Primal Hunger (Primal Howlers MC Book 4)

by Piper Davenport

  “She’s perfect,” I said, the grinned at Reagan. “Aren’t you, sweet girl?”

  “Lala,” she babbled.

  “Are you on your way?” I asked.

  “Yeah, baby. Want me to pick up food?”

  “Yes, please.”

  “Tacos?”

  I grinned. “You read my mind.”

  “Okay, see you soon.”

  “Thanks, honey.”

  I hung up and carried Reagan into the family room, setting her in her baby bouncer and pouring some Cheerios on the little tray. She grabbed a handful and shoved them into her mouth, gumming them with vigor.

  I took advantage of her moment of distraction and loaded the dishwasher, closing it just as I heard the beep of the alarm.

  “Hey, baby, it’s me,” Aero called out.

  Another four beeps resetting the alarm, and Aero was strolling into the kitchen, a large paper bag in his hand.

  “Extra chips?” I asked, hopefully.

  “Is this my first rodeo?” he retorted, setting the bag on the island.

  I wrapped my arms around his waist and kissed his neck. “Love you best.”

  “I’m aware,” he said, kissing me gently, then making a beeline for Reagan.

  She squealed, raising her hands, and bouncing excitedly. He leaned down and lifted her out of the seat, blowing a raspberry on her neck while I pulled the food out of the bag.

  “She’s totally in love with you,” I observed.

  “The feeling’s mutual,” he said, chuckling as Reagan grabbed his beard in her fists and tried to yank it into her mouth. He met my eyes. “I want one.”

  “You want what?”

  “A kid,” he said.

  I set his tacos on a plate and slid it toward him. “Now?”

  “If not now, then soon. Yeah.”

  A lot had changed since Aero had earned his patch. I’d graduated with honors, gotten hired on full time with the zoo, and was making decent money. Aero was working with Rocky at the shop, not to mention he received a percentage of the cannabis business, we’d be in a good place financially… soon. We just needed a little time to find our place in the world.

  “I’ve been in my job for less than a year, honey. I don’t feel comfortable getting knocked up and taking maternity leave yet.”

  “I get it,” he said. “But what about in a year?”

  “From now, or a year at my job?”

  “Either.”

  I smiled. “A year from now I could do.”

  He held his pinky up and I wrapped mine around it.

  “Gonna make you legal before that, baby,” he promised.

  “Oh, I know you will,” I sassed, leaning up on my tiptoes to kiss him and getting socked in the face by Reagan as I did.

  “Girl fight,” Aero joked.

  I chuckled. “You eat and I’ll feed her, then you can do bath while I eat.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Aero handed her off to me and we went about our nightly routine as we practiced for our own family.

  * * *

  Aero

  Wednesday night arrived and the church meeting had been called to include all members, not just officers, so my ass was on the back of my bike and heading to the club before Letti got off work. She was planning on heading to her dad’s afterwards to hang with Wyatt and Reagan.

  As I walked out of my apartment, I was reminded that Violet and I seriously needed to find something else. Somewhere nicer. A place we could make a home, together.

  Pulling up to the cabin, I backed my bike into a spot, then headed inside. Dropping my cell phone into the plastic bin by the door, I walked into the meeting room and took my place beside Scooby and Scrappy, standing at the back wall.

  “Hey, brother,” Scrappy said.

  “Hey. Prez looks pissed,” I observed. “Know why?”

  “Nah. He’s been breakin’ shit all day,” Scooby said.

  “He’s not lockin’ down the women and kids, so that’s a positive,” Scrappy continued.

  “Yet,” Scooby countered.

  “True.” Scrappy sighed. “This doesn’t look good.”

  “Who are we missin’?” Sundance demanded.

  “Rocky,” Wrath said. “He’s five minutes out.”

  “We’ll start without him,” Sundance said, nodding toward Wrath who was closest to the door. Wrath closed it and Sundance banged the gavel. “Looks like the Beast is backing the Bulykin brothers’ expansion into Monument.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Scrappy asked.

  “Not sure what’s in it for the Beast,” Sundance said. “But the brothers are known for runnin’ girls and heroin.”

  “Fuckin’ bullshit, man,” Stoney hissed.

  The Bulykin brothers were the ones who’d planned to sell his kid to the highest bidder. The wound was still open in Stoney’s mind, and he kept both Sabrina, who was pregnant, and Felix close at all times.

  “What do you want us to do?” I asked.

  “Lock Letti down, drive her to and from work.” He focused back on the group. “Same goes for all of you. Watch your women and kids. We’ll get provisions brought in in case we need to host families for a few days.” He pointed to Stoney. “Get a meet set up with Luca. I want to know what they know.”

  Luca was Sabrina’s cop brother. He’d assisted in getting Felix back from the Bulykin brothers after he was kidnapped, and even though Luca irritated the shit out of Stoney, he seemed to have backed off in his vendetta against the club, and had even steered law enforcement from our door a few times.

  “I’ll set it up tonight,” Stoney said, and Sundance nodded.

  “Do you think they’ll fuck with us?” Wrath asked.

  “If they do, it’ll be the last thing they do,” Sundance said, banging the gavel. “Meeting adjourned.”

  We filed out, picked up our phones, and made our way to the great room to drink. I was surprised to find Wyatt, Sabrina, and Raquel in the kitchen, opening boxes of fresh, hot pizzas.

  “Where’s Letti?” I asked. She’d been with them down at Sundance and Wyatt’s place while church was meeting, but had planned to meet me when we were done.

  “She’s here somewhere,” Raquel said.

  I found myself relaxing, not realizing I’d been on such high alert.

  Wyatt smiled. “Rough meeting?”

  “I plead the fifth,” I replied.

  She chuckled. “Fair enough.”

  “There you are,” Letti said, wrapping her arms around me.

  “Here I am,” I said, giving her a gentle squeeze.

  “Can I steal you for a minute?” She frowned up at me. “Or are you still meeting?”

  “I’m good,” I said. “Your room?”

  She nodded and we made our way upstairs, closing ourselves inside.

  “How bad?” she asked.

  “Locked down bad,” I said.

  She dropped her head to my chest. “We don’t have time for this shit.”

  “It’s fine, baby. We’ll adjust.”

  “I wanted to talk to you about looking for a place together.”

  I sighed. “Yeah, I was gonna talk to you about the same.”

  She smiled up at me. “Really?”

  “Yeah, baby. I know you hate my place,” I said. “I hate my place.”

  “That’s not to take away from the fact you’ve done everything—”

  “Babe, I get it. Thank you for acknowledging the difficult job of getting a recruit to clean my apartment.”

  “Well, I cleaned it initially,” she reminded me. “Then I kind of put up a stink because you wouldn’t keep up with it, so you then got one of the grunts to do it on a regular basis, so you wouldn’t have to.”

  I chuckled. “Right. Thank you for doin’ that.”

  “You’re welcome.” She grinned. “I want chickens.”

  “Come again?”

  “Chickens,” she repeated. “I want snow chickens and regular chickens, chickens who lay eggs. Can you
imagine having fresh eggs every day?”

  “Let’s let all this shit calm down a bit,” I suggested, cupping her face.

  “Are you against chickens?”

  “No. I’m not at all against chickens.”

  She smiled again. “Okay, I’m happy to let things calm down a bit then.”

  I nodded. “In the meantime, we can open a bottle of your favorite wine Friday night and start compiling a wish list.”

  “Do we have to wait until Friday to open the wine?”

  “Of course not. I’ll make sure we’re stocked.” I kissed her nose. “Until further notice, I drop and pick you up from work, got it?”

  “I know the drill, honey,” she said.

  “Let’s go get some food.”

  She kissed me one more time, then followed me back downstairs.

  Violet

  TWO WEEKS LATER, my buzzing phone atop my nightstand pulled me out of much-needed slumber. Aero was on a run for the club, so I was alone. Well, sort of. Scrappy was sacked out in the living room, my watchdog for the night.

  Bleary eyed and half-asleep, I struggled to make out who was calling. Finally, my eyes adjusted enough to see that it was the zoo and that it was 1:05 A.M.

  Why the hell is someone from work calling me at this hour?

  I thought briefly about ignoring the call and going back to sleep, but then thought the call might be about Ellie or the calf, so I picked up.

  “Hello?” I answered in a groggy voice.

  “Oh, good you’re up,” a panicked voice on the other end said.

  “Who is this? Is everything okay with Ellie?”

  “Oh, sorry. This is Phoebe. I’m one of the new interns. Ellie and baby are fine, but Mara never showed up to relieve me from my shift. She’s over an hour late and isn’t answering her phone.”

  “What about Gilbert?” I asked.

  “He’s in Honduras with Ray picking up a male Capybara from a sanctuary. I’m so sorry. Your number was next on the list. Normally I’d stay, but I have an early class tomorrow morning.”

  “No, that’s alright,” I said sitting up. “Sit tight. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  I hung up the phone, got out of bed, and looked in the closet for a clean uniform.

  “Shit.”

  It was then I remembered the laundry sack, which contained every one of my uniforms, sitting in the back seat of my car. I’d meant to drop it off at the dry cleaners after work but was so exhausted I’d completely forgotten. So, not only did I not have any clean uniforms, I couldn’t even shake out a dirty one and throw it on.

  “Sweats it is,” I said out loud to no one as I dressed into a pair of sweatpants and a Roses for Anna T-shirt. I looked completely unprofessional, but at least I wouldn’t care if I got giraffe shit all over me.

  I sneaked out of my bedroom, passing Scrappy who was snoring, loudly, on the sofa, and slipping out of the apartment as quietly as I could.

  Traffic was lighter than usual, even for this time of night, and I made it to the zoo in only forty-five minutes. Instead of parking in the staff lot, I decided to break zoo law and park in one of the spots reserved for our Platinum Members. I sent both Aero and Scrappy a text, letting them know where I was. I knew Aero’d be pissed I’d given Scrappy the slip, but he’d have to get over it. It’s not like Scrappy could have come with me, and it was a zoo. There was nothing dangerous here. Just animals who were all locked down for the night.

  I relieved Phoebe and made sure she was awake enough to drive back to her apartment.

  “Thanks so much for doing this,” she said, over and over again.

  “Totally fine,” I assured.

  She headed out, and after I checked on Ellie and her second, now one-year-old calf, Quincy, who incidentally, had been born the same day as Reagan, I made my way toward the staff office. I’d planned on putting on a fresh pot of coffee and listening to my favorite true crime podcast until the giraffe’s next scheduled well-check, but first I had to make my way through the darkness. Since artificial lights affect the sleeping habits of most of our animals, the zoo was kept as dark as possible after hours.

  As I approached the pathway leading to the administration building, strange noises in the dark caused me to stop dead in my tracks.

  “Oh, shit, man! Don’t do this!” I heard a man’s voice cry out, followed by sounds of what sounded like a struggle.

  The noises were coming from the Benson Predator Ridge, where the Lions were on exhibit. I ducked behind a nearby concessions stand and held my breath.

  “Please, I’ll pay you anything. I swear to Christ,” the man shouted as the rustling noises continued.

  “Sorry, Zippo, the Beast wants to make an example of you,” a man with a thick Russian accent replied.

  I had no idea how these guys had gotten in, but they seemed unaware of my presence and I wanted to keep it that way. I didn’t know if they were really going to feed this poor guy to the lions or if they were trying to scare him, but I didn’t want to end up as desert if it was the former.

  “You don’t have to do this. I’m begging you. I’ll give you whatever you want. Please just let me go. I’ll leave town. She’ll never know.” The man’s pleas grew more desperate.

  “Daphne was specific,” the Russian said. “She told me and my brother to tie you up and throw you to the lions, so that’s what we have to do.”

  The sound of more screaming and struggling filled the night air. I dug for my phone to call 911 but found my pocket empty.

  Shit.

  My phone must have slid out of my sweatpants as I got out of my car. To call for help I’d have to complete my journey to the office, which was over fifty yards away, or hightail it all the way back to my car. The office was closer, but I’d be heading toward the lions and the scary men. Even though I’d parked in the closest space possible and could also drive away as I called 911, it would still take me a few minutes to reach my car. Whoever this guy was would be a cold plate of Lion chow by then.

  “Please don’t, man. I have kids,” the man pled.

  “Oh, yeah? I love kids,” a third voice said cheerily.

  “It’s true,” the first man said. “My brother writes children’s books for our nieces and nephews.”

  Whoever these guys were roughing up must have looked as confused as I was.

  “It’s true,” he continued. “Hey, Yuri. Maybe this will make a good book for you. What do you call it? A morality tale. Man, who does not pay debts to beast is eaten by beast.”

  “I don’t care what our brothers say about you, Sasha. You are genius. Now help me throw Zippo over fence.”

  “No, please, god no!”

  It was only then that I recognized the man’s voice. It belonged to Joe Zapowski, one of the zoo’s security officers. That explained how these guys were able to get in after hours. Joe obviously had history with the two, and must have let them in.

  There was no way I’d be able to make it to the office and place an emergency call before they managed to get poor Joe over the fence. If I had any chance of saving his life, I’d have to create a diversion right now even if it meant putting myself at risk. I’d never be able to live with myself if I knowingly let him die without at least trying to help.

  I stood up and banged my fist on the concession stand’s sheet metal sign, while bellowing into the darkness at the top of my lungs, Tarzan-style, “Aaaauuuuuugggggghhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaa!”

  “What the hell was that?” the first Russian shouted and I took off for the parking lot. Now that I’d alerted the bad guys to my presence, I had to get the hell out of there fast. Once reunited with my cell phone, and safely on the road, I could call 911, then Aero.

  “Over here,” I heard one of the Russians shout from behind. I couldn’t tell exactly where he was, but he sounded closer than I’d like. My lungs burned and adrenaline coursed through my veins as I sprinted through the darkness toward the north gate. My magnetic key card would get me through the gate which would then
lock behind me, trapping whoever was on my tail inside the zoo, giving me enough time to reach my car.

  “It’s a woman. I can see her now! She’s almost at the exit!” I heard the Russian yell as I neared the gate. A shot rang out and I screamed. I had no idea how they’d gained on me so quickly. I knew this place like the back of my had but could barely see where I was going in the darkness.

  Finally reaching the security door, I pulled out my key card and I waved it wildly in front of the sensor until it buzzed and flashed green. I threw myself through the door and slammed it shut just as one of my pursuers reached the gate. Now, under light, I could see he was wearing what looked to me like night vision goggles. Explaining how he was able to spot me so easily. He slammed into the door of the high iron gate, yanking on the handle wildly to get out, but I paused for a moment to keep from passing out. I knew as long as they were on the other side of the gate, I was safe as the nearest unkeyed exit was a ten-minute jog away.

  “You…need…a card to…get out,” I said, catching my breath just as the second man joined the first.

  “You mean, like this one,” he said, smiling while holding up Joe Zapowski’s card.

  “Shit,” I said and took off running again.

  I heard the buzz of the security lock, followed by footsteps closing in on me fast. Rounding the row of hedges obscuring the north gate entrance, I sprinted for the platinum parking lot. After a few seconds, I could see my car, just where I’d parked it. Standing next to my car, however, was someone I hadn’t expected.

  Aero.

  Out of breath and scared shitless, I struggled to call out as I ran to him.

  “Did I hear a gunshot?” he growled.

  “Yes!”

  “Baby, what’s wrong?” he asked as I threw myself into his arms. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”

  My lungs contracted and I was unable to speak as I struggled for air. No matter. My pursuers would get Aero up to speed soon enough.