by Amelia Jade
Great.
Angelo and the dickbags were back in town. It almost sounded like a really bad wannabe band name. Angelo and the Dickbags. He hoped they got booed off stage.
The trouble started once he walked past the bus and approached the stairs.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here? I don’t remember seeing you get on any of the buses,” Angelo said as he sauntered out from the motel, descending the stairs and stopping Harden before he could reach them. “Do any of you boys remember him being on your bus?”
Other figures emerged from the shadows. Four more.
“I see the band is growing. Have you told them that they’re not actually going to get paid? That you spent all the money on hookers and blow?”
“What?” Angelo snarled. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Nothing,” he said, waving them off. Although all shifters tended to avoid a lot of human society, he found that Cadia was extra closed off compared to the others. In Kronum he’d been exposed to things like television a bit more than his compatriots here.
“So where have you been then?” Angelo asked, cracking his knuckles in what was supposed to be an intimidating gesture.
Only two cracks sounded.
Harden paused, his eyes on the other’s hands, looking on expectantly. “Oh, are you done?” he asked. “I wasn’t sure.”
Angelo’s eyes lit with anger, but to Harden’s surprise, he restrained himself.
“We’re not here to fight. That would be silly of us. We’re just checking up, making sure that you’re not breaking any of the rules.”
Harden laughed, loudly and over the top. “Seriously? Breaking any of the rules. What rules, Dickbag Prime? Your little imaginary ones?”
“The one where I said not to talk to that woman anymore.”
Harden rolled his eyes. “You’re so dumb. Goodbye, Angelo.”
He pushed past the leader, but whirled as he felt someone snatch the cellphone from his back pocket.
“Give that back,” he snarled, reaching for it.
Angelo pulled back out of reach, and several of his thugs got in the way. They still only had the one bear shifter among them, but four on one not including Angelo was poor odds, even for someone like Harden. Two, maybe three he could take. Four was pushing it. Five was suicide.
“Well well. Here’s a number that you’ve called a lot. Shall we see who it is?” Angelo pressed the dial button and the phone began to ring.
Harden shook impotently with rage, unable to do anything that wouldn’t start a fight. He prepared himself to speak up, to shout to not say a word, but one little shake of the head from the bear shifter warned him not to. He contemplated his options, decided that if he didn’t say anything, he’d be in bigger trouble.
The phone clicked as someone answered.
“DON’T SPE—!” he tried to shout out, not finishing the last word before a fist took him in the stomach.
“Harden?” he heard Erika’s voice. “Harden are you there?”
“No, I’m sorry, Harden isn’t here right now,” Angelo said into the phone, his words liquid smooth as his goons pummeled Harden to the ground in a shower of fists and feet. “But someone else will be there. And shortly.”
The phone clicked, and Harden saw him crush it under one booted foot.
“You’ve been a bad, bad man, Harden. Disobeying the rules. You know what happens when someone breaks the law?”
“Get bent,” he spat, earning a ringing blow to the jaw for his efforts.
“They get punished. And both of you broke the law. So now I’m going to have to punish both of you.”
“Angelo, wait!” he protested, but the wolf shifter was already turning away. “Angelo don’t do this!”
A fist slammed into his face again, and he spat blood. “Don’t you touch her!”
A boot connected with his temple and all Harden saw was darkness.
***
He awoke an unknown amount of time later. Not much, he judged as his brain cleared, since someone was just putting the finishing touches on his restraints.
“Ow,” he muttered.
“Ah, you’re awake. Good.”
Angelo’s younger brother moved into his vision, cocked his fist, and drove it into his face. Harden rocked back under the blow, cataloging the pain from it along with all the dozens or other hurts he was currently feeling.
“That’s for the other day. I’ve been waiting for that for a long, long time,” he snarled.
“About a week I’d guess,” Harden said. “Not really that long, if you think about it.”
“Shut up!” the youth said and hit him again.
Harden did, but not because the kid had told him to. He needed to stop wasting time. Angelo and two of his goons were on their way to talk to Erika. Or worse. He needed to stop them. Which meant he needed to get free. But he was hurting, and hurting bad.
Closing his eyes, he went through his body by feel. Nothing was broken—that was a start—but he was cut and bruised everywhere. Those would heal in an hour, perhaps two, but that would be far too late. He needed to heal now.
Breathing in deeply, he reached into his core, to the blank spot where his wolf was supposed to be. Pushing on it, he told it what he needed. Resistance built up, but he pushed through it, forcing his idea into where his wolf would have been, hoping some part of him would still work with it.
Shifters healed fast. Much faster than any human could ever hope to match. They often had no need to heal faster than necessary. But in some extreme cases, that need overcame them. Pouring his energy, his reserves into his body, Harden forced himself to fast-heal. It hurt. A lot. In the span of seconds he felt all the pain he would from bruises and cuts as they healed normally, as he banged them against things or moved his body in ways it would protest.
It sapped his energy, but he’d eaten well and exercised all week. He was in good shape, with enough hopefully left in the tank to see him through. Feeling healthy and ready, he opened his eyes to see the youth staring at him in shock.
“How did you do that?” he asked, awed.
Harden snarled. “Experience. Something you’re unlikely to ever get.”
The youth laughed. “Look at you, talking shit from where you are. What are you going to do? The big bad wolf is all tied up. Are you going to huff and puff and blow me over?” he giggled.
“No,” Harden said. “I’m going to huff, and puff, and beat the shit out of you.”
And he twisted his arms, wrenching them to the sides as he did, letting out a mighty howl as he stood up. The bonds didn’t break, but that didn’t matter. He broke the chair itself over his own back. Wood flew everywhere and he charged at the kid, arms jabbing forward, sharp ends of the chair still attached to them. He drove them deep into the kids chest, whirled and flung him across the room with a grunt.
“Fuck you,” he snapped, watching the young shifter go through uncovered drywall into the adjoining room, blood flying everywhere.
He doubted it was a mortal wound, but truthfully he didn’t care. Ripping the bonds from his arms and legs, he stumped from the room, unsure of where the hell he was.
A blow to his back sent him stumbling forward at a metal pole supporting the roof.
Right. The second shifter that had stayed behind. Feeling embarrassed, he grabbed the pole, spun around it, and used it as leverage to deliver a two-foot flying kick. Like he’d hoped, the other wolf shifter had charged after him. The move caught him in the collarbone instead of the face like he’d hoped, but it was enough. The shifter stopped cold and went flying backward.
Harden leapt after him and the pair went down in a flurry of blows. He had to end it, and soon. A lot of energy had been used while he healed, and he didn’t have the time for an extended fight. Not with this guy at least. He had to save his remaining energy to deal with Angelo.
So he went for the dirty tricks. A knee to the groin, a thumb in the eye, and moments later it was all over as the shifter rolled back and fort
h, holding his hands over the mush that used to be his eyes.
“Fuck you too,” he said, and delivered a spiteful kick to his head on the way out.
The shifter fell silent.
Harden flew up the stairs now, only one thing on his mind.
Erika.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Erika
She recognized the voice immediately. It had haunted some of her nightmares after she’d first heard it.
“No, I’m sorry, Harden isn’t here right now. But someone else will be there. And shortly.”
Erika hung up as fast as she could and threw the phone across the room, curling up onto the couch into a little ball.
They had Harden. That was the only explanation, the only way that they could have gotten the phone off of him. On top of that, they knew that she had still been in contact with him. What should she do?
“Erika?”
She turned to see Kelly staring at her. Kelly. Oh no.
“You need to go. Now.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I said so. Come on.” She stood up and took Kelly’s wrist, hauling her friend to her feet. “You need to get out. Go. Go home!” she yelled, pushing Kelly toward the door.
“What the hell is going on?” Kelly almost shouted, but Erika waved her off.
“There’s no time. I’m sorry. Go home, and I’ll call you to let you know what’s going on as soon as I can, okay? I promise! But you can’t be here any longer. They know that I’ve been in touch with Harden. They’re not going to hurt me, but they’re going to probably come, trash the place, and tell me to get out on the streets.”
“I’m staying with you then!” Kelly protested. “You can’t do this alone.”
Erika growled and pushed her friend toward her shoes once more. “Don’t you see?” she asked. “If you stay, they’ll punish you simply for being friends with me. But if you go, then you’ll be okay, and I can come be that annoying person who lives on your couch for months longer than you want them to.”
Kelly frowned. “How can you joke at a time like this?”
“I don’t know. But please!” she pleaded. “Kelly, please go. You can’t help me out, and all you can do is risk getting yourself into even more trouble.”
Her friend gave her a concerned look, but finally relented. “You’re sure they’re not going to hurt you?”
“Positive,” she lied. “They told me so last time.”
Kelly gave her a look that could only be interpreted as “You’re full of shit,” but she didn’t argue.
“If you don’t call me within an hour, I’m coming back,” she said forcefully.
“Done,” Erika said. “Now go! I have no idea how fast they’ll get here.”
Kelly seemed like she was going to argue once more, but in the end she left. Erika closed the door immediately, feeling weak with relief that she’d at least managed to get her friend out of danger.
Now if she could only do something about herself. She began to pace up and down the length of her unit, trying to come up with something. Running away wouldn’t do anything. They’d probably just hurt Harden worse if she wasn’t there. The man had said he didn’t intend to kill her, but there were plenty of things he could do to her that wouldn’t kill her.
Erika’s hands curled protectively over her stomach as fear surged through her system unchecked. What were they going to demand of her? Scenarios ran through her head, none of them positive, all of them terrifying. She jumped at every noise, every creak in the house.
She was wound so tight that when the knock at the door finally came she screamed and nearly fell to the ground. There was a pause, and then the door simply opened.
You idiot. How the hell could you forget something as simple as locking the door?
The first person to enter was the bald-headed shifter, the one Harden had said was Angelo. He eyed the door, then looked up at her. “Did you leave the door unlocked to make our lives easier?” he asked, sounding surprised.
“Yeah right,” she shot back, her mouth taking over from there. “I just forgot it wasn’t locked. Big, dumb, shifters storming into our houses isn’t something we often have to worry about, you know? Usually they’re polite and wait for us to answer after knocking.”
Angelo shot her a bemused look. “Funny, I don’t recall you having so much bark last time I was here.” He approached and she stood her ground. “But I don’t think you have much in the way of bite.” A hand grabbed her shoulder and threw her onto the couch. She bounced roughly and cried out, curling up around her stomach as pain in her back tightened muscles everywhere.
“I didn’t think so.”
He paced back and forth around her apartment for a bit longer. “We warned you,” he said. “We told you what would happen if you continued to talk to him. And what do you do, both times? You keep talking to him!”
“You aren’t the authorities, and he’s not a criminal,” she hissed through the pain. “You’re just a trumped-up prick who thinks that he’s king shit.”
Angelo eyed her, his brown eyes hard.
“Yes, I’m glad we’re done wasting money on you. Money that rightfully belongs to us,” he said angrily.
Erika rolled her eyes. “Seriously? All the funds that were given to support us were from donations, you ignorant piece of dickcheese. How dumb do you have to be to believe it was yours?”
Angelo snarled, flecks of spittle flying from his mouth. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. That money should have stayed in Cadia, it should have gone to other projects.”
“You mean your parents or whoever wanted it so that they could take their cut as bribes and other forms of corruption,” she shot back, taking a wild stab.
His eyes blazed with a crazed light, but he said nothing, and she knew she was right.
“You’re pathetic, Angelo. Just pathetic.”
“Trash it,” he said sullenly, motioning to the two others who had followed him inside.
The other two shifters, one Harden’s size, the other a great beast of a man, began to walk through her apartment, breaking all her meager possessions while she watched.
They broke the furniture into kindling, dumping her off the couch to do so. Smashed her cupboards and wrecked her fridge, dumping food everywhere. Cushions were ripped open, the bed torn apart, the walls cracked and holes punched through them. It didn’t take long—there wasn’t much—but they were very thorough.
As they were finishing up there was a knock on the door.
AGAIN?! She almost shrieked, but her eyes were drawn to the clock on the wall, one of the few things they hadn’t destroyed. It read almost an hour since the first phone call.
Oh no. Kelly…
“Erika! Erika open up! It’s been an hour and you haven’t called. Open the door or I’m calling the police!”
She darted for the door, but she was too slow. Angelo caught her easily, twisting both arms behind her neck and clamping a hand over her mouth. She struggled, but his arms felt like steel.
The big shifter moved to the door and opened it while the third man reached out and brought Kelly inside with casual ease, his hand also clamped over her mouth so that she couldn’t scream. It was too much for Kelly. She saw Erika being held up, and she fainted.
Angelo sighed in frustration, then jerked his head at the remains of the couch. They put her friend on it.
By this point Erika was beyond scared; she was terrified. What should she do? She realized they were going to put the both of them out on the streets now as Angelo told his thugs to search Kelly for ID. Thankfully they came up with nothing.
“Who is she?” Angelo asked, passing her off to one of his goons to hold.
She tried to bite down on fingers, but earned nothing more than a strained neck as compensation.
“I said, who is she!” The big shifter’s hand clamped over her mouth and nose, so that she couldn’t breathe.
Erika’s eyes went wide and she began to struggle, kicki
ng out violently, but it was like fighting a brick wall. She wasn’t making any progress.
Just when she thought she was about to faint, the hand let go.
“Answer my question.” Angelo said.
“Go fuck your lapdog over there,” she said, jerking her head in the direction of the third shifter standing near Kelly.
Angelo sighed and moved into the kitchen, removing a knife from among the remnants of it. Then he went over and held it to Kelly’s throat.
Before he could speak though, the door shook with pounding once more.
“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!” she screamed, flying into an incoherent rage. She was done with door-knocking. Just fucking done. No more. She couldn’t handle it, and began to scream bloody murder.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Harden
He came racing up to Erika’s front door just as someone else raised a fist to knock on it.
“Halt!” he shouted.
The figure spun around, and Harden jerked backward in surprise. “You?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”
The gray-blond-haired shifter looked around sheepishly. “Working up the courage to finally ask the lady behind the door out?”
Harden’s jaw dropped. “You. You’re the one who’s been leaving the gifts at her door?”
The shifter, whose name he still didn’t know, looked away, embarrassed. “Yes.” Then he turned to look at Harden. “Why are you here, and how do you know about that?”
“That’s my mate inside,” he said. It was the first time he’d said the words out loud, but the instant he said them, he felt the ring of truth within him.
He reached inside, but there was still an empty, black spot where his wolf should be.
“Oh,” the bear shifter said, lowering his hand and half-turning away from the door. “Then I guess I’ll go.”
Harden shook his head. “No, you need to stay. There are others in there. Angelo and his ilk. I’m not sure what’s going on. No time to explain.”
The brown eyes glittered with rage. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.” He strode up to the door and knocked on it firmly.
Almost instantly Erika’s screams came from inside. He glanced at the bear shifter.