“I know.”
“You need to run. You’re too new of a Dire to deny that need.” Denny looked long and hard at me. “They’re safe with me.”
“I’m not leaving her.”
“You look like you’re going to snap. We can’t risk that happening.”
“Go ahead. We’ll be right here.” Mary Anne touched my arm gently. “You have to take care of yourself. Whether that’s eating enough meat or running.”
“All right.” They had a point. I would be useless if I didn’t calm down and pull myself together. “I’ll be right back.”
I walked into the woods, stripped down, and my body convulsed as I let the Dire take over. My body gladly accepted the change and my vision deepened. It was time to run.
I felt free. Powerful. Whole in a way I hadn’t felt in days. The wind rushed around me as I circled the woods over and over. I didn’t want to go too far. I trusted Denny, but I’d never stop worrying about Mary Anne unless I was with her myself.
Finally, once my body fully calmed, I shifted back and found my clothes. Now came the hard part. Letting Mary Anne face the queen without me.
13
Hunter
The girl watched me again. She waited until Joseph walked off and she thought I wasn’t looking, but I was always looking. She was my ticket out. I had no question about that, and it was the only reason my eyes returned to her over and over. It had nothing to do with her physical appearance or the laugh I occasionally heard through the fortified glass. There had to be something special about the glass that made them think it would keep us in, but I hadn’t had a chance to investigate it yet.
Our prison was worse than any with bars. To be able to see freedom but not reach it, was hard to take, but knowing my pack mates were close without being able to interact with them was the worst part.
Joseph walked back over, and she hurried away.
He noticed me watching her retreat.
“Her exterior is the only sweet thing about her.” Joseph returned to his chair.
“I’m not concerned with whether she’s sweet inside or out.”
He quirked a smile, clearly amused by my choice of words. “The way you were looking at her says otherwise.”
“You can’t blame me for enjoying the brief view. I don’t enjoy looking at you.”
“But you could read a book. Stare at the wall.”
“I’ve done plenty of the staring at the wall, and I haven’t seen any books.” I wasn’t looking for distractions. I was looking for answers before Levi returned. I wasn’t going to lose my opportunity to garner any information possible.
“Your female seems to like Michelle.”
Michelle. So that was her name. “Marni gets along with everyone.” She did, although she’d hit some friction with Mary Anne. We all had.
“Is that a good trait or a bad one for your kind?”
“For my kind?” I wasn’t sure why I bothered to talk to him. It was obvious he knew and understood nothing. “Give up on your attempts to play me. We’re not very different from you.”
“Like hell you’re not.”
“You’re afraid of our strength. That’s all this is.”
He chortled. “No we’re not. Pterons aren’t afraid of anyone.”
“Then what’s with the shots? The prison? The hunt?” Saying the word hunt burned my throat. My anger about the situation knew no bounds.
“You are savages.”
“Savages?” My blood boiled. “Yet you are the one keeping innocent men and women imprisoned.”
“You are not innocent. You have killed countless humans.”
“That’s a lie!” My yell reverberated off the walls.
Michelle walked over and peered through the glass again. “Calm down.”
“No. I will not calm down!” I seethed. “You will not accuse me of murder.”
“Marni had the same reaction.” Michelle watched me carefully. “She claims your pack is non-violent toward humans.”
“We are. We’ve had a few indiscretions, but everyone has.”
“What kind of indiscretions?”
“We handed a few humans over to some off-kilter witches. That was it.”
“That was it? What did these witches do with the humans?” Her words asked for information, but there was fear in her eyes. She didn’t really want to know.
“You already know the story doesn’t end well. I regret our involvement, but it was only out of necessity. If we weren’t being hunted, it wouldn’t have been required. It was to protect our species. Your king is determined to kill us all.”
“We are tasked with protecting the people of this world. If humans keep disappearing, we’re going to be in hot water.”
“It was on a minor scale.” We’d kept it to the absolute minimum, but I didn’t like it. It went against my true nature. Fielding called it my weakness, I considered it a strength that I respected life in all of its forms.
“But with your brother it isn’t so minor, is it?” She stepped toward the glass of my room.
“My brother?” Did she know of him too?
“Get out, Michelle. This isn’t your territory.” Joseph suddenly snapped to attention.
She shook her head. “It’s my job to get information. That means this is all my territory.”
“Why are you asking about my brother?” No one ever did. Thinking about him made the skin crawl on the back of my neck.
“Marni mentioned him, and I did some research.”
“We are not aligned. He deserted the pack.”
“Who is the true leader? Who was selected as Alpha?” She pressed.
“How do you know anything of Dire hierarchy?” I knew she was knowledgeable, but I was surprised a prison worker would know something like that. I couldn’t imagine Pterons were taught about Dire law on a regular basis.
“I make it my business to research.”
Joseph eyed her suspiciously.
This was my chance. “I’ll tell you everything I know about him if we can talk alone.”
“Absolutely not.” Joseph shook his head. “I’m not moving.”
“Then I’ll say nothing.”
“Why? Why would you want to tell her anything?” He narrowed his eyes.
“Because she is more pleasant on the eyes.” I had to get rid of Joseph. He was only going to cause problems.
“I thought you didn’t find her attractive.” He pushed back his chair, letting it noisily fall to the hardwood hallway floor.
Michelle smiled in amusement. “Please leave, Joseph.”
“You can’t leave the girl. You remember your orders.”
“I’m not leaving her. I’m right here.”
“But you have to watch her.”
“Her door is blocked. She isn’t going anywhere.”
“This is against protocol.” He was grasping for straws. All three of us knew it, and we also knew that if he got in the way of her ‘breaking me’ he was going to have a price to pay.
“When have you ever cared about protocol?” She pushed him with her elbow, and he stumbled back.
I smiled. She was strong, and he didn’t like it. “I’m leaving, but I’ll be waiting right down the hall. Don’t mess this up.”
“Funny how you’re the one worrying about that, when you almost messed it up yourself.”
“Go to hell.”
“No thanks. I think I’ll stay alive a little bit longer.”
“You’ve got nerve.”
“So do you.” She touched the glass. It disappeared, and she stepped through it. Once she stepped forward the glass reappeared behind her.
“You’re not afraid of me.”
“You can’t shift.” Her long legs carried her within inches of me.
“But if I’m such a savage I could still hurt you.”
“You’re not a savage.” She looked me right in the eyes.
I met her eyes. “I’m not?”
“You’re not a saint.”
&nbs
p; “No, I’m not.”
“But you aren’t what they say you are.” She studied me, her eyes raking over me from head to toe in a way I knew wasn’t sexual.
“And how would you know that?”
“I just do.” She moved around me like a cat circling its prey. Everything about her screamed cat instead of bird.
“Then why are you helping The Society keep us here? If we’re not savages, then free us.”
“Because I have more to learn.”
“Then learn it. Let us out.”
“Why are you in such a hurry?” She crossed her arms.
“Wouldn’t you be in a hurry?”
“Of course. Everyone craves freedom. But you weren’t in a hurry before.”
“Things change. More time has passed, and I have things to do.” And people to see.
“Like what?” She circled me again.
“Save my people.” I watched her over my shoulder. Having her stand behind me made me uncomfortable, but I tried not to show it.
“Yet most of your people are locked up.”
Not everyone was, she already knew that. “What do we need to do to end the hunt?”
She walked back around to the front of me. “You make it sound simple.”
“Shouldn’t it be? I don’t see any way around it. Either you keep us here forever, which will cost too much time and money, you kill us all, which might be messy, or you end the hunt.”
“Might be messy?” She smiled slightly. “Come on. No need for the bravado. You want to live.”
“Of course. Just like I want freedom. But what kind of life is one when you have to hide?”
“You’ve been living that life for years.”
“Far too many years.” My entire life had been lived that way. I’d never known anything else, and the older I got the less willing I was to put up with it. Almost everyone I loved or cared about was gone. It was time to do something. “It has to end.”
“Which means our sources were right. You were planning a coup.”
I shook my head. “That couldn’t be further from the truth. We want nothing to do with The Society. Not in that way. We only want to be left alone. That’s different.”
“Why?” She raked her teeth over her bottom lip. Was that a nervous tell? Or was she trying to use her sexual appeal? I couldn’t tell.
I pulled my eyes from her red lips. “Why do we want to be left alone?”
“No, why would you settle?”
“Because being in power isn’t the only thing out there. There is more to life than that.”
“You think I don’t know that?” She put a hand on her hip.
“Who are you?”
“We’ve been over that. It doesn’t matter.”
“I know your name is Michelle. I’m not asking that.”
“Then what are you asking?” She flipped some of her long hair off her shoulder, revealing a swath of tan skin.
“Who are you really? You’re more than a prison guard. Don’t pretend.”
“My actual job title is Prison Security Agent.”
“Still, you’re more than that. You’re not bred for this kind of job.”
Her face reddened. I’d hit a chord. “That’s none of your business.”
“Why not? You keep asking about me, can’t I ask about you?”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“Oh yeah, because I’m the prisoner.”
“Yes.” She nodded.
“If that’s how you want this to go.”
“It is.”
“Very well.” I sat down on the one chair in the room. It was nailed to the floor. The nails wouldn’t have stopped me from ripping it off, but I guess it was more for effect than anything else.
She walked right over to me. “How old are you?”
“What does that matter?
“It matters because I want to understand how much life you’ve lived.”
“I’m twenty-three.”
She blinked as though startled. “Same age as me.”
“Isn’t that something? We share something in common.”
She laughed. “I guess we do.”
“Does that mean you’ll free us?” A joke seemed appropriate at the moment.
“No, but it means I’ll listen to you.”
“Listen? What else do I need to say?’
“Tell me about your brother. His plans.”
“I haven’t spoken with him in years.” The last time I had he’d left me with a nice parting gift.
“But you’re twins. Shifter twins are rare. Aren’t you connected or something?”
“Fortunately not.” Being connected with my brother would make the mess of my life even worse. His thoughts were dark, and I couldn’t imagine having to share them.
“He gave you that.” She reached out and ran her hand over the scar that crossed my face.
I forced my eyes to stay open even though they begged to close. Her soft caress made me too comfortable.
“Yes.” I gently removed her hand from my face. She had no right touching me that way. The last person who had was Mary Anne, and I wasn’t giving up on her even if she’d given up on me.
“You’re not thinking about him now.”
“No.”
“It’s a girl. Who is she?”
“The one who will be my mate.”
She nodded absently. “Is she pretty?”
“Beautiful.”
“But that’s not why you want her.”
“Perceptive.”
“You aren’t a shallow man.” Her eyes studied me. She was trying to figure me out while I did the same to her.
“You mean because I’m scarred?” My scars changed the way some people looked at me, but they didn’t change the way I viewed others.
“No, it doesn’t fit your personality.”
“I dreamt of her.” I wasn’t sure why I was opening up to this Pteron. I didn’t need to. This wasn’t the type of information she wanted, but maybe if I was forthcoming on one thing, she’d be satisfied.
“Dreamt of her? Do Dires often dream of their mates?”
“No. Never.”
“Then why you?” She put her hands in her back pockets. She was relaxing. Interesting that it took talking about Mary Anne to get her to do that.
“Because I was born to end the hunt.”
“And did you find this girl?”
“Yes.” Although ‘found’ was an interesting way to put it.
“And was she everything you expected?” She raked her teeth over her lip again. It wasn’t nervousness. She was trying to use her sexuality to throw me off. That wasn’t going to fly.
“She was more.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know. I was separated from her against my will.”
“Was she with you in the courthouse?”
“It’s not Marni.”
“I realize that.” Michelle smiled. “She’s in love with another one of your pack.”
“She told you that too?” Marni had been talkative. What other details had she shared?
“No.” She shook her head. “I figured it out. It’s too bad they haven’t had a chance to mate.”
“They will.”
“Confident we’re not going to kill you?”
“Confident may be too strong of a word. I’ll go with hopeful.”
“Hope is good sometimes, but it can be dangerous.”
“Yes, it can be.” It left you open to disappointment and hurt, but worst of all it could make you weak. “But it’s still necessary.”
“If you tell me more about the girl I can have someone find her. Make sure she’s safe.”
I laughed dryly. “Because I want her safe with you all.”
“We wouldn’t hurt her. She’s human, isn’t she?”
“What makes you say that?”
“You’re very protective. You aren’t so protective with your kind. You’re worried she can’t protect herself.”
&nbs
p; “She’s stronger than she seems.”
“How does she seem?” Michelle appeared genuinely curious.
“That doesn’t matter.”
“But it matters to you, and right now my concern is understanding you.” She rested her chin in her hand.
“All you need to understand is that I want to end the hunt.”
“Because you’re tired of hiding, was it?” She sat down on the edge of the bed. A bold move. She had the appearance of more power by standing. I was surprised she gave that up.
“Yes.”
“We’d have to be able to put a lot of faith in you to change things.”
“How can I earn that trust?” Maybe I was getting somewhere.
“Where is your brother?”
“I already told you. I haven’t spoken with him in years.”
“But you can find him. I know you can.”
“Maybe if you let me out.”
She smiled. “Nice try.”
“I can’t find him while locked in here.”
“No, you can’t.” She got up and walked back to the glass. She touched it, and the glass disappeared. It had to be set to open and close by the Pterons’ touch. I didn’t bother trying to follow her. I’d never get Marni and Chet out. Besides, I’d learn more if I spent another night or two in the prison. The bigger problem was Mary Anne. Not for the first time I hoped Gage was keeping her safe.
14
Mary Anne
“This idea is crazy.” I wrapped my arms around my chest as we walked down St. Charles Ave in New Orleans on our way to meet with Allie. I say ‘meet’ loosely. She had no idea we were on our way. I’d officially resorted to stalking, and I had no shame. Desperate times called for desperate measures.
I’d had the entire drive from Tampa to think about just how crazy the idea was, and the time didn’t change my opinion. The problem was, crazy or not, we had no other options. Now that we knew hacking into the system was out, finding Allie and hoping she’d listen to us was the only thing we had. I barely knew the queen, but she’d gone out of her way to try to help me at the courthouse. That had to mean something. At least I hoped it did. It could also mean I’d used up my one free pass with her. Either way we had to try. Hopefully it didn’t make things worse for us in the process.
Dawn (The Dire Wolves Chronicles Book 3) Page 9