by Неизвестный
Never try to corner a she-wolf in her den.
“Your chief can kiss my ass,” she snarled. “Where’s Beth?”
“Get off’a me, you simian—”
He only got out half the swear word before Willy tightened her lock on his arm and ground his face into the tablecloth. Which was the position Cody found them in when he arrived on the run seconds later. He took in the tableau, raised an eyebrow, then stepped into the kitchen and lounged against the doorjamb. “Well, well. Looks like you got your hands full, darlin’. You don’t waste any time.”
“Cody?” Willy’s head snapped around. She didn’t let up on her hold. “You followed me?”
“Chaos yes, I followed you. I been looking a long time for a mate like you. You think I’m gonna let you run off now?”
“I can’t. I won’t. We can’t be mates. I’m not a…what you said.”
“Could’ve fooled me. Especially after you sprouted the tail.” He nodded to indicate the wolf. “You need a hand with him?”
“No, I’m good. Listen, I…I’m sorry I ran off. I wasn’t me last night. I’ve had some time to think and—”
“Ape thinking, right? The kind that’s made you miserable since you been a pup? That only works if you’re an ape. Trouble is, you’re wolf. Ask him.” The wolf earnestly rubbed the side of his head against the table. “See that, he agrees with me. Try thinking with your wolf half. Bet it tells you—”
Her lip lifted. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Me go all beasty so you can—”
“Hey now, you’re the one jumped me, remember? I’m the one made sure you wanted—”
“Hey,” the wolf spoke up. “You two want to squabble, do it on your own time, huh? I’m getting a crick in my neck here.”
Willy slammed his head back down on the table. “You stay out of this.” She returned her gaze to Cody. “I can’t. I can’t do the wolf thing, okay? I just can’t.”
He folded his arms. “Give me one good reason why not.”
“Because…well, because…”
Yeah. Why not? Because feeling complete scared the hell out of her? Because being a wolf—being with him—made her happy, and she didn’t feel she deserved it?
“Hey. You. Prairie dog.” The wolf squirmed in Willy’s iron grip. “This your she?”
“We’re working on it.”
“Well, work faster, willya? I can’t feel my spine any more.”
His voice had taken on a whine. Cody watched all thoughts of resistance seep out of him. A good canine knows when to submit, and to whom.
“Let him up,” Cody said. “He won’t give us trouble. Will you, son?”
“Damn straight. C’mon, lady. You’re breaking my arm.”
His scent had changed somehow, gone mellow. Even half-human Willy recognized capitulation. She glanced over at Cody, one eyebrow raised in silent question.
“It’s okay,” Cody said. “It’s a wolf thing. The lower ranks bow to the alpha. And you, darlin’, are alpha and then some.”
Willy glared at the wolf. He whined appeasingly. “You try anything, I’ll crack you like a cylinder head.” Cautiously, she let him go.
The wolf straightened, gingerly rubbing his arm. “You run with her?” he said to Cody. “Dog, you have my admiration. And my sympathies.”
“Skip the compliments,” Willy said, “and tell me where Beth is.”
“She’s okay. Not far. We don’t want her. Just you.”
“Why? For what?” But she already knew. She had called to the pack, her kin, and they had come for her. Just like in her dreams. Her face heated. “Forget it,” she told the wolf. “I’ll be damned if I’ll be your pack’s squeaky toy.”
The wolf sighed. “That’s what they all say. The shes. We lost our alpha female,” he explained. “Couple years back. The Chief wouldn’t take another. The pups are scattered to other packs or else started their own. The family’s coming apart.” He set his stare on Willy. Its intensity prompted a low growl from her. “We need shes, for the Chief and for the rest of us. Even apes are starting to smell good.”
“I’m sorry you guys can’t get dates, but that’s not my problem. You want to talk family? Beth’s mine. I want her back in one piece. Let’s focus on that for right now.”
“I’ll take you to her.”
“Forget that,” Cody said. “Willy, it’s a trap. The pack will be there. How many?” he shot at the wolf.
The wolf shrugged. “Fifteen core members, maybe five or six who drift in and out. More than you can handle, prairie dog.”
True, if Cody’s breed were dumb enough to fall for direct conflict. But there were other ways to skin a wolf. “How many of that fifteen are younger than you are?”
The wolf looked uncomfortable. “None,” he admitted. He flicked a glance at Willy. “Why do you think we’re looking for shes?”
“And your Chief…I’m betting he’s pretty old school, huh? Rigid thinker? Hard line traditionalist?”
“Tradition works, prairie dog. Maybe you runts should give it a try.”
“Excuse me,” Willy broke in, “but could we get back to rescuing my sister?”
“We are,” Cody said, “and I think I know how. Sounds to me, son, like your pack needs more than ladies. You need a whole leadership overhaul. Didn’t any of you he-dogs ever challenge your alpha?”
“Are you kidding me? He’s the Chief.”
Cody nodded. An old alpha male, lost without his mate, and no one with the cojones to take him on. Stagnation with a capital S and an underscore. The type that wouldn’t change for anything. “Fifteen he-wolves living under one mindset? Yep, we can pull this off.”
“Pull what off?” Willy demanded.
“Getting your sister back with our hides intact. We just need—”
“We just need to know where they’re holding her. You’re taking us, wolfie. And when we get there—”
“Whoa! Ease up, darlin’. We can do that. We can charge straight into a pack of wolves, and get our heads bit off. But there’s a better way. The coyote way.”
* * * *
Back in the day, as the old-timers put it, Coopersburg had been a thriving manufacturing community, mostly lumber and textiles. Then foreign imports flooded the market, and jobs went overseas. A long stretch of town and beyond remained littered with former mills and factories, strung along the abandoned railroad line. Most had been turned into offices, antique shops and low-income housing, but a few still stood empty. One of these, the wolf assured them, held Beth, along with about ten members of the pack, including, he boasted, their Chief. “You won’t howl so loud when you face him,” the wolf said with a sneer. “He’s run this territory for over thirty years.”
“Right into the ground,” Cody muttered. He had the thankless task of guarding their prisoner, whose name turned out to be Lyle. The two of them were crammed into the Mustang’s back seat while Willy drove. “No wonder no she-wolf will have you.”
“That doesn’t make the hills ripe for coyote infestation. Do yourself a favor and go back where you came from.”
“See, that’s the problem with you boys. Too inflexible. My folk adapt, yours can’t. It’s going to cost you in the long run. It’s costing you right now. New blood’ll open this place up. You could learn a lot from us.”
“I already know how to lick my nuts, prairie dog.”
“Hey,” Willy snapped over her shoulder. “Talk about something else. Stop reminding me my sister’s being held hostage by werewolves.”
“Y’know,” Lyle said, “there’s a movement that wants to change the terminology to ‘shifter-Americans.’ You ever hear such crap?”
“Every time you open your mouth,” Cody said. “Make yourself useful and tell us where we’re headed.”
“Turn left here.”
Willy swung the car down Tucson Avenue. The road left Coopersburg behind. Almost at once it shrank to a two-lane packed with badly-patched potholes. What had once been the rail line paralleled them to their
right. “This better be legit,” Willy said.
“It’s cool. You heard of Bolan’s Mill?” Willy grunted. Cody looked puzzled. “Old lumberyard,” Lyle said. “Mostly bums and primate kids hang out there. Turnoff’s coming up in about a half mile. Watch for a gravel road on the right.”
“I suppose Beth’s tied to the buzz saw?” Cody said.
The wolf stared at him. “Jeez, dog. Give us some credit.”
The turnoff appeared, a break in the trees. The road became a lane, up which Willy trundled the Mustang. She hit a rut, and snarled a curse. “If Beth isn’t—”
“Yeah yeah yeah. Beth Beth Beth. Sing a new one already, willya? I told you, she’s just fine.”
“You watch your tone, son,” Cody warned. Movement in the forest caught at the tail of his eye. He peered out the window and spotted dark shapes, and eyes that gleamed like tarnished coins in the early morning shadows. Not so stupid after all. They’d remembered to post guards. A pair of them shot ahead of the car, to announce the arrival of guests.
Lyle leaned back, once again self-assured. On his home turf, with his brothers at his back. Cody easily copied his nonchalance, though inside his heart hammered like a piston on one of Willy’s cars. This plan had to work, otherwise he could never show his face back home. Not that he’d have to worry about that in any case.
Willy rolled the car to a stop. Six wolves stood in a line before the mill. Willy got out. Her skin felt chilly. This resembled her dream too much for comfort.
Except the gray on these wolves wasn’t just coloration. Age had bleached their muzzles silver. They held a ragged line, their growls uncertain. Four of the six had paunches. This felt like less of a showdown with a werewolf pack, she thought, than a standoff with the Rotary Club. Did they get together for beer and chicken wings during Sunday’s game?
Any fear or awe she might have held for them vanished. They were still werewolves, and therefore dangerous, but dammit, so was she.
She heard the car doors open behind her, and Cody and the wolf get out. “You are so up the creek,” Lyle chortled.
“We’ll see about that,” Willy said, with such deadly cool the wolf stopped chortling and the tails of the others drooped. She strode right up to the door they guarded, right through their line. She had her hand on the latch before one of them thought to do something. He shifted into a portly bearded man with coffee-brown hair. “Now just a minute,” he started.
She lifted her lip. Not even a growl. The entire line backed down. “Come on,” she said to Cody. “Let’s get Beth.”
“You bet.” Chaos love her, what a she. He couldn’t wait to marry her.
Five steps beyond the door, she stopped and looked around. There wasn’t much to see. A huge, empty room littered with sawdust and a few warped two-by-fours. All equipment had been removed, though tables and a few chairs remained. The high windows let in the cheerful sunlight that banished all dangerous shadows. Nowhere for the enemy to skulk.
But then, the wolf who faced her didn’t look as if he had “skulk” in his lexicon.
Flashback to the dream: A huge beast, larger than any normal wolf, a thick, black-furred pelt over a muscular build and attitude to spare. She almost missed the streaks of white on his muzzle and midnight fur. His scent matched hers in intensity and authority. No bluffing her way past this one. Not the alpha male.
Kin to her? Possibly her father? Her stomach turned over at the thought.
Beyond him, pinned to a chair by a pair of big naked men and cursing vehemently though the rag in her mouth, was Beth. She spotted Willy. Her cursing stopped and her eyes got huge. Then her curses resumed, louder, more inventive, and thankfully still muffled. The wolves made sour faces and said nothing.
Willy started toward her. The black wolf got in her way. Honey-brown eyes bored into hers. He bared his teeth. She bared hers right back. “You want to talk to me, you turn human. I’ll be damned if I’ll stand here barking at a wolf while you’ve got my sister captive.”
The black wolf growled. The amusement in it grated on her pride. Then he shifted.
He must have been magnificent, once. Back when he’d been her and Cody’s age. Thirty years of ruling this pack and these hills had put gray in his hair and slowed his movements. Even his shift was gradual, not the quick blur she’d come to expect. He still had his muscles, though less defined than they would have been in his prime. Time had padded those biceps and hips, in spite of his obvious efforts. But his eyes still burned— with authority, with arrogance, with an alpha male’s righteous rightitude. Why not? He probably hadn’t faced a real challenge to his leadership in decades.
Get ready, Fido. Today’s the day.
“Nice,” he said. “Very nice. You’re wolf, all right, and definitely alpha. I was going to give you to the pack, but perhaps I’ll keep you for myself.”
“The only thing you’ll keep is your hands off me. I’m only here for my sister. If you so much as bare a fang at me, I’ll tie your tail in a knot. Are we clear?”
And she marched right past him.
Dead silence. Then a whine from some wolf in the back, followed by moans and gasps. Clearly one did not speak this way to the Chief. Hey, Willy thought, tough titty. One did not kidnap her sister, either. She glared at the pair standing next to Beth until they averted their eyes and receded.
Beth immediately yanked the rag out of her mouth. “Finally. Thanks for taking your time. These guys? They’re werewolves.”
“No kidding. What happened to Andy? Is he—?”
“Oh, he’s fine. After you went all Chewbacca on him he ran off and left me. I only opened the door because I thought it was him coming back. Only it was these jerks. They said they wanted you for their pack. Geez Louise, Willy, what kind of trouble did you get us into this time?”
“You want this rag in your mouth again? No? Then shut up, stand up and start walking. We”—she shot at the room and the surrounding weres—“are leaving.”
Beth, clearly shaken despite her bravado, got up. Willy turned toward the door. And found the alpha in her path. “You’re not going anywhere, missy. You’re wolf. You belong to the pack.”
“Bite me.”
“My pleasure.”
He started to change, sprouting fur and a muzzle right before her eyes. Beth shrieked. Willy, on the other hand, watched the slo-mo transformation with folded arms and narrowed eyes. “This is my favorite blouse,” she said, “and if you think I’m going to rip it just so you can sniff my butt, you’ve got another think coming. Now get out of my way, dog breath. I won’t tell you again.”
She took Beth’s hand, shouldered past the half-transformed werewolf, and stalked toward the door and freedom. The pack, regardless of shape, sidled out of her way.
For maybe three seconds the alpha just stood there, covered in fur but still on two legs, too stunned to make a move. His shock snapped quickly. He lunged at Willy, grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her toward him. He snarled in her face. She snarled right back. Her human features blurred at the edges. Beth cowered and whimpered.
“Oh hell yeah, that’s a keeper. Say cheese.”
The alpha looked up with a grunt, straight into Cody’s cell phone camera. Cody clicked happily away. “Whoa doggie, a real live werewolf. The National Enquirer’s gonna eat this up.”
The alpha shifted back to human form. He blinked at Cody. So did most of the pack. Caught up in the clash of alpha wills, they’d all pretty much forgotten him. “Who the hell are you?” the alpha demanded.
“And here’s another winner. Naked middle-aged pervert menaces two young ladies. Goes good with that shot of the two galoots holding Beth on the chair. The cops’re gonna love these.”
The wolf blanched and jerked his hand off Willy like she’d suddenly gone white-hot. “Get that camera!” he barked.
“Don’t move,” Cody said, his voice like a lash. Used to obedience, the pack hesitated. “Since I doubt if you old boys are up on the latest technology, let me explain. A
long with its recording capabilities, this little beauty has Internet access. I push this little button here, and our last ten minutes together downloads to YouTube for all the world to see. That’s naked guys and wild animals terrorizing two helpless women. Just the sort of thing the FBI takes a dim view of. Your pack, your privacy, your anonymity, your territory… You can kiss all that good-bye.”
The alpha looked blank, but Willy saw concern sprout like hair on the faces of the younger pack members. She wasn’t even sure they had access out here. But the pack didn’t know that. As Cody had surmised, the traditional, technophobic wolves would be slow to embrace the Computer Age. “Bet they still have eight-tracks,” he’d said back at the house.
The wolves, in whatever shape, eyed the cell phone nervously. “We’re screwed,” Lyle moaned. “Chief, if that recording hits the Net, it’s over. The hills will be crawling with primates—hunters, cops, Feds.” He shuddered. “Zoologists.”
“Damn straight,” Cody said. “You won’t be able to take two steps without tripping over an ape. Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way. Not if we get what we want. Better tell ‘em what’s what, darlin’. My download finger’s getting awful itchy.”
The alpha inched forward a half-step, sniffed, and snarled. “Coyote,” he spat. “I should have known. Your kind always spoils everything.” He shot a glance at Willy. “You picked that over us?”
“He knows how to treat a woman. Threatening us, kidnapping us, that’s not how you get our attention. No wonder your she-wolves left.”
“It’s our way,” the alpha said, bristling. “It’s worked for us for centuries.”
“This is a new century,” Willy said, “so you’d better find a new way, quick. Otherwise your pack is history.”
The alpha glowered, far too late. Even the slowest of the pack had felt the shift in authority, from the defensive old male to the bold young she. He knew it, but still wouldn’t drop tail or show throat. Tough old he-dog, Cody thought with a touch of admiration. Dead wrong, but still full of pride.