Cursed Wolf

Felix drove home with his head in the clouds. The scent of Jasmine clung to his skin. The feeling of her was all around him. He had never been so intoxicated by another person in his life, and he didn’t know how to integrate it into his reality. When he climbed out of his SUV in front of his house, he saw a dark figure sitting on his front stoop. He took several steps forward and the silhouette took shape and became clear.

“Blake? What are you doing here?”

“Damian and Venus are annoying. I needed to leave.”

“You could always get your own place.”

“We left the graves of our parents and grandparents to be tended by someone else. To be owned by someone else. We left our mother’s death unavenged. I’m not taking that money.”

“You’re just going to sponge off the rest of us until you don’t have anywhere left to go?”

“We’re a pack. We owe each other our lives.”

“I just found my mate, Blake. I don’t have time for your nonsense.”

“Are you kicking me out?” Blake asked.

“You can stay here tonight, but I have important things to do. I can’t have you distracting me,” Felix said as he unlocked his front door.

Blake swung his backpack over his shoulder and walked into the house behind Felix.Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

“This is a big place. There’s plenty of room for me.”

Felix didn’t want to tell his brother that he was planning to fill the house with a mate and children. They wouldn’t want gloomy Blake around. Felix decided to not voice that right now.

Blake needed to find purpose in life. He couldn’t just wait around for his mate to give him meaning. There was no way that the rest of the brothers were going to go back to the family land. There was no possible way that Blake could return on his own.

“You can stay in the guest room,” Felix said, walking up the stairs and motioning for his brother to follow.

Blake trudged along behind him. At the end of the hall, Felix opened the door to the guest room and showed his brother inside. There was a queen size bed and a desk by the window looking over the driveway.

“There’s a bathroom right through here,” Felix said, walking back into the hall and opening the door right next to the guest room. “It’s stocked with shampoo and soap and anything else you might need.”

“Do you have any food?”

Felix sighed. He’d just had a gourmet dinner with his mate and hadn’t planned to cook anything.

“How about a turkey sandwich?” Felix offered.

“Sounds good.”

The two of them went downstairs to Felix’s open concept kitchen, and he began to pull things out of the fridge and cabinets. Blake sat at the kitchen island with his head in his hands and a grumpy look on his face.

Felix layered Blake’s sandwich with turkey, avocados, onions, lettuce and tomatoes, and spread on some mayonnaise and mustard. He topped it with a second piece of bread and sliced it in half. He then opened a bag of baby carrots and tossed them onto the plate with a dollop of ranch dressing. Felix slid the plate across the counter to his brother. Blake picked up a carrot and eyed it suspiciously.

“The only thing in here worth eating is the turkey,” Blake said.

“If you want to hunt and eat raw meat, go for it.”

“The hunting around here is terrible. There is barely enough game and there’s people everywhere you turn.”

Fate Island was a hundred miles across and a hundred miles long, but the town of Selkie was tiny. There was plenty of game on the island if Blake wanted to hunt it. Felix didn’t want Blake to ruin his night. He’d had a good time with his mate, and that was all that he wanted to focus on.

Felix grabbed a beer out of the fridge and popped the cap. Blake eyed the beer, so Felix pulled out another bottle, popped the cap and slid it over to his brother. Blake took a swig without even thanking him. Felix sighed softly and then turned to go upstairs.

“I have work to do, then I’m going to sleep. Do you need anything else before I turn in for the night?”

“No, this is fine.”

Felix charged up the stairs to his office and closed the door behind him. Having Blake around was already getting on his nerves. The brothers had always been able to count on each other, through all their trials over the decades of being wolves.

The Winter pack had developed a powerful bond, but Blake was stretching the bond with all of them. Felix feared that soon Blake could be ostracized from the family.

Felix didn’t want to see that happen. He had to stay patient with his Blake and be the packmate Blake needed him to be.

He sat down in front of his computer and woke up the machine. He was 95% done with his new app, and he hoped this one would be even more successful than the last.

His current app was for business management solutions. He hoped he could collaborate with Damian and Venus on a photo app at some point. Felix loved that his brothers had found passions and purpose in life. It made him sad that Blake hadn’t discovered a purpose of his own.

Felix took another swig of beer while he checked some emails and replied to customer questions. When he was done with his beer and finished answering emails, he shut down his computer and took his beer bottle down to the recycling bin in the kitchen.

Blake’s plate with the half-finished sandwich sat on the counter. He tossed the food into the garbage, rinsed the plate, and put it in the dishwasher. Felix put his bottle in the recycling bin and trudged back upstairs, feeling a wave of exhaustion wash over him.

Felix washed his face, pulled on his pajamas, and climbed into bed. He tossed and turned for several hours, his mind consumed with thoughts of Jasmine and anxiety about Blake. Felix finally fell asleep several hours later and woke up the next morning feeling groggy.

He did his morning calisthenics before walking downstairs for coffee. When he walked into the kitchen, he found his brother hunched over the kitchen island, nursing a mug and looking as glum as usual.

“Did you sleep well?” Felix asked in a cheery voice.

“Meh,” Blake said, taking another sip of coffee.

Felix poured himself a cup, added cream, and took a first sip. Before the curse, the brothers had enjoyed coffee when it was available to them out in the wilderness. Often the family ran out and had to go months without restocking. But now he could have all the coffee all the time, and it was absolute bliss.

Felix began pulling out breakfast ingredients for breakfast. Eggs, bacon, and instant waffles from the freezer. He popped the waffles into the toaster and started frying up bacon in a pan.

“How do you like your eggs?” Felix asked.

“Whatever is fine,” Blake said gloomily.

“Scrambled it is.”

Felix cracked eggs into a bowl, whipped them, and then poured them into a butter-filled pan. When everything was ready, he dished it up, and sat beside his brother at the kitchen counter. Felix dug in to his breakfast.

“Can I ask you a serious question, Blake?” Felix took a bite of eggs.

“Maybe. It depends on what it is.”

“Is there anything about this new world that you enjoy? The rest of us have found purpose and meaning here. Why can’t you?”

“You’ve all found your mates. It makes it a lot easier to find meaning when you find the love of your life.”

“It’s not just our mates. It’s our lives.”

“You’ve all adjusted your lives around your mates. Rex is working at Luna’s bookstore. Damian got into photography with his model girlfriend. Thorne is going to school with his professor mate.”

“Tate is a comedian, and I’m a programmer. Totally different from anything our mates do. You have the opportunity to find what matters to you in life right now, Blake. Your new life in this new world is waiting for you.”

“I’m not interested in this world. I want our old life.”

“You could find a new property and build yourself a log cabin. You have the money.”

Blake growled and dropped the piece of bacon he was about to put in his mouth.

“Bottom line, Blake, you need to get your life together. You’re wearing out your welcome with all of us. We can’t take it anymore.”

“Are you kicking me out too?”

“Not yet. But if you don’t start showing interest in something, then I don’t see how I can have you around. I’m courting my mate, I’m building a business, and I just don’t want you to bring us down.”

“I never imagined that you would be so selfish,” Blake said, pushing his food away.

“You need to be grateful for what you’ve been given.”

“I’m the only one who is grateful. Grateful to our parents and grandparents before them. I’m the only one who cares about what happened to Mother.”