Chapter Three
Rob knew it from the moment his lips touched hers. There was a spark, a magical spark that went far beyond what mere mortals would ever be able to understand; it was something he had never even experienced before. But the second that it hit him, he knew what it was. He was starting to think he would never find this, but here it was staring him right in the face.
He’d been so livid a moment ago. Dan had riled him up again and that buffoon at the bar had poured gasoline on the fire. Before he knew what he was doing he was fighting the guy and the guy was on the ground. He hoped that would be the end of it, but he felt it coming—the wolf. There was no stopping it this time. He was afraid it was going to unleash itself.
So he ran out the door; he wanted to get as far away from people as he could, but Doria was right there beside him suddenly. He wasn’t sure what came over him, but he knew that it might keep the wolf at bay. The only thing he could think of that might calm him down enough for that to happen—he kissed her.
And now he knew. He knew that Doria was not a normal woman.
“What are you talking about?” Doria asked. She was backing up a little frightened by his accusation.
He looked around to make sure they were alone; the crowd inside had not ventured outside yet to see if he was still there. The biker he’d flattened probably had some friends in there somewhere who would have to stand up for their boy.
“You aren’t human,” Rob said again. “You are like me; a wolf.”
Doria’s eyes widened. For a second she looked like she might faint or even vomit. But she didn’t. She looked around as he had done and then ran her hands through her hair trying to calm herself down. She was not denying the accusation.
“How did you know?” Doria asked.
“Because I’m a wolf. I knew it the moment I kissed you,” Rob said.
“I… I don’t understand. You were bitten too?” Doria asked.
“No. I was born this way. I’m a full blood. You are a hybrid.”
“I’ve never told anyone what happened to me… I didn’t know there were any others out there like me. I never have found the one who bit me. I’m a bit confused…” Doria said.
“Hop in the car; we have a lot to talk about.”
Rob finished telling Doria the story of how he was born to be a werewolf. It felt weird telling it all to someone finally. He’d never uttered any of this to another living soul who was not a member of his family.
“So, your parents aren’t dead?” Doria asked.
“No. They are alive and well; I only tell people that they are dead to protect them. With me being a public figure and all, if anything ever happened that exposed my real identity—what I am—it would put them all in danger. This way we’ve done everything we can to hide the fact that I did not grow up an orphan.”
“That’s elaborate,” Doria said.
The two of them were sitting in a quiet coffee shop several blocks away from where they had started their evening. The place was practically empty. It was peaceful, quiet. It was actually a great place to come and get a good cup of coffee, a pastry, and just zone out for a bit. Rob came there quite often.
“It’s necessary,” Rob said. “Now, you know all about me. How about you tell me how you came to be a hybrid?”
“It’s a short story,” Doria said. “I was driving back from a job interview about two years ago from Tucson. My car broke down in the middle of nowhere. I wasn’t able to get a signal so I started walking, hoping that I was close to something or that I might get a signal somewhere. I probably should have just stayed in the car.”
“That’s what they always say, isn’t it?” Rob said. “In all those survivalist shows.”
Doria smiled. “Well, I was not too well up on all that then, but I was pretty sure I was close to a town or a gas station I’d passed on my way down. Anyway, I was walking along and I heard a growling close to me. I thought it was a coyote or something. I was too far from my car to run and I knew if I did it would just chase me anyway. I stood still hoping it would lose interest or go around me. I was petrified. The moment I thought it was gone, it pounced from the darkness.”
“How did you survive?” Rob asked.
“Luck, really. The second it was on me, a light appeared in the road. It was another car coming over the small crest and barreling down upon us where this thing had me pinned down in the road. That was when I saw it; it was a huge brown wolf. I’ve never seen a wolf that big; it looked away towards the car and then ran off into the desert. The person in the car stopped and helped me. It wasn’t until I got to the hospital that I realized I’d even been bitten; a slight bite on my hand.”
“And your life was never the same,” Rob said. He groaned.
“Yeah, pretty much. I can’t believe we are talking about this. After I started changing and found out what I was, I never told anyone about it. I mean, who was going to believe such a thing? But I’ve studied as much as I could and learned to use the wolf; I no longer shy away from it. It’s just part of who I am. I don’t know how anyone could use the power for evil. Someone attacked me and tried to kill me. The thought of it makes me numb.”
“There are evil people in the world; it doesn’t matter if they are also supernatural. There are evil people like that too.”
“So, you were born this way?”
“Yes,” Rob said.
“And you have a brother and a sister, too?” Doria asked.
Rob groaned. Why had he brought her here? It was a mistake. He should have just let her go about her business and apologized for the kiss. He never should have told her that he realized that she was a lycanthrope as well.
This was a mistake. He knew it, but he just wanted to have some real connection with someone, without hiding a big part of who he was. But then again that did not mean she was going to feel the same way. She’d been pretty blunt about how she felt towards him when she slapped the taste out of his mouth.
“I need to go,” Rob said.
“What? I thought—“Doria began.
Rob threw down cash on the table and left the diner.
As he drove home he was lost in his thoughts. He never should have said a word to Doria about this. It was a momentary lapse of judgment and a bit of shock thrown in there. She was the one. He knew it the moment he touched her lips. She was his mate.
He had not told her a word of this; it only would have freaked her out, but by talking to her about who he was and who she was, perhaps he was opening the doorway. His parents were right when they told him so many years ago. They were talking about what type of woman he might want to marry one day. He was a teenager and had just started dating; at the time he thought it was an odd thing to bring up. But his parents thought it was important and, as usual, they were right.
He’d found his true mate. Every pure wolf had a mate out there. A wolf who never found its mate would go through life aging and dying as a mortal. But if you were lucky enough to find that mate and you had a child; then you would both live forever and you would stay young. And the bonds of the tribe would be strengthened forever.
He knew that he felt something special when he’d first met her; there was something that drew him to her and it was far beyond her physical beauty. She had to sense it somehow. But she was fighting it. He could feel her conflict. He knew that he was not the stable man that she probably wished he was. He was selfish and arrogant at times; but he’d always been that way. When he really thought of his ways and the manner that he treated people (especially women) he knew that it was all a defense mechanism. He had been trained to be as secretive as he could be and it was a good way to keep people at bay.
But he had to let her in, if she was willing. They were meant to be together; it was their destiny to find each other.
He just had to make her see that.
***
“You met The Rob Thompson?” Nancy giggled. “I would not even be able to talk to him! I’m so jealous!”
Doria laughed as she pressed the incline on the treadmill to take her workout to the next level. She began to jog harder feeling her heartbeat moving up a notch. She’d been so antsy since last night; she hadn’t even been able to sleep. It was as if being with Rob and finding out who he really was had awakened something inside of her, something primal. And she could not ignore the fact that she was loving it.
“Did you get any?” Rachel asked.
Doria looked at her in shock. “Of course not. It was an interview. You ladies have been watching too much weird stuff on the internet.”
“Hey, I told you about my porn addiction in private,” Rachel replied with a smile. The three girls were enjoying their daily six a.m. workout. The gym was quiet that time of the day and they didn’t have to worry about waiting ten minutes to use a machine; they could just get in and out and be done with it.
Doria usually had to force herself out of bed that early to make their normal time frame, but she had been unable to sleep last night. And it wasn’t even a full moon.
She could not get Rob out of her head. The fact that he was like her opened her eyes to other possibilities about him and the way he was. That might have been the reason he acted like such a jerk at times, to push people away so they wouldn’t find out about him.
Or he might have just really been that arrogant… or maybe just mysterious. She didn’t know, but it was tying her head in knots trying to figure the man out.
“He really isn’t anything special,” Doria said. She felt suddenly like she was trying to convince herself more than her friends of this.
“What are you talking about? He is the superstar God among men. He is beautiful, rich, hella famous, and worshipped by millions. He is the epitome of the perfect guy,” Rachel said.
Doria looked at her. “Are you serious? You think all of those superficialities make the perfect guy?”
“Well, it sure as hell helps.”
“You are so warped,” Doria said. “You have to start dating real men and not players.”
“Hey, maybe I’m playing them just as much as they think they are playing me,” Rachel said. She was doing a full run now.
“That’s true, she is a bit of a man eater,” Nancy said.
Doria laughed. She’d known her friends since college and she loved them like sisters. They had been though a lot of things together and it was tough to believe that they were still so tight.
Neither one of them knew about who she really was though. She had never talked with anyone about it, except Rob. After she’d been bitten she didn’t think much about the attack until the symptoms started. It started with bizarre dreams, unexplained urges, heightened smell, sight, and hearing that came and went at bizarre times. And then the full moon happened and she watched herself transform. It was the most terrifying thing she’d ever been through. She stood in the mirror watching herself in wolf form and wondering if it was permanent or if she would change back.
When the sun rose the next morning she was herself again. She threw herself into a flurry of research trying to find out what she was and what had happened to her. She was too scared and too embarrassed to talk to anyone about it though. Even the supposed online communities and forums with people claiming to be lycanthropes were full of brain dead teenagers who were play acting. None of it was real. And she could understand why. If this knowledge got into the wrong hands then any werewolves would be killed or used as lab rats. She couldn’t let that happen.
She was grateful of the fact that even when the wolf happened and took her over she was still her. She had her own mind, her own thoughts, although she had strong and primal urges to run and to taste human blood. She had been successful at fighting these urges so far. She prayed she could continue the good fight.
She noticed something right then; Rob did not have to stay away from people on full moons. He could control the shift. Of course she figured under periods of intense anger the wolf would emerge as it almost did last night. Was that why he’d kissed her? Maybe… but it wasn’t the only reason.
Doria on the other hand could not control the shift during the full moon at all. She had to make plans and stay indoors. She knew that Rob occasionally played night games and sometimes this was during a full moon. She needed to talk to him and learn from him; she wanted to find out more about what he was.
Or was that just an excuse to see him again? Oh, why did he make her feel this way? He was the type of man she swore she would never get involved with but he had this power, this hold over her that she just could not explain.
“So, I take it your boss will be happy,” Rachel said. “You got the coveted story that all of your peers are so jealous to get.”
“Yeah, I hope he likes it. I still have to write the thing though; I’ll spend most of the day doing that and hopefully have it done by tomorrow morning.”
“So, when are you seeing Rob again?” Nancy asked.
“Um, I don’t know; I hadn’t really planned to.”
“What? You are really going to let him get away?”
“You know who he is; he is a total player. He isn’t the kind of guy that wants to stay with the same woman, especially if she isn’t giving it up right away.”
“Yeah, that must be why there are all those rumors about how he turns down willing women left and right. But then again he is seen with a lot of women too…,” Nancy said. “God, that guy is such an enigma. It makes him so much hotter.”
Rachel laughed. “You need help. You sound like an eighth grade girl crushing on the new guy or something.”
“You are one to talk,” Nancy said.
“I admit the guy is a major league hottie and I would love to go out with him, but I know too much about the way he is to really ever feel secure dating a guy like him. I mean he obviously doesn’t want commitment; he seems to prefer living the bachelor life.”
“Well, that’s too bad; I guess I’ll have to do him. If you would just give me his contact info…”Rachel joked.
“Over my dead body,” Doria said.
“Oh! So you do like him!” Rachel declared.
Doria laughed. She was caught. “You guys suck.”
“Hey!”
A voice came from behind them. Doria glanced back to see a familiar face walking towards them. It was Dan Richards. It was very strange to see him there at her gym so early in the morning. She was pretty sure he lived in a wealthy area of town on the other side of the city. What was he doing there?
“Wow, small world,” Doria said.
“It really is,” Dan said stepping up on the treadmill beside her.
“I didn’t know you went to this gym? I’ve never seen you here before,” Doria said.
Rachel and Nancy looked as if they were going to burst out of their skins. They knew who Dan was, of course. Doria decided to torture them just a bit longer…
“I don’t most of the time; I use my own home gym, but I had some business I had to take care of in this area of town and I have a bunch of other stuff to do later on, so I won’t be home for a while. Luckily I have a little bit of time so I thought I’d get some cardio in while I could.”
“Oh, ok,” Doria said.
Rachel cleared her throat. Doria smiled and introduced her friends to Dan. They both pretended to act cool, but were really about to go insane with envy that Doria actually knew Dan. It was hilarious.
As Doria finished up her workout she and Dan started to talk a bit. It dawned on her that talking to him might give her some more background information about Rob and she could possibly include a side bar or a short article about Dan that might explode into his own feature; after all he was still a legend in the game and was still a great player even though he was getting up into his mid-thirties (which sounded strange to think of as old, but in the world of professional sports it was bordering on ancient).
Dan was surprisingly laid back and charming; gone was the aggressive manner that he displayed at the bar around Rob. Maybe he was a bit drunk or maybe he was just really fed up with this hotshot kid coming in and taking all the glory that used to be his. Both lines of thinking were childish, but she tried to sympathize a bit with Dan. Rob could be a bit much to take; he was rather full of himself sometimes.
Rachel and Nancy kept trying to interject themselves into the conversation. Dan seemed to be pleasantly ignoring them while he focused on the great conversation he and Doria were having.
“Well, it was great talking with you,” Doria said. “And are you sure you don’t mind if I put some of that in the article I’m writing? I might be able to get a sideline or even a possible feature for you.”
Dan seemed interested. “No, I don’t mind at all. I’ve enjoyed the talk. In fact would you like to continue this over dinner tonight?”
Doria was put a bit off guard by his invitation. She found Dan attractive and she was mildly interested, but she did have a lot of work to do to finish that piece.
“I’m actually busy tonight, but later in the week I’m free,” Doria said. She typed her number into his phone quickly. “Call me; we will set something up.”
As she and her friends walked into the locker room Rachel and Nancy practically exploded on her with envy.
“Oh, my God! You have like two major league ball players after you,” Rachel said.
Doria smiled. It was flattering and fun to think about. “Well, Rob isn’t really after me. I mean, we just kissed once.”
“What? Hold on—you kissed him? You never told us that!” Nancy said.
“Well, it wasn’t much to tell.”
“That’s crazy. How was it? Oh, I bet it was awesome!” Rachel replied.
“It was, but he might not want to kiss me again after I slapped his face…” Doria said.
“What? Why did you do that?” Rachel asked.
“Because I wasn’t expecting it and I don’t really like the guy. He is a total jerk. I’ve told you this. But suddenly he grabbed me and laid it on me. I was so angry that I belted him one. But afterwards… I can’t deny it was pretty much a perfect kiss.”
“You are the coolest person that I know,” Nancy said.
“This is true,” Doria agreed.