Lexi

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“I’m a werewolf. Turn around and look at Angelica. She won’t hurt you.” I wanted him to be joking, but Bubbles was dead serious.

He had to be joking, but I turned to see Angelica pull her shirt off and slide out of her jeans. She turned her back to us, unfastened her bra, tossed it onto a table with her shirt, let her panties fall to the floor, leaned over… and started morphing and changing before my eyes.

My brain didn’t know what to do with it, because one minute she was naked with her back to us, and twenty seconds later she was on all fours and was a beautiful wolf with eyes I could get lost in.

“Fuck.” I cussed left and right before I went into foster care, but privileges were based on good behavior, so within a few months, I’d stopped cussing out loud. I still cuss in my head, but not so much out loud anymore. However when I do, I usually jump straight to the f word.

I grew lightheaded, and Bubbles said, “Deep breaths, Lex. In and out. Slow and deep. You’re safe. Angelica’s still in there, still your friend. You can talk to her if you want.”

I was close to hyperventilating, but I couldn’t stop. I felt the air whooshing in and out too fast to be of use, and I managed one slightly deeper breath, but then it went back to too fast and too shallow.

Bubbles’ hand landed over my mouth and nose, and he told me. “Count of seven in, count of seven out. Ready?”

I nodded, he let go, and I breathed in while he counted to seven, then breathed out while he counted. After four breaths, I blew out hard and fast instead of following his count, and he said, “Good girl. Better?”

“No. Werewolves aren’t real. Am I hallucinating?” I remembered my mama thinking she’d seen a snake, and my gaze shot to Viper.

“I’m a snake shifter. A rattlesnake. I didn’t actually lie to you, but I wasn’t honest. I asked Bubbles if I could be present when he told you, so I could set the record straight.” He shrugged. “No one will believe a drug addict, and I needed to scare her into listening to me. She believes in black magic, and now she believes I can do it because I’m Cherokee.”

I looked at Bubbles. “No.”

“Watch Angelica.”

I turned to see the wolf again, and she morphed back into human, but facing us this time, and she didn’t seem to be the tiniest bit self-conscious about being naked in a room full of men.

“Won’t Bash be pissed?” I didn’t know where to start with the wolf thing, but I had lots of questions about nudity. Go figure.

She stepped into her underwear, put her jeans on, and fastened her bra, talking as she dressed. “Why? He knows what I am. He’s known since we were teens.”

“You’re naked. Or, you were.”

“Oh. Shifters are casual about nudity. I turned around the first time for you, not them. Humans have odd ideas about showing genitals, and I wanted you to focus on my wolf and not my girly bits.”

“How is this… I mean, werewolves can’t be real.” I looked at Viper. “Or people who can turn into snakes.” I took a deep breath before I started hyperventilating again.

Bubbles stroked my arm while he held me. “But you just saw it, Lex. It’s real.”

I shook my head.

Duke moved his chair and sat in front of us, his elbows on his knees, his body leaned forward. “I’m a wolf, too. There’s this rule that says you can only tell the secrets that are yours to tell. I can tell you about myself, but I can’t tell you about anyone else. Now that Viper’s told you what he is, we can talk about it, but if he hadn’t told you, I wouldn’t be able to.” He glanced at Bubbles behind me, and met my gaze again. “Now that you know, we have to do this little ceremony so you can’t tell anyone else about us.”

He poured a few ounces of dark beer into two small highball glasses, and put a spring loaded lancet — the kind diabetics use — on the table.

“We need at least seven drops of your blood in the beer. Bubbles will do the same.”

I shook my head. “I’m not drinking his blood.”

“Werewolves can’t catch or carry diseases,” said Angelica, “and our bite can only turn you if we’re in wolf form. Nothing in our human form can turn you into one of us.”

“You said you trusted me,” Bubbles said from behind me.

Yeah, but that was before I’d learned he’s a freaking animal.

As soon as the thought went through my head, I knew it wasn’t right. Bubbles is more human than most other men I know.

I lifted the lancet, popped it into the side of my finger, and squeezed blood into the glass on the left. I didn’t see how he poked a hole in his finger, but Bubbles reached around me and dripped some of his blood into my glass.

The next part was kind of boring, and I honestly thought it was all hogwash. I had to think about what I’d learned and promise not to share their secrets. I drank the beer and didn’t taste the blood. No biggie.

But then they gave me a pen and paper and told me to write out what I’d just learned. I wrote, “Bubbles is a,” but then I couldn’t write the next word, or even the first letter. I’d put the pen down to write, and it would come right back up, as if my arm was following someone else’s orders.

“What the fuck?”

“It means you can’t tell our secrets, sweetheart. Your subconscious will keep you from telling someone who shouldn’t know, or from making a written record someone might come upon later.”

“And this is my cue to tell you what I am,” said Razor. “Matty will want you to know, because he likes you and will get pissed at me if he has to keep my secret around you.” He gave me a warm smile. “I’m a raven.”

“A raven.” I realized I sounded stupid, but it’d just came out. It was so ludicrous, and yet I’d seen Angelica turn into a wolf and back into human, and now she was eating barbecue sandwiches one after the other, because apparently two changes back-to-back take a lot of energy.

“Sometimes, you’ll wonder how the MC got certain intel. The answer is that I flew into someone’s backyard and listened to a conversation.”

“Did ya’ll fuck with Fury’s mind? And the others?”

“No,” said Duke. “Shifters can’t get into your mind like that.”

“Some are rumored to be able to,” said Bubbles from behind me, “but we can’t.”

I turned on his lap and faced him. “If werewolves and raven-shifters and freaking rattlesnake-shifters exist, there’s no telling what other myths are true. Did you pay one of those myths to do it?”

Bubbles looked to Duke behind me, who said, “Yeah, Lex, we did, but this falls under the oath and promise you just made. You can’t tell anyone.”

I turned to look at Duke, and then spun back around to Bubbles when he started speaking. “Told you she’s smart and she’d jump straight to it.”

“You did,” said Duke. “Lexi, Bubbles made a promise to you not to kill them, and he asked us to help him keep the promise. We couldn’t let them keep running around because there was no way to keep you safe with them free.”

I shook my head. “I want to go to Etta’s, and I want my car back.” I saw the hurt in his eyes, and I added, “I’m not breaking up with you, I just need some time.”

“Your sister knows about us. She’ll be relieved she can talk to you about it.”

I shook my head. “Etta tells me everything.”

“Remember when you tried to write it out?”

“Oh.”

“I need to leave for work,” said Viper. “I can take you in with me, we’re both scheduled for six.”

I pulled my phone, saw it was quarter till, and said, “I need to change clothes.” I met Bubbles’ gaze. “I’m serious about going to Etta’s after work.”

“She won’t be home until around midnight, and you’ll be asleep by then. She won’t want to wake up when you leave in the morning, after just a few hours of sleep. How about this — I’ll take your car to my house tonight, and I’ll pick you up from work. You can drive to school in the morning, and then go to her house after classes, when she’s awake and ya’ll can talk.”

I shook my head, and he said, “You can sleep in the guest room tonight, if that’s your hangup.”

Yeah, it was, but I didn’t want to admit it. I looked to Viper. “Where are my clothes?”

“In Bubbles’ room.”

“I’ll walk you,” said Bubbles.

While I changed, I thought. A few things suddenly made sense.

“Ya’ll can hear better than me.”

“Yeah. I can also smell emotions — fear, arousal.”

“And you can smell a lie. That’s why Etta was so adamant I not lie around you.”

He didn’t answer, but I hadn’t asked it as a question. I tossed my scrubs and my purse into my school bag, and put it on my shoulders.

Bubbles felt the same when I wrapped my arms around him on the bike, but he wasn’t the same in my head. He wasn’t human. I needed to wrap my brain around it, and I hadn’t. Also, he hadn’t let me see him as a wolf. Why not?

There was a new procedure at work — I was to empty the garbage into a large bag and put it in the storage room. Someone else would toss it in the dumpster. Part of me felt like I’d let them down, part of me was offended that a man could do it when I couldn’t, but mostly, I was relieved.

However, I’d been planning to call Etta while I was out back, and now I couldn’t do that, so I texted her.

She responded about thirty minutes later.

She took long enough I figured she was checking with Slick, and sure enough, a few minutes later she sent:

I texted Bubbles.

After I sent it, I saw the sex. It would’ve been funny if we’d been okay, but we weren’t. Or, I wasn’t, anyway.

I started to clarify that sex wasn’t off the table, but then, I wasn’t sure if it would be or not. In the end, I left it at that and just didn’t reply again.

Etta breezed in, looked through the jewelry, and bought a piece for her clit. I’d have been happier not knowing, but I rang her up while she laughed at my red face.

“Honestly, I had such a hard time seeing you and Bubbles together, but he probably gets a kick out of showing you new stuff, right?”

I glared at her, and she reached across the counter to hug me. “I wouldn’t have you any other way, baby sister.” I hugged her back and handed the bag to her along with her change.

“Have a seat. I need to walk through and straighten up the rooms they’re finished using. Won’t take long.”

Ten minutes later, we were on our way to her house, with me telling her about my little fight with Mama. I couldn’t tell her about Viper. I tried, but I couldn’t.

She must’ve realized what had happened. “Oh! Duke told me you know about Viper, Angelica, Razor, and Bubbles — so I can talk to you about them, and of course about Duke since he helped with the binding thing.”

Duke had told me she knew, but apparently that hadn’t been enough. I continued with the conversation and told her about Viper freaking our mama out.

“From what I understand,” she said, “Viper falls under different rules. If a wolf had shown themselves, they’d have to either bind the human or kill them.” She shrugged. “But what you most need to know, is what a werewolf can do with their dick.”

Would I ever be able to talk about sex without my face flaming hot? Of course, this wasn’t a normal conversation about sex, but a description of how Bubbles would be able to make his cock thinner and longer, or thicker and shorter.

We stayed up talking into the early morning hours, and I hit my snooze alarm way too many times the next morning, and was late to class. Again.

I was only ten minutes late, but I had to park about a half-mile away, which translated to nearly twenty minutes late to class.

Parts of the day dragged, other parts flew, but two-thirty finally arrived, and I had to make the trek back to Etta’s car before I could drive back to her house. I went into the bathroom and moved my pepper spray into my pocket before I left the cosmetology building, but thankfully, I didn’t need it.

Etta cooked fried chicken, mac-n-cheese, mashed potatoes, and green beans, and I dug into it with gusto. “I’m supposed to have dinner with Bubbles so I wasn’t going to eat, but damn, I can’t turn down your food.”

“What are you going to do? Are you good with the werewolf thing?”

“It feels a little… not racist, but, I dunno, classist? Species-ist? Whatever, it feels wrong to kick him out of my life because he has this other side. Also, he didn’t have to tell me, right? He told me because he trusted me to deal with it, and because he didn’t want to hide part of himself from me.”

“But?”

“But he’s a freakin’ werewolf! What the fuck am I supposed to do with that?”

“Love him?”

I sighed. “Is it that easy?”

“Only if you don’t make it hard.”

“I guess that’s why he has woods behind his house? Also probably why they let little Emmie run around in the woods without an adult. She must be one of them.”

“I don’t know who Emmie is, but don’t make assumptions. Also, wolves don’t change until puberty — they stay in human form until their hormones hit.” She touched my arm. “There’s another upside — wolves mate for life. Once they find their person, they never come back to us. I used to do Bash occasionally, until he met Angelica and got serious with her. And now, that’s it. From what I hear, the sweetbutts say the same thing about the wolves in the clubhouse — once they have an ol’lady, the wolves don’t screw with the sweetbutts.”

“Why did they tell you about it? About them?”

“There’s stuff they haven’t told you yet — can’t tell you until they find someone of each species willing to tell you their secrets — so it’s hard to explain, but I’m more valuable if I know. Just the deal where they resize their cocks — some supernaturals will pay more for someone who knows, so they can play around with it.” She shrugged. “I love anal and can take a lot, and they like going superwide, which can be fun, or sometimes really long, which isn’t my favorite but I can handle it okay.”

“Yeah, I think we’re headed back towards TMI.”

She drove me to the bike shop when it was time for me to meet up with Bubbles, and my insides relaxed when I saw my car sitting out front. I’d missed being able to drive myself around.

Bubbles came out to greet me and I ran into his arms. His eyes were cautious and I hated I’d put that look there. “Thanks for giving me some time. Yesterday was...” Suddenly, I was overwhelmed again, just thinking of it all. “It was too much. My mama, and the cops, and then what you told me, I just needed to get away from everything to regroup.”

“I hope you can eventually see me as your sanctuary, but I’m glad you have your sister.” He gave me a quick peck on the lips. “I stuck around the house this morning to wait for them to deliver my mancave furniture, and I love it. I’m so glad you helped me pick it out.” He looked at my car. “I’ll follow you to my house. I programmed the garage door button so it’ll open the far right door, which is where you’ll park.”

“I don’t need a spot in the garage.”

“We park in the garage so LEO can’t tell at a glance whether we’re home or not.”

I’d noticed him breathing before, like he was smelling for something, but now, it clicked — he breathed in and then said, “I know you want to be friendly with the cops, and you can be. We’re always polite and courteous, but we also have to protect ourselves. You saw it with the asshole detectives who tried to get you hurt. If the MC didn’t have a way to know when you’re lying, and you didn’t have a recording, things could’ve been bad. You grew up in the hood — you know how rats are dealt with.”

“You haven’t been reading my mind or just magically knowing what I was thinking. You’ve been reading my scent. I was upset at the thoughts of having to sneak because of the cops. You smelled it.”

“Does that bother you?”

I grinned. “You tell me?”

He breathed in again. “Doesn’t seem to?”

He’d put me down while we talked, and now I tugged at him so he’d pick me back up. I wanted to be eye-to-eye for this. He lifted me, I wrapped my legs and arms around him, and leaned back in his arms. Safe. Protected.

“I can’t promise something won’t sneak up and slap me unexpectedly, but I think I’ve come to terms with the big stuff. Also, Etta told me about your magical boy-parts.”

He gave me a gruff look. “Man-parts, Half-pint. Not boy-parts.”

“Are you sure? Maybe I need to look again. My memory isn’t so good.”

His eyes softened and he pulled me closer. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on tight.

“I love you, Lex. Took you at your word you just needed some space, but last night was hard.”

“I love you, too. Can you take me home and go into the woods with me, so I can see your wolf?”

He leaned me back and looked into my eyes. “You want someone with you?”

I shook my head. “You won’t hurt me.”