Veruca stretched out on the couch and took a sip from her beer, flexing her bare toes against her boyfriend's leg. They were hanging out in their apartment above the shop; the place was decorated much like the downstairs in black leather and spray paint. Oz's face was serious and he seemed irritated by her nonchalance about the entire thing. She hated when he got like that, and she could see her chances of getting laid in the next few hours sinking down to zero.
“It's not like I've never done ink for a fucking vampire before,” she said.
She knew he hated it when she cussed, but for some reason that made her do it more. Veruca dug her heel against the crotch of Oz's faded jeans—not enough to hurt, just enough to show him she was there. Her man was not amused; he picked up her ankle and dropped her leg on the concrete floor. Veruca spilled a spray of beer on her arm.
“You know how important this is, to me anyway. Maybe you could just pretend you give a shit,” he said.
It was the first time she'd ever heard him raise his voice in the three years they'd been together. Veruca sat up straight on the creaky couch, set the bottle on the floor and took off her black shirt. She used it to wipe her arm, refusing to look at him.
“Fine. He brought in this skinny, little side of veal with a scar over her mouth and they had the same thing done with the incense and the design,“ she said, dropping the shirt on the floor. Its shape disappeared in the gloomy mess that was their apartment.
“And you're sure he was a vampire this time?” Oz asked. He was wringing his fucking hands. Mr. King of Cool was actually emoting. It was kind of freaking Veruca out, which contributed to her irritation.
“I think I know a fucking vampire when I fucking see one,” Veruca said as she held up her hand and started ticking off her fingers to illustrate her point, “he didn't cast a reflection, he was pale as fuck. He smelled really good, but also dead. You know how they smell kind of like cold under everything? His skin was like a fucking icicle and he didn't have a pulse, I checked when I was doing my thing,” Veruca said.
“So you're sure the girl wasn't a vampire, too?”
“Nope, she was warm, she smelled scared. She smelled like prey. I know we're supposed to have a creature of the night solidarity thing, but if he ever comes in again, I'm throwing him the fuck out. They fucked in my back room, somehow they totally fucked my table. Like the metal frame was totally fucking bent, I'm going to have to get a new one,” Veruca said.
“And you're still convinced she was human?” he asked with a snort. He was looking at her with those big green eyes of his, the coppery lashes kind of glowing in the low light. Veruca hated that even while he was making fun of her she still wanted him, still saw the fat bottom part of his lip and wanted to sink her teeth into it.
“Like I said, she had a heart beat,” Veruca said.
“That doesn't mean she was a normal girl. Was she bleeding or hurt after all that? Was she limping?” he asked, exasperated. He ran his hands through his wavy, cobalt-blue hair.
“No, she was all fucking blushy and giggly,” Veruca said, quietly. It was the first time she'd thought about it and Veruca realized that was a little weird. The edge of the table looked like a shipwreck and that girl's dress was barely wrinkled, Veruca thought. She pushed her doubts away, though, something she was pretty good at.
“She was human, though, no doubt and that was kind of insulting in itself. He was just playing with his food. Not that it would've been better if he was fucking another vamp, but at least that would've been less disrespectful. I mean I don't want anybody fucking in there, unless they're like, fucking me, of course,” Veruca said with a smirk.
“You wanted him, didn't you?” he asked with disgust.
“He had a good body,” she said with a shrug. Veruca was mostly trying to get him angry. If she couldn't get the reaction she wanted, at least she could still make him feel something. Goading Oz into hate sex wasn't working lately, either, though. Veruca knew she was losing him, but she didn't know how to make it stop.
“But you don't buy the soul thing, you think he's keeping the blonde for a cow,” he said. Oz was hunched beside her, his hands folded again. Veruca hated that she did this to him, made him sad like that, but she couldn't let him go. They were part of each other.
“I like a little danger, you know that,” Veruca said.
Her bravado faltered when she saw the way her words hit him. His eyes were getting watery and his jaw was clenched tight, like he was trying to clamp down on all the things he wanted to scream at her.
“I need to find them.”
“I could follow the scent, the back room fucking reeks of them.”
“I'll go, I'll take Nina,” he said. Her boyfriend stood up and started walking toward the door.
“Nina, right,” Veruca said, flopping back against the couch. When Oz brought up Nina, the only thing to do was momentarily acknowledge defeat.
***
Oz knew it was a mistake to hire Nina in the first place; Veruca had told him as much. Veruca said a normal working in the shop was likely to stumble onto the pack and expose them or get herself killed. Oz couldn't stop himself, though, when the pretty art student came in with her portfolio and her smile. That smile was like the polar opposite of Veruca's; it was open and warm. When Veruca smiled she looked like what she was: the big, bad wolf.
So he'd called Nina and gave her the job. She was an amazing tattoo artist and she wore really tight pants. It was a win win for awhile, until both he and Veruca realized that Oz was falling for the girl. It got to the point that he couldn't finish with Veruca unless he was picturing Nina. Veruca knew; she could smell the heady perfume of his desire whenever Oz was around the other girl. It was so different than the way he'd started to feel about his own mate. Veruca demanded that he fire Nina or something would happen, something bad. She didn't have any rules against hurting people like he did; Veruca only had loyalty to the other werewolves in their pack. Nina was inches away from becoming lunch.
So Oz let her go, to keep her safe and whole, to get her away from him and Veruca before they had the chance to ruin her life. Except part of him couldn't stay away Nina and unfortunately it was the most important part.
Oz knew Nina ran in Schenley Park. They'd talked about it before and he'd even joined her for a jog a couple of evenings while Veruca worked. The park was huge and filled with big, old trees. It had a lot of places to hide. Normally he and Veruca would play out in the country with the rest of the pack during a full moon because they were less likely to run into people and they could hunt game together. Except that cycle, he'd begged off. Oz had been feeling sick, he told them he didn't want to risk an injury, so he locked himself up in the basement of the shop, alone. The first two nights were fine, but somehow on the third he managed to escape, to get to the park, to find Nina. Somehow.
When Oz changed he had limited control of himself. Veruca had taught him to enhance his perceptions, but she wasn't an expert herself. The point was, though, that he still had some control. When he woke up naked on top of Nina's unconscious body, he remembered busting out of the basement, bounding along the side streets and crossing over the rivers following her scent. Oz remembered her screams before he was able to incapacitate Nina with a non-fatal bite. He remember licking the wound tenderly until he fell asleep, pinning the weakened girl beneath his furry paws.
The bite on Nina's leg had already scarred over by morning. Oz realized he was nude so he had taken Nina's sweat pants off; luckily they stretched enough to fit him. Then he carried Nina a few blocks to his friend Evan's apartment in Squirrel Hill. Evan's girlfriend Cordi was home and let them inside. Unlike her boyfriend, Cordi was a normal, but she understood what Oz was, what Evan was. Cordi lent them some clothes so that when Nina came to she wasn't wearing a bloody jogging suit and Oz looked like a human being again.
When she woke up, Nina smiled at him, hugged him. She'd thought he was the one who saved her. Then he had to explain that he was the one who'd attacked her and why. He flashed back to the moment when he'd first met Veruca. Oz had woken up in a pool of his own blood, a twisted scar banded around his shoulder with a naked girl on top of him.
“Your mine now. My body chose yours when I was under,” Veruca had said.
He'd tried to get away from Veruca, but she was right. Oz was hers, he had been drawn to her like the moon draws the tides and the first time that he'd changed, his body chose hers right back. And now that he was tired of Veruca, he'd done the same thing to Nina; marked her with his curse. When Nina finally understood she slapped Oz across the face. She scrambled away from him, falling off Cordi and Evan's bed. Oz landed on top of her, trying to stay her arms.
“Get away from me,” Nina shouted.
She was struggling but still caught between his thighs. Nina kept striking Oz's face, raising bruises. He tried to grab her wrists without doing any more damage.
“Listen to me, you can't do this on your own,” he said, between blows, “you're part of our pack now. If you don't stick with us, you could hurt somebody.”
He finally overpowered her and they were panting in each others' faces.
“I hate you,” she screamed. Damp strands of hair were sticking to her reddened face.
“O.K., hate me, but we need each other,” Oz said calmly.
“I don't need you,” Nina said. She threw him off and grabbed her sneakers off the floor. Nina hopped into her shoes as she passed Cordi and made it to the front door before Oz could sit up. He didn't chase after Nina; he knew within a few days she would find him.
When Veruca came home later that day, Oz told her the truth. She'd taken it with a sullen expression and some bitter invective, but she'd taken it. The next day Nina showed up at the tattoo parlor pale and shaking like a drug addict. Oz finished up the job he'd been working on then took Nina up to the apartment without a word. When they were standing in the cave-like living room, she'd looked at him with her pained, gray-green eyes. Her thin arms were wrapped around her body. Sweat was soaking through the thin cotton of heather-gray hooded t-shirt. She'd pulled the hood up to cover her lank, blonde hair.
“Can you make it stop?” she asked.
“No, Nina, but I can make it a little better,” he said. Oz moved toward her but she just glided further away.
“How? How can you make this better, Oz?”
“I'll find a way, just promise me you won't hurt yourself,” he said.
She'd laughed at that and Oz tried to touch her shoulders. She swatted his hands away and let out another nervous, brittle chuckle.
“The worst part is this thing that you did to me, it makes me want to be near you, it makes me want--”
Nina grabbed him, suddenly, and her mouth came crashing down onto his. They came together cruelly, like animals do. Afterward he'd been tender though, kissing away her tears and making promises. Oz knew it would sting Veruca when she found out, but he was reaching the point where he almost didn't care anymore. He had begun to hate Veruca almost as much as he'd grown to love Nina, as though his affections for one woman were being sapped by the other.
They were all headed for a fall, he knew that now. Oz could think of only one way to keep the pack together, and it required trusting outsiders, something he'd always been loathe to do. It had to work though, this is what those people did; what they were made for. If he could just get the vampire, Oz was convinced he could hold his world together.
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Chapter End Notes:
Schenley Park is a real place in Pittsburgh, there are plenty of squirrels, but no werewolves.