Chapter 9: Sky

Husk needed to control his fucking temper. He’d lost it with her, and I think at this rate, she’d be staying one night, not thirty. Winter and I were silent as we waited for him to come back. I didn’t even feel like eating any more, or even having a drink. The thirst I had for food, and to claim her, were doused when Husk completely lost his cool.

As though on cue, Husk stomped to the table and plopped down, grabbing his beer and taking a long drawl.

“What the fuck, man, not cool. Not cool at all.” I pushed my plate away. My gaze darted to it for a second. I thought it was stupid bringing them out in the first place. We never ate from them.

He waved his hands up in the air, and at times I used to wonder if he really was a wolf, or a lion in disguise. He always seemed to roar whenever he did that.

“She insulted us by pretending she was hell bent on praying. Implying we were animals that had no manners!”

Winter arched his eyebrow, “Well, we are wolves.

Husk waved his finger in the air. “Not in this form. We’re human, just like her.”

My eyes darted to Winter, who merely shrugged and sat down. When Husk was in one of his fuck it, I’m fucking right moods, we knew better than to prove him wrong. Besides, I was exhausted. It’d been one long day. I hadn’t told my brothers about Keith, and when she was praying, I was a little freaked out. It was as if she had some kind of six-sense and she was worried we would hurt her. Like I had done with Keith. Winter was the easy-going among the three of us. Guess it was because he could make anyone do pretty much anything with his voice. We used to kid him his real mother must have been a siren.

“Do you think she has powers? Other than one of healing?” I asked, scratching my head, ignoring Husk’s rants. Part of me hoped they hadn’t heard me, but I had to get the suspicion off my chest.

“Fuck! What have you done?” Winter asked as though he realized there was a good reason for my question. He’d read me better than I would have thought, and I couldn’t stop myself from cringing.

Husk didn’t say a word, which meant he was all ranted out, but then as he grabbed another steak, I realized he was just hungry, and this was the real reason for his outburst. He didn’t mind being interrupted with sleep, work or anything else, but when it came to feeding, he went crazy.

I took a deep breath. “Now don’t go all crazy shit on me. But she had a point in her prayer. About worrying about us hurting her. We haven’t threatened her, so then I’m thinking if she’s psychic or something, because I did do something to Keith.”

Husk wiped his mouth and said, “Good, I hope you took pictures so we can show it to her, and that’ll keep her mouth shut.”

Winter shook his head, I ignored his comment and carried on.

“So, I told him his job was done. He could go, his debt was wiped free, and then he said something about he’d been entertaining her on their car trip up here, and we needed to compensate him for his efforts.”

Husk started laughing, which meant he was nearly full. “Get to the point. You’ve already told us, he wanted more money.”

“I asked how much he wanted and he said a cool million. I said, 'cool', he said 'yeah', we take from the wheel each month. He was asking for pennies, and we could give it to him in a heartbeat.”

“Shit. He really was a weasel, but we had no choice, we had to use him. If we went to SmallHeath, they would have killed us before we’d even reached the town. Wolves get killed. Humans get to stay, or they stop over before leaving,” Winter said.

Husk cut into his steak, and before putting a piece into his mouth said, “I want to know what happened to Keith.”

I thought of how best to continue my story as I nibbled on the last remains of the sausage.

“Well, I told him he's lucky we didn’t kill him, and he said go on then.”

“Wrong words to say to a wolf,” Husk said between chews.

“Fucking right. I roughed him up a bit. A bit more than I should have...”

I was stalling.

“And?” Husk asked as he clearly lost his patience.

“I took him to the hospital, made sure he was stable, and then left.”

“At least you did one decent thing.” Winter sighed as he got up and stepped away.

“I thought I was the one with the temper.”

“You are,” Winter and I said in unison to Husk.

“At least you didn’t kill him.” Winter sat back down and leaned back in his chair.

“Good, at least he’s not here. Did you take him to the hospital, and say you was the one to beat the crap out of him. Please Sky, just don’t bother bullshitting. You couldn’t have given him a slap or two and then taken him to the hospital to make sure he was stable.” Husk wiped his mouth and threw down his napkin on his empty plate. “You should have just killed him, it would have been easier.”

Husk stood while Winter and I waited for him to leave. He didn’t wait for a response. We didn’t have to say what was on our mind. We were not brought up that way, and we never killed unless we were defending ourselves and a little weasel like him couldn't do any harm to our family, no matter how hard he threatened.

Something troubled Husk, and I suspected it had everything to do with our mate. She’d gotten to him. He wanted to kill Keith, not because he wanted money from us, but simply because Fagua was his wife.