Grinding for the Coyote

by Serenity Snow

  “You didn’t care about my life?” Sam’s brows rose but Adalyn saw a teasing light in them.

  “I cared too much,” she said. “But I couldn’t walk away without having known what it was like to be wanted by you. I knew it was going to hurt either way, so I thought the risk was worth the heartache.”

  Sam swallowed tightly. “Adalyn, you…” She trailed off.

  “I what? I scare you? I make you want to be more open to love?”

  Sam dragged a shaky hand through her thick hair and turned her gaze out of the window. “I didn’t want to hurt you. I still don’t, darlin’, but I can’t let you leave with so much danger hunting you.”

  “Is that the only reason?” she whispered. “And do me the courtesy of looking at me when you lie.”

  Sam met her gaze giving her a questioning stare. “What makes you think I was going to lie?” she demanded.

  “Call it a hunch.”

  “I was barley nineteen when I met her. She was older and a kinky college professor. She introduced me to a lot of things including treachery. She killed someone and set me up. Lucky for me I had friends who weren’t afraid to put their necks on the line to help me clear my name.”

  “I’m sorry you met someone like that.”

  “So am I.” Her gaze was hard, cold. “She had me in knots and dancing to her tune for a long time before I took off the blinders. I just haven’t wanted to be that close to anyone since.”

  Adalyn reached for her hand and Sam allowed her to take it. “Love is often as cruel as it is kind, Samarra, but she didn’t love you.”

  “It took me a while to realize that,” she admitted quietly. “Even after I almost killed her I still hadn’t come to terms with it.”

  “Syd stopped you?”

  “Hell no,” she said with a quirk of her lips. “She told me she’d alibi me, but Mal pulled me off her and wiped the place down so my prints wouldn’t be found there.”

  “Did she file charges?”

  “Yeah, but Syd and Mica said they were with me drinking all night,” Sam answered and there was a faraway look in her eyes. “Absence of real proof, my lawyer made the jury believe that was just another ploy to set me up.”

  “You were on trial?”

  Samarra nodded. “She’s doing life. I testified against her.”

  “I’m not a femme fatale, baby,” Adalyn said.

  “I know, Addy, and I’m not exactly running away from you either,” she murmured.

  “Are you ladies doing okay?” Their waitress asked, suddenly appearing at Sam’s elbow.

  “We’re good,” Sam answered barely sparing her a glance.

  “Would you like dessert?”

  “No, thank you,” Sam answered. “Just the check.”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  Sam withdrew her hand as her cell phone rang, and she slid her hand to her hip and tugged the phone from its holster and glanced at the display. “Excuse me. Mallory. What’s going on?”

  Adalyn glanced out of the window and watched the cars go by on the street until a dog-like face between two cars caught her attention. She squinted trying to bring it into sharper focus. She could make out the dark orbs of eyes and lips peeled back in a silent snarl.

  It couldn’t be.

  She looked away and when she turned back there was nothing there. Adalyn drew in a shaky breath and exhaled slowly.

  “Adalyn?” Sam’s hand was on hers. “What’s wrong? Did you see something out there?”

  She met Samarra’s gaze seeing pools of copper bright with concern. “I just thought I saw a hyena.” She was experiencing some kind of post-traumatic reaction. Right?

  Hyenas didn’t just go walking around parking lots.

  Before Sam could speak, the waitress brought their bill and Samarra got to her feet to remove her wallet and toss a tip on the table.

  “Let’s go,” she said insistently.

  Adalyn rose quickly hoping she was wrong, but judging by Samarra’s demeanor, she wasn’t.

  After they’d stepped outside, they exchanged greetings with a passing couple. Once the couple was out of earshot, Adalyn looked up at Sam.

  “You think they followed us or just found us?” Adalyn asked.

  Sam threw her a cursory glance before saying, “More than likely they just had this place staked out in hopes of finding us,” Sam told her. “No one’s been following us all day.”

  “I do come here a lot with Leah and a few of the other dancers.”

  “Then, they were hoping to get lucky,” Sam said. “Stay closed to me, and do as I tell you to.”

  “I heard you say you’d be there, so I guess you’re going out tonight,”

  Sam moved to her royal blue sedan quickly and unlocked the door. “I won’t be long, Addy,” she said and looked down at Adalyn.

  “Good. I want to talk to you about something.”

  “Okay, but right now you need to get in.” Sam rounded the car and unlocked her own door.

  “S—” A low growl had Adalyn going still. Her entire body tensed with memory of the terror that animal had evoked in her. Another growl followed, and she jerked around to see the spotted hyena, scruffy and enraged, glaring at her.

  She screamed and tore the door open and climbed into the car. Shaking she turned to Sam to find thin air.

  “Oh my god.” She whined like a puppy as her fear ate a path through her. Hands shaking, she started to open her door. Adalyn heard growls and then a thump against the car.

  Another bump followed along with a low whine that became a laugh and then another thump.

  “Samarra!” She threw open the car door. She had to get that dog—hyena off Samarra. She belonged to her.

  The hyena was facing away from her, body stiff, head held at a slight downward angle. The hyena growled and the sound became a roar that made her wince from the volume of it. The animal leaped forward. Adalyn’s heart stopped.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Samarra!” Adalyn leaped out of the car, heart pounding in her ears, her body breaking out in a cool sweat. She didn’t see her, but she did see a small pool of blood.

  “You’d think they’d teach you bastards how to fight,” Sam muttered before slamming the animal into the side of the car and knocking him out cold.

  “Samarra,” Adalyn said breathlessly.

  “Heads up, Adalyn,” Sam ordered. “He’s not alone.”

  Adalyn glanced around, letting out a low whine. Fear chased through her. She didn’t move any closer to Samarra because she didn’t want to get in the way, but she could feel the danger around them even with the small crowd watching and the sirens blaring in the distance.

  “Thanks for catching him,” Sydney parted the crowd. “He’s off his meds.” She walked over to where Sam stood with the naked man at her feet where the animal had been.

  “What are you doing here?” Sam demanded under her breath. “Following me?”

  “Naturally,” Sydney said. “I can’t allow you to recklessly get yourselves killed.” She threw a brief look to Adalyn and dropped her voice to say something Adalyn couldn’t hear and she suspected it was about her.

  Sydney held up a straitjacket. “I’ll get him back to the hospital safely. Help get this on him?” She gave Sam a wicked grin.

  Sam gave her an amused look. “Sure, doctor.” She helped her get the jacket on him and put him into a black SUV.

  “Are you okay?” Sam asked Adalyn. She looped an arm around her waist and guided her back to the car. The crowd had already started to disperse as a police car came pulling into the parking lot.

  She nodded jerkily. “I was terrified that thing had hurt you.”

  “Hurry,” Sam said as the two cops climbed out of their car and began striding toward them and the small crowd that still curiously remained. “We need to leave.” She extricated Adalyn from her gently.

  Adalyn looked up at her, “S—”

  “Now.” She all but dragged Adalyn to the car and shoved her insid
e with a hand on her head to keep her from bumping it. Sam slammed the door and ran around to the other side.

  “Miss—”

  She ignored the man’s cry and climbed into her car and shoved her key into the ignition. Sam backed out after making sure there was no one behind her.

  “You’re bleeding,” Adalyn said anxiously.

  “It’s really nothing, Addy. Just a scratch or two. I can take care of it at home.”

  “We need to get you to a hospital,” Adalyn said timidly. “That thing could have given you rabies or something. You have no idea where those claws have been last.”

  Sam smirked. “Adalyn, it’s fine.”

  “How can you be so cavalier?” Adalyn demanded, fear snaking through her. She didn’t want to lose Samarra even if she was a jerk at times.

  “Enough, Adalyn,” she said firmly and then growled.

  Adalyn went still, unnaturally so. Then, she settled back in her seat, hands on her lap.

  Adalyn didn’t analyze the sound or the fact that she seemed to know instinctively what it meant. Samarra was fine, and she wanted her to stop fussing and trust that she knew what was best for herself.

  She focused on the scenery trying to find a thought to keep her from thinking about her response, her understanding of the sound.

  Adalyn slanted a look at Samarra from the corner of her eye. She looked relaxed though a little pale beneath the beauty of her red-brown skin.

  “Do coyotes normally mate for life?” Adalyn asked needing to distract herself.

  “Not normally,” Samarra told her. “The majority of us take temporary mates throughout our lives. Sometimes we go back to someone that we had a strong bond with. Some form strong permanent relationships with a lover or two who they turn to when they’re in heat.”

  “That’s why you wanted my companionship? You’re in heat?”

  “Yes.”

  “How long does that last?”

  “Unless I get pregnant, which isn’t going to happen, and then it goes away after a few weeks and starts again the next month. Sometimes it’s strong enough that I take a lover. Other times I don’t bother,” she said. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, Adalyn. It’s like being a vampire and needing to feed. Mating is a compulsion we can’t fight.”

  “Survival of the species,” Adalyn murmured and lapsed into silence as they sped along.

  Sam sighed as she pulled into the garage twenty-five minutes later. She cut the engine and released her seatbelt. “I’ll help you in with the bags, but I’m going to have to go out in a little bit.”

  Probably a doctor.

  “I—okay.”

  Samarra was out of the car a moment later and pulling bags from the trunk.

  “I really should get to my place tomorrow and start cleaning up, seeing what I can salvage. Samarra?”

  Sam gave her a long look and Adalyn looked away. “You aren’t staying there.”

  “No. I know,” she said. “I’m going to a hotel.”

  “Adalyn, be pissed off at me, but don’t be immature and put yourself in needless danger.”

  “Why, Samarra? Because you have an insatiable need to protect me from the big bad hyenas?”

  “Yes, damn it.” She heard the anguish in her voice. Sam grabbed a handful of bags and stalked into the house leaving Adalyn to carry the rest.

  She blew out a breath as she followed in her wake. Was she dealing with some complicated animal dynamics?

  Heat.

  Temporary mates.

  She shook her head. She needed that book from Samarra’s office. Where had she put it when they’d gotten here yesterday?

  Adalyn watched her carefully as she put the bags down in the guestroom.

  “Samarra?” Mallory called.

  “I’m coming. I shouldn’t be gone too long, but Syd will be here. The fridge is full. Help yourself.” She left the room and Adalyn went to the door and strained with her ear against it.

  “What happened? I smell blood,” Mallory muttered.

  “Damned hyenas attacked,” Sam told her. “Damned pussy males. I’d be hurt worse if it was one of the dominant females.”

  Mallory grunted. “I’ll call Sandy. You’re lucky Syd was following you.”

  “She shouldn’t have been.”

  “Are you stupid? They’d have taken Adalyn from you.”

  “Mallory—”

  They’d walked too far for her to hear the rest of the conversation even with the door open, so she closed it back and leaned against it.

  What was she going to do? She needed answers about the damned tattoo and what it really meant. How was it going to change her life?

  Where did she find them? It wasn’t like she could just go online and Google it.

  Maybe she could. She groaned. She didn’t have—she had her phone. It was in the car along with her purse. Adalyn opened the door and went to the garage. Sam’s car was gone. There was a motorcycle she hadn’t seen before in one of the slots.

  Mallory or Sydney?

  She went back inside and wondered through the house. She found a study and the scent of clove told her it was Samarra’s domain.

  Adalyn went in hoping to find a computer. The space was large and neat the wood floor dull sounding beneath the low heel of her flats.

  The blue and gray were cozy and warm and the artwork on the walls was mostly abstract. The desk was situated between two windows with a floor to ceiling bookcases on each side filled nearly to the top with books. There were a few knickknacks and pictures on the shelves too.

  Curious she went to look at the pictures. A teenager in a tank top with a shoulder length ponytail grinned for the camera. She had Samarra’s eyes. On her bare arm was the same tat Samarra bore and at her feet was a gray wolf.

  She turned her attention to a second picture. It was of a gray animal that looked like a wolf but was smaller. The eyes were brown and full of intelligence. The animal had its head on a man’s shoulder where he sat on a rock. She put the picture back before studying the books on the shelf.

  Adalyn found one that caught her eye. Pulling it free, she saw that it was the same book from Samarra’s office.

  Adalyn took the book to the leather couch and dropped onto it. Kicking off her shoes she lifted the cover and found an inscription inside.

  I hope this answers your questions my coya wolf. She caressed the words sensing strength and love in them before turning the page. The table of contents was neatly written out. Skimming it, she found a chapter called life mates.

  Adalyn quickly turned to the chapter and began reading.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Sam headed for the third floor of the club after being treated by the doctor. The claw marks had been bandaged and would heal fast enough, but the same probably wasn’t going to be said of the marks she was going to leave on the person who’d put this whole thing in motion.

  She was tired of playing cat and mouse games and wanted answers. She wasn’t going to allow anyone to separate her from the woman who’d stolen her heart.

  She didn’t know if Adalyn could bear to live the life of an animal’s mate or even if she could open her heart completely and give Adalyn all she needed emotionally. However, this insatiable fascination was never going away, so she was willing to try if Adalyn would have her.

  Sam stepped into the spacious black room devoid of windows. It was a soundproof playroom equipped with stocks, spanking bench, and an assortment of toys and masks. Eye hooks protruded from a few walls and thick mats formed a square on one side of the room next to a shelf. Across the room was a bed stripped bare of sheets.

  Near the bench, the hyena male was secured with shiny silver chains. He had been undressed to his white briefs and his head hung in a submissive gesture. Mallory leaned casually against the wall near him and Mica and Nya, two of their security team, were standing by as well. Nya held a tranquilizer gun loosely in one hand while Mica held a paddle.

  Sam crossed the room to join Mallory. She picked up
a paddle and tapped it against her palm as she moved into the man’s line of vision. “Your friend got away, so it’s just you to take all the punishment. You can draw it out, and we won’t mind, or you can just answer the questions.”

  He looked up at her with disdain.

  “Each one of them wants a turn to use something on you, and it won’t make you hard I promise,” Samarra told him. “Now, let’s just cut to the chase. Who sent you?”

  He glared at her and Samarra drew her paddle back and dropped it hard on his ass. He screamed and she reached down to tug his briefs down, baring his flat pale ass. She hit him hard and he jerked on the chains.

  “Go ahead and shift. We’ll just tether you in animal form and put a muzzle on your mouth and torture you that way starting with snipping the end off your tail and setting it on fire and then putting it out and starting over again. Then, we’ll pull out your nails before we start spanking you.”

  He swallowed hard.

  “I guess he’s not into the scene,” Mallory drawled.

  “Who sent you?” Sam demanded.

  “Darden,” he said immediately. “We were to kill you and Adalyn Wolf.”

  “Who’s Darden? Independent contractor? Your alpha?” Sam asked.

  “He’s Joelle’s right hand,” he confessed. “Jo is our alpha of the Dirty Dogs pack. She wants to make sure Adalyn can never testify against her. She also instructed us to find out where Wolf hid the files.”

  “What files?” Mallory demanded and threw Sam a look.

  “I don’t know what’s in the files,” he said. “I swear.”

  “Probably some of their crimes,” Mica murmured. “Murders they don’t want to get the lethal injection for.”

  “It’s too bad we don’t have it,” Sam said. “Where’s the pack now?”

  “Some of it’s here, but the alpha’s in New York. Darden is here to finish off Wolf and get the file. He’s working with someone who’s supposed to be able to help him get closer to you and Wolf.”