This Bitch Bites Too! - Excerpt from my novel Deadlier Than The Male - Original content exclusive to Steemit

The next morning, Hazel woke before Luke and she allowed him to sleep on. He still had not woken by the time she was dressed and ready to go to breakfast, so she left him.

Already at breakfast were Victoria and Oscar. Hazel spent a good while listening to them talking to each other. Luke entered the dining room presently. He was a little put out at being left in bed alone, but he brightened a little at the array of food.

When there was a lull in the conversation between Oscar and Victoria, Luke asked after Darius.
“He left before dawn, eager to get home, so the servants tell us.” Oscar said.

Hazel thought that she knew that feeling well by now.

There was suddenly a violent commotion from the hall which made them all look towards the door.

The front door had been slammed open and heavy footfalls were heard on the stairs. Then a pause, footfalls on their way back down the stairs and then they heard lots of yelling.

“Where is she?” The angry voice demanded. They heard a murmur of an answer from a member of staff but it was not the correct response for the angry voice yelled again: “Where the hell is she?”

There was another murmur and then “No, not Lady Hardstaff! I want that BITCH Hazel!”

A second later the door to the dining room burst open, slamming back against the wall, splintering the wood around the hinges. An incensed Darius stood in the doorway, part-Wolf and all-fury.

“How dare you!” Victoria snarled at him.
Darius looked right at Victoria but for the notice he took of her, she could have been made of glass, his glare passed over her without recognition.

“Darius…” Oscar warned: “Do not start anything here!”

“That bitch murdered my WIFE!” Darius spat.

All eyes turned to Hazel who also looked around as though expecting to see someone behind her that everyone else was looking at.

“Me?” she asked, the fingers of her right hand resting on her chest.

“Yes, of course I mean you!” Darius started towards her. Luke and Oscar, with Victoria behind them both, stopped him.

“When did this happen and how, Darius?” Victoria asked; the calmness in her voice in an attempt to diffuse his wrath.

“On Halloween night Katherine was attacked in between our cottage and the Inn!” Darius again tried to move forward but was once more stopped by the other men.

“But we followed Hazel all night, Darius.” Luke explained. “She did not have the opportunity…” Luke stopped in mid-sentence, he realised in the chain of events Hazel had had the opportunity.

Hazel was again bewildered. “I did not kill Katherine! She is my friend!”

“When you are Wolf, the only friends you have are your pack; especially as a whelp, when all you have are your Wolf-instincts to guide you.” Luke explained. “Before dawn that night, just after you led the pack on your first kill, you met us all in the woods, the clearing, remember? Do you remember what happened just before you came to meet us Hazel?”

“No. I cannot remember anything. I don’t even know when I changed back.” Hazel said after thinking for a time.

“She is lying!” Darius yelled as he made another lunge at Hazel.

Luke caught Darius a hard blow on the side of his neck, making him pause for a second or two. This gave Victoria time to get in front of Hazel and guide her away from Darius, with Oscar and Luke barring Darius’s way forward. Luke and Darius bristled at each other, lips curled in snarls on each of their mouths.

Victoria took Hazel upstairs into her room and she stayed with her as Hazel sobbed into the pillow and after a while clamed enough that she understood to stay in her room until this mess was sorted out. Then Victoria went back downstairs to where Oscar was just keeping the peace between the two men that more resembled wolves even in their human forms.

If Darius and Luke were to have started fighting influenced by the anger both were feeling, Oscar alone would have had a task to keep them apart, strong as he was. With Victoria’s help there would be no contest. Both men - though they stood more than six inches taller than him and were visibly more physically fit - would not be able to withstand two such mature and experienced fighters as these. The phrase ‘deadlier than the male’ was never more appropriate than in this situation. Victoria, born Wolf, was the stronger of all of them.

Victoria’s re-emergence to the room therefore, brought about an immediate, if uneasy truce. She stared at both protagonists as she sat down. When both had ceased their prowling, she gestured for them to sit. Oscar sat at her right, Luke to his right and Darius was to her left.

After a long pause, Victoria began her remonstrations.

“We are on the eve of our triumph. Oscar is helping to sway the tides of fortune for certain dignitaries. Our culture has been given a massive boost of power if prophecy is to be believed and YOU TWO are squabbling over a Hume! We will be more powerful than ever we have been; we must NOT divide!” Victoria raised her voice to yell and Luke had the good sense to cringe.

Darius tried to interrupt but Victoria would have none of it.

“Darius, if you do not begin to conform to MY way of dealing with things, then you will be ousted. If you are ousted, all of our kind - and not only on these shores - will then hunt you! You will be given no shelter by Wolf-kind anywhere! It is entirely your choice.”

Victoria paused long enough for Darius to nod his begrudging understanding and then continued: “Plans are underway to gain power for some of Oscar’s friends. Some will have more than others; one will have ultimate power. But power alone is not the sole aim. As Anton said at Hazel’s introductory meeting in the clearing, we are indeed, about to enter into a bloody era. We, if all goes to plan, will be able to allow our bloodlust and Wolf-instincts a free rein. No one will stop us because no one will think to stop us! Watch and learn, whelps, there are more important quarrels than that of one Hume sow who got in the way!”

Darius’s strained self-control snapped at the last comment and he launched himself at Victoria in a fury that must have robbed him of his sensibility. In his right mind, he would never have attacked Victoria. Luke reacted to defend Victoria, but Oscar pre-empted him and whipped an arm in front of Luke’s chest, preventing him from interfering. Oscar had either underestimated Darius, assumed he would stop short of attack or he had already decided to allow Darius to encounter Victoria’s wrath for himself.

Darius’s attack was swift and brutal. He caught Victoria a blow on her cheekbone, tearing it open with claws extended; he followed up with powerful jaws, already three-quarters Wolf. Victoria rolled with the blow, ducked under Darius’s follow-through and it was this movement that saved her.

Darius’s teeth snapped on thin air where Victoria’s face had been. His momentum carried him forward, up and over the table, onto Victoria’s newly vacated chair. The chair toppled over backwards taking Darius with it. When he landed, he sprang away from the chair only to come up face-to-face with a fully Wolfed Victoria.
She snapped her teeth on Darius’s throat and clamped her jaws, slowly suffocating him. He began to black out, still struggling, but this time he was struggling to stay conscious. Victoria let go suddenly and Darius slumped to the floor. He decided to stay down as Victoria changed back. Darius did not exactly cower, but he was close enough for Victoria’s satisfaction.

“You have made your bed, Darius…” Victoria started.

“Victoria, please, you cannot mean to throw him out; he is family!” Luke pleaded.

“He tried to kill me Luke, did you see?” Victoria said.

“I saw, but I think the sudden death of his wife has deranged him temporarily. Can you not understand that?” Luke stood at the table, he wanted to go to Darius, but refrained.

Oscar went to him instead. He pulled Darius to a sitting position and shook him. “You have signed your own death-warrant you fool!” He snarled. “If Victoria lets you go, you will not be safe when word spreads about this. What were you thinking?”

“Oscar, leave him.” Victoria said.

Oscar crossed the floor, picking up the chair as he went. Victoria beckoned to him to listen closely.

“He can redeem himself, but he must leave here, disassociate himself from us.” She said.

“I do not understand, why are you allowing him to leave? Why are you giving him a second chance? He should be put to death for that attack on you, if not by us then cast out for other packs to do the job for us.” Oscar said.

“No Oscar. He may be some use at a future date. Give him leave to go freely, but get his word that he will help us when we call on him. Get him out of my sight!” With that, Victoria turned her back.

Luke could see her face through the mirror above the mantelshelf; her expression was set like stone. She was immovable and Luke knew then not to waste his time trying to plead for Darius. As Victoria said, he had made his bed, now he must lie in it alone… unless Luke wished to share his fate and follow him. There was no choice for Luke, his loyalties had changed, he now had a wife, and he could no longer worry about his long-time friend and mentor.

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