“I’m an animal, Addy, and I’m always going to be this way.”
“I don’t actually care about that,” she admitted. “And really I don’t think you’d be the same person if you weren’t a coyote too. You wouldn’t have that animal magnetism that drives me crazy with wanting you.”
Samarra laughed. “Adalyn.”
Adalyn laughed too. “It’s true.” She leaned forward and kissed Sam urging her back onto the bed. Sam’s arms curved around her holding Adalyn close and she sighed.
“Addy, my love.”
“Am I your love?” she asked, lips curling into a teasing smile.
“My true love,” she murmured and rolled them over so she was on top. Their lips met again and Adalyn moaned into the kiss.
****
Adalyn woke the next morning to find herself alone in bed. The clock told her it was well after nine. Samarra obviously didn’t believe in sleeping in. She pushed back the covers. They were going to have a talk about that.
Adalyn padded to the bathroom to shower. When she was done, she went back into the bedroom and found clothes laid out for her. She frowned. They were some of the things they’d picked out yesterday.
“She washed.” She laughed. “Woman is crazy.” She dressed quickly and braided her hair before heading to the kitchen. Samarra could hear the murmur of voices inside and stopped outside the door to listen. Coffee wafted out to her along with the smell of bacon, eggs, and waffles.
“Has Aisha been able to get into his email?”
“She got the files,” Sam told her. “The guy managed to get his wife as well as some other guy meeting with a couple of dirty cops. One of them was Sang. He got information about the murder of the Oregon police chief and a New Jersey cop. Joelle, Reacher’s wife was present for every discussion including handing off bribe money to an A.D.A.”
“Are the murders on their or are they just talking about who did the crimes?”
“The murders are on there. Joelle wanted proof of death. She’s on there plotting her husband’s death for his money too,” Sam told her. “He caught her screwing a pretty hot guy named Darden who just so happens to be here to kill Addy.”
“We’ll turn the information over to Jenner.”
“I planned to, but there’s one more thing,” she said quietly.
“What?”
“I got an interesting email last night,” Sam told her. “I didn’t see it until this morning obviously. I got pictures of every member of Joelle’s organization and names of allies here in the city. Leah is one of them.”
Leah was working with the people that wanted to kill her?
“We need to take her out for her betrayal.”
“Not yet,” Sam said coldly. “We should let this play out, but Mal needs to know.”
Syd’s phone vibrated at her hip, and she grabbed it from its holster. “It’s Mal.” She connected and put the phone on speaker. “What’s up, Mal.”
“Hey, Syd, are you with Sam?”
“Yeah, we’re just shooting the shit. What’s going on?”
“Sam, why don’t you get over to my office? Joelle Reacher is here, and she wants to talk about Adalyn.”
“What?” Sam snarled. “Tell her to—”
“She says Adalyn sold us a pack of lies about the murder of her husband. Adalyn killed him when he broke it off with her.”
Adalyn’s eyes widened. She was such a liar. Samarra could not believe that.
“The lying little slut is just playing us all,” Mallory said. “So, get down here and settle this once and for all.”
“I’m on my way,” she snapped.
Adalyn backed away from the wall. “Oh my Goddess.”
“I’m going to kill that bitch,” Sam muttered.
“I’ll stay here with Adalyn,” Syd told her.
“Addy,” Sam called as she hurried from the room. “Adalyn get back here.”
Adalyn sprinted for the door but Sam caught her with a quick burst of speed. She pulled her back against her even as Adalyn struggled to get free. “Baby, stop fighting me,” she begged. “I’m not taking you to her.”
“She’s lying, Samarra, I swear,” she cried.
“I know, sweetie,” Sam crooned. “Even if she wasn’t, I’d still kill her now for trying to take you from me.”
Adalyn twisted around in her arms to look up at her. “Samarra. I’m telling you the truth.”
“Shh. I believe you, darlin’,” she murmured as she stroked Adalyn’s hair. “I’m going over there just to let her know the score.”
“Mica’s on her way and so is Brynn. Lucky they were in the area,” Syd told her. “ETA fifteen minutes.”
“Thanks, Syd. Protect her.”
“With my life and theirs,” she said with a grin. “Besides, you’re the one walking into a trap.”
“I know.”
“You can’t go, then,” Adalyn insisted.
“I have to, sweetie,” Sam told her. “This isn’t a ploy to get you back, but a duel, animal style.” She gave her a hard kiss and stepped back. “I’ll see you later, mate.”
Adalyn reached for her arm. “You better come back here in one piece even if it’s bruised and bloody,” she ordered but fear snaked through her. She’d seen what Joelle could do.
Sam grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”
Adalyn wiped at tear as Sam walked away. “I love you, Sam,” she murmured.
“Love you, too.”
Chapter Thirty
Sam wasn’t too happy about being called away from her mate. She had wanted to get Adalyn moved into the den and settled out there where she would be safe until Darden was caught and this situation with Joelle Reacher had been settled.
However, she was surprised that Reacher had gone to Mallory and asked for this meeting. She suspected the woman didn’t expect her to just turn Adalyn over to her, and she would call for a duel to settle the matter.
Duels could be called at any time one shifter sought justice against another. Death wasn’t always the end result. The matter was often settled with a badly beaten person who was down and couldn’t rise. Today the only redress that would be given if the hyena wasn’t careful was the woman’s death.
Sam knocked on the door. The muffled “come in” had her opening the door stepping inside to find a tall brunette standing post at the door along with one of her packmates, Cinnamon, who was security.
At Mallory’s back was another security team member from the pack who worked security here as well. Facing Mallory was a platinum blonde who looked as if she owned the place. Holding up the wall across from her was a cold-eyed blond who gave her a hard look.
The room felt crowded just standing in the doorway.
“Looks like a party,” Samarra said coolly as she closed the door and leaned against it.
“Sam, meet Joelle Reacher,” Mallory said calmly. “She was just telling me that Adalyn has something of hers as well as being a thief in her territory, Adalyn killed Reacher’s husband.”
“I want a mate’s justice,” Joelle said giving Sam a slow once over with calculating eyes.
“And you only brought two guards?”
“Why would I bring more?” Joelle demanded airily. “I’m not afraid of a coyote and I expected your alpha to be obliging.”
“That’s why you sent an emissary to attempt a kidnapping?” Samarra demanded. “Why didn’t you come to Mallory before that?”
“I didn’t think recovering Wolf would be of any concern to you,” Reacher told her. “She is just a stripper.” She shrugged, her gaze full of disdain. “I’d like to settle this quickly.”
“Sam,” Mallory said. “Your lover, your call.”
Sam moved into the room and sensed the aggression of the hyenas rise. The woman took a step toward her and stopped not far away. “No dice and if you don’t stay away from her and me, we’re going to have a problem.”
Joelle stared at her for a long moment. It was clear she didn’t plan to be thwarted. “I want
you to turn her over now.”
“No,” Sam rebutted acerbically.
Joelle got to her feet. “I guess we have a problem. You present her or I’ll hunt her and kill her.”
Sam grabbed Joelle around the neck so fast the man holding up the wall didn’t have time to react. The woman was on her though driving a fist forward. Sam drove her elbow into the stomach of the woman at her back who’d grabbed her around her neck. She stomped on her foot and whipped around to drive the heel of her hand into the woman’s nose.
The sound of bone crunching was sickening, but Sam ducked as Joelle threw a punch of her own. Sam took the blow to the jaw and pain lit through her though the bone didn’t break. Sam grunted and Joelle kicked out but the side of her foot just caught the side of Sam’s calf as she blocked the second punch.
Joelle lunged forward and drove Sam back to the wall where she went for Sam’s throat then with her claws, and Sam caught her wrist and drove a clawed hand into Joelle’s stomach. The hyena’s eyes widened in surprise and pain and then she shifted.
****
Adalyn set the book she was reading in Sam’s study down as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up straight. Fear tickled down her spine and the eerie laugher of the hyena sound from outside the window.
Her heart pumped hard and she swallowed tightly and closed her eyes. “Dum.” She chanted the word as she slowed her heart beat and got to her feet. She regulated her breathing, so that her breaths were slow and deep.
The sound of glass breaking didn’t draw so much as a gasp from her even as she moved toward the door of the study. Behind her, glass shattered in the room and she whipped around just as a man placed a folded blanket over the jagged edges of glass on the framed and climbed in.
“You were very hard to find for a while,” he said, his black eyes cold. “I don’t know where that file is, but your death will negate the need to find it.” He shifted and charged at her as she ran from the room.
He slammed into her, taking her to the floor. His claws were sharp on her skin through her blouse and he scratched her down one shoulder. She didn’t scream as the pain burned through her and hot liquid dampened her torn blouse and tickled down her side.
“Off,” she said through clenched teeth and energy radiated from her throwing him off. She rolled over as he hit the floor with a thud. Breathing hard she stood there watching him as he watched her. If only she was a true telekinetic, she’d throw him out of the window.
An eerie laugh drifted through the house and was followed by a vicious growl. The hyena snarled at her and she clenched her fists at her sides. She couldn’t run again. He’d just take her back to the floor and probably kill her.
“You have animal medicine.”
Her babysitter’s words whispered through her mind. He charged her, and Adalyn focused using all her strength. He leaped into the air, jaws parted, and slammed into the shield. He landed and batted at it, while snarling.
She backed up, and he followed. Adalyn dropped the shield and threw energy at him. It hit him tossing him back several steps and giving her time to vanish down the hall as he let out a pained howl.
****
Sam slashed the hyena across the chest and she laughed before driving forward, knocking Sam onto her ass. Sam shifted mid-fall knowing she was taking a risk. The hyena might get her before she recovered from the shift.
The hyena snarled and Sam completed her shift. The hyena was on her, mouth open. The coyote’s move was swift. She slashed the hyena’s side, claws dragging up to the side of her neck. The hyena lowered its head to her throat and coyote’s claws sank deep hitting the artery. Blood spurted, spitting into her face.
The hyena threw back its head and let out a howl and it was in that split second that the coyote lunged forward and clamped down on the other animals throat. The hyena tried to dislodge her, but the coyote shook the other animal viciously until it slumped on its belly.
“Sam.” Cinnamon was at her side as soon as she shifted back. She moved gingerly, body bruised and shoulder dislocated and bleeding.
She gritted her teeth and Cinnamon pulled her to her feet. “Go.”
Cinnamon braced one hand on Sam’s uninjured shoulder before jerking the other back into place. Sam let out a scream but the pain was gone as fast as it had come.
“Thanks. Mal?” She looked around to find Mallory sprawled in her chair looking bruised and beaten up with a drink in hand.
“I am so glad it was only three of them,” Mallory told her. “I’d be fucked.” She groaned and her fingers went to her busted lip. “Pansy-assed men.”
“Cinnamon smirked. “Well, she was a jackal.” She jerked her head to the dead blonde.
“Fuck.” Sam groaned. “My mate.”
“I’ll call Syd.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Sam made it to the house in record time after Syd didn’t answer her phone and no one picked up the house line. She climbed out of her car with Cinnamon hard on her heels as they rushed the porch.
The door opened and Adalyn stumbled out blood staining her face, hands, and clothes.
“Addy!” Sam caught her as she collapsed against her. “Addy.”
“Syd needs a doctor. Her leg’s broken and the side of her neck is bleeding badly. Mica—I can’t find her.”
“Shit,” Cinnamon muttered. “Get Sandy out here, and I’ll look for Mica.” Cinnamon was inside the house in seconds.
Sam used her cell to call the doctor and took Adalyn inside. “Where’s Syd?”
“Kitchen.”
“Can you stay with her?” Sam asked. “Mica and Cinna might need me.”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Are you okay, baby? Tell me most of that blood isn’t yours.”
“It’s not,” she said and Sam sighed praying she wasn’t lying and then led Adalyn to the kitchen where she took in the scene in shock. Darden lay dead on the floor with multiple stab wounds and claw marks.
“She kicked ass,” Syd said weakly. “Course if she’d been a little faster I wouldn’t be bleeding to death.”
Sam snorted. “You’re a tough bitch, you’re not going to die on me,” she said but pain rippled through her. “We’ve lived through so much worse.”
“Find Mica, and Brynn,” Syd said. “Adalyn, keep me company.”
Sam kissed her lightly on the lips and left the room. Her senses were keen even in her human form and they didn’t detect Brynn inside the house, so she exited, stepping out a side door into the backyard. She surveyed the expanse of green and tress standing tall providing shade and color.
“Brynn?” She walked around the side of the house to find the coyote sprawled on the ground with two dead men close by. Her heart stopped and she hurried over.
“’Bout f-fucking time.” Blood ran out the corner of her mouth. “Bastards double-teamed me.”
“Hold on,” she commanded and she knelt by the woman’s side and clasped her hand. “I’m commanding you to hold on.”
Brynn nodded and stared into her eyes as a light breeze blew around them. An alpha could hold her people to life with the sheer force of her command. Orders weren’t discarded lightly even in the face of death, but she wasn’t an alpha.
She, Mica, and Brynn were all shadow coyotes, had all come from the same pack in Oklahoma. But she wasn’t their leader.
Brynn’s lashes lowered.
“Brynn, damn it, bitch hold on.”
“Fuck. You’re bossier than Mal,” she whispered.
“Then, obey me,” Samarra snapped. “This is nothing to the last hyena battle we fought.” She swiped back a tear. Memory and the current circumstance tightened her chest with the fear of loss.
“S-Sorrento…” Her eyes closed.
****
Two hours later, having been healed, Adalyn sat on the couch in the living room with her mate’s arm around her shoulders. Sam’s expression was grim as was Mallory’s. Mica and Brynn were barely alive, but Syd was recovering and receiving a
blood transfusion.
Sam was okay, but it would be a few days before she was back to one hundred percent. Sam hadn’t wanted to take valuable energy from the pack’s two healers when her friends had been far worse off.
“The little prick told me Sorrento has been trying to turn a few members of our pack for weeks now. He’s managed to infiltrate Oaklyn’s pack but turning Oaklyn took longer. He agreed to work against us.”
“That dumb bastard,” Sam muttered.
“Sorrento has no idea what he’s getting into especially now that he’s pissed off my shadow coyotes.” Mallory gave her a tired smile.
She’d seen that in the journal. The breed was capable of telepathy with their mates even in their human form. In their animal form the telepathic ability had a far greater range than normal coyote shifters. They were as strong and as ferocious as a wolf, and their pack mentality was more dangerous than that of the hyena.
The shadow coyote would not only stand their ground, they would decimate any foe no matter how much stronger that foe was. They would protect those they loved at all costs, but their first loyalty was to their mate, while their second was to the pack.
“You know, we’re going to have to do one or two things with Oaklyn’s pack,” Mallory said.
“What are you thinking?” Sam asked.
“I’m thinking they’ll need a new leader, one I can trust to have my back,” she said.
“You want someone to challenge the dominant who steps up to replace Oak?”
“The only one who can,” Mallory told her with a shrug. “You.”
“Sam?” Adalyn demanded.
“I’ve seen it in you for years,” Mallory told her. “You’re a born alpha. Hell, I made you a lieutenant because you’re so strong. Your energy is too dynamic for anything other than leading. I know you’ll take Brynn and all the shadows, but you’ll have my back.”
Sam sighed. “I don’t—”
“Brynn is still alive because her alpha commanded her to cling to life,” Mallory told her and then turned to look at Adalyn. “An alpha’s will is iron, her command is law and even a dying coyote will obey it. Sometimes the almighty takes a soul but that’s the way it is.”
Grinding for the Coyote Page 15
