Caged Wolf (Tarot Witches Book 1)

by SM Reine

  “Please don’t,” I whimpered.

  Then his hands were on me, and I was in bondage.

  I hadn’t been to The Lodge since first arriving in Lobo Norte, and I was shocked that Big Papa took me there instead of straight to the Silver Needles. The room smelled like decades of tobacco smoke and crack. Its decorations were straight from the sixties. The patterned wallpaper had been plastered over the outlets, the light fixtures were rusted, and the kitchenette had the kind of stove that Abuelita would have used when she was my age.

  Cooper set me on the bed as gently as he could. At another time, I could have gotten into the idea of being chained up in a scuzzy motel with him, but I didn’t do exhibitionism when the voyeur was Big Papa.

  Something in the room smelled awful—something more than just the stink of tobacco. I twisted, trying to see what, but couldn’t.

  “Leave the room, Trouble,” Big Papa ordered.

  I didn’t want to be alone with him, but I didn’t bother pleading with Cooper. I knew what he was going to do.

  And he did. He left me.

  I glared at Big Papa with my arms tied behind my back, chains jingling softly as I twisted my wrists. I wasn’t going to let him give me to the Needles. No matter what happened, I wasn’t going back with them.

  “I’ll do anything,” I said, forcing my voice to soften. “Anything at all. Just don’t sell me to the Needles.”

  He slapped me hard—much harder than Gloria ever did. It was like being swiped by a bear paw. I saw stars. “I’m not selling you to them. The incubus mafia wants you that bad, you’re worth too much to sell. My pack’s keeping you for ourselves.” He leaned over me. His breath smelled like death. “Especially now that Trouble told me what you can do.”

  I twisted away from him with a whimper and spotted a lumpy shape in the darkness of the corner.

  It was the source of that terrible odor. I stared at it until my eyes adjusted and I could make out what Big Papa had stashed in his room.

  Bodies. Two dead incubi, in fact.

  Guess the Silver Needles weren’t going to be a problem after all.

  “We’ve gotten everything we need out of Lobo Norte. Tonight, you leave with us.” His eyes gleamed. “You service us. All of us. More than a dozen after last night’s fight, all waiting for your tender lovin’ care.” I shook my head, denying it, unable to speak. Big Papa didn’t care. “Take a few hours to yourself. Say goodbye to Lobo Norte. I’ll see you at nightfall.”

  XVIII

  I wasn’t sure how long I spent alone in that bed, my only company the half-eaten bodies of the demons. The curtains were drawn so tightly that I couldn’t tell where the sun was outside. I was beyond time, beyond despair. I didn’t even care that my muscles had cramped from being chained into one position for hours.

  Cooper had betrayed me.

  Yet when the door opened that evening, I wasn’t surprised to see Cooper shuffling in, shooting furtive glances over his back. He closed the door quietly.

  I wanted to be angry at him, but even now, I felt relief at the sight of him.

  “Cooper,” I whispered.

  He sat on the bed beside me. He had brought a pillowcase with him, but it was shaped weirdly. There wasn’t a pillow inside. “We don’t have much time.” His hands flew over the chains, unlocking them.

  It hurt to sit up. I was so stiff that it took three tries. “Are we running?” I asked.

  “We can’t,” Cooper said. “Big Papa explicitly forbade it, and I can’t subvert a direct order. But I’ve got another solution.” He dropped the pillowcase beside me.

  I opened it. Little Bo Peep was swaddled inside. “What…?”

  “There are two shells in it. They’re both silver. Be strong and pull the trigger.”

  At first, I couldn’t understand what he was telling me to do. Then he pulled his leather vest apart, baring his breast.

  Two shells.

  “Me first,” he said. “Then go kill Big Papa. Be strong, baby.”

  I felt sick all over. I picked up Bo Peep, but I didn’t put my finger anywhere near the trigger. She was my companion, my friend, my trusted coyote-killer, and now Cooper wanted me to use her to end his life.

  “No way,” I said.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, but I can’t disobey Big Papa. If he tells me to kill you, I will. You have to stop me before that happens.”

  “Are you kidding? You think that this is the solution? Murdering you?”

  His brow was furrowed with pain. “Please, Ofelia. Before they come back. Don’t let him make me hurt you.”

  I got up, and he stepped back to give me enough space to shoot him.

  It felt like I was going insane.

  “I won’t let him do anything to us,” I said, lifting Bo Peep to my shoulder. “And I’m not going to end your life because you can’t stand up to him. You are so much stronger than you think you are, Cooper. You’re more than a werewolf. Much more. You aren’t bound to Big Papa’s will—you make your own choices.” I pumped the shotgun. “And so do I.”

  Pushing past Cooper, I stormed toward the door. Determination flooded my veins.

  Whatever I was, I definitely wasn’t as strong and fast as a werewolf, but I wasn’t going to die like a jackrabbit, with a heart bursting from fear. If I was going to die, I would take these assholes down with me.

  Two shells should be plenty for Big Papa.

  “Ofelia!” Cooper shouted. “Wait!”

  Before I could reach the motel room door, it exploded. Shards of wood blasted into the room.

  Big Papa filled the doorframe with his massive girth. He was wearing a black t-shirt that hugged the bulge of his stomach, blue jeans, and leather chaps. His boots had silver spikes on the toes. I was pretty sure they were real silver—intended to allow him to kick his own werewolves into submission.

  His nostrils flared as he scented the air. “Trouble, sit the fuck down,” Big Papa said.

  My heart fell when Cooper immediately sank onto the edge of the bed, heeling like an obedient dog. I could see him struggling against it. His entire body shook. Anger lit his eyes.

  I fired the shotgun.

  Big Papa moved too fast. He suddenly wasn’t standing in the doorway, and the buckshot implanted in the frame instead.

  Then he hit me, and I was flying.

  I slammed into the wall. Plaster cracked. I bounced, landed on the floor on my stomach.

  The pain took a moment to strike. Once it did, I felt like I’d been run over by a hundred motorcycles with spiked treads. A few seconds later, I realized that Bo Peep had flown out of my hands.

  I scrambled on all fours to pick her up again, but Big Papa hit me first. He didn’t punch me. He slashed his hand over my face and fire burned a path from my forehead to my cheek. Hot blood gushed into my eyes.

  Kicking him away, I dragged myself up the wall. In the dirty mirror, I could see that he had clawed three parallel gashes across my face.

  That would scar…if I lived long enough.

  He slammed into my back, knocking me to the floor again. I flipped over. Swung both of my feet up and snapped my heels into his nuts. Big Papa grunted, but it barely slowed him down. He dropped to a crouch on top of me. His weight pinned me to the floor.

  Cooper stepped towards us.

  “Stop,” Big Papa said.

  And Cooper fucking obeyed.

  “You’re better than this,” I said. “Don’t listen to him.” But Cooper didn’t do anything as Big Papa slapped me across the face, making the gashes burn anew and filling my head with black stars. I tasted blood. My teeth felt loose.

  “This is gonna be a problem, isn’t it?” Big Papa asked. “This bullshit between the two of you. Question is, will your service to the pack be worth Trouble fighting me for your life every step of the way? I picked him because he was strong, but maybe he was too strong.”

  “Picked him?” I asked. I coughed on the blood, spit it out.

  “You don’t think he volunt
eered, do you?” Big Papa asked.

  I remembered how much Cooper had glowed when he talked about his doctorate. How much he must have loved his life before he had been changed into a werewolf and lassoed into a biker gang. I’d thought that Cooper must have been a volunteer since all the other bikers were gagging for a chance to join the pack.

  But he’d been forced into it.

  Big Papa had picked him, bitten him, destroyed his life.

  That made me even angrier than the idea of being forced to “service” the whole pack. I glared at him through the haze of the blood. “I will never stop fighting you,” I hissed, “and neither will Cooper. He’s better than you. He will break free.”

  “Dumb bitch,” Big Papa said, hitting me again.

  He didn’t show it, but he was worried. I’d been a stripper long enough to tell a man’s deepest emotions.

  Big Papa really was afraid of Cooper.

  “Pick up the shotgun, Trouble,” he said. Cooper did. “So is she right? Are you always gonna fight me on this?”

  Cooper’s eyes burned with hatred. “Until the day I die.”

  “Or the day she dies.” Big Papa grinned. “Trouble—kill her.”

  Cooper stood over me with the shotgun aimed at my face. I stared back at him, pinned underneath The Devil, helpless to fight back. “Do what you have to do,” I said. Calm filled me from the top of my skull to the tips of my toes.

  He squeezed the trigger.

  Blam.

  I jerked at the explosion so close to my ear. The sound was painful enough that I believed he had really shot me for an instant.

  Then something warm and wet began dripping over me, and it wasn’t my blood.

  Big Papa rolled off of me with a groan. His back had been chewed up by the silver buckshot, still embedded in the meat of his muscles, baring glistening white bone under his leather vest.

  As soon as the shock wore off, I pushed myself to my feet, holding the wall for strength. Cooper was breathing hard, looking just as stunned as I felt. “I did it,” he said. “I shot him.”

  Big Papa struggled to get up. “You goddamn stupid fucking—”

  Cooper kicked him in the face, driving his studded boot into the other werewolf’s forehead. Big Papa fell. “Don’t get up,” he said harshly. He stomped on Big Papa’s back. Pinned him down with his weight. “Don’t ever get up again.” He extended Bo Peep toward me.

  I took the shotgun. She was a familiar weight in my hands. She felt almost as good as Cooper’s cock.

  “I brought more ammo,” Cooper said, slipping another silver slug into my hand. “Just in case.” I loaded the weapon mechanically, more by habit than because of any deliberate thought.

  Pressing the barrel against the back of Big Papa’s skull, I could almost see the chains that had Cooper and me tied to him. I understood rationally that I was imagining it, but the vision was so vivid.

  This was it. This was the end.

  I unloaded the second slug into Big Papa’s skull.

  The Devil’s brains splattered over the carpet, and we were free.

  When the sun rose the next morning, Cooper and I were both still alive.

  Trust me—I was surprised, too.

  Mad Dog gathered the Fangs, and they were gone before the first rays of light touched the desert. It didn’t escape my notice that the gang was bigger than when they arrived, even though neither Big Papa nor Cooper were with them. The recruitment drive had been successful. There would be more werewolves next full moon.

  None of them were going to Los Angeles.

  They weren’t going to do the transitions in Lobo Norte anymore, and they weren’t going to change anyone else against their will. Mad Dog had promised me that before leaving. I wasn’t sure why, but I trusted him.

  Anyway, if he broke his promise, Bo Peep and I had more silver buckshot.

  Now Lobo Norte was silent as Cooper and I packed to leave. We wouldn’t be following the Fangs out of town. We were planning to head south into Mexico to start looking for the rest of the tarot deck. I needed to know why I was different, what it was about me that attracted the werewolves and the Needles. I had a feeling that I’d find all my answers with the rest of the cards. If not…well, there were a lot of things much worse than getting to travel alone with Cooper.

  “You look like shit.”

  I turned from Cooper’s motorcycle to see that Gloria had appeared seemingly from nowhere, hands on her ample hips and judgment in her eyes.

  Reflexively, I touched my wounded face. I’d tried to heal myself with magic and failed; the gashes from Big Papa’s claws would leave me marked for months. “I had to fix some problems. It got messy.”

  “Did you succeed?” Gloria asked.

  “You could say that.” I gave her a short explanation of what had happened with the Fangs, holding nothing back. Her penciled eyebrows climbed her forehead as I spoke until she looked like a shocked kewpie doll.

  When I finished, she whirled on Cooper. “You told her to kill you?” Gloria asked. “Are you sculpted from pure stupid?”

  Cooper glowered. “Better to die than—”

  “Blah, blah, blah. You’re talking and all I’m hearing is, ‘I’m stupid, Gloria, I am so fucking stupid.’ You know what else you could have done? You could have gotten me. You could have gotten Johnny. We kill bikers that fuck with us and leave their bones in the desert for the bugs to pick clean.”

  She’d never told me that before, yet I was utterly unsurprised. I’d noticed that the most troublesome bikers had a habit of vanishing. I’d just assumed that they left Lobo Norte and didn’t come back.

  The idea might have bothered me a few hours earlier. Now my mind was filled with the image of Big Papa’s brains dribbling out onto The Lodge’s tacky carpet and I felt calm.

  “We had to free ourselves,” Cooper said. His hand was warm in mine.

  Gloria jabbed him in the chest with a finger. “Death isn’t freedom. The road is freedom.” Her eyes gleamed. Was she tearing up? “I don’t think I trust you to take care of Ofelia without doing something else stupid.”

  I broke away from Cooper and wrapped her in my arms, expecting her to slap me like she so often did. But she just hugged me tight. Her face was wet against my chest. “Good thing you weren’t stupid enough to listen to him,” Gloria grunted. I think she was trying to tell me that she loved me.

  “Someone’s got to have enough brains to find the rest of the tarot deck.”

  “So you’re leaving me.”

  “Yeah. I’ve finally got enough money.” More than enough, once I pawned all of Big Papa’s crap.

  “Don’t you ever fucking strip again, chica.”

  “No promises. I like stripping.”

  She whopped me upside the back of the head. I staggered. That was more normal for Gloria. She’d kinda been freaking me out there for a minute.

  Gloria pulled an envelope out of her cleavage and shoved it in my hands.

  “Last bonus,” she said.

  I opened it and my eyes widened. It was filled with a stack of crisp hundred dollar bills. “I can’t take this.”

  “What, you think I’m going to go and buy a nice fucking TV or something? What the fuck would I do with that? Take it and shut up.”

  “Thank you,” Cooper said. He tried to kiss her on the cheek. She stepped back and pinched his ass.

  “Be less stupid or I’ll fucking kill you,” she said by way of goodbye.

  She didn’t stick around to watch us leave.

  I ran my hands over Big Papa’s motorcycle, savoring its curves. This beast was mine now. I’d decided not to sell it. I could always ride behind Cooper, but I wanted something to show for what I had accomplished—my first werewolf slain, my chains shed, my future and past reclaimed.

  Plus, it was a fucking sexy machine.

  The saddlebags were already filled with everything I needed. Some clothes, Big Papa’s valuables, even Bo Peep in a holster I’d enchanted to be invisible. The Devil
card had a special place in its own pocket with plenty of room to add more tarot cards. I wasn’t afraid of it anymore.

  Cooper stepped up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. His lips traced along my shoulder.

  “You sure you want that?” he asked. “It stinks of him.”

  I couldn’t tell. My nose wasn’t sensitive enough. But I turned in his arms, sliding my fingers along his belt buckle. “We could fix that real quick.”

  He grinned. It was a beautiful look on him.

  We fucked on Big Papa’s motorcycle, long and slow. We marked it with the scent of our mingled sweat. I came screaming, back arched over the handlebars, and Cooper bit my shoulder hard enough to bruise. Marking me as his mate with the harsh desert sun as witness. By the time we were done, Big Papa’s stench was covered in ours.

  And then we left, tearing down the road toward Mexico with the music of the engines surrounding us.

  When we got halfway up the hill, Lobo Norte vanished without so much as a ripple. There was nothing but empty desert behind us. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see it again, and I felt a little bit sad.

  There were seventy-eight cards in a tarot deck. One had gone to Gloria. I had another.

  Only seventy-six left to go.

  ***

  Forbidden Witches

  Tarot Witches Book 2

  Get it now!

  Dear reader,

  I hope you’ve enjoyed Caged Wolf! You can read about the next Tarot Witches book on my website: Forbidden Witches

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  Happy reading!

  Sara (SM Reine)

  http://authorsmreine.com/

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