The Legend of the Werewolf (7 page)

Mike could see from the way he stared
that he would rather have Annie than any of the men. He clenched
his fists. Men who hurt women pissed him off.

"In what condition I return her in depends
entirely on her co-operation," Hadrian said, as though every pair
of eyes were not glaring at him.

Mike snarled and saw red. Hadrian
wanted to torture her. He could sense it. That sick, twisted little
twerp wanted to hurt her, rape her, all because she’d saved his
life. "You're not taking her!"

"Boy? What other boy?" Gordon didn't
seem to hear the threats as he snapped his head from Annie to
Westley, both of whom had sheepish looks on their faces and didn’t
meet his eyes.

Gordon rounded on Mike when they gave
no answer. "Who else was there? Not that dragon!"

What?
Mike looked past passed him to Annie
and Westley. He couldn't read their thoughts but their eyes
implored him to say nothing.

That kid did have a dragon tattoo on his
arm but Mike didn't take it to mean that he was an actual
dragon.

His hesitation confirmed Gordon's fear.
"Unbelievable! I told the both of you to stay away from
him!"

Mike stepped in. "He's not dangerous,
he helped me escape and didn't leave your son behind when we
ran."

Gordon glowered at him. "He's dangerous
enough."

Hadrian coughed to return their attention
to him. Though he was being ignored, he was no more menacing for
it. "Do we have a deal?"

Gordon clenched his jaw. Mike could see
him fighting for control of himself, but his answer came quickly.
"I am not the kind of man to send a member of my pack to
die."

Hadrian stabbed his finger out in
Mike's direction, spittle flew from his mouth. "He's not of your
pack!"

"He is now. As for the stone, well,
there is no proof that it was actually yours to begin with. Leave
immediately before we resort to drastic measures."

A tiny seed of respect cracked open
inside Mike’s chest. At least the man took care of his
own.

Without hesitation, Brock’s giant
fingers worked on the tiny buttons of his shirt. He removed it, his
jeans and boots, and calmly morphed into a giant of a
wolf.

His head reached well pastpassed Mike's
stomach, almost to his shoulder. Brock’s lips pulled back,
revealing his fangs. He snarled, hackles raising.

Mike’s jaw dropped. God damn. He’d seen
transformed werewolves before, but Brock was an enormous
monster.

Hadrian gasped and stepped
back.

Bill smirked. "The warlock from legend
was always terrified of the creatures he created."

“
He did scream like a girl when I
attacked him,” Westley said with a smirk.

"You will all suffer for this!" Hadrian
screeched, his voice high pitched like a woman’s. He never took his
eyes from the wolf slowly advancing on him.

“
I came peacefully, when the sun
is high and I am without my men. I should have known you monsters
would be so uncivilized.”

Brock’s head lowered and he stepped
forward.

Hadrian stepped back, his body trembling
and fists clenched.

"If he’s scaring you then, by all means,
leave," Bill said. "Magic or no magic, you’re outnumbered and you
can’t call your soldiers with the sun so high."

Hadrian's eyes literally blazed fire
when they landed on Mike. Licking flames spurted out his mouth and
through the gaps in his teeth as he snarled. "I will return for
you, Edward. I will kill you, you filthy peasant!"

Edward?

Images from the visions suddenly came
flooding back; one man dying on the ground while another is
surrounded in the woods. Mike met Hadrian’s fiery stare with a cold
one. "I won't lay down and die like the rest."

Annie turned her head to him, no doubt
thinking of the visions he’d told her of.

Hadrian's eyes widened at the challenge
before anger flooded back over his face. "Since the dragon is not
here, I shall start with him. I had no difficulty finding you. I
shall have no trouble finding him!"

"Wait!" Westley yelled.

Hadrian raised his arms and his body
exploded into a cloud of black smoke that rose into the sky. He
drifted away with the breeze, his maniacal laughter ringing through
the air until the cloud vanished in the distance.

Westley grabbed his father's shoulder
and forced him to face him. "Dad, we can't let him kill
Chris."

Gordon glared, pointing a meaty finger
in Westley’s face. "If you’d done what I said to begin with, he
wouldn't be involved in this, would he?"

"But—"

"He's a dragon. He'll be fine on his own.
Even if Hadrian tracks him down, Christopher can defend
himself."

Annie touched her pack master’s
shoulder, her eyes begging. “Gordon, please don’t do this.
Hadrian’s afraid of us and we outnumber him. Chris doesn’t have
those advantages.”

Gordon shrugged her arm off, dusted his
leather jacket, and turned as though to leave.

Mike stepped forward, blocking his path.
"With all due respect, you're keeping me here against my will,
specifically because you think when he kills me my blood will be on
your hands. What's the difference now?" He didn't know why this
pack was so against dragons and he didn't care. He couldn't allow
this man's judgments to kill an innocent being.

Mike’s words made the older man
glare.

Bill’s reasoning voice came next. "He's
right, Gordon."

The pack master swore and turned his face
to the sky. "Christ, of all the... Fine! Annie, call him and tell
him what's going on, if he feels safer on the ranch, that's fine.
But. I don't want either of you near him."

Annie ran and kissed Gordon's cheek. Mike
got the impression she hadn't expected him to do so much. "Thank
you, Gordon."

His eyes didn’t soften. “I mean it.
Neither of you are to go near him.” He pointed his finger at
Westley again. “Not one step.”

Though his jaw was clenched tightly shut,
Mike could tell the younger man was running his tongue over his
teeth. “Understood, Sir.”

“Good.”

Annie released her master, spared Mike
a glance, and ran off to the main house. Probably for the
phone.

He wished he could go with her so he’d
know which room it was in. Maybe if he asked her nicely, put her in
an unguarded mood like he’d done earlier, she’d tell him where it
was.

Or, should it be a cordless, have her
bring it to him.

Mike put the idea away for later. His stay
was extended so he needed to watch Gordon's habits; when he left
his house and for how long, so Mike could break in.

"Looks like you’re here for a while yet,"
Gordon said, mirroring his thoughts.

Mike bit back his irritation and
nodded.

"No, Brock, you might as well stay that
way," Gordon said to the giant orange wolf, who was collecting his
clothes with his jaws. "If Hadrian's so afraid of werewolves, it's
better if you keep like that while Mr. Carter stays with
us."

Brock let out an agreeable bark when
Gordon took his clothes for him.

"Here," Gordon tossed him something.
Mike didn't realize it was his wallet until he caught
it.

Mike stared at him
curiously.

Gordon stared back. "Hadrian brought
it. Said it was useless to him now."

Panicked, Mike flipped it open. Nothing
was missing, not his ID, two credit cards, or even the thirty
dollars in cash. Only when he was eased with the knowledge that
nothing had been stolen did he shake his head at
himself.

Stupid, he thought. What would an
all-powerful, supposedly immortal warlock need with money? The man
probably had a stash of medieval gold coins hidden away
somewhere.

Something much worse suddenly dawned on
him. "He knows where I live."

Mike watched Gordon turn away and walk
out of sight, a shiver shaking his spine.

"You're right, he does know where you
live," Bill said, his arms folded enough to keep the chill out of
his old robe. "The town, street, apartment. The wallet was probably
how he tracked you here.”

Mike sighed as the answer came. “Of
course. Dowsing”

All you needed was an object, something
the person you were trying to find cared a lot about, or carried
around. With just a single hair it was possible to magically trace
someone.

He couldn’t go home. Not anymore. Not
until Hadrian was dealt with.

“You don’t have anyone waiting for you
back at that apartment of yours, do you?”

Mike looked at the man, deciding to ignore
the fact that he’d looked through the wallet as well. “No. My
family doesn’t live in that city.”

Gordon nodded. “You're safest bet would
be to stay here until we figure out what to do."

“My safest bet is Griffon City with
about a hundred men behind me with guns.”

Gordon glared at him. “Not going to
happen. ‘Sides, you wouldn’t make it back to the city before he
found you.”

Mike knew that. He was just
pissed.

Even with perfect traffic, it would take
too long to drive from California to New York State. He was
stuck.

Whatever. He needed to get over it
already. Hadrian had already made it known that he would stoop as
low as taking his revenge out on innocent people. On Annie. That
was more than enough reason for him to stay, if only to make sure
she stayed safe.

If he was going to help then he needed to
get as much information as possible about what was going on with
that dragon. "I thought werewolves were open to adding mostly
anything to their packs. Why is it a problem if your son is friends
with a dragon?"

Gordon snarled and turned away, but not
before Mike caught the gleam of light against his perfectly white,
perfectly sharp incisors.

Touchy subject apparently.

A hand gripped his shoulder. It was
Bill. “Come on, son. I’ll take you back to your cabin.”

The man’s gentle voice had Mike moving
without caring that he was being led back to captivity.

Great.

Then Bill spoke, his voice low with
secrecy. "I’m only telling you this because you’re a policeman.
Understand?”

“
Yes,” Mike said, eager for
someone to willingly give him information.

Bill didn’t look at him, just stared
straight ahead as though they weren’t talking at all. “Gordon has
decided for the sake of peace in the pack that Westley will marry
my granddaughter. Christopher is a threat to that
marriage."

Mike abruptly stopped. "She's
engaged?"

***

Anne dialed the number and breathed a
heavy sigh when Chris picked up.

"Wherever you are, leave. You're not
safe."

"Okay, hi to you, too. What's going
on?"

"That guy last night? Yeah, he found us.
And, because Gordon wouldn't hand Mike over, he's coming for
you."

Chris's tone suggested that hearing
someone was out to get him didn't even cause him to blink.
"Mike?"

"The guy we rescued last night!" sShe
shrieked. "Someone's going to try to kill you. Doesn't that scare
you?"

"So, explain why he's coming after me.
I didn't think he even saw me."

Gordon didn't own a cordless phone, so
when she paced the cord tangled around her waist and arms. "It
wasn't just Mike he wanted, he wanted Westley too." She decided to
leave out the part where he demanded her as well.

Her body warmed from her toes to the hair
on her head as the image of Mike, angry and indignant, came to
mind. He’d immediately leapt to her defense when Hadrian had
suggested it. Looked ready to rip that man a new one.

She heard a scramble on the
other end of the line. "
What?
"

Anne rolled her eyes, pulling herself back
into the present. "Obviously Gordon wouldn't allow it, so Hadrian's
going after you until he can get his hands on Mike."

Chris sighed with relief and Anne
clenched her teeth. "Did you hear what I said?"

"I did, but for a second I thought it
was worse than it really was.”

She grit her teeth. How could the idiot
think that this wasn’t just as bad?

“Okay, I'll pack some things and head
out,” he said. “Been meaning to take a vacation for a while anyway.
Shame I have to be alone."

Anne grinned. "You don't have to be.
Gordon invited you to stay here."

She could see his shocked blink in her
head. "Really?"

"Don't get ideas. I'm thinking he's going
to put you in one of the empty houses. Or even the barn. Then maybe
lock you inside."

She pictured the wheels in his head
turning as he thought about how to get around that little obstacle.
"Hmm."