Present Day, Dorian
It was a nice autumn afternoon as I exited the armory at Camp Lejeune, NC. I was carrying my personal M4 rifle and Sig Sauer pistol in locked hard-shell cases. Unlocking the passenger door to my Ford Raptor 4x4, I placed the cases in the backseat. Closing the door, I looked around at the base taking in everything. Today would be my last day in the Corps. Ten years active duty in the Marine Special Operations Command, otherwise known as Marine Raiders. I thought it would bother me more but it didn’t. Not after what happened on the last operation. Besides, it was time I went home to help my twin sister Talia and our parents with the family business. You see, I’m a werewolf or at least mostly. My mother is the Alpha for the New England pack and my sister is her personal assistant and the pack’s attorney. Our dad is his own kind of special supernatural. Becasue he isn’t a Were, one benefit both my sister and I have, is that we fall outside the pack hierarchy. We both have extremely dominant wolves; we don’t need the pack to help control our wolves, which is something that regular dominant wolves seem to need. For example, most dominant shifters, at least from my experience, tend to be arrogant and short tempered to the extreme. I have never felt the need to prove my dominance over any other shifter or supernatural being.
When my sister and I graduated high school we paved our own way. She went to Harvard and I joined the Marines. She got a law degree while I learned tactics on how to kill someone with a paperclip. Not that I couldn’t do that anyway. You know being mostly a werewolf and all. Talia bought me a Ford Raptor when my time with the Corps came to an end. It’s a matte silver color with off-road tires and the full off-road package. You should’ve seen the looks I got from my company commander when a $50K vehicle was delivered to the base for an E6 Staff Sargent. He asked me how I could afford such a nice ride. “A gift from my sister,” I replied. He then wanted to know if she was single, causing me to laugh at him while saying, “LT, you couldn’t handle her. She’d eat you alive.” I left out the fact that she could literally eat him alive. Hey, he didn’t need to know that. With that memory, I walked around checking all my gear that I had stowed in the bed. Making sure I had everything. Getting in, I fired the engine up and I was rewarded with a throaty rumble. My phone synched to the truck and I turned the volume up as Black Rose by Volbeat started playing. I began making my way off the base towards home.
Talia called as I was exiting the Baltimore harbor tunnel. Hitting the answer button on the steering wheel. “What’s up, sis?”
“You on your way, Jarhead?” came Talia’s response.
“Yep, just north of Baltimore now. Should be home tomorrow sometime. Why? Do you need me to head somewhere else instead of the house?” I asked thinking that she probably wanted me to head to Boston instead of our home in New Hampshire.
“Yes, if you could stop by the Boston before you head up to New Hampshire, that would be great.” She continued “There’s been an issue with one of the new pack members. His name is Shane. He got into a fight at a bar over a female. Got himself tossed into jail for the night.”
“Anyone get hurt?” I asked
“The girl’s boyfriend has a broken arm, a couple of broken ribs, and is screaming lawsuit. Mom wants you to talk to Shane before she decides what to do with him. Said it would be good for you to get back into the feel of things since you are now her second.” she finished, “After we deal with Shane we can go to Mass General to talk to the boyfriend. See if he really wants to pursue this.”
“No problem. Where do you want me to meet you?”
“Downtown police station. I had Boston PD move him there for his arraignment tomorrow morning. Call me when you get into town, Dorian.” Talia said.
“You got it, sis. Love you.” Hanging up, I cranked up the stereo as I raced up Interstate 95. Great! Pack politics, just what I wanted to jump right into. I thought. Mom was right though, I had to figure out how to fit in or I would have to find somewhere else to live. While Talia understood, the other males in the pack wouldn’t. They would constantly try to challenge me. Fucking dominance games. It was the reason I left for the military, and now that’s not an option for me anymore. The opening sequence of Disturbed’s Indestructible started playing, taking me back to that last operation as I drove.
Six months earlier, we were in the Central African Republic near the border with Chad. Our op was simple; go into Chad and find the Warlord who had taken over the town of Um Dafuq. Our objective was to take him and his lieutenants out. Intel said it would be a milk run. Fucking intel guys got it all wrong. The guy leading the op was some CIA douche. What was supposed to be a milk run turned into a massacre. After we scouted out the town, we found out that this place was full of nothing but women and children. That fuck called in a drone strike that wiped the town off the planet. I snapped and beat the CIA man to within an inch of his life. I was so out of control that it took my whole fireteam to pull me off him. I almost shifted on the spot. Werewolves are supposed to protect the innocent.
That night broke me. After we returned to our ship I was arrested for assaulting a superior officer. Six months later, with the help of my sister, the charges were dropped. I was unable to reenlist, leaving me a civilian.