by Zoe Perdita
A bush. A low hanging tree. He needed some place to hide!
Suddenly I shout came from far off. Men's voices yelling in English. The feet tracking him stopped, then they turned and fled in another direction.
Nalin's heart beat so fast it felt like it might pound out of his chest at any moment. Curled into a ball, he gripped the ripped the flesh on his leg. Blinking his eyes, the darkness claimed him.
Danny
Jake and Danny stood over the two bodies in the creek. The deputy bit back the rising bile in his throat and stared at the dead men.
"No IDs?" Jake asked.
Danny pointed at the man with the ripped open throat. "I know him, detective. Tom Hardy. We’ve arrested him several times but nothing ever stuck for long."
Jake raised a dark eyebrow and rubbed his unshaven cheeks. "For what?"
"DUI. Aggravated assault. I'm not really surprised he ended up like this,” the deputy said. That man had been a thorn in the Police Department's side for a long time, although seeing him dead in a creek wasn’t something Danny ever wanted to witness.
"What about this young man," the alpha asked and pointed at the fellow with a bullet in his back.
Danny shrugged. “Never seen him before."
Jake bent down to examine the bodies more closely, and the deputy glanced at the yellow police tape surrounding the crime scene. He wasn't a trained detective, but he could still look around, right?
Most of the footprints were centered near the stream. But there were only two pairs and both had boots on. Only the dead John Doe was barefoot. Tom Hardy's rifle lay in the water, but how did he shoot the man in the back? And who or what ripped out his throat? Wolves didn't attack like that. No, but cougars did.
Crouching down, Danny noticed the telltale signs of pad marks in the sand near the stream. Large pad marks, although not large enough to be a mountain lion. "Detective?" he called.
Jake glanced up from the bodies. "Yeah?"
"Looks like a cat may have done this," Danny said and pointed at the paw prints. "Lynx maybe."
The former lone wolf nodded and sniffed the air. "Yeah. You smell that?"
The heavy musk of a large cat filled his nose, as did the overwhelming coppery tingle of blood. But when Danny sniffed the air again and turned around in a circle, he caught another hint of blood far off in the woods.
With one glance at Jake, both men pulled their guns and headed toward the new smell. Danny's heart quickened in his chest. He wanted excitement and now he got it. Hopefully, it wouldn't end badly like it had for those two dead men.
The snowy forest floor showed an obvious line of bare footprints, broken twigs and cracked pine needles. The farther they went, the stronger the scent of blood grew, mixing with the odor of a large cat. Only the smell was different from any Danny had ever experienced. Not a lynx, a cougar or even a bobcat. What the hell was it?
Then, tucked behind a holly bush, Danny saw a bloody pant leg and heard a slow but steady heartbeat.
"There!" he cried and rushed forward, pushing the shiny evergreen leaves aside.
The man lay crumpled in a ball and his leg bled slowly all over the white forest floor. Behind him, Jake dialed 911 on his cell as Danny felt for the man's pulse. Just like the heartbeat, slow but steady.
Then the deputy studied the man's face. His golden brown skin and black hair made it clear he wasn't of European descent. He had a somewhat proud nose and soft, pouty lips, although they were currently surrounded by a thick, black beard. Shit. He was fucking gorgeous! Danny's stomach did backflips just looking at the unconscious man. But he was a werecat not a wolf!
"Stay with him," Jake said, “I’m going to get some blankets in the car."
Danny nodded, not trusting himself to speak, and pulled a handkerchief out of his pants. Carefully, he tied it around the man's bleeding leg and felt the werecat’s forehead. Good. He was still warm to the touch. The deputy's fingers tingled as they trailed down the man's sculpted cheek, and the sleeping figure took a deep shuddering breath at the touch.
Sitting back on his heels, Danny stared. What kind of werecat was he? And what was he doing in the woods in Idaho? Why the hell were those two men dead in the river? Fuck. They had too many questions and not enough answers. Plus, Jake hadn't even called Holden yet. This was the biggest case Kellogg had ever seen! But it wasn't a deputy's job to interfere with the detective and the captain. Or a pack member’s job to interfere with his two alpha wolves. Dammit.
However, Danny wasn't even asking himself the most important question. Why did looking at this man make his pants tighten with lust and his skin tingle? Was he that fucking horny? The guy was some werecat, not a viable mate! Shit!
The paramedics arrived a few minutes after Jake returned with the blanket. They piled the man into the ambulance and the detective padded Danny's shoulder. "You go with him and take a statement when he wakes up."
Danny frowned. He wasn’t sure he wanted to spend any more time with a man that made him feel like that. But he couldn’t deny a direct order from superior officer. "Sure thing, detective."
The deputy sat back while the medical team performed their tasks both in the ambulance and in the hospital proper. After several hours, a doctor came into the waiting room and motioned for Danny. "You can sit with him now if you want, deputy."
Danny nodded, and followed the man into the room.
Carefully, he pulled a chair up to the side of the sleeping man's bed and waited for him to wake. The medical team had shaved him and the deputy took in the smoothness of the man’s cheek and the sharp cut of his cheekbones and defined jawline. He looked like a finely carved statue, the stupid werecat bastard.
After a few minutes, the unconscious man's eyes fluttered slowly, then shot open like he was waking up from a nightmare. The monitors beeped incessantly with the werecat's increased heartbeat, and he muttered in a language Danny didn’t know.
"Hey, calm down. You’re in the hospital," the deputy said and grabbed the man's long golden brown fingers. The touch sent to jolt of electricity through Danny’s veins. Why did it feel like that?
Suddenly, the man’s startling golden eyes landed on Danny's own brown ones, and they stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.
Danny cleared his throat. “I’m deputy McDonald. I need to ask you a few questions.”
"Where?" the man asked, his voice heavily accented.
"Kellogg," Danny said and swallowed the lump in his throat. At least the man's heart slowed to a steady, regular pace, although the deputy’s own heart still raced.
The man squinted his almond shaped eyes. "Where is that?"
"Kellogg, Idaho. Where are you from, anyway?"
The man glanced around the room slowly before answering. "Water?"
Right. He had been shot and unconscious in the woods for hours. It was a miracle he wasn't suffering hypothermia, although that was probably due to his special werecat abilities. Danny poured the man a glass and watched him gulp it down. Then he poured the man two more before the werecat answered his question.
"I'm from India," he said smoothly and touched the tubes running in and out of his arms. His accent sounded exotically British, and the water did much to improve both his speech and his posture.
Danny scribbled it down on his notepad and chewed his bottom lip. "Name?" he had plenty of experience questioning victims, but never a victim that made his groin ache with undeniable need. No. He shouldn’t have these feelings for a cat! And a crazy foreign cat that!
"Nalin Mehra," the werecat said.
Danny's hand hovered above the pad, and he stared at the man in the hospital bed. "Say that again."
The werecat smiled. “I will spell it for you. N-A-L-I-N is my given name. It sounds like Naleen. M-E-H-R-A is my surname. It is hard to pronounce for you."
Danny's cheeks flushed as he jotted down the foreign name. "So what are you doing in Idaho?"
The man rubbed his smooth cheeks and narrowed his unnervi
ng eyes. "Is that the only question you have to ask me? I would think you would ask something else, wolf. Why is a whelp like you questioning me to begin with?"
Danny glared. “I’m no whelp, cat!” Then he glanced at the door and frowned. "Fine. If you want to talk openly we can," he said and closed the door quickly. "Why did you have a bullet hole in your leg?"
"I was shot. Next question."
The deputy scowled, his hands shaking, and he tried to look anywhere but at the werecat’s deliciously smirking lips. "What are you?" he growled.
Nalin, or whatever his name was, chuckled. "I think it is something you have not seen before. We are very rare even in Asia."
"Great. What are you?"
The man clenched his jaw and looked at his long, slender fingers before answering. "If I tell you, wolf, I need your word that I will be safe."
Danny's heart seemed to jump into his throat at the suggestion. "I'm a police officer. Of course you'll be safe- unless you broke the law. Plus, it's not like we go around outing our kind around here." As he uttered the words he knew he meant every single one, even if the werecat was an asshole. They didn't really deal with other were-creatures very often- but if an animal was in trouble in their territory it was their job to help it, right?
“If you want to know, come closer. I don’t want to advertise to the whole hospital, whelp,” Nalin said and smiled. The hint of his feline fangs shone in the shadows of the room.
Danny jumped out of his seat and loomed over the other man. Standing, the werecat was undoubtedly taller, but he was sitting in a hospital bed at the moment. “I’m not a whelp!” the deputy growled
The werecat chuckled. “You react just like a whelp, all smoke and no fire. Do you think I haven’t been beaten by police before?”
“We don’t do that in America,” Danny said, his brown eyes wide. Why did this stupid werecat have to egg him on like this? More than that, why did he have to be so fucking gorgeous while he did it?
“No American police don’t beat their captives? What will you do if I don’t tell you, wolf whelp?”
Danny’s heart pounded in his chest, his pants tightening at every word out of Nalin’s perfectly shaped lips. No! He shouldn’t like this dumb feline bastard at all! “You’re a witness, not a captive.”
Suddenly the man’s long fingered hand trailed down Danny’s shirt. “You’re even skinny like a whelp.”
Glaring at the man, Danny balled his hands into fists. “I can hurt you as a wolf, but not as a deputy.”
“Is that how you justify it?” the man asked and raised a peaked eyebrow.
Danny’s heart pounded in his chest and his breath caught in his throat as he stared into the werecat’s almond shaped eyes. The man’s lips parted slightly, like he was about to speak, but Danny’s mouth caught them before the feline had a chance to say another word.
Their lips burned when they met, sparks of desire coursing through the deputy’s body as his hand squeezed the man’s muscular shoulder. Shit! He was kissing a witness- this was definitely against police protocol!
Then the werecat’s hand slipped over Danny’s stomach, cupping the wolf’s rock hard erection in his slender fingers. The deputy gasped, and leaned back, his mouth inches from the other man’s.
“You even stiffen like a whelp,” Nalin hissed.
Frowning, Danny glanced at the werecat’s own hardness and pulled back the covers. “So do you,” he growled.
To his surprise, Nalin grinned. “What are you going to do about it, deputy McDonald?”
The man was playing with him- just like a cat played with a mouse. Well, Danny was no mouse! Glaring, he smashed his mouth into Nalin’s a second time, their lips and tongues fighting for dominance. The searing heat of the werecat melted against the wolf’s lips- the man’s scent invading the Danny’s nose with the rich musk of a cat in heat.
Each thud of Nalin’s heart pounded in Danny’s ear, and the wolf yanked up the man’s hospital gown. He shouldn’t be doing this. The werecat was a witness in police custody. He’d been shot, for God’s sake! But Danny’s body moved on its own accord, his hand sliding over the sturdy golden head in front of him- admiring the bed of black curls it sprang from- stroking the shaft until Nalin hissed in pleasure.
“Some torture,” the werecat said as he fumbled with Danny’s zipper.
A doctor could walk in at any moment- could discover the town’s deputy molesting a witness. Would Holden fire him? Fuck!
“I didn’t say you could- Ah,” Danny gasped as Nalin freed the wolf’s hardened cock.
“I didn’t either,” the man said as he gripped Danny’s hardness, the feline’s electric touch igniting flames of deep seeded desire in the wolf’s body.
Danny stared into the man’s golden eyes and the long black lashes that surrounded them as they pumped each other. Each urgent stroke eliciting a sharp intake of breath from both men.
Nalin stared back, eyes narrowed, and lips contorted into an ‘o’ of pleasure. “Is this all you’ve got, whelp?”
Danny barred his fangs, then caught Nalin’s plump bottom lip in his teeth and pulled mercilessly. “I could fuck you right here, kitty.”
The werecat let out something between a hiss and a moan, his hips buckling into Danny’s tight grip. “You wouldn’t. Not when someone could walk in at any moment,” Nalin said- the hint of a challenge in his graceful voice.
Danny released Nalin’s lip and gritted his teeth. Dammit! The man was right- jerking each other off was one thing- but fucking outright would be a lot harder to hide. Also, the deputy had never topped anyone before. He’d only been topped by Jake in a pack ritual. He knew what a glorious length of dick felt like buried inside him, but what did it feel like the other way around? Probably even better than a hand job!
The werecat squirmed under Danny’s grip, the man’s fingers tightening on the wolf’s shaft and oversensitive head. Danny thrust into Nalin’s skillful hold, his cock freely leaking pre-come as he neared completion. Fuck! He’d never felt this good!
“I’m close,” the werecat panted, his eyes locked onto Danny’s in the strangest staring contest the deputy had ever played.
The wolf nodded, slipping his hand quickly up and down the man’s slick cock as he leaned in for another kiss. This time, Nalin freely gave in, his tongue assaulting Danny’s as soon as they collided. Fuck!
Suddenly, Danny’s balls tightened, the contraction stiffening his whole body before his load squirted onto the side of the bed.
“Ah,” the deputy gasped, but Nalin stroked his cheek and kissed the wolf harder- the hot passion of his body engulfing Danny.
“Mmm,” the werecat moaned as his own seed spilled, dripping lazily over Danny’s furious hand. “That was the best torture I’ve ever had.”
Leaning back, Danny panted in Nalin’s gorgeous face, his body still trembling from the aftereffects of his orgasm. What the hell had he just done?
“You have nothing to say, whelp?” the cat asked and brought his come slick hand to his mouth, licking it clean with his long tongue.
Danny’s heart raced as he watched. What would it feel like to be buried in the werecat’s mouth? Or his (probably) perfectly shaped ass? No! He was supposed to be questioning a witness, not getting off with him!
Danny stepped back from the bed and cleared his throat, willing his heart to calm down. “What are you?” he asked for the third time and wiped his hand on a tissue.
Nalin smirked. “After everything we’ve been through you still want to know that?”
Danny frowned and picked up his notepad and pencil. “I’m doing my job.”
“Was that part of your job?” Nalin asked and raised his eyebrow.
Danny’s cheeks burned, but he refused to give in to anymore of the werecat’s games. He was still a professional, right? “What are you?”
The man sighed. “Fine, if you must know. I’m a snow leopard,” the werecat whispered, and his eyes flashed in the fluorescent light of the room.
Danny didn't write that down. A snow leopard? Looking at the man he wondered how large of an animal he transformed into. Most werecats were slightly larger than normal animals.
"What were you doing in the woods? Do you know who shot you?" Danny asked and tried not to look Nalin in the eye. Something about the intensity of the cat’s gaze disarmed him, caught him off guard. Made him do things like jerking off a witness. Fuck!
"If you want his name, I do not know it. I can say what he looked like. And that he killed Peter."
Danny's heart hammered in his chest. This was the break in the case they needed. The truth about what happened that morning. And he was going to be the first one to hear it! "Go ahead," he said and cleared his throat.
Nalin poured himself another glass of water. "There's a problem though. It involves our kind. You are the police, yes? How will you charge them for killing our brethren?"
The deputy sat down in his chair. "Were-creatures did this?"
The snow leopard smiled and shook his head. "Not quite."
"Well? What is it?"
Then Nalin told him the whole story, and Danny suddenly understood. Shit. This was a bigger case and he ever imagined. Something they definitely couldn't handle within the boundaries of the law. He needed to tell Holden and Jake right away!
Danny burst out of the seat, knocking a chair over behind him for the second time that day, and nodded quickly at the Nalin. Whatever happened between them was just a fluke- it’s not like the werecat was his mate or anything. This case was way more important than some fleeting desire.
"Uh, thanks. We'll be back to question you again. Stay here and get some rest," he said and rushed out.
The pack wasn't going to believe this.
Nalin
Nalin waited until night fell. Being a predator, the waiting wasn’t difficult. Slowly, he brought his hand to his lips and thought of deputy McDonald. The man hadn’t given him a first name. The small wolf’s skin was golden tan, almost the same color as his dirty blond hair. The boyish features and round eyes made him look younger than he probably was. The wolf’s body was lean and compact, however, corded with tight muscles.
