The two days turned into a week. Vera had never lived with humans before but she felt at home in that house. She joked with Chris in the kitchen and watched movies with David on the couch. They made love in his bed every night and some days. Vera took to doing chores around the house. She knew they were feeding her so she thought the least she could do was reciprocate with laundry and dishes.
David drove Vera into town on the weekend and she filled out job applications at every place that would give her one. Vera had spent a few weeks waitressing here and there when she settled in a place. She got a few night shifts at the diner by the highway. David could drop her off on his way to work.
She even made a friend at work, a girl named Deni. Vera wasn't much of a conversationalist and there were a lot of references that were lost on her but that didn't seem to bother Deni. She could chat all night long without any input from anyone. She and Vera liked to see who could get the biggest tips from customers. When an attractive man came in they would flirt outrageously with him, then giggle about it together in the kitchen.
Vera had never felt more like she belonged anywhere. She was...happy. She had spent a lot of time over the years wondering where her next meal would come from, where she would sleep that night. She thought she was strong and independent but now she was beginning to realize that she was just lonely and distrustful. The life she was living was strange but Vera felt oddly settled. Normally she would be looking for an exit strategy already and moving on to the next town but she felt content to stay here. And thinking about leaving David gave her a peculiar ache in her chest.
He was completely devoted to her. Vera caught him looking at her when they were in a room together and he would blush and look away. She enjoyed being with him but she knew her feelings were not as deep as his. She liked the way he made love to her. And that was the perfect term for it. She'd always just been fucked but David had a tenderness that she found endearing and intriguing.
Vera was washing dishes in the kitchen and singing along to the oldies station on the radio one Sunday, swinging her hips and shaking her hair around. The boys were in the living room playing x-box. She could hear the occasional expletive and both Chris' and David's sexuality were continually being questioned. It was raining outside and when the front door opened a cool, damp gust blew in, bringing a wealth of strong scents with it.
Vera froze with the water running over her fingers. Werewolf. She could smell a werewolf in the house. A male, young and powerful. She shut off the water and considered slipping out the back door. The thought of David and how abandoned he'd feel stopped her. She could handle this.
"Lucien, my man!" and "Hey buddy!" rang out from the living room. Vera stepped timidly to the doorway, drying her hands on her jeans. The werewolf—in human form, or course-- was standing inside the doorway reaching out to shake Chris' outstretched hand of greeting. He wasn't taller than David but he was much broader. A white t-shirt stretched over his muscled arms as he reached down to pick up the backpack he'd dropped on the floor.
David hopped up from the couch and pulled Vera forward by the hand. "Lucien, this is Vera," he said. "Vera, this is our other roommate, Lucien." Vera reached out a slim, brown hand for him to shake and looked up into his face.
Lucien's hair was dark and long, falling around his shoulders. His impossibly dark eyes met hers knowingly and his nostrils flared as he shook her hand. His palm was wide and rough. He held her hand a little too tight. "Pleased to meet you," he rumbled in a deep, appealing voice.
'He knows what I am,' Vera thought.
::
The boys made a pot of coffee and sat around the kitchen table, catching up. Lucien was vague about where he'd been the last few weeks, he kept steering the conversation back to the other boys and what they'd been up to. Vera sat beside David, suddenly feeling shy and uncertain. Occasionally David touched her knee with his and smiled at her out of the corner of his eye.
"So how did you meet Vera?" Lucien asked casually, leaning back in his chair and fixing Vera with a predatory stare. She shivered a little. His gaze made her uncomfortable, like he knew too much about her.
"I, um, hit her with my car, actually," David said, laughing uncertainly at the strangeness of the story. He smiled at her tenderly, running his fingers through his unruly curls. "I took her home with me and, uh, the rest is history I guess!" Vera fiddled with her coffee cup; she didn't want to talk about this. There were a lot of unexplainable holes in that story. Lucien's dark eyes were fixed on Vera's. He knew there was more to the story but he didn't press.
They chatted for a while longer and Vera kept catching Lucien's eyes on her. She could smell him all around in the room now and it was distracting. His scent was strong and spicy, powerful. It was irresistibly sexy to Vera and she found her eyes drawn to him as well. She skimmed his form in short glances, trying not to get caught.
