Standing barefoot and shirtless on top of one of his metal cases, Stalk craned his neck to peer out the dirty basement window at the building across the street. Plywood covered the doorway and windows on the first floor. “How long’s that building been deserted?”
Angela padded over to him, wearing nothing but his shirt. Passing a cup of black coffee to him she said, “A little less than a year. The city seized it because the landlord owed back taxes.”
Stalk sipped the strong coffee. “Squatters?”
“Probably, but none that I’ve seen.”
“I’d like you to open the shop, then meet me over there after work.”
Angela narrowed her eyes. “No.”
“It’s a good spot for a showdown.”
“John, I won’t watch you die.”
He looked at her. “You said yourself this Berserker sensed that you knew who he was. If you’re right, he’ll come after you.”
“Do I look like bait?”
Stepping off the case, he slid his free arm around her back and kissed her. “This way it will be on my terms. I’ll be ready for him.”
He hoped she believed him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Ten years earlier
She revealed herself to him in the library. Julian was a freshman at Washington State University with no declared major. He’d seen her on campus in the cafeteria, the very sight of her awakening his senses and giving him an erection. Tall for a woman, as tall as him, with curly brown hair that undulated down her back, and full breasts. But they had no classes together. Now she stood beside him, a mysterious smile on her lips. By the time he had looked up from his book, she had vanished and reappeared on his other side.
Sniffing the air around him in an exaggerated manner she said, “I’m Brooke Hodge. Who are you?”
“Julian Fortier,” he said in a low voice, self-conscious that she had been so open with her nature.
“Frenchman, huh?” Her dark eyes gleamed with energy.
Julian shrugged. “I guess.”
She cocked her head at the book in his hands. “Roman Mythology. I had Reid for Ancient Literature too. What a prick.”
“I’m not reading this for a class.”
Brooke raised her eyebrows. “You’re reading this voluntarily? What are you, a glutton for self-flagellation? Let me see that.”
Before he could argue, she took the book from his hands and skimmed the page he had been reading. “Ah, Janus. The two-faced god.” Looking into his eyes, she offered him a warm smile. “That’s cute.”
“Actually, he had two heads, not two faces. One looked into the past, the other into the future. He represented change, not hypocrisy like so many people believe.”
“You’re cute.”
Julian felt his face turning red. “What year are you?”
“Sophomore. And am I ever glad to see you. The only other Wolves on campus are those jerks on the football team. I can’t stand jocks. You want to get some coffee?”
They sat in the Starbucks lounge at the student union, which had been designed to look funky and downtown despite its corporate brand. He drank his coffee black, and she added extra sugar to her mocha. His gaze kept drifting to her breasts, and more than once he caught her smiling at his behavior.
“You said there are others like us here?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t there be?” Before he could answer, she added, “But I’m the only female, so you’d better claim me before it’s too late.”
Feeling his erection straining against his jeans, he wanted to claim her right there in the lounge of Starbucks. Control yourself.
“What pack are you from?” she said, sipping her sugar.
“Boulder, Colorado. You?”
“Anchorage. Mom and Dad still live there.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“Oh yeah. Two brothers from my litter and two and a sister from another.”
“Big family.”
“Tell me about it. What about you?”
“Only child.”
“Really? You’re luckier than you know.”
He wanted to believe that.
“Let’s go for a walk.”
She led him across campus, passing brick buildings, concrete walkways, and glowing globes that illuminated the sidewalks as dusk darkened the expansive sky. As they climbed a green hill, she grasped one of his biceps.
“Your arm is solid,” she said in an impressed tone. “You’ve Changed a lot.”
“My grandfather didn’t believe in keeping emotions bottled up.”
“Old school. Did he raise you?”
“Yeah. My parents died when I was eleven.”
“I’m sorry. You’re lucky he was around.”
There’s that word again, Julian thought. “Sometimes I wonder. My parents lived in New York City. I guess you could say I had a privileged life.”
“But not with your grandfather?”
Cresting the hilltop, Julian turned to look at the track in the distance. “No. Grandpa Jed was a simpler man. He lived close to nature and saw no advantage in assimilating more than necessary.”
“Past tense?”
Julian nodded. “He died last year. Even though he disapproved of me attending college, he helped me prepare for it. When my parents died, he made sure all the money I inherited went into a trust. He never took a nickel for himself or to pay for my expenses.”
Brooke slid her left hand down his arm and locked her fingers around his. “A rich werewolf! You’re looking better to me all the time.” Before he could respond, she tugged him away from the hill. “Come on. I want to show you something.”
They crossed the paved road that ringed the campus, then a parking lot, and entered a path through the woods.
“What is this place?” Julian said.
“It’s part of the cross-country course. One mile out of the three goes through it. The team practices here every day.”
They penetrated the darkness, the light from the parking lot fading behind them. The path dipped, curved, rose, and dipped again. Fireflies coalesced ahead of them, then scattered as they approached, and mosquitoes buzzed around their ears. When the trees cleared enough to allow the moon to light their way, Brooke stopped and peeled off her top. She wore no bra, and the moonlight gleamed on her breasts.
“What are you doing?” Julian’s pulse quickened so that it filled his ears.
Brooke took off her shoes, then unsnapped her jeans and wiggled out of those as well. “Let’s go for a run.” She stood naked in the moonlight, breasts rising and falling.
Julian’s gaze dipped to the black stripe between her legs. He stripped to his underwear, erection standing at full attention.
“It’s a free country,” she said with a sheepish grin, “but if you ask me, you’re going to look silly in those. I’ve never seen a Wolf wearing Fruit of the Looms.”
With his eyes locked on hers, he leaned forward and stepped out of the briefs. Standing straight, his throbbing erection stabbed the cool night air.
Now it was her turn to examine him. Her dark eyes seemed to grow brighter, and the smile on her lips grew larger. And then larger still. Her face—her entire body—had begun to Change, reshaping itself before him.
The pulsing sound in Julian’s ears grew louder. Shift, shift.
Julian Changed for her as well. He had never Changed in front of a female of his species before, and he felt his erection leading the way. Bonessnapped. Flesh stretched. Fur grew. Although she had started Changing before him, they finished at the same time. It was important for him to show her that in this situation he possessed greater speed than her.
The two gigantic Wolves stood on their hind legs, lacking only tails. While black fur jetted from Julian’s muscles, Brooke’s was a mixture of white, brown, and gray. Julian’s erection maintained its stature even as Brooke leapt high into the air. By the time she landed on the soft earth, her arms and legs had become shorter, enabling her to run on al
l fours.
Brooke raced through the woods with Julian in hot pursuit. She had a distinct advantage over him because she knew the terrain—where to speed up, where to jump, where to slow down—but he had no trouble keeping her in his sight or following her magnificent scent. He felt an animal longing that he had never before experienced in human or Wolf Form. Sprinting past a chain-link fence that protected a weathered house from the college students, he knew he’d overtake her, penetrate her, and ejaculate inside her.
He caught her in a soft gulley and sank his fangs into the back of her neck, not hard enough to break her skin but enough to hold her firm. She collapsed her front legs before her, and they rolled into bushes. She attempted to shake him loose, but he held tight, pressing her to the ground even as he mounted her from behind. She raised her haunches, rubbing her clitoris against his penis, and he plowed into her. Feeling liquid warmth cascading over him, he humped her, riding her Wolf on Wolf. She backed up against him, increasing his pleasure and his passion for her.
At last Brooke arched her back and howled, her body quivering with his, and he realized that his fangs had drawn blood. He came inside her, a hot, pulsing release that made him howl as well. He collapsed over her and they Changed together, then lay human and entangled in the brush, their wet skin sparkling in the moonlight.
She caressed his face, and, gazing into her eyes, he felt kinship for the first time since his parents had been killed.
Panting, she said, “We shouldn’t have Changed here.”
“Why not?” he said, penis still jerking in the cool air.
“Because now we have to walk back to get our clothes.”
Julian laughed. “So we’ll Change again!”
She shook her head. “Maybe you can but not me. I’m not that proficient yet. I have to wait at least half an hour.”
He held her in his arms. “Then we’ll wait.”
“You’re mine now,” Brooke said as they walked hand in hand back to campus.
Julian gave her a quizzical look.
“Didn’t your grandfather tell you? Wolves are monogamous. We mate for life. You’re stuck with me.”
That sounded good to him.
She slapped his arm. “I’m joking! I mean, I’m not, but you don’t have to worry about silly traditions. We’re two modern young people in the big, bad world, free to do as we please.”
What pleased Julian was to continue seeing Brooke, and apparently it pleased her to keep seeing him as well. They became inseparable, making love in human form, Wolf Form, and in mid-Transformation.
During a particularly exhausting session in Julian’s dorm room, his roommate, Ryan, walked in on them while they were in the throes of excitement. Fortunately, Julian had turned the light off, and in the time it took Ryan to throw the switch, the startled couple dropped side by side on the bed and Changed.
Ryan covered his eyes with one hand, then separated his fingers and peered between them. He did not notice the outline of Brooke’s left leg shrinking beneath the sheet. “I can’t see anything!” he said, and all three of them laughed.
“I love you,” Julian said as they nestled in the grass of the woods three weeks later.
“I know that,” Brooke said, drawing her fingernails through the hair on his chest.
“Do you love me?”
“Of course I do.” She kissed him full on the mouth.
“We should get married.”
Tossing her hair over one shoulder, she basked in the moonlight. “Listen to you. We’re in college. Neither one of us even has a real job. We’re not ready.”
“We don’t need jobs. I’ll have plenty of money when I liquidate my real estate.”
She reached behind her head and touched his cheek. “You’re so serious, like the European Wolves. Enjoy life. Enjoy me.”
“I do enjoy you. That’s why I want to be with you always.”
Brooke knelt in the leaves and faced him. Clasping his hand in hers, she kissed his knuckles. “We’re together now, and that means we’ll always be together. We’re mates. I couldn’t care less about a silly human tradition like marriage, but if that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do. After college and after we’ve met each other’s pack. But you have to do something for me.”
“What’s that?”
“I want to see the world. I want to travel to Europe and Asia and Africa. I don’t want to breed for a long time.”
His gaze traced her body from her breasts to her womanhood.
“Don’t give me those puppy dog eyes,” she said.
“What’s so interesting about European Wolves?”
“Nothing at all. They’re political animals—terrorists. All they want to do is destroy the peace we’ve built. I don’t care if I ever meet one. But I still want to see Rome and London and Tokyo.”
“Then we will.”
Six months later, Julian and Brooke raced through the woods, nipping at each other. As they passed the chain-link fence along the path, a pair of German shepherds leapt out of the darkness and snarled at them, their teeth raking the metal. The Wolves stopped, faced the dogs, and mimicked their barking, which only confused the poor beasts. The house’s porch light bloomed, and the Wolves took off before they were seen. Brooke overtook Julian; then he overtook her, plowing her into the ground and fastening his fangs over the back of her neck. She pretended to protest, all the while pushing against him. He penetrated her and rode her, and after several minutes they howled out in orgasm at the same time.
Embracing each other in human form, Brooke mimicked the German shepherds once more and laughed.
“God, what a surprise!” Julian said. “The idiots scared the hell out of me. We’ll have to be careful along that stretch from now on.”
“Damn dogs,” Brooke said, sitting up. “They’ll never evolve.”
“How about you? Will you ever evolve?”
Grinning, she said, “Watch me.” And she Changed. Over the course of their relationship, making love in Wolf Form almost every night, she had become as adept at transforming as him.
Now she circled him, nipping at his bare shoulders, and he Changed as well. She took off in a streak and he chased her, passing her with ease and running even faster. Sudden barking startled him as the German shepherds lunged at the fence again, and he hoped they hadn’t frightened Brooke.
Then the sound of rifle fire split the night, and he stopped and turned.
Another shot, followed by high-pitched yelping.
No!
Deadly silence followed the third and final shot.
Julian galloped back in the other direction at full speed, his paws kicking up chunks of dirt and grass. The thundering in his head and chest drowned out the sound of the barking German shepherds.
A man came into view, standing with his back to Julian, the fence to his right and the woods to his left. Brooke lay motionless at the man’s feet, and moonlight glinted off the barrel of the man’s rifle.
Julian sprang high into the air, front paws changing into claws.
The dogs barked louder, lunging at the fence, and the man looked over his left shoulder with a startled expression on his middle-aged features.
Julian slammed into the man’s lower back with such force that he heard vertebrae snapping. The man folded in half with an agonized groan, and Julian rolled across the earth and charged over to Brooke. He nudged her side with his muzzle, but she did not stir. Patches of pale flesh identified where she had been shot: in her left hip, in her heart, and in her brain. The fresh skin had sealed the wounds and stopped her blood from escaping her body, but it was too late. Despite her valiant attempt at survival, Brooke’s wounds had been too severe and too close together for her to heal them.
Without realizing it, Julian rose on his hind legs, assuming a shape between man and Wolf. He pivoted on one clawed foot and strode to the broken man on the ground, who stared at him with tear-stricken eyes. Flexing his muscles, Julian unleashed a furious roar and tore into the man with f
angs and claws. The man gagged and hemorrhaged and gushed blood over the grassy path. Julian relished the hot blood in his mouth and burrowed his head deeper inside the man’s body, then forced his claws between exposed ribs and snapped them like sticks.
With sweet crimson dripping from his fur, clutching a shattered rib in each claw, he threw his head back and howled at the night sky, paralyzing the dogs with fear. Then he snatched the mass of flesh, bone, and fabric from the ground and hurled it over the fence. The tattered corpse landed in the backyard, and a moment later the dogs pounced on it, feasting.
Changing into human form, his flesh smeared with the man’s blood, Julian sank to his knees and cradled Brooke’s still form in his arms and did what he could not do as a Wolf: shed tears.
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
Glancing over her shoulder, Angela circled the church located on West Fourth Street near Avenue A. Behind her, teenagers played basketball in a fenced-in court. She entered the stone structure through a side entrance. In the foyer, she keyed a code into a security pad mounted on the wall, and the inside door unlocked. Her footsteps echoed in the corridor as she passed the kitchen door, an unused pew, and stairs leading to the worship hall. Stopping at a wide wooden door, she produced a key that she used to unlock a wooden door. She swung the door open and descended linoleum-covered stairs.
In the basement she passed a kitchenette before reaching the meeting center. Stanislov stood filling the doorway with his muscular arms folded across his broad chest. Even after all these years he wore his disapproval for Angela like a mask. The Hells Angel stepped back without saying anything, admitting her to the crowded room, where a multitude of body odors assailed her senses. Eighty folding metal chairs faced a podium mounted on the stage, and sunlight made the glass-block windows glow.
If an unsuspecting parishioner happened to stumble upon the meeting—provided he got by Stanislov—he would likely think he hadwandered into an AA meeting. The adult men and women who filled the room to capacity muttered among themselves as Angela joined a handful of people standing before a chalkboard in the back. She had not seen so many members of the Greater Pack at a meeting since her brother Gabriel had been sworn in as its leader one year earlier.
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