5 - Joe Akhmedov

Joe.

I had been in love with Andrea since we were little. Not just falling in love with her human form, but also her wolf form since she shifted for the first time when she was thirteen. She was the daughter of Alpha Nasriantra, Mr. Neal Nasriantra, so she had her wolf earlier than most of the she-wolf.

Any regular she-wolf would have her wolf at around the age of sixteen at the earliest. I was a late bloomer. If the usual male wolf shifted for the first time when they were thirteen or fourteen, I shifted when I was sixteen. Pretty late for a male wolf. Only Andrea kept on encouraging me that my wolf would finally appear before my seventeen birthday.

And she was right. It was the hunch of an Alpha's daughter. While my hunch said that Andrea actually could be an Alpha one day. She looked very strong inside. If the soul was strong, then the power would come around.

I was curious if it was the reason I had been in love with Andrea since we were little, that she was a different kind of she-wolf. And that she had been through many things that if I could, I would rescue her anytime she fell. But I couldn't as I was powerless. People saw me as a timid one.

If I could, I wanted to be more. Maybe one day I'd get my chance. Being Salutary helped me overcome my timid side. Because when I was helping people, I felt like I could use my power for the greater good. Thus I learned to be at the top of the class and graduated with flying colors,

It was the least I could do as a timid Joe Akhmedov. I wanted to be the best and won the competition against Andrea, so I could protect her by being one step ahead of her.  

Greedy, wasn't I? And if I could, I'd be greedy as well to take Andrea to be only mine. But I couldn't do that. I didn't have the intention and I didn't want other people to see my loving Andrea and one day taking me as my mate was merely a way for me to raise my small Akhmedov clan. No. I would never let that happen.

Besides, who was I but only a best friend for Andrea? She would never see me as someone worthy of being her mate. Thus, the thing that I could only do was just take care of her, be near her, and always be a shoulder to cry on whenever she had her downs.   

I was just Joe from a small Akhmedov clan. My relatives had long gone since I didn't remember when. All I knew, was when I realized there was a world around me, I had my mom only. And the first friend, a best friend turned into a beautiful she-wolf that I've always loved and made my knee jelly each time she smiled or hugged me when she was happy or sad. 

But I guessed my prayers to Moon Goddes were granted. Something bad indeed happened to me but to me, it was a blessing in disguise that even Andrea I didn't tell about.

I'd tell her when the time was right. 

It all started when Andrea had to disappear in the middle of the night from staying with my mom and me at our house. She left a note telling me that she'd be waiting for me in the Force camp to be an apprentice. She wanted me to finish my Salutary education first as graduation day was just around the corner.

Andrea didn't want to ruin my day with the valedictory speech. She knew exactly that graduating as the best student was really important to me. That would be how people define me, the best student later would be the best Salutary. Even a little, I had my power in this world. 

It was just a shame she had to miss my speech because part of it had about her when she kept on encouraging me to move forward and kept on being the best I could be. I was still wondering, what was the rush? Why did you have to such in a hurry, Andrea?

But her might-be-Alpha hunch had proven right. Right after she claimed her Beta rank by defeating Esmeralda with only a few points in the match, a few days later her dad arrived in the City. And she was already a warrior ready to fight alongside her dad as a change for their dead Betas in the Nasriantra clan. 

It was horrible that Andrea's father, Neal, had to come home with only seven men as before there were more than twenty of them.

But their story was for later. My secret story was when I applied to the Force camp, I couldn't climb the ranks as fast as Andrea because I was just an Akhmedov. Still, I prayed to Moon Goddess to give me my chance to be stronger than Andrea. 

So I was stuck in the Sentinel rank only doing patrol here and there or staying at the camp guarding the supply outside the City.  

But my disaster yet my blessing, happened that night when it was my turn to guard the supply and my partner had to be inside taking notes on the stock. The supply came late that night because some of the workers were sick or they were just drunk and didn't think that their job was important.  

The inventory notes should be taken as usual and we ran out of men so I guarded the outside perimeter of the warehouse while my partner checked the inventory inside the warehouse.

Alas! There was a war wolf type of rogue werewolf wandering in the night nearby. It was just strange that it dared to come near the camp so close. It might be losing its mind so it couldn't think straight that it could be killed if it came near the camp.

I smelled it when it came to attacking me as I quickly drew my sword and stuck it in its direction. It died suddenly and its body fell on top of me with my sword stuck out of its back. I knew it was dead, but I felt something weird.

My partner was shouting and banging on the door trying to open the warehouse's door from inside to help me but he couldn't because both my body and the war wolf's body were exactly on the door making the door too heavy to open.

I was just lying there while talking to my friend inside the warehouse. We thought that everything was under control because the war wolf didn't move we were sure it died.

But something horrible happened to me as I told you that in the end, it was my blessing in disguise. From the place I thought I was wounded because of the war wolf, it was suddenly burnt so badly as if my chest was on fire. It was the full moon and Liberty City's werewolves didn't have to shift during the full moon but that time, I had the sudden urge to shift.

So I screamed while my partner kept on trying to open the door that was still heavy with my body and the war wolf's body. 

"Arrggghhh... Jace! I gotta shift! My chest is burning, Arrrgggghhh !" I screamed in horror as I shifted more painfully than I usually did. 

"Jace! There's something wrong with me..."

"Dammit, Joe! I can't open this door, Can you move it? Try to move it let me help you!"

"No, Jace! It's better if you stay inside. Put more barrier, I think I was bitten by the war wolf. Arrggghhh."

"Oh no, Joe... Hang on there!"

"Shut up, Jace! and don't make some noise! if I can't control myself when I shifted, you stay there next to the door so the war wolf me will think that it was the smell of this dead war wolf. Don't open the door unless it's mor... ning!"

I managed to finish my sentence to give a warning to Jace and then I howled so long becoming the war wolf.

I was unconscious in my war wolf form that night. I woke up still in front of the warehouse door with a dead war wolf body next to me. I called Jace to check on him.

"Jace? Are you alive?"

"By Moon Goddess, Joe! You're still alive? Thank Moon Goddess, bless her!"

"I'll try to move the dead body here and you can open the door, Jace"

"Can you? Isn't it, heavy?"

Then easily, I moved the dead body like it was a feather. I had a new power, it was the power of the war wolf. Jace asked me not to tell anyone and we agreed to check on me when the full moon came. To our surprise, I was conscious when I was in my war wolf form. I could shift anytime I liked now. 

It was the news I wanted to share with Andrea until suddenly she burst into the camp when I tend to the wounded warriors and cried in my arms.

"What happened, Andrea?"

"Dad, Joe! Dad!"

I widened my eyes feeling afraid of something that might be coming terribly for Andrea. She lost her mother, her Salutary degree, Nasriantra clan's money, I couldn't imagine the horror if she lost her dad too.

"Andrea... beautiful... what's the matter? Mr. Neal Nasriantra is okay, right? I checked his vital just a while ago before he came to see you. What happened now, my dearest?"

Suddenly Andrea looked me in the eye and I swore there was something different as if she looked at me as her lover. As if she begged to be kissed so she could calm down.

Those plump pink lips were so inviting that I'd like to take, taste, relish, enjoy and savor them for a long time. The Moon Goddess would damn me if I did that, for taking advantage of a sad she-wolf. But I didn't care as I was sure Andrea's gaze was directed to my lips as well.

I slowly took her lower lip with both of my lips, tasted it, and then stayed there for quite some time to see if Andrea rejected me. Surprisingly, she took my upper lip and had it between her lips then she sucked more as the feeling was amazing.

She deepened our kiss and she let her tongue explore the inside of my mouth till the tip brushed thoroughly my inner teeth. She knew how to arouse me as I felt the shiver down to my lower body making something swell slowly between my legs. But I drew myself.

"Wait, Andrea. Aren't you seeing Hunt? Why do you do this?"

"Shut up, Joe! Kiss me!" She kissed me fiercely and the feeling along with the taste were even better. It felt like... it was so right even though it was supposed to be wrong because we were childhood best friends.

Still panting from our extremely intimate kisses, she rubbed the place between my collarbones gently, "This just feels so right... I don't know why."

"What happened to Hunt and your dad, Andrea?"

"Turned out to be, Hunt is my brother, Joe. Dad just told me."

"O dear Alexa, I'm deeply sorry. I'm sorry for questioning you. You need these kisses that we had just a while ago. I won't ask you again. You know... to erase the feeling of being wrongdoing incest." I hated myself for being so blunt but it was necessary so she could be free from feeling horrible.

"Eww.. no, Joe! We haven't had sex yet!"

"What? I thought... with your chemistry and all..."

"No, Joe. We were taking things slowly as we know we were going to live forever and our love felt so right, not just cheap sex."

"Oh, you mean the cheap sex that we're going to have if you need one?"

"No, Joe. I wouldn't do that to you. You're my best friend. But the kisses seemed..."

"... right." I accidentally slipped the word out of my mouth.

"Yeah, you're right, Joe..." She still slightly opened her mouth inviting me to do more and then she continued,

"O Joe, How I love it if you can take me now at this preparation table because I love you too. Not as a best friend but I am extremely glad that I am in love with my best friend. So lucky I am."

And with that, I lost in her glowing gold eyes even lose it when her core pressed my length so tight until our juice dripped to the floor as she was trembling in my arms.

-to be continued-