-14- Lily

Tossing the phone down, Lily wondered if she had waded into waters too deep for her, not that she would ever admit it to anyone. After what happened with Andrew yesterday, she wasn’t about to go crawling toward him, telling him he was right. “No,” she told herself, getting up, “I can handle this. I don’t need anyone’s help!” She dressed and ate a meager breakfast, as she was too nervous to eat more, then went to the University to do just what Dr. Frankenstein wanted her to do.

The ringing of a cell phone caused Lily to lift her head up from the keyboard where she’d fallen asleep. She rubbed her keyboard imprinted face, hoping to wake herself up some. Lily had spent the last two days examining the pills she had hidden at her home. She had learned quite a bit, using her own blood as a sample to test the effects of the drug. Lily didn’t have James’ blood to compare it with, which would have given better results.

She didn’t even ask him because she avoided all contact with the werewolves. Lily felt angry at her father and embarrassed that not only did her family, the doctor, and James overhead their fight, but thanks to Lacy’s big mouth, the entire pack knew of it. Her phone continued to vibrate along the table and she answered it, croaking out a rough greeting.

“I’m glad to see you’re working hard Lily, so please tell me what you have learned?” the mechanical voice asked. She sighed and hated being manipulated.

“Well, the drug is a stimulant, that’s for sure,” she started and he made a sound of approval. “However, it would take me weeks to figure out all the details that this substance entitles, if not longer. You have created one of the most complex drugs I have seen in my entire life. I am guessing the pills are your attempt to create a more passive manner of doing what you did to James Lacrosse, but from what I can tell, it doesn’t work. The tests I have done on my blood show that the pills formula is too volatile. It not only changes the genetic code but ends up destroying it; at least that is how it appears. I am only beginning to study pathology, so I can only guess on that part,” she explained, and she heard him clapping.

“Bravo Lily, bravo. I don’t know how I didn’t see it earlier,” he told her, making her feel worse than she already felt. “You are brave, attractive, and intelligent! I believe you are perfect for the next phase of my plan.”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Lily replied, feeling her stomach clenched at his words.

“I am afraid this isn’t negotiable, Lily,” he replied, and she felt sick.

“What is this phase, Dr. Frankenstein?” she asked, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

“Quite simple, Lily. In nature, there must always be a counterpart. Night and day, summer and winter... male and female,” he explained, then hung up. He couldn’t mean that he wanted to make her... like James? Whatever he was now, James was born a werewolf. Lily was human, and unless one bit her, there was no way she could become a lycanthrope. Lily swallowed with difficulty as she placed her cell back in her pocket. As a human, she would never survive what he’d done to James. Hell, he said even Lacy wouldn’t survive!

“Maybe he’s just bluffing,” she told herself as she got up from the large desk. “I can handle this; I don’t need anyone’s help. He is just bluffing,” she continued to tell herself, walking out of the small laboratory. Lily looked around and held onto her jacket tightly, looking around the darkened parking lot, fearing the masked werewolf would be waiting in the shadows for her.

The next morning, just as she was about to make her morning coffee, someone knocked on the door. She tightened her ponytail and opened the door. “May I help you?” she asked the unfamiliar man before her.

He shot her a bright smile. “The alpha sent me. I am Greg,” he told her and held out his hand. A tremendous sense of relief washed over her. Lily had hardly slept last night; she jumped at every little sound and had terrible nightmares about monstrous werewolves. Lily feigned a frown as she took his hand. She didn’t want anyone to see her worry.

“Well, you can turn right around and go where you came from, Greg; I don’t need a babysitter,” she told him, hoping he would repeat that “alpha’s orders,” speech that Tony used on her often.

“I am not here to babysit you, Lily. Yes, the alpha sent me, but not to babysit. He wants to keep you safe, that’s all,” Greg insisted.

“Well, I don’t need protecting Greg,” she replied. Why couldn’t she just shut up and let him in?

His head dropped to his chest, and he looked up at her. “Can you please just let me hang out for a few hours? If I go back now, the alpha will have my hide,” he told her with a pleading look that she had to admit was cute on him.

“Fine, you can stay here awhile. I don’t want you to have problems because of me, but only a few hours and that’s it,” she told him, seeing an open opportunity to accept help without looking like she needed it. He gave her another charming smile that Lily found very contagious. She moved aside so he could come into the house and shut the door. “Do you want some coffee, Greg?” she asked, entering the kitchen.

“Yes, please and thank you very much,” he told her and followed her into the kitchen. He helped her make the coffee and she couldn’t remove the smile from her face. At least Andrew had the good sense to send someone cute, fun, courteous, and did she mention cute?

“So what did you do to get punished by babysitting duty?” she asked as they sat down at the little glass table. Greg laughed.

“I don’t think sitting here with an attractive woman drinking coffee is punishment,” he told her with a flirty glint in his dark brown eyes.

“Wow, aren’t you the smooth talker? I guess Andrew has more tact than I gave him credit for,” Lily flirted back at him.

Her phone rang in the living room, so she excused herself and went to answer it. “This is Lily,” she answered. Someone started chattering off in a language she didn’t know. She attempted to tell them they had the wrong number, but they continued to chatter off, so she just hung up and hope that they got the point. She returned to the kitchen, greeted by Greg’s bright smile.

“Something important?” he asked, and she shook her head.

“No, someone got the wrong number,” she told him, drinking down a mouthful of her coffee. She scrunched her nose; she had to switch brands. This one tasted funny.

Lily and Greg spent the morning chatting about this and that. She loved how easy it was to talk to him. He seemed somewhat familiar, but she didn’t know where from. She figured she had seen him, or a glimpse of him, since he was a member of the pack. It surprised Lily that she felt comfortable enough to tell him about her whole sad and neglected childhood.

“So, your biological parents spent all their time partying, doping up, and drinking until one day they just picked up and moved, taking everything but you? That must have been hard,” he told her, and she nodded.

Lily could have kissed him right then and there when he didn’t get the sad pathetic look of sympathy and pity on his face that everyone else got when she told them. It was one reason she had refused to talk about it until now. “Thanks for not giving me the whole ‘you poor thing’ speech,” she said, and he shot her a bright smile.

“No thanks needed. I know what it’s like to be the subject of the pity party thing,” Greg told her, and she eyed him. Once more he laughed and Lily relaxed, enjoying the sound.

“I had it a little rough as a kid too,” he admitted as his face turned into a dark, hard expression. “To my parents, mostly my father, I was a disappointment. I wasn’t the son they had expected while my mother tried to change me into her idea of a better son. My father preferred the insults and the beatings.”

“Well, shame on them,” Lily said, and he looked up at her, surprised. “I’ve only known you for a little while, but it’s enough to see you’re a great guy, Greg,” she told him, and he brightened. She took another drink of her coffee.

“You’re not like the other werewolves,” she told him, and he didn’t seem too pleased to hear that. “That’s a good thing Greg; most of the others either insult me because they think I am a groupie or like Andrew and Tony, who order me around like I am some idiot child. Not to mention the cocky ones like James Lacrosse!”

“You don’t like the famous James Lacrosse?” he asked with a wide smile and she shook her head.

“I think he is an egotistical jerk! Thanks to him, I had to deal with my biological parents for a year without the haven of the Roberts’s home. Andrew told me I couldn’t come over when they fostered him that year,” she admitted with bitterness.

Greg cringed. “Now that really sucks.”

“Yep. I don’t think James has gotten any more humble with age,” she continued.

“I am glad to meet someone who sees him for what he is,” Greg told her, beaming with happiness.

“Now, see, that is what I am talking about! You’re such a pleasure to have around,” Lily told him.

“Just remember you said that when you get to know me,” he said as a playful warning.

“Well, if the alpha is going to send you every time he wants to babysit me, then I don’t mind,” she replied. He got an odd expression on his face, but it was gone before she could attempt to decipher it.

Someone else knocked on her door and she got up with a brief hesitation. She was enjoying Greg’s company. “I will be right back,” she told him, taking another drink of her coffee and walking towards the front door.

She frowned when she opened it to find none other than James Lacrosse standing there. “What’s up?” she asked, moving aside to let him in.