Sanctuary Killer: Home

Chapter Six – No Scream and Shout

I awake to the sound of duel high-pitched squeals and the bed shaking as though a magnitude seven-point earthquake has hit. I jump up and instantly feel as though I have been hit in the head with a two-by-four. I flop back down on my stomach and throw my pillow over my head. I feel the edge of my pillow being pulled up. Daring myself to open my eyes I am greeted with two sets of eyes and smiles that could melt the coldest heart. “She’s up. She’s up”, my twin nieces shouted in unison with excitement.

I dive back under my pillow and let out a low rumbling growl. “No screaming. No shouting. Go away or this big bad wolf is going to eat you for breakfast." I mumble into the mattress. Just then I feel a plop next to my head and a small hand slowly pulling the pillow up off my face. “We aren’t scared of you, are we Savannah?” says the cute little redhead starring into my bloodshot eyes. “Nope. Not even a tiny bit Ryan” I hear a small shy voice above me say.

I hear the familiar voice of my sister Courtney coming from the doorway, “That’s enough girls. You can terrorize Aunt Rae when we get to the ranch. Now go grab your backpacks and help grandma get the others in the Escalade.” Says my sister in a very firm voice. I hear the word “Ah!” said in very disappointed voices, and the patter of tiny feet, leaving my room.

“Go away. I need sleep” I say again from my downy shelter, knowing my sister is still there with the mom look on her face. Suddenly, my covers are ripped off me in one fluid motion.

“Damn it Courtney. Really? What the hell?” I yell.

“Oh, My Goddess.” Courtney gasps. “Look at those bruises on your thighs and hickeys all over your neck. Looks like someone jumped on the shag train and FINALLY got some.” She shouts. “Oh, my god” I hiss. “Can you scream that any louder?” I whisper. “Besides, it isn’t what it looks like” I moan. “Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night? Oh, yeah you don’t sleep at night. If I didn’t know better, I would think you were a vampire. Oh, wait too soon?” Courtney says. “Bitch.” I reply as I roll and sit up ready to throw my pillow. Suffice to say, Courtney never liked Griff. She said he weirded her out too much. Courtney takes after mom and doesn’t really embrace the whole Sanctuary philosophy and thinks all supernatural beings should stick to their own kind.

My sister Courtney stands beside my bed, holding a cup in one hand and hand full of pills in the other. “I love you too little slut.” She says. “Now here, take these. I am sure you can use them right now. But get your ass out of bed. Dad says we bug out in fifteen mikes.”

“Shotgun” I yell, regretting it the instant the word leaves my mouth. I take the pills from my sister’s hand, pop them in my mouth and dry swallow them. Courtney hands me a mug and I realize she has made me dad’s famous Love Shack Morning After coffee. Not quite the hair-of –the-dog but close enough. Courtney bends down to hug me and whispers in my ear, “It’s good to have you back sis. I’ve missed you. I’m here when every you want to talk. But I ride shotgun this trip. And you owe me an explanation on how you got all those love bites and bruises”.

Now my sister Courtney and I have never been close. She always had this need to try and beat me at everything. She was the youngest of us kids to talk. The youngest to walk and the youngest to turn. Hell, she even turned two years before I did. Fenris was seventeen when he turned and I turned the first time the summer after I graduated high school. But everyone loves Courtney, including me. She is tall and all legs like a baby fawn. Her hair is the color of dark coffee with a splash of crème and her eyes like two giant topaz. She has pouty sultry lips, a younger version of our mother. They both can stop men dead in their tracks with just one look.

Sometimes I envy her. She has the perfect life. Perfect husband. Perfect family. But at the end of the day, I admit I never had the urge to get married and have pups or kids as humans call them, which is probably why I never put so much stock into the whole “find your mate” thing when I was younger. Then there’s the whole offspring equation. I shudder at the thought of having pups to take care of. I am still dumb founded how Courtney pushed out 5 of those little things. Of course, two were practically born at the same time, born just minutes apart. Aside from her and Travis, no one knows which girl was born first. In their eyes, they were born at the same time. I always tease Courtney that she has six kids if you include Travis. Goddess knows he acts like a child, I think as a smirk crosses my face. I’m glad Courtney has to deal with all that and not me.

As I grew older and still had not found my mate yet, my parents went so far as to sign me up and make me attend every possible pack related event while I was still home, hoping I would find my mate. But he never materialized. Who would have thought I would find him in a bar? My bar and human. Doubtful. Plus, the amount of alcohol I drank last night and no sex for six months, well it’s a wonder a didn’t end up humping a barstool. One thing is for sure, Griff always helped keep those urges at bay. Whether it was one of his special teas or one of his special talents, he always took care of Birdy and I.

I let out a heavy sigh and walk to my bathroom to start my daily regime. I stand in the shower letting the warm water caress my skin, and can’t help but think about last night. I think about his lips on mine and how his touch seemed to light a fire in me. I shake my head and think to myself this is just ridiculous. He and I could never make it work. As my luck, would have it, the Moon Goddess would bless me with a human. She knows it’s against everything I am to turn a human. So, how does she expect us to be mates, if we truly are?

As I brush my teeth I look at the trail of hickeys leading up and down my neck and what do I see but the biggest right where my mark will go if I ever mate. Hell, Griff constantly left hickeys there, always careful not to bite and mark me but nothing ever as big as this. Short of there being teeth marks, it looks like I have been marked. I gentle rub my fingertips over the bruise and am startled by a wave of pleasure that courses through my body. I glance at my thighs and notice the spattering of finger sized bruises. You can tell these are not your typical run into thing bruises. You can see very clearly how these were made by someone holding me in a very sexual way. I drop my toothbrush and break out of the trance I was in. I quickly finish getting ready.
True to his word, dad had us on the rode in less than fifteen minutes after the monsters assaulted me with their screams of joys. I can only praise the Moon Goddess that all the kids but one are traveling with mom and dad in their vehicle. Courtney giggles as I slipped into the backseat, tossing the keys to Travis and that would be the one, I think to myself.

It isn’t often that I relinquished control of driving but I need to nurse the mother of all hangovers. It takes a lot to get a werewolf drunk and damn it if I wasn’t three sheets to the wind last night. Guess in a way it’s a good thing Mr. Fuckable left when he did or I’m pretty sure he would have been riding something other than his Harley.

In our family, usually the backseat driver gets to select the music but I’m not in the mood to fight with Courtney today so I let her play her latest music obsession. Did I mention she can’t carry a tune? I slip on my headphones hoping my music will drown out her singing, which reminds me of two cats fighting over a screeching owl. I snicker to myself at the mental image of that. Soon, I find myself drifting off to sleep, dreaming about being in the arms of a certain Conri brother.

Next thing I know I am jolted awake to a loud metallic thud and the feel of someone shoving my feet out from under me. Instinctively I grab my gun and next thing I know I’m sitting straight up in the backseat of the truck with my .45 pointed at Courtney’s face.

“Shit, Raelynne. Quick draw McGraw aren’t you?” Courtney yells as she grabs the end of my gun and points it towards the floorboard”.

“Well Fuck Courtney. It’s not like you don’t know what I do for a living. I’m packing twenty-four-seven unless I’m in my fur, which isn’t that often considering where I work and when I work” I yell back.

Seems I slept most of the way to the ranch. It wasn’t until we hit the cattle guards that Courtney knocks my boots off the armrest to wake me up. Guess she never heard the expression let sleeping dogs lie. I glare at the back of her head and growl.

I sit forward in the seat and roll down the window to catch my first breaths of home. Home. This is home. Where I grew-up, my first shift, my first kiss, my first fight. So many firsts.

Maybe coming back to where I started from will help me move beyond the pain I feel after losing Griff. Help me figure out what to do now. Figure out if I really do have a mate and that he is human. Would he be willing to being turned? If not will dad be open to the idea of me having a human mate? Would dad except him? Too many woulds racing around in my head.

With my mind’s eye, I see Birdy lift her head and stretch knowing she will get to run soon. It’s been a long time since I let her run free. I try and remember when the last time was. It was about a week before the accident. Since then the most I’ve done is shift in my room to let her stretch her legs and let her lay on one of Griff’s shirts. Her sense of smell is so much better than mine and we both found comfort in his scent. I can see Birdy starting to pace with excitement.