Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Merrik

"Are you wearing something new, Annie?"

She looks at me like I've lost my mind.

"Um, no." She lifts the collar of her shirt to sniff but comes up with an even more confused look. "Is this some weird wolf thing?"

I narrow my eyes at her and fight a huffy growl. I have no idea what has me all out of sorts. I would never be this…vocal with someone like Annie.

Annie isn't like most of us who reside here in Dire County. She's…human.

Most of us are…not!

We have many names and the closest an outsider would liken us to is a werewolf. We prefer to call ourselves Lupin. When we speak of it at all. Humans like Annie are few, but they are here. Her mother -also human- married one of my wolves and that means Annie is also a part of us now. We Lupin take family very seriously.

I fight the urge to sniff Annie. The scent is too faint for it to be her and yet, it's still there.

"Oh," her brows go up, "you might be picking up on the new girl. I showed her around just a little while ago."

"New girl?"

As someone who knows what we are and what we can do, she is searching for a reason I am very interested in this new scent.

"Yeah, she came in a few hours ago and I showed her around. She's human so…"

I narrow my eyes and slam the lid tight on the overwhelming craving that comes with her scent. This is the last thing I need. A human. I want no part of it. Not realizing the internal struggle going on inside of me, Annie keeps going.

"She's swimming right now with everyone."

Annie points down to the lake where people are splashing around and enjoying the water. My eyesight being better than a normal human's, I can see the small brunette in a one-piece laughing and shouting with Larry. She stops when he cries out a greeting to us and turns to look the same way he is looking. I can feel her eyes on me even from this distance and even though I realize she can't possibly make out details it's as though she is looking right into my soul.

I huff off before I give into the urge to go down there and pull the woman out of the water right away, telling her, no -demanding- she only wear that little when I am close enough to kill anyone who stares at her too long. I'm not unreasonable, not a monster. I understand she's going to draw male eyes…and some females as well. I'm not going to be a dick and blame her for that, for something she can't fucking control. I'm going to growl and snarl and kill anyone who decides to look for too long or someone who thinks they can have what belongs to me!

Only…she doesn't belong to me. She can't! She's human, and while human and Lupin matings do happen quite frequently, I do not have the time for this. I have a murderer to stop and a town to protect. Maybe if it were another time, if it were under better circumstances, then maybe I would go down there and woo her the way she deserved to be wooed.

The coming of the blood moon makes the timing even worse. Blood moons happen two or three times a year when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon. It's a Lunar eclipse and causes the moon to turn a deep shade of red. These are known to cause…problems for Lupins. It makes us more susceptible to our animalistic side and…well, it makes us really fucking horny. It's not like the men are snatching women off the street and tying them to the bed until the phase is over or our women are climbing every male in sight. We just really want to be close to that one special person.

Just like we hold family sacred, we hold mates to be even more special. Males and females wait until they meet the one person they are meant to be with. Some of us can get our dicks hard before we find the one, but it's unsatisfying and never with another person. It's like eating without the flavor. Why do it if it isn't pleasurable? Lupins remain virgins until they sniff out their mate and then they lock up for a week or two until there is a babe on the way and they can finally feel settled.

When the blood moon happens, mated couples go hard at it often breaking beds, and making loud noises and the females go into a kind of heat -even if they are human- until they are good and bred again. I once knew a couple who were both Lupin and the male came away with a broken leg from the urges and needs flowing through my kind. No one asked him what happened because no one really wanted to pry but we all thought he was the goddamned man because of it.

Women become more fertile during that time as well, so a lot of births happen nine months after blood moons. Unless of course the woman is already bred and then the blood moon doesn't affect the couple as intensely. Oh, they still want each other so bad they can't breathe without being connected but there are no broken bones, no swinging from the chandeliers when the couples are expecting.

And now I have a fucking monster on the loose in the woods and a whole lot of vulnerable people depending on me to keep them safe through the blood moon mating. I have no fucking time to lock myself away sunk in a mate. It wouldn't be fair to her as much as it wouldn't be fair to the people who trust me to keep them safe. I huff as I walk away from the tiny human with the killer scent and turn my focus back on a heartless killer instead.

Am I happy about it? No. Will I get over it? God, I hope so. As my community's alpha, I need to find this killer, stop the murders, and keep my people safe so they can do what nature intended. And what about the little human? I'm not even sure if she is my mate. I could just like the way she smells. For all I know, she could have brushed up against my real mate and that's why she smells good. Either way, I can't let this derail me. I can't let it keep me from doing my job.

And maybe, if I say it enough times, I will start believing it myself.