by Danae Ayusso
“Stop admiring me as if I’m nothing more than a piece of meat with an impressive cock,” he grumbled under his breath before shaking his backside, causing her to roar with laughter.
There was another body, they were sure of it since the others were held up in the library and Faelan said nothing when he opened the door to the cellar, slid a basket of food and jugs of water inside then closed the door behind it. Another victim should have concerned them, but they knew it was going to happen, and there honestly was nothing they could have done to stop it. Even if Akia wasn’t fighting against Eve and the allure of the lunar cycle, and wasn’t at the peak of her cycle and in need of a sexual release, the Stray’s hunting grounds were too great to effectively patrol. Also, the risk of one of them coming across the Stray on their own, possibly resulting in them losing their life, was much too great to risk in both of their opinions. It was a sad reality, and extremely hard to accept since the two of them swore an oath to uphold the law and protect the innocent, but protecting the pack took precedence. It wasn’t their jobs to protect humans from their kind, it wasn’t their job to protect werewolves from humans, but it was their job to protect the pack at all cost. Even though the two were from different packs, Damian gave his allegiance to Beowulf and his pack when he presented the Alpha with his birthright in the form of his pack crest ring; he would protect Akia’s pack and family with his life if it meant protecting her from heartache and loss.
“I’m hungry,” Akia complained as she watched Damian get dressed; her jeans, shirt and boots took minutes compared to his three piece suits and bathroom pampering ritual that took an hour in itself.
“Yes, I know,” he said, buttoning his dress shirt. “You haven’t had nearly enough calories to replenish what you burned. If you like you can head down to the dining room; it smells as if your brother is nearly ready for an early dinner service.”
She gave him a look. “Are you preparing yourself for having to go in front of those at the office?” she asked.
He chuckled. “Yes. Usually I get a couple of days to recoup from my favorite time of the year,” he teased with a wink, “but this time I have to face the world while only running on two cylinders, as my grandfather used to say.”
Akia’s face dropped. “I’m sorry. Did you want to take a nap?”
Damian snorted. “Latria Mou, usually we sleep for twenty-four to thirty-six hours after such passionate love making. This time we don’t have that option because there’s a Stray that is trying to start a war with your pack. Why? I don’t know, but I have a feeling that if we don’t take care of it, and quickly, the Covenant will not turn a blind eye for much longer,” he regrettably informed her, tying his necktie in the mirror. “I’m surprised they haven’t sent a representative… Huh,” he said, stopping in mid-tie.
“What?” she asked, joining him then taking over tying his tie.
“They sent me,” he said, watching her. “It’s nice to know that someone of control in our shadowy world has enough faith in me that they’d actually take the time to tell me I’m doing their job for them.”
She didn’t miss his sarcasm or tone.
“I’m sure father of the year had something to do with that…” his words trailed off, and he shook his head. “My apologies.”
“Your filters elude you with exhaustion as mine do,” she reminded him, smoothing the lines of his suit jacket down for him. “It’s okay. If needed, I can run interference for you at the precinct. You can stand back and be the sexy eye candy that you were born to be,” she offered then growled.
Damian chuckled and hugged her tight. “I’ll make sure I keep that option in the forefront of my mind. Let’s eat then your brother can drive us to the station.”
“Understood Captain,” she said, getting a smack on the backside in return.
****
Faelan had the dining room table filled with more food than a small army could eat, but Akia was going to try her damnedest to consume it all. Her family sat and watched her gorge herself on rare steaks, blood sausage, black pudding, and crubeens. Damian was upstairs making a couple of phone calls and promised to join her momentarily. Once the smell of the food hit her, she completely forgot everything else but her need to eat.
“Huh,” Ulrik finally said and loaded his plate up with whatever wasn’t in Akia’s reach, “I think I know why there are no chick werewolves: famine would have killed us all if there were.”
Connell laughed. “True. She burned over twenty-thousand calories in that little hump-fest in the cellar. I’m surprised she can walk, in all honesty.”
“A bit saddle sore,” Akia agreed, talking with her mouth full. “Nipples are sore as well, but nothing a cotton bra can’t help soothe, in case you were wondering.” She smiled as she chewed.
Connell shook his head. “Oh yes, because your tiny titties are one of my biggest concerns,” he sneered, making a face.
“They aren’t tiny,” Varg mumbled under his breath as he joined them from the kitchen. “Like the rest of her, they are perfectly sized. Are you okay?” he asked, looking at Akia as he took a seat across from her. “I was concerned because your boyfriend is notably absent, and in case you didn’t catch the tone, I was using that term very loosely.”
Akia rolled her eyes and continued eating. “He’ll be down when he’s done making some calls.”
A deep, menacing growl rolled from the throat of the hulking man across from her. “Touching base with his pack you mean,” Varg sneered. “You do know what his Alpha, his father, will do to you once the opportunity presents, don’t you?”
She gave him a look. “Give me two enthusiastic thumbs up for giving his little boy the best sex of his life?” she sneered.
His brown eyes widened before they narrowed and his nostrils flared. “No, he will fuck you mercilessly until you produce a full blooded heir for him!” he yelled.
Akia’s eyes widened before they narrowed.
“That is enough!” Beowulf said with a loud, primal growl of authority that instantly caused their mouths to snap shut. “You will mind your tongue and show Akia and Damian the respect that they, and their relationship, deserves.”
Varg growled and got to his feet.
“Sit!” Beowulf snapped at him, so he did. “I do not know what the animosity between the two of you is,” he said, looking between Akia and Varg, “but this is where it ends. Until this Stray is dealt with accordingly, and with discretion and proof of death for the Covenant, you will put your differences aside and work together in order to achieve the dire task in front of us. Varg, you will stop antagonizing Akia and Damian, you will show each of them the respect they deserve, and you will not meddle in their relationship. Young Master Nikas has pledged his allegiance to our pack, something that his Alpha will not look favorably upon, so you will leave him be. And Akia,” he said, turning to her, “stop shooting Varg, regardless of him deserving it or not. We are a pack and family, and before your absence the two of you were very close.” He raised his hand to stop her when she opened her mouth. “I do not need to know why that is no longer the case, but you need to put your differences aside in order to tackle the case which is in front of us. Once the Stray is taken care of, you may return to Boston with our blessing.”
Akia looked at him with wide eyes; she was expecting a fight before she left again. Having her father’s blessing would make it easier to go, and left the invitation of coming back open for when she needed to take it. “I’ll attempt to keep my sidearm holstered, but I make no promises that it won’t accidentally discharge in his direction.”
Beowulf nodded. “Terms accepted. We will continue to go through the records that we have regarding your brother’s hypothesis on this latest victim… Where is Damian?” he asked.
She looked towards the stairs, concern clearly washing across her face. “I’ll check on him. Connie can drive us to the station.”
Ulrik smiled. “Can I come?” he asked.
“Why?” she guardedly asked.
He shrugged. “I’m bored. They won’t let me run, said I have to wear clothes since we have company… I have a really good nose,” he offered.
Akia groaned and pushed back from the table. “Sure, why not? Let’s make a family outing of it?!”
“Sarcasm totally noted, Sis,” Rafe said, and Faelan nodded his agreement.
Ulrik pouted.
“Go put something on that’ll make you look older, and I’ll pretend you’re a specialist or something,” she said, motioning for him to get moving.
“Yes!” he hissed then ran past her as she started up the stairs, and hurried to his room to change.
Akia simply shook her head; obviously she was much more exhausted than she realized if she hadn’t shot Varg for his comment at the dinner table and allowed the blue-haired young man to join her in the middle of an investigation without much coercion on his part. “Hey Captain, I was talked into having a rookie along for the ride,” she said, pushing open the bedroom door. “Now isn’t that inconvenient,” she mumbled from the doorway.
Damian was sitting on the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees, chin resting in his hand, and was fast asleep.
“Fae?” she softly called out.
When her brother joined her, she motioned with her chin.
“That is adorable,” Faelan cooed. “That suit is hot. Damn, Sis, help me find a man that dresses that well and smells that damn good.”
Softly she smacked him in the back of the head. “He’s mine,” she reminded him. “Help me get him comfortable. When he wakes up… If he wakes up, let him know I’ll be back shortly, and that I just went down to the precinct with Connie and Kid to check out the latest body and run interference for us.”
He nodded. “What’s wrong with him?”
Akia smirked. “Nine hours of nonstop, mind blowing sex, and ten back to back orgasms—he got me to seventy before I lost count—tends to do that to a person,” she mused.
Faelan looked at her with wide eyes. “Oy, I’m a bit chubbed up at the thought of being able to cum that many times in a night. He can kick me back doors in any day,” he said with the thickest Irish accent she’d heard in a long time.
“Why do I bother?” she groaned.
****
Pierre slammed his office phone down then got to his feet, his chair rolling out from under him with such force that it nearly embedded itself in the wall behind him. “Paquette, Leclair!” he yelled, storming out of his office. “Leclair!”
“Sir?” Leclair asked, hurrying to meet him.
“Have you heard from Boston’s finest?” Pierre sneered; they were notably absent and that made him suspicious.
Paquette made a face from his desk, smacking his computer screen, trying to get it to turn on. “What’s wrong, Inspector? Finally realizing that I was right when I said that they were hiding something and most likely had something to do with these murders?”
Pierre glared at him. “Leclair, find them.”
Just then, the door opened and Connell, Akia and a blue haired young man wearing a suit walked in.
“Where in the hell have you been?” Pierre demanded. “There was another murder, another body dumped, and you and Captain Nikas are suddenly missing. That’s a bit suspicious if you ask me,” he said, and no one missed his accusatory tone.
Akia gave him a look. “Sir, I was briefed on the latest victim. Captain Nikas and I were out all night with some local volunteers staking out the existing dumpsites in case the perp revisited them for nostalgic reasons. After sunrise, we went with a couple of local survival guides into the thick of the woods, following up on possible leads that have been trickling down the pipeline from the door to door interviews your officers were doing. Captain Nikas is following up on some leads and will be out of cell range for the rest of the evening. I, myself, did not realize that we were out of cell range, otherwise I would have touched basis with you prior to heading out. My apologies, Sir. It won’t happen again.”
Pierre looked at her skeptically, but he couldn’t tell if she was lying or not. He hadn’t thought to stake out the previous dumpsites. “Did you find anything?” he asked. “And who in the hell is that?”
Ulrik smiled.
“A specialist that will be able to help with my ignorance of the area,” Akia said. “I need the findings from your Officers for the first four victims, a map, and colored push pins.”
Still skeptical, but without options, Pierre nodded with his chin, and Leclair hurried to get the items she requested.
While Ulrik color coordinated the pins to each victim on the map of the region, Akia read over the reports. It was a struggle to stay awake. She wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed with Damian and sleep for the next week, but she knew that Pierre would be knocking on the door to Verulfr Manor looking for her if she didn’t show up to work on the latest body. Hopefully Damian would be conscious by tomorrow and could take the reins while she got some sleep.
“It’s a circle,” Ulrik mumbled under his breath, stealing her attention from the partial report in her hand.
“What’s that one?” Akia asked, pointing to the out of place pin far from the others.
“I used black because I don’t know which victim it goes with,” he said under his breath, much too low for the humans to hear. “There was a penciled in note on a Post-it, but I don’t think anyone followed up on it. Most likely it has to do with the first victim, at least I think it does because that’s the weight station.”
Akia nodded. “Inspector,” she said, turning to regard the irritable man, “am I to believe that the statements from the bodyguards of the fifth victim are only a page long?”
Leclair looked at her curiously. “No, they were ten pages each,” he said.
She handed him the folder.
“This isn’t right,” he argued, looking through the report. “Each statement was very detailed with timelines that were verified accurate down to the minute. It must be misplaced. I’ll print you out another, Lieutenant,” he said then hurried to his desk and woke up his computer.
“Did you want to look at the body?” Pierre asked.
“In due time,” Akia said, flipping through the report on the first victim again now that Leclair drafted a timeline of events for the truck driver.
Curious, Pierre joined her. “Is something wrong?” he whispered.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Something feels off.”
“Sir,” Leclair said in a panic, “my reports are missing. All of them. Someone deleted everything regarding the case that was on my computer!”
Akia looked to Connell, and he nodded then hurried to his office to check his computer as well.
“You did this, didn’t you?” he accused, looking at Paquette.
“I can-” Ulrik started to offer, but Akia shook her head.
The two stood back and watched the anything but composed Officers and Inspector run around trying to figure out what happened and who was responsible. Akia hadn’t entertained the notion that the man they were looking for might have ties to the police department; it was a jump and a half since nothing pointed in that direction. She was confident that the breech wasn’t professionally executed, and that the data Ulrik would be able to recover once she let him loose on the system, thus standing back and watching gave her an idea of who the culprit might indeed be.
Paquette stood back with an amused look on his face as he drank his coffee, shaking his head. There was something about the Officer that didn’t feel right to Akia, something that she needed to investigate.
Connell joined her. “Accounted for,” he said under his breath. “Kid heavily protected my system here with some blue-haired electronics hoodoo voodoo so everything is there and unaffected by this breech.”
Akia nodded, her attention on Paquette still.
“What are you thinking?” he pressed.
“Either a leak or someone is trying to make the others look bad,” she commented, just as quiet. “I’ve seen that type
of petty bullshit before, but never on a case of this magnitude. I hate to say it, but we’ll need Captain Nikas for this one. Do you think you can give him something to get him up and motivated?”
He nodded. “I could.”
“His cheek is already bruised from the B-12, so refrain from that injection site,” she said.
“Where’s the fun in that?” he mused then headed for the door.
“The last person that used my computer was Paquette,” Leclair said, loudly, causing everyone to turn to regard the amused Officer by the coffee machine.
Paquette gave him a look. “The Inspector told me to use your computer because mine broke,” he reminded him, waving towards the blackened screen on his desk. “And all I did was type up my report that the American requested on meat purchases, which was a gigantic waste of time. You can’t blame me for corrupting your system with porn or whatever it is you look at when no one is watching, Officer Gold Star.”
Leclair gave him a look. “Gold Star? Oh, I apologize for wanting to do a good job and to help catch the person that is killing people. But you are the only one on the force that apparently doesn’t give a darn if we catch him or not. Why is that? You’ve done nothing but be defiant and negative since the first body turned up. You even laughed because of the second victim.”
“Did you smell her?” Paquette said, shaking his head. “It was a mercy killing, I hate to say, but it was.”
Ulrik reached down and jiggled the power cord on the back of Paquette’s computer and it booted up. “Fixed it; it was unplugged,” he said with a small smile, trying to keep from laughing.
Pierre shook his head. “My office, now,” he said, motioning for Paquette to lead.
“This is bullshit,” the irritated Officer complained. “I have done nothing but what those ball breaking, bossy Americans have made me do, and yet Leclair is the victim as usual. That’s just lovely. This is why I want to transfer to another district.”
