The Mane Event

by Shelly Laurenston

  Shit! Mace and Smitty exchanged a glance, then charged down the fourth tunnel.

  One hyena alone could cause enough damage. But a Clan of forty or even eighty? He had to get to Dez before she fell into the middle of them or they found her. Otherwise they’d all be dead.

  She turned the corner and faced another set of long hallways. What a freakin’ maze. A well-lit, confusing maze. Every corner she turned introduced her to another row of long hallways. Choosing one led her to another corner with another set of hallways and on and on.

  Christ, what did she get herself into?

  She stopped and took a breath. Yup. She was lost. She would have gone for her cell phone, but she’d dropped that in the alley behind the coffeehouse.

  She took another breath. She would not panic. She’d get out of here. For the thousandth time she shook out her left hand. Her wrist had subsided into a dull blinding pain.

  Dez moved down another hallway. She marveled at the silence. If she didn’t know a club stood right above her…hell, she couldn’t even make out the bass from the speakers. It seemed like all the walls were soundproofed.

  Of course, that didn’t make her feel any better. Because no one would hear her screams.

  She came to another corner and stopped. Down one of the long hallways, she heard men arguing.

  She moved quickly toward the sound as she pulled her Glock from her holster. She had no idea who she would find, but Dez prepared herself to be sweet as sugar or threaten to blow their heads off. Whatever got her the fuck out of here.

  She followed the voices. Her body tense, her gun clasped in both hands and away from her body. She pushed her back against the wall as the arguing turned violent. Someone was getting the shit kicked out of him.

  “Do it! Do it!” a deep voice snarled.

  She turned the corner and raised her weapon. Dez took in the scene quickly. One man down, a large boot against his shoulders holding him in place. The boot belonged to Patrick Doogan. She recognized him immediately now. One of his idiot brothers held a .45 aimed at the back of the vic’s head. The third brother crouched beside him, the hand not in a cast buried in the vic’s gold hair, pulling his head back to spit into that beautiful face.

  Damn, even her shotgun wouldn’t help her here. She needed her M-16. But she didn’t have that either.

  As a cop, she needed to scream “Freeze! Put your hands above your head and step away from the gorgeous guy!”

  Fuck that. She remembered how fast Mace and Brutale moved. She didn’t stand a chance with these three.

  So, without warning, Dez shot the one holding the gun. The bullet hit him in the shoulder, knocking him back, the gun flying out of his hand. The other two were so startled they jumped away from their target. They were armed, but they hadn’t gone for their weapons yet, mostly because they’d tucked them into the back of their tailored slacks.

  “Get up!”

  The vic looked at her, and immediately she recognized Brendon Shaw.

  “Move!”

  She wasn’t about to get any closer, but she wasn’t sure if she was asking the impossible as well. Severely beaten, he must have fought back. But he somehow managed to stand and stumble over to her.

  “Keep going.”

  He did as ordered. Dez backed away, her eyes locking with Patrick Doogan’s.

  “I’ll find you, bitch. I’ll find you and fuck you and kill you.”

  Dez didn’t bother answering him. Why? She knew he meant it. Instead, she kept backing up, until she got around the corner. She grabbed Shaw’s jacket and dragged him, but he wouldn’t move.

  She turned around and immediately stopped breathing. They all watched her with those cold brown eyes.

  A hyena suddenly appeared from the back. The others separated, giving her a path to walk through. She came up to Dez and stood before her. A dead hyena body in her mouth, the rope still around her throat.

  She knew this was Gina. Especially when she spit the corpse out at Dez’s feet.

  “Tell me you didn’t do that,” Shaw whispered, most likely because he’d lost so much blood.

  “I really wish I could.”

  “Damn.” He tried to push her back behind him. A surprisingly heroic gesture from someone she’d called “rich scumbag” in her head since he held that conversation with her tits the other evening.

  She did appreciate his attempt at protecting her, but they were beyond that now. In fact, the phrase “completely fucked” kept rattling around in her head.

  Dez grabbed Shaw’s jacket and took a step back, but the Doogan brothers came up behind her. She realized with what quickly became overwhelming despair that the two groups had her trapped between them. Both wanting to see her dead.

  Of course…they were archenemies. And not just because they were lion and hyena. For another reason altogether.

  Dez stepped in front of Shaw. “Gina.” The lead hyena watched her closely, waiting for her to make a run for it. Waiting for the hunt. “You wanted to know who killed your man.” Dez stepped back and motioned to the three men behind her. “It was them.”

  Gina Brutale locked eyes with Patrick Doogan. He couldn’t hide the truth. Not from any of them. His fangs extended as he and his brothers backed away. Gina watched him for a moment, savoring their realization that they were horribly outnumbered. She opened her mouth and let out a sound that chilled Dez’s blood and made her want to start crying. It sounded almost like laughter, but it definitely wasn’t.

  Doogan and his brothers ran as the hyenas rushed them.

  The two groups disappeared around the corner, then she grabbed Shaw’s jacket and forced the man to start running in the opposite direction. Shaw had lost a lot of blood, but she didn’t care. He’d lose a lot more if those lions got away or the bloodlust overtook the hyenas and they came looking for more.

  Dez could already hear the battle raging behind her. Three male lions against what she estimated to be about thirty or forty hyenas. Yeah. Good luck with that.

  Of course, there was one little problem with her escape. She still had no idea how to get the hell out of here.

  Just great, Dez. She glanced back at Shaw. He did not look good.

  “Can you lead us out of here?” When he stopped and dropped to his knees she pretty much figured that meant no.

  “Mr. Shaw, you need to get up. Now.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t.”

  “I can’t carry you, Mr. Shaw.”

  “Forget me. Go.”

  There he was, trying to be a hero again. Like she had time for that. “I can’t leave you here, Mr. Shaw.” Christ, she really had gone back to combat mode. Well, at least she wasn’t falling apart.

  Dez heard scrambling against the concrete floor. Considering she typified lazy when it came to clipping her dogs’ nails, she knew that sound. She crouched, her gun arm steadied against her knee. She jerked her trigger finger away in time and let out a shaky breath.

  Not a hyena. A wolf.

  “Sissy Mae?” The wolf yipped in response. “I’m lost and he’s running out of steam.”

  They heard more screams, more roars, and that disturbing howl that sounded like hysterical laughter.

  Sissy Mae put her head back and howled. She called to her Pack. Dez grabbed Shaw’s arm. “Get up, Mr. Shaw. We still need to keep moving.”

  He did his best, dragging his body up, using the wall as leverage. Once he stood on his own two shaky feet, Dez pulled Shaw past Sissy Mae. She turned the corner as six wolves charged past her. Two stopped and shifted back into males.

  Naked males. She shook her head. Nope, not the time to get all lusty. Honestly, what the hell was wrong with her?

  “He can’t make it. Take him.” They grabbed Shaw and dragged him away. “Sissy Mae, let’s go!”

  Sissy followed after the males. In a few moments she heard canine nails pounding concrete as they caught up with her.

  Within a few turns, they found the exit Dez had come in through. The wolves dragge
d Shaw up the stairs. She heard more running. More beings, not human, were moving toward them.

  She aimed the gun. “Sissy, go!” Sissy tore up the stairs as more wolves came from other hallways. They all moved past her and up the stairs. That’s when she saw them. The hyenas were back. Not all of them, but quite a few. Covered in blood. She quickly counted. Nope. She didn’t have enough bullets for all of them.

  Then suddenly a lion and wolf slid in front of her. Mace bellowed out a roar, and the hyenas all made a weird yipping sound, darting back and forth, apparently searching for a way to get to her. An opening they could use.

  Smitty growled, his canines flashing as he snapped at the hyenas in front of him.

  Mace took a step back, pushing her toward the stairs with his body. But before Dez could hightail it out of there, more hyenas came from another hallway. The only reason they stopped was because she aimed her gun at them.

  This wasn’t good. At some point, the hyenas were going to bum-rush the three of them, and that would be it.

  Dez desperately searched for a way out of this that would leave all of them alive, when she noticed Gina as hyena walking slowly around the corner, her sister’s body again in her mouth. Another hyena standing beside her let out a loud call, and the others challenging Mace and Smitty turned and charged back the other way. The ones facing her simply ran off.

  Just like that it ended.

  Gina looked at Dez, her eyes sending a clear message. She was going to let Dez go because she’d done her a favor. She’d taken out the only thing between Gina and absolute control of the Brutale family and given her the ones that had killed her lover.

  Gina turned and trotted off down the hallway, her sister’s body a trophy.

  Okay. No more animal night in New York for Dez. She turned and charged up the stairs. As she cleared the entrance, strong hands grabbed her from behind and pushed her out into the alley.

  Roasted coffee, muffins, sewage, and a light rainstorm were the welcome smells assaulting her. She wanted to take a deep breath and enjoy the cold air, but the arms that grabbed hold of her suddenly began crushing her to death. If she hadn’t recognized the body attached to those arms, she might have been worried.

  Instead, she couldn’t breathe.

  “I think you’re killing her, Mace.”

  “Good.” He pulled her closer to him and buried his face in her hair.

  Dez waved desperately at Smitty. Unlike his now-human-again sister, Smitty was still naked. “Help me,” she barely managed.

  “Well, darlin’, what did you expect? You had us worried sick.”

  “That’s not helping,” she squeaked.

  The door slammed shut and Dez finally felt safe.

  Sissy Mae shook her head as she quickly handed her brother’s clothes to him. “I think they got some other lions. I heard it.” Once dressed, Smitty gave Sissy a big, brotherly bear hug.

  “That’s not our problem. And good job, little sister.”

  The girl glowed with pride at her brother’s words. Or it just looked like she glowed because Dez couldn’t fucking breathe!

  “Still dying!”

  Mace finally released her, and she took in big gulps of air. He swung her around to face him. “That’s it! No more helping strange children you don’t know.”

  Dez pulled away from him, her breath coming in ragged gasps, the adrenaline finally leaving her body. “Are you insane? I’m a cop. If a kid comes to me, I’m gonna help ’em. So get that fuckin’ thought outta ya head.”

  Mace took a deep breath as his gold eyes drilled holes into her. After a moment, “Fine. But next time make sure they don’t have fangs.”

  Dez grinned. “That I can do.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Dez opened her eyes. Then closed them again. Never again would she drink anything referred to as “Uncle Willy’s ’shine.” Her head throbbed. She had no idea where she was…or whose arms were currently wrapped around her.

  The body behind her snuggled closer and purred. In that instant, her head cleared and she knew Mace held her. She smiled. What a night. In all her years as a Marine and a cop, she never went through anything like that before. And the fact that she survived…well, she felt pretty impressed with herself. But the night didn’t end there.

  Once away from the club, they took Shaw to a Midtown hospital. Apparently owned and operated by shifters, it was the only place that could truly care for the badly wounded man…or…whatever. The Pack and Mace were all ready to drop Shaw off at the emergency room and be done with him, but Dez couldn’t do that, and for some unknown reason Sissy wouldn’t allow it.

  “We just can’t leave him,” Dez had argued. Not after his little heroic turn in the bowels of the Chapel. Of course, her sudden sentiment garnered an annoyed sniff from Mace and blank stares from the Pack. But eventually they saw her side of things. So they sat around the waiting room, chatting, eating, and…well…waiting. She even got her wrist x-rayed and bandaged. Only a sprain. No major damage.

  Dez found herself liking Smitty and Sissy Mae’s Pack more and more as she got to know them. They were sweet and charming as only Southerners knew how. And they seemed to tolerate Mace well enough. Even after he roared at Smitty when he found Dez scratching his happy spot.

  Eventually Mace’s cousin, Elise, blew into the waiting room. It turned out she would be the only Llewellyn Pride female there that cold, rainy night. Sissy Mae and Smitty seemed dumbfounded by the lack of caring from the other females, but Mace wasn’t surprised at all. Eventually the doctor told them that Shaw would survive. Elise disappeared after that, and the rest of them headed back to the Pack’s uptown hotel.

  That’s about the time the drinking started. She really shouldn’t drink. Dez knew better. Hence the Marine tattoo on her ass she had removed a few years back. Of course, now that area had a big ol’ lion bite in it.

  At least this time around, Mace made sure she didn’t do anything too painfully stupid. He simply didn’t let anyone near her.

  Now it was the morning after. She still had on her bustier. Her body still ached from the beating it took the night before. Her wrist freakin’ screamed “cut me off” at her. But she had Mace. She really couldn’t ask for a better Christmas present than that. Hell, who could?

  She sighed and snuggled closer to him. One of his hands gently caressed her stomach over the leather top while he snored. As she thought how sweet it was that he touched her even in his sleep, his hand slowly moved lower. Dez raised an eyebrow. Tricky cat.

  She grabbed his hand with both of hers to stop its lowering course. That’s when his other hand began moving. She grabbed both his hands in hers, but he kept going lower while she kept pulling him back up. That’s when the uncontrollable giggling started. Christ, she was too old for giggling.

  They tried to be quiet since they were on the floor with Smitty’s Pack in his main suite—with that kind of drinking, one rarely made it back to her own bed. Then Mace pushed her onto her back, him on top. He pinned her arms over her head and leaned into her.

  “Don’t you dare, Mace Llewellyn,” she whispered fiercely.

  “Don’t dare what, baby?”

  “Get off me, Mace.”

  “No way. Gotcha where I want you.”

  “I’ll scream.”

  “They’ll just think you’re having a good time.”

  Dez growled. “I’ll scream ‘walk.’”

  That’s when they knew the wolves were wide-awake. They all burst out laughing.

  “Jesus Christ, Mace. Would you let the girl go?”

  Sissy Mae pulled open the hotel curtains. Afternoon light flooded the room, and everyone groaned except Mace. He still focused on Dez, his eyes narrowed. She’d got him and they both knew it.

  Sissy Mae tsk-tsk’d him. “Honestly, you cats have no sense of what’s proper. Mauling a nice girl like that.”

  “You’re kidding, right, Lassie?”

  “Why you rude, son of a—”

  “Now, Sissy
Mae,” her brother warned as he dragged his big, long body into one of the leather chairs. “Don’t go gettin’ all angry at Mace. You know the boy has never been in love before.” Smitty looked right at his friend with challenge in his dark brown eyes. “Now have ya, hoss?”

  He would kill him. Slam him down and rip him open from bowel to throat. Yeah. He loved Dez, but he didn’t want to tell Dez that yet. Not when she physically flinched every time he got near the subject.

  Damn, you call a man’s sister Lassie and they get all defensive.

  He looked at Dez. Yup. There it was. In those beautiful gray eyes. Panic. The only time the woman panicked. Anytime it involved him and his feelings for her.

  Sissy Mae pushed him off Dez. He rolled away from her, his legs stretched out, his upper body raised on his elbows. Sissy helped Dez to her feet.

  “Come on, darlin’. Let’s order breakfast.”

  “Don’t you mean lunch, little sister?” Smitty asked as he stretched and yawned.

  Mace waited until the women went back to Sissy’s room, then he glared at his friend. “Well, thank you very much!”

  “Don’t roar at me, boy. You called my baby sister Lassie. Only I can get away with that. Besides…you do love her. You fuckin’ reek of it.”

  Mace dropped back to the floor. “I know,” he moaned.

  “Jes-us, Mace. My momma was right. You are more wolf than cat. Attaching yourself to one person and all.”

  “Cats attach themselves to one person.” He raised his head to glare at Smitty. “We just don’t let them know.”

  Smitty chuckled. “Guess I blew that, huh?”

  “God, Sissy Mae. What the fuck am I going to do?”

  “You New Yorkers sure do cuss a lot.”

  “I didn’t used to, but Mace keeps bringing out the angry Bronx girl in me.”

  “You know what you’re going to do, Dez? You’re going to love him and go about your day.” Sissy Mae gently unwrapped Dez’s sprained wrist.