Zuri took a big bag of trash out of the bin after her Friday night shift. It had been a long night, Zuri was exhausted but she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. The past two nights had been the same. Her thoughts were far too intrusive, and sleep became less and less of an option. Instead she’d turned on her headphones and pace the floor, occasionally her mind calmed enough for her to read. If she was lucky she would wake up a few hours later with the book still in the crook of her arm.
The box in the corner of Chaz’s closet was burning a hole through her heart. She felt seared, scorched by something she couldn’t put a title on.
She opened the door to the back alley and walked the bag down to the giant dumpster, giving it a heaving throw over and in.
Zuri turned and began walking back but stopped when she realized someone stood in front of her.
The Ukrainian wolf shifter, the one who had taken Ava, stood in front of her.
“So we meet again,” he smiled the same cold grin.
Zuri hadn’t seen him since that night. He hadn’t been in to the Smoke Stack with the other mobsters she’d seen. If he had, she knew she wouldn’t have been able to control herself.
She looked at the distance between them and wondered how fast she would have to be to run past this man and make it back into the bar safely. If she yelled, would anyone even hear her in time?
“Where is Ava, the girl you took that night—where is she?” Zuri tried to lift herself, to make herself seem stronger, more substantial than she actually was. She wanted to look past him to get her bearings, make a plan, but she didn’t want to break eye contact either.
“I heard you’ve been asking a lot of questions.” He laughed as if at some private joke and a chill ran up through Zuri’s spine. This was a very bad situation. There was nothing in the alley that she could use to defend herself. Even if he didn’t shift she wouldn’t stand a chance against this man.
“So answer my questions and I’ll stop asking.”
The man began to walk toward her and Zuri immediately began to back up. The thought of his closing distance made panic begin to rise inside of her.
“I don’t think that’s the solution. I think the solution is just shutting you up.” The man moved forward again. His eyes were hard and cruel. Zuri braced her body.
She tried in vain to think of an escape route, a plan. But it was too late.
With a leap he shifted. The huge snarling gray wolf in front of her looked rabid. His teeth were sharp, spit dripping down his mouth, and his eyes sparkled. His hair stood ragged in clumps.
Zuri screamed out at the top of her lungs. Adrenaline pulsed through her body and ran backwards toward the trash bins, stumbling over herself.
This was the end. She would die tonight. She would never find Ava. She would never see Chaz again. Her heart pounded, she lifted a bag of trash and threw it toward the wolf. He easily bounced out of the way. Zuri screamed again.
There was a scuffling sound and she looked past the wolf to see Chaz standing at the end of the alley. A flood of emotion poured through her. She would die but at least she would get to see this man one more time.
The wolf turned to look too. Zuri picked up a trash bin lid and held it up as shield, as if it would in some way offer her a modicum of protection.
Chaz broke into a run and in an instant he transformed. Zuri watched spellbound as the giant bear barreled toward them. The wolf turned his full attention to Chaz now. He crouched and pounced. Chaz threw one massive brown arm out as if he were hitting a volleyball and the wolf thudded against the wall, scrambling around and crouching again.
The wolf was on him, teeth out and growling, but he was no match for Chaz’s strength. Chaz backhanded the wolf. The wolf crouched but before he could lunge again Chaz reached forward. He picked up the huge animal and hurled his body five feet straight into the brick wall.
Chaz stood to his full height and Zuri felt the same pulse of adrenaline. Chaz was well over ten feet tall in his bear form. His body was massive, his thick arms ready to grab and crush. He let out a loud savage roar. Zuri backed up into a crevasse between the dumpster and the brick wall.
The wolf whimpered and struggled onto his paws, giving Chaz a last look. Then, he turned and trotted, limping away.
Zuri held her position. Not sure what to do, until Chaz began to transform back into his normal body. Then she ran to him. She didn’t stop running until her body slammed into his.
He held her shoulders in outstretched arms and looked over her face and body, looking for any sign that she had been hurt. Zuri felt her jaw quivering and for a moment she wasn’t sure she could stand. Her legs began to give way and Chaz held her up, pulling her close to him.
They stood that way for a long time, Zuri pulling energy and life from Chaz, her body giving over to him.
After a long time he pushed her back again, still holding her shoulders for support.
“You’re ok?” he asked when he saw no signs of damage.
Zuri nodded her head. She was shaking too badly to say anything more.
“Alright then, let’s get you out of here.” He guided her shoulders and began moving her forward.
“Wait,” she stopped and looked at him. Her voice was hoarse and barely audible, “You shifted. You said—”
The color had drained from his face but the heat off his body was palpable, “—it was instinct. Nothing more.”
Chapter Nine
Chaz didn’t want Zuri to know how deeply he felt the threat against her. How much it shook him to his core that he had shifted without hesitation. He’d shifted to save her life. He’d seen her in danger and just like that he had unleashed on the other man.
He’d gone so many years without shifting that he’d had doubts about his ability to do it at all. After Rebecca shifting had become something dark and dangerous to him, to be avoided at all costs.
But tonight, just like that, his defenses had been crushed. His doubts fell away. There had been no hesitation he had just done it.
Zuri looked more beautiful to him that night than she’d ever looked. Her face was full of emotion, her eyes so open and trusting. He was certain that she’d never looked at anyone else that way before. Her normal steely guard had been blasted away and he was allowed to look at the woman underneath. His instinct to protect her was growing to a dangerous level.
The sense that he was losing control over himself and over his feelings was beginning to worry him in a way that nothing had before. He knew he needed to find Ava, he had made a promise, but if he was going to do it then he had to focus, and the threat to Zuri was weighing on him heavily.
Chaz went back into the bar and took Zuri’s bag, he left Zuri standing by a table, watching him while he told Greg what had happened.
“Zuri isn’t safe working here until we get those mobsters out of town,” Chaz said. He looked Greg over. “I heard that they’ve been coming in here lately.”
“Well, it’s a free country, I can’t just kick them out.” Greg sounded defensive. He inadvertently looked to the table where the Ukrainians had been sitting only an hour before.
Chaz nodded his head slowly, appraising the man in front of him. “You did hear me say that one of them just tried to kill your bartender in the alley a few minutes ago?”
“Well, I would never let him in, naturally.” Greg flushed red and crossed his arms over his chest.
Chaz was still feeling the heat of aggression rolling through his body and he tried to temper himself, knowing that he might not be in his right senses. “Naturally,” Chaz said. He moved a hand along his jawline.
“Zuri says one of your other bartenders has gone missing.” Chaz looked back at Zuri to make sure she was out of earshot.
“So you can imagine how I feel being told that I’m going to be down another bartender.” Greg’s voice was petulant and grasping.
Chaz had an impulse to reach out and grip into the man, to thrash some sense into him.
Greg must have fe
lt Chaz’s rancor towards him because he quickly added, “Of course I want Zuri to be safe.”
Chaz knew he elicited fear in other people. His gruff looks and demeanor, his ability to shift, being a high ranking member of the Magus. Sometimes it bothered him but often, as with Greg, he found it was to his benefit.
“Ok, and you’ll let us know if you find out anything important about these guys?” Chaz watched Greg’s face carefully.
Greg nodded, “Sure. Of course.”
Chaz reached out a hand and gave Greg a heavy whack of mutual understanding then turned back to where Zuri still stood.
When Big Joe had called him the night Zuri had snuck off on her own Chaz had gone apoplectic. He felt control sifting through his hands. Worst-case scenarios raced through his mind and he had been almost certain that he would never see Zuri again.
But she’d been at Devil’s Head, unharmed, when he’d arrived. Then a new fear overtook him.
After Rebecca he’d sworn off women. There was no point, his heart had been given and his heart had been taken. There was no going back. With Rebecca gone he had thought only of Magus. Only of his job, his brothers, and keeping himself to himself.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said softly to Zuri, turning her towards the door.
Chaz could feel Zuri shaking under his hand as he led her outside to his motorcycle. He looked around, making sure there were no signs of the man he’d run off.
There was something feral, untamed in him that he’d not felt for a long time. When he stayed in his human form and did his work as Anthony’s enforcer he felt completely controlled. The craze of the moment never over took him. He was calculated, predictable. Now he felt the sweeping animal instinct in him alive and ready to attack.
When he drove Zuri back to his place he knew their situation couldn’t continue on in the same way. He was overwhelmed by her presence. He wasn’t sleeping, he knew she wasn’t sleeping either, he listened to her foot tread until the wee hours. He knew she was reading when he heard the pages of her books turning. Her physical presence, only a room away, was torturing him and he had to break the spell.
As she got off the motorcycle he cut the engine.
He walked behind her up to the darkened house. He unlocked the door but neither of them moved to open the door and go in.
“I wanted to say,” she said as her eyes fluttered to his, “thank you. Thank you for tonight. This is the second time you’ve saved my life.”
“And there’s no telling what could have happened at the warehouse if I hadn’t shown up,” he added. The truth was that he didn’t want her thanks. He didn’t want to hear the soft voice, hear the gratitude and…something else in her voice.
She looked embarrassed and tried to laugh but it came out stifled.
“I’ve been thinking about it and I think we need to find another place for you to stay,” Chaz said the words with the least show of emotion that he could muster.
“Right,” Zuri said.
Chaz looked at her. He could see the hurt in her face, there was a pain that he wanted to sweep away, but he couldn’t. He had to get some space from the woman in front of him.
He thought of a million different things to say but each sounded wrong in his mind.
“Do you have somewhere you can go?” Chaz asked.
Zuri thought about it for a long drawn out moment then spoke, “I have a cousin who lives a few hours north.” Her body tightened as she said it. Everything about her seemed to be getting colder and more distant as she digested the change of her fate. “I haven’t talked to her since I was a kid but…family is family.”
“Yeah,” he nodded. He didn’t add that his own family had disowned him years ago when they found out about his shifting abilities. Rebecca had been the only person who had come close to being real family. And then she was gone. With his biological family there had been a period of a few months where they had tried to “fix” him but it was useless. He’d had to learn the world his own way, and that didn’t bother him.
Zuri gave Chaz a sharp look then opened the door to the house.
“I’ll look her up.” Zuri walked into the house in front of him then walked back to the bedroom and closed the door.
Chaz spent the night on the couch staring at the ceiling. His mind was still on Zuri. It was pointless to close his eyes so he turned the TV on mute but didn’t look at it. His mind drifted and rolled all night long. He thought of Rebecca, about his decision to never invest himself in another woman, he thought of Zuri and the first night he saw her. He thought of how her body had felt under his hands. Chaz got up. He walked to the window and looked out. When he looked back he saw the sliver of light that escaped from under his bedroom door. He wondered what Zuri was thinking about. Part of him wanted to walk into the room, to close the distance between them. What would she do if he came to her right now? If he asked her not to leave?
Chaz walked to the door. He stood in front of it, staring at the white paint. Then he walked to the kitchen. He would make coffee and start a new plan for finding Ava.
The next morning Zuri was able to contact her cousin. It took less than ten minutes for her to pack her things. She had been staying with him for days yet her mark on his home was cleaned up and packed away in minutes.
It was a two-hour drive to her cousin’s house. The cousin was ten years older than Zuri, she had a husband who was off working on a fishing boat in Alaska and two small children at home. The house was small but Chaz felt an odd sense of jealousy as he looked around. They obviously didn’t have much but they had family. They had love.
“Can I make you some tea?” Zuri’s cousin asked Chaz.
Chaz shook his head, “No. I should be leaving soon.”
The five-year-old was shy meeting Zuri but the three-year-old took to her right away. She lifted her arms and Chaz watched as Zuri easily lifted the little girl onto her side. Zuri smiled and made faces until the girl erupted into peals of laughter.
Chaz was surprised at how natural Zuri looked with a child in her arms.
“I should go,” he said abruptly.
Zuri looked at him. He could see something smolder in her eyes but she put the little girl down.
“I’ll walk you out.”
She walked Chaz back to his motorcycle keeping a distance between their bodies.
“You’ll be safe here,” he said, more for his own benefit than for hers. “I’m going to talk to the local motorcycle club here, they’ll keep an eye on you.”
He felt like she wanted to protest but Zuri just nodded a little.
“Will you call me if there are any changes? If you find out anything about Ava?” she asked.
Chaz turned over the engine on his motorcycle, “I’ll have Big Joe call you if anything happens.”
He didn’t look at her again, just pushed off and began the drive into town.
Chapter Ten
As she watched Chaz pull out of the driveway she felt something crack deep within her. He didn’t even look at her when he left. He wouldn’t even take the time to call her, he said he would have Big Joe call instead. Her stomach squeezed and she felt an overwhelming urge to cry or yell, or both.
But she did neither. Zuri stood outside looking into the empty space where only a few minutes before Chaz had been.
That was that then, she thought. She toughened herself against the feelings that threatened to crush her. She was just fine. She was on her own again, that’s how she had been most of her life and that’s how she would continue to be.
She walked back into her cousin’s house. She hadn’t seen Tiana since she was just a child herself. Mostly she just remembered Tiana being a moody teenager. She didn’t like playing with the little kids and would sneak away to smoke cigarettes that she’d stolen from the grownups. Tiana was all grown up now with babies of her own. She seemed happy enough, settled into the role of mother and provider. Her husband was away most of the time, but the photos around the house showed an ebony man with a wid
e smile. Zuri couldn’t know for sure but from the photos he looked like a good father.
Mia held up her arms to Zuri again and Zuri happily picked her up. It felt both strange and wonderful to hold a child. Mia’s little body snuggled against Zuri and for a moment Zuri thought it might not be so bad to be out of Cliffs.
“Who was that man?” Jeremiah was Tiana’s five-year-old son. He looked up at Zuri with his hands on his hips as if trying to decide about her trustworthiness.
“That was a… friend,” Zuri supplied.
“Friend?” Tiana asked with one raised brow. “He didn’t look at you like he thought of you as a buddy. None of my business,” she put her hands up, “I’m just saying.”
“Can I ride on a motorcycle when I grow up?” Jeremiah looked to his mom.
“No, you cannot.” Tiana turned and motioned for Zuri to follow her. “You’ll sleep in Jeremiah’s bed, sorry we don’t have a guest room or anything.” Tiana walked into a miniature child’s wonderland and Zuri followed behind her. The room was covered in paintings of Alice in Wonderland. Vines grew in thick paint up the walls, a white rabbit with a waist coat checked his pocket watch, a large mushroom sat in-between giant flowers.
“Did you paint all this?” Zuri asked as she looked around.
“My husband, painting is his passion off the boat.” Tiana looked at the walls too. “They are pretty good, aren’t they?”
“Incredible,” Zuri walked closer to look at the detail.
“So you’ll sleep here, Mia is a good sleeper and shouldn’t wake you up. Jeremiah will sleep with me.” Tiana pointed to a small twin bed. Mia’s bed was on the other side of the room, there were little rails up to keep Mia from rolling out onto the floor.
“Thank you.” Zuri turned to her cousin. “Really, thank you so much.”
“You’re family. Plus it will be fun to get to know you as an adult. I don’t get too many adults in my life these days.” Tiana laughed and picked up a stuffed ladybug from the floor.
The next three days went by quickly. The nights were still just as hard even though Chaz was no longer in the neighboring room. But the soft breathing of Mia across the small space was oddly comforting to Zuri.
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