3: Fera - Pack City (13 page)

The wolves laughed. I surmised that I had been more than oblivious for part of the evening. How could they have watched and I not known?

The missing moments that I’d instinctively felt. Thoughts about gang rapes came to mind. How girls had blanked things out. I wondered, was that why I was so sore? Had Jack somehow...inconceivably...let them at me?

Was it some price? What he’d exchanged for his life? A pre-planned night and rendezvous here at this far away creek spot?

I can tell you, there was never a more devastated being than me, at that moment. Crushed. Heart shattered.

“Don’t listen to him.” Jack finally said something, but it wasn’t convincing enough to me, to make me think that I had it wrong. Seemed like he said it from down a tunnel, just to placate me.

Mr. Vocal said, “He never does it doggy style. Not to save his life, even. Right?”

The muscles in Jack’s back rippled with restraint. Fury. But I knew, the bitten couldn’t bring their crinos on by sheer will. He said, “I don’t do it with dogs.”

I flinched. Technically, I was not a dog, but I knew what he meant.

He added, “Male dogs. Losers.”

“Careful,” Mr. Vocal said. “I’m pretty sure we could rip your throat out at this juncture.” Hoarse laughter followed, before he added, “Just like old times, eh, Jack?”

Jack wasn’t backing down, though. He said, “You’ve had your fun. You got what you wanted. Now go. You’ve done your damage. I took her. Hood’s on our trail. That’s enough.”

Turning his back on them, he faced me. There was remorse there, in his eyes, but it didn’t make me feel any better.

I didn’t process his use of my brother’s name, like he knew him well. I knew the losers had wanted to put me down, break my spirit. I focused on that. But Jack’s words made me feel safe enough to know I hadn’t been raped by the lot of them.

I didn’t understand why they hadn’t just raped me, though, instead of employing an unnatural. Either way, I was tainted for a pure wolf. I asked, “So, what? They paid you?”

“Not exactly. Well, yeah. They let me live.”

To my utter surprise, he went behind a bush, picked up a bundle and started putting clothes on. I demanded, “What in hell are you doing?”

“Look. I don’t really feel comfortable. This ain’t a nudist colony and I’m sure you don’t want me around for what’s going to come next.”

“What do you mean, what’s going to come next?”

My eyes popped. Rape came to mind again. I backed up another step in the water. The losers laughed some more. They didn’t have to read minds to get wind of my fear. Like I said, I was totally at their mercy in that girl skin.

Jack buttoned the front of his jeans. I’d have given an arm and a leg, easily, for a pair of jeans like that, ones that were hard to undo very fast, that fit like a skin. Even then, I remember thinking that he was sexy.

He said, “Don’t worry. They won’t rape you.” He gave them all an intent look. “They’re just going to keep an eye on you until your brother and Leer pick up your trail again. They should be here pretty soon.”

Words. Meaningless words. Words for whose benefit? They numbed me.

And there it was again. Absolute, beyond belief, deafening betrayal. He was abandoning me? Blood rushed through my ears. Numbness pooled in my legs, weighting me like cement blocks. I asked, “You mean, you’re leaving me...for Hood and Leer to find?”

That might be all it took to turn over the power in Pack City again. Hood’s rage would surely provoke a fight between him and Leer. Leer had turned me down, er, turned his nose up. And it was Leer’s cell that hadn’t held. Leer’s mate on guard when I was stolen from Pack City.

Never mind that I’d gone willingly. Or that Hood had come before that. He’d left her, Kayty, still on watch in crinos form. She should have been able to head off the intruder and surely to set up a cry that would bring everyone in, but she’d left her post. Oh, my mind was working fast, trying to see the whole damn picture. Only my heart kept trying to back up, to tug at strings that Jack had placed around it. Little sweet things that couldn’t have been faked, or acted out for the sake of an audience’s pleasure. He’d truly enjoyed making love with me. And as much as we’d hard fucked, we’d had that sensual connection.

His eyes had romanced me. His lips had teased me.

Oh, I was sick. Confused.

But I asked, “So, you’re leaving me...with all these losers, like this, knowing that Hood is on his way.” More a statement than a question.

Jack pulled a shirt over his head, a black T-shirt, and tucked it in. Leaning on a rock, he slipped socks onto his feet, and then pulled black boots on. In the middle of that, he said, “Don’t worry, the pack won’t shun you. Hood will see to that.”

“How do you know what Hood will do?” My voice slid up the octave scale quickly, “He’ll probably slash my belly open before I can get out of the water, as soon as he smells the air. Just to make sure I don’t birth your offspring.”

The scent of us was everywhere, for those with good olfactory nerves.

“Come out of the water. Apply yourself to shifting.” He sounded confident, unhurried, absolutely sure I could do it.

“Why last night? Why you?” I was putting two and two together. Had Hood hired this--man--instead of the losers? Did I have the story completely wrong?

I’d originally assumed that the losers had bitten him first.

Had they gotten in the middle of another deal?

How could I have been so wrong about destiny and finding my soul mate?

“Last night was perfect. You were perfect.” Jack was standing now, looking straight at me. Looking too damn sexy. Looking unapproachable.

And I may be stupid, but I really believed he was sincere at that moment.

Of course, the wolves started to laugh again. Gaia-damned hyenas.

I felt like the butt of a joke. And one more time, I felt a doubling pain in my midsection. Wincing, leaning forward, I said, “I can’t believe this is happening. That you lied to me.”

He rubbed his face, squeezed his nose between his thumb and forefinger, covering his mouth.

I had to stagger from the water, drop to one knee, then to all fours.

Puke.

He said, “You’ll be all right. Don’t fight the shift.”

Mr. Vocal said, “You sure you don’t do it doggy style, Jack? She’s in position.”

“Shut up.” Jack sounded angry and maybe a little concerned, but he didn’t close the distance between us.

It didn’t matter. I couldn’t look up. I couldn’t do anything but hang on. I was shifting back.

Holy shit, I was shifting back. My eyes rolled up into my head, I heard popping, grinding, stretching--I phased through crinos with no control--right into lupus. But fuck that shit, it hurt like hell, and when I was done, I felt weak, almost crippled. Definitely like I was dying. I took a few steps and fell at Jack’s feet. Crawled to his feet, to be more correct.

Not that I’d been going to him. At least, I don’t think I was.

Yeah. Maybe I was.

Before I passed out, I heard Mr. Vocal say, “Shit! Here they come! Get the hell out of here before--”

Chapter Twelve

I woke up in a strange place. A place I’d never been before. An apartment in the city. I didn’t recognize anything, felt totally disoriented. It took me several minutes to struggle up to a sitting position.

Jack sat across from me, his elbows on his knees, hands clasped. My gaze strayed to the window, dark was setting in again. That answered my first question, about how long I’d been out. Obviously, all day.

He smiled. Mr. Crooked Lips. And he said, “You’re one pretty wolf, Fera.”

I flashed my eyes at him and pulled back a lip. I’d show him pretty.

“So this is what you’re really like when you wake up. I should’ve guessed.” He shrugged, sat back, cradled a glass filled with an amber liquid. “I mean, you gotta have some of the same blood that your brother does in there.”

“What do you know about my brother?” Yep. You could say I was irritable, distrusting, manifesting all the signs of a street dog--ready to bite.

“I know that he’s working two sides of the fence. Got plans of his own.” He took a sip. Must not have gone down smooth, because his face jerked a little in reaction.

“How did you get me out of there?”

“Let’s say, now that I know what I’m up against, I’m not all that outmatched.”

I didn’t trust him. It didn’t make sense that he’d gotten past that many wolves. And I didn’t understand what he meant about Hood working two sides of the fence.

I don’t care that he had me out of there, safe and sound, and that I didn’t seem to have any new marks or pains. He’d hurt me. And he’d revealed something awful to me.

A bitch is used to the other bitches plotting against her. She knows that that’s part of life in Pack City. But to find out that the males used you as a pawn, that hurts. And to think my brother was the asshole that may have set me up, that was, well, unthinkable. And it’s even worse when you may have made a fool of yourself on top of all the rest. I tried desperately to remember if I’d stupidly declared undying love, or anything else remotely close to it.

Yes. Pride, saving face, that was pretty much all I had left, and not too much of that, mind you. I called him a prick. And I got up, stretched my aching body, went nosing around.

No female scents. No scents but his. At the entry to the kitchen, I announced, “I’m thirsty.”

“So, shift and get yourself something.” He pretended to be interested in a magazine at his elbow. I knew he was testing me. I didn’t want to play his game, or give him any more information about what I could or couldn’t do. And at that moment, I was pretty sure I couldn’t have shifted for my life.

But I was wrong. His patience out-waited my thirst--because you know I wasn’t asking that man twice. With a loud, “Fuck you, I promise you’ll be sorry for this,” I concentrated. And lo, and behold, my body did its thing.

There was no ugly sound. Some moans from me, maybe, but nothing like popping. I went straight to the sink. Oh, I’d seen people use them before. Kayty had given me some trips to town, shown me how things worked.

Yes. Walked me like a dog. That’s why I picked out the damn collar. I don’t look enough like a German shepherd or a husky to get away without a collar. Pure wolf, remember?

I turned the sink on, leaned over, and put my face under the running water--drank my fill. I know he watched me. Wanted me.

Because his next words were, “That loser was wrong. I’d do it doggy style with you, if it pleases you.”

I didn’t like the twitter that slithered through to my groin immediately. Zinged right through my back, straight from his gaze, spiraled down to my crotch, and homesteaded. I took my time turning off the water, wiping my face with the back of my hand. There was a window over his sink. I looked out, and asked, “What was he talking about?”

“Come here. We need to talk.”

I liked the distance, but he held his tongue until I padded back into the living area. I flopped down on his sofa, pulled the closest thing over me, a pillow. Not that I was self-conscious, just felt like protecting myself. Didn’t want him to smell my reaction to him.

He swallowed the rest of his drink and set the glass aside. Leaning forward, he said, “I have to explain some things to you that you’re not going to like.”

“So, don’t bother.” I looked toward the door. I could shift out, and leave. Maybe not go back to P.C. Maybe find my own way. There’s a ton of lone wolves out there. Now that I’d shifted to human, and knew how to do it, I could handle it.

Maybe.

He touched me. Just a finger to my knee, to get my attention. “Fera--”

So wonderful, to hear my name from his lips. Core-melting. Honest. That thought made me jerk away from him. “What?” I hopped up off the couch.

“I’m becoming an expert on werewolf behavior. Masters of avoidance.”

“Right.” I paced.

“Want to know who bit me?”

“Does it matter?”

“You might find it interesting.”

I stopped the pacing. Putting my hands on my hips, I said, “Okay. Who? I thought it was a loser.”

“Nah. That would have been easy to avoid.”

“But you said--”

“That they had me down, pinned, ready to bite me again? Yeah. It’s all true, but that was when they were hunting me down, to exterminate me.”

“Funny. You seemed on pretty good terms.”

“Let’s just say I taught them a little respect.”

“So, who--?”

Apparently, he had a sudden thought. “You know what? Let’s play a game.”

“I don’t play games.”

“If you’re surprised by my answer--on who bit me--we do it.”

“Do what?”

“It. Doggy style, even.”

“It doesn’t really matter to me. The Pack will deal with the culprit. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m outta there.”

“Love me, Fera. Let me love you.”

Okay. That got me. Had me flinching, backing up, instantly even more wary. “Don’t start that bullshit on me, Jack. I know your game now. I was a play, part of a deal. That’s over.”

He shook his head. “Nothing’s over. Not until I say it is.”

“You think that Hood won’t follow us? He’s probably around the corner as we speak.”

Jack wrinkled his nose, shrugged. “I think the losers have muddied the trail a little more than that.”

“So, what? They’re playing rat pack for you?”

He shrugged again.

“They’re fucking losers, and you are, too, for doing business with them. Fucking me for a price.” That’s what really made me mad.

Jack had me by the elbow, nose to nose, a millisecond later. Standing there, toe to toe, I could barely breathe. His leashed tension was palpable. “
For my life
. You don’t think you’d roll over for that? It was a fair trade on their initial request.”

He didn’t have to say it. I knew the losers were bi-sexual. But this told me, unequivocally, that Jack wasn’t. His fingers pinched a little. I may have winced, but I didn’t cry out.

Flipping my head so my hair would fall backward out of my eyes, I said, “Your deal is done. Let me go.”

“Hood bit me.”

“Impossible.”

He stared me down. He stared me down until I couldn’t doubt it.

“Not only that, but he bit me and let me go on purpose.”

“That’s a lie.”

His brow went up. Just one. And I thought, please tell me you’re joking. Please smile, say you were teasing. Oh, Gaia, please be--

Jack cut through my thoughts, my spiritual begging, by saying, “Fera, he chose me for a reason. To prove a point. Except I disproved it. I answered a question.”

I didn’t want to ask, but my tongue formed the words. “What question?”

“Where do the pure ones descend from?”

“That’s not true. I was born a wolf, raised a wolf.”

He kissed me then, hard, and said, “Do you know what Hood does, out in the human world?”

I blinked. My mind raced. “He’s a doctor.”

“Correction, sweetheart. He’s a geneticist.”

“A gen...geneti--”

“Studies how--”

“I know what a geneticist is.” I yanked free of him.

“I work for a firm called Wolf Enterprises. In connection with Lobos International.” His voice went into a tunnel then. I was struggling against fainting. My vision blurred as he explained, of all things, Wolf and Lobos to me.

“National and world organizations, consortiums for werewolves and garou kin.”

Several members of Pack City interacted there, or traveled for the cause, in the name of one company or the other, or one of its many subsidiaries. I wondered how they could not have recognized him when he came through P.C. Or he them.

I insisted, “But you were human. Not kin.” Confused, I said, “You said you were bit. This doesn’t make sense.” It didn’t make sense because Wolf and Lobos only hired garou. Unnaturals weren’t even on the scale, because they were all supposed to be terminated upon discovery. Or so I thought.