“What happened was damn near a decade of wasted time. I love you, Cassandra Lansky. I might have been furious at being told who to marry, but I’ve always been in love with you.”
Before she could respond her phone started up again, followed by a loud buzzing from Lorenzo’s on the nightstand.
The hair on the back of her neck rose as a general sensation of dread washed over her, rinsing away any bit of sated bliss. Cassie lunged for her phone, snagging it off the bed where she’d dropped it before her shower.
“Grandpa.” She barked, terror starting to claw its way around her body like a snake strangling its prey. One, two, three. Cassie blew out a slow breath.
“Get out of there. Now!” A gnarled voice shouted so loud into the phone Cassie’s ears rung. “Go, Cassandra. Now.”
Head still ringing, she dropped the phone.
“DIB. They’re outside the hotel.” Lorenzo’s phone was so loud Cassie heard the shout.
“Fuck,” Cassie fumbled through the suitcase for a set of clothes.
“That’s not worth the time.” Lorenzo grunted.
“I’m not fighting them naked,” her heart slammed into her chest faster than the delicious way prey ran from her wolf. I’m the prey.
The door crashed inward, startling her for a second before she realized her Grandfather’s beta stood just in the doorway. “Cassandra, Lorenzo, time to go. Now. Stop shifting!”
Cassie turned, surprised to see Lorenzo was little more than a shaggy, black-haired wolf.
Knowing her clothing was too far buried, Cassie closed her eyes.
“Come out little wolf, it’s time to play.”
Tingles broke out over Cassie’s body. Her wolf came rushing to greet Cassie, the change so abrupt she yelped as pain followed the start of her shift.
It was over as quickly as it started. There were no Hollywood effects and slow changing body parts. They were simply human and then wolf. Wolf and then human.
“I said not to shift god damnit! Now they’ll know who you are.” Marco snarled.
A bullet rang out in the hall outside the door. Six doors down if she trusted her hearing. Which she did.
Shifters couldn’t communicate beyond the general measures a real wolf could. She’d run with Lorenzo often, tracked prey and took plenty down, but never fought beside each other. Cassie didn’t know when he would bob so she could weave.
Glancing at him, the wolf streaked past her, the fur on his back standing up. With a snarl, Cassie leaped over Marco to land beside Lorenzo. She was an alpha. She fought her own fights.
A bullet rushed at Cassie, slashing across the side of her fast causing more of a singe of fur than anything else.
“They’re this way!” A man shouted, firing off another round that Cassie jumped out of the way of with ease.
Her growl was cut short by Lorenzo as her husband flung himself at the human, fangs extended.
“Don’t you dare,” Marco rushed beside Cassie, firing off three rounds into the agents rushing toward them.
The screams were horrifying.
Loud, blood curling shrieks that pierced her ears from every corner of the hotel floor. No sounds of the casino could be heard in the small, floral carpeted halls of the Mirage where the richest of guests stayed. Just bullets and feet pounding into the ground.
Leaning down, Cassie watched, waiting for the moment another agent would come. They were human. Bullets wounded them, killed them, or just plain kept them down.
Cassie tucked her tail between her legs and kept her crouch low as she circled. Her face stung, but she forced herself to ignore the burn of pain.
Lorenzo trotted to her, blood coating his dark muzzle but nearly indistinguishable from water against his dark coat. No human emotion shone in his bright eyes, but her wolf understood what his wanted. She leaned against him, still certain more agents would come.
“Five is too few if they knew about you both.” Marco grabbed his phone from his pocket. “Shift. Now.”
Lorenzo let out a low growl, his teeth peering out from under his jowls as he faced Marco. Doors continued to open and close. Anyone could see them for what they truly were - as if it weren’t and enough that humans saw wolves in Vegas. Natural wolves didn’t live in the city.
Nudging Lorenzo with her muzzle, Cassie trotted past him. She wasn’t worried about Marco, but she wouldn’t put it past her often-times bodyguard to shoot Lorenzo since he believed her still furious about the match.
“Get in there and get dressed. We’re wheels up in three and I’m not rushing two naked people through the grounds of the hotel.” Marco bashed his elbow into the glass box and Cassie watched as he pulled the fire alarm.
The painful blare of the alarm drew a whimper from Cassie and sent her racing into the room. Lorenzo followed, the sound of his paws barely audible in the ruckus. Cassie understood though. They needed the fray to disappear into.
Marco slammed the door shut and howled as a pop went off in the room. Smoke billowed from the wound as Cassie was suddenly mobile on two legs, racing toward a life-long friend who thankfully only took a bullet to the shoulder. She spun, staring at a beautiful woman with long red hair and a man less than a few inches from her with a gun pointed at Marco. Marco didn’t speak or try to move which sent her heart racing. A silver bullet to the shoulder wouldn’t kill a shifter.
She’d shifted, given up her form, and fear paralyzed her as she’d realized her mistake. Before the DIB might have only known two wolves wed inside the hotel. Now they the identity of one of the two for certain. Lorenzo’s hand touched Cassie as he shoved her behind him. Her mouth went dry as he spoke, as concern for both packs swept over her.
“What are you doing here?” Lorenzo didn’t snarl, but he didn’t seem pleased with the woman in the room with them.
“Don’t do anything you’ll regret, wolf. You’re lucky I convinced them to let me come when the word got out.” The woman walked forward, set her gun down, and sat on the bed as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “He’ll heal by the way, princess. Just a little magic-infused bullet so we could talk.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Cassie snarled as her wolf clawed at the back of her mind, pushing her to shift and let the wolf take care of the human.
“Ask your husband. It’s his fault I’m here.” She glanced at her nails as if bored by the situation. “Jack, now would be a good time to radio in that the assets murdered at least of our men during the distraction. And tell the agents down front to figure out a way to stop the alarm. Chaos isn’t our friend and we don’t have enough time.” If she cared about the dead agent, she didn’t show it.
Cassie had forgotten the horrifying sound of the alarm as panic for herself and her pack took over. “I asked you.” She fought past the concern. One day, she would be alpha of the Lansky pack. A human would never bring her to fear again.
“Roger that. This better not be so you can re-juice your wolf form.” The stocky man sounded pissed, but a sparkle in his eyes made Cassie think he teased her.
“Someone start talking. Now. Or so help me,” she turned to Lorenzo who still stood naked as she was. “I’m going to kill you in your sleep.”
“I’m getting us towels. Whatever the fuck this, it clearly was an ambush and not an assassination mission. I’m not terribly pleased at my wife’s beautiful form being on display - even if she has no issues with nudity herself.”
“Spoken like a mated wolf,” the woman inclined her head. “Speak while you dress. This was an assassination mission, I’m just faster than they were.”
“And smarter.” The man smirked. “I know you don’t need me, but if shit goes sideways…” his voice trailed off.
“You’ll feel it through our link, so it won’t matter. Go. Be the one to calm the frantic masses outside.”
“Now,” Cassie growled, her eyes follow the male to the door. “If you so much as touch him -”
“Calm down. I’m a cop. I’m here only to make sure she isn’t injured. I know y
our family, you’re clearly wolves but not the kind I’m interested in bringing to a knee. At least not you. Your grandfather is another story, but that’s for another time.”
“Why is a cop with DIB?” Cassie’s head pounded between her fury at the lack of information and the still beeping fire alarm. The door closed and Cassie turned back to the others. She was losing control over her anger, which meant she’d lose control over her wolf. Her skin bristled as her blood ran hot. Lorenzo set her up. He worked with DIB to turn over her family and take control of the city for his.
“He’s not a cop. Not anymore. He just sometimes forgets we behave differently at the agency.”
Cassie’s vision went red as she lunged at Lorenzo, a flurry of blonde-white fur and snapping teeth. His flesh was warm as her fangs sunk into his arm. She bit down harder, ignoring the part of her screaming that she could kill him. Cassie almost let go, terrified at the idea of killing Lorenzo. Like a weight crushed against her body, Cassie found it hard to hold on to her desire to hurt him. Almost.
“Enough,” the woman hissed, somewhere behind them. “He is not why I’m here, but if you’re intent on killing him I won’t try too hard to stop you.”
The strangeness of the words stopped Cassie in her tracks and allowed Cassie to realize Lorenzo wasn’t fighting her. He didn’t shift or try to shove her off. Cassie opened her mouth and stepped off Lorenzo’s chest, allowing him to stand up off the floor.
“Talk. Now, or I won’t let go next time no matter how badly it felt to hurt you.”
Lorenzo tapped her, passing her a fluffy white robe that seemed utterly ridiculous to put on given the current situation. Still, she slipped it on, feeling out of place standing naked before strangers with her bodyguard on the floor out cold.
“Noel, this is my wife, Cassie. Cassie, this is Noel - forgive me for not remembering your last name. She’s a Skinwalker.”
Her mouth dropped open. Skinwalkers were rare, often believed to be nothing more than myths. All Cassie knew was they weren’t limited to one form. The sound of a zipper brought her back to the situation as Lorenzo put his slacks back on.
“I’m also literally the only reason you both are alive.”
“How do you know each other?”
“He’s how she can turn wolf.” The man closed the door after re-entering. “Ten minutes before the agency gets here. I told them we lost them.” He turned and actually stuck out his hand. “Jack Duncan. Total human, and also totally not against all creatures who aren’t human.”
“Which is a plus since you’re married to one.” Noel quipped. “We don’t have any more time for this.”
“First, what did Jack mean? How does a Skinwalker learn forms? Isn’t it genetic?”
“Something like that,” Lorenzo walked beside her. “I meant what I said earlier, but I am a man.”
“Smooth move, dude.” Jack chuckled. “A Skinwalker gets her forms one of two ways. Ingesting blood of what they wish to shift into, or sex.”
“Why do I get the feeling I know how that turned out.” Cassie resisted the urge to slap him. He spoke of being her mate but also sleeping with other women. Women who clearly knew what he was.
“It was mutually beneficial. We dated on and off for a few months, but it was obvious he belonged to someone else. Someone I take it must be you.” Noel paused for a moment and her skin began to crawl. Like thousands of ants raced beneath the surface, and small changes began to occur until she stared at her husband in front of her and next to her.
“You won’t buy my disguise should you question me about Lorenzo or attempt to kiss me. I am not his soul. Only his … well ... skin. I can’t change back until the magic wears off, but I felt it best for you to see with your own eyes because we’re running out of time.”
“Eight minutes to be exact.” Jack looked anxiously at the window. “We’re leaving the way we came in if you run out of time. I don’t need anyone having an excuse to execute you.”
“She caught me shifting before we knew what the other was. She flashed her DIB badge so fast I thought I was dead and my family with me.” He didn’t try to touch her, but he stood so close Cassie could feel the warmth radiating from his bare chest.
“I wanted to be a shifter and be able to learn a crime family’s secret. He wanted to keep his family alive. Like my husband, I don’t kill when I don’t need to, and I didn’t need too. Which brings me to how I’m here saving your ass right now. Your families were outed and I had to see how far this went.”
“Word got out about your wedding - two rich families tying the knot - but someone outed you. We received an anonymous tip that the Mirage was owned by wolves. Tried to glean DNA off it as we assumed it would be another pack trying to seek control, but we came up empty.” Jack put lowered his gun for the first time, but didn’t put it down.
“The agency wanted a few agents to check it out. I convinced them that as a Skinwalker I could be of use. They went up the stairs, I climbed up the side of the building.” Noel smiled. “Well, Jack climbed. I crawled.”
“Could we not discuss you as a fucking tarantula?” The man looked visibly distressed.
“I have no reason to want you dead. The packs are known for violence against each other, but you don’t attack humans and that’s who I protect. So, I have a plan.” Noel pulled handcuffs from her waist. “Here’s the deal. You pretend I took you hostage. I bring you in and make up a grand story about how you’re more useful alive than dead and I take you to a very underground portion of DIB, and I mean that in more than just the physical location sense of the word. As the soon-to-be-alphas of two packs in the desert, you could be useful on the payroll.”
“Why would we work for DIB?” Cassie paced. DIB were murders and this woman and her husband claimed DIB would work with them.
“Because the alternative is your death. Lorenzo is bloody around the mouth. He killed someone. He killed a DIB agent. The police will demand security footage and even when we don’t confirm who the wolves are, the tape will tell us. Your guy was careful not to say your names, but we have the door number and the guest list. Plus, my guess is that since you shifted facing out the door, we have a visual.”
“Fuck.”
“Why are you protecting us?” Lorenzo did squeeze her hand then. “While I won’t lie and say Cassie and I were thrown together, you’re not wrong about my feelings for her. How do we know DIB won’t kill us where we stand?”
“Because I’ve brought them a few strays before who are on payroll. You’ll be forced to monitor your pack harsher, and change a lot of the violence against each other that makes it into the headlines as organized crime, but you’ll all live.”
“It’s Noel’s way or the highway and we’re down to two minutes. What’s it going to be?”
“Do it,” Cassie spoke as Lorenzo spoke louder.
“No deal.”
6
“If this happy wife, happy life shit doesn’t pan out to at least five more rounds of what we started I’m tapping out.” Lorenzo whispered to his wife.
Any other time he might have been chuffed at marrying his mate without disrupting his place within his pack. Now all he could focus on was the steely-eyed woman looking over the top of her computer screen at them.
His wolf paced, lurking and ready to strike should it even appear they’d harm Cassie.
“You’re here because you love me, and I want to know what they have to offer.” She announced loud as always.
“About that, anything you want to tell me?”
She rolled her eyes but was interrupted before she could speak.
“If you’re quite done with whatever that was, let’s get started.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Noel and Jack spoke in unison like trained puppets.
“I am Agent Cordelia. I run the DIB special operations segment.” She let her eyes flicker red for a moment.
Lorenzo let out a low whistle, surprised as hell that Noel hadn’t been lying to deliver them with a bow to the
DIB.
“As you can see, I’m also a demon. Makes me uniquely qualified to understand when we have useful assets on our hands and we it’s time to do what the DIB does best - kill the supernatural.”
The wolf let out a low growl through Lorenzo’s lips. “Word of advice. I wasn’t keen on this setup. I agreed because my mate did.”
Cassie melted against him at his choice of the word mate. He couldn’t hold back his smile at that. They’d been interrupted seven years ago and tonight, but she knew what he knew and that was all that mattered.
“Then I suppose I need to speak to the smart one in the room,” Cordelia joked turning her attention to Cassie. “One minute to explain to me why you’re useful.” She pulled her cellphone out and opened a timer. “Go,” the singular word as she pressed the screen and started the clock.
“Because the wolves are far more powerful than DIB even with you hunting us down. You kill us, you’ll have two packs coming after you.” Cassie crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back in the chair. “It’s not about what you can do for us, it’s about what we can do for you.”
She just stopped talking. Lorenzo glanced at the timer ticking rapidly up from the fifteen second mark. Still, Cassie said nothing. She just sat there, turning her golden gaze on the steely-blue eyes of a demon deciding if they walked out of there clean, or if they walked out bloody when Lorenzo attacked back.
He let his eyes watching the timer. When it ticked past a moment he snarled.
“Men. So temperamental,” Noel quipped and both Cassie and Cordelia laughed.
“Are you not going to say anything else? And are you not going to stop the timer?” He glanced between wolf and demon.
“There’s nothing else I have to say. The rest is semantics. We don’t need DIB. They need us.”
Cordelia leaned back in the black leather chair, her white hair draping over the arm of the chair as she nodded.
“You seem rather certain of that fact.”
Cassie held firm in not giving a single glimpse of emotion. Whatever startled woman watched her bodyguard get shot was not the woman beside him. An alpha sat beside him and he’d be damned if he could ever rival her.
Supernatural Syndicate: A Limited Edition Collection of Magical Mafia Stories Page 13
