“Our first time too,” one of the girls said. “I’m loving it.” She looked more terrified than excited, in Walker’s opinion. She leaned forward and whispered, as though keeping her words away from Shifter hearing. “The Shifters don’t wear real Collars.”
“That’s what makes it fun,” a second young woman said. “They’re not controlled by anyone. They’re truly wild. They could do anything.”
As with her friend, what was in her eyes said different things from her words. Walker guessed that hearing about Shifters who could do anything was exciting in theory, but now that the women were here, watching the dangerous Shifters walk around, it was scary as hell.
“How do they not get caught?” Walker asked, also in a whisper.
“No one tells,” one of the young men said. He had his face painted similar to the way Walker had worn his originally tonight. “They mark us with their scent, and they can find us if they think we’ll betray them. But anyway, why would we? We love Shifters. Shifters should be free.”
Walker agreed with him on the last part but, he hoped, without the fanatic light in the young man’s eyes.
These Shifters, however, weren’t doing anything Walker hadn’t seen Shifters with Collars do. They drank beer, shouted to one another, were arrogant shits. Some had arms draped around groupies’ shoulders, the few female Shifters had males hovering protectively near them.
The difference showed itself when two Lupines got into a fight. The bone of contention, a groupie woman in a wisp of a dress that fastened at one shoulder, screamed and scrambled out of the way as the Lupines attacked each other full force.
Both Shifters and groupies boiled away from the two Lupines as they tumbled over tables, shifting as they went. It was like being at the fight club, except with no boundary ring, no rules, no referees. Shifters stood back and watched, not attempting to help or break it up.
Fur flew and soon enough, so did blood. No one stopped them. Walker rose to watch, as the other groupies did, and he stood tensely. Part of his job was to contain something like this, to keep Shifters in line. That’s why he carried a Taser in his pocket and a tranq gun in his truck.
He knew, though, that if he marched over and tased the two combatants, he wouldn’t make it out alive. Joanne might not either.
The Lupines in wolf form rolled to the middle of the floor, biting, writhing, clawing. They moved so fast they were one ball of fur, doing their best to rip each other open.
This would be a fight to the death—Walker saw that. His heart pumped furiously, but at the same time, his training took over, turning his fight-or-flight adrenaline into cold strength.
He took in the building and the exits. If he could get the two outside, he could bring them both down with the Taser before anyone was the wiser. He might be able to turn the situation into an opportunity for getting answers as well.
As Walker planned his strategy for driving them toward the nearest emergency exit, one of the fighting Lupines yelped and went limp.
Now other Shifters moved, five of them, including the two bouncers, lifting the victor off the loser before he could rip out the loser’s throat.
The winner lifted his head and howled. He shifted, becoming a blood-coated, naked human, tight body covered with tatts. He spit on the wolf who lay motionlessly on the floor, called him a filthy name, and sauntered over to the young woman they’d fought over. He grabbed her by the dress and dragged her up his bloody body for a kiss.
Walker had his hand inside his jacket, around the Taser, but the woman came out of the kiss all smiles. She stroked his arm.
The winner, still naked, had obviously grown excited by the fight. He wrapped his arm around the woman and pulled her through a dark door that was not an exit.
The wolf who’d lost lay in a pool of blood. He wasn’t dead, because when the Lupine bouncer tried to move him, he groaned. The Lupine looked over to the groupies near Walker, pointed to one of the young women Walker had been talking to, and beckoned her over.
The woman looked terrified. Walker rose with her, made a motion for Joanne to stay put, and escorted the young woman to the middle of the room.
The Lupine snarled at Walker. “I didn’t ask for you. He needs the touch of a woman.”
“I’m a medic,” Walker said. “In real life.”
The Lupine sniffed in his direction, decided Walker was telling the truth, and gave him a brief nod. Walker helped the Lupine lift the wolf, who snarled softly, and carry him to a deserted corner. The groupie woman followed, uncertain.
The Lupine shook the other wolf when they laid him on the floor. “Can you hear me, Tev? Shift back.”
The wolf groaned again, the groan ending in a whimper. Slowly the wolf morphed back to human—agonizingly slowly. Walker heard his bones and cartilage crackling as he changed shape.
A few minutes later, Walker looked at a young man who couldn’t be more than Scott’s age, say late twenties, still very young for a Shifter. Walker guessed the Shifter was just past his Transition. So what was he doing picking fights with older Shifters in a bar in the middle of nowhere?
Whatever the reason, the kid was in bad shape. “I’ll need water, clean cloths, and whatever kind of first-aid kit you have. Gauze would be good, and needle and thread.” Walker gently touched the young man’s shin. “And a splint.”
“Shifters heal fast,” the Lupine growled.
“Not that fast. And they need to heal correctly. Do you have the stuff?”
The note in Walker’s voice made the Lupine shoot him a sharp look. Groupies didn’t give orders, and Walker had done it automatically, in a tone that said he expected to be obeyed. Now to see if the Lupine would kill him with one blow, or go get the first-aid kit.
The Lupine huffed a breath, gripped the female groupie’s shoulder, and said, “You, come and help me.”
Walker was left alone with the young Shifter. “What’s your name?” he asked.
“Tevis,” the Lupine answered, his voice a whisper.
“I’m Walter,” Walker said, deciding to continue with the name. “What the hell are you doing here, challenging a Shifter twice your age and experience?”
Tevis managed a little smile. “Wanted . . . mate.”
Walker thought about the young woman in the dress that could dissolve in a high wind, her smile at the winning Shifter, and her blatant unconcern for the loser. “Don’t worry about her. You can do better.”
“Pretty,” Tevis said, sounding wistful.
“Looks aren’t everything.” Not that Walker could cease thinking about Rebecca’s brown eyes, the delicious curve of her body, her beautiful face.
“I’m going to touch you,” Walker said. “I’m checking for breaks and to see how bad you are. All right?”
“I’m fine,” Tevis snapped, but so weakly the words barely sounded over the noise of the bar.
“No, you’re not.” Walker put careful but competent hands on the Shifter’s bare legs. The right shin was definitely broken. “Let me tell you about women, big guy,” he said as he went on with the examination. “You want one with a good heart. Looks don’t last. A good heart is forever.”
He should talk. He’d taken one look at the gorgeous package of Rebecca, and his world had changed.
“Not a lot of choice,” Tevis said.
“Is that what all the Shifters in this bar are doing? Looking for mates?”
Tevis shrugged. “Good a place as any.”
The young Lupine wore a fake Collar. As Walker ran his fingers around Tevis’s neck, he found bite wounds from the fight, but no crease or scars that a real Collar would have left when removed.
“How did you not get rounded up?” Walker asked him quietly. He rubbed the kid’s neck. “You’re not like other Shifters.”
“Mother hid me,” Tevis said. “They took her. Never found me. I was just a cub. Almost went feral. I finally came across others like me.”
“In South Texas?” Walker asked. Didn’t sound too likely.
“How did you all find each other? Do you have a leader?”
“No. Word gets around.”
No leader sounded even more unlikely. Shifters always had an alpha in charge, even if it was just one person heading a small family. The idea that a group of Shifters could come together without someone in charge was odd—and for Shifters, dangerous. Or maybe Walker wasn’t asking the right questions.
He couldn’t ask more, though, because the bouncer and groupie returned a moment later.
The bouncer shoved the young woman down beside Tevis and dropped a first-aid kit and some Ace bandages next to Walker. “Fix him. If you can’t, tell me.”
Fear flickered in Tevis’s eyes. Walker wondered what would happen to Tevis if he couldn’t be helped. Would they put him down like a hurt dog? With a drug? Or a bullet?
“I’ll fix him,” Walker said, giving Tevis a reassuring look. “I’m good at it.”
The bouncer turned away but didn’t go far. He stood with his back to them, watching the rest of the bar, but was close enough that he’d be able to hear conversation and be back to them in two steps.
The groupie woman started to cry. “I can’t do this. I can’t.”
No, she couldn’t, Walker realized. She’d come here to party and hook up with a Shifter, not be a makeshift nurse to a Shifter who might not survive.
He called to the bouncer. “Let her go. My friend can help me.”
The bouncer did not look happy, but he saw that the crying girl was going to be useless. He lifted her to her feet, pushed her back toward the tables, and gestured for Joanne to come.
Joanne scuttled over, afraid but determined. Walker silenced her with a look and continued to minister to Tevis. The bouncer watched them for a time then moved off to keep an eye on the bar again.
Walker wished he had a splint, but he had to make do with the thick Ace bandage and a long piece of hard plastic that had once been the lid to something.
“This is going to hurt,” Walker said to Tevis. “There aren’t any painkillers. You really should be at a hospital.”
“Can’t,” Tevis said, grinning weakly. “Bad idea.”
If hospital staff realized that Tevis was a Shifter with a fake Collar, they’d report him in a heartbeat.
“I understand.” Walker straightened the bad leg and told Joanne to be ready. “What happens when one of you is seriously hurt? Do you have a healer?”
Tevis shook his head. “If it’s that bad, the Shifter dies. Gets turned to dust.”
“You have a Guardian?” Walker asked in surprise. The Guardian of a Shifter’s pack or clan had a Fae-made sword that would render a dead Shifter dust when the blade was thrust through his heart. Shifters believed this was the only route to the Summerland, the afterlife.
Tevis looked suddenly worried, as though he’d said too much. Groupies would know about Guardians, because they knew everything about Shifters. But an un-Collared Guardian still living wild? Walker wasn’t sure how that could happen, how one could remain undetected.
Guardians had a computer database they called the Guardian Network, through which they both stored facts about all Shifters and communicated with one another. The language used to code it was ancient Fae, and no one but Guardians fully comprehended it. Most of them were accomplished hackers, or soon became such.
The Guardians were the keepers of knowledge—it would be highly unusual for a Guardian to be off that grid, and for the others to not know about him. Yet the few Guardians Walker had met had never mentioned an un-Collared Guardian running around in the world.
Walker tucked the fact away and got down to the business of getting Tevis’s leg into the makeshift splint. He had Joanne hold everything steady while he took hold of Tevis’s ankle, and in one hard jerk, aligned the bone.
Tevis yelled, and his wolf started to come. The bouncer swung back, concern and anger in his eyes.
Joanne quickly put her arm around Tevis. “It’s all right. It’s all right.” She rubbed his chest. “He’s fixing you.”
She’d learned, it seemed, that touch helped Shifters deal with pain and heal. Just as Rebecca had held and calmed Scott last night at the arena, Joanne soothed Tevis back from the shift. Tevis sank against her, his head on her shoulder.
The leg was straight now. Walker wrapped it quickly and competently, hoping that the swift-healing Shifter metabolism would kick in and fuse the bones by tomorrow.
Tevis leaned against Joanne as she put both arms around him. “Thanks,” he said breathlessly. He sounded embarrassed.
Walker finished up, cleaning Tevis’s bite wounds and applying gauze. The bouncer was watching them closely again.
“He should go home,” Walker said, wadding up the cloths he’d used and unfolding to his feet. “Does he have family? Or friends who can help him?”
The bouncer started to answer, then scowled, as though realizing he’d been about to give away too much. “We’ll take care of him. You two are done. Out.”
Walker slid back into his groupie persona. “What? Why? We just got here.”
“Another night.” The bouncer clamped his hand on Walker’s shoulder. “You say a word about what you’ve seen here, and you’re dead meat. Understand? We’ll know.”
“I won’t,” Walker said quickly. “We get it. We want you to be free.”
The bouncer gave him a little shake. “Good.”
Joanne started to rise, but Tevis grabbed her hand. “Don’t go. Let her stay.” He turned wide, scared eyes to the bouncer. “Please.”
The bouncer looked as though he didn’t like making these kinds of decisions, but he sighed and gave Tevis a nod. “All right. She stays with him.” He pointed at Walker. “You. Go.”
Not good. Walker couldn’t leave Joanne in here with these Shifters. Way too dangerous.
The bouncer saw Walker’s indecision, and his voice hardened. “She stays. The cub needs her. She leaves when he’s better.”
“I’m not a cub,” Tevis growled in protest. “I’m past my Transition.”
The bouncer ignored him. “Don’t worry about the girl,” he said to Walker. “I’ll watch out for her.”
“It’s all right,” Joanne said. She sank back down to Tevis. “I don’t mind. If I can help him, I want to stay.”
She meant she wanted to find out if these Shifters knew anything about her sister. Walker understood that, but at the same time, leaving a civilian behind enemy lines was not what he did.
But, this wasn’t a military campaign. This was a retrieval, though they had to find the target to retrieve first.
Walker finally nodded his assent. “You be careful.” He knelt next to Joanne and gave her a hug. She hid a start but hugged him back, giving him the opportunity to drop a tiny GPS tracker into the pocket of her jacket.
Walker got up, looked around, zipped up his hoodie, followed the bouncer to the door, and walked out.
Chapter Fourteen
For the two outside, the wait was interminable. Rebecca paced, her restlessness uncontained. Broderick, just as impatient, leaned against his motorcycle in the dark, pretending not to shiver without his jacket.
“So¸” Broderick said after Rebecca had passed him for the twentieth time. “You and Walker?”
Rebecca stopped abruptly, her boots kicking up puffs of dust. “Why not me and Walker?”
Broderick lifted his hands, hard muscles moving. “I just asked. You have a jones for him, don’t you?”
“You should talk. What about you and Joanne?”
Broderick’s hands lowered, and he shrugged. “She’s nice. For a human.”
“That’s why you’re helping her? ’Cause she’s so nice?”
“Hey, if it were one of my brothers missing, I’d be turning over every rock. And my brothers are dumb-asses. I get what she’s going through.”
Rebecca tamped down her anger, though h
er worry remained. “Yeah, I do too. If it were one of the cubs . . .”
She wouldn’t be out here in a parking lot waiting to play her part. Walker had said they had to be discreet, but Shifters weren’t used to being discreet, and Rebecca, in particular, was very bad at it.
She knew, however, that if she went charging in, her effort wouldn’t do any good. The Shifters in the bar were un-Collared, but her Collar was plenty real and would shock the hell out of her if she tried to fight them.
She’d be outnumbered even without that disadvantage. Didn’t matter that she was a Kodiak and they were puny wolves and wildcats. A group of them could drag down a bear.
“What about after Joanne finds out what’s happened to Nancy?” Rebecca asked Broderick, to take her mind off things. “What are you going to do then?”
Even in the dark, she saw Broderick stiffen. “Hell if I know. Why should I do anything?”
“Give up, Brod,” Rebecca said, making herself laugh. “You’re smitten.”
“Smitten. Don’t make me gag. Human bullshit.”
“When you’re finally drooling after a mate, I’m going to rub it in so bad . . .” Rebecca trailed off, her enjoyment of teasing Broderick only so distracting. “What time is it?”
“Hell if I know. You see me wearing a sissy human watch?”
“Right, right. Lupines tell time by the light of the moon. How’s that working for you? You still don’t know what time it is.”
Rebecca strode back to her motorcycle to the sound of Broderick telling her what she could do with herself. She rummaged in the saddlebag until she found her cell phone and clicked it on. Just after midnight. She dropped the phone back inside, took what she needed from Walker’s well-stocked duffel, and closed the saddlebag.
“Keep a lookout,” she said to Broderick.
She’d already apprised him of what Walker had asked her to do. Broderick wasn’t convinced it would work, but he, like Rebecca, preferred doing something to standing around waiting to see what happened.
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