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“Tank, Allen, Crow,” I greeted the trio, tension melting off my shoulders as I took in the identities of the males emerging out of the swirling snow. Unfortunately, my relief was short-lived because none of Gunner’s pack mates returned the greeting. Instead, Tank and Crow shifted into fur form without bothering to remove their clothing first, while Allen lunged sideways on human feet to cut off my easiest avenue of escape.
They know what I am. To my eternal chagrin, I neither fled nor attacked in the face of this culmination of my recurring nightmare. Instead, I stood there, naked save for the not-quite-fanny-pack around my waist, trying to decide whether I could get away with yanking a sword out of the ether without sealing Kira’s fate as well as my own.
After all, it was still possible the trio hadn’t noted my white-tipped tail and vulpine whiskers when they first came upon me in the snow....
While I hesitated, the pack’s accountant cleared the air. “The boss was disappointed you ran off and left him,” Allen informed me, his words a rough growl backed up by the hard knock of his shoulder against my own. And maybe the night spent scouring the city in search of my sister had exhausted me more than I realized, or maybe I was just shocked by the bitter violence emanating from a once-gentle shifter. Whatever the reason, Allen’s blow threw me off balance...then a wolf to the back of my knees sent me toppling over into a drift of snow.
Frozen water crystals molded around my body like a not-so-warm trenchcoat. But it was the increasing pain within my gut that left me doubled over...that plus a realization of why I’d been drawn to this mansion in the first place.
My debt to Gunner. Of course. I owed the alpha three bucks plus interest. And whether he’d called in the tab intentionally or by accident, I still found myself crawling away from my attackers and toward the building’s rear entrance rather than saving my skin by beating a hasty retreat.
Unfortunately, the werewolves around me must have thought I was trying to flee rather than accepting my comeuppance. Because snarls tunneled through the snow clogging my ear canals, then wolf teeth scraped against the naked skin of my calf.
In response, my star ball pulsed against frozen fingers. The magic wasn’t subtle enough to understand the consequences of forming armored long johns or spiked garters when I was currently buck naked. Instead, it pushed me to provide guidance. Should we attack or defend?
“Neither,” I began, the stab of agony spreading from my belly into my temples making it nearly impossible to speak. But the word didn’t entirely materialize since my cheek was now pressed against a snow drift. Instead, I coughed as I inhaled a mouthful of solid snow.
I lay there spluttering, unable to twist aside as a second wolf pounced upon what little bit of my face was currently accessible. Foul breath wafted into my nostrils even as the wound in my leg deepened sufficiently to impinge upon the pounding in my head and gut. These weren’t the same cheerful pack mates who had ferried me around the city yesterday. Instead, I was facing angry werewolves out for enemy blood....
Which is when I lost track of self-preservation and let instinct take over. Yanking at my fox nature in terror, I prepared to disengage and flee in my agile vulpine form.
But my shift was blocked by the debt dragging me toward the now invisible mansion, and I wasn’t able to so much as twist out of the duo’s tightening grasp.
“I’m sorry, Kira,” I murmured as I stopped straining against the impossible. It was finally time to admit defeat.
***
“LET HER UP.”
Gunner’s command would have been more welcome if his tone hadn’t been as cold as the snow packed between my butt cheeks. So it wasn’t terribly surprising that his underlings obeyed the spirit rather than the actual letter of his order. Tank and Crow did let me go long enough to regain their own humanity, but Allen took advantage of the lull to haul me up by my hair. Then naked two-leggers regained the holds recently relinquished by lupine jaws, this time grabbing my arms in a vise-like grip that was no more yielding than their teeth had been.
Meanwhile, the snowfall was easing up around us, which made it easier than it would have been previously to see the tall male figure stalking down the mansion’s rear path toward our circle of trampled snow. And I cringed as I took in the bandage crossing Gunner’s cheekbone, the bruises around his throat, and the way the alpha walked with an ill-disguised limp.
The odds had been badly stacked against him back by my apartment, especially after I’d abandoned the male to duke it out alone. Gunner was lucky he’d made it out of that dog pile alive, and his current existence was no thanks to me.
“I’m sorry,” I started...only to lose track of apologies as the phone in my fanny pack buzzed angrily against my belly. Of all the moments for my trails of bread crumbs to finally bear fruit, now was not the time for Kira’s kidnapper to call.
Unfortunately, the hands gripping my arms only bit in tighter as I attempted to reach for the potential lifeline. And there was no warmth in Gunner’s eyes as he watched me struggle in silence for one long second before I accepted the futility of the attempt.
“Someone more important you need to talk to?” the alpha asked as I stilled, proving that his shifter ears made him well aware of the call that would soon be shunted over to voice mail. He stalked one step closer until I was sandwiched between so many male bodies my breath caught within my throat. And, despite everything, my skin still tingled as the alpha’s warm breath blew miniature tornadoes through my ice-streaked hair.
“I was wrong about Jackal,” I answered as quickly as I could while trying to remember how many times the phone had buzzed at me already. Three, four? Would Kira’s kidnapper try again if I didn’t pick up, or would this be my second strike that knocked my sister’s rescue off the table for good? “This call is...”
I didn’t even manage to get out the rest of my sentence before Gunner reached toward my belly, feeling for the zipper that didn’t actually exist. Open, I bade the star ball, and the alpha’s scent sharpened as the cell jumped out into his extended hand.
Then the screen was glowing between us, “Unknown name, unknown number” filling the small rectangle. I stretched toward it even though I knew Tank and Crow wouldn’t release me. And secretiveness or no secretiveness, if I’d been able I would have pressed the appropriate button with the power of my mind.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t that powerful. And the alpha before me didn’t appear ready to soften his stance anytime soon either. “If you want to answer, you’ll promise to stop running,” Gunner growled, still up in my face.
The air between us was so full of fur and electricity that I nearly choked on my next inhale. Still, I managed to nod. And when Gunner raised his eyebrows, clearly requiring verbal confirmation, I breathed out a vow that dug debt-bearing claws yet deeper into my gut. “I promise.”
At which point the fingers holding back my right arm loosened, allowing me to snatch the cell phone out of my companion’s extended hand. I slid damp fingers across the slick surface, relieved when the call picked up. Then I turned my back for the barest illusion of privacy while pressing the cold plastic up against my ear. “Yes?” I answered, the single word all I could muster using long pent-up air.
“You’ve just about blown it.” Ma Scrubbs’ creaky old voice was the last one I’d expected to wend its way out of the speaker. But as she continued, the entire charade suddenly made far too much sense. “I’ve turned Kira over to the client,” the old woman who loved money above all else informed me, “so you’d better turn up fast.”