Chapter Ten

“Momma! Momma!”

The soft pitter-patter of stampeding toddler feet sounded through the cabin as a platinum blonde, pigtailed, little girl barreled toward Raven as she sat on a couch. The couch was warm, cozy, and extremely comfortable as the baby growing inside her moved. The little girl hopped onto the seat next to her, putting her cute little face on her belly. “Hewo widdle baby. I’m yo sistuh.”

The fluttering inside her womb continued. Her heart swelling with a happiness she never thought possible, Raven relished in the love she felt at that moment. The softness of her daughter’s hair reminded her of feathers. It made her wonder

There was warmth and love emanating from every piece of her home. The pictures on the wall showed so many milestones; from engagement to birthdays to the birth of Emilia. Emilia, the bundle of energy bouncing up and down on the couch beside her, with her hair and eyes allowed Raven to feel an enormous amount of pride. Home…it coursed through her.

The door opened, allowing the brightness of the sun to light up the darkened room. A strong, muscular man stood in the door’s entryway. Emilia bounced off the couch and went screeching toward the man. “Daddy!”

Scooping her into his arms, it was jarring for Raven to see Conan standing there. His hair that had always been cut so close to his scalp was practically touching his shoulders. His beard and goatee had thickened significantly. There was a boy who walked in behind him. He was almost as tall, but the expression on his face was one Raven had perfected. He belonged to her, too, apparently.

She looked at Conan. His lips were moving but she couldn’t hear him. Then his voice came in loud and clear…

“How much longer are you going to keep me in here?” Conan asked, bringing her out of her daydream.

“Until you convince me you’re not responsible for the corpse Devon and Michy were cleaning up,” she told him.

“I told you just like I told them…I did it. You got my confession so just go on and do what you fucking do, Rae,” he said nonchalantly. As if he hadn’t said what he just said, he was singing a different tune. “Wait a minute! Wait a minute Wait a minute! Don’t do that. I’m not the job. I didn’t do anything wrong. I just need to smoke you know? You got a cig, Raven?”

“I don’t and as a matter of fact I think you should come down off the last one you smoked. Tell me what happened to you, Conan,” Raven asked him in a gentler tone than she anticipated.

Conan cocked his head to the side, suddenly realizing he was handcuffed to the bed.

“What’s going on here?”

“You’re going to tell me everything I want to know,” Raven stated flatly. “You’re not going anywhere until you do. I want to believe everyone else when they tell me you have no idea what you’re talking about when you admit to the disappearances of these women. But I heard her, Conan. I heard gasping for air. I heard the gurgling of blood filling her lungs as she choked to death.”

“But, did you hear me?” he asked with a sinister grin on his face.

“What’s going on here, Conan? Alan told me to give you a chance. He wants me to hear you out, but that’s a tough call when you’re not telling me anything. If you leave it all up to me to decide then I have to tell you that I’ve already ruled against you. You have to give me a reason not to take you out,” she practically pleaded with him.

There was a side of Raven yearning to break free. The fantasy played out so vividly in her head. While Conan was the object of her love, she knew it was only because he was the one to awaken that piece; the woman yearning to rid herself of the Enforcer. Shaking the thought away, she refused to let her emotions weaken her resolve. Raven fished out her blade and began to sharpen it. She agreed to kill Conan in her wolf, but the sharpening of the blade was a tactic she liked to use when her targets were being less than cooperative.

“Where were you just then?” Conan’s voice broke into her thoughts.

“What are you talking about?”

“You were looking at me with eyes I’d never seen before. You care about me, don’t you? It’s okay to tell me. I have that effect on women, especially those whose clits have danced on my tongue. To be perfectly honest, I’d prefer to have that effect on you. I hope it would change your decision to kill me. So tell me, Rae. What’s the look behind those eyes about?” He squinted, as if trying to see through her.

Seeing as he probably wouldn’t make it to sunrise, Raven didn’t mind indulging him. “I had this vision as I was locking you to your bed…”

“Yeah, how did you manage to do that?”

“Devon brought you in after Michy found you in one of the alleys near Oblivion.”

“Naked?”

“Same thing you’re wearing now.” Raven motioned to his body. No shirt and a pair of satin pants. They were clean…that was odd. With everything that happened between them in the club, she couldn’t remember what he had been wearing. Everything else was throbbingly vivid. His tongue…the way it slid over her slit. His lips…the way they suckled over her clit. Her orgasm…the very essence of her being exposed for any who dared to watch, and watch they did. Her cheeks blushed red as the images replayed in her mind.

Conan interrupted her thoughts once again. “You’re thinking about me, aren’t you? I wish you could see the shade of peach that glosses over your face when you think about me. Or is it that you’re thinking about what I did to you? When was the last time you were fucked, Raven?”

“Don’t be crass,” she sniped back. “That’s none of your business. The only thing you need to concern yourself with is telling me what happened between you and the girl tonight.”

“How about we make a deal?”

“I’m listening.” She sheathed her blade and folded her arms across her chest.

Conan licked his lips before sniffing at the air, rather harshly. He cleared his throat and looked to her. “We go story for story. I’ll tell you what I know about the first night you came here and you tell me why you do what you do. Then you tell me, in the best detail, the last great fuck, the very best orgasm you’ve ever had, and I will tell you about tonight. After I tell you about tonight, I want one other request, but I’m not going to say anything about that until you know everything I know. Deal?”

Raven didn’t have a problem sharing so she agreed. “Fine. Go.”

“So the night you came, I was smoking. I typically smoke one to two a night and it gets me just where I need to be. The only problem is once I’m there, my wolf…it’s like letting him off the leash without exactly letting him free. He gets anxious and when I try to calm him down, he breaks free and leaves this version of me in the dark. But every once in a while, as I come down, I’m able to catch a glimpse of what’s going on.”

“So what did you see?” she asked him, growing impatient.

“I saw what I saw.” His stern glare turned into a whimsical smile. He was fading in and out of his high. Raven wanted to extract as much information from him before he went completely loopy.

“What happened to the girl, Conan?”

“Is she dead?” He chuckled, glancing over to his fingers. He wiggled them, eyeing his claws as he made them protrude and retract from his hands. He winced with discomfort before he stopped, turning to Raven. “Are you ready to fulfill your deepest desires with me? Do you still wish to pleasure me with your mouth as I did you?”

“Perhaps another time.” She sighed. “You’re not holding up your end of the deal. What happened to the girl? The first one? There was a body, pieces of one, but you didn’t have a drop of blood on you.”

“Maybe I didn’t kill her, like I didn’t kill the girl you heard tonight,” he told her nonchalantly.

“So…” her patience was wearing thin. The next time she took her blade out, Raven was certain she’d use it to slice his throat just for wasting her time.

“I think you need to speak to Ivan. After all, it’s his fault the women are disappearing anyhow,” he told her.

“How? Why? Why haven’t you done anything about it?”

“If I had the proof, and the authority I would. But seeing as you’re here that’s on you. Now, I’ve told you enough about that first night. It’s your turn to talk to me.” He let out an exhausted sigh.

Raven wondered if she wasted enough time, he’d sober up enough to tell her what was going on. The longer she sat there with Conan, the more his scent affected her. She wanted him to be innocent. As his presence began to wear on her instinct, and her expertise began to fall to the wayside of her emotions, Raven buckled under the pressure of her womanhood.

“I don’t know if you can imagine what it must be like. Being someone who looks like me but has the label of an Enforcer. I have to work twice as hard as the boys. Not so much anymore, but still it ain’t been no picnic being me.”

“Oh, boo fucking hoo, Rae,” he snapped. “Get to the part. The part where he made your toes curl…Did your heart squeeze every drop of love out of his aching body?”

She hated the way he knew what to say to goad her, to elicit a reaction out of her. Maybe he is the man I need. Maybe he understands me far more than anyone else ever could…thoughts ravaged through her mind as she fought herself. To free him, or keep him bound. Eventually, he’d sober up and she’d have to make a choice. Either listen to his excuses and spare him, or let him go and find the wolf responsible for the disappearances. Should she believe it’s Ivan? If so, then she didn’t have much time to do her job before he’d strike again.

“Raven, I apologize, but if you’re going to back out on this deal, then the least you can do is let me go or put me out of my misery. Don’t toy with me just to kill me later.” His bold green eyes demanded action, and he deserved that much.

“Fine,” she said, moving toward him. She didn’t know why she trusted Conan. Every feeling raging through her body was conflicted with her lust. The very movement of his tongue over her flesh made her tingle. As soon as she released his restraints, he grabbed her wrists glaring into her eyes.

“Are you going to tell me or not?” he asked her.

She looked away from him. “Why don’t you just tell me where Ivan is?”

“Tell me your story and I’ll tell you.”

“For goodness sake! You’re maddening! Why must everything be a bargain with you? Why don’t you take your life that I have spared and just tell me what I want to know so I can get the hell out of this damn city! This place confuses me. I can’t be myself here.”

“Now that’s a lie. I think you’re scared because this is the first place you actually could be yourself. You could do as you wish without the Almighty eye of the Council watching your every move. Was it someone from the Council?” His eyes grew wide.

Raven leered at him as she pursed her lips. “Of course not! Every member of the Council is married!”

“And? Now that would be a scandal. Enforcer and high ranking Council Member in the throes of passion. Oh, how the gossip mill would churn,” he snickered.

She giggled herself. “Why would it be a high ranking member?”

“Because you wouldn’t let anyone less than an alpha do the things I dream about.” He grinned.

“But you’re not an alpha, and I’ve let you have your way with me.”

“I’m not an alpha because I choose not to be. There’s a difference. You know that and I know it. Since you won’t tell me about your moment, why don’t you enlighten me about why you’re an Enforcer?”

She was half expecting him to bolt, but this was his place, his bedroom. Raven imagined herself giving him the dignity of dying in his bed, but she’d let him go. A part of her believed he didn’t kill those women. He may know what happened to them, but he didn’t do the dirty work himself. Maybe the cigarettes, the blackouts; it was his conscience defending his sanity. To answer his question; she couldn’t because he was it. He was the one who made her toes curl and he’d never entered her body.

“I was born to be an Enforcer. There isn’t some twisted reason like my father always wanted a son or anything like that. It was simply a means of societal movement. To have the daughter that became an Enforcer gave them a certain amount of clout. They’re still not happy.” She chuckled to herself. “My sister is in a pack of her own, far from the Council’s eye and my notoriety. She has a few pups and my folks now want that for me. I told them it was never going to happen.”

“And now.” He stroked her delicately along the side of her face.

She moved away from his touch, stubborn as ever to regain the feeling of self she had before she’d arrived at Stromport.

“I’ll admit that you’ve cast a bit of a spell over me. I can’t think clearly around you and even now, as I admit to it, I can’t for the life of me figure out why. Why in the hell would I tell you that you have an advantage over me.” She couldn’t bear to look him in the eye.

“It’s because you detest weakness. I know your kind, too much so. I was ousted from a pack because the alpha’s mate wanted me as her plaything and I refused. I was barely 15. She’s lucky I didn’t kill her. Had my parents been alive, they would have torn that pack to the ground.”

“I think I know about the pack you’re talking about. It was a thing between her and the alpha. I wasn’t the Enforcer that went in, but the one who did said he wished he’d never went. Every adult had to die. The pups scattered about, but you were lucky.”

“Oh, lucky is what you call my life?” he scoffed. “My parents died. They were slaughtered as a matter of fact and I was left to fend for myself. Just when I think I’ve found a place I could call home, I’m subjected to the predatory behavior of my alpha and his mate. Then I’m discarded, left to scavenge in the woods until I stumble into this city. This place where Shana and Alan so humbly take me in. Now, I’m no genius, but this ain’t exactly normal. This isn’t exactly what I call lucky. Granted, I get my pick of women and I’ve had it in my mind to leave and lead others like myself, but I’m not quite ready to shoulder the responsibility of that yet. Lucky…HA!”

“This may not be the most normal of circumstances, but there are others with stories similar to yours. There was a brother and sister out there, Cairo and Cara. Their parents were slaughtered as well and now they’re both living well, mostly normal lives. It’s possible, if that’s what you really want. On the other hand, this setup is nice. You can do as you please, fulfilling the desires of yourself with women who fall at your feet. No, Conan, this isn’t normal, this may not even be considered lucky, but it’s a far cry from misery. So boo fucking hoo. Where do we go to find Ivan? You know what? Never mind. I can find him at The Grant by myself.”

“You won’t find it and he’ll never let you in. But I’ll take you.” He sighed as he turned to his nightstand. Before she could do anything about it, he’d pulled out a cigarette and lit it. He took a long drag right before Raven snatched it from his lips. He burst into laughter. “I guess a smoke is out of the question.”

“Let’s go, Conan. NOW!”