Ben the Werewolf: Part One (complete)

Growing up in Hearthway Hollow was pretty much the same as growing up anywhere else. You’ve had friends since you were small, and you’ve all terrorized and haunted the same places since you were old enough to be let on your own with a bike and five bucks. But unlike most places, Hearthway Hollow wasn’t the usual small town.

When you were still very young, you and your mother ran away. You can’t remember much of that evening except that you remained in your pajamas. You had never been in the car while wearing those pajamas so it felt like even more of an adventure than usual. You and your mother wound up in Hearthway Hollow, and about a year later she met your step-father, or well, you called him dad because that’s what he was. Through him you also got your brother, Rowan. Both of whom were werewolves. A fact that might disturb and terrify most, but it had become a normal almost minute part of your life.

Because that’s just what Hearthway Hollow was; full of werewolves.

You and Rowan were close as kids, even more so as teenagers. He relied on you quite a bit to drive him and his friends around. This usually consisted of Adam, Canvas, and a few others, all of whom you were shocked to see grow up into responsible and respected adults. After everything you saw them do as dumb, teenage boys, you were at least proud they made it out alive.

“Are you wearing a new perfume?” Rowan asked.

You gave him the side eye and set a book back on the shelf. “What are you talking about?”

“You smell different. Kind of funny.” Rowan leaned down over top of you. He had always towered over you, that you were used to. Even though he couldn’t see the difference, he still liked to tease you about it.

“I know you’re trying to tease me.” You swatted him. “What are you going on about?”

“No, no, you do smell different.” Rowan grabbed the back of your shirt and sniffed it. “Do you know what you smell like?”

“I know you’re bigger than me but I will attempt to beat you to death, Rowan,” you sighed.

“You smell like an aunt.”

“A bug?” You snapped.

Rowan smirked and set you down. “No. You idiot. An aunt. As in you’re going to have a niece and or nephew.”

You stared up at him with wide eyes. “What?”

“I’m pregnant!” Rowan said with a huge grin on his face.

“No you’re not, your wife is.” You shoved them then brought him into a hug. “That’s so great! Congratulations.”

“Thanks, I’ve been holding onto it for a few weeks now. We just wanted to make sure.”

You sighed. “I’m sure by now you have some idea. Canvas has the twins, Adam has a daughter. Your practically an uncle to all of them.”

Rowan scoffed. “Yeah, but this one is mine. I’m responsible for it.” He flipped through the book. “I can’t read this. It’s all gibberish.” He handed you the book.

“You’ve got this, and that lady you married is way smarter than you.”

Rowan huffed. “I suppose. Yeah. I am pretty lucky I married someone smart.” He frowned then he perked up and gasped. “Oh, you won’t believe who is back in town the other day. I keep meaning to tell you.”

You chuckled. “Oh wow, baby news and a celebrity alert all in one day?”

“Ben Barclay.” He took a book off the shelf and fumbled with it. “What am I supposed to do?”

That name sent heated, furious flames up along the sides of your face. You hadn’t heard that name in years, but it still meant the same as it did all those years ago. The two of you had been mortal enemies from the time you met. Your first job was at Barter Grocers, and Ben’s family owned the place. You worked together often on the floor and it was a constant competition between the two of you. Ben felt superior and above it all because his father was the boss. But you always got employee of the month over him, and often got better praise. The two of you even butted heads in school as both of you had similar interests and skills.

Rowan chuckled. “That made you mad didn’t it?”

You wished  Rowan could see the look on your face at that moment. “Ben Barclay? Are you sure?”

“Yeah, he’s taking over Barter Grocers from his dad. He asked about you actually.” Rowan seemed too pleased with himself about this.

“What did he ask about?” You scoffed.

Rowan was forcefully trying to hold in a smile. “If you ever hit puberty.”

You grabbed his arm and shook him. “I will kill you, hide the body, marry your wife, and raise your baby as my own.”

Rowan was still forcing himself to not break. “He asked that and we had a laugh. Then he asked what you were up to. So I told him you were stricken with grief when he left town and you threw yourself into the ocean.”

“Do you have the will to live, Rowan?” You shoved the books into his arms. “You're buying these books for me.”

“That’s fair.”

During high school and a few years after it, you and Ben had been locked in combat over seemingly everything. Poetry contests, French class, the annual read-a-thon, all during high school where you both thought you’d come out on top. Afterwards, as you worked to save for college, Barter Grocers became your main battle ground. But Ben moved away, going to France to finish his studies, and then you just assumed he’d stay there forever antagonizing French poets.

You had been avoiding Barter Grocers ever since Rowan told you the news. But it was the only place nearby that had the coffee you liked, so eventually, you had to cave and go in. You went early in the morning, hoping you would be able to avoid seeing Ben.

It shouldn’t have mattered. You were both adults now with over a decade between the last time you saw him and now. But somehow the thought of him still made you feel that heated spike.

“Well, well, well, long time no see.”

You jerked, nearly spilling coffee beans everywhere as you were filling your bag. There he stood, dressed in a dark green button up and crisp jeans. His hair was longer now, and spotted by thin strands of silver. It was slicked back and tied into a man-bun, which was a surprise, he always claimed he hated long hair.

“I wasn’t going to take Rowan seriously, but you really haven’t changed,” Ben chuckled.

“Your first mistake was taking Rowan seriously.” You closed up the bag of coffee beans then shut the dispenser. “I’m surprised to see you back here. Was France eager to get rid of you?”

Ben smirked. “I haven’t been in France for a few years. I was in Atlanta for a while until dad called.”

“Rowan said you were taking this place over.” You were beginning to feel like he wasn’t going to be the antagonist of your novel.

Ben’s smirk turned a touch wicked as he looked at you. “Rowan said you threw yourself into the ocean because you missed me so much.”

The flames were at the side of your face again.

Ben snickered and broke out into a laugh. “Did you float back or what?”

“Only because my poetry got published into an anthology,” you threw back at him.

“Congratulations. That’s an accomplishment.” Ben then looked at his watch. “I have to get going. We’re holding a meeting over some changes I’d like to make to the store. Don’t you have to be getting back to work as a fairy godmother?”

You grimaced. “Rowan.”

“I think he likes to poke the bear,” Ben chuckled. “Good seeing you again. Maybe we can have a chat about old times one day.”

You weren’t sure if he was being genuine or taunting you, but you left with your coffee and went on to work at the library.

The next morning, you woke up and stepped outside onto your porch to enjoy your coffee and the fresh air. You are halfway through a sip when you see a dead deer on the hood of your car. You spew coffee everywhere and stand there staring at this deer.

“Fucking now?” You yelled at the deer. You then stormed inside and called Adam to come and pick upt he deer.

Adam came and loaded the deer into his truck. “You know, if you hit a deer it usually does more damage than this.”

“Yeah, yeah, real funny,” you huffed. “Who the heck is courting me?”

“You know I can’t tell you.” Adam had that damn innocent look down. He’d been doing it for as long as you knew him.

You glared at him. “I’ve lived here my whole life, I know how this shit works. But why now?”

“You never know. Sometimes it’s an instant thing, sometimes it takes the right moment for it to click. Now, how do you want me to prepare this deer for you?” He asked.

“Donate it,” you huffed. “I’m sick of venison.”

“You got it,” Adam jotted it down on his clipboard. “Congratulations by the way!”

You stared at the bit of blood still on the hood of your car. “That’s one way to look at it I suppose.”

“You aren’t excited?” Adam asked.

You shrugged. “I’m still a bit in shock is all.”

Adam patted your back and smiled. “Don’t worry. I think it’s a cute match.”

You frowned at him but put on smile. “You’re the only one of the group I’d trust with that. Does Rowan know?”

Adam smile twitched. “Welp, better get back. We had a few deer today.”

“Please don’t tell him,” you huffed. As Adam drove off you went inside to make more coffee and to find a cleaner to wash off your car.

That afternoon at work you had been congratulated more times than you cared to keep track of. Meanwhile, the shock of it hadn’t worn off, or maybe, you just weren’t excited about being courted by a werewolf.

As you were putting some books away, you found Ben in an aisle. You grimaced, but before you could move he turned and noticed you.

Ben smirked. “Is this where fairies work now? Times are that tough huh?”

“This is where I work,” you said and knelt down to put some books away.

Ben came over and picked up the stack, sorting through them.

You were irritated. but your customer service kicked in. “Are you looking for something?”

Ben handed the books back to you. “There was this book I used to check out a lot when I lived here. I can’t remember the name of it for the life of me, but there’s a story in it I’ve not been able to find anywhere and I have been wanting to read it again for years.”

You sighed and stood up. “Come to the front. We can probably still search your records and see what comes up.”

“I’d appreciate it.” Ben followed you up to the front desk where you sat at a computer and searched up his name.

“You better not have gotten rid of this book,” Ben said.

You glanced back at him. “If we have we can at least get you the name of the book and you can buy it online.”

“No. I want this one,” Ben sighed.

You went back to search, grumbling under your breath mocking him. “Okay, I do see a couple of books come up repeatedly on your list.” You wrote down the names and their code. “Do any of these sound familiar?”

Ben takes the notepad. “Blackberry Winter. That’s the one. The cover is embossed with a basket of blackberries and it’s all gold.”

“Let me check if we still have it.” You type into the computer again. “We have it.”

Ben smiled.

“But it’s checked out.”

Ben scoffed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “When is it supposed to come back?”

“Next week,” you replied. “I’ll put a note down that you want to reserve it though. So when it does come back, you’ll get it right away. Until then you can order your own.”

“Sure, whatever,” he grumbled.

“What’s so special about this book you need that exact copy?” You stood up from behind the front desk and took your pad of paper back.

Ben shrugged. “You wouldn’t get it. It’s personal. Thanks anyways.” he started to walk away but he turned back and smirked.

“I heard the good news, by the way. Better late than never, right?”

“Do you want your book or not?”

“Not everyday a werewolf falls for you though, is it?” Ben chuckled as he left.

You grumbled more under your breath and sat back down. The book sounded familiar so you decided to see if you ever checked it out yourself. To your surprise, you had, quite a few times.

“Hmm, wonder why I can’t remember it that well,” you thought out loud.

The next morning there was another offering on your front porch. It wasn’t a dead animal. But it was a massive supply of your favorite coffee. It was a full five gallon bucket of them, as well as your favorite packaged cake snack. The bucket was placed on the top of your car, and the boxes of snack cakes were built like bricks all around your car so you couldn’t get into it.

“Why my car?” You huffed.

You kept quite a bit of the offering, but you took some of the snack cakes to work to let people take, and you gave some to Rowan for his classroom.

“Are you excited yet?” Rowan asked.

“I’m not sure,” you huffed. “I don’t know why, but I feel more…suspicious of this courtship.”

“Why? Because you're old and bitter?”

“I wish you could see the look on my face.”

Rowan snickered. “My super ability is to ignore the haters.”

You shook your head and sighed. “Do you know who it is courting me?”

Rowan sighed and leaned back in his seat, tiling his head up towards the sky. “Do we really know anybody?”

“Oh shut the hell up!”

“Well then I’m not telling you. I can’t anyways. It’s the rules.”

“The rules a bunch of werewolves came up with! I thought this stuff was cool, but whoever is courting me keeps throwing shit at my car.”

“If they’re throwing shit at your car then they probably aren’t courting you.”

You just stared at him.

“Did you combust? You still here?”

You scoffed and set your head down upon the table. “Should I be excited about who is courting me?”

“I think it’s cute.”

“That’s what Adam fucking said,” you groaned.

Rowan patted the top of your head. “Oh come on, do you not trust your strikingly tall, big brother?”

You sighed loudly. “Did you really need to add strikingly tall?”

“No. I just like to.” He ruffled your hair then smoothed it aside. “But I do think this is a good match. So if you can find it in your small black heart to do it, trust me.”

You pouted. “Okay. I’ll try.”

The next morning, your car was once again covered by your courtship gift. This time it was surrounded and covered by different types of fruit bearing trees in pots, as well as bags of manure.

“Why my car?” You yell into the woods. “What’s the point?” You rub your temples and look back at your car. “I have been wanting to plant trees like this though,” you grumbled in defeat.

You go to Barter Grocers after work that day, and as you walk in you hear yelling. At one of the check out lines you see Ben standing in front of one of the young cashiers as a woman berates and screams about something.

“You need to leave this instant or I will call the cops.” Ben’s voice was calm and even, but you could tell he was enraged.

The woman continued to argue with him, yelling and screaming like a banshee. Ben tried to turn to the young cashier, but the woman smacked his arm. Ben turned on her, giving her a look that even set your blood cold.

Ben took a step towards her and the woman went silent. “Touch me one more time, ma’am, and the cops won’t be able to do anything for you.”

The woman left in silence, hurrying herself out the door, but not before running into it as it was a pull, not a push.

Ben turned his attention back to the cashier, making sure she was alright before telling her to go on home for the evening and that he’d walk her outside when her mother got there. You moved on, deciding not to add more to the clusterfuck than was needed.

After getting the few things you needed, you saw Ben come out of the back room with a distraught look upon his face.

You thought about turning around and walking away, but instead the better person got ahold of you. “Is the girl okay?” You asked.

Ben looked up, his eyes widening when he saw you. He took a deep breath and his shoulders slouched. “I hope so. Her mom is coming to get her and I’m not sure what to say to her.”

You pushed your cart aside and walked up to him. “Are you okay?”

“Wow,” he chuckled. “A little personal isn’t it?”

You shrugged. “I don’t know how strong you are, but it looked like she shoved you pretty hard.”

“She could barely push over the girl if she wanted to. It pissed me off more than anything.” He pushed a loose strand of hair out of his face. “When did people think they had the right to treat people like that?”

You shrugged. “I don’t know. But I’ve had a few encounters like that before I started working at the library.”

Ben’s brow pinched even further. “You’re joking.”

“I’ve been called a stupid bitch more than once in a check out line,” you laughed. “But it’s never fun.”

He shook his head. “Even you don’t deserve that.”

You shrugged. “Oh, by the way, your book should be returned tomorrow. If you want you can stop by to check.”

A smile began to return on his face. “Just call me so I don’t have to do the guesswork. You know, your job?”

“Fine. Maybe I will,” you sniffed. “Why don’t you go and do yours?”

“Maybe I will,” he sniffed back. He smiled at you as you turned and got your cart. “See you tomorrow then.”

You watched him as he walked off, your eyes going from his strong back to his rear. You then scolded yourself. “Mortal enemies aren’t supposed to be hot,” you whispered as you hurried away.

Late that evening you woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep. After a while, you decided to stop trying to fight it and went into the kitchen. Outside your  sliding glass door, you saw something moving around. You turned on a light and there stood your werewolf. It was on top of your car putting something on it. You looked at him, he looked at you. You both stared long and intently.

“Get off my car!” You yelled.

The werewolf jumped off your car then stood, rising, rising, rising until he stood his full height before the door. He grinned, showing off his teeth and then he ran off into the woods.

You opened the door and ran out, hearing him tearing through the trees and underbrush. “I mean it! If you like me you’ll leave my car alone!” You looked back at your car, seeing he was stacking bags of marshmallows all over it.

“I mean, you’re right but-” You growled and went back inside.

Your heart was racing, and your cheeks felt warm. After seeing him, you finally felt excited.