“You just do your part and stay in your cage like a good little puppy,” she said. “My father...”
“Your father will be fine,” Coop interrupted. “You have my word on it.”
She nodded toward him, seeming to realize that was the best she was going to get.
“Hey.” Dean put a hand on her arm before quickly yanking it away lest he find himself launched over her shoulder. “I wish I could give you my word, too. I really do, but...”
She appeared to size him up, her eyes boring into his for a moment before finally softening ever so slightly. “I appreciate that.”
Dean’s eyes shifted to his friend. “Coop will keep him safe.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Coop reiterated.
“I know. Speaking of which...” She made it a point to look at her watch.
“She’s right. It’s almost show time, boss.”
Dean nodded. Aside from the awful sensation of waking up after, not knowing what he’d done, this was the part he hated most. It was dehumanizing, not to mention terrifying. But it was also necessary. “Okay. Let’s go.” He stepped into the cage and walked to the far end toward where the chains hung.
He took a deep breath, then peeled off his shirt and tossed it back over his shoulder to Coop. Dean turned and stared past him at Ro. “You should get going. We can handle this.”
Rather than leave, she stepped into the cage, too. “I told you. I’m not leaving until I’m sure you’re secure. So let’s make with the dog collar.”
Dean locked eyes with her for a moment before realizing two things: he wasn’t going to win against her, and he had no time left to try. “Fine, but if you’re going to help, then get over here and fasten these things onto me.”
“Um, Dean?”
He turned to his friend. “What?”
“Your pants.”
“Huh? Oh.” He reached down to the waistband of his sweatpants, but then hesitated, his eyes locked on Ro.
“You’re kidding, right?” she asked. “Sorry, stud, but you’re not the first naked man I’ve seen. And believe me, I don’t impress easily.”
He narrowed his eyes at her, but then recommenced stripping down.
When he was done, he grabbed the steel choker from the floor, secured to the wall by twelve feet of high grade chain, and placed it over his head. He then held out his hands so she could secure the manacles to them.
Ro stepped in to do so, then glanced down for a moment. “Aww, did you manscape just for me?”
“What?!” He quickly lowered his hands to cover his privates.
“Well, I can’t very well cuff you like that.”
Behind her, Coop gave a loud snort, and after a moment, a grin appeared across her face, too.
“You’re both assholes,” Dean said.
“Lighten up,” she replied, then after a beat added, that same grin still on her face. “You’ll live longer.”
A few minutes more found Dean secured to the wall, locked in his cage with a pile of meat to sate the wolf’s appetite.
Coop checked the security cameras and ensured that his dart gun was loaded with enough Xylazine to knock out an elephant.
Finally, he and Ro stood at the door, ready to lock it up for the night.
It wasn’t a moment too soon. Dean began to twitch all over, the precursor to the change starting. Within minutes he’d be deep in the throes of it.
“G ... go!” he stammered to them.
Coop nodded at him then stepped out.
Ro stayed a moment longer. Her eyes locked with his and in them he saw the steely gaze of a predator staring down her prey. A beat later, she must have registered the pleading within his, because finally she looked away, but not before softly uttering, “Good luck.”
♦ ♦ ♦
“For the last time, I’ve got this.”
“Are you sure?” Ro asked, her eyes boring into Coop’s until the larger man looked away.
“Yes. Dean isn’t going anywhere. Trust me. He’s got three layers of security between him and the stairwell and a shitload of doped up meat to keep him occupied enough so he won’t even think about leaving.”
She raised an eyebrow. “The wolf...”
“I know. When he’s fully changed, his senses will be through the roof. Too much and he’ll smell the drugs and stay away, no matter how bloody and appealing it looks. Been there, done that. I didn’t add enough to knock him out, but it should mellow him nicely for a couple of hours. It’s just a pity there isn’t a dog version of catnip.”
Ro allowed herself a ghost of a smile. Coop seemed alert, but not panicky about the situation. That eased her apprehension somewhat. “What if my dad wakes up?”
“I’ll be there for him. As for the rest, the walls are soundproof and the camera feeds all stream right here in full HD.” He held up his smartphone. “If your dad asks, I’ll just tell him I found a horror movie on YouTube.”
Ro opened her mouth to ask more but stopped herself. She was just making excuses at this point, letting the worry take over. In truth, there was little she could do here that he could not.
Besides, she knew her father. If he learned she had information on a dangerous pack and had ignored it in favor of babysitting him, she wouldn’t hear the end of it for a long time to come.
That thought brought out a true smile in her ... her father being around for a good long time.
“See something you like?” Coop asked with a grin.
“With you? Not likely.” Though her words were sharp, the tone of her voice was light. “Just remembering what I have to do tonight. Guess it’s time for me to go.”
He nodded, but then asked, “Forgetting something?”
She looked down at herself, dressed in her hunter gear and fully armed. Nothing seemed amiss. “Um, are you expecting a hug?”
Coop rolled his eyes at her, then reached into his pocket and produced a set of car keys. “Here. Unless, that is, you’re planning on seeing if Uber has any full moon discounts.”
Ro didn’t have to drive often, living in the city as she did, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how. She took the keys and flashed him a quick smile of gratitude. “Keep my dad safe,” she told him before turning away. She stopped after a step and added, “Dean, too.”
“You got it, but I need you to do something for me also.”
“What?”
“Kick some werewolf ass.”
She smirked. “Always.”
“Oh, and try not to get any scratches on my car while you’re doing it.”
18
Kane McGregor looked down at his phone and pretended to read an email, a text, or some insipid Facebook post about someone’s breakfast ... anything to mask what he was really doing there.
The old lady who’d been passing him in the hall gave him the once over, then continued slowly, almost maddeningly so, on her way. Had he known where she was going, he would have been tempted to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way, but that would have almost certainly blown his cover.
Finally, the woman turned a corner. He waited a few more minutes, then heard the distinct sound of an apartment door being unlocked, opened, and then closed again. Certain he was alone for the time being, he removed the lock picks from his jacket pocket and quickly jimmied the door in front of him.
Though it would have been easy for him to slip right into the apartment, he hesitated. His quarry this night wasn’t some stupid wolf, a fact that put him in an increasingly foul mood. To force him to waste his time like this, during a full moon no less, was definitely not a point in her favor.
He might not have been there on a seek-and-destroy mission, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t make Rowan pay nevertheless. She’d been increasingly pissing him off lately and this was merely icing on the cake.
Bitch thinks she’s too good to hunt with me, just like her old man. Well, she also thought she was too good to spread her legs and screa
m my name, but I proved her wrong there, too.
He took a deep breath and steadied himself. Anger was a good way to cloud one’s judgment and make them do something stupid. He wouldn’t give in to it. Kane valued his reputation, both as a detective and a hunter.
The thing was, Ro was a hunter, too. And though he didn’t consider her to be in the same league as himself, he knew it would be wise to be careful.
He quickly checked the door jamb for any hairs that had been taped in place, or any other subtle precautions she might have taken to alert her to any compromise in security.
Finding none, Kane took one more look around the hall, saw it was empty, then slipped a ski mask over his face. He pushed open the door, stepped in, and quickly shut it behind him. Had this been private property, he would have gone much more slowly, checked for booby-traps, but since this was an apartment, he figured the odds were in his favor. Wouldn’t do to accidentally maim the superintendent if they popped by for routine maintenance.
But that didn’t mean he was in the clear. It would be child’s play to set up a surveillance system even with something as minor as a webcam. Hence the mask. Rowan might know that someone had been in her place, but she wouldn’t know who and, if pressed, he’d deny any knowledge of it.
Kane flipped on the light and found, to his absolute lack of surprise, the place to be unoccupied. If anything, it was utterly unremarkable. Hell, had he found it trashed and obviously broken into, that would have gone a long way to easing his anger. Finding Rowan face down, dead in a pool of her own blood, would have been somewhat off-putting to his plans for their future, but at least that would have excused her odd behavior this past week.
He quickly cased the apartment for surveillance of any kind, a fairly easy task given its size. It was unlikely that Rowan was employing anything too high-tech. Her job wouldn’t allow her to afford anything truly state of the art and the Guild was mostly interested in providing tools for the hunt rather than defense. Ask them for a caseload of silver bullets and you’d find it on your doorstep the next day. Ask them for a sturdy deadbolt, though, and your pleas would most likely fall upon deaf ears.
Satisfied, he began to search her place more thoroughly, looking for any clues to her strange behavior.
All the while, he grew more annoyed.
He and her father had gotten off on the wrong foot almost immediately. Sinclair was old-school and believed that Kane, as the newest hunter in the region, should defer to his expertise. Thing was, he was old, past his prime, and less technologically savvy than most toddlers these days. Kane not only had his hunter training to fall back on, but he was one of NYC’s finest as well, knowledgeable in all the latest tools and techniques they used.
John was too set in his ways to understand that times were changing. While Kane would never give props to the filth they hunted, he wasn’t overly surprised when the old man had gone missing ... no doubt a victim of his own stubborn adherence to the days of old.
Afterwards, he’d thought maybe his daughter might be of a different mindset. Sure, she’d been upset by her old man’s disappearance and likely death, but she’d been open-minded about Kane’s methods. He’d sensed in her a possible kindred spirit. And it sure as hell hadn’t hurt that she possessed an ass that wouldn’t quit.
He’d had many a lady in his day, but conquering a hunter, that had been something special, almost like wrestling a caged animal into submission. Not that she had really submitted. Hell, he probably still had a few scratches on his back from their night together. It had been enough to convince him they might make a good pair for more than just the occasional hunt.
Of course, that had been before the bitch had skipped out on him. He’d woken up, ready to give her a good morning she wouldn’t soon forget, only to find he was alone in his bed. Ever since then, she’d had the nerve to brush him off as if she had better prospects on the horizon.
Kane knew better. Though Ro’s night “job” was mostly kept off the records, much as any hunter’s would be, her position as a nurse meant she was a tax paying citizen and thus easy to keep tabs on. Even before he’d bedded her, he’d done an exhaustive background check into her life. Considering the risks he took every full moon, it wasn’t wise to turn his back on someone he couldn’t be certain of. Privacy definitely took a backseat to protecting his own ass, as far as he was concerned.
He’d thought he had figured her out. Given enough time, he would have worn her down, made her realize her station in life. She would’ve eventually realized she should have been honored he’d chosen her.
But then this past week had happened. She’d up and pretty much disappeared from the radar. All he’d had to go on was a brief blip from her cell phone in the Bronx and a few brush-offs via text. He’d called in a few favors and since learned she’d also been in touch with her place of work, having taken some time off to ... and here was the interesting part ... care for her father.
The question was, had that merely been a convenient excuse or did she really have a lead on him? And if the latter, why hadn’t she called him in to help? Did she really think she could take on whatever had gotten to the old man by herself?
He’d checked with the Guild, and no other hunters in the state had heard from her. So, either she was off on some vacation of self-discovery, or whatever the fuck it was that chicks did when they needed to get their heads on straight, or she was balls-to-the-wall crazy.
He kind of liked that latter scenario. Made her even hotter in his mind, but that ego would need to go. She’d need to learn her place, and he was definitely primed to be the one to teach her.
But first, he had to find her.
He silently cursed himself for waiting this long. There was a pack operating within the city limits. He was certain of it. He should’ve been out there busting heads, hunting them down, and collecting a few more teeth for his personal collection. If the guys back at the Guild knew how he was spending this month’s full moon, he’d never hear the end of it.
Kane continued to go through her stuff, a picture starting to form in his mind. She’d definitely packed for an extended stay, there was evidence of that much. All of her hunting gear was gone. Most of her clothes, too.
But where?
He didn’t know, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to find out. This month’s wolf hunt was a bust, but he had different prey in mind anyway.
Kane opened his jacket and removed a small case. It was time to get back to basics, and the best way to do that was to start dusting for prints.
He’d find her. It was only a matter of time.
♦ ♦ ♦
It’s only a matter of time, Ro told herself. They were near. She could sense it. Possibly more than one. Her nerve-endings were practically on fire, screaming at her that danger was rapidly approaching.
According to Dean, Los Colmillos liked to switch up their hunting grounds every so often to throw any opposition – be they hunters or the police – off their scent. If they stuck to their usual routine, though, at least part of the pack would be prowling the North Woods of Central Park this night.
She could see why they might favor this spot. Though she knew that 110th Street lay, at most, a couple of hundred yards to the north, she might as well have been in a whole other state. If anything, she felt less like a New Yorker in that moment and more like Little Red Riding Hood.
The only difference being that she was actively looking for her own personal Big Bad Wolf and, when she found it, it would almost certainly not like the surprise waiting for it in her picnic basket.
The moon was bright in the sky, unfiltered by clouds. Its light was insignificant against the cityscape, but she could still feel its pull on her. She’d been waiting for this night for what had felt like an exceptionally long month, her close proximity to Dean during the waxing moon sharpening her innate need to vanquish her prey. She couldn’t often claim to enjoy being out on a hunt, but on this night, she would have been lying
if she denied it.
Ro stopped moving as she heard what sounded like multiple soft footsteps padding through the underbrush. As she ceased her movement, so did they, mirroring her. She’d been right. These wolves seemed much smarter than the average packs she and her father had hunted in the past.
“Hello?” she called out timidly. “Is anybody there?” She almost had to stifle a chuckle at the horror movie cliché.
Before entering the park, she’d purloined an oversized coat and hat from a nearby Goodwill box. She figured her best bet for blending in would be to either appear as a jogger out for a late night run or as a homeless person in the wrong place at the wrong time. She’d decided on the latter, as it made her appear weaker, not to mention offered plenty of camouflage for her weaponry.
Though she had her tracker on her, she didn’t dare look at it. To do so now would give away that she was more than she appeared. Besides, with her senses on edge as they were, she didn’t need it.
She took a step, then another, when the hairs on the back of her neck stood up straight and a corresponding spike of adrenaline hit her brain.
Ro sidestepped, more out of instinct than having heard the actual attack. The wolf was both smart and fast. Had she been anything less than she was, it would have taken her and carried her off into the bushes before she’d even had a chance to scream.
Pity for it that, smart as it was, luck wasn’t on its side this night.
She spun as it leapt at the spot she’d been a mere moment before and brought her fist up, slamming it into the back of the beast’s thick skull. Normally such a blow would be laughable in the face of a monster wolf, but she’d used its momentum against it. Off balance as it was, her hit sent it staggering to its knees as it tried to cease its own forward motion.
Ro jumped on its back, simultaneously drawing her knife. She was sticking to her personal promise. Besides, it was too soon for the gun. She could sense this wolf wasn’t alone. Though double-tapping it in the back of the head with nine millimeters of silver was by far the safer course of action, she didn’t want to prematurely scare off the pack-mate she was certain was close by. She wanted it to think this was a fluke – that she’d gotten lucky.
Lycan Moon: An Urban Fairy Tale (Lycan Evolution Book 1) Page 14
