Wiatt pulled out his house key, he didn’t get the impression that Tatum that she was anymore social than she had to be beyond her chosen work profession of bartender. And even that might be somewhat of a strain for her. Which wasn’t good given her lycan nature. Lycans didn’t’ cope all that well, when it came to stress and pressure. Wiatt got the sense that since the werewolf attack that had left her a lycan, Tatum just wanted to drawn into herself.
Of course the reality was that could be bad for both her and him if she withdrew from the world around them greatly. For all his policing of lycans, Wiatt didn’t really know all that much about them, but what he did know was that being a lycan and being anti-social, did not work. It seemed if anything to aggravate their condition, if it could be called that and make matters for them and other wolves, much, much worse.
Wait unlocked his front door and walked in, kicking the door closed behind him, while he dialled another number on his cell phone.
“Boss.” Came the reply down the line on the second ring. “What’s up?”
“I got a job for you and Ashton. Wiatt replied back at his subordinate. Policing lycans whilst it wasn’t quite a full time job, it did require more than one wolf to do the job. Wiatt had six wolves that were considered his to help specifically with policing. “I need you to trail a lycan in the Chinatown area.”
“Sure thing, I’ll grab Ash and we’ll get right on it.”
“This isn’t you’re regular type of job.” Wiatt said wondering if he could be sure about Tatum. “She’s not a hostile.”
“She?” Zane asked sounding curious.
“Yeah, I just want you to watch her movements. From a distance. Be discreet about it. You are not to approach her, or let her know either of you is there. Am I clear?”
“Yes Boss. Observe and report only.” Zane reiterated back at Wiatt. “Can I ask why you want us to do that? I mean, that’s not our usual style.” Wiatt sighed and kicked off his shoes as he walked through is place. No it wasn’t usually their style, Zane and Ash were the ones who wrangled lycans who were difficult with Wiatt. The problem was, his other wolves, weren’t quick enough to keep up with Tatum, or possibly smart enough, Wiatt thought internally.
“We just want to make sure she doesn’t pose a threat to the general public. I can trust you to do that right?” Wiatt asked unbuttoning his shirt with one hand. “Because if baby-sitting a female lycan is too damn hard for you then I guess we’ll take you off the roster for the next month.”
“No problemo boss. Ash and I got this, you know we have.” Of course they had, Wiatt thought listening to Zane. Everyone wanted a pay-check and this was how Zane and Ash earned theirs by doing the work Wiatt required them to be done for the pack. Neither werewolf had let him down yet when it came to doing the hard lifting that required to be bad guys. “Easy might not be our regular style doesn’t mean we don’t mind catching a break every now and then.” Wiatt chuckled down the line at him.
“Don’t be foolish and get complacent. She’s no picnic. I’ll text you her last known location.” Wiatt said realising he was censoring himself from saying address. Why had he done that? The idea of sending two werewolves, despite them being trusted ones, to be near Tatum made him feel uneasy. But he had to have her watched, at the least. He had to be absolutely sure she really wasn’t a danger, even if she didn’t know it. Lunar week would be upon them soon and who knew how she’d react then? Maybe it was more the idea of what he was doing that made him feel uneasy.
“Got it.” Zane replied back at him. Tatum seemed like a regular person if you ignored the lycan factor, one who’d been just caught a seriously bad break in life.
“Keep me updated.” Wiatt replied disconnecting the call. He headed to his bedroom and throwing his phone on the bed as he stripped off his dinner suit. With thoughts of the lycan Tatum, no last name, on his mind.
10
There was a knock at her door the following morning and Tatum opened it, to find the only person besides her friend Hillary and the Chinese restaurant owners downstairs, who knew she lived there standing on doorstep. Wiatt D’arenberg, he looked even better in the morning, clean and fresh and out of tux as much as he did in one, she mused silently. Damn, was that her hormones waking her up from months of self-imposed celibacy?
Wiatt wore a leather jacket and a grey fitted t-shirt and blue jeans. Just you’re regular average good looking Joe, except for the werewolf part. Her eyes dragged themselves up his face to his. “You’re face” She uttered softly stepping close to him and putting a hand to his check, without further thought.
Wiatt watched her fascination grow and his hand automatically cupped her lower back as she came so close her breasts brushed against his chest. Her eyes darted around this face, noting all the little cuts and bruises were gone. There was no sign at al he’d ever had a scuffle “It’s completely healed.” She said looking up at him.
The look she saw in his eyes made her gasp. Desire. Raw, rampant desire. His eyes had darkened in colour and were locked onto her, making Tatum all too aware suddenly of exactly how close she was standing to him. “I heal fast, most werewolves do, especially from superficial things like bruises, and cuts. I didn’t even have to shape shift to make it happen.” His voice was soft and low and he kept gazing at her.
She could feel her nipples betraying her as they tightened at the slightest contact to his hard chest. His mouth dropped open slightly and he moved towards hers. “Is it time to pay the rent now?” She asked feeling the warmth of his hand on her lower back and watching his mouth.
Wiatt dropped his hand suddenly and blinked, waiting for Tatum to step back from him. But she didn’t. He needed to keep a level head around her. She was after all, a lycan, a dangerous kind of distraction. “I’ve never forced myself onto a woman before and I’m not about to start with you.” He replied back tersely at her watching the hurt flash across her face as she stepped back suddenly.
“Yeah, bet all you pack wolves say that.” She muttered turning her back on him and walking back into her apartment. “Till you want something. So what have I done now?” Wiatt walked into her apartment and looked Tatum over. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun high on top of her head, she had no make-up on, and she was wearing a white singlet top, which her nipples outlined themselves against, loose fitting black three quarter length below the knee shorts, black runners. Did she lack colour in her wardrobe attire?
“Come on, let’s go.” Wiatt said nodding his head back towards the door.
“What? Where are we going?” She asked him staying exactly where she stood.
“You’re going to get schooled.” Wiatt replied.
“Can I at least put a bra on?” She asked haughtily putting her hands on her hips. She sensed there was no point arguing with Wiatt about whether she wanted to participate in whatever he had planned for her or not. And the reality was, she hadn’t had this much civilised contact with anyone outside of bar work for ages. She kind of liked it. A little. No, a lot. She still wasn’t sure about him. Besides, she didn’t have anything planned for the day ahead anyway. She had no life to speak of, outside of drifting and working, and she didn’t necessarily like that.
His eyes dropped back to the soft outline of her breasts and those nipples on her singlet top. He felt a semi-erection coming on and dragged his eyes back up to her face. “No.” He smiled back at her watching a flash of anger filter across her face.
“What about a jacket? Breakfast?”
“You can borrow mine.” Wiatt replied still smiling at her obvious annoyance at him. “And like any good school program I’ll ensure you are feed before your first lesson for the day starts off.”
Tatum sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. Holding out her hand to him. “Well?” She said pointing at his jacket. Wiatt chuckled and slid his leather jacket off and handed it to her, watching her put the oversized leather jacket on as he grabbed her keys and wallet off the kitchen counter top. Tossing them at her.
“Alrig
ht, let’s go.” He smirked looking back at her, waiting for her to exit her apartment. She looked damn gorgeous in his jacket. How did she do that? He felt his cock rise more in his pants and he hastily slipped his hand into his pants and turned around, away from her, leading the way out into the landing and stairwell.
Tatum locked up and walked behind Wiatt as they descended the stairs again. “So care to tell me what is going on?”
Wiatt ignored her question and looked over his shoulder back at her. “How’s my ass look from up there.” Tatum made a show of tilting her head and very deliberately eyeing his rear end. He had a great rear. It was small and taunt against the black pants he wore which also outlined rather muscular shaped thighs and the thought occurred to Tatum that she wouldn’t mind biting that rear.
She looked back up at him and smirked. Two could play this game. “Perfect.”
Wiatt chuckled and they continued on down the stairs at a fast pace in silence, Wiatt listened to Tatum’s feet pound the stairs behind him. She was too heavy footed, a wolf or enemy would hear her coming a mile away. He stopped on the third landing, causing Tatum to stop and pull up close behind him.
“Okay first lesson starts now.”
“Hey, no fair, you said I could eat breakfast first.” She whined at him.
“Consider this a pre-requirement for school and once you complete it successfully then we’ll eat.” Wiatt replied facing her.
“Okay, fine, what is it?”
Wiatt frowned at her. “My aren’t we a co-operative wolf this morning?” Tatum stared back at him. “You’re moving to heavy. You need to move lightly so you can sneak up on enemies.”
“And if need be, which quite frankly is more my style.” Tatum added on.
“Werewolves, do not flee. We fight. We live to fight. Ferociousness in our nature. We dominate, are not dominated, especially by defeat.” Wiatt said noting she had pulled her hands up into the ends of his jacket so they were hidden.
“Well, I’m not a werewolf am I? I’m a lycan by all accounts, I don’t have a pack, I have me, I am one person in a vast city of miscreants. So I say, fuck that shit. Thank you, I’ll flee.”
“There she is.” Wiatt muttered scratching his head and smiling. “Swinging away. Well again, that’s one of the lycan werewolf differences. So keep it in mind if you’re ever up against a werewolf again, they won’t back down from a fight, so keep your options open.” He watched Tatum look at him somewhere between bored and annoyed. “I was born a werewolf. I’ve been at this longer than you so trust me when I say I know a thing or two about their behaviour.” Wiatt waited for her to respond, but Tatum remained silent. “Wow, you’re not raising to the bait, that’s pretty good control.”
Tatum sighed and shrugged her shoulders loosely. She looked bored and relaxed all of a sudden, very casually cool. Wiatt was impressed he didn’t sense any anger from her. “What’s to say? I was always taught if you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all.”
“Who taught you that? You’re mum?” Wiatt probed.
“Can we get on with this? I’m starving hungry.” Tatum replied back at him. A hungry wolf was not a good wolf to deal with. It tended to make them erratic and loose focus on any sense of control which could lead to any manner of problems, like rampaging through a city slicing and biting into people, humans.
“A quick one, you’re too heavy footed. I want you to jump from the top of those stairs to the landing down here without making a sound.”
Tatum’s mouth dropped open and she looked back up the stairwell. “Are you nuts? I’ll break my ankle.”
Wiatt shrugged his shoulders. “And I’ll teach you how to heal it. You’re a lycan now Tatum, you can heal better than most humans, we just have to figure out if you can self-heal, what you’re abilities are exactly.”
“I don’t think I trust you just yet to not have any ulterior motives for me breaking my ankle.” Tatum said flippantly. Crossing her arms over her chest, moving the bulky leather jacket either side. Wiatt chuckled back at her. Caution from a female to a wolf, he could appreciate and understand. Even more so since it was him.
“Alright, how’s this little Miss Hoodlum,” He replied watching her arch her eyebrows back up at him. “We’re going to double pace it down the rest of these stairs and not make a sound. I want you to be as light as mouse on these stairs and when you get to the last landing before the ground, you will jump it and land like you’re a feather.”
Tatum dropped her arms and looked at him dumbfounded. “How?”
“Practices and focus.” Wiatt replied smiling brilliantly at her before taking off down the next set of stairs. Tatum watched him take every stair and was astounded by the lack of sound that came from his six foot six frame dancing down the stairs with fluid ease. “Come on,” He said looking up at her before continuing on. Tatum looked at the stairs and over the stairwell down at Wiatt getting further and further away from her. He had to weigh more than her and he hadn’t even made the stairs creak under his weight.
Tatum shook her head and started off. Listening to the stairs groan and creak under her as she tried to shift her weight by going up on her toes and keeping her heels up off the stairs as she moved down each one.
By the time she got to the last landing, Wiatt was already on the ground level waiting for her and looking back up at her expectantly.
“Do I have to?” She asked him. The landing to the ground level leap, looked rather massive and too far for her to clear successfully, at least first time. She was more likely to leap and land half way down the stairs and then land on her head and tumble ass over tit over herself till she got to the ground, humiliated if not dead with a broken neck before Wiatt.
He smiled back up at her and stoked his chin as if in thought. “Oh bullshit!” She muttered and double timed it down the stairs instead to stand before him.
Wiatt looked at her surprised. “That wasn’t half bad, you didn’t sound like a complete heard of elephants stampeding.”
“Really?” Tatum asked smiling up at him and panting a little from the exertion of clearing so many stairs faster than her usual lethargic pace.
“Not really. Maybe only five elephants.” Wiatt smarted pushing open the building door and holding it open for Tatum.
“Fuck you.” She muttered rather deliberately as she walked past him.
“Please.” Wiatt returned fire, smiling as they walked down the alley way exit.
“Try a hollerback girl.” Tatum threw at him as they and walked back out to the street in search of breakfast. Interesting, Wiatt thought, given what she’d told him about how she’d gotten lycanthropy. Wiatt couldn’t help let his smile widen. He couldn’t remember that last time he sparred this much with a female wolf before and enjoyed it. The thought reared its head that he’d never sparred this much with a female wolf before, enjoyed it and not been touching her or bedded her before.
11
They sat in amiable silence and each cleared a breakfast of fast food that would have fed two families of five easily. “I think you’ve got a lot to learn about wolves and if you can grasp the most important aspects, then maybe you’ll be able to integrate into our society on some level and at the end of the week I’ll review you’re status for living here.”
He felt her anger as well as saw it rise up in her as Tatum tried her best to be controlled whilst she sipped her coffee. “Will you just?” She threw back at him sarcastically. “So if I’m a good little lycan and learn the ways of the wolf I can join the pack and continue living in my apartment? Wow, so, so, generous of you to grace me with that possibility. All I have to do is learn and pass everything you’ve had a lifetime to figure out, in a week.”
Wiatt waited until she had finished her vent at him. “Not the Manhattan Maen Pack, I meant New York City, society in general.” He watched the expression on her face drop to an ashen expression instantly. The same instant her hand snapped the handle on the porcelain cup her coffee was in, spilling it
over their table. Tatum reached for napkins from the table dispenser and pulled them out rapidly wiping up the spill.Once the majority of it was soaking through layers of napkins she stood up and pulled out her wallet and threw notes down on the table and slid out from the table they’d been sitting out. Wiatt did the same and followed suit, nodding at the waitress as they left.
“Tatum,” He called out after her as she looked about the street around them. He thought she suddenly looked very vulnerable and like a little girl lost. “Tatum.” he called out noting her ignoring him, as she seemed to just pick any direction and start walking off on him. He sighed and jogged after her. “Tatum.” Wiatt said falling into step beside her.
She stopped walking and turned to him. “Do me a favour Wiatt, just get lost, leave me alone.” She said, her eyes glassy. She hadn’t cried yet but he could see she was close. He’d upset her, worse than that, he’d made her sad. She wasn’t yelling and cussing him out and she wasn’t sassing him. She was asking in a defeated voice. Wiatt hated himself then and there, he hadn’t meant to hurt her.
“I can’t do that.” Wiatt replied softly holding her gaze. Tatum shook her head and wiped a hand under her nose and across her face as she sniffed.
“Really? Am I that big a fucking danger? I mean, am I the worst bad ass lycan you’ve ever come across?”
“No, I don’t think you are.” Wiatt replied keeping his eye contact on her. “But we’re entering lunar week and leaving you loose on the streets of Manhattan is a no go.”
“What the hell is lunar week?” Tatum asked starting to walk off again.
Wolves Page 5
