by Kate Hill
The door opened and Ransom Hastings, in his human form and dressed in worn jeans and a black sweater, stepped inside.
He smiled slightly and to her surprise pleasantly. “How are you feeling?”
Immediately she rose to her feet, difficult since her hands were cuffed in front of her and her legs bound in irons. In spite of her vulnerable position, she stood her ground as he approached. A warning growl rumbled in her throat.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you, which is a better deal than you were going to give me and my partner.”
“You and your partner are stinking criminals.”
A teasing glimmer in his eyes, he raised his arm and sniffed under it. “Smells fine to me, but of course I’ve been living out here for a while. Maybe I’m used to a wild scent, unlike a city wolf such as yourself.”
“I’m no city wolf.” She curled her lip. Though she should have been terrified, she was far more angry than fearful. Angry at herself for getting caught like an amateur. Instead of polishing the shining reputation of Silver Claw Investigations, she was tarnishing it. “Where the hell am I? Where are my associates and what do you want from me?”
“We left your associates behind at the warehouse. I’m sure once the drugs wore off they were perfectly fine. And I don’t want anything from you at the moment. As to where you are, you’re in the lair of the Renegade Wolves.”
She stared at him, wondering if her expression reflected her disbelief. “Is everything a big joke to you?”
“No.” His smile faded. “This actually isn’t a funny situation in the least.”
“You’ve got that right, pal. Do you know who I am and how many people are going to be out looking for me and that means looking for you? The best thing you can do for yourself is turn me loose and even better yet surrender.”
“Now who’s joking?” He reached for the chain linking her handcuffs.
She quickly clasped her hands and struck upward in an attempt to belt him. She realized it was a pathetic action, but anything was better than standing passively by while he cracked his stupid jokes and dragged her around the cave.
He caught her hands and tugged her toward the door. “Come on. My partner wants to talk to you.”
“I’ll bet,” she muttered.
On the way through the cave’s craggy passages, she caught the scent of many other wolves, even heard their muffled conversation and occasionally laughter from behind closed doors. There were male and female voices and, unfortunately, the voices of pups.
This was no place for anyone to raise their young. She didn’t think wolves, even those of lower class families, still lived like this.
“What is this place?” she asked.
“We’ll talk more once we’re with my partner.”
“So he’s the brains of the outfit, huh?” she said, hoping to stir his emotions, perhaps take him off guard, even incite anger against his “partner”.
Another easy smile curved his sensual mouth. Nothing seemed to bother this guy. “That depends on what part of the outfit we’re talking about.”
They stopped outside a wooden door where Ransom knocked twice in quick succession.
“Yes. Come in,” called a deep, sexy voice that sent a thrill of desire through Jolie.
They stepped inside and she glanced around the room that was brightened by a battery-operated lantern. Like the rest of the cave dwelling, the room had packed dirt floors. A bed of worn blankets and pillows covered one corner and a wooden trunk stood at another, a canteen atop it.
The rusticity of the room seemed a perfect reflection of its handsome yet savage inhabitant. Wearing only jeans and boots, he was performing pushups in the middle of the floor. The position tightened the perfectly developed muscles of his shoulders, back, and arms. Sweat glistened on his tanned flesh and matted his short chestnut hair against his scalp.
“Here she is, Temple,” said Ransom.
“Yes. I can smell her,” he replied without the slightest change in the steady rhythm of his pushups.
Jolie resisted the urge to grit her teeth. Temple rose to his feet and fixed his penetrating blue gaze on her. He exuded as much power in his man form as when he’d worn the shape of the beast.
“So, bounty hunter, you thought you had us,” he said and stepped so close that she felt heat radiating from his body. Like that of his companion, his scent was wild and musky, clean yet sinfully erotic.
“It’s only a matter of time before you’re caught,” Jolie stated. “My associates will track and find you and they’re not nearly as merciful as I am. Your best chance is to free me and turn yourselves over to the Vampire Nation.”
Pure rage lit Temple’s eyes and he spat at her feet. “That’s for the Vampire Nation.”
“All right. All right,” she snapped. “I get that you’ve got something against Vampires, but is all this criminal activity really the best way to solve your problem with them?”
“There is no way to solve problems with them,” Temple stated. He crossed the room, picked up the canteen and took a sip from it. Dragging his forearm across his lips, he glanced at her and placed the canteen down. “Not that a wolf, and I use the word loosely, such as yourself would know anything about that. Like most of our kind, you’ve been tamed by the Vampire Nation. You’re their slave.”
“I’m no one’s slave,” Jolie said, holding his gaze. “And I also know your anger toward the Vampire Nation has to do with the Wingedpaw Pack.”
Temple and Ransom exchanged glances.
“You’re a smart woman,” Temple said in a deadly soft voice.
“I don’t blame you for being angry,” she said, glancing from one to the other.
“Angry?” Temple chuckled though it wasn’t a happy sound. “That doesn’t begin to describe our feelings toward the Vampire Nation.”
“The fact that so many capable, hard-working wolves were replaced by Vampires is terrible. That’s what happened to you, isn’t it, Ransom?”
The black-haired wolf lifted an eyebrow.
Jolie continued, “Yes, I recognized you during the chase. We tracked you through the scent masking procedure. You were one of the scientists who discovered it.”
“If you know that much then you must also know I wasn’t among those who were fired,” Ransom said. “Quite the contrary. The Vampire Nation very much wanted me to work for their benefit, but I refused. Not when so many of my friends and coworkers were kicked aside for no other reason than the desire of Vampires to horn in on our studies.”
“Vampires are greedy, power-hungry, and ruthless,” Temple said. “All they care about is financial gain.”
“That’s why you’ve been stealing from them,” Jolie murmured.
“Yes. Besides, the rich Vampires we’re stealing from don’t need the money as much as lower class wolf families.”
“And it’s not just Vampires anymore,” Ransom added. “Upper class wolves as well as most pack leaders are willing to serve the Vampire Nation for personal gain.”
Temple growled. “They mask their subservience with a treaty. Call it an alliance when they’re really being paid by the Vampire Nation to betray their own kind. The current pack leader of the Wingedpaws is the worst of the lot. Any wolf who does a Vampire’s bidding sickens me.” His teeth gritted, Temple strode toward her, grasped her chin roughly in his hand and bent so they were almost nose to nose. “You sicken me.”
Anger stirred inside Jolie, but she kept it in check. The expression in Temple’s eyes bordered on insane. Even more frightening was that in spite of his hateful words, his scent told her he was as attracted to her as she was to him.
“Temple,” Ransom said, placing a hand on his partner’s shoulder. “We agreed to release her unharmed.”
“Yes,” Temple murmured, loosening his hold on her chin and lightly caressing her cheek with his fingertips. His fierce gaze held her captive. “We’ll release you, Vampire bitch.”
“I am as much a wolf as you,” she stated.
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With a snort of contempt, he turned and walked away. His back to her, he waved his hand in dismissal. “Get her out of here, Ransom. She reeks of Vampires. It offends me.”
Jolie wished her hands and legs were free so she could really offend him with a swift kick in his alpha ass.
“Come on,” Ransom said quietly, placing a gentle hand on her lower back and guiding her out of the room.
Once they were on their way down the dim, empty corridor, Jolie asked, “Do you always do what he tells you?”
“You don’t understand Temple.”
“Oh I think I understand him very well. He’s an arrogant, stubborn, vicious alpha pig.”
An amused smile touched Ransom’s lips. “Yes, you understand him. But only part of him. There’s a lot more.”
“I don’t need to see anymore. I’ve already had more than enough of your friend Temple. You on the other hand seem like a reasonable man.”
“Most of the time.”
“Don’t you see this path you’ve chosen can only lead to imprisonment or worse? Breaking into Lady Altah’s Palace can be punishable by death if she chooses.”
“Ah, but she needs to catch us first.” Ransom winked.
“You will be caught. Criminals always are, one way or the other. Believe me, I know. The past catches up with all of us.”
“How would you know about that, law enforcing hunter that you are?”
“I used to be a pirate a long time ago. So did the founders of the agency I work for. We learned thievery isn’t the way to go.”
“How did you get the money to found your agency? Pirate’s gold I’m guessing.”
“Maybe so. But we’re trying to pay for all that blood by doing the right thing.”
Ransom turned to her with those luminous eyes. Funny but he didn’t have the eyes of a criminal. Something told her all this illegal activity was Temple’s idea and Ransom was tagging along out of loyalty. Or maybe those big, innocent eyes were simply a fantastic cover.
“You’re still dealing in blood, Jolie.”
“How did you know my --”
He reached into the pocket of his jeans and withdrew a flat card that he held up between two long, slender fingers. Her identification and license as bounty hunter of the Vampire Nation. Wearing his usual easy smile, he slipped the ID into the back pocket of her jeans. His large hand slid briefly over her ass and she stiffened, mostly because in spite of herself she was as attracted to him as she was to Temple. They were total opposites yet each highly appealing -- Ransom with his pleasant almost gentle manner and Temple with his rugged, I-don’t-take-shit-from-anybody attitude.
“I’m sorry, Jolie. That really wasn’t appropriate, was it?” he said, standing so close that she saw tiny flecks of black in his clear gray irises.
“It’s all right.” She shrugged. “Maybe if the circumstances were different and my hands were free I’d be grabbing your ass, too.”
He laughed. “Too bad we’re on opposite sides of this war. I sort of like you.”
His words raised a warning flag in her mind. “What war?”
“The war between us and them.”
“Wolves and Vampires?”
“Anyone who’s repressed and the Vampires and pack leaders who’ve allowed it to happen.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “That’s quite a broad span.”
“It’s a big world.”
“And you and Temple think you’re going to fight everyone’s battles and single-handedly destroy the Vampire Nation?”
“I don’t want to destroy anybody. I just want the people I care about to live decent lives like we used to before the Vampire Nation took control of our pack. Is that too much to ask?”
“No. It’s not,” she admitted, though it worried her that he’d said “I” don’t want to destroy anybody. He hadn’t said “we” as in him and Temple. “There are legal ways for you to fight for your pack.”
“How far do you think we’d get?”
“Depending on the connections you have you might get further than you think. You know I’m right, don’t you? I’m right and Temple is a little crazy.”
His brow furrowed and a hard look crept into his eyes, taking her by surprise. “I probably shouldn’t show you this, but I think you need to see it and something tells me I can trust you, even if you are a bounty hunter.”
Grasping her arm, he tugged her to a stop, pulled a key from his pocket and squatted by her feet. She watched in shock as he unfastened her leg irons.
“I know you’re thinking about trying to escape, but trust me when I say you’d fail. The entrances and exits to this dwelling are well guarded. And you have no reason to run because very soon we will be setting you free.”
“So you say.”
“I’m not lying, but you’ll realize that soon enough. Right now we’re going to take a little tour. Welcome to our world, Jolie. This is what the Wingedpaws treaty with the Vampire Nation has gotten most of us.”
Over the next couple of hours, Jolie followed Ransom throughout the caves. Rather than pass by the many rooms, they stepped inside and met the owners of those muffled voices she had heard earlier. At first she thought most were lower class wolf families, but she learned many were from the rapidly disappearing middle class.
“Now in our pack there only seems to be rich and poor,” Ransom explained. They walked through one of the large common rooms where many pups were cared for by one or two wolves while the other adults did their best to make a home out of the cave dwelling. “Scientists and technicians aren’t the only ones who’ve lost their jobs.”
These wolves had few comforts of the modern world and lived much as Jolie had centuries ago -- gathering and hunting food in the wilderness and hauling water from rivers and brooks.
Some of the inhabitants glanced at her warily, others with anger. Some ignored her entirely. Not that she blamed them. She represented the Vampire Nation. Like Temple, they didn’t look at her as a fellow wolf, but as a traitor.
“That big mining accident last year is the reason most of us are here,” Ransom continued.
“I heard something about that. According to the news it wasn’t all that bad.”
Ransom glanced at her sharply. “Not bad? Hundreds of wolves lost their lives. Most of them weren’t even there by choice. After our pack leader formed an alliance with the Vampire Nation, many of the workers who lost their jobs were sent to work in the mines. It was either that or starve. The hours were long and the pay bad because most of the profits went to the pack leader and the Vampire Nation. The cave-in was the worst in a hundred and fifty years.”
Hearing this surprised Jolie. The news had covered the cave-in very briefly. She had no idea so many people had been killed or the conditions the minors labored under. Of course the Vampire Nation controlled most of the world’s news media.
Jolie was certainly no stranger to Vampires. One of her foster-father’s mates was a Vampire and Jolie knew her to be a most honorable woman. Nor had they ever had problems dealing with Altah. The wolves she knew lived decent lives and took no issue with the Vampire Nation. For ages their species had worked together and respected one another. Though Jolie didn’t doubt Ransom’s word and could plainly see these wolves had been badly used, she wondered if it had more to do with the greed of their pack leader than with the Vampire Nation.
“Everyone you saw here today lost someone in that disaster,” Ransom continued, his handsome brow furrowed. Though he spoke calmly, Jolie could sense his anger and pain and couldn’t help feeling compassion.
She held his gaze and asked softly, “Who did you lose?”
“My father and two brothers.”
“And Temple?”
“My family was his. When he was still a pup his father was killed on a hunt. His mother took her own life soon after. Temple was my closest friend so my family took him in.”
“Then I’m sorry for both your losses.”
“Are you?”
“Yes, and I u
nderstand why you want revenge, but I doubt stealing is the best way to do it. And having these people live here, especially the pups, doesn’t seem right. I mean, I had better living conditions two hundred years ago.”
“So did we,” Ransom stated. “And trust me when I tell you these conditions are better than what we had among our pack. At least now we have a chance to live as wolves were meant to. We can hunt and support ourselves with dignity. That’s what has been taken from us by the treaty -- the dignity of the common wolf.”
“If you’ve split into this renegade pack, it’s safe to guess Temple is the leader?”
“He was a hunter. A trained warrior in the days before the treaty. And he’s the strongest man I’ve ever known.”
“You admire him,” Jolie stated. “Even though he’s dragged you into activities that have cursed you with a life on the run.”
“No one drags me into anything, Jolie.”
She studied him carefully. At first she thought he was simply Temple’s yes man. Now she was slowly beginning to see there was far more to gentle young Ransom. Intelligent, calm and controlled though deep inside he must be furious, he was as important to this underground society as Temple.
Temple was the backbone, but Ransom was the brain.
“If you could find a way to negotiate with the Vampire Nation, would you consider turning yourselves in and stopping the theft?”
He snorted with laughter. “Don’t insult my intelligence. How can a bunch of renegades possibly negotiate with the Vampire Nation? We have no connections. The only way to gain their attention is through fear.”
“If you really believe that then why aren’t you committing murder instead of simply stealing? It’s because deep inside you’re noble wolves.”
“Which means nothing in today’s world. Come on.” He guided her back down the corridor toward her cell.
As they stepped in, she noticed that bedding had been placed in a corner along with a wooden pitcher of water, a mug and a bowl with some food.
Before he locked her inside, Jolie touched his arm.
“Ransom, if you set me free as you promised, I’ll speak to Lady Altah and her wolf guardians. There’s a chance she doesn’t know how bad things are for the Wingedpaws.”