by Lisa Ladew
Wade raised his eyebrows and cocked his head. “It wasn’t my call.”
Trevor pulled back. No one told Wade what to do… except Rhen, not even the Chief of Police. If Rhen was involved, no amount of complaining would change anything. “What kind of abilities?”
“A way to track Khain. Maybe a way to reach him wherever he goes when he leaves our world.”
Trevor stalked to the table and leaned over it, a cold shiver at the thought passing through him. He had to at least let his objections be known. “How do we even know what he’s saying is true? Or that he’s not being controlled by—?”
“Yeah,” Mac said. “He could lead us straight into a trap.”
Trevor pointed at Mac, appreciating the support for once. He focused on Wade again. “Hell, no. All of us in the KSRT trust each other. We can’t bring in a stranger. Not now.” Trevor winced at the lie, but pressed on, daring Wade or Mac to call him on it.
Wade stayed calm. Unflappable. “Trevor, you need all the help you can get. We haven’t seen any sort of progress in years.”
Trevor’s jaw clenched. “We are doing everything we can. If the Citlali are not satisfied, then they’re free to replace me. I never signed up for this anyway.”
The Deputy Chief sighed and steepled his fingers together. “I’m not trying to accuse you of anything, Trevor. In fact, I’m trying to help you. At the very least, you should meet him and see what he can do for you. Surely, there’s no harm in that.”
Trevor said nothing. Who was to say there was no harm in welcoming a stranger? Even if he was Wolfen, that didn’t mean he was trustworthy enough to be on the task force working directly on Khain’s trail.
Wade fixed him with a hard stare. “Relax, Trevor.”
“I’ll relax when it’s all over,” Trevor said.
Wade nodded. “I would expect nothing less from you, son.”
Trevor said nothing. Wade didn’t know that Trevor didn’t believe what everyone else believed about him.
Wade sat back in his chair and shifted his gaze to Mac. “Good. Now that that’s settled, care to tell us why you called the meeting?”
Trevor narrowed his eyes at his second-in-command. “You requested this meeting?”
Mac nodded.
Trevor sighed and he rubbed his forehead. “Had I known, I would have taken that shower.”
“I’ll be sure to tell you next time,” Mac snarled, his expression reminding Trevor exactly how bad he smelled.
The Deputy Chief cleared his throat.
Mac’s voice went all-business, and totally determined, like he already knew he would meet with opposition. He faced the Deputy Chief and spit it out. “The males need a rut… a real one. We have to make it happen for them or we’re going to be in deep shit soon.”
Trevor’s eyes shot to Mac. Out of all the things Mac could have said, that was the last thing Trevor would ever have imagined was going to come out of his mouth.
A rut. With no female shifters left, how would they ever manage that?
Chapter 4
Ella climbed carefully down the attic stairs, finally done, checking the time.
7:09.
Mrs. White had told her to drop off the items before the store opened, which happened in less than an hour.
“Darn.”
She grabbed a jacket from the hallway closet and headed out, the heavy box full of what little she could find of value, including the angel/wolf pendant, in her arms.
She could have made the trip from her aunt’s house in the older but still-nice subdivision to downtown Serenity with her eyes closed, that’s how often she had walked it. She noticed as soon as she stepped off her front porch that the empty house three blocks to the right of her had a moving van in front of it. Someone was finally moving in. The real estate sign had come down months ago, but the house had stayed empty.
Ella had always loved that house. It was twice the size of hers, with a ton of history. The entire back of it was built with a lovely sandstone that always drew her eye, every time she passed. She’d often wondered at the history of the house, but never had the time to look into it. Until now. Now she had more time than she knew what to do with.
As Ella passed the truck, she kept her eyes on the ground, not wanting to deal with anyone.
A loud bang ricocheted off the inside of the truck and Ella looked up, startled. A refrigerator of a man appeared at the back of the truck, wiping his brow, sweating even in the crisp, late-autumn air.
The man saw her and raised a hand, his eyes traveling up and down her body in a way that made Ella shiver.
She focused on her box and moved on, even as she could feel he wanted her to stop and talk.
She ignored the feeling and stepped off a curb, looked both ways, and jaywalked across the street, then followed the sidewalk two miles straight into town, the traffic and businesses both increasing in density as she walked.
She found the tiny red-brick building with the sign proclaiming, You Need It, over the incredibly cute red and white door. She tested the door and, finding it unlocked, pushed inside, her eyes flying to the counter, hoping Mrs. White would be the one working.
She was. Ella blew out a breath and headed over, dropping the box heavily on the glass display case that served as a counter.
“Dear,” Mrs. White said. “You made it. I was starting to wonder if you found anything at all.”
Ella stared at the woman, unable to respond. Mrs. White was probably in her eighties, with a heavily lined face and a kind smile. She always dressed up, wearing costume jewelry and elaborate outfits. But today, she’d done the unthinkable, in Ella’s mind.
Her hat was fine. An orange felt hat with a velvet bow. Her jacket was fine. Wool maybe. But the thing draped over her shoulders made Ella’s heart beat faster and her palms sweat.
Mrs. White, not noticing Ella’s discomfort, smiled at her and opened the box, taking out an item at a time. “Oh, this is nice. I can give you a hundred up front for this. All this jewelry here, it’s not worth much separately, but as a lot, maybe, let’s say, fifty dollars. This set won’t sell here, but you can try Lucy’s consignment shop, two doors down.” Her voice dropped as she dug farther into the box and her breath hitched. “Whatever is this?” she said, and Ella, even in her state, could hear the wonderment there.
Ella’s eyes traced the fur and tail and eyes and teeth of the thing Mrs. White had draped over her shoulders. Old? Or new? Because that made a difference. Ella thought old.
From the corner of her eye, Ella could see Mrs. White examining the pendant and she tried to pay attention. It was the only thing in the box she thought might have any real value.
“Gorgeous,” Mrs. White breathed, holding the pendant approximately two inches from her eyes. “Is it real gold?” she asked. “It has to be real gold.” She dropped it to her arm and rubbed, then triumphantly showed Ella the black mark. “It is, it’s real gold. And the eyes of the wolf? Yellow diamond? No. Too bright. Maybe yellow sphene. Or tourmaline.” She clicked her tongue and hurried to the wall behind her, holding the pendant tight in her hand, then returning with a jeweler’s loupe and holding it to her eye. When she looked back at Ella, an excited smile crossed her face. “What is the story behind this piece?”
Ella shook her head. “No story. I found it in the attic. I don’t know.”
“How much?” Mrs. White said, her eyes suddenly shrewd.
Ella’s gaze flopped down to the full fox stole around Mrs. White’s shoulders. “I-I don’t know. What is it worth?” she asked in a much smaller voice than she had intended.
“I’ll give you two thousand for it,” Mrs. White said, her lips tight, her voice cold for the first time. She moved to the register and pressed a button. “Cash. Actually, I’ll give you three thousand for everything in the box.”
Ella couldn’t think. She knew she shouldn’t take it. Should investigate more. But the fox stole had distracted her. Stolen her right mind. Besides, she didn’t want that pendant an
yway. Didn’t want to have to take it away from here if she struck a hard bargain and lost.
“I’ll take it.”
“Good.” Mrs. White counted out thirty one-hundred dollar bills and put them in Ella’s hand, then made the box and the pendant disappear. “A pleasure, dear. Do come back if you find anything else you think I might like. I’ll pay you a good price.” Her voice was warm again.
Ella nodded, shoved the money deep in her pocket and turned to go, but her heart wouldn’t let her. She turned back. “Sorry, ah, Mrs. White, ah, I wanted to ask you about your fox.”
The older woman’s hands went to the decorative item and caressed its head right between its tiny, silky ears. “Yes, dear?”
“Do you, regularly, ah, buy fur?”
Mrs. White’s eyes narrowed and Ella saw her go defensive. Ella held up her hands and spoke in a rush, her heart beating fast in her chest, her muscles tight as if for battle. “Look, Mrs. White, I don’t want to offend you, and I can see that stole is probably an heirloom, something you’ve had for years. It’s beautiful and I can understand why you would want to wear it. But when you wear fur, you support the fur industry, even if this piece was killed for food and cleaned by your own two hands. If someone in your shop sees it and thinks it’s gorgeous, do you think they are going to go out and humanely kill an animal, use it as food, and make a stole themselves? No, they are going to go to a store and buy a fur. That’s what we do these days.”
Ella made the mistake of taking a breath and Mrs. White launched her defensive that suddenly seemed more like an offensive. Like she had the vitriol stored up and had never liked Ella in the first place. “That certainly isn’t my problem, Fern Gabriela Carmi.” She nodded harshly as Ella took a step backwards, surprise showing on her face. “That’s right, your aunt told me all about you. Your real name. Your liberal beliefs. That you stay up all night finding petitions to sign on the internet. The way you never learned to drive and didn’t finish college. How your own mother thought you were a freak! How dare you come in here and tell me what to do? Just because you think our woods should be full of dangerous animals like wolves and cougars and bears doesn’t mean you’re right. Animals like that were driven from the area for a reason!”
Ella wanted to ask how dangerous fox were to people, but she knew there was no point. Mrs. White had already formed all her opinions and wasn’t open to learning anything new. She pressed her lips together and forced her hands to relax, unable to help a final, couched jab. “I’m sorry. I see you have made up your mind. I had hoped to share some facts with you about the cruelty of the industry and some very simple ways it could be changed, but if you don’t care about animal welfare, I won’t bother.”
She turned quickly, forcing herself not to run out the door, but instead taking slow, deliberate steps and allowing Mrs. White to throw insults at her back without response. As she pushed the door open, an eerie thought seemed to force itself into her mind in a way she’d never felt before, even with how crazy she’d felt for the last year.
She’s close. I can feel it.
Ella faltered at the intrusion and her feet tangled together, spilling her forward and jamming her shoulder into the door, hard, as shame spread through her.
She had to get out of there before Mrs. White saw her have one of her episodes. Even if she blacked out on the street or stood there like an idiot with her brain elsewhere, that was ok as long as Mrs. White didn’t have a front-row seat to it.
Chapter 5
Trevor shook his head in utter disbelief. “You don’t schedule a rut, they just happen.”
Mac pulled out a chair and sat opposite the deputy chief, refusing to look Trevor in the eye. His voice was haughty, hostile still. “They used to just happen. But with no females, that’s impossible now. We can’t sit around and pretend the males don’t need it. Things are getting dangerous. You know what happened last full moon.”
Finally, Mac snatched a look at Trevor, but Trevor could only shake his head. He knew…?
Mac snorted, disgusted and looked away. “Of course you don’t know. Some fucking leader.”
Trevor sank into a chair at the end of the table and looked to Wade for help.
“Harlan almost killed someone. A patrol officer. The patrol officer said something flippant about mates.”
Trevor dropped his head onto his hands, elbows on the table and spoke, almost to himself. “Harlan? But he’s our most level-headed guy. Our most─”
Mac cut in. “He shifted, then tore Pickett’s throat open and ate some of his ear. Poor guy was knocked unconscious immediately. Couldn’t shift. We had to send him to surgery. Surgery for shit’s sake! And then four of the guys pulling Harlan off got into a fight. It was a fucking mess and it’s not going to get any better unless we have a rut. The males need it.”
Trevor looked to the ceiling, as if hoping to find the answers there, then back down. “And Harlan?”
Wade nodded slowly. “No punishment. I dealt with him myself. Looked into his heart. Consulted with Rhen. She holds him blameless and agrees with Mac that a rut is needed. Shiften were made to breed regularly. To have mates. The full moon is a tricky time, the drive to have sex so strong in order to ensure many pups. Without pups, we die. Without females to mate with to make those pups, you are adrift. No anchor. No calming presence. Nothing to hold us together as shiften. You can fight and punish and raise hell all day, but you have forgotten how to love. Harlan is only an example.”
Trevor eyed the Deputy Chief sourly, noting his change of pronouns during his speech. He was one of only a few shiften in the world who did have a mate. So he still knew how to love, apparently.
Mac spun his chair towards the door. “I don’t know why we even have to tell him about it. It’s not like he’s going to fucking show up.”
Trevor bit his anger back. “Because I’m the fucking leader of the KSRT, that’s why. One step below Wade himself. I’m in charge here and you need to remember that.”
Mac swung to face him, his smile evil. “Yes Your Pupness. I’ll remember that, Your Great Mongrel Highness. Even when you act more like a little kitten rolling over to show your belly to Khain.”
Trevor growled, the noise building in his throat and echoing throughout the room.
Mac laughed. “What are you gonna do without your brothers to hide behind?”
Trevor stood up and faced Mac offensively. Mac wanted to go? They were gonna go. Trevor couldn’t take one more second of his shit. He popped the civilized balloon in his head that kept him in human form and felt his claws elongate, his nose turn to muzzle, his─
It all stopped. Mid-shift. Trevor struggled against the bind but could do nothing. His bones screamed in protest, caught halfway between human and wolf. He rolled his eyes to Mac, burning when he saw him silently smirking, enjoying the show.
Wade stood up out of his chair and walked to Trevor slowly, each step a vibrating brand to Trevor’s eardrums and lungs. Wade stood straight in front of him and commanded his eye. Trevor felt his half-shift reverse itself until he stood in human form again, but still unable to move, speak, or even breathe. If Wade didn’t release him soon, he would die. He knew that now, even though he hadn’t been bound for this long since he’d been a pup.
Trevor gave up. He was ready to die. Ready for this shitty excuse of a life to be over. No mother. No sisters. No females. No mates. No softness. No anything that made life good or worth living for. Nothing but the relentless pursuit of a demon who could not be caught. Could not be stopped.
Revenge just wasn’t enough anymore.
But as soon as Trevor relaxed, Wade released him, spilling him into his chair.
Wade stared down at him, disappointment written on his face. “You’re the leader for a reason, Trevor, and it’s not because you are the strongest or the smartest. You have a destiny, and you will not fulfill it by taking Mac’s bait.”
Trevor sagged in his chair. He didn’t have words to respond. All he had left was void. Noth
ingness. The terror of the bind then the surrender had washed away even his desire to find his One True Mate, if he had one. All he wanted was to jump off a bridge. Be done with it all. Let Mac have the command he wanted so badly. He might even do a better job. Maybe Mac was right, maybe Trevor was the kink in the system. Trevor had never believed he was the shiften mentioned in the Savior or the Demon Death prophecy. That disbelief had haunted him his entire life, even when the Citlali directly opposed his disbelief, he still felt like a fraud every moment he worked with the KSRT, every moment he hunted Khain. He would never be allowed to step down, but if he was gone… Well, they’d have to take a closer look at those prophecies, now wouldn’t they?
But first he had to get out of this room.
He heard the robotic tone in his voice and hoped no one knew what it meant. He spoke first to Wade, who was pacing behind him. “Sorry, Deputy Chief. You’re right. A rut. Let’s schedule it. You work out the details, Mac.”
Wade patted Trevor’s shoulder, then his eyes widened, and he stared at Trevor for several moments, before taking a few steps away.
Mac didn’t say anything for a long time, just stared. Finally he spoke. “You don’t even want to know where we are going to get the females?”
Trevor spoke without thinking. “Hookers?”
Mac nodded, seeming surprised. “Among others. I thought you’d have a problem with a bunch of cops hiring hookers.”
That same blank nothingness swirled through Trevor, removing any stray desire to care ever again what any member of the Serenity PD did.
“Yeah, but if it’s our only choice, it’s our only choice.”
Mac stared at him again. Trevor avoided his eye, trying to think of where and how he would do it. A bridge? His service revolver? The end of a rope? He didn’t allow himself to think about what would happen after. He would return to the Light. That was all. He hoped.
“You don’t have any complaints at all?” Mac wheedled. “You don’t want to lecture me on the dangers of half-breeds or tell me how we should be looking for One True Mates, not hookers?”