I don’t know if anyone tried to stop the guys chasing me. I’m guessing so, because I heard a crash and a yell from behind me, but I kept weaving between people and I never looked back. Some old guy yelled that I looked “…real nice in that skirt,” and I flipped him off.
New York. I was getting more used to this than I thought.
I should probably mention that I was going on dead instinct at this point. When you’ve gotten caught up in some Mob hit thing? Your brain doesn’t really get it the first time around. I mean, I knew that I was in danger, and that was about all I had. I just kept running and running and hoping they wouldn’t catch up. Which was stupid, because they were clearly in fantastic shape, I hate running and I was wearing heels, but I can’t account for my mind. I can say that I went farther than I had any business going before I ran out of steam, though.
Panic’ll do that to you.
I leaned over in the shadow of a doorway, gasping and clutching my side, which sure felt like something was going to burst. I hadn’t heard any crashes behind me in ages, which I figured meant they weren’t following me anymore. And I was kind of right about that—they were in front of me, advancing down the sidewalk like they were going to push me back into the lights and the crowds. I’d stopped, stupidly, in an area of the street where there was almost nothing.
I gave a look over my shoulder at all those people, and knew I was never going to get that far. Goddammit.
“What the hell do you want?” I asked them. My voice was shaking. “Look, I told him your message. That’s it. I don’t even know the guy.”
“Then what was all that sweet kissy business?” one of them asked me. They were still walking, and I couldn’t seem to move. Part of me was telling me that if I started running, they’d start running, but really I was just terrified.
“So I tried to get some.” I tried to shrug. “It’s been a while. What, do you know everyone you sleep with really well?”
“Yes,” he said immediately, and he sounded like he meant it. Something about him whispered that this was a man who took a mate and kept her for life. Which, I realized now, was sort of what had attracted me to Dominick. I felt a heat between my legs, and from the smirk on James’s face, he knew all about it.
“Humans,” he said contemptuously, and the other two laughed.
That should have been my first clue. But really, come on—if it were you, would it even have occurred to you that this guy wasn’t human? Would you have gone straight to werewolves?
I didn’t think so.
“Get. Away. From me.” I fumbled in my purse. “I have mace.”
“That’s nice, sweetheart.”
“What the hell do you even want?” I demanded again. I was really scared now.
“Well, it’s like this.” He advanced another step, leaving the other two behind him.
I backed up as well. I just had to get to the next doorway…
“You see, Dominick keeps getting away from us. But he got you to safety when he left, didn’t he?”
I snorted. Warning me to get inside and then ghosting out on me hardly counted as chivalry in my book.
“So, I’m thinking…” James smiled. “I’m thinking Dominick doesn’t really want you to get hurt, does he?”
Oh, no.
“Don’t you bring me into this anymore.” My voice was shaking, and I kept backing up, one slow step after another. Just a couple more feet…
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m reasonably certain he won’t actually let us kill you.”
I didn’t wait to hear anymore. I’d reached the doorway I wanted and I just snatched up their doorstop from the ground on the steps and winged it at his head.
He wasn’t expecting that. Like I said, werewolves are fast, so if he wanted to get out of the way, he could have. But it caught him right in the face, and I seized the opportunity to turn and run.
But there was a fourth one.
I skidded to a halt and did a double take. Not Dominick. Shit.
Which left me with the only option of cutting right down an alleyway. Even as I did it, I knew it was a horrible plan, but there really wasn’t much for it, was there? I clenched my hands into fists and doubled down, trying to push myself to the limit and beyond it. I just needed to keep moving, that was all. Just needed to keep moving. Run, Alicia, run.
One of them was already waiting for me at the other end, and that should have been my second clue. Sure, I wasn’t all that fast, but there was no way he should have gotten all the way around the block by that point to cut me off. I ducked left under his arm and ran, and he didn’t catch me. Stroke of luck, I thought.
Ha. Luck. Man, I can be dumb sometimes.
Which is why when James tackled me, it was such a surprise. I mean, it shouldn’t have been, right? I’d seen how fast they could go. I should have known he’d be waiting for me. I got lifted right up off my feet and went down on the pavement, and the breath got knocked right out of me.
I don’t know who else was there, I could only see James and I was damned if I was going to let some guy like that use me as bait. I swung my purse, but he’d apparently caught on to my trick of throwing things at his face because he jerked out of the way. His hands came down around my throat and I screamed with some of the last breath I had, kicking up at him, driving my fist up to hit his throat, his nose, his chest, anything I could think of.
He gave a muffled “oaf” and I felt a rush of satisfaction. He’d picked on the wrong girl. Just because I was from some small town in the middle of nowhere in Oregon didn’t mean he was going to get me without a fight. I had absolutely no faith that he was going to take me along quietly without hurting me, and that meant…well, it meant I was going to get some hits in of my own. I didn’t really think he was going to be meaner for all that. I jerked my leg up to hit him between the legs and he rolled away just in time.
But there was a straight shot down the alley to freedom. I paused just long enough to level a kick at his ribs and then I ran like the damned wind, down into the lights and the crowds on Eighth. To my right, nothing. To my left…oh, god. I knew those black eyes, and they weren’t Dominick’s. I turned right and ran like my life depended on it, which it probably did.
And I actually thought I was doing well for a while. I mean, I thought maybe they didn’t want to attack me in the crowd, and if I could just keep going long enough, they’d decide I wasn’t an easy enough mark and let me go. It was only two streets later, dodging each of them as I caught sight of them in the crowd, that I stumbled into the dark old parking lot and realized what had actually been happening.
They’d been herding me.
I hadn’t gotten away from James at all—he’d just made enough marks that anyone who saw me knew he could hurt me. Anyone like, say, Dominick, who was staring at me in horror. And as he looked at me, the cloud cover broke. Just for a moment, just enough.
Moonlight flooded the parking lot and caught Dominick’s eyes. Slit pupils flashed in the darkness and I think I screamed. My conscious mind finally understood what my animal brain had been trying to help it figure out all this time: this wasn’t the Mob. This was something far, far more dangerous. As Dominick stretched up towards the sky, his head thrown back, his lips clamped closed to keep his mouth shut on a howl.
Werewolves. Fucking werewolves. My brain didn’t even try to deny what it was seeing this time. And from the growl behind me. I knew the rest of them had arrived for the fight.
Shit.
Chapter 5
The growls came from behind me, and for a moment, I froze. But if the night had taught me anything, it was that they were going to do what they damn well pleased, and that they weren’t overly concerned if I lived or died. I snatched the mace out of my purse and turned, baring my teeth in a snarl. Which was pretty funny, considering they all now had long teeth like, well, wolves. I thought I could make out which one was James, and he was advancing on me with something I could clearly tell was a grin. He was going to enjoy this.
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Screw him.
Dominick took him out with a roar, coming from alongside me to bowl James over. There was a snarl and a yowl, and I stumbled back into the darkness. I yelped at the tangle of fur and the snapping of teeth, but this wasn’t the fight—not yet. They all drew away to circle, Dominick keeping himself between me and them.
We don’t think he wants you to get hurt.
My throat tightened. I knew that they’d be doing this whether I was here or not, that they’d been looking for him all this time, and yet… I felt guilty. My fingers tightened on the mace, and I felt my lip tremble. I didn’t think either of us were getting out of this, and the stupid part? The part that didn’t make any sense?
I wished we’d actually gotten to talk more. The slit pupils didn’t even matter, the hint of sharp teeth that my brain knew were there—none of it was important. I bet that Dominick was lazy in the morning, that he’d hold me in bed and nuzzle the back of my neck until I drifted back to sleep with him. I bet he liked long walks in the woods.
And I was never going to know. I sniffled and swallowed hard, trying to get ahold of myself. I was sure as hell going to do some damage on my way out.
“So, Dominick.” James’s voice came out all growly. I could barely make out the words, but I knew why he was speaking in English—he wanted me to hear what was going on. “I told you we’d find you.”
“Took you long enough.” Dominick’s lips curved in something that might have been a smile, if there weren’t quite so many teeth.
“We could have found you any time we wanted,” one of the others hissed.
“That’s why you resorted to using humans, right?” Dominick gave a bark of a laugh, but the sound changed to a snarl soon enough. “You never cared who you got involved.”
“And you care too much.” James stood up to his full height, which now appeared to be much, much more than 6’2”. “Too much about them, not enough about us.” He swung his snout back to look at me as he thudded down onto four paws again.
I swallowed and backed away.
“You think if we go around killing humans, no one will notice?” Dominick was trying to reason with him, and that gave me a bad feeling.
It turned out I was right on that count, because James was done listening. Two of the others converged on Dominick and James leapt right for me.
I pulled the tab back and sprayed the mace, trying to hold until he got close enough, and he gave a howl of displeasure, swiping over my head as I ducked. I was only just quick enough; I heard the claws come out as the huge paw whistled over my head, and my body went into overdrive. Wolves. Sharp teeth. Claws.
I was soft and squishy, and every part of me knew it. I rolled sideways, having the presence of mind to kick at the other dark shape I could see through my narrowed eyes, and I heard a yelp of pain. A hiss as they circled around me.
Dominick came out of nowhere. Even in the dim light, as he catapulted into them and the group rolled away, all teeth and fur and growls, I could see that his coat was brindled, his snout proud, his ears up like a German shepherd. He was snarling, a low rumble that sent every sense into high alert.
No one thought to warn me about this, I thought stupidly. It occurred to me that my family was just going to think some crazy person with a knife got me; no one was ever going to think it had been werewolves. Then my mind started working again. I only had a little bit of mace left, and no one was giving me the slightest attention; it would only work if I could get it in their eyes.
And they were going to kill Dominick if I didn’t do something, which, considering that he’d obviously risked his life to help me, wasn’t something I could allow. Shit.
Well, I had tiny scissors in my little sewing kit. They weren’t much, but it was literally all I had left at this point. I fumbled in my purse, clamped the scissors in my hands, and tried to pick my moment in the tangle of fur and snapping. Then I plunged them down on one of the werewolves’ spines. Did werewolves get paralyzed the same way as humans? I could only hope. And from the wolf’s scream of pain, I was pretty sure I’d done something useful.
It turned on me with its teeth bared, staggering sideways, and the rest of the wolves didn’t even give it a second glance; they were still focused on Dominick. It was bleeding and they didn’t even care. For a second, I felt really bad for it.
Except, I didn’t feel bad enough to stand there and die when it came at me with a snarl. I batted its mouth sideways out of instinct more than anything else and pummeled at its throat with one of my fists when it bowled me over. It was limping pretty badly now, but I was still terrified. The speed with which it moved, even injured, was pretty frightening. All I could hope for now was to cut its jugular or something, if wolves even had jugulars. Maybe its windpipe. The scissors were in my hand and I lashed out like a crazy person, flailing and snarling as much as it was, trying to distract it by throwing as many punches as I could. I curled into a ball to avoid the snapping of its jaws, waiting for an opening, and finally I found one. As it pounced, I wrapped my arms around it and dragged it down.
One last punch, and I hit my goal—at least, judging by the amount of blood I was covered in. It screamed and I did, too, turning my face away so I didn’t have to see what it was I’d done.
Oh god, oh god.
The rest of them hadn’t even noticed, damn them. I took a moment to try to hold my stomach down, and then looked over to where Dominick was fighting off the others.
The sight of it took my breath away. They were moving so fast that all I could see was a blur, every one of them getting out of the way of teeth and claws just at the right moment, or taking hits that would have killed any human outright and shrugging them off. And Dominick? Dominick was even faster than the others, a sort of brown-and-black streak of shadow, twisting and snapping.
Well, I had thought maybe he’d been in a fight at some point. It looked like he knew his way around fights pretty well, in fact. He reared up on his hind legs and brought both of his forepaws down, catching James across the shoulder and the face. A roar—which of them, I wasn’t sure—and James crouched, leapt to catch Dominick in the midsection.
There were still two left, circling like panthers, waiting for their moment to leap in and finish what James had started, and I was furious. Maybe Dominick could have taken on two of them, but there were still three of them left.
I picked up a rock and threw it, catching one of the lackeys squarely in the side. As Dominick reared up again, I threw myself forward, swinging a fist wildly. Like hell I was going to let this man die.
I should have run, I thought, when the beast turned on me. Oh, well. So much for good sense. We were down the rabbit hole now. I rolled sideways, giving a muffled yell of pain as I made new bruises to add to my collection. Pavement isn’t exactly comfortable.
Behind me I heard a scream, and there was no mistaking it—I’d heard that sound when I killed one earlier. I went hot, and then cold. I was going to be sick, and if I was sick, I wasn’t going to survive this. Unless I threw up in the werewolf’s face. That was a funny thought, and it gave me just enough hysterical energy to throw another punch. I was trying not to think who might have died. If that scream had been Dominick, I was about five seconds from dead myself.
But just as the wolf pinned me down, its breath hot on my face and its teeth bared in a demonic grin, a brindled shadow knocked it sideways off of me. Teeth and claws whistled through the air and I pushed myself up just in time to see Dominick roll to his feet and shake himself off.
I pushed myself up on my elbows and looked around in shock. The parking lot was silent now, apart from the distant roar of people and sirens and music—never too far away in New York. But none of the shapes on the pavement around me stirred.
As I pushed myself to my feet, the parking lot went dark, clouds covering the moon, and the last wolf staggered to his knees, shrinking back into a dark-haired man with a navy sweater, bleeding from a cut to his face.
“Dominick?
”
“Thank God you’re alive,” he managed. Then he passed out.
Chapter 6
“I thought I might find you here.” I bent to push a beer across the table.
“What’s this for?”
“You bought me a beer the night we met, remember?” I slid into the booth, next to Dominick, brushing my ponytail over my shoulder. “Also, you know, the saving my life thing.”
“You mean, in the fight you wouldn’t even have been in if it weren’t for me?” He looked over at me, black eyes sad.
“Is that why you haven’t been in here?”
He’d been avoiding me. I managed to get him to a bar because he refused to go to a hospital, and he’d insisted that I go home, lock the door, and sleep with my phone by my bed. Actually, he suggested a gun, but I didn’t have one of those. And it had been five weeks since I’d seen him. In fact, I’d given up until I saw him slip into the bar near my house, his eyes taking in the Wall Street guy I was chatting up.
The Wall Street guy hadn’t been pleased when I ordered a beer and ghosted out, but I didn’t feel too bad. He’d been kind of a jerk. Something something investments, something something yachts. When Dominick walked in, Wall Street guy was just telling me how he was taking up helicopter flying, like he wanted me to think he was a bad boy or something. I refrained from telling him that I’d done much more badass things than he had in his life.
Like fight werewolves, for instance. Although I wasn’t keen to do that one again.
“Yeah.” Dominick looked up at me. He was twirling the beer between his fingers, looking a bit nervous. It was adorable.
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