Starting Over(Hart of Seattle)

Chapter Six



Pain exploded in Von’s head, wrenching her out of the sensual fog she’d been in. Like a sleepwalker awakened abruptly, around the ringing in her head she tried to figure out what happened. Her vision was hazy. Her face throbbed, making her head hurt. Her thighs were sticky and wet and her sex was tender and pulsing in unfulfilled desire, a condition she’d experienced frequently enough with Derrick. Had they been making out again and been interrupted? But that wouldn’t explain her head and face, or why she was on the floor.
A roar and a crash caught her attention. Sean and Derrick were trying to kill each other, though Sean clearly had the advantage. She brought her hand to the side of her face that hurt the most, and her touch, light as it was, sent a sharp pain through her body. The shock of it caused a partial memory to surface.
Derrick hit her! But why?
Oh my God! She’d had sex with Sean and Derrick had walked in on them, catching them in the act. How could she do such a thing? Despites all her efforts, she’d turned out to be like her mother after all. Why else would she have been so obsessed with having sex to the point where it didn’t matter who it was with as long as she got some?
Derrick is right. I am a whore.
Von wanted to vomit. Shame rode her hard and all she could think to do was run home and hide. She scrambled to her feet, swaying before she managed to balance herself by grabbing hold of the chair. Forgetting she had on three-inch heels, she stumbled and nearly fell when she tried to walk. The shoes were proof of her harlotry. Who but a prostitute had sex with their shoes on?
She weaved her way to the door and almost tripped over her purse. Bending over to pick it up off the floor almost did her in and she braced herself against the wall until the room stopped spinning and the black spots faded from before her eyes. When she could straighten, she took the last few steps necessary, undid the locks and opened the door.
A pizza deliveryman standing in the doorway with his fist raised to knock on the wood startled her, but she pushed past him.
“Hey, are you all right? Should I call rescue, the police?” he asked, looking down her body then past her into the apartment where sounds of fighting could clearly be heard.
Von waved his concern away and concentrated on making it to her car. As she stepped off the small porch, her knees weakened and she grabbed hold of the railing. She could do this. There was only this short sidewalk before she reached the curb. Her car was parked almost in front of Derrick’s apartment in his next door neighbor’s extra spot. Twenty steps at the most.
She wobbled down the sidewalk.
“Whoa! Here, let me help.” The guy grabbed her elbow with his free hand. “Are you sure you don’t need me to call anyone? We’re not supposed to get involved with domestic disputes but...”
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “My car is right here.”
“Miss, I really don’t think you should be driving,” he said as she fumbled with the latch, trying to get the door open. “Door’s locked. That’s why you can’t open it. You have keys?”
Von handed him her purse and leaned against the car. She felt so weak.
He opened the door and helped her get behind the wheel, then placed her purse in her lap. “Please, miss, let me call 911 for you.”
“No need. I’ll be fine as soon as I lay down. Tired. Not far.”
When he saw she was insistent on leaving, he reached in and put the keys in the ignition, and cranked the engine. “Be careful.” Before shutting her door, he asked, “You think those guys still want their pizza?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. You head on home.”
Driving was difficult and if not for the empty streets due to the earlier rain, Von didn’t think she would have made it. Her vision was limited to one blurry eye and it kept tearing up. Good thing she lived only a few blocks from Derrick. Normally a five-minute drive, tonight it felt like a five hours.
Never in a million years would she imagine Derrick turning violent. Not toward her, though she admitted she’d given him plenty of provocation. Again she muffled a sob, unable to believe what she’d done.
Von managed to get into her apartment without running into any of her neighbors. Cold air hit her flesh as she closed the door. She looked down and realized her dress was open. She was virtually naked. Not only Sean but the delivery guy had seen her like this. My God, what they must think of me.
The need to be clean overcame any other desire. She wobbled into the bathroom, shrugging off her dress as she went. Von caught sight of her body in the door mirror and her breath hitched. She’d purchased this set for her honeymoon. There’d be no wedding now. Derrick would never forgive her. Would she ever forgive herself?
A steady stream of tears rolled down her face, but she really lost it when she saw the blood smeared on her panties. Her stomach heaved and the contents came spewing out. She made it to the toilet just in time. With one hand she braced herself over the bowl to keep from falling in, and with the other she held her head to keep it from exploding.
In a small portion of her mind, Von knew that her reaction was too extreme, too erratic, too emotional, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. The possibility that she had a concussion crossed her mind. She needed help. She needed Marketta. But first she needed that shower.
Von crawled into the tub and turned the nozzles. The initial blast of cold water jolted her but fortunately it quickly warmed. She poured bath gel on her loofah and scrubbed her skin raw. Still the taint remained. Her need to lie down drove her out of the tub. The ache in her head had eased enough that she could stand without blacking out. However, Von wrapped a towel around her body and another around her hair, then shuffled into the bedroom as quickly as possible. Her cell phone lay on the bedside table. She picked it up and quick dialed Marketta.

“Where the hell have you been? I called you several times last night and today with no answer. I know you weren’t working. What happened to your promise to call me after your meeting with Sean?” Marketta blasted her as soon as she answered.
“Ketta, come over. I need you.”
“Come over? Don’t you know it’s raining cats and dogs outside? And what’s wrong with your voice. Are you drunk? Since when did you start drinking?”
A sob escaped. “Please, Ketta.”
“What’s happened?” her voice was sharp with concern.
“Please,” Von said, unable to manage more.
“I’ll be right over.” She could hear her cousin scrambling around before disconnecting the call.
With only one eye able to open and tears streaming out of the other, Von rubbed the excess water out of her hair before going to her dresser and pulling out one of her winter granny gowns. The flannel gown swallowed her from her neck to her feet. Its voluminous folds left no hint of the figure inside. Sufficiently covered, she collapsed on the bed and let the darkness take her.


****


Sean drove out of Derrick’s apartment complex parking lot to a nearby shopping center where he pulled in and parked. He gripped the steering wheel so tight his knuckles showed white. After his breathing slowed and he achieved some measure of calm, he took out his cell phone and dialed one of the numbers recently programmed inside.
“’Lo.”
“Spook, it’s me.”
“Serge, checking in so soon? How’s the vacation? Seen your girl yet?”
Sean let his head fall onto the driver’s seat backrest. “Not going so good. Got into a bit of a situation and lost control,” he confessed.
In a serious tone, Spook asked, “Where’s the body?”
He sucked in a deep breath. “I didn’t kill him. Hooch is alive. Unconscious, but still breathing.”
“Oh, well in that case, you didn’t lose control at all. With your strength and training, if you were truly enraged, dude would be dead,” Spook said in a relieved tone of voice. “Why don’t you tell me what happened.”
Sean reported the sequence of events, starting with his meeting with Derrick and Von and up to a few minutes ago when he left Derrick’s apartment.
“Did you shift?”
“No.”
“Good. Think he’ll cause problems?”
He gazed out the window as he thought. “No, I don’t believe so. His ego won’t allow him to admit he’s been bested. Not only that, dude’s a minister now. I don’t think he’ll want his congregation knowing he knocked his fiancé out cold or why.”
“How’s your lady friend? She okay?” Sean could hear the concern in Spook’s voice.
“I don’t know. She left during the fight. She’s got to be hurt, though. Hooch packs a powerful punch and she went down hard.” His fists clenched again and he gritted his teeth as he remembered the sight of Von crumpled on the floor.
“Damn,” Spook said with feeling. “All right. First things first. Give me the dude’s address and if you want, I’ll arrange for someone to go over there to smooth things out. Sounds like you trashed the place pretty good. Fixing things ought to help.”
Sean thought about it. Did he want to fix things with Hooch? No, not really but for Von’s sake he would. He rattled off the address.
“Now, about your lady. You said you were only trying to comfort her and things got out of hand?”
“Yeah. As much as I love her, I wouldn’t have taken her with her fiancé in the next room. That wasn’t the plan.” Sean still wasn’t sure what happened.
“Were you aroused?”
Sean thought back to Von’s scent, her voice, and her see-through bra and panties that revealed every line and curve of her body. The feel of her tight, wet p-ssy gripping his shaft as she rode him. His cock engorged and began to throb. “Yeah.” It came out a growl.
“Pheromones,” Spook said, as though that explained everything.
Sean cleared the wolf out of his throat. “What?”
“Pheromones. Lycans have powerful pheromones. Makes us irresistible to the opposite sex. One sniff of you and she was a goner.”
Sean scowled. “So you’re saying this whole thing between us—her reaction to me—was hormone induced?”
“Well, yes and no. The pheromones would draw her to you and possibly lower her guard, but it wouldn’t make her to do anything she didn’t already want to do.”
Knowing Von wanted him as much as he wanted her made Sean feel somewhat better. Otherwise, what happened between them would have been little better than rape. But still, he couldn’t help remember the dazed, drugged look in her eyes and it made him wonder just how much control Von really had over her actions. The Von he knew would never have—
“Did you bite her?” Spook asked, interrupting his train of thought.
Had he? He had to think. He remembered being almost hyper focused on Von. Everything else fading into the background. After a moment of silence he said, “I did. My beast was riding me pretty hard. I couldn’t resist.”
“Staking its claim. I figured from the way you talked about her she was the one for you. Your other half obviously agreed. Congratulations on your mating. We’ll have to throw you a party once you get back.”
“What do you mean, mating?”
Spook sighed. “Didn’t you pay attention to anything I told you about women and Lycans?”
“Not really,” Sean admitted. “I remember you saying the virus attaches to the Y-chromosome and that our sexual appetite would increase. Mostly I focused on the knowledge I needed to get us out of that hellhole we were in.” And later he’d been worried about keeping his ass out of some secret government lab when the military found out what he’d become.
“Yeah, there was that,” Spook agreed. “Okay, here’s the Cliff Notes version. As Lycans we do have stronger appetites and crave more sex, but the wolf-man only comes out to play when mating is involved. That’s how we know she’s the one. Only your mate can bring the wolf to the surface during sex. The wolf’s bite marks her and creates a bond.”
That sparked a vague memory. “You said we’d be able to pick up on each other’s emotions?”
“Yes. The bond is empathic in nature. When it’s really strong, you’ll be able to hear each other’s thoughts, but that happens over time, not immediately.”
A thought struck Sean and he sat up straight. “Shit! I not only bit her, I licked the puncture wounds. She won’t get infected, will she?”
Spook laughed. “This mess has you really frazzled, doesn’t it? Females don’t have Y-chromosomes, remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, a bit sheepish at having forgotten something so basic.
“Other than the empathy thing and a few health benefits like an increased immunity and faster healing, she won’t be affected at all. Don’t worry. Mating’s a good thing. It’s the Lycan version of exchanging marriage vows, all legal and binding,” Spook assured him.
Sean rubbed his face. “Great. Now all I have to do is break the happy news to my bride that while she might be engaged to Hooch, according to Lycan Law she’s married to me.”
“No worries, Serge. She obviously loves you.”
Maybe. But does Von realize that she does? “We’ll see.”

“I’ll make my calls now. Call me if you need anything else.”
“All right.”
Sean pushed the button on his phone and tossed it onto the passenger seat. He examined his bloody hands and scraped knuckles. When he saw Von fall his only thought had been to kill Derrick with his bare hands. He still wasn’t sure where the needed control had come from. Even now, anger coursed through his veins.
Maybe it was the knowledge that Von could be seriously hurt and need his help that allowed him to stop and go to her aid, only to discover she’d left. Instead of unconscious, she must have merely been stunned and since she’d run off, he had to assume she was okay. Physically, at least.
Discovering Von wasn’t there to witness the carnage had immediately freed him to finish teaching Derrick a lesson in the treatment of women he’d never forget. Derrick’s fortunate the pizza delivery guy arrived when he did and threatened to call the cops. Otherwise, who knows what would have happened?
As he’d told Spook, Derrick would live. He’d be battered and bruised and might want to lay low until his face healed, but no bones were broken and no permanent damage done to his body. Sean wanted Hooch dead, but knew Von would never forgive him for killing his former friend, no matter the provocation.
Sean flipped down his visor and looked in the mirror. Derrick managed to land a few punches of his own. His lower lip was busted and one eye was darkening into a hell of a shiner, but by tomorrow most of the damage would be gone. Being a Lycan gave him phenomenal healing ability.
Spook had said he’d be able to feel Von’s emotions and she his. He tried sensing what she was feeling so he’d know what he was walking into when he went to see her, but got nothing.
Maybe the bond wasn’t complete. Derrick had interrupted them before they could climax. It’s possible that biting her was only part of the process. Maybe he needed to cum in her body to complete it.
He sighed. There was so damn much he didn’t know about being a Lycan, despite Spook’s best efforts to teach them. He remembered the basics. Uncontrollable change during a full moon. Increased appetite for everything. Quicker tempers. More territorial about things or people belonging to him. Faster reflexes. Stronger, more lethal body. Enhanced senses.
Sean vaguely remembered bits and pieces about sex. Cautions against getting too aroused, being too rough, losing control. None of which he’d been interested in at the time. Talking about sex made him realize how long it had been since he’d been laid. With an increased sex drive and no means but his fist to take care of matters, the last thing he’d wanted to do was think about or discuss it.
While the others asked millions of questions, partly in an effort to take their mind off their current circumstances, Sean plotted and planned out their escape. Once they got out of there and made it back to civilization—he never doubted once that they wouldn’t—his next major concern was the debriefing and battery of tests they’d undergo, both physical and psychological. How would he and his men make it through the process without revealing what they’d become?
It had come as a hell of a shock to find out the military already knew about Lycans and had specialty units filled with them. So much for his fears of being a lab rat.
Sean exited his truck, figuring a walk would clear his head and help him figure out how to approach his mate. He didn’t need a Psych degree to know the state of mind Von would be in. She’d f*cked another man and been caught going at it by her fiancé. Von didn’t believe in casual sex and had no way of knowing what they’d shared wasn’t simply a mercy f*ck on his part. She’d be blaming herself, figuring like any man, he’d taken what she offered and run with it.
Not that she had the highest opinion of the male species to begin with. With his background in the foster care system, he knew all about being the target of predators and sleeping with one eye open. At least she’d had family to run to.
He wanted to rush to her side and reassure her of his love and commitment, but was she ready? She’d been with Hooch a long damn time. Not once since he’d known her had Von ever mentioned the possibility of being with another man. Habit was a lot harder to fight than love and after seeing them together, he could tell Hooch had done a number on her. Did he have enough time to combat it, make Von see reason?
Sean reminded himself of his and Von’s eight years of friendship. That had created a bond of sorts between them. Their relationship may have begun because of Derrick, but it continued on its own merit. Now there was a physical connection as well. He was her first—and only, if he had anything to say about it—lover. They say you never forget the first.
The question is, would Von think of this as a good or bad thing? Only one way to find out. He headed back to his vehicle and punched Von’s address into the truck’s GPS.