SWNOVELS Chapter 9: Line!
Jackson walked back into the house whistling the song he heard her singing.
“Hey, you feel better?” Tyler asked when he saw his brother.
“Nah! I more hungry now than I was before I lef. I met the cutest lil baker in the woods,” Jackson replied. Adonis’s head snapped up at the mention of a baker.
“Baker?” He asked, giving Elijah a look.
“Yeah, her cute as a button.” Jackson said. See told you it was something he’d say! Odin smirked.
“Thata odd place for a baker. What her doin in the woods?” Tyler questioned.
“Pickin berries. Gonna make a...a...a black raspberry vanilla whippy cake. Dont know what the fuck that is but souns delicious an now I fuckin starvin.” Jackson replied,
“That does soun good! What her name?” Tyler agreed, nodding his head.
“Right! Kenzi Templeton. Gonna make a bunch of other stuff too.” Jackson added. Elijah could only stand there and listen, how Jackson and Tyler spoke and carried on a conversation was beyond him.
“Thata nice name. How you fine her in the woods?” Tyler asked,
“Right! Roll off the tongue. Her was singin, follow the soun. Came upon her dancin. Got a nice lil…..” ….grrrRrrrr…. Adonis released a low warning growl cutting off what Jackson was about to say.
“The fuck got his fur in a fluff?” Jackson turned towards his brother.
“I don’t know, you say somein to piss him off though!” Tyler shrugged his shoulders immediately tensing up.
“The fuck Adon? Jus talkin bout a cute lil baker” Jackson asked, turning his attention back to Adonis. Elijah stepped away from both of them, this didn’t appear like it was going to end well and he didn’t want to be stuck in the middle.….grrrRrrrr…. another low deeper growl rumbled around the room. Jackson swallowed hard, trying to piece it all together.
“Ha! Baker’s the neighbour, neighbour’s the mate, baker’s yur mate ain’t her?” Figuring that had to be why he was being warned, when he saw Adonis’s top lip curl he knew he guessed right.
“That not my fault. You say the neighbour was yur mate, not the neighbour the baker was yur mate. Not my fault, the fuck I posed to know?” Adonis continued to glare at him.
“Been a good twenty two years Jackass, we ain’t gonna make twenty three?” Tyler commented,
“The fuck you talkin bout, it gonna be fine.” Jackson stated,
“I don’t know, he look angry. Specially since you prolly flirt wit her” Tyler blurted,
“Tyler! Way to sell a brother out” Jackson replied, looking at him in disbelief. Tyler carried an apologetic look on his face as he moved in a direction away from his brother and the homicidal look his Alpha now carried.
“I din’t flirt wit her, I din’t, ok I flirt a lil bit. Don’t look at me like that. Her frickin adorable.” Jackson kept backing up, trying to figure out his next move. Line, call line! Ko was yelling in his head.
“Li...lin...line! Line! Ha line, you can’t cross it.” Jackson grinned smugly at the dark glare Adonis was giving him….grrrRrrrr…. Another growl released around the room, but Adonis backed off.
“That’s your one” he snarled, holding up one finger at him.
“Yeah….I ok wit that,” Jackson nodded his head. “Means I still getta call her Lil Kenzi Cakes.” he added, his grin getting bigger….grrrRrrrr….
“Settle down puppy. Her like it, make the most adorable lil wrinkle face an everthin” Jackson said,
“Dont you flirt with her” Adonis warned,
“I flirt wit everbody. An yes Drea already know that.” Jackson countered. Couldn’t argue with that, he did.
“I don’t think a lot of people talk to her though, damn shame, her a real nice girl. Easy puppy not like I say her has a nice ass…. does though” Jackson said, defending himself, when he saw the flash in Adonis’s eyes. Odin wasn’t liking this conversation anymore and needed to make his presence known as well.
….grrrRrrrr…. Louder and deeper than last time, Adonis’s top lip curled back when he glared at Jackson,
“Hey, line you can’t cross it, either one of you” Jackson repeated,
“I’ma choke you with that line” He snarled again,
“Maybe, but you an I both know I go a roun wit you” Jackson countered,
“You won’t survive past one” Adonis replied
“Maybe not, but I can hurt you real good firs.” Jackson shot back, still grinning.
“Asshole!” Adonis shook his head, a small smile played at the corners of his mouth.
“I fuckin starvin, I’ma get a burger. Want somein?” Jackson asked, moving towards the front door.
“Actually yeah, a burger would be great” Adonis agreed, his stomach growling at the thought of food. The aroma’s wafting over from next door has been teasing and tantalizing him all morning. He had to stop himself a few times from going over there, to see what she was torturing him with.
“You want a burger Eli?” Jackson asked,
“That would be great thank you” Elijah still wasn’t exactly sure what happened, his Alpha went from aggression, to sedate in the blink of an eye.
“Come on Tyler let’s go. Maybe we stop at a grocery store pick up some stuff.” Tyler nodded,
“Maybe we do steak for dinner?” Tyler suggested,
“Ooo yeah! That soun good, steak an tatoes” Jackson agreed, walking out the front door. That was about the only thing either of them could cook.
Elijah watched them walk out, and he turned back to Adonis, so many questions racing through his mind.
“Twenty years” Adonis said, before Elijah could even speak,
“Twenty years?” He asked,
“I’ve known them for twenty years. Jackson and I met when we were four, Tyler was two. They were rivals, and moved from Alberta to Ottawa and merged with a pack that my father wanted to take over. You’ve met Ethan, you can guess what he thought of that.” Adonis began. Elijah gave a half laugh well raising his eyebrows slightly.
“What do you know of me and my family Elijah?” Adonis asked,
“Father, Ethan Bradshaw was Alpha to the Primrose Pack until he cast you out at ten and it was given to your oldest brother Eric. Mother, Elena Bradshaw, died in a rogue war ten years ago. You are the youngest of twelve boys. I’ve heard the same stories, rumours and speculations as everyone else, I make it a point to separate fact from fiction” Elijah commented when he saw Adonis’s questioning eyebrows at the knowledge Elijah had on him and his family.
“Safe to say you know a lot, but there’s a few things you don’t know. The first most likely being I am the youngest by three minutes” Adonis said, he stood and watched Elijah take that information in, he furrowed his brow.
“That’s not possible, that’s unheard of, that would make you a….” Elijah’s eyes widened. Twins in the werewolf world almost never happened and if they did, either all of them died or the mother and one of twins died during the birth. They grow too big in the small amount of time she-wolves are pregnant.
“Twin. I’m a twin. Though I was the one that almost killed my mother, that was strike one against me. For the first three years I was a carbon copy of my brother Evan. When the changes started, my parents didn’t think anything of it, they were subtle at first. The change to my skin tone they wrote off as spending too much time outdoors. Then one day my eyes changed colour, went from a light shade of green to a dark emerald. My parents figured Evan’s would do the same, they never did, that was strike two. Then one day, I woke up and my hair was jet black. My parents lost it, they thought one of my brothers did something to me. My mother tried to bleach the colour out, but it didn’t work. Didn’t stop her from trying though. So here I am at four years old, getting my hair bleached, because there was something wrong with me. My father asked the Elders from ours and from other packs. He finally got an answer from a pack in Mexico, the Alpha there called me ‘El diablo con ropa de lobo’ The Devil in wolf’s clothing, strike three. I became The Devil. A tarnish on my father’s perfect family” Adonis threw the box of stuff he was going through off a chair and sat down. He didn’t care if anything in the box broke. That was his old, old life, his Primrose life. His first few years of supposed happy memories, though he couldn’t really remember most of them and the ones he could, weren’t happy.
“The rumours started after that, I wasn’t a real member of the family, they found me, took pity on me and took me in. My father the Alpha with The Devil for a son. So on and so on. My brothers turned their backs on me, including my twin. I became the outcast of the family and I bore the weight of their anger, anything went wrong and I was to blame. The reason Jackson and Tyler seem to get away with more than anyone else, is simply because they stopped me from making the stupidest mistake of my life.” Elijah too sat down as he listened to his Alpha explain, he was always curious about how they met and he knew there were stories behind it, but he didn’t feel it was his place to ask.
“When I was four, Ethan lost the merger he was trying to complete with our neighbouring pack, to a pack that had just moved from Alberta. Naturally he said I was to blame, I brought shame on the family, no one wanted anything to do with the Alpha that had a devil for a son. That’s a lot for a four year old. The beatings started after that. They were secretive about it at first, if someone did happen to see a bruise Ethan or Elena passed it off as boys being boys and boys played rough. One day I was standing at the border between my pack and White Stone Pack. All I had to do was cross over, they would rip me to pieces, but it would have been an honourable way to go, and Ethan’s reputation would be restored. I was about to cross the border when Jackson showed up with Tyler in tow….”