by Holly Evans
They hadn’t spared any expense. I wouldn’t have recognised Tala at all. His dark hair was now a cream and grey mix. It looked to be full of some form of product that gave it a semi-spiked fashionable look. His angular face had been replaced with a flatter, older one. He was still clearly lupine, with the pointed ears and amber eyes, but he was nothing like Tala. I didn’t want to know what I looked like. Not that I got a chance to look; the SUV lurched to a stop outside of a metro stop.
“Come on, we only have a small window,” Caiden barked at us.
I left my inks and such in the back of the vehicle and piled out behind the cougars. We ran down the concrete stairs, past the dull-eyed commuters and overly-burdened shoppers and slipped down a narrow passageway between the two main platforms. The walls felt as though they were breathing, the rhythmic flow of cool and warm air down the passageway incredibly creepy. Aris reminded me that he’d protect Tala. Even he looked different under the illusion. He appeared to be some form of golden-coloured boa.
We emerged from the passageway and found ourselves in a small brick room. The steady dripping from the roof put me on edge. A nervy young puka stepped out of the archway on our left and shrank back into herself when he saw Tala and me.
“Where are they, Sea?” Luka asked gently.
She grabbed the tip of her long black cat tail and began playing with the end of it, running her thumb back and forth through the tuft of pale grey hair there.
“Just down the hallway. They’re in the cages,” she said quietly.
“We’re going to give them good homes. You did the right thing,” Luka said.
Caiden led the way through the archway and down the dark, damp, and unpleasant-smelling tunnel to another small brick room. Two more dark archways led off this one, and something didn’t feel right. Aris tightened protectively around Tala’s shoulders. Caiden froze and sniffed the air.
“The cages are empty!” Shadow called over.
Ferals, shifters, and many others flooded into the room from all three entrances. We’d been set up.
“Fein’s time has come to an end!” someone shouted.
I pulled out my silver stiletto and tried to stay close to Tala. He looked like he’d fight hard, but he was still malnourished, which made him weaker and slower than he should have been. Fighting spirit only got you so far.
We formed a circle with our backs inwards, allowing us to protect each other and see every part of the small room around us. They threw themselves at us with snarls, bays, and yips. The sound reverberated off the walls and only intensified. I allowed my instincts to take over. They weren’t people. They were objects that needed to be neutralised. We were going to make it out alive.
Tala fought fiercely. He sank his teeth and fingers into everything that came within reach. Shifters stumbled backwards with their throats hemorrhaging, ferals and puka lost limbs and eyes to his fierce onslaught. Still, he was beginning to tire, and there was only so much Aris could do from his shoulders. The great snake wanted to be let loose in the maelstrom, but I didn’t want him hurt. He sank his teeth into a puka that tried to gut Tala. When the puka tried to dig his claws into Aris, Tala bent her fingers back until they audibly snapped, and Aris bit her throat until she crumpled at our feet.
I was distracted watching Tala and trying to keep him safe, and it was showing. A fox shifter’s fist collided with my ribs while his friend’s foot aimed for my crotch. I grabbed onto the second shifter’s foot and yanked it up, throwing him off balance. That didn’t stop the fox from hitting me hard in the jaw. I lost enough focus for them to get blows to my stomach in. I was not going to leave Tala open like that. There was some strength within me somewhere, and I pulled on everything I could muster. Tala needed me at his side, and Keirn needed me at home.
The numbers were thinning, thanks to Caiden and the cougars. I wasn’t going to let them down. A pair of cat shifters tried to leap on Tala and me. Aris struck one in the throat, and I punched the other square in the sternum, driving the air from his lungs. He gasped for breath as he knelt on the cooling body of his fallen friend. Aris took the initiative and wrapped his dense coils around the shifter, crushing his ribs while Tala and I took on the last canine feral. He was broader and burlier than those dead before us, but we would not be defeated. Tala was slowing, his blows clumsy and weaker than ideal. I tried to make up for it with quick punishing blows to the shifter’s lower abdomen and kicks to his knees when he came too close to Tala. It was Caiden who ended it. Having finished his own opponents, he grabbed the back of the failing feral’s neck and threw him against the brick wall.
The hound’s hackles were a deep golden green, his teeth those of his hound form, and long thick black claws protruded from his fingers.
“Are any of them alive? We need to find out who set us up,” he snarled.
Shadow tossed a whimpering feral at his feet. She trembled and tried to crawl over the broken bodies around her, into the darkness of the tunnels. Caiden placed his foot on her back, pinning her where she was.
“Talk,” he barked.
“Please,” she whimpered.
He pressed his foot down harder, and I looked Tala over. His clothes were ruined, and he was wobbly. He had an impressive black eye, and his lip was split in two places. His breathing came in short, sharp gasps. I wasn’t feeling much better. The pain was beginning to cloud my thinking as I put my arm around Tala’s shoulders and led him to the tunnel we’d entered through.
“Come on, little wolf, let’s get you home,” I said gently.
21
Caiden and the cougars weren’t far behind Tala and me. We emerged into the bright spring day coated in blood and filth. Tala leaned against me as we walked down the road to the SUV. A strange feeling of guilt filled me as he did so. It was my fault he’d been hurt like that. I pushed it away. That was foolish, and no good came from it. Aris remained tightly around Tala’s shoulders. He kept a close eye on everyone that came near us. A good number of people paused and looked us up and down. The five us were certainly a sight. There was no hiding the fact we’d been in one hell of a fight.
No one said a thing until Caiden had the engine running on the SUV and I had a healing kit in my hands. The shifters were healing thanks to being shifters. Tala and I had no such fortune.
“Let me see your injuries, little wolf,” I said quietly to Tala.
He bared his teeth at me and curled up.
“Tala, I can hear that you have at least one broken rib. I need to heal your injuries,” I said.
Aris pressed his head against the feral’s cheek. Tala closed his eyes and uncurled himself before he began unbuttoning his shirt. Aris moved away, allowing him to wriggle out of his shirt and expose his blood-stained torso. Much like Tyn, he was covered in white scars, although I noted some were still pink and healing. He’d had a very difficult life to date, which only made me more determined to make the rest of it more comfortable.
He snarled at me when I applied the white powder to his broken ribs. I ignored him and gently patted it down. We needed to heal the bones before I applied the pastes to heal the muscles and skin. He yelped and tried to paw at his ribs when the powder began fizzing. I held his wrist.
“It’s healing. Breathe,” I said.
Breathing was becoming increasingly difficult for me. The pain was starting to affect my vision and made my movements increasingly clumsy. I pushed through it and healed Tala as much as I could in the back of the SUV.
Much to my shame, Caiden carried me inside. My legs had taken too much damage to hold me, and I had all sorts of interesting internal bleeding. I believe Keirn scolded me before he patched me up. Everything was very fuzzy and most certainly swimming. I definitely didn’t want to take on a large group of vicious ferals and such again.
“We need to improve his hand-to-hand combat,” Caiden said.
“We were meant to over the past two weeks, but things have been too hectic,” Shadow replied.
“I’m a tattoo ma
gician,” I muttered.
“I told you to come back in one piece,” Keirn said.
His familiar scent surrounded me and made everything that bit better.
“Everything was inside still, it was technically one piece,” I said as I opened my eyes.
I was stretched out on the sofa with Keirn kneeling next to me, his head nuzzled against my neck, where he kissed behind my ear.
“You’re a damn fool sometimes,” he whispered.
“I love you, too,” I whispered back.
“How’s Tala?” I asked, looking around for the feral.
He was curled up near my feet, glaring at the rest of the room. Vyx came into my line of sight.
“You really are quite hopeless, Dacian,” she said.
Paint was splattered across the bridge of her nose and clung to the ends of her hair.
“I had to keep Tala safe,” I said while trying to sit up.
Fuck me, my entire world hurt. Everything was stiff and sore. The room spun gently, slowly. It would almost have been relaxing, if it hadn’t made me so damn nauseous.
“You need to eat. Your body burned a lot of calories healing,” Caiden said as he placed a plate overflowing with food in my lap.
Tala was presented with a plate of his own food. Kyra tried to sneak around Tala and pinch a smaller piece of meat from his plate, and he growled at her. Kyra puffed herself up. She almost looked as big as a normal cat. Tala narrowed his eyes, and Kyra gave up and tried to steal from me instead. Damn cat. I rubbed her cheeks and allowed her. I’d have been devastated if I’d lost her earlier. She may have hated being cooped up, but it was for her own safety. I ran the back of my fingers over Aris’ scales, happy to see they were back to their usual onyx colour.
Thank you friend I pushed to him.
He pushed the sensation of happiness and loyalty back.
Keirn tucked himself between me and the end of the sofa, his fingers moving in slow rhythmic circles over my lower arm and wrist. I didn’t know if he was healing my energies or just being affectionate, but either way I appreciated it and relaxed against him.
“We’re going to start regular training tomorrow morning,” Caiden said.
“That includes the little wolf,” Luka said.
Tala curled his lip and growled to himself. Luka stared him down.
“It won’t do you any harm to improve your fighting skills,” he said firmly.
“If you want to go to bed and hide away, you’re welcome to,” I said to Tala.
“What if I get hungry later?” he asked, his eyes flicking between everyone crowding around us and the exits.
“Someone will be around to give you more food,” Shadow said gently.
Tala slipped between everyone and vanished into his room. He looked as though he was completely overwhelmed and needed a little breathing room, poor wolf.
Keirn kissed my jaw.
“You’re a good man,” he said with a smile.
I stroked his hair and smiled. “I try.”
“You’re both practically glowing, it’s adorable in a revolting way,” Vyx said with a smile.
22
True to his word, Caiden dragged Tala and me over to the sparring place the moment we finished breakfast. The feral seemed to have healed well enough. His gait was smooth and relaxed, and he seemed to be breathing ok. I was still a little stiff, but Caiden had insisted I’d work that out through the sparring session. I wasn’t convinced, but the hound was on a mission.
“Come on, little wolf, we’ll start with you. The cougars will be here soon to handle Dacian,” Caiden said.
“Handle me?”
Caiden gave me a sly smile. “You’ve proven to be a stubborn student.”
“That’s not fair…”
“What’s not fair?” Luka called over.
“I said he’s stubborn,” Caiden said.
“Seems like a fair observation to me,” Luka said.
Outnumbered. That seemed to sum up my life as of late.
The cougars didn’t screw around. We went straight into two on one. I caught Caiden make a comment to Tala about not using his teeth and claws. I couldn’t resist.
“It works for the cougars!” I called over.
Shadow swatted me around the head and said, “We gut them, it’s a little different.”
“If you say so,” I said with a grin on my face.
He kicked me square on my ass for that little jibe.
We continued on in a good-hearted fashion, the cougars helpful and very pushy. They picked apart my technique, although they insisted I didn’t have a technique to begin with. By the end, I was sore and ready to crash out for the day.
Caiden was still pushing Tala when I stepped off the mat. The feral fought with nimble ferocity, never staying in one place for more than two beats. He kept his hands up and used swift jabs to Caiden’s upper stomach and throat. Or at least he tried; the hound had no problems blocking the blows. Tala kept moving and pushing Caiden. He tried to get behind the hound and refused to let him stand still and form a solid stance.
“Careful, Dacian, he has potential,” Shadow said with a grin.
“Oh well, he’ll have to take my place on Fein’s squad. Shame, I’ll have to go back to being a tattoo magician after all,” I said.
Luka snorted.
“We’ll just have to drag you out here more often until you stop fighting against us and work with us,” Luka said.
Tala bared his teeth when Caiden laid his hands on him to help him improve his stance. Caiden stared him down, forcing the feral to look away and submit before he continued giving him pointers. Tala lasted a few more minutes before Caiden stepped back and called it. The feral was panting and visibly exhausted, but he kept his hands up and tried to poke at Caiden to continue.
“Enough,” Caiden said.
Tala put his hands down and accepted it.
“Get an invite to that nightclub today, Dacian,” Caiden said as he handed me my shirt.
“I’ll do what I can,” I said.
I wasn’t going to make a promise I didn’t know I could keep. The nightclub didn’t appeal to me in the slightest. I’d never been interested in drugs, and they seemed to be the dangerous types.
“Don’t worry, Tala will look after you,” Luka said as he nudged me.
Tala smirked at me, but kept his mouth shut.
“You going to be ok acting as my slave in the club, little wolf?” I asked.
He bared his teeth and ran his tongue over them. I waited for him to calm himself. The cougars slipped off to a corner somewhere. Caiden swatted Tala around the back of the head.
“That is inappropriate behaviour. Dacian is your senior, treat him with respect, else you’ll never have a good pack,” Caiden growled.
Tala scowled and looked down and away before muttering an apology.
“Young wolves sometimes need a little rough handling to remind them how things work,” Caiden said with a shrug.
I crossed my arms.
“I swore to him that I wouldn’t lay a hand on him,” I said.
Caiden paused, his shirt halfway over his head.
“I didn’t beat him,” he said slowly.
“And I will not break my promise to him.”
“If he wants to live in a good pack, he needs to learn his place.”
“He can do that without my needing to hit him.”
“I didn’t hit him,” a growl edged around Caiden’s words.
I raised an eyebrow and stood my ground.
“Don’t dare tell me that’s how wolves do it. He is bound to me, and I made him a promise,” I said.
Caiden nodded and relaxed.
“You’d make a good alpha,” he said.
Tala smiled at me. It was a fleeting flicker of a smile, but I saw it. I didn’t choose to be a hero, but I wasn’t going to stand by and allow harm to come to innocents.
I’m not sure who was dreading going to the tattooists’ club more, me or Tala. He’d scru
bbed up well in smart clothes. He’d even tidied up his hair. I’d pulled on my best pair of jeans and called it all good. I had no idea how the tattooists expected Tala to behave. They had all left their ferals at home.
“Relax, you’re supposed to be comfortable owning me,” Tala hissed as we approached the club.
“Well, I’m not,” I whispered back while trying to smile and relax.
You can never relax after someone’s told you to relax. The guard smirked when he looked between me and Tala. I broadened my smile and worked very hard not to clench my jaw.
Tala remained close to me, hands behind his back, eyes down. I hated it. Scott and Elona were at the bar in their usual spots. Their faces lit up when they saw us walk in.
“Oh, you worked fast! You made him look quite acceptable. Have you taken him to your bed yet?” Elona asked as she walked around us, inspecting Tala.
I flinched. The idea hadn’t even crossed my mind.
“No. I have not,” I said with a smile.
“Sorry darling, I’d rather assumed you were that way inclined.”
I laughed, a shallow laugh to try and push away some tension. Yes, I was interested in men, but I wasn’t going to force some poor feral or anyone else against his will.
“I have a partner. I’ve no interest in a feral in my bed,” I said.
Elona went to put her hand on Tala’s face, I raised an eyebrow and fixed her with my best alpha stare. She stepped back and snapped at the barman for a drink.
“My feral tells me you’ve been holding out on me,” I said to Scott.
“Oh, does he, now?” Scott said.
“Yes, he says you forgot to mention the nightclub you run, and your other rather lucrative businesses. My freelancing is growing a little… tiresome. I want in,” I said.
I’d never tried getting into the criminal underground before. They didn’t teach this shit in college. No one had told me how to go about these interactions. I’d never needed to really sell anything before, and the only convincing I did was getting pretty guys into my bed. I didn’t even need to do that anymore.
