by Laken Cane
“My car isn’t far,” I said, keeping my voice calm. “I’ll give you both a ride home.”
The woman looked around, finally, her gaze landing on the now empty log they’d used for an altar. “Where’s the girl?”
“The girl?” I asked, unable to keep the derision from my tone. “You don’t even know the name of the person you were about to hand over to a fucking demon?”
“She wanted to do it,” the young man murmured, but he didn’t look at me when he spoke.
“Yeah,” I said. I shook my head, then turned to stride away. “Let’s go. And don’t for a minute think I’m not going to lecture you idiots all the way home.”
I didn’t look back, but I could almost feel them staring at each other, debating on whether to follow me or take off as their friend had done. Finally, I heard them creeping along after me, and when I got to my car, they were not far behind.
I ushered them into the back seat, placed my kit in the front passenger floorboard—simply because I didn’t trust them not to reach over the seat and touch it—then climbed under the steering wheel and started the car.
“Okay,” I said as I backed onto the road. “Let’s get a couple of things straight…”
I kept my word and lectured them all the way home. Neither made a peep except to answer when I asked a question. But in the end, when I dropped them both at an apartment building, the man hesitated.
“You don’t have to worry.” His eyes were serious, and I could see the truth in his face. “We’re done messing with the supernatural. We did it for Jessie.” He gestured at the woman, who stood shivering with her head down. “Her ex is—”
“I know why you did it,” I interrupted. “But that kid was very nearly left without a mother tonight. If you’re so worried about your baby ending up with a monster, why would you risk dying and making sure of it?”
She looked at me, finally. “I was desperate.”
“Where’s the kid now?”
“With my parents.”
I sighed. “Your ex. I’ll need his address.”
She stared, her lips parted, unsure. When she was silent for a second too long, the guy beside her gave me the address.
I generally refused to get mixed up in human affairs unless a supernatural was fucking with them, but I wanted to have a look at Jessie’s ex. I’d check him out tomorrow. Tonight, I wanted a hot shower, some dinner—my wolf might be hobbled but she could eat like a bear—and a nice soft bed.
I’d nearly forgotten about Lucille.
I walked into my little house and leaned back against the door, the handle of my case in my right hand. I stood there for a few moments, taking in the feel of the house, listening, absorbing. I was suspicious by nature, and when I wasn’t overwhelmed by a full moon and the agony inside me, I was careful.
Not even my house was safe from the creatures of the night, creatures most humans were unaware existed. I heard the clock ticking on the wall, the sporadic street traffic, and down the block, the sound of a garbage truck.
I glanced at the clock. 4:27 am. God, I was tired. But the agony of the full moon was dissipating, and by the time I woke up at noon or so, I would be back to my normal self. Still in pain—that never left—but not in agony.
Someone tapped on the door at my back and I jerked away from it and to the side, my blade already in my hand. I set my kit down gently and closed my eyes. I inhaled, and a familiar scent, one I no longer smelled regularly, slid into my brain.
Wolf.
There was a wolf on the other side of my door.
“What do you want?” I murmured.
My voice was soft, but he heard me anyway. “I need to speak with you.”
“Who are you?” Now my voice was less soft, a thread of impatience and a dark threat running through it.
He hesitated. “I am Jared Walker. Open the door, Ms. Silver.”
“Fuck,” I whispered.
What the hell had I done to get on the radar of the Gray Shadow Pack alpha?
Chapter Four
I opened the door and leaned against the doorjamb, not about to invite him in. His eyes—light gray circled with a rim of dark blue, eyes I had never forgotten—dropped immediately to the demon dagger I held in my right hand. I made no attempt to hide it from him.
“What do you want?” I didn’t attempt to hide the hostility in my voice, either.
“May I come in?” He didn’t seem to care if I held a grudge or that I’d rather stick my blade into his muscular chest than invite him into my house.
“Yeah,” I said, finally. “But just you. Your goons can wait outside.”
I moved aside and shut the door after he strode past me, then showed him into the living room and pointed to a chair. Tempted to stand, I hesitated, then sprawled in the chair across from him. “Would you like something to drink?” I asked. “Or perhaps a nice juicy chunk of raw meat?”
I disliked Jared Walker. Not nearly as much as I disliked my ex-alpha, of course, as that asshole had killed my father, but he was definitely on my shit list. When Adam Thorne had cast us out, my mother had taken us immediately to our rival pack.
Jared’s pack.
They’d shunned us. Jared himself had stood silently by when his father had refused to take us in, instead ordering two of his warriors to escort the exiled wolves off his land.
Then he’d turned on his heel and strode back into his big comfy house and forgot about us. Jared hadn’t followed him but had watched as his father’s big wolves had grabbed our arms to yank us away, and he hadn’t said a word.
He could have. Everyone knew Oliver Walker doted on his son. His only child. The future alpha.
The future was here, and Jared had been alpha for about ten years now. He hadn’t lost the cold light in his gray eyes.
I remember feeling that cold stare on me when his people, incensed at my mother’s nerve—imagine, a traitor whose husband and daughter had attempted to kill their alpha coming into a rival pack to beg support—began to hurl insults—to which they soon added stones and other objects—at us as we were dragged away. They didn’t have to shift to show us their wolves, and some of them got in our faces, growling and baring their teeth, and their rage had been frightening.
I lifted my fingers to the small scar on my forehead—a scar one of those sharp stones had left. I could have healed that scar if I’d been able to shift when it happened.
No one trusted us.
Worse than that, they hated us.
“Kaitlyn,” the alpha said, and though there was nothing soft in his voice, I realized he knew what memories his visit had conjured up for me. “I understand you take on work as the humans’…paranormal investigator. I’d like to hire you in that capacity.”
That surprised a burst of shocked laughter from me. I sat up, and his icy gaze traveled over my hair and down my shirt, and abruptly I went from contemptuous to slightly embarrassed.
I was filthy and bloody and bedraggled. I’d braided my hair, thank goodness, before I began my attempt to outrun the moon, but even so, tendrils had escaped the waist-length ponytail and clung to my face and my neck. My blood covered my shirt.
I attempted to resist self-consciously touching my hair, though my hand drifted there as though it had a mind of its own.
“That’s the craziest thing I’ve heard in a long time,” I murmured, then sat back, crossed my legs, and nodded for him to continue.
A spark of anger lit his eyes, anger, I was sure, because of my lofty attitude and my inhospitality. How dare I treat an alpha this way? His anger pleased me.
“I understand you have no ties with the wolves,” he said smoothly, “and you won’t know what’s been happening in the territories.”
“Have you and my old pack finally gone crazy and started shooting each other in your unending quest to own Jakeston?” I asked, tamping down my own quick spurt of anger. I might not have pack connections any longer but that didn’t mean I didn’t hear things. I knew tensions had escalated
between the two clans. There should have been only one pack in the city and its surrounding area, indeed, the entire county—yet it held two, and both of them refused to give it up.
It was a large area—for one pack. For two packs, it was much too crowded. The battle for the city had been going on since long before I was born, and I expected that someday, one of the clans would prove stronger and take over.
That would mean one of the alphas would die, which, if I were being honest, wouldn’t cause me any pain or sorrow.
I know. Bitter much?
He stretched out his long legs and leaned back, but he didn’t fool me for a minute. Every part of Jared Walker was on high alert at that moment. I’d slid the blade back into its sheath, but still, he saw me as a threat.
I’d seen the nearly imperceptible way his nostrils had flared as he’d taken in my scent, and God only knew what the man smelled on me. Human blood, definitely. Demon blood? Almost certainly. And he was going to wonder.
Also, he had to know I hated him.
“Three weeks ago,” he began, his stare never leaving mine, “something started attacking my wolves. It’s running through the clan like a disease, and I—” He ran his hand through his hair, frustration and rage, for a quick second, peeking through his eyes. “I need help, Ms. Silver. I’m losing my people.”
“And if you lose your people,” I realized, “you lose the war against the Stone Moon Pack. You’ll either get kicked out or be assimilated into Thorne’s clan. Those of you,” I added, “who aren’t killed in the battle.”
He stared at me for what felt like eternity, his piercing gaze causing me to squirm, something I hoped he didn’t notice. I refused to look away from him and even as I dug my nails into my palms, I hoped like hell he didn’t know how he made me feel.
And I hated myself for feeling it. Just because he was an alpha, my wolf, hobbled as she was, poor thing, wanted to submit to him. She wanted to roll around on him and get belly rubs and head scratchings, and she wanted to curl up in his arms and put her nose against his warm throat and smell him. She wanted a pack to run with, play with, belong with. Gah, my lonely little wolf.
She made me want to do all those things and more. The more being throw off my clothes and jump on top of him.
I bloodied my palm and the pain helped jerk me out of the awful cesspool of need, and I shuddered and grabbed onto the memories. They’d keep me strong.
He kept his silence as he continued to stare at me, and I had a bad feeling he knew what I was feeling. At least some of it.
“I am not worried about losing my territory or my people to Adam Thorne,” he said quietly, and I could almost believe him. “My pack comes before anything, and they, Ms. Silver, are dying.” He leaned forward suddenly, and I couldn’t help but recoil. “You may be able to help us. I will pay double your going rate. Triple.”
I darted out my tongue to wet suddenly dry lips. “Your seer?”
All wolf clans had one. Some were truly powerful, and some were wise but less than accurate. I’d heard stories of the Gray Shadow Pack’s seer. She was legendary and attempts to steal her from her clan were numerous.
“Lennon tells me a supernatural is causing the deaths. She doesn’t know what it is or how to stop it. You will talk with her, of course, if you accept the job.”
Lennon could “see” things, but she couldn’t fight them. I could. And despite the fact that I wanted nothing to do with Jared or his fucking asshole pack, excitement rushed through me. I loved the chase. This sort of work was what kept me sane.
Jared stood. “One more thing before I go. If you destroy this being before it kills another of my pack, I will free your wolf.”
I could only stare at him. I couldn’t even stand up. “What?” I asked, dazed.
“I know you were hobbled,” he told me, his voice as deep as his icy gray eyes. “I also know I can restore you.”
“How do you know that?” I whispered, hope battling with derision. “Just because you’re an alpha doesn’t mean—”
“It’s not just because of that,” he said, waving dismissively. “It’s because I can feel your wolf inside you. I can touch her. And I can hear her.” His voice grew rough at the end, and there was a tightness to his eyes I didn’t understand. It looked like…
Desire. Lust. Need. The wish to dominate. But there was also a sort of horrified pity that let me know he really could hear my wolf. He could hear her howls, her screams, her utter despair at being buried alive.
“I can free her,” he said, finally.
When I remained frozen, he crouched down beside my chair, all six foot five inches of him. “I know how agonizing it is,” he murmured, smelling like heaven and sex. “My wolf was hobbled once in punishment.” He shook his head. “But not like you were. Not for twelve years.”
Tears spilled over, even though I cursed myself for them. I willed myself not to cry, not in front of the fucking alpha, but I was powerless to stop them.
I jumped to my feet finally and reeled away, my rage and sorrow getting the best of me. “You could have ended my torment?” I cried. “All this time, and you could have ended it?”
“I didn’t know, Kaitlyn. Not until now.”
“You never cared to know,” I snarled, then forced myself to get a grip. I couldn’t stand the thought of him having so much control over me or my emotions. I wouldn’t let him see so much as another speck of my pain.
I forced myself still and calmed the emotions raging inside me. I blanked my face and froze my heart and put my walls into place, and then I faced him. “I’ll take the job—with one condition. At the end of it, I don’t care if I fail. I don’t care if your wolves die and your pack is destroyed and you are forced out of Jakeston.” I fingered my demon blade and walked toward him. I stood practically against him and stared up into his hateful, cold eyes. “You will free me.”
He didn’t move away from me. As a matter of fact, he moved closer. He pressed his awful, beautiful alpha body against mine and he smiled. “Deal, little wolf.”
It wasn’t a kind smile, or a caring smile, or a sweet smile. Still, it affected me as though it were. I grew warm and a little of my tension melted away even as my body reacted to his. Oh yes, my wolf definitely was aware of him, and she was licking her chops in anticipation of…
Yikes.
There will be no sex with the alpha, wolf, so settle your horny ass down.
“Awesome,” I said, my voice cold enough to freeze his eyeballs. “Now get out.”
“I will expect you tonight,” he said. “Nine o’clock. We’ll be waiting for you. I will have a check waiting for you when you arrive.”
“I haven’t told you my fee.”
“I know the high end of what you usually charge. I offered to triple it.”
That was going to be a big fucking check. And I would earn every cent of it.
“Just tell your pack not to behave like assholes,” I called, as he strode for the door. “I’m not a little girl any longer, and this time, I’ll fight back.”
Then I paused and frowned when I thought I saw the blur of a dark shadow at his back. I blinked, and it was gone. Something I’d imagined because of my stress-soaked brain, undoubtably. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Jared opened the door but turned to face me before he slipped through. “Don’t worry about my wolves, Kaitlyn. They will not touch you.” He dropped his stare to my blade before bringing it back up—slowly—to my face. “Goodnight.”
I stood for five minutes after he left, trembling, attempting to come to terms with everything that had happened this night. My mind was spinning.
The biggest thing, of course, was that there was a chance that for the first time in my life, I, a wolf shifter, might be able to shift.
I could only imagine. I’d dreamed of it for so very long, and the fear of the potential freedom was as big as the joy and hope. I was scared. Terrified.
I was an adult woman who’d never shifted. At fifteen, I’d have
been surrounded with adults who would have taken me through my first few shifts with encouragement, guidance, and security.
If Jared freed me, would my shift explode? Would I be able to control it at all? Would I run through the city or the woods eating whatever got in my starving and half mad wolf’s path?
I didn’t know.
But after I slept, I was going to visit my mother. She was the only person I could talk to about this, and she would help me. We’d figure it out.
After my shower, I fell into an immediate, deep sleep, my dread and excitement covering me like a warm, fuzzy, terrifying blanket.
Chapter Five
The scent of breakfast—bacon, specifically—wafted to my nose and teased my brain and at first, I thought I was back home with my mother, who would never let me wake up without a big breakfast waiting. A wolf had to eat, after all, and we could really pack it away.
Since I’d left home, I opted for cold cereal or more often than not, I’d run down to the corner bakery—the very bakery in which Lucille worked—and have breakfast there. They served breakfast all day, and sometimes I’d stumble in for some delicious greasy fuel at 6:45 a.m. before I’d even been to bed.
I wasn’t a cook, not even a bad one, and I missed the hell out of homecooked meals. So when I awakened full of energy and with a ravenous appetite, I didn’t delay things by changing out of my pjs or brushing my teeth before I hurried to the kitchen to see why there was such amazing smells coming from it.
I pulled on a robe as I jogged from my bedroom, salivating as the scents only got stronger.
“Good morning,” Lucille called, waving a spatula. “I hope you’re hungry.”
The little table was laden with food. Pancakes, a platter of scrambled eggs, what looked like three pounds of bacon, and a pitcher of orange juice. There was butter, a bottle of pancake syrup, and jars of strawberry and peach jams next to a small bowl of actual biscuits.
Biscuits.
I drifted to the table and sat down, my eyes big and my stomach growling. “What is this?” I asked in hushed tones.
