Wolverton by Julie Steimle (best romantic books to read TXT) 📕

But one of the elderly ladies said to him as she left, “Even though you have decided not to share your seed openly with the pack, would you at least consider looking among the pack for a future mate?”

Rick stared at her, coloring. “I am only eighteen. I still have to go to college.”

The werewolf elders lifted their eyebrows at him. The notion of a wolf going to college clearly was foreign to them. But then they gazed more solidly on him and remembered that his father was a wealthy wolf, and Rick would inherit. It only made sense.

But on that thought, an idea came to Rick. He followed after that woman and said, “You know, even though I can’t help rejuvenate the pack the way you’d like… I can possibly convince my father to set up a scholarship for wolves of this pack to go to college, if you want.”

They halted. Each of the elderly wolves shared looks. They stared at him again as if he were a blessing from the gods, or from the moon, or whatever.  Somehow he didn’t think the word angel was in their world view.

“Are you serious?” Mac asked, looking like he would fall over.

Rick nodded. “Dead serious. Money, we have plenty of. And we are generous with it—especially in helping wolves like yourselves.”

“That would be awesome,” Kurt murmured breathlessly. Rick could see in his eyes him imagining his future… possibly traveling far away from Alabama.

“That is an excellent idea.” Elder Varu was at the door, and had halted there. Apparently his ears were still good.

Rick waved to him. “I’ll talk to my dad about that, then.”

They smiled, nodding.

Each of the elders went out.  

Rick with Mac and Kurt followed them.

“Ladies!” called the one in the fifties dress to the others as they were leaving. “Call in our young misses for an emergency meeting.” She then gazed back at Rick with a wink. “We need to prepare for tonight’s celebration.”

Kurt laughed, shaking his head. He put an arm around Rick’s damp shoulders and led him to the outside.

Chapter Five

There was little to do once the meeting was over. Rick had the entire morning, and no plans. So, Kurt took him back home and Rick helped him with his chores. Most of the chores were outside. Kurt’s mother looked in on them after a while and asked how things went with the elders.

“Pretty well, considering…” Rick chuckled, mid raking up the grass Kurt had been mowing in the front yard. 

She stared at him, interested. “Considering what?”

Gazing fondly on her, Rick asked, “How did you end up with this pack?”

A little nervous, Mrs. Blithe looked around, even at her son, then said in a lower voice that could not be heard over the mower, “I got tricked into it.”

Rick stared.

“Please don’t make that face,” she said cringing. “They will see I am telling you the truth, and they won’t want you to know that things are not all roses and strawberries here.”

“Do tell,” Rick said, concerned. But then he changed his facial expression so no one could see they were talking about grave topics.

Smiling at him, she said, “I could see in you that you are more innocent kind of wolf than some of those that travel through here.”

“There are other lone wolves that travel through here?”

She nodded. “My husband was one of them.”

Rick stared.

Sighing, she said, “I was innocent. A naive little girl when I fell for him. Louis Blithe. He was a drifter who had come into town and worked for my father. He charmed me. I thought I was in love, and I got pregnant. So we eloped.”

She shook her head. Her eyes were so sad. And yet she seemed resigned to her life.

“My father was so against our marriage. And when he found out, he lost it, accusing Louis of kidnapping me—as I was only sixteen.”

Rick was unable to hide his surprise and grief. This was terrible. He knew she was leading up to the rest. “Did you know he was a werewolf?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t find out until I had Kurt.”

“And Kurt changed on the first full moon…” Rick moaned, closing his eyes.

Nodding, Mrs. Blithe stared at the ground. “Louis did everything he could to keep me from running away. But I was terrified. My child had turned into a little furry thing with teeth. I didn’t have baby blues. I had baby terrors.” Her eyes then raked over Rick’s face. “I can see in your eyes that you know that kind of pain. Betrayal.”

Pained, Rick nodded as he met her gaze. “My father never told my mother either. When they met, she was a New York debutante and my father was a rich eligible bachelor. They had a big wedding and everything. And when I was born, I only had the allergies but none of the wolfishness.”

She drew in a breath, recognized the signs, and nodded.

“I changed when I was thirteen, totally unprepared as my father actually had thought I was born a human,” he said.

“He didn’t know you were a mingled-soul wolf?”

Dazed that she knew the term when he hadn’t, Rick shook his head. “Nope.”

She leaned back from him, not quite believing.

Painfully chuckling, Rick started to rake again, as Kurt had stopped mowing and was looking their way. “My dad is a first generation werewolf. His father was born a wolf. So he didn’t know such things happened like late-blooming werewolves. He didn’t grow up with a pack.”

Mrs. Blithe immediately looked confused.

“Didn’t you know? Werewolves the result of a witch curse,” he said.

She shook her head.

He nodded. “Yep. And don’t tell this to the pack as I am sure they don’t believe it—but sometimes witches around the world take the dominant carnivore from their area and use magic to transform them into humans to use as assassins. This is where werewolves truly come from. Wolves are their favored choice in Europe and North America.”

“There is such a thing as magic?” Mrs. Blithe stared at him agape.

Kurt was also staring from across the lawn, wondering what Rick was saying to his mother. He pushed the mower to the shed to put it away.

“Of course there is,” Rick replied, surprised at her. “You’ve seen werewolves change, right? That’s magic.”

“But witches? Curses? Isn’t that all nonsense?” She lowered her voice to a whisper, peeking around.

“No. It is all real.” Rick shook his head, finishing up his raking. He went to get the bag for the clippings. “I live in a witch town back home.”

“A witch town?” Kurt walked up, laughing. “You are certainly full of tales. First demons. Now witches.”

Eyeing him, Rick wondered if he was making fun out of doubt or because the boy was nervous that his mother was whispering to him.

“All are true,” Ruck said, standing back with the rake propped up.

“Really?” The mother pulled back from him.

Nodding, Rick replied, “I’m afraid so.”

“Then how come we don’t see them everywhere?” Kurt asked, cocking his head to the side. He had the posture of someone who was sure he had won the argument.

Rick grinned at him, eyes shining. “That’s the same thing most humans say about werewolves and vampires.” He then scooped up the grass clippings and dumped them into the bag. 

Kurt’s mother broke into a laugh. She turned and walked back to the house, nodding to herself. Indeed, she probably had tried to tell her family or someone once, and she was not believed.

But Kurt propped his hands on his hips, all teasing aside. “What were you whispering with my mom?”

Replying frankly, while dumping in more grass clippings, Rick said, “We were talking about being surprised in learning about werewolves for the first time.”

“Oh.” Kurt frowned. He then sighed, shaking his head.

“You know,” Rick added, turning to look at him while loading up the bag more, “I scared my mom too.”

Kurt quickly lifted his eyes to Rick’s face. He frowned more. “Did your mom refuse to hold you when she found out?”

Stopping what he was doing, Rick came closer, “She divorced my dad and left us both.”

Kurt paled. He looked to the house, most likely wondering if his mother had tried the same thing.

“I terrified her,” Rick murmured, thinking back on that evening again. “I could see the horror on her face. And I didn’t even know what was happening to me at the time.”

Kurt sighed, nodding. “A father should tell the mother before it all. It’s not fair to her or the kid.”

Rick agreed. “My grandmother knew. She died protecting my father from hunters when he was just a child.”

Lifting his eyes, Kurt stared hungrily at him. “So… such women exist?”

“I know a few.” Rick nodded, his smile returning.

Kurt laughed, almost impressed, but sure Rick was just pulling his leg. “You mean like that girl you mentioned when you told the elders ‘no’ about sowing your wild oats among the she-wolves?”

“Ah. No.” Laughing loud, Rick shook his head as his face colored thinking about what they had been asking him to do. No normal human society would ask such a thing from a young man. “Eve is different. She’s…”

“She’s a werewolf,” Kurt looked even more impressed.

“No.” Rick was laughing more. “Eve is actually, uh… a demon.”

Kurt’s mouth fell open.

“What? You mean like the one that—?”

Shaking his head, Rick explained, “No. Not the same demon. Eve is special. A little more dangerous, come to think of it. But there is only one of her kind born every three hundred years. But I wish she was my girlfriend.”

“She’s not?” Kurt looked disappointed and amazed.

“No.” Rick kicked the grass at his feet, shrugging. “She’s keeping me in the friend-zone. I couldn’t convince her to move to New York. No surfing there.”

Kurt burst into laughter.

“I think her first love is surfing.” Rick shook his head, amused and saddened. “And the second is flying. She has these wings that are like…” but he saw Kurt stare at him and he put his arms down. He had been trying to show the span of her wings, realizing that it really was irrelevant. “But really, I don’t think she has time for boys. I am not the only guy she has rejected.”

“Maybe you are just not her type,” Kurt joked.

Moaning, Rick hung his shoulders. He whimpered. “Oh, don’t say that….”

Taking the rake, Kurt, finished gathering up the grass, chuckling while shaking his head. Rick helped him. When they took the grass to the compost heap to dry out, Kurt asked, “Why are you attracted to a demon anyway? Is she super sexy?”

Rick laughed nodding and shaking his head.

“Aren’t they supposed to be evil?” Kurt asked.

Nodding, Rick chuckled. “She would be, I suppose. But she has an awesome family, which really changes everything.”

Kurt stared. He probably was imagining a family of demons just like his family of werewolves.

“She was adopted by a human family,” Rick explained.

“Oh.”

“And she made a life choice that she didn’t want to be blood-sucking monster,” Rick finished.

“You make her sound like a vampire.” Kurt recoiled.

Nodding, Rick went and hung up the rake, dusting off the grass from the tines. “Her birth father is.”

Lurching from him Kurt stared. “And what’s her mother?”

“An imp,” Rick said, hardly bothered. He then looked around, wondering what else he could do barefoot. Though he had his