The Witch and the Wolf Pack
Book Two
Moonlight Hunters
by
K.R. Alexander
Copyright © 2018 K.R. Alexander
kralexander.com
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Dear Moonlight Pack
Chapter 1
The black wolf paced onto Regent Street and stopped. His ears twitched, visible by the glow of streetlights and headlights. His head lifted, nostrils quivering. Nose in the air, he sniffed left, then right, and started in that direction with a quick wag of his tail.
My heart beat faster. “Jason?” I followed at his heels. “Is it them?”
He ignored me—didn’t even flick his ears back to my voice.
I glanced at Kage, walking beside me and watching Jason. He didn’t answer me either.
“Slow down,” I warned Jason as I broke into a jog.
He hardly complied.
I looked back to make sure Jed was also keeping up. Trailing by several feet, he glared at late night London traffic and drunken tourists and locals shouting as they spilled from doorways or clambered into black cabs. He seemed like an angry and poorly dressed bodyguard back there—wearing worn-out black jeans, a black graphic shirt with a tree made of skulls on it, and motorcycle boots. Kage wore similar boots, though July in London was too hot for them even in the middle of the night.
On the next block, Jason veered off from Regent Street, turning right on a side lane, the name of which I didn’t catch.
Being a stranger here, I had only my phone to rely on for navigating this vast city and I wasn’t fool enough to go around looking at the screen like a lost tourist—even if I did feel safe in the company of these three.
Jason fell into a trot, hitting the end of the cheap nylon slip-leash in Kage’s hand. He glanced around like he’d forgotten he was attached to anything, then plowed on. We all moved faster on this quiet stretch of sidewalk.
Smells of beer, vomit, and cigarette smoke washed over me. What was Jason smelling?
We’d been at this search for a couple of hours with no return. A life or death search. One that could hold anything from answers and salvation to murder at the end of the trail. Or nothing at all: no trail at all. Which was how the evening had been going. Until now.
Finally, Jason seemed to have caught smell of his kin—the supposed werewolves of London. Perhaps hidden in small communities? Roaming Hyde Park by night instead of open countryside, keeping to themselves by day? Blending in seamlessly with humans, or avoiding them?
Should I text Isaac? I held my phone but, for now, only followed. Surely Jason would slow and think this through before running straight into wolves.
“Kage? Are we close? He doesn’t seem … concerned.”
“Close all right, but I don’t know—”
Jason yanked him to brightly lit picture windows of a shopfront and stopped. He leapt to place his forepaws on the glass.
“Jason,” I hissed, heart pounding even faster. “Get off there. You’re supposed to be unobtrusive.” Why hadn’t we discussed his behavior if he did pick up the trail? I’d never thought he’d be happy to find urban wolves—which he didn’t even believe in. So I’d taken caution for granted.
He did indeed draw attention. As I reprimanded him, and Kage was doing nothing to pull him away, I heard a man’s voice through the open glass door.
“Bloody hell—what’s that?”
“Jason.”
He dropped to all fours and looked at me with a big, panting grin on his black face, illuminated by hard light pouring from the shop. More was pouring from it also: heat and a strong smell of deep fat frying.
I bent to look into his golden eyes, again speaking in a whisper. “Are they in there?”
Jason licked my face and wagged his tail.
“Don’t—” I sputtered, wiping the back of my hand across my mouth. “Kage?”
“Nothing in there.” Kage shook his head, still frowning. “He just fancies fish and chips.”
“What?”
“Loves fish and chips. That’s his favorite. Proper daft, he is. He’d take fish over a steak.”
“You’re kidding me?” I stared from Kage to Jason—now really lashing his tail back and forth like a dog greeting its owner.
“No, it’s true. He’s always been like that.”
“Not the fish! I mean you’re kidding that that’s why he led us out here.”
“Oh. No.” Kage looked down at him. “No wolves here, right? You just fancy a cod?”
Jason’s forepaws danced in place on the sidewalk and he said, “Wooooooh,” in a muffled tone, as if trying to keep from shouting.
Kage looked at me and shrugged. “It’s been a long day.”
“Dammit, Jason. We have a job to do.”
He tried to lick my hand, still wagging. I jerked it away.
Kage gave me the leash. “Bang on with the timing. Looks like they’re about to close up.” He went in to order fish and chips.
I sighed, crossed my arms so Jason could not easily reach my hands, and looked heavenward. I couldn’t see stars beyond lights of the city but pretended I could.
Jed stood off to the side so the violent glow from the fish and chips shop did not reach him. He wasn’t supposed to be with us at all, yet Andrew had played tricks on him and we’d met up an hour ago to change shifts: Zar and Isaac with Andrew tracking; and the three of us with Jason tracking.
Tracking a midnight snack.
I heard Kage inside explaining that yes, it was his girlfriend’s dog. Some crazy Russian breed that he’d never heard of.
“Got any fish left?”
Kage cleaned the place out, taking away three bundles of paper with two stacks of fish and a great mound of fries—chips. He paid in cash, salted them generously but skipped the vinegar, and returned to us with Jason leaping up at him.
We settled a few doors down on a dark stairway, sitting on concrete steps. Kage and Jason in the middle, Jed standing against the corner of the wall, myself on the steps on the far side.
“We’re not going to find anything if he’s distracted at every food smell,” I said.
“Not every smell. Just this one.” Kage handed Jason a whole piece of fish, which he grabbed in his massive jaws, gulped, throwing back his head, and it was gone in seconds. “Must be a fit chip s
hop.”
They probably had the most expensive rental space of any fish and chips in England. Doing something right.
“You can tell the difference by smell?” I asked. “The best fish versus normal?”
“Jason can.” Kage wolfed down a piece in slightly more time than it had taken Jason while Jason had his head in the potato bundle on Kage’s knees.
“Corpse-nose wouldn’t know how,” Jed mumbled from above us and to the left. It was the first time he’d said anything since joining us tonight. Really, Jed had hardly said anything since I’d first met these six werewolves less than a week ago. He’d only ever spoken directly to me a couple of times.
Kage tried to splutter something nasty back but he was gagging on fish. Jason snatched fish paper in his teeth and Kage pulled it away.
“I can hold his.” I reached to take a bundle without thinking.
Jason growled. A quick sidelong dart of the head, blaze of teeth, but he stopped himself, jerking back. He averted his eyes and gave his tail a weak wag.
“Good call, buster,” I told him. “I’m not trying to steal your food. Here.”
Jason gulped another piece that I handed him.
“Do you really have different noses?” I asked. “Like people have different quality of eyesight?”
Kage shrugged. “Maybe.”
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard them tease him about having a weak nose.
“Jed?” I leaned out to offer him a piece of fish while Kage and Jason were gulping.
“I hate fish,” Jed muttered.
I was pretty sure I knew wolves better than that in the short time I had known them.
“It’s going to be a long night.” I still held it out and Jed finally took it.
“Whah-bout-you?” Kage asked indistinctly with his mouth full.
“I don’t usually eat fried food like this in the middle of the day. The middle of the night is definitely not going to be figure-pleasing.”
I gave Jason the rest of the fish bundle, then wiped greasy fingers on his fur since I didn’t have anything better. Anyway, he’d wiped his tongue on my face.
He didn’t seem to mind—back to devouring chips in Kage’s lap.
Once he’d polished off two pounds of fried food, Jason stretched and shook himself while Kage mashed up all the papers.
“Feel better?” Kage asked him.
Jason melted onto the sidewalk and fell on his side, pawing Kage’s boot with great bear paws. Kage scooted down to sit on the bottom step and rub Jason’s chest while Jason’s head rolled back, his tongue dangling out one side of his mouth.
“There’s nothing here,” Kage said under his breath. “Just like we thought. Jason can sniff a beetle in a blizzard. He’d have found them by now if they were around.”
“London is vast, in case you hadn’t noticed,” I said. “We’ve just started. We may be at this for several nights, gradually working our way out from Central London.”
“Hear that, princess?” Kage addressed Jason. “Several nights. Bloody slave driver.”
Jason went on lolling with his head back while Kage scratched him.
“Do you want to figure out who’s behind these murders or not?” I asked. “Because all we have right now are way too many vague suspicions with almost no legitimate leads to go on. This is one of them.”
“Did that druid ever say why she thought there were wolves in London?”
“She acted like it was common knowledge they were here. Maybe only rumors among the druids. I don’t know. But what difference does it make? It’s something to look for.”
“It’s a wild wolf chase. You know who we should be tracking and asking a few questions? That bloody Beech Pack. Everyone thinks so but Diana says to leave them be. I bet she’s afraid of them.”
I glanced at Jed, who was looking away down the street.
I still had every intention of talking to him about that mysterious Beech Pack. Until then, I didn’t know a thing about them other than they were estranged from the South Coast Cooperative—which included all the other packs in the South of England.
But Jed knew something about them.
More important right now, though, was London.
The druids suspected urban wolves were behind these serial killings.
The Sable Pack suspected everyone—which was more hindrance than help. Although this rogue Beech Pack seemed to be top of the list.
I had my own theories based on the scrying I’d done for them. That scrying had led me to druids giving us the urban wolves tipoff, then to images of vampires, burning cities, and wolves attacking wolves.
I couldn’t get Ellasandra’s words of warning about London wolves, or that vision of the vampire standing among hundreds of graves, out of my head. The Beech Pack, just like any heart-to-heart with Jed, would have to wait.
“Jason,” I said, “I don’t want to bother you, but we need to get going. If you’re tired, maybe Jed will track for a while. He’s basically black also. He could blend in if we’re careful.”
Jason scrambled to his paws and shook himself once more. He cast me a dejected look, ears sagging.
“Aren’t any here, Cassia,” Kage repeated, apparently translating for Jason. His ability to read Jason was why he was on this “team” in the first place.
“You don’t know that,” I told Jason. “This isn’t an Easter egg hunt that someone made too hard so we get bored and move on after two hours. This is important. And I don’t know why I’m the one having to tell you that when it’s your family in danger. Can you keep going or should Jed change?”
Jason picked up the dangling middle of the slip-leash in his jaws, gave me one more hurt look, ears half back and eyes wounded, then padded away down the dark sidewalk.
We followed, Kage eventually taking the leash back from him, to keep scanning Central London for signs of shifters.
We’d gone a few blocks when my phone chirped. I checked to find a text from Isaac.
Can you come to Bateman Street? We’ve found something.
Chapter 2
I was surprised to find Andrew in his bipedal skin form and totally dressed by the time we reached him, Isaac, and Zar.
We met on Bateman Street, all three of them looking grim. Their expressions changed when we walked up: sniffing. Even to a human nose we still held a certain fast food aroma.
“You lazy sods,” Andrew said. “Having a kip and a sup on us? Did you bring me fish?” To Jason.
Jason stopped on the sidewalk. Lying back his ears, he growled at Kage.
“Belt up, Jay,” Kage said. “Don’t blame me. If you’d wanted to save him some you could’ve done it.”
“What are you doing like this?” I asked Andrew. “We’ve been searching. We only stopped for a minute.”
“So have we.” Andrew tipped an imaginary hat at me.
“We found something you might be interested in,” Isaac said. “But not wolves.”
“There are no wolves here,” Andrew said and glanced down at Jason, arching an eyebrow. “Am I right?”
Jason sat on his tail, head low, looking sulky.
“Why do you both keep acting like that?” I asked. “We’ve searched a tiny area of this city. You expected instant results?”
Andrew shrugged.
“I suppose we did,” Zar said. “Jason can track anything. With both of them, if a wolf had been anywhere around this area in the past week we’d get at least a hint.”
“Those are such huge ‘ifs.’ Right on these streets and in a recent timeframe,” I said.
“Anyway,” Isaac said, “we’ll keep hunting. I know we’ve just started. But as long as we had something else to investigate, we wanted to let you know.”
“So what did you find?” I asked Andrew.
“Blood bank.” With a wry smile.
“Excuse me?”
“A cold nest, blood pit, silent hive.”
“I don’t know if those are wolf expressions or British ones but we Amer
ican witches are not familiar with all your slang.”
“Vampires,” Zar said quietly. “You said you wanted to find vampires.”
“Ah, got it. So this … silent hive is here on Bateman Street in the middle of London?”
“Not exactly.” Andrew led us around a corner to a riveted metal door set in a low concrete archway. The door was rusted, only flakes of paint remaining, but I couldn’t tell more than that in bad light down here.
“So,” he went on, “who wants to go first?”
“Who’s going at all?” Zar said. “The best thing to do would be get one out here if you want to talk. Not trap ourselves in there with them.”
“And how are you going to do that?” Andrew asked. “We could be here all night.”
“If we go in, ask questions, and get out, that will cause the least disturbance,” Isaac said. “Moon’s luck will tell if we get anywhere.” He did not sound optimistic. “Cassia, are you sure you want to talk to them?”
“Positive.”
“And what are you going to say?” Kage asked. “‘Hey, mate, you haven’t been popping round to the coast to murder wolves lately, have you? Because your secret’s safe with us.’”
“I’m not accusing them of anything. But there’s a vampire connection. More than just the stakes being used in these murders. I’ve seen vampires twice now in scrying.” I looked at the door, taking a deep breath. “So how do we get in there?”
Isaac pushed it open. It didn’t even have a latch, much less a lock.
Oh. “Thank you.”
He held up a large hand as everyone started forward other than Jason, who’d gone back to sitting on his tail, ten feet from us on the sidewalk.
“Wait a minute,” Isaac said quietly. “We can’t all go down—”
“Got to look after her,” Kage snapped.
“That’s what we’re supposed to be around for,” Jed added angrily—as if he was having to babysit me.
“They’ll go for her,” Zar said. “We have to stay with her.”
“Two or three of us can do that down there.” As he spoke, Isaac stepped into the doorway, claiming one of those spots in the parade. “More and we won’t be able to move quickly and get back out if we need to.”
No fists, no growls, yet Isaac always seemed to be one up on them.
I knew by hostile looks from the others that this wasn’t lost on them.
Moonlight Hunters: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 2) Page 1
