We returned home late the next day, after a half day of partying, Alpha’s dad seemingly gone from the festivities, and another half day of slowly driving back. It was almost night by the time we finally pulled back into the Covenant house, and the red light of the afternoon sky was still darkening as we pulled into the yard. Andrew turned off his truck, and we sat there silently looking up to the house for a bit as we both seemed lost in thought.

  The house was silent, and I wondered if anyone had even noticed or cared about us being back. Tara probably cared about Andrew being back, but I couldn’t imagine anyone else being excited for us. I was the cannibal, the Purist, and Andrew was now the guy in charge of making me human enough. I didn’t belong here, I didn’t belong in the Purists, I didn’t fucking know where I belonged anymore.

  “Tara’s going to be happy to see me,” The man said finally, breaking the silence with a smile as he leaned on his window. “She’s going to have a good laugh at some of what I have to say, I think…well, either that or be absolutely horrified by the other stuff.”

  “Was any of it particularly funny?” I asked, genuinely confused about what there would have been worth a laugh.

  “Catching the bone, how the Purist names work, some of the characters we met,” Andrew listed off, sounding almost reminiscent about something we’d barely left, “She’s never going to let me live down cuddling in wolf form for warmth though, I’m going to be hearing jokes about that for a long while.”

  “Sorry,” I said, feeling a tinge of guilt for that aspect. I didn’t want to start any relationship drama, and to my knowledge that was the sort of way to hurt most relationships. Andrew had said it was fine, but with how he reacted I didn’t know if I could be sure. These sorts of things often ended with attempted murder and territory fights in the Purists, and that wasn’t an issue I wanted to relive jere.

  “No apologies, Cannibal,” the man chuckled with a small smile, “trust me; Tara and I had a long conversation before I left, and that was strangely something that got covered… more or less. Like I said before, she likes to cover every base possible.”

  I nodded, furrowing my brow in confusion as I asked, “what sort of conversation did you have?”

  “Don’t worry about it, she’ll explain if she starts pushing on your end,” Andrew said, looking over to me with a broad smile, his blue eyes meeting mine.

  He was nice, I had to give him that at least, and as hesitant as I might have been having someone join me at the wedding I couldn’t say I regretted it. As bad as it probably would have sounded outloud, I thought I needed someone who’d been near as feral as me once to somehow be the sanity there. Misha would have been nice, might have been better, but Andrew could at least enjoy himself where I thought Misha would have complained the whole while.

  Maybe it still would have been better if he were there.

  It was nice how I felt somewhat safe around Andrew, but he was still someone else's, he was still unproven by my standards. Misha had never really given me a reason to distrust him, he’d introduced himself to me still able to win our fight after I’d nearly ripped off one arm and Scout and Wounder had been sent running. Andrew was maybe starting to be something I could consider a friend, a good friend even, but Misha was…

  Why would he ever want to be anything to me? I nearly scolded myself, shaking my head as I looked away from Andrew. I was still a former Purist, I was a fucking mess nearly falling apart on myself, we’d had one kiss and maybe a little flirting. Hell, Misha had probably slept with more Half-ones since I’d known him than I’d killed in my first few years as a werewolf.

  “I should probably head in, Lord probably missed me,” I sighed in some defeat, not waiting for an answer as I slammed my shoulder into the passenger door to open it.

  “Yeah, that’s pretty fair,” Andrew admitted, climbing out as well, “I need a shower anyway. No offense but the mold and rotting corpses made me feel a little disgusting after the first few hours.”

  “No, they made me feel the same,” I admitted, my spit feeling warm as I felt like vomiting just at the memory, “you mind…do you mind not telling anyone about that part?”

  “Secret’s safe with me,” Andrew agreed, smiling as we went into the Covenant.

  Andrew went off upstairs and I made my way to my basement, yawning as I tossed my jacket on the table. Lord was asleep on my bed until the cat suddenly perked up at the noise of me grabbing a fresh pair of sweat pants and a shirt, running over to jump on the table and curl up on top of my coat.

  You smell like a feral cat’s den, he told me, a loud purr ringing through the room as he admitted, I like it.

  “You would,” I snorted, stretching a moment as I took my phone from the jacket, without disturbing Lord’s position, “you have me home for a couple days though. I don’t have anything going on again until Monday, that I know about.”

  Not unless another supernatural acts stupid, Lord agreed, purring as he stretched and I started towards my bathroom, Shower time?

  “Shower time,” I agreed, already letting out an exhausted sigh, “I need to make a call before I forget, but I don’t think it’ll be that complicated. I just need to ask for a huge favor.”

  Need me to watch? Lord offered, not moving as I walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind me.

  I started the shower up, hoping to let it slowly heat up to lukewarm, and called Vergil’s club as I waited for it to do so. While the phone dialed I started to strip off my clothes, and was finishing doing so when it picked up. Calliope’s voice came on, a static to it from her ghostly nature, as she declared, “Dante’s Inferno, how can I help you Mary Cherry.”

  “Hey, Calliope, can I-” I stopped myself, thinking better of what I was about to ask as I instead said, “I need a huge favor, and I need Vergil’s help more than I’d usually like to ask.”

  “I can see what I can do to be persuasive,” Calliope offered, giving an innocent giggle as I had the feeling she was flying around the office twirling her finger on a nonexistent cord, “what do you have going on?”

  “A little under a week ago I stopped by there and picked up a package,” I said, frowning as I tried to think of how to phrase this next part, “I’m in a lot of trouble, Calliope. Someone’s threatening my life, and I don’t have a lot of leads to go on. Apparently the guy who delivered it is going to be at this fundraising event on Monday, something to do with a hotel. I don’t know anything about it except that, but I need a way to get two people into it so me and a friend can investigate. I know…I know Vergil could probably help me a little more directly, but there’s something else going on, and I need to do it this way.”

  The sound of a chair creaking came over the speaker, from where I assumed Calliope was resting on something, and hesitantly she told me, “I know what you’re talking about, Vergil’s supposed to give a speech for it. I can see if there’s any way he can get you some help and invitations.”

  “Thank you,” I said, sighing in relief, “one more thing, if it does come up. I don’t know if this person is going to have access to the guest list, I’m not a hundred percent sure who I’m looking for or anything, probably play it safe. Me and this guy, we used to use fake names when we didn’t want to use the normal ones and just needed to sneak in somewhere. Max Cady and I went by Tiffany, Valentine or Cady depending on if we were pretending to be married.”

  “Yeah that sounds like what I should have expected from you,” Calliope said with no surprise at all in her voice, pausing for a moment before telling me, “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Thank you, I owe you big time,” I said, a thin smile to accompany my goodbyes and I hung up.

  I took a long shower, scraping my body raw and washing my hair as best I possibly could through the knots and mats. When eventually I finished I rubbed myself dry until my skin hurt and changed into my sweatpants and shirt as I thought about what to do next.

  I was fucking exhausted. I hadn’t slept well the night before and only gotten a brief nap on the ride back. Bed was probably my best bet, I could sleep in late, and the full moon was tomorrow so I could have used some rest before dealing with that.

  At least, bed was the plan before I stepped out of the bathroom and caught the familiar scent of supposedly sea breeze cologne, sweat, and his usual strangely familiar natural scents, a familiarity I couldn’t quite place beyond him. Misha sat at the table in my room, and with Lord nowhere in sight; though, I assumed the cat had stormed off at the sight of Misha.

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  I was actually genuinely happy at the idea, and I smiled at my former mentor as I moved to sit on my bed.

  “Didn’t think I’d see you until tomorrow, you’re usually pretty good at going to bed,” I admitted, trying to sound unstressed as the man rose from his seat.

  He walked over to me, a content smile on his face as he said, “I’m older than you, doesn’t mean I fall asleep as soon as the sun goes under the horizon. Besides, beautiful, I woke up to your voicemail and both times I tried calling it cut off, so figured your signal was pretty bad. You were talking about,” he paused, cringing a moment before he continued, “well, you were talking about wanting to do something together, figured I’d see if you wanted to try figuring something out, we haven’t been able to talk for a while, you know?”

  We hadn’t talked since we’d kissed is what he meant, and I honestly couldn’t agree more that talking sounded nice.

  “Yeah, I got torn up in that fight, basically went to a wedding right after, not a lot of time to um…yeah,” I admitted, forcing a nervous laugh, “wasn’t that good a wedding anyway. I’m glad I went, but I don’t really fit in with the Purists anymore.”

  “You’re not a monster, of course you don’t fit in there,” Misha muttered, shrugging dismissively as he sat beside me. “The Purists, they’re a fucking cult, they take in monsters and they make them worse even worse. Someone like you? You never belonged there, Mary.”

  He didn’t know what I’d been like back then, he didn’t know about Chaser and her reasons, or even Alpha’s dad who was pushed there by half-ones. I didn’t want to get into a fight though and so I only told him, “you didn’t know me back then, not until I was forced here.”

  “I know you now,” the man said, reaching up to brush a bang off my face and pulling away a bit of dried leaf I’d somehow missed, “I know you’re better than anyone here gives you credit for.”

  “Andrew seems to have some confidence in me, and I know the others seem to be trying now,” I admitted, smiling as my mind drifted to the realization I was actually having more friends now.

  “Andrew thinks you’re him, and Knives doesn't appreciate you except as a puppy needing saving. That’s always been their flaw, could never see anything beyond what they thought must have been there,” Misha brushed off my comment, his hand moving down my cheek to where a finger then rested on my chin, “Mary, you’re wonderful. I don’t get why everyone here thinks you’re needing to change everything about you, when you’re perfect as is.”

  “Thank you,” I said, a coy smile on my lips as I leaned into his finger and kept my eyes on the man’s own.

  It was good to hear for once, and more relaxing than I would have expected as I pressed myself closer. Something so simple, so nice, as being told that I was fine as I was. No concern for how I acted, for how I ate, for fear I’d relapse or fear in his eyes.…It just felt right to hear, and I could barely contain a joyful laugh the more I thought about it. I wanted to hear it again, and the man’s smile brought a pure comfort I didn’t expect.

  “I…I need to know though,” he said in a whisper, his thumb tracing my lower lip as I felt a warmth rise in my cheeks that made the man pull his hand back. “You didn’t mind me kissing you, did you? I just…I don’t know, I’m still not sure how I feel about it, and I’m the one who fucking kissed you. If it’s too much, or you just want to act like it didn’t happen, we can-”

  “I liked it,” I interrupted, and despite the fear in my chest I decided to put whatever fear he had behind us as I leaned forward and pulled him close.

  I kissed him, the man freezing up himself this time before I felt half-shaking hands creep around me. One across my back, one to the back of my head as fingers dug into my hair and I let myself be pulled to straddle his lap. My hands gripping his shoulders in the kiss, one his own sliding from my back to rest on my thigh, pressed into him as we held one another..

  Misha broke the kiss for a moment, whispering, “you’re so beautiful,” as I was laid back on the bed and he kissed me once more; a moment before I let out a small noise of surprise as his tongue slipped past my lips. It was an area I didn’t have much expertise in, something Hunter and I hadn’t really dealt with, with biting being our preferred show of desire. I resisted the urge to bite down though, figuring it would ruin our moment, and merely matched his actions as best I could with a nervous giggle.

  My hands slid to grip his shirt, working down the buttons one by one as I felt my own lifted slowly along my torso. I broke the kiss for him, only long enough to raise my arms as Misha tugged the shirt off and tossed it aside. He smiled down at me, and I pulled his shirt away even as I heard a distant scratching at my door that I ignored as best I could.

  Lord couldn’t ruin this for me, I was loved.

  Misha leaned down, his lips dancing along my neck and shoulders as I felt my hands lightly pinned to the sides of my head. The wolf scratched at the door to come out, and I resisted the urge to let my fangs find flesh and stopped my claws from growing as I let out a growling moan and pressed against his every touch.

  There was a click as my door opened, and I heard Lord bound down the stairs and run over to my bed. He was yelling something, jumping onto the mattress as I let out a sigh of annoyance. I turned, ready to yell at him as I slapped my hand down warningly onto the mattress, and instead slapped it down into something wet.

  “Are you fucking kidding me!” I snapped, sitting up as Misha climbed off the bed. I picked Lord up, half-tossing him on the ground as I asked, “did you have to fucking piss on the bed?! What the fuck is wrong with you!?”

  Look, Mary, you really going for this asshole? Lord started to ask, meowing angrily as he tried to explain himself, Mother loved him too and he let her die after-

  “I don’t want to fucking hear it,” I snapped at him, interrupting the cat even as I gathered my shirt off the ground and slipped it on. I had one fucking night that was going my way, and it was the sleazy fucking cat that ruined it. Just fucking great, and now I was going ot have to deal with this before I want to sleep.

  I sighed, turning back to Misha as I hastily muttered, “I’m sorry.”

  “Hey, there’s no helping it, Whiskey’s a cat, and it’s not the worst interruption I’ve had, this sort of thing happens” the man said, seeming to force a chuckle as he tossed my pillow, blankets and sheets on the ground before putting his shirt on. “I'll toss these in the wash for you. I’ll be back down in a minute, if you want, or you can join me upstairs if you don’t want to deal with the sheets right now.”

  “Not tonight,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes in annoyance, “I need to be alone right now. I’m going to just go wolf form and curl up on the mattress for the night. I’ve slept in worse ways.”

  “Alright, I’ll check up on you tomorrow, and breakfast on me tomorrow,” the man said, walking over to kiss my forehead, “shame it happened like that, but at least we weren’t interrupted by you turning out to be a giant black widow disguised in a human body, so not my worst experience by a long mile. Hell, I was having a lot of fun with where this was going tonight.”

  “I was too,” I said, frowning as I watched the man gather the items and go up the stairs. A strange urge came over me, I ran forward and stopped him only a moment, kissing his cheek before I let him continue out. I waited until he was out of ear shot, and I heard the door close behind him, before I turned to Lord and asked, “what the fuck is wrong with you? Genuinely, what the fuck is wrong with you you fucking…what the fuck?”

  Look, Misha’s a fucking asshole, I’ve been trying to warn you, Lord hissed, he’s bad news, I couldn’t let you just go fuck him.

  “Yes you could, you know why?” I asked, crouching down as I told him, “you’re a fucking cat, I’m a human, I get to make my own choices. You don’t get to make them for me.”

  He’s an asshole. He was supposed to protect Mother, and she died because of him, he’d let the same thing happen to you.

  “And why should I believe you?” I snapped, pacing the room in barely contained anger, “you sleaze on me every single day of my life, and you’re blaming Misha for something he has fucking nightmares about. Misha is nice, he’s kind, he fucking understands me, and he treats me better than anyone here. He wants me to be myself. You’re the one who came in here and started fucking ruining that because you just don’t like him, but you’re worse than him.”

  I am not worse than him, the cat hissed, sounding almost offended by the idea, ask Tara if you don’t fucking believe me, maybe you’ll believe her.

  “Oh I don’t want to fucking hear this,” I muttered, walking over as I scooped the cat up. He struggled a moment, twisting and turning in my arms but never scratching or biting as I went up the stairs, tripping on the missing third step in my annoyance. I threw open my room’s door, and tossed him outside, half-yelling, “we are never going to be a thing, get that through your head. I can’t date a cat, I can’t go on romantic walks with a cat, I can’t hold hands and talk about my day over ice cream with a cat, and I definitely can’t marry a cat. I like Misha, and you need to accept that, and I don’t want you in my room until you do, okay?” I turned, ready to storm back down into my room when I caught a flash of crimson out of the corner of my eye. Andrew stood there holding a stack of silky red looking blankets and sheets, with a couple matching pillows under the other arm. I froze a moment, before trying to control the mood as I said, “Oh, hi Andrew.”

  “Hi,” the man said hesitantly, frowning as he watched Lord storm off and go upstairs, “were you…talking to Whiskey?”

  “Just ranting,” I half-lied, nodding as I adjusted my posture awkwardly, “he peed on the bed.”

  “Right, Misha told me, I was getting my laundry when he came in. I ran upstairs and grabbed these,” Andrew said, moving to hand over the items he carried to me, “I didn’t know if you liked red, but they were in Annabelle’s old closet. I figured it’d at least work until your things were clean.”

  “Actually love red, like one of my favorite colors behind pink and black,” I admitted hesitantly, holding the sheets and blankets close, “just, you know, werewolf. Clothes and stuff rip too much for me to really have an excuse to wear a lot of stuff I like.”

  “Yeah, no, I get it,” Andrew nodded, still seeming confused and a little uncomfortable by the conversation he’d walked in on. “I’m just going to go. I promised Tara I’d tell her everything, she just got out of the bath… I hope.”

  Andrew went off upstairs, shooting me a final worried glance as he went out of sight and I was left there annoyed. Lord had ruined the perfect fucking evening, and now he’d made me look weird in front of the others again. I was at my wit’s end with him, and so I went back into my room and closed and locked the door behind me before I let anger win out and went looking for him to continue my yelling.

  I needed time to myself, before I ended up letting the wolf out and eating the heart of half the people in this fucking Covenant.