It was two thirty the next afternoon before Vince felt even slightly human again. Jesus. Full moon was Saturday night and now it was Monday afternoon. He was still shaky, but he wasn’t sweating with the effort just to stand up, so since he couldn’t stand the smell of himself, a shower was his first priority.
The spray of the water helped wake him up, though he was still getting used to this new place. Everything in this shower was opposite of how their old place was set up, though it was a heck of lot nicer.
He turned the warm water off and toweled dry before scrounging around in the cupboards for his things. His mom got the master suite with a bathroom in her room, so he got the main bathroom that was also for guests, and he kept forgetting exactly where he’d put his stuff. Not that he had a lot… a comb, deodorant, and lotion when he remembered to use it.
He tried not to look too hard at himself in the mirror, but he couldn’t help it. There were still dark circles and bags under his eyes, though they looked better than yesterday. His sickly skin tone had slightly improved, too. Awesome.
A wave of self-disgust washed through him. He was mad and embarrassed that he couldn’t shift since he was supposed to be able to. It made it really hard to pretend that he wasn’t handicapped for real. He kept thinking that maybe he could beat this, and everyone else acted like it, too, saying things like he just hadn’t shifted yet. But it was time to face facts that he was stuck with this defective body for the rest of his life.
That was enough to make him sick to his stomach. What woman would want a relationship with someone like that? And he couldn’t even think about getting someone pregnant with his faulty genes. He wouldn’t pass this hellish existence on to his worst enemy.
He wrapped his towel around himself and carried his dirty clothes with him out of the bathroom. He didn’t see his mom or Ed anywhere, but a note was taped to his door.
‘Honey, I’m out getting groceries with Ed. If you need anything, give me a call. I plugged your phone in since it looked like it needed it. Love you, Mom.’
He smiled despite his crappy mood. She really was the best mom in the world.
Clothes were all over his floor, and he had no idea which ones were dirty or clean and didn’t care right now. He’d been spending so much time with Penny lately he hadn’t kept his room very tidy.
He threw the dirty clothes in his hands on the floor into the pile that looked messier than the others, then found his phone charging on his night stand. Penny had texted him yesterday around noon, so he sent her a text back that he was up and going down to the restaurant soon. She was probably working today, but maybe not. And maybe she wouldn’t be mad at him for being out of commission for the last two days.
He got dressed and headed downstairs, knowing he’d have to tell her the truth soon, but right now he was too exhausted to think about it. He felt too cooped up to stay at home any longer, so he took it slow down all the flights of stairs, still dizzy and tired and sore as hell.
**
Vince slumped into a chair in the restaurant, glad to be off his feet. He wondered if all those things he’d tried before full moon, like drinking blood, eating more, and even exercising had made this time worse.
A woman approached his table and sat down across from him.
“You’re Vince, right? I’m Suzanne. The Alpha Coyote.” She put her hand out for him and he shook it just because she offered it. She wore a short sleeve, V-neck shirt with a leather cord necklace around her neck. A dark, polished stone hung from the cord, and he got the feeling it was more than just a pretty trinket. It felt like a hint of magic was in it.
He tore his gaze from the necklace and said, “Nice to meet you Ma’am.”
She smiled as if she found that quaintly charming, which immediately tilted the scales towards not liking her very much.
Acting as if they were already friends, she said with an overly cheerful smile, “So, what are we up to today?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “I’m getting something to eat.”
“I see. And how are you getting along here in Brookhaven?”
Sebastian was suddenly taking a seat next to Vince, his eyes locked on Suzanne. Jade, Sebastian’s girlfriend, sat next to the woman.
Sebastian grumbled, “Is Suzanne bothering you?”
She sat back in her chair with a sour expression. The sweet, condescendingly friendly tone was gone when she said, “Relax, Sebastian. I’ve always been on your side.”
He frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She smiled devilishly. “It means most of your kitchen staff have always been coyote. How do you think that occurred without my blessing? Hmm?”
He frowned harder, then slowly said, “I don’t know.”
They stared each other down, Suzanne’s cocky grin only seeming to make Sebastian all the more irritated. “Why don’t you tell me, then? Why would you let your pack work for me, especially back when Torin still hated me?”
She said, “Who am I to decide who leads a pristine life?”
“But how did you get Torin to let you do that?”
She chuckled. “Torin doesn’t own me. I scratch my itches with him, but he doesn’t tell me how to run my pack. Besides, you wolves think you’re above every other animal and rarely pay attention to what we do. That includes Torin. I never hated you, but I also wasn’t about to get in between two alpha wolves who despised each other.”
“Then you’re just another person who let the bullshit in my life continue to happen.”
She chuckled again. “What was I going to do against an Alpha Wolf?” She leaned forward and pointed at him. “I helped you by not saying a damn thing when my pack worked side by side with you.” She sat back and stared him down before snapping, “Get over yourself. You weren’t as alone as you thought you were. Sheesh.”
She turned to Jade with that same devilish grin. “You got your guy in the end.” She put her hand out for her. “Friends?”
Jade looked in confusion from Sebastian to Suzanne, then reluctantly shook her hand. “Ok. Friends.”
Suzanne gave Vince a sharp look. “Remember that. The Alpha Wolf’s girlfriend, who’s also your pack mate, says she’s friends with the coyotes, so no funny business with Penny. You do something that a low down dirty dog would do and I’ll break your face. Got it?”
He frowned. “Um, sure. What are you talking about, though?”
She leaned closer and said in a low tone, “Cheat on my girl and I’ll be your worst enemy.”
“Ok… I’m not sure who I’d be cheating on her with, but I get you.”
Suzanne stood up with a smile on her face and pat his head. “That’s a good boy.” Then she turned on her heel and strode off.
**
Vince ate by himself since Sebastian and Jade left soon after Suzanne did, and Penny didn’t join him or even reply to his text. She was either mad at him, or busy at work. He was guessing mad. It was probably for the best anyway. He was too tired to figure out how to tell her he was handicapped, and didn’t really want to see her disappointed face when she realized what that meant, which was that the times he was tired weren’t just him being sick once in a while. It would keep happening for the rest of his life.
It was after five by the time he headed back upstairs, and his mood perked up when he ran into Penny in the foyer, even though the monkey on his back let him know he needed to tell her the truth, and soon.
He reached out to take her in his arms. “Hey beautiful.”
She side stepped him and pursed her lips while her already ample chest puffed up even more. “You said you were running with your mom on full moon night. I saw her and you weren’t with her. Who did you run with?” She stepped closer, then, and actually scented the air near him.
Scrambled, incoherent thoughts ran through his foggy brain. He couldn’t make sense of a logical answer that would make her less mad at him, so he weakly offered, “No one.”
The escalating tension was quickly interrupted by Zach rushing in and stopping in front of them, though he was focused on Vince. “Where’s your mom?”
“Huh? I don’t know. Shopping or something. She’s with Ed.”
Zach already had his phone out and pressed to his ear as he stared him down. He could hear Ed’s voice on the other line before Zach said, “Get home now. And bring Charlotte. Min-chul’s here and he wants to see Vince.”
He cut the call off and Vince went still with shock. “Why does he want to see me?”
“Don’t know.”
“How’d he even know I was here?”
Zach’s expression soured. “Good question.”
Penny irritably said, “Are we talking about Yi Min-chul from Savannah? Why would he come here for Vince?”
He couldn’t look at her. He didn’t want to see the expression on her face when she realized what a vile man he was descended from.
And Zach kept talking as if Penny wasn’t even there. “Can you do this? God you look like hell. Does full moon always do this to you or is it just this month? Never mind. We’ll work on that later. Let’s go introduce you to your dad. I don’t know what he wants, so stay beside me. If he makes a move, fall back. I’ve already got people outside watching him. There’s enough of us here to handle him if we need to.”
**
His dad? Realization hit Penny like a semi-truck to the gut. She’d talked smack about Min-chul early on when her and Vince first started hanging out, and he never once told her that was his dad. Hadn’t she asked him if he knew his dad? Had he lied to her? And what was Zach saying about full moon and something always happening to Vince? Not that it made a difference now because she couldn’t ignore it any more… Vince was keeping everything personal about himself at a distance since he obviously didn’t want to get serious with her.
Damn him. And she’d actually been thinking about babies and family and all that kind of crap because of his stupid, stupid question to her. She’d been letting herself believe someone might actually see a future with her.
She wanted to scream and yell, maybe throw a drink in his face, then go have a good cry with her mom and sister consoling her. Instead she stood frozen in numb heartache as he walked out the door without even a look back.