Savage Love

by Riley Storm

  Alison frowned. “I…” she trailed off.

  Had she ever asked Lucien about his childhood? About anything? The answer, she saw, was not really. There had been off-the-cuff remarks here and there, but not once had she ever really asked about his life.

  “Well, now I feel terrible,” she muttered more to herself than anything.

  “That’s the way things go sometimes,” Chief said. “Don’t think I hate you. Just know that I’m on his side, in a sense. I know he’s telling the truth.”

  Alison worked her lips into a look devoid of amusement. “I suppose everyone knows?”

  “It’s rather obvious,” Chief told her with a smile. “But hey, if you have questions about the whole thing, you can ask me.”

  “Well…there is one,” she said awkwardly. “But I don’t know how to phrase it.”

  “The shifter thing?” Chief supplied.

  “Sort of.” Alison forged ahead, wondering why this was so awkward to ask. “Like, Lucien is a wolf shifter. You’re one too. So are they,” she said, thrusting her chins lightly in Lana and Lorik’s direction, where they were hunched over in conversation, Lorik staring directly at Lana, while she continually looked around.

  “Got it in one,” Chief confirmed.

  “So…why is Lucien after me, and not one of his own kind? I mean look at her, she fits far more with him than I do,” Alison said, gesturing at her own wide thighs and lack of muscularity.

  Chief snorted loudly enough that all attention in the room turned to him. Even Lucien poked his head out of the kitchen for a moment. Chief waved them all off, waiting a second before answering her.

  “First off, Lana would never touch Lucien. And if he tried to go after her, well, that would be entertaining in its own way.”

  “I meant other female shifters, not her in particular,” Alison explained. “There has to be…you know…”

  Chief stared blankly.

  “Compatibility issues,” she said, tilting her head, opening her eyes slightly, hoping Chief would get the hint.

  “He likes you. You like him. No compatibility problems there. Only here,” Chief said, tapping the side of her head.

  “Stop that,” she snapped. “Not those types.”

  Chief’s mouth worked. “Are you talking in the bedroom? He likes girls. He’s got the equipment, trust me, we’re always naked as shifters, I’ve seen it.” He paused thoughtfully. “Does it not work? Is that the problem?”

  By now, Alison was bright red, trying to shut Chief up. “That is not what I meant,” she said. “It, um, works, just fine.”

  “Good! So he satisfies you.”

  Alison groaned, burying her face in her hands. “I mean what about kids? How does that work?”

  Chief snickered, and it was only then that Alison clued in to the fact he’d known all along what she meant and was just trying to get a rise out of her.

  “Dick,” she added.

  The big shifter just grinned. “That’s not an issue. Wolf shifter and human DNA is very interchangeable. Well, compatible, I should say, not interchangeable.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, for whatever reason,” Chief said, adopting a lecturer tone. “The changes in our DNA don’t bond well with female embryos. So female shifters are exceedingly rare. Most are born human, even to a shifter mother. Of those that the changes do take to, some are born like Lana.”

  Alison picked up on a hitch in his voice. “And those that don’t?” she asked.

  “They become something else,” Chief said firmly.

  “Right,” she said. Whatever happened to them, it wasn’t something he was willing to discuss with her, and she could respect that.

  “But male shifter and human female pairings are the most common. Children are no problem. Quite the opposite, in fact,” he said, bouncing his eyebrows as he leered at her.

  “The opposite? What?”

  “Shifter, um, DNA, is quite potent. Very strong. Kids tend to come quickly and often for shifter couples, and usually result in more than planned.” He shrugged. “Good thing we often operate in packs, with everyone pitching in to look after everyone’s kids. It helps.”

  “Okay. That’s, uh, good to know I guess.” She thanked her stars she was on birth control. A child was not what she wanted. Yet.

  “Is that what you needed to know?”

  “Yes.” She felt her cheeks start to burn. “I just didn’t want any of the female shifters to, I don’t know, think I was stealing him, or something.”

  Chief laughed. “Oh, I don’t think you have to worry about that. Like any of them would want him anyway.”

  She glared.

  “Uhh, because he’s too strong for them,” Chief said in a deep “manly” voice, trying to cover up for his mistake.

  “You know I don’t believe you, right?”

  “I know.” Chief kept smiling innocently.

  “You realize you’re going to tell me what you meant, because I’m not going to let it go, right?”

  His innocent look slowly crumbled, until he caved fully with a sigh. “Fine. Look, it’s just that, Lucien isn’t exactly in the best of favor with everyone right now. That’s why he was sent to Plymouth Falls originally. To get him away from the Manor.”

  The Manor. Mysterious Moonshadow Manor, as she’d heard them refer to it once. The base of House Canis, where they operated from. It sounded like quite the place, from what little she’d been able to grasp of it.

  “What do you mean?”

  Chief looked around. The two youngsters were still talking, wrapped up in one another, even though Lana was doing everything in her power to pretend otherwise. Lucien was still in the kitchen, the sounds and smells of food starting to waft out, but he was keeping his distance, letting the two of them talk.

  “We had to go hunt down a rogue shifter,” Chief said. “A very bad man, who had done a lot of bad. Lucien was part of the team sent out to find him and kill him.”

  “Kill?” she asked.

  “Yes. To kill him. When a member of your pack doesn’t follow orders, you put them down, Alison. That’s the way it is, understood?” Chief’s voice was hard, cold, unyielding. This wasn’t a topic to debate about.

  “I…guess,” she said, still surprised he would admit to such a thing. “Aren’t there laws against that?”

  Chief shrugged. “Your laws, maybe. But they don’t apply to us.”

  All at once, Alison was transported back to her house, where the bald man had said the same thing, but had used it to justify his treatment of her. She hadn’t agreed with that, but it was hard now to fault Chief. He was talking about the way they handled one another.

  “So people are mad at him because he killed someone?” she asked, confused.

  “No,” Chief told her. “They’re mad because he didn’t.”

  Alison felt her heart bubble with pride at that knowledge. She didn’t want to think of Lucien as a killer, even of his own kind.

  “Don’t look like that. Sometimes it has to be done,” Chief said. “Anyway, Lucien found him, captured him, and tried to bring him in. Claimed he felt the man could be rehabilitated. Returned to the fold. Except he was wrong. The man broke out, hurt a lot of people and escaped, until he was hunted down by others who finished what Lucien couldn’t.” Chief shrugged.

  “And him trying to rehabilitate this man is a bad thing?”

  “Yes. Because his inability to do what needed to be done resulted in a lot of others getting hurt.”

  Alison shook her head. “Killing isn’t always the solution,” she argued. “Maybe sometimes, but if he felt there was something worth saving in that man, then I choose to believe there was.” She looked sharply at Chief. “Isn’t that what you’re all fighting for right now anyway? Change. To be able to do things differently?”

  Chief sat back, eyes unfocusing as he lost himself in thought at her words. Alison waited patiently, wondering what his response would be.

  “Maybe,” he allowed
. “But we can’t always live in a perfect world, Alison. Sometimes you need to do bad things, to ensure that good can prosper.”

  It was her turn to consider that, in the context of Lucien. He’d shown the other night that he was willing to fight for what he thought was right, when he’d come to her house and rescued her from the bald man.

  “If it comes to it,” she said, looking at the wall that blocked off the kitchen, imagining Lucien behind it. “If it becomes necessary, I know Lucien will do what needs to be done.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Chief said softly.

  So do I.

  32

  Lucien wasn’t stupid. He knew the two of them were likely talking about them.

  He stirred the chicken again, then grabbed the bowl of chopped vegetables and dumped them in, mixing in a packet of seasoning at the same time. It was the only way he could eat the green and colored things that weren’t meat. Mixing it all together, he let it simmer, doing his best not to eavesdrop.

  The truth was, he didn’t want to know what they were saying. Alison needed to ask questions, and all he could do was hope that Chief gave the right answers. What Lucien didn’t want to do, was try and dictate the conversation, or the questions asked. That would be interfering, something he vowed not to do. If she was going to be with him, it would be because Alison wanted to, nothing else.

  But boy, was it hard to suppress his curiosity, even if he knew it was for the best. The fact that she was even over there talking with Chief gave him hope. Hope that she might give him a chance to prove he hadn’t been full of it when he’d said he cared for her. That he hadn’t been pretending to like her just for her access codes.

  It was just a cruel, unusual joke that fate had played on him to make the two things come together in her. His mate, and the key needed to rescue Logan and the others. After tonight, Lucien knew it couldn’t be done without first getting access to the hospital. For various reasons, the head administrator’s access would work to get her into all but the most secure parts of the Canis facility, so as not to arouse suspicion if she somehow found her way to the door and couldn’t get in.

  Lucien wished he’d reversed that decision while he was the overseer, but it was too late now. It was done, and that meant only Alison could get them in.

  He stared down at the stove, judging the food to be “close enough” to done. Pouring it into a bowl, he grabbed a giant spoon and, with a few breaths to cool it slightly, began shoveling it into his mouth, eating more like a duck than a human as he chewed three times and swallowed.

  It might be mean not to offer to anyone else, but they were all in much better shape than he was. Besides, none had asked.

  Stepping heavily so as to be heard, Lucien headed back to the doorway into the living room, pausing to lean against the doorway and take a few more bites. He gave a small smile to Alison when she looked up, before his eyes were drawn lazily to the window, wishing not for the first time that it could be open. He hated being so confined.

  Strolling over to the couch, he took the third seat, forcing Alison to get cozy between him and Chief.

  “That looks good,” she remarked. “Save any for the rest of us?”

  Lucien just stared her down as he took another mouthful.

  “Of course not,” she said, rolling her eyes and getting up. “I’ll be right back.”

  He watched her rear end go as she headed for the bathroom near the back entrance, pausing to flick the light on with the external switch and looking back at him one last time. Lucien smiled, but it died quickly as he looked past her.

  “Raid!” he bellowed, food spewing from his mouth as black shapes ripped the rear door from the frame and came in.

  Alison was halfway through her turn when they got her, and she screamed, hair flying up in a big mess as one of them yanked her clear off her feet and toward the back door.

  Lucien’s path was blocked by another shifter who slipped in past the exiting attacker and tried to block him. Instead of pausing to deal with him, Lucien darted to the side at the last second and simply went through the wall instead of the house itself.

  Drywall, insulation and brick exploded outward as he smashed through the exterior wall, pain lancing up his side and out from his shoulder. That had hurt. A lot.

  “Lucien! Lucien!”

  He followed the shrieks down the stairs and around the corner, to see Alison still being carried under one arm as the shifter raced for a waiting truck, their figures silhouetted against the headlights.

  The kidnapper must have heard him coming, because he dropped Alison to turn and engage.

  Bad move, Lucien thought, a savage growl ripping from his throat as he crouched slow and drove upward, leaving the ground. They flew through the air and Lucien smiled as they landed on the hood of the pickup, the hood crumpling inward under the impact.

  “That.” Punch. “Is.” Punch. “My.” Punch. “Mate!” he finished, fists raising and falling in hammer blows.

  He got up and hopped down, wiping the blood on his clothing. “You okay?” he asked Alison as she picked herself up from the asphalt driveway.

  “Scrapes, bruises. Nothing more,” she reported.

  They both looked up as twin roars of anger erupted from inside the house.

  “I need to help them,” Lucien said, taking the stairs to the front porch in a single bound, Alison right behind him. “Stay close.”

  “Right.”

  He shouldered the door open and barged in to find the others engaged with a quartet of black-clad shifters. None of them had Lyken’s build, which meant his former friend wasn’t present. These must be his reinforcements. There was no time to further analyze as two men closed in on Chief.

  It was time to even the odds.

  He darted in with a swift kick to the knee that the nearest attacker never saw coming. The surprise attack crumpled the joint in to the side, sending the shifter down in a heap, his scream of pain filling the room until it was abruptly ended by Alison’s foot to his jaw.

  “Ow!” she yelped, hopping around on one foot. “That hurt!”

  Lucien tried not to grin. He didn’t want to encourage Alison to get involved. She simply didn’t have the supernatural strength to make a difference, even if her spirit was more than willing.

  “Get in the bedroom!” he roared, squaring off with the shifter who had just tossed Lorik into the kitchen, the young shifter landing in a shower of splinters as chair and table simply disintegrated around him, doing nothing to cushion his landing.

  “The bedroom?” Alison shouted over the furor filling the tiny house. “Really? Don’t you think that now maybe isn’t the right time?”

  Lucien snarled in anger, ducking one punch, taking another glancing hit off the ribs.

  “Will you just do as you’re told?” he growled, then realize what he’d said. “Wait, I didn’t mean it like that!”

  “Lucien Ursa!” Alison shouted, putting her hands on her hips. “That is no way to talk to a lady!”

  In the midst of a flurry of chops, jabs and one ill-timed head-butt, Lucien couldn’t exactly respond, far more focused on not getting knocked out than anything Alison may have been shouting as the fight raged around her.

  All he heard was a loud bark, a woman’s yelp, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw what appeared to be Bergey forcing Jessica back into the relative safety of the bedroom, while the shifters tore the house down around them in their fight.

  “Good boy!” he shouted just before a chunk of ceiling collapsed, showering him in plaster and other debris he cared not to think about.

  All at once, the attackers started shouting to fall back. Lucien wasn’t surprised. They had come at him with too few numbers, and it simply wasn’t worth it. They stood just as good a chance of losing to him and his group as they did winning. It made far more sense for them to fall back, regroup, and try again.

  “Not so fast,” he snarled as the shifter he’d been tangled up with went to leave via the front window.<
br />
  Snatching the man’s collar, Lucien hurled him to the ground as the rest of the black-clad attackers fled the property. He heard muffled shouts, and then moments later, the squeal of rubber as they took off.

  “Damn,” he muttered, crouching down, looking at the captured shifter. “They left you. That’s gotta hurt, don’t it?”

  “Fuck you,” the shifter snarled, though he didn’t lash out, obviously realizing he was far outnumbered.

  “Now, let’s see who we have,” Lucien said, reaching out and ripping the mask free to reveal a handsome face—minus the bruises from Lucien’s fists.

  “Lede?” Chief exclaimed in surprise. “Well, talk about luck.”

  Frowning, Lucien looked up at his old friend. “What do you mean?” He didn’t recognize the man on the ground, not even vaguely, though there was no doubt he was a shifter.

  “You don’t know who Lede is?”

  Lucien shrugged. “Should I?”

  Chief chuckled. “Maybe not. But he’s going to make our lives a whole lot easier, let me tell you!”

  Lede spat at them. “I ain’t helping any of you.”

  Reaching down, Chief casually grabbed Lede by the jaw, wrenching it upward violently. “Oh yes, you are,” he whispered, and then slammed a meaty fist into the man’s nose. Cartilage snapped, blood spurted, and Lede’s blue eyes rolled back into his head as he slumped to the ground.

  “Anyone care to fill me in?” Lucien asked, looking around, breathing a sigh of relief as a beautiful female face poked its way out of the bedroom. A few feet lower, a suitably nervous dog snout appeared as well.

  Chief chuckled. “All your problems are now solved, my friend. As soon as we get Lede here to talk. Everything will be much better.”

  “How the hell is he going to help?” Lucien asked, pointing at the unconscious body.

  “Because he,” Chief said with a smile, then a wince, clutching at his side in pain. “Ow, dammit.”

  Lucien stepped forward, helping his friend into a sitting position on what remained of the couch. Looking around, he saw they were all banged up. Lorik was being supported by Lana, who herself looked exhausted and favoring a leg. Nothing too serious; they would all heal, but they hadn’t escaped unscathed from the fight either. It wasn’t as close as he liked to think.