by Dianna Love
Not on a bed. He ran his hands over carpet. Struggling to his feet, he swallowed down disgust as he realized what had happened. He made it to the bathroom before he threw up. An angry giant pounded the inside of his skull.
When he could stand, he stared at the pale nightlight, trying to get his head straight.
Turning around, he took in the dark hotel room with his wolf vision.
He cursed to the empty room. Why couldn’t this be a boring Thursday and not start off with a decorating apocalypse? Everything had been ripped or bashed.
That hadn’t all happened in human form either.
He respected a hotel just as he would someone’s home.
Even at twelve, he’d kept his cardboard shelter clean. Living on the streets hadn’t meant he wanted to live in squalor.
Mad Red had given his word not to harm an innocent, but no deal had been struck on general destruction.
Negotiating a peace treaty between countries had to be easier than gaining any agreement with his wolf half since getting caught.
The bed coverings, pillows, and mattress had been shredded. Lamps were scattered around, large sections of carpet destroyed.
Once again, Mad Red had come out to punish him.
Anytime Adrian had a nightmare, especially that nightmare, Mad Red let him know just how much he loathed the human side of this body.
But this nightmare had been different.
Jaz had been there to comfort him. She’d watched over him when they fought together to help Scarlett and Gan just yesterday. She’d stuck by him when he’d lost consciousness in the middle of a battle with shifters. She’d been captured with him by a tiger shifter hunting Scarlett, Jaz’s friend and now mated to one of his Gallize brothers.
They escaped their cages at the tiger compound.
All that had been before he’d discovered she killed Leonard’s brother, the only son left who the alpha had expected to rule their pack. Adrian’s heart clenched hard every time he thought about losing his best friend.
Leonard’s sister had asked Adrian for help in finding Kaiser’s killer, a woman she called Jane.
The same woman Adrian knew as Jaz. Why had she taken a fake name? Now he had to hunt Jaz down and bring her to justice. His stomach dropped.
Someone knocked on the door.
Ah, hell, this would not go well.
He snatched a towel and wrapped it around his waist. At the door, he checked the peephole. Not security, but food service. Had Mad Red kept the noise down to prevent security from racing in?
Probably not. His wolf would revel in Adrian’s humiliation.
Planning ahead, Adrian had requested food to be delivered at the first moment available, hoping to be awakened by that and not a nightmare.
Major fail on that idea.
“Just a minute.” He spoke loud enough to be heard by a human on the other side. Where was his wallet?
He found it across the room, dug out a fifty, and returned to the door.
Leaving the room dark, he opened the door a few inches and held the money out. Hotels had to be informed of shifters staying. The fastest way to lower someone’s anxiety at facing a shifter was money.
Adrian said, “Thanks for being on time. I’ll take it from here.”
“Yes, sir.” No argument on the waiter’s part. Probably thrilled not to enter the room.
“I’ll sign the check so you won’t have to wait.” Adrian snatched up the dark invoice sleeve sitting on the side of the cart, scribbled his name, and handed it back to the young man in a hotel uniform.
As soon as the waiter turned the corner heading for the elevator, Adrian dragged the cart inside and locked the door.
He could see in the dark, but he’d had enough darkness for one night. He flipped the light switch, but nothing came on until he straightened a lamp and plugged it in.
Man, what a disaster.
If the Guardian found out about this, he wouldn’t leave Adrian free long enough to make good on helping Leonard’s sister, Tanza.
His stomach growled a nicer sound than Red.
Wheeling the cart over to the bed, he sat and ate. Food solved one issue. Hungry normal shifters were bad enough. Him and Mad Red hungry? Yeah, that couldn’t happen. Finished eating, he cleaned up the room as best he could, showered, dressed, and called for the manager to come up.
When Adrian opened the door, he explained, “I have PTSD.”
Mad Red snorted, but not comically as he would have in the past. His wolf had a nasty disposition these days.
Sarcastic wolf. Ignoring the jerk, Adrian continued. “I haven’t had an episode like this in ... a long time.”
Lie. Mad Red made that little commentary without derision.
Adrian would be glad for any conversation with his wolf, but not right now.
Wearing the brisk black suit befitting a man in charge, the manager stood with arms crossed and his fortyish face contorted to not happy.
He also oozed fear.
Trying to smooth this over and put the man at ease, Adrian offered, “I’ll cover all the costs, plus loss of income while the room is being repaired, and a hundred dollars for the maid assigned to this room.”
The manager said nothing for a moment then gave a short nod. “That will be fine, Mr. Brooks. I’ll put a hold for ten thousand on your credit card. Additionally, I’d prefer if you did not return. We do accommodate shifters, but I don’t want to go through ... this again.”
Good thing Adrian had saved the majority of his military earnings. “Understood. Neither do I. You have my word that I won’t return unless you need something additionally from me. If so, you have my phone number. I’ll be out of here in about ten minutes.”
He waited for the manager to leave before he pulled out his mobile phone he’d found under the bed.
His boss had been more than fair to let Adrian go off on his own, but he’d never lied to the Guardian. If Mad Red had not agreed to do the honorable thing and help Leonard’s family, Adrian would not be here. His wolf also suffered from what happened to them in that jungle cage, but he still had a core of honor. If his wolf gave his word, it was bankable.
They shared a tight relationship from their first few weeks together. No more.
Adrian dropped his head. He missed the Red he’d once known so damn much, but this was his fault. He couldn’t blame his wolf.
His eagle shifter Guardian believed Adrian could come back from what he’d suffered in Africa.
That level of belief humbled him in spite of being unrealistic.
Adrian would not be here alone if he had any doubt he could manage his wolf during his lucid hours. He believed Mad Red knew exactly what went on whenever Adrian got trapped in a nightmare, but his wolf had his own issues. After tonight, Adrian would have to avoid sleeping in hotels or any other place he’d wreck while unconscious.
“Actually, Red destroyed the room,” Adrian muttered to himself.
Your fault, Mad Red argued.
See? His wolf knew what went on at all times.
Frustrated and tired of constantly fighting this battle alone, Adrian didn’t have it in him to ignore Mad Red this time. He countered telepathically, I know. It’s all my fault. I’m the one who took us to Burkino Faso. I’m the one who wanted to save that woman. I guess the helo blowing up was my fault too. Then I got caught on purpose, and intentionally, while unconscious so they could put us in a titanium cage. You’re right, I must have wanted to be folded into a human cube as they stabbed me with a sharp blade on the outside and you slashed my insides.
Bitterness choked him. He’d never been in conflict with his wolf and didn’t know how to handle this.
Early on after being rescued, they’d both been hurting and angry, yelling insults at each other.
Once that early stage had wound down, they ignored each other for days after the Guardian put him in a Wyoming reserve with a magical enclosure.
That’s when Adrian finally tried to patch things up by letting
his wolf run as much as he wanted. He’d tried talking to his animal half, but it always ended up in a vicious argument.
They solved nothing.
After weeks there, the two of them reached the point of silence broken up only by nasty jabs. He hated himself even more now than he had in that cage. He’d failed his wolf half and his wolf had never failed him.
Adrian waited for a new round of insults after getting that blast off his chest.
Surly Mad Red shut down and withdrew.
Back to silence. Adrian welcomed it this time. He could stand one day of incommunicado between them.
Still holding the phone, he pulled up Tanza’s number. Leonard’s sister had been left as the sole heir to a wolf pack with an alpha grieving over the death of two sons. She feared her powerful alpha would be vulnerable to a dominance battle. He’d been in a downward spiral since Leonard’s death and now obsessed over finding Kaiser’s killer.
Leonard had said little about his father other than he’d been a tough son of a gun on Leonard. Adrian should have gone to see them after Leonard’s death, but he’d ended up caught before he could ship home.
He’d never had a home before the Gallize. Even then, he’d spent most of the time gone overseas hunting terrorists and supporting the human military covertly.
He didn’t want to hunt Jaz.
Tanza claimed she witnessed Jaz kill Kaiser.
He had no argument against that kind of evidence.
Adrian had asked the Guardian, a giant sea eagle shifter who led the Gallize shifters, for time to tackle a personal goal of helping Tanza before submitting his wolf to his boss.
The Guardian didn’t want to put him down, but Adrian and Mad Red grew further apart every day.
One day, his control would snap.
He’d submit before risking the life of an innocent bystander.
If only his last goal to help a friend didn’t revolve around bringing Jaz in for SCIS, the Shifter Criminal Investigation Service, to shove her into a titanium-cased pit. They reserved that for shifters they considered the most dangerous.
Shifters sent underground rarely left alive.
Jaz had a ferocious golden wolf, larger than most female shifter wolves, but she had a wide streak of decency. Still, he had to ask himself if he really knew the true Jaz. That wouldn’t happen until he found out why she’d killed Kaiser.
Everyone deserved a chance to give their side.
His gut churned, but duty always came first. If Jaz had a defensible position, she could explain when he found her.
First he’d call Tanza to get more information.
“Hello?” Kaiser’s sister answered in a cautious voice.
Adrian didn’t have to be there to scent her anxiety. “It’s me.”
“Oh, good.” Her relief carried through her words. “I feared you had changed your mind after last night.”
“No.” Adrian had a reputation for following through no matter the mission. Jaz had stood by him to watch his six when she’d first met him. She’d been brutally injured by a pack of mixed shifters in animal forms while she stayed to protect a man she didn’t know.
But Tanza had seen Jaz kill Kaiser. Adrian had to keep that in front of his mind.
Returning to Tanza, he said, “I’ve been thinking on it and I need more about ... ” He caught himself before saying Jazlyn, which might come out sounding too personal. “The one you call the Golden Kodiak wolf.”
“Sure. What do you need?” Tanza sounded in her twenties, which would fit what her other brother Leonard had told Adrian when they were overseas on missions.
He didn’t ask Tanza for a starting point since he could track Jaz from where he’d last seen her yesterday, plus he could tap the Gallize network of resources. The Guardian wouldn’t have a problem with that as long as Adrian explained that he was searching for a missing person.
That might tread close to a lie by omission, but until he believed without a doubt that Jaz was guilty, he’d stick with that as his goal.
Sorting through his thoughts, he asked Tanza, “First, why do you think she killed your brother? Was she provoked in any way?” He silently begged, Please give me a defensible reason and not a homicidal motive. Every time he thought about Jaz, his mind took a hard turn and went back to seeing her captured and beaten.
He’d been drawn to her, more than he wished to admit, which would only get in the way of being objective. His brain had a tough time pushing him to see Jaz as a cold blooded killer and not the woman who had stood strong in the face of a vicious attack.
The woman he couldn’t get out of his mind.
Tanza’s voice turned angry. “I’m sure she thought she was provoked, but it was all one-sided.”
“What was one-sided?” Adrian shoved aside his straying thoughts. Time for his game face.
“She’d had a thing for Leonard,” Tanza continued. “Sad to say, but my brother liked her back. She fooled him and all of us. Not long after we lost Leonard, she turned her sights on Kaiser. He would become the next alpha of our pack. The only problem was that Kaiser liked someone else name Daisy. When I went looking for Kaiser that day, I scented Daisy in the area where I found him. But Daisy was nowhere around. I haven’t seen her since. I showed up that day as Jane’s wolf ... ripped out the throat of Kaiser’s wolf.” Tanza’s voice turned watery on that last sentence.
Jaz had been involved with Leonard?
Adrian ran back through his mind on conversations he’d had with Leonard. His friend never mentioned a relationship back home, but then Leonard had once said he had no plans to settle down as long as he remained active in the military.
Maybe he hadn’t considered it a relationship.
Or was that wishful thinking on Adrian’s part?
But what about Jaz’s interest in Kaiser?
All of this new intel shoved Adrian off balance, or it forced him onto the right mental track. Maybe it was time to take a step back and review Jaz under a new light.
A much brighter objective light.
Tanza calmed down and explained, “My father made a place in our pack for that woman when she showed up as a lone wolf. She never told us she was the Golden Kodiak wolf. When my father reported the killing to local shifters to rally others to hunt her, he found out SCIS were looking for a wolf that fit her description. That’s when we learned she was the Golden Kodiak wolf.”
Adrian broke in. “Why do you want me to look if SCIS is hunting her?”
“My father won’t talk to SCIS, which means we have no idea what they’re doing or if they have any leads. He planned to bond Jane to the pack after a probationary period, because he was careful about who we tied that close to family. He welcomed her into our pack, then she betrayed him at his lowest time on the heels of losing Leonard. Now, my father isn’t doing well. I can’t lose him, too. That’s why I had no one else to call but you. Leonard said he trusted you with his life, and I should do the same.”
Adrian had failed that trust once.
He couldn’t fail Leonard again. He censured himself for tangling up emotions with facts.
Sniffling, Tanza asked, “You’re going to find her, right?”
“Oh, yes. I’m on the hunt.”
Chapter 3
Jaz bent over a wooden table four people had left covered in dirty dishes and empty beer mugs. Not bad for a Friday lunch, but the C Bar, short for Clarenceville Bar, enjoyed being the only place to eat out and drink a beer at lunch.
A picture of this place should be in the dictionary next to the description for a small town. One grocery, one post office, and one bar, but full of nice people.
She cleared the surface and gave it a quick wipe with her damp rag, then tossed the rag into her scuffed-up bus tub.
All those mundane movements allowed her to scan everyone in the bar and filter scents, watching for someone not human to ping her radar.
Smells nasty, Tarski complained to her telepathically.
She silently sent back, Not nasty
, just a bar. People come here after sweating outside and the place is old.
Nasty, her wolf contended.
How she ended up with a sometimes OCD wolf, she’d never know. She’d had her hands in dirty situations her whole life. When she let her wolf out, Tarski avoided mud holes and slimy surfaces ... unless they were under attack.
Facing a threat, Tarski jumped into anything up to her neck and fought without restraint. Blood didn’t bother her one bit if something needed bleeding.
But the minute Tarski cleaned her coat, she preferred to stay that way.
Lifting the tub, Jaz made her way to the other tables that had closed out their tab. She owed Sam for this job and for helping her out with Sheriff Burnham. The sheriff hadn’t been as gullible as Sam, but then law enforcement often had a natural sixth sense.
Fortunately, the sheriff hadn’t been a shifter, even though she’d been able to pass a lie off on occasion with shifters. It cost her energy when she did and she preferred not to waste energy unless lying equaled survival. She’d never met another shifter who could use an internal energy to manipulate her scent to pass a falsehood for truth.
Her strange power showed up when she turned twenty, but her bear-shifter mother swore she never possessed anything close and had no idea where Jaz’s came from.
Jaz seriously doubted her father had been anything beyond a dominant wolf shifter. If not for Sam, she would still be answering the sheriff’s questions.
Her new friend had grumbled every time the sheriff asked her another question outside the hospital yesterday. She worried his irritation would get her in trouble, but the sheriff turned out to be Sam’s brother-in-law.
Gotta love small towns.
Once George came out of surgery and Sam had a chance to talk to his buddy, everyone focused on rabid wolves.
Sam shared all that with her as he drove home that morning. What a good man. He had been exhausted from the stressful morning, but he refused to go home until he’d gotten her settled, as he put it.
First, he made a call and located a free room above an old barn not being used that she could have for a week. Next, he asked his wife to find Jaz clothes. Then he gave Jaz money for food, which she tried to refuse, but he said George would have his hide if he didn’t feed her.