A Pack Of His Own (Ch. 23)

Chapter Twenty-Three

It had been almost a week since the shitshow in Nebraska when Tommy walked into the diner again, almost as if nothing had even happened. Lacey was still waiting to hear back from Jubilee's sister about taking up lessons on fae magic, but the fae cashier had insisted it was more about her sister just making sure she could set up a regular time than any reluctance to want to teach her. But Will had honestly had an assfull of the mage, and looked on him with a sense of trepidation, especially since he had a rather flamboyantly scruffy Latino man with him in tow.

"You'd better not be here to make my life more difficult, Tommy," Will grumbled. "You insisted the last thing was going to be--"

"Yeah yeah, that last one's on me and my bad intel, Will, I promise you," Tommy sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "This is me trying to make things right for you by offering you some aid in getting more established within your pack, and I don't mean your personal pack, I mean the greater werewolf House that you're being eyed on to take on possible leadership of."

"This kid?" the Latino said, his accent from somewhere Will couldn't place. "He doesn't look like much, but that's good. Those who have to take on the big jobs should always downplay their importance with their appearances."

Will looked over the guy the wizard had brought along with him more carefully now. He was lanky and almost scrawny, but also showed signs of being fairly muscular. He was dressed in a turquoise blue button-up shirt that was unbuttoned at the top, and black jeans, as well as turquoise cowboy boots. He also had a red kerchief wrapped around his neck like a scarf. His hair was feathered and stylish. He had an unconventional charm and style about him that almost made him look more like an international model than the northern American werewolves typically dressed. If the north American werewolves were dressed closely to lumberjacks, the south American werewolves were apparently dressed as gauchos, a sort of southern cowboy.

"You don't exactly look all that threatening either, amigo," Will said to him. "But I've learned the hard way that you never write anyone or anything off casually, otherwise it can result in you fighting a giant monster that's in danger of squashing you and some of the people you love."

The Latino grinned and gave an appreciative nod. "I like you, irmão," he said, patting Will on the shoulder. "We're gonna get along well. They call me Eddie."

"No," Tommy corrected, "they call you Reckless Eddie, but Will can call you Eddie, because I call you Eddie, and I'm smarter than almost all those other people, and I'm the one providing the introduction. One of the reasons I want you to spend time Eddie is that he's going to teach you about how to cultivate an image, and how to set expectations without even thinking about it, so when you act contrary to that image, it takes people unawares and gives you a distinct advantage in dealing with them."

"Beyond that, I intend to teach you a bit beyond these shores," Eddie said. "Your father has returned back to the European and Asian werewolves, and it's very easy to get incredibly insular, so we need to make sure you're not becoming one of those hillbilly rednecks who thinks that the United States is the only country that matters."

"How different are the werewolves of London compared to the werewolves of Denver?" Will asked, sort of amused by the idea that his kinfolk were absolutely nothing like him.

"How different are jazz and polka?"

"Seriously?"

"All that and more," Eddie said.

"Anyway, I'm gonna leave Eddie here, and you two can swap details, and Eddie's got a magical talisman that'll connect him between here and his home, so he can come and go on his own without me. Heard you're looking into connecting one of your girls with some of her fae kinfolk?"

"We've got a fae waitress," Will said, "and her sister's willing to teach magic to Lacey, but they haven't gotten started yet. Both sides are checking the fine print a few extra times."

"Probably for the best," Tommy said with a nod. "I dated a fae girl at one point. When we broke up, she took damn near everything in my apartment, as 'recompense for her grievances.'"

"Mãe de Deus, what did you do to that poor girl?" Eddie asked, shaking his head.

"Refused to go to a party her uncle was throwing for her cousin in Dubai," Tommy chuckled. "The Saudi royals have something personal against me, and I told her I wasn't welcome out there, and she said if that was true, then I'd clearly done something to offend her and her entire family lineage. So, before I got home the next day, she cleaned out my place and took basically everything of any value that wasn't nailed down."

"At least you didn't have to worry about her coming back into your life," Will said. "That sounds like it was the only good thing to come of that."

"Well, one of two good things to come from it."

"What was the other?"

"One of the items she took from my place? It was a cursed amulet. I couldn't voluntarily get rid of it - it had to be taken from me, much like I'd taken it from one of my first missions with the Wizards' House off a man I'd killed in self-defense," Tommy laughed. "Now she's got it, and she can't get rid of it until someone takes it from her."

"What's it do?"

"Random acts of misfortune, ranging from the minor to the truly epic," Tommy said. "Even Silversmith himself couldn't see a way to break it without unleashing all the negative energy on me, so I just left it laying around my house, basically daring someone to steal it from me. Didn't know it was going to be my own ex-girlfriend."

"She still have it?" Eddie asked.

"Not entirely sure," Tommy said, tilting his head with a smug smile. "No way in hell was I gonna tell her she'd taken something cursed from my house and done me a huge favor. She invited misery into her own life by robbing a mage, and unfairly I might add. I think she mostly just wanted to take some of the other magical jewelry I had around the house. But you know what they say, you took the box, so you best keep everything in it."

"Better lucky than good, as the saying goes," Will grinned. "But sure, I'll accept your friend as a teacher. The more people I've got teaching me, the better. There's so much to know that I know I don't know that I can't even being to guess at all the things I know I don't know. So, when do we start, Eddie?"

"Let's go out and get some practice now," Eddie said. "You can take off, Tommy. I'll make sure I do what I need to, so as to settle the ledger."

"Friendship isn't something that can be added and subtracted from," Will said with a roll of his eyes. "It's non-transactional. And like I said, I ain't mad. We all get bad info from time to time. But I'm also not going to say no to free help."

Tommy gave both men a nod and then stepped over towards the doorway. "Then I'll leave you two to it. And maybe sometime soon I can buy you a beer, Will."

"Sounds good. Now get out of here before someone gets the idea that I let you eat here for free." The mage opened the front door, except it didn't seem to be opening to the area outside of the diner, but a rainy San Francisco street. Before Will could think about it, though, Tommy stepped through and closed the door behind him, and everything went back to the way that it was. "You ever get used to that sort of thing?"

"Not really," Eddie admitted, "but then again, would you really want to?" The smile on Eddie's face reflected the one Will felt in his own heart. Now that he was on the inside of the Veil, he couldn't ever see himself being satisfied being on the outside of it. There was simply too much joy and beauty in the knowledge that so much of the supernatural was real.

"Fair enough, I suppose." He turned to look at Billy. "Gonna step out for a bit. You and Freya okay on your own?"

"No problem-o, bosserino," Billy said as he polished the counter. The place was mostly pretty quiet, in between the lunch rush and the dinner rush, that two-hour sweet spot where the diner didn't see much in terms of traffic. Billy had originally been a little surprised to be brought behind the Veil, but in the end, the burnout didn't seem to care much one way or the other, and it certainly had contextualized a bunch of weird shit Billy had seen over his life. Plus, knowing that the diner was a Sanctuary meant that whenever he was at work, he was safe, that just added an extra little incentive to come into work every day.

As Will led Eddie out the back door of the diner, he considered the man for a second. "I keep hearing bits of another language around your conversation," he said to him. "But it's not Spanish."

"It's Portuguese," Eddie said. "I'm from Brazil."

"How'd you and Tommy meet?"

"Before he was a Captain, Tommy was just your everyday wizard gun for hire, and he and I found ourself playing on the same team for a couple of gigs," Eddie said. "Then, one day, Tommy had need to start organizing his own gigs, and he wanted to put together a handful of people he could trust. Now, needless to say, I'd built a very carefully cultivated image as an impulsive madman, so why he came to me at first, I didn't really understand."

They stepped past the line of trees at the back of the dinner's parking lot, and into a small field that was out the back, before a stiff upturn leading up the side of a mountain. There was plenty of space for them to walk around, and Will and the rest of his Pack had used it as a sparring ground. They'd even put a couple of mounds of dirt, to give them places to play King of the Hill.

"But then as I talked to him, I realized our Mister Clarke is much sharper than people give him credit for," Eddie continued. "He'd sort of seen through my disguise and recognized it as an act, because it was too perfect. I'd done too good a job of building up my camouflage and I guess I hit the uncanny valley for being 'too reckless' and that's the first rule I want you to learn from me - never get predictable. You have to learn how to be flexible and adaptable but never at the cost of developing habits."

"Habits by themselves aren't good or bad," Will said. "I read a book about it. In fact, some of the stuff you most want in your life, you want to set a habit of doing."

"Sure, but here's the thing - when you do a thing is just as important as how you do a thing," Eddie said, starting to hop around a little bit, as if loosening his legs up a little. "Make a habit of doing the things that are important, but don't keep a schedule. Schedules are the enemy. Schedules are patterns and patterns can be exploited. If you always get up or go to sleep at the same time each day, a smart opponent can learn that, and they can use that to your advantage. They can attack when you're most asleep."

"What's that even mean, anyway?" Will asked, pulling his arms to stretch them. "Is there even such a thing as 'most asleep'?"

"You're 'most asleep' typically about four hours after you've gone to bed," Eddie said, bouncing up and down. "You've settled into a REM state, and you'll be at your most disoriented when you wake up from that, slowing your reaction times down by as much as a couple of seconds for at least two minutes, until the adrenaline kicks in."

"How do you know that?"

"Some of it is study. Some of it is field experience. Some of it is just stuff you hear from other operators that might as well be an old wives' tale, but until the day it's proven wrong, you can take it as God's Honest Truth." Eddie made a slight feint, and Will sprung back a little bit, as Eddie pointed at him with a grin, in a sort of 'gotcha' moment. "You a little jumpy there, Will?"

"Just don't want you to get the drop on me, Eddie."

"Oh, I will, don't you worry about that," Eddie said with another mock feint, one that Will didn't fall for this time. "Just worry about how you're going to get out of it when I do."

"What make y--" Will was mid-sentence when Eddie leaped into the air and towards him, coming from much higher than Will had expected and so he had to roll back and shift to one side, the strike coming down into the space Will had just been in only a fraction of a second ago. "Tricksy."

"I've met Clayton," Eddie said, rolling to turn the miss into a kick, which Wil batted away. "Not a bad guy, but he's a traditionalist. He wants to do things like his father did, and his father before him."

"And you're no Daddy's boy?" Will said, trying to get a punch of his own in, although Eddie was a step ahead of him, parrying the blow.

"Good! You're striking without being told to. Proactive thinking. It's a good sign. And no," Eddie said as he flipped out another kick, this one Will just barely getting out the way of. "I never knew my father. The South American Werewolf House is much more dog eat dog, and my father died before I was old enough to know him. We think. Nobody's entirely sure."

For the next hour or so, they were back and forth with each other, each man getting a few strikes in, but generally Will had to admit he lost, as Eddie's moves were, as his name implied, unpredictable, and on more than one occasion, Eddie would give up a small advantage only to get a much more painful strike in return. That was a lesson Will knew he was going to have to take under serious consideration - short term sacrifice for unforeseen cumulative gains.

As a win in his own column, Eddie seemed to find Will incredibly hard to read, as if Will's actions were almost impossible to see coming, meaning Eddie's reaction time to prepare a block or evade was about half of that it would normally be.

Best of all, however, it almost didn't feel like training. It felt more like two old friends hanging out, just giving each other guff and testing each other's skills. Will could see why Tommy liked Eddie. The man just gave off a ridiculously welcoming vibe to him.

After the hour's workout, the two men were taking a deep breather when Trish came wandering into the grove, shaking her head a little with an expression Will didn't recognize. "Eddie, I thought I told you not to come around here no more," Trish said, a hint of amusement in her tone of voice. "Now you're here bothering my man?"

"Look Trish," Eddie said with a smooth smile. "When we broke up, I agreed to not come back onto your continent seeking to win you back. I didn't say the entire landmass was forbidden to me, because I'd never have agreed to such a stupid deal. But you're looking well. And don't worry, Will, I'm not here to go dragging your girl for another chance. I've got an odd Pack of my own at this point."

"Oh yeah? How odd?" Trish asked, a smug challenging grin on her face.

"I'm bangin' a dragon, among other things," Eddie said, looking down at his feet, his hand rubbing the back of his neck, sheepishly.

"Why, Eddie, you sexual adventurer you," Trish teased. "Good to see you weren't letting being turn down by everyone in our species preventing you from finding love and happiness."

"Oh fuck off, Trish," Eddie laughed. "I never did you that wrong. Wasn't like I cheated on you or anything like that."

"You told me you couldn't be my date to my sister's wedding because you had a football match you had to go to," she said, her tone taking on a distinctly unplayful tone.

"Meu amor, it was Brazil versus Argentina," he said, as if that would set everything right in the world. "I tried explaining this to you at the time, but I could not possibly have skipped out on supporting my team."

"Aaaand that's still why we broke up, Eddie," Trish grumbled, shaking her head. "Well, if you're just teaching Will combat and culture, I suppose that's fine, as long as you're not trying to stuff your weird soccer priorities into his head."

"It's football," Eddie grumbled back at her, "but I know you say this just to try and hurt me, so I refuse to let it get under my skin."

"Too late," Will joked. "Only so much you can do to hide that, amigo."

"We both ended up in better places, Trish, I think we can both agree upon that."

"I guess we can."

"Good," Eddie said, moving over to grab his jacket from where he'd left it hanging in a tree while they sparred. "I'll be back in a week or so and we can continue your training, but you've got a good start, Will. We just need to make sure you're thinking bigger picture, and that you keep thinking that way."

"Thanks Eddie," Will said. "It's good to have someone different to run things past and see what they thin. Just don't get too big a head about it."

"Trust me," Eddie laughed. "That's not going to be a problem. I learned long ago never to get too cocky about anything. See you folks when I see you." He headed into the woods, and stepped behind a tree only to never step out, Will and Trish noticing he'd somehow disappeared in between the trees, using probably the spell Tommy had warned him about.

Will turned to look at his partner with a rugged smile. "So, that guy's one of your exes, huh?"

"Will, stop," Trish said, rolling her eyes with a goofy grin. "You weren't my first partner, just like I wasn't yours. You're just gonna have to learn to live with that. Besides, Eddie's got a lot to learn about pleasing women - he was way too focused on getting himself off when we were dating and not at all concerned about how I was doing. Maybe he's gotten to be a better lover over the years, but I doubt it," she said with a dismissive sniff.

"I can't imagine you came back here to tell me to stop training with your ex-boyfriend, Trish, so what's up?" Will asked, wiping sweat from his brow.

"Oh, right," Trish laughed. "I need you to swing by the house and check on Dina. She's been... a little funny lately."

"Little funny how?"

"On edge, maybe? It's hard to put my finger on it," Trish said. "I don't know. She's a little older than the rest of us, so it can be difficult to get a read on her sometimes. Just stop by the house tonight and give her a bit of personalized affection. Maybe that's all it is."

"Alright, I'll talk to her, make sure she's doing okay."

"Easy enough."

They headed back to Trish's car and drove across campus over to Will's house. The house felt a lot smaller these days than it used to, and Will was starting to consider that they might need to get someplace bigger. It was already paid off, which was nice, but now he had five partners, and six people in a two-bedroom house felt a little bit cramped. An upgrade might be necessary in the near future. Certainly parking in the driveway was starting to get complicated, considering everyone had their own car, and the garage only had room for two.

The inside of his house was certainly way more packed than it had been a year ago, what with the girls moving all their things into his house and giving up their own homes. Wherever he was, they'd explained, that was where the home was. But everyone having their own place, that was a luxury none of them really needed any more, and they would rather have the ability to be near Will when he was home. Of course, they were still trying to be discreet about the fact that Will was sleeping with a teacher, even though there was nothing wrong with it as long as he wasn't in any of her classes.

When they got to the house, April and Lacey were still both in class, and Freya was starting to do dinner prep, contemplating a particular elaborate ham like it had swindled her lunch money. "Hey Freya, where's Dina?" he asked as he tossed his keys into the fishbowl by the door.

"She's in the master bedroom," Freya said with a slight grin on her face. "She was hoping you'd be home early. Trish, you wanna gimme a hand with this?"

"You... want me... to help you... cook?"

"C'mon, live a little. You can't possibly be any worse at it than I was when I started."

Will didn't want to get into the middle of this argument, so he headed over to the stairs and started moving his way up them. He wasn't sure why Dina wouldn't have been hanging out in the living room or the dining room, but maybe her moods were tied to it.

"Hey Dina, I heard you wanted... to... see me?" His words trailed off as his eyes caught sight of her, sitting on the edge of the bed, wearing thigh high slinky leather boots and nothing else, her arms folded over her breasts as her eyes looked at him with almost scolding tone to them.

"Do you realize it's been nearly two weeks since you fucked me last, William?" she said, clicking her tongue as she shook her head. "Two. Weeks. That feels like an eternity. Have I not been living up to my end of the bargain?"

"I'm sorry, Dina, I--"

The older woman stood up and then turned to bend over the bed, turning to offer her toned, tiny athletic backside to him, her hair done up in a bun which made her look much more like a ballerina, although the boots were doing something of a number on his ability to focus. "No need for that, William. I just need you to do your job for this family and take care of my needs."

"Your... your needs?"

"Do I really need to be more explicit William?" She lifted one of her legs up and placed her knee on the edge of the bed, leaning in, to stretch and spread her thighs wide, her back arching in a delicious form that made Will bite his bottom lip. "I wanna be fucked until I can't stand up."

"That's... yeah, I can do that," Will said, as he peeled his shirt up and off his head. "I'm kinda sweaty right now, so I hope that's not a problem."

"I like it," Dina said, purring at him. "It's primal and manly. Now what more do I have to do to get you over here?" She bounced and wiggled her ass a bit. "I don't really know how to twerk, but I can try I suppose, although I don't have much of a booty."

He moved over to get behind the teacher as he grinned at her. "Should I take some special meaning from you keeping the boots on?"

"I dunno, I'm bent over like a bitch in heat," she moaned. "What's it going to take for you to fuck me like one?"

"Yes ma'am," Will said, as he got in position behind her and guided his shaft to her wet slit. She wasn't just wet, either; she was soaking, like she'd been riled up and left wanting. So Will decided not to waste any more time, and slowly eased his entire length into her snatch, as she keened back at him, arching her back and thrusting towards his incoming assault.

"FUCK I've missed this," she whimpered. "Nothing soft today, William. C'mon. Fuck me like you own me. Like you've got your bitch ready to breed."

His position standing at the edge of the bed gave him some serious leverage, and he started hammering into her with the sort of intensity he normally reserved for Trish, the frame of the bed clacking as it smacked against the bed, the whole frame threatening to collapse as his sweaty body plowed into hers again and again.

They certainly weren't quiet, as Dina howled and panted in-between staggered moans that warbled when Will would hit a fast patch. And for half a second, he was worried he was going too hard at her only to see her look back over her shoulder and lock eyes with him, daring him to up his game, as if challenging him to say, 'not enough, not even by half.'

So Will went full force, hammering her quick and deep, the rhythm too fast to set any musical tempo to it, his hips slapping against her ass until finally he could feel her walls clamping around him in hard, tight squeezes, and he thought she was saying something about being ready to cum, but she was sputtering and muttering so incoherently, he couldn't be quite sure, which was good, because he was losing the battle in trying to keep his own release in.

When his body gave way and let loose his seed inside of her cunt, it set off a chain reaction, as her back arched in an almost disturbing way, her face pointed up towards the ceiling as she let out a wicked shriek and then flopped face first onto the bed, pulling him down on top of her as they both fell onto the bed, laughing.

"What the hell was that all about, Dina?"

"I was tired of waiting for my fucking turn," the slightly older woman laughed. "I regret nothing!"

That was enough to set off a giggling fit from both of them that lasted a couple of minutes, while they cuddled in a sweaty, sticky puddle of mess.

"I'll keep that in mind."