Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (5 page)

“My turn?”
Charlotte asked as Lena stood up moving to pick up her water bottle. The girl was just starting to perspire on her forehead, though the gym wasn’t very warm at all.

Moving to within a couple feet, the woman nodded taking a familiar entry pose often used greeting a sensei. A small smile played at the edges of her mouth and she entered a loose judo style stance. Realizing that the werewolf must have had at least rudimentary training to know the difference between karate and judo; Nick moved closer with a nod. Again he noticed her fragrance and wondered if the woman had dosed herself with another spray of her perfume in the locker room.

“Are you attacking me or am I attacking you?” she asked as they began to circle slowly to their right looking for a hold.

“Either is fine,” Nick answered wondering the same thing. The werewolf felt aggressive, even though they had yet to start anything. Again he wondered if there was something going on with Charlotte that he didn’t know about.

She lunged and he countered, but her tight clothing only gave him easy access to her arms short of grabbing the woman inappropriately. Clothing, especially loose clothing, made for easier throws, but arms and legs were the main targets. Moving quickly in and out trying to find her own possible holds; the girl looked intent as if she wanted to win despite this just being basic training.

Nick changed it up jumping in and catching hold of her left arm with both hands trying to turn the arm and using it in turn to take control of her body. Charlotte knew the hold and flipped end over end surprising him by keeping the arm from being turned. He still had the appendage and started to change the hold to his advantage. Barreling into him with her shoulder, the werewolf succeeded in throwing off his attempt; but he countered by using her momentum to pull her down with him to the mat.

It was the first throw and the woman looked annoyed that he had turned it around.

“I assume that you have had some training then,” the man asked barely looking like the struggle had happened.

Charlotte let out a deep breath as she gave him a nod. “I went to college to become a criminal lawyer. Knowing that I might be around less than reputable people; my brother and father wanted me to be able to take care of myself. I considered going into law enforcement instead when I found out I enjoyed my self defense courses.”

He knew that she had fought alongside her brother against Cyrus’s vampires, but Charlotte was known for being a very tender soul. This antagonistic side had never been shown to him before and strangely the aggression seemed less about fighting than something else.

Being almost as tall as he was, the dark haired beauty wasn’t at too much a disadvantage in reach, though it was still his. Her werewolf abilities, even muted as a human, gave her good speed and reflexes which he didn’t discount as he considered the girl. He had been studying various schools of fighting for nearly a century, however, so even a werewolf was unlikely to be more skilled. She was also just twenty six and needed several decades to learn what he had.

Again it was the girl who was the aggressor. Lunging in to go for a leg like a wrestler, Nick set the limb against the earth twisting in behind her. Snaking his arms and sinking down, he had her arms immobilized and useless as he pushed her neck down with his hands. His legs gave her no way to break out of the simple hold. A black belt wasn’t needed to counter the move, so hearing her struggles let him know that she was no true master. Having taken simple self defense classes only made Charlotte better than the average attacker; or at least able to surprise one with the basics needed to protect
herself in a pinch.

Releasing Charlotte, he offered her a hand up. Appearing to start to take the hand, she surprised him pulling the man over and quickly rolling on top of him. “Gotcha,” she declared pushing down on his shoulders. It was hardly a submission hold as much as a girl playing around.

With a smile, in return he asked, “Really?”

Crossing her arms with his left, the man rolled from his right turning the girl over onto her back. Controlling her arms with his left, only her supernatural strength would easily break his hold. Strangely enough, instead of looking frustrated, Nick could have sworn that she appeared turned on instead. Like this was all just foreplay to the woman, Charlotte seemed to just be enjoying rolling around with him; which was pretty much what she had declared back at the apartment.

She was more submissive this time and they reset. Charlotte was beginning to breathe a bit harder, though Nick breathing was nearly as even as the start.

“You stay in good shape,” the dark haired girl nodded appreciatively.

“The same can be said for you,” Nick reciprocated the compliment, though he was afraid that it came from a different place than mere appreciation.

“My turn?”
Lena asked feeling a bit awkward as she did. The girl felt the strange tension between the two as it was easy to see for anyone looking.

Noticing Lena waiting, Charlotte bowed out reluctantly and moved towards the edge of the mats and her water bottle. As the younger girl took her turn with Nick, one of the men in the gym came closer to the werewolf and said, “You’ve got some good raw talent there.”

The dark haired woman looked at the young man, shirtless and sweaty. Her first instinct was to blow him off for the pick up line he was attempting to subtly use on her. Instead she lifted her bottle of water exposing her neck and turned slightly to the side. A trickle of sweat rolled along her neck as she did before lowering the bottle again. While she slowly screwed on the cap, Charlotte sized him up taking in the bare chest and tight abdomen that he was trying to hold in despite his gym body.

Being lighter skinned and of Irish descent, she contrasted with his tanned skin; but the girl had a sleek body with muscles toned from both working out and being created from her werewolf transformation. Bending down to replace her bottle made her calves tighten and her tight rear end was
tantalizingly before him in the process. By the time she stood back up to look up slightly to see his eyes, some of the sweat beading on his forehead wasn’t just from his workout.

“So you think that I have talent?” the girl questioned in such a way that the man wondered if she still meant fighting.

“Y-y-yeah, of course,” he stammered as the woman put him off of his game.

Some of the other men were watching and were both amused at their friend’s getting in over his head and wishing that they had been brave enough to talk to the beautiful woman. She was barely dressed exciting the men as the beauty brushed at the base of her sports bra to remove a couple drops of sweat moving the cloth to show a miniscule bit of extra skin. Followed by her playing at the top of her shorts revealing that she wore no underwear that could be easily seen; Charlotte seemed to be intentionally trying to turn them on even more.

“You seem fast and pretty strong for a girl, er, woman,” the fighter struggled to get his words back under control.

Charlotte released her ponytail a moment before shaking out her hair as he spoke. As she replied, her arms were lifted to pull the dark locks back into their band to secure a new tail. “Strong for a woman, that sounds a bit condescending. If I were a fighter, would you discount me because I am a girl?”

“We don’t get to fight girls around here, but I just meant that you are stronger than you look.”

Nodding without appearing convinced, Charlotte shocked him and asked, “So you think that you can teach me something new?”

“Y-yeah, sure, I’m Bobby by the way,” he said extending his hand.

“I’m Charlotte. So you’re training to become a pro fighter?” she asked suddenly seeming interested in the young man. Lena and Nick watched the girl as much as the other fighters and he was a bit worried by the interaction. The woman had been acting strangely all morning long.

“You’ve known her longer than I have, but that doesn’t seem normal to me,” he said quietly to Lena. “She’s been acting a little off all day and I swear she keeps putting on more perfume every time I see her.”

“What perfume?” she asked unsure of what he meant.

“You can’t smell it? She’s wearing a fragrance that’s pretty strong even though it smells good. It seems like she goes away and she puts on more of it. I don’t know why, since she’s a werewolf and her nose must be more sensitive than mine,” Nick mused curiously.

Lena on the other hand was left shaking her head. “Maybe my senses just aren’t as good as yours, but I haven’t noticed any perfume on her.”

“You didn’t smell perfume in the car?” he asked looking at the girl incredulously.

She shook her head and replied, “Nothing unusual. I smelled the new car smell of your BMW more than I did anything else.”

A couple other fighters had come to join Charlotte and her new trainer. She seemed to be enjoying rubbing up against him as he attempted to show her some new holds in a gentler way. The attention from the other men just seemed to goad her on in her seductive actions. Nick had never noted the dark haired girl being overly flirtatious over the months he had known her. They had been to night clubs on occasion and the beauty did draw attention, but she had always remained somewhat reserved.

“It’s not a full moon for over a week,”
mused the voran as he watched the girl trying to figure out what was going on with her. He realized that if it was something to do with her being a werewolf, then he would need an expert. “Can you keep an eye on her while I make a call?”

Not wanting to get in her mentor’s way, Lena shrugged before Nick hurried to the locker room. He just hoped things didn’t escalate. If it was a werewolf thing, then the voran didn’t want to see where this would end.

Using a number that had been hard to get from its owner, Nick auto dialed his contact for all things werewolf.

“Nick?” the voice questioned sounding rather surprised.

“Hey, Eric, how are you?”

“Like you really care,” the man replied without heat as he added, “I can only guess that this is business and not pleasure. What is it?”

Not wanting to speak of one of the former members of his pack, since they were once on his kill list; Nick took a breath and tried to ask the question without directly referring to Charlotte by name. “Is there something in a werewolf’s chemistry that would suddenly make them change from their normal nature?”

There was a pause before a rebuttal question returned, “Changed how? It’s obviously not a killer wolf thing since it isn’t a full moon.”

“Someone shy is coming out of their shell in a strange way. It’s almost like they’re another person today,” he managed to avoid naming the woman in particular.

“Let me guess, Charlotte’s acting unusually horny out of the blue?”

Another pause sat before he confessed, “Yeah, and I smell a perfume on her that’s strong, but Lena can’t smell a thing.”

There was uncontrolled laughter from the other side of the phone making Nick regret calling the pack leader. Eric was much older than the rest of his pack. While they had never talked about where they came from or how old they were, the voran had a feeling that the wolf could be over a hundred years old as well. While Nick’s upbringing had been that of a southern gentleman, Eric was much more crude and rough around the edges; though much of that could be the years of the wolf clawing at his mind.

When the laughter ended, Eric informed him, “We’re having the same problem with Katie today.”

The name struck a chord with Nick. Katie had been the patient of Logan’s who had infected the man changing the siblings’ lives forever. But the fact that both women were basically turned so close to one another, made him ask, “Are the other females having the same problem?”

“Nah,” Eric replied casually, “this thing only happens in cycles. Katie and Charlotte turned the same year, so it’s not exactly surprising that they’d experience the need at the same time. It’s the wolf side that seems to need to mate. If she doesn’t get it out of her system by the first full moon, you get to see more of this for another month.”

Stunned by the news that only seemed to amuse the werewolf leader more in his silence, Nick asked, “So she’s looking to mate? Does she have to have a child or is she just looking for sex?”

“Mostly the sex, if she doesn’t get pregnant by the second moon of spring you’re safe, at least from her wolf urges anyway. She’s still a human woman as well, so Charlotte might have other needs and the full moon can make those emotions greater each month too.

“By the way, congratulations,” the man finished with a laugh being intentionally vague awaiting Nick’s inevitable need to clarify.

“Congratulations for what?” he asked closing his eyes waiting for the bomb to drop.

“Well, normally only other werewolf males can smell a female’s scent. Humans usually can’t distinguish it at all, though it might make them notice her more. Other females can’t usually distinguish it unless they’re fighting for a certain male’s attention, then they’re fighting for dominance of a potential mate which can get pretty ugly.

“So anyway, if you can smell her pheromones, then that means she considers you a potential mate.”

Groaning a curse made Eric laugh even harder, but another question made it into his stunned mind anyway and he asked, “How are you dealing with Katie, if she’s going through the same thing?”