5: Hood - Pack Trust

by Carys Weldon

  I’d only been in there on full moon nights, and that had been crazy. I don’t want to go into the monster I become when I go crinos. Suffice it to say that I’m one insane bitch. I’m not sure that the DNA screen was honest on me. I mean, holy shit if there are unnaturals who get crazier than I do. No wonder they hunt them down. I swear, I could kill anything on a night like that.

  You’re not getting out. The doors are locked. Everybody’s looking for you.

  Fuck you, Hood. Get out of my head.

  Now, this is how calculating I am. I knew that I’d need a contingency plan. Every day I was getting more and more--what? DNA driven? It’s like something garou builds up in your system, concentrates in your brain. You really think you’re going nuts, because you can see that the world they’ve drawn you into is maniacal.

  The S.D. was developed by an unnatural scientist. A garou like me. There is a shifting underworld I can’t talk about. But I’m telling you, when the time comes, we’ll be ready to fight the Armageddon.

  Not that I want to fight Hood. I really want to be on his side. I found my stash, though, and took the S.D. and then sat back, in a dark den, one that the lupus didn’t seem to like much, and I prayed.

  You’d think I’d give up on God. I mean, knowing that he hadn’t saved me from that whole nightmare. But if anything, it just gave me strength. I knew he was watching, and when I really needed him, when I couldn’t do it by myself any more, I had faith that he’d help me.

  But yeah, I cried alone in the dark. I don’t know how long I had to listen to Hood asking Where did you go? Giselle, answer me!

  He’d sounded a little desperate, there at the end. He knew I was praying, crying, and someplace dark. That’s all.

  But there’s a whole lot of dark places at Lobos. Little cubbyholes, mini-dens, closets, cabinets, beds to climb under. He could turn the freaking place upside down and not find me for days. Unless he sniffed me out.

  Okay, that made me panic. I got up, snuck out, carefully slipped into the water, then rolled in the dirt, covering myself with mud. Then, wading through the water, I found another of the unpopular dens. But I knew I couldn’t stay too long. Not now that I realized he’d sniff me out. You see? I still think like a girl. I’d bought myself some time, but I had to get a new plan.

  Thank God I have a genius I.Q., and riddle solving is one of my specialties. I went through various scenarios, worked through exit possibilities, including everything from trash and laundry chutes to delivery doors and the roof and fire escapes. Those were too obvious. I knew he’d cover those.

  And yes, I thought about how silly it was. How I ought to make him look a complete fool and just sneak back to his bed, and wait there for him to return. Damn, I wanted a shower. But something in me couldn’t do that. I don’t really know how much of me worried about his saving face. Pride, obviously, was important to him, and all the garou.

  So, I wasted a little bit of my time in weighing that. How much pride would Hood lose if I showed up in his apartment versus if I disappeared altogether? Or if he hunted me down? Don’t think for a minute that I considered he was chasing my tail for anything other than guarding his pride and his secrets, because I didn’t.

  I did some of the math on my chances of Hood killing me, too. Pictured him strangling me without a second thought. I considered what Jack would do. Go out fighting?

  Somehow, I didn’t think so.

  Find the humor in it? I grimaced, wishing he was there to point it out to me, because I sure as hell couldn’t see it.

  I considered going through the animal testing labs. I hated it down there. Or enlisting my friend, the one who’d given me the S.D., but that would be really stupid. I mean, if I survived this, I might need more of that. I sure didn’t want my supplier cut down--and I’m sure Hood would do that if he found out what was developed without his knowledge.

  But that had me thinking about the other unnaturals. Could I get help from any of them?

  That could expose the whole organization they were pulling together. I worried my lip over that, and in the end, decided I couldn’t enlist their help. I couldn’t endanger anyone purposely. Certainly not the ones who could end up saving the world from the total insanity that threatened.

  I heard voices outside my den. Talk about rolling up into a ball and holding your breath.

  A bitch. “Hood’s on the warpath.”

  “Yeah, I heard.”

  “That bitchin’ unnatural’s under his skin again.”

  “Maybe he’ll come in here and work off a little more frustration.”

  They snickered as they moved off.

  When they were long gone, I snuck to the edge of my hole and sniffed the ground. Oh, yeah. I was gonna kill those two. Soon as the moon came around. No doubt about it.

  But thinking about that just wasted time. Air-conditioning ducts? Heat ventilation? I was small enough to get through most of that, but you could be lost for days in those tunnels. Kitchen dumbwaiters? There was a possibility. All the living quarters and some of the labs were set up for quick delivery like that. Not the habitat, though. At least, I didn’t think so. It was self-contained, for the most part.

  I was about to move out when I heard a howl I recognized. Hood was in the habitat.

  “Fuck.” Tucking myself as far back into the darkest, tiniest crevice I could, I scooped dirt up around me, practically burying myself.

  The bitches, many more than two, set off a few royal roars, too, and I plotted the murder of the whole damn lot of them. Hood, included. I knew that he’d run first, let them chase, probably nip at each other a bit. It sounded like a wolf pack on the hunt. And I knew what they were hunting. It wasn’t me, that was for damn sure. Not then. All it takes is one bitch in heat to distract them for a bit.

  Oh, I had no doubt that the full building search was under way still.

  I heard noise outside the den. Then the howls again. More silence, and then the bitches:

  “Shit. We lost him again.”

  “He’s been here. Pissed right...there.”

  I made a face. Some things I would never come to understand.

  “I can’t figure out if that unnatural is doing us a favor, or not.”

  “Shit. I think I saw him.”

  They took off. More howling ensued. There was little doubt when the running finally stopped. The bitches started whining, growling, snarling and quarreling, and Hood got quiet. That’s when I climbed out of my cubbyhole. I knew it was the best time to get out of the habitat, when he was totally indisposed. I hoped I didn’t have to go past them. The idea of all those females all over Hood--I think it would have killed me. But then, he was in lupus. I told myself, “You might not even recognize the son of a bitch, Gis. What are you worrying about? That’s not the man you lo--”

  All noises stopped. Ever been in one of those spots where you know if you move, you’re dead? I couldn’t breathe. Silently, though, I cursed their fucking wolf ears.

  It didn’t take long for them to start up again. So, I crawled out of there. It surprised me to find a clear path to the creek. Quickly, I washed my feet. I didn’t want to trail mud. My scent was bad enough. Uh, I think I forgot to say that I peeled my shoes halfway up to the habitat, threw them out on one floor, clear down the hall--hoping to make them think that I was on that level.

  Crawling on my knees from the creek so as not to leave footprints, I crept through the place, toward a door that I didn’t think was used much. I had to veer away from that when I saw some losers--unlucky, unattached males--hanging out on some rocks there. Probably up high so they could watch the alpha orgy.

  The habitat has wind machines that change the airflow from time to time, to give a natural effect. I kept glancing up, wondering where the fans were. Fucking incredible place, actually. It looked like the real outdoors. There are a lot of amazing artists and special effects garou. I had to give the artistic ones some credit. I’m talking serious fantasy island, there. Real enough to lose yourself.


  Distracted, a little by that, I almost got myself caught. Almost went around the wrong corner--big time. One glance and a fast duck, and I was licking my own wounds. So, yeah. I recognize Hood in lupus, apparently. But then, who could mistake a male with a perfect ‘hood’ on his head--thus the name, duh--with a pack of bitches tonguing him. He was just standing there, but there were heads sniffing his belly, others licking his lips.

  I vowed that I’d single-handedly come up with a way to ruin their tongues. Maybe a seasoning that would kill their taste buds? I was a biology major. Or would have been, if Hood hadn’t stolen me a month from graduation. My poor parents thought I’d been abducted. Were probably still hoping I’d turn up.

  I decided that if I got out, maybe I’d head there. But then, no. He’d expect that. Little girl runs home to Mama and Papa. Oh, hell no. I had to find Jack. He could help me figure out what to do next, how to break away completely. Or maybe Fera could just slit my throat for me?

  No time to worry about that.

  Waiting for Hood to climb on one of the bitches wasn’t a long wait. But I hated him for it. Tied to her, as a dog gets, he’d be unable to come after me. Just had to tiptoe--crawl--past the bitches. My only hope there was that he had their full attention.

  Almost to the door, feeling a bit of relief, I got stopped two feet from it.

  It was my S.D. supplier, who shall remain nameless.

  “Psss.” Very quiet.

  My head came up and my heart stopped. I was afraid to move.

  It was just a finger and another, almost inaudible, “Psss.”

  Yeah. It would have been funny if I hadn’t been wetting my pants.

  He finally had to put a head out of a crawl hole for me to see--there was room for me to climb in, but just barely. Putting a hand over his mouth in the typical ‘Shh’, but silent, he pointed. There was a trap door, open. I went through, and the lid shut over me. I heard scraping noises and knew he was covering my tracks, and the door. I thought, there’s a whole lot more going on in the underworld than I would have ever guessed.

  I found myself in an earthen packed closet of some sort. I couldn’t find a door, or another way out. It felt like a claustrophobic little tomb and smelled of dirt and piss. Yeah. It was gross. But it was the smell of several pisses that had me curious. So, they’d disguised the scent trail? I wondered who else had used that escape hatch in the past, or planned to use it in the future, and what more nefarious reasons they had for it. Murder? That wouldn’t surprise me.

  There was no way out, at least, that I could find. I was afraid to cry out, for fear of being found. I knew, if I revealed the getaway hatch, that my saviors would kill me. So, as gross as it was, I settled down for a wait. I had to have faith that my friend would free me, or send someone else to help me out.

  Hours later, the door opened. The room outside was dark, too, and I could barely make out two shadows.

  Chapter Seven

  It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust. Then, I fainted.

  Thank God, Jack caught me. But, before I went completely out, I heard Fera’s voice say, “You should have let her hit the floor. Might knock some sense into her.”

  Blissful heaven. Jack’s arms. I didn’t want to wake up. I knew he’d hold me until I did. I was so freaking tired.

  You know I couldn’t nap in that hellhole. If I’d slipped into a nightmare, and cried out--well, I’d have been dead.

  Sure enough, when I came around, I was still in Jack’s arms. It probably only took a minute or two. Fera was straight in front of me, willing me to wake the hell up, I think, because she looked furious.

  The minute my eyes opened, she scathed, “Giselle, I swear to Gaia, you’re the dumbest bitch in the whole world.”

  So, yeah, I flinched, and rolled protectively into Jack’s arms. He didn’t turn me away, but his sense of humor immediately surfaced. “Oh, honey, I like cuddling--but you gotta get a bath.”

  “She stinks like every pissing loser at Pack City.”

  Call me stupid, provoking Fera, but I didn’t want to get out of Jack’s arms.

  She peeled me loose, though, and asked me point blank, “Do you have any idea--”

  Jack insinuated himself between us, keeping her at arm’s length, and said, “Not now, Fera.” To me, he tipped my chin so he could look at my face. “What is going on up there?”

  Okay. That made me pull out of his arms and spit, “Hood’s doing the whole pack--at the moment.” He might’ve been done by then, but who knew? I didn’t care that the rest of Lobos was looking for me. That had escaped me. And, yeah, the entire time I sat in that cabinet, I cursed Hood and his freaking pack mentality.

  Wrapping my arms around myself, I looked around. We were in a cave? A dirt tunnel system?

  It hit me then. Spinning, I asked, “How did you get here?”

  Fera shrugged.

  I didn’t doubt that her pretty little head was spinning. Going from a life of protection to Jack lugging her all over the world. She probably didn’t know if she was coming or going, let alone exactly how she’d gotten there. “How long?” I thought I had a right to know--since I’d been making myself blind looking for them.

  She didn’t look me in the eye, but she said again, “Not long.”

  I turned to Jack and said, “Thank God you came.”

  In his unbelievably sexy smirk, he quipped, “I love it when a woman says that to me.”

  Fera growled. I don’t think she meant to do it. She turned her back immediately.

  The minute her back was to us, he touched my lips with a finger and winked at me. Oh, it felt so good to see a man who could just relax a little, help me relax. I hugged into him, couldn’t help it, told him, “Oh, God, Jack. I just love you. I’ve missed you so much.”

  He chuckled, wrapped his arms around me, gave me a little squeeze. “I missed you too, sweetheart.”

  Fera growled, refusing to look at us.

  Jack’s chest rumbled with a little laugh. “Don’t mind her. She’s just a little bitchy.”

  “Am not.” She prowled the place, though, sniffing everything.

  He said, “Shift to lupus, honey. Get it out of your system. Take a run up the tunnel and back.”

  She speared him with an ugly look. “I do not need to get anything out of my system.”

  I pulled out of Jack’s arms. “I’ve been looking all over creation for you two.”

  “Yeah. Hood told us.” Fera responded, although she was doing everything she could not to look at me. Checking out the closet door that led to the habitat, she said, “He hates you, ya know.”

  I didn’t clue in on that first part, that they’d been in communication with him. I turned back into Jack’s arms. “Everybody doesn’t hate me, though. Do they, Jack?” At that moment, I really needed to hear someone say they loved me. I hadn’t heard that for so long...I think that’s why I replayed that last night with Brett so often, now that I think of it.

  Oh, Jack and I had talked about love, being in love, emotions of all sorts. That’s why I could be so open with him, trust him.

  Amused, he wrapped his arms around me again and shook his head. “No.”

  Fera said over her shoulder, “Please don’t push me. I’m trying to be nice here.”

  I could tell she didn’t want to be there with me. She was looking for a way out. She opened the closet and looked up.

  “That goes to the habitat,” Jack said. “I told you about that.”

  Here’s something that’s crazy. Hood lived at Lobos--for forever. But his sister had never been there. She was immensely curious about the place, the organization, politics in general--his world, and everything she’d been protected from.

  I said, “Hood will kill you, Jack, if he finds out you brought her here.” But I hugged him again, and added, “Thank God you’re here.”

  You see? We all had little pieces to the puzzle, and no clue how to put them together. It was the ultimate riddle, because we didn’t even realize
we were putting it together.

  “Thank your God later,” Fera said, “And be quiet. I hear someone above us.”

  I’m not really sure if she did. Her ears are better than mine and Jack’s, since she was born lupus. I think she just said that to shut me up. Whatever, it worked.

  We sat in silence for a long time, before she finally said, “I want to go up and look around.”

  “Later, maybe.” Jack said, “Shut the door there, so we can talk.”

  She did, but she didn’t get near us. She sat down as far from me as she could get. Why exactly she was afraid of me, I wasn’t quite sure. She’d always been afraid of me, though. Hood had taken me to Pack City a couple of times, to show me around, and introduce me to the powers that be in charge there. So, I’ve been there twice.

  I met an alpha named Chaos and his mate, Tee. Later, Hood took me to meet their replacements, Leer and Kayty. He had me run blood and DNA samples on them. See what I’m saying? Nothing is random with the garou. I had been a biology major, medical science specialty. It justified my presence, but didn’t really explain a thing.

  And the fact that I did very little in the field, in the labs at Lobos, didn’t quite make sense. Nothing did, then. So, going to Pack City just disturbed me.

  I don’t like the place at all. I need to say that. The garou there are pretty much anti-unnatural. They could smell me from a mile away, and they made no secret of the fact that the only reason I wasn’t dead on the spot was because we were in P.C. and I was under Hood’s protection. I know they didn’t understand what he was doing with an unnatural in tow, but he didn’t explain himself, except to say he was proving a point against unnatural behavior. That we could be handled? Trained like a dog? None of us got it.

  Anyhow, while I’d been at P.C., I’d met Fera, been very curious about her once I found out she was Hood’s sister. It didn’t take much to figure out that she’s his one weak point. I think my questions made her uncomfortable. And I think she told him that I’d been asking too much. That I didn’t know when to close my trap.