Episode 38: Teacher's Pet

Genre: Horror

Characters: Julius, Luther, Darius Mitchum, Deidra, Shirley

Word Count: 3,815

Rating: R

Type: Series

Summary: Julius' past is highlighted and a look back as to where and when he first encountered the Alpha Luther Crowley.

Warnings: Language, suggestive material, violence, adult content, adult situations, nudity

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Duskhollow Falls (Small town on the Canadian/US border) – Wednesday, February 13, 1957

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“Shirley!” Julius shouted as he rushed behind her quickly. “Shirley wait up!” They continued running through the woods. Determined, Julius was not giving up the chase of his beautiful girl. She laughed turning and seeing him so close and hurried deeper into the brush ducking beneath low hanging branches and hopping over moss covered limbs.

Swing music played somewhere between the patches of trees and he could see the sky beyond the forest as Shirley ran harder and harder through the area gaining a significant amount of ground ahead of him. “SHIRLEY! You’re gonna get yourself all dirty running like this!” He laughed cheerfully at the sound of her giggles and slowed his pace as he could smell her perfume drifting lightly towards him. 

Though he very easily could have caught her at any moment, he did not want to let on to just how quick he really was. Shirley wasn’t kindred but she was someone he truly enjoyed his time with. Her smile could light up a room and he told her that on many an occasion. The local club was hosting a sock hop and she had begged all week for him to take her. Previous proposals of the sort were quickly rejected; Julius had two left feet and did not need to prove it. When finally he did agree, it made her day and she repaid him gladly with a night of intense sexual pleasures. 

And now here they were, running through the woods at dusk rushing towards Shakey’s and the deep, rich bluesy voice of Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog.” The doors burst open as a couple exited towards the parking lot giggling and Shirley dove into Julius’ arms to give them room. She smiled towards him and shook against him as she let the music move over her. “You might not want to do that,” he warned and she laughed seeing his eyes roll in the back of his head.

“Why? Are you afraid of losing yourself out here?” He looked at her in surprised shock at first thinking she was referring to something else but calmly replaced the look with a nervous smile. “Oh come on don’t look at me like that Jules. After all, I think I’ve proven to you I’m not the uptight princess my parents think I am,” she smiled seductively and pushed away. 

In one swoop, she had ripped away the sweetheart sweater she wore to reveal beneath it a slim cocktail dress with a plunging neckline. His eyes roamed the top portion of her body but he didn’t hesitate to notice the short length that stopped well above her knees, uncommon for girls around this time. Julius leaned against the tree and smiled as she finished coming out of her first attire and tossed it inside a bag. “Come on let’s get inside. I wanna see you shake yo thang!” She shimmied and pulled him behind her as she moved.

Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin On” started on the corner jukebox as the two entered inside and Shirley immediately pulled Julius towards the dance floor in the sea of poodle skirts, cuffed pants and up-dos. He looked around collecting his bearings and watched the inane flailing of arms and legs of the guys nearest him as they all did their mock Elvis dances as best they could. No way, he thought to himself and looked at Shirley as she began to move.

“Come on Jules! Don’t just stand there! Toss me or something.” She placed her hands on his shoulders and waited for him to take action. Sliding his hands around her waist, he watched someone near the bar perform the act and tried his best to mimic. Shirley giggled in his arms as she pushed against his side. Her dress, what little there was, came above her head and Julius placed her back on the ground and spun her finally letting the music flow through him.

Someone placed Buddy Holly & the Cricket’s “That’ll Be the Day” on and Shirley sighed and took Julius’ hand guiding him towards a small table in the back of the club. “That was great! See I knew you had a little dancing devil in you somewhere.” He ordered her a malt and she sipped it quietly and watched the dancers keep in step with the music.

“Well I wouldn’t go that far. I admit it is fun but…” he stopped midsentence and his eyes caught on a frail little girl hiding against the corner near the door. 

He pulled away from his table and started towards her, his eyes narrowing as he barely made out the face of his little sister. “Deidra? What are you doing here?”

“I followed you!”

“I thought I told you to stay inside your room! I even paid you a quarter!”

“Sitting in your room is for babies and I got bored playing dollies. Besides Gramma is snoring too loudly for me to try and sleep. She won’t even notice I’m gone and I wanted to be with you!”

“But you can’t be here, this place is for adults.”

“Adults? You’re only 17! You’re a kid just like me!” She threw her arms on her hips and stood defensively in between the wall and her brother and he had to bite his lip to keep from smiling.

Julius pinched the bridge of his nose and folded his hands into his chest. “Whatever! You’re going home! I don’t want you seeing this kind of stuff, you’re too young!”

“Oooh a stowaway,” Shirley snickered as she moved in behind Julius. She leaned forward and looked into Deidra’s eyes with a warm smile extending her hand to the girl. “And aren’t you just the cutest? I’m Shirley, what’s your name?”

“Deidra and I’m…”

“Going home now. Sorry about this Shirley, I don’t mean to cut the evening short but my Dad would kill me if he found her out this late.”

“Oh Come on Julius let me stay please? I promise not to get in the way!” she pouted and did her best puppy eyed expression.

“Aww Jules, how can you say no to that? It’ll be ok we can keep her away from the ‘adult’ stuff. Besides, she came all this way without you seeing her. I think she deserves a reward!”

“You don’t reward bad behavior Shirls, it sends the wrong message to…” Before his sentence completed Deidra had already run off towards their table and was finishing off the chocolate malt he’d purchased for his date.

“Looks like she’s the one in control here,” Shirley giggled.

“Yeah, story of my life.” He tossed his arm around her neck and guided her back to their table.

Another Jerry Lee Lewis hit came on and Deidra bounced in her seat looking at the men and women out on the dance floor. “OH! Can I try that?” She jumped up and rushed towards the floor as “Great Balls of Fire” filled the air. Carelessly she fumbled around the dance floor bumping into a man standing against the back wall with a group of older boys. The heel of her tiny shoe smashed his toes and he jerked back in anger.

“Hey! Watch where the hell you’re going,” he hissed and stepped up towards Julius with a scowl on his face. A large dirt smudge blemished his leather saddle shoe. And he looked down at his feet then back up towards the man. Stepping closer he sniffed quickly and a sadistic grin formed starting at the corner of his mouth. “Ah I see.”

Julius also picked up on what the man was and instantly moved directly in front of his baby sister and girlfriend putting his hands up defensively. “I’m sorry, she can be a bit of a klutz sometimes,” he apologized on behalf of his sister and eyed the other men in his company. “She’s just a kid and…”

“Yeah well that ‘kid’ ruined my shoes! Who the hell is going to pay for that? You?”

He eyed the man’s attire and realized his style was well outside of his price range. Rubbing a nervous hand against his neck he smiled anxiously as he tried to smooth things over. “How’s about I buy you a coke and we call it square?”

“A coke? These are $35 Calf skin Saddle shoes and are worth more than your life! They are ruined now and you think a coke is going to make that better? How’s about this, you give me that dame in your company for about an hour and we call things even.” The man smirked hearing the makings of a growl forming within Julius’ bowels and couldn’t refuse to provoke him even more. “Yeah you’re right. She looks like she is only worth half of that so two hours should be about fair. What’s say ya Dollface? You interested in taking up with a real man?”

Julius dove at him with that, tackling him into the wall and landed on top of the man. It took seconds for him to turn the tables on the young wolf and he settled his large frame over him and began pummeling him into the floorboards. The men with him cheered and egged him on and Julius’ face quickly became bruised, his lip busted and blood poured from his mouth.

“GET OFF OF HIM!” Deidra cried and pounded her fists into the man’s back trying to help her brother. Two men moved in on the group, one of them pulling Deidra away the other helping Julius to his feet.

“You need to leave,” he growled towards the two. “I don’t need this kind of trouble in my club! Out!”

Julius took Deidra’s hand and Shirley quickly followed behind them as the other men involved reached the parking lot as well. “This isn’t over Mutt, not by a long shot!”

Ominously his words hung in the air as the trio rushed back through the woods towards home. A man dressed in black looked out the window at the scene and grinned to himself. “Darius Mitchum…” he hissed and turned to another in his company that familiar scowl still angled on his lips as he addressed his Beta. “It’s been a while since I’ve made the acquaintance. Why don’t we go say hello?” Luther motioned for his pack to take the back exit. A plan was slowly formulating in the Alpha’s head as he thought about ridding himself of some more competition.

After seeing Shirley home safely, Julius snuck into the back door of his family’s small home and quickly up the stairs. “I’m sorry about your face,” Deidra spoke softly and hugged his waist. He rubbed his hand over her back and started for her bedroom.

“It’ll heal Munchkin but you see what can happen when you don’t listen? Now I want you to promise me you won’t tell Mom or Dad about tonight. If they ask, I’ll just say I got in a fist fight after school but not a word, promise?”

“I promise!”

“Good!” He kissed her cheek and tucked her in bed before entering his own room. Julius took a seat on his bed and breathed in a pained breath. He hadn’t realized before how sore his side felt until just now. His face was numb and he could tell that right eye was swelling. Looking down at his hands he noticed how they shook and tried to steady himself. That man was a wolf, an Alpha of all things and he knew it before he tackled him. But the way he looked at Shirley made his feral side angry and he felt he had to protect what was his. His the word felt foreign but in true lycan form he was just as possessive as any Alpha could be and just as mean…at least to fairly matched opponents.

“What have I gotten myself into?” he turned off his lights and dropped his head against his pillow as he thought over the events. The man’s last words scared him and he couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t just an empty threat. If he somehow started a blood war with some other pack, his family may be in serious danger.

The next morning Julius awoke to the absence of sound. He thought it strange at first but continued his normal routine. Showering, combing his hair, brushing his teeth and dressing himself preparing for school. His eye had indeed swelled as he figured it would and a large purple bruise enclosed it. It would be very tricky to conceal so he hoped his cover story worked. Although his father was a walking, talking lie detector; this could prove difficult. He started down the hallway waiting to catch a whiff of his Gram’s homemade raisin bread or Mom’s eggs and bacon but again the absence of these things took him by surprise.

He rushed down the stairs with a curious hop in his stride. “Hey? Is everyone sleeping in or some…” Julius swallowed hard and looked at the face of the man from the club. He was sitting casually around his parent’s dining table sipping a cup of freshly brewed coffee. A smile turned his face up as he looked into Julius’ eyes but he didn’t bother to move from his current position as he addressed him.

“Ah and there he is! I was beginning to think you’d never come down from your room. You know as wolves, sleeping as hard as you do can be a very bad thing and is actually. Anything can happen around you without your knowledge. You should really work on sharpening your skills if you have any plans of becoming a decent predator.”

“What the hell are you doing here? Where’s my…”

“Family? They’re around,” he motioned with his hands and three men came out from the kitchen escorting his Mother, father, grandmother and little sister. Julius took a step forward. “Not uh, uh, not so fast!” Finally turning in his direction, he moved closer to where Julius stood and kept a steady glare on the kid. “I came to help you get back in my good graces. You wouldn’t want to do something more that would upset me, would you?”

“Let them go!” 

“Well now that all depends on you now doesn’t it? You see you disrespected me last night and as an Alpha I simply cannot let such a trespass stand. So, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I will give you the greatest opportunity of your sad, pathetic existence and offer you the chance of joining my pack. You can work your way through the ranks, doing as I command, and I will train you into becoming the best wolf you’ve ever seen. Otherwise…”

“I don’t think so. My family has a pack and I will join them next full moon.”

“Are you certain of that? You didn’t even hear the rest of my proposal.”

“I’m positive! I see your fancy clothes, your holier-than-thou attitude and I don’t need that. You say I disrespected you last night but I offered to make amends. You insulted my date, you threatened my little sister and now here you are in my home thinking I’d want to have anything to do with a pack like that? No thank you.”

“Fine. But remember, this was YOUR choice.” With a slight wave of his hand he watched the eyes of the three men near his family flash. Individually they attacked his family, chomping into their flesh and necks viciously.

“NO!” Julius ran forward but the Alpha dropped him to the ground. His claws ripped into his chest as he pulled him to his feet.

“You chose this boy! Now you watch as they all suffer for your insolence!” He struggled to break free of the Alpha and get to his family. His grandmother fell to the floor in the doorway of the kitchen. Her neck was severely severed and her eyes stared coldly towards her grandson as she slowly passed away.

His mother screamed and his father put up a fight as he tried to get to his little girl and save her from the merciless claws of her attacker. It wasn’t long before his mother was on the floor in a puddle of her own blood crying as she felt her life die out. “Deidra! Please spare my baby!”

“Mom…” Julius’ eyes filled with tears and he continued trying to get to them but he was locked tightly within Darius’ grip and struggling only made the man dig in deeper. His father’s head was twisted from his shoulders and he heard his baby sister scream as she watched her dad’s head bounce lifelessly towards her. 

Darius laughed in his ear as one of the men lifted the small girl above his head and slam her hard against the cold ground repeatedly until her tiny body went limp. “NO!”

“This could have been avoided. You should have heard me out!” He closed his claws around Julius’ neck and swiped them through the tender flesh of his throat. Julius fell to the ground clutching at his neck. His vocal cord severed, his windpipe punctured. He was dying and still he tried to get to his family. He fell against the hardwood beside his little sister’s body and pulled her against him as everything faded to black and all motion ceased around him.

“DEIDRA!” Julius awoke crying out for his baby sister. The room was dark, lit only by a small candle in the far corner beside the door. Light and shadow undulated around him in a drug induced blur but he could distinguish enough of his surroundings to realize he was lying in a strange bedroom. White curtains covered the windows and billowed gently in a soft breeze that cascaded through the small opening and he could smell salt water and hibiscus not too far off.

Julius ran his hand over his throat feeling for the injury he had sustained at the brutal hands of his attacker. Healed? He thought and pulled the covers from around his legs as he swung them over the side of the bed. Another blur moved just over his left shoulder and he jumped as it started closer. It was a man, a blur of flesh tones and black cloth that slowly became clearer the closer he drew. “You’re awake.” His voice was rich, his tone melancholy. The crisp scent of freshly laundered sheets invaded his nostrils but was quickly replaced with that of a woodsier aroma. “How do you feel?”

“Where am I?”

“Let’s call it a cottage in the woods now how do you feel?” The man repeated the question with growing frustration over the boy’s ignorance of his first.

Rainy afternoon light peeked into the room catching his attention and he used it to try and make out the face of the man speaking. “I feel…” Julius swallowed hard as visions of his family dying around him cluttered his mind. The sounds of his mother and sister screaming as they were ruthlessly slaughtered, the look in his grandmother’s eyes as she lay dying and the way his father’s head fell from his body all burned behind his closed eyes. But what choked him up most was the helplessness of it all. The desperate plea in Deidra’s eyes as she tried to fight the wolf off before her frail body succumbed to her injuries and yet he could do nothing to stop it.  

He fell to his knees sobbing into his hands. But his heart wasn’t grieving; not yet. He was too angry over everything to allow himself to grieve. Revenge burned within him and he wanted to see that Alpha and his pack pay for what they did to him. “Darius Mitchum; Alpha of the Diamond pack,” Luther filled in the blanks as he knelt in front of the crying wolf. “I can help you find him, catch him, kill him.”

He looked up at the man finally able to see his face. Battle scars were marked into his skin and he held a patch over his left eye. The way he carried himself Julius could tell right away he too was an Alpha. Two in as many days was curious but he ignored that question for one much more important. “Who are you and why would an Alpha want to help me?”

“Luther Crowley,” he smirked seeing instant recognition in the boy’s eyes. Even to a small town such as this one the name struck a chord. “And I want to help you because I see potential in you, Julius. You want revenge; that much is clear. But you haven’t the knowledge, the strength or the skill to go after Darius or his pack alone. Join Gideon, and I shall see to it you get the proper tools you’ll need.”

He mulled over the man’s proposition for a moment and climbed to his feet. “Where’s my family?”

“Gone. The house has been burned to the ground.”

“WHAT?!” Julius threw on the clothing that sat on a small table beside the door and rushed from the room. Taking long, purposeful strides he hurried towards his home desperately hoping the Alpha’s words were false. He stopped in mid step as the smoldering ashes of his father’s house lay simmering at his feet. Luther casually strolled up behind him stopping just over his shoulder watching him. “What happened? Who did this?”

“I did.” Julius turned to glare at the man but the Alpha stood in resolve. “You know what we are. You know no one would be able to understand us. If we are discovered that could mean very bad things to a lot of us. And while I do favor a good slaughter every now and again I much prefer it be on my terms. Your family was removed from the home and I had my men burn it to the ground.” He motioned towards a small stone path that led towards the cliffs.

Julius hurried forward stopping as he came upon four makeshift headstones aligned side by side in freshly dug plots. Grateful that the Alpha hadn’t desecrated his family’s remains he dropped again to his knees. His fingers sifted through the loose dirt of Deidra’s grave as he thought about her smile and the beautiful 10 year old spirit that would never get a chance to grow old. He needed to get revenge; Darius had to pay for this. “So what is your answer?” Luther asked stepping again towards the mournful teen.

Julius threw a handful of the dirt back to the ground, stood and turned towards the Alpha. With just as much anger and determination burning behind his eyes he took a deep breath, “What do I have to do?”

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