Call of the Werewolf

Call of the Werewolf

By: M.S. West

Published by WSIC EBooks Ltd.

Copyright April 20, 2014 by WSIC EBooks Ltd.

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Other books available by the author

About the authors

Dedication

For Sebastien; may the Goddess’ smile be forever upon you.

Prologue

The vampire known as Vladimir Narishkin had been at it for thousands of years. It had all started as an interest, as nothing more than a hobby to pass away the eons. However, as time passed and discoveries were made that hobby changed to an obsession.

His first discovery was to learn that it was possible to crossbreed various races of the fairy folk and once he learned this, he applied all of his attention on crossbreeding these races. In time, he became determined to breed something new, something without a drop of human blood and for the most part he was successful in his endeavors.

Some would call him a genius for what he had accomplished, others would say mad. If the true extent of his experimentation as well as his accomplishments had been known, mad would have been the overwhelming outcry.

A couple of hundred years ago he had managed to breed a werewolf to one of his specimens. Others of his kind would have truly thought him insane for breeding one of his specimens to their natural enemy and even more insane if they had known that the werewolf was not the first of their natural enemies that he had used in his breeding program.

He became obsessed in trying to accomplish two goals. The first was to raise a breed with blood so powerful that he and his brood could use that blood to take back his beloved Europe from Boris.

His second goal was to see if he could create a creature better than a brood, the next evolution so to speak. A brood bred and not turned, a brood without a Sire. This caused him some trouble for a number of years, as they are totally incapable of natural breeding. Yet, he persisted and finally he found a way to infuse the vampire virus into an unborn child.

When the twins were born just over twenty-five years ago he thought that he had hit on something exciting and new for these were the first set of twins he had bred out of this new line. His excitement over the twins’ birth quickly changed to rage when one of his thralls broke free from him and stole the girl child away, leaving him only the male child to play with.

For the next twenty-five years he hunted for the girl child while he played with the male. He was further disappointed when the male’s offsprings turned out to be one disappointment after another. So disappointing were the results that more than once he considered ending the life of the male twin.

As it is, ever since he imposed his virus into his breeding program all the offsprings from that line have ended in disappointments. It was always the same. Sometime before their thirtieth birthday, these offsprings would go through a change and that change always resulted in useless crippled undeads, something he had hoped he had overcome in the twins.

It was not until the twins’ twenty-fifth birthday that he got his first hint as to what he truly had in his breeding pens.

Arrogant as he is, he does not even stop to consider that he still would not have achieved success if things had worked out his way. It was only due to the two children living different lives and supporting each other during the change that allowed them to come back from the brink of living dead to true life again.

Michele, the female twin was the one taken by the thrall and her life as she grew was anything but a bouquet of roses. When she was eleven, Vladimir had finally caught up with the thrall that had stolen her from him and had the thrall killed, leaving Michele at the mercy of the U.S. child social service system.

The child social service system was even worse for Michele than life with the thrall had been and if not for the timely intervention of Jackie and Martin Appleton, she would have ended up as just another junked out street vagrant living off the avails of prostitution or worse.

The first years with the Appleton were hard on all of them. However, Jackie refused to give up on Michele and it was her stanch refusal to give up that finally breached the wall that Michele had built around herself. Once that wall was cracked, love followed and the love that Michele, Jackie, and Martin built between them is a love worthy of legends.

As for the male twin Samuel, he grew up in darkness without any social contact of any kind. The only time he saw anyone was when he was brought food or a female to breed. If it were not for the discovery that he could slip into Michele’s mind and experience her world with her, he would have grown up to be nothing more than any of the other animal like creatures that Vladimir housed in his breeding pens.

As it is, it was his ability to slip into Michele’s mind that allowed the two of them to go through the change and come out the other side as something more than another of Vladimir’s twisted and useless undeads.

What Vladimir has bred is now becoming common knowledge with the vampires. They know her to be too dangerous to let live and as such are debating what steps to take to get rid of what could all too soon become the bane of their existence.

Michele is not only causing the vampires concerns, for her birth and rebirth has echoed along the pathways between the Sirens and their Goddesses. Considering their strict reproduction laws she should not even exist and yet there is no denying the truth.

As for the werewolves, two Alphas want to own her. Dominic wants her for his bed until he has satisfied his lust for her, after which she is to become the common property of the pack. As for Raymond, he wants her as his mate, for even when she was a child of eleven he sensed that she could give him something nobody else could; a child.

Last, but not lease is her importance to the humans. Their interest in her is how to use and keep her in line to help them rid the world of the vampires. How they can use her to rid or control the werewolves and how to use her as an ambassador or worse with the sirens.

Chapter One

Twenty-five is only the beginning of adult life my dad has often told me and my twenty-fifth birthday was only a couple of months ago. That may be so, however the happenings of the last two months and especially what happened in Washington are making me feel old beyond my years.

Since my birthday I have learned that vampires, werewolves, and sirens roam the earth. I have discovered that humans are nothing more than a source of food for vampires and if that is not enough to deal with, on my birthday I underwent a change, a change that I am still having difficulty accepting and one that is still rocking my world.

True, I need my meat a little redder than before and I now like to chew on the bones for the marrow. On the up side I have not grown any new blood-sucking teeth or Goddess forbid a tail.

The fact is, where once I was the plainest of plain Jane I now look like a Goddess. Furthermore, I have recently found out that I share a linage with Sirens and even though I am happy to finally discover a part of me I fear what else my body may have in store for me.

New or not, there is no need for me to dig deep to come to the conclusion that the last couple of days have worn me out and I am not looking forward to the debriefing I still have to go through before I can find my bed.

A United Nation military group now have there claws dug into me and are using my parents as surety of my good behaviour. We have mixed feelings about this and may have fought harder against our confinement if not for the fact that a major part of the unit’s mandate is to destroy vampires, which has made it easier for all of us to deal with the potential uncomfortable situation.

Our most recent assignment was to act as bodyguards to a Siren contingent. The assignment had not been all that bad. I didn’t mind spending time with High Queen Sophie Loreral of the Sirens or her daughter Princess Mariyah for they had taught me what it means to be a Siren; something that they assured me repeatedly that I was, regardless of my thoughts on the matter. The fight with the vampires when the sirens were boarding their plane to go home was not pleasant however and something I could have done without on that day.

The outcome of the skirmish was not going to go down in history as a shining moment for the unit. The golden blonde haired Siren Capri had taken a bullet as she was making her way to the plane and her fate is as yet unknown. Furthermore, Antonio and Mark, two members of the unit had been killed and George, a man that I have gotten to like had been seriously injured and would be some time recovering. On top of all that, there has not been any sign of my fairy friend Sorcha.

No, not a stellar day at all for the unit and the icing on the cake is that I had barely landed back in Italy when I was forced into an encounter with Dominic Sabatino, the Alpha werewolf of the pack that I had stolen Darren Keller from. It is not as if I meant to take Darren away from Dominic, it just happened and well, done is done.

Dominic as it turns out was… a little put out about losing one of his own. I had no intention of giving Darren up so the confrontation I just finished having with him was doubly tiring; first in asserting my ownership over Darren and second in fighting my desire to let Dominic own me.

I had hoped that would be the end of it for now and that everybody would just leave me alone. Not to be, for the encounter with Dominic has barely faded into the background when Darren confronts me. As tired as I am I almost wish that I would have given Darren back to Dominic for at this point I am okay with denial. In fact, I credit my recently learned steadfastness in denial as a major contributor towards my still precariously balanced sanity and here Darren ruins all that balance by insisting that it is time I admit to being a werewolf. Admit to being his Alpha and finally that it is time I work on strengthening the bond between Alpha and pack.

So much for denial!

I have no idea what I am. The Sirens claim me as one of their own, as did the fairy Sorcha and now the werewolves. I don’t even want to think about the kinship I feel towards those hated vampires.

As if it is not confusing enough for a girl to go from looking like a dud to goddess and all the problems associated with it, let’s just throw in everything else and make her a real freak.

The only thing I know for sure is that I am not human. The doctors in The Hole had me go through more tests than I can count and the only affirmative result they have been able to come back with was…Sorry Michele, but you are not human.

Sorry, but you are not human, but give us some time and we will try to figure out what kind of rock you crawled out from under. Shit, what kind of crap is that to tell a person? And now Darren wants to freaking bond!

Come on Darren. Andrea is waiting for me so let’s get back to The Hole. Over the next couple of days I’ll see what I can do about getting you in the unit or at least spending more time with you.

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Vladimir is not a happy Sire at the best of times and he is even less happy about his brood’s performance with the sirens. They had them outnumbered and yet they had failed. They had planted a bomb and that too had failed. Failure after failure and all he had asked was for them to kill those dam Sirens. It was a simple request, not much to ask for and yet…

He fumed on that failure for a day before finally coming to his decision. The time for hiding was over. It was time he taught the human food chain to fear him again. It was time to teach the other forefathers a lesson for his loss of Europe, and it was time once and for all that he ridded the world of those blasted Sirens and Werewolves. He had the blood so all he needed now were the numbers. He had thought long and hard about that and a plan had percolated over the last day. It is a bold plan, a stroke of genius even and if his useless brood could accomplish it, it would be a decisive step towards him achieving all his goals.

Therefore, a day of anger he allows himself and then he calls the brood into action. He spells out his plan and then warns his brood that if they wish to continue existing they had better not fail him this time. The brood as it turns out are delighted to be given the freedom he is offering for they have been longing to make their own brood and Vladimir’s plan is going to allow them to do just that.

Trusting that even they can achieve such a simple task Vladimir’s next stop is his breeding cells where he selects one of his specials to play with.

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Boris, the European Sire has mixed feeling about what had happened in the United States. He would not have minded if Vladimir had succeeded in killing the sirens for he had no better love for them then Vladimir had for the ungodly creatures. His concern had been the type of action that Vladimir was going to take to get rid of the sirens and that those actions would center the world’s attention on the brood.

He had managed to get a group of Taliban there in time to mess up Vladimir’s plan, something that he was overly ecstatic about for he liked Vladimir as little as he did Sirens, however his intervention had not been all success.

First off, he had not counted on Vladimir being smart enough to hide a group of brood one floor above the summit meeting for a number of days until the sirens showed up. Nor did he expect that Vladimir had thralls in high enough positions that allowed him to infiltrate the summit. So twice he had been proven wrong.

As far as he was concerned, Vladimir was stupid to attack the sirens at the summit for regardless of how it would have worked out, it would have centered the eyes of the world in the very place it should not be centered; right on the brood. Furthermore, and directly because of his actions, the siren High Queen had promised she would assist the humans in ridding the world of brood and publicly at that. Therefore, unless he was to attack the sirens in force, in a battle he is not certain he can win, there is no stopping that sharing of information.

Now comes the time to figure out what he should do about the situation to make sure that he and as many of his brood continue to exist through the coming days or better yet years.

Still deep in thought about those recent events and what he can do to keep his Brood safe he hits his intercom button to call in his second in command.

What can I do for you Boris?

I’m going to call for a conclave Thomas. Until that time, make sure the Brood knows to keep a low profile.

I’ll put the word out.

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I’m here, so you can stop worrying now Andrea.

I’m sorry Michele. You know I really hate this. Yet, I would hate it even more is if I had to give you to Wright.

I have learned that Andrea has been made responsible for me outside of The Hole so I am not surprised that she has been waiting for me to return. I’m sure she hates the job as much as she claims she does for as she said, if something was to go wrong she would have to send Wright after me and I am not the only one in the unit that loathes the man.

As it is, Wright and his unit’s only task, is training to put me down if or as he likes to say, when it is required. The more I get to know the man the more I come to hate him and apparently Andrea’s feelings towards him are not much better.

Therefore, my next words are meant to show Andrea that I fully understand how she is feeling. That’s all part of my life isn’t it? Let me get the luggage and we can go and assure our good Master Sergeant Wright that I have not fled.

The guys already took the luggage to your room Michele.

In that case shall we. I’ll see you later Darren.

Sure, we’ll talk then.

I give Darren a quick nip to his neck and then a low growl in his ear. Satisfied that he has been mollified I turn and take hold of Andrea.

What is it between you and him? She asks after we enter the U.N. military headquarter in Italy that we have started calling The Hole.

We like each other. Does there have to be any other reason?

No, but I heard you beat the crap out of him the first time you two met, so call me curious.

As you can imagine I was messed up. He let me beat the hell out of him and took it like a man. For that he earned my respect, for being himself he earned my friendship, besides he’s a hoot to have a drink or two with and he can sing with the best of them.

Maybe you should try singing with him next time. You have a beautiful voice.

I smile at Andrea for the compliment. Thanks, but I’m scared of what may happen if I did. Oh, there is our lovable Sergeant Wright now.

The rest of the unit have already emptied the outer hole in preparation of my arrival so I do not cause any riots as we make out way to the inner hole. The door to the inner hole is just closing behind me when Mom comes rushing up to me. My heart swells with love at the sight of her, causing me to crush her in an embraced until she squeaks for air. I have been away from her for four days. That is the longest I have been away from her since she took me home with her and that as much as the job in Washington is responsible for me feeling so worn out.

Thankfully Andrea allows us the time we both need to get our emotions back under control. Still, when she tells me that it is time for us to get to the debriefing it is with reluctance that I release Mom from the embrace.

The debriefing turns out to be even longer than any of us expected and I am really starting to get on edge. I really don’t think I can blame myself for my twitchiness, for it was a long four days in Washington followed by a long flight back to Italy and now a long three hours of debriefing. Making it worse is the fact that Second Lieutenant Neely and Sergeant Major Riley have gone over the details of the operation with minute detail. Neither one of them believes for a second that all of our intercoms had gotten accidentally broken at the same time and because every one of us keeps insisting that they had they seem determine to make an issue of every detail of the operation. True the operation had not been a stellar moment for us, but still.

…and you Michele. You still shoot with your eyes closed. How the hell do you expect to hit anything when you have your eyes closed, not to mention how the rest of your unit can be expected to feel safe around you. Neely gives me his best glare as he chastises me.

In my defense Sir, I’ve learned that I am not built to use a gun and never will be.

And what are we expected to do with that?

I may have a solution, but until then give me a sword.

A sword! Have you finally lost it Michele?

I am really getting tired of the grilling so maybe, just maybe my reply is a little snide. Yep, gimme a sword or staff instead of a bang-bang.

Riley’s face goes red at my perk remark. I grin inside at the sight of it and yet I know I have pushed him too far, so my next comments are meant to bring his boil down to a simmer. Look we are ready to admit we didn’t exactly do a good job and maybe we have a lot to learn, but let me ask you something. Why in the name of the Goddess are you using bullets on vampires?

Riley and Neely’s mouth gape open and close a couple of time in speechlessness for the answer to that question is obvious. Even a couple members of my unit look at me questioningly, so I continue with my train of thought.

I know I am not military… I ignore Riley’s snort, and maybe I am missing something obvious, but it seems to me that bullets don’t hurt vampires very much unless you are lucky enough to take off its head or blow up its heart and even then you have to crush the head and burn the heart to keep them from putting themselves back together again. So why aren’t we using a bullet that will… I don’t know burn the vampire or blow them up or something. Some kind of bullet that will take less than a hundred rounds to put the dam things down. You boys love playing with that kind of thing so why is it you haven’t figured out something better yet?

We can’t use those kinds of bullets on the general populace. Furthermore, we had no idea that the vampires would attack the sirens or we would have taken further steps to protect Queen Sophie.

If you mean humans by general populace, well humans are not the problem Riley. We can easily take care of them… heck I could take care of a mob of them with just a smile if I had to. The creepy crawlies are the problem not to mention that they are the main reason this unit was put together. Therefore, it seems your lack of foresight is just as much to blame as our lack of experience. Now we have some experience and we paid for that experience. It’s your turn to give them the proper tools they need and me a sword and then we can move on.

Technically I am not in the military and can get away talking to Riley and Neely the way I just did without being court marshalled. My official position is that of a subcontractor for which I charge the U.N Military fifteen thousand Euros a month. I would not be surprised if the others had already had the same thoughts I just expressed, however due to their stringent military protocols they probably can’t mention it so concisely as I just had.

I’ll take that into consideration Michele as I will your request for a sword.

We all turn to see that Lieutenant General Lawrence Macklin had entered the room at some point. Nobody had heard or seen him come in so he catches us all flat-footed; although we do not stay that way long for in a matter of seconds, everybody in the room is standing at parade attention.

And on that point I think you can dismiss them Second Lieutenant Neely.

Yes Sir General. You are dismissed until 08:00 tomorrow where you are expected to show up for more training and there will be no leaves for the foreseeable future. Neely’s announcement makes us all groan and what I wouldn’t pay to be able to smack that smug look off his face.

I follow in the wake of the others as we file out. I have barely started towards my room when Dad joins me.

Dad has always been a military man and had progressed to general in the U.S. military before my plight. He is now a general in the U.N. Military and we all know why.

I love my dad. He and Mom are my world and as such I give him as big a hug as I gave Mom earlier before inquiring. I missed you and Mom. She looked a little shaken when I met her at the door. Is she okay?

Yes. She was worried about you, but now that you are back she is settling down. Right now I am more worried about you. It can be tough losing men and if you need to talk about it I’m here for you.

Thanks Dad. I haven’t really had a lot of time to think about it yet and right now I am dead on my feet. Rest assured that I will remember your offer if the need arises. Any chance that we can get together for supper this evening, at the exterior mess if it can be cleared that is… all leaves have been revoked. I grimace at the thought for not only does the mess not have the best food, but clearing it will be a royal pain, yet a pain that will have to be undertaken if my presence is not to start a riot, which funny enough, is something I have discovered that the military frowns upon.

I’m sure your mother would love that.

Good. I learned some things in Washington that I want to tell you and Mom about, but I’m going to get some sleep first.

You do that and I will see what I can do about the mess. A late supper would be best I think.

Yes Sir. I say mockingly to Dad before giving him a jaunty salute followed by another hug.

Women… destroyed the army they did. Dad mumbles as he walks away from me, although by the smile on his face I doubt he is all that serious about it.

Martin and Jackie are not my birth parents. However, they are most definitely the only real parents I have ever known. I became a part of their family when I was fourteen years old and I credit them with saving me from a life of crime or worse.

Our relationship started off rocky, however Jackie’s unwillingness to give up on me finally bonded us and from there our love bloomed. As such, there is nobody in the world that I love more than Mom and Dad, and from what they tell me, not to mention their staunch support of me since my change, nobody that they love more then me. This, the U.N. learned of quickly, hence the reason they are stuck in The Hole with me and we all know it.

The unfairness of their situation has my mind mostly occupied all the way to my room so that when I am finally standing in front of my door I am so surprised that for a short time I stare at it wondering how I even got there. Managing to shake off my surprise and all the stray thoughts associated with it I open the door to my assigned room.

Inside, I see the four suitcases the sirens had to leave behind in their rush to safety. Whoever had dropped them off had hastily put them inside my room and I am going to have to find a place for them. That is a worry for another day for right now the only thing that matters to me is the bed. Therefore, without even bothering to undress and more asleep than awake I flop myself facedown onto said bed.

Hey, watch what ye are doing. A high-pitched and quite desperate voice pipes up.

So shocked at the voice am I that I put too much strength in pushing myself up and away from the bed. As such, I end up high above the bed looking down at a perky little fairy. As gravity takes hold and I fall back down I give a very girl like scream of delight.

Sorcha! I thought… oh by the Goddess but I thought… Where the heck have you been? Unable to voice the fear I had felt I finally settle on acting the mistreated friend instead.

Here waiting for ye.

By the Goddess I feared the worse. I heard the bomb go off and then you didn’t show up and… why didn’t you at least let me know you were okay!

Oh like that be not a problem. All I need to do is borrow ye father’s phone and give ye a call. Yep I can see myself doing just that. Let me go and see how that works out for me.

You know that is not what I meant Sorcha. Why didn’t you come back to me after to at least let me know that you were still alive?

Thankfully Sorcha finally decides to quit teasing me for I don’t know how much longer I could keep up my offended act. I told ye I would not fly in one of those blasted planes they make you fly in again so I came ahead. Be that as it may that’s not all of it for once I woke up from that explosion and figured out where I was, I was closer to here than there so I decided I would wait here for ye.

Well I am so happy to see you that I can almost forgive you for your inconsideration. Come give me a hug.

I wait until Sorcha gives me the best hug the six-inch fairy can give me before continuing. So does this mean you are no longer serious about never leaving me and I get my shower to myself again?

Ye wish.

I sigh for taking a shower with Sorcha clinging to my shoulder and hair really is a chore that I could do without. I let that disappointment slip away into the nether for other matters are uppermost on my mind. What happened up there Sorcha? How was Capri? Did you see her?

Capri didn’t look good Michele. When I popped inside the plane she was still losing a lot of blood. They were working on her and trying to stem the flow, but… I’m sorry Michele. I know ye like her, but I can’t give ye any more information than that.

Thank you for that much. It’s more than what I had. As for the bomb, you obviously found one.

That I did. Those sneaky bastards put it in the front wheel well of the plane. It was set to go off at ten thousand feet so I got it out of there. Most everything would have been fine, but the idiots didn’t even make the bomb right and the devilish thing exploded on the way down.

No way!

Ye way! I got lucky. I was out of magic and done in. I really thought it was going to be the end of me and that I would fall all the way back to earth. Funny thing is, it was that stupid bomb that saved me. Even though I couldn’t move my wings they allowed me to fall slower than the bomb so I was a ways away from it when it finally went off. The blast threw me back and slammed me against the jet. It knocked me out and I am sure I got some broken bones out of that, not to mention a bent wing. When I woke up I found myself jammed up against the tail, and ye so owe me for that by the way!"

Oh my goodness. I am so glad you’re okay! I reply, carefully ignoring any talk of owing.

Well I did hurt all over ye know. The worse part was that I had no magic left to fly. With nothing else to do I went back to sleep for a while and when I did wake up it took me a while to figure out where I was. When I finally did I was not certain where ye be so here I be.

That’s all that matters and I’m glad you’re back, but I need sleep so push over and stop hogging the bed.

Phft. Ye be the hog. She replies as she moves over for she had in fact crashed right in the middle of the bed and was taking as much of it as her small frame could cover. I be needing more sleep too so I can recover my magic so please don’t snore.

Magic. That’s something you and I are going to have to talk about soon and I don’t snore. I murmur just before I drift off to sleep.

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Michele is right Major Riley. If we expect our men to go out and kill these things, we need to give them the proper tools to do so. It’s either that or just keep throwing bodies at them and I don’t think I am willing to do that.

What do you make of her asking for a sword?

I don’t know, what do you think Lieutenant Neely?

The three men along with the base psychiatrist Captain Laura McNeal are locked away in a room making their own assessment of the recent operation. Therefore, nobody is surprised when Laura replies before Neely. I think it may be worth a try. She has a deep seated aversion of guns that we have not been able to uncover the reason for yet.

In my entire military career I have never seen such a lousy shot as her, so what do we have to lose.

I know she is not quite what we expected or hoped she would be, but that may be as much our fault as hers. We have to keep an open mind with her and try things we usually wouldn’t dream of doing. All in all, I don’t think the last mission was quite the disaster that they think it was. We learned and it seems like Michele learned. I’m not sure if you noticed, but she has changed. Something in her seems different.

"I’ll set Michele up for a couple hours on my couch and make sure there is nothing lingering. Also, maybe it’s time we start asking her instead of