by Mia Rose
Declan nodded and moved toward the stairwell.
Aria’s soft voice fell into his ears, “It would be kind of terrible if the alpha of a pack had to be lonely.”
Declan’s right foot hovered above the next step and he tilted his head slightly towards Aria. Her eyes didn’t betray that she knew anything in particular.
She offered him another appeasing smile and said, “But I know that she won’t have to worry about that for long. You’re going upstairs for breakfast, right?”
Declan imagined Cassidy leaning over a hot skillet with a sizzling pair of eggs inside.
He smiled and said, “Yes, I am. Take it easy, Aria. Cassidy’s a big girl, she doesn’t need you worrying over her.”
He didn’t lift his searing gaze off Aria’s face until she broke their eye contact.
She pointed toward the stairwell and said, “After you, Declan.”
He didn’t like being told what to do.
“What are you up to, Declan?”
Chapter 16
Choices
“I can’t always decide.”
A set of three, heavy knocks sent tremors through the wood floor and under the door of Declan’s bedroom. Declan lifted his head off the pillow and rolled to the edge of the bed.
He swung his feet out on the floor, and called out, “Cassidy, what’s going on?” His voice came out as an exhausted croak, and Cassidy’s footsteps padded toward the door.
She pulled it open and said, “Gabriel is at the front door.” A frown was spread across her lips, “He seems…. upset. Did something happen last night?”
She punctuated this with one raised eyebrow and Declan shook his head.
He rose to his feet and said, “No, everything’s fine.” He brushed past her, leaving the skeptical glance she wore in the bedroom.
Declan walked through the living room and spotted Gabriel leaning against the front door. Gabriel had never been an entirely pleasant person in the morning, but he was especially disturbed this morning. His arms were crossed over his broad chest, and Declan cut to the chase.
“What’s wrong?”
Gabriel parted his lips, and Declan watched as his eyes moved about, searching for the right words.
Finally, he settled on, “Come with me.”
Gabriel turned on his heel and sped off down the hallway, Declan’s questions fell on deaf ears. He reached back to the close the door behind him and his hand grazed Cassidy’s thigh.
She was propped against the door, with her face screwed up in a look of confusion and said, “What is it? What’s going on with Gabriel?”
Her tone was urgent, and her eyes focused on Declan in a way that told him that she was not going to tolerate being left out of the loop anymore.
Declan sighed and replied, “I don’t know yet. Just wait here, I’ll fill you in later.”
“Later!” Cassidy repeated. “I’m an alpha too, why can’t I find out with you?”
Declan inhaled, “You have enough on your plate.”
“An injury on my back doesn’t fill up my whole plate, Declan.”
She brushed past him, and Declan held his breath as he watched her stroll towards Gabriel’s room, but walk right past it. Declan shut the door, and shuffled across the hallway. He stopped midway and wrapped his hands around the splintering banister of the stairwell.
“Cassidy! What are you doing?”
“Going out!” Her words flowed up the stairwell and into Declan’s ears as he gritted his teeth together upon feeling the slam of the front doors rumble through the wood.
Now, the whole pack would be alerted to their disagreement.
The door to Gabriel’s apartment swung open and he said, “Declan, come on.”
Declan whipped his head in his direction and said, “I’m coming. I was checking on Cassidy.”
Declan peeled his hands off the banister and stepped toward Gabriel’s place. Gabriel had thrusted his arm against the door to hold it open, Declan breezed inside. Sunlight only touched a small corner of the living room; the rest of the light had been shut out by thick, black curtains that Gabriel had to have bought and installed himself.
A strong, sterile smell floated into Declan’s nostrils and he wrinkled his nose, “What the hell is that smell?”
“Cleaning solution.”
Gabriel stepped inside, and shut the door behind him. Gabriel had always been particularly neat for a werewolf, and even his kills were far more… surprisingly clean.
Declan turned to Gabriel and said, “What’s so important that you had to drag me out of bed and disrupt my morning?”
Gabriel grunted, for once, and Declan’s tone was clipped and detached, like a supervisor checking in with his irresponsible staff.
Gabriel thought, I wouldn’t have had to pull you out of bed if you didn’t have your head stuck too far up your ass these last few weeks to notice all of the stuff going on around town.
Gabriel raised his arm and pointed at the dim light radiating from his flat screen television. He scooped the remote off of the coffee table and pointed it at the screen.
“Look at this news report.”
On the screen, a woman with thick, perfectly shaped, auburn hair appeared on the screen and made a show of shaking out the papers in front of her.
She set them down on her desk and said, “Good morning, Cripple Creek. We’re awaiting details from our correspondents outside of the Laney Fields Grocer, but in the meantime, let’s review what we do now.”
The screen transitioned and wiped the polished newscaster off the picture. The camera zoomed in on the open doors of Laney Fields Grocer, an independent health foods grocer in the heart of downtown Cripple Creek. A cluster of police cruisers remained parked outside of the store, and the field reporter stood to the left of the screen in a sun-yellow parka.
“I’m still awaiting details from police on the young man that they found in the frozen section of the Laney Fields Grocer. And the store owner, Carl Laney, believes that he may have been on drugs.”
Declan watched as the camera panned to the left of the field reporter, and a balding Carl Laney stood next to her.
His moustache bounced along his upper lip as he said, “I think that young man was certainly on drugs. I’ve had kids try to shoplift from me before, you know, condoms and such… but I’ve never seen a kid that looked as normal as him come in and start eating meat from the frozen section.”
The field reporter nodded and said, “Yes, this is a bizarre turn of events for sure. Everyone please stay tuned as we find out more about the young man that was arrested early this morning and taken to Cripple Creek County Jail.”
Gabriel turned to him and said, “He could be some sort of strung out dope fiend, but what are the odds that this isn’t related to us?”
Declan chewed on his lip, images that flashed by on the television were reflected in his eyes.
“If that’s the case, that means that there’s someone in Cripple Creek that’s turning people. Shit!”
Gabriel looked serious and nodded in agreement.
Declan narrowed his eyes and commanded, “Clear your schedule. We’re going to be busy.” He wrapped his hand around the loose doorknob of Gabriel’s door and let the dim, flickering lights in the hall illuminate the apartment.
“What about Cassidy?” Gabriel asked.
Declan sighed and said, “Let me know if she doesn’t come back after a while. I don’t want her too far away from the building while she’s healing.” Without waiting for a response, Declan stomped back to his apartment.
Less than an hour later, Gabriel and Declan stood outside of the Cripple Creek County Jail. The worn soles of Declan’s work boots pressed into a puddle underneath his feet, and Gabriel raised one arm over his head beside him. There was a light drizzle leftover from the brief rain shower that swept over most of the town a couple of hours before.
Gabriel turned his head to Declan and asked, “Do you think that they’ll ask any questions?”
/> Declan shrugged, “Only if we leave them wondering. As far as they’re concerned, we’re a couple of old friends of this kid. I just want to find out if he’s what we think he might be. Otherwise, I’m happy to send him on his way so that he can eat every piece of frozen meat in town.”
“Fair,” Gabriel mumbled, and they moved up the front steps, toward the front doors of the jail.
An older, quite rotund, police officer hustled out of the building with a petite officer on his heels.
He craned his head over his shoulders and raised one arm, “Good morning, gentlemen!”
Declan nodded at the officer, and winked at the young woman that lingered behind them. She grinned, and a light blush painted her cheeks. Once they disappeared down the stairs and into the parking lot, Declan looked at Gabriel.
He turned to Gabriel and said, “I think this will be easy enough, staff seem pretty easy going.”
Declan pushed the front doors open and stepped into the bustling police station. Officers strolled throughout the department, with steaming cups of coffee in their hands and deep shadows underneath their eyes. Gabriel followed behind Declan as he approached the front desk.
“Good Morning,” Declan said, and placed his elbows on top of the desk and grinned at the front desk receptionist. The woman lifted her tired eyes from the stack of paperwork in between her arms and her face brightened upon seeing Declan.
She cleared her throat and said, “Good morning, Sir. What can I do for you? Are you here to file a report?”
Declan chuckled and replied, “Oh, no, Ma’am, we’re staying out of trouble.”
He reached behind him and jovially tapped Gabriel on the shoulder.
Gabriel nodded and grinned, “No trouble today!”
The receptionist grinned and tucked a stray piece of silver hair behind her ear, “That’s good to hear.”
“We’re not in trouble, but a friend of ours got into a bit of a mess this morning.” Declan reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone, he held it out in front of her and asked, “Has this guy been giving you any trouble today?”
The receptionist gasped, and her eyes flicked up from the photo of the young man that was caught devouring raw meat to Declan’s awaiting eyes.
“Are you that young man’s lawyer? I figured that some rich-guy type would be coming in here in no time, threatening to sue the whole station up and down.”
Declan stole a glance at Gabriel, who had begun to rotate his gaze around the station. His nostrils flared, and he squared his jaw.
Declan guffawed, “Rich guys? No, sorry, we don’t have it as good as some of these Colorado socialites. No, he’s a buddy of ours. I manage Clifton Towers apartment buildings, and we were talking over some business details. Mind if I know what his bail is?”
The receptionist pushed her glasses up further on the bridge of her nose and turned her body away from Declan and Gabriel. She pecked away at the keyboard and leaned in close to the screen.
She wheeled her chair around and said, “Looks like he’s got a two-thousand-dollar bail. It’s a fairly petty crime, eating all of that meat like that, but it might cost Carl Laney about that much to replace what he ate.”
Declan smiled, “Got it. It’s rough being a small business owner, but my friend and I could go on for days. I’d love to pay his bail.”
Declan reached into his pocket and slapped the platinum credit card he used for the Clifton's expenses onto the desk.
“Let him know that his friends are here.”
The receptionist quickly recovered from the look of shock that flooded her features a moment before, “I’ll get started on the paperwork.”
Declan moved over to a couple of wooden benches that were placed a few feet from the receptionist’s desk and eased himself onto them. His shoulders slumped forward, and exhaustion tugged at his limbs. He sighed, and stretched his arm over his head.
Gabriel sat beside him asked, “Have you been sleeping in your office? That’s got to be a shitty way to rest.”
Declan grinned and replied, “Not sleeping in it, just staying up late. I’ve got… a lot on my plate.”
Gabriel nodded before asking, “Like what? I know that there’s the whole deal with Cassidy but what else is going on?”
Declan’s eyes shifted toward Gabriel’s and the lights above them bounced off of them.
“A lot.”
Cassidy had stormed out of the building earlier, while Gabriel showed him the news. And on the drive down to the station, Declan had been tormented by thoughts of Noelle. She traipsed through his mind, and a part of him replayed the way that she slammed her forehead into his. If he found himself dwelling on it for too long, he’d feel the sting underneath his skin, where a bruise would have formed on a human.
He wondered how she was holding up, or if she’d made it out of the woods without running into anything. How did she explain the injury on her forehead to anyone that she ran into? Or, anyone else that knew about her profession? What if she alerted her entire group that she earned that injury from throwing herself at the alpha of a werewolf pack?
She said that she didn’t want to make an enemy out of me… she has to know that ambushing my pack would be the fastest way to do it.
He scowled, with the flowery images of Noelle that ran through his mind.
What will it take for me to let go of this curiosity that I feel toward her? Will she have to gun down Cassidy and Gabriel in front of me, and fill them both with silver?
The clinking of handcuffs rubbing together pulled Declan out of his thoughts. Three feet away from them, a uniformed police officer wrangled the handcuffs off of the wide-eyed young man. Declan’s breath hitched as his eyes landed on the startling, fluorescent-gray eyes of the boy in front of him. He was dressed in a pair of dark gray jeans, and a loose-fitting band t-shirt. He was petite, and he reminded Declan of himself in his late teen years. Completely gangly and bug-eyed. If he was a wolf like Declan and Gabriel suspected, he wouldn’t be twiggy for much longer.
The boy looked over his shoulder at the officer, who sneered in response.
He looked past the boy and into Declan’s eyes, “Here’s your buddy. Tell him to stay out of the grocery store the next time that he wants to cause trouble. I’ve got better things to do.”
Declan rose to his feet, he easily towered over the officer, “Will do, Sir.” Declan smirked and waved at the boy, “Come on, let’s go. Let’s get something to eat.”
He cast a nervous glance in the officer’s direction then toward the hulking forms that were Declan and Gabriel. Declan chuckled to himself.
He doesn’t know whether he wants to go back in or follow the two complete strangers that just posted his bail.
They led him to the parking lot and Declan pulled the driver side door of the sedan open.
The boy’s strained voice stopped them in their tracks, “Thank you for bailing me out of jail and all, but who are you guys?”
Gabriel paused with his fingers underneath the car door handle. Declan moved away from the driver’s seat and stepped around the car until he was standing just a couple of inches away from the young man.
Declan smirked and said, “What do you remember about last night? Do you remember anything leading up to eating the meat out of the freezers?”
He looked down and mumbled, “My head kind of hurts when I try to remember. Are you guys just trying to find out more about the weirdo that started eating raw steaks?” He gave each of them a once over, and an exasperated look crossed his face, “Are you reporters?”
Declan looked over to Gabriel then said, “No, we’re not reporters. We’re just trying to figure out what you might be going through, and we think that we could help. Right, Gabriel?”
“Right,” Gabriel grunted.
Declan gestured at the young man and asked, “What’s your name?”
There was a brief moment of hesitation before the young man offered up his name, “Keith.”
“Keith, do you
recall feeling the most powerful hunger that you’ve ever felt in your life?”
While Keith searched for the words to reply, Declan went on, “Did it feel like your blood had been lit on fire? Like your skin was going to be rip itself apart?”
Keith crossed his arms over his chest and glanced around the parking lot. There were few cars around, most of the department was heading out to lunch or completing their patrol rounds.
“I think so. Everyone thinks that I was drunk, but I just needed… something. I ran into the grocery store, and I just lunged at the frozen meat.”
“You certainly don’t have to, but I promise that you’ll be better off if you come with us.”
“Who are you?”
Declan chuckled and replied, “I’m Declan, and he’s Gabriel.”
Declan stuck his hand out for Keith to shake, and Keith slowly raised his hand up to meet Declan’s.
“I manage Clifton Towers, it’s an apartment building about fifteen minutes heading east from here. I focus on people like you who find themselves in situations like this, with little recollection of how they got there.”
“Are you a lawyer?” Keith asked.
Declan stuffed his hands into his pockets and pulled out a business card. He handed it over to Keith.
“Here, you seem like you’ll need some time to think things over. But, when you decide that you want our help, we’ll be there.”
Declan turned on his heel, and walked around to the driver’s side of the car. Keith stepped away from the car, twiddling Declan’s business card in between his fingers.
While Declan started the car, Gabriel turned to him and said, “You’re just going to let him go?”
Declan put the car in drive and caught Keith’s dumbfounded expression in the rear-view mirror.
“I’m going to let this one come to us. We’ll need to keep an eye on him.” So that we know whether Noelle’s got her eyes on him too.
The engine of the sedan came to life, Delcan steered the car towards the end of the parking lot.
“I can’t always decide.”
