Waxing Gibbous

Chapter 12

Soren turned into the circular drive and followed it up until he reached the side of the home and parked it in the huge garage. He got out and stretched his camped legs.

Despite being more in tune with nature, werewolves did have a lot of modern conveniences. Most of them drove and communicated with the human population on a regular basis. In fact, that was where Soren had spent the last two days.

He had friends among the regulars. They didn’t know about his duel nature of course. He kept that part of his life in secret when out in their world. His human buddies were none the wiser. Soren was extra careful not to expose any part of his supernatural nature.

He took the garage entrance into the house. It was eerily quiet inside and he knew that most of the werewolves had gone off for a late run or home to their families. He wondered if Tegan was still up. It was later in the night, around midnight or so. When he got to the other side, he was about to take the stairs to the second floor when he heard noise coming from the kitchen.

Soren turned on his heel and followed the noise and hushed voices. He opened the kitchen door to find Tegan at the stove stirring a spoon in a pot while Storm watched her.

“I didn’t know you could cook, witch,” he said in way of a proper greeting. She jumped at the sound of his voice and half turned to face him.

“Soren! I didn’t know you’d be coming back tonight.” She smiled warmly at him. She went to the counter behind her and set the spoon down. “It was actually disturbingly quiet and peaceful around here when you were gone. It was a phenomenon I tell you,” she teased.

He smirked at taunting comment. “Yeah, yeah. I missed your bumbling, opinionated self, too. Are you honing your mate skills for me?” he asked, motioning whatever was cooking in the pot. One sniff and it told him it was macaroni and cheese.

“Get out of here with that ‘mate’ garbage. I’m not going to be anyone’s mate,” she replied hotly.

Soren laughed.

“You’re so goddamn frustrating. Just when I thought you had something remotely humane in you, you go acting like an ass again,” she continued on.

He winked at her playfully. “You know you love it.”

She threw a cherry tomato at his head. With a dull thud, it bounce off his skull and dropped to the floor, coming to a rest beside his feet.

He leaned down to pick it up. “Would you not throw food at me, please?”

“Only if you stop acting like an idiot,” she grumbled while giving him a sharp look.

“As if that would ever happen,” Storm said under his breath.

Soren ignored him. Instead he walked over and took Tegan’s hand in his. He pulled her to his chest and hugged her. “I hope you made enough for me,” he said in her hair before breaking away from the embrace.

“I did make extra, but I don’t know if it will be enough to satisfy your greedy gut any,” she responded, prodding him the stomach. “You’d probably eat a whole horse if I had one handy.”

“Nah, I’d prefer venison, pork, or beef. Chicken, turkey, and fish aren’t too bad if I’m eating light. I’m not too fond of horse meat.”

She looked utterly disgusted. “Something tells me that you’re not joking.”

“I’m not.”

Tegan sighed. “Then it’s a good thing I made chicken.”

The bell dinging on the stove snagged her attention. She grabbed the pot holders on the counter and fished the pot out of the oven’s hot belly. It was roasted herbed chicken and the smell alone made Soren’s stomach rumble. She set it down on top of the stove then retrieved her spoon and stirred the pot next to it again.

“Once it has rested for a few minutes and the macaroni and cheese finishes, we can eat. Can you get out some plates and silverware?” she asked Soren.

“Yeah, sure.” He went over to a cupboard and pulled out a few plates. Then reached down to a drawer and pulled out some silverware. “Do you know where my parents are? I didn’t notice my dad’s truck when I pulled into the garage.”

“Lyn said that they were going a little ways out of town on business and would be coming back whenever they got done. Some of the pack went with them,” she told him.

“What time did they leave?”

“A few hours ago. We didn’t really have dinner, since it was just Storm and I. I didn’t know that you would be back tonight so I hope I made enough. I was going to ask your brother to join us,” she said.

Soren snorted and rolled his eyes. He wasn’t too happy about her getting mixed up with Kerr. “Don’t bother.”

“Don’t be rude. I didn’t know when you would be back and he deserves to eat, too. So don’t hog everything down,” she warned, pointing the cheesy spoon in his direction.

He raised his arms in mock surrender. “Hey, I’m a growing boy.” He grinned mischievously at her.

Tegan looked him up and down. “You look plenty grown to me.”

“Not yet I’m not. My wolf is still maturing. Actually, I think I’m about to go through another growth spurt.”

“How long does it take for you to stop growing?” She set the spoon down and picked up a large carving knife.

“I should be done growing when I’m about twenty-five. However, I do get a little larger when I ascend to alpha status,” he explained as he watched her start slicing into the chicken.

She looked away from dismantling the chicken and at him before returning her gaze. “What did you do while you were away finding yourself or whatever?”

He shrugged. “I stayed with some friends in town.”

“You actually have friends, wolf-boy?” she needled.

“Don’t act so surprised. On contrary to your beliefs, there are people that don’t think I’m a pain in the ass and enjoy my company,” he said, snagging a slice of chicken before she could slap his hand away.

“Are they members of the pack?”

He finished chewing and swallowing before answering her. “No. I have a few human friends from the city. We went to school together.”

“You went to a regular school? I mean like a public school?” She sounded shocked and he had to smile.

“Of course I did! I’m a werewolf, not a pariah. We can still mingle with the human population without them knowing what we are,” he said.

“Oh, well I figured your parents wouldn’t want you hanging around humans because of what you are. What if you got picked on or something and changed in front of them?”

“Now you’re making me sound like I’m the Incredible Hulk. Jeez, where do you think this crap up from?” he said, shaking his head.

“I don’t really know how this werewolf thing works, you know! I’ve been busy learning healer stuff, not baying at the moon,” Tegan snapped.

“I can teach you all you need to know,” he offered.

She eyed him warily. “I’m not sure I trust you.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m going to be your mate. You are going to have to learn to trust me eventually.”

She snorted but there was a grin tugging at her lips. “I’d rather have fleas.”

He laughed. “I’ll buy you a collar. How does that sound? Can’t be having you getting bugs in the bed now, can we?”

He got thumped in the head with a carrot. That only served to make him laugh louder.

Soon the very late dinner was served. Tegan had sent Storm to go look for Kerr after Soren had refused. The familiar had come back alone, stating that he couldn’t find Soren’s brother anywhere.

Once they finished eating – Soren having reduced the chicken to nothing but a bare carcass and devouring the left over macaroni and cheese – Storm went to go take a shower while Tegan and Soren went to a sitting room to watch television. Soren was the one that commanded the control of the remote. He idly passed by each channel. When nothing caught his fancy the first time through, he started checking them out all over again.

“Can you just pick a channel already, wolf-boy? You’re making my dizzy,” she complained, annoyed by his channel surfing habits.

He glanced at her then back at the TV. “I haven’t found anything I want to watch.” He continued to shuffle the channels along.

“I think the animal that would have best suited you would have been a jackass. Seriously, how are you every going to find something if you keep flicking through?” Tegan mumbled.

Soren opened his mouth to fire back a witty retort but Kerr’s laughter killed the words blooming on his tongue…and sent anger churning inside him.

“I think you have met your match with her, little brother.” The older male strode through the door quietly. There was dull amusement in his eyes as he looked at the pair on the couch.

Soren swiveled his head around to look at his sibling. “This has nothing to do with you,” he muttered.

Kerr humbly accepted the rejection and bowed his head before he left the room without saying anything in response.

“Soren!” Tegan shouted at him in anger, whacking him on the chest. “I thought the whole point of you taking off was to work on your anger. You’re still being mean to your brother. You better talk to him.”

“I’m surprised that he is still here.” Soren thought that Kerr would have tucked his tail between his legs and left by now.

Tegan gave him an incredulous expression. “Was that why you left? Hoping that he would leave so that you didn’t have to face him? I never took you for a coward.”

He gritted his teeth at her insult and flexed his hands. Her words stung – probably because they were true. His only defense was to lash out at her. “You better watch who you’re talking to.”

“What? You’re going to threaten me now and cast me aside like you just did your brother?” She huffed, rolling her eyes. She heaved her body off the couch and stormed off in the direction that his brother had taken.

~*~

Tegan stomped out of the room in search of the other Blackstone brother. Soren had said that he was leaving to cool off but that obviously hadn’t done him any good. He was as venomous as ever to his brother.

She found Kerr sitting on the porch steps, chin tucked into his knees. She could tell that he was fighting his bruised feels. He might have put on a brave face, but Tegan had the feeling the distance that he had thrust between his family and himself had hurt him every bit as much as it had hurt them, if not more.

“Hey,” Tegan said as she hunkered down beside him.

“You shouldn’t be out here,” he told her without looking. “It could be dangerous.”

He curled into a tighter ball like he was trying to protect himself. His body was trembling ever so slightly and his fingers were dug into the flesh of his legs.

Tegan eyed him warily. “I wanted to see if you were all right. You looked pretty upset back there with Soren.”

Kerr shook his head then glanced at her. “I don’t blame him for being angry with me. I’ve been a complete bastard and I deserve every bit of that hate.”

She sighed and looked out into the yard shrouded in murky shadows cast by trees and shrubs. Finding the right words, she turned back to Kerr. “Soren isn’t the brother you left three years ago. Right now, he is angry at the world. Believe it or not, I think he has been getting better. He was really annoying when I first got here. It’s only been about a week but I have seen an improvement in him. He just doesn’t know what to do with his anger. He holds everything in and then uses that aggression as ammunition against everyone. And even though I still think he is an ass, it’s the softer side of him that I like. He can be decent if he wants to. The only advice I have for you is to give him time to come to terms with your sudden arrival. I’ve already talked to him about this. Unfortunately, Soren is going to do what he wants to do.”

His emerald green eyes regarded her attentively. “You sound like you know him pretty well.”

She pulled her legs out from underneath her so she could fully sit down beside him. “I’m getting there, though most of the time he doesn’t make it exactly easy.”

“I’ve been absent in a chunk of his life where he needed me most. I know I have failed him. I completely understand why he despises me. I despise myself, too.” His tone held nothing but bitterness and regret.

“Why were you gone for so long?”

He remained silent as if he hadn’t heard her question.

She put up her hands in a surrendering pose. “Okay, I get it. It’s none of my business. But at some point, you two need to talk about this. You need to clear the air between you, or else it is just going to stay painful baggage. And you’re never going to move on from that. The only thing he knows is that you deserted him – the whole pack – when they needed you most. That is why he wants nothing to do with you. You need to get him to listen to what you have to say. Be firm with him. Otherwise, he will keep avoiding you.”

“What if my reasons are not good enough?”

“At least try to make the effort. Try to make him understand why you did what you did,” she said.

“I’m not so sure I deserve any forgiveness though. He is right in thinking I have abandoned the pack. I should have never come back here. I had no right to. It only gave my family misguided hope,” he said in disgust.

“Self-pity isn’t going to get you any closer to a resolution. You’d only be running away again.”

“I have to.”

“Why?”

“To keep them safe!” he cried. “I could not bear hurting them anymore.”

“Kerr,” Tegan reached out to touch his bare forearm. At soon as she touched his naked skin, an electric jolt sizzled through her body. With wide eyes she stared at him. His green eyes stared back just as wide. He had felt it too.

“W-what was that?” she stammered.

Kerr moved so fast that she had a hard time following. He catapulted up and off the porch before she could register the movement.

“Don’t touch me,” he growled angrily. “I don’t like people toughing me. Don’t you ever do that again!”

“What the hell is going on out here?” Soren snarled, pushing open the front door so hard that it banged on its hinges. He was looking back and forth between Tegan and his brother, his countenance twisted into something harsh and menacing.

“Keep her away from me!” Kerr yelled, the slightest edge of hysteria slithering into his timbre. He turned away and wrapped his arms around himself. It looked like he was trying to get a hold of himself, trying to keep something locked inside.

“Tegan, what happened?”

Tegan ignored the question and stood up on the steps, her eyes never leaving the werewolf in front of them. “What is wrong with you, Kerr? There is something not quite right with you.”

His form shuttered and he turned on them then. His eyes glowed hellish red, like embers of the hottest fire. He was baring his fangs that had grown to long sharp points that promised to rip and shred anything in their path to pieces. His chest heaved up and down like he had just finished a decathlon. His muscles were tense and his fingers were ridged like giant claws. In fact, Kerr’s nails had grown into pointed little daggers.

Tegan took a step back and bumped into Soren’s solid chest. He grabbed her and pushed her backwards, placing himself between her and his brother.

“Kerr, what the hell is happening to you?”

His reply was in a guttural, snarling voice, something completely different from his natural tone. “Stay away from me,” he warned, taking a step closer to the shadows so it was harder to see him.

“I want to know what the hell is going on right now!” Soren demanded, jumping down off the porch and moving closer to Kerr.

In the doorway, Storm paused and took in the scene before him. “What is going on out here?” His hair was still damp from the shower and his was retying the feathers to his dark locks.

“Storm, take Tegan inside,” Soren commanded.

“No,” she argued. She wanted to find out what in the world was going on. Something was definitely wrong here and she had the right to know.

“Tegan, I will not tell you again.” Soren turned on her, he face stern.

She gave him a defiant look. “I told you, you are not going to boss me around. Now, I’m staying, damn it!”

Hostility swirled in the air. Tegan could feel the overload of the emotion beating at her like a thousand moth wings. The atmosphere was hot and thickened from it. Most of the energized emotion was pouring off of Kerr. He remained in the shadows, quietly watching them, seething in anger.

“Tegan,” Soren groaned sounding exhausted. “It is not safe out here. I’m trying to protect you. Please, just do as I say.”

“Forget it, wolf-boy. I’m staying.”

“Will you two knock it the fuck off?” Storm, who rarely swore, hissed furiously from her side. Tegan jumped. It was the first time Storm had ever expressed any anger of this caliber. Something was totally wrong for him to be acting this way. It had to be the aggression tainting everything.

Tegan took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She frowned and looked around Soren and at Kerr. “Something is wrong with him and you know what it is.”

“I have no idea,” Soren said tensely.

“I am infected,” Kerr rasped out chokingly.

Tegan frown. “Infected? What do you mean by that?”

“It means that I have the berserker curse.”

She was still confused. “I don’t understand.”

“It means he is a lying piece of shit. There is no such thing as the berserker curse. It’s a myth centuries old. There has never been any solid evidence that such a curse has ever existed,” he disclosed disgustedly.

“Believe me, Soren, I wish it were only a lie. But it is very real. One scratch, one bite, and I can turn you into a monster,” he growled low.

Tegan turned on him, narrowing her eyes in annoyance. “I thought you said things like that couldn’t happen, Soren.”

“It can’t.” He stiffly gestured to his brother’s general direction. “He is lying to try to cover his ass. There is no such thing as the berserker curse. It was just a legend to scare pups, nothing more.”

“You’ve seen it yourself. Look into my blood red eyes and know I am telling the truth.” He took a step closer but it wasn’t needed. They had already had a glimpse of his crimson irises. “I am barely containing my rage. I can try, but I cannot fight it off once it takes root. Once something aggravates me it will flourish into a full on rage.”

“I can’t believe you,” Soren said, but uncertainty clung to the statement.

“Believe it, little brother. I am not the brother you once knew. I have become an abomination.”

“How long have you been like this? How did you even get cursed in the first place?” Tegan cut in, trying to get answers from Kerr.

“He is only going to lie,” Soren piped in from the sidelines. She ignored him completely. He was doing nothing to help the situation whatsoever.

“It happened a couple years ago. That’s why I couldn’t come home. I wanted to. You don’t believe how bad I wanted to be home when my family needed me so bad. But I couldn’t risk the chance of infecting them. I was so much more unstable then than what I am now. I couldn’t come back. I shouldn’t have come back like this.” His voice sounded strangled even as it lost some of its gruffness.

A truck turned into the drive, its headlights flashing across the yard where they all stood. The gravel crunching under the tires filled the silence that had fallen upon them. The engine was killed and the alpha climbed out of the vehicle. He pinned them all with a questioning look.

“What’s going on here?” Ulrick called out, slamming the door. He was alone and Lyn was nowhere to be found.

“Why don’t you ask your golden boy over here what he has been up to the past three years,” Soren challenged. He looked away from his father to his sibling.

“What do you mean, Soren?” When there was no answer their father turned to her eldest son. “Kerr?”

“Dad, I…” He paused, taking a step closer to them all.

“He’s a rager,” Soren sneered when his brother didn’t fill in the blanks.

Ulrick went completely rigid at the revelation. He resembled a statue, his face an unreadable mask and his body unmoving stone.

Tegan’s muscles tensed as well, but for an entirely different reason. She felt Storm come up to stand right behind it. “You feel that?” he whispered in her ear. He must have sensed the same thing she did. The others seem to be completely oblivious, wrapped up in their own problems to notice anything else.

Tegan swallowed hard. “It’s back.”

Everyone looked at her then. “What?”

“Whatever was on the island a few days ago…it’s back,” she hissed.

“Shit!”

Before anyone could do anything, a flurry of movement whirled in the middle of the front lawn at a safe distance from them.

“Greetings, Ulrick, alpha of the Darkwood Clan. It is a pleasure to finally meet you face to face. And you must be little Tegan,” he said condescendingly. The man gave an elegant bow. He had long black hair that slithered over his shoulders and nearly touched the ground. He straightened and in his hand was a stick of some kind. “I see you have all received my gift.” He gestured toward Kerr and everyone looked to the werewolf for an explanation.

“I’m so sorry,” Kerr said, panicked. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I never meant to.”

“How do you feel about your son working for me?” the newcomer asked, clearly pleased with himself.

“You son of a bitch!” Soren roared. Before anyone could stop him, he sprinted over to where Kerr was and socked his brother in the face with enough force to drop him.

“Soren!” Tegan shrieked when she saw what he had done.

She watched as Kerr dug his fingernails into the soil, his back arching as his bones snapped and popped out of their sockets. Low whines and moans rippled through the air as Kerr transformed into some other kind of creature. It was some sort of man/wolf hybrid.

“Soren, what’s going on?” Tegan asked from behind him as he backed away from the monster that used to be his brother. “You said werewolves didn’t look like that.”

“It’s true. He really is cursed,” he murmured under his breath. “It mutates his transformation.”

Heckling rose from behind them.

“Look at my perverse little creature. He will rip you to shreds at my bidding and will not stop until absolute annihilation,” the guy with the hair said. “All it takes is one little irritant to push him into a blind fury. And it was so easy to manipulate you into pushing him over the edge. Can you not feel the animosity rising, the unadulterated malevolence culminating in his being? I created all that he is.”

“Who are you?” Ulrick asked.

“I am the warlock Zelko.” He smiled crookedly. His eyes gleamed in the moonlight, set in a weathered face.

“You did this to him. Why? Why would you be so cruel?” Tegan questioned.

All traces of amusement vanished from his visage. He looked now like the heartless creature he truly was. “When I found this little whelp out and about on his lonesome, I decided to capture him and do experiments. My sister helped and became infatuated with the power of the wolves. She set out to find the pack that my creature belonged to. It took so many attempts and I nearly killed myself, but I finally summoned the curse to him.”

“And you’ve kept him locked away for three years?”

“I had to weaken his bond, his loyalty to the pack. Then you came along and the ceremony for the rise of their healer was as good a chance as any to have a little family reunion.”

Tegan was the only one really interrogating him. The other seemed to still be in a state of shock. “What brought about this vendetta?”

“It only started off as an experiment to see if I could unleash the curse once more. But that changed when Ulrick stole my family from me. Now I come for vengeance. I am going to do the same to him, girl.”

“What are you talking about?” Ulrick snapped.

“Magda was my sister. And you killed her!” He pointed accusingly at the wolf with his staff.

“She was killing off my wolves. I deserved retribution,” Ulrick argued, eyes wide with disbelief and fury.

“As do I. And I have already started but turning one son away from you.” He gestured behind them.

Kerr finally got to his feet, his clothing torn to scraps of fabric all over the ground. He was ripped with muscle, his humanoid arms and legs bulging with them. He had longish pointed ears and a canine muzzle. Course, long hair covered his body and his eyes were like hot coals. Right now, those fiery orbs were trained on Soren. It lifted its lips and snarled loudly.

“Uh, Soren, I think you are the one that should be going back into the house. He looks like he is about to attack you, not me,” Tegan whispered.

“You think? Storm, get her out of here.”

“Tegan, I think you better do what he –”

“No!” She cut Storm off and ripped her arm out of her familiar’s grip.

The wolf-man ran after Soren then, lunging after him and taking him to the ground in a mass of tangled limbs. Grunts and growls came from both combatants, but it was clear Kerr had the advantage.

Ulrick turned into a wolf quickly and Tegan gasped. He was easily double the size that Soren had been. He tackled Kerr off Soren, slamming him hard into the ground. The alpha’s huge paws pinned down his son and he snarled atop him, baring vicious looking teeth. The wolf-man howled something awful. It sounded like it had been hurt and it probably was.

Acting on instinct, Tegan went over to the pinned creature.

“Tegan. Get away from there!” Soren bellowed.

Soren and Storm both came over to tug her away but she shrugged their hands away. She dropped to the ground beside Kerr’s head.

“Kerr,” she murmured, reaching out her hand to touch him.

“Don’t!” Both of them shouted in unison. Even Ulrich snapped his teeth at her hand. She didn’t let it deter her. She reached out and touched the thing’s wrinkled forehead. A swirling red mist of hate and rage clawed at her mind but she pushed it away, trying to reach the tormented man inside.

He seemed to settle down under her ministrations, regarding her with wary, dangerous eyes. He sniffed the air, taking her scent into his lungs. He seemed to settle and not struggle as much.

“There we go, big guy,” Tegan said gently. “Calm down. No one is going to try to hurt you if you just calm down.”

“It is no use talking to him. He is under my control,” Zelko cackled gleefully. “You have lost one of your precious sons and it looks like you are about to lose the other. “ He gesture toward Soren. Across his neck were four thin scratches running vertically. Blood trickled from the gouges and stained the collar of his shirt.

The young werewolf lifted his hand and winced when he came into contact with the wounds. He took his hand away and inspected the blood. His eyes widened and he became several shades lighter.

Tegan couldn’t worry about him right now. She was reaching out to the snarling beast on the ground. She was parting that ruthless haze of wrath and getting closer to getting him under control.

“Kerr,” she murmured again, trying to gain his attention. “Come back to us. Don’t let this overcome all that you are. You can beat this thing.”

His eyes weren’t glowing as bright and he was no longer jerking and twisting beneath Ulrick’s solid grip.

“That’s it, big guy. Just relax and listen to my voice. You can do it.”

“Isn’t this sweet? This little girl is trying to tame my beast. Do you really think that is the safest thing to do? He could kill you if I commanded it. He is, after all, under my power.” However, the warlock’s antagonizing voice didn’t hold the same bit of tenacity as it had before.

Tegan ignored his sarcastic remarks and continued to pet Kerr. He turned his head to her arm and gave it a tiny lick. She smiled at the little gesture. It didn’t seem like he was hostile anymore. Ulrick loosened his hold, but didn’t quite let him up. The wolf-man started struggling again, this time to get to Tegan.

“It’s okay,” she told Ulrick. “Let him come over to me.”

The huge wolf reluctantly released Kerr. The cursed werewolf clawed at the ground to come to her. When he finally reached her, he rested his head in her lap, snuggling into her comfort. Tegan continued to pet the beast. Slowly it started transforming back into Kerr.

“You think to reverse my craft you weak-hearted witch? You are ill experience in magick, I can tell as much. I could crush you were you stand,” he sneered.

With a mighty roar, Ulrick charge after the enemy. The black-haired man laughed evilly and disappeared into a burst of black mist. His echoing voice was the only thing left of him.

“I will be back to claim my beast. Mark my words. I will destroy the Darkwood Clan until there is nothing left but wolf bones and hide.”

Tegan sat with Kerr while he came back to his human form. He was naked and shivering though his skin was hot and slick to the touch. His teeth were chattering and his muscles were bunched. In the meantime, Ulrick had also reverted back to his two-legged form. All three kept their distance. They seemed to be waiting to see what would happen next.

Tegan continued stroking Kerr until his shuttering calmed and he relaxed a bit.

“You okay now, Kerr?” she asked gently.

His eyes were closed in a grimace but he nodded as he continued to hold her legs like it was his last salvation. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. He was a doomed creature.

And now that Soren was scratched by his own brother, he may as well be too.