“I promised Glenna I’d take care of you. You’re more alike than you know. I felt that as long as I could keep you around I’d have a reminder of her.”
He finally let me loose, and I stepped back. His eyes were wet.
“It’s okay, Connor. Really. I’m going out for some food with the nice doctor you set me up with. In the meantime, there’s a distant relative of ours upstairs. The lady with the dark hair? Ask her about her tattoos. She has more stories than Poppa, I’m sure.”
He gave me a confused look. “The one who came in with your friend? I’ll be damned. She did look familiar. Kind of favored your mom, now that I think of it.”
“She’s a Mackenzie,” I said. “Not sure what line, but I bet she’ll tell you.”
Connor was all about family, even if he didn’t believe half of the stuff his father told him growing up. I could see the Wheels of Genealogy turning in his head as he went up to my apartment.
“Have a good time,” he said. “Be safe.”
I watched the officers outside interrogate Justin. “Don’t think I’ll have much of a choice on that last part.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
You’d be amazed how much leftover adrenaline can do for your libido. We mostly made it inside Justin’s condo before the clothes started coming off. I was still in my bra at least. It’s the little things that make the difference. The officer at the end of the hall did his best not to stare. The idea that he’d be right outside the door listening to us was kind of hot.
Justin peeled down my jeans and panties at the same time. His shirt was already off and forgotten by the door. I stepped out of my clothes and jumped to straddle his waist.
“God, you’re hot,” he said. I laughed, and locked my ankles around him. He pulled me closer and kissed me deep while he undid my bra. Before I knew it, I felt cold granite under my ass. I jumped a bit, and it was his turn to laugh.
He set me down on the countertop. I kissed his collarbone and chest as I worked to get his pants off. Go figure, this was the one day he wasn’t in scrubs. He must not have had rounds before I called him.
His pants hit the floor, and I massaged him through his boxers. He returned the favor, sliding his fingers over my mound, dipping into it just enough to get wet, and then rubbing against my clit in slow circles. I moaned against his chest.
I pulled him in closer and bit down on the side of his neck, working my way up to his earlobe. My hand slipped inside his last remaining shred of clothing. He slipped inside too, and it shot off a pleasant warmth that spread inside me as he stroked in and out.
This time he’d had enough playing around. He dropped his boxers to the floor and leaned in closer to the counter top. The hard tips of my breasts rubbed against him, and he positioned himself just barely against my lips. I scooted forward and he popped inside me. Once that happened, all reserve was lost. He pulled me forward and I enveloped him.
My legs wrapped around his back, arms on his shoulders. He pushed inside as far as he could go, and I felt every delicious inch filling me up. The condo was silent, save the sound of two hot bodies slapping against each other with lustful abandon.
His nails dug into my lower back, and I clamped down on his shoulder with my teeth. I didn’t care if I left a mark. I latched on and sucked as he thrust inside me, leaving warm ripples of pleasure with every stroke.
Our breathing got faster, his more than mine. I could do this all night, but he was getting a little tired. His thrust slowed down just a bit, and I grabbed his hair.
“Don’t stop.”
He spoke between heavy breaths. “Don’t want to, but this is more work for me.”
I sucked his earlobe into my mouth, bit down and said, “Bedroom.”
He lifted me off the counter and carried me to the bed. He stayed inside me the whole way. I leaned back and spread out on the cool sheets as he leaned down on top of me. He pulled my ankles up to his shoulders and pushed in further. I wanted to scream. Why the fuck not?
“Fuck me!” I belted at the top of my lungs. “Slam my hot, ginger pussy! Give me two orgasms and I’ll call you in the morning!”
He laughed, but didn’t stop thrusting. It wouldn’t be long for me now. The first wave was already rolling in, curling my toes and making me rake my nails down his ass. I came, screaming his name.
Justin paused as the last clenching wave hit me. I ran my hands through his hair. “Doctor’s prerogative. How do you want me?”
He slipped out and grabbed my thighs, flipping me onto my stomach. Okay then, doggy it is. I pulled myself up onto all fours, and he stood just off the edge of the bed. I held my breath as he plunged inside, and pushed back against him to meet his thrusts. His hands rested on my hips, pulling me back against him even more.
I wanted him deeper. I grabbed his wrists for leverage, and pulled his hips hard against my ass. He pushed in as far as he could, and then pulled out almost entirely before slamming into me again and again. I let go of his hands, and he grabbed my shoulders.
“I’m coming,” he said in a breathy whisper.
“On my ass!” I said. “Mark me!”
He pulled out just as he finished, and a warm splash of his seed covered my lower back. It felt so dirty, and so right. That was a first for me. What the fuck possessed me to do it, and why did I not care at all?
We collapsed on the bed, and he wrapped his arm around me. I lay there enjoying the afterglow and the feel of his still-hard manhood against my back. He pushed my hair out of the way and planted gentle kisses on the back of my neck. Then he stopped.
“How did that heal so quickly?” he said out of the blue.
I pulled away from him. “What?”
“Your wound. The…wow, I guess it’s like a tattoo almost? How did that heal so quickly?”
I came here to forget all that, not be reminded of it. I went to the bathroom and started the water in the shower. I saw the mark in the mirror. It was a raised scar, white against my already pale skin, with a clearly defined pattern. The rune that binds.
Justin came in as I looked at it. “Look, I’m sorry. Professional curiosity. Your other wounds didn’t heal that fast. Can I ask what happened?”
I shook my head and stepped into the shower. I saw him through the translucent door debating whether to join me, but eventually he left. It was a good choice—the mood was spoiled.
Was I part wolf now? I certainly felt them, their thoughts and memories. What good would it do me though? If I went catatonic every time a wolf touched my skin, I’d be no good hunting anymore. I felt like one of those goats that just freeze up and drop when they’re scared. I was easy prey.
Dree said she had experienced it though. Maybe there was a way to control it, like a reflex. I needed a way to block it off, or the next time one of Donald’s wolves touched me, I might just wake up with the full set of runes and a very different outlook on life.
Chapter Thirty
The policeman outside Justin’s condo didn’t give any indication he’d been listening to our activities, but I could tell by his careful refusal to look me in the eye that he’d heard something. Justin drove me back, but I didn’t say goodbye. I wasn’t mad at him, per se, but his little snafu just told me this shit with Donald had to be dealt with…now.
The last thing I expected to hear when I stepped into my apartment was laughter. Connor, Slate, and Dree sat at my kitchen table around a bottle of scotch. They must have been at it for a while, judging from the color on Connor’s cheeks.
I stopped dead in my doorway. Seeing Connor drunk wasn’t odd by any stretch of the imagination, but I realized as I stood there that the laughter came from Slate. She downed the last of a glass of scotch and let loose a deep, hearty guffaw. I was speechless.
Connor waved me over, but I didn’t move. “Bon! Oh, Bon, Lorelei here was just telling me a story about Poppa’s cousin, Angus. He pissed off the wrong girl and she tied him to a tree, naked, in front of the college dean’s house!”
Sla
te poured herself another drink and added, in an uncharacteristically light tone of voice, “Only the dean wasn’t home. The one who found him was the dean’s mother-in-law. Damn near gave the old bat a heart attack when she went to water the plants first thing in the morning.”
Connor laughed hard enough that tears streamed down his cheeks. I was too shocked at the situation to do much of anything other than shut my door and walk over to them. Dree smiled and watched the two Mackenzies, but didn’t have a drink in front of her.
“It was a pleasure drinking you under the table,” Slate said to Connor. “But PJ and I have some things we need to do tonight.”
She stood, stone sober, and helped me get my uncle to his feet. They gave out from under him, so Dree ended up taking over on my end. The two wolves lifted Connor like a child and laid him out on my bed. He never stopped laughing. I sat on the edge of the bed and took his hand.
“I’m glad you had a good time,” I said.
Connor squeezed my hand and pulled me on top of him for a bear hug. “Oh, Bon, thank you. I don’t know where you found her, but she’s a breath of fresh air. Knows more about our family than anyone I’ve ever met. Scary weird how much she looks like Glenna though.”
I extracted myself from his hug and patted him on the belly. “Get some sleep, Connor. I get the feeling Lorelei isn’t going anywhere for a while. You two can get sauced again soon.”
Enjoy it while you can. I’m going to eventually have to kill her. But can I still do it? She’s my blood, tainted or not. And Connor seems to have taken a serious shining to her.
I walked back into the kitchen and pulled my bedroom door closed. Slate and Dree sat at the table expectantly. Other than a slight color to her cheeks, you’d never guess Slate had downed a half bottle of good scotch in the course of a couple of hours.
“I think you’ve made a friend for life,” I said. “No one has ever drunk Connor under the table before…except Poppa.”
Slate laughed again, and it transformed her whole face. She looked decades younger and infinitely more human. I had to admit, I liked this side of her.
“Wolf metabolism,” Dree laughed. “Almost impossible to get drunk.”
“Almost,” Slate said. She chuckled one last time, and then regained her usual foreboding composure. “We should prepare.”
I heard thumps and a muffled cry from my pantry. I tensed up, but Slate raised a hand to calm me. “Nothing to worry about. You didn’t wonder where Serena went?”
I opened the pantry door and saw the tiny woman hog-tied and crammed into a space that used to contain a couple of spare boxes of garbage bags and some insect poison. She pleaded at me with her eyes.
“What did she do to you, Slate?” I asked.
Slate shrugged. “I did what you asked—I did not kill her. What more do you want?”
It was dark by the time I gathered all my things, and I still hadn’t figured out how we were going to lose my helpful police escort in order to go on our hunt. I tiptoed past a sleeping Connor and into my kitchen.
“Any ideas on how to get out of here?” I asked.
Slate pulled out her phone and dialed the only member of our group not present in the room. “We’re ready,” she said. “You know where to meet? See you then.”
She put away her phone and stood. “Lupin has a few ideas on that. He’s quite the showman. Knows how to draw a crowd.”
I jumped at the sound of screeching tires and a very nasty sounding crunch. Slate led us downstairs and out the front door of the shop. The police cruiser normally parked there was headed two blocks down, to the scene of a nasty accident involving a lamppost and a belligerent drunk. I couldn’t see him from here, but his voice carried. He sang a rousing rendition of Danny Boy.
We piled into Slate’s car. Serena sat in the back between Dree and myself. What can I say? I didn’t trust her any more than Slate. The tiny wolf’s less-than-precise instructions turned out to be enough to find the place. We drove to the ballpark, ditched Slate’s car, and walked a long circle around the building. From what I could tell it was the remains of an old Chinese restaurant. Yeah, I know, sometimes stereotypes exist because they’re true.
Slate took point. I was next in line, my dagger ready, a half a dozen pens slipped into my belt just in case. I covered it all up with a thin hoodie that would minimize my skin-to-skin contact with Donald’s people. The wolves with me had no weapons—just loose clothing they wouldn’t mind leaving behind.
Lupin stepped out of the shadow of a parked car and joined us a few blocks north of the den. He took up rear guard; I guessed as much to keep an eye on Serena as anything else.
“How did you get away so fast?” I asked him.
“Detour through the park,” he said. “Lost them pretty quick.”
“You’re a horrible singer, by the way,” I said.
He feigned hurt. “Alas, the critics.”
We hugged the wall of a building just a block from the old restaurant. Slate held up a closed fist and signaled us to stay put. I saw one armed guard with direct line of sight and two on either side of the building. They carried short automatic weapons, partially hidden from view by bulky zip-up hoodies.
The guard facing us turned away, and Slate used the few seconds to close in. She moved just as gracefully as a human, seeming to slip fluidly from one shadow to the next until she had one hand on the man’s mouth and the other behind his head. She snapped his neck before he could get his fingers around the trigger. Slate picked him up, careful to secure his gun first, and dumped his body behind a parked car nearby.
I watched the other two making rounds. One walked behind the building out of my sight, but the other was close to rounding the corner on Slate. She must have heard him, because she flattened against the side of the building.
A blur of darkness crossed the street behind the guard, and within a second he was on the ground. Lupin took his gun and rolled the body into the gutter. I hadn’t even seen him pass me. Slate relaxed and walked around the corner to him.
There was still one guard left. Lupin went around the opposite side of the building, and Slate signaled an all clear. I crossed the street with Serena. Slate looked at me once we regrouped.
“This is too easy,” she said, and grabbed Serena in a chokehold. “There’s something this one isn’t telling us.”
Serena sputtered. I was worried she’d alert whoever was inside, but Slate tightened her grip to cut her off. Lupin returned, holding two automatic weapons. He pulled out the clip on one of them and showed it to me. “Silver rounds. They were expecting us.”
“I…swear,” Serena choked out, “I didn’t know.”
Slate shook her head. “Well then, you get to be our little mouse tonight. We’re going to shove you inside there and let you find out if there’s a trap.”
She dragged Serena over to the only door we could see without chains on it and pulled it open. Then she unceremoniously tossed Serena in and stood to one side, head cocked and listening. I looked at Dree who shrugged. This is Slate. What can I say?
Lupin handed me one of the automatics. “You know your way around a gun?”
“Never handled one of these before, but I gather it’s point and shoot.”
He nodded. “Be careful. They’re modified—no safety. Make sure you only aim at something you want to kill.”
No sounds came from inside the door. In a way, it was worse than gunfire. It was practically a given now that we were walking into a trap. I deferred to Slate. She nodded and slipped in the door. No guts, no glory, I guess. I stepped in after her.
Chapter Thirty-One
I followed Slate inside, staying low and looking around as best I could in what turned out to be a pitch-black space. The restaurant was one large, open room. I saw bunk beds lined up against one wall, a kitchen that looked like it had been used recently, and several mismatched pieces of furniture. Serena wasn’t lying—this had been a den until recently. But where was she now?
Anoth
er disquieting thought punched through to the front of my mind: Why could I see so much? There were no lights on in the room, and only the tiniest glow came in through the door. Movement at the corner of my eye drew me to a wide doorway. A private dining room? I stayed low and made my way toward it. Slate followed suit.
I heard a brief, harsh whisper from inside the room followed by thick silence. Shadows poured out of the doorway, and I took a hard blow to my abdomen. I flew back against the wall, but managed to keep my grip on the gun. I recognized the face of one of Donald’s wolves coming toward me. I aimed for his torso and pulled the trigger.
The report bounced off the walls and nearly deafened me. The scene suddenly became a series of stills lit up by the flash of the gun’s muzzle. I saw the first few bullets hit their target, but after that the kickback sent my shots wild and into the ceiling. I let go of the trigger.
Another wolf leaped for me, this one in his changed form. I held back his jaws from locking on my throat and slammed a pen into his back. He dropped, and I rolled away. Five more pens left. I had to make them count. The gun still had half a clip at least, but it was so unpredictable. I kept it with me anyway.
Slate and Lupin were in wolf form now, tearing out throats and snapping backs one after another. I didn’t see Serena or Dree. I ducked under a lunging wolf and let loose with the gun into its belly.
I stood, but was knocked off my feet by something heavy. I rolled and saw Donald handling a loveseat like a folding chair. Something was draped over his shoulder, but I couldn’t quite make it out. “So nice of you to come over for a visit,” he said.
I scrambled back, right into the waiting arms of another of Donald’s people. This one smelled female. His right-hand bitch, perhaps? She pulled my arms behind my back and held them there like a vise. She twisted my right arm until I dropped the gun.
Donald set down the chair and walked over to me. He dropped the bundle on his shoulder at my feet. Serena’s lifeless face stared up at me. “Poor Serena. Your late friend was right to go after her—she was always a weak link. But even the weak can serve their purpose.”
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