Page 8 of Memphis Heat
“Did you know where you were running?Can you think?Like a man?”
“Yeah, of course.I’m still me.Just… furrier.And with a really acute sense of smell.”
Now they were getting somewhere.“Maybe we’ll write our own handbook.What else do you remember?”
“That’s about it.I wanted to get away, so I ran.When I was done running, I shifted back.And had a long walk home.”
She sighed.“Damn it, Miller said they could teach us about this stuff.Some help he’s been.Has he told you anything?”
“I haven’t asked.”
She punched him.“Why the hell not?Wait.Don’t answer that.You’re a guy.Ofcourseyou didn’t ask.”
“He’s FBI.They snatched us up from the paramedics right after the explosion without even asking, and then they tell us we’re being reassigned, again without asking.I was Army.I know how to take orders.Doesn’t mean I have to like it.I’m just not volunteering a damn thing to these assholes.If I don’t know everything I need to, they damned well don’t need to know what I don’t know.”He looked almost as confused as he was cute.“Or something like that.”
“Guy logic totally baffles me.You should come with a roadmap, but I’d still get lost.”Belle shook her head again, trying not to laugh at him.“So we know you can shift when you have a reason -- like needing to get away from the place where you were shot.Your clothes sort of POOF, but when you shift back they shift with you.You can shift to protect me -- or choose not to.That’s a good start.My skin itches all over, and I’ve been having… something.Like hot flashes kinda.I’m pretty sure whatever’s going to happen already happened.Just not as dramatic as you ‘cause I wasn’t bleeding to death, you know?”
Now or never.Belle took a deep breath and looked deep into his eyes.“Chase me.I wanna run.”Run, she thought.Run.
Chapter Four
Chase me.Jarod wasn’t about to admit he didn’t have a clue how.But when Belle shifted before him, turning into a beautiful silver-black wolf and took off at a run, he knew he couldn’t let her go alone.Shifting to his larger, blacker form was as natural as taking a piss.No way he was letting her run off alone and unprotected.She ran.He chased.Where you lead, I will follow.He’d never been big on poetry, but the line came to mind and it felt right.His tongue dipped over the edge of his teeth, sampling the night air.Cool, cool air against his heated blood.
Where the hell was she going?But with a sinking desperation, he knew.Back to the damned warehouse.No!Dangerous, he warned in sharp yips.Like she’d ever listened to him.Why?Why would she… Because he’d told her more than he thought he had.She knew what he would have, if he’d been thinking like a cop.They could smell.Whatever’d been in that warehouse, this was the only way they’d be able to find out now.
She was still thinking like a cop.She slowed from a full run long before they reached the warehouse district, slinking into the shadows, only mildly distracted by the garbage behind the Italian restaurant.Damn, he was hungry.
Jarod took the lead now, shaking off the scents that threatened to seduce him, slinking slowly to the wreckage of the burned-out building.Yellow crime tape ordered him to stay out, but it was meant for humans.No one would question a hungry dog nosing through the wreckage.
They approached cautiously, like stray dogs used to being chased off.Jarod scented the air, trying to pick up anything.Burnt wood.Scorched metal.That he could see.But what had been worth…
No.They’d got it all wrong.It wasn’twhatwas in the warehouse, butwho-- who was watching them.They’d known.It had been a trap -- just not the trap he thought it was.They weren’t guarding the warehouse, they were afterhim.And that meant…
No!he barked at Belle.Trap!
Belle looked over her shoulder at him, evidently not understanding the universal language of growls and barks.He ran at her, hitting her shoulder, knocking her back, away from the… fuck.Too late.A circle of large, silver-black wolves surrounded them, yellow eyes and laughing tongues mocking their cleverness.
The largest shifted before their eyes, becoming a six-foot-four Viking look-alike who seemed almost familiar.“Welcome home, my children.You will come with us now.”
Jarod shifted as well, finding the transition as smooth as aged whiskey and with just as much bite.“And if we don’t?”
The Viking’s gaze swept over Belle.“Nice bitch.Perhaps you’d like to introduce us.”
Rage tore through Jarod.“Mine!”
“That remains to be seen.Come.Run with us.We will settle this.Like wolves.”
Jarod’s instinct was to attack, but he could almost hear Belle’s voice in his head.This is why we’re here, remember?Blondie shifted back and took off at a run, Belle surrounded by his pack.Jarod had no choice.He ran.But the first chance he had, he’d let his wolf have its way.And his wolf wanted blood.
* * *
Belle had a bad feeling about this.The pack ran, surrounding her and Jarod so there was no mistaking who was in charge.They loped along until they reached an abandoned factory out in the middle of nowhere.The place was huge.Acres of land and buildings standing empty, parking lots beginning to show grass where crisp white lines had once marked off coveted territory.Belle hadn’t seen a soul since they’d left the city limits.There was nothing left here.Without the factory, there was no reason for traffic.Apparently, the pack had chosen its den well.
They made their way through a well-worn break in the fence and into what had once been the main offices, one of the wolves shifting to unlock the door.So, they had keys.They were either renting the property, or they’d bought it.Places like this could be had for a song at tax foreclosure sales.
They were led deep into the interior, though they were still close enough to the exits should they need to make a run for it.Surprisingly, her wolf senses let her see quite well even though no one had turned on the lights.Moonlight poured in through skylights that dotted the rooflines.
Belle followed Jarod’s lead when he shifted as the others did.Normally, she was very self-assured and a take-charge kind of woman, but here she was perfectly happy to rely on Jarod.He didn’t have any more experience being a werewolf than she did, but this was obviously a male-dominated species.Being assertive and demanding would probably only get them both killed.
