Enforcer's Heart: (BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (Stratton Wolves Book 3) (3 page)

***

After dropping off Layla at home, kicking the three city kids into the cells at the pack house, and calling young Jenson’s parents to pick him up, Riley figured he was due a break and headed to the local pub.

Honey’s Bar was an oddity even in their world. Honey wasn’t a shifter, but she could always spot one in a crowd. Riley didn’t know why, and neither did she, but it sure was helpful for running a bar smack bang in between a wolf town, a lion town, and a bear town. There had even been talk of a were-hedgehog pack in the area, but he’d always figured that was just an urban myth. Until he’d found out Honey’s man, Blake, was the were-hedgie head honcho.
That
he hadn’t seen coming.

Riley was an alpha, an enforcer, and a scrapper to boot, but Blake was something else entirely. Fights in Honey’s Bar tended to be short, sweet, and ended by Blake throwing the perpetrators out. That his shifted form was a hedgehog was… yeah. But the upshot of it all was that Riley could relax, have a drink, and forget about dumbass teenage werewolves, at least for an hour or two.

He parked his truck around the side and headed for the front. Before reaching the door, a figure detached from the shadows by the window. Instinctively Riley paused. Menace rolled off the tall figure; a deep breath gave the reason.

Male, young, and so saturated with his ex-wife’s scent that Riley had to stop himself from turning to see if Jenna was present. She wasn’t. She never was. He knew because this had happened before. More than once.

Sighing, he folded his arms. “Really? You want to do this here?”

The figure stepped forward into the light away from the bar. Riley resisted the urge to roll his eyes. As he’d expected, it was one of the newer members of the pack: Paul.

Being a few hours out of the city, they often got drifters. Wolves who hadn’t settled with any pack. Some spent a few days and then disappeared, moved on, but some stuck around and tried to integrate into the pack. Sometimes they managed it. They settled in, became productive members of the extended lupine family. Married or mated, had kids or pups, and generally fell off Riley’s radar.

Some, though, didn’t.

Some, drawn in by his ex-wife’s tales of abuse and neglect, decided they were her knight in shining armor, and that Riley had to pay for his crimes. Suckers. Riley learned long ago that Jenna was a fantastic actress, prepared to tell any lie to further her own aims. Usually, that meant trying to get rid of him in a challenge fight like this.

“Just me and you. Out here.”

“That’s true. I wouldn’t want to face Blake in an all-out fight, either.” Riley wrinkled his nose as the guy stepped closer.

Tall and whipcord thin, every time Riley had seen him, he had a ring of amber in his eyes, as if his wolf was constantly on alert. He and Max marked him as an issue the day he arrived, an assessment that still stood.

“Huh,” Paul shrugged. “I’m not bothered about that asshole. Pussy-whipped human. He’s just gotten lucky not to be in a fight with me.”

Riley snorted. Asshole and pretentious to boot, this guy was really ticking all the boxes. He spread his arms. “Fine. Then we do this here. But so we’re clear, you shouldn’t believe every sob story, no matter how pretty the face.”

Paul didn’t reply. Instead, he dropped his head and attacked. Riley sidestepped at the last minute, lashing out, slamming his elbow onto the back of the guy’s neck. Paul howled and spun around. Riley was ready. A swift front kick, followed by two crushing punches. The first Paul deflected, the second clocked him between the eyes. He blinked, stunned, then slowly toppled backward to crash into the dirt. Unconscious.

Riley straightened, rolled his shoulders to set his leather jacket more comfortably, and strode into the bar. He passed Blake in the doorway and paused. “Wolf. Out for the count. Deal with him while I call Max, would you? He’s one of Jenna’s. Again.”

Blake’s gaze shifted over his shoulder to the crumpled figure and his lips thinned. “Sure thing, bud. He bleedin’?”

Riley shook his head. “Nope. Maybe a little nosebleed but that’s it.”

“Multiple lacerations. Got it.” Blake deadpanned. “Get Honey to grab you a drink, I’ll deal with him.”

***

Werewolves, Ce decided, were assholes. Every last fucking one of them. From being bitten, she’d been put into the “care” of the local wolf pack until the full moon. Since she’d shot and killed one of their kind, they were less than pleasant company, conversing with her in snarls or grunts and watching her with hungry eyes. Not the good type of eating either…the see-what-her-insides-looked-like type of eating.

That was before the asshole-in-chief had ordered her locked away in one of the bedrooms. She was reduced to muttering to herself, her only source of companionship, as she paced the space between the walls and the ratty bed.

Now she was talking to even that.

“Bastards,” she muttered under her breath, hearing the sound of merriment downstairs. The pack lived together, in what had looked like a converted warehouse.
Badly
converted. The rooms were little more than boxes created with boards between the old steel beams. No windows, but there was a half inch gap under the door. Too small to do anything with, but enough to give her a tantalizing glimpse of freedom.

Assholes. All of them.

Heavy boots thundered against the stairs down the short corridor and she sighed, flopping onto the bed to grab the thin pillow to stuff over her ears. The party downstairs was bad enough, but as the evening had progressed, some of the merry-makers started to filter upstairs.

In couples.

Amorous couples, at least one of which had failed to make it to a bedroom so she’d been forced to listen to a couple of furries fucking on the other side of the (very) thin wall.

“Ugh,” she muttered to herself, holding the pillow ready for use as ear defenders when something slammed into the wall near her door. She couldn’t do another round of “Oh god, fill me, big boy” like the last two.

“Little pig, little pig…” The low, rough voice was right outside her door. “Let me in.”

Ce bit back a gasp, frozen on the bed as fear trailed long fingers down her spine. There was a wolf right outside her door, she could practically hear his stubble scratching the cheap wood as he spoke.

“Little pig…little pig,” the voice sing-songed, turning the nursery tale into something chilling. Sliding off the bed, Ce looked for something to use as a weapon. Anything would do, just as long as she had a fighting chance if he came through that door.

“Let me in…” The door handle jiggled, but it was locked, the key in the alpha’s pocket. So this wasn’t a sanctioned ‘visit’ or he’d have unlocked the door. Shit. Her gaze fell on the old bed, a wooden affair that had seen better days.

“Or I’ll huff…and I’ll puff…”

Hauling the ragtag mattress off, she threw it behind her, blankets and all. Her lips compressed into a thin line at the sight of the wood slatted bed-frame. She ripped two pieces loose and spun to face the door. Not the best weapon, but better than nothing.

She just wished she was facing down vampires. With two stakes, at least she’d have a fighting chance.

“And I’ll blow your door down!” The heavy whack of a boot against the door rattled it in its frame but it held. The bellow of rage rocked the thin barrier just as much, and all sounds of merriment downstairs ceased.

She backed up as the door took three more heavy hits. The sounds of footsteps on the stairway did nothing for her confidence, not when the last kick cracked the door by the hinges. One more and it would give completely.

“You killed my brother, you cop bitch.” The unseen wolf snarled, his voice lower than human. “I’ll rip your face off and eat your heart!”

Bellows sounded in the corridor outside as the door exploded inward. Ce screamed in fury and fear, ready to take on whatever came at her with her makeshift weapons. The door splintered and fell into the room, the sound muffled by the mattress in front of her. She got a brief glimpse of a big man before a streak of fur came from the side and bowled him out of her field of view.

The alpha, Kevin, stepped through the gaping doorway. His pale gaze flicked to the wood in her hands and his lips compressed. “Come on, you’re leaving.”

***

“Hey,” she bellowed a couple of hours later, hammering on the panel that separated the van’s cargo area from the driver’s cabin. “This is kidnapping, you know? I have rights!”

She did, didn’t she? She was bitten with the possibility that come full moon she’d have a hair problem no amount of girly pink razors would solve, but she still had rights. Everyone had rights. Werewolves had rights…fuck, even those little assholes who called themselves brownies had rights.

The only answer she got was the sound of the van slowing and the crunch of the gearbox as they changed direction. Onto freaking boulders, by the feel of it. The van lurched; she tried to brace herself in the corner, but it was no good. She was thrown about like a rag doll in a washing machine, spin cycle.

Finally the vehicle stopped, and she slid down the side panel to sit in a crumpled heap. The wild ride had slammed her knees and elbows into the metal walls and floor, leaving them aching and bleeding. She resisted crying and hugged her knees to herself as the back doors swung wide. No way was she showing weakness to these assholes.

“Out,” the alpha growled, his bright amber eyes hard.

He hated her, as sure as eggs were eggs, and the guy was a prick to boot. She’d heard him snap and snarl at the other wolves when she’d been locked in the bedroom in their pack “house.” Seemed their way of dealing with possible newbies was to lock them up. So much for the “care in the werewolf community” spiel her captain spouted when he allowed them to cart her off without a word of complaint. Cops stomping over people’s rights, she never thought she’d live to see the day.

“Don’t make me fetch you,” he warned, and she edged to the doors, trying not to wince. Her knee was cut, the denim already soaked with blood. His gaze flicked to it, but he didn’t say anything, just pressed his lips into a thin line as though the very sight irritated the fuck out of him.

She clambered out of the van, slipping under his arm, staying out of reach. He could catch her, she had no doubt, but the less he touched her, the better.

“Come on, then.” He walked away without looking at her, trusting she followed. She glanced around and nothing but scrubland and dirt looked back. No traffic noise, not even of a nearby highway, reached her ears, just night-time silence and quiet chirping of nature.

Great. A city girl, through and through, she freaking hated nature. Too much fresh air brought her out in hives.

Grumbling under her breath, she followed the werewolf asshole-in-chief around the van. And stopped dead. There, in a neat little semi-circle were more of the creatures. Three men, two standing and one on his knees with his wrists cuffed, and a woman also cuffed. At least, she assumed they were all werewolves.

“Hey, Daniels. How you doing? These the ones you want me to take?”

The asshole who’d brought her shook hands with one of the guys like they were old friends, and nodded toward the couple with cuffs. She padded to the front of the van to get a better look, keeping the alpha she’d arrived with between her and them. The kneeling guy was a little worse for wear, healing cuts and bruises marred his face. He’d taken a beating a couple days ago from the looks of it, but the woman was unmarked. Instead, she glared at one of the two men like she’d gut him with a blunt spoon.

“Assholes! You can’t do this! I have a home here, a life! I have rights! Riley, you’re a fucking ass!”

You go girl
, Ce thought with a ghost of a smile. Someone needed to tell these bastards they couldn’t stomp all over people.

“Jenna, if you try to have another member of the pack killed, you lose those rights,” Riley replied. Ce’s gaze locked onto him. Same as Daniels, he had bright amber eyes, but that’s where the resemblance ended. Where the other guy had long, tawny hair that flowed over his shoulders, Riley had a buzz cut, military short.

Bigger and broader than any of the others, including the alpha she’d arrived with, he emanated danger like it seeped from his very pores. The woman on her knees didn’t seem to care, curling her lip dismissively and turning around. Her gaze found Ce half hidden behind the city alpha and the woman sneered.

“And you’re exchanging me for
that?
A human? Well, you always did like fucking defenseless women, didn’t you, Riley? That’s the problem, isn’t it…I’m too much woman for you.”

“You’ll be a fucking dead woman if you keep that up,” the long haired wolf snarled, his amber gaze snapping to the guy Ce arrived with. “Kev, she’s a handful…spoilt little brat, I’m afraid. Sorry to put this on you.”

Ce huffed to herself. So, alpha asshole’s name was Kev. She filed that information for later use as the man himself shrugged one shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, mate. We’ll break her or bury her. Simple as that.”

Fear entered Jenna’s eyes, but Ce had no time to deal with that because Kev snagged her arm, dragging her forward.

“This one used to be a cop. Shot and killed one of my youngsters a couple of days ago,” he said and both the other men looked at her like she was dirt. Worse than dirt.

She gulped in a breath, her throat dry. “He attacked
me
, fucker. What’d you expect?”

What if Kev had brought her out here to exact furry justice for the murder of one of their own? She was alone and unarmed. She wouldn’t last a minute.

“Department handed her over until the full moon, but I got the kid’s older brother in my pack…had to keep her locked up to stop him killing her on the spot.” Kev shoved her forward. “I take these two, you keep a hold of this one until we know if she’s turned or not. Win-win situation.”

The longer haired wolf slid a sideways glance at the bigger one, silent communication passing between the men. Wolves. Whatever. Then Max nodded. “Works for us. Riley, load ‘em up,” he ordered, then held a hand out as the bigger wolf grabbed both by the arm, preparing to haul them upright. The muscles in his arms stood out in high relief.