How Rifter was managing this shit without ripping Bill’s head off was fascinating to Jinx. A testament to the wolf’s patience, and the reason Jinx and the others called the alpha their leader, despite their own alpha status.
Bill nodded briskly and then began ordering Marley to prep the crew, some of whom were outside in the driveway in big vans.
It was too much. Being diplomatic was Rifter’s deal—Rogue was able to do that well, too, but Jinx would rather just shift and remain in wolf form so he wouldn’t have to deal. It was so blessedly goddamned quiet then, he could actually hear himself and his Brother Wolf.
Brother Wolf didn’t like ghosts much, so he mostly remained silent when Jinx was in human form, unless he felt Jinx was in immediate danger.
Right now, Bill was the one in trouble, and Jinx didn’t really give a shit, so Jinx walked outside the house to watch the sun begin its descent. It was his favorite time of day, mainly because he liked to sleep in shifted form. He and Stray were the only two who actively did so, and Jinx knew that it wouldn’t happen tonight, since he’d be guarding some bullshit séance.
It took him about two seconds to realize he wasn’t alone in the backyard. He turned to find a young woman a little older than Marley coming his way.
She was pretty, tall and slim with long dark hair, and she gave a small wave as she walked up to the gate and whispered conspiratorially. “I heard about what happened to Paula. I used to work here,” she said. “I’m Anna.”
“Jinx.”
“Don’t tell Bill I’m here, okay?” she asked and Jinx nodded.
“I don’t have much use for him myself.”
“Are you dating someone who works here?” she asked and he snorted. “I’ll take that as a no. How’s a handsome guy like you still single?”
“Maybe no one thinks I’m a catch.”
“Then they’re dumb. Unless you’re doing something really wrong.”
“I’m sure there’s a lot of truth behind that statement.” Jinx shrugged. “But I don’t need a lecture about my love life and I don’t think that’s why you’re sneaking around out here.”
“You got me.” She turned toward the house, stared up at the third floor. “He’s a bastard.”
“So I guess you didn’t like working here?”
“I always knew he’d get himself in trouble,” she told him.
“You’re psychic?”
“No smartass. Bill was always a jerk. I was just around for the camera work—I hurt myself on a job six months ago and I’m still waiting for my final paycheck. I come around every once in a while to bug him about it.”
“That sucks.” Jinx motioned toward the cameramen. “You know any of them?”
She peered around the corner. “Some have been here a while. The guy in the blue cap—he’s new.”
“Can you help me out here? Were you here the night Paula made the tape and got killed?”
Anna cocked her head at him. “What’s in it for me?”
“Besides doing the right thing?”
“Yes.”
“What do you want?”
“How about a date?”
“That doesn’t sound too bad,” he agreed. “As soon as I wrap things up here, I’ll take you out. Now tell me what you know.”
“I was trying to get Bill to listen to me—I wasn’t going to knock, just break in and force him to deal with my complaints. I was getting ready to go through the porch door when I saw Bill. He was watching the tape. Editing it actually.” She paused. “He keeps the good one on him but the original one’s hidden in the house in the attic floorboards. That’s the one you want.”
He didn’t question her further—she’d spilled a lot and he’d planned on keeping his end of the bargain.
She looked toward the sky with him, like she knew he needed the silence. Together, they appreciated the changing colors banding together on the horizon.
Rifter came out then, stood between them. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Anna said, barely taking her eyes from the sky.
“It’s time,” Rifter said.
“Tell Cyd there’s an unedited tape to find in the attic—floorboards,” Jinx told him.
“Excellent. I’ll tell him and meet you at the van,” Rifter said and stopped short before turning away. “I know you hate this.”
“I’ll live, Rift.”
“Good luck,” Anna said quietly.
“Thanks.” Rifter nodded and went around toward the front of the house. Jinx watched Anna disappear down the path, giving him a small, hesitant wave as she left, and he turned his face back toward the moon and fought the urge to howl.
Bill gave the crew a ten-minute warning to finish loading their gear.
Under the pretense of showing Cyd the property, Rifter let the young wolf know the deal with the tape without alerting anyone else, but suddenly the smell of Were wafted so strongly that Cyd’s eyes went lupine.
“Down, Cyd. I’ve got it,” Rifter warned. “Go find Jinx.”
Cyd complied and when Rifter turned, he found the source of the scent.
The Were was under six feet, standing next to Marley, and he was holding a camera, smiling. And his scenting must be really fucked or else the wind was not in his favor because when he looked up and saw Rifter, the oh shit look on his face wasn’t to be missed.
“That’s one of the bodyguards I told you about. He’s big, right?” Marley said quietly but it was more like a scream with Brother Wolf’s hearing.
Rifter closed the gap between them in seconds and came toe to toe with the Were that Marley introduced to him as Sam. For a long moment, Rifter and Sam stared at one another, a game of chicken they both knew Rifter would win.
“Sam works the camera part time,” Marley explained. “He was here before me. Before all of us, actually. I think he was one of Bill’s original crew from last year but he took some time off. This is his first time back in a couple of months.”
Rifter extended a hand and Sam shook it. “We’re security.”
“You think there’s going to be trouble?”
“Most definitely,” Rifter told him.
Just then, Bill called. “Marley, you’re needed. Come on!”
She broke away from the men and Rifter motioned for Sam to follow him to a quieter spot.
“Want to tell me what’s going on before I kill you?” Rifter asked as the Were loaded the camera into the van.
The Were shifted his glance toward Bill, took off his blue baseball cap before returning his eyes to Rifter’s. “It’s about him.”
“He caught you shifting.”
“Not me. And you don’t know the whole story.”
“Enlighten me,” Rifter said. “Wait a minute—you’re the boyfriend?”
“Not me. My friend. My best friend, Kyle. He’s been seeing Paula for the past year—Bill found out and went nuts. But the guy didn’t know my friend was a Were. Not until the other night,” Sam said.
“Where’s the boyfriend now?”
“I haven’t seen him since the night Paula was killed. I’m sure he’s out of his mind.”
“Because he killed her accidentally?”
“No way. He asked our alpha king to mate with Paula,” Sam said.
“Paula knew what he was, then?”
“For sure. She didn’t make that tape of him shifting. She never would’ve put him in danger of being exposed like that,” Sam insisted.
“So Bill’s lying.”
“Definitely. Bill had a thing for Paula since forever. Look, all I know is that Kyle and Paula had a date on Valentine’s Day. He ran with us after he took her home, sometime around dawn. He was happy.”
“He wouldn’t have left her alone by Clyde’s then?”
“Never. He was pro
tective as anything, mainly because a lot of Weres aren’t into us dating humans,” Sam said. “He never thought . . .”
“You think Bill murdered Paula?” Rifter asked and the Were nodded.
“I’m sticking around so I can figure out what’s happening. Also to make sure that Kyle doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“You really shouldn’t mess with humans,” Rifter muttered. “They don’t even understand their own motivation half the time. Why should we?”
“You’re preaching to the choir,” Sam told him. “But Paula, she was cool. Respectful. Even the females liked her.”
That in itself was rare as anything, but Rifter wouldn’t take his word for it.
Obviously, Sam didn’t expect him to, instead handing Rifter a card. “Brice is our alpha—he’ll confirm my story.”
“He’d better,” was all Rifter said, and he was pleased to see Sam pale a bit and bare his throat in a subtle show of submission to the Dire.
He knew his place. Rifter had to hope Kyle did, as well.
Chapter Eight
Vice found nothing but trouble—the good kind—at Howl.
He’d stopped by Bite first, but Clyde was not happy, and his bar being shut down for the night, barring further investigation, wasn’t helping.
Vice artfully avoided him by putting Cain in the blast line to ask questions. When Cain came outside, he told Vice what he’d found out, which was not much.
It was then that Vice took Jinx’s protégé to Howl. For recon purposes, of course.
Cain had disappeared into one of the tunnel-like halls toward the back, and Vice couldn’t let him get lucky alone.
And luckily, he didn’t have to.
“Hey Vice, haven’t seen you in a while,” Katya purred as she came up from behind him.
“Been busy.”
Katya was a lioness shifter. Normally, all the big cat shifters kept to themselves, because cats and wolves had never been the best of friends.
But every once in a while . . .
“I’ve been busy too. But I’ve got some free time now,” Katya said.
The lion shifters hadn’t been around nearly as long as the Dires, surfacing sometime around the sixteen hundreds. Some said they’d been born of a witch experiment with her familiar gone awry, hence their giant nature, and some said it was a witch’s curse on humanity for the Salem Witch Trials, but since the big cat shifters all hated witches, they were okay in Vice’s book.
“Wanna run?” Vice asked. He could kill two birds with one stone.
“Meet you in the woods by the school in an hour,” she told him as Cain came toward them. “Don’t be late.”
“Never.”
Cain looked at Katya as she passed and just raised a brow.
“Rifter doesn’t need to know about this,” Vice said as they walked out of the bar toward Vice’s truck.
“Didn’t see a thing,” Cain said as he climbed into the passenger’s side. “But seriously, we’ve got nothing. Maybe we should shift and hunt? Because I sure as shit can’t get a trail.”
“Because there’s not one,” Vice said. “This is all a dead end. The murder’s a one-off, which means it’s personal.”
“How do you know that?”
“With humans, it always is.”
“Stray said Cyd’s still looking for the tape,” Cain said.
“I’ll drop you at the PNR house and you can wait and take it from him if he finds it. I’ll run home,” Vice said. Cain wisely didn’t mention the lioness, just took Vice’s clothing as the Dire shifted and ran the forty miles back toward the woods near their house.
“Right on time,” Katya said. She’d waited to shift until Vice showed and they made sure they were alone. Then she stripped as his Brother Wolf howled with appreciation, because the lioness was gorgeous in human form—curvy with tawny skin, her hair waving down her back––and Vice almost shifted back to take her then and there.
But Katya was too quick, and she and Brother Wolf had a nice long run through the dense woods, farther than Katya was allowed to go by herself, based on the rules their queen, Queen Cat, had laid out.
Later, after they’d shifted back, they lay together on a blanket Katya had brought, neither affected by the cold air.
“You’re looking into the murder of that human female, right?” she asked.
“Maybe.”
“Such a boy scout.” Katya rubbed her cheek to his.
“That’s me.” He turned on his back and stared at the night sky. “What’ve you heard?”
“Just that we’re supposed to be extra careful until it’s all resolved. Queen Cat said the humans might have evidence that Weres exist.”
“We’ll take care of it.” He rolled back over, this time, directly onto her.
“Bet you will, wolf.”
“Damned humans,” he muttered.
“Humans aren’t all bad.” But she wrinkled her nose as she said it. “I mean, I’m not into them, but I guess everyone experiments outside their pride.”
“True that.” His gaze swept over her naked body and she giggled.
The others, as they were all known as, could just withstand more. Hurricanes, snowstorms—they dealt with it all by going to higher or warmer or safer ground, no big deal. They could make their lives anywhere, and being nomadic definitely had its advantages. They were faster, stronger, lived a long time.
But Vice didn’t want to think any longer, and Katya was quick to give into his kiss. Soft fur had given way to the softest skin and Vice bucked into her, losing himself in the wildness of the sex. He would have bite marks and scratches everywhere when all was said and done, and he wouldn’t be satisfied, but in the moment, he could pretend. And so he did.
It was slow and sensual with Katya rolling him to be on top, where she’d never get to be with her own breed. Vice had grinned the first time she’d told him where she wanted to be and he’d invited her to take a Dire for a ride.
Now, she rocked her body against his, with his cock buried deep inside of her and his fingers digging into the soft flesh of her hips. Her entire body hummed with pleasure, a vibration that went straight to his dick.
So much better than looking for human murderers or Weres. So much better than anything.
Katya bit his earlobe and clenched around him as he shot, hard, their groans mixing in the cold air as their orgasms lasted far longer than any human’s would have.
It took at least twenty minutes for him to pull himself together. Katya was rubbing his back when he surfaced and turned his head to look at her.
“You are not like my lions,” she told him. “They are arrogant. Powerful.”
Vice cleared his throat, cocked a brow and pointed to himself.
Katya laughed, low in her throat. “And yes, you are all those things too, but you are more. A mate will be lucky to have you.”
“Lucky, yes,” Vice echoed, his voice hollow. He didn’t want to talk about it. Now or ever.
“This thing with the humans—it really bothers you.”
“Always has.” He stood and stretched. “Let me walk you back to your car.”
“The Were King’s missing—Queen Cat’s wondering if we’ll have to move up farther north,” Katya mused.
“Pack’s not leaving Manhattan. Won’t give up a hold to the trappers,” Vice said roughly.
“Maybe the Dires should take over?”
It wasn’t the first time that had been suggested and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last. “Linus does a damned fine job as king.”
None of the other shifters really came to the aid of the Weres since they didn’t want their population targeted by the trappers. In turn, the Weres never gave up any other shifter’s existence and, in that way, they could get some occasional help
when necessary.
Katya liked Vice because he gave her what she couldn’t get from her pride—from any other, really. Because vices weren’t only the seven deadly sins, although everyone needed to sin in their life, to be brought out of their ordinary lives, to live out on the edge.
Vice lived there all the time, so it was cool to have other people join him.
Like their nonshifting animal counterparts, lioness shifters took on the bulk of the work in their pride. For the sake of protection and nondetections, the prides were shaped to look like regular families, mom and dad and kids, grandparents and aunts and uncles.
Far be it from Vice to argue with being served every now and again, but he had a problem with the inherent set up where male lion shifters got to be lazy as shit and females were expected to do everything. Not the way it had ever worked in his Dire packs and he would never let a woman do all the hunting.
For Katya, spending time with him allowed her to forgo all her pride stuff—she indulged lazily, allowed Vice to hunt for her. To feed her.
Baby, it was all about her. For a lioness, that was something she would normally never allow herself to partake in. She couldn’t allow herself to be seen as weak and still maintain her place in the pack.
When Vice first met her, she’d been too young to mate. She still hunted with her parents and sister and her youngest brother, who was about to be thrown out on his own to find a mate.
His name was Keiran, and Vice actually liked him because he seemed to have some ambition.
Now, Katya was nervous about being mated. She’d confided it to Vice last time they were together, and he hadn’t been sure what to tell her.
“Queen Cat’s taking the prides under her control west for the rest of winter,” Katya finally admitted, even though she wasn’t supposed to share her pride secrets.
By the time she returned, she could well be mated and her fun time with Vice would most definitely be over.
He didn’t know if it was better to have had a small taste of the forbidden, knowing you could never have it again, but for him, he preferred a memory he could sink his teeth into.
And Katya would be quite a memory.
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