Grayson's Wolf Ch. 01

Grayson walked in his living room to find Jack curled up, sleeping on the couch. In sleep he looked even younger. With his face so relaxed he looked more like sixteen or seventeen.

Could he be teenager? I'm attracted to a kid?

Grayson shook his head like a wet dog trying to get dry.

What?

Grayson turned sharply on his heel and went into the kitchen.

I need a drink.

The mug Grayson left in the sink wasn't there anymore. Instead two clean mugs were upside down in the small wire drying rack. Two clean spoons mated perfectly in the plastic silverware holder part of the rack.

Grayson stared at the mugs, then looked out the window. It was a wall of white.

He looked back at Jack's sleeping body.

Well kid, I guess you're not going anywhere soon.

Chapter 10

The smell of steak woke Jack from his nap. He sat up, wiping his mouth.

"Oh sorry man, I must have drifted off. I don't think I drooled though. I was just sitting here, I didn't know how long you would be. I walked like a thousand hours today."

Grayson was standing at the stove. He turned around sharply. "How old are you?"

"What? Oh. Twenty-three."

Grayson narrowed his gaze.

"Seriously, dude. Red wolves don't age like normal people. We always look a lot younger than we are. Don't you?"

Grayson shook his head.

"Huh. Well anyway, yeah, I'm in grad school and I still have this baby face. Being short doesn't help."

Jack got up and walked into the kitchen. "That smells great."

When Jack got close to Grayson, Grayson automatically, and subtly, stepped away slightly.

"Sorry, man. Didn't mean to get up in your space."

Grayson plated up food for both of them and placed the plates on the kitchen table. Grayson was going to question Jack over dinner, but Jack started shoveling food in so fast, there was no way he would be able to talk.

Jack finished the steak and the potato in less than two minutes and was starting in on the vegetables when he looked up. Grayson hadn't touched his meal, he was just staring at him.

"Oh. Sorry. I...ah..."

"When's the last time you ate?"

"Early breakfast. We just had tea and toast. We figured we'd have a real breakfast when we got home." Jack's easy expression clammed up to a controlled neutral face that showed nothing.

"We who?" Grayson asked.

"My sister, my twin sister. Didn't you call Kinley when you ran out of the house?"

Grayson couldn't suppress his smile. "Good guess. But I didn't get her. So where's your sister now?"

"With your pack I guess. Kinley said she'd take care of her."

"Kinley took her in but not you?"

Jack shrugged. "She said she couldn't take a male into the pack without someone vetting him first. Safety issue."

Grayson frowned. Females were just as dangerous as males, sometimes more so. That didn't make sense. Unless...

"That manipulative bitch," Grayson mumbled under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothing. She just...ah...shouldn't split twins up. You're obviously not dangerous."

Jack smiled a devastatingly wicked smile that said both 'I'm an innocent, and I could be dangerous if I need to be.'

Grayson's heart skipped a beat. "Eat your food," he said gruffly.

As Jack ate his vegetables, Grayson got a large container of ice cream out of the refrigerator and put half of it in a bowl. He set it in front of Jack and started on his own dinner.

"You might not be a teenager, but you sure eat like one," Grayson said.

Jack sent him another wicked smile. "I'm a growing boy. Or I wish I was growing."

Grayson couldn't help it, he laughed. Grayson hugged his torso. Laughing still hurt.

"Besides, I always eat when I'm stressed. And I had a really, really long day."

"Tell me about it," Grayson said.

Chapter 11

Jack recounted the story, starting from camping and roasting marshmallows, through detailed accounts of the devastation of all the red wolves he knew about, to the encounter with Kinley, to arriving at Grayson's doorstep.

"What would make thrashaulers move in a group like that?" Grayson asked. "I've never heard of them being this far west, or working together in more than a very small group, or attacking an entire village. What would drive them to change their patterns? Why, and why now?"

The expressions that played across Jack's face before he got them under control were easy to read. Anger, sadness, hopelessness, determination.

"We have to get back," Grayson said. "I can't let my pack be...well, I was going to say undefended but Kinley's there, we have plenty of defense, it's just..." Grayson looked away from Jack and out the window. "I should never have come here, I can't be away from the pack right now."

They both looked at the front door. It was obvious they weren't going anywhere in this storm. Grayson strode to the front door and threw it open, with the intent on looking at the sky to get energy from the moon and see if he could predict the weather.

The snow had piled almost as high as the door, leaving only a tiny gap of visibility to the outside.

"Holy shit," Jack said.

Grayson slammed the door.

"Well, at least the weather will stop the thrashaulers as much as it will stop us," Jack said. "Right?"

Grayson shook his head. "They don't feel cold and they're stronger than us."

Jack's eyebrows shot up, he crossed his arms over his chest, and Grayson could feel his fear lance through the room like a sharp wave of icy acid.

"I don't think this will stop them. No werewolf anywhere is safe."

Jack started to shiver, probably a combination of delayed shock as well as Grayson's words. Grayson put another log on the fire and pulled the blanket from the back of the couch over Jack's shoulders.

I'm not going to let these monsters hurt you or my pack. "They have a new motivation; we just don't know what it is."

Jack looked up at him, his eyes wide. Grayson's heart caught in his throat.

God, he barely knows me, and his expression is so full of trust.

"I'm not going to fail you, or them," Grayson whispered. Although as soon as the words were out of his mouth he thought of the snow trapping them in and doubt slammed into his chest followed quickly by a string of curse words flooding his mind.

"Nothing's going to stop me," Grayson said.

Jack nodded. "We're smart," he said. "We'll figure it out."

Chapter 12

"Beckett, I need to talk to you," Kinley put her hand on his arm, and the sexual spark that sprang up surprised them both. Kinley yanked her hand back. But Beckett smiled at her.

"Please," Kinley said. Beckett nodded.

Kinley had been planning on bringing him into her house, but in light of how intense that touch was, she thought better of it and headed to the main hall. She found one of the little side rooms that wasn't in use, and they both sat down.

"It's about the new girl, I assume," Beckett said. His voice was low and resonant. Kinley wondered why she never noticed it before. Probably because he'd always been with Conna and when they broke up...Kinley shook herself out of her reverie and brought herself back to the topic at hand.

"She has a twin brother, Jack. I sent him up to stay with Grayson."

"Wait, wait." Beckett said and then smiled a huge smile.

Oh God, his smile never affected me like this either.

"First off, twins came here and you separated them? Secondly, isn't it weird that they have human names? Thirdly, you sent him to Grayson?" If possible his smile got even bigger.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. It was hugely manipulative. But Grayson's been alone for so long. He thinks I don't know about his friend down from the Southern Grate Pack that he hasn't seen in over a year? Like that's healthy? You should have seen this boy. So, yeah, I told them that I couldn't take a male in without someone checking him out first."

Beckett laughed.

"Yeah, I know. Grayson will check him out all right," Kinley said. Her cheeks reddened a little. "That's not the point. It's the reason they came here that's the point."

"I wondered what little red riding hood was doing here," Beckett said. "But I wasn't going to ask until you found it fit to tell me. I figured maybe some male was creating serious problems for her."

Kinley shook her head. "Not a wolf. Thrashaulers. Lots of them."

Kinley told Beckett everything that Sarah told her, not leaving out a single detail. Beckett wasn't just the muscle. He was as smart as he was strong and as Kinley wove her story his face and body language reflected how seriously he was taking this and how grim he felt the situation was.

Kinley paused when she was finished but neither one of them said anything. Beckett could tell there was more.

"So I was thinking," Kinley said. "We know thrashaulers hate werewolves. We know they kill them, insert their spores, feed off them until they're dead, and then make them into the undead walking abominations."

Beckett nodded.

"But they've never behaved like this. Why would they burn towns to the ground?"

"It doesn't make sense," Beckett said.

"Then I had a vision," Kinley said.

"Oh shit," Beckett mumbled.

* * * ...

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