Moon Dance (24 page)

She nodded.

Lenny looked at Mitch. “I’ll
help you get him out of here.”

Lenny and Mitch both left
the cell. Dana stayed huddled in a corner when they came back with
a stretcher. They loaded Cole onto it. Cole didn’t seem to notice
except for crying out in his sleep when they picked him up. It
probably hurt a lot. Dana cringed.

They wheeled Cole out, and Dana was
alone.

She waited for some time, and then
Lenny came back.

He swung open the door.
“Come on, we got paperwork.”

She went to the door. “Where
did you take Cole?”

“
Mitch’s office. He’s a
veterinarian, and he’s the only guy around these parts who’ll work
on wolves. If he can save your boyfriend, he will.”

“
Veterinarian?” Dana
whispered. She was in an alternate universe. How was this the SF?
She’d always known that the branches out here had less staff, but
she had no idea that they were so much different.

“
I know it’s a shock,” said
Lenny. “But you might as well get used to it. You’re a werewolf
now, and this is how you’re going to be treated.”

She shook her head. Back in
her world, she was cut off from people who weren’t wolves. She knew
that wolves were hated and feared, but she almost never had to deal
with it, due to her segregated life. The most that she’d ever
interacted with humans was the police officers at rogue wolf attack
scenes. She’d always thought they were bigoted and unfair, but now
she was beginning to realize they were downright
progressive.

“
Come on.” Lenny gestured
with his head.

She followed him down the hallway. They
went around a corner, through a set of doors, and then Lenny was
opening the door to another room. She stepped inside. It was an
office, but it was cramped and messy. There was a crack in the
ceiling.

“
This is ridiculous,” she
said. “I had no idea it was like this out here.”

“
Out here?” Lenny sat down
at his desk and motioned for her to sit in front of him. “You not
from these parts?”

“
No.” She sat down.
“Actually, there’s something you need to do. You need to contact
the SF branch in Pennsylvania and tell them that I’m
here.”

He chuckled. “Oh, Mabel told
me about you claiming you work for the SF. That’s
funny.”

“
It’s not funny, it’s true,”
she said. “My name’s Dana Gray. Actually, I don’t really work there
anymore, but my husband does, and I used to work there. But that’s
not the important thing. You need to tell them that Enoch is in
Arkansas, or at least he was—”

“
Look, you’re not going to
make this story fly.”

“
I swear I’m not lying to
you.” Jesus, this was frustrating. “Listen, call my
husband—”

“
That’s not your husband
with Mitch?”

“
No, that’s Cole,” she said.
“His name’s Cole Randall.”

Lenny started laughing.
“Cole Randall? Right, and you’re Dana Gray. Look, lady, if you’re
going to say that you work for the SF back east, pick someone whose
name has not been splashed all over the media. And get your story
straight. Everybody knows Cole Randall nearly killed Dana Gray.
There’s no way they’d be running around together, and there’s no
way she’d care if he was dying. So, just drop it.”

She let out a little noise
of shock. “If you know who I am, then you know I’m telling the
truth. There were pictures in the papers.”

“
Yeah, you kinda do look
like her. She’s hotter than you, but—”

“
Hotter?” She couldn’t
believe this. “Look, those pictures were taken years ago. I’ve aged
a little. I had a baby. I
am
Dana Gray.”

Lenny chuckled. “Seriously.
Drop it.”

She folded her arms over her
chest.

Lenny started going through
papers on his desk. “So, anyway, we’ll start over. And I’m going to
cut you some slack, because you’ve been through hell lately with
your boyfriend and all. Plus, I’m really sorry that no one was here
with you guys yesterday. We mostly run on volunteers, and I know
you guys didn’t get fed, and I realize that’s not cool. I would
have come if someone had called me, but no one did,
and—”

“
Volunteers? Seriously? But
I know that there’s money earmarked for this branch. I mean, they
give more money to the eastern, southern, and western branches
because there’s a higher population, and I realize you guys don’t
get as much, but there’s no reason not to have a staff. I don’t
believe this.”

Lenny straightened up a
stack of papers by tapping them against his desk. “Well, we don’t
get a lot of action out here. I think last year we had… maybe ten
rogues total, and five of them were on one full moon. Whole fucking
football team in this high school were all screwing some—” He
cleared his throat. “Never mind. Point is, we get by out here. You
guys are definitely throwing us for a loop though. It’s not even
the full moon, and I don’t understand what happened. So, maybe we
could talk about that?”

She sighed. “I know you
don’t believe me, but the thing is, I’m out here because there’s a
danger to the SF. The people who attacked the western branch are
going to attack again. And I know where they are, at least where
they were a few days ago, and I know when they plan to attack.
Can’t you just call the SF in Pennsylvania and pass that message
on?”

“
I thought we were going to
drop this.”

“
What would it hurt to call?
I mean, you can tell them you think I’m crazy, but just ask for
Ursula King and tell her that Enoch’s in Arkansas and that they
plan to attack the first Wednesday of next month.
Please?”

He rubbed his forehead.
“Everybody knows that attack out west was isolated.”

“
No, they don’t.”

“
The police in California
made arrests.”

What? When had this
happened? “Well, they arrested the wrong people. Please, Lenny,
it’s just a phone call.”

He cleared his throat and
picked up his pen. “I’m going to start the interview, okay? Can you
please describe for me the incident that brought you
here?”

“
Please call
them.”

He glared at her. “Was this
your first shift, ma’am?”

“
No, it wasn’t my first
shift. That’s why it didn’t happen on a full moon. I can shift
whenever I want, okay? Because I’m Dana Gray, and I need you to
call—”

“
Stop it.” He shook his head
at her. “Just try and tell me the truth, please. Now, we got a call
saying some guys had accidentally shot a werewolf. There were no
human casualties, so we weren’t very concerned. But then when we
get there, we find you chowing down.”

“
They threatened to shoot
me,” said Dana. “It was self-defense.”

“
You were a wolf. Even if
they had threatened you, you wouldn’t remember it.”

“
No, I would have,” she
said. “Because I can remember things from when I shift. But that
doesn’t even matter, because they threatened me when I was in human
form. So, I shifted, and I stopped them from killing
me.”

Lenny set down his pen. “So,
not only are you Dana Gray, you’re also superwolf?”

“
What?”

“
I’ve been a werewolf since
I was fourteen years old, ma’am. Now, I happen to know that there
are no wolves that shift at will, and there are no wolves who know
what’s going on while they’re shifted.”

“
But there are,” said Dana.
“There’s me, and there’s Cole. And my husband has shifted at will
too. My old boss King said that probably anyone who goes through
the tracker training at the SF can probably do it, it’s just that
no one tries. I’m sorry, Lenny. I realize you have a terrible
office here and no funding. But it’s not my fault that you’re
ignorant of—”

“
Now you’re calling me
names.”

“
Would you just fucking call
the eastern branch? Would you please do that?”

He got up. “I’m going to
have to take you back to the cell. You’re not cooperating,
and—”

“
Goddamn it, I’ll prove it
to you.” She started to unzip her jumpsuit.

“
Whoa, what the fuck are you
doing?”

She shed her jumpsuit, letting the
shift wash over her.

Lenny jumped up on his desk.
“Holy shit.”

She settled back on her haunches,
looking at him expectantly.

But Lenny reached down and got out his
tranq gun.

He shot her.

* * *

Dana woke up to a jolting
sense of absence.

“
Avery,” she
whispered.

Something had happened. She
didn’t know what it was, but she knew that she wasn’t mated to him
anymore. It was a strange sensation, as if something integral to
her being had been ripped away from her. She’d never felt this
before, not even when Hollis died. When Hollis died, all she’d felt
was relief. But this feeling was horrible and heart
wrenching.

Something had happened to
Avery.

No.

Just because they weren’t
mated, it didn’t mean that Avery was dead. He could have mated with
someone else. He could have been so angry with her that he decided
to sever their connection.

She wanted it to be that.
She didn’t want Avery to be dead.

Frightened, she peered at
her surroundings. She was back in the holding cell, but she was
alone. She wasn’t dressed again, but there was a jumpsuit folded up
and sitting on one of the benches. She put it on, and she went to
the door.

She pounded.
“Lenny?”

Nothing.

God damn it, was she alone in this
place again? Lenny said it was only staffed by volunteers, and that
no one had even been in the day before. Maybe no one was there
now.

Avery wasn’t mated to her
anymore, and she didn’t know what had happened to Cole.

For all she knew, they were both
dead.

She pounded on the door
again. “Hello? Is anyone out there?”

There was no response.

Dana thrust her hands into her
hair.

Oh, God, if something had happened to
Avery, then who was taking care of Piper?

She shut her eyes, starting
to pace. She was still connected to Piper. She could feel that. She
was an alpha wolf, Piper’s mother, and she’d been connected to her
baby even when the little girl was in her womb. She still had that
connection.

Piper was okay.

Well, Piper was alive, at
any rate. That didn’t mean that she was okay. Not
necessarily.

But Avery…

She tried to remember the
last thing that she’d said to him, and she couldn’t. She remembered
the final argument, Avery crying and begging her not to leave with
Cole. She remembered his bitter laugh.
I
wish I could fucking believe you.

But they’d spoken after
that. They’d talked about routines and mundane stuff, about dealing
with Piper’s babysitter. And when she left, she’d said goodbye to
him, even though he’d seemed cold and numb.

He died thinking that I
betrayed him
, she thought.

Oh, fuck that, maybe he
wasn’t dead. Maybe he was alive, and he’d just mated to someone
else. It could be that. It really could.

She wished like hell she knew one way
or the other.

* * *

“
Dana?”

She woke up, scrambling to
her feet.
How did I fall asleep? I didn’t
think I could sleep without knowing about Avery.
She felt ashamed.

Lenny was standing just
inside the holding cell, the door shut behind him. “It
is
you.”

“
I need you to call the
eastern regional branch. My husband—”

“
The eastern regional branch
was attacked in the middle of the night. Whoever did it had guns
and explosives. No one survived.”

Dana staggered backwards as if Lenny
had just punched her in the gut.

He hurried over to her and put out his
arms to help support her. Together, he led her back to one of the
benches, and they both sat down.

“
No,” she said. “No,
that’s not right, because I know my daughter isn’t dead. I
can
feel
her.” She
turned to look at Lenny, wanted him to confirm it for her
somehow.

He only shook his head. “I
don’t know anything about it, really. It was on the news. Just like
the attack out west. You were right. They were in
danger.”

“
But…” She dug her fingers
into her cheeks. “They weren’t supposed to attack until next
month.” Then it hit her. “It’s our fault. They attacked earlier
because Cole and I knew. If we’d never gone there…”

“
That’s really Cole
Randall?”

She pushed her fingers
deeper into the skin of her face. It hurt. “Is he okay?”