Wolf, in League [Wolf 3]

Chapter 2: Do You Feel Me, Child?-1

Chapter 2: Do You Feel Me, Child?Children…ah, but how he loved to watch them most of all. As tempting as an unwatched sachet of heroin to an addict, they were. It wasn’t just that they had the sweetest blood (though they most certainly did), nor that their busy minds made them curious and, as such, easy to lure. It was the angst their destruction left behind. Mankind hated to lose their seedlings, they surely did. As if the humans had forgotten how easy children were to replace, how easy they were to do over. Man spoke of renewable resources as though they would stop the destruction of their planet—solar, wind, water, bamboo, hemp, forget the oil and the coal and focus on that which can be reborn on every turn of the planet!—and they failed to see that they themselves were the most renewable things that walked the Earth. In a mere forty weeks, a child could be seeded and pushed out of a body. Within twelve to sixteen weeks after that, the blood that coursed through them was as strong as it would ever get. One didn’t even need to wait until they were walking—or, gods forbid, talking—to take full advantage of their nutrient value. The bites were small but they were oh, so fulfilling.

The two at the table, with their heads over their books and their minds who even knew where, were not infants by any means. They sat in a well-lit kitchen, no doubt feeling safe and cozy under the watchful eyes of their father and the father’s concubine. Somewhere a brother sat and watched as well—not with his eyes but with his ears and his instinct—and alongside that brother sat another man. A strange man. A talented man. A man that could be turned to the proper bidding if time and fate allowed it to happen. When time and fate allowed it to happen.

He lightly rested his hands on the windowsill and smiled at the twitch of tension that worked its way over the spine of the youngest one at the table beyond the window. The girl child. Another odd bunny, that one, and to make matters most confusing, he had no idea what was odd about her.

Do you feel me, child?

He sent the thought out, daring to let it wander from his mind into the house even though it might get heard by someone other than the girl. And perhaps it did. At that moment, the doorway to the kitchen darkened and a curly-haired young man with olive skin and a deep frown entered the room.

“Mine,” he mumbled at the glass, staring at the frown, willing the newcomer to come closer. That didn’t happen. The man did, however, motion at the window and the father stood up and drew the blind. Before that, though, the father peered through glass to try and see into the dark beyond.

Had the father been a sharper man, he might have seen the twitching branches that marked their visitor’s passage. He wasn’t.

* * * *

There was a soft breeze rustling the tree tops and the leaves sounded crisper than the eye would have one believe. Matthew sat on the porch with his laptop on his lap (appropriately enough, he’d thought with a grin) and tapped away at the keyboard. He was keeping a journal, as he was inclined to do for any study, but so far it didn’t have any entries that went beyond the light patterns of the O’Connells’ residence. They had no blueprint of the house, although Gavin had requested one, but a person didn’t need to be a superspy to figure out which rooms were for what. The time schedule of lights going on, staying on, and being turned off made it pretty clear. Other than the lights, though, there’d be nothing else—nobody walking out to pick up mail (from what Matthew had seen, anyway, even though the little red flag had gone up, down, up, and down again, so someone must have been getting it), no one wandering out to the front porch for a breath of fresh air or to gaze up at the stars. Nobody stopping by for a chat. Matthew had almost come to believe that the two pickup trucks in the O’Connell driveway were there for show and that the O’Connells had their own food supply. He never dwelled long on what that supply might be. The thoughts gave him shivers. But in the week that he and Gavin had been in the house, not once had he seen one of the trucks back out and drive off.

So when the front door of the O’Connells’ opened, and a tall, thin man with dark hair stepped onto the porch in what appeared to be a light leather jacket and jeans, then turned and assessed the Connor house—their new house—Matthew was shocked.

It didn’t take long for Matthew to identify the man as Randy Connor. Randy didn’t have the build that the two O’Connell men had and though his hair was shorter now than in the pictures Matthew had studied, the resemblance was still there. Good-looking man, Mr. Connor was, indeed. He also had the casual but confident gait that spoke of a fine upbringing and a care towards gracefulness that wasn’t usual in such a rural community.

Matthew watched Randy saunter down the road towards the house with an expression that he knew was resplendent in praise. Life was not fair…all the good ones really were married. Or shacked up, anyway.

When Randy paused at the foot of the driveway and lifted a hand in a silent hello, Matthew motioned him up without hesitation.

“Howdy, neighbor.” Matthew shut his laptop. “Out for a stroll?”

A smile lit Randy’s face and everything south of Matthew’s belly button went weak. It had been too long since Matthew had spent some time with another man and he was due. It was time to either get back into town and hit the bars or call up some of the more risqué websites Matthew knew of. While Matthew wasn’t all that into fly-by-night affairs, a person still needed some one-on-one time, and it wouldn’t be the first time Matthew had gone looking for a body to tide him over. It wasn’t ideal, but work and school hadn’t left him much in the way of free time to go searching for a hubby. He could live with that for the time being; it wasn’t like life was slipping past him. Not yet, anyway. He was young. There’d be time for true love and potential husbands later.

“Thought I’d do the respectable thing and stop by to say hello,” Randy said. He stood at the bottom of the porch stairs and made no effort to come any closer.

Matthew lifted out of the chair with an exaggerated effort, and tucked his laptop under his arm. “I was starting to think the house was empty over there.”

Randy didn’t reply with anything other than a chuckle and while disappointed, Matthew had to admit that he didn’t really think it was going to be that easy to get the man to talk. ‘Yeah, sorry about that, but we’ve got this vampire that we’re hiding’ wasn’t just going to fall out of Randy’s mouth. Unfortunate, but life was an entire string of unfortunate events.

“Can I offer you a coffee?” Matthew asked. “Or something more sociable? It’s not too early to offer you a beer, is it?”

Randy waved the suggestions away. “I’ll take you up on that another time, but thank you. I just wanted to see how you were doing. If you liked the house and everything was working all right for you. It used to be mine, you know.”

“I did not,” Matthew lied. “But that would make you R. Connor, wouldn’t it?”

“Randy,” he said. “The R actually stands for Randall, but I prefer Randy.”

“Perfectly acceptable name,” Matthew said. “I’m Matthew. With all the letters still intact.” He stepped down the stairs, but slowly; as though he were advancing on a wild animal. As genuine as Randy’s light, friendly expression seemed to be, Matthew wasn’t about to throw caution to the wind. He could only hope that Gavin was listening, or watching, at least, and that Gavin would be inspired to find a way to save him should things suddenly go awry. Not that Randy was a wolf or anything…but who knew what could have gone on in the last several months?

He suddenly realized he was standing there, mute and drifting in his own thoughts. He shook his head, he widened his smile, and kicked his tongue into gear. “I am absolutely in love with this house,” Matthew gushed. “The view out back is amazing. So peaceful, you know what I mean? It’s exactly what we were looking for.”

That was a complete pile of horse dung; Matthew’s preferences ran to wide, open lofts in condos that were full of stainless steel and leather, where he couldn’t care less if the snow was falling because someone who was paid to do so was going to clear the walks and make sure he could get out of the laneway.

“And your wife?”

“My husband,” Matthew corrected with a prideful smile that he could only hope was coming across as, that’s right, my friend, we’re all on the same team here. “And yes, I think he likes it well enough. It’s quite different from our condo back in L.A., but he’ll get used to it.”

He made a mental note to tell Gavin that they’d moved from L.A., should the conversation be broached at a later date. They really should have put more thought into their backstories.

“Oh man, can I relate to that.” Randy laughed. “I could write a novel on the things I had to learn when I moved here from DC. But I won’t keep you; you look busy.” He pointed at Matthew’s laptop. “Are you writing?”

“Facebooking,” Matthew lied and then instantly regretted it. What if there was a sudden offer that they become f*******: friends? Was he going to have to set up an account? Where would he ever get contacts and fake family and gosh darn it, why didn’t he think of these things before he opened his mouth? This spy business was harder than it looked.

“Important stuff, indeed.” Randy’s grin grew and once again Matthew found himself liking it just a wee bit too much. It was endearing. Open and attractive. Not an expression that Matthew would associate with ‘lawyer from DC.’ That O’Connell fellow had better be thanking his lucky stars for what the good Lord had dropped into his lap.

“I loved this house,” Randy said, looking up at the trees. “I’m going to miss it. At least I didn’t have to move far.” He pointed at the O’Connells’ property. “That’s our place. Nice and close. It worked out pretty neatly, if I do say so myself.”

“That’s all kinds of cool, isn’t it? That you met your husband here? I hope it was a love at first blush kind of thing?” Matthew knew the whole story, of course, but Randy wouldn’t know that. If Randy got suspicious that Matthew knew they’d met here in Wolf, well than Randy could blame Matthew’s foreknowledge on gossip. It would be foolish to think a place this size wouldn’t be gossiping over the gay couple, after all.

Randy’s eyebrow ticked the tiniest bit up his forehead and, just like that, Matthew felt his previous reasoning get kicked to the curb. No. The town wouldn’t gossip about these guys. Especially the ones in the know of the O’Connells’ special little tricks and treats. Matthew’s heart skipped a beat, and his stomach dropped. Damn…

Instead of calling Matthew out on how he knew and why he knew and what exactly he thought he knew, Randy chuckled. “My husband—well, fiancé, really—has lived here forever. The truest of the true Wolf men, complete with the ingrained belief that if you aren’t born in Wolf, you don’t belong in Wolf. Which is my way of saying that yes, I met him here, but it was by no means a love at first sight thing. I had to work my ass off for it.”

“Ah,” Matthew feigned a wince of sympathy. “That sucks. But all’s well that ends well, or so the saying goes.”

“True enough.” Randy stuck out his right hand. “My point being that when I first moved here, I was sure that I was going to be ostracized and alone forever. So I figured I’d risk his disapproval and make sure that didn’t happen to you as well.” He wiggled the fingers of his outstretched hand. “Consider this my official hello and welcome.”

“Thank you very much,” Matthew said. He turned to set the laptop down on the stairs and accepted Randy’s handshake. “And before I forget, congratulations.”

Randy tilted his head, seemingly confused.