Harden
The wind whistled in his ears as he flew by. The smell of fresh ozone, warning of an incoming storm, assaulted his nose, the scent powerful and vibrant. Emerging from the park, he reveled in the aromas of the different types of grasses and trees, the passing of other animals, and even of humans. The reunion with his wolf was something he’d long awaited, and truthfully, had begun to doubt would ever happen.
Now though, he realized that his wolf had always been within him, just shut away, the pair of them blinded to each other. He’d thought it gone, and hadn’t searched hard enough. The wolf had retreated deep within him during the torture, and it had needed the power of love, combined with hope, to reignite its desire to exist.
With Erika, he had both in spades, and the pair of them meshed together now, streaking through neighborhoods. His paws clattered on concrete, dug deep into the grass, and sprayed up dirt behind him as he ran through town, faster than he’d ever gone before. The adrenaline of his first change in months sang in his blood, energy coursing through his bones. He was back!
And Angelo was going to pay.
Pulling through a hard left turn, his claws striking the pavement nearly hard enough to draw sparks, he accelerated down the last straightaway before the Embassy. He slowed just long enough to make the short sharp turn, clearing the stairs at the entrance in a single bound, landing on his hind legs and shifting so fast he never fell forward, emerging from his wolf form into a sort of bounding leap on his human legs.
The door blew open in front of him, the glass insert nearly shattering from the force as he skidded to a halt. In the lobby stood Angelo, his two goons, and another figure he recognized with ease.
“Andrew!” he shouted. “Just the man I wanted to see,” he said breathlessly, forming a circle with the other four.
“I seem to be popular tonight,” the ambassador said with stately grace, neither showing any favor nor disfavor with the Kronum shifter.
Harden knew the tone he was hearing, and realized he was going to have some convincing to do. Initially he’d planned on just throwing out the Gray card, but now he held onto it, a sinking sensation entering his stomach.
“Angelo here says that they saw you break into a human-occupied house, that you’ve been stalking her and talking to her when it’s unwanted.”
Harden snorted so hard he almost sprayed snot from his nose. “Of course they saw me break into a human house. They were inside the house holding the two women hostage.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Or did they neglect to mention that part?”
“We were there having a conversation with the woman about his unceasing efforts to woo her,” Angelo said, spreading his hands wide, trying to convey innocence.
To Harden’s disgust he was appallingly good at it, making it seem as if that were the real reason he was there. Politicians. Fuck the lot of them.
“You were there threatening her with expulsion from the programs that are helping her get back on her feet,” he snapped. “She didn’t want you there.”
“Silence,” Andrew said calmly, his voice immediately quelling the two parties. He turned to Harden. “Where is this human?”
“On her way,” he said. “I, uh, got here first.”
Angelo’s eyes widened. “You shifted in the city?” he hissed. “You know that’s illegal. I want him arrested. Right now!” he cried, pointing wildly at Harden while looking at Andrew. “That’s a major crime under the laws and you must—”
“I must do nothing!” Andrew bellowed, rounding on him. “You will cease telling me how to do my job, Mr. Horggone, or I will ensure that I do it very, very well indeed.”
Harden wasn’t quite sure what passed between the two, but Angelo backed down almost immediately. Clearly Andrew had some leverage on the other shifter and wasn’t all that afraid to use it.
Before he could smile in victory however, Andrew turned on him. “Is that accusation true, Mr. Archer?”
He hesitated, then nodded. “Yes. I judged the risk to myself worthwhile if I could get here before they were able to send the message.”
Andrew’s eyes narrowed. “What message?”
“The one where he calls home to Mommy and Daddy or his controllers, I’m not sure who, and has them pull strings to remove Erika from the programs. It would strip her of funding and evict her from her house, putting her on the streets, simply because she fell in love with me.”
“I see.” Andrew’s tone was perfectly neutral as he considered the factors.
Harden judged that now was the time to play his ace.
“That, and Gray told me to. He said that I was right.”
One eyebrow on the impassive face quirked upward. “Gray said that?”
“Yes sir, he was there. He’s now escorting them here.”
“Them?” Andrew asked.
“Ah, there was another woman present, a friend of my mate’s. I don’t know much more than that.”
“I see. And Gray sided with you?”
Harden smiled. “Ask Lumps over there how his face got to looking that way,” he said with a jerk of his head in the direction of the lone bear shifter on Angelo’s crew.
Andrew smiled, a wicked looking thing as he turned his look on the bear shifter. “Did you fight Gray?”
The shifter looked to Angelo for guidance, but Andrew snapped his fingers, riveting all attention on him. “I asked you a question,” he said, his voice deadly quiet.
“I didn’t know his name,” came the surly response.
“Grayish hair, bright blue eyes?”
The bear shifter hesitated until Andrew leaned forward slightly.
“Might have been him.”
“So you assaulted the ambassador’s personal guard?” he mulled out loud. “How interesting. I wonder if you understand just what that entails.”
“If it helps, all of them took shots at Gray at one point or another in the fracas,” Harden chimed in.
Andrew shot him a look that said don’t get greedy.
“I cannot believe you are taking the side of this…this…this mongrel!” Angelo shouted, his voice stuttering with rage as he turned a deep shade of red, specks of spit flying from his mouth.
Harden wondered if he was about to start foaming at the mouth.
“Mongrel?” he shot back before Andrew could shut him up. “Seriously? I’m the one who has conducted myself with class and honor. You’ve been a racist shitbag who thinks all the women in this town belong to you simply because you were born in Cadia. You’re a coward, Angelo, that’s what you are.”
The wolf shifter shrieked and launched himself at Harden. The others, similarly mad, came at him as well, but Andrew moved to intercept them, waggling a finger. That was the last thing Harden saw before he was bowled over by the oncoming shifter. At least, that’s what he wanted him to think, that’d he’d been caught entirely unawares.
In reality, he was already falling backward before Angelo hit him, pulling his feet up to his chest as the other shifter leapt. He’d never expected it to work. Only in the comics could someone actually pull this off. But Angelo was so hot with rage that he fell for it hook line and sinker. His dive placed him directly onto Harden’s upturned feet, and he straightened his legs with all the force he could muster, sending Angelo hurtling thirty feet through the air up the staircase on the right of the lobby, impacting upon the wall, scattering various paintings and a bust of some old woman mounted on a little shelf.
Bits of marble from the wall clattered down the stairs as Angelo struggled to right himself. Harden didn’t give him time. Even as he’d kicked him off he’d leapt upright and charged after his enemy. Clearing the railing, he charged up the last few stairs, taking Angelo right in the stomach as he drove him to the ground with a shoulder. The other wolf recovered and rocked Harden back with a clubbed fist to the temple, a desperate blow he hadn’t seen coming.
“You will never best me,” he all but cackled as he leapt at Harden.
“I don’t have to,” he grunted in response, deflecting several blows. “Your ego is going to do it for me.” He double-punched the shifter in the chest, the force of the blows sending him rolling back down the stairs.
Harden pushed himself after him, trying to land on him with a knee. Angelo pushed himself backward, sliding across the smooth tile at the last second. Harden’s knee cracked tile as he landed, but he came to his feet swiftly, stalking across the room after his prey.
By then the sounds of combat had woken or attracted the attention of a number of other shifters staying in the motel, and the balcony walkway that joined the two staircases and the two upper halls was filled with onlookers. Others had filed out of the common room and offices to watch as well, staying far back.
Harden shook off the fact that he was now putting on a show, and focused instead on defeating Angelo. Permanently. The other wolf shifter seemed to have the same idea, and he came at Harden again. This time though he shifted, and before Harden could react he was taken to the ground by several hundred pounds of rabid black wolf, a midnight-black creature that chomped viciously on his shoulder.
An elbow to the muzzle sent his foe skidding aside, whimpering in pain. It bought enough time for Harden to get onto all fours and release his own animal. The change overcame him, and the crowd murmured loudly as he steadied himself, his right front foreleg weakened at the shoulder from where Angelo had hurt him.
Time to end this.
He met Angelo’s wild charge and the two slammed into each other, rising up on their hind legs as they scratched, pawed, clawed, and bit one another. Dozens of cuts opened up on him, painting his white and gray fur with dark spots. On the black wolf the fur simply matted together in clumps where the blood wet it.
The end came swiftly, and unexpectedly.
Harden’s right foreleg failed to keep up, and Angelo took advantage, jaw descending for the opening, determined to rip out his prey’s throat in one swift ending. But as he lunged forward, his hind leg stepped in the pool of blood that had been dripping from Harden, and he slipped. What was a vicious downward bite turned into a helpless fall, his head jerking backward reflexively.
There was no hesitation on Harden’s end. He buried his teeth in his foe even as he fell, and mercilessly tore the throat from Angelo in a welter of blood and gore as the two of them fell to the ground. He yelped loudly as his hind leg broke the fall, snapping under the combined weight of both shifters.
Angelo settled on top of him, the last life wheezing out from his lungs as blood poured over Harden, soaking his fur in a disgusting bath of iron-tasting liquid. He struggled to force the change over him, so that he could push the corpse aside and stand up.
A shriek filled the lobby and he forced his head around to see Erika come flying inside with Gray and Kelly at her side. Hands flew over her mouth as she fell to her knees, unable or unwilling to approach further.
The weight lifted from Harden suddenly and he looked up to see Andrew toss the body aside as if it were no more than a discarded piece of furniture. The pressure gone, Harden managed to revert to his human form before accepting the offered hand of assistance. He got to his feet, hobbling on his leg. He’d have to set it soon, or else it would heal improperly.
“Desk,” Andrew said, seeming to follow his line of thinking.
Harden gave him a nod, looking past him where Angelo’s goons sat against the wall, watched by half a dozen other shifters, their eyes glancing back and forth between him and the ruins of the shifter who had been their boss.
Reaching the desk, he hopped up on it and lay flat while Andrew examined the break. Shoes slapped against marble, and a moment later Erika’s face appeared above him.
“Is…is he going to live?” she asked nervously.
“Unfortunately for you,” the gryphon returned deadpan, “he’s going to be just fine in a few hours.”
“Think you can manage?” Harden asked, tossing her a wink. “Hopefully I don’t scare you too much.”
Gray took the shirt off his body and handed it to Harden, who used it to wipe his face clean of the blood, so that he didn’t look like some freak.
“You did, you bastard. I thought you were dead as well for a moment. You’re going to pay for that.”
He smiled. “I promise to make up for it by never leaving your side, and being the best damn father I can.”
Erika sniffed at the air. “That’ll do.”
He smiled.
“For starters.”
She leaned down and kissed him. Andrew chose that exact moment to set his leg, so he ended up screaming into her mouth. Erika pulled back, giving the gryphon shifter a less than impressed look.
“It may have sucked for you, but it made him more relaxed at that moment, making it easier on him. He would have screamed a lot louder if you hadn’t been kissing him.”
“Thank you,” she said, the two of them speaking over him in an oddly disturbing manner.
He sat up, putting an end to that particular bit of discomfort. His leg, on the other hand, would be hounding him for several hours, until he got a good meal or three into his stomach to recharge all of his batteries.
Harden was completely spent, to the point he didn’t even know if he’d be able to get it up if Erika wanted him.
Wait a minute. Let’s not get too hasty now. I’m not that tired. Close, but never too tired where Erika’s involved.
“What are you smiling about?” she asked, maintain her distance but staying as close as she could without getting soaked in blood.
“Nothing. Just, uh, considering how nice a shower is going to be.” He paused thoughtfully. “Although I’ve heard good things about sponge baths, and so I was wondering if maybe—”
“Don’t even think about it,” Erika said. “You’re going to go get cleaned up. The first time I bathe you is not when you’re covered in blood. When I bathe you, the only thing you’re going to be covered in is water.”
A low laugh went up from the assembled shifters who were still watching. Erika’s head jerked up as if she were seeing them for the first time, and Harden watched with mild glee as her cheeks turned a rosy red at the realization they’d just overheard her comment.
“Whatever,” she muttered. “They’re all jealous because I’m yours.”
Harden sat up grinning at the assembled shifters. “Damn straight. And I’m proud of it!”
She rolled her eyes and turned to Andrew.
“So, what now?”
The gryphon shifter stared back and forth at the two of them, as if trying to make a decision.
“We’ll talk in the morning,” he said at last. “Alone.”
Erika tried not to frown at the way he said it, but his eyes told her she’d failed. So he tossed her a wink, his stern expression never changing throughout. Then he turned and began snapping orders to several shifters, working to get things cleaned up.
“Okay mister,” she said. “Show me to your room. Let’s wash this blood off you.”
He leaned in close. “That sounds like a mutual activity.”
Erika arched both eyebrows at him.
“Harden. You’re covered in blood and…and, other things. There’s a part of my mind that’s screaming with what I just saw. I have no idea how I’m so calm right now. It must be your influence on me. Now is not the time to make sexual advances.”
He looked down, ashamed. “I’m sorry. I forgot you aren’t used to this.”
“Thank goodness for that,” she muttered. “Now move it, mister. I want you out of those clothes ASAP and in the shower. No more delaying.”
“On it,” he said, pointing up the staircase attached to the left-hand wall and hopping down gingerly from the desk, hobbling toward the stairs.
“Oh hell,” she sighed and moved to his side, throwing his arm around her so she could support his wounded side better.
“Thank you. I’m sorry,” he said softly as they ascended the stairs, apologizing for getting blood on her.
“It’s okay,” she assured him. “It just means I’m going to have to spend the night in your apartment naked while my clothes dry.”
The way Harden’s ears perked up at that almost sent her tumbling down the stairs with laughter.
God she loved that man.