Rebuilding the Wolf

by Erin R Flynn

  “At the bar,” Beth whispered in my ear as we passed each other. “He’s tried twice and grabbed my arm when I turned him down. You got his scent?”

  “Yup.” I made my way over there, acting calm and relaxed. I asked one of the wolves behind the bar to give me a tray of shots so I could make the rounds, saying clearly I worked there. Sure enough, the guy saddled up to me while I waited.

  “So are you up for some fun tonight?”

  “I always have lots of fun,” I chuckled, not looking at him.

  “I’m sure you do, but I mean do you want to have fun with me tonight?”

  “Sorry, but I’m—”

  “I’m willing to rent one of the hot tubs or dungeons with the extra package.”

  I blinked at him a moment and then glanced around on purpose as if I was checking no one was watching and every indicator I was up to no good. Then I leaned in and pressed my lips to his ear. “I’ll meet you at the elevator.”

  “Sounds good.”

  He went first, and I waited until he was gone before rolling my eyes at the amused bartenders who’d heard the whole thing. She nodded she’d signaled security, and I headed to the elevator, nodding for the human to come with me. We went down to the first floor to his surprise. Nestor and Emilio were standing there waiting for us.

  “I was the third strike,” I told them.

  “Hey, wait, I don’t know what you’re talking about but I just—”

  Nestor leaned in and sniffed the guy while Emilio restrained him with zip ties. “I’ll get his shit from his locker. Do you want to call for each one or wait until we have a group?”

  “There are at least four more that have asked at least once already, so let me check on that,” I answered as Emilio grabbed the guy and pulled him off the elevator. “You cannot gag them.”

  “So knocking them unconscious is out too, right?”

  “Yes, Emilio,” I chuckled, hitting the button to go back up. “Restrain and detain only.” He muttered something about it not being as much fun then as the doors closed. I snarled when they opened and I witnessed a guy smack a girl on the ass hard enough that it echoed. I grabbed him and spun him to face me. “We were clear on the rules and sexual assault not being allowed.” I looked at the woman. “Would you like to press charges against this guy?”

  “No, thanks though,” she whispered, shock in her eyes I asked. “Wow, you guys were serious about hands off.”

  “There’s no reason adults can’t have fun and it be a safe environment,” I said more for his ears than hers. “Just because it’s lingerie and nightie fun instead of normal club attire doesn’t mean guys can put their hands on anyone. If they’re interested, they’re supposed to give a rose. We’ve got them all over for anyone who wants to give the clear message they’re interested.” I snarled in the guy’s face. “This club isn’t a grope fest.”

  “I got him,” Hagan said. “I’ll let him get his stuff from his locker instead of just tossing his ass out in his boxers.”

  “It would serve him right,” I grumbled, giving the guy a look like I dared him to argue with us.

  He was smart enough to keep his mouth shut at least.

  I got updated and played the third strike bait a few more times before it was time for me to be surprised. I handed the guy off to Emilio and blinked at Nestor. “Two are cops? You saw badges?”

  “Three,” the latest guy muttered.

  I snarled, getting what was going on. “Fucking vice sent people to try and bust us. Oh, someone is seriously getting chewed on. Our people have been scared and upset because they’re getting propositioned and it’s a fucking investigation that has no fucking legs.”

  “You mean besides you’re fucking naked and doing cosplay crap like hooker clubs in Japan?” he drawled.

  “Asshole, you have no clue what you’re talking about if you talk about them like that when the vast majority are more benign than strip clubs,” I bitched. “Detain this jackass, and I’ll get the last one before handling this.” I cussed up a storm all the way back up upstairs and swung by Brian. “We have a situation in security I could use some advice on.”

  He frowned, glancing away from the crowd. “Some assholes?”

  “Um, no, I was kinda doing work tonight,” I admitted, clearing my throat when he gave me a look he needed more than that. “Can you just meet me there? I have one more to get.”

  “I thought this was your night off to have fun,” he sighed.

  “I had fun going undercover,” I defended, shrugging when he just shook his head. Fine, I was a workaholic and probably would need an intervention one day. Until then, there was a situation I needed to handle. I got mad at myself for not having figured it out sooner. Three were calm, asked the same thing in the same way like they were coached, while the other had been sloppy, excited, and obviously had no idea what he was doing.

  And then there was the last one I caught who screamed pimp and like he was looking for girls he could add to his own ranks. Asshole. Fucking asshole.

  “Be careful with this one,” I warned Emilio. “He’s pro. I’m pretty sure he was scouting.”

  “You can’t just restrain me like you’re the cops,” the guy bitched, fighting against Emilio.

  The vampire seemed to find that amusing. “She’s FBI, so you’re in real shit, idiot.”

  I accepted one of the normal cover up dresses people wore at the club from one of the security guys when we stepped into the office, thanking them. I slid it on and glanced at Brian. “So three vice, a pimp, and one lone guy who screams newb.”

  “It’s hard to have a work conversation with you when you’re like that,” he muttered, glancing away.

  “Oh, right,” I chuckled. I went over to the counters and snagged a tissue, wiping off the lipstick that was the spell. I glanced at Brian who nodded I was back. “That’s so fucking cool. Talk about a perfect disguise.”

  “Shit,” the first vice guy I caught hissed, knowing who I was.

  “Oh yeah, deep, deep shit,” I purred, glancing at Cooper who was backing me up on this. “What did you get?”

  “That there’s no grounds for the investigation,” he answered, adjusting his neck in annoyance. “No one so much as filed a report or complaint that anything was going on here. Their pulses were racing all over the fucking place with each question I asked.”

  “Look, you can’t just hold us,” that same guy interjected. “We’ve identified ourselves as police and were here undercover for an investigation. I don’t know what you think you can do, but this isn’t your jurisdiction—”

  “You’re kidding, right?” I cut in, raising an eyebrow. “You’re absolutely my jurisdiction, idiot. Two of you and pimp boy here have repeatedly come into the club that’s owned by someone who works for the FBI and harassed the shifter employees. Hi, that’s all I do.”

  “You’re way out of bounds here if there’s not so much as a complaint,” Brian agreed. He nodded when I snarled at what I got off of them.

  “That’s above our pay grade,” the second said, looking annoyed… But not with us. “We go where we’re told to. You know the deal.”

  “You thought it was bullshit too,” I chuckled, shaking my head. “Okay, who’s your boss I’m contacting?”

  “And them?” Cooper asked about the other two.

  I let power flash in my eyes as I looked at them. “Pimp boy’s going to the council for sure because not only has he basically been hunting for shifters to add to his ‘girls,’ but he threatened me when I made it clear I didn’t want to play.”

  “You can’t just say I’m a pimp because I was interested in fucking you, bitch.”

  “No, bitch, but your heart racing when I used the word was a subtle giveaway.” I glanced at Brian. “I would have said maybe I should call vice to handle the human side of this and dismantle this bozo’s whatever, but apparently they were too busy trying to make smoke here to call a fire instead of doing actual police work.”

  “Apparently,�
�� he grumbled. “I know who to call. Can Cooper hold off until I get some answers?” He shot the vice guys a death look. “If you make me late for somewhere I’m supposed to be at ten thirty, I will shit all over your careers.”

  “He is very excited for his gift,” Emilio teased at a level the humans couldn’t hear.

  Yeah, apparently he was.

  I glanced between the three cops, deciding to get some answers. “I just don’t get how you got to prostitution going on here. I mean, besides judgy boy there. We’ve yelled it loudly that we wouldn’t allow that shit here. It’s in the releases we have people sign before they’re allowed in. I work for the fucking FBI. What seriously leads you to think people are turning tricks here?”

  “You have sex classes here for one,” the first guy, “judgy boy,” drawled.

  “Yes, we have sex education classes,” I agreed. “So do public schools. These are the adult versions. So what? We help women learn their bodies. Some guys too and what they might like. How to explore safely. Do fitness trainers get investigated for turning tricks because they’re sweating and bending funny with their clients?”

  The one who didn’t want to be there snorted. “Sometimes.”

  Okay, I had to give him that as even I’d heard of a few gyms that let their trainers pull shit like that.

  “People call you ‘Mistress,’ which we all know is the modern ‘madam,’” that first guy added.

  “No it’s not, you douche,” I growled. “So if it’s a Dom guy, it’s all good and the way it should be, but if it’s a female, then they’re fucking running girls?” I had to move away from him when his face said clearly he believed that.

  What. A. Douche.

  Captain Toomey of the CPD and vice showed up minutes later, Brian explaining people were already outside waiting to move in when they got the word. Un-fucking-real. They’d gotten that far in such a bogus investigation.

  “Release them,” he ordered.

  “Hell no,” I snorted, staring him down. “Two of your people repeatedly harassed my employees to the point I planned a sting op to trap them on camera. I spent years going undercover, and they crossed so many lines that even if there was prostitution here, you left huge, gaping holes for the case to be dismissed.”

  “Even if we did, it would shut you and this place down like it should be,” he sneered.

  “Do you hate women or just all paranormals, Captain?”

  “Whores like you—”

  “Watch how you speak to her,” Brian warned, sounding like the big, big boss, which honestly always made my stomach get butterflies, especially when he did it on my behalf.

  “I wouldn’t be too quick to throw your career away over one slut who steps out on you, Havers,” he shot right back.

  I moved faster than they could track and turned Brian away from the guy when I felt the immediate rise in adrenaline. He blinked at me with shock, and I shrugged. “You jumped up on the fight meter so fast I wasn’t going to take the risk. It’s hard to tell still.”

  “I’m not going to hit the idiot,” he promised, smiling at how I jumped in to protect him too.

  “I might if he says much more,” I admitted, shrugging again. “I’m a few pay grades above him, and yet he keeps talking to me like this. I feel bad for every female under him.”

  That same cop I liked snorted. “There aren’t many in vice for that very reason.”

  “Him you can release,” I told Emilio. “He was following orders and didn’t cross any lines.” I moved closer and got in Toomey’s face. “I don’t give a flying fuck what you think of me or my life that is not your business. But you sent people into my place of business and two of them harassed my people for your investigation that has no legs, no probable cause, and both of them put their hands on my innocent employees. We are not the bad guys here.”

  “If you don’t release them, I’m going to arrest you and shut down this whore house,” he threw right back.

  “On what grounds? Your people assaulted mine?” I drawled. “That their bullshit probing without cause led to a fucking pimp thinking this was a good hunting ground.” The guy’s heart rate picked up, and I turned to look at him. “How did you think to come here?” He looked away, and I moved closer. “Tell me now and I’ll have the council go easier on you, but they will get it out of you so tell me.”

  “One of my girls got picked up,” he admitted. “She said the cops were saying this place was making good money off their super sexy girls and they didn’t care about that but they wanted the boss. I figured I could snag some hot shifters, expand a bit because I get a lot of requests for them, then who would care if they just wanted the boss.”

  “Un-fucking-real,” Cooper bitched. “Your shit investigation brought a pimp here to harass women because you don’t like they’re in a burlesque show? Are you kidding? You should have been going after him.”

  “And I have a serious problem with how you can’t even keep your investigations quiet that people you pick up overhear that much,” Brian added.

  Toomey’s answer was to call in on his radio for backup and the club was getting shut down.

  “You are so out of a job after this,” I whispered, my eyes going wide he actually went the nuclear route.

  He shot me a look of death. “Maybe, but this place won’t ever recover from the police raiding your lingerie party for prostitution and everything else we’ll search that will get destroyed along with the blood you serve to leeches and all you animals acting like you’re real people.”

  I wasn’t sure what I was going to say to that, but apparently Dain did.

  “Sir, did you catch that?” he asked, holding up his phone.

  “Yes, Mr. Morton, and I appreciate you immediately making the call instead of taking steps later that would be monumentally embarrassing for Chicago,” someone said from the phone, on speaker so everyone heard.

  “I appreciate you understanding that was my goal, Mr. Mayor,” he replied, and I felt the shock in the room. “How would you like the situation to be handled? I would prefer to come to some resolution that didn’t involve my having to file police harassment claims on behalf of my client.”

  “Captain Toomey, you are relieved of duty, pending a full investigation of this whole mess,” the mayor said. “Chief Havers, if you could please take him into custody until I call the right people to come handle this. I will also call the chief of police to handle dispatch. I would suggest whichever of vice wasn’t party to the harassment is the one you have intercept their people and backup.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Mayor,” Brian replied. “I’ll make sure to hold him until you tell me otherwise.”

  We hung up, and the guy I liked from vice threw on his clothes and got his badge in plain sight seconds before the first of his people outside and the backup came to the door… Much to the shock of those waiting outside at a chance to get into the club even though we’d said there was only a slight chance as we’d sold out all the tickets weeks ago.

  Then again, we’d thrown over a few dozen people out, so that freed up room for occupancy.

  The order came over dispatch to stand down while we were arguing, and everyone chilled the fuck out, which was nice. IA showed up, and after a bit of talking with Brian, I agreed to let them take the other two from vice into custody.

  “I will give you the evidence you need, but if this turns into some bullshit sweeping under the rug crap, I will pick them right back up and hand them over to the shifter council,” I warned the two detectives.

  “We understand,” the first assured me. “Any chance the reason for all the lights and backup could be the guy you caught that we haven’t been able to make a case against?”

  “Someone in your department going to apologize to my people for what they went through? One is a mom who has a voice like an angel and is a shifter, so she doesn’t care if she’s naked. None of them are whores, but they felt like it with these two harassing them.”

  “Oh, I think you’ll be getting
lots of apologies,” the other guy muttered, glancing around at the mess that was starting to clear out. “Yeah, lots of them.”

  I paused by the door, leaning in and kissing Dain’s cheek. “Thanks. That was a smart play and not one I’d have thought of.”

  “I had a chance to speak to him and his wife at the last big party here and admitted I was concerned about some sort of power play like this after Alpha Lyon and the wolf elder made their move. It seemed too quiet on the human front no matter how open minded and accepting Chicago was. He shared my concern and gave me his direct line in case of an emergency, as he wants this progress for Chicago you’re pushing for.”

  “Smart, thanks.”

  He moved in closer when I went to step around him. “I will always protect you as best as I can, Sera. I’m sorry I failed you before and then failed you again with how badly I handled hurting you.”

  “I want to believe you,” I whispered, my stomach clenching even as my body tingled when I felt his breath along my skin. “I know you’re telling me the truth but—”

  “I’m trying not to push you and make this harder, but that limits how I would fight for you,” he interrupted, probably getting that I was feeling like he was maybe on the fence.

  I met his gaze. “What would you do differently?”

  “I would ask and beg to be included in whatever fun you have planned soon. I’ve been debating showing up with the others, but that’s presumptive I deserve to have a seat at the table as opposed to asking to be included.”

  I gave a slow nod. “It’s not a green light that everything’s okay. I warned the others of that, and the plan is still to go slow. They planned dates and everything I had to reschedule and mess up, and I wanted to return the spoiling.”

  “Include me, my love,” he breathed in my ear. “I don’t deserve it, but please don’t exclude me and break my heart. I want to be there when you celebrate the holiday to show love. I’m begging you.”