Chapter 5

Vinny

As soon as I stepped away from the hospital, the aroma of jasmine started to dissipate, making it a little easier to breathe. Each breath in the hospital felt like razorblades to my throat but the further we got from the hospital, the more my lungs opened to receive the oxygen they were so badly struggling for. There was an icy void in my chest, but I had convinced Camille to come to a bar with me, so it was only a matter of time before I filled the chasm.

I was starting my third glass of bourbon and I smiled as Camille amicably told me about herself, like this was a real date. As if I wasn’t trying to ignore the gaping hole in my chest. I kept sniffing the air, high on alert trying to detect the hints of jasmine before they arrived. I was convinced my bad luck had just started, that Roman would follow me into this bar, if only to make my life a living hell.

“I hate that she looks good,” Vali grumbled, placing unwanted images of Roman in my mind. Even standing in lilac-coloured scrubs with her hair tied back messily, she was sensational. Her curves were hidden beneath her uniform, but I could still make out her womanly figure beneath. The slight bagginess to her uniform created an unwanted but alluring fantasy in my mind. A kink I didn’t know I possessed. Her light brown skin looked creamy soft, and her heart-shaped mouth was dying to be kissed.

I took another large swig and growled at my wolf, “Vali!”

“Sorry,” he mumbled sincerely. I could feel how sorry he was. His anguish was my anguish and vice versa. We were both in immense amounts of pain the moment we smelt her. And as much as I wanted to react to the pain, all I could do was stand, frozen in horror while she barely batted an eyelid. Her sweet voice which should have soothed me, cut deeply, leaving ugly scarring over my soul. I loathed her so fucking much. I slammed the rest of the bourbon back and threw my hand up for another. The bartender obliged immediately.

“Whoa! I know there must be a story about the nurse at the hospital. But don’t you think you should slow down a little. I already saved your ass once. I don’t exactly want to do it again.”

“I’m fine,” I muttered.

“Sure you are. The speed of which you are drinking hard liquor really convinces me of that.” I huffed. “Look at it this way, if you keep drinking like that, I’ll have to take you back to the hospital to get your stomach pumped, and you know, your ex-girlfriend would be the one to do it.” I froze lifting the glass of bourbon to my lips and looked into Camille’s big blue eyes. She had a point. Or she would have if I was human and couldn’t handle my alcohol.

“Sorry,” I mumbled lowering my glass and gazing at the table.

“Hey, toxic ex, I get it.” No, you really don’t.

“We never dated.”

She tilted her head at me. “Well, she is obviously under your skin.”

“Not in the way you are thinking,” I said then gave her a sheepish-apologetic look. “We have always hated each other. Actually, hate might be too soft of a word.”

“Oh. So, there is no unrequited love story?”

I snorted. “Not in the slightest. She really isn’t my type.”

“Beautiful but vapid,” Vali said in agreement.

“What is your type?” Camille sprung forward. I gave her a crooked smile which she returned with a slight blush staining her cheeks. Easy—way too easy.

***

My dad was greyer than the last time I had seen him, the strands of silver weaving through the pitch black. His crows’ feet had deepened and he was now sporting a groomed beard where the grey hair rivalled the amount on his head. I tried to swallow my guilt, had it honestly been that long since I had video called my father?

“Thanks for picking me up,” I grunted my appreciation. I picked up my feather-lite bike and hauled it roughly onto the back of his truck, securing it in place with some straps.

“Do I want to know what happened to your bike?”

“Just took a corner a little too fast.”

“Do I want to know why you were in a halls of residence?”

“Oh don’t worry there Pops, I definitely didn’t take that too fast.” I grinned at him, and he shook his head exasperatedly, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

“So are you bringing her home for dinner?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I proposed right on the spot. She could do this pretzel thing and I decided that’s the woman I want to mate with and bear my pups.” I jumped off the back of the truck and pushed the tailgate back into its locked position.

“Your sister will be thrilled. Assuming of course that the girl said yes.”

“Over and over again.”

Dad chuckled deeply. “Get in the truck Casanova.”

The door whinnied a familiar sound as I climbed into the passenger side of the cab. “How has everything been?” Dad asked as he clambered into the driver’s seat and started the engine.

“Good up until I managed to total my bike.”

“I am sure it isn’t totalled.”

“Yeah, once we get back to Blackfern Valley I am going to see how much work it’s going to take to repair. Hopefully it won’t be too damaged, and I can get back on the road.”

“Vinny. You are allowed to stay you know,” Dad said carefully. No, I wasn’t.

“There is nothing for me here Dad. I can’t exactly hustle pool or count cards around here.” I shook my head. “Nope! As soon as I get a whiff of whoever is after my niece. I am out and hunting him down.”

“You didn’t want to be a warrior Vinny. Leave it to the pack warriors and trackers."

“Dad, this is family.”

“Yes, it is. And you decided you wanted to be free and travel.” Dad reminded me unnecessarily.

“It was never about leaving my family Dad,” I grumbled. “My family is the most important thing to me. Why the fuck do you think I am back?”

“If family was so important to you, you wouldn’t be in such a hurry to leave!” Touché. I audibly snapped my mouth closed and glared out the window as we drove the windy highway back towards the Valley. Refusing to answer. Refusing to tell him the truth. The silence was bitter.

There was a gentle scratch at my mind as my father’s voice travelled through it. It had been an age since I had communicated this way. The distance I had kept from my pack made it almost impossible. The further away I was, the harder and more painful it had become to try and mind-link. I was warned about this when I decided to leave, that my mental voice would have been dimmed to near nothing. I had tried it a couple of times when I was up with a pack near the border of Alaska and all I got back was harsh white-noise and a nosebleed. I could feel the connection to my pack, I just couldn’t contact them. I was in true solitude. I was truly nomadic.

“The prodigal son returned,” my fathers voice grunted to me and another. I felt the amber and honeysuckle aura of my sister on the mind-link. “Be home in an hour or so.”

“Try not to kill each other.” I huffed and my father chuckled.

***

Dad pulled up to the ancient garage that looked out of place next to the more modernly designed house. Where the old house was a small bungalow that often felt cramped, the new house was architecturally designed with large windows that made it feel light and airy.

The fire was a blessing in a lot of ways. After Mom died, it was very obvious that Dad needed to keep busy. He needed a project. The bungalow became his project. A project that would have taken years and years to complete. That would have taken years and years of my patience. The fire had gutted the foundations and left dad with a blank canvas.

But that was not his only project. There was a reason he had moved his family to Blackfern Valley after the love of his life died, and it wasn’t just to overcompensate for a midlife crisis and fix up a house. His first project was trying to keep me from going off the deep end. His first project was to tell me he had been lying to me my entire life. And the omitted truth could have saved me a world of hurt. That was the first and only time I had ever punched my dad.

“Are you done?” he had growled, his eyes flashing with the silver rings of his… wolf. A gash in his lip glistening with drops of crimson. I wasn’t remotely done. I was furious. But after a few deep breaths the epiphany hit me— I wasn’t going crazy. The amplified sounds, the smells, the sweats and the uncontrollable rage; it was all because my wolf-spirit was waking up. It was as if everything suddenly clicked into place and unsurmountable relief ricocheted around my body.

I threw my bag onto my bed of the room I had once called mine. It was empty now, a dresser, a bed and a desk was all that remained. I cleared out all of my personal junk the day after the full moon, trashing it. I didn’t need it anymore. I wasn’t coming back. Even if my sister didn’t grant me permission, I was leaving anyway. The difference would have been if I was just nomadic, or whether I was living as a pack less rogue. Thankfully my sister came through for me. And neither she nor my dad ever asked any questions. I knew the questions were burning into their essence, they had to have been.

My phone buzzed and I grinned as I placed it to my ear, but before I could get out any smartass comments, my best friend Sean bet me to it.

“I thought I smelt your odour polluting the air around here. What, you’ve been here for like five minutes? And you are already stinking up the joint.”

“Come a little closer and I can make sure I trap you with my real odour.” The braying laughter echoed down the phone.

“Fuck man! It has been an age. I have just finished up with training and I am about to meet Ryan for a drink. You should come along. Let people see that you haven’t fallen off a cliff and died somewhere.”

“No cliff. Did come off my bike though.”

“Ouch. Bad?”

“A sweet piece of ass made it all worth while.” Another braying laughter.

“So… Beer?”

“Always!”