Werewolf on Somana Two: Michael

by Brenda Steele

  She made it several blocks away from the store before an aircar drew up in front of her. Two men jumped free of it with weapons in their hands. “Come with us quietly, miss, and no one will get hurt.”

  Chrissie considered fighting, but she didn’t have a weapon and she was still weak. She would have to bide her time. She nodded and stepped off the curb to get into the vehicle. With a little rest, she would be out on the street again. She hoped that these men didn’t have orders to kill her when they got her somewhere out of the public eye.

  Chapter Seven

  Anger raged through Michael’s being as he faced off against his brother. He was prepared to end Gabriel’s life for even the threat of hurting Chrissie. Michael didn’t give a rat’s ass if his brother believed him or not that Chrissie was his mate. Gabriel’s assertion that it was unlikely that Michael had stumbled over his mate in a couple days didn’t matter to him. His beast knew when it had found the one woman who would complete him, corny as Michael had always found such sentiments. Chrissie was his. He didn’t doubt if for a second, and he would defend her to his last breath.

  With the open challenge and the promise of a fight, Gabriel’s teeth had grown sharp, and his eyes were those of the wolf instead of a man’s. He crowded Michael’s space, but Michael wasn’t backing down. In the long history of their people, the alpha male was always the most powerful, hands down. No other had overthrown him unless that person was destined to take his place. Michael had no illusions as to his status. He was not an alpha by any stretch of the imagination. Right now, that didn’t matter.

  “You realize you could never beat me?” Gabriel warned her.

  “I will die defending her,” Michael responded.

  “Drop the dramatics, Michael. It doesn’t suit you.” Gabriel took a step closer to him so that they were nose to nose.

  “You two stop this, Gabriel, Michael,” Kelly pleaded.

  She tried to inch between them but failed. Michael was unmoving. He found it funny how the brush of her soft body at his side did nothing for him when a few days ago, that touch would have driven him out of his mind.

  He ignored Kelly’s attempted interference and kept his attention on his brother. “No one can be happy except you. Is that it?”

  Gabriel threw his head back and laughed, a creepy timbre given his partial change. “You don’t have the capacity to be happy, brother. In the short time I’ve known you since we met up again, nothing pleases you. Nothing can get that chip off your shoulder. You’re offended at everything, even what I said about your lover. That attitude is the only reason you’re getting riled up, not because you care about her. You have your nose permanently bent out of shape. Tell me I’m wrong.”

  Michael narrowed his eyes and allowed his body to begin the change so he too sported sharpened and curved claws at the ends of his fingers. “You’re wrong.”

  They flew at each other, locking arms, flexing muscles, and growling. Michael jerked his head to the side when his brother snapped his powerful jaws toward him and then returned the move. Kelly shouted to them to stop, but they ignored her until a second voice joined hers. Michael turned toward the back room at the same time that Gabriel did, and then they jumped apart, willing their bodies to return to normal.

  “W-What was that?” Kelly’s assistant asked in obvious terror.

  Kelly let a curse fall from her lips and followed it with a spell and a wave of her hand. Her assistant’s knees dipped, and her eyelids drooped. Gabriel darted across the room in time to catch the woman before she hit the floor. Thinking that Chrissie could have heard the commotion and been frightened by it, Michael headed for the back room where the assistant had come from. When he reached the doorway, his heart seemed to freeze in his chest. The bed was empty, and Chrissie was nowhere in sight.

  He whirled around to cast an accusatory glance at his brother, who had settled the assistant in a chair. “Where is she?”

  Gabriel frowned. “Where is who?”

  “Chrissie! You know damn well who I’m talking about.”

  His brother shook his head. “If you’ll recall, you’re the one who saw her last in the back room. I thought you said she was sleeping, and besides, Kelly keeps a spell on the back door. Only magic can open it. She didn’t come out this way.”

  Michael swung to Kelly for an explanation. She hesitated, making Michael suspicious, but she denied helping Chrissie escape. “The only thing I do know at this point is that Chrissie had a spell cast over her, and its release is what may have caused her to collapse.”

  “What!” Michael and Gabriel shouted at the same time. Michael ran a hand through his hair. “What do you mean a spell? She’s human. I know she is.”

  Kelly smirked. “So am I, but I can whip up a mean spell, thank you very much. Magic runs in my family on both sides if you’ll remember.” He caught the disgusted expression on her face and guessed she was remembering her father who had tried to kill her to gain control of her gift.

  Michael considered what Kelly had revealed while he rubbed a hand over his jaw. “I had been tracking her, or rather trying to. I couldn’t pick up her scent. Could she have used a spell to cover it?”

  Kelly nodded. “Yes, if she really does use magic. I’m not convinced of it because if she did, why did she collapse after it was released, almost like she wasn’t expecting it. If she had been here longer, I could have pinned down the exact spell, but I wanted to talk to Gabriel about it first.” One of her eyebrows rose in accusation. “When you two started fighting, I forgot all about it.”

  Michael turned toward the exit. “Well, I’m going to find her before Willie does. If the agents came after her, it’s likely she knows that Chrissie headed the—” Almost too late he remembered that he hadn’t told them everything that had happened earlier at the new station. “Never mind. I’m going to find her.”

  Gabriel grabbed his arm before he could take more than a few steps. “I need you to help me with the werewolves over there, especially with their location. We need to take care of them before this gets out of hand.”

  “Not before I secure Chrissie.”

  “Damn it, Michael, the werewolves are more urgent than your piece of ass.”

  Michael drove his fist into Gabriel’s jaw, sending his brother flying backward to land on his rear. That move had gotten him a little of his own back after Gabriel had tossed him out on his face the week before.

  “Disrespect her again,” Michael warned him. “I dare you.”

  “You’ll pay for that,” Gabriel promised.

  “Boys!” Kelly blocked Michael’s view of his brother. She cast a glance in Gabriel’s direction and then faced Michael. “Can you pick up her scent now, or it is still blocked? If you can, you can find her within an hour or two, and then you can help Gabriel.” She turned toward her husband. “And you can wait. Stop antagonizing him. If his beast has chosen its mate, you know as well as I do there’s no keeping them apart, and rational thinking is impossible until he claims her. Give him time, Gabriel. Michael will get bored fast if she’s not the one, and you know it.”

  Michael grunted. “Thanks a lot.” He turned to go outside and see if he could get Chrissie’s scent but paused when his phone buzzed in his pocket. His gut tightened. Something told him it was Willie. Sure enough, her face materialized on the tiny screen in his palm. “Willie?”

  “Who is she to you, Michael, and don’t lie to me.”

  His heart stuttered and started again. “Who is who to me? You need to be more specific.”

  “Don’t play games with me,” Willie shouted. After a few minutes of silence, she cleared her throat, no doubt trying for calm. “So, that’s why you ended it between us, her? She’s small. A little thing like that can’t take care of a werewolf. Does she know what you are? Did you fuck her already?”

  His resolve to pretend he didn’t know who she was talking about went out the window. Willie was playing with him, and it was a matter of time before she spewed the real venom that reside
d in the soul of a woman like her. No one screwed her over, and by Michael dumping her before she was finished with him, he had undammed the river. Michael’s one hope was that Willie had called because she had knowledge of who had stolen her equipment, not that she had Chrissie.

  He feigned a bored sigh. “What do you want, Willie? I have things to do. If you’re just calling to see if I’ve found anyone new, then you’ll have to—”

  “Her name’s Chrissie,” Willie blurted out. “You know people born and raised on the moon are paler than us earthlings. They bruise so easily.”

  Michael growled loud enough to make Willie cry out in pain on the other end of the phone. Violence rose in him so fast that he had destroyed his phone before he knew what he was doing. In seconds, he tore from his clothing and was in full wolf form charging toward the door. Kelly made it there ahead of him and opened the door before Michael could rip it from its hinges, and Michael ran full tilt down the street. It was likely Willie wasn’t keeping Chrissie at her home, but if she were there, he’d rip her slender throat out if she didn’t tell him where Chrissie was. If she had hurt his mate in any way, he’d do that whether she confessed or not.

  At Willie’s front door some minutes later, Michael slammed himself against the barrier. Agents surrounded him, peeling off laser shots, but Michael was too enraged to feel a thing. He rammed his bulk at the door again, hearing a crack where the wood began to give if not the lock.

  From the corner of his eye, Michael caught someone sneaking up on him. He spun to face the bold fool who thought he could get the jump on him, but something touched his neck in the opposite direction. Thousands of volts jolted through his system, and he howled in pain. The person who had come up in the other direction stuck something in his side. The drug’s delayed effect allowed him enough time to leap on the guy’s chest. He lowered his head to rip the man’s throat out, but his vision blurred. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it and then went in for the kill a second time. Another needle stab prostrated him, and his world went dark.

  Please, don’t hurt her.

  Chapter Eight

  “I want you to tell Michael you don’t want to see him anymore. Give him any excuse, that he’s not your type, that he’s too much for you, or whatever. Just make him back off.”

  Chrissie blinked at the blonde bombshell before her. Even on the rough side of Somana Two, Chrissie had heard of the new head of the agency, the corporation that made all the laws on Somana Two and Earth. This woman had clawed her way to the top, and from the looks of her, Chrissie suspected she’d used her body more than once to get there as well. The ruthless glint in her eyes told Chrissie she would stoop to murder to get what she wanted. In a different situation, they might have been friends. Chrissie smirked. Then again, maybe not. Chrissie had always had more tolerance for men than for women.

  She rested a hand on her hip and took on a bored expression. “Why should I do that?”

  “To keep your life.”

  Chrissie laughed, but the statement rattled her a little. “For a good fuck?” She let those words sink into Willie’s mind. The redness in her cheeks let Chrissie know right off that there was one thing Willie wanted Michael for, and that was for sex. She had to admit that she knew how the woman felt. Chrissie might have told herself she wouldn’t see Michael again, but since they’d been intimate, she couldn’t get him out of her head, and even now, hours after she’d had time to rest, she wanted another round in the bed with him. She worried the experience would be just what Willie had said, too much for her, but she’d never been pleasured by a man like Michael. Sure, he was wild and rough, taking what he wanted, but every stroke, every lick, suck, and kiss had her wet and eager. Remembering it made her crave him, and that must be what Willie was experiencing. Chrissie hated her for having slept with Michael and for having the power to ensure she had him again.

  Willie marched across the fancy office that they occupied, fancier than anything Chrissie had ever seen. She’d never been off Somana Two and had visited the north side just once. Rumor had it that the agency’s head lived lavishly, and some people on Earth lived the good life with nice things. Chrissie had never longed for more than her café. That was enough.

  “So this isn’t about who hired me to steal your equipment,” she quipped. “This is about my lover?”

  By the time Willie stopped in front of her, Chrissie had sassed the powerful woman with these words, and she suffered the consequences for her attitude with a stinging slap across the cheek. Never letting anyone get away with that, Chrissie raised her hand to return the favor, but a click to her left caught her attention. She glanced over to find an agent training a weapon on her. His cold expression seemed to beg her to give him an excuse.

  She dropped her hand down to her side. She was no fool. If biding her time was what needed to be done, that’s what she would do. She’d been in sticky situations before, maybe not with as powerful an enemy, but she had dealt with people who lacked principles, who got off on torturing others.

  “It’s just a matter of time before I track down the person who hired you. I didn’t question you on it, because I’ve already had your go-between picked up,” Willie informed her.

  Chrissie gasped. “You’re lying.”

  Willie grinned and turned away to head back over to her desk. “Am I? Know anyone by the name of Hawk?”

  “Shit!” Chrissie bit down on her tongue to keep herself from saying something she shouldn’t. That was the trouble with the bastards she dealt with on a daily basis. All of them were greedy as hell, and they’d sell their mothers out for an extra curan or two. Yet Hawk had been different. He knew how to keep his mouth shut. That meant someone had sold him out. She had to believe Hawk wouldn’t cave no matter what. Chrissie had no love for whoever hired her to steal the equipment, but she didn’t want Willie having the satisfaction of knowing that.

  “So you see,” Willie began, settling behind her desk and straightening the thin material barely keeping her ample breasts in check, “I have all the information about your theft that I need right now. The only unfinished business between you and me is Michael.”

  Chrissie looked away out of the window, which overlooked a square of trees. Trees were rare on Somana Two, and Chrissie found the flora calming despite the circumstances. She needed to remain in control in order to deal with this woman, because right now, most of her men were dead, her neighbor had betrayed her, the man who got her the jobs was out of commission, hundreds of agents separated her from freedom—and one powerful, jealous whore had it in for her. Things were not looking good at all.

  She rolled her shoulders and pretended to consider Willie’s offer. “What will you give me in exchange for giving Michael up? After all, a man like that doesn’t come along often to satisfy a woman the way she needs it.” Chrissie couldn’t help the dig. For the second time, the ache somewhere inside at the thought of him being with anyone other than her made her want to tear up. The last time she’d done that was at eight years old when her mother died.

  “I said I’d give you your life,” Willie reminded her. “That’s enough.”

  “No, it’s not.” Chrissie tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. “How about you throw in thirty thousand curans for good measure.” If Chrissie made Willie think that she didn’t give a damn about Michael, and that all anything amounted to was how much money she could make, then maybe Willie would let her go free. If Chrissie promised to let Michael go to save her own life, she would look weak, and Willie wouldn’t believe that Chrissie could keep herself from a man like him, especially if Michael became pushy like he had been when they were last together. A werewolf, it seemed, didn’t take no for an answer without launching an irresistible seduction. She tried not to squeeze her legs together thinking about it.

  A wide grin spread over Willie’s face. “An ambitious woman like myself. I can respect that. So it’s not love. That’s even better.” She slapped her hand on her desk and sat forward. “Done!
But if you go back on our agreement, you know what I will do without hesitation, right?”

  Chrissie waved her hand and rolled her eyes. “I have more important matters to attend to other than him.”

  Willie opened her desk drawer and pulled out a checkbook. Chrissie frowned, and Willie noticed. “Cash, huh?”

  “If you please.”

  The agency leader smirked. “Fine. I’ll arrange for someone to deliver it to you tomorrow. Hmm, I think maybe I can use you, too.” She tapped a fingertip to pouty lips. “Yes, you work for me now. I don’t have many women in my employ, and I think you can get where the dumb men can’t. You’re not too bad looking.”

  Chrissie crossed her arms over her chest. “Thanks.” She didn’t bother telling Willie she didn’t want to work for her. It would be pointless. Chrissie was privy to that information regarding Willie as well. At the drop of a hat, Willie would call up people who owed her favors to press them into a doing a job for her. Chrissie had never thought she’d be on the woman’s radar. So be it. With the thirty thousand curans, she could at last open her café and retire from the thieving business. And she could hire a manager to run the place when Willie called. Respectability would be her middle name from now on. Well, on the surface anyway, and if she kept her mind focused on reaching her goals, the fact that Michael was no longer in her life wouldn’t be an issue. After all, when she left his sister-in-law’s place, she had vowed not to see him again. The fact that Willie had pressed her into keeping that vow made it easier.

  * * * *

  No matter how Chrissie tried to convince herself that she didn’t give a fig about Michael, the arrogant, pushy man entered her mind again and again on her way back to her place. Sounds, scents, and sensations of their time together tormented her. More than once, she stopped to lean against a wall and collect her thoughts and her body’s desires.

  With eyes closed, she ran a hand over her moist brow and struggled to calm her breathing. “It’s lust, nothing more,” she told herself. Michael could be replaced in a heartbeat. Countless men from her side of the station had propositioned her, and the one time she’d ventured to the cleaner side of Somana Two, she had gotten interested looks from men there as well. Michael would be replaced, she decided. After she received her payoff and settled with the owner of a particular spot she’d had her eye on for her café the last couple of years, she would turn her attention to finding a lover. No hearts needed, the guy would be for physical fun alone. She could throw herself into her business, gain customers. Let the northsiders deal with that werewolf issue. That didn’t concern her one bit.