by Meg Ripley
“It wasn’t exactly an idea,” Will said defensively, shifting in his seat. “It just kind of happened.”
“We can’t have things ‘just kind of happen,’” Lachlan told the others, glancing at them each in turn. His gaze lingered on Keira’s face and she looked back blandly, keeping her expression neutral until he looked away. There was an uneasy power dynamic going on between the members of their clan, and while Keira was not by any stretch interested in going for the Alpha, she wasn’t about to let Lachlan—or any of her clan-mates—push her to submit when she had no reason to. “We have to be more careful,” Lachlan added, turning his attention back onto the others.
“How can something like that be an accident, anyway?” Keira looked at Will. “I mean, you don’t accidentally light a match. You don’t accidentally drop it on the ground.” She crossed her arms over her chest as Floyd navigated the darkness. Keira could feel the tendrils of almost-thoughts from the rest of the members of her clan in the car with her; she could feel their excitement, the adrenaline pumping in their veins.
“It wasn’t a match or anything,” Will said sullenly. “I tried to do something with the breakers and the fire started that way.” Keira watched her clan-mate intently for a few moments in silence, trying her best to take in as much information from him as she could from the slightly telepathic bond they shared. From what she could tell, Will was being honest; at the very least, he believed what he was saying. It had been an accident.
“Then yeah, we need to be more careful,” Keira said, glancing at Lachlan. “It’s one thing to raid these assholes’ businesses, it’s another to get sloppy about it.” Keira hadn’t been entirely in favor of the raids herself—but once the clan had voted on it, she and the other four were the natural candidates for the job. All five of them were fast, difficult to trace—especially with the car that Noelle had worked over, masking the usual scent marks—and skilled.
“The wolves will keep the police out of it if they can,” Lachlan said thoughtfully. “But we can’t have any more fuckups like this. The goal is for them to know who’s raiding their businesses and that we’re serious about keeping them in check.” Keira pressed her lips together, looking around the car. She wasn’t actually sure what the true goal of the raids was; in the clan debate where it had been decided, it seemed to her that for the most part people just wanted to get back at the wolves, to get some kind of revenge.
The wolf pack and the panthers had been rivals since long before Keira had been born; she had grown up knowing that the wolves were untrustworthy, and that they looked out for their own—proud, overambitious and exclusionary. She had known by the time she had made her first transformation that if she encountered a wolf in the woods, she was likely going to be in for a fight—and that she should never be alone in the woods during the full moon, lest she find herself surrounded by the vicious jackals.
But why they had chosen to begin raiding the wolves’ businesses in the past few months, Keira had no idea; she had heard vague reports that one of the panthers’ homes had been raided by some of the wolves—but nobody in the clan seemed to know who it was who had been affected, or who hadn’t been affected. As soon as it starts to be about wolves, everyone has a grievance, Keira thought wryly as the car made its way back to the clan’s headquarters on the outskirts of town. She had to wonder: did the wolves feel the same way about the panthers? Keira knew that the wolves thought that the panthers were little more than scavengers, that they were not good enough to ally with—unlike the foxes or the bears that lived in Spring Lake, the wolves didn’t think anyone was truly good to ally with. But did the wolves have the same tendency to jump at shadows when it came to the topic of the panthers? Or were they so confident that they couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to crowd them out?
“What we need to do is something bigger,” Gary said, looking around the car. His hazel eyes almost glowed in the moonlight coming through the window. “These raids are for shit. All it’s doing is pissing the wolves off—we’re barely even hurting their profits. We need to really take one of them down.”
“Harold hasn’t called for it,” Lachlan said firmly, staring Gary down until the other man shrugged, dismissing his own idea. “If Harold tells us to amp things up, we’ll do it. But the council hasn’t approved anything other than raids.” Lachlan smiled slightly. “Maybe we can convince them to let us snatch a young’un or the Alpha’s wife or something.”
“What good would that do?” Keira rolled her eyes. “It’d just bring them after us harder. It’s enough right now that we’re hitting them back.” But hitting them back for what? Keira knew that it wasn’t—technically—her business to know the specifics. But she had to admit, privately and to herself, that she wasn’t altogether enthused about attacking the wolves when she wasn’t sure what they were attacking them for.
****
Raul stood outside of Betsy Powers’ boutique on Main Street, a few buildings away, watching the back entrance of the shop intently. The air was clammy with the damp, slightly cool feeling that came before a bad day of storms; Raul could smell the ozone in the air.
It had been three days since the last raid by the panthers, and the pressure was on. Raul had met with Reginald after finally managing to get Tanya and Jeremy on the investigation. The two shifters were going to do their best to get the police to forget about the arson and break-in; but there was an official record of the event. There was no way to avoid it at this point.
Reginald, the Alpha, was incensed at the possibility that the event might cast a light on the shifter community in general—and the wolves in particular. “This is what those asshole panthers want,” Reginald had told Raul. “They want to expose us to the one-natured, let the humans hunt us down and drive us out so that they can take over.” Having seen the scene of the crime, Raul wasn’t quite so sure; it looked as though the fire that had started at the bakery was possibly an accident.
Just as before, it was impossible to track the panthers involved in the most recent raid for more than a few blocks away from the scene of the crime. Reginald, the pack’s Alpha, was fed up. As a result, Raul found himself participating in the stakeout himself. “If you don’t catch these assholes the next time they hit one of our own, then you can pick a direction and start walking,” Reginald had told him, the last time Raul had met with the man.
Technically, Reginald had that power. As the pack’s Alpha, he could throw anyone out that he wanted—but he would have to face Raul in a challenge if he did. Don’t think that way, Raul reminded himself, even as his hackles rose at the thought of challenging Reginald. You’re not ready to challenge anyone—you’re definitely not ready to be Alpha of the pack. Better by far to hunt down the panthers, take them in, and let the Pack deal with them. Reginald had made it clear that the elementals wouldn’t be brought in—it would be a tribunal, the pack taking care of its own business, deterring the panthers from any further predation on Pack-owned businesses.
It troubled Raul that he didn’t know why the panthers were doing it. We outnumber them two to one, he thought as he looked around the alley behind the boutique. Why would they pick a fight with us now? What’s changed? Raul knew that thinking like that was possibly dangerous; it was the kind of thinking that led a man to forget the chain of command in the pack, the way things were. But he couldn’t help wondering what it was about the situation in Spring Lake, between the supernatural members of the community, that had led to the raids that had been going on for weeks. Whatever it is, we’ll get to the bottom of it, Raul thought firmly.
He scented the air, reading the smells painted through it; at least fifty people had moved through the alley in the last two days, most of them normal humans. As Raul breathed in more deeply, he caught the faintest traces of shifters: a couple of foxes—not Jeremy and Tanya—a few members of the Pack, and one owl. No scent of panther, which told Raul at least that the reprobates either cased their targets well in advance of their raids, or were going off of informati
on they’d gotten otherwise. They had targeted too many werewolf-owned businesses for it to be simply random—and of course one or two of the attacks had included insulting, inflammatory graffiti: cartoon wolves being eaten by spray-painted panthers, slurs. One or two of the raided businesses had been decked out with wolf’s bane.
Raul shifted in his spot, looking around the alley impatiently. Assuming that the panthers were going on some kind of schedule, they would strike—somewhere—that night. Raul had taken up a position to watch one of the only pack-owned businesses that hadn’t already been raided; Cam was at another location, and other trusted lieutenants had taken up other positions. Raul didn’t trust any of the lower ranks for anything more than backup anymore. After Reginald’s ultimatum, Raul couldn’t see any other course of action but to stand vigil at the remaining businesses and hope to catch the panthers in the act.
Raul’s phone buzzed in his pocket and he started, reaching down compulsively and taking the device out. Cam’s phone number flashed on the screen and Raul’s heart began beating faster in his chest, adrenaline flowing freely in his veins. “What have you got?”
“Three of them,” Cam said, excitement rippling in his voice. “Two guys and the woman. She’s injured.”
“The other two?” Raul began to smile to himself; even if they hadn’t caught all five of the members of the panther raiding party, three of five was definitely a vast improvement. We can put them before the tribunal. We can ransom them back to their clan and force talks.
“Got away,” Cam said, briefly sounding disappointed. “We’re taking them to the den.”
“I’ll meet you there,” Raul said, smiling more broadly to himself. “Good job, Cam. Good job.”
****
Keira scowled at the wolves hovering around her, Lachlan and Gary, fidgeting and squirming against the chains that bound her. The copper burned against her skin, making her ache all over—beyond anything she had felt ever since she’d been in high school and had spent the night at a friend’s house; the girl’s parents had used copper pots to cook dinner, and Keira hadn’t known until she’d eaten dinner.
“It’s a good thing we had all this copper lying around,” one of the wolves said, snickering with the others. Keira wrinkled her nostrils at the stench of wolves filling her nose. She wanted, more than anything, to break the chains draped around her body, holding her down, sapping her strength. Motherfuckers with copper chains lying around, Keira thought bleakly. Should have fucking known. It was completely in line with what she’d always been taught about werewolves. She tugged against the chains wrapped around her, but every movement sent burning, searing agony through her body. Copper was poisonous to all fire-aligned creatures—the elementals, and the shape-shifters that belonged to that element: panthers, lions, and tigers alike. Silver worked as well, but Keira thought grimly that silver affected wolves too—it indeed affected all supernatural beings except for water-aligned elementals and their few shape-shifting allies.
“Raul will be here in a few,” someone said. “These assholes are secure.” There was a grumble, but the wolves began to wander out of the room, leaving Keira, Lachlan, and Gary by themselves. Keira groaned as she tried to fight against the influence of the copper tightly wrapped around her.
“We need to find a way out of this bullshit situation,” Lachlan said, his voice tight and hoarse with pain. “Those bastards are going to kill us.”
“Why would they do that? They’d do better to ransom us,” Keira pointed out. “Get the clan to stop the raids and pay reparations.”
“I’m telling you, those assholes will kill us without even losing a minute of sleep,” Lachlan told Keira. “You’ll be lucky if they don’t rape you first.” Keira let out a long, low growl, glaring at Lachlan. She could believe the wolves capable of torturing them; she could even believe that the wolves might—possibly—execute them. But raping another shifter was beyond the pale, more uncivilized than the unaffiliated lions and bears that lived out in the wider world, separate from any clan or pack or pride.
“How do we get out of this then, Lachlan? Have you discovered some brilliant way for us to be immune to copper?”
“We have to work together,” Lachlan said. “If we do that we might be able to get the chains off of each other, and get the hell out of here before they bring the executioner in.” Keira considered it; they were back to back, their hands pinned behind their backs, copper chains draped around shoulders down to their waists, and coiled around their legs. She knew that the chains weren’t even particularly tight—but the copper in them made it nearly impossible for her to get free, and the other two panthers in the shed with her would be in the same condition.
“How much can you move?” Keira turned her head until she could see Gary in the corner of her vision. Gary shifted slightly, groaning as the copper burned him. “What we need to do is to find some way to get them to loosen the chains a little bit. Or get them loose ourselves.”
“Move as much as you can,” Lachlan suggested. Keira struggled against the copper chains, twisting and shifting and squirming, hissing as the copper came into contact with her skin and burned her over and over. It was useless; she couldn’t feel any slack in the chains no matter how she tried to find a weakness in the bindings.
“Fuck,” she muttered. Her preternaturally acute ears picked up the sound of people outside—the scent of wolves intensified. Someone—several people—were coming to the shed where she, Gary, and Lachlan were trapped. “Shit, shit, shit.” Keira gritted her teeth, trying to think. The copper made it harder and harder to focus, the pain radiating through her body in waves. Let me take the lead on this, she thought to the other members of her clan. Let me see if I can get them to loosen our chains a bit. She heard Lachlan’s growl of doubt, Gary’s groan of pain, and reinforced the thought with the urgency of their situation. There was a very real chance that if they didn’t get free, they’d be tortured for information—at least, according to everything that Keira had ever known about wolves. She gathered what little strength she had, sniffing the air to try and detect how many wolves were joining them.
A few moments later, the wolves filed into the shed; among them Keira saw their newcomer. He smelled like an Alpha, but she knew he wasn’t; there wasn’t the level of respect from the other wolves. Second-in-command, or some kind of enforcer type, she decided, taking him in as he approached. The man was tall and muscular, with dark hair in a mane around his strong-featured face, broad shoulders, and neat hips. He wore dark jeans and a black, fitted tee shirt. Couldn’t be more obviously a wolf if he tried, Keira thought wryly. The non-Alpha came towards them and the other wolves fell in behind him.
“You three realize we’re going to get your friends too, right?” Keira stared up at the man, refusing to look away. It wasn’t the time to cower or show fear—she was a panther and he was a wolf; she wasn’t about to show weakness to someone like him.
“You’re all cowards,” Keira said, looking from the enforcer to the rest of the pack behind him. “If you really thought that you were stronger and better than us, you wouldn’t keep us in copper.”
“You’re sneaky little thieves,” the man countered. “We can’t risk you getting away to attack us again.”
“Are you going to talk us to death?” Keira clenched her teeth at the sound of Lachlan’s voice. Hadn’t she told him and Gary both to let her take the lead?
“We’re going to put you to death,” one of the other wolves said. Keira felt Lachlan’s bitter sense of proud triumph; he’d been right about what the wolves would do to them. What surprised her was the fact that the plan—if it was serious—was evidently a surprise to the enforcer talking to them.
“Shut up, Cam,” the man said quietly, a growl in his voice. He turned his attention back onto Keira. “What’s your name?”
“Like I’d tell my name to some wolf enforcer,” Keira replied, scowling at him. “Bunch of filthy damned cowards.”
“We’re cowards?” The m
an almost grinned, exposing slightly sharper than normal teeth, flashing white in the gloomy light of the shed. “You’re the ones running away from a fair fight.” Keira laughed.
“Like wolves fight fair,” she said, shaking her head. “If you wanted a fair fight, you’d take these chains off me and we could go at it right here and now.” She raised an eyebrow in challenge. Keira felt the tension rising in Gary and Lachlan, sensed their brains focusing in on the situation—hopeful that there would come an opportunity.
“You really think you can take me?” The wolf almost smirked. “You’re too proud. I could put you down in three minutes.” Keira smiled slowly, exposing her teeth in an expression that was far from friendly.
“Prove it,” she told him.
****
Raul glanced to the rest of the pack gathered behind him in the shed, watching him interact with the three panthers. He had been shocked—slightly—at the fact that the woman was actually fairly attractive. The chains wrapped around her body did nothing to cover the full, lush curves; thick, glorious dark hair tumbled down past her shoulders, framing a sharp-featured face with green eyes. Her breasts looked heavy and full, the copper chains only emphasizing their size and the fact that they strained at the fabric of her shirt.
“Are you serious?” Raul shook his head, smirking at the thought of the panther actually daring to challenge him. “This isn’t a sparring match with one of your cubs, panther,” Raul added. “If you fight me I’m going to treat it like an actual challenge.”
“I know how to handle a challenge,” the woman said, her upper lip curling slightly in the start of a snarl. “I just don’t think you can actually give me one.” A murmur rose up in the pack members behind him, and Raul felt his body heating up, his adrenaline beginning to flow. He could sense the way that the pack was reacting, feel the doubt in them. Raul felt the suggestion that he would lose status in the pack if he didn’t shut this she-panther up, and fast.