She spotted Isy halfway through the dance floor, waiting at the bar, drink already in hand. Every time a hand grabbed Nadia’s ass or a man danced into her way, she resisted the urge to beat them with her bare hands. Instead, she gave a low hiss of warning and watched them move on. Nadia made it to the bar without baring claws or fangs or partially shifting, a plus for her since the jetlag drained her more. There were far too many stimuli to keep up with. Already her senses were dulled, and she felt the need to crawl into bed. The loud thudding bass of the music, the sweat, profuse amount of perfume, feline hormones, and werewolf pheromones, as well as the stale beer and alcohol in the air, didn’t help matters. Her stomach was running on empty, and she cursed herself for not stopping to eat first rather than wait for Isy and see if she could indulge in a chocolate feast. She prayed that Mab’s would have something to eat, especially if it contained coffee, that would be good. Hopefully the mocha cupcakes were still on the menu.
Nadia sat down onto the stool and ordered a sparkling water. Alcohol on an empty stomach was a no-go for her. She leaned over and hugged Isy, who gave her a bear hug back. The friends broke apart as Nadia’s drink was placed in front of her. When she asked for a menu, the bartender only shook his head. No food until she got home. Pizza was in order before trundling into bed.
Isy hugged her tight. “Where have you been? You missed so much. I have so much to tell you, but first, I gotta say you look horrible. Have you been sleeping okay?” Isy peered at her closely. Concern filled her dark brown eyes.
“Not really, been too busy to sleep.” Nadia skipped over the question and dived right into a subject that they could easily talk about. “So tell me what’s up with all the cougars milling about, or do the werewolves have a special term for older women hitting on feline males?” Now that she was sitting, she could see that there were far more wolf females than she’d thought, and a few werewolves sulking in the corners. No vampires, which interested her, but there was a fairy or two flitting around. Interesting mix.
Isy took a sip of her vivid pink drink before she answered. “They’re called the WQBs, Werewolf Queen Bitches.” She paused to roll her eyes and then continued. “They stalk clubs and popular sites where males twenty-one to twenty-five hang out. No preference to shifter type whatsoever; doesn’t even have to be a shifter, just has to have a beating heart, a job, and can get it up. The males want them because they’re older women who are settled, already in careers, and wouldn’t be likely to divorce them. Both sides get a lot of benefits out of the pairing. Plus, for both, it’s the arm candy factor.” Isy grinned. “I’m doing a story on them for later in the month, after the Summit is over.”
Nadia groaned. “I’m so glad I stay out of the dating scene. It’s far more confusing than I thought. I can see this looks like trouble, with the available werewolf males prowling around.” She tilted her head toward a group only a few feet away from them.
“Torger’s stressed out enough, and with the added wolf testosterone, well, he’s so busy that I worry he’ll burn himself out. At least he’s delegated the Werewolf Summit to his brother. You should meet him; he’s a real hottie.” Isy punched Nadia’s arm.
Shit, he’s here. Nadia did a mental groan. Murphy was back in action. Now she’d have to be extra careful while in town. If she ran into him, she wasn’t sure she could lie. Not to Urban. Their BDSM play may be in the bedroom, but she did have trouble when it came to him ordering her to tell him things. Nothing personal; that she fought to keep to herself.
Nadia didn’t say that aloud. “Nah, I don’t need that type of attachment, not now, anyway.” Nadia didn’t have to be told that Isy was involved with Torger; she could smell the werewolf’s musk on Isy above all the other scents drifting around the club.
“You and Torger, huh? Like I didn’t see that coming.” Nadia snorted. “The way you two would argue, totally a couple in the making. It’s cute, though.” Nadia could see the glow that surrounded Isy. A pang of envy bloomed in her chest. She wished that she could experience that. Just not now.
“Well, how can you resist a man in uniform? Anyway, you didn’t call me as soon as you blew into town to catch up. What’s up?” Isy gave her a hard look as she sipped her drink.
Relief swept through Nadia’s body. An opening. Besides that, she couldn’t fight against spilling part of her mission. “Okay, what do you know about the drug Katnip?”
Isy snorted before she answered. “I know that’s not an original name for a drug. I also know that it’s made an appearance in our little slice of heaven and is giving the feline community fits. I’m currently working up a piece on it. What do you need?”
Nadia relaxed further. “Thanks, I’m jetlagged and exhausted, so I’m happy you want to get to the point. I need to know what you know about a group of people selling to the feline community. I know Katnip doesn’t affect werewolves, or other shifters, for that matter, the way it does felines and humans. I’m working off little to no info. My client wants this problem taken care of by Torger, or else they will come in and deal with things.”
Isy took a sip of her drink and moved her stool closer to Nadia. “Well, I do have a source in the DCPD Drug Unit who could give you more info. I can set up a date if you want.” Isy nudged Nadia, who groaned.
“No blind dates,” she grumbled.
“But he’s cute and single. Come on, give it a try; you never know. He could be the one to tame that wild child in you.”
The name Urban floated through her head before she shoved it out again. Work first, she admonished herself. “How about meeting him for coffee?”
Isy squealed in delight, leaned over, and threw her arms around Nadia’s neck. “Excellent; you go home and get some sleep, and he’ll call you tomorrow with the details.”
Nadia extracted herself from Isy’s hold, downed the rest of her water, and slid off the stool. She gave Isy a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Isy gave her a slap on the ass. “Good to have you back in town. Now off to bed with you.”
Nadia could only shake her head. She had a feeling Isy’s matchmaking was going to land her in hot water. She left the club and called a cab. By the time she got home, she was ready to strip off her shoes and burn them. Her feet ached, and her head pounded. When her cell phone rang, she answered it on the first ring.
A deep male voice she didn’t know spoke. “Nadia? This is Isy’s friend. She asked me to meet you for coffee; are you interested?”
“Yeah, seven in the morning, La Lune café, got it?” Nadia asked, her eyelids growing heavier with each passing second.
“Got it, I’ll see you for coffee.” He hung up.
“Damn it.” Nadia swore when she realized she hadn’t gotten his name. Oh well, time for bed. Nadia rushed upstairs, got undressed, and allowed her body to sink into the plushness of the mattress.
* * * *
Poppy’s gaze roved over a particularly sexy male lion-shifter walking past her in the club with a mane of thick, lustrous golden hair and strong features. His green eyes gleamed with interest. Her gut clenched, and heat pooled in her sex. It had been a long time since she’d seen that look of pure hunger in a man’s eyes. Michael hadn’t glanced her way, except as angry or annoyed, in years. Despite it all, she knew that he loved her, somewhere in that cold-ass heart of his. If only she hadn’t needed to drug him to prove that without her he wouldn’t be where he was. She pushed away that thought. No, don’t think about that. Instead, she glanced around the club. It was getting far too packed, and there were far too many unmated people around giving her group the once-over. Especially a few young werewolves that were too young to control.
She leaned over to Caroline. “We need to leave. I need to get home before Michael notices I’m gone.”
Caroline agreed. “Stan will need his dinner. Do you see anyone who can help us set up our bake sale in the feline areas?”
Poppy grinned and tilted her head toward the lion-shifter who’d given
her the look; he didn’t disappoint in person. “Indeed I do.” She held up her cell phone, and the man nodded. “Let’s leave. Too bad Zelly couldn’t come with us, but then again, she wasn’t exactly a permanent member of our little team.” Poppy linked her arms through Janice’s and guided them to the exit, with Caroline bringing up the rear. She didn’t bother to tell them that their team was about to get smaller.
* * * *
Urban clicked on the Werewolf Summit website and examined the names of attending packs listed. All the alphas were powerful names in the community. It interested him that the Wickerman Pack was not only choosing a new alpha but also requesting a name change. As his substitute alpha, Urban would be able to approve the request. However, he did have one issue. There were three nominations for the position of alpha, and they were all demanding trial by combat. Torger wouldn’t allow it, no matter how traditional it was. Bloodshed and possible death weren’t going to impress the Council, should word get back to them. They might try to impose sanctions against the town: increase taxes, add more demands for security, and possibly put limits on tourist travel. All things that would send Draven ape shit. He was already working with limited sleep and very little in the way of good news. Urban didn’t want to be the harbinger of another stressor.
Urban’s own stress level rose as he went through the list of requests waiting for answers. His stomach rumbled and his ass ached from sitting too long. Time for a break. He stood up and stretched. He could hear the vertebrae in his back cracking, and his aches pinged around his shoulders and down his spine. He groaned, went to the fridge, and grabbed a beer before settling back down to look over the list again. Urban needed to familiarize himself with all these people. He hadn’t been to a werewolf summit since he was a pup. Everyone he saw, with the exception of Torger, was a stranger. He clicked on the name Michael Porter. He was the most powerful alpha next to Torger. Looking at the rugged werewolf in the picture made Urban’s stomach sour. There was something off with the guy. He had cold, brown eyes and weather-beaten skin. His profile said he was an outdoor guide, married to a Poppy Porter; they had no children, and he was the head of the Jagged Pass Pack.
The name sounded familiar. For a second he racked his brain for answers and came up with some gossip he’d heard while in Nevada. The Jagged Pass Pack was considered violent, abusive toward women, homophobic, and misogynistic. Urban shook his head. The Jagged Pass Pack wouldn’t be happy about Delana Capper, who had won the right to become the alpha of her pack, and her brother, who was gay, was her chosen beta. He decided that more security would be necessary around that particular pack. Urban jotted that note down on his notepad and went back to the list of alphas. More red flags popped up as he read bios, old skirmishes in the past, problems with authority, and demands to go back to the old ways, such as hunting humans for sport. Urban groaned. He could see that the older werewolves who no longer held the alpha position were staying out of things, which wouldn’t help. Basically the inmates were running the asylum in some packs, and that could end up hurting everyone in the end.
Urban needed some help, but since he was barely in Draven’s Crossing as it was and didn’t know very many people, he wasn’t sure who to call. All the werewolves would be engaged in the Summit. Urban considered enlisting Branson, the Torstan Pack alpha. As he read the man’s bio, he was impressed with how modern the man was, although from the gossip on the member’s message board, he was fighting off every available unmated female left and right, and there was some speculation on his sexuality.
Urban snorted. There was so much gossip about Urban and Torger that he was surprised that no one had caught on to Torger and Isy until now. And then there seemed to be a careful sense of joy at welcoming a dragon-shifter into the pack life. To Urban they didn’t have a choice; too many werewolves were scared she’d shift and barbeque their asses, something he wasn’t opposed to. If he could convince her to do it to the current class of pack alphas then he’d be grateful, although there’d be all the mess and bother of selecting new alphas, which neither he nor Torger would want to do. The work involved in declaring winners and such.
Urban slumped in his chair and ran a hand over his face. Thanks so much, Torger, for handing this assignment off to me. He rose from the table and headed back to the fridge. His brother was working late, and Isy was trying to deal with putting together segments on the Council picks for a new representative. As much as he needed to learn who was who, he decided it’d be better if he matched faces to names at the campsite rather than stare at a screen all night. He grabbed a beer and returned to the table. After scanning the rest of the list of alphas expected to appear, he shut down the site and logged into e-mail. Part of him hoped that he’d get a message from Nadia to meet him somewhere. As far as he knew, Draven’s Crossing’s red-light district didn’t have much in the way of anything appealing to him, and pulling some random werewolf to waste time with was about as exciting as a hairball.
With a sigh, he faced facts. He was completely gone on Nadia and had been since he’d first laid eyes on her. She owned him heart and soul, but how to reach her and convince her to give them a chance? There didn’t seem to be an answer or time enough to strengthen the connection. Neither of them was in one place long enough, and Urban knew that he could be out of the country for weeks, months, and years if his mission called for it. It would be hard on both of them, but it would be worth it, in his opinion, knowing he had someone back home to call his own.
The only problem he could see was what exactly Nadia did for a living. He had his suspicions, but no actual proof. She seemed to mostly work in Europe, which was where they met most of the time. The last time they were both in the USA was in Chicago, and what she was doing there he didn’t know. She’d left there was a report floating around the Agency that the feline representative from England had reported important documents missing. They’d turned up weeks later, much to the embarrassment of the rep, but for a while Urban’s gut had told him that Nadia had something to do with it. No one said anything to confirm his ideas, and he didn’t ask. If he did, they’d wonder if he had connection to Nadia and might look into her, and then she’d get a visit, and well…shit would hit the fan, and he’d be in trouble with both the company and her, losing one while being watched by the other. No fun.
He wondered if Nadia spent her free time away from him alone, like he did. If the operation called for flirting or sex he bit the bullet, but other than that, on his own time, he didn’t want anyone else in his bed. Nadia was a beautiful, intelligent woman; what man could resist that? An idiot, that’s who. There was also an aura of mystery around her that could draw anyone in. Jealousy broiled in his gut at the thought of men hitting on her and being unable to intercede. Nadia was his, period.
“I need a distraction.” He brought up the Summit site again and decided to buckle down and study, even if it drove him crazy. Anything to escape the green-eyed monster, his imagination, and the deep-seated yearning for her.
Chapter Three
“Why does my husband have to die next?” Caroline demanded. “He’s not going to endanger us in any way, and besides, he’s too stupid to realize what he saw.” Her gaze darted around, but there was no one in the room with them; Poppy had made sure of that.
Irritation darted along Poppy’s nerves in spurts. She resisted the urge to grind her teeth, and instead answered, “Seeing is enough. Besides, the insurance policy will make it worth it, and he has info on Michael and his money dealings. I can’t have that. And don’t you want the FCC investigation to go away, Caro?” Poppy marshaled her expression so as not to smile as frustration darted across Caroline’s face.
The FCC had started an investigation into Caroline’s husband’s financial dealings. They’d gone so far as to freeze some of their assets. The result had turned Caroline’s life upside down. Creditors called night and day. There were whispers of whether Stan would be able to keep his alpha status from prison. All this because of her husband’s less than
legal dealings in the stock market and investments. There were accusations of insider trading as well as possible embezzlement and money laundering. The only reason Stan had been allowed to leave New York for Draven’s Crossing was because he was one of the heads of the financial board of the werewolf community and knew all the details of their financial stability, things that he’d insisted couldn’t be faxed or e-mailed or talked about over the phone. He also had some friends in the FCC and in political circles, but they’d had to check in at certain times of the day to ensure that they were indeed where they said they would be, plus wear trackers that had been placed on their clothes.
None of that mattered to Caroline. Poppy didn’t care about Caroline and Stan’s FCC issues. It would all go to Caroline’s alibi as far as Poppy was concerned. The fact that Stan had seen Caroline accepting bags of the Katnip disguised as packages of flour was what had led to Poppy’s decision to solicit his elimination. He’d already helped them load bags of flour into the van. If he began to wonder why they needed so much flour, he could stumble upon more of their setup. Poppy couldn’t afford that. Besides that, the werewolf packs couldn’t afford to have their finances looked at too closely, or more questions would be asked as to where the money was going or where it was coming from. The plan was so close to coming into fruition, they couldn’t afford hiccups now.
Poisonous Desires Page 4
