Seeking Pack Redemption (2 page)

As she
walked the two short blocks to the store, she couldn’t help thinking on her
boyfriend. He’d seemed so perfect when they first met. Working as a cashier at
the local
Walmart
, she couldn’t help but notice him
when he showed up with a cartful of junk food. The attraction was
instantaneous. Then again, only someone lacking a pulse would have not reacted
to his striking good looks: just shy of six foot with a lanky build, tousled
blond hair, and puppy-brown eyes. His shy smiles just made him cuter.

Every day
after that, he showed up without fail, patiently waiting in her line even if
other cashiers tried to wave him over. It took him four shopping trips before
he mustered the courage to ask her out. Her yes emerged embarrassingly quickly.
They went on one date—dinner and a movie—before she fell into bed
with him. It wasn’t like she was a slut. She’d only ever been with a few guys
before David, and only after dating a few weeks first, but something about him,
she couldn’t pinpoint what, drew her. Made her forget her usual rules about waiting
for sex, and the next thing she knew she was naked on the sheets of her bed as
he thrust into her. Overcome with lust for her,
which
she’d found totally endearing at the time, he’d even bitten her during the act,
something he apologized for after.

After that
night, they became virtually inseparable, more because he couldn’t stand to be
away from her.
He more or less moved
in with her right away, only leaving her when they went their separate ways for
work. Despite the speed of their courtship—and her misgivings—that
first month was glorious. Then something changed. No, something didn’t change.
Someone changed, and it was
him
.

The man
with the sweet smiles turned broody, and he watched her constantly, his eyes
almost feverish and possessed of something dark. If she didn’t know better, she
would have said evil lurked in those depths.
Foolishness of
course.
Harder to ignore were the changes in his
personality.
Changes that made her face reality.

“I don’t think this is working out,” she mustered
the courage to say when he got home from work in a foul temper.

In the process of firing her shoes across the
apartment, because he didn’t
like that she left them at the
door
,
he froze
.

“What are you trying to say?” he replied, keeping
his back to her.

Taking a deep breath, she found the courage to
tell him the words she’d practiced for the last week in her head. “I’m saying
that perhaps we should have dated longer and not moved in so quickly. I think
we need a break.” In other words, he needed to leave because she couldn’t
handle his mood swings anymore.

His shoulders stiffened, and she braced herself
for a verbal flaying. One hand on the phone, she was ready to dial 911 if it
went further than words. The face he turned to her would have put a begging
puppy to shame.

“
Thea
,” he whispered her
name brokenly. “You’re right; I should go. I’m wrong for you. So wrong.” Tears
filled his eyes, and she tried to stay strong, tried to hold onto her resolve .
. .

He dropped to his knees and buried his face
against her legs, hugging them loosely,
the
picture of
dejection. “I’m so sorry I’ve been such a bastard. The things I have to do when
I leave here . . .” He didn’t expand, going silent like he always did when she
asked about his job. “It’s like I have two people inside me. The man who loves
you and would do anything to make you smile and the bastard who is frustrated
and needs to vent.”

“I understand your job is stressing you out, but
you can’t treat me like that, David. I won’t allow it.”

His grip on her tightened, and a frisson of fear
made her wonder if she should have tempered her words.
The
hold on her relaxed.
“You’re right.
So right.
And I’ve been such a dog. But I promise to do better.” He raised moist eyes
rimmed in red. “Give me a chance,
Thea
. Please. You
have to. I’ll die without you. I can’t lose you. I-I
love
you.”

And she loved him, too, didn’t she? Besides, was
she really the type of woman to call it quits because her boyfriend was a
little stressed-out because of work? He loved her. Didn’t he deserve a second
chance? Was she ready to go back to being alone?

Despite a
little voice that told her to stay strong, she forgave him, and they made love.
Things were good for a few weeks, then his jerk side came back, but she ended
up looking past this less-than-pleasant aspect of his personality because,
despite the fact that they had used condoms, the unthinkable happened. She
ended up pregnant.

To her
surprise, David was ecstatic and for a short while, things were good again. He
smiled and laughed a lot, and if at times she found him eyeing her oddly or he
made love to her roughly, with none of the previous attention to her pleasure,
then she downplayed it. Blamed it on the stress of his work. Blamed it on the
fact they struggled to make ends meet. In other words, she made excuses for his
behavior.

But those
excuses sounded false even to her.

I should have thrown his ass out when I had the
chance because if it weren’t for the baby, I’d park his stuff on the curb and
change my locks.
The very thought seemed traitorous. How could she even think that?
They’d created life together. So, despite his mood swings and her uncertain
feelings, with a baby on the way she owed it to the child to attempt to make
things work.
Whether I
like it or not.

When she
arrived at the corner store, she ended up buying several chocolate bars: Oh
Henry
!,
Mars, 3 Musketeers. Oh, and a few packages of
Reese’s Pieces. She also picked up some plain chips with an onion dip in case
her craving suddenly shifted. Purchases paid for, she hurriedly walked back to
her apartment, a sudden worry making her wish she’d not chosen to go out after
dark. She watched every shadow, skirted every alley entrance until she reached
the safety of her building. About to insert the key in the lock for her
apartment, she stifled a scream when the door was abruptly flung open. David
stood in the entrance and glared at her.

“Where the
fuck were you?” he snapped.

Lovely.
Angry-at-the-world David was home.
I
should have eaten the crackers.
She held up her bags and attempted to calm
him, reminding herself that his ire stemmed from his worry over her. “I was
hungry, so I went to buy some stuff. I was only gone a few minutes.”

“I was
only gone a few minutes,” he mimicked in a high-pitched voice. “Do you know
what I thought when I got here and you were gone?”

Blinking,
she tried to actually figure out where his extreme anger came from. Did he fear
she’d get mugged and killed over chocolate and chips? “I’m sorry. I didn’t
think it was a big deal. Next time I’ll leave a note.” Because she refused to
ask for permission to go out on her own.

“There
won’t be a next time,” he snarled. “From now on, you don’t leave this apartment
unless I’m with you.”

“Excuse
me? Don’t you think that’s a little extreme? I just went two blocks to get a
snack. It’s not a big deal. I didn’t even see anybody on my way there and
back.”

“You
wouldn’t see them coming. My enemies know how to hide their presence from
someone blind and deaf like you. Humans are so easy to fool.”

The tone
of his rant made the hairs on her head tingle. What the hell was he talking
about? “Have you been drinking? Because you’re not making any sense.” She moved
to go around him only to squeak as he grabbed her and slammed her up against
the wall.

“Don’t you
mock me.
”
His voice emerged low and menacing. It went
well with the scary light in his eyes, which she could have sworn held a
reddish hue. “I’ve allowed you freedom because I didn’t want to jeopardize the
baby, but if you’re going to take foolish risks, then you leave me no choice. You
will obey me or face the consequences.”

“Let go of
me. You’re scaring me.”

He shook
her instead, each shake slamming her back into the wall. “You should be scared.
You have no idea what you’re dealing with. But you will. Soon.” A laugh left
his lips, a chilling sound she didn’t recognize at all and that made her blood
run cold.

Who was
this stranger before her? He looked like David. Smelled like David, but the
David she knew would never have talked to her like this. Never threatened or
manhandled her in this way.

“What’s
wrong with you?” she cried. “Why are you acting like this? I thought you loved
me.” Did he suspect she didn’t feel the same way? That she wanted him gone?

“I’d love
to hear you scream,” he chortled in a tone she didn’t recognize.

Stunned
disbelief held her tongue as the face before her contorted, the muscles moving
in ways that shouldn’t have been possible. They morphed for a second, a single
blink of time, into an almost canine expression. Then David’s face returned,
the expression soft and haunted. The grip on her arms loosened.

“Run,” he
whispered. “I can’t hold him off for long. Run,
Thea
.
Run as far and fast as you can. Find my brother, Trent. He’ll be strong enough,
I hope, to protect you.”

“What are
you saying? Brother? What brother? And why do you want me to leave?”

He groaned
and shook his head, his eyes closing as if pained. “Please,
Thea
.
I can’t get him out of my mind. I can’t stop him from hurting you. Please. You
need to go.”

She didn’t
move. How could she with the father of her child so obviously conflicted? He
needed a doctor and some meds because it was becoming obvious he suffered from some
kind of mental malady. “I’m not leaving you when it’s obvious you need help.
We’ll get through this together. You can fight this thing, David.” She reached
up to touch his face. He flinched.

A tremor
shook him, and he grunted as he reeled away from her. “No,
Thea
,
You don’t understand. Leave. Now!”

The conflict
on his face, so visible as his muscles shifted under his skin, as if he fought
some inner battle, almost rooted her feet. It was the red flare of his eyes and
the sense of something cold entering the room, a slimy feel of
evil
, that shocked her into realizing there
was something deeply wrong with David. Something more than perhaps drugs could
counter.

She backed
away as he hunched over, his breaths coming fast and hard. Her chilly sensation
deepened. She placed her hand on the door, about to turn the knob when he spoke.
The mocking voice that emerged wasn’t the man she knew.

“Where do
you think you’re going, my breeding bitch?”

Flinging
the door open, she forwent a reply and instead ran up the hall, heading for the
elevator. She didn’t make it. Rough hands gripped her from behind and slammed
her against the wall. A short scream left her as the stranger in David’s body
leered at her. If she didn’t know better, she’d wager a demon possessed him.
Eyes glowing a hellish red, he leaned into her, inhaling deeply before licking
her—a long, wet swipe of his tongue from temple to chin that made her
shudder.

“Stop it.
Let go of me!”

“I don’t
think so. No more Mr. Nice Guy for you. Time to cut short the game and bring
you to your new home.”

As she struggled
against the iron grip pinning her to the wall, she spat, “I don’t know who and
what you are, but I’m not going anywhere with you. Help!” She shouted as loud
as she could. “Help me! Someone call the pol—”

He slapped
a hand over her mouth, too late. A door opened a few feet away and a head
popped out.

“Hey
buddy,” the bald stranger said as he stepped into the hall. He began to frown.
“I think you need to let the lady go.”

“Mind your
fucking business,” snarled her possessed boyfriend.

“I don’t
think so,” the Samaritan replied, cracking his knuckles in a menacing fashion.

The violent
entity let her go and turned to fully face her neighbor. She inched away, her
eyes not leaving them as they squared off.

“Humans,”
scoffed the stranger in her boyfriend’s body. “So mouthy, and yet so fragile.”

A cry left
her lips as, quicker than her mind could
comprehend,
David reached out and twisted the other guy’s head. A sharp crack and the man
who tried to step in stared at nothing. The monster in the hall dropped the
limp body and turned to face her.

“Going
somewhere?”

“Fuck. Oh
fuck. Oh fuck.” She couldn’t stop repeating the foul words over and over,
nothing else strong enough to express her extreme horror at the situation. She
stumbled backward, not wanting to look away from the creature stalking her with
a red glint in its eyes. It only prolonged the inevitable.

With an
almost gleeful, “Come to papa,” he pounced.

After a
brief struggle—no real contest against his strength—a fist met her
face once, twice, before she passed out.