MetaDeprivation - 23. MetaPrompts 609: Call (MW8)

When the TV turned on and the logo of ‘WolfNet Communications’ filled the screen, Colt instinctively looked at his watch. Who would video call at midnight? Quickly, Andreas’ picture appeared and Colt pushed his notebook aside to accept the unexpected call, instinctively calculating time zones. It was 0900 in Frankfurt.

“I hope I didn’t wake you,” the man in the archetypical lab coat of a scientist apologized.

Colt shook his head. “You know, I’m a vampire, active at night …”

Andreas snorted. “Not funny, Mr. Minimum 25% vampire.”

“Guilty as charged. So what’s up in Kraut country? Beer shortage?” Colt returned the tease. “Or do they want to impose a general speed limit on the Autobahn?”

“Germany would cease to exist if either of that happened.”

“Priorities.”

“No, I’m calling you because I’m furious!” Andreas removed his glasses as if wearing them undermined his display of outrage.

“I’m sorry, but CE insisted on sending those weapons to your guys … ‘we have to be prepared,’ he pointed out.” It was evident Colt didn’t really find it a reason to apologize, but he assumed the love-affair of wolf packs with all things that could kill, might have been too much for a lab mouse like Andreas.

“What weapons?” Andreas asked in confusion.

‘Ooops,’ Colt mouthed realizing he would so get chewed out by Prime for his unnecessary caviling. “So what is it then?”

“They didn’t let me drive my Käfer!” Andreas complained as if the American football had been replaced by the European sissy version.

“Who didn’t?”

“Max’ goons!”

“Who?” Colt continued to play the game with naughty glee, while Andreas’ narrow face turned bigger and redder because of indignation.

“The enforcers.”

“Tell me what happened.” Colt started to enjoy himself in a perverted way.

“Well, it’s Tuesday morning, I stayed the long weekend on the pack land on the Feldberg – it’s fucking cold up there,” he complained, his body shivering as if reliving the discomfort.

“It’s late November,” Colt stated unnecessarily.

“Anyway, I got up bloody early to drive down into the valley so I could get started on my work early, when Martin, one of those painfully healthy-looking young enforcers, blocked me from opening the door to my Beetle.”

Colt wanted to state that a Beetle wasn’t really an appropriate car for Max’ mate, but he decided to listen to the scientist’s complaints instead.

“He literally forced me to hand him the keys, and then he drove my little Käfer to my office … with the speed of a snail … on valium.”

“How dare he?” Colt uttered in disgust – faked disgust.

“I know. That was the last straw …”

“What do you mean?”

“Yesterday, we went shopping to the mall.”

“Yes?”

“I wasn’t allowed to pay for my new phone.”

“What do you mean?”

“Alex …”

“Your second beta?”

“Yes. Whatever. He said it’s pack expense and bought the phone … and then he took my old one and synched them … it even has WhatsApp missing … he says it’s not safe enough …”

“I see.”

“I now have to use that strange Wolfnet thingy …”

Colt giggled. It seems WWPInc had turned their own über-protected communication net into a business serving other wolf packs.

“You know security …”

“And then I bought myself some new jeans, all that fucking steak and dumplings. And that Martin put himself in front of the changing cabin like somebody could kill me while I was pantless …”

“What did he say?”

“So nobody would accidentally open it.”

Colt smiled.

“I mean. So what? I’m not a shy little virgin who would scream if somebody spotted her knickers …,” Andreas complained, his fury growing by the second.

“Of course not,” the Meta agreed with godlike patience, and sweet pleasure.

“Again, they didn’t allow me to pay for my jeans. Jeans, for Heaven’s sake! How can that be pack purchase?!”

Colt shrugged his shoulders.

“They also chose a new belt for me – supposedly Max had told them mine was broken – it was perfectly okay!” Andreas was outraged, but it got worse. “And then Alex grabbed the bag and didn’t allow me to carry it … I can’t go anywhere without one of these goons shadowing me as if I were a Verbrecher! – And when I go into town, it’s normally two of them. I feel like a prisoner!” Andreas complained.

“If I consider that you barely have 60 minutes to get to a reasonably-sized city, while it would take me close to four hours, I think you’re in a low-security institution – typical European sissy spa named ‘prison,’” Colt teased.

“Not funny,” Andreas hissed; though he was too upset to continue their usual US-European banter. “Martin took the keys with him, I can’t even drive to my downtown flat …”

“And he said if you didn’t eat your lovingly prepared lunch bag, but left without him for a break downtown, somebody would rip off his balls,” Colt assumed.

“Yes. - How?” Andreas shouted in wrath, until he stopped midsentence, and with an open mouth. And suddenly he deflated. “Shit.” It hit him. Hard.

Colt nodded. “Yes, my dear: ‘Shit.’ Welcome to your existence as the alpha’s mate. You’re now pack property.”

“Fuck me.”

“Well, I don’t know which bunk you prefer, and I would have no clue how Max’ mega schlong could ever fit into you …”

“At least he has never been baby boy-dicked like yours …”

Colt lifted his eyebrows quickly.

“Anyway, with lots of loving foreplay,” Andreas bragged.

“Too much information, my little blood sausage-swallower.”

“I’m pack property?”

“Max is the new alpha. You’re his mate, even if you never chose it like that. They will protect you with their lives. They will care for you until their last breath,” Colt explained – if it could be explained.

“But I’m not wolf, I have no role …”

“If you’re unhappy, Max is unhappy. And if Max is unhappy, the whole pack is unhappy.”

“So they’re just vulpine?” Andreas asked.

“No. Lupine,” Colt corrected with a smirk.

“Very funny. Was it the same for you?”

Colt snorted. “You should have seen them in college. I wasn’t allowed to carry my own books. I felt like a girl. I’m still not allowed to sit at the aisle of a booth in a restaurant. And on a plane, Prime rearranges the boarding passes. – Sometimes I had the feeling they just wanted me to scream for help because of a spider.”

“I guess they got their surprise then as well. - Fuck, what did I get myself into?” Andreas asked deflatedly.

“They don’t want to manipulate you, they don’t only do it not to be castrated – but that is a powerful motivation. I’m sure by now the Inner Circle likes you, maybe even loves you …”

“Oh no!” Andreas shouted dramatically.

Colt giggled. “Not that way, but you know what I mean.”

“But I didn’t do anything for them. Max is their hero … it feels wrong.”

Colt bit his lip.

“I mean, you’re a Meta. You’re that crazy White Wolf who rescued them all … but I? I just study mice and get accidentally laid by a chocolate monster wolf; not a major achievement … I don’t want to be Mrs. Alpha, I’m a man in my own right,” Andreas explained.

Colt didn’t answer.

“I don’t deserve this princess treatment,” Andreas stated, clearly meaning both interpretations of that sentence. “What’s next? A pink hat? A tiara?”

“Worried about your masculinity?” Colt teased.

“No … I mean … a bit.”

“I know. I always thought they saw me as a girl as they always opened the doors for me … they even have that instinctive walking pattern how to take me in the middle, depending on how many wolves were with me … it’s unsettling how naturally it happens,” Colt explained, a strange warmth filling his voice.

“You like it.”

Colt smiled carefully. “Now I do. I know how it was without them; without being important for anyone. – Maybe you have never felt that, lucky you, but I had been alone for too long.”

Andreas nodded. “So I’m overreacting?”

“Pretty much so, sorry, mouse masturbator.”

“Bloody hell. I shouldn’t have left that voicemail message with Max.”

Colt smirked. “Max will understand. He might castrate Martin, but that comes …”

“No!” Andreas shouted. “Fuck, you’re playing me again.”

“Of course, Mrs. Feldberg Pack Alpha-mate.”

“Arschloch,” came as response and it didn’t need a translation. “So that’s my life now?”

“Yep. It’s not emasculating. It’s not manipulative. And it’s not undeserved.”

“How can it not be undeserved? – I’m a scrawny nerd with no contribution to the …”

“Stop it!” Colt shouted; realizing he was shouting at his younger self. “You are precious to Max. Max is a great guy, he could have had any man he wanted, he chose you. So obviously there is something in you that is special.”

Andreas rolled his eyes.

“You’ve seen Max’ wolf?” Colt ignored the visual objections.

“Yes.”

“And?”

“He’s beautiful; the same chocolate color as his skin. And amazingly big …”

“Were you scared of him?”

“No!” Andreas protested. “He’s Max … he would never …”

Colt smiled.

The man on the other side of the Atlantic stopped. “I’m weird indeed.”

“’Special,’” Colt corrected teasingly. “It means Max’ wolf loves you as well. And wolves have high standards, believe me. – How do you think his wolf would suffer if something happened to you? How this would hurt the whole pack?”

“So I’ll have to take one for the team?” Andreas joked.

“Given what you told me, you like taking it repeatedly and deeply,” Colt teased.

“One day, Prime is going to forget himself and fuck you devil worshipper crimson-bloody!” Andreas prophesied.

“That would be his second mistake,” Colt answered surprisingly coldly.

The scientist noticed the chill and asked: “What would have been the first one?”

“Thinking about it,” Colt stated bluntly. “So, are you going to play good Alpha-mate now and obey your betas and enforcers?” He nearly sounded like Prime talking to his Meta.

Andreas seemed to stomp like a little boy but forced himself to hiss. “I guess yes. Divorce would be bloody.”

Colt snorted. “Divorce? Forget that word. You’re hooked!”

A familiar glow covered Andreas’ face.

“So anything else?”

“No. I guess it’s bedtime for you. Whose turn is it in your bed tonight for a drug injection, dog tag chaser?”

Colt showed him his tongue. “Get lost, Kraut hose sucker.”

“One thing.”

“Yes?”

“You told me you met the Feldberg Pack and Max for the first time for the battle against the vampires in Arizona …”

“Yes,” Colt confirmed.

“That’s strange.”

“Why?”

“We had dinner some weeks before Christian died … and maybe he was already delirious, but he said you had already been a son of a bitch with balls of steel when you were eleven …”

Colt frowned. “I don’t know what he meant. I’m sorry.”

“I thought so. Max misses him.”

“I know what you mean,” Colt whispered, suddenly becoming aware of the two lit columns in front of his window.

“Anyway, bedtime. Enjoy your oor-harem!” Andreas smiled naughtily.

“I’ll do! Schönen Tag!”

Andreas nodded and killed the connection.

Colt’s face fell. When he was eleven? He had been to Frankfurt when he was eleven. On the way back from his last trip to his grandmother, the airline had screwed up his connection in Frankfurt and put him into a luxurious hotel room for the night. This had been the source of his preference for walk-in showers and bathtubs for four people.

Why would he have met the Feldberg Pack back then?

And why didn’t he remember any of that?