(Another media picture of James)
Original Published Date: 07 February 2016
James
I smiled, smiling satisfyingly to myself. That guy got exactly what he deserved, no doubt about it.
I was kicking rocks as we walked, I just couldn't get rid of this vengeance smile that crept onto my face. But that soon fainted at a irritating voice. "Dude, should we have done that?" Victor asks.
"Does your arm still hurt?" I ask him.
"Yeah, bu-"
"Then there's your answer." I tell him.
"Think about it, James-"
"Think about this, Victor. I promised myself. I won't leave the house until Estelle was woke and healthy. But you convinced me to leave, and we ended getting a lead on Jake, plus a bonus by turning a hunter." I smile even wider. It's the first time I smiled since that voice in my head told me I lost my mate.
"But James, he's a rogue, a new werewolf. His odds of surviving is slimmer than a toothpick, and the chances of him exposing our kid is bigger than the Giant Sequoia."
"That's what happens when the Hunter becomes Hunted."
"Jam-"
"Shut up, Vic, you're killing my vibe." I growled at him.
"No, the kitchen light is on." He points out.
"It's probably my dad." I only shrugg my shoulders.
"I thought Tom and Chelsy went on a date." Victor says.
Realization washes over me swift and quick. "You don't think."
"No not yet." I tell him.
"But it's possible." Victor says.
"The one time I leave?"
"Eh, what if it's-"
"It's not."
"We have to make sure."
"Fine."
We walk to side by side of the house. We stay under the window sure not to be seen. Victor, though always trying to play hero decides to enter first, although opening the door sofly wasn't hard considering that the hunter cut the lock out.
Victor peared around the corner that lead to the kitchen. He jumped out like a third grader trying to scare a five year old, but then he eased up and I followed him into the kitchen. There she stood, Estelle. The one day I decide to leave is the one day she wakes up.
She was holding a nice sized balogna sandwhich in her hand, she also had her hair in one of those messy buns. The quietness was slowing eating at me, either of us not knowing what to say, it was painful. Then I already knew Victor was about to say something when I saw him scratch behind his ear.
"Hey." I should've known he'd say something at stupid and pathetic as 'hey' but I don't blame him. Like, what was he supposed to say, 'hey I heard you James aren't mated anymore and you were marked by his brother', if he was to say that, he'd never speak another word in his life.
"Hi." Her voice was soft, kind of scratchy as if she was talking with a cold. "How long was I knocked out?" She asked, not looking at either of us.
"A couple weeks, maybe. You and your friend." Victor smiled, and I gave her one too. But of course she didnt notice. "Did you know James stayed here night and day, hopping you'd wake up and he'll be the first person you've seen." It was that moment I wanted to punch his skull in. But I didn't.
"I thought so. But I saw Taylor sleep against Aaron, your smell still lingered in the room." There was nothing else to say. The kitchen was silent for a good ten minutes, before she said anything else. "Does it look bad?" She asks. "The mark."
She looked at us and Victor lowered his head, it looks like its gotten worse, but I wasn't going to tell her that straight up. The teeth marks went from red to purple. Then her vains went from purple to black and they stretched across her neck. "Yeah, it's kinda bad." I tell her honestly. She temps to touch the bitch infected wound on her neck, but tries to hold back a hiss at the lightest contact. "It doesn't have to be this way." She says finally looking me in the eyes, but there was nothing.
"What way?" I ask her. Right now there is no way, I'm completely lost. What other way is there.
"I mean, like, we weren't mated before why does it seem so awkward now?" She asks me, but I could tell her on the spot a hundred reasons why, but then Victor had scratched behind his ear again.
"Sex." Victor says, looking at both of us then back on the floor.
I did the first thing that came into mind, without even thinking about. I grabbed his arm where the hunter cut him and squeezed it as hard as I can until I saw blood through the bandage, and until his scream was higher than a the girl in the horror movies was. He then dropped to the ground craddeling his bleeding arm. "Not because of that." I growled at him. "We were destined to be together." I tell Estelle.
"First, you're going to pretend like you didn't just do what ever the hell you just did. And second, that went away the minute Jake marked me." She complained. Then she takes a look at the crying Victor on the floor, who was also snarling, I guess at me though. "What happened to him?" She asks.
"A hunter cut him with a silver blade, so now he has to heal like a human." I tell her.
"A hunter? When?" She asks.
"Two weeks ago? Was is it?" I ask Victor, considering he's the one with the wound.
"I. Don't. Fucking. Know." He growled at me.
"Was I knocked out at the time of something?" She asks me.
"Yeah, but you're fine, we need to talk anyway about the situation." I tell her.
"You can look in the mirror and talk about it, I guess this is what happens when your mated to your brother." Then she started walking, and Victor was still crying, slowly stopping.
"No need to feel bad," Victor said getting off the floor, "this is her fault, not yours."
That's when I saw Estelle stop walking. "And how is this my fault?" I could already hear the anger growing in voice.
"Use your brain, and think about it." Victor started, I was honestly trying catch on to this too, I thought it was my fault. "When you and James visited me in the hospital, if your would've accepted him right then and there, then none of this would've happened. Its like a chain reaction, except it started with you, Estelle."
Jake
I had no idea the mark worked both ways. I thought if I marked Estelle then, you know, she'd want me and that'll piss James off, but I didn't think it through. I can't stop thinking about Estelle, and Tanya, she's my actual mate and I can't stand her. I did the only thing I could do, head back to Gillian City.
I walked around the city in search of a familiar scent, mainly looking for Estelles. I'm so focused with my nose to the air I ran into some chick, who unfortunately wasn't Estelle, most likely a rookie prostitute. She bit down on her lip scraping off the red lipstick with it. I don't care to be mean so I'm just going to say it. "Was your mother a witch?" She gasps, and her eyes wail up in tears. "You shouldn't cry, you'd look uglier." I push her aside and kept walking.
After about ten minutes I caught a familiar scent, too familiar if you ask me. This is a scent I've hated all my life, a scent that smelled worse than a skunks. The smell of a bitch I've never hated more, James.
But he was with someone else, but I couldn't make out his face, but they were chasing someone, and they were ferious. I know because James ran right passed me like I wasn't even here. So being the nosey guy I am, I follow them, to the heart of the forest.
But my walking wasn't fast enough to watch the fight but my ear caught a familiar voice, "The hunter becomes what he hunted." It turns out I don't know the other guy at all.
That's when James snickers, "Enjoy becoming one of us... rogue." The guy barely lifted his head, then it just fell. I waited until I could no longer see them and they were out of earshot, I don't know who the rogue is, but they obviously hated him.
I drag the guy to a near pond and shove his face down the water, then he woke with rapid breathing. "Nice to see you've woken up to a star-lit night."
He quickly jumps backs away from me until his back hit the trunk of the tree. "Who the fuck are you?" He asks in a bewildered voice.
"Who am I? Well for starters I probably saved your damn life so straighten your fucking face, how about that?"
"Cut the bromance and just tell me your name and why you 'saved' me. And if it helps you get started, my name is Nick." He shook his head like a dog trying to dry his soaked fur.
"I'm Jake, it seems to be we have a common enemy." I smirk.
"Common enemy... who, I have a lot of those."
"My brother."
He squints at me then slowly realizes. "James."
"Bingo, so he turned you, come with me."
"Come? With you? How do I know I can trust you?" He asks carefully.
"Have you ever heard 'The enemy of my enemy is my bestfriend'?" I ask him.
"Yes."
"Then you just answered your own question."