Adam has always told me that, even as a human, I'm more prone to coyote behaviour then he'd like to admit.
'Tricky creatures, curious by nature and often get into far more trouble than they ought to otherwise.' Adam chides and his brow would always furrow, just so. 'Far too much.'
I'm a little inclined to agree. Not just because he's Alpha, or how I recently became his mate, but because I have the scars to prove him right. If you ask me, scars serve as the best reminders. If Adam's constant Alpha voice of reason wasn't there to call me back, at the very least my body knows its limit and will do it for me, right? Hasn't steered me wrong, yet.
Sometimes trouble just finds me. When I'm friends with a teleporting, Scooby doo loving vampire, work alongside a metal savvy fey, while living in werewolf territory, sometimes trouble is impossible to avoid. Particularly when I stack up my status of being a skin walker next to the company I keep. Lately, however, I've been steering clear of it where I can. Dating a slightly over protective Alpha Werewolf does that to a gal and when he sticks his pack on guard duty they know better than to go against orders.
The wolves guard duty works like clockwork during the night. Ben and a newer submissive wolf take up first, Warren and a wolf with blond fur and deep grey eyes take second, Darryl and his mate occupy third. Sam put in guard when he could, hospital hours were hard enough on him as it was without having me as a roommate and I made sure his catering to me was minimal. They interchanged partners every now and again, but the time frame in which they guarded my homestead had never faltered since...
The knock at the door told me that not only was it 8 PM, but that Ben's duty lying at my front door was over. Pulling the door open only a crack, I eyed the form outside and never thought that Ben's scent could be more of a comfort as he pulled his shirt on. Turning around, we locked eyes for a moment, his scowl pulled into a smirk as he pulled the material down his torso a little slower.
"Mercedes..." he drawled quietly in his British accent, and he did a good job of hiding the exhaustion from the change in his voice, though I knew his eyes betrayed him. "Fancy meeting you here."
He must have seen me shutter, or maybe he could smell the momentary pull of anxiety that seized the muscles in my stomach because he dropped the rest of his shirt quickly and adverted his eyes, crossing his arms in front of himself defensively. Being able to sense emotions beyond body language was a royal pain in the butt from time to time. Werewolves were fine tuned to sensing them, along with lies, so covering up bad moods was mostly futile in a pack setting. One on one was just as bad and lately, when I'd rather be curling up in a ball under the covers, the few people I let in wouldn't allow much of that. Ben was at least, courteous of that, mostly.
Opening the door to let him in, I forced an amused smile and invited him in with a gesture.
"Do I need to sick Adam on you?" I laughed and the smile became a little more genuine on my lips as that awkward tension began to disperse.
His eyes slid closed as his own smile grew. "Now, now Mercedes, no need for hostility."
Last year, friendly banter with Ben seemed beyond hope for me. These days, even if he's not the easiest to get along with, I consider him something of a friend. If anything.
"On top of being a sick, sick man, you're also a glutton for punishment," I chastised. "And you know it, how else are you able to get your coworkers to pay for your lunches every week?"
"And all women are hopeless bitches." Ben said with an indifferent shrug.
He narrowly avoided a hit that time, my knuckles grazing his arm as he gracefully stepped out of the way and smirked. "Which reminds me, my dear Mercedes, would you like me to show you my tricks of the trade? I'll need the use of your computer, however."
He must have picked up on my own confusion because he snorted and nodded his head towards my office. "How I'm able to 'twist arms and take names.'" He added.
He followed me to the office, the computer already booted up. "Oh, the website that won you that..."
"I'm not promising anything remotely clean." He cut me off abruptly, causing me to spin on my heel to stare him down.
Ben cowered, almost immediately. "That's if you..."
Pushing the office chair towards him, I jerked a thumb towards the machine on the desk. "Go for it, this could be interesting."
Or at least give Samuel something to do tomorrow. He was a little more computer literate then I was if my PC was littered with Trojans come morning. I was better under the hood of a car anyways, viruses weren't really my forte.
Leaning back against the desk, Ben had the internet window open, the address punched in and his lips pulled into a grin before I had the time to question him further about his prize winning website.
I probably should have felt that amused excitement boil up within him. I've seen enough Japanese Anime to be aware of what was playing on the monitor, joined by the loud moans played at full through the small speakers at either side of the desk.
"And I've sure you seen enough of it to know where this is going." Ben said smugly, gesturing to the monitor. "The things one can find on a message board, of course one has to wade through piles of..."
"This is by far, not the 'Good Stuff' I know you want to refer it to." I seethed, my eyes catching the tentacles of a creature going a little too far up the skirt of a young Japanese sailor uniform clad girl.
"Jesus, Ben." I was shielding my eyes while simultaneously flagging him out. "You are seriously one fucked up..."
The shrieks of the girl died as the bastard laughed, but he rose and passed me quickly, making his way to the front door before I had a chance to finish.
"So you keep telling me." and he paused, halfway out the door and the smile disappeared just as quickly. "Mercedes, you of all people, know that even with the best intentions, we can create monsters out of those we... care about..."
I nodded, eyes going to the linoleum, letting his words sink in. He'd know all about it too.
"I'll have you know," He said softly, with a quiet chuckle. "That you're probably my favorite out of all those monsters, regardless of intentions."
Ben was gone before I looked back up and I had to smile to myself. Only Ben could give you a compliment that never sits quite right.