I groaned as I leaned back in the passenger seat of the stolen car, lazily checking my poorly-scrubbed nails as I glanced over to Hunter driving. Wearing a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt he kept unbuttoned at the top, he looked tired, which I couldn’t blame him for after the night we’d had. He’d needed to clean up another one of my messes, and we’d needed to cut our time out short, after a quick scrub down and change of clothes.

  It wasn’t my fault.

  Yes it was.

  Alpha was the one who threw the first punch.

  I was the one who pulled out the knife.

  I wanted to do it too.

  It was going to be fun if we got pulled over by the cops, they’d find the bloody clothes in the back. We’d need to fight them too if we did that. It would be bad, it’d cause a scene you know. Yes I knew this, but you know what we like. You just like seeing me covered in blood.

  “How much money did we get anyway?” Alpha asked from the back, holding a 5 pound bag of ice to his head. Heavily covered, including a heavy jacket he’d taken from the bar, the man looked rather miserable and pale, which he probably deserved. He’d been the only one to go with us on our outing, and while it’d been a little awkward he was fine enough to have around and probably would make sure Hunter and I actually returned home before the week was over.

  “Couple hundred?” I said back, shrugging as I pulled the money from my bra and counted it out, “why, what were you thinking?”

  He’s hungry, he’s always hungry.

  So are you, how much did you eat last time we hunted? That’s beside the point isn’t it.

  “How about we stop by the diner, pick up some food?” the man said, and we both had to admit it was a good idea. “Dinner on me, how about it?”

  “Why did you ask how much money we had then?”

  “Because, Bloodhound dear,” the man started, sitting up on the back bench as he slapped a hand on each of our shoulders, “I was the one who hustled that man at pool, and earned us our daily bread.”

  “You hit him with your cue and shoved the money in my bra while his friends were helping him up,” I corrected him.

  “He never saw it coming,” Alpha agreed, and even I laughed at that as I pulled down the passenger mirror and checked myself in the dull light there.

  No obvious blood I could see, teeth devoid of anything weird, even my hair looked relatively nice, with the curly mess now down to around my chin and jaw. In the gaudy purple dress I wore, it’s rather beautiful I have you know, I looked practically angelic. Bloodhound I’m driving, those are your thoughts, I apologize.

  We pulled into the diner and slowly piled out as we made our way into the building, Alpha with a certain swagger to his step. Is he drunk? There’s no fucking way he drunk enough to be. It’s him, he would have managed.

  The diner was relatively empty, as it always was, with only Amanda behind the counter as she read a novel with people in trashy looking historical clothes on the cover. I think it looks rather interesting. It looks like a waste of time.

  “How’s it going tonight, Amanda,” Alpha asked, leaning on the counter with a smirk as the human rolled her eyes with a small smirk and folded a page of her book. “You think you could get us a little something to eat, darling? We’ve had a rather long night so far, looking to make up for it.”

  “Sure thing, Al” Amanda said with a little giggle as she looked over to the two of us, “usual for you two?”

  “Usual,” we answered in unison, walking over to our usual spot in the corner, sitting across from each other as we settled in.

  We left Alpha behind, and he continued leaning on the counter talking for another good two minutes before finally walking to us. He sat beside me, throwing an arm across the back of the seat as he threw his feet up on the opposite bench and made me resist the wolf’s urge to growl. Letting out a low chuckle, he asked, “Do I ever say how much I love the view here?”

  He means Amanda doesn’t he?

  I can’t blame him, she’s rather good looking.

  Delicious even.

  No, we’re not eating her.

  You meant what you meant, I meant what I did.

  Yeah, everyone knows your tastes run-

  I fumbled with the clasp on my bracelet, and it slipped off as Hunter looked at me in shock. I maintained a long glare, and the man looked ready to say something a half-hundred times as I sat the bracelet aside for now. He knew I had one rule with this sort of thing, and it was we didn’t eat those we got along with, that was my limit.

  “Ah, I love a marital spat,” Alpha chuckled as he looked between us, “Can I be Mercutio? I think I have the comedic range.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Alpha, what the fuck are you talking about?” Hunter asked, rubbing his eyes.

  Alpha looked ready to explain, but stopped as he shook his head and answered, “no one understands me around here.”

  “You don’t understand yourself,” I snorted, getting a small chuckle from Hunter and even a smile and eye roll from Alpha. I smirked to myself and, leaning against the window beside me said, “we should catch a movie while we’re out. I’m not ready to go back to the Covenant.”

  “You thinking horror?” Hunter asked, and I was about to answer when Alpha interceded, “if we’re watching any movies we’re watching action or romance. You two watch horror every fucking chance you get.”

  “I like horror,” I snapped to the man beside me.

  He chuckled awkwardly and, with a small shrug and nervous tone said, “come on, my winnings, let me get a pick in for once. Not my fault you two both swing the same way every time…or, you know, when it comes to movies, I heard the fight about Matthew Lillard last slasher marathon.”

  “We’ll see what they’re playing this late anyway,” Hunter muttered with a sigh, seeming about to punch Alpha for bringing that up again as he rubbed his eyes, “can we have one night out without things breaking down into screams and claws? Just because Scout and Wounder aren’t here to break it up doesn’t mean we can’t be civil.”

  “I’m not arguing!” Alpha snapped, sounding more than a little offended as he raised his hands defensively, “fuck, I just want to see something other than people getting skinned alive and their heads chopped off for once, too much like home with you two around. Give me explosions and shitty one liners, or John Cusack or Colin Firth swooning the lady or something. I just want something else, you know?”

  “We’ll talk about it,” I said, barely holding back a small laugh as our food came out. He was probably right, we could have used a change of pace, and Hunter and I usually picked the movies.

  We ate in relative peace, with no arguing, and when we were done we left paying Amanda a hundred dollar bill from the stolen cash as we went back out to the truck.

  Alpha interjected himself between me and Hunter, an arm wrapped around both our shoulders as we made our way through the parking lot. I thought he might have been trying to hold himself steady, and I didn’t complain as I asked him, “Are you sure you’re good for a movie?”

  “Aw, you really doubted me there, Bloodhound?” the man asked, patting my back and stepping away from us.

  Adjusting his footing, the man held his arms out and began slowly walking one foot in front of the other, occasionally stopping to touch his nose. Hunter and I mostly ignored him, even as we reached the truck, and it wasn’t until Alpha fell to the ground and struggled to get himself back up I actually started to feel concerned.

  Walking over to him, while Hunter folded his arms and watched, I helped the man to his feet. Alpha swayed a moment and, stepping closer with an idea of what happened, I lifted his coat a moment to sniff the air.

  Blood.

  I sighed and pulled his coat off him, revealing a small puddle of blood that had soaked into his shirt, and with a shake of my head asked, “what the fuck did you do?”

  “Well, remember that knife that guy stabbed me with?” Alpha asked with a small chuckle as I helped him to the car, “I think it was decorative, because the wound isn't closing. I didn’t want to be a bother though, and I really wanted burgers, so I just ran a lighter along the hole and stuffed it with paper towels.”

  Even I had to laugh a bit at that and tried to keep focused on the issue at hand as I climbed into the back seat with him and told Hunter, “get us to the fucking theater, I’ll see what I can’t do for this cut.”

  Hunter furrowed his brow, and started, “Hound are you sure you-” before stopping himself. Knowing better than to argue with me about finding relaxation, he climbed into the driver’s seat and started off.

  I helped Alpha pull off his coat and shirt and, dipping my finger in his wound, I began tracing a series of runes around the stab. Alpha settled back on the bench, fetching a cigarette from his coat he lit up as he watched me work. He tried looking unaffected by it all, image above honesty as always, and I noticed the little jolts of pains he made each time I came close to his wounds.

  When the runes were done, I rested my hand on the cut and closed my eyes, giving a prayer to the Silver Moon and asking him for mercy. The prayer on my lips, Alpha let out a small hiss of pain as the magic took effect, and I watched the blood on his side slowly draw back into his body as I continued my ministrations. My hand burned, the pores felt like they were opening up, and I could have sworn it felt like a little bit of my blood traveled into him through them.

  Eventually Alpha let out a sigh of relief, and I pulled my bloodied hand away as the man went limp into the bench with a chuckle, blowing a cloud of smoke into the air. The wound, not closed but looking much healthier, sat open, and the man brushed the hair from his face as he looked over to me and said, “never knew you cared that much about me, Bloodhound.”

  “It’s too easy a thing for me to do to not help packmates out,” I said, frowning as I looked down at the thick red which stained my hand.

  It smelled so sweet, like it was honey or sugar and not what it was, like it was a delicious drink set out to be enjoyed. My mouth watered, my head moved forward an inch before I pulled it back two, and I couldn’t move any farther away as I bit my lips and stared at the slow flowing liquid.

  Alpha seemed to catch on, and the man rolled his eyes as he told me, “might as well stop it from going to waste.”

  I kissed and lapped at my hand without hesitation, savoring his blood as I let out a pleased noise, and occasionally adjusting my position to make sure I missed none of it. When I finished I pulled myself away, and Alpha held out a box of tissues which I took a few of to wipe at my mouth until I asked, “did I get it?”

  “You missed a spot,” Alpha said, gesturing to a few spots on his own mouth before eventually taking a few tissues as he asked, “mind if I?”

  “Yeah, go ahead, they’re not going to let me go into the theater looking like this,” I said, giving a nervous laugh as the man helped me clean my mouth. Dabbing it a few times, tossing the towels to the ground, before licking a few more to wipe at my cheek only to then still seem to be appraising me. Even now I had to wonder sometimes how they saw me when I acted that way, it felt so…strange. “Better?”

  “You might have a little in your hair, but I can’t really tell,” Alpha shrugged, “just take a few towels, wrap sections of your hair and pull.”

  I giggled, following through on the advice as I noticed Hunter glancing back at me on occasion in the rear view window. With a furrowed brow, I tilted my head and asked, “everything okay?”

  “Oh yeah, nothing wrong,” the man said quickly, forcing a small smile, “just wondering if you remembered to grab your bracelet, I know how you can be.”

  “Oh! Yeah, I have it,” I said, digging it out of my pocket as I held it up for him, “I just know you say my mind gets too loud during movies.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good point,” Hunter said, nodding a few slow times, “sorry, just wanted to be sure.”