Napoleon: The Pierced Series, #5

PROLOGUE

Sixten Dahl rose out of the water slowly. 

So slowly that I almost forgot how to breathe. 

He began to walk towards us, lifting both arms, his biceps rippling with the effort, to run his hands through his hair and push it back from his face. He shook his head a couple of times before he turned to the right to shout something to his friends behind him, giving us the awe-inspiring view of his profile. Angular nose, beautifully defined cheekbones, an earlobe just begging to be nibbled at, luscious, soft-looking lips. Beads of water dripped down from his sun-drenched hair, gently caressing his neck before finding a path between the muscles, dips and crevices of his incredibly chiseled chest and abdomen areas.

Oh. My. God.

My eyes couldn’t help but follow the rivulets as they made their way to the waist band of his bathing trunks and beyond. 

While Moused and I had secretly mocked our Swedish visitors for their European fashion sense – namely the fact their swimming shorts were a good six inches shorter than our knee-length ones – I certainly wasn’t laughing now. Oh yeah, bring on the short-shorts, baby. Come to papa...

Knock it off, dude! Moused hissed in my ear as he punched me in the arm. You’re embarrassing yourself, man.

Please tell me my mouth wasn’t hanging open, I answered in a small voice as Sixten turned around completely to face his friends, Viggo and Theo, who were still horsing around in the lake.

Of course, now I had the perfect view of the wet shorts hugging his ass...

Not only that, Nap, there was definitely drooling going on too, Mizuki laughed from her towel on my other side.

I gave her the signature Balak family glare.

What’s so funny? Sixten asked as he joined us and plonked himself down on the towel next to Moused.

Nothing, Moused, Mizuki, and I all said in unison.

If I could summarize how my summer had gone in a few short words – the above has it covered.

My name is Napoleon Charming-Balak, and I have a serious crush on a straight boy.

CHAPTER 1: I’m heading to college. 

I’m going to miss you so much! Louise wailed as she pulled me in for a wet and snotty-nosed hug.

Jeez, Lu, he’ll be back at Christmas. Reyes rolled his eyes at my guardian and Aunt, whose demeanor was usually more on the steely side.

I glanced over at Moused who was taking our luggage out of the car, and I thought for the hundredth time today: how was it that he managed to get out of his family accompanying him to the airport?

Lucky bastard. 

I mean, I’m supposed to be the drama-queen in this family, but Aunt Lu was certainly giving me a run for my money at the moment. I blame my straight side. Wait...I don’t have a straight side. Oh well.

And all this is a smaller but even more dramatic farewell to the one we had an hour ago back at the house with all the rest of the family and friends.

Aunt Lu, I love you, and I promise, hand on heart, that I’ll text you as soon as we land, but this caterwauling is playing havoc on Mousey’s and my street cred here. I pulled her in for a hug.

I hate to break up this heart-wrenching Hallmark moment, peoples, but despite the fact we’re flying private, we still have a schedule to maintain. Reyes motioned to the two men behind him to pick up all Moused’s and my luggage.

All right, Napoleon Charming, you make sure you call us every day.

I rolled my eyes at Aunt Lu.  Once a week.

Every-other day then, and that’s my final offer. Louise gave me that Balak family glare. 

I gave her a nod and another quick hug. I knew better than to continue on down that rocky road. Louise Balak never loses an argument.

Twenty minutes later, I was looking out at and waving goodbye to Louise, who was standing on the tarmac, through the window of the small business jet that’s taking me, my best friend Moused, and Reyes, our temporary chaperone, to New York City.

Now if any of you know a little about my best friend Moused Thurman and me, your first thought might be something along the lines of: Why the hell is the dashing, debonair, handsome, and extremely humble Napoleon Charming leaving his beloved town of Nowhere? Your second thought might appear in the predictable form of a response that goes: The name of the town says it all.

But you’d be wrong.

Ever since my Uncle Lucas – Louise’s brother – got himself hitched to his true-mate, Pierce, our little town of Nowhere, Nevada, is beginning to become one of the places to be in the werewolf community. Pierce, due to her rare...peculiarities, for lack of a better word...has put our town on the map, so to speak. Yay. But that’s another story. More importantly, that’s not my story – so don’t expect me to go into much detail when it comes to my adopted Uncle and Pack Leader, Lucas, and his new wife and co-Alpha, Pierce.

Let’s go on and bring it back to me, shall we? 

Why are Moused and I going to New York? Do you want the long version or the short version? Never mind. I’ll give you the Nap version.

Moused has been made an offer by Reyes that he just can’t refuse, but more on that, and who exactly Reyes is, later.

And then there’s me. I’m heading to college. To NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, to be exact. 

At least that’s part of the story. 

The other part is that I’m running. Running as far away as I can possibly get from a boy. A boy that had me all twisted and turned on the inside. A boy who had me acting like a love-struck teenage girl. A boy that enjoyed reveling in my love-struck anguish and enjoyed tormenting me as he repeatedly crushed my heart between his firm and manly fingers every chance he got. The boy who I’d been mooning over all summer long and who was absolutely the epitome of every gay man’s nightmare: the straight guy who got off on being a dick tease. 

I’m talking here about Sixten Dahl, Boy Wonder and arrogant, spoiled, future heir to the Uppsala Pack in Sweden. Sixten Dahl who, with his two friends, Viggo and Theo, had been staying with our pack in Nowhere for the last seven months. 

Leaving home – the home I loved and the family I adored – and going to college in another state was not just an option for me. It was a necessity.

CHAPTER 2: Reyes might be cute, but he’s not my type. 

In case you didn’t pick up on it just now, I’m a werewolf. Of course, nowadays the term wolf is more politically correct. If you’re reading this hoping for some wolf-related supernatural drama, sorry to disappoint. The fact that I’m a wolf plays no central role to this story at all. I just am one. 

Yeah, it’s a bit of an inconvenience around the full moon, but other than a large appetite and some extra add-ons in the strength and speed departments, I’m just me:  an eighteen-year-old gay teen.

I leaned back in my seat and took a break from looking out the window. We were flying through some clouds at that moment, and there was only so much cloud-gazing I could do, even if it was my first time in a plane. Moused and Reyes were comparing notes about something and giving each other a high-five. 

Computer geeks. 

First of all, let me introduce you to Reyes.

Reyes is kind of hot for an older guy. Older than us, I mean. He’s like twenty-eight or twenty-nine or something. He has dark hair and brown eyes and sometimes wears these cute dark-rimmed glasses that Moused and I joked about having a built-in computer screen that only Reyes himself can see. Well, I joke about it, and Moused wishes he had computer-screen glasses.  I’ll say it again: computer geeks. 

Reyes is the Retinue, or Ret, to the heads of the Segher Vampire House, close friends to my pack. Retinue just means he’s their go-to guy in charge of all their security, financial affairs, taking care of business during daylight hours, and so on. 

Now before you get too excited about the fact I just mentioned vampires, I should point out that there are absolutely no vamps in this story. Sorry to disappoint. I only mention them at all because of the role they’re going to play in Mousey’s future.

Moused recently became Reyes’ protégé, and his college tuition, accommodations and pretty much his whole future is now being funded by the Segher House. Moused will basically take over Reyes’ position when Reyes becomes a vampire in a couple of years. 

Moused was going to be going to Columbia University, and I was going to be attending NYU. Reyes, in his position as the Segher House representative, was escorting us to a Segher-owned apartment where we would be living while at college. Apparently these digs were central to both Columbia and NYU.

Reyes might be cute, but he’s not my type. Not that I even realized I had a type until I saw Sixten Curse-His-Name-to-the-Gods Dahl.

And just like that I’m back to thinking about Sixten.

Just before the summer started, the Boy Wonder and his entourage showed up in Nowhere when his father, the leader of the largest pack