Sunset Beach Condos

Her nose started twitching the closer she got to the meeting spot, a telltale sign that something was off. The air carried a strange weight to it, unwelcoming and tense. Yet, as her eyes scanned the beach, there was no one in sight on this end. The silence stretched uncomfortably, the usual rustling of the wind through the trees feeling almost muted, as if the very air was holding its breath.

This was starting to feel like a trap.

She tensed, shifting her stance. She hadn't even considered that before she bolted from the diner. But before she could take another step, a sudden, crushing weight settled in her chest. It was as if an invisible hand had reached inside her, gripping her heart with an unbearable force. Her breath hitched, and a tremor ran through her legs, forcing her to a halt. Her instincts screamed at her to move or run, but she couldn’t, not yet. Not until she found the source.

Wide eyes darted around the sand, searching desperately for something, anything, that could explain this overwhelming sensation. It wasn’t just fear. It was heavier than that. Sorrow, grief, a deep, aching dread that clung to her bones and refused to let go.

A box, laying unnervingly in the sand sat there. To make matters worse, there was writing on the top:

"FOR OLIVIA LOVELACE"

No doubt there were charms in that box. Bad ones, at that. She needed to treat this box very carefully, like it was a bomb waiting to go off.

She stumbled over to the box, her heart hammering against her ribs as she carefully opened it. Inside, an assortment of items lay nestled in the bottom, their appearance strikingly unassuming given the weight of the situation. Her fingers hovered over them, careful not to touch them as her brow furrowed, taking in the contents: a pinecone, a couple of dried leaves, and a notebook. They weren’t just ordinary trinkets; she could feel a hum of magic pulsing faintly from them. The pinecone and leaves carried an enchantment, subtle yet undeniable. But the notebook didn’t emanate the same energy. It was different. A message for her, most likely.

Her stomach tightened at the thought, but she forced herself to keep a level head. Whoever was behind this wasn’t trying to attack her outright - at least, not yet. They were watching, reaching out in their own cryptic way, but whether to warn her, manipulate her, or simply toy with her, she couldn’t be sure. One thing was certain, and it was that they weren’t exactly on her side. Still, this wasn’t enough to send her running. Not yet. If they thought a few vague threats would be enough to make her uproot her life again, they were sorely mistaken. No, she wouldn’t run. She’d just have to stay on edge. And that was nothing new.

She looked around on the off chance that the person stuck around. They didn't, of course, but she did notice the man from the bar approach her. The one named Rowdy. She'd need to keep these items away from him. Not because they revealed anything, there wasn't really any information to gain from them, but because they were extremely dangerous. She closed the box, glancing back up at him.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Her tone was light. Not overly friendly, but not dismissive or rude either.

Rowdy had a nose for… Well, for anything that was out of the norm. He had been a nomad for a century and a half just chasing people of magic, hunters, pretty much anyone who had the desire to hurt other people. He didn’t bother much with someone who just wanted to kill or hurt one other person – that was their business; he had killed hundreds of singular people in his pursuit. But when groups of people were involved, he was known to stick his nose in; especially if those people were his friends. Needless to say, he was sticking his nose in now.

Rowdy was also a very smooth liar. Lying was a factor of survival when you’re hunting people. Particularly other people with abilities. And he knew Olivia had something going on with her that separated her from other people. She wasn’t like him – not a wolf, but something. She was of nature but not a beast. He was curious to say the least. Call it curiosity that had him leap over the railing at the bar and sprint through the mass of people on the beach just to keep up with her.

When she stopped – but that wasn’t a normal stop – something stopped her. He fell back, hiding behind a random trashcan to watch. Fuck he must have been interested as the trashcan smelled like a baby’s diaper had exploded within it and left to bake in the sun. He swallowed down the fajitas that threatened to make a reappearance as he watched her. He saw the box, but not what was in the box. He read her body language and breathed in the air – she was tense, not fear but weary.

When she looked around, Rowdy crawled out from behind the trashcan and started another human paced, fast run. He was coming up on her fast and allowed himself to look at her. He had just tried to introduce himself to her in the bar and then they had both left quite unexpectedly. When she spoke to him, he slowed his run and paused next to her. He wasn’t winded at all; werewolves can run at a human’s pace for days and it felt nothing but good. However, for the purpose of keeping up appearances, he acted like he was out of breath. “Help me with?” he let confusion color his voice and lift one of his eyebrows as if say I have no idea what you are talking about. “I’m heading back to the condos. I wanted to get a book to read.” Innocent. Non-threatening. A book. Now what he got the most shit about was a guy that looked like him being a bookworm. He looked like the type of guy who had never cracked a book in his life.

He eyed her, turning the suspicion on her. “What are you doing out here? Weren’t you on a date with that Creed guy?” That’s right, turn the conversation around. Bring up something that she would feel she needed to defend herself against. Fluster and move the conversation away from the hard to explain.

Her response didn’t come immediately. Instead, she studied him openly, making no effort to mask her scrutiny. Every detail only made her suspicion deepen. The way he held himself, the way his expression remained unreadable yet deliberately neutral. Did he really think she wouldn't notice how strange this was? That she’d just brush off the fact that he just so happened to leave the bar at the exact same time she did? That he conveniently ended up heading in the same direction, not far behind her? Maybe he expected her to believe it was some innocent coincidence. Maybe he thought she’d be too tired or too distracted to question it. But she wasn’t. She never was. And even if she ignored all that, there was still the glaring question: if he really was heading to the condos for a book, why had he stopped to approach her? They weren’t close. Hell, they barely knew each other beyond the brief exchange of names earlier. He had no reason to stop and engage with her like this. It didn’t add up.

Her fingers twitched slightly on the box, the only outward sign of the tension creeping into her body. She wanted to be angry, wanted to call him out on the sheer absurdity of this situation. But anger required energy, and right now, she wasn’t sure she had any to spare. Instead, she forced herself to stay still, to breathe, to think.

If he was trying to play dumb, he wasn’t doing a great job of it. And if he wasn’t playing dumb? Then that was somehow even worse for her.

"Well, you approached me. Naturally I assumed you needed something." There was a bit of hesitance in her voice as she slowly pushed the box away from him. She'd built up a bit of immunity to the charms since she handled them herself, but the effect these were having on her would certainly be much worse on anyone else. She felt an obligation to protect everyone from it. "I wouldn't come any closer if I were you." she said in a neutral tone. She'd meant to sound at least somewhat threatening, but she didn't have the energy for it. The charm was sapping her energy. In another timeline, she'd have it back in her dorm by now and would have already begun unraveling them, but here she was. It would be better to come off as the villain than have to explain everything that was going on. She needed something immediate that would keep him out of the charm's range.

Truthfully, the date comment caught her off guard. She was in the middle of trying to think of a response to it when she realized she didn't need to. "It's none of your business. I'm not the one who ran up on a stranger that was busy." Her tone was a stark contrast from how it was in the bar. The charm didn't leave her enough energy to sound as peppy as she did. If anything, she sounded exhausted, which was not that normal. Whoever planted these for her had to be a powerful sorcerer.

"And it wasn't a date. He was helping me move some furniture, and we got hungry." Her voice was firm, dismissive, as if saying it out loud would make it feel less like an excuse and more like a simple fact. She didn’t owe him an explanation, yet here she was, offering one anyway. But the real issue wasn’t the conversation, it was the way the charms were working against her. Even with her natural immunity dulling their effects, she could feel them gnawing at her senses, clouding her usual sharpness. It was like trying to see through fogged glass; something about him felt off, but the usual instinct that told her how and why was being thrown completely out of sync.

It wasn't just frustrating, it was dangerous. Because if she couldn’t get a proper read on him, she couldn’t figure out what his angle was. And if she couldn’t figure that out, then she was at a disadvantage.

Rowdy kept his feet moving, not entirely running in place, but something someone who was running would do to keep themselves warm. She accused him of running up on her and gave her a curious look. "I was just running with zero intention of stopping. You talked to me so I stopped." He was trying to play off the situation cooly.

Though he wasn't meaning to, his moving feet were carrying him closer to her. Something she noticed and snapped at him for. He stopped his feet moving and just stood there, arms at his side and looking like her was ready to get slapped. He was used to offending people and getting punched in the face, it's how he got his name after all.

He nearly laughed when she got all defensive about the date comment. She did exactly what he expected. Fluster and defend. He wanted to smirk but there was something else going on with her. He had never interacted with her but he could plainly see something was going on with her. She looked like she was dead on her feet.

Disregarding her warnings he moved closer and reached out to her. He caught one of her forearms in an effort to help. "Hey. You okay? It looks like you are about to pass out."

"Do you often stop when random people that you don't know start talking without mentioning your name?" Frustration started poking at her face now, her brows knitting together as she studied him. Was he really being serious? Did he expect her to just accept his explanation at face value? Who in their right mind would stop and engage with a complete stranger while in the middle of running an errand? It was weird. And no amount of casual indifference from him was going to convince her otherwise.

She inhaled sharply, pausing for a moment as she tried to rein herself in. Maybe she was letting this get to her too much. Maybe she was reading too deeply into this. But could anyone really blame her? Her life had never been simple, never been the kind where coincidences were all simple and easy to explain. Her instincts had been honed through necessity, through experience, through years of knowing that letting her guard down even once could be the difference between walking away and never walking again. Still, she knew she had to be careful. Her frustration was threatening to overtake her rationality, and that wasn’t a position she liked being in. The charms were getting to her more than she cared to admit.

It was then that he reached out to her, and she didn't have much time to make a choice. She could either dodge him and let him enter the range of the charms, or she could push the box further away, leaving no time for her to dodge. She opted for the latter, kicking the box down the sand as he grabbed her forearm. The effects wore off quickly now that she was out of range, and she pulled her arm back firmly. "Just-" She held her hand out, closing her eyes briefly. This was pretty bad. He was being nosy, and it suddenly became much more difficult to get this box back to her apartment without anyone noticing. To make matters worse, her phone was buzzing urgently in her pocket. "Just please, stay away from the box. If you really just stopped because I talked to you, then you should be able to go back to what you were doing, right?" Her eyes locked on to his, narrowing as if she was trying to gauge his response.

Rowdy knew something was going on. This whole situation didn’t feel right. Her agitation with him went further than him just stopping as he was running by. She was either trying to hide something or she thought he was trying to steal something. “When someone looks right at me and asks a question, yeah I do.” His tone was becoming argumentative and gruff. Rowdy was used to being on his own, solo on a boat far away from people, and usually only came to shore for a whore, food, and to kill someone. He was out of his element here as he was trying to be more “normal” and socialize himself. He still had a lot to learn, clearly.

She ripped her arm away from him before his fingers could even fully close around her arm. His eyes narrowed and his eyebrows pulled together. “I’m not trying to hurt you, okay?” The vibration of magic was all over the place, he could smell it and it made the small hairs on his body stand up. He had been more worried about her until she called attention to the box. By her telling him to stay away, she might as well have been inviting him to engage about it. “Yeah, I guess I could just go away and forget all about this, but something is going on.” He eyed the box she had kicked away from her. “I are hostile towards and obviously trying to make me leave, why?” He shrugged, turning his palms up in a questioning way.

Now was the time to calm the situation and try to not create a bigger problem. “Listen, I’m kind of an idiot when it comes to social situations. I probably offended you in the bar. I’m sorry.” His apology was genuine as his tone changed, softened a little. He took in a deep breath and said in a way to make amends, “You grab your phone. It might be important,” he took a quick step to the side and grabbed the box, “and I’ll grab thi…”[/color] The expression on his face changed instantaneously and the color drained from his body.

His eyes, normally a steel blue, darkened to the light brown eyes of his wolf. His body went rigid as his grip seemed to lock around the box for a moment. The energy in his powerful body he felt was being drawn up his core, down his arms, and then out of his hands into this box. His eyes, usually so sharp with instinct, was seeing in tunnel vision as the world blurred before him. He swallowed hard and dropped to his knees, his hands releasing the box, letting it fall into the sand right in front of him.

The shift in his tone was not lost on her as he continued to defend approaching her. Truthfully, she did not have time to continue arguing that point with him. They clearly were not going to see eye to eye on it, and she had bigger problems than trying to win an argument. This had the ability to go south very fast if she wasn't careful. "Yeah, thanks for clarifying." she snapped, her patience wearing dangerously thin. The longer this conversation dragged on, the harder it became to keep her composure. Normally, she could maintain a level head, but the circumstances had her scrambling for an escape. One that wouldn’t expose her in the process. This was exactly why she hated dealing with unpredictable variables. The box being left in such a public, accessible place had already put her on edge, but now? Now, it felt less like a careless drop-off and more like a deliberate setup. Maybe it was a trap, just not the kind she had originally feared.

It was then that Olivia warned him about the box, but the moment he responded, a chill crawled up her spine. Great. He’s not going to let this go. Just what she needed. Another complication. Because why should she ever be allowed to handle her business without interference? Her temples throbbed, a migraine pressing at the edges of her skull as she turned the situation over in her mind. How was she supposed to shake him off? How did you keep someone from prying into things that didn’t concern them? She needed to figure it out, and fast, before this became an even bigger problem. "No, you didn't offend me. It's just a private matter, that's all. We don't know each other, and I'm trying to deal with a package that was left for me. Privately." She slipped the last part in after a brief pause, her eyes flickering towards him as if she was waiting for him to get the hint.

Figuring that it had been a big enough clue, she allowed herself a brief moment to check her phone, which would prove to be a big mistake on her part. In that span of time that she'd pulled her eyes away, Rowdy had stepped up to the box and grabbed it. Her heart dropped, freezing instantly. There were not enough words in the dictionary to describe the layers of distress she was feeling. Whoever her unidentified stalker was had certainly made an enemy with Olivia today. Luckily, she wasn't out of time just yet. Now it was her turn to play the dumb role and pretend like she had no idea what was going on with him.

Olivia made her way over and braved through the charm's effects enough to get the box further away from the both of them. While she didn't care for his nosiness and persistence, she did not want to see him impaired in any way. He might have been a nuisance, but she wasn’t cruel. She crouched down, gripping his shoulders to steady him before tilting his chin up so she could examine his eyes and try to get a read on the energy within his body. It was slowly returning, thankfully, but she would definitely need to do her research on these charms as soon as possible. After she'd confirmed that he didn't need medical attention, her facial expression softened into something more confused and clueless. She pulled her hands away, leaning back slightly as if she were just now processing what had happened. "Hey, are you okay? What happened?" she asked, voice laced with just the right amount of concern. Then, after a brief pause, she extended a hand toward him and added, “Does this kind of thing happen to you often?” The second question wasn’t entirely innocent. She wanted to know if he had experience with magic like this enough to recognize the effects. That would dictate how she proceeded with the conversation. She had to cling to any slight hint at a plan to convince herself that she'd keep from exposing herself so soon.

Rowdy felt the touch of her hands on his shoulders as she attempted to steady him. He was aware of what was going on but his instincts were more in control of his body than his common sense. He felt her hand cup his chin and lift his hanging head so she could see his eyes. His light brown, in human eyes; the eyes of his wolf rather than the eyes he had looked at her with previously.

He felt attacked. Attacked by that box. Possibly attacked by her. A low rumble echoed in his chest. Then he made himself think, she had told him not to touch it. Reverse psychology? But she had kicked it away. He was trying to rationalize what the fuck was happening here.

When she asked her first set of questions - 'are you okay and what happened' - the wolf inside Rowdy, so close to the surface, snarled at her. It irritated her that she was playing dumb. Warning him not to touch the box and then acting like she didn't know what it was capable of doing. He pulled his chin out of her hand and lowered his head. The energy from his body was building rapidly, like a dam about to be broken by the rage of a river.

His form started to vibrate as the wolf fought to get out, to protect itself. Rowdy had a problem with anger. Rage was his constant companion and it was always rippling at the edges of his psyche, forever looking for a reason to explode. He snarled again, a sound more animal than any human could attempt to make. He needed to calm down.

Rowdy clenched his jaw and lifted his head just enough to look at her. His lips were parted, showing off his teeth that were locked together, his jaw a mound of muscle under the flesh of his cheek showing the effort he was using to not lash out. Through his efforts he got out one word to her, "Run!" It was more of a gutteral groan than a word, but it's meaning was clear.

Receiving no response from him was hardly a surprise to Olivia. If the charms had drained her so severely, she could only imagine how much worse they were for him. Especially since he had been caught off guard by their effects. His silence, combined with the sluggishness in his movements, told her enough. Her instincts screamed at her to leave. Every inch of her was urging her to put as much distance between herself and this situation as possible. The lingering tension in the air, the way his irritation was slowly but surely bubbling to the surface, it was all a sign that she needed to get out. She didn’t have time to unravel whatever was happening to him. Not when she had her own problems to deal with.

Her fingers curled slightly at her sides; her breath steady despite the pulsing discomfort still gnawing at her from the charms. This wasn’t her fight. Not today. His recovery in the next few minutes was his problem. She warned him not to touch the box, told him to stay away, and he had been persistent. She had wasted enough time here.

She made her way over to the box, braving through its effects as she picked it up when she heard him tell her - well, tell isn't the right word - to run. Running wasn't an option when she was in the charm's range, but she made her way to the condos as quickly as she could, which was more of a speed walk. It didn't take long for her to feel nauseous, but she needed to get this thing back to her apartment. If this interaction showed her anything, it was that she really needed to get somewhere private before she could have the opportunity to be stopped by anyone else.

Then, briefly, a moment of curiosity crept in her mind, and she glanced back at where she'd left him. It couldn't last long, of course, because she was feeling terribly exhausted and sick, but it stuck in her mind during the breaks she took on her walk back to her apartment. What an interesting guy. But she didn't come off as the most normal either, did she?

She couldn’t get away from him fast enough. He was going to erupt. It was not something he could stop at this point. He felt threatened and his instincts had control. He held off on the transformation until he didn’t hear her footsteps anymore. Once the air around him was silent except for the crashing waves, he pulled off his shirt and slipped off his pants. His body burst forth into the form of a massive wolf. He bound into the waves and hung out in the shallows until he could calm down, gain his energy back, and shift into his human form once again.

He was a sea wolf. The ocean was his sanctuary. The lapping of the waves against his massive form soothed in ways comforting hands never could. It took several minutes for him to calm down. Another few minutes to stop being dizzy and nearly thirty minutes to allow him to shift back to human. Even back in his human form, he floated on the waves for another fifteen minutes before he trudged into shore and put his clothes back on. He could go home or back to the bar. He sighed…he really needed to get drunk now.

Still too tired to run, he trudged his way back to the Black Anchor where, hopefully, Jax was still waiting for him.

[End of Thread]