Badlands: The Lion's Den (2 page)

“Yep. Sure.” Liam gave him a knowing look, which annoyed the hell out of Finn.

“I mean it,” Finn growled. “She’s not my problem.”

“Of course she’s not.” Liam shrugged. “Can’t go picking up every waif and stray that wanders through Darwin.”

“Damn straight.” Finn nodded, and thought of how she’d smelled. There had been that hint of cinnamon mixed in with her natural musk. Did that mean she would taste like cinnamon as well?

Liam leaned against the wall, folding his arms across his broad chest. “She knew what she was getting into, coming to the Badlands.”

“Course she did,” Finn said, and tried to believe it. Everyone knew about the Badlands.

“Say, you see those four wolves in the doorway across the street? The ones who aren’t wearing our mark?”

Finn brightened. A fight? Something to take his mind off the sexy lynx?

He looked at the doorway where Liam was pointing.

“What four wolves? There’s nobody there,” he said, puzzled.

“Yeah,” Liam drawled, “That’s because they just took off after your little lynx. They all turned the corner at 14
th
Street.”

Finn dropped his bottle of mineral water and took off after them at a dead run, shifting as he ran.

A garbage can came flying out of an alley, clanging on the concrete. He heard the sound of snarling and hissing, and loped down the alleyway, roaring with rage.

A chemical smell stung his nose. Two wolves were rolling on the ground, clawing at their eyes with their paws and yelping.

The lynx was backed up against a dumpster, in human form except for the claws that protruded from her fingertips. Her purse lay on the ground, contents spilled out.

She held a canister of mace in front of her, pointed at the other two wolves.

They were facing her, crouched low, the fur on their backs ridged with fury. Finn dodged the cloud of mace and took a swipe at one of the wolves with his paw. His claws raked the wolf’s flesh, ripping bloody strips. The wolf howled, and turned and ran, blood streaming down his side. He left a long red trail behind him.

His companions joined him, legs churning, eyes wild with fear. Their agonized yelps rang through the air as they raced away.

“Be sure to rinse your eyes out with running water for at least twenty minutes!” Flora called after them. “Also, don’t attack strangers! Or anybody! It’s very rude!”

Finn wanted to say, “Are you for real?” but he was still in lion form, so it came out as an astonished growl.

“Get back!” Flora cried out, pointing the can of mace at Finn. “If necessary, I will mace you!”

If necessary?
Where was this woman from?

Finn quickly turned human again, his fur melting back into his skin, fangs retracting. He rose from a crouching position. His eyes stung from the lingering cloud of mace. “Damn, woman!” he complained, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “Put that thing away – I’m here to help you!”

“Sorry, I didn’t realize it was you.” She was breathing hard. “I was doing fine,” she added, but she didn’t look too sure of herself. Her shirt was ripped and hanging open. She quickly peeled it off, reached into her purse and pulled out another shirt.

Finn couldn’t stop himself staring at her. That soft, rounded belly, her generous breasts straining against the white cotton bra…

“I know, I know,” Flora muttered as she buttoned her shirt.

“You know what?” Finn said.

“I’d be so pretty if only I’d lose a few pounds.” Her voice was sadly self-mocking.

“Who ever said that to you?” he said, indignant.

“Oh, my family, my mate-to-be…” She caught herself and looked away as she scooped the scattered contents of her purse back in.

So, she was supposed to be mated. To some idiot who didn’t appreciate a good thing when he saw it.

And given the fact that she was in the Badlands, things obviously hadn’t gone well there.

“Did he hit you?” he asked, and a sudden swelling of rage bubbled up inside him.

“No,” she said quickly. “Please forget I said anything. I’m fine, really.”

The two of them walked back to the street and looked both ways. The street was empty now, and mostly dark.

The buildings were all older, built back in the 1940s. That was when the Council for Shifter Affairs had set aside the state for the exclusive use of shifters who didn’t want to register. The few working streetlamps up and down the street were islands of light in the pitch black, not that it mattered. Shifters had excellent night vision.

“Come back to the club with me,” Finn said impulsively. “My apartment is in the building right behind it. You can crash at my place until Krystle gets back.”

She shook her head. “Oh, no, thank you anyway. I have a reservation at the hotel. It’s not far from here. I’m fine from here on in. Thank you for your help.”

“Where’s your mark?” he asked her, exasperated, but she turned and walked away, in nervous, rapid strides.

She was lying. Hotels in Darwin were filthy flophouses that didn’t take reservations.

Well, the hell with her, he thought resentfully. He’d done everything possible to help her, and she was still determined to get herself killed. He wasn’t about to run after her and drag her kicking and screaming back to the club.

Still, he stood there in the dark for a long, long time, head cocked, listening for any sound of screams or distress coming from the direction in which she’d just gone.

* * * * *

Flora glanced back over her shoulder as she hurried off, looking at him once more before she turned a corner. He stood with his back to her, still naked in the chill of the night.

He seemed larger than any lion shifter she’d ever encountered before. He was a good 6’4”, with broad shoulders and rippling muscles. And not that she’d looked on purpose, but it had been impossible to miss the massive member dangling from that thick thatch of hair.

As she got farther away from him, she felt a surprising stab of loneliness and a strange urge to hurry back to him. He’d made her feel safe in the brief time she’d been with him. She was so alone out here, far away from everything and everyone she knew. But then, she didn’t know him either. And given how utterly she’d been betrayed by those who were closest to her, she sure as hell wasn’t going to put her trust in a perfect stranger.

She kept walking, and the streets were so empty and quiet it was eerie. The sound of her feet slapping on the pavement echoed in her ears.

As she got farther and farther away, the last working streetlights disappeared and the only illumination came from the ghostly moon and the tiny white splotches of stars. Flora slunk through the shadows, clutching her purse to her, her senses on high alert.

In addition to good night vision, she also had an excellent sense of smell, although not as powerful as a wolf’s or bear’s. Right now, she was wishing her sense of smell was not so acute. The odors that were drifting her way made her nose wrinkle. Rotting garbage and urine splashed on concrete. Stale, unwashed B.O., some of it days old, some of it fresher. Ugh.

So this was what freedom smelled like.

The smell of urine and B.O. grew stronger and fresher as she walked. She heard something rattle in a doorway as she passed it, and she stifled a cry of fear. Looking down, she saw an old, grizzled bear shifter curled up there, sleeping off a drunk.

She didn’t feel comfortable being human here.

She hurried down a side street, stripped out of her clothes, stuffed her clothing in her purse, and shifted, sinking to all fours. Ugh. Now her sense of smell was even better.

Then she prowled the dark, lonely streets, purse in her mouth, looking for a place to sleep. She’d lied to Finn about the hotel. She didn’t have money for a hotel, or a cell phone to call and make a reservation.

She’d never owned a cell phone. The Wilkinsons had made sure of that.

And she’d spent almost all her money on the bus that had brought her to the Badlands border station, where she’d handed in her identity card and listened to various dire warnings before they’d let her through a big metal gate. She’d had to shift and run twenty miles to get to Darwin.

Up ahead she saw a row of old buildings that seemed abandoned. She sniffed at the air. She was alone; no other shifters anywhere within scenting distance.

Well, she’d sleep here for the night and figure out what to do in the morning. She slunk through the doorway of what appeared to be an old warehouse, and began pacing through the moldy, damp rooms, heading towards the back of the building.

Had she made a mistake coming here? She’d fled to the Badlands in a state of pure panic. She had found out that her cousin Krystle was here, living in Darwin.

She hadn’t wanted to tell Finn that Krystle was related to her, in case the people who were chasing after her were looking for Krystle too. She needed to warn Krystle what might be coming her way, though. She just prayed that her cousin would be back soon and could give her some kind of guidance on how to survive this strange, terrifying new world.

Flora finally came to a room near the back of the building, with a pile of flattened cardboard boxes in the corner.

She settled down cross-legged on the floor, stared at the pile of boxes, and concentrated hard.

Burn,
she thought.

Nothing happened. Of course.

She pinched her arm, even though she’d tried that already. Pain didn’t seem to work. She’d jabbed herself with a pin the day before just to be sure.

Fear didn’t work either. If it had, those wolves who had just attacked her in the alley would be barbecued wolf-kabob. She was glad she hadn’t set the wolves on fire; she didn’t want them dead. She just wanted them to behave themselves.

She thought back to that summer six years ago, when her cousin Krystle had been staying with her family for the summer after a stint in juvie. Flora’s thuggish older brother Howie had attempted to fondle Krystle. She’d kicked him in the nards and run off through the field behind their house. Howie had tried to chase Krystle, and Flora had jumped on him – and the shed near the house had burst into flames, as if a bomb had gone off. Right before the fire, Flora thought she’d felt something – an odd buzz inside her, something she’d never felt before.

When Flora had looked across the field, she’d seen Krystle standing there, fists clenched, staring at the shed.

Flora had rushed off to tell her parents that she had been the one who’d set the fire, to keep Krystle out of trouble. It hadn’t helped much; her parents had shipped Krystle off to stay with another relative a few days later anyway.

With a heavy sigh, she slid behind the boxes and curled up to sleep.

She woke with a start, and lay still for a long moment, scenting and listening. The sun was up, streaming through the building’s cracked, filthy windows.

She smelled someone nearby. Female bear. Well, that was good news, right? What were the odds that a female would try to mug her?

Then again, this was the Badlands. Anything was possible. She’d have to be ready to run for it.

She shifted and changed into her clothing and shoes from yesterday, and walked out the back door into an alley. A teenaged female bear shifter, in human form, was rummaging through a trash pile.

“Hey,” Flora called out. “I’ve got twenty bucks, if you need money for breakfast.”

The bear girl let out a startled shriek and jumped about a foot. Then she quickly snatched up a canvas bag that had been lying on the ground, and clutched it to her chest. The bag was filled with some kind of aromatic weeds that spilled out of the top.

She looked as if she’d be really pretty if she just took a bath – which she obviously hadn’t for some time now. Her dishwater-blonde hair looked greasy and unwashed. There was visible grime all over her face and on her baggy gray sweatshirt. There were holes in her jeans, and she wore a necklace with a big red “R” dangling from it.

She backed away. “I wasn’t stealing anything!” she cried, eyes wide with panic.

“Of course you weren’t,” Flora said soothingly. “That’s a giant pile of garbage. I’m sure you can just help yourself to it. Seriously, I’ve got enough money for breakfast if you want. My name is Flora, by the way.”

The girl fished in her pocket and pulled out a knife.

“I’ll cut you,” she said, jabbing in the air at Flora.

“Well, you’re a bear. Wouldn’t it make more sense to shift and rip me open with your claws?” Flora suggested helpfully.

The girl looked at her suspiciously and tucked the knife back in her pocket. “Why would you say that?”

“It has been suggested that I am often too helpful for my own good,” Flora conceded.

“And you just told me how much cash you have on you, and you offered to buy me breakfast when you don’t even know me, and I’m a bear and you’re a lynx. I’m pretty sure you’re crazy.”

Flora nodded. “That has also been suggested to me. More than once.”

Of course, it had mostly been in the context of, “You think you’re too good for Loren Haig? You think you’re too good for any man, for that matter? A fat nerd like you, whose own family threw her away? You’re crazy.”

“I’m Flora,” she added.

“I’m Madison,” the girl said cautiously.

Flora glanced at the bag of weeds the girl was carrying.

“I paid for that,” the girl said defensively.

Flora shrugged. “Really, not my business.”

Madison took a slow step backwards, watching Flora as if she were about to lunge for her throat. Which was just silly. Had Flora done anything to warrant this level of suspicion? She thought not.

As Madison took another step back, they heard loud male voices off in the distance. Madison stifled a squeak of fright and clapped a hand over her mouth. Flora sniffed the air. Lions. But not Finn, she realized with a stab of disappointment. There were maybe half a dozen of them, a block or two away. They were talking loudly. They passed by and were gone.

Madison looked at her curiously and seemed to relax a little. “You didn’t rat me out.”

“Why would I do that?”

Instead of answering, Madison walked up to her, still clutching the bag of weeds. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“New in town,” Flora said.

The girl glanced around. “Would you mind walking me back to my territory, in case we run into any of the Hudson patrol? I mean, don’t come in, of course. Just ’til we get to the border.”

Border? What border?

“Sure, why not?” Flora said, and followed Madison out of the alley and down the street, looking cautiously around as they walked. It was still early, and Flora could feel the morning chill right through her clothing, which was just how she liked it. Canadian lynxes preferred it cold.

The scent in the air, however, was far less pleasant. She wrinkled her nose in dismay. Was that rotting garbage smell everywhere in this city?

“Yeah, it stinks here. No Man’s Land,” Madison said as they walked. “Just a big trash dump for both sides. Nobody maintains it.”

They walked about five blocks, and then Madison stopped at a street corner and glanced around. “Okay, this is it,” she said. Flora didn’t see anything different. No signs or fences that would indicate a change of territory. They were at the intersection of 21
st
Avenue and Monroe Street.

No, wait, there was a big red “R” spray-painted on the 21
st
Avenue sign across the street, and a big “H” on the Monroe Street sign that they were standing under.

Several teenaged female bear shifters stepped out of a doorway across the street, quickly heading their way. They’d probably smelled Madison coming; bear shifters had the best scenting ability of all shifter species.

As they approached, Flora saw that there were actually three girls and a tall, skinny male teenager. All of them as dirty and disheveled as Madison. Their B.O. said they hadn’t showered recently, and their clothes were baggy and stained. They all wore necklaces like Madison’s, with big “R”s dangling around their necks.

They stared at Flora curiously. She was starting to feel as if there were a giant blinking neon sign hanging over her head which read “Does Not Belong Here”.

Madison hugged the boy, and then stepped back and looked at him critically. His face was pale and he had circles under his eyes. “Sam, you shouldn’t have come,” she chided him. “This is too close to the border.” She glanced at one of the girls. “Sarah, you shouldn’t have let him come.”

“Wanted to make sure you were okay,” Sam muttered, taking the bag of weeds from her. “You were taking too long. I started to get worried.”

Madison, hands shoved in her pockets, turned her attention back to Flora.

“Look, you seem nice, for a crazy person anyway, so I’m going to give you some advice. Go pay your protection money to the Hudsons and start wearing their mark, before you get murdered. Don’t tell people that you have money on you, and don’t offer to help strangers. And stay away from bear territory. Anywhere that’s marked with an “R” is under Ruben’s protection, and only bears live here.”

Well. Life in Darwin was certainly more complicated than she could have anticipated. “Duly noted. Why did you come into Hudson territory today, then?”

Madison glanced at her brother. “I needed those plants. Starweed. It’s a treatment for a blood disorder that only affects male bear shifters, and my brother has to have it every week. You guys grow it in your community gardens. I didn’t really buy it – I snuck into one of the gardens and grabbed some.”

“You don’t have it in your own territory?”

Madison sighed and tucked a greasy strand of hair behind her ear. “We do, but Ruben charges an outrageous price for it. And with him raising protection to seventy percent, we can’t afford medicine. We can barely afford food.”

“Why did you guys come to the Badlands in the first place?” Flora asked.

Madison glanced at her brother, who was standing a little distance away with Sarah, and lowered her voice. “My stepfather. He wouldn’t stop coming into my room at night. My mother didn’t care, and he was a judge, so nobody would have believed me. And he used to beat Sam up pretty bad. And Sarah ran away from a group home.”

“Oh. I’m sorry about that. And now it sounds like you’ve traded one terrible situation for another.”

“Yeah, well, the Hudson family are no saints,” Madison said resentfully. “Starweed doesn’t even cure anything for cat shifters, it’s just something they sell at the grocery shops to put on salads. Liam Hudson, he’s the one who runs the show – him and his muscle-head brothers. He just won’t share the Starweed with us, out of spite.”

Flora felt a flash of anger. Why would anybody deny medicine to those who needed it?

“That’s terrible,” she said. “I didn’t realize things were in such a state here.”

Madison gave her a rueful smile. “In fairness to the Hudsons, they may give us bears a lot of grief, but at least they treat their own people well. As long as they pay protection. They only charge thirty percent, and they give medicine for free to anyone who needs it. And Liam doesn’t force women to be his girlfriend.”

At Flora’s shocked look, Madison gestured at herself. “Why do you think me and my friends look so gross and dirty? It’s so Ruben won’t notice us. If Ruben likes a girl, he takes her. He’s got like a harem. He moves them into his house and they have to do whatever he wants. Be with him, be with his friends… If they don’t, they either have mysterious accidents, or their friends and family start having accidents.” She gave a worried glance at her brother and friends.

Then she glanced down at her stained, shapeless clothing with a wry smile. “I used to love dressing up nice. Before I came here.”

“Good God, Madison, that’s horrifying. Why can’t you guys come live in the Hudson territory and pay protection to them instead?” Maybe she could find Finn and talk him into accepting Madison and her friends. Or maybe Krystle could help.

Madison stared at Flora as if she’d sprouted a third eye. “We’re bears. You guys take cats and dogs. No bears.”

Flora reached into her pocket and pulled out the twenty dollar bill she’d tucked into her wallet. “Take this and buy food,” she said.

Madison stared at the money, then hesitated. “If that’s all your money, and you’re new here, I shouldn’t take it. You’ll need to pay protection.”

“Take it,” Flora insisted. “I can take care of myself.”

Sarah snatched the money from Flora’s hand. “For God’s sake,
I’ll
take it,” she said irritably. “I haven’t eaten anything but rat for a week, and those are getting pretty scarce.”

Then Madison froze and held up her hand, and sniffed the air. She and Sarah exchanged glances of alarm.

“Ruben’s patrol,” Madison said to Flora in a low voice. “About ten blocks south, but heading towards us – the smell is getting stronger. We’re technically in neutral territory, but they won’t care. It’s close enough that they might grab you and hold you for ransom. Go!”

She couldn’t just leave these girls to their fate. “Listen, I’ll try to get some Starweed for you and meet you back at the spot I met you yesterday…let’s say day after tomorrow, ten a.m.,” Flora said. As she hurried off, she heard Sam saying to Madison, “I bet you five rats that she won’t even come.”