To be fair, Dante was surprised. He knew it’d be easy, but he didn’t think it’d be that easy. Rogers went to attend to him as Dante backed off, and went to fix the poor guy a drink. He cut it with something too, just in case he didn’t want straight liquor. Shallow was busy congratulating Dante on his victory, and Dante had to thank him quietly before shushing him. With the drink fixed, he walked back into the living room, and saw that Varin and Rogers were still kneeling over the guy. An itch found itself on Dante’s mind. He really didn’t want to scratch it, but it was there now and a ticking time bomb started off in his head. And he wasn’t sure how long he could hold it for. Many seconds later, of which Dante had stretched into infinitely smaller fractions, Opal walked up to him, and tried to lighten the mood.

  “Looks like I made a pretty good pick, huh?”

  Dante, wondering whether or not something inside him had just then died, decided to confirm his suspicions and turned to Opal. “Is he—“

  “Yeah.” She continued looking at the floor. Dante joined her. Varin and Roberts, their heads bowed in exhaustion, looked on in disbelief. Like I said earlier, the two of them done seen this nonsense before, but what they hadn’t predicted was Rogers having to explain the death of His Dutiful’s great nephew, and how his attackers had gone away. Varin offered to rough him up a bit, to make for a decent cover story, but Rogers turned him down.

  “This entire thing is stupid. He could even back down now, call a ceasefire, and he still would have dealt The Familly a considerable blow. But he hates your father so much, he’s gonna risk everything just to see this through. He wants it all. This is his last chance to see the foolishness of all this. If not for blood, he’ll stop for nothing at all.”

  He grabbed the corpse and carried him like a firefighter would, and apologized to Shallow for the inconvenience. Shallow was more than happy to accept and held the door open for them as they made their exit. Varin shook Roberts’ free hand before he left, and then the three of them were left in the room.

  Varin went back to nursing his drink, and Opal went to make a show out of nursing Dante. She noticed how quiet he was, and wanted to make sure that he was okay.

  “You did great. You didn’t even use your…your wolf, right?”

  Dante soaked in the silence for a while longer. “Nah.”

  Shallow interjected, waving a freshly opened bottle around the room, “YOU SEE? THE YOUNG WOLF IS GOOD FOR A SCRAP. AND YOU HAVEN’T EVEN SEEN HIS WOLF.”

  Dante shot back, “In all fairness, neither have you.”

  “AH IT’S BEEN SOME YEARS, YES. BUT I REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG. YOUR WOLF IS QUITE FEROCIOUS, YOU SHOULD REALLY LET HER OUT MORE.”

  Opal, preparing to wrap her mind around yet another puzzle, looked over at Shallow and said, “Her? Your wolf is a girl?”

  Dante’s laugh was cold and unfeeling, “She’s a real fucking bitch is what she is.”

  Opal, unsure, of the proper way to respond, decided to keep pushing the question, “Well that’s new. I’m not too in the loop on the happenings of werewolves outside of business, but I’ve definitely never seen one turn his balls into ovaries.”

  Dante, extremely serious, responded, “They’re my balls. Just my balls. I think. They’re always there when I return from a change at least, and I change as little as I can help it. Whenever Shallow doesn’t leave me out to dry with getting my medication.”

  Shallow jumped in, “WELL MAYBE YOU SHOULD LET HER OUT MORE. SHE PROBABLY WOULDN’T BE SO BAD IF SHE GOT TO SEE SOME SUNLIGHT EVERY NOW AND AGAIN.”

  Opal watched as Dante rubbed at his face with exhaustion. This was clearly a conversation that these two had, had multiple times before, and from the sound of it, Dante didn’t like being a werewolf very much. Opal, her mind towards the future, wanted to get as much of Dante’s information down as possible, so that she would have any and all information required before making any other brazen decisions.

  “Where’s your pack?”

  Dante waved his beer bottle over at Shallow before taking a sip, “It ain’t much, but that’ll do.” He plopped down on the couch as Varin went back to peeking out of the window every 34 seconds.

  “What happened to them? Your pack?”

  “It got really, really drunk.” Dante had his cheeks cupped in his hands now, watching as Shallow flopped around the room in spectacular fashion.

  Opal wanted to, but she didn’t press further. Like she had said before, she didn’t know much about werewolves but she knew that they always worked in packs. To be outside of a pack usually was seen as a bit of a red flag, but whatever kinship Dante had found with this…thing definitely threw her for a loop. Her mind, drawing in all the new, very useful information, and thought up a new plan.

  She nodded over to Varin, “Word won’t get across the Vatos until later in the night. Do you think Rogers would bring them back here?”

  Varin rubbed at his beard, “Probably not. Don’t know though. He didn’t come in swinging because of a favor that he has now repaid. He’s liable to do anything, especially once His Dutiful finds Wilbur.”

  Opal sighed, exasperated, and hung her head against the couch’s. “Think we’re safe for a night?” Varin shrugged. Opal kept on, “We’ll leave once the sun’s down. Get back into the city without causing any attention. I know a spot we can rest at that’ll be safe. Just in case they don’t wanna abide by the wedding clause.”

  She stretched her feet out as Dante pulled at the lever on his side of the couch which launched up a foot rest. Opal did the same, before laughing to herself a bit and saying, “I guess I should’ve asked you if we can stay here.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Dante grabbed the tv remote off the side table and tossed it to Opal, “If it’s all the same to you, I don’t think I had much of a choice. What do you like to watch?”

  And that sparked the first of what would be many fruitful euphoric conversations between the two. Opal loved herself a good romance, but when she wasn’t feeling that she decided to jump straight into true crime. Movies, shows, documentaries, whatever. If somebody had someone else kick the bucket for ‘em, Opal wanted to know about it. Dante, having incredibly little experience in that dark gruesome world of the macabre, targeted a little memory of a Jeffrey Dahmer documentary, and offered it to Opal, hoping it’d click. Much to his sorrowful surprise, it did, and she launched onto a whole tirade. Her lineup started with the more traditional callouts, Bundy. Kemper. She could rattle off the quick facts on each as they passed. What made Dante start slowly inching his way further into his seat was her encyclopedic knowledge on the supernatural serial killers. Most of them operating from within Jaxon City. One of the multiple reasons that Dante doesn’t make his way up there too often.

  “And you know Edgar Switch was active until only 2 years ago. Yeah, the Bootprint Bay Butcher. We’ll never know for sure, but I think the last estimate was at like 42 bodies. He would just find lone workers out on the docks, drag them into the river, and tear at their flesh as much as they could before they drowned. It sent the actual news on a wild goose chase for months, until we realized it was one of our own. Once they convinced Internal Affairs to get off their ass it took them a week to bag him.”

  Dante nodded along, trying his best not to appear completely frightened while the couch continued folding itself around him. Opal, only just then noticing the discomfort of Dante, thought to change the subject and lifted the tv remote towards the television. “What about you? What do you like to watch?”

  Dante thought it over for a bit. Half of him wanted to immediately pull up the fan films of Warhammer 40k, and the other half didn’t want to immediately lose his marriage, so he decided to find something a bit closer to the surface. He waded through his mental library, trying to find the perfect film, and instead thought of the perfect question, “Are you much of a gamer?”

  “Are you kidding me?! I’ve always been a gamer. I used to play Mario with you on my D.S. Remember?”

  “Nope. Ever seen Scott Pilgrim vs. The world?”

  “Nope.”

  “Perfect. I think you’ll love it.”

  Dante checked the clock. It was just past noon. He got up to switch the lights off, and before he went to sit back down Opal asked for a blanket. He only had one, and thankfully he had washed the damn thing. It was a big quilt he’d gotten from this sweet little old lady he had met at an animal shelter some years ago. He still thought about her sometimes. It was thick, and big enough to cover them and the couch over. Varin’s head was laid flat in the nook of his elbow as he pretended to get some much needed rest. Dante handed Opal half of the blanket, and sat down so they could get themselves arranged. Once comfortable, Dante hit play. It wasn’t 5 minutes into the movie before Opal had bewildered herself, wondering how she had never come across the film before.

  She rustled around on the couch a bit, biting her lip while trying to figure out the perfect way to phrase what came next.

  “You can sit closer you know. If you want. I’m still kind of cold.”

  Dante, that sweet summer child, assured her that the blanket was the coziest he had ever come across, and she would be feeling warm enough quite soon. Opal, unsatisfied with his answer, scooched over a bit. Only a bit, to gage his reaction. Dante didn’t have one. Dante, like any man that’s at least halfway decent has found himself in one of the most common conundrums that we face.

  This woman had just scooched over to him, she asked him to get closer to her, and in case you forgot she fucking forced him into a whole ass marriage. Anyone in their right mind and a healthy dose of hindsight could see that this was the perfect time for some initial bonding, but Dante was worried she might take it the wrong way. It seemed like a marriage born out of unfortunate circumstances. Incredibly unfortunate circumstances now that he came to think about it.

  He turned down the volume just a tad, and kept his eyes glued to the screen as he asked, “What’s going on with your family again? And how and why are we married? Not that I’m complaining. Just curious. Of course.”

  Opal sighed, before leaning back into the couch a bit more, “A good bit of them are dead. The rest of us will probably be following soon.”

  “This is one fucked up marriage.”

  Opal laughed, before abruptly stopping, the absurdity and true weight of the situation was hitting her all at once. She found Dante’s hand underneath the blanket and squeezed it.

  “I’m really sorry. It was kind of a fucked up thing to do, I know, you don’t even have to come with us to Jaxon City. Honestly, you probably really shouldn’t.”

  Dante stretched his arms out and yawned, “What kind of husband would that make me?”

  Opal laughed, “A smart one. As Dante relaxed from his yawn, Opal grabbed his arm and wrapped it around her as she snuggled a little closer to him, “Was that so hard?”

  “It’s always easier said than done, you know.”

  “I know.”

  They continued watching the movie, both of them trying not to think about what the future might hold. Dante had, had his eyes on Opal for a good while now. In random fits that keener eyes might refer to as stalking that he called curiosity, he had been keeping a tab on Opal since he first noticed that she was there, and that she was absolutely beautiful. He’d been hoping for an opportunity to come speak with her, and now that he was handed one on a silver platter, he felt himself shying away from opportunity.

  He already had it settled in his mind. This marriage stuff. This obviously back-door shady business stuff. The deaths. All of this was way beyond him, and it was literally his first day really stepping back into this mythic and monster-filled world. He’d done a pretty good job of avoiding it for the most part, which was why he picked this university to begin with. Sure, Jaxon City was relatively close, but the allure of its neon and the viral rampancy that was its growth had spared the small mountain valley campus and surrounding town. He could just slip in there, slip out to the mountains whenever he wasn’t safe to fit in with the rest of normal society, and then return once he was free from the scourges of lesser states. He had been working on coming up with this sort of life for himself for some time now; he was even looking at teaching positions. But now he was on this couch and getting launched headfirst back into that world comprised of nothing save for what goes bump in the night.

  Without even an inkling of what he thought about it.

  Opal snuggled closer to him, “I know there’s a lot going through your mind right now. Just focus on this for a sec. Thanks for all your help today. It was really nice seeing you again, Mr. Williams.” She said that last part with a wink. Opal continued, “And if it helps. I did think you were pretty cute.” She scooched over to him one last time and rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m loving the movie, really, but do you think I can nap for a while?” Dante nodded and watched on just as Sex Bob-Bomb was getting ready to get bombarded by a certain Matthew Patel, and Varin, having been awoken by the movie’s start, saw what was unfolding on the couch, and offered a tiny prayer to his God, that this would all work out.

  Friday, poll pending, we'll be enjoying Chapter Ten: Our Point of No Return