Under a Raging Moon: Part Three

by Chambers, V. J.

  Contents

  Part Three: Synopsis

  ePub Edition

  Title Page

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  More fiction on Smashwords

  UNDER A RAGING MOON

  Part Three

  by V. J. Chambers

  A Werewolf Romance for Three

  Piper got free from the werewolf conclave only to find herself in the clutches of the criminals who hired her to steal the necklace. When push comes to shove, she finds she can’t hand over the priceless piece of jewelry and betray Hudson and Kale.

  But when the criminals go after them, she and her men find themselves on the run, in fear for their lives.

  They must sell the necklace before the thieves catch up with them.

  And they must find some way to untangle the confusion of their complicated relationship.

  Under a Raging Moon is a serial novel involving sexual and polyamorous content. It’s being published in three parts. This third and final part is 40,000 words or approximately 115 printed pages.

  UNDER A RAGING MOON

  © copyright 2014 by V. J. Chambers

  http://vjchambers.com

  Punk Rawk Books

  ePub Edition

  Please do not copy or post this book in its entirety or in parts anywhere. You may, however, share the entire book with a friend by forwarding the entire file to them. (And I won’t get mad.)

  UNDER A RAGING MOON

  Part Three

  by V. J. Chambers

  A Werewolf Romance for Three

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “Sal,” I said, “it’s okay. Calm down.” I wasn’t calm. I was actually freaking out, because he was in my apartment with a bunch of thugs. That wasn’t cool. He shouldn’t even know where I lived. If it was that easy to find my home, then I maybe needed to look at finding a new place. But I needed to get Sal calm.

  “Calm down?” he growled from behind me. “I’ll calm down when I get my money.”

  I was pushed into the wall by the aforementioned thugs, so I couldn’t really look at him, even if I craned my neck. “I’ve got something better than money, Sal.”

  “Ain’t nothing better than money.”

  “Tell them to let me go, please?”

  “If I have them let you go, are you going to pay up?”

  “I’m telling you, Sal, I don’t need to pay up, because I finished the job.”

  “What?”

  “I have the necklace.”

  “Let her go,” said Sal to the thugs.

  They let go of me, and I stumbled backwards, struggling to retain my balance.

  “You got the necklace?” said Sal.

  I grinned at him. “Hell, yes, I did.”

  “So, where is it?”

  “It’s…” I trailed off, because I realized that Sal didn’t smell right.

  “Well?” said Sal.

  Before all this business with Kale and Hudson, I wouldn’t have been able to smell anything, not really. I only had use of my normal sense of human smell. But they’d forced me to shift into a werewolf lots of times, and they’d gotten me in touch with the beast that lived inside me. The wolf rode close to my skin now, and the wolf could smell.

  One of the things I’d gotten attuned to was the smell of another werewolf.

  Sal didn’t smell like a werewolf.

  I furrowed my brow. “Well, let’s not get hasty. There are some things I’m not clear about.”

  “What are you talking about, girl? You got that necklace or not?”

  “I have it,” I said. “Just not on me.” I figured it was better to lie to buy myself some time. Something was fishy here, and I didn’t like it.

  When Sal and the others had hired me, they’d told me that they wanted this necklace back for sentimental reasons. Lila, the girl who’d owned it, had been a member of their pack, and it belonged to the family. Just because Lila had gone off and gotten into a relationship with Kale Morgan, who was a member of a rival werewolf clan, didn’t mean that they should give up on the family heirloom after her death.

  They’d been willing to pay me a whole lot of money for the job, so I hadn’t asked a lot of questions.

  But—from the very beginning—their story hadn’t really seemed to add up. For instance, I knew that Lila had grown up with both Kale and Hudson, gone to high school with them and everything. That didn’t seem likely if she was actually part of a rival werewolf clan. I didn’t know a lot about werewolf packs, but I was fairly sure that they each had their own territory. A girl from a feuding pack wouldn’t have been welcome in town. She wouldn’t have grown up there.

  I’d brought this up to Sal before, and he hadn’t had an explanation.

  I decided to try again. “So, um, about Lila. Tell me again your relationship to her?”

  “She was part of our pack,” said Sal, “but she took up with that Kale. We’ve been over this.” Sal was annoyed. “So, if the necklace isn’t here, where is it?”

  I ignored the question. “When did she take up with Kale?”

  “I don’t know. A few years ago.”

  “So, when did she meet him?”

  “Where’s the necklace?” He glared at me.

  “She’s part of your pack,” I said. “Because you’re a werewolf?”

  “Yes.” Sal folded his arms over his chest. “What’s this about? Why are you stonewalling me?”

  “And these guys?” I gestured to the thugs. “They’re werewolves?”

  “Of course,” said Sal. “Now get on with it. Tell us where you stashed the necklace.”

  The thugs didn’t smell like wolves either. I knew that Hudson had been alarmed that I didn’t smell like a wolf, but I’d had my wolf deeply suppressed. These guys were supposed to be natural werewolves. They should smell like wolves.

  “You’re not being on the up and up with me, Sal,” I said.

  “And you’re probably lying about that necklace,” he said.

  We surveyed each other.

  “Tell me the truth,” I said. “What do you want it for?”

  “I’ve already explained—”

  “Cut the crap,” I said. “I know you’re not a wolf. I know you aren’t related to Lila. She was born and raised with Kale. She wasn’t part of some rival werewolf pack. Hell, I don’t even know if she was a werewolf at all. Thing is, everything you’ve told me is bullshit.”

  Sal nodded at the thugs.

  Before I could react, they’d grabbed me again, holding my arms.

  “Where’s the necklace?” said Sal.

  “Why’d you lie to me?”

  “We needed you to get it for us,” he said. “We knew that you were a werewolf. We didn’t think you’d like it if you knew we were trying to screw over your own kind. Plus, you’re a girl. We thought you might get sentimental about it.”

  I shook my head at him. “I’m a professional, Sal. I steal things for a living. You really think I’m going to be a bleeding heart?”

  He shrugged. “Don’t know.”

  “So, then, if you didn’t want the necklace for personal reasons, why’d you really want it?”

  “It’s a priceless necklace,” said Sal.

  Oh. Shit. Understanding dawned on me. When he’d said that it was priceless, I thought he meant that it was priceless to his family, because of it being passed down over generations and stuff. But now I realized that when he said priceless, he meant… well, priceless. I lift
ed my chin. “Well, then my fee just went up.”

  “You don’t even have that necklace,” said Sal. “You’re bluffing.”

  “Oh, I’ve got it,” I said. “And I can take you to where I’ve stashed it—that is, if you’ll renegotiate how much you’re paying me for it.”

  Sal leaned close. “Listen up,” he said in a gravelly voice, “we’ve already paid you a chunk of change, and you haven’t showed us shit. Not only that, you skipped out on us. Word on the street was that you ran off with the mark. You and that Kale guy were all kissy, or that was the rumor.”

  I glared at him. He had no idea what I’d been through.

  “The way I figure it,” said Sal, “you’re nothing more than werewolf trash. You and your new beau probably already sold that damned necklace, and you were planning on running off with the take from your score and our money besides. Which means that you better be coughing up that cash right now, or we’re going to beat it out of you.”

  I looked back and forth between the thugs. Fucking A. I couldn’t let this happen. For one thing, I didn’t want to get beaten up. For another thing, if they decided to search me, they’d find the damned necklace, because I’d stuffed it inside the small watch pocket of my jeans. It wasn’t exactly well concealed. I needed to keep them from going there. I needed to convince them…

  Why aren’t you just giving him the fucking necklace? screamed a voice in the back of my head.

  Well, I couldn’t hand it over to them.

  “Listen, Sal,” I said. “I do have the necklace. I didn’t sell it. I promise you. I can take you to the place where I stashed it. Let’s not get hasty, okay?”

  I couldn’t hand it over, because… because they’d lied to me.

  That’s a stupid reason. Of course they lied. You lied too. That’s the way transactions like this work.

  “Why should I believe you?” said Sal.

  “Give me a chance to prove it to you.”

  “Just tell us where it is, and we’ll go get it,” he said. “If you lead us there, how do we know we’re not going into a trap?”

  “A trap?” I said. “I’m working alone here.”

  “What about Kale Morgan?”

  “What about him? I’m not working with him.”

  “So, then, where is he?”

  “He’s… in a cabin in the woods.” I sincerely was not going to get into everything that had happened to me. It was no one’s business, for one thing. Also—it was embarrassing. I get locked up with two hot guys, and I can’t keep my legs closed? I didn’t like to think that I was that kind of girl. I was more focused on my job than sex. I needed to get back on track, stop thinking about Kale.

  And Hudson.

  About the way they’d been talking about my being their girlfriend. Because that wasn’t going to happen. I was away from them, and I’d never see them again.

  “A cabin in the woods?” Sal raised his eyebrows.

  “Yeah, he’s stuck there, okay?” I said. “I took the only vehicle, and they don’t have a way to communicate with the outside world.” I thought about Hudson and Kale stuck together in that cabin. They were probably at each other’s throats.

  “You’re not making a lick of sense,” said Sal.

  “Forget about Kale Morgan,” I said. “He’s not part of this anymore. I got the necklace from him, and he’s done.”

  “We’re not going anywhere until he’s secured,” said Sal. “Once we know that he’s not an issue, then you can take us to the necklace.”

  “What are you talking about?” I said.

  Sal didn’t answer. He got out his cell phone, and he began to bark orders into the phone, sending people by Kale’s house with instructions to grab him and take him away.

  Fear surged within me.

  That’s when I realized I was in trouble. And that was when I also realized why I wasn’t going to hand this necklace over to Sal.

  It was priceless, and it belonged to Kale, or maybe to Lila’s family, or something. I didn’t know. And—damn it—I wasn’t going to help Sal and the others take advantage of Kale. Because I… I cared about him.

  I knew that Kale wasn’t home, but I didn’t want Sal and his men after him either.

  They’d go look for him, and they wouldn’t find him. For now, anyway.

  I had time to try to fix this.

  The thugs were still holding tight to my arms, keeping me from moving one way or the other. I was stuck, but I needed to get free. Generally speaking, I wouldn’t be able to do that. The thugs were a lot stronger than me. I was a thief, so my strength was sneaking around and not getting caught—not physical strength. Once I got caught, I was basically screwed. I was nothing more than an average-sized woman. I didn’t have muscles or skills.

  But, well, Hudson and Kale had showed me that wasn’t true about myself.

  I shut my eyes, taking deep breaths, allowing relaxation to rush through me.

  Almost immediately, the wolf perked up, eagerly leaping up my spine.

  Reflexively, I pushed the wolf down, and I was flooded with terror at letting the wolf out. I saw the dorm room in my college, the blood-streaked walls, the body of my boyfriend torn and mangled.

  I can’t do this, I thought.

  But I could do it. I wasn’t going to kill Sal and his men. I couldn’t go through that again. But I was going to scare them, and I was going to get away. All I needed to do was relax.

  I called up memories of Kale and Hudson, of their bare bodies against mine, their hands roaming over my secret places. I let out a little shudder. The wolf rose again.

  This time, the animal burst through, taking over my body quickly and easily. One second, I was me, the next the wolf had taken my place.

  The men holding me found themselves with nothing in their hands. Their faces were priceless. They both jumped back, startled. One even let out a high-pitched noise.

  If I’d been a human, I would have chuckled.

  But I was a wolf, and so I snarled instead, baring my teeth at first one man and then the other.

  They hurried away from me, running into Sal and pushing him back into my apartment.

  I had to play this smart. The first thing was to keep the wolf from going overboard. Already, I could smell how tasty the men were. I was salivating, and I knew that sinking my teeth into them would be delicious and wondrous.

  But I wasn’t going to do it, because there was enough of me—the human me—to know that the guilt would follow me forever. I had killed before, and I never wanted to do it again.

  I could burst out the door right now and be free of Sal and his men, but I didn’t want to do that either, because I needed provisions. I needed to get clothes and money from my house before I fled. And, of course, I couldn’t leave the necklace behind. It was still in my jeans, which had been shredded to pieces when I shifted. But I could see the pocket where it was concealed.

  So, all this in mind, I advanced on Sal and the men, still growling.

  They tripped over themselves to get away from me. My apartment opened onto the living room, and they leapt over the couch and hid behind it. I could smell their sweat and fear, and it made me want to taste them even more. There was something so delightful about twitchy prey, something that filled me with delight.

  But I couldn’t give in to that. I had to keep myself in check.

  The wolf didn’t understand that. For the wolf, there was no guilt. There was only instinct. That was why being the wolf was so euphoric. There was no second-guessing in wolf form, no deliberation. It was all just action, inspired by the moon and the breeze and the movement of the prey…

  But these men weren’t prey.

  I cornered all of them behind my couch.

  And then I shifted back into human form. I stood over them, naked, but still baring my teeth. “Neat trick, huh?” I said.

  They were all still shaking.

  “I can shift anytime I want,” I told them. “And if I have to do it again, I don’t know if I’ll be
able to keep the wolf from taking a bite out of at least one of you.”

  The two thugs both shook their heads.

  Sal sneered. “You little—”

  “Tie him up,” I interrupted.

  They all gaped at me.

  I nodded at the thugs. “Go on. There’s some rope right through the doorway in the kitchen. First drawer you come to. Get the rope, come back, and tie him up.”

  “Listen, fellas,” said Sal. “You can’t let a naked lady tell you what to do.”

  I smiled a particularly wolfish grin.

  The thugs scurried into the kitchen and came back with the rope.

  I supervised them as they bound Sal hand and foot. “You two work for Sal here long?”

  The thugs wouldn’t even look at me. “We’re just hired help. Please, Miss Wolf, ma’am, we don’t have anything to do with this.”

  I wasn’t sure if I believed them, but I was sure that they were scared. Even if they went straight to their boss, it would buy me enough time to get out of the apartment. “Give me your phones,” I said.

  The men were confused, but they did it.

  I didn’t want them calling anyone. Once I had their means of communication, I nodded at the door. “Get the hell out of here before I change my mind.”

  They exchanged a look. And then they ran like frightened rabbits.

  * * *

  Sal tried to put on a lot of bravado, yelling taunts at me while I got everything together as quickly as I could, but I could tell he was scared. I could smell that, even if I wasn’t in wolf form.

  I got what I could. It was unlikely I’d ever be able to come back to this apartment, and that was a little bit disappointing. I’d liked it here, and I had a lot of stuff that I truly still liked and wished I could continue owning. I thought wistfully of my brand new Soda Stream as I shoved clothes into my duffle bag. When I grabbed my stash of ready money from its hiding place, I remembered that I’d no longer have use of the patchwork quilt I’d bought at a craft fair last year. Damned thing was really warm, and it had been expensive. That sucked.

  But there was nothing for it. I couldn’t take that stuff. I had to leave it behind.