Cry Wolf

by Romy Lockhart

“Colour me impressed.”

  We walk back to the house, and everything feels a little lighter. The banshee is taken care of. We just have two shifters to wait on waking up and everything will be fine.

  I ditch the spade by the garden shed. The key’s in the house and I can’t be bothered going inside to get it just to lock the damn thing away. I assume it came from the boot of Theo’s car, but there are only about a million other more important things I want to ask him once he’s awake.

  “You think he’ll be out of it for long?” I ask Lukas as I get back from the garden and he catches up to me at the porch steps. I ran on ahead to ditch the spade. He didn’t complain about me being out of his sight on a dark night, probably because we don’t have a banshee to worry about any more.

  “Hard to tell,” Lukas admits. “It’s an unusual situation.”

  Theo is still in wolf form as I unlock the door and we bring him inside. Lukas told me on the walk back that pack members are able to help each other change form when there’s a threat. It’s protective magic, and he thinks he was only able to use it because he was still on edge after realizing Theo had been possessed by the banshee. Kev wasn’t much of a threat, and Lukas would have known it was only a human approaching if he hadn’t been so distracted.

  I lock up while he brings Theo into the living room.

  He lays him down on the couch and sighs as I come in close and rest my head on his shoulder.

  “I’ll stay with him down here. You should probably wait for Fergus to wake up. He’ll have a lot of questions,” Lukas tells me.

  A pang of guilt hits me. I want to stay with both of them. I don’t want to have to choose.

  “I don’t think Fergus will be waking up any time soon,” I say. “I’ll stay down here for a while.”

  I just hope Theo wakes up first. I need to be sure he’s okay. The way he ran out earlier, I just don’t know. Maybe he was already possessed? Christ, I hope so. Because if he really has a problem with Fergus being one of my mates, I don’t know what I’ll do.

  “Want a drink?” I ask, needing to keep myself busy.

  “Hot chocolate?” Lukas asks, his lips curling slowly into a smile.

  “Well, it’s a bit late for coffee,” I say, heading to the kitchen.

  He follows me, staying close to the living room door, and peeking inside every few seconds.

  I put on the kettle and get out the mugs.

  “Did we really just defeat a banshee tonight?” I ask him.

  “It would seem so,” Lukas says, not sounding so sure.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” he says. “It just felt a little easy, I guess. Sometimes it works out that way, but there’s nothing average about any of this.”

  “It did feel a bit too easy,” I agree, realizing this is why I can’t quite believe it.

  “Sebastian can confirm it when he shifts back to human. We can get the missing parts of the puzzle when Fergus and Theo wake up.”

  Maybe it’ll feel more final then, more settled. I make the hot chocolate and add some of my dwindling supply of marshmallows.

  I wonder if I should tell him about what happened with the banshee before, and I realize there’s nothing of value in it. She threatened me and broke my hand. She didn’t do anything else for whatever reason and I woke up at home. It isn’t a missing piece of the puzzle. It isn’t anything really.

  “You okay?” Lukas asks as I walk towards him with the hot chocolate.

  “Never better,” I tell him. “Now get your arse on the couch so I can use you as a cushion while I drink this.”

  The door’s taking a real battering by the time my brain realizes what the noise is and I blink awake on the couch. My neck hurts and I feel totally knackered. Theo is still passed out in wolf form on the other couch, and Lukas is lightly snoring into the cushion at my side.

  Who the hell could be at the door? Everyone I’d want to speak to is inside already.

  I sit up and stretch. It’s unlikely to be the postie. I don’t have anything ordered.

  What does that leave?

  A neighbour, most likely, I’d guess. I give Lukas a little shake.

  “Don’t feel like getting that, do you?” I murmur, not surprised when it’s not enough to wake him. These bastards sleep like the dead.

  I mumble to myself as I get up and rub at my eyes. The knocking doesn’t let up. Whoever’s out there is insistent. I picture Fergus’ grandmother for a moment and it makes me cringe. If it’s her I can just slam the door in her stupid bitchy old face.

  Sighing, I leave the living room and answer the door.

  And promptly wish I’d ignored the knocking.

  “Miss O’Brien,” Officer McManus says, her mouth set in a grim line. “We’re going to have to ask you to come with us, please.”

  “Um, what?” I ask, wondering what’s going on now.

  The female officer who’d been so nice to me is accompanied by her partner today, and when I don’t comply with her instructions, he pipes up with, “You’re under arrest.”

  “I’m what?” I must have heard him wrong, because it sounds like he’s telling me I’m being arrested.

  “Turn around,” he commands, taking charge and all but elbowing Officer McManus out the way.

  Panic floods me. I don’t know what’s going on, but this is the last thing I need. I remember the way Lukas compelled Kev to do what he wanted him to last night, and I wish I knew how he’d done that.

  I could really use it right now.

  “What am I being arrested for? I’ve done nothing wrong. There must be some mistake.”

  Officer McManus shakes her head. “There’s no mistake. You’re being charged with obstruction of justice. You shouldn’t have broken into the morgue and stolen the body.”

  I gasp, as a strange, fuzzy memory makes me realize that’s exactly what the banshee used me for before. She could have used anyone for that. She used me so I couldn’t get in her way.

  “Do we need to add resisting arrest to your charges, Miss O’Brien?” Officer Black asks, sneering a little at me.

  “No,” I tell him, as I stare in horror at the handcuffs he’s releasing from his belt.

  Office Black tells me to turn around. He cuffs my hands behind my back.

  I’m going to jail. Oh Christ. I don’t think I’d survive prison. I’m not hard enough. Sarcasm will only get me so far.

  I bite down on my lip to keep from shouting at my men to wake the feck up.

  I don’t want to do anything that this arsehole could take as resisting arrest. One charge of stealing an unidentified body is bad enough. Shouldn’t they just feel it when I’m being threatened? Or is being arrested by the police not supernatural enough?

  I’m going to kill the lot of them, I’ve decided. Just as soon as I get out of jail.

  I really wish I’d gone to the toilet before I answered the door now. The car ride to the police station a town over is bumpy as fuck and takes forever. I’m barely holding on to my bladder by the time the car stops.

  “I need to use the loo,” I tell the female officer as she opens the door.

  “You’ll wait until you’re processed,” the arsehole Officer Black says, as if he’s the boss of me.

  “Then you’ll have a big puddle to mop up in about sixty seconds,” I tell him.

  Officer McManus takes me by the arm as I get out of the car. “I’ll take her to the ladies.”

  “Thank you.” I sigh a little but I’m not going to feel better until I’ve been to the bathroom.

  “Don’t thank me yet,” she says. “You’ll be staying in the cuffs.”

  Sounds thoroughly humiliating, but I’ll deal with that a whole lot better once my teeth stop floating.

  Thankfully the bathroom isn’t far inside the building. She leads me inside and opens the disabled stall. I step inside and she follows, closing the door. She deals with my leggings quickly and I get my call of nature dealt with while she turns away.

&nbs
p; Okay, urgent business dealt with, I need to figure a way out of this situation that doesn’t involve winding up on the wrong side of a set of prison bars. I can’t deny what happened. I wasn’t in control of myself at the time, but I doubt that defence will fly. Though I have to wonder if the loony bin might at the very least be a better option than a prison.

  “I need to call my lawyer,” I say, thinking of Sebastian and wondering if the phone will have any better luck in waking him up than the door did.

  “You need to do what you’re being told,” she disagrees with me. “I don’t know why you did what you did, but you’ve brought this on yourself.”

  I feel like I detect a hint of guilt in her tone as she helps me stand and pulls my leggings back up swiftly. It doesn’t take a genius to realize she thinks what she told me off the record convinced me to steal the body.

  I wish I could deny that. She did something nice for me. Could have become a friend. Now, she thinks the worst of me like most of Widow’s Walk.

  “You realize it looks suspicious,” she tells me.

  “Suspicious?” I ask, wondering what she’s driving at.

  She frowns at me. “You stole a body that we couldn’t identify. Of a woman you claim you saw murdered when you were a child. Why do you think most people would do such a thing?”

  I stare at her as she shakes her head at me.

  Is she saying what I think she’s saying?

  “I didn’t...” I start, as a cold ball of dread begins to form in the pit of my stomach.

  “Save it for questioning,” she tells me, her tone weary. “You’ve got a long day ahead.”

  This is bad. It might even be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, including the night I saw the woman murdered by the wolf. The night I helped him hide her body.

  I fight back a shiver as we leave the bathroom.

  Am I about to wind up on trial for murder?

  I go through their processing procedure in a daze. If someone asked me what happened five minutes ago at any point throughout I wouldn’t have been able to tell them.

  My thoughts are too full of paranoid worst case scenarios. I keep wondering what it’ll take to get me out of this, and all I can think is I destroyed the evidence I apparently stole while the banshee was in possession of my body. Her bones are all smashed up in that bag buried under the sand.

  I need Sebastian. I need Lukas. I can’t deal with this shite on my own. I don’t know what the hell to do. I keep thinking I can’t go to prison, but that’s where all of this is leading. I’ve been arrested. They have hard evidence of what I’ve done. There’s no escaping it.

  I’m cuffed to a chair in an interrogation room now. I think they called it an interview room, but it’s all the same to me.

  “I want my lawyer,” I’d called out as they left me in here.

  Now I’m waiting. They’re probably trying to make me sweat, so I’ll spill the beans when they start to question me. They know I stole the body. They don’t know why. Officer McManus as much as told me that in the bathroom. I don’t know why she’s being so helpful to me, but I’m grateful. It would have panicked me to realize they want to charge me with murder at the same time as my lesser charge if I hadn’t had some time to process it first.

  Officer McManus enters and sits down. “Your lawyer can’t be here until tomorrow morning.”

  I blink at her, then realize I’d filled out the firm’s name which is in London, when I wrote the information down for them. I’d given Sebastian’s name too, but clearly they didn’t ask for him. I would have given his mobile number if I’d had it. I hadn’t brought my purse. I’d barely been allowed to step into my trainers before they hauled me in.

  “No,” I tell her. “Sebastian’s in Widow’s Walk. He can be here in an hour if you get them to call him.”

  She frowns at me. “Your lawyer’s name is Harold Tanner. He’s been on a leave of absence recently, but he’s making the trip over tomorrow.”

  No fecking way. “No. I need Sebastian. He’s here. I won’t say another word until I’ve spoken to him.”

  She leans back. “It doesn’t look good if you refuse to talk, Maggie. It’s an admission of guilt.”

  I just stare back, knowing if I say anything it could seal my already precarious fate.

  She sighs. “I’ll call and ask.”

  “Thank you.”

  She leaves shaking her head. I sit there and wait. It’s all I can do now.

  There aren’t words for how relieved I feel when the door opens and Sebastian walks in.

  I want to get up and hug him, but I’m cuffed to the damn chair. So I just smile, a little weakly, as he approaches and puts his briefcase down on the table. He smiles tightly.

  “So, how screwed am I?” I ask, as his silver-flecked aquamarine eyes start to glow.

  “I’m sure we can work out a deal,” he says, making me frown.

  They’re listening, Maggie. We’re all here so this is all going away. Don’t worry.

  Hearing his voice inside my head makes me feel about a million times better. I smile at him, wishing I could talk to him like this. He takes something out of his briefcase, a legal document.

  Pretend you’re reading this. I’m going to start giving basic advice because they’re listening right now, but I don’t want you to freak out. You’re not going to prison.

  I’d like to ask him how he’s so sure, but I settle for taking the document and nodding along to what he’s telling me. He sounds like a stern school teacher right now, telling off a student for talking in class or something. It’s weird. I know he wouldn’t talk to me like this. It’s like we’re acting out a scene.

  Questions start to fill up my head while he goes on. What did he mean that they’re all here? Lukas and Theo, both? Or is he counting Fergus in that all too? How are Theo and Fergus doing? What are they all doing? Seriously.

  I don’t know how much longer I can take the sitting here pretending to talk to my lawyer act. He seems to sense my struggle and his voice softens a little before he speaks inside my head again.

  It’s okay, Maggie, I promise. We’ll take care of you.

  Warmth fills me. I know they’ll protect me.

  I just don’t know how. I mean, they can compel people, but I assume there’s a limit to that. Maybe there isn’t. Maybe they can really get me out of this shitty situation with magic. Maybe I could have gotten myself out of it if I’d pushed them to teach me how to do it.

  The door opens and Lukas leans in, a set of keys in his hand. “You’re free to go.”

  Sebastian takes the keys from him and unlocks my cuffs. I get up.

  Go with Lukas. I need to deal with the recording.

  I nod, wanting to hug Sebastian still, but stopping myself in case it screws up their plan. Lukas takes my hand as I leave the room.

  “They took my house keys,” I tell him.

  “I know. Theo has them. Come on, you must be starving. We’re getting you breakfast before we head back to Widow’s Walk.”

  We leave the police station and find Fergus and Theo waiting outside. Theo’s smile as I rush into his arms is as broad as ever and I know he’s back to himself even before he gets inappropriate with his hands.

  “No underwear, huh?” he murmurs as he grabs my arse. “I like.”

  I kiss him and he growls when I break contact to look him anxiously in the eyes. “How do you feel about Fergus?”

  “Well, I’m not super into cock, but I do like red-heads,” he jokes, making me slap his arm.

  “Oh, you mean about him being your fourth mate,” he says, grinning a little. “I was shocked, but Lukas already knew it was coming so I already had an inkling.”

  He did? I pull away to get a good look at Fergus. He’s healed up well, thank God. His pale skin is flawless, bruise free. His shirt seems tighter, then I realize it’s because he has the same defined muscles now that my other mates have. My body firmed up a little when I accepted the shifter magic inside me. His has too.


  “How are you feeling?” I ask, wondering what the others have told him.

  “Kind of weird,” he admits. “This is all a lot. I mean it’s cool as fuck, but it’s a lot.”

  “He’s a fast study,” Lukas tells me, as he puts his arm around me. “Picked up how to shift like a natural born wolf.”

  “Maybe it’s because I’m the son of a banshee,” he jokes, with a shrug.

  I sense a little pain underneath, and I know I need to spend some time alone with him to make sure he’s really okay. Finding out the bones we dug up belonged to his mother has to sting. He’s spent his whole life thinking his mum left him when he was a baby. Now he knows the awful truth.

  “Maybe it is,” Lukas agrees.

  Sebastian exits the police station with his briefcase and comes toward us. “We’re all clear.”

  “Seriously?” I ask.

  He nods. “We can go home and forget this happened.”

  “Man, that’s cool,” Fergus murmurs.

  “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Theo tells him.

  I’m glad they seem to be bonding, but right now all I want is to stuff myself with pancakes and pass out surrounded by my pack. “Someone mentioned breakfast?”

  We take over a booth in a mostly empty cafe down the street. I order hot chocolate and pancakes covered in bacon and maple syrup. My guys all wind up with meatier orders of full breakfast plates and coffee. My stomach starts to rumble before the drinks even arrive.

  “I can’t believe we slept through your arrest,” Lukas says, shaking his head.

  “I couldn’t believe it either,” I tell him. “Wait. Actually, I could. You guys could sleep through an earthquake. What’s up with that?”

  “Magic is replenished by rest,” Sebastian explains, shrugging a little.

  I guess that explains why I’m not as bad as them. I’ve barely been using any magic so far.

  “So, I’m going to end up sleeping half the day away as well then?”

  He nods. “There have to be some downsides to this thing. Otherwise it’s all upsides.”