Unraveling Selena by Marisa Maichel (black female authors TXT) 📕

“NO! You have no mate, so you want mine!”

“Don’t be ridiculous. She’s yours. And too young for me.”

“Like Ariella?”

“I learned my lesson with Ariella! I’m not going to try to take her from you!”

“Reese,” Sarah whispered. I looked at her, blinking. She looked like a frightened rabbit. I was angry with myself. I frightened her yet again. My heart clenched; my stomach tightened. I growled softly, then slowly let go of her. I hissed when I saw that I’d accidentally bruised her.

Uncle Soren finished cleaning her up.

“You need to hunt,” he told me.

“I’m not hungry,” I said obstinately, even though my throat burned, and my stomach growled.

“Stop lying to yourself. Go eat, I’ll watch over her.”

Hissing, I left the room through the window.

Before long, I came across a man lying in the gutter, half-dead from a knife wound. I drank my fill, careful not to leave hair or fingerprints. I climbed onto the roof of a building and ran across the rooftops. The day was cloudy, dull.

I kept running until I reached the poorest side of town. I continued to look for a meal. I saw kids fighting, graffiti painting, and other rituals of violence. Violence is all over, not just in the projects. Look at me. I live in a mansion, and I’ve killed people. Sometimes I live in a castle. Sometimes I hate being a prince.

I kept running until I came across a girl who had been raped. I called for an ambulance, and left the scene, as there was blood on my shirt. I kept looking until I came across the guys who had raped the girl.

“Vanessa won’t talk again,” one said, grinning.

“Vanessa?” I said to myself. Vanessa Slaughterman was a prostitute I had drunk from and then assisted last year. The name had stuck with me, as a friend of Sarah’s who was an angel had also mentioned the name.

I realized that the girl I’d come across was Vanessa. I went back to the scene, where she was being loaded into an ambulance and questioned by, of all people, Detective Emma Greene.

I followed the ambulance to the hospital, where Vanessa was taken to the trauma ward. I sent Father a text, detailing what I’d found. He replied back quickly.

Father: Don’t get involved further. Walk away. Don’t try to be a hero.

When I arrived home, there was an argument occurring in the yard between the wolves and my family. Sadie was there, and so was Faolan.

“Reese, there is a problem,” Faolan said. “Did you and Sadie have sex?”

“Y-yes,” I admitted, carefully, because Sarah was there. “It was when Sarah and I were taking a break.” I looked at Sarah. She was biting her lip, trying not to cry.

“Then, under werewolf law, you and Sadie are married,” Faolan said.

“Fuck. Is there anything I can do to divorce her?”

“You want a divorce?” Sadie asked, looking horrified.

“Sadie, you were a good fuck. When I was a werewolf, I couldn’t control my emotions. I couldn’t control anything.”

“He’s right,” Father said. “He has porphyria.”

All the vampires shuddered at the name of the disease.

“So what you said…wasn’t real?” Sadie asked.

“What did I say? And why didn’t you try to get me before this?”

“I thought you were…I don’t know. I thought you need time and space.”

“Are you fucking crazy? I don’t want to be tied to a wolf for all time!”

“Watch your tone, Reese,” Faolan said warningly. “Sadie is like a daughter to me.”

“Some father you are,” I said sarcastically. Father hissed at me to be quiet.

“The only way to divorce, or separate, is if one of you dies or goes through a lengthy spiritual process,” Faolan said. “But if you choose to go through the spiritual process, you have to be a were of some kind or a shapeshifter.”

“Damn, damn, damn,” I muttered to myself.

“You have such a dirty mouth,” Sarah said, looking angry.

“And how would you know that?” Sadie snapped.

“Because he’s my boyfriend!”

“Well, he’s my husband. Husband outranks boyfriend.”

“What a day,” I said. “Fine. Bite me.”

“No!” Father cried. “Faolan, if you bite him, I swear I’ll kill you!”

“Dad, I don’t want to be married to Sadie!”

“But I do!” Sadie cried. “I love you, Reese. I have for a long time. I don’t care if you have a girlfriend. I love you.”

“Wrong choice of words, bitch,” Sarah hissed. I smirked. In a fight, Sadie would win, hands down, but it would be enjoyable to see Sarah fight for me.

“Fine, I’ll bite him!” said one of the wolves standing by. He stepped forward, only to be punched by Father.

“No one’s getting bitten! Especially not Reese!”

“Mordecai, we don’t have a choice!” Uncle Soren said. “It’s either that, or one of the kids dies. And we don’t want that.”

“There’s too much anger in the air,” Grandfather spoke up. “Let us take a few days to cool down, and then we can figure out where to go from there.”

“The Council,” I breathed.

“Crap, he’s right,” Louis said. “The Council cannot find out about this!”

“No, I mean…maybe they can help.”

“Okay, you have officially lost your mind. They are trying to overthrow us, remember?”

“Louis is right, Reese. We can’t rely on the Council,” Uncle Soren said. “Bite him already!”

“NO!”

“MORDECAI, STOP INTERFERING!”

While Father and Uncle Soren shouted at each other, Sadie and Sarah started shouting at each other, and Faolan and I started shouting at each other. So it was a shock when Grandfather told us all to shut up.

“EVERYONE, SHUT UP! Now that I have your attention, there may be something else we can do.” He turned to Uncle Soren. “Where is the book?”

“Father, we can’t rely on the book either!”

“Whoa, what book?” Sarah asked.

“It’s not meant for mortal eyes,” said Uncle Soren.

“The only mortal here is Sarah! And she won’t look at the book or read from it.”

“Father, you of all people should know better! The book is full of dark magic!”

“It was your fault the book’s here in the first place! Honestly…killing a vampire lord’s son over it…taking Reese to the Night Market…”

“When are you and Mordecai going to stop harping on about that? I know I made a mistake! Honestly, though…”

“Enough,” I said. “This isn’t helping. Sadie, I want a divorce.”

She burst into tears. “Well, I don’t. So it won’t work like that, anyway. The only way we can get divorced if I want it. And I don’t want it. So you’ll have to deal with me forever, or at least for a long time.”

Sarah walked over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist. “Mine.”

Gasps all around ensued, and Father smirked.

“What did I do?” Sarah asked, looking around.

“You claimed Reese,” Faolan explained. “That makes it more complicated. Under werewolf law, a werewolf cannot have two mates. This makes Sadie’s predicament more complicated because Reese now has two mates instead of one. He will have two mates until one of you stops loving him, or if he stops loving you.”

“As if I would ever stop loving her!” I shouted. “She’s mine. Mine and no one else’s.”

“You sound like a Fury,” Louis said. He nudged his father. “Remember that Fury we fought about two hundred years ago? She stole the book and kept saying ‘Mine! Mine mine mine mine mine!’”

Sarah stood up and kissed my jaw. “You’re fuzzy,” she noted.

“I haven’t shaved in a while,” I admitted.

“Oh, sure, tease the slut,” Sadie sarcasted.

“Get over it,” Sarah snapped. “He’s always been mine. No one else’s. Except Evan’s.” She glanced up at me.

“Oh, another whore?” Sadie said.

“I’m bi,” I told her. I heard giggles and gasps and oohs.

“Bilingual?” she said.

“Don’t be stupid,” I snapped. “I won’t lie, I’ve fucked a guy before. Yes, I also speak multiple languages. Sadie, I don’t like you. I don’t love you. Faolan, bite me.”

Faolan leaped forward, much to Father’s protests, and bit me hard on the neck. I felt pain, then dizziness, then nauseous. I fell over, heard Sarah screaming. Father was yelling loudly at Faolan, and Sadie was crying.

I woke up in a haze of drugs. I felt my ribs crack, and my heart…my heart was beating. Pounding. Hard. My stomach growled, and I craved raw meat. I got up, my ribs smarting, and kicked off the covers. I was dressed in a plain white shirt and grey sweatpants. I got up and stalked down the stairs to the kitchen. I opened the fridge, my mouth watering at the sight of all the meat. I chose a big roast first.

The blood seeped into my veins and made me immortal, while the meat satisfied my cravings. I ate the whole roast, juice dripping onto my shirt. My fangs had sharpened exponentially, as had the rest of my teeth. I had another set of fangs on my lower jaw, about half an inch long and pointing up.

I ate the rest of meat until my belly felt like it would split open. Happy, satisfied, I turned to find my family and my girlfriend watching me, some with looks of amusement, others with worried looks. Even Mother, Alexander, and Selena were there. Even Sabine was there.

Mother and Father looked the most worried. Alexander had a blank expression. Selena looked heartbroken. Sarah and Sabine looked apprehensive. Uncle Soren and Louis looked amused. Grandfather merely looked concerned.

“That was good,” I said, licking my lips.

“I will never forgive Faolan for this,” Father said after a moment.

“Son, it was the only way,” Grandfather said. “The only other way would be to kill one of them. You don’t want that, do you?”

Father and Mother shuddered. Mother approached me cautiously and hugged me.

“My sweet boy,” she cooed. “Mommy’s here.” She broke away after two minutes and sniffed. “You stink, though.”

“Sorry, I don’t mean to stink,” I said.

“It’s not you, it’s the wolf infection,” Louis explained. “Werewolves normally stink to vampires. It’s odd, because vampires smell unusually good to wolves. They’re attracted to our blood.”

“Not to mention competition over food,” Uncle Soren added. “Our food sources are similar. The same, really. Both of us consume blood, with wolves also consuming meat.”

“Don’t be upset with Faolan,” I told Father. “He did it to save my life and my relationship with Sarah.”

Father said nothing. Finally, Sarah spoke up.

“Now I get to say that I’ve had sex with a werewolf too,” she said. Mother and Selena laughed at this, although the guys looked confused.

“Competition over women, too,” I told them. “A tale as old as the beginning of Rome.”

“Remus and Romulus were adopted by a she-wolf,” explained Grandfather. “Possibly werewolf. And they had their legends about our kind as well. In Greece, anyone with red hair was considered a possible vampire.”

“You have red hair,” Uncle Soren pointed out.

“Ah, but I never went to Greece unless absolutely necessary. And only at night. They would not have liked my Danish ancestry, anyway.”

“Even when I was a human, my mother distrusted anyone with red hair or anyone from Italy,” Mother said. “Which was ironic, because her hair was strawberry blonde.”

She pulled me close and pecked my hair. “Wow, you really do stink.”

Sarah approached me and hugged me. I purred and lifted her up. She wrapped her muscular legs around my thin waist, and I kissed her. She made a noise and placed her head on my chest.

“I love you, too,” I replied to her silent statement. I kissed her hand. I could smell her blood flowing through her veins, moving fast, keeping her heart pumping. My fangs elongated, my heart pounded, my throat burned. A hiss could be heard, and Selena was pulling Sarah away from me. I hissed back at my sister and pulled my girl back. For a moment, we hissed at each other, then Selena bowed her head and I buried my nose in Sarah’s soft curls.

She looked confused, and she looked at Mother questioningly.

“They had a brief argument because he likes the way you smell,” she explained. I growled lightly and nibbled on her uninjured ear.

“Mate,” I growled, my voice becoming husky and deeper than normal. “Wife. Girlfriend. Fiancée.”

“Fiancée?”