“I don’t think this is a good idea,” mumbled Dontae.
“You don’t think anything is a good idea,” Talia shot back.
Darik laughed and scratched his beard. “Why do you want to see us change?”
“What a dumb question. Who in my shoes, wouldn’t want to?”
Eli smirked, “Plenty of terrified people,” downing the last in his glass and setting it down.
“Well, just like you, I’m not normal.”
“Shit,” Dontae muttered. “Are we really doing this?”
Silence lay in the air until Nathaniel chuckled, “Looks like it.”
Darik got up to close the blinds. “I gotta confess, this is not something I thought we’d ever do.”
Chapter Thirteen
Talia watched Darik walk back from the window in sweats and no shirt, chest muscles rippling, spattered with burnt honey-colored hair. He’d just proudly ‘claimed’ her and announced such a bizarre thing, after knowing her less than a week to his friends—friends who were apparently either werewolves or highly delusional studs—and all she could think was, Do not pinch me if I am dreaming.
Darik walked to stand with his friends. The order from left to right was Dontae, Nathaniel, Eli and Darik, the bar behind the middle two, they who looked the calmest. Darik was a little fidgety but it was Dontae who appeared fucking terrified. He glugged down his drink and reached to set it on the bar counter.
“Who’s first?” Nathaniel asked. No one said anything. “Okay, I was the first to have shown my wolf to a human—at least one we didn’t scare the shit out of—so maybe I should do it?”
Eli gave a pretty exaggerated shrug. “Works for me.”
“Like hell.” Darik muttered, “I’ll be the first wolf she sees.”
Warmth waved through Talia’s body as she met his blue eyes. He was staring at her, so fucking confident all of a sudden like he’d committed to this and was proud, now. Maybe he was a wolf. Maybe he was also the man of her dreams.
“You ready baby?”
She grinned, “Yes.”
A dark desire for her fired up behind his eyes. Then they lightened as they had earlier and goosebumps lit down her flesh as she realized she hadn’t imagined that. Only now the light from his primal soul illuminated them and they literally glowed. With a graceful explosion, his bones and body reshaped, cracking loudly. She clutched the blanket, watching the man she’d just made love to become a wolf right there in front of her, in a luxurious Manhattan flat.
Talia realized she wasn’t breathing. She licked her lips and struggled to inhale. With great interest, his three friends watched her rise and go to Darik. She could see him in there as she looked into the wolf’s ice blue eyes, how much he wanted her acceptance. Cautiously both her hands drifted up to touch him. She ran them down the auburn fur of his muscular neck and along his spine, feeling the softness lace through her fingers. She couldn’t stop looking at his fangs. They were unbelievably sharp. “May I?” she asked. He gave one nod. She touched a fang and nearly pricked her index finger with only the slightest bit of pressure. “Wow,” she breathed. “You’re a dangerous fucker, aren’t you?” The three chuckled behind her. Darik’s wolf bowed its head and placed it against her chest, pressing in. She held him and closed her eyes. “I love you, Darik,” she whispered. His ears fell back. She held him like that for a few moments and then rose up to stand by him, her hand on his back.
“Now you,” she told the others.
Nathaniel and Eli didn’t hesitate. They kicked off their shoes and shifted at the same time, their clothes tearing with the speed of the shift just as Darik’s sweatpants had. The color of their hair was the color of their fur, and they too, were larger than normal beasts she’d seen in the wilderness. Nathaniel’s emerald green eyes became sea-foam green and Eli’s brown ones turned pale, glowing gold. Talia kept her hand on Darik, instinctively staying by him to proclaim her loyalty.
She felt surprisingly calm as they padded around in front of her. The beauty of this moment, that they trusted her with something so precious, was enough to make her keep their secret for eternity.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
The two wolves bowed their heads slightly, then looked to Dontae.
Hazel eyes darted back and forth as he stared at the floor. “I can’t,” he said, very quietly. He looked up. “I have never shown a human female the beast who lives inside me—who is me. That honor should be kept for my mate. You’ve all had that chance. If I ever meet someone who makes me want to be known…to her…then I will show you after I show myself to her.” His jaw clenched and he looked away. “She has to be first.”
And in that moment, Talia forgave him everything.
“It’s okay,” she smiled. “I think that’s really…kinda wonderful.”
Darik stepped away from her hand and before she knew it, he was standing naked in his human form beside her, the transformation so quick it almost looked painless. He kissed her then surprised her by slamming his hand over her eyes and drawing her to him in a tight embrace as the sound of his friends shifting back echoed off the walls around them. “Don’t look. They need to go borrow some clothes.”
She laughed and pressed her face into him, squeezing her eyes tightly underneath his possessive fingers. “I don’t want to look! It’s okay!”
Amused, Eli informed them, “Yeah, Rose would have my balls if she knew another woman saw me naked.”
Dontae asked without judgment, more just from open curiosity, “What about your wolf?”
Nathaniel chuckled, “I thought about what Michelle would say, but lots of people have seen my wolf, they just didn’t know I was attached to it. And then there’s the pack.”
Eli agreed, “Right. Lots of werewolves have seen us. This is the same-ish. Talia’s not our mate, nor do we want her to be.”
With her head still buried, Talia slid her arms around Darik, laughing to herself. She could hear the rumble in his stomach.“Great, good talk. How about you guys go put some fucking clothes on now. Oh and when the fuck am I going to get that steak???!”
Three very different guffaws trailed off as the others left the room, talking amongst themselves about how strange that had been for them. The last one she heard was Eli. “So, Dontae, you’re saving it for a special woman, huh?” and Dontae’s reply: “Fuck off.”
Darik loosened his embrace but kept her close. She looked up at him as he gazed down at her. “You said you love me.”
She flushed. “I was having a moment.”
“A moment?”
“Yeah.”
A small frown pierced his brow and he lifted her off the ground, kissing her deeply. Every cell in her responded to him, and then he moaned against her lips, “I love you, too.”
Soundless tears trailed her cheeks before she even realized how much emotion had been waiting under the surface. All her life she’d wanted to meet the guy and here he was. Finally. He kissed some away, picked her up and carried her to the couch.
“We have to talk business now.”
She nodded and picked up the blanket to wrap around her waist so she could hike up her skirt and sit crossed legged, modestly. “You’re naked,” she smiled.
Darik gave her a sexy wink and straightened his spine, absently touching the bullet wounds. “Are you complaining?” Dontae walked in and threw him a burgundy robe. “What the fuck is this color?”
Dontae laughed, “Now who’s complaining,” as he tamed his own blonde hair. Barefoot in black slacks and a white button-up, he walked to the coffee table and dipped down to snatch up his phone as Nathaniel and Eli appeared behind him, joking to each other about their ill-fitting clothing. Eli’s stocky frame was less slender than Dontae’s so the grey slacks and black button-up tugged on him. The outfit was a barely contained stack of muscle. “I look like one of those insecure guys who wears his shit too tight to show off what he’s got.”
“Or a stripper,” Darik offered with a smirk.
“
Great.”
Nathaniel who was longer-legged than Dontae, chuckled, pulling up the already too-short hem of black slacks. “Well, I’m ready for a flood, so…”
“You should give Nate that shirt, Dontae,” Talia smiled. “Green is his color.”
“It’s Nathaniel,” Nate corrected her, dryly.
“No, it’s Nate. That’s what Darik calls you and he and I are kind of a thing, so…”
Nate shook his head on a slow grin. “Show a girl your wolf and she wants everything.”
“If one more person says that to me today,” Talia smiled as she picked up her full glass of Scotch and took a sip. She made a face at the sharp flavor and unexpected burn. “That is INTENSE! Woo!”
“Call the place we ordered from the other night,” Eli told Dontae.
“You do it. I wasn’t paying attention.” Dontae threw him the phone. Eli threw it back and picked up his from the floor where it lay among the shards of his jeans.
“I’ve got it in my history. I don’t remember the name either. Look at this mess. I loved these jeans.” He kicked at what remained of them and rubbed the short shave of his head. He smiled at Talia. “You owe me a pair.”
Chapter Fourteen
After eating, planning their attack and borrowing some clothes from his friend, Darik stood in the hallway getting Talia’s number. “It’s about time you gave me this.”
She laughed, typing it into his phone. “Took you forever to ask. What’s a girl gotta do?”
His pack was waiting in the hall, eager to go. “Come ON!” Dontae shouted.
“Does he ever lighten up?” Talia mock-whispered.
Darik smiled and shook his head. “Nope.”
Downstairs, a limo was waiting to take her home.
“Is this yours?” she asked Darik.
He paused. “Nah. I prefer to live a little more normally. Is that okay?”
She kissed him with super soft, smiling lips. “It’s perfect. I’m just a normal kinda gal.”
“You’re anything but normal.” He pulled her to him. “Oh fuck, I don’t want to leave you.”
“Please be careful, Darik.”
“Come on already!!!!” Dontae growled behind them.
“I’ll call you later tonight.”
She ducked into the car and he couldn’t shut the door. He leaned down and kissed her.
Eli grabbed Darik’s right bicep and pulled him away. “Now you’re making me ill.”
Nathaniel offered an amused, “Goodbye Talia.” She waved through the window as the car drove off and another replaced it. Nigel stepped out of the driver’s side, his face grave.
“Ready?”
Suddenly the mood changed. When he’d been enjoying his first meal in days, Darik heard all about how Nathaniel’s loyal employee had on the night of the robbery gone back to pay off the bodega store owner, collecting the security tape and spiriting it back to Dontae’s. While he slept his friends took screenshots of the gunmen, showed them around town, bribed more people and got a location, while Dontae stayed with him in case Darik needed anything or got worse. When they’d arrived earlier that night, Eli and Nathaniel had just come from sussing out the lead. It was a good one. They’d found the men.
“Hey, Nigel,” Darik said with feeling.
“Sir?”
“Thanks.”
The chauffer tipped his head and disappeared inside as they all climbed in. The wolf inside Darik’s soul awoke with a rage he’d never felt. It itched to show the fuckers a lesson, and for the first time in his life he knew why Nathaniel had lost control that time.
Chapter Fifteen
As they approached the back door of a boarded-up building, the stench of drugs and urine assaulted their sensitive nostrils.
Dontae winced. “This is the place alright.”
“There are no cameras,” Nathaniel informed him.
Darik’s skin was on fire. His heart was beating in a methodical rhythm that foreshadowed danger. He could taste their blood on his tongue already. It was something he’d never experienced, this desire to kill. The image of Talia with the guns pointed at her, her staring at the barrels, mixed with images of his parents just before the explosion, their faces and how they must have looked. How he couldn’t help them.
Well, he wasn’t helpless now.
Dontae carefully and quietly tried the door, the other three standing back. It was locked. “What, do they have keys to a place like this?”
Eli whispered, “Shh…” listening for sounds inside. “It wasn’t locked earlier. They were all sleeping when we took a peek.”
“High must have run out,” Nathaniel whispered.
“Or the money,” Dontae returned.
Darik motioned for Eli to step back from the door. He took a run at it, kicking it hard with every last ounce of his strength he had. It shattered.
“So much for the element of surprise,” Dontae growled at him, throwing him a look.
Darik couldn’t hear him. He strode inside and was momentarily thrown back by the disgusting smell. To a human it would have been bad, but to a werewolf, intolerable.
There were bed bug infested mattresses on a garbage-covered floor. The original color of the tile was indiscernible through the grime. Propped against the walls sat and slept drugged-out humans, some awake though not really. It wasn’t just meth they were taking. They were on heroine, too.
The explosion of wood and metal stirred them, but they weren’t quick to react. There was a woman and five guys. He only cared about two of them. He headed for the two whose faces he’d never forget. They jumped up from the floor, instantly recognizing him.
“What the fuck! How’d you find us?” the white guy shouted, eyes darting around, more shocked than afraid. He looked like he wanted to run, but didn’t know how he’d get past the four of them. “What the fuck do you want, man?”
The Latin one was more like a caged animal, his chin low as he clocked the four of them from under surly eyebrows. “Come back for more?”
The other druggies were awake now. One even peed his already soiled pants, probably thinking the men in suits were cops. The others sneered with gray teeth. If there is anything like a zombie in real life, it’s a Meth addict.
Nathaniel grabbed Darik and held his arms. “Hold on. Just wait.”
“LET GO.”
“Just wait. Trust us.”
His heart pounded with the angry rebellion of his youth. “If you don’t fucking let me go now I swear I will hunt you down—”
Eli punched him. It was enough to bring him back to his senses. “Better?” He nodded. “Good.”
Dontae was standing in front of the Latin. “I dare you,” he snarled. Nathaniel ordered the innocents to leave. Suspicious, they scrambled to their feet and vanished. Eli followed them out. “Don’t come back here tonight.”
The girl turned around, her hair so dirty it stuck to her head. “You the cops?”
“Yeah.”
She made a disgusted noise and spit at him. He dodged it and shoved her out the door. She fell on the ground, got up and scurried off like a rat. Darik watched Eli come back, his breath coming in short pants now. Eli was clocking him now, too.
The gunmen were trapped and they knew it. They shuffled their weight, backs against the cement wall, the smell of their fear permeating the already filthy air. Dontae’s shoulders were forward, the muscles in his legs tight and ready to pounce.
“Your turn, friend,” he told Darik, keeping names anonymous. “Coast is clear.”
Under his breath, Nathaniel repeated the old mantra he’d used when they were teens. “Control. Control. Control.” The males stripped off their clothing, which made the gunmen freak out.
“What the fuck?”
“We’re not into this, man!”
Naked, the four then proceeded to shock them even more than if they’d tried to fuck them. They shifted with excruciating slowness so that the transformation was its most terrifying, the sounds of bones cracking
and reshaping ricocheting in a horrible cacophony. They stayed somewhere in between wolf and man, standing on two legs.
Fear exploded in the gunmen, and the white guy shit his pants. “Oh my God,” he groaned.
The Latin guy gripped the wall, eyes darting for an escape. “Holy shit. HOLY SHIT!!! We’re gonna die! We’re gonna fucking die!”
With a voice supernaturally enhanced, lunging and stopping just an inch from the Latin guy’s bulging eyes, Darik snarled, “You’re going to turn yourselves into the police tonight.”
The white guy tried to take off running. Eli threw him against the wall with a kick, growling and snarling at him, gold eyes ablaze. He slunk to the ground whimpering, “Don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me!!!”
“Stop being such a pussy, Tommy!” The Latin shouted, still pinned.
“Fuck you, Valentino!” Tommy sobbed.
“You boys done now?” Darik snarled. “You’re a piece of shit human being and you are going to go turn yourselves in, get help, and hopefully turn your life around.” It took everything he had, to say the things he’d said a hundred times to other thugs.
Nathaniel came up and joined him, both of their muzzles inches from the human’s face. They were so on the edge of their rage they didn’t hear the guy fumble for his pocket. Suddenly the two of them were shoved to the side and a gunshot exploded in the room. Darik and Nathaniel leapt up and spun around. Dontae held the gun, now the only one of the pack to be in full human form. He’d disarmed and shot the Latin guy in the thigh, and now Valentino was screaming on the floor and holding his leg. Dontae shot him again. Then he aimed it at the white guy.
“Go get a cab, Tommy.”
“What?” He gaped at him. “I don’t have any money!”
Dontae kicked his slacks over. “Pull it out of my wallet. Grab a twenty. That’s good. Now wipe it off. Yes, wipe it off, you heard me.” Tommy wiped the bill vigorously onto his dirty black jeans. “Both sides. Good. Put my wallet back in my pocket.” He emptied the rest of the bullets from the gun. Eli’s right claw flashed down and hooked onto Dontae’s slacks to throw them to him. “Thanks.” He wiped the gun with the hem of expensive fabric, removing his fingerprints before handing the unloaded piece to Tommy.
Werewolves of New York: Darik Page 8