KNIGHT
Chapter 4
“Werewolves?”
“Yes,” Neil answered, knowing this was at least a reference she could understand, even if not fully.
“And you think I’m one?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe,” Jake corrected. “Maybe not. Actually, without doing any physical tests, we have no idea what you are. You’re an anomaly, a wildcard. By the way, we actually refer to ourselves as shifters or were-beings.”
“What are you talking about?” she screeched.
Her face beaded red and her irises swirled with changing color indicating that she had reached her maximum stress point, something that happened to a few of their adolescents prior to their first shift.
Neil shot a warning look to Jake. The girl was still too traumatized by what she witnessed and experienced to process any more of this information right now. It would be better to focus on getting her safely to their guarded community at Timber Ridge and let Rob Bryant deal with convincing her of her possible were-heritage.
“Okay, bear with me,” Jake said, ignoring him. “Even if you don’t believe me just yet.”
“Not in the least,” she spat.
“Lycanthropy is actually well-documented,” he explained. “Although our Packs try to keep any true scientific facts about were-kind from the human world, we allow a certain amount of eyewitness testimony to float around. Most all the stories throughout the generations then go down as superstitious myths and legends, and this actually protects our existence. Sort of like hiding in plain sight.”
Neil didn’t miss the fact that Alexia scooted further away from him, eyeing him now with extreme caution.
If she only knew.
“So then you’re all, what? Animals?” she questioned.
“Yes and no,” Jake said. “Technically all of us are shape-shifting human beings who take on expanded instincts and supernatural abilities of our counterparts in nature.”
“You mean wolves. Like those monster beasts in the alley.”
“Wolves are only one species of lycanthrope,” Jake continued. “There are many others—coyotes, cougars, bears, lions, eagles, dragons, to name a few.”
“Dragons?”
“Like Komodo dragons, not the medieval fire-breathing dragons you’ve read about in fairytales. Actually, they did exist at one time. Now they’re extinct, thanks to the bloodthirsty hunters who kill off any shifting were-species they come across.”
“Oh.”
“Most lycanthrope species are indigenous to their land and continent where they mostly remain to this day. All are natural predators, and because of this it’s wise for us to remain in our own territories to keep infighting and bloodshed to a minimum.”
The girl frowned, her trembling fingers tightly laced in her lap. Neil had to give her credit for keeping as calm as she was. Any other person would be screaming their bloody head off or literally going insane. He was impressed. She was a real fighter.
That also meant he needed to keep a sharper eye on her. She wasn’t going down without a hard fight, something he discovered when she bravely and foolishly tried to attack a fully shifted Wolf with a broken liquor bottle.
“So there are actual were-things in the world. Real, Hollywood—”
“Not Hollywood,” Neil corrected. “They have no idea what a true lycanthrope shifter looks or acts like. And yes, were-beings are real. You saw the Talanov enforcers change back there with your own eyes.”
Alexia hiked her brows at that.
“Anyhow,” Jake added, “although all were-creatures are half supernatural animal, we are also half supernatural human and attempt to live in civilized human society. We even have our own laws and court systems that we abide by for the most part. Some Packs and species are better about this than others, of course. It’s a tenuous truce at best, but it’s worked for millennia.”
“So you’re saying that Erik Leonid was…is a werewolf,” she concluded.
“A fully shifting wolf, yes,” Jake said.
Alexia swallowed hard, slicing a nervous look to Neil. He braced for the inevitable physical explosion and psychological break when she had finally reached her limit. It shocked him when she simply looked back to Jake and calmly asked the next question.
“Did my mother ever know this? That Erik Leonid was a werewolf, I mean a shifter?”
“Uh…that’s probably something else you should discuss with Erik personally. He could give you more specifics.”
Neil shot another warning look to Jake, both knowing this answer all too well. They had been with Erik and Rebecca Hartford that last day before the couple parted forever.
God, if any of them had known Erik’s mate had been pregnant at the time…
Not that it was ever supposed to happen.
Alexia sucked in a breath. “Did Leonid turn my mom? Was she really a...?”
“Wolf?” Jake finished. “No, that’s just another myth. A were-being could no more turn a human into another were-being than they could turn your eye color from brown to blue, or a bird could turn a fish into another bird. You’re either born human or born lycanthrope. It’s all in your inherited DNA.”
She exhaled heavily. “That’s something then. At least my mother was still my mother as I remembered her, not some monster who howled at the moon and scratched behind her ears with her foot when no one was looking.”
Neil covered a grin. Smart, pretty and funny, a rare combination.
“Okay, even if what you’re saying is true,” she reasoned. “I’m not a were-anything. I don’t turn into some overgrown husky when the moon is full. What did those Talanov thugs want with me?”
Neil shot him another pointed look. The girl was doing okay with all of this so far, but it was best not to push their luck.
Jake shook him off and continued, “Okay, this is where you’re going to have to take a leap of faith.”
“Now, I have to take a leap of faith?” she remarked.
“It’s like this,” he said. “You, Alexia Raine, are not even supposed to exist.”
Here we go, Neil thought grimly.
“And why not?” she asked.
“Because it’s impossible for any were-being and human being to conceive progeny. Our genetics are just too different. Not that people of our two species haven’t connected from time to time. It’s seriously looked down on and considered…”
Jake shuddered at the taboo. “Anyhow, no offspring could ever result from such couplings. Our Pack scientist Rachel Meadows could give you better specifics. She’s been researching lycanthrope and human genetics for over a decade. You should talk to her. As a medical doctor yourself, you’d probably find what she has to say fascinating.”
Alexia brows drew together. “So if Leonid is a werewolf, what does that make me?”
“Half,” Neil said
“Half what? A half-human?”
“A miracle,” Jake added quietly.
“Right. Because I shouldn’t exist. Because werewolves and humans can’t mix, and yet here I am. The anomaly. The wildcard. The freak of nature.”
“You’re not a freak, Alexia,” Neil told her.
The protective reflex, even against her own self-deprecation, made him shift uncomfortably in the seat, never experiencing it before. What the hell was wrong with him?
“Which is why the Talanov thugs want me,” she added, grimacing.
“That, and your Erik’s child,” Jake said, then gestured with his right hand while still gripping the steering wheel with his left. “See, sometimes in were-kind there are those who possess special, unusual gifts far beyond our typical supernatural abilities. It’s rare, and those individuals are highly valued and always well protected by their Pack. We have about eight in ours including Erik.”
“What special ability does Leonid have?”
This time Jake looked back at Neil who again shook him off for reasons he wasn’t exactly sure himself. All he knew was that the more this girl learned now of who and what they were, the stronger chance of her bolting at the first opportunity. He’d bet she already had a half-baked plan spinning in that platinum blond head of hers.
“Maybe your father should explain that part,” Jake said finally.
“Explain now, or I’ll wave down the first car that passes us. I’m not kidding.”
Neil shook his head harder. But as usual, Jake could never keep his mouth shut.
“Your father can read minds,” Jake said. “Other people’s minds.”
“Read minds?” she remarked. “You mean, like he could sit here and listen to what I’m thinking right now?”
“Yes. Very easily, in fact. It’s amazing to watch, and unsettling when he does it to you.” He chuckled, adding, “Kind of freaks you out at first when it happens. You can almost feel him inside your head.”
Alexia turned to Neil for confirmation. He nodded.
“Okay, say you’re right,” she reasoned. “If Leonid really possesses such an ability and the Packs protect and value these members, why did he leave the Talanovs? Wouldn’t they have treated him like a king?”
Yes, definitely a smart girl. Like her birthfather.
Maybe it was time to explain the whole truth, so she wouldn’t bolt. Neil could then deliver her to Rob and get back to his primary case in finding their Wolf killer.
“Leonid’s ability was exploited by them,” Neil explained.
“And used against the other Packs,” Jake added. “Particularly to sway their business dealings and our court systems in their favor. Erik’s a good and honorable man, and it ate at his conscience. That’s why he defected from their Pack and sought asylum and membership in ours. We pride ourselves on our integrity.”
Alexia’s hand shot up. “Wait, so do they think I can read minds too? Is that why they want me?”
“Undoubtedly. Plus, you’re female. Someone who could possibly breed other gifted lycanthrope. And the anomaly. The perfect trifecta.”
“Well, I can’t! I can’t even freaking tell when two Russian goons want to stalk me from a freaking Starbucks! Isn’t there a way to tell them I’m just an ordinary human nobody, so they’ll leave me alone?”
“You want to go back there and explain it to them?” Jake shook his head. “Sorry, even if you did, they wouldn’t believe you until they’ve already done…”
There was an uncomfortable pause.
“Done what?” she asked suspiciously.
Jake started to answer, then shut his mouth and faced forward.
Neil rolled his eyes. Sometimes Jake Bryant could be the biggest moron alive. God help their Pack when he took over one day.
By Alexia’s wide, horrified expression, Neil saw that she figured it out anyhow. Unfortunately, she would be correct that the Talanovs had no qualms or conscience to strap her down onto some cold surgical table while they probed and prodded to find out just what made her tick.
And if they thought they could use her to breed other gifted shifters…
“Sorry,” Jake said, wincing. “Anyhow, now you know why you have to stay with us.”
“For how long?” she asked.
“I don’t have that answer either, sorry. Indefinitely, maybe. We’ll work it out when we get home, okay?”
“But not my home,” she said. “According to you, I may never go home again.”
“Don’t worry, Alexia. It’ll all work out.”
She pursed her lips at his statement. Jake relaxed back in the seat and focused on the dark highway, taking her silence for acquiesce. But Neil studied her wire tight body language and the way she kept checking outside. He didn’t believe for one second that she would happily go with them now even though it was in her best interest.
Silence permeated the car as they drove down the dark highway. Periodically Alexia glanced upfront, then to Neil, each time giving him a mock, snarky smile before gazing back out her passenger’s window.
Oh yes, she was definitely up to something.
More time passed. Alexia relaxed back into the seat and drew some deep breaths, then blinked slow and heavily several times. Neil watched closely as she looked to fight off sleep. The quiet rumble of the car engine and the rocking motion might have easily lulled her to doze under normal circumstances, but he’d rescued enough kidnap victims to know that her adrenaline would be pumping too hard and fast for her to do so now.
Which meant this smart, pretty, funny little pixie was planning on playing them for fools and escaping at the first opportunity.
Another fifteen minutes passed before she laid her head back on the seat and looked to drift off, her breathing slow and even.
“Whew, she’s asleep,” Jake whispered a few minutes later. “That’s a relief.”
“She’s not asleep,” Neil said. “Are you, Alexia?”
She didn’t respond, her head lightly rocking with the motion of the car.
“She’s asleep, Neil, jeez. Chill.”
“She’s faking. But as long as her yapping mouth is shut, that’s fine.”
Neil waited for her to react at the nasty crack. Her head moved as if she were snuggling deeper into the seat. She even gave a quiet snore. She was good, he gave her that.
Jake chuckled. “She does have a sharp bite for such a little wolf. How’s the nose?”
“Shut up and drive.”
Jake laughed again. “I like her. Kind of cute too. Could be a lot of fun trying to tame the little vixen, Neil. Wonder if there’s a boyfriend in the mix somewhere.”
Another sharp defensive alarm shot through Neil’s entire body. He shouldn’t care who Jake played around with, and normally he didn’t, but this girl was different. She was…
Well anyhow, Jake shouldn’t be thinking about anyone other than his own fiancée.
“Eva would be interested in your interest,” Neil warned darkly.
“I didn’t mean…never mind.”
Several more minutes passed before Jake spoke again. “By the looks of you, the collectors got in a few good bites.”
“They’ll be healed by the time we get back,” Neil said, rubbing his still stinging wounds, some already closed up and pinking over with new skin.
“So this dagger’s really made of silver?”
“You can cut yourself with it to be sure, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Burns like a bitch. That one’s going to need a few days’ worth of healing, and maybe one of Rachel’s injections.”
“You got clipped with it?” Jake grunted. “Sorry, bro.”
“Not as sorry as Sasha Talanov. He’s howled his last.”
Jake swore. “Sergei’s not going to be happy that you offed his little brother. And Suri will go straight to the High Council for your head this time. I should probably call and let dad know to get upfront with this.”
“I’ll make a full report to him when we get back.”
“Your call. Hey, she almost caught your face with the dagger back there too. That could’ve been fatal.”
“I was there.” Neil turned to the girl still acting as if she was asleep adding, “And if you try that again, Alexia, I’ll do more than just gently pry it from your doll-sized fingers.”
He studied her even more closely. Waited.
There! He swore he saw her lips purse.
Oh yeah, she was definitely planning her escape.
“Still think she’s awake?” Jake asked.
“I know she is. She’s too much of a survivor to be sleeping right now.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I wouldn’t be.”
“You’re a paranoid freak. Leave her alone already.” There was another long pause. “She looks a lot like him.”
Neil made no reply to that, but it was true. More than just the coloring of her hair and eyes and her features. It was in her bearing too. And her sharp wit.
He suddenly felt a wave of sympathy for her. In less than three hours, her entire world had turned on its head, and now it would never be the same. He knew exactly how that felt.
“If she’s anywhere near as gifted as Erik, we could really use her,” Jake said. “Especially now that we’ve lost Conrad. That makes three of our gifted members murdered on our own soil. We’ve got to find out who’s doing this.”
“We will. Enough said.”
Neil wanted to remind Jake that they might’ve already had the twisted killer if their High Alpha hadn’t pulled him from the case to retrieve a simple human girl.
Still, in all honesty, he was glad he had been there to rescue her from the Talanovs. No one deserved what they planned to do to her.
Alexia was wired like an electrical socket, but she prepared to feign sleep for at least another half hour. If her calculations were correct, they would have no choice but to stop somewhere for gas right after that. She had secretly checked the gauge that read almost empty, and they were still a good hour from Palm Desert. That would be her best shot at escape.
A very long time passed, and Alexia had to keep herself from actually dozing off a couple of times. Then finally…
“Need to stop at the Chevron up ahead,” Jake said quietly. “We’re almost drained, and we’ve still got a way to go.”
She forced herself from smiling, to keep breathing deeply, evenly. She could feel Neil Duran’s hot stare on her, waiting for her to flinch. Well, the were-jerk could wait until hell froze over, because she wasn’t about to give herself and her one chance of escape away.
A minute later she felt the car shift directions. When it rolled to a stop and the engine died, she shifted slightly, then breathed heavily again, pretending to fall back asleep.
Warm, dry air blew across her face, coming from the driver’s side. Ten seconds later, Neil Duran opened his door.
Alexia heard and felt the trunk open and shut. She cracked her eyes open to thin slits and watched him pull off his shredded, bloodstained tee-shirt, then pull on a clean one, dumping the old into the garbage. Jake was standing beside him, holding the gas nozzle, watching the LED dollars tick away, humming.
“Need to go make a couple of calls,” Neil said, pulling out his cellphone.
“How about getting some drinks and snacks?”
“How about we don’t push our luck and just get to the plane sometime this century?”
Jake grumbled something and shifted positions.
“And watch her,” Neil added sharply, pointing in Alexia’s direction.
Her eyes snapped shut.
“Yeah, yeah,” Jake said. “Don’t worry, she’s out like a light. Go make your calls. And I could really use a large Monster and some pepperoni sticks, barbeque, if you’re just standing by the counter doing nothing. It’s been a long night.”
Neil said something else that Alexia didn’t catch, but she was just glad her personal watchdog was finally gone.
One down, one to go.
Now if only pretty boy would leave.
Alexia ventured another quick peek, but Jake Bryant still leaned against the car pumping gas.
Ugh, this was so frustrating!
She hated helplessly sitting here like frozen dinner waiting to be eaten. Hated that she was taken from her home, possibly forever. Hated these men who forced her to go with them against her will. Hated this strange, selfish ex-lover of her mother’s who forced her into this predicament in the first place!
If the stupid driver would just go inside for two frigging minutes…!
Her stomach clenched at the sound of the gas pump nozzle being removed from the car. She slit her eyes open again, peered up slightly.
Holy crow, Jake Bryant was gone!
Alexia opened her eyes wider and raised up. He was halfway across the station sauntering towards the convenience store now.
Suddenly he halted, checked around, scratching the back of his head.
“That’s it,” Alexia whispered. “Keep going, wolf boy. Don’t you need that big old Monster drink and some Twinkies?”
Just like that, he continued straight ahead and into the minimart.
Perfect!
Still, it was too perfect. Neil Duran had to be somewhere close by.
Alexia checked around, but he was nowhere in sight. So it was now or never.
If there had been another customer pumping gas, she would have pleaded help from them. But it was late, and this desert stop-off was too remote.
Carefully she switched off the car’s automatic dome light, then eased the door open, barely closing it, so as not to draw their attention. She checked around and saw nothing but miles of desert blackness on both sides of the empty two-lane highway.
So what now? Go into the store and hope the night clerk would help her?
Not likely. He would never be able to overpower two very big super-natural werewolves, alone, way out in the middle of nowhere.
He might call the cops after they left, but Alexia guessed that her two captors could expertly tie him up like a rodeo calf first and stash him in some locked room for hours. Long enough for all of them to make it to their plane and off to parts unknown. So that was out.
Her only hope was to head down the highway on foot as fast and far as possible, then flag down the first car she spotted. With any luck, one would drive by before they discovered her missing.
Alexia crouched low until she was at the end of the back bumper, then checked the minimart one last time to make sure she wasn’t spotted.
Then she took off at full speed down the dark highway.
Blackness engulfed her the further she ran from the station. If she wasn’t so terrified, she would’ve been grinning at the distance she was putting between them. Thank God she wore her Reeboks again today.
A quarter mile down, Alexia considered ducking into the desert itself, but the thought of snakes and scorpions and other lethal obstacles kept her on the cracked pavement.
Unfortunately, she was a sprinter, not a marathon runner, so she was winding fast. The light from the gas station grew dimmer and dimmer though, and Alexia hoped that soon headlights from the next oncoming car would finally emerge from the distance, so that…
Neil was in front of her gripping her shoulders before Alexia even realized what happened. He growled low in his chest, his eyes glowing an eerie silver.
That was impossible! How could he get to her so fast?
How did they even know which direction she went?
“Help!” she screamed, trying to jerk loose. “Help me!”
Jake caught up to them, skidding to a stop. “Sorry, Neil!”
“I told you to watch her!” he ground out, holding her as she viciously thrashed and struggled.
“Help me please!” she screamed.
“She was asleep!” Jake yelled.
“Help me!”
“I told you she was faking! Next time listen to me!”
Alexia kicked Neil in the shins, hard. Wincing, he held her at arms’ length so she couldn’t get in another.
Gripping her upper arm, he hauled Alexia back towards the gas station, his strides long and fast, two of hers to one of his. “Where the hell were you anyhow?”
Jake kept pace easily, nervously checking around for onlookers. “Sorry, I just…I don’t know, I just got a case of the munchies. Bad. I can’t explain it.”
“You and your damn stomach.” Back at the car, Neil whirled her around to meet his fiery silver glare. “Another stunt like that, and you’re riding in the trunk. I don’t have to get you to the Ridge comfortably, just get you there in several pieces. Got it?”
His teeth began to elongate into something lethal and hungry, making the blood completely drain from Alexia’s face. She sunk to her knees, her worst fears realized. “Oh God, please, please don’t eat me!”
Jake snorted.
Neil narrowed his eyes at her. “Behave, and maybe I won’t have you for a midnight snack.”
He opened the door and pushed her down into the seat, pulling the safety restraints over her chest and locking it down with a loud click. He was around the other side and sitting beside her with the door closed before she could count to three. Apparently his super speed and strength were more of his wolf attributes.
Jake was instantly in the driver’s seat. “Neil, stop scaring her. Alexia, we don’t eat human beings. No were-species do.”
“There’s always a first time,” Neil said, glaring at her.
“Ignore him.”
“But I saw them—!”
“We fight with our teeth. There’s a difference between biting, and chewing and swallowing. Trust me, you wouldn’t taste very good.”
Alexia turned back to Neil who dangerously lifted the corners of his mouth, daring her to challenge that theory.
She swallowed hard. It was one thing to talk about them being werewolves, and another terrifying reality to witness the change firsthand.
“H-how..?” She cleared her dry, rasping throat. “How did you know where to find me?”
“Scent,” Jake answered, turning the engine. “One of our abilities.”
Alexia’s last chance of escape was disappearing fast.
Panicking, she turned to Neil. “I need to use the restroom!”
“You just lost bathroom privileges,” he said.
“I mean it, I have to go! Now!”
“Hold it.”
“Hold it?” She frowned at him, blinked hard. “A woman has to use the restroom and you want her to hold it?”
“Or take a leak here, your choice. Either way, you’re not leaving this car.”
Her lips pursed into a tight, thin line. Suddenly fear of him was replaced with a deep hatred for this unfeeling, misogynistic monster.
“You’re a real jerk, you know that?”
“Absolutely.”
“Alexia, we should be at the airport in less than an hour,” Jake said as he turned out of the gas station and drove away from my last shot at freedom. “You can use their facilities before we jump on the plane.”
She folded her arms tightly and faced the passenger’s window, refusing to look at Neil Duran’s smug face. And if he thought this was his last battle with her, he was barking up the wrong half she-wolf.