I must’ve made a slight noise. I saw Leo’s back tense. Panic filled Amber’s eyes--just for a second. Before she said to him, “Use your tongue. I promise I’ll purr.”
So, that didn’t jibe with the ‘please don’t rape me’. Leo spun, morphing in the midst of it into a big, crinosed cat. I shapeshifted to crinos, too, in the blink of an eye, and went at him. Amber screamed.
Leo’s claws were quick. He got me on one side and then the other. And I nabbed him down the back as he sprang away from me. You’d think that one of us would be clearly superior. Probably his catty litheness against my wolfish hulk. Or maybe you’d think I’d be too slow a match. But we were pretty even. I’d like to brag that I nailed him on the first slash of my claw, or that I sank my jaws into him at the precise spot that took him down, but I had no such luck.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought that Amber’s scream was actually my doomsday call. That those two other men, and maybe more, would come running. So, I had half my attention to the hall. Friggin’ retards must’ve been on a smoke break on the next block over, though, because they never showed up. It cost me the win, though, because I couldn’t lose myself in the fight.
But Hood and Frank showed up, not but a few minutes into it. And before long, the tables had turned. We got Leo strapped to the fucking chair, freed Giselle, and found her something to put on. It was nothing fashionable. I had to ask her, “Don’t you shapeshift?”
“I was bitten. Check your moon-phase, moron.” You could say she was a little put out with me, since I hadn’t rescued her. Hood had found a way to get her out, in short order, where I hadn’t even bothered.
Frank said, “It took forever to lure the guards, one at a time, out.”
Which explained the lack of watchers in the place.
He’d gagged Leo. He’d strapped him in. And I’d been totally impressed by the way Frank came through in the pinch. Efficient at his efforts. Quick. Like he knew what he was doing.
I won’t go into all the minor details, but suffice it to say we hauled all our sorry butts and Leo’s--still strapped to that chair--out of there. Getting him back to our hotel without being seen was the trick of the year. We ended up stealing Leo’s black Hummer. Well, technically, I’m not sure that it consisted of grand larceny since we had the keys and the owner in tow.
And all I can say is...service elevators are our friends. And rooftop choppers? The best escape route ever. So, Hood and I never got to the Mad Wolf Massacre Site. And we’d taken a hostage of the highest order.
A tit for a tat.
They had Bark. We had Leo. You’d think negotiations would be a snap from there.
Back in the chopper, we discussed where to land. Where to take him to, Lobos or Wolf Enterprises?
“Lobos is a true fortress,” Hood said. “The best place to go until we can decide what we want to do.”
“But what do we want? To go where we know they won’t venture, or take him some place that they might think they can penetrate, and ambush them when they come?” Frank eyed Leo. I knew he was hoping the cat man would give some indication, via body language, anything that could be interpreted as good or bad. He didn’t, though. Didn’t twitch. Didn’t flinch. I watched him myself.
I also watched Giselle. I didn’t trust her. And she knew it. She hadn’t explained about her ‘abduction’. Just wrapped her arms around herself and withdrew to her own little meditations. And nobody else pressed her.
Every time Hood went near her, she pulled away. I’d swear she’d been raped--if I hadn’t seen her in that room, pacing, thumping her head. Except there was no smell on her. Had they hosed her afterward, or was the after-rape behavior just my imagination? No one else suggested it, or asked her about the possibility. But then, I could see her trying to bargain with sex, too. It was, after all, her greatest forte.
I definitely blocked those thoughts so no one else could read my mind. I wasn’t going to tell Hood any of my suspicions. Or how I’d left her in there in favor of trying to free Amber first.
Upon arriving in the hotel, Giselle dressed in leather sheath-tight pants and a long sleeved turtleneck sweater--with boots. Not that I’m big on fashion watching, but I noticed that Amber, too, dressed in full cover. I missed her dress the minute she appeared without it. But I didn’t blame her, after Leo’s crotch sniffing.
He’s lucky I didn’t rip his throat out after we tied him to the chair. Every time I looked his way, I growled. I couldn’t help it.
Giselle pulled her feet up into her seat and turned toward the window. Hood watched her through...hooded lids. My gaze went back and forth. She’d taken another one of her mind block pills. I could tell. And whatever he was saying to her, I believed she could hear him, but was pretending she couldn’t. I knew, for a fact, that he was not able to read her mind. I knew that because he was concentrating too hard.
“Wolf Enterprises is too close to the Felini Compound,” I said. “We should take him to Pack City, they’d never guess that, or Lobos.”
“That’s exactly why we need to take him to Wolf,” Hood said. “They’ll come without question.”
I didn’t like it. It set me up like a sitting duck. My people were already shaking in their boots. And yes, I questioned for the umpteenth time if that had been someone’s plan all along. But who would want to see Wolf fall? It didn’t behoove L.I., did it? Or Hood?
Chapter Fifteen
Hood asked me point blank, “Do you think you can hold them off?”
“They won’t come right away.” Frank said, “It’ll take a few days to figure out what the hell we’ve done, and whether or not we have...
him
.” He sneered toward Leo. “Unless, of course, we send a message for ransom.”
I suggested, “Or trade for Bark.” That’s what I wanted to do.
That got a reaction out of Leo. A grunt from down deep. And a look of hate so thick that I thought...it’s a good thing the guy doesn’t have super powers. He rocked in his seat, too.
Giselle winced and put a hand to the side of her face, not wanting to see him, even out of her peripheral vision. Amber told him, “You better sit the hell still before I open this door and kick your sorry ass out--still strapped to that chair.”
He stopped. But that didn’t cut the killer gaze he leveled on me. I guess he finally realized who I was. And assessed me.
Hood said, “He may already be dead.”
I rolled my shoulders, stayed loose. Wanted to kill something. I wanted to dive that chair and get a few hard licks to Leo’s kidneys in.
Not that I fight like that. But I was thinking back to the one on one I had with him, wondering why the hell I hadn’t been able to take him. I mean, Bark and I, both, could usually take out a handful of men a piece. What made this cat such an adversary?
It didn’t take me long to figure it out. Bark and I fought alike. He’d obviously gone mono e mono with my brother. He knew which way we turned. How we reacted. And he’d committed it to memory. That cat was smart.
I asked him, “You know where Bark is?” He didn’t respond, of course. “It doesn’t matter, you know. It’s just a matter of time before we track him down. And when we do, if he’s hurt in any way, or in cat restraint, you’re dead. I’ll promise you that, personally.”
Amber said, “He’s sure that your brother’s alive.”
Her keen senses. Her deep brain abilities. I wondered if anyone could mind block from a scenter. Her news was good.
I asked, “Are you sure?”
She nodded. But then she leaned forward and said, “He took off with Leo’s sister.”
There was news.
Again, Leo threw a small fit of fury.
Sure, Amber said, “That’s what started this whole thing.”
Hood’s lips tightened. “We got us a war because Bark was chasing pussy?”
“Literally.” Amber made us understand. “They’re furious over it.” She confirmed, too, “Lionel went after them, up into the mountains. As of last time Leo talked to him, he hadn’t caught up with them.” She hesitated, but said, “He’s in cat country though, and they’re confident that it’s just a matter of time before they catch him--and kill him.”
“Then what was the broadcast all about?” That’s the big reason for the honeymoon in St. Louis, wasn’t it?
Amber sort of rounded on Leo, squinting. “Oh, hell no,” she said, before turning back to us, saying, “It was a ruse to bring us down, and out. To get a hold of...me.” She glanced over at Giselle with a squint. “They wanted me to help hunt him down.”
“Can you do that?” Why, in hell, hadn’t we just put her on the trail and let her do it? It might seem like a simple plan to go straight to the lodge, where Bark was last seen, and let her follow the trail before it got any colder. Why the circumnavigated trip through Missouri?
“Never tried. Presumably.”
“We’d have to let her go into cat territory to do that.” Hood growled. “We’d be better off flushing them out than doing that. We couldn’t send in enough protection for her. It would look like we were mobilizing an army.”
“Or she’d be at risk,” Frank said. “Of being captured--again--or worse, killed.”
“Or raped.” Giselle grumbled. “Don’t forget that.”
Amber swung around. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Fine.”
The pilot said, “I only have so much fuel, sir. Do we have a destination?”
“Wolf Enterprises.” Hood had no hesitation in his voice. Taking complete charge, he said, “This is what we’re going to do. Lock him up at Wolf. Sit tight. Wait until our reports come in.”
And so we took him there. We put him in a dungeon of sorts, in the center of the massive underground complex. We kept him gagged, straightjacketed and drugged up. Frank volunteered for guard duty. He said he could work the books at the same time. Who were we to argue? It seemed like the perfect solution.
Hood took Giselle home, and left Amber with me. Mostly because, I think, he and Giselle had come to an understanding on that relationship. And he wanted her to pick Leo’s brain some more. I think that was the real reason.
So, there I was sitting at my desk, writing in a fucking journal about things that had passed. Trying not to consider the days, and weeks, that had gone by since that forty-eight hour trip to hell and back.
Let me tell you, too, that I have considered and reconsidered Hood’s definition of fidelity. I know, sure as shit that he forgives sins of the flesh. That he separates that from emotion. And that he thinks a sexual urge is just that.
Well, I think he’s wrong. There was a time I used to think that. But that was before I met Amber. Before I fell in love and learned what it was to worship a body with all my heart, mind, and soul.
There are plenty of other things about Amber that I could write. Or about the happenings at Wolf. The state of our stock--which, thank Gaia, is rising again. All credit to Frank’s brilliance there.
Or my growing unease. We had a report that Lionel Felini had returned to his compound, and found out that Leo was missing. There’ve been subtle shifts through cat country. We know they’re getting ready to come back at us.
I worry that Amber’s been communicating with her brother, that she’s a plant of some sort. I hate mistrusting her. I mind block almost 24/7 now.
We confirmed that Tommy had, indeed, been shot, but was on the mend. That news, actually, came from Leo, via Amber. And was backed up by satellite footage that showed him on the Felini Compound terrace, barechested with a bandage. It seems to prove what we’d been told.
I had enough ink on the pages. It was late and Amber hadn’t returned. I tossed the pen, and the book, and got up.
Had she gone to see Leo...
like that
? In her cat suit? Or Frank, even? They seem to have struck up some kind of friendship. It made me growl.
I knew suddenly, without a doubt, that she’d gone to Wolf Enterprises. I got up and headed out. I sniffed her trail, just in case she’d gone somewhere else, but it led straight to Wolf. The night security waved at me as I came in, and pointed to the elevator, making a down gesture.
There was a certain sense of...anticipation...I had in catching her, maybe in the act of cheating on me. I have to tell you, I’ve become an expert on Leo and Frank’s body language, and hers, too. I’ve replayed every maneuver Leo used on me. And I’ve taken to working out in opposite and alternation. If we ever went head to head again, I’d be much less predictable.
Dawn was on my heels. I noticed that as the elevator doors drew shut. It wouldn’t be long before people were swarming the place. My people. People who depended on me.
A lot had changed--in my heart--since that first day when everything was dumped in my lap. I had stepped up. I was the alpha they turned to.
Everywhere but in my own home. While the elevator plunged, I relived the moments before Amber had walked out the door. What’s that she’d said? “You gonna stop me?”
Yes, by Gaia. I was. I made up my mind right then and there. I was her man, her alpha, and I was done playing beta. I stripped down, knowing I’d be better able to sneak up on her, them, if I didn’t have clothes and shoes on.
When the doors opened, fully shifted to lupine, I pounced out and ran. It felt tremendous to stretch out. I took the long way. She’d expect me to come directly from the elevators--if she anticipated my coming at all.
Getting close, I slowed my gait, let me tongue loll a bit, and perked my ears. I could hear voices.
“Amber,” Frank said, “you’re a cruel bitch, but I love what you do.”
She chuckled. “I know you do. You’re a masochist.”
“And you’re a sadist.”
“A mere pawn to the queen.”
“He’ll kill me without a thought, won’t he?”
“Mm. Probably.”
He was right. I’d slash his throat before he knew what hit him. Yes, I was thinking the worst. Call me a paranoid bastard. But you’ve seen what I’ve been dealing with. And the woman is a total prick tease. I haven’t even touched the torture she’s put me through.
Like...the fact that she’d run to him
in that outfit.
Damn, was I fucking slow. How long had they had? I’m surprised they weren’t done with it. Or that the smell of them, together, hadn’t permeated the air, out into the hall.
I picked up my pace again, shifting to crinos. I rounded the corner into the room they were in--at full speed, preparing to leap. They scrambled. I guess I huffed and growled. Don’t even recall that. Amber told me later.
A chess board went flying, and the pieces, too. I never noticed that until later.
Frank shifted and so did Amber. She tossed off the coat as I came in. The catsuit stretched with her crinos form.
He swiped at me, out of reflex, I think. After all, he was guarding a prisoner. That came to me later, too. All I saw was a morphed claw swiping through the air.
I reared up, slapping Frank down--jumping his chest, fangs to his jugular. “You touch her
ever again
and I’ll rip your fucking throat out.”