Wolfman was all out of sorts. How could he not be? His dream woman wanted nothing to do with him. Yeah, of course, he always knew she’d come to her senses eventually – but he thought he had a while yet. His wolf mewled dejectedly.
The night was turning into a big bust. He was considering just going home altogether. He was resigned just to returning home, eating a bowl of his mom’s mac and cheese with apple pieces (weirdly nice) and watching his favorite movie – Hellboy 2.
At least that was the plan until he spotted the van he was looking for. He watched it dumbly for a moment before his wolf yowled at him and he took off in pursuit.
It wasn’t going all that fast but boy he sure was panting trying to keep up with it. Wearing a thirty pound costume sure didn’t help his cause.
Jeez, he needed to get some kind of vehicle. He could not keep up with all these foot chases. It was all well and good for Batman – he was wealthy, but Winston only had a bicycle. He didn’t think that it would be a good idea to take the bus dressed as Wolfman, and taxis, well, apart from the money issue he wasn’t sure he could stand the drivers either making fun of him or hero worshipping him – it would probably be the former knowing his luck.
He was grateful when the van slowed and he was able to lean against a wall and catch his breath.
Wolfman watched as a big guy hopped out of it and approached a homeless man who had been pushing a cart down the alley. He was on his own. No one else was around, and Wolfman seriously doubted there were any security cameras. Perfect conditions to abduct someone. Grrr.
He was surprised as he watched the large guy try to hand the homeless guy a blanket and something to eat. Huh, maybe he was wrong – maybe they are just another charity organization.
The homeless guy looked like he was going to take the blanket and then moved away at the last moment, shaking his head.
Another guy got out of the van – a huge one, jeez, had to be a rhino, or perhaps an elephant shifter – they were the largest shifters out there. You didn’t see a female elephant under six-foot-three, and as for the males, they were freaking enormous.
The giant moved towards the homeless guy and grabbed him, making the male howl. Before he knew what he was doing, Wolfman was running towards them.
“Halt!” he called. “I am Wolf – ugh!”
The huge guy planted a meaty fist in Wolfman’s face. He staggered back. Damn, it was like being hit by a truck, or at least he imagined it was.
The huge guy turned his back and tossed the homeless guy into the van. Wolfman growled. He jumped to his feet and aimed a few jabs at him. His ego told him he at least made the guy grunt a little in pain, though in reality he doubted that was true.
The huge guy elbowed him, knocking him to the ground, and before Wolfman could catch his breath, a very solid kick was aimed at his head.
*
Avery went to relieve Lake. He had spent the better part of the evening and night watching Tom Murphy.
Wordlessly she handed him a coffee. He sniffed it, scented the gingerbread syrup she asked the barista to add and then nodded his thanks.
“Alfie not here?”
Lake slid his eyes in her direction. “No, and if he was I wouldn’t let you near him.”
Avery rolled her eyes. “I’m fine.”
“What happened to your knuckles?”
She glanced down at the bruises, and the one cut where she managed to take out one of Adelle’s teeth. Ha!
“Unrelated incident.”
“Sisters still nuts?”
“Yeah.”
“You ever think of trying to get them arrested?”
Avery sighed. “They’re the way they are because of my mom. She’s offering them millions of dollars and the control of a powerful pride just to beat up a few girls – I don’t really blame them.”
Well, she didn’t blame them that much. If they had any pride they’d tell their mom where to shove it.
“You’re not interested.”
“Yeah, well I realized she was nuts when I was a kid. I don’t want any part of any competition she’s running.”
“Sounds like a fight club.”
Avery snorted. “Yeah, I bet my mom would love that – she adores watching fights.”
She often had her husbands fight each other over who was going to get a new car or something equally as ridiculous. Her mother had four husbands. In her pride,, there had always been an abundance of males. The leos had always been women and the leo was expected to have at least three mates. Other females of the pride usually had two.
Lake took a long swig of his coffee. “You ever think of trying to get your mother arrested?”
She gave him a wistful look. “I used to pray for it when I was a teenager.”
Lake gave her a long look. “Gotta go. Call me if you need me,” he told her sternly.
That was what she liked about Lake – there was no argument, no unwanted sympathy, he just listened and nodded when she said anything about her awful mother.
“Yes,” she agreed.
Lake smiled. Kind of. He didn’t smile much, so she took his lip twitch to be a smile. He got out the vehicle and the stocky male filtered into the darkness like he had never been there. Nobody could be as invisible as Lake.
Avery opened up her coffee and inhaled the fumes. She was in for another boring night. Murphy didn’t seem to do much of anything anymore. If he was running a crime empire from his trailer, he was doing it with minimum effort and lots of pizza. A pizza boy turned up with seven pizzas every night without fail. All the pizzas undoubtedly would all be eaten by Murphy – he was really testing the limits of his new heart.
At first they considered whether he was sending out messages through the pizza boys – but after questioning them, they came up with nothing. Murphy used loads of different pizzerias and none of the delivery boys knew anything about anything. Severe questioning from Cutter just resulted in some tears, confusion and in one case a slap from one of their mothers. Whatever Murphy was doing with Dr. Kringle, he was keeping it very quiet.
With a sigh, Avery thought about Wolfman and Winston, and then tried to banish them from her thoughts. She considered Erin’s vision. Men in black with tranq guns – sounded like a conspiracy. But she would doubt Erin’s vision at her peril. The woman was a psychic marvel. Maybe the creature was an escapee from a lab and they were the security team. She almost chuckled at that, but yeah, maybe. It wasn’t unheard of for people to use shifters for illegal testing. Many years ago – before the supernatural community came out of the dank and spooky closet, there had been incidents where shifters were caught and dissected by crazy scientists wanting to unlock the secrets of their bodies. Maybe someone was doing more testing on shifters. But where would they get them?
She flicked back to what Wolfman told her. He thought people were abducting homeless shifters – people who weren’t always missed.
It was tenuous, but… maybe. Or maybe it was just the nerd in her thinking that.
Crap. She shouldn’t have been so dismissive to Wolfman, she should have got more details from him. She let her personal feelings get in the way and it may affect innocent lives. She would need to talk to him again, get more information.
In the meantime… She texted Jessie – their computer whizz. It was late but Jessie wouldn’t mind. She was mated to their boss, Gerry, and sometimes worked long hours to suit his heavy workload. Avery was sure Jessie could help her.
*
Kay watched with a sinking heart as Alfie unloaded their new ‘test subject.’ Calling them that was starting to seem a little redundant. There was no testing going on; they were just pumping them all full of a drug they already knew was dangerous.
Alfie smirked at her as he gave the unconscious male a kick. “He’s a fighter.”
“Is he?” she murmured dully.
“Yep, did not want to come with us.”
He seemed almost proud of himself – heck, Kay was sure he was proud of himself. He didn’t have the cold, awful guilt that plagued Kay every moment of the day.
Marlowe sniffed “Jaguar shifter?”
Alfie nodded and looked at Kay. “You ready with the serum?”
“Yep.”
Alfie looked between them. He didn’t seem like the brightest bulb, but even he could count to three.
“Where’s the other guy? Nerd with glasses and buckteeth.”
“There was an incident,” said Marlowe and he calmly recounted what happened.
“Damnit!” roared Alfie. “You get rid of the body?”
“No, he’s on ice.”
Alfie cursed a blue streak but froze as his phone rang. Was that worry on his face? Or maybe something else entirely. Had to be the boss on the phone. Kay had never seen the boss, but Alfie always made sure the boss’ anger or disappointment was severely felt.
He stepped away and answered, muttering into his phone. Marlowe strapped down their latest subject. Kay cringed as she looked at him, and her hands started shaking. Another whose life was ruined.
Marlowe clasped a hand over hers. “Try not to think about it.”
She nodded though she was certain she wouldn’t be able to stop.
Alfie came back a few minutes later, his face a little red. “Can you manage without the geek?” he asked Kay.
“Ah, I suppose.”
She didn’t want to be the cause of anyone else getting kidnapped into this. No self-respecting scientist in her field would be a part of this. Froggett had no respect for anyone.
Alfie nodded as the strapped down man started to stir. “Get him ready for tomorrow.” He looked at the two security goons in the room. “Make sure she does her job.”
Then he jabbed a finger at Marlowe. “Help me get rid of the body.”
Marlowe gave her an impassive look before he followed the stomping elephant.
“I’m never leaving this place,” Kay muttered.