“You're shitting me, Gabriel's human now?” Maria asked.

Noelle stood at the kitchen counter as she prepared three cups of coffee. She nodded and confirmed Gabriel was indeed human, and that it’d really knocked the wind out of his sails, to say the least. Maria was astounded and didn’t know what to say to either Noelle or Declan. Edmund wasn’t well known to her (apart from the name) so, in her eyes, he'd become a victim of his own making.

“Who’s this Mr. Sanders?” Maria asked.

“He’s a weird guy. He’s as old as the hills, and he has these unbelievably-extraordinary, strange, blue eyes.” Noelle described him as best as she could. “It’s a long time since I was there, and after all that time in the forest, I’m not sure what’s real and what isn’t.”

Declan walked from the bedroom as he pulled his t-shirt over his head. Noelle and Maria stared at how tight and figure-hugging his shirt was, and how much his muscles had developed. Maria knew she shouldn’t look at Declan in that way, yet she found it difficult to keep her eyes off him. Whatever the witch had done had beefed him up in all departments.

Maria picked up her mug of coffee and mentally licked her lips as she glanced over Declan's broad, muscled chest, and the rippling muscles of his biceps. His t-shirt hugged the hard slab of muscle of his stomach, and Maria pictured what his muscled thighs and tense buttocks would now be like. As a final thought before she picked up one of the cookies Noelle had put on the table, she admired how much his powerful loins had benefited from the visit to the witch.

Maria lifted the cookie to her mouth and placed it on her plump lips before she seductively bit into it. “Hello! Earth to Maria,” Noelle said as she snapped her fingers inches away from Maria's face.

Maria shook her head. “Sorry. I was deep in thought,” she said. “Is this Sanders dude a real threat?”

Declan dunked his cookie into his coffee. He lifted the soggy mess and managed to get it to his mouth before it fell onto the table in a blob. “I don’t think so. He is part of the council, and his goal was to change all the werewolves back to pure humans, and that was where Edmund came into the picture,” he said. “The problem we have —are the hunters. We know they are re-grouping, and at some point, we are gonna have to fight it out with them.”

“Not here, though?” Noelle asked. She daintily bit her cookie and caught the crumbs in the palm of her hand.

Declan shook his head. “Nah, it’d be suicide fighting here. I know the perfect place to draw them to. You can see it later, we have to go there and sort out some business,” he said.

“What business?” Noelle asked, confused by his words.

“An old friend needs our help. I left them yesterday, and I said we’d be back today. I think we’ll have to bring him here,” Declan explained. “Before you ask, it’s Dustin.”

Maria nearly spilled her coffee. She was convinced Dustin had been killed. She’d left him face down in the mud because he was too heavy to drag to safety, and any longer and the hunters would’ve killed her for sure.

“Dustin’s really alive?” she asked. “You're not winding me up?”

“Not at all, he was the one who turned me again. It was a race against time, and Dustin used up quite a bit of energy to turn me,” Declan explained. He thought back to how Dustin tore into his neck. This time he could remember, yet, when he was a kid, he had no recollection of it.

“When are you going to get him?” Maria asked. “You want me to come?”

“Nah, you’d better stay here and find somewhere for him to sleep,” Declan pressed as he finished his last mouthful of coffee.

Maria smiled. “I know the perfect place, and it will be a little ironic, to say the least. We can put him in Gabriel's old apartment.” Declan nodded to signify his agreeance. He thought that would be a good use of the space.

“Get it prepped, and we’ll be home in three or four hours,” Declan explained as he grabbed the empty mugs from the table and started washing them. He turned his head to look at Maria. “There is one other thing. The two freezers in the freezer room. All that meat has to be destroyed. Edmund had injected it with elixir and was planning on changing the whole pack,” he said. “And in the passageway, ask someone to dispose of Edmund’s body, you should easily recognize him, he has a hole in his chest and no heart.”

Maria’s face went pale. “Jesus Christ, Gabriel certainly did a number on him.”

They all walked from the apartment and Declan placed the key back on the top of the doorframe. He grinned at the two girls. “You never know.”

Maria grabbed a couple of the guys who sauntered around the lobby as Declan and Noelle walked down the large stone stairs to the street. She grabbed ahold of his arm and held him tight.

“You know, I think it’s gonna be different this time,” she said.

Declan agreed, and he explained to Noelle that it wasn’t all going to be plain sailing. They still had a few personal mountains to climb before they were in a situation where they were free to be together as a couple. They’d had a fiery start to a relationship, and in truth, they had been apart for almost seven months. It was as if they were strangers, yet they knew each other intimately. Or was that just sex? That was what they needed to figure out.

They walked the two blocks past the coffee shop to Declan's car. He opened the doors, and they sat inside and waited until the condensation had cleared. “Do you remember the last time the windows were this steamy?” Noelle asked, with a cute (but seductive) grin on her face.

Declan grinned. He remembered it as if it was yesterday —and not all those months ago. He probably remembered it more than Noelle realized. Actually, werewolves had a fantastic memory; the same as a dog remembered their way to the store to fetch the paper. And it was much the same with werewolves.

“Where’s Dustin, you can’t have left him out in the woods?” Noelle asked. Declan shook his head at such a ridiculous thought.

“Of course not. He’s in a very special place, and one that’s close to my heart —and one I wish I could forget all in the same breath,” he explained. He started his car and wound the windows down to let the fresh air blow across their faces.

“Where are we going? I mean, you’ve never mentioned a special place before now,” Noelle asked. “Is it something to do with your past?”

Declan thought back to what his old home meant to him. It meant everything in the world, especially the thoughts and memories of his mother. His dad; curse his soul, was the bad side of it, yet, in his old bed laid a fatherly figure who Declan would have been happy to call “Dad.”

“It’s a place that has shaped who I am, it has made me, and both good and bad are a part of my history, and there’s no hiding from that,” he explained. He pulled his car onto the highway and drove past the mine. His face still trying not to show the scars that laid underneath.

“How far away is this secret place?” Noelle made hand signals like a demented ghost. Declan shook his head at her childish antics and sighed. He didn’t feel like laughing.

“It’s a good hour; so, you might as well get your head down for a little while.”

Noelle grabbed a spare jacket from the rear seat and folded it as a pillow. She wound her window down halfway and then she rested her head and closed her eyes. Noelle started to have vivid thoughts of what happened before she was dumped in the forest. Declan drove in silence as Noelle muttered in her sleep. It felt good to have company. He had missed her a lot.

* * *

Maria grabbed hold of a couple of girls and took them up to Gabriel’s old apartment. She showed them all the stuff that had to be cleaned as she placed her eyes around. She scanned slowly, to make sure she covered everything.

“Bag all this crap up and take it to the yard and store it in the shed,” she said as she pulled open all the drawers in the bedrooms. The girls started to fill the large, black, bin liners with all of Gabriel's belongings. Maria decided not to toss anything, yet —just in case. If Gabriel had no use for any of it, she’d take the belongings to the local charity shop and have it donated to a good cause. “Make sure it’s as clean as it can be. New bed sheets, oh, and polish the lot. I’m going down to the basement.”

“It’s funny how things change, don’t you think? We had Declan and then Gabriel, and now we’re back to Declan. Who knew being in a pack would be so damned confusing,” the dark-haired girl said.

Maria smiled as she walked from the bedroom. “Well, hopefully it’s all gonna settle down again now,” she replied. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“I’m Tammy, and this is Winnie,” Tammy said with a smile.

“Are you two sisters?”

Tammy smiled and stood next to Winnie. “Yeah, can you see the resemblance?” Tammy asked. Maria began to shake her head.

“Not really, it was just a wild guess. I take it your parents were big fans of country music?”

Tammy looked puzzled. “Yeah! They were, oh my goodness, how did you know that?”

“Tammy Wynette the famous singer,” Maria replied. “You have any brothers?”

Tammy’s face lit up. “Yeah, we have two brothers. Kenny and Roger.”

“I should’ve guessed,” Maria said. “Just make sure it’s spotless. You’ve got about three hours.”

Maria walked down the staircase and grabbed a few guys who sat talking in the lobby. She marched them to the freezer room and explained about the meat that had to be destroyed.

“When you’ve done that, there’s something else that needs cleaning,” she said as she opened the door to the passageway. The rancid smell of death and decay filled the freezer room.

One guy retched and shoved his hand against his mouth as he stepped back into the hallway. “I’ll be fine,” he muttered. “I’ll put a cloth over my nose. What’s in there, anyway?”

“From what I was told, there’s some old bones and a body.”

The guys stared at Maria in shock. The red-haired guy stared blankly. “We’ve got to dispose of a body?” he asked.

“Yeah, it’s that jerk who laced all this meat and wanted to make us all human again,” Maria explained.

The red-haired guy lifted the lids to the freezers and stared at all the meat that had to be disposed of. He shook his head and tried to figure out the best way they could do it. How to dispose of a body in daylight? That would be their most laborious task.

“Leave it with us, we’ll figure something out,” he replied as he started to yank bags of meat from the freezer and dump them onto the floor. “Tim, get your ass back in here and help with this shit will ya.”

Maria watched Tim walk back into the freezer room with a handkerchief around his face. He looked like an outlaw; apart from the fact that the handkerchief was white and had flowers embroidered on the corner.

“Give me a shout when you're done. I’ll be in the office,” Maria said as she stood in the doorway. “And, if you get this finished soon, there’s all that mess in the basement that needs cleaning.”

“That was a hell of a fight, I wish it had gone to the death. Declan would’ve torn Gabriel to shreds,” Tim said with a huge grin.

“Declan’s not like that unless he has to be.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that he’s on the level with everything,” Tim replied.

Maria interrupted them. She said, “Just get on with it and stop yakking.”

Maria headed from the freezer room and made her way to Declan's office. She heard he used to have an assistant, yet she'd been given the boot once Gabriel had stepped into Declan's shoes. Maria saw a pile of papers on the desk and wondered where to start.

She pulled the old wood and leather chair from under the desk and sat. Maria noticed the stack of unopened letters that had red stamps plastered over the front of them. I see Gabriel never took care of the essential things. Shit.

Maria looked at the letters one by one. Bill after bill she opened. Two piles. One for overdue and one for almost due. The overdue stood much higher than the almost due pile. Maria switched on the computer and waited for it to start. She started to enter the bills into the system and watched as the figure in red grew larger and larger. It was also brought to her attention how many of the pack were overdue in their payments.

I think Declan needs to hold a pack meeting when he gets home…

Maria tidied the papers and opened the top drawer to file the overdue papers away. She pulled on the drawer. Her eyes stood on stalks as she looked down. A large bundle of cash sat alone in the drawer. It had to be Gabriel's —or rental payments. It didn’t matter which it was, it would make a dent in the overdues. Maria pulled the notes from the drawer and sat them out neatly upon the desk. She pulled the rubber band and started to count the money.

Forty-five minutes later, Maria had six piles sitting on the desk. She totaled them all and reached a figure of twenty-seven thousand, give or take a few dollars.

Maria looked back at the large red number that was blaring on the computer. As if it was glaring back at her. Thirty-nine thousand. Maria looked at the screen. She felt silly; she'd made a couple of double entries on the electricity. The bill had been superseded, and she’d entered them both. She removed the earlier statements and looked at the revised figure. Maria sat and smiled and felt proud of herself. In the couple of hours she'd spent going through the mail, she'd found that most of the bills could be paid.

Crap, it’s Sunday. I could have paid most of these if I’d looked sooner.

Maria wrapped the cash in the bills to be paid section and hid it under some old folders. You couldn’t be too careful, someone might take advantage and become light-fingered. Maria switched to the renters and started to print who was behind. She saw that many were months overdue, and they’d all need a bit of a talking to.

She logged out of the computer and grabbed her paper. It was something to do while the girls and the guys cleaned the shitty freezer room and the apartment, ready for Dustin. After a while, Maria made her way along the hallway on the first floor. She knocked at the door.

“Hey Maria, how you doing?” Glen asked.

Maria made her pleasant greetings and then started to ask Glen about his overdue rent. “Glen, three months. Do you have a problem?” she asked.

Glen laughed. “It was that dick Gabriel, he stopped us all from going to work. I think you’ll get the same answer from quite a few on that sheet,” he said as he apologetically cocked his head.

Maria scribbled on her paper and lifted her gaze to Glen. “Declan’s back now, so you can carry on as before. Get a job and move about as normal,” she replied.

“Thank God for that. I was going stir crazy in here.”

Maria pointed to Glen in a way to make him take note. “Be very wary of hunters. We know they are going to fight sometime soon, anything suspicious report it, please,” Maria said. She waved a goodbye and informed Glen of the pack meeting, later on.

Maria moved onto the next apartment and expected much of the same. “Hi! Maria, how are you doing?”

“Life’s a constant series of cleaning up the last mess.”