Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 5 (14 page)

He was worried about Aradia
and he would be lying if he said that she hadn't meant anything to
him. To be brutally honest, Aradia was his first real friend. He
sometimes hung with other people at school but because of his
secret he couldn't risk revealing too much. Therefore, his friends
mostly consisted of his family. He was attractive enough to get
asked out on dates but they never lasted. After his mother had
left, Roy had never felt like he could ever trust another woman.
His relationships never lasted what with him keeping secrets and
all. Plus the feeling of paranoia he always felt. His entire school
life he had been approached by girls but never bothering to get
close to them. There were other female werewolves living in Salem
but most of them were his relatives. Also in regards to dating a
fellow werewolf, there other types of protocol Roy had to follow.
He had seen others try and seen them end up in arranged marriages.
Rumor had it was that was the reason his parents had married as
well. So such an option was not possible at least not for him. All
this in addition to hearing numerous horror stories about Brenna's
failed marriage made Roy sure that the last thing he wanted was to
have a relationship with a fellow werewolf.

Aradia, however, had changed
all that. She wasn't a werewolf but she had been something special.
She had forgiven him when he stood her up, she had helped him when
he had broken loose from his bonds, and she had stayed by his side
all night when he was in his wolf form. Most of all, she had been
the one to approach him. Whenever Roy met someone, he always put up
barriers between them. Not many girls had the patience to break
through such barriers but Aradia had. She had hung out with him,
talked to him, and done so much more. Finding out she had powers
made things even better. Now he had a friend he could be perfectly
honest with.

He had had romantic feelings
for her. After all, she was the first female to really get to know
him and she was attractive. Upon Dax entering the picture though
things had unavoidably changed. At that point Roy had been
determined to win Aradia at any cost but then Melina
appeared.

He then glanced down to the
lady of his heart who clung to him like a damsel would to a knight.
Roy couldn't help but chuckle under his breath. When he and Aradia
had been dating so to speak Roy had noticed complications. He
wasn't stupid and he sure wasn't blind. He could tell that Aradia
and him were not completely compatible. She would flirt with
everything that moved even when she knew Roy didn't like it. Roy
liked to kiss passionately and Aradia sure as hell didn't. Roy
liked to protect his woman and offer support in any way possible.
Aradia was too independent to let anybody be her
protector.

Truth to be told, Roy wanted
a typical woman who would need him completely. He wanted a woman
who would become his wife, cook his meals, and take care of his
children. All the while he provided her with everything she could
ever want. Aradia was definitely not that type. Melina, however,
was different. He remembered the first time had ever seen her. In
spite of her being human, he had never seen anything so beautiful.
He had even thought she was more beautiful than Aradia. So when
Melina started showing him affection he naturally jumped at such an
opportunity. Unfortunately, since Melina was a human Roy could not
risk getting close to her.

In spite of his best
efforts, Melina had gotten close to him. So close that he had
almost killed her one night when he had transformed. He had thought
at that point there was no way in hell she would ever be with him
again. This was true because after that Melina had avoided him like
the plague. Yet on occasion he would catch her glimpsing at him and
he had still felt himself drawn to her. However, after what
happened in the woods... how could Roy be so insensitive as to
pretend it didn't happen?

Naturally, he tried going
back to his first love but by that time it was obvious Aradia had
fallen for Dax. There had been a few dalliances though where Roy
thought Aradia might actually choose someone else besides him or
Dax. Then there came the night where Melina had been almost
abducted...

Roy gritted his teeth
because to this day he still felt like hunting down the creeps that
tried to hurt her. He knew Aradia had saved her life by risking her
own but when he saw Melina running in fright in the middle of the
cold streets... He remembered how afraid he was for her, how
worried, and most especially how angry. It had all turned out
alright with both Aradia and Melina being safe but still Roy tried
to deny his feelings for Melina. She was, after all, still a human
and although it was tried several times a human and werewolf
pairing was never encouraged. Therefore, he tried putting distance
between her and him. He had even tried insisting that Aradia was
his mate-for-life. In the end, he realized he only been fooling
himself. Aradia didn't love him and he didn't love Aradia. There
was an attraction between them but there really wasn't anything
else. Their personalities were too different in addition to their
own desires and ambitions.

Melina wasn't though, she
was the type of woman who could depend on Roy. Wherever he went,
she was by his side and that was the way he liked it. Melina would
cook him meals, massage his shoulders, help him into his cage on
the nights of the full moon, and more. She was also more passionate
than Aradia had ever been.

He knew it was
disrespectful, being in his sick uncle's house, but he couldn't
help but think of all the times he and Melina had made out
passionately. Places from the back of his truck, to the girl's
locker room, the library in the school, hell even the bathroom in
the diner. Most of all, he remembered the first time they had ever
made love. He gripped Melina tighter against his body when he
remembered their first love making. It had been in his room, when
his father and brothers were out. Melina had come over to help him
with a school project so to speak. Although it had been awkward
since it was his first time the experience had been thoroughly
enjoyable. Melina, who wasn't a virgin, had known exactly what to
do. She knew where he would like to be touched and how he would
like to be touched. She guided him like a teacher would a student
and Roy had been an apt pupil. The second experience had been
absolutely delicious and ever since then the two of them had acted
like a pair of junkies. Roy couldn't get enough of Melina and
Melina couldn't get enough of Roy. Whenever they had the time, Roy
and Melina would find some secluded spot and consummate their love
again and again.

Their relationship had
become more than Roy could have ever hoped for. He loved Melina and
she loved him. Furthermore, his family loved Melina too. In fact,
according to one of their Aunts the family was a lot more impressed
with Melina than Aradia. It was no big deal to see Melina with Roy
wherever he went. Therefore, bringing her to see a sick family
member was no big thing.

Besides,
Roy thought grimly,
my alpha may not
last that long. The least I can do before I lose him is get his
blessing.

Roy wanted to be optimistic
about his alpha getting better but that was like giving himself
false hopes.

Melina had only seen Roy's
alpha once before and that was during Aradia's coronation. Roy had
tried to introduce her but things had been so busy that day that
the opportunity never arose. It had only been one year ago, and
Melina remembered what the man looked like. She had expected to see
a sickly version of Roy lying in the bed. She didn't expect to see
a ghostly pale, wizened, blood shot eyed, and gauntly old
man.

His head lolled to the right
and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth. Flecks of drool was
dried upon his mouth and lips. His dark hair had been laced with
sliver like one would lace food with arsenic. A horrid dying smell
was thick in the room which made Melina wonder what the hell it was
that kept the others from fleeing. A quick glance to the left
answered her question intimately. There in the corner of the room
stood a tall young woman with her arms around three young children.
The young woman was trying hard to restrain her sobs while the
children wept openly. Two of them even murmuring "Papa, Papa," in
between their crying. Melina tried to hold back her own tears and
looked away. Only to see a woman on her right murmuring Spanish
prayers under her breath and slowly counting on her rosary
beads.

Later that night there was a
meeting in the middle of the Salem woods. The meeting was usually a
bonfire in a specially reserved secret place known only to the
werewolves of Salem. There were three major werewolf packs living
in Salem: the Silver Moon pack, the Dark Moon Pack, and the
Crescent Moon pack. The Silver Moon pack was Roy's entire family,
from his intimate to his extended, and since it was their family
experiencing a crisis they were the only ones invited. The meeting
would consist of the Alphas from the other packs coming to see all
of them and discuss what would happen in the future. Melina came
along because according to Roy she was already part of his family
at least in his eyes. Al, at the time Roy had said this, had turned
his head to mime gagging. Their father had no objection so there
was Melina being helped out of the truck by her boyfriend. As they
made their way to the bonfire, hand in hand, Melina thought back to
what she had seen earlier on that day.

"How is his wife handling
it?" Melina asked him

Roy sighed deeply.
"Badly."

Al had been listening and
ran up beside them. "Elena had drinking problems before she hooked
up with our Uncle."

"He was the reason she got
sober," Robbie interrupted as he joined up at Roy's side and
earning him a mean glare from Al.

Regardless, Al went on to
say, "anyway with Adrian getting sick and all...well it should be
no surprise that she would turn back to the drink."

He snorted disdainfully.
"Nowadays, she stays up all night boozing and leaving the kids to
fend for themselves. Her boss is threatening to fire her, the kids'
grades are slipping, and social services have been by
twice."

"They have asked us for
character references," Roy grumbled.

Al laughed harshly. "It's
hilarious that they would expect to hear lovely praise of her from
us."

Melina raised her eyebrow at
that but Al didn't seem to notice. "They have already discussed
taking the children away. Phil and Lupe are thinking about taking
them in which does make sense. They are family after all and Phil
and Lupe have no children."

Jose looked over his
shoulder at his sons walking by Melina. "It would satisfy a lot of
people. The kids would be able to stay in school, and finish their
education."

"Why don't Phil and Lupe
have children?" Melina couldn't help but ask.

It was as if an f-bomb had
been dropped by an Evangelical preacher during the Sunday ceremony.
The whole group went eerily quiet and the air seemed to fill up
with awkward tension. No one glared at her which made Melina very
thankful but also none of them looked up and none of them
moved.

"What?" Melina finally
asked.

Jose sighed deeply but it
was Al who spoke, "Lupe had an affair and then a couple of nights
after she confessed to it Phil got loose from his cage and attacked
Lupe."

Melina gasped.

"That's why Lupe has the
scars," Jose with his son, "that's why she is a
werewolf."

"They have gotten over it,"
D said as if he was trying to defend their marriage. "But things
haven't been the same between them. We kind of hoped that once
Aradia healed Lupe things would get better but..."

D trailed away.

The whole group went silent
once again not even Melina said anything as they went onto where
the bonfire had already been lit.

Melina easily recognized the
other two Alphas standing in front of the bonfire. They looked like
two lethal guards, the way they surveyed the crowd and glanced from
left to right so sharply. She also saw Roy's other relatives,
standing nearby or sitting on the various logs that were laid
around the bonfire. What really struck her was how miserable they
all looked. They were usually a very happy bunch but now of all of
them shuffled their feet and stared at the ground. Melina could
easily guess what they were really worried about.

Roy clutched on to her hand
tighter and pulled her to a log where his brothers had already
taken seats. A few of the werewolves raised their eyebrows at the
human in their midst but none of them said anything. Mysteriously,
once Roy sat down so did everyone else. The crowd fell into a
hushed silence.

A momentary dramatic pause
passed before Adolfo, the Alpha of the Dark Moon pack, who stood in
front of fire spoke. He was the one who stood on the left. He
cleared his throat dramatically and then said in a very bold and
imperious tone, "as we do with every meeting we begin this one by
telling the story of the werewolf."

Castel, the Alpha of the
Crescent Moon pack who stood on the right, then spoke. "The story
of how the first werewolf was born and how we came to be a people
living right here in Salem."