Women And the Demons Who Love Them

Lockwood City-2

Calvin Harris, Rag n Bone- Giant

Eloise: 

    Music takes away the loud silence. It drowns out the ringing in my ears. It steadies the trembling in my body. It never stops playing in my headphones. I keep them around my neck and set it to whatever I feel like listening to that day.

    I have a routine. Every morning, whether I've slept or not, I take a shower and I prepare for the day. I stand behind the massive Lockwood letters that cover the bulletproof windows. The windows wrap around the entire building. This spot faces the east. Where the sun rises. 

    As the darkness of the night gives away to the daylight of the morning, I remind myself that today is a new day. That I've made it through the night. The darkness that surrounds me is over and I can go about the day to do as I please. Most days.

    "Good morning, lady Eloise," I look over at Victoria and smile. 

    "Good morning, Victoria. How did you sleep?" I ask. 

    "I slept like a baby. Did you manage to get any sleep?" she asks motioning me to sit on my bed. 

    My lack of words must have told her that I didn't sleep at all. She took the brush from my hand and began to brush out my hair herself. Once she's done, she parts my hair and starts to braid it. I stand up and walk over to the small area outside of my room where my computers and books are. 

    I start everything up and turn on the two flat screens set up over my three monitors. On one screen, the Lockwood City news begins. On the other, the Lockwood stock stats along with other top-grossing stock investments. The surveillance footage to the training grounds come up on the left monitor and surveillance to the pack town square to the right. In the center, I bring up my university assignments.

    "The alpha is here," Margarita announces as she sets a tray with my breakfast on the desk by the staircase. She takes a fruit cup from the tray and hands it to me. It's what I always start with. 

    "Thank you," I say without reaching for it.

    I prepare myself to welcome my dad. I look at the monitor to see it's Thursday, September 13th. Of course, he's here. My mother will then follow and throughout the day Victoria is going to bring me gifts. It's been this way since I was placed up here.

    "Good morning," my body always tenses up with the sound of his voice. I think it's the authority in his voice. Maybe it's the grand presence of the alpha or the fact that he's six feet eight inches tall that scares the hell out of me. 

    "Good morning," I greet him turning my gaming chair around. 

    His eyes don't immediately come to me. They look over the screens briefly but carefully. One after the other before his dark brown eyes meet my own. I love the color of his eyes. They're nothing like the gray I inherited from my mother. I find peace in his eyes because when I look into them, fear doesn't stare back. Comfort and safety do. It's the rest of him that I have a problem with. 

    He's usually dressed for business in a custom suit, with his hair slicked back, his expensive jewelry, and his fancy shoes. He looks like he's just gotten out of the shower. He's wearing basketball shorts, a t-shirt, and a windbreaker. 

    "What do you think about yesterday's stock increase?" he asked. 

    "It's going to drop about two percent of the twelve it rose yesterday. Melbourn and Howard are going to sell their shares and invest in Peterson," I pointed out. He smirked. 

    "How do you know that?" 

    "That's what I would do if I were in their position. They don't deal with business like ours. They're going to make eight times what they paid," 

    "You've really got a handle on this," he smirked.

    "You sound surprised," 

His smirk turned into a genuine smile. "I'm not. I'm just stating the obvious. Come down and have breakfast with me. I have something for you," 

    I nodded turning back to my monitors. As I shut down the middle one, I noticed something on the right one. There's a woman standing right in the middle of town square looking right at the camera. My dad notices my hesitation and comes over to me making sure he doesn't get too close. 

    Rapunzel. She mouths. I stand up backing away from the monitor. 

    My dad growls and soon the woman is surrounded by police wolves. I watch as they put her in handcuffs and haul her away. My dad looks back at me and lets out a heavy sigh before he turns the monitor off. He motions me to follow him downstairs. It doesn't happen often but it does happen.

    I shake the cold feeling off and follow close to him. He likes it. We don't have a closer relationship because he doesn't have the patience to keep up with my heavy personality. I like to think before I speak and he often demands an on the spot answer to questions that shouldn't be answered that way. His go-to insult on that is, you're just like your mother. He's not wrong. It's also not an insult.

    I live in a three-story penthouse suite at the top of the Lockwood Pack tower. This area of the building is only accessible by a private glass elevator that only my parents, Victoria, and Margarita have access to. 

    As soon as one exits the elevator, to the left, there is a luxurious kitchen equipped with anything anyone could ever need in a kitchen and the dining room table. Just outside the kitchen is the south deck. There's a baby pink BMW convertible parked at the far end of the deck. I had gotten the car for my sixteenth birthday. There's a metallic baby pink Lamborgini at the other end that I had gotten as a graduation gift. In the center, is Bugatti super sport-bike that was a gift for my mother. 

    To the right of the elevator is what had been my first bedroom when I was brought here after I turned thirteen. The bed, the dressers, the wardrobe, and the pictures are all still the same. Beyond the bedroom, is the northern deck where a small living room that no one but my mom ever uses. She sometimes sleeps in the small bedroom as well. 

    The west deck is a display area for my favorite art pieces my mom has ever made. There are a few paintings, lots of small sculptures and pottery, and some of her bigger statues. The east deck, where the Lockwood sign is, has a small gym area where I like to work out in. Victoria is also my personal trainer. 

    I rarely come down here outside my workout schedule. When I do, it's usually someone's request. Like now, my dad asked me to have breakfast with him. Other times my mom asks me to come down so she can show me the latest addition to her work. When I come down here on my own accord, it's to spend some time looking at some of her work. 

    "Your mom wanted me to tell you that she's sorry she couldn't be here today," he started. 

    "Right," I said remembering. "She has a show in L.A. I had forgotten about that," 

    "That's right. Otherwise, she would be here," he says it like he feels bad. Like they both do. I hate that they do because if anything, I should be the one that feels bad. I should be there with her. I should be anywhere other than here but I can't be. I've tried. 

    "It's fine. You guys have a life outside of me. You shouldn't feel bad about living it. I completely understand," his eyes searched mine for a bit before he took a seat and motioned me to sit down with him. I took the seat to his left. I'm not ready to be too far away from him. 

    "Eloise, I know-" he stopped shaking his head. "That's not how I want to start today. I have something for you," 

    "What is it?"

     Victoria came over to him and handed him a black velvet jewelry box. The kind of box expensive necklaces are stored in. He placed it on the table between us. I glanced up at him before I looked down at it. I picked it up when he encouraged me to. I opened it to find a red collar adorned with diamonds and a name tag that reads, Sasuke. 

    "We thought, you'd like some company," he explained softly. 

    "You got me a dog?" I asked excitedly. He smiled liking my reaction. 

    "No, I got you a wolf," he corrected. I looked up at him confused. 

    "A wolf? Like a baby wolf?" 

He nodded. 

    "I was out on patrol last night," he had been the giant black wolf I had seen from my bedroom last night. "We came across a den. I think the mother had just passed because the pup is healthy," 

    "Just one?" 

    "There were three others but this one was the only one that was alive. I think he's the oldest," he waved his hand and Margarita came over to us with a struggling pup in her arms. 

    I pushed my chair back and went over to them. When the pup's eyes landed on me he stopped struggling. His fur is pitch black. His eyes are a brilliant red. Margi set him down. He growled at her before slowly coming over to me. He sniffed my shoes. I got down on one knee holding my hand out for him to take. He sniffed it before licking the palm of my hand. He sat down in front of me before looking up. 

    I growled at him loudly showing him that I'll be the alpha here. He jumped back crouching low with his ears pressed to the back of his head. I once again offered him my hand and he came back. I took the collar out of the box showing it to him. He sniffed it before looking up at me. I put it on him. 

    He shook his fur out before falling on his side to try and scratch it off. I let out a warning growl to let him know that I didn't want him to remove it. He let out a little whine before he just slumped down. 

    "I've never seen anyone interact with a wolf that way," Victoria broke the silence. 

My dad didn't say a word about our interaction. 

    "You have to take care of him. Train him. He is now your responsibility," I looked up at him knowing exactly what he meant by that. 

    "If I choose not to keep him?" 

He glared at me. "Then he will be put down," 

    The pup arched back to scratch the back of his ear. We didn't bring the pup up again throughout breakfast. Sasuke followed me around the penthouse until my dad left. I set him u- right outside my room. Victoria brought him everything I asked for including training pads so when he can't be taken outside. 

    Upside, I can teach him how to use the toilet. All I have do is make sure the seat is always up. The downside, he's a wolf. A feral wolf who needs to go outside no matter what. He's aggressive. Male wolves usually are. I've established dominance over him and he's accepted it. No one else is going to be able to handle him once he's older. 

    I walked around the penthouse to show him his way around. When we got to the roof, he was really happy about the fresh air. This had once been the top of the world in the pack. Before I was ruined, my birthday parties had been hosted here. My siblings all had their birthday parties here and the pack had been happy. 

    Now, it's all just a memory. Everything is just a memory and no matter how good they are, the ugly ones always weigh over them heavily. These are more than just that. I can feel them. They keep me up at night. They have created something just as ugly inside of me and I don't know how to deal. I don't know what to do with it. I don't know if it's safe for others to be around me. These distractions only go so far. 

    Sasuke's harness is sitting on my bed. It matches the collar my dad had gotten him. He jumped on my bed and started playing with it making me smile. I haven't been around another living creature that requires this much attention in a very long time and my instincts are kicking. It's something you don't forget. Like riding a bike or flinching. 

    "Do you like it here?" I asked him. He looked up at me probably because of the sound of my voice. His head tilted to the side before he started playing with the harness again. 

    I took it from him. He tried to bite me earning him flick to the tip of his right ear. He let out a little yip but he came at me playfully after shaking it off. He let me put it on him. I pulled a sweater on before going over to the monitors to see there's no one outside the back part of the building that leads into the woods. 

If not now, then never.