But then Wilson did a strangely human thing. He tossed his leather jacket to Abby and gestured for her to cover herself up.
“Shit,” he heard Abby say as she backed up without taking her eye off the newcomer. “Another good one.”
* * *
“Get out of here,” Abby warned, glancing around. “Now.”
God, yes, there were two werewolves facing her. The new wolf on the block didn’t seem like a mindless criminal, either. He knew Cameron.
“I don’t hunt,” she said, needing to get that off her chest. “I don’t like it when anyone else does, except that someone has to clean up this hole of a park and others like it.”
She backed up several more steps, knowing she’d have to sprint in the opposite direction when she wanted to follow these wolves.
She was shaky, sure, but she’d recover and find a way to deal with Sam and the team if they found her. Somehow, she had to try to tell Sam about these two, and the possibility of others like them. But it would be a big giveaway if she did that now. It would let Sam know how close she’d gotten to the enemy. Sam wasn’t partial to new slants on understanding. He’d punish her for breaking the rules.
Nevertheless, a lesson had been learned here, and it was a big one. Two out of two werewolves in one night turning out to be decent individuals were odds that went against everything Sam had preached. And though she had never bought it all, she had not anticipated this kind of turnaround.
Despite the decent shakeup, a quick comeback on her part was an absolute necessity. “I won’t tell them. They won’t hurt me because they need me. Now get lost.”
Beneath the intensity of Cameron’s wolf-eyed gaze, Abby felt like hanging her head. “Okay. So you know about me now. I tried to warn you. I tried to get you away from Sam. It’s the best I could do, since I didn’t actually want to get away from you at all.”
I don’t want to go back.
Don’t want to face what happens tonight.
Did the beautiful man who was also a man-wolf combination hear her thoughts and understand? He hadn’t moved. His attention didn’t waver until the other wolf growled a warning that made him visibly uncomfortable. Like the new guy, Cameron bared his teeth.
Abby had to tear herself away. Danger rode the night, and she’d played a part in that. The chances of getting out of the park without meeting up with a hunter were dismal, yet she knew the park a lot better than the new guys Sam had brought here to indulge in tonight’s full moon gaming.
With a hand to her forehead, Abby saluted the big, fully transformed werewolves. Spinning on both heels, she took off in the direction of the bar, swallowing the guilt of having been brainwashed by her father all this time, and hating being separated from the one wolf who had been about to show her something important about herself.
“How will I find you again?” she muttered as she ran. “Will I find you again after this, or will it be too dangerous?”
The werewolves didn’t follow her. Moonlight did, though she tracked to the west to avoid it. One eerie howl in the distance, a sound that echoed in the park, seemed a response to her softly spoken questions.
“Maybe you will find me,” she said.
Darting along on the pathway close to the walls, half-naked and wearing a stranger’s leather coat, she hoped the hunters wouldn’t stumble upon her. They had to have heard that howl.
She started to run. But as bad luck would have it, she didn’t get far.
Chapter 11
Cameron raced alongside Wilson, considering the direction the brown wolf had taken, setting that path in mental databanks all cops possessed. He ached to turn around, didn’t like leaving Abby at the mercy of whatever lay behind in the dark.
Detective Werewolf seemed to know exactly where he was headed. The massive park spanned blocks to their right, lit by nothing but moonlight. Taking out streetlights and park lights was a good deal for criminals wishing to hide dark deeds, and the city crews just couldn’t keep up with new bulbs.
Vigilante. Abby had used that word when they’d first met, and Cameron supposed that’s exactly what he had become. But who was better suited for going after werewolves that were up to no good than one of the same species? Who else had the strength to confront them?
He’d tried his damnedest to keep other cops on the outskirts of this park. What had happened to Stegman hadn’t been pretty. He would always remember that, and that a Were’s ability to speed the healing process made them almost indestructible in the long run, and more willing to face down an adversary. Add a little mental instability to the criminal werewolf soup, and the result was a pack with the ability to be every cop’s worst dream.
So, what about Matt Wilson, his current guide? It was obvious that the detective not only knew his way around this area, but also knew about the hunters. Wilson hadn’t seemed surprised when Cameron had told him to watch his back in the bar.
Wilson knew about Abby. He had to. If a new wolf like himself perceived the wolf in her, a more complex version of Were must have easily picked up on the thing huddled inside her.
Who the hell was this Wilson guy, anyway? It was a damn shame that furred-up werewolves couldn’t ask questions.
I’m sorry, Abby had said. Because she found Weres for the hunters.
He and Wilson ran, over the grass and between the trees. The detective’s T-shirt had been a good choice. Black and stretchy, it handled the pile-up of Were muscle while providing good camouflage. His own white shirt had to be like a flash of neon out here to onlookers. Unbuttoned, the shirt flapped open, hitting his sides as he ran and allowing him room to breathe.
Breathing was good.
Though the detective had said there was a target painted on Cameron’s back, losing the shirt didn’t seem like such a good idea. He had no idea where they’d end up, or what might happen when they got there. But he longed to be free of all restrictions. His wolf liked to let it all hang out.
Wilson proved himself to be fast on his feet. Cameron worked to keep up as the brown Were sprinted over unused pathways without bothering to give Cameron a glance, probably confident in his leadership skills.
Should he trust this guy?
Could he trust anybody with a secret that needed constant protection?
The route Wilson chose ran north after skirting the winding alleys of brick and block walls. He didn’t head for the streets. Instead, after barreling through a narrow maze of high walls, Wilson finally veered toward one of those walls, leaped up onto it with the agility of an orangutan, and waited there, outlined by moonlight that showed off his massive size and mounds of flexing muscle.
With a running jump, Cameron followed.
They walked along the top of that wall for a short distance before Wilson gestured to him and dropped into a yard on the other side. Landing beside the brown wolf in a crouch, with his hands on the ground and his head lifted, Cameron saw a small stucco outbuilding close by, lit by yellow lamplight.
Wilson loped toward that building as though the word home had been etched there in invisible ink. But the place had a strange flavor to it, and a thick, fragrant scent pervaded the night.
Other than having been exposed to the wolves of the criminal pack, Cameron had never come across anything like the feel of this place. The small building in front of him and the area surrounding it housed more than one wolf, for sure. Had Matt Wilson from Miami Metro’s Homicide division brought him to the home turf of a werewolf pack?
His head spun with shocked thoughts of how many more Weres there could possibly be in Miami.
The question now was whether this pack would turn out to be friends, or foes.
* * *
“Hold it right there.”
Sam Stark, dressed in black from his cap to his boots, slid in front of Abby. His prematurely gray hair glinted in
the moonlight as he spun her around.
Abby hated what Sam might be thinking.
“What the hell are you doing here, Abby?”
“I got caught.”
Lying would be the only way out of this. She’d have to save the information dump and the chastisement of his actions for later. The trick at the moment would be getting Sam to believe her invented tale, so that he’d leave her alone.
“Got too close,” she said. That much was true.
Sam brought her closer with a sharp snap of one arm. “Too close to what?”
“Them.” The weakness in her voice had to be a side effect of oxygen debt. She was winded.
Sam’s tone lowered. “One of the monsters did this to you? Out here?” His scrutiny became feral. “It didn’t...”
“It only shredded my pants. I ditched the shirt because it had their filthy claw marks all over it.”
Her shudders were real, and convincing.
Sam’s right hand grasped the front of the leather jacket. “What’s this?”
“One of the cops tossed it to me.” Also the truth.
After looking around, Sam’s attention returned with the intensity of a hungry hawk. “What cop? Where is he?”
“I didn’t get his name. He helped me, and chased them off. I think he went for backup.”
“Shit, Abby. We don’t need cops out here tonight. You know that.”
When Sam moved his hand, the jacket creaked with the sound of soft, worn leather and emitted a familiar musky, masculine scent Abby preferred not to inhale too deeply.
“What did he see, girl? That cop?”
“Nothing, other than me running away and looking like this. I told him some jerks tore my clothes to humiliate me, and that I escaped.”
She had seen the expression Sam now wore a hundred times or more. His wide face creased. Pale blue eyes narrowed. “Why were you out here?”
Words failed her. When confronted with the full force of her father’s moody inquisition, the lies seemed flimsy in explaining her presence in the park on the night Sam’s hunters prowled. She had never come along, and this point was bound to be a stickler for Sam.
“Maybe you met that cop from the wake at the bar, the one pestering you? You didn’t come back in. Did he follow you?”
“No one followed me. I made sure of that.”
Sam wasn’t going for it.
“I didn’t go through the park, Sam. Wolves were skimming the street, not far off the boulevard.”
That got his attention. Sam’s expression changed to reflect his displeasure over that information. His cell phone came out of a pocket quickly. He punched a button and barked one word. “West.”
To Abby he issued a second command. “Get back. Close things up. Take a shower and make sure you don’t have one single visible mark on you. Stay inside. I’ll deal with you later.”
Taking off with his gun drawn, he said over his shoulder, “You should have known better than to come out tonight. Damn it, girl, haven’t I taught you anything?”
Then he was gone.
Abby thought seriously about sitting down, right there behind Sam’s disappearing back, and without a care as to who else roamed beneath the treacherous moonlight. She held back the urge to shout “Yeah. Thanks for the concern, Dad.”
She wasn’t really sure what he had meant with the cryptic warnings, other than to suggest that if she had been bitten or scratched, she might become one of the creatures Sam despised. That’s the way Cameron had been infected.
Well, it was too damn late for worrying about that.
Or...possibly Sam had meant that after all this time of tension between father and daughter, he’d finally have a justifiable reason to be rid of her if she again ignored a direct order. He hadn’t even tried to hide his anger.
Thank heavens he hadn’t noticed the bandage on her thigh.
A potent impulse came to think of better things. Only one came to mind: an image of a golden-bronze werewolf with eyes like fire—a picture etched in her mind and seared into her system. She had seen Cameron shape-shift. She had observed it all, felt it all...Cameron’s features twisting in pain. His body suffering greatly. Chills returned with the memory of the sound of his realigning bones.
In spite of that terrible event and the weakness in her knees, and after witnessing two Weres emerging from the shadows in full wolfed-up glory, Abby stood where Sam had left her, scanning the dark. With her heart tapping out a ferocious rhythm and her limbs restless, she looked up at last, into the light.
“Damn it, Sam.” The words came slowly, and with effort. “You’re a fool, and you know nothing.”
* * *
Two people rose from creaking wicker chairs when Matt Wilson reached the porch attached to the building he obviously knew well. One of those people—male, tall, with the chiseled features of a Viking and blond hair that fell to his shoulders—cautioned the woman beside him to hold back with a slight lift of one hand.
Cameron’s gaze moved to the woman. Small, and light of bone, her hair was the first thing he noticed. It was very dark brown, almost black, and hung halfway to her waist in a sleek mass that picked up the moonlight when she turned her head. Her eyes were big, her skin olive. She was dressed in black.
Cameron caught the scent. Both of these people were Weres.
“Wilson. We’ve been waiting,” the fair-haired man said.
Wilson leaped onto the porch, taking the steps three at a time. As soon as he landed beside the two others, his reversal began, the shift as smooth as if Wilson were made of swirling liquid instead of muscle and bone. The cracks and snaps of muscle and sinew didn’t startle the other two people, because neither of them was human.
Cameron cringed as Wilson’s face reverted to its angular human features. When Wilson rolled his shoulders, ridding himself of a last bit of stiffness, the detective said, “They’re out again tonight.”
The other man nodded without taking his attention from Cameron. “And who is this?”
“His name’s Mitchell. Cop.”
The fair-haired Were nodded. “Is Mitchell the first name, or the last?”
Wilson waved Cameron forward. “He can answer that one himself in a minute.”
Yeah, he might be able to talk in a few seconds, if he was Wilson. And just who were these people?
He didn’t relish changing shape in front of strangers. He had a hard enough time dealing with the pain of a reversal on his own.
Wilson, apparently possessing the ability to read minds, said, “Excuse us, Mitchell. You probably need some space. Come with me and you’ll get it.”
The detective led the way around the side of the building, which looked to be some kind of watch station or a decent-size guard gate for a mansion that may or may not be hidden in the distance. That’s the impression Cameron got, anyway. It seemed to him that the two Weres on the porch were keeping track of things and awaiting Wilson’s word on...what? Things that lay beyond the relative security of that eight-foot wall? Information on the hunters? Picking up stray Weres in the moonlight?
Though he was stunned by the fact that there were more creatures like him, and not at all sure about where Wilson had brought him, Cameron supposed that any Were in the area that had been around awhile sporting a fur coat had to know about the hunters, which proved that as a new wolf, he had a lot of catching up to do.
“You coming?” Wilson said over his shoulder.
These Weres appeared to be friendly enough. At least they hadn’t tossed him back over the wall. Yet. Surely, though, as wolves, they’d want to get off that porch and into the moonlight. They would seek the light that seeped into them with its seductive silvery call.
Maybe they took turns.
“Mitchell. This way.”
Cameron te
mporarily gave up the attempt to see through things and ended up beside Matt Wilson in a small yard. A solid roof of crossed beams and tile shingles lay to his right, as a temporary respite from the light.
Cameron’s body shivered in reaction to the enclosed space, which put him immediately on guard.
“It’s private,” Wilson explained from under that roof, seeming once again to have mind-reading tendencies. “There are other places, but for now this is safer. I thought you might like to be near the cottage. The area is protected around here. Trust me on that, if nothing else. Sam Stark and his hunters don’t have a clue about what goes on behind this particular wall, and wouldn’t like what they found if they nosed around where they were unwelcome.”
After turning to go, Wilson paused. “She’s one of them, you know. Always has been.” Then he disappeared around a corner, leaving Cameron to think this over without the addition of strange, prying eyes.
He saw clearly that Wilson possessed information he needed. In order to get it, he had to be able to talk. In order to take Wilson up on the offer of hospitality, he’d have to stay for a while.
Gritting his canines, Cameron’s lids fluttered closed. Without Wilson’s presence, the walled area seemed as remote as another universe. Still, shifting in close proximity to the others felt like the ultimate perversion. Like sharing something too personal. Like doing something truly unnatural in a natural world. And it was a lot like exposing himself, naked, in a crowd.
The wolf’s hypersensitivity immediately noted the dimensions of the space and where the exits were located. Wolf knew how many inches from the light he needed to be in order to refuse the moon’s call, and didn’t like what Cameron was going to do.
But it really was necessary.
With a violent intake of breath, Cameron shed the negatives of the situation and willed himself inward. Straining with every ounce of willpower he possessed, he pulled his muscles into a state of overstrung tightness.
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