Why a Wolf Cries, Julie Steimle [ebook reader macos TXT] 📗

voice, “You remember Daisy?”

Andrew nodded, huffing. He remembered and was not pleased to.

“Who’s Daisy?” Will shook his head, eyeing a particularly long gash which had been well stitched together. He was impressed with the surgeon. Perhaps later he would arrange to meet him.

Looking to Rick for some sort of permission, Andrew winced. “Should I explain, or do you want to?”

Rick sighed wearily, volunteering. “Daisy is a she-wolf who… uh, seduced me once.”

Will halted in his inspection, his hands hovering over the iodine. “Who what?”

Unable to turn around, Rick chose other words to explain, staring at the far wall, “I made a huge mistake way back which nearly ruined my life. I was just out of high school. I was supposed to intern at a factory, but it all went south when the manager tried to change Dad’s plans for me. Long story. But in that time, I ran across a pack of… well, people like me. And it was the full moon, and… well, I stupidly let my guard down. They were smart and I was so stupid.”

“I like the other way you tell it,” Andrew protested indignantly. “You weren’t stupid. They just outsmarted you.”

“By?” Will dabbed the wounds to kill any possible microorganisms, then began to wrap up Rick’s wounds again with fresh bandages.

Rick closed his eyes, groaning. “She-wolves.”

Will looked to Andrew for an interpretation.

Andrew gazed back meaningfully as he said, “There is nothing a pack of werewolves wants more than an improvement in the gene pool. And for some reason, they think Rick can deliver it.”

Rick’s face turned beet red. He put his hands over his face, moaning.

 Will drew in a breath, peeking to him. “Rick? Sum it up. Who was Daisy?”

Nodding, Rick said as one trying to get the worst over with, “She was the she-wolf who led me to believe that we were fated mates.”

“What?” Will sounded perplexed rather than upset.

“The phrase was ‘moon bonded’,” Andrew clarified. “And to put it bluntly—”

“I got her pregnant,” Rick cut him off. It was like ripping off a bandage.

Will nodded, still not overly stunned. “Yeah… you were alluding to that. Do you have a kid?”

Rick shook his head, glad Will did not sound disappointed in him. “No. I mean, would have, but she miscarried in the beginning of the second trimester.”

To that, Will sighed. He lowered his head. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah…” But Rick shook his head. “I was too, at first.”

“At first?” Will frowned. He peeked over to Andrew who maintained an expression of plain fact and zero judgement, as this was all old news to him.

“I wasn’t in love with her,” Rick explained with a grief that was more like regret. He shook his head like a dog shaking off water. “I… it was all animal. It was all lust. Daisy had control of my mind, practically. I… I was enslaved by her. And when she miscarried… well, it was sort of a moment of clarity.”

“Clarity?” Will said, urging him on.

Rick nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t actually want a child. Not with her. I mean I felt responsible for losing control of my passions and getting her pregnant, and I had vowed to take care of them, but I couldn’t focus on school anymore. My mind was gone. I was so worried about her and the baby that I could not focus on anything else.”

“So when the responsibility was gone…?” Will prompted, wrapping more of him.

“Dad did everything to keep us separate after that.” Rick shook his head wearily. “He made certain I would not see her again or smell her again. And over time, life went back to the plan Dad had for me. I recovered, as the triggers for my addiction were well-contained. You know the world is not kind to werewolves. I have to stick to the plan. And joining that pack was out of the question.”

Will exchanged another look with Andrew who nodded to affirm it was true. “Did you want to join the pack?”

Rick shook his head. “No. I really didn’t. That’s the thing. I cannot do what I need to do while being part of a werewolf pack. I can’t. I can be friendly to packs, but I can’t join them.”

“That sounds a little sad,” Will murmured.

Andrew shook his head. “Don’t feel too sorry. That pack just want to use Rick.”

“Are you so sure?” Will asked.

“Yes,” Rick replied, nodding.

Will leaned back, listening.

“Daisy was part of a con,” Rick explained. “And they didn’t understand how money works, thinking I just inherited it and I could just take from it, like a magic tree.” He shook his head, chuckling. “Some people seem to think that my wealth comes from a huge piggy bank with an endless supply of money to swim in, like Scrooge McDuck. They don’t understand that the influx and outflow of money is just that—a flow. It moves. If you are not working to build a profit through investments and wise business, you lose it. No wealth is permanent.”

Will nodded, listening. “Ok….”

Sighing, Rick said, “I had to finish school. I had to do the work and get my degree. And I have to go to work within the company to earn my keep. I may become the major shareholder if Dad ever passes, or is murdered by hunters, but a company needs to be taken care of. I may even inherit the position of CEO one day. But a company takes work. And that means I can’t just run off with a werewolf pack simply because….”

Rick lowered his eyes, shaking.

Will rested a hand on his shoulder. “Ok. So you can’t join a pack. But you did think about it. Is that what you’re saying?”

Rick nodded. “Yeah. Daisy turned my head. The pack used her to use me. She succeeded where the French and the Canadians failed…”

“Other packs wanted—?”

“Yeah,” Rick nodded, cringing. “And don’t ask me how many packs are out there. I don’t know. I can name a handful, including the nasty Germans who nearly killed me.”

“Because you would not join them?” Will breathed out.

Rick shook his head. “Because I would not eat my friends.”

Will shuddered. Andrew closed his eyes.

“The point is, Daisy was bad news for me. She has been my long-distance addiction for years. I only survived because Dad was doing everything to keep her away from me.” Rick closed his eyes, waiting for condemnation. “And I would have been eternally addicted to her if Daisy and her pack had not hunted me down at New York City convention—which conveniently was when Audry met her.”

“Really?” Will still did not condemn him. He was just listening.

Rick nodded with a peek to Andrew who was shaking his head at him. Of course, Andrew had heard this story from Rick’s other friends who had been there at the time.

“Yeah,” Rick said. “Audry knows all about her—except for the fact that she’s a werewolf.”

Both Will and Andrew exchanged looks.

“One of the reasons Audry left New York,” Rick explained with open remorse, “was because of Daisy and me.

“As you know,” Rick nodded to Andrew, “Daisy found me a second time—hunted me down—around the same time Ivy was born. And it so happens that Audry, somehow, saw us together.”

Andrew’s eyes widened.

“I got this from her cousin Vincent. He told me. That’s how I know.” Rick shook his head. “So anyway, Audry saw us, and I couldn’t tell Daisy ‘no’.” He lowered his gaze, feeling ashamed.

Will looked to Andrew who nodded.

“If it weren’t for Randon, and for that matter, Silvia,” Rick murmured. “I’d still be trapped by Daisy.

“But even then, after all they did, she still had a hold on me.  Except—” Rick laughed, looking to the ceiling, “for one thing that happened that changed everything.”

“What thing?” Andrew asked, folding his arms. He wasn’t sure he heard this part. There was a rumor going around among his friends that he had heard, but up until this point, he had no real proof it was true.

Nodding, Rick looked over his shoulder at Will. “Are you done?”

Will resumed wrapping his wounds. “Not yet. Finish what you were saying.”

Nodding, Rick explained, trying to be patient, “Ok. Let’s go back in time to when Daisy first met Audry. At the convention, she had bragged to Audry about how she had gained her hold over me and seduced me—Audry told me later.”

Both men stared, exchanging looks.

“Now, I had no clue how she did it or how to shake her,” Rick said. “I was stuck on her. Hooked like a drug. I think only Matthew, Bobo, and Tom know about what I’m about to tell you. But at that conference, way back, Audry ended up with a… uh, pheromone enhancing balm that had belonged to Daisy.”

“A what?” Andrew rose from his seat.

Rick nodded. “Yeah. I’m not making it up. Go ask any one of them. The thing is, I didn’t find out about this balm until last year. That is, I didn’t realize the so-called ‘mosquito repellant’ Daisy was using back when I met her—which I did see and even used—was not in fact a mosquito repellant at all. And Audry told me, when I finally found out about it, that Daisy told her that the balm, when applied to the skin of a woman whose pheromones already attracted certain males, it would drive him wild. In my case, it affected my extreme wolf senses and absolutely drove me out of my mind for Daisy. I quit thinking logically and I just wanted to have sex. And in this case, with Daisy who honestly, was like…”

“So basically, it was chemical warfare,” Andrew murmured, thinking as he cut Rick off.

Rick nodded.

Will did not look as convinced. He could tell the guy thought it was a copout. A useful excuse. But he wasn’t angry either. He was still withholding judgement. It was such a good thing too. Rick felt awful about it.

“I would not have even known about the balm at all,” Rick explained, “had Audry not found the balm again in her stuff and tried it out at her last beach campout—the last time she was in New York when there was this big storm and they did a cleanup. She really didn’t think anything of it when she put it on. She was just doing a scientific test. Abey, you know what a skeptic she is.”

Andrew nodded.

“So she wanted to test what Daisy had told her about the balm,” Rick said, “Would it would drive men wild? Well…. she nearly got raped by her last boyfriend, Hogan, because if the balm.”

“What?” Andrew went pale.

With a nod, Rick then shook his head, thinking on what had happened. “It was a good thing Bobo was there to protect her—that he wasn’t attracted to her pheromones. But anyway, I came in the morning after the fact, and when I smelled the remains of it on Audry…” This time, a ripple went through Rick and he shook his head, breathing hard. “Bobo had to interfere.”

Breathless, both Will and Andrew stared.

Rick painfully chuckled, nodding. “Yeah. It hit me bad. I was nearly going wolf for her.”

The pair of them exchanged looks.

“The plus side is,” Rick weakly chuckled, “that my addiction to Daisy ceased altogether in that one moment. Her scent is disgusting to me now. Like a wet, mildewy rag.”

“Well, that’s good,” Will said, straightening up.

However, Andrew nodded with comprehension of what Rick had not said. “I see…. So, no more for Daisy. But…”

“Oh my!” Will stopped what he was doing, almost dropping the bandage “You’re now drawn to Audry’s smell?”

Closing his eyes, Rick nodded, cringing. “Painfully. And that’s even when she’s not wearing the balm, which I hope she never puts on again. I nearly lost control on that beach.”

They stared.

“And I just can’t let her get hurt.” Rick closed his eyes. In a far off voice he then continued a narrative he has started a while back. “Once I smelled her out on the trail and realized the cougar was tracking her group, I just could not let that play out. I know Audry is smart and