Little Red (5 page)

“Sam,” James’ comforting eyes lock onto mine

I nod.

“Samantha, actually.”

“Little Red Riding Hood sure is looking good.” I hear Aaron laugh.

I feel Ethan’s body lunge forward as James steps in to hold him back

“Is she good, Ethan?” Aaron teases

Another brother now steps in to hold Ethan back as he dives for Aaron

I feel my chin do its little wiggle that means more tears are coming.

“What’s going on?” I finally stammer

“Don’t you get it?” Aaron asks.

“You, Little Red, have stumbled on the wolves’ den.” He laughs maniacally, turning
his head up into a howl like pose

“Aaron, you fucking asshole!” Ethan yells, still lunging forward

“What’s the big fucking deal?” Another brother speaks up.

He’s Ethan’s height with a clean-shaven boyish face that his gleaming eyes seem to
highlight.

He wears his hair a little longer in a messy styled shag, and his white tee shirt
is playing peek-a-boo underneath a trendy leather jacket.

“She’s just some chick.”

Ethan’s angry eyes turn on him.

“She’s not ‘some chick,’ Ian, and she’s mine!” He growls

Ian makes a funny face at Ethan, as though to tease him, and Ethan makes a quick dive
for him as James and another brother, who has remained silent, hold him back

One of the silent brothers now steps forward.

“I can still smell her.” This brother, for some reason, shocks me.

Though he’s dressed to match and as tall as the others, his build, though muscular,
is much thinner than the others.

His hair is lighter, too, giving the impression of a golden color in the candlelight.

His eyes are exactly the same, though: beautiful and bright silver.

He gives me a smile, which I try to read as he’s trying to comfort me

It’s then that I truly listen to his words.

I look down at myself.

Smell
me? I swallow hard and look at Ethan, who is now being talked into a calm state by
James

“Trent is right,” James says, looking at Ethan.

“You have to get her dressed; try to get your smell on her, or she’ll drive us all
mad.”

Ethan turns to Aaron, to whom he shoots an I-dare-you look before grabbing my saddlebags
that were thrown to the ground.

He takes my hand gingerly in his.

“There’s a bathroom.

Let’s get you dressed.” I trail after him, leaving six sets of eyes staring at us
as we step into the small bathroom

Ethan’s eyes meet with my own.

He looks over my trembling body for any marks and then sighs.

“Are you alright?”

“I…” I pause.

“I think so.”

He begins digging through my bags, grabbing a clean pair of jeans and handing them
to me

“There’s something different,” I say, “about you and your brothers.

Isn’t there?”

“It’s a long story,” he tells me as he glares down at his feet

I take them and slowly begin to wiggle my body into them.

“Are you…” I stop myself.

It can’t be right.

I feel both crazy and ridiculous to think such a thing.

Stories like that are made up, completely fictional, designed to frighten and entertain.

I shake my head and swallow.

Sadly, it’s the only explanation that I can think of

“Am I what?” He asks as I button and zip my jeans

I lower my voice to just above a whisper.

“Are you a werewolf?” I ask, stepping back

Ethan laughs.

“No, Red, I’m not a werewolf.”

I let out a sigh of relief as Ethan steps toward me.

“Your scar.” He takes my forearm for a closer inspection.

“Josh?”

I nod slowly.

“He wanted…” I stop myself; not many people knew the full story.

The real story behind my large scar that I’d had for years.

My original excuse had been a fabricated tale: how I fell and my arm slid just right
on a large piece of glass.

I stop and take a deep breath; there’s no sense in hiding the truth from Ethan.

“He wanted people to think I killed myself,” I blubber as I finally have the breakdown
I’d been fighting for most of my life.

I slump onto the half-broken toilet and place my head in my hands.

“Now, I’m here, with you, whom I barely know and six other men who want to...”

He immediately stops me, kneeling in front of me.

He takes my hands and moves them gingerly from my face.

“I won’t hurt you.

I won’t let them hurt you.

No one else will ever hurt you.”

I stare into his bright eyes.

Somehow, I can tell he’s being honest.

For some reason, I know

“You have to let me get my scent on you,” he says finally

I give him a questioning look.

At this point, what have I got to lose? I nod, close my eyes, and let out a sigh

“Relax,” he says in my ear.

“I’m just going to touch you.” I feel his arms envelope me.

I immediately rest my head on his shoulder and wrap my arms around him in response

“How can they smell me?” I ask as I feel his hands rub up and down my back tenderly

“I don’t know how to explain it,” he says, letting his hands trail down my arms

“You’re all,” I pause, giving myself time to think it through, “special, aren’t you?”

He laughs, cupping my face in his hands.

“There’s one way I’ve never heard it.” His thumbs make me tingle as he rubs them along
my face.

“Yeah, we’re all special,” he says, moving to my legs, letting his hands rub up and
down them

“How long have you been,” I stop again, “special?” I finally choke out

He smiles.

“About fourteen years.”

“Does this special thing make you all nuts?” I ask, now feeling embarrassed I used
such a demeaning word

He laughs.

“That’s just Aaron.

He’s the oldest; can you tell?” He begins to run his fingers through my hair very
slowly.

“He just has a stick up his ass.”

I let myself laugh as he takes my face in his hands again

“Can I…” He stops, smiles, and for a brief moment, his cheeks seem to flush with color

“Can you what?”

“Kiss you?”

I find myself giggling.

“I think, given what you did to me just an hour or so ago...”

My words become muffled as his lips engulf mine.

I feel my eyes close, and I lean into his body.

His hands find my back and neck as I run one of my own hands into his hair and gently
give a tuft a nice tug.

I hear a growl come from the depths of his throat, and for a moment I feel as though
we may not be able to stop ourselves from going further.

The knock at the door jolts me back to the reality that there are six men waiting
on their brother, who is supposed to be rubbing his “scent” all over me.

I sigh outwardly as he takes my hand and leads me into the open room of the cabin

James immediately tosses Ethan my red jacket.

“Put your smell on it,” he orders

Ethan nods as he rubs my jacket over his bare upper body, while I take a moment to
slip back into my socks and boots

The man who is Aaron’s twin strips one of his layered tee shirts and tosses it to
Ethan, who slips it over his head

“Well, I guess we have no choice but to be nice to you,” James laughs, looking at
me

I shift my eyes to Ethan, who shoots James a dirty look.

“She has an ex.”

James’s expression is quick to change.

“Sorry.

I was only joking.

We’ll be nice.”

“Red,” Ethan says.

“This is James.

The moron is Aaron.” I can’t help but to laugh as Aaron is now sulking in the corner
of the room in the rocking chair.

It looks as though he’s been placed in time out.

“His twin over there is Colt.” He points to the one with the shaggy hair.

deal.

“That’s Ian.” Next is the one who could smell me.

“Trent, and lastly, Eli.” I take in the last of Ethan’s brothers.

Eli has a large build buried underneath a dark fitted tee shirt and loose jeans.

He’s tall, clean-shaven, with dark short hair.

It’s those silver eyes that there is no mistaking as I find myself trying not to stare
at them

“Red?” James questions

Ethan holds up my red leather jacket.

“The motorcycle is hers.

She ran out of gas and started off to camp here in the woods.

I found her and brought her here.”

“And when exactly did you have time to f…” Aaron’s words are cut off by Eli, who gives
him a swift whack to the head

“She’s running from Kentucky.”

I nod slowly as all eyes have turned to me.

“From my ex.”

“The scar,” James says, tenderly taking my arm and inspecting it.

“That must have been the rage I picked up on from Ethan.”

I look at Ethan, who gives his brother a nod

“You control yourself,” James tells him.

His eyes shift back to me.

“Well, I suppose we can’t just keep things hidden from you.”

I look over at Ethan, who smiles.

“She thinks we’re werewolves.”

James laughs.

“That would be simple.”

“But you’re all…” I look around the room at each of the brothers.

“You’re all special, right?”

James shoots me a nod.

“Yes, we all have it.”

“It?” I ask

“I’m sure Ethan told you about our sister.”

I look down and feel a little ache in my heart.

I feel Ethan’s hand on my back, and I finally nod

“We were young, crazy,” James starts.

“When we saw her lying there, we all went insane.

We pushed Ethan back and told him to run.

We couldn’t control ourselves.”

“I don’t know any person that could have controlled themselves,” I say softly

James smiles.

“Thank you.

We killed those men that night, brutally.

We flat out murdered them in cold blood.

It was a full moon.”

I feel myself fight hard to swallow as Ethan’s hand stays on my back

“Louisiana is full of old folklore.

Growing up, we always heard stories about strange creatures, voodoo, and werewolves.

After a while, we just used them to scare each other.

Who didn’t fear old voodoo magic, Marie Laveau, and werewolves? As you get older,
the fear may fade, you may stop believing, but the stories never die,” James says.

“We teased each other with stories of the wolf curse, but how real could it be? It
was, after all, just a story.

The night our sister was killed, was the night that the full moon cursed us.

That moon, it changed us; it made us like a pack of wolves.

Not just to feel rage, but to live as the wild animals we acted like.

We sense everything, just like wolves.

Our senses of hearing, feeling, even smell are stronger than any normal person.

We gained speed, strength, agility, even our eyes reflect like a wolf’s eyes.” As
soon as he mentions their eyes, it’s then that I realize why their silver eyes spark
in the way that they do when light catches them.

James gives me a smile as he continues.

“The moon damned us to pay for our rage that we took out on our sister’s killers.

The moon controls us.

As it changes, so do we.

The closer we get to a full moon, a rage builds in us.

The moon wants to drive us crazy.

Our eyes become lighter and brighter, our tempers become much shorter, our senses
become stronger than ever.

Our release is to come wander in the woods, where we’re alone and secluded with no
chance of harming anyone.” He turns his head to the side.

“Which is why we could smell you so well.

You,” he pauses.

“Well, when you and Ethan…when two people are attracted to one another…” He stops
again, and I can tell he’s trying to be a gentleman.

“Let’s just say it’s a man craving.

Your scent was much stronger to us on a full moon.

By having Ethan rub his scent on you, it sort of masks your scent right now.”

“So, right now, I smell like Ethan?” I shift my eyes to Ethan, who I see is smiling.

My head gives a little spin as I glance at each of the brothers.

I give my head a slight shake as I turn back to Ethan

He nods.

“You smell like me.

I’m part of their pack.”

“So, because you killed two men, on a full moon, you cursed your family to go crazy
with animal instincts every full moon? You’re a bunch of animals?” I ask finally

James nods.

“It can be broken, but you have to live a life without any blood on your hands.

None of us can claim that.” His eyes shift to Ethan.

“Except Ethan.”

“Welcome to Louisiana,” Aaron grumbles from the corner

“And why exactly is he such an asshole?” I ask.

“The rest of you seem,” I pause.

“Well, the rest of you seem normal and kind of nice.”

“Aaron is the oldest of all of us.

He’s always seen himself as the Alpha Male,” James explains

I look to Ethan for an explanation

“Alpha Males are the leader of the packs,” Ethan says.

“With a new female in town, I guess Aaron thinks it’s his right.” Ethan shoots him
a rather disturbing look

“He’s not going to...” I stop and cover my mouth a moment, not even wanting to imagine
what someone so large could do to me

James shakes his head.

“We won’t hurt you.

Think of it as you’re a part of our little pack.

All of us will protect you at all costs.”

My mouth drops.

I struggle to find the right words.

It seems nearly unbelievable, but honestly, what would they gain by making up a story
such as this?

“So, on the full moon you just come out and run in the woods?” I question

Ethan nods.

“Keeps us out of trouble.

Then I found you, pushing your bike in the woods.

I knew my brothers were out running around, Elise” he tells me softly, “I was just
planning on getting you somewhere safe, but then, I really looked at you, and you
were so…”