Page 47 of Meeting Her Mate

I stuck to the main road, relying on the arc-sodium lamp lights to guide me back to the commune. I had learned that from here to Grimm Abode, the single road was lit with arc-sodium lamps. It was the only good thing that the mayor and previous alpha had accomplished, or so the pack members told me.

Just then, as I was about to head up the road, I heard rustling noises behind me. Thinking that it was probably a cat or stray dog, I ignored it and kept walking. Then the rustling changed into an altogether different sound: footsteps.

“You’re a lot taller than they tell me,” a voice said. A voice I had heard once before.

“And who is going about telling you things about me?” I asked, turning to face Ralph, the leader of the vampires.

Ralph laughed a laugh that was tense with menace. He approached me casually, whistling, hands in his pockets and a strut in his steps. He held out his hand. I could not believe his audacity. When I did not shake it, he put it back in his pocket.

“Ralph Emerson, named after the great Ralph Waldo Emerson. I don’t think we’ve met,” he said. “You must be the new talk of the town, Will Grimm.”

“What do you want?”

“Oh, I just wanted to size you up, see for myself what the hoopla was all about. Apparently, you’ve been giving some people, including my people, a run for their money. I can’t have that, Will. I have a business to run, you see. Mouths to feed. Well, you know what I mean. If I stopped my business today, could you imagine what all the vampires across the state would do if they didn’t get their daily fix of blood? There would be unchecked chaos. People would die.” As Ralph said this, he took out a cigarette and lit it. “May I offer you a Pall Mall?”

“You have drawn a dark curtain over this town. Your goons patrol the streets. You are smuggling not just blood but dangerous drugs into the country. On top of that, you threatened my pack when your men came to attack the commune. You treat this town as your hunting grounds. Tell me one good reason why I shouldn’t just kill you right now?” There was that rage again, making my veins throb, making me see red.

“You appear out of nowhere, attack my patrollers in the forest, kill many of my men outside your commune, disrupt my business, and force my hand. Why don’t you give me a reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now?”

It was a good thing that I was outside of town limits. A drunken werewolf was powerful and capable of immense destruction and bloodshed. I shifted into my wolf form and growled at Ralph.

“Now we’re talking,” Ralph said, grinning. He threw his cigarette away and lifted his fists in the air. He bared his fangs and hissed at me.

He was fast, but I was faster. Every time he moved swiftly to attack me, I attacked him first. I tore through his leather jacket with my claws, ripped open his skin, and threw him in the air.

He resiliently got up and took a pistol out of his jacket, aiming it at me. I swerved, barely dodging the first shot, then ducked, narrowly avoiding the second bullet. As he kept shooting, I kept running toward him. I reached him just as his clip emptied and slashed the gun out of his hands.

Enough was enough. I tackled him and pinned him to the ground.

“If I die, my people will rebel. Do you want the blood of the people of Fiddler’s Green on your hands?”

I shifted back, now standing over him with my foot on his chest.

“I’m not afraid of you or your people,” I said.

“Fine! I surrender, then,” Ralph said. “You won. Are you going to kill some defenseless old vermin such as me? Wouldn’t that go against your principles?”

I lifted him by his collar, holding his face close to mine so he could see the hatred seething through me. “I have no principles when it comes to vampires.”

“Good, and I don’t have any principles when it comes to werewolves either. Which is why I hope you understand why I’m doing this.” He cackled like a madman, then suddenly brought a dagger out from one of his pockets. I let him go just in time to miss what would have been otherwise a lethal stab.

But now Ralph stood free and far away, out of my reach.

“It would have been so simple if I’d killed you just then,” Ralph said. “But it’s not very courteous to murder your foes on the first meeting, is it?” To my surprise, he walked over to me, stowing his dagger away back in his pocket. “Here’s what would have happened if you’d gone through with killing me.”

Ralph snapped his fingers.

I saw around fifty red dots appear on my body at once.

“Oh, yeah,” Ralph smirked. “We’ve upgraded. And we’ll be keeping an eye on you. This was a warning call. Next time there won’t be one. Stay out of our way, and we’ll stay out of yours.”

He snapped again, making all the laser dots disappear.

“Au Revoir, Wilhelm Grimm,” Ralph said, waving his hand as he walked back into the wilderness. “You’ve been warned.”

Chapter 17: Alexis

“The audacity of that fucking asshole!” I yelled and angrily threw a huge rock into the shallow depths of the warehouse harbor. My body quivered as Will finished telling me of his confrontation with Ralph.

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