. He stepped back. “You are better off away from me, Audry. I’m dangerous.”

“Bull crap.” Audry struggled to her feet, feeling him back off like a wounded animal. If he had been a wolf, he would be tucking his tail and flattening his ears. He certainly stood like that. “I was away from you, and they still came for me.”

Rick closed his eyes, clenching his teeth. She was right. He hated it, and he wanted to fix it. Surely he could, right?

Yet Audry, who was used to dealing with scared predators and read all the signs in his posture, could see where his mind was heading. But he needed to know it was too late. She had already crossed that threshold, and there was no going back. She had to tell him the truth. “I was attacked in Africa by a Chinese demon who knew you.”

Rick paled, eyes widening on her. “No…”

Audry nodded, stepping closer to him. “Your Eve saved me in Africa. I saw her.”

“Eve?” He shuddered more, stepping back like a wolf cornered. “You mean you nearly died?”

Audry took another step toward him. “I was sick but…”

“No!” He shook his head in agony, nearly howling. “The only people who can see Eve are those on the verge of death! What happened?”

“I. Got. Sick.” She said angrily. Why was he this thick now? “A demon Chinese snake bit me out of spite when we were hunting poachers. I caught yellow fever because somehow that bite nullified all my shots. But she, your girl Eve whom I saw in Africa, saved me because of you.” She poked him in the chest.

Yet Rick shook his head more, stepping further back. “You nearly died because of me.”

“Ugh!” Audry softly punched him in the chest, her fist landing on one of his more dramatic scars. “No! He was a poacher. Yeah, sure, he spited me because he could smell you on me, or so he said. And something about you friend Chen—”

“Chen? Did you say Chinese demon?” Catching her wrist to prevent her from punching him again, Rick swore, muttering. “One of those creeps got away? What’s Sun Wu Kong up to?”

“He mentioned him too.” Audry pulled her writs out of his grip.

Rick’s eyes widened on her. He shook his head more, muttering about making a phone call to have a word with “that Monkey.”

Annoyed, Audry shook her head. “The point is, I heard Eve when she saved me. She said you’d be furious with her if she let me die. She saved my life because of you. That’s why I am alive.”

Yet Rick looked likely to be sick. “You really saw Eve McAllister and heard her voice?”

Audry nodded, hoping he understood what she was getting at.

“I would have been furious if…” His eyes widened more on Audry. She was alive. He was taking that in, but his brain added other things together in a direction she did not want. He was mentally assessing danger. “Wait. That Chinese demon smelled me on you?”

Audry cringed. He would go there.

“Oh no…” he stepped back from her. “If demons are smelling me on you, that’s bad. You need to keep away from me. I can get you a special soap to wash off my scent—”

“No!” Audry marched after him. “I don’t want that!”

“It’s my fault you got hurt,” he muttered, backing up more. “I thank heaven Eve had become a destroying angel to save you. But, Audry, uh…” He looked around to those friends who were near, but keeping out of their argument. Daniel and that elf were the closest. “Someone take her to safety. Dan? Please? Get her away from me before she gets hurt.”

Daniel Smith, with that elfish woman, turned toward Rick, shaking his head. “You are not a threat to her.”

“Are