by Michelle Fox
“Ha!” she crowed with delight. “Now who’s slow?”
Tao gave her a little salute. “My apologies, ma’am. I’ve underestimated you. Just give me a sec and I’ll be ready.” He hustled into her bedroom and returned not even a minute later wearing his jeans and t-shirt.
“All right, let’s go trap a werewolf.” He swung open her front door and stepped aside, allowing Audrey to pass through first.
They were both in a good mood, no doubt buoyed up by their love making. It was hard to be tense after such amazing sex, but Audrey did have a flash of worry that maybe they were being a little too cavalier about things. Nick was dangerous and they would be fools to underestimate him.
Chapter Sixteen
The park ranger station was quiet and only Christine was there, working the phones. This meant she greeted Audrey with excessive enthusiasm, bored from being trapped at her desk.
“Audrey,” she squealed. Her brown eyes spotted Tao lurking behind Audrey and went wide. “And who is this?” The young woman’s voice became a little breathy.
Audrey frowned. “This is a friend of mine.”
Tao stepped forward and held out a hand. “I’m Tao.”
“Christine,” the receptionist panted. She ran her tongue over her bottom lip, whether from nerves or a misguided attempt to be sexy, Audrey couldn’t tell. Either way it irked her.
“He’s not here for you to drool over,” she snapped. She flushed then, embarrassed by her territorial behavior.
Christine jumped and looked guilty. “Sorry. Hey, I thought you were on medical leave.”
“I am. I wanted to pick up my truck and I need a few supplies for some of my rescues.”
“Oh that’s right, you didn’t come back that day…” Chris trailed off as if unsure whether she should mention what had happened. “How are you feeling by the way?”
“Okay, thanks,” Audrey said keeping it short. Truth be told she’d been so busy feeling...um other things to even notice her hand. It did throb slightly and there was an underlying tingle, but she really hadn’t paid much attention.
The receptionist gestured toward the hallway behind her desk. “Well, go on back and take what you need. No one’s here but me.”
“Oh? Why is that?” Audrey asked. Usually the station was hopping with rangers coming in and out all day as they worked the park.
Christine waved her hand. “Jay gave everyone he could the day off. We couldn’t afford the over time from the wolf hunt, so we’re on a skeleton crew. Dan and Carla are out on patrol. I’m here with the phones and that’s it.”
“Any more wolf bites?” Tao asked.
“Oh, you know about those?” At Tao’s nod, Christine continued, “None that we’ve heard of. He got about eight more people the day Audrey was attacked and since then, nothing.”
“Thank God,” Audrey said. At the same time, she felt a flash of panic. Eight people were about to become werewolves. That was a lot. She would have to be sure to ask Tao what the plan was on that. Would they form their own pack up here in Michigan? Be folded into his? Did they all need time off for the full moon? She took a deep breath before all the questions overwhelmed her. One thing at a time, Audrey.
Christine’ voice intruded on her thoughts. “Yeah. Jay says he’s probably dead by now.”
Tao shifted uneasily on his feet at that, but didn’t say anything.
“Well, keep me posted. I may be on medical leave, but I’m not in a coma and I want to be in the loop.” Audrey gave a friendly smile hoping to make up for her earlier bitchiness.
“No problem.” Christine pointed to Audrey’s bandaged hand. “I hope you feel better.”
“Me too, thanks.” Tired of the chit-chat, Audrey grabbed Tao’s hand and led him down the hallway.
“Don’t forget to fill out the inventory loss sheet,” Christine said as they passed her desk.
“Yeah, yeah,” Audrey said. No one filled out the inventory sheets and she wasn’t about to break with tradition. She led Tao down the hallway, passing all the offices on the way to a wide steel door that opened into a large white room.
“You work in here?” Tao asked as he took in the stainless steel tables and all the lab equipment. His eyes widened at the sight of scalpels and surgical scissors laid out in neat, sharply gleaming rows.
Audrey nodded. “We rehab what animals we can, and if they can’t be set loose right away we hold them here or send them off to other rehab stations. There’s a room with built-in cages further back. In here is where we do small surgical procedures or exams.”
“You operate on animals?” Tao peered down the lens of the microscope they used for blood analysis.
“No, we have a vet who comes in for that, but I do assist. We do all the minor first aid type stuff ourselves.” She went over to the medicine cabinet and picked up several vials of sedative. Grabbing some needles, she then showed Tao where the cage she wanted sat on the floor behind one of the tables. Unlike the one Bob had used to contain Tao, this cage was solid steel and built to withstand the fury of a raging animal. She didn’t plan on letting Nick be awake long enough to stage a jail break, but just in case, she didn’t want some flimsy wire thing. “Can you carry this out to the truck?”
He flexed his muscles. “I could carry you and the cage and not even feel it.”
“All right, big guy. I believe you,” she said, raising a hand when he moved to scoop her up in his arms. “But let’s not take any risks we don’t have to. I’m already down to one hand.”
***
Outside, they loaded the cage into Tao’s truck. She shut the tailgate while he secured the cage in place with a bungee cord to keep it from bouncing around.
Holding up her car keys, Audrey said, “I’ll follow you since you know where he is.”
Tao gave a curt nod and settled into the driver’s seat while she did the same in her truck. He drove them to a desolate stretch of the national park along the lakeshore, one where tall fir trees kept the world underneath in constant shadow. Steering his truck to the side of the road, he parked, and Audrey pulled in right behind him.
“This is it?” Audrey stepped out of her truck, looking into the gloom of the woods in front of her.
“Yep. He’s back that way.” Tao came to stand by her and pointed deep into the forest.
Audrey took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”
He patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. We can handle him. He couldn’t walk the last time I saw him.”
“How fast will he heal?” Audrey asked, pressing the lock button on her remote.
Tao lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “It depends, but I guarantee you, even if he can move, he can’t go far. That was a helluva wound you gave him, much worse than the one I had.”
“All right,” she said, only slightly reassured. She kept picturing the snarl on Nick’s face when he’d leaped for her hand. He’d looked insane with rage. She shivered. “What’s the plan?”
“I go in wolf form and sniff him out. You come in with the sedative and we lug him back here to the cage.” He handed her his truck keys. “You should probably hang on to these.”
“Yeah. Good idea.” She shoved both of their car keys in a pocket and then rummaged through her new sedative and needle collection. Mentally she did the math to calculate a dose that would knock Nick out. To be safe, she tacked on an extra ten percent in case either her weight estimate was off or he metabolized the sedative faster than anticipated.
Tao watched her draw up the sedative. “Ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” She pressed the air out of the syringe until just a drop of sedative hung on the needle’s tip and then covered the needle with a plastic cap.
“Let’s go get him.” He stepped out of his clothes, tossing them into the back of his truck. Once naked, he shifted, his body shimmering like a mirage.
Audrey couldn’t help but stare. It looked so fluid and graceful, like water mixed with a rainbow. I can’t believe I’m going t
o do that in just a few days. The thought gave her chills.
In wolf form, Tao led her through the dark woods. With the way the trees blocked out sunlight, it looked more like dusk than almost noon. Silence hung heavy in the air, not even the birds sang, something Audrey attributed to Nick and Tao being nearby. Two big predators would scare off any animals nearby.
After walking for a half hour, they found Nick in a shallow hole in the soft, sandy earth. His white coat was covered with smears of dirt and dried blood. The knife wound was an angry red. From what Audrey could see, there’d only been minimal healing so far. Maybe he’d hindered things by running through the woods and digging the hole he sat in. He watched them approach, a defiant gleam in his green eyes.
Tao shifted into his human form, and Audrey tried not to get distracted by his perfectly round ass with dimples of solid muscle on each side.
“Hey Nick,” he said, his voice soft and soothing. He motioned for Audrey to approach the wolf from the rear while he advanced toward Nick’s head.
Nick snarled in response. It was probably a good thing he couldn’t talk, Audrey doubted she’d want to hear that snarl put into words. It sounded downright malicious.
Same as she’d done with her gun and knife the day he bit her, she held the syringe at her side so it wouldn’t be so easy to spot. Her body angled to make it doubly hard to see the needle, she sidled up to his flank, timing her movements so that Tao reached Nick’s head first.
Tao moved slowly right up until the last moment when he suddenly became a blur of speed. Nick barely had time to growl before his brother pinned him to the ground.
“Now, Audrey.” Tao’s voice was tense and the muscles in his arms bulged as he fought to hold Nick down.
Audrey lunged forward and shoved the needle into the wolf’s flank. He quivered, but, instead of the surprised yelp she would’ve expected, Nick gave a savage growl. A chill went up her spine at the sound. Her brain screamed for her to run while she still could, but she stayed where she was, pressing the plunger with steady pressure, determined to take the bastard out while she had the chance.
Once the syringe was empty, she backed off and counted the seconds under her breath. Most animals konked out almost immediately, but Nick was fueled by anger, and also not a normal animal. For a moment, she worried he wouldn’t succumb. He looked ready to rip their throats out, as if the sedative was no more than a mosquito bite.
Just as Audrey was beginning to think she would have to go back to the truck for a second dose, the wolf abruptly went limp.
“Oh, thank God,” she whispered.
“You might want to top him off when we get him to the truck,” Tao said as he worked to hoist Nick over his shoulders. “I don’t think that will hold him long.”
Draping Nick around him like a bloody stole, Tao took off, heading back to truck, his naked backside flexing as he went.
“Yeah, sure,” she said, trailing behind him, transfixed by the view as he walked through the woods with long, even strides. He moved as if Nick weighed nothing and she wondered what it was like to have that kind of strength. Was it a werewolf thing or just the fact he was an enormous man? Am I going to be that strong? That would be kind of cool, she decided. Maybe she could lift the big animal cages by herself and not have to wait on other rangers to be around to help.
Back at the truck, Tao gently placed Nick inside the cage while Audrey drew up another dose of sedative, this time going with just a half dose. Once she’d jabbed the unconscious wolf one more time, they covered the cage with tarp and drove back to her house.
Chapter Seventeen
At home, Tao moved the cage into her garage tucking the tarp tight underneath to keep Nick disoriented if he woke up before his next sedative dose. Audrey quickly checked on her animals, taking the opportunity to feed them just in case things got crazy later. Then they took a subdued coffee break. Audrey brewed a pot of French Roast and put a caramel soy milk creamer on her small dining room table. Tao sat at the table, brooding.
Audrey didn’t blame him. Having to trap and drug his own brother had to suck. She wasn’t even related to Nick and mostly wanted him dead, yet she didn’t feel so good about what they had done. She’d thought being able to protect the public and neutralize Nick’s hold on her and his other victims would’ve been a more positive experience. As it turned out, not so much.
Probably because they hadn’t solved the problem as much as bought themselves some breathing room. Hard decisions had to be made and the full moon was coming closer day by day. This was just a rest stop on a hard road.
Not to mention I’m keeping a werewolf prisoner in my garage just like Conspiracy Bob. Well, shit.
Shaking her head at the weird turn her life had taken, she set a big mug, steaming with coffee, at Tao’s elbow and then rooted around in her pantry for the vegan cookies she liked to dip in the caffeine rich brew. Returning to the dining nook, she set the box of cookies on the table and dunked one in her cup. “So, what’s next?”
Tao just shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“We should probably round up the bite victims and break the news, no?” Her nose twitched. All the smells in her kitchen seemed extra sharp. The scent of caramel was especially sweet and she could’ve sworn she’d caught a whiff of the vanilla and sugar in the cookies. She sniffed experimentally, eyes going wide when she realized she could smell Tao’s pine musk scent. At this rate, by the time the full moon came she would be able to out smell a blood hound.
“Yeah, but someone should be here at all times to be sure Nick doesn’t miss a dose of sedative.” Tao added creamer to his coffee, raising his eyebrows at the word Soy on the bottle.
“That makes sense.” She took a bite of her cookie and closed her eyes as the sugary vanilla flavor hit her taste buds. Thanks to her heightened sense of smell, food tasted extra amazing. A small pleasure on a strange day. She offered Tao the box of cookies and he took a handful, which given his big hands, meant there were only two left at the bottom when he was done.
She narrowed her eyes at Tao, shocked at how much he could eat. Catching her expression, he sheepishly put some of the cookies back. “Sorry, I’m hungry.”
“I’ll get us something to eat.” Feeling like a bad hostess, Audrey went into the kitchen and quickly gathered everything needed to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It wasn’t fancy, but she’d been way too busy of late to do much grocery shopping. She put everything on the table. “Here, help yourself.”
He began to make a sandwich. “Thanks. You want one?”
“Yeah, thanks.” She raised her injured hand. “Pancakes I can do one handed, but smearing jam and peanut butter on bread is a bit beyond me.”
She watched him make sandwiches, struck once again by how handsome he was. Amazingly, she managed to forget sometimes. His hair, so dark she wouldn’t be surprised to see natural blue highlights, kept tumbling into his eyes and he batted it away with an impatient sigh. It reminded Audrey of her own battle with her wayward hair.
Tao’s face held sculpted cheekbones and a nose a bit on the hawkish side. His mouth was wide and generous and she shifted in her seat remembering the way he’d kissed her just that morning. As for his body, he was a God made of pure muscle and testosterone. Primitive people would’ve built temples in his honor. Audrey imagined sinking to her own knees and the things she would do to worship the man who’d practically obliterated her with pleasure. She pictured wrapping her mouth around his cock, sucking in his length and tasting the salt on his skin.
Her body began to overheat right along with her imagination.
Whoa girl. This is not the time to act like a nympho in heat. Focus.
“What are we going to do about Nick?” she asked. There, that was more on topic, albeit an unpleasant one.
Tao offered her a sandwich. She took it and set it on a napkin that she snagged from the napkin holder on the table. She should’ve brought plates, but with the way Tao ate, he’d be done by the time she c
ould bring them over. So she settled for picnic style. No harm in that, if a little informal. It was just a sandwich not High Tea at the palace.
“I’ve got to call my alpha,” Tao said with an unhappy frown. “I haven’t talked to him since I borrowed your phone.”
“What’s an alpha exactly?” she asked. Audrey knew the academic terms for pack structure, but not how it all worked with werewolves. When he’d mentioned it earlier, she’d inferred it was some kind of leadership position, but what kind of leadership exactly?
“He’s our pack leader. The strongest wolf always leads the pack.” Tao licked peanut butter off his finger.
“So it’s his way all the time?” She took a bite of her sandwich while she waited for his answer.
“Pretty much. We do have a council of elders so he doesn’t necessarily act on his own, but only the big things go before the council.”
“Like what?”
“Well, Nick, for one. Or if we’re going to build a new house for the pack or add to a property.”
“Huh,” she said thoughtfully. “Sounds like a werewolf commune.”
That made him chuckle. “Yeah. A little bit, but wolves are less lovey-dovey, let’s sing kumbaya and more my-way-or-the-highway.”
“Oh, like you were in the bedroom?” She gave him an arch look.
“Yeah.” A laugh rumbled in his chest. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about your spanking.” The smoldering look he gave her, went right to her core and started a fire there.
She swallowed nervously. “What if I don’t want to be spanked?” In the heat of the moment, it had actually sounded like a grand idea. Now she wasn’t so sure. Sure, she’d liked the roughness of their love making, couldn’t deny the primal thrill she’d felt when he had his way with her, but did she really want to be hit?
Tao reached out and laid his hand on her arm. “We’ll worry about it later. Don’t stress about it now, okay?”
She nodded.
“Besides, the way I spank, you’ll be begging me not to stop.” A slow, wicked smile spread across his face. “But first you have to get better.” He looked to her hand. “And we have to deal with the mess Nick has made. Then I’ll show you the pleasure of discipline.” He lowered his voice on the last few words, the tone going so deep it shivered through the air to stroke her skin.