The Reluctant by Aila Cline

voice,
equally cold, sounded more like a metallic echo.
    “I was invited. I would hate to be
impolite.”
    “You’re not Miss Fucking Manners,” she
snarled. “Leave.”
    I have no idea why, but for some
reason her cussing offended me. Now, I have no objection to
dropping the F-bomb, but I guess because she used it in anger
towards me, the word seemed viciously vulgar.
    “Get the hell out of my way,” I
snapped. “I know what you are, and I’m not scared of
you.”
    Her body tensed, muscles contracting
and expanding. Suddenly she relaxed and chuckled. “Go on human.
Play your games. I know where he’s keeping you.”
    A shiver ran up my spine. She stepped
aside, releasing me in the process, and jerked her head towards the
back room. What I did not realize was that Will had witnessed the
exchange.
    “Go back to Luka,” he said quietly,
his glare fixed on the girl.
    “I’m fine, Will,” I insisted. “Come
on, I’ve got the triangle. Let’s rack ‘em up and play.”
    “I’ll be there in a
moment.”
    “You shouldn’t be with her, Will,” the
girl said.
    “I make my own decisions,
Brooke.”
    Her eyes glittered strangely,
remarkably like Will’s in color, only lit with anger instead of
laughter. I wondered fleetingly if they were brother and sister,
but her red hair and fair complexion instantly rejected that
notion.
    “There are other options.”
    “And I do not desire
those.”
    “You weren’t so quick to dismiss me
before.”
    Will shrugged. “You are not for me,
and I am not for you. You just haven’t realized it yet.”
    She growled, “I’m like this because of
you, you impertinent bastard.”
    “I let go of that guilt a long time
ago when you embraced what you have became.”
    Brooke’s face turned blood red. I
backed away, partly worried that my presence only exacerbated the
issue at hand, but this issue obviously was an old one between
them.
    “Calm down, Brooke,” Will hissed. “We
don’t need the entire world knowing about us.”
    His words had merit. Everyone in the
arcade had turned to watch what seemed like a potential catfight.
Oh, how wrong onlookers could be.
    Her fists clenched and unclenched as
she spoke levelly. “But it’s okay for you to whore around with her,
who should know nothing about us or the way we are. She hasn’t bled
like we have for the privilege.”
    Will’s hand snaked out and pulled her
to him. I repressed a savage stab of jealousy, though he did not
hold her as a lover. Rather, his arms around her middle suggested
the likelihood of an impending explosion on her part.
    But she softened in his arms. I knew
the power of that body against my own. Her eyes, snapping with that
overwhelming green, cut to me.
    “This isn’t over. The Lycanthrope
won’t Change you.” She stared deep into Will’s eyes and I felt my
eyes drop. I knew instantly that their relationship had been
desperately sexual. “You know that, Will.”
    He released her, allowing her to
saunter off with only a few nasty looks cast back my way. Will
tenderly took me by the waist.
    “Come on. Let’s go have a good time.
She won’t bother us anymore tonight.”
    “Just tonight?” I asked
shakily.
    “Just tonight,” he agreed.
    Luka fought to suppress a smug grin as
we approached.
    “Trouble, eh?”
    “Just the usual,” Will
answered.
    “I saw her on my way in, but hoped
she’d mind her manners.”
    They remained calm, so I did not dwell
on Brooke. It helped that Will and Luka’s company intoxicated me. I
felt untouchable with them laughing and joking with me.
    We spent the evening in closeness. I
felt like I had known Luka all my life, something of a brother who
had just been absent for a while. Whereas my relationship with Will
made my body hot, Luka made my insides warm. His quick, dry wit
considerably reassured me that nothing would happen to me tonight
by some psycho bitch. Brooke did not reappear in our quiet
sanctuary of pool and foolery, but I felt like I could feel