Werewolves of Chicago: Howard: The Underdog

by Faleena Hopkins

  “Who is it? Do you recognize…anything?”

  “His name is Trevor,” I answer after an emotional pause. “He and Lynnie were dating, briefly. Just like three dates, I think? He was here the other night but I don’t know why he came back because she told me she didn’t want to see him again.” War nods, eyes filled with determination to find out everything he can. I blink a few times, thinking what else I can say. “I don’t know if she witnessed what happened to him …”

  Lynnie interrupts, “I wasn’t here,” in less than a whisper. We both look at her as she continues to stare ahead and she tells us in a foggy way, “I went to school, but then I forgot my text book…so I came back…” She grabs my arms which are wrapped around her and starts to cry again. “Who would do something like that?”

  War’s jaw is grim. “I can hear them discussing what happened. I’ll be right back. Stay here.”

  I nod and watch him leave, kissing Lynnie’s head. I’m just glad she wasn’t here. I don’t want to think of what could have happened. “It’s going to be alright.”

  Why do people say that when they can’t promise it’s true.

  28

  Howard

  Quickly returning to the girls’ kitchen, I join my packmates. Under his voice, Curragh informs me, “Kara’s on her way.”

  Xavier adds, through gritted teeth, “We already wiped our prints from the bedroom door.”

  “You smell him?” I ask them. “Because I don’t.”

  “Tahl?” Draik asks. “No. This was someone else. And that’s not good.”

  “You mean Alexander’s back?” I demand, taking a furious step forward. “This was too close! She lives here! Did he know that? Is this a coincidence?” I turn to Curragh for some understanding of how fucked up this feels. He’s the only other one who’s found his mate and knows the unbridled need to protect her from harm. “You know what I’m going through, right?”

  He nods, jaw ticking. “You’re going to stay here until the police come.”

  “That’s fine by me. I’m not going anywhere. But why?”

  Xavier fills me in. We’re all keeping our voices low. “Because Chicago P.D. knows you have a history with Kara. If your girlfriend called you first without calling the cops…” He motions to the human wreckage. “…it would make sense because of your job, and that you would call Kara. That’s the only way to explain Alisa calling you. We can’t be involved. But you can.”

  Draik mutters, “Why can’t we just hide this?” looking at the scene.

  “His family has to be notified. We can’t move him or hide him,” I exhale. “If it were one of our kind we would dispose of the evidence, but this is different. Okay. I’ll stay.”

  Exchanging silent conversations, my packmates come to some sort of an agreement. They head for the door at the same time and Draik turns to let me in on what’s up. “Alisa said there was a roof garden. We’re going there. Then after enough time passes we’ll walk out the front as if we have no idea what’s going on.”

  “Like you’re visiting someone in the building,” I add, understanding the strategy.

  “Right.” They file out and I turn around to take in what the fucking Russians have done to this poor guy. Walking to a piece of leg I lean in and inspect it. This wasn’t done with a knife or tool of any kind. It was ripped off. My throat tightens as I straighten up and look at the fridge, to the candid snapshot photos magnetized on it of Alisa and Lynnie over the years. One goes as far back as grade school, and pure rage ignites in me.

  A knock at the door jars me, and my eyes travel toward it. A familiar female voice calls through, “Dr. Peters?”

  Cracking my neck to gain control of my wolf, I go to answer it. “Kara. Hi.”

  Her eyes flicker as she greets me, not used to me using her first name. I usually call her Detective Monaghan, but I’m not the old me anymore. And she gave up being a cop so she could do some real good.

  “They told me…” The rest of her sentence disappears as she takes in the gory scene. She exhales, her mouth in the shape of an ‘O’ and then she slowly shakes her head. “Wow. Okay. Just goes to show you that a verbal description of something like this can never do it justice.”

  “No, it can’t.” I turn to see it through her eyes. “Alisa told me they were no longer dating. Alexander must have used him to send a message, though why him? I’m guessing he smelled her on him. Had to take him the night before last in order to do that though.”

  Kara looks at me, nodding as she puts the pieces together in her mind. “Maybe he thought she was the one you wanted. Mixed the girls up?”

  “Actually that’s a good point and not by the way you mean. You just made me think of something. I hadn’t been here. Xavier and I were outside, but we didn’t actually stop. Alisa and I hadn’t even met yet except for a few words exchanged at her work.” I blink to the floor. “Plus, why am I being targeted?”

  “Is this even connected?” Kara asks, understanding where I’m going.

  “Exactly. Is this Alexander’s work? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  She kneels down to look at a thigh torn off at the torso and knee. “From the little amount of blood there is, over what it could be, they must have killed him somewhere else and brought him here. Probably didn’t want to risk being caught. Less time in public, less danger at being discovered, whoever it was.” She grimaces as she walks over to the decapitated head. “Was he alive or dead?”

  “When they ripped him apart?” Joining her, I take a closer look. “Alive. See the expression in his eyes? I’ll have to explore this more when I run diagnostics on his blood and muscle tissue, but I’m guessing he was alive for most of it. Fucking monsters.”

  “War?”

  Both Kara and I straighten up to find Alisa in the doorframe of her girlfriend’s bedroom. “I’m sorry,” I say, off her expression. “We shouldn’t be discussing this so clinically in front of you. I wasn’t thinking.”

  She runs her fingers through her shaggy blue hair, looking to the ceiling to save herself the visual around us. “I barely knew him. But yeah, it’s weird. Um, what do we do?”

  Kara steps forward. “I’m Kara Monaghan.”

  “Alisa.”

  “I used to work for the Chicago P.D. so I’m placing a call to them right now.” Brown eyes flash toward me with an unspoken question.

  “She knows. But her friend doesn’t,” I tell her.

  “Ah. Can you come out of the room for a minute?”

  Alisa nods and closes Lynnie’s door. “What do you need me to do?”

  Lowering her volume, Kara tells my mate, “His friends weren’t here. You called Dr. Peters…Howard…when you found this. You did that because he’s a coroner and has experience with murder and you were scared. Got it?”

  Alisa nods. “Okay.” Blue eyes drift over to me. “I don’t think Lynnie even knew they were here. She was in shock when they found her.”

  Kara and I exchange a look, wondering if that’s good enough. She decides for both of us, and turns back to Alisa. “Tell her we will find who did this and that we need her help. That when the police question her she saw only you, Howard and now me. I’ll go with you, and introduce myself.”

  “Okay.”

  “Do you trust her?” Kara asks.

  “We’ve been friends since we were nine! Yes!”

  Kara pulls out her phone and sighs. “Show time.”

  29

  Alisa

  I understand why the police have to ask so many questions but it felt like an eternity before we were allowed to leave. War and Kara said they would take Lynnie and I back to his friend’s loft. As we drive up, Lynnie’s distant gaze shifts to me, seated with her in the backseat of the ex-detective’s Cadillac.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I have a lot to tell you,” I sigh, taking her hand. I can feel the front seat go stiff. They’re worried I’m going to say too much, but I keep my promises. I will never share the secret I’ve sworn I’d
keep. “War is the one I told you about, who I met at the club. His friends are strong and will protect us from whoever did that to Trevor.”

  Lynnie’s eyes fill with horrific images of the guy she’d slept with just two nights ago, and they go distant again. She’s always been the more delicate of us. I’m the can’t-keep-her-mouth-shut one and she’s the feminine ball of light men eagerly flock to. She’s softer in so many ways, and she will weather this horrible tragedy far worse than I would were I in her shoes. Probably comes from my having grown up in alcoholism hell and her in sheltered suburbia heaven.

  Kara asks Lynnie, “Are you parents nearby?” glancing to her through the rearview.

  I answer for my friend, “No, we’re from Ohio.” War looks over his shoulder to learn more about me. “We moved to Chicago to go to school. Or she did…I’m not into classrooms.” I nibble on my lower lip, hoping he doesn’t think less of me for that. College is so important in our culture and he’s a friggin’ doctor at so young an age. I know he’s smarter than I am.

  War says nothing, but turns in his seat to face me better. We’re staring at each other and it slips into my body that his eyes are clear and free of judgment. Offering a small smile, I inwardly cross my fingers that it works out between us. It’s so new, who’s to say? I may bore the hell out of him. I check coats for a living. Yay me.

  Trying to sound gentle but still coming off like a stiff cop, Kara asks, “Do you want to call them?”

  I look over to Lynnie, wondering how she feels. She shakes her head, staring off. Giving her hand a squeeze, I answer for her again. “They’ll be scared. They didn’t want her moving to a big city like Chicago. She’s worried about that. Wants to take some time.” Lynnie squeezes my hand.

  War tells her, “Take all the time you need,” before glancing down to his phone. “Draik’s angry at himself for not knowing what happened when he dropped you off.”

  “How could he have known?” I frown.

  War gives me a look of meaning. He didn’t have time to tell me everything, but werewolves probably have instincts to danger I am not aware of, like wild animals do. I have so much to learn about them. “I’ll tell him to stop beating himself up,” War says, typing.

  I lean over and lay my head on Lynnie’s shoulder. She rests her head on mine and we ride that way for the remainder of the drive.

  At the loft as Kara takes the stairs more quickly, two at a time, War stays back to walk with us. “She’s married to Curragh,” he tells me.

  “The big one with the tan skin?” I ask. “I can totally see that.”

  “Yeah, she’s almost as gruff as he is. They just got back from their honeymoon.”

  “What kind of a name is Curr-ogg? Where are we?”

  Since their loft is on the third floor, I stop on the second to tell her, “Lynnie, this is War. Howard is his whole name.”

  He adds, glancing to me, “Howard Peters,” knowing I haven’t heard his last name before.

  I don’t linger on it and quickly confirm, “Right, Howard Peters. He’s a doctor…a coroner. The woman who drove us was a detective.”

  “That’s why she was so bossy? And how she knew all those cops?” Lynnie’s eyebrows knit together. “I’m so lost right now.”

  War, patient and kind, says, “She’s a good person. Sorry if she comes off as a little abrasive.”

  Lynnie nods, “Okay,” frowning back to me. She told the cops what happened, that she’d left for school, stopped at The Coffee Alley then realized she’d forgotten her textbook and headed home. She and Trevor hadn’t spoken since I’d interrupted their mediocre sex. He hadn’t even texted her or anything, and she thought that was odd, but hadn’t reached out to him either. “But…what are we doing here? Who are these people?”

  “It’s better than being at the apartment,” I tell her, quietly.

  War motions for us to walk ahead of him. “You’re both safe here. That’s what’s important.”

  Her face twists. “Safe from who? Who did that to him?”

  The question remains unanswered as we go upstairs.

  30

  Howard

  As I walk up with the girls I can easily hear through the walls Kara and my packmates discussing what needs to be done. Xavier just said, “That fucking coward knows he’s dealing with wolves and won’t face us outright.”

  I bang on the door hard. They silence, and Kara opens it for us, wary eyes on Lynnie. “Come on in.”

  We are all aware this girl is the only one who doesn’t know our secret.

  I hold the door open, the last to enter. My packmates are standing together. The loft has only one light on and the dark curtains are closed.

  “I’m going to say what everyone is thinking,” Draik continues, going back to business. “If they know where we live then we can’t stay here.” He looks around for agreement. “We can’t.”

  Xavier and Curragh both gravely stare at the floor, the former rubbing his beard. “You’re right.”

  I’m next to Alisa, Lynnie on her other side, and I look over at Kara as she says, “Maybe Howard can find us another place.” Off Curragh’s questioning look, she explains why she looks annoyed. “I was hoping for some quiet time. Of course we don’t get any.”

  “You didn’t get tan stressing out,” Curragh smirks.

  A rueful laugh escapes her. “Touché.” Walking to the couch, she sits down. “You’re right. I shouldn’t complain. It was an amazing honeymoon.”

  “I can try,” I tell the room, bringing the subject back to a new hideout. “But you found the last one, Kara, and I’m not sure how much I can extract from the police force on such a subject. I’m on the outside, even if I do have daily contact with them. They really only tell me what they want to, and it will sound weird when I ask them.”

  From miles away, Xavier mutters, “I think I know a place.” He blinks back to the present, takes his jacket off and throws it over the back of one of the leather chairs. Leaning against it he tells us, “When I was working the suburbs there was a drug bust just outside the city. It’s possible the house is still empty. It was surrounded by boarded up homes and buildings, a forgotten section because it waffles between industrial and residential and at the time hadn’t been gentrified. Yet. Time has passed so who knows. If it’s still a dump, no one will find us there. We can plan what to do. And protect the…girls.”

  He almost said humans, but caught himself just in time. I glance over to Alisa and can see from her eyes that she caught the near-slip, but Lynnie is just staring at everyone like we’re aliens.

  “I want to go home.”

  “Lynnie,” Alisa whispers, turning to her. “It’s not safe back there.”

  “Back to Ohio. I don’t like any of this. I want to be with my parents!” Her eyes tear up and she covers her face, overwhelmed and probably embarrassed.

  Surprised, Alisa glances to me as she hugs her friend. “I thought you like the city! There’s nothing to do back home.”

  “You like the city, Alisa! I just came here because I didn’t want you to think I was boring. But this kind of stuff doesn’t happen in Columbus.” Her eyes are wide as she pulls away. “I don’t want to move to some scary ghetto shack to hide from some murderer!”

  I look over to my packmates who are watching the two human females with masked expressions. Kara’s lip in a tight, thin line.

  “Why don’t you take some time—” I begin, but am cut off.

  “—I don’t need any time!” Lynnie cries out, becoming hysterical. “I want to go home! Now. I want to leave now.” She grabs Alisa’s hand. “Come on! You don’t know these people. You are in over way your head and for what? Some hot guy you just met???! Let’s get out of here.”

  Alisa’s eyelashes flash to me. “War…” she whispers, helpless.

  “And what kind of a name is War?!” Lynnie cries out. “Curragh! War! I mean, what the fuck have you gotten into here?” She tugs on her hand, pulling her toward the door. “Come on!”


  Alisa shakes her head to me as I try to approach. “I have to be with her. She’s like my sister. I have to.”

  “WE ARE GOING BACK TO OHIO! Someone has to talk some sense into you. NOW COME ON.”

  Stunned that this is happening I try to argue, “What are you going to do, go to the airport? You can’t go back to your apartment. It’s not safe.”

  Lynnie spins on me. “It’s not safe here, either. He just said so! Why else would they be moving?” She points at Draik. To Alisa she says in a voice more quiet, meant for only her. “We can just pack up our clothes and drive back today.”

  “What about the furniture?” Alisa asks, in shock. “You’re not thinking right.”

  Lynnie is desperate, her voice urgent, words quick. “Me? It’s you who’s not thinking right. Trevor got murdered! How are these guys going to help? Think about it, Alisa. You have a shit job, no plans to do anything else. Who cares about the furniture? It’s all yard sale crap anyway! The landlord will just throw it away. The cops said he’d have to call a cleaning crew for the horrible bloodstains. Do you really think that sludge of a man is going to do that anytime soon? Let him throw out our stuff! I don’t care! We have to go home! I hate it here!”

  “No!” I yell. All eyes fly to me. “You can’t leave Chicago. I just found you.” The finality in my voice is strong and authoritative. “I won’t let this happen. You can’t go back to Ohio, Alisa. I need you here.”

  Her face contorting, Lynnie steps between Alisa and I and puffs up like a mother hen protecting her only chick. “You just met her! You don’t need her, you selfish prick! You guys are going to hide from some murderer? I mean, what the hell? Do you know who did this to Trevor?” The room is silent as she looks at my packmates. “If you do, and I have a sneaking suspicion you do, then you are putting her in danger, so don’t act like you care about her, War or Strife or whatever the fuck your name is!” She whips around. “Alisa, your hormones are nutty all because of some muscles and the fact that he’s a creepy coroner and you love weird shit like that. I’m the one who needs you, and you had better not ditch me for a guy you just met after how long we’ve been friends and after what I went through today!”