CHAPTER ONE

**Rock' Em Sock' Em Robots**

The Franklin boys jumped out of their father's pickup truck in the strip mall parking lot. It was springtime in North Carolina, and they were home from school. No more books, no more three hours lectures, no more dorm rooms they were ready for summer vacation and most important the girls.

"Hey, what's your name?"

A southern accent asked the brown shapely woman in front of him in the Rite Aid check out line. His voice was so deep and hypnotizing it forced her to turn around.

"Briggy," said the pretty woman wearing combat boots and a short dress.

"Well, Briggy," said the tall handsome tawny brown man. His dimples showed as he talked. "Your sugar is open." He nodded to the counter where the sugar sat pouring out onto the floor.

"Oh shit!" Briggy looked at the mess on the floor. "Man…"

"Gone grab another sugar. I'll hold you right here."

The handsome young man was speaking so fast Briggy only picked up a few words. Plus, his face was just so perfect she was stuck. "Do what? You want me to what?"

"Jabari!" Vandy, the handsome man yelled to someone who was in the back of the store.

"Yeah!" Another deep voice yelled back.

"Grab a big sugar!" Vandy yelled out. Then turned back towards her. "Don't worry bout it, my little brother gone bring you one." Vandy's brother came out the aisle and Briggy's heart stopped. Her eyes couldn't leave his smile. This new brother was in fact finer than the Vandy one.

Lord who made them? She thought the boy who appeared was the sexiest man-child she had ever seen. By definition: he was tall, over 6'6" – he had a honey brown Motherland shade and was ridiculously handsome. Handsome was not a good enough term for him rattled around inside her mind but in particular is was his smile, it would not let Briggy go.

"Here," Jabari handed the sugar to his older brother Vandy.

Briggy was staring so hard at this new Jabari brother that her nose began to sweat and Vandy noticed it all. "Thank you." Briggy took the sugar and turned back to her place in line. Stop staring, she told herself.

"Briggy."

Vandy called her name and leaned over to Jabari. "That's for you son," The girl in front of them was his type. Vandy knew his brother liked petite, shapely hipped: big bootied, human girls that were too old for him. Briggy was all of that from head-to-toe, Jabari stepped closer to conquer her and make his brother proud.

He took a deep breath and smiled at the pretty human girl. "What you buying all that sugar for?" Jabari asked

"My mom is tripping she wants to bake something, I cake I think." Briggy smiled at Jabari and he got chills up his back.

What the fuck? He thought as the human girl kept on about sugar, peach cobbler and 7up pound cake Jabari was thinking about hot sex under a slow fan. What the fuck?

"You ain't got no 7up," Vandy told her. "How can your moms make a 7up pound cake without the main ingredients?"

"I can't carry all that and the sugar. Ya'll got these long blocks down her, I only weigh 127 pounds. I'll drive back to get it after I walk all this back. Why are the blocks so long down here?"

"Want me to help you?" Jabari smiled at her again this time Briggy got a lump in her throat. "I'll take that 7up back for you."

"Down here? Where you from?" Vandy asked from over Jabari's head he was much taller. "You just moved down here?"

"Yes from the Midwest South Lyons. It's in Illinois near Chicago!" Briggy took her debt card out her back pocket to pay for her things. "I've just got down here and it's hot."

Bingo! Jabari knew he could get this new girl because he was meeting her first. There were lots of competition for human pets in his town. It was springtime, mating time and horny Werewolf boy were everywhere. The place was small plus most girl in St. Matthew had slept with at least one Werewolf boy there, but not Briggy this one was new meat no Werewolf's scent on her. She smelled like Honey Combs.

"So your name is Briggy huh? I'm Jabari Briggy."

"Jabari the 7up carrier." She nicknamed him. "Are you really going to carry it? I keep hearing about ya'll Southern boys charms."

"Oh yeah he wants to help. That boy would carry anything for your fine little ass." Vandy muttered so low only his brother heard him.

"Yes Lawd", he agreed with Vandy and smiled at the pretty human girl. "I'm a country boy and I'm here to help your fine ass Ms. Briggy."

"I don't know," she looked him up in his large brown eyes, no stranger danger, no strange vibes from either of them. "What if you're a serial murderer?"

Vandy laughed at her semi insult to his younger brother He answered with all the arrogance of his family name. "Naw, sweetheart we are the safest family in St. Matthew We run this place, our brother is married to the Mayor and everything. Nothing will happen to you around here especially if you're with us."

:

Jabari and Briggy walked down the long country blocks asking each other about their past. He brushed her arm a few times and he got tingles. Jabari never got tingles from any girl before, so why her? She wasn't his kind, she was a human female but he was reacting to her like she was a Shewolf in heat. What the fuck?

He looked at every part of her as they walked. Her skin, her toes, he shoulders, her small wrist and even her finger nails. The more Jabari studied the more his attraction. "So, why you move to St. Matthew?"

St. Matthew, South Carolina was a town of werewolves; no one moved down there.

"My stepfather moved back to his dad's house, he's from here. I moved with my mom."

"You like it?" He asked with his round inquisitive eyes.

"Well today is the first time I left my porch and you're the first person I've talked to since I got here. You and that guy in the store."

"That's my brother Vandy."

"It's really fucking hot down here. There's no let up."

"Naw girl, this the south."

"You're tall, tall. Not regular tall."

"I b-ball play ball at Clemson and Vandy plays at Boston College." Jabari kept smiling at her. "You're beautiful as hell, you should model."

"My granny was a model; she says I'm too short and thick to model."

"Granny don't know what she talking about." He watched her body slowly. "You got that Serna Williams body." Jabari liked everything he saw and he wanted to play with all that late night in the dark; play in her hair. "Is that a lace front?"

"No my hair is real. You motherfuckers ask me that so much now."

Wearing long hair wigs was the current tread amongst Black human women, Jabari knew it was a violation to pet a Black Homo Sapain woman's hair without permission, but he did it anyway. He ran his fingers through to her scalp.

Briggy's slapped his hand away. "Boy! You know better, the fuck…"

"I was just checking."

"Checking…why does it make a difference?"

Jabari thought about it. "Naw not really."

Briggy still rubber her scalp where Jabari dung his fingers, she felt violated. "How tall are you Jabari? How old are you? 17?"

"I'm about 6'5 or six and I'm19 till Thanksgiving."

Jabari was a man-child: immature, somewhat bashful and very needy. He was the youngest son of Penny Duchess of Austral, ruler of all the Werewolf's down the Eastern Seaboard. Penny ran everything including the life of her man-child son, Jabari.

"A sophomore? I ain't been a sophomore in a damn long time." Briggy snickered thinking of her ugly dorm room.

"You curse a lot." Jabari noticed.

"You gotdamn right!"

Briggy hiked across the wide front lawn to her stepfather large country house straight towards her pretty mother, Alice, who sat on the porch smiling. Her mother did not expect Briggy to come back with a boy in tow her but she was beautiful so it was a matter of time before the males of St. Matthew discovered her.

"How old are you?" Jabari asked her.

"She's 24, turns 25 in October." Alice told the cute young man behind her daughter. "Hi I'm Alice, Briggy's mother, and you are?"

Alice knew her daughter had some interest in Jabari or she wouldn't have let him walk her home. Briggy would never let a stranger walk her to the door unless she had interest.

"Mom, this is Jabari."

"Hello mama, glad to meet you. You are as beautiful as your daughter." Jabari smiled and shook her hand, Alice was taken back by his polite gesture. "I'll gone take this inside for ya."

"So you live around here Jabari? Excuse the mess."

"A few blocks over, maybe seven and I ain't worried 'bout a mess it's cool. I got a real big family and things are everywhere in my house."

"Yeah I heard ya'll have big families down here." Alicia told him.

Briggy put the things up in the kitchen as Jabari stood in the doorframe watching her and Alice thought he might droll the ways he watched her. The hunger in his eyes made Alice giggle inside. She thought the boy lusting for her daughter was funny.

"Mom you should be glad I just met him at the store. I couldn't carry all that stuff on that list ma." Briggy looked back towards Jabari, smiling.

"You should have drove your ugly jeep."

"No, you said that I looked pale and needed some sun and that I should walk."

"You know I had a stroke, I don't know why you listen to me anyway Briggy are you going to drive Jabari home?"

"Yes I am, I wouldn't make him walk in all this heat. But I gotta go change my shirt, I'm sweating I'm sticky, bugs keep following me, excuse me Jabari." He watched her walk out of the room.

"She's single too."

Alice told Jabari about Briggy's ex-boyfriend as soon as she left the room she couldn't wait to gossip about it. Briggy rushed to change clothes before her mother said too much. She checked herself out in the mirror, pushed her boobs up in her bra and hurried back to the kitchen. Briggy hooks his arm and pulled him away from her mother, Jabari smelled Honey Combs again.

"Let's go youngster you can show me around this town."

It's full of Werewolf's he thought, ain't shit to see here. Jabari thought. "Good bye Mrs. Alice it was nice to meet you."

"I'm sure I'll been seeing you again Jabari, I'm sure." Alice waved good-bye as they got in Briggy's Jeep and pulled out of the driveway.

Jabari pointed to the corner, "Turn here I'm giving you the short tour. This place ain't that big." Jabari showed her the high school, the movie theatre, the mall, the baseball fields, the nail salon, the closed military base and the zoo. Lastly he gave her the directions to his house.

"Briggy, where's your man at?"

"Left his ass when I left Chicago. I'm good!"

"No, you should have a man somebody to care when the world is fucking with you."

Briggy smiled at him, "I never looked at it like that and where's yours? Up at school? Because I know how college girls act around athletes."

"Naw, I don't mess with them girls up there: groupies and them. I ain't into all that." He lied. "Pull right there that big house with them kids in the front." Jabari wanted this older chick to meet his mother. He need permission from her to keep Briggy as a pet.

Briggy sits in front of the house, "Thank you for helping me again with your cute ass."

"Ain't you go come in and meet my moms bro? Park!"

That caught her off guard. "Meet your mom?" Jabari took her flub out of the cup holder insuring she followed.

"You may as well, my mom she's the preacher 'round here and we got three churches. So, come on dawg. Come on gal." Jabari came around and opened her door. He kissed her forehead she giggled. "You're so pretty."

Jabari took her into his large family home to find his mother, Norell Penny. She was in the back den, watching cooking shows. Norell Penny Mu-Franklin, ruler of all Werewolf's on the entire Atlantic, was surprised that her youngest son brought a human girl home. This was new.

"Ma, this is Briggy. She just moved down here; Briggy this is my moms, Mrs. Penny Franklin." Jabari was asking permission to date this human and his mother knew it so she smiled.

"Hi there Miss Briggy!"

Jabari's mother Penny smile could control the air and she knew it. This woman had striking green eyes; she has the human's age of her early 60's but looked like she was in her 40's. She had eleven children: five with her first husband Elijah D'Arco; Bernice, Rita, James, Estelle and Esther (twins). She had six with her second husband Mitch Franklin: Tyron, Terrell (twins), Claudy and Paulett, Vandy and Jabari. There stood her Jabari, greeting her with a real girl, that had never happened.

"How are you?" Penny shook Briggy's hand and smelled her discretely to see if she was a demon in disguise. Briggy did not give off the smell of vinegar mixed with tar so, she was not a demon. She smelled like Honey Combs.

"I might be melting because it's hot down here and its just May. I'm so confused." Briggy fanned herself and Penny laughed

"How'd you meet my youngest? You ain't come back with Vandy."

"At the store, he helped me bring all my stuff home."

Penny liked her and she smell nice, "Welcome to St. Matthew it's so nice to meet your pretty self, Miss Briggy. When do you leave Jabari? Next week, right? What do you need washed?"

"You're leaving?" Briggy had a disappointing tone.

Damn it, Jabari thought to his self. He wanted to tell Briggy himself that he was leaving. He wanted them to get close first then spring it on her figuring that would guarantee he'd get some sex from her. Most of the girls down there lined up to sex him.

"I leave Thursday, next Thursday."

"Where are you going?" Briggy tried not to let the disappointment flow out, but it did. Jabari and Penny felt it too. That gave Jabari some security.

"I'm going to a Strength and Fitness camp."

Briggy rapidly batter her eyelashes confused. "A what?"

"It's a basketball fitness camp that pro players go to It's to build and condition their bodies. He was Sports Illustrated player of the year." Penny spoke proudly of her son.

Briggy did not do sports talk; therefore, the look on her face was blank, Penny snickered because all the gals around there knew about her son's basketball abilities. Most of the girls in St. Matthew kept up with everything Jabari and Vandy did and now her grandson, Kyle. But this Briggy's reaction she was different: she was dumb filled.

Briggy leaned in whispering to Penny, "I don't know what Sport Illustrated is, but I have been to a baseball game before." She nods slowly, "Yeah it was long."

Penny laughed at Briggy and smiled to her son, "I like her she's funny."

"So what's your major?" Briggy looked in Jabari's round dark eyes. She liked his eyes, they were intense.

"African American Studies and Administration Management but I'm going to the NBA, me and Vandy. You just met him."

Briggy looked at Jabari and then to his mother, "He's going to the what? When do you leave for that?"

"Girl, you are silly." Penny laughed some more and gave her son a right eye wink which meant approval. This beautiful human girl was okay to be with her youngest pup, a decision that would save his life in later years.

"Well it was awesome meeting you Mrs. Franklin. Jabari can you walk me out?" Briggy asked him as she took out her phone to punch in the directions.

"Sure, c'mon girl you live around the corner, you don't need GPS."

"Call me Penny pretty one; I hope to see you again when Jay gets back."

Jabari walked Briggy to her Jeep holding her hand. It gave him chills until he saw one of the St. Matthew's high school girls that he was having sex with walking down his street. He knew the girl was on her way to his house but he didn't care, Jabari yanked Briggy to his chest and kissed her forehead.

"Text you later."

"Bye teenager." Briggy hugged his toned waist for a long time. Girl let go! She told herself and pulled away from his body, she climbed in her Jeep and drove away as his cousin's wife parked in that space.

Betty Red got out of her shiny new Mercedes looking as white as her car. She was the descendants of Vikings and rarely got sun. Betty was a pure úlfheðnar, the Old Norse term for 'wolf-hides' and she had an anger streak that extended from the battlefields of the Iron Age. She was married to Mike was one of Penny's adult grandchildren.

"Where's grandma' at?" Betty Red asked Jabari, she looked concerned. "We got an unsettling situation back in the old country. We got problems coming, big time problems."