Pack Justice (Nature of the Beast Book 1)

by RJ Blain

  “Thanks, Captain,” I muttered.

  “Come sit before you fall down and take poor Andrea with you. Steven will be back soon and will want to see you for himself.”

  “O’Mallory’s coming?” I blurted.

  Ramirez laughed. “Of course he is. He lives here.”

  “This is their summer house,” Andrea explained, twisting around in my arms. “Ah, you’ve probably forgotten. They’re mates. Anyway, it’s about a two hour drive to the city from here, which makes it perfect for the pack to get together without a lot of Normals around. Go sit before you fall down. I’ll make you some coffee.”

  With Andrea in my arms, my spirit beasts and I were content, and I didn’t want to move. Ramirez arched a brow at me. I sighed and let Andrea go, although I indulged in one more sniff of her scent.

  She was mine, and I didn’t want her to leave my side.

  While Captain Ramirez allowed Andrea by, she intercepted me and pulled me into a hug. “You stupid idiot. I’m not going to hurt you after going through all that trouble to hunt you down and bring you back to where you belong.”

  I flushed from embarrassment, returning the captain’s hug before pulling free. “Sorry. I’m a little jumpy.”

  “Understandable. You look terrible. What’s wrong with you now?”

  “What isn’t wrong with him?” Andrea grumbled from the kitchen. “Ritual sickness is bad enough on its own, but he’s got a headache, probably from those bumps to the head he took out in the woods, and I think his leg is bothering him.”

  I meant to head into the kitchen to keep Andrea close, but Ramirez took hold of my arm and shook her head. “No, Mr. Scott. If you go into that kitchen, she’ll never finish making coffee. There’ll be plenty of time for you to get nice and cozy with her later. You’ll survive for a few hours.”

  I had my doubts, and I scowled at Ramirez. “The coffee will brew faster if I’m watching it.”

  The police captain laughed. “Poor puppy. Leave her alone for a few minutes. Relax. You don’t have to stand guard. There are no unmated males around for you to worry about edging in on your territory. Once Steven gets here, we’ll sort out bringing you into the pack properly, then you and your wolf can lower your guard since he’ll be able to stand watch over your mate.”

  I still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but I liked the fact Ramirez openly acknowledged Andrea as mine, as did my spirit beasts.

  Andrea faced me and leaned against the central island of the kitchen. “She’s right, Sean. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere, nor will I be going anywhere until you’ve fully recovered from the ritual sickness. I’m on a leave of absence from work for a family emergency.”

  My eyes widened. “But your cases. What about your cases?”

  “Just like you, I was pretty occupied with the Roberts case. It wasn’t hard to get my upcoming schedule shuffled. Anyway, my firm is flexible, and my boss is aware of our situation. It’s an Inquisition-owned firm, and they know I’ll be useless until you’re safe and fully recovered. I was due for some time off anyway.”

  Ramirez tugged me in the direction of the living room, and unable to help myself, I whined at the thought of having risked Andrea’s hard-earned, beloved career.

  “Sean, relax. I was owed vacation time, as were the Albano brothers. Andrea was overdue for vacation, as she said. The others were already on vacation, so it was easy to pull them in. The only one who had any issues being in two places at once was Steven, but he managed with a few well-timed private flights on the Inquisition’s dime.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I stammered, flustered over how many problems I had caused for my friends.

  “It’s not your fault, Sean. We should have kept a closer eye on you. We didn’t anticipate the strength of your instincts or your ability to catch onto the trick of shifting so fast. Traditionally, we try to keep the puppies—the new Fenerec, that is—human until the ritual sickness has faded. We were all unsettled by what happened to you, and none of us were properly prepared for how you might react.”

  “I wasn’t exactly thinking that clearly, either.”

  “No, you weren’t. Andrea told us about your little spat before you gave us the slip. I’m not surprised, now that I’ve had some time to think about it. Males are always zealously overprotective, and you had reason to worry. You were hunting for Idette so you could get rid of her. She posed a threat to Andrea. Am I correct?”

  I shuddered at the mention of my wife’s name, drew a deep breath, and nodded. “She’s pretty violent.”

  “She’s on the verge of running wild and wants you for her mate. Rogues aren’t really known for their sanity, and it’s near winter. Fenerec require a pack to remain stable, and very few lone wolves do well. Winter’s mating season, and with the rut starting, she was probably wanting to den while carrying your puppies.”

  The snarl from the kitchen had me spinning on a heel, my entire body going tense. While my vision was blurry, Andrea’s eyes burned a brilliant amber, and her fingers were splayed on the countertops. “He’s mine.”

  “Yes, Andrea. He’s all yours. I’ve no designs on him, don’t worry. The last thing we need right now is Steven and Sean snarling at each other over us. It explains a lot, though. Idette wasn’t just biting him to forge a mating bond, but to control him. Since he wasn’t a Fenerec then, he didn’t stand a chance in hell of breaking free of her. You know it, I know it, and it’s damned important he understands it, too.” Ramirez sighed, pulling me in the direction of the living room. She pointed to the couch and tapped her foot until I obediently stretched out on it with a low groan.

  Draping my arm over my eyes helped my headache a little, although not by much. “How was Idette controlling me?”

  Captain Ramirez sat down on the other end of the couch, grabbing my feet and draping them across her lap. “I think you know, Sean. You’re an unbelievable prosecuting attorney for rape and domestic violence cases. You help men and women who otherwise wouldn’t have the courage give their testimonies. When you’re done with them, they leave stronger for having known you.”

  “Another cat out of the bag,” I muttered.

  “We’ve known she was a less-than-ideal woman all along, Sean. You’re able to work with those victims so well because you’re a victim yourself. You know what to say to them. Why? Because you know what you need to have said to you, who understands their situation far too well. Marcello told us he had told you about Andrea being your mate.”

  “I don’t understand the connection. What does Andrea have to do with Idette?”

  “Your bond with Andrea was influencing your behavior with Idette, and in turn, that affected Idette’s behavior with you. Idette wanted you as her mate. Those who become a Fenerec after they’re wed almost always view their spouse as their mate. However, Andrea had decided to court you as her mate, and for whatever reason, it stuck. Usually, it requires a certain amount of intimacy to forge a mating bond, but stranger things have happened. I’d say one out of every twenty mating bonds are accidental like yours.”

  “My cheetah liked her from the very beginning. Every time we were in court, he’d sit at her feet purring his head off like an idiot.”

  “Your cheetah? What do you mean?” Ramirez demanded.

  “Before Idette kil—ah, attacked me, I saw him as a spirit. A ghost—intangible to everyone except me. Well, he used to be. He’s in my head now, just like my wolf.” I considered telling them about my wolf’s reluctance, but decided it could wait a while.

  There was a long moment of silence. Ramirez grabbed my foot and massaged it. I hadn’t realized how tense I was until she started working at the muscles.

  Ramirez made a thoughtful noise in her throat. “So you’ve had a connection with your feline all along? Is that how you got the hang of changing shapes so quickly?”

  “Huh? Oh. I’ve been shifting since I was five or six,” I replied, pausing to think about it. “He was around for a few months before I figured out th
e trick to it.”

  Ramirez’s hands froze on my feet, and I heard both of the women inhale. I lowered my arm and cracked open an eye. Without my glasses, Ramirez was blurred, although when I squinted, I could make out her wide eyes and startled expression.

  “Come again?”

  I blinked, realizing what I had blurted out. “Shit.”

  After spending most of my life hiding my supernatural abilities, the fact I had babbled the truth without a second thought horrified me. I held my breath, every muscle in my body tensing as I struggled with the instinct to bolt from the couch and run.

  “Shaman,” Andrea stated, her voice startling me from my thoughts. I glanced at her in time to watch her point at me. “You’re a shaman.”

  There was actually a name for people like me? Then again, werewolves were real, called themselves Fenerec, and my own wife had hidden the fact she was one of them until she had made me one, too.

  I was starting to believe anything was possible.

  “I’m a what?”

  “Shaman,” Andrea repeated, and she slapped her palm against the counter. A giggle burst out of her, and she hopped in her excitement. “It makes sense now. Your cheetah was your totem animal. I thought you had a pet cat—not that you were the cat!”

  “What are you talking about, Andrea?” I demanded, lurching upright. Ramirez jabbed her thumb into the arch of my foot and pressed so hard I yowled, jerking in my effort to extricate myself from her grasp.

  “Lie down,” Ramirez ordered, and I recognized her ‘I mean business’ voice. I’d seen enough of her cops get dressed down I obeyed before she unleashed her tongue on me. “It’s a sound idea, Andrea, but I was under the impression shaman couldn’t become Fenerec—or they lost their shamanistic abilities if they underwent the ritual. It does explain things, though.”

  “I don’t suppose you can tell me what happened?” I should have asked earlier, but I had been so distracted by Andrea I had completely forgotten about my skirmish with Idette in the forest, as well as Douglass Roberts’s demise.

  “How much do you remember?” Ramirez resumed massaging my foot, and I relaxed on the couch.

  Fearing people would discover one of the bruises Idette left, I had often shied away from people touching me. Worse, I feared she’d ask questions if she smelled cologne or perfume on me.

  It was startling to discover I actually enjoyed having my feet rubbed.

  “Aren’t you supposed to arrest me for murder? You probably should instead of rubbing my feet. You’re a terrible cop for not arresting me when you caught me.”

  “Sean!” Andrea shrieked.

  Ramirez laughed, working her way to my ankle. The joints creaked and popped, and I grimaced at the ache as much as the noise. “You’re not being arrested for murder. Hell, we uncorked a couple of bottles once we got back from the trip to celebrate that fucker’s death. Of course, we are investigating his death very seriously, but I’m afraid some poor mountain lion is going to end up with a rap sheet for killing him. There’s no such thing as the perfect murder, Mr. Scott, but you’ve gotten pretty close with this one. No one is going to be able to prove you killed him—not without exposing the entire supernatural community, which isn’t happening if the Inquisition has anything to say about it. It doesn’t hurt most cops aren’t all that interested in finding the culprit. So, not only does a mountain lion get a rap sheet, he gets ignored, as long as there are no other incidents.”

  “I still killed him.”

  “In a brutal and effective manner, which was far more merciful than he deserved. Well done. Don’t do it again.” Ramirez resumed rubbing my feet.

  Without my glasses, her face was a blur, but I thought she was grinning.

  “But…”

  “Sean, how would you propose prosecuting the case? You killed him with a mouth full of sharp teeth and your claws. If I’m not mistaken, you did so after leaping out of a tree on top of him. You could detail the exact method you used to murder that motherfucker and no one in their right mind would believe it.”

  She was right, which bothered me. “I regret I didn’t go after Idette first,” I confessed.

  “You made the right choice, Sean. If he had become one of us, you would have let a far worse monster out in the world—one who would continue his crimes without remorse. There would be a lot more victims, too, because only another Fenerec would be able to oppose him.”

  “She got away.”

  “She did, but we’re far better equipped to deal with her now. That’s a matter we’ll talk about later when you’re feeling better. Did I mention you look like hell?”

  “I feel like it.”

  “Anyway, our next move is to figure out why you’re taking so long to get through the ritual sickness. Once you’re feeling better, we’ll start integrating you back into your life. We’ll begin with some small, low-stress cases and ease you in.”

  “I’ll call around and see what I can find out.” Andrea poured three mugs of coffee, bringing one to Ramirez and another to me. After setting mine on the coffee table, she bent over me and pressed her lips to my forehead. “I’ll also see if I can find your spare pair of glasses so you don’t need to squint. You stay with Ramirez, okay? I’ll be in the office.”

  I didn’t want her to leave, but without a good reason to beg her to stay, I kept my misgivings to myself.

  Ramirez slid out from under my feet, headed to the kitchen, and rummaged through one of the drawers until she located a small white bottle, which she set next to my coffee mug. “Take two. We Fenerec metabolize drugs differently from humans, but I have no idea how far through the transition phase you are, so they might still work on you—if you can keep them down.”

  I picked up the bottle and fished out two of the pills. They were small enough to make me wonder about them. The really potent drugs tended to come in small dosage sizes and equally small pills. Taking a swig of my coffee, I swallowed them. “Why not? I always wanted to be a science experiment.”

  The captain grinned at me and headed back to the kitchen with the bottle. “You can’t be feeling too bad. Your sense of humor is still intact.”

  “I’m faking it until I make it,” I informed her, flopping back onto the couch to wait for the medicine to kick in.

  I had no idea what Ramirez drugged me with, but the pair of pills packed a punch and flattened me in short order, leaving me floating in a disconnected haze. Someone slid their way under my head, and I recognized Andrea’s scent. Purring, I rolled over so my nose pressed to her shirt.

  “It seems your concerns about him were rather unfounded, Miss Morgan,” O’Mallory commented from the vicinity of my feet. “I can hear him from here. I was unaware humans could purr like that.”

  Ramirez laughed, and she, too, was somewhere near my feet. “I’m pretty sure they can’t. I’ve never heard him making those sounds before. Andrea?”

  “He wasn’t purring before he gave us the slip,” my fellow attorney replied, running her fingers through my hair.

  The times Idette had touched my hair had worried me, but Andrea was warm and gentle, and I relaxed under her slow, steady strokes. My spirit beasts stirred in my head but relaxed into slumber at the reassurance of the woman’s presence.

  “You weren’t exactly being cuddly with him, either,” O’Mallory pointed out. “What did you give him, Felicity? I can smell it ten feet away.”

  “Morphine,” Ramirez replied. “It worked a lot better than I was expecting, honestly. Good thing I decided to start him on a small dose. He’s not metabolizing it half as well as I thought he would. It knocked him flat in ten minutes.”

  “Your name is Felicity?” I mumbled, and unable to stop myself, I purred my laughter. Felicity seemed like such a tame, feminine name for such a capable and often terrifying woman.

  Andrea snorted, flicking my ear. “Be polite, Sean.”

  “Back with us?” Ramirez asked.

  “Maybe.” I stretched and kicked someone, and judging from the shor
t bark of laughter, it was O’Mallory. “Sorry, Your Honor. How long was I out?”

  “No need for formality, Sean. O’Mallory if you must is fine, but feel free to call me Steven, too. Whatever is more comfortable for you. Leave the Your Honors for the courtroom or police station, please.”

  “You’ve been out for two hours,” Ramirez reported. “Feeling any better?”

  “Numb.” Numb and woozy was a far cry better than the throbbing headache I had endured earlier. My stomach chose that moment to growl its discontent with me.

  Andrea laughed. “I think he’s hungry.”

  Ramirez clucked her tongue and shook her head. “He better be, he hasn’t kept anything down for several days.”

  I had no memory of trying to eat anything. “I don’t remember that.”

  “We had you sedated fairly heavily, Sean,” Ramirez replied. “At the rate you’re going, I’m going to have to call in an Inquisition doctor to put you on an IV.”

  Andrea stiffened beneath me. “Let’s try soup first.”

  “Steven, they’re so anxious about each other we’re not going to be able to bring any unmated to the lodge for a month,” Ramirez complained. “She only relaxes when he’s awake and on his feet, and he whines if she leaves his sight. Since he’s a blind bat without his glasses, if she wasn’t within five feet of him, he was making a fuss.”

  Andrea worked her fingers through my hair until she reached my throat, and I relaxed at the gentle brush of her fingers on my skin. “I think it’s sweet.”

  Ramirez snorted. “Of course you do. You enjoy knowing he wants you near him.”

  I wondered what noises I had been making when I had been in a drugged stupor. Too embarrassed to ask, I shifted until I was on my back and cracked open an eye. Andrea smiled, and my breath caught in my throat.

  “Glasses,” O’Mallory announced, giving my leg a slap to get my attention. He held out an eyeglass case. It took several tries to make my uncooperative hands do what I wanted, but I managed to get the glasses out of the case and perched on my nose without poking myself in the eye.