Thrown to the Wolves (Big Bad Wolf)

by Adhara, Charlie

  Girard’s expression didn’t waver. “Are you one of them?” he asked, pointing the gun at Cooper. It shook in his hand, back and forth.

  “One of what?”

  “You know what!” Girard yelled. “Them! The—the monsters.”

  “I don’t know what you’re tal—”

  “The wolf...things standing on two legs.”

  Fuck. Cooper bit the inside of his mouth. This was bad. Very bad. He must have witnessed Sylvia’s attack and somehow escaped. Cooper could easily remember how terrifying his experience of being brutally attacked and discovering the world was not what it seemed. And that time no one had died.

  “You’ve been through a terrible trauma,” Cooper said, keeping his voice calm. “Let’s just take a breath, sit down and talk about it. I promise you we will figure this out together.”

  “I don’t need to talk! I’m not confused! I know what I saw!” Girard’s right hand touched something in his pocket while his left kept the gun wavering between Helena and Cooper.

  “Okay, tell me. What did you see?”

  Girard’s eyes drifted, just slightly, and Cooper took a small casual step forward. “David woke me up as he was sneaking out of the campsite. He thought Dr. Freeman was meeting a man and he was going to follow her. He was so jealous this last week, sure she was meeting with someone. I...worried about her. I followed his tracks. But when I saw them...”

  Girard’s whole body shuddered and he touched his pocket again. The gesture seemed to ground him. “It wasn’t a man at all. It was some kind of...thing. Its face was horrible and it was faster than any man can be, stronger, too. It killed David. Tied him up in a tree like it was draining the blood from meat.”

  Like a hunter strings up prey. Cooper frowned, an ugly suspicion forming in his mind.

  Girard was crying now, tears tracking down the filth of his face, leaving strange patterns behind. “I couldn’t see Dr. Freeman. Only her bag. I knew she was already in the trees, somewhere. I knew it was going to hunt me next. So I hid by the ocean, where it couldn’t smell me.”

  His gun slipped to the left, aiming directly at Helena now. “Then it was my turn to track it. Followed it here. Found your trails...” He was muttering now, panicked and half-crazed. Like he was too ashamed to say it out loud, knowing what it sounded like, but fervent, too. Convinced in what he’d seen. Cooper was sure he’d seen plenty. “Know what you are now. Monsters. Killers. But I stole it while it was distracted, tying David up into the tree. Stole it right out of her bag. I’ve got the proof now.” He touched his pocket compulsively again. “I know I’m not crazy.”

  Cooper slowly inched his way between the gun’s line of fire and Helena. “Charles, listen to me. I don’t think you’re crazy. I believe you. But you’ve got to believe me now. No one here is going to hurt you. Helena didn’t kill anyone and Dr. Freeman is alive. So just put the gun down and I can explain everything.”

  “Stop lying!” Girard yelled, and his gun shook toward Cooper. “You think I don’t know what’s going on? I know what I saw. I know what I heard. You’re one of them, too, aren’t you?”

  “He’s not.” Helena spoke for the first time, taking a step forward and drawing Girard’s gun back to her. “He’s nobody. Just some human. You’re right. I’m the monster here. Only me.”

  “Helena,” Cooper warned. “Don’t.”

  “But if I am faster and stronger than you, what makes you think you can show up on my territory and threaten me?” She flashed her teeth at him then. Bizarre and disturbing to see fangs emerging from an old woman’s face, even for Cooper, who knew they were there all along. He couldn’t imagine what it looked like to someone else.

  But Girard surprised him by laughing, a high, hysterical sound that sent a bolt of fear through Cooper. He tilted his head back and forth. “Look at you. You’re not a monster at all.” Girard squinted at her. “You’re just another animal. Posturing like them. Drawing attention away from the weaker member of the pack like them. I’ve spent my whole life hunting animals, you know. I wonder, do you bleed like them, too?”

  The gunshot was shocking. Helena crumpled to the ground with a short, single cry that was swallowed by Cooper’s own shout.

  “Fuck!” he shouted, dropping to his knees by her side. Not dead, thank god. But the amount of blood coming from her leg wasn’t good.

  “Oh yes,” Girard said, watching them, the gun still shaking in his hand. “Every animal bleeds.”

  “You’re making a big mistake,” Cooper said. He found the bullet entry point.

  Right thigh, center. He knew about as much as everyone did about that. If it had nicked the femoral artery, she could bleed out in minutes. If it hadn’t...well. Who the fuck knew, it was still a gunshot wound to the leg and that wasn’t exactly healthy.

  He pulled off his shirt, ripped the sleeve and tied it as tightly as he could just above the wound in a makeshift tourniquet. When he pulled the knot tight, Helena yelped in pain. “I know. Hold on.”

  “Stop that. Get away from her,” Girard said.

  “I can’t do that, Charles.” Cooper kept one eye on Girard and continued to use the rest of the shirt to cover the wound itself. Helena was slouched up against the wall of the barn, breathing too fast and shaking. Her gaze roved around the barn unseeingly. For once, she looked cold.

  “You’re going to be okay,” Cooper whispered, keeping a steady pressure on her thigh.

  “Shut up or I’ll shoot her again!”

  “She’s an innocent woman—”

  “She’s not a woman!” Girard yelled. “I saw the animal come back here. To this house. I heard it talking. They’re all animals!”

  “The—the wolf who attacked you has been arrested, okay? The only dangerous person here is you. So just put down the gun. Think about Doudou.” Cooper pulled the pet name of the email girlfriend out desperately and hoped he was pronouncing it correctly. “She loves you. Don’t leave her like this, don’t get yourself in trouble for nothing.”

  Girard’s face twisted. “Who?”

  “Your girlfriend. Let me call for help and you may still be able to walk away without jail time.”

  “What girlfriend?” Girard spat. He looked even more freaked out than before. “What the hell are you talking—”

  Upstairs, in the loft, something creaked. Girard spun, pointing the gun toward the darkness. “Who’s there! I’ll shoot! I’ll shoot every last one of you!”

  Cooper took Helena’s hands and pressed them to her own wound. They felt small and weak under his, and he could feel her trembling worse than ever, but she met his eye and nodded at him in understanding. He shifted from his knees into a low crouch and inched closer to Girard. Another creak and then a series of thumps. Girard shot wildly, once, twice, and Cooper lunged for him.

  Girard didn’t go down easy. They wrestled while standing; Cooper hanging on Girard’s back, keeping one hand around his gun wrist while Girard tried to head-butt him. Cooper kicked viciously at the backs of his knees, tugging Girard down with all his weight. There was no dramatic tipping. They didn’t slam to the ground. Rather, gradually, in stages, they slipped to the floor, one leg at a time until they kneeled back to front, Girard twisting in his arms.

  “Drop it!” Cooper grunted, digging his thumb into the tender pressure point of his gun wrist.

  Girard howled even as the weapon tumbled from his spasming fingers. It rolled down Girard’s body as he arched back to try to break Cooper’s hold from around him. Cooper could feel him weakening. He had only to yank Girard off balance to the floor and get on top of him to—

  Suddenly a streak of fur darted toward them from the darkness. Boogie scooted in between their legs and bit at Girard’s thigh. Her teeth caught in his jeans, doing absolutely nothing. Still, Girard’s unstable weight was tipping. Cooper panicked. If one or both of them fell on her...

 
Now he was fighting to keep Girard upright and off the floor. He shifted to knock Boogie away with his knee, and Girard’s elbow managed to catch him in the throat. The sudden aching, breathless pain stunned him enough that Girard was able to topple Cooper onto his back. He tensed, listening for the sounds of a cat in pain, but heard nothing. Boogie had disappeared into the darkness once again.

  “Mon tabarnak!” Girard yelled, and backhanded Cooper across the face.

  He felt the cut on his forehead open up and he blinked the spots out of his eyes. Behind Girard’s looming face and red eyes, up in the loft, he saw the shadow of a crouching figure about to pounce.

  That wasn’t a cat.

  “Shit,” Cooper said, and kicked at Girard, scrambling to get away.

  Daisy Boudillion Park landed with a snarl onto Girard’s back. Their combined weights fell on Cooper’s sensitive leg and his vision cut out for a second from the pain. When Cooper’s eyes opened again, Daisy was picking Girard up like a rag doll. Her face was fierce, furious and more wolf than woman. She flung him against the dressers lining the barn wall, which rocked backward and then forward from the impact. One tipped and landed on Girard, spilling hundreds of cream-colored files over his body. He did not get back up.

  There was a ringing silence. Cooper stared at the unmoving body and then at the lightly panting Daisy. Her sunglasses were gone, scar particularly twisted now that the lines of her face had shifted into something sharper and more animalistic than the average untransformed wolf. She eyed him cautiously and he eyed her right back, concentrating on not looking to where the gun had fallen.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Why, Agent Dayton, it’s almost as if you’re not happy to see me.” Her voice when she was still wolfy like this was slightly more smooth and fluid than a human’s, the harsh consonants all but disappearing into the back of her stretched throat.

  “My god.” Helena’s voice broke the moment. “You.” She was pale, drained and sweaty, staring at Daisy with pure shock. For the first time since he’d met her, she looked her age.

  Daisy turned, and her face softened to a more human one before moving to kneel at her ex-mother-in-law’s side.

  “Helena” was all she said. She placed her hands over Helena’s on the wound. How long had it been since they’d seen each other? What was it like to see the woman who had raised your children? Even as you’d spent a lifetime fighting to bring her, and everything she was, down.

  Subtly, Cooper picked up the abandoned gun. He cautiously approached Girard’s still body and knelt on the barn floor. He didn’t need to check Girard’s pulse to know he was dead. The sick angle of his neck was enough to see that. Still, he checked anyway, taking his time and keeping an eye on Daisy and Helena.

  He almost jumped a mile out of his skin when a perfectly unscathed Boogie brushed against his arm, looking awfully smug for nearly getting him killed.

  “Devil cat,” Cooper muttered, rubbing her head once before reaching into Girard’s jacket pocket, curious. His fingers touched hard plastic.

  Cooper frowned. He pulled out one of Dr. Freeman’s sample cups with the bright purple caps. It rattled as it moved. Slowly, he held it up to see. At the bottom of the cup, a single, slightly longer than average canine tooth glinted, yellow-white in the light.

  It was like the whole picture shifted to the right and the missing pieces fell into place. “She knew,” Cooper said quietly, remembering what Raymond Park had said. “She knows.”

  David Freeman may have gone poking around asking about property deeds, but what he’d actually accused Geoff of was having an affair with his wife. He’d been convinced Emily was meeting a man.

  Despite not seeing them for years, Daisy knew everything about the pack, claimed she had “contacts” who had told her all the gritty details about Oliver’s childhood, the way Joe had raised him to become the Shepherd.

  Everything that had happened had made the Park pack stronger than before. Only without Joe and Stuart. Funny how that works, Oliver had said. Funny or exactly according to plan.

  Cooper looked across the barn. Helena had slumped back down and her eyes were closed. “She needs a hospital,” Daisy said, taking Helena’s pulse. “I left my car on the main road outside the gates. It’s closer than the house. You can drive while I watch her.”

  He angled the gun toward them, just subtly, just enough that he wouldn’t be caught unprepared. “Where did you get those emails?”

  “What?” Daisy’s eyes clocked the gun immediately. “Dayton...what are you doing?”

  “The emails between Girard and his girlfriend talking about Dr. Freeman’s mysterious benefactor. Where did you get them?”

  “I told you I have my ways—”

  “Girard had no idea what I was talking about. He didn’t even have a girlfriend in Quebec.”

  “Obviously he’s lying.”

  “Someone is,” Cooper agreed. “Why did you come here? Today, I mean. Not for a motherly reunion, I’m assuming.”

  Daisy’s eyes narrowed. “Dr. Emily Freeman has disappeared. She checked herself out against doctor’s orders and your BSI can’t seem to find her.”

  “What about her sample bag? Did they ever find that or did it go missing, too?”

  “I don’t know,” she said hesitantly. “Does it matter?”

  He held up the cup, and Daisy inhaled sharply.

  Cooper asked again, “Where did you get the emails?”

  * * *

  They were all chatting in the dining room when Cooper finally made it back up to the house. It should have been the drawing room. The gathering of the suspects always went down in the drawing room. But these weren’t just any suspects. This was Park’s family, whom he cared for and loved, even if it was complicated sometimes.

  Cooper listened for a moment from just outside the open door. Their voices were still soft and shaken from the last loss, but there was warmth there and even a little laughter as they said their goodbyes. The whole family was inside, aside from the children. Park’s siblings and their partners, his cousin Delia, his aunts and uncles. Even Bethany had floated down, hungover though she was.

  Cooper would give anything not to have to interrupt. Not to take this away from them, too. He didn’t have a choice.

  Oliver was sitting in his usual seat around the dining room table, his back to the door, so he didn’t notice when Cooper entered right away. It was only when Lorelei gasped that they all turned to him. Cooper could imagine what he looked like, shirtless and splattered with Helena’s blood, his own head wound dripping again, gun clutched in his hand. Many of them were staring, openly horrified, at his scars, loudly on display.

  “Cooper?” Park gasped. “Are you—”

  “I’m fine,” he said. “It’s... Helena. She’s been shot. She’s on her way to the hospital now.”

  The room exploded with sound and the family all stood.

  “Where was she shot?” Mai asked. “Has she lost consciousness?”

  “On her way to the hospital with who?” Marcus asked sharply.

  “We have to go with her,” Camille said.

  “No,” Cooper said. “No one is leaving yet.”

  Silence.

  “You,” Tim said, and took a step toward him. “You shot her!”

  “No,” Cooper said, angling the gun in warning, and Tim stopped. “Not me.”

  “Cooper...” Park said. “What—?”

  “Sylvia is guilty of stealing your property. But she didn’t kill anyone. Girard showed up. He was carrying this.” He took the sample cup out of his pocket and tossed it onto the dining room table. Inside the single tooth rattled.

  “What in god’s name is that?” Lorelei whispered.

  “A sample. Presumably one of many. Dr. Emily Freeman has fled with the rest.”

  “Sample? What samples?
” Tim demanded.

  Park was staring at the cup on the table, a look of dawning understanding on his face.

  “Biological samples, I assume,” Cooper said. “Blood and hair. At the very least, the rest of Geoff Rosetti’s missing teeth.”

  More than one person made a noise of horrified disgust.

  “The killer delivered them to Dr. Freeman early yesterday morning at an agreed-upon rendezvous. Unfortunately for them, David Freeman suspected his wife of having an affair and followed her that night. What he found instead was far more horrifying than any tryst. He saw a werewolf passing over pillaged bits of the werewolf he had just murdered for Dr. Freeman to study.”

  “Ridiculous,” Tim said. “Why the hell would a wolf give a human scientist samples she could use to expose us?”

  “Ask Marcus.”

  Marcus blinked at him. “What?”

  “You’ll have to answer that one. It’s the only thing I still don’t understand,” Cooper said. “The rest of it I think I have pretty figured out. You discovered Stuart and Sylvia were sneaking around behind Joe’s back, selling property. You saw an opportunity to remove three powerful wolves who stood between you and control of the pack in a single move. They’d already done half the work for you and made their own motive. All you had to do was kill Joe and sit back while the BSI took out Sylvia and Helena took out Stuart. Now suddenly you’re a lot closer to the throne. Simple, but very clever.”

  “This is absurd,” Marcus laughed. “You’re joking. Either that or you need to have that bump on your head looked at again.”

  Cooper ignored him. “Unfortunately, then you got a little greedy and decided to remove two more obstacles between you and power. You tried to kill Helena. Tried to kill Oliver, too, by playing with our brakes. Suddenly it wasn’t simple anymore. Your family was more reluctant than you’d expected to suspect Sylvia, and these new attacks didn’t help. Your simple plan was complicated now. That was sloppy of you. Joe forced you to hunt, but you never did get very good at it, did you? You can shoot a gun okay, know how to string up prey, but violence has never been your strong suit.”