by Kele Moon
“Yes,” Jazz said in exasperation, though he was still on the phone with Miles. “We’ve told you that at least five times.”
Desmon didn’t look apologetic. “You’re irritated now, but if they missed one—”
“They didn’t.” Jazz groaned. “I hate the city. It makes everything complicated. How do those city packs handle jumping through all these hoops?”
“Who knows,” Desmon said, as if it was foreign to him too, as they watched the door.
Jason didn’t know how they stayed so casual, but he also understood the alphas had good reason for their relaxed confidence. There were seven wolves from Nightwind here to protect Brandi. Now they knew only five wolves from the other pack had shown up to attack her. The odds were in their favor this time, when it had been the two alphas against the world since they were teenagers.
“The cop’s going to the front,” Jazz said into the phone. “Move around to the back, we’re right behind you.”
Jason didn’t hesitate. He opened the door and jumped out. He’d waited long enough and he’d be damned if he was trusting his mate’s safety to other wolves. He yanked his shirt over his head and tossed it in the SUV.
“Fuck!” Jazz cursed.
Desmon opened the driver’s-side door and jumped out.
“Don’t shift,” Desmon warned, his voice low and gravelly with alpha authority. “You better not fucking shift in the city, Jason!”
Jason wasn’t real sure how he was going to manage that when he was feeling so animalistic. He could only hope his wolf would listen to his alpha, even if everything in him was opposed to it. When it came down to a war between protecting his mate and obeying Desmon, Jason wasn’t so sure things would turn out how his alpha wanted.
Jason was halfway across the lot when something made him stop. He sniffed, still catching the scent of the police officer’s cologne. Something smelled off, but he couldn’t quite place it.
On instinct, he looked to Desmon, who stopped too and looked behind him with a frown on his face.
Jazz voiced it for both of them. “The fucking cop.”
It slammed into Jason then—the scent of wolf masked in cologne. He changed gears, knowing that Miles and the other enforcers were already taking care of the enemy pack members who’d walked to the back.
Jason ran to the front entrance at full speed, hoping to God this wolf didn’t have enough time to get to Brandi.
He burst into the doors and took another deep breath. The cologne made the cop easy to track, and Jason knew he’d taken the elevator. It had barely dinged closed when he got in there, and Jason knew the other wolf likely smelled him too.
Desmon stormed in. “Take the stairs.”
“I don’t know what floor she’s on,” Jason confessed as he opened the emergency staircase, thinking it was incredibly stupid that he hadn’t asked Brandi before she took off with Roni.
“I got you.” Desmon came up behind him, making it obvious he knew because of his earlier reconnaissance on her building. “She’s on the fourth floor.”
They took the stairs two at a time, running so fast that if there were still cameras, they would easily record that neither of them were fully human. Desmon grabbed the handle when they hit the fourth floor. Even before he’d fully opened it, a low warning growl greeted them.
Desmon growled back, sounding very much like an alpha wolf who was used to warning enemies of his power before attacking.
Jason just punched the older wolf with a blind fury, acting like an enforcer instead of an alpha wolf. He could smell Brandi now, her sweet scent calling to the wolf in him, and knowing an enemy had gotten this close to hurting her shattered Jason’s control. If the other wolf hadn’t heard them coming up the stairs, he would’ve gotten to her.
Fuck Desmon’s orders.
Jason was going to kill this wolf, and he likely said it as he jumped at him, forcing the bastard to the carpeted floor before he could recover from Jason’s first punch. Then Jason slammed his fist into his face again, this time twice as hard, feeling a keen satisfaction when he felt a nose break under his knuckles.
Jason didn’t shift like he wanted to. It turned out Desmon’s authority was respected enough by Jason’s wolf that he stayed in skin—barely. He did, however, beat the fuck out of this other wolf. For the most part, Desmon just stood there and let him, as if he understood Jason needed the outlet.
“Jason, he’s out!” Desmon finally snapped at him. “You can’t kill this wolf in the hallway of your mate’s apartment building. You’re getting blood all over the carpet. STOP!”
When Jason punched the other wolf again, Desmon physically pulled Jason off him. Desmon just threw Jason against the wall as if he was some teenage wolf having a temper tantrum, and it was way too easy for the alpha. It sort of freaked Jason out, because he hadn’t been in a fight with Desmon since they were pups and even then they were playful. Jason had almost forgotten how massively powerful Desmon was in a fight, but he shouldn’t have. Desmon had been one of the wolves who helped Jason grow stronger when they were young, because in a way he understood Jason. Though Desmon’s mother had been changed long before she got pregnant with him, considering she’d been in a love match with his father, she was born human—just like Jason’s father.
Desmon was full wolf, but he had a soft spot a mile wild for humans.
He’d even loved one once, but that ended almost as badly as Jazz’s story had. It was part of the reason why Jason had avoided humans. Now the alpha wolf had no interest in a mate, especially not a human one, but he still championed humans in a way most wolves didn’t. It hadn’t always been that way in their pack. Growing up, the old alpha of their pack had been vicious, and he’d held a deep-seated hatred for humans. It made Jason’s childhood particularly brutal, but he knew it would’ve been a lot worse without Desmon and Jazz there to help make him strong.
Desmon narrowed light eyes at him and growled, “I said stop.”
Jason took a deep breath, trying and failing to get his raging emotions under control. In the end, even if he was still in skin, Jason was more wolf than anything when he apologized. “Sorry, Alpha.”
“It’s okay.” Desmon sighed and let go of Jason. Then he squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. “I understand more than I want to.”
“Do you?” Jason asked curiously, his wolf still right on the surface and desperate for some understanding. “Do you still miss her? Like Jazz misses his human? You understand how much it scares me knowing she’s so vulnerable?”
Desmon’s features grew tense all of a sudden, and Jason realized he had stepped in it. Jazz’s human was killed, but Desmon’s had run away from him. That was a decidedly different set of circumstances.
Jason might have apologized, but the man on the ground suddenly sprang to his feet and took off down the hallway. He was shockingly fast, especially considering Jason had nearly killed him—or so he’d thought.
“What the hell?” Desmon sounded stunned too.
The guy was cornered at the end of the hallway with no stairs, and no time to wait for the elevator. Jason wasn’t real sure what this other wolf thought he was going to do when he was facing both of them. Desmon may be letting Jason fight his own battles, but that didn’t mean he’d let this guy get away—no matter how fast he thought he was.
Then the other wolf kicked in an apartment door and disappeared inside.
Jason and Desmon barreled after him. Thank God there were no humans home in the apartment. The other wolf was at a window, and in one swift kick, he used his Were strength to break the frame, knocking the window out and sending shattered glass to the pavement below. Jason and Desmon both leapt for him then when they realized what he was going to do, but they were too late.
He jumped.
The two of them went to the open window, the wind hitting their faces as they watched the injured wolf shake off the jump and run for a small woodsy park behind the building.
“This motherfucker’s crazy,” Desmon
whispered in awe. “Jazz’ll have to—”
Jason didn’t hear the rest of what he said, because he jumped after him. If that wolf could survive a four-story jump, Jason knew he could it too.
He landed on his feet, but it wasn’t easy. He had no idea how cat shifters did this shit on a regular basis. It felt like he’d shattered every bone in his body, but somehow he still remained standing.
His legs hurt, but he took off towards the park.
He could see the man in front of him, running and pulling off his shirt, making it obvious he was intent on shifting, but Jason already had a head start in that regard. Jason’s shirt was still in Desmon’s SUV. The wolf under his skin was anxious to break free, and Jason pulled at the button to his jeans, knowing if they were undone they’d be easier to shake off once he was in fur.
Unfortunately, he never got a chance to tear into this bastard with teeth.
Desmon came out of nowhere and tackled the other wolf just as Jason was gaining on him.
Jason watched as both of them fell to the grass, growling viciously. Neither fully shifted, but they were both halfway there, with hair growing on their faces and arms. Desmon’s teeth were long and vicious as he snarled, “I should let him kill you for that! It was four stories! Do I look like a goddamn panther?”
The other wolf just laughed. His face was bloody and dirty, but his green eyes were glazed and manic, as if Desmon’s misery was worth it all. “I was going to eat her myself, you know. I wasn’t even going to share her with the others,” he confessed, his voice low with the wolf in him. He turned his head and looked at Jason. “You ever taste human? I guess you have. I heard him say you mated her.”
Jason growled and stepped forward threateningly.
“Does she taste good? Your juicy little mate?”
Jason flashed his teeth at the prone wolf still struggling under Desmon’s massive strength. Jason was partially shifted too, and if a human found them like that, they’d surely run screaming from this little patch of manufactured green space in the city.
“Jazz, shut this fucker up!” Desmon called out before Jason could respond.
Jason turned to see Jazz looking no worse for the wear as he ran up behind them.
“We’ll let you kill him,” Jazz promised, finally pacifying the wolf in Jason. Then Jazz pulled a strip of duct tape off the roll in his hand as though it was his official job. He bit the edge of the tape with his teeth that he let grow long, and tore it free from the roll. “I’ll even let you drag it out a little—or a lot.”
Desmon had one hand in the other wolf’s hair, using his hold to wrench his head back painfully. His other hand was wrapped around the guy’s throat so tightly he was starting to turn blue, but he certainly wasn’t talking anymore.
Desmon didn’t let him breathe again until Jazz taped his mouth. Then together the two alphas struggled to bind the wolf’s hands behind his back.
“He’s feisty for an older wolf,” Jazz observed as he wrapped the tape over and over again around the wolf’s wrists. “He’s got to be at least three hundred.”
“He’s the alpha,” Jason said as Desmon finally sat the other wolf up. Their enemy was silent now, huffing and puffing under the tape like he was still trying to catch his breath. Jazz had wrapped more tape around his head, making sure he couldn’t spew any more of his brutal bullshit, no matter how hard he tried. Still, he fought against the bindings on his wrists as Jason studied him coldly, remembering Brandi’s description. “This is him. She said their alpha had green eyes and scars like that.”
“Probably is,” Jazz agreed. “Is it too soon to talk about how sick that jump was?”
“Way too soon,” Desmon huffed as he got to his feet and dragged the other wolf with him.
“I saw the whole thing,” Jazz went on as if he hadn’t heard Desmon. “When this motherfucker took it, I thought maybe my nose is wrong. Maybe he’s half tiger or something, but then Jason did it—which was very badass, by the way.”
“Thanks,” Jason grunted. “It didn’t feel badass. My legs still hurt.”
“And I’m thinking, there’s no fucking way Des will do it, ’cause we know you and heights, but then—”
“What the fuck were you doing while we were jumping out of windows?” Desmon cut him off, his voice still low and furious.
“Damage control. The guys had those other wolves easily. All they did was let Miles work off some of his anger issues. Maybe he’ll be in a decent mood for fifteen minutes.”
Desmon took a deep breath, as if it made sense. It was essentially what he’d been doing upstairs until this wolf went nuts. Before then, he’d let Jason work off some of his anger.
“They’re loading the other ones in their vans,” Jazz explained when they walked back into the parking lot. “I figure Miles and Luke can drive the vans back to our territory. Jason can take Brandi home in your SUV and we’ll take the bikes back. We’ll just leave the cop car here, ’cause I crawled in and sniffed around. That thing is not his. He stole it. At least we hope he only stole it. I didn’t smell blood, so hopefully that’s all it was and he didn’t attack the cop it belonged to. Either way, I figure you could use the ride.”
“I’m okay.” Desmon took a deep breath. “If this is the alpha, then our problem’s solved. Maybe I’ll get to sleep for once. Let’s get Brandi down here to identify him and get the hell out of here before the humans start missing that cop car. Don’t say anything to her about suspecting this one, Jason. Don’t give her details. Sometimes trauma can make a person’s memory foggy. Don’t plant ideas in her head. So just let her look and decide.”
“I don’t even want her to see him,” Jason growled.
“It’ll be quick.” Desmon smiled as if he wasn’t dragging a very reluctant, beaten, and duct-taped wolf along with him. “Then it’ll be over and you two can have your mating honeymoon.”
Jason looked to Jazz. “And you’ll let me kill him, right? You promised.”
“Hell yes,” Jazz assured him. “I’m an alpha of my word and even if I wasn’t, I heard what this bastard said to you. Sick fuck.”
Jason nodded in agreement. “Then okay, I don’t want her to hear the details anyway. I don’t want her to know how close he got to her. Let’s just get it over with.”
Chapter Fifteen
Brandi packed up her bathroom in a few overnight cases to fight the anxiousness. She walked into her bedroom next and found the luggage set she had stored under her canopy bed. She started loading up her favorite clothes, her pictures, and everything that had sentimental value to her. She studied the room again, knowing none of her furniture would look good in Jason’s house. She’d have to donate it to charity. Someone would get lucky; maybe one of the women in the pack wanted it. It didn’t look like Roni’s style, or she’d offer it to her.
Brandi’s cell phone on the desk rang and she nearly tripped in her urgency to grab the phone. She answered it quickly. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Jason was out of breath. “Come out back, darlin’. We have six of these bastards. I want you to take a look at them.”
Brandi noticed it was dark outside when she walked back into the living room. Roni had set her shotgun down and instead shoved the handgun in the front of her jeans. She tugged her shirt over it and led the way. Brandi followed her down the stairs and through the complex. The back was all carports and open parking. She spotted two white vans. Jason was standing by one, and he waved them over.
Jason’s shirt was torn. He had a scratch on his forehead, but he smiled at her and she couldn’t help but grin back. Jason waited until she got close before he gripped the side sliding door to jerk it open.
Inside were three men. They were tied up tight, bleeding and bruised. Jazz was sitting in the passenger seat with a gun, looking very mean and alpha-like, but he winked at Brandi.
Brandi studied the three men, feeling her heart sink as she looked back to Jason.
“He’s not here.”
Jason no
dded. “Let’s try the other group then.”
Brandi followed Jason to the second van. A man she didn’t know was guarding that door. He grabbed the handle and Jason put his arm around her waist as the other pack member pulled the door open. She chewed on her lip and looked at the three Werewolves, bound and beaten bloody. The light wasn’t the greatest in the van, but her eyes locked on one man.
“That’s him.”
“I knew it.” Jason growled at the alpha wolf. “You’re dead. No one’s saving you this time.”
The man snarled under the duct-tape wound around his face. Cold, watery green eyes glared at Brandi, but she stared back at him rather than flinch away.
“I guess I’m the one who gets the last laugh now, huh, asshole? Only you can’t run for your life, can you?” she snapped at the vicious alpha wolf, knowing it was Jason giving her the strength to do it. She wrapped her arms around Jason’s waist, and turned away from the van, wanting to forget those cold, terrifying green eyes. “So it’s over?”
Jason pulled her tighter into his arms. “The guys are going to drive these assholes to our territory. We’ll figure out who the hell they are, and then yeah, it’s going to be over.” Jason turned and snarled at the older man, showing deadly canine teeth that had grown long. “I’ll remove his damn head myself.”
The guy holding the van door slid it shut. Then he climbed into the driver’s seat and Brandi stood there shaking as the van backed away. Jazz jumped out of the other van while two more pack members climbed in, and the second van drove away too.
Desmon walked up; his T-shirt was torn too and his jeans were as filthy. It was clear he wasn’t the sort of boss to sit back and let others do the dirty work.
The tall, handsome alpha wolf held out his hands as though catching that many rogue Werewolves was all in a day’s work. “Mission accomplished.”
“Thank you,” Brandi said softly to Desmon.
“No, thank you.” Desmon chuckled. “You were the live bait.”
Jason kissed her forehead. “I didn’t forget about getting you alone. Let’s grab some of your shit and get home. I have plans.”