Wolfman virtually floated all the way home. His inner wolf yowled happily. He was probably going to sport a drunken smile for days. He wished he could go back in time to his thirteen-year-old self and tell him how much better things were going to get. That one day, he’d have a wonderful female like Avery actually interested in him, and that he’d finally hit a growth spurt at age seventeen.
He did feel a little guilty that he had enjoyed the best night of his life while he perhaps should have been out fighting crime. But, he defied any man to say no to her.
He was a little miffed that she had so easily known who he was – he perhaps needed to improve his mask.
Wolfman stilled as he spotted a couple of the kids he had caught picking people’s pockets over the last few days. Oh, he was going to catch them and march them over to the cops and turn them in.
Sticking to the shadows he tried to sidle towards them, trying to make sure he was quiet as possible. Though as he crept past a chain link fence and a dog started barking at him, his reaction of yelping and jumping into a trashcan didn’t exactly help.
The two boys saw him and pelted away.
Grrr. He was too busy trying to be quiet; he didn’t even scent the dog.
He poked a finger in the rottweiler’s direction. “This is all your fault.”
The dog gave him a look reminiscent of Cujo and Wolfman took off after the boys – partly because he wanted to catch them, but also to get away from that hell dog.
He didn’t get very far. An elderly lady flagged him down, tears in her eyes. He couldn’t push her aside and run away – he was sworn to help.
It turned out all she wanted was help to get her cat down from a tree but, if she wanted help, he would give it.
*
“How did it go?” asked Kay, wringing her hands.
“Fine,” muttered Marlowe.
“Everyone okay?” She gave him a pointed look.
He understood what she wanted to know. “All the test subjects are still alive.”
Kay blew out a breath of relief.
“New one’s a live wire,” snickered Alfie, giving her a wide, horrible smile.
“Terrific.”
“Boss is pleased.”
Kay glared at him. Whoopee.
“Make sure the animals get some extra meat tonight; they’ll be needed Sunday night too.”
“Sunday?” she repeated in dismay.
“Yeah, make sure they get an extra shot of the stuff.”
Kay curled her fists in frustration. “But that’s too soon,” she blurted. “They need at least a week to calm down – their bodies can’t process that much… Ah…”
She trailed away when faced with the full weight of Alfie’s thunderous look.
“What?” he said in a quiet voice, though it was deafening to her.
“She’ll do it,” said Marlowe giving her a look.
Alfie nodded. She doubted he ever really thought she wouldn’t do as she was told.
“Feel free to celebrate.” He smirked, and it was truly an awful sight to behold. “I will be.”
He waggled his eyebrows and Kay shuddered. She dreaded to think of the woman who would let him near her.
Marlowe waited until he had gone and he gave Kay a sad smile. “I know it’s tough, but sometimes you have to do terrible things to survive.”
“Or for money,” she hissed accusingly. Tears trickled down her cheeks.
He closed his eyes as pain crossed his features. “You’re not the only one who doesn’t want to be here. Just… Just do as he says – for your sake.”
Kay watched him go, waited until he was out of earshot and started sobbing.
*
Winston limped through the door. The poor little cat stranded in the tree turned out to be a wild cougar who did not want to get down and took offense at anyone who disagreed with him.
Damn woman. Who wanted a cougar for a pet?
He was now covered in scratches, and only a few of them were Avery’s. He grinned, and his beast rumbled happily as he thought of his lioness. He was just replaying the wonderful, all too brief moments he had shared with her when a frying pan flew at his face.
“Hey!”
He dropped to the ground, narrowly missing it, and realized his mom was attached to the other end.
“Mom!”
“Oh, Winnie! I thought you were a burglar.”
“With a key? A burglar with a key?”
“Well, these burglars today are sly that way,” she argued.
“Mom…”
“Stop distracting me, where have you been?” she demanded angrily. “Tara has been worried sick.”
Winston blinked at her. “She has? Why?”
“Because you’re getting married.”
“No, we’re not.”
“It’s next Saturday.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“You’re going to…”
“No!” he roared. His beast snarled in agreement. “No, we’re not, you crazy woman!”
His mom actually gave him a hurt look – she in no way thought she deserved that. “How could you call me that?”
“Mom, enough, seriously – no tears, no heart attack, I’m not getting married. I’ve already met someone, and she is not Tara.”
Hurt quickly turned to outrage. “Who? Why don’t I know who she is? How on earth could you have met a woman and not thought to introduce her to your mother?”
“I’ll introduce you… soon.”
When he was sure he had Avery’s affection locked down, and he was certain the crazy lady wouldn’t do anything to scare her.
He kissed his mother’s forehead. Deep, deep, deep, deep, oh so darn deep, down he was almost sure she meant well – or at least was driven to do crazy things by her own grief for the loss of her mate - and he loved her. But he wasn’t about to risk losing Avery.