Moon Dance

by V. J. Chambers

  Dana clenched her hands into fists. “Who’s with the baby?”

  Cole’s hands were no longer shackled. He stretched his wrists. “Am I free or not?”

  “You’re letting him go?” said Avery.

  “Who’s with the baby?”

  Ursula clutched her head. “If I let you go, will you come back? Will you come to my office tomorrow morning to talk about this undercover work?”

  “Sure,” said Cole. “You believe me, King?”

  Dana grabbed Avery. “Avery? Is Piper alone or not?”

  Avery shook her off. “You can’t believe anything he says.”

  “Go,” said Ursula. “Go, then.” She waved her hand at Cole.

  Cole hesitated, his gaze sweeping the room, settling on Dana. Then, he looked away and left.

  Ursula turned on Avery. “For fuck’s sake, Brooks, you have any idea how much you screwed that up?”

  “Me?” said Avery. “You just let him go.”

  “My office, Brooks. Now. Come with me. We’re having a long chat.” Ursula took him by the arm and tugged him out of the room.

  Dana watched them go, feeling even more confused than she thought was possible. There were so many things she needed to process, but there was only one thing that was pressing.

  Piper.

  She hurried out into the hallway just in time to see Ursula and Avery getting onto the elevator. Fine. Dana took the stairs.

  She pounded up the levels as fast as she could. When she got back to her floor, she flung herself out into the hallway and tore down to her apartment. She ripped the door open.

  “Piper?”

  “Oh, hello, Dana.” Sherry Franco stood up from the couch. She was a neighbor who worked as a secretary for the tracker office. A picture book was dangling from her hand. “I didn’t think you’d be back so soon. Avery said you two might be out all evening.”

  Piper was on the couch next to Sherry. She was sitting primly, her hands in her lap, looking very well behaved.

  Dana was out of breath. She took a few deep draws of air, telling her heart to calm down. “I’m not back. I just wanted to check on you guys. But you look fine. So, I’ll leave you to it.”

  “Sherry reading me a story, Mommy,” said Piper, her eyes shining.

  “I see that.” Dana smiled. “You be good for her, Pipers.” And then she backed out of the door and into the hallway.

  God, why couldn’t Avery have just told her there was a babysitter? Did he have any idea how much he’d frightened her?

  But she was glad to have the time to herself. She was going to go on a run. The wolf inside her was itching to get out, and everything would be clearer and simpler if she could shed her human skin for a little while.

  * * *

  Avery was livid. He shook Ursula’s hand off of him as they went down the hallway to her office. “You let him go. He’s a serial killer. What the hell were you thinking?”

  “You’re the one who said he wasn’t really a serial killer.” She didn’t look back at him, just kept going down the hall. She was annoyed too.

  “I didn’t mean you should let him go.”

  She stopped at the door to the tracker office and opened it. She went inside, holding the door open for him.

  He followed her.

  She slammed the door behind him. “Let me explain something to you, Brooks. The SF is primarily an organization to help werewolves. We’re not particularly good at the punishment part. We’re barely equipped to handle wolf criminals. We only got roped into it because the humans are afraid of contamination in regular jails—wolves biting everyone in sight.”

  “That’s not a reason to let Randall go. He’s dangerous—”

  “He’s dangerous to you,” she said. “And don’t act as if it’s got something to do with your worry over Dana’s safety, because we all know that he couldn’t hurt her, and he hasn’t tried since.”

  “He’s a criminal. We shouldn’t even be having this discussion. Does the board know that you’ve pardoned him? Because first thing tomorrow, I’m going to—”

  “The board?” She laughed. “Do you want to know what the board’s reaction was when they found out we’d captured Randall again?”

  Avery furrowed his brow. “What?”

  “They don’t like him here. Especially not after what’s gone on out west. They’ve got enough on their plate. The last two times that we’ve had Randall in custody, SF workers have been killed. Either by Randall’s pack, or by that Jimmy man forcing his wolves to shift and kill people. Fact of the matter is, they don’t want him here. They were all scrambling for ideas about how we could cut him loose. He’s not something they want to deal with right now. I only convinced them to keep him around for a bit because I thought he might know something about the attack out west.”

  Avery shook his head. “That can’t be true, King. He’s a monster. He killed so many people.”

  “No, not really,” she said. “Except for the people that he killed before he got picked up, he only causes problems for us when he’s here. When he’s out, it’s like he doesn’t exist. The board likes it that way. It might not be ‘justice,’ Brooks, but we’ve all wolfed out and hurt people. Everyone has. Maybe Randall’s serial killing really was the same thing.”

  “It wasn’t. He’s devious. He’s… unbalanced.”

  She shrugged. “I’m only trying to get you to understand the situation.”

  Avery dragged a hand over his face. “Okay. Maybe I understand. And maybe I don’t really want him locked up a few floors beneath Dana anyway. But you can’t be serious about this shit about sending her out with him somewhere.”

  “To find the location of the people who killed everyone in California? To save us from an attack here? I don’t know, Brooks, it seems like it’s worth it.”

  “It’s not. Not to me.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Besides, Dana isn’t even technically employed by the SF anymore.”

  “Well, then I guess it wouldn’t even need to be officially sanctioned, would it?” Ursula’s eyes flashed.

  Avery took a step away from her. “You’re out of your mind with this.”

  “I knew people out there in California, Brooks.”

  “Well, so did I,” he said. It wasn’t uncommon for people to transfer to that branch. Living in California was more exciting than Pennsylvania.

  “Knew them well. Was close to them. There was a woman out there who’d I consider my best friend.”

  “I know that’s got to be painful, King, but—”

  “No, you don’t.” Ursula glared at him. “It’s like the only thing you care about in the world is Dana.”

  “She’s my wife. I think that’s normal.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t screw this up any more than you already have.”

  * * *

  Dana was free. She streaked through the underbrush, the wind in her fur, and her muscles sang with the joy and perfection of running. Everything in the world was wonderful. She could smell the scents of spring on the air, and she could hear the sounds of the forest around her. She belonged here. She was part of this. She had a role to play in the forest. Everything here was connected. Everything ate or was eaten, and it was all a beautiful circle, each thing knowing its part to play.

  Right then, she was hoping for some small prey. A rabbit. Maybe a squirrel. Anything tiny and furry with marvelous crunching bones. Dana wanted her jaws in it, wanted her teeth in it. She wanted it all. The chase. The catch. The meal.

  It was who she was, and she never felt anything more right than when she was the wolf.

  She gloried in it, sniffing for something to spring on.

  And then…

  She caught another scent. A tangy smell, bright and coppery. Blood. It was muted. There wasn’t much of it, but it was distinctive, and Dana was drawn towards it.

  She went off in the direction of the smell, slowing now, creeping through the underbrush soundlessly.

  It might be a wounde
d deer or something large and filling. It would mean that she’d lose the thrill of the catch, but that would be okay, because she’d have so much meat.

  The blood smell was closer. She let it fill her senses, and it consumed her.

  Now she was nothing but a creature who wanted that blood. She was drawn to it, her entire purpose singularly focused on nothing but meat.

  She crept closer and closer, the smell getting stronger and stronger.

  And then…

  There it was. The blood. The meat.

  Something inside Dana sent shocks of alarm through her. It was her buried human side, the part of her that she’d discarded when she shifted.

  That part of her was trying to stop her, sending words at her—human words, words that the wolf struggled to even make sense of.

  Tent. Campfire. Bandage.

  The human part of Dana was screaming at her to stop. Telling her that this meat wasn’t good meat. This meat was forbidden meat.

  But the wolf part of Dana had become nothing more than one concentrated movement. Blood. Taste. Lunge.

  Rip. Tear. Kill.

  And it was too late for the human part to stop it. The ancient predator dance was already at work within Dana. It was in motion, and there was no halting it now. She was compelled to fulfill her purpose.

  And so…

  She did.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Cole walked out of the SF headquarters, thoroughly bemused. He’d never expected them to actually give him a pardon.

  He’d learned when dealing with Earl Lowell that the SF was slippery, that they’d lie to achieve their objectives, and that they weren’t to be trusted. So, he wasn’t sure what to make of this pardon, and he wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that he’d just walked out.

  But no one was after him. No one seemed to be stopping him.

  He was still wearing the blue jumpsuit that they made him wear as a prisoner there, on account of the fact that he didn’t have any clothes. When they’d taken him, he’d been in wolf form, so he didn’t have anything else to put on.

  He wondered if the jumpsuit was going to be a problem.

  But before he could think on it too long, he smelled Dana.

  He whirled, and he caught sight of her darting into the woods. The SF headquarters was surrounded by a big chain link fence, and then the forest beyond. Dana used to run inside the fence. He remembered that. But now she was outside the fence, running into the woods.

  Where was she going?

  He went after her, but by the time he got to the spot where he’d seen her, he only found a neatly folded pile of clothes.

  His nose told the rest of the story. She’d shifted.

  She was running through the woods as a wolf, then.

  He could smell that scent as well—Dana’s wolf smell. It was still Dana, but it was more intense. Wilder and freer. The way Dana was meant to smell.

  He breathed it in for a long time.

  And then…

  Well, he wasn’t exactly proud of himself, but he bent down to examine her clothes. He remembered being trapped in the SF and taking Dana’s bra from her once. It had been a flimsy sort of thing, made of pink lace. Cole had always been intrigued by women’s undergarments. They seemed so foreign and female—delicate and not quite functional.

  But she didn’t have anything like that now. Her underwear were plain cotton with a wide elastic band at the top. Her bra was a simple tan piece of cloth. There was more structure to it than the pink lacy thing from earlier in Dana’s life.

  Cole didn’t care. He touched both of them. Smelled them. The trapped scent of Dana’s sweat aroused him. It made him think of having her body bare beneath him. It made him think of being inside her.

  He shoved the undergarments into his pocket, knowing it was a bad idea. She’d notice they were missing, and she’d probably suspect him of taking them. But it was worth it. He didn’t have her, after all. That idiot Avery did, and he got to smell her, put his hands all over her, have her whenever he wanted.

  Cole didn’t like it.

  He’d never liked it, but it had seemed easier to take before, when he didn’t get to look at her and smell her. With her so close, it made him remember how badly he’d always wanted her. She’d almost been his once. He didn’t lie to himself that fucking her a few times meant that she belonged to him. Hell, mating with her didn’t even mean that, since she’d fought so hard to get free of their bond. But there had been a period of time, back in Brockway, when he was waiting to go and face his father, and during that time, he’d thought he might stand a chance.

  Stupid of him.

  He should have known that someone like Dana could never be with someone like him.

  If he had a shred of decency, he’d just run now. He’d dart off into the distance, get as far from the SF as possible and never think of her again.

  But…

  Well, there was the fact that she hadn’t gotten herself safely away from headquarters. She was still living here, and Cole knew for a fact that Enoch and the others would be attacking soon. Judging from the job they’d done in California, it would be a massacre. No one would get out alive. At the very least, Cole needed to convince Dana to get away from this place.

  Or he could follow this half-hatched plan he’d outlined to Ursula King. Try to infiltrate Enoch, work with the SF to take the whole group down. It was ridiculous, of course. He didn’t know why he’d suggested it.

  No.

  He did know. It was a chance to be alone with Dana. Any reason to have her close—

  Cole sniffed the air.

  Blood.

  Human blood. A lot of human blood.

  His wolf rattled inside his body, clawing up his spine, whining to be let out.

  Cole tamped it down. He couldn’t shift with that much blood around. He had control over his wolf, but there were limits to that control, and it was better not to tempt fate.

  On top of that, he knew that Dana was out in this woods.

  If it was Dana’s blood…

  It didn’t smell like Dana’s blood, but it had been such a long time since he’d smelled her blood. He couldn’t be sure.

  He took off through the woods, following the scent, moving as quickly as he could.

  It didn’t take him long to find it.

  He moved through the trees, and he came into a clearing. There was a tent set up next to a campfire. The tent was spattered in blood—bright red against the gray nylon material. The two campers were strewn out in front of the tent, both mutilated.

  It had been a woman and a man. The woman lay on her stomach, her blond hair splayed out behind her. Her face was intact, frozen in a scream of terror. But her entire torso had been ripped to shreds. She was nothing but bloody meat from neck to groin. Her entrails spilled out onto the ground, long red ropes of gore.

  The man was face down, and the back of his head was covered in matted blood. He was still being eaten.

  By a wolf.

  By… Dana.

  Cole recognized her wolf, smelled her, even underneath the heady scent of all the blood and meat.

  Shit.

  She wasn’t going to be happy that she’d done this.

  Should he stop her? If he tried to get between her and her kill, she’d probably go at him too. He was in human form, and he’d be no match for her. In wolf form, he was pretty sure he could wrestle her off the guy, but… well, in wolf form, he’d probably want to eat the campers too. Or maybe mate with Dana. Or maybe both.

  None of which were good things.

  So he just yelled her name.

  The wolf didn’t look up.

  He yelled louder. “Dana! Look at me.”

  The wolf raised its muzzle. It was stained bright red. There was blood all over her pelt. The wolf growled out a warning. This was its kill, and it would protect it.

  “Dana,” he urged. “You need to shift.”

  The wolf growled again.

  “Shift for me,” he said. “Shift
for me, Dana.” He lowered his voice. He’d whispered these same words over and over to her. Maybe something in her would recognize them.

  At first, it didn’t seem to make any difference. The wolf was still growling, and now it was advancing on Cole.

  But then something seemed to come over the wolf. It stopped in its tracks. It quieted.

  And Cole watched as the fur and teeth and claws receded off of its body, swallowed back up by human skin.

  Dana sprang away from the dead bodies. She was covered in blood.

  She was naked.

  Sharp alarm went through Cole. Naked Dana. Naked bloody Dana, yes, but naked Dana just the same, and he…

  He couldn’t help but take her in. His gaze traveled over her. She was different now. Her body fleshier. Her stomach swelled more than it used to. The scar he’d given her stood up angry and red against her white skin. Her breasts were heavier. She was all curves and softness and he—

  Couldn’t think about this.

  She was staring down at the dead campers, and she was making tiny little noises in the back of her throat.

  He went to her. He pulled her against him, keeping his hands only on safe parts of her bare skin. “Don’t look.”

  She seized handfuls of his jumpsuit, pressed her face into his chest, and she screamed.

  * * *

  Cole was there. How had Cole gotten there? She held onto him as tightly as she could, not because he was Cole, but because he was there, and she needed something to hold onto.

  This was…

  This was…

  She’d killed two people.

  Cole pried her hands free. He forced her to look up at him, into his face. “Dana, you okay?”

  Was she okay? That was a stupid question. Of course, she was fine. What about the two campers she’d just killed? What about them? They weren’t okay.

  “Come on,” said Cole. “I can hear water. There’s a stream this way. Let’s clean you up.” He started to lead her through the woods.

  But she resisted. She shook her head. “No, no, no.”

  “You need to clean up.” His voice was soft, comforting.

  She shook her head. She shook her whole body. She’d killed two people. Ripped them to shreds. She thought she could control her wolf, and it obviously wasn’t true, because she hadn’t been able to stop this.