Havermouth, Present TimeThe snug’s door was partially open, spilling out the murmur of the Triquetra’s voices and the dancing light of a wood fire. Talen placed his palm on the wood pressing it inwards to make way for her to proceed him.The room was a beautiful as every other room in the house, but she could see that Rhett had influenced the design.An internal room, there were no windows to the outside, and the walls around the fireplace and the opposite door into the hallway had been built in with floor to ceiling bookshelves in lacquered black, the bottom cupboard doors detailed with gold and jewel toned hand-painted designs of exotic birds and flowers.The couches arranged before the fireplace were in an antique style, the woodwork elaborately tooled, painted black and picked out in gold paint, and they had been reupholstered in velvet, each arm chair a different jewel tone, and the three-person couch in a deep red.A gilt-framed mirror was mounted above the fireplace and reflec
Havermouth, Five Years BeforeThe school had decided to volunteer their senior students at a local aged care center. It was intended to teach the teenagers compassion and giving to their community and provide the oldies with some entertainment.It was precisely the sort of thing that his dad and mum encouraged Heath to do throughout his childhood, and he hated it, because he knew from experience that it was pretend, image-based charity. His parents always made sure that they were photographed in such acts, and his father spent as much time helping the oldies to write him cheques as he did in reading from the Bible - cheques that Heath knew ended up in Charlie’s offshore account, rather than the church’s coffers or any charity’s account.The Triquetra headed to the back of the bus, to the rear seats that were reserved, in an unspoken acknowledgement of social hierarchy, for them. Lillian, playing the role of girlfriend with renewed dedication in Diana’s absence, sat between him and Hea
Havermouth, Present TimeRhett caught her in his arms, but to her surprise he went down to his knees, carrying them both to the ground and wrapped himself over her, pinning her beneath him in a swamp of dark hair and long limbed, lean man. He pressed his face into the curve of her neck and shoulder and just lay there. She stroked her hands through his hair, thoroughly confused.She had expected anger and fight, as things had always been between them. He would yell at her about being thoughtless and she would accuse him of expecting more of her than he did other people, of setting unrealistic standards for her…He had robbed her of her preconceived idea of what hammering at his door would mean, and as a result she was disarmed.“You forgive me,” he said, his voice muffled. “You forgive me for the tattoos and the piercings.”“Rhett,” she stroked back his hair craning her chin to her chest seeking to see his face. “I’m sorry,” she fought back tears. She had known that it was there betwee
Havermouth, Five Years BeforeOn the bus back to school, Heath sat with Aislen, and Rhett and Cameron sat to the back of the bus. The change of shift did not go unnoticed, with Mr Graynor frowning as his eyes moved from where Rhett and Cameron sat with Lillian on the rear seat, to where Heath sat with his arm around Aislen.“What the f-k is going on?” Lillian whispered to him. “What happened? Why is Heath - ?”“Shh,” Rhett told her impatiently. “I need to think.”She slid back into her seat sulkily.“Rhett,” Cameron leaned his shoulder against Rhett, using the excuse of whispered conversation to both to give and receive comfort in the only acceptable way that existed between them in public. “What is going on? Did you see what happened?”“Old man died,” Rhett replied. “One that Aislen was sitting with. She got upset and Heath…”Heath had reacted as if Aislen were their mate, taking her aside and offering comfort.Rhett’s heart was racing in his chest. He wasn’t sure if he was exhilarat
Havermouth, Present TimeHeath and Cameron went upstairs and returned with a whiteboard on a stand which Heath positioned before the couch in the snug.Aislen shook her head in amusement as Cameron slid onto the couch next to her and lifted her feet into his lap. “Only Heath would have a whiteboard in his office.”“Only Heath would think that it was acceptable to bring a whiteboard into my snug,” Rhett complained. “It ruins the ambiance.”“I’ll remove it after,” Heath said with dry amusement. “But it will be helpful to have a visual aid.” At the top of the board, he wrote: Aislen’s Enemies.“Oh, wow,” Aislen rolled her eyes. “I’m always the problem.”“Fine,” he used a cloth to wipe the words off and paused for a moment looking at the board and instead wrote: Problems. “Is that better?”“It’ll do,” she stole a grape off the cheese board and popped it into her mouth, watching as he wrote.Who murdered Patrick Carter?Who hexed Aislen?Who has been vandalizing Aislen’s house?What is Ais
Havermouth, Five Years BeforeRhett pulled up down the street from Aislen’s house and smoked a nervous cigarette whilst he rehearsed the day in his mind. His head still rung from the lecture his father had given him that morning. Things were tense in the Salem household, with Phillip prolonging his stay in Havermouth initially in order to attend a meeting with Abigail and August, and then because of the death of Alfred Boyston.The Triquetra’s behavior towards Aislen had filtered through the pack and reached Phillip’s ears and Phillip had made it absolutely clear to Rhett that the Triquetra needed to focus on finding a she-wolf mate and stop f-king around with human girls.He knew that Heath and Cameron both had the same talk from their parents, though Jules at least had been a lot less intensive about it. The Triquetra had spoken on the phone that morning and had agreed that they needed to resolve the problem of Aislen Carter one way or another that weekend.As a result, Heath and Ca
Havermouth, Five Years BeforeHeath could see the girl standing forlornly on the balcony. She was caught between the two groups, he thought. She was not friends with any of the werewolves setting up the party around the firepit, and not included in the Triquetra’s huddle in the kitchen. There was something heart wrenchingly lonely about the way that she stood there, her hands on the railing and the wind tugging at her hair.In the river beyond the house there were squeals of laughter as the werewolves stripped down for a swim. The water would be cold, the sun not strong enough to heat beyond the surface and the thrashing of the swimmers would have disrupted that level. However, the swim was not about the water for the werewolves, but rather an excuse to undress, an ice breaker for the f-king to come once they were mellow with alcohol.Most of the couples were new, and were still shy with each other, the sex still unfamiliar and uncertain, thrilling and naughty, as none of the couples
Havermouth, Five Years BeforeRhett’s hands shook as he lit the candles in the bedroom. He’d never been so nervous, he admitted to himself. Not when he and Heath had f-ked for the first time, not when he and Heath had taken Cameron…He’d spent the evening with Aislen perched on his lap, watching as other alphas looked at her. As night and alcohol had thinned the barrier between man and wolf, it had made his skin crawl for them to have their eyes on her. She belonged to the Triquetra; she was theirs. Other alphas shouldn’t be looking at her, the alpha within him insisted, he needed to make sure that they knew that she was the Triquetra’s. He had found himself growling low in his throat and glaring around the fire, forcing the other alpha’s present to drop their eyes.The Triquetra had f-ked up, he thought. Cameron had known it the moment that he’d set eyes on the girl, Rhett had known it the moment he had scented her on Cameron, Heath had known… And they’d chosen to ignore the obvious