by Riley Storm
“That cannot be allowed to stand. You must pay for this.”
For a second, Kincaid thought that the Canim was going to shift, revealing the secret to a very unprepared Haley, but instead, he just stepped inside the door.
“Kincaid, I’m scared,” Haley said from where she hid behind him. “Can we just go?”
“Too late for that now. You must be taught respect.”
Kincaid snorted. “Like any of you mangy shits know a thing about respect. I know it’s ass-kissers that usually get ahead, but you guys really took it to the next level with the whole licking thing.”
His opponent snarled audibly. “I will teach you respect.”
If there was one thing all Canim hated equally, and that was guaranteed to drive them into a fury, it was being compared to domesticated dogs. Insulting them that way never failed to both make them furious and amuse Kincaid. It was just too easy.
“This isn’t obedience training,” he said in a deep voice. “But trust me, by the time I’m done with you, you’ll know just whose commands to obey.”
The Canim swung at him wildly.
“Bad doggy,” he snapped, ducking under it and lunging forward.
Haley shouted and retreated deeper into the office as the two men collided and went down hard, Kincaid pile-driving the Canim into the floor. He was up in a flash, only narrowly avoiding having his legs swept up from underneath him. The Canim was tougher than that, and he would require more of a beating before he gave up.
“What does Laurent want with me?” Kincaid asked, dodging another attack.
“Why would anyone want anything to do with you?”
“Good question,” Kincaid said, dancing backward as his foe attacked. Behind him, Haley kept scrambling. He heard her open another door, and a cool blast flowed over his skin. Not enough to be from outside but…
He glanced over his shoulder. Yup. Just as I thought. Warehouse.
The perfect spot to continue their little discussion. “Come on,” he taunted, darting through the door. The Canim charged right into the door as Kincaid slammed it shut in his face.
“Oops,” he yelped, going down in a heap as the wooden door exploded into kindling.
Instead of stopping or slowing down, the unknown Canim had just lowered his shoulder and accelerated. Now he plowed into Kincaid’s midsection, sending him flying. Kincaid grunted as he bounced off a metal workbench, denting it, and was flung face first into the floor as it abruptly changed his momentum. He barely managed to get his hands up to stop his head from rebounding off the concrete.
“Can you hurry up and win?” Haley hissed from underneath the table, her presence catching him by surprise.
“I am winning,” he said. “Everything is under control, don’t worry.”
She rapped her knuckles off the dented sheet metal of the tabletop. “This is under control?”
He shrugged. “Mostly.” Then he had to move aside to avoid being attacked again, yelping at how close the punch came.
“Stop running away.” His foe was getting angry.
“Make me,” he called back. “I would gladly stay, but I need to find out why your boss has such a hate on for me. If you tell me that, I’ll happily beat the shit out of you.”
“I told you, I don’t know. I don’t even know who you are.”
“I don’t believe you.” He ducked under another swipe, this time pausing just long enough to slam a fist into the man’s kidney as he slipped past.
“Well, that’s too bad,” the Canim said, wincing in pain as he straightened. “Enough.”
Kincaid relaxed for a half-second until he realized the man wasn’t asking for a truce but was declaring he’d had enough of Kincaid—and was going straight for Haley now.
Something in his mind snapped, and Kincaid went berserk. He leaped over another table and flung himself at the enemy. His fists rained down like hammer blows as he bore the man to the ground, roaring with anger as images of Haley being harmed flashed through his mind.
He picked up the wolf shifter, hurling him clear across the warehouse. As he did that though, his enemy kicked out, catching him in the head. The blow rocked Kincaid around, driving him to his knees, even as he heard the crash when the man slammed into racks of tools on the far wall.
“You’re going to pay for that,” he snapped.
Haley’s strangled cry brought his head around to look at the pile of debris and human across from him. Except it wasn’t human any longer. Not completely at least. Clothing ripped as the Canim shifted, his joints jerking and reshaping even as thick whitish-gray fur started to sprout over his skin. Bones cracked as the shifter’s face rearranged itself, jutting forward in a muzzle.
Bone-white teeth flashed as the wolf scrambled to its feet and snapped at him, reddened eyes glaring daggers before it rushed forward and threw itself at the rear door. The metal swinging door ripped from its hinges and the wolf disappeared outside.
Kincaid ran to the door, but the creature was long gone, leaving no trace, other than the door’s claw marks. He didn’t give chase. Although the wolf was larger than anything native to the planet—at least, anything that currently lived, outmassing even the extinct dire wolves by over a hundred pounds—it was still faster than he was, in either form. The fight was over.
Pulling the door closed as best he could, he turned to regard the warehouse. Maybe he would find something in here?
“Haley?” he called, ducking down to peer under the tables when she didn’t immediately respond.
His blood still boiled at the image of the Canim going after her, but he forced the anger down. He’d protected her. It was safe now, she could come out. He even told her that, searching around for anywhere she might have taken refuge.
But she wasn’t there.
His eyes followed the trail of wooden splinters from the door and back into the office area just as the door clunked, unable to close completely. She was taking off.
“Aww shit.”
Kincaid ran after her. He’d hoped she hadn’t really seen what happened. All the lights had been off inside, only the few small windows letting light in, but apparently, it had been enough. She’d seen the wolf—whether or not she’d seen the man change was up in the air, but he remembered the noise she’d made. That told him all he needed to know.
She’d seen it happen. What the hell was he supposed to do now? Kincaid hadn’t expected to run into a fully-fledged member of High House Canis. Not out here, in some nothing business. What the hell had he been doing here?
That’s not your concern right now. Go get Haley. You need to talk to her. To calm her down before she does something stupid. Like, call the police.
He darted out the door, moving faster than any human. Immediately, he looked at the SUV parked across the street, but she wasn’t there either. Footsteps sounded to his right, and he took off.
He had to find her. Before she did something even he couldn’t protect her from.
10
She ran as fast as her legs would carry her.
It was still too slow, and she wished that in a prior life she could have been a track start or something, anything that would get her away from that horrible warehouse and the nightmare she’d just witnessed. The tears streaming down her face were equally generated by the now picked-up wind as it whipped at her face, and her own tears sprung from the fear of what had happened inside that building.
It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be possible. She had to be imagining it. But how? Why would someone have kept a wolf back there? And since when did wolves get that big? She’d seen some before, in captivity of course, but none that got that big. The thing had been monstrously huge. The stuff of legend.
Her feet carried her down the road, and then she hung a left, hoping to lose him in the maze of buildings that surrounded the docks themselves. She’d never really explored much of the area and could only recall having come down to the place a few times back in school when she’d worked for a woman whose family ha
d owned a fishing—or was it crabbing?—business. It had been a decade or more now, and she couldn’t remember.
Focus. Stop letting your mind wander.
Haley wasn’t sure she was letting her mind do anything. It was working on its own now, making her think she’d seen a giant wolf in the middle of the town. What sort of nonsense was that? If she couldn’t stop it from hallucinating, how was she supposed to stop it from sliding back into random details from her past?
Heavy boots slammed into the pavement behind her. She ran slightly faster thanks to the spurt of fear, but it wasn’t enough. She could hear him catching up to her, and in another dozen paces, huge hands wrapped around her waist and lifted her from the ground.
She started to cry out but her attacker—she had no idea if it was Kincaid or the stranger, but she didn’t want either one touching her—clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Be quiet.”
It was Kincaid.
Angrily, she bit his finger.
He yelped in surprise and put her down, but didn’t back away. “Stop it. Don’t bite me.”
“Leave me alone.” For some reason, she didn’t shout. The wolf could still be out there. She didn’t want it finding her.
“You’re scared. Panicking. You need to come with me.” He looked away, unhappy, then continued. “I’ll answer your questions.”
“What the hell was all that?” she snapped, slamming a fist into his chest.
Kincaid didn’t notice, the strike rebounding off his pectoral muscle hard enough that it hurt her.
“Ow.”
“Shouldn’t have hit me,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Shut up. Tell me what the hell is going on?”
Kincaid frowned. “Which is it?”
Her eyebrows came together. “What?”
“I should shut up, or tell you what’s going on? Pick one.”
Angrily, she threw her hands in the air and stomped away. Well, she tried to. Kincaid was everywhere, blocking her from taking more than a step or two in any direction, always moving faster than she could. Even when she tried to fake him out, he ended up in front of her.
“This isn’t fair. Let me go.”
“I can’t do that. Not yet. You need to calm down and come with me.”
Haley shook her head. “Hellll no. The only place I am going is back to my office. Without you.” She paused. “That means alone. I don’t know how you two planned all this shit out, but that was not cool. You and I are done. If your precious Queen doesn’t like that, too bad. I’m not some sort of…of…Fuck you!”
She started walking again, simply moving left or right when Kincaid got in front of her. He reluctantly gave ground, not wanting to physically restrain her. Yet.
“If you go back, you’re going to have to walk. Or take a cab or something,” he reminded her. “Since I was the one who drove.”
Her frustration at the situation ratcheted up another level at that reminder.
“How did you two set this up? Why? It wasn’t funny!” she said, slamming her fist into his chest again as the adrenaline began to fade.
“We didn’t set anything up, Haley. I swear to you.”
“Right. Why the hell else would you laugh and tell me everything is under control after you slam into a table, and then say not to freak out when a giant wolf, or whatever that was, is set free to run out of the warehouse.” She looked around. “And where is your friend anyway?”
“He’s not my friend,” Kincaid ground out. “Not in the slightest. Now, if you would just come back to the warehouse, everything will be okay.”
“You mean the warehouse you forced me to break into?”
Kincaid bounced from side to side, raising his shoulders slightly. “Actually, I didn’t force you to do anything. You were the one who ran inside.”
She opened her mouth to tell him that was not what she meant, but then just slumped in defeat. Then an idea came to her. “I’m going back to the office now, Kincaid. You’re going to drive me, then you’re going to leave me alone. Otherwise, I’m going to tell Kaelyn about all the shit you put me through just for a practical joke.” Crossing her arms, she stared at him victoriously.
Kincaid’s face didn’t change. “The Queen will know full well it wasn’t some sort of practical joke. She’s well aware of these things. And she’ll probably just tell you to stop freaking out and over-reacting.”
Haley knew the last two were thrown out there just to goad her, to entice her into flipping out some more. Despite all that, she almost caved, almost gave the arrogant ass exactly what he wanted.
“I’m leaving now,” she said calmly as they reached the road and she started heading up it, eager to get back to the busier areas where she could more easily hail a cab or make the Uber drive cheaper. Either or.
“This is ridiculous. Come on.”
“No. I told you. I’m leaving. I never want to see you again, Kincaid. You’re an arrogant piece of shit, and how you convinced Kaelyn you’re not some traitorous asshole is beyond me. I can see through you clearly, and you don’t give a shit about anyone other than yourself. Now leave me alone!”
She shouted the last word loud enough that it bounced off several of the buildings, echoing for a moment. Kincaid was clearly pissed, but he didn’t say anything right away. For several long moments, she thought she was going to get away with it. Until they started to pass the Granted Holding warehouse.
That was when he abruptly snatched her up, tossed her over his shoulder and ran across the street.
11
He stole her breath away with the suddenness of the movement. It wasn’t until they were back inside the fateful darkened room, with its metal siding walls and concrete floor, that she even thought to suck in another breath to scream for help.
“Stop it,” he said, setting her down gently. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Haley watched him as he backed away, giving her some room, though he was still between her and the rear door. She glanced at the front, but it was far. He would catch her before she even got to the offices.
“I didn’t want you to have to see what you saw.”
“You mean a man transform into a wolf somehow? Even for an illusionist, that was…intense.” She shivered, looking over to the pile of tools and racking on the floor where she’d seen it happen.
The room was dark, but not so much that she’d missed what had transpired.
“So, you did see it all,” he said quietly. “I wasn’t sure how much you’d noticed.”
She frowned. “You’re acting like that actually happened, Kincaid.”
He didn’t respond, and her fear only increased. What was she involved in?
“I didn’t want to expose you to this side of things, Haley. I really, truly didn’t. That wasn’t my plan, but I don’t really have a choice now, do I?”
Watching him, studying his face intently, she came to the slow realization that she was in deep shit. Kincaid was about to tell her something bad. Was he going to tell her she was in the middle of some sort of criminal undertaking? Her mind ran wild with various scenarios of what she’d stumbled upon, and just how screwed she was because of it.
“I want to show you something,” he said, pulling at the sleeves of his shirt, retracting his arms inside.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, watching with irritated interest as he removed his shirt, revealing the rock-hard body underneath. Holy shit he’s in good shape. Just look at all that muscle…
The show served to distract her for a few brief moments as she followed the “v” of his abs down to his belt. But reality has a funny way of not going away, and it returned with crashing clarity a second later.
“Stop stripping. A lap dance is not going to make this any better. It’s just going to earn you a sexual assault charge.”
Truthfully, watching as his pants came undone, she doubted her ability to file that charge, if all he did was strip down.
“This is going to freak you out a
lot,” he said. “But if you stay there and watch, instead of running away again, it will explain a lot. I promise you are not in any danger, okay? What’s about to happen…you’ll be perfectly safe.”
“Watch?” she asked incredulously as his belt came off and the jeans started to slide down his thick legs. “That’s all you think? You’re surely not gonna come over here and start rubbing up and down me like I’m a greased-up pole?”
Kincaid doubled over in laughter. “What? No, absolutely not. It’s just…well, I like these pants and that shirt. I don’t want to destroy them, you know? I want to save them. Plus driving while naked is just…weird.”
Haley was totally and completely confused now. Well, maybe not completely confused. She’d seen naked men before, but none quite as stunningly gorgeous as Kincaid. That sort of luck had evaded her. Until now, it seemed, as he reached for the waistband.
“Kincaid, I don’t need to see your dick. Trust me, I’ve seen a few before. They don’t freak me out anymore, I’m not some nervous teenager.”
He paused, thumbs hooked under the waistband. “That’s not why I’m doing this.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
“Have you ever put cold jeans against your bare dick and balls?”
She frowned at his blunt language. “Obviously not.”
“Well, let me just tell you, it’s not a pleasant sensation. And that’s why I’m saving these, get it?”
Haley started to nod. Then she shook her head. “What? No, I don’t get it. At all. Did you ever consider, oh I don’t know, not taking them off?”
She said the words forcefully, trying to stay grounded in reality, but truthfully, she was a little curious. The white boxer-briefs weren’t exactly loose and flowing. They had a fairly considerable, ah, bulge, to them, and her eyes kept straying in that direction.
You’re an adult. Not some hormone-infested teen or college girl. You can go without seeing his dick. This guy is not your friend! You barely know him, and now you’re about to see him naked. And you have no idea why.
“You might want to sit down,” Kincaid said, gesturing at the nearest table, where a stool had been slid underneath it.
