Big Bad Bite (20 page)

Before she could ask the woman what was
wrong, Vera turned to Gage and said, “I thought you said he was a
whore of men. Why is he out of the making with her?”

Alec and Gage both dropped their heads into
their hands, looking like twin statues of frustration. Jenna
giggled herself silly, “I think you meant to say making out, Vera.
And being a man-whore doesn’t always mean you’re a whore for men.
Sometimes it means you’re a man who would sleep with just about any
kind of woman, no matter what she looked like, as long as she opens
her legs for you. Kent definitely falls into that category. I’d bet
half a year’s salary that if you got him drunk enough, he might
accidentally be a man’s whore for the night though.”

Gage dragged his hand down the front of his
face as his eyes crossed in exasperation. “Okay Babushka, no more
talk of man whores. Let’s get on to the real reason we came. It’s
best if we grab a room and have this talk where others can’t hear
us though. Who’s going to drag Kent away from the woman?”

Jenna rubbed her hands together in maniacal
glee. “I’d be happy to take care of that task, boys. You wait right
here, and I’ll be back with my wayward partner.”

Walking with renewed purpose, she made her
way over to Kent who now had his back propped up against the wall,
with the waitress’ mouth on his ear, presumably whispering things
to him. One dainty hand was still clutched in his hair, but now the
waitress’ other hand was rubbing Kent’s crotch like if she rubbed
hard enough, and fast enough, she could start her own Kent sized
campfire to warm herself with. His head was tilted backwards
resting against the wall listening to whatever sleazy things the
woman was saying, his eyes closed in ecstasy and his breathing
pumping roughly in and out of his chest in amped up pants of sexual
frenzy. Even though Jenna had never had an orgasm induced by
someone other than herself, she could see the signs that Kent was
seconds away from exploding. In his own freaking pants. The man
truly was a slut of epic proportions.

Stomping right up to the oblivious couple,
Jenna grabbed the ear Kent had that was not occupied by the
sexed-up employee and yanked brutally on it just as his body was
starting to tremble with what she was guessing was the beginning of
his release. Yeah, call her a bitch, but she was irritated at the
fact that they’d come here to find information and her partner was
once again obsessed with getting his rocks off. After they left
here, she was going to find the first man equipped chastity belt
and throw his skanky butt in it.

Kent cried out in surprise and pain, as she
started to drag him away from his fun toy. Jenna looked back at the
startled woman who stood there not knowing what to do.

“Sorry about that, but he’s got to work now.
If he’s a good boy and gets all of his chores done I’ll let him
come back out to play.”

Jenna dragged Kent all the way to the stairs
by his ear where the family of Ivanov tigers were waiting for them
and laughing hysterically. Kent pulled out of her grasp to stomp
ahead of her, shooting her a murderous look before following Gage
and Alec up the stairs to the fourth floor. Vera waited for her at
the bottom of the steps.

“You are a kick of the ass woman. You’d make
a good wife for a strong Russian man. You sure you do not want one
of my grandsons as a mate?”

Holy shit! The old woman was obviously twelve
shades of nuts and that made Jenna totally nervous of what schemes
she might come up with in her unconditionally addled brain. Now how
could she convince the crazy sex pot that she wasn’t the least bit
interested in being mated to a tiger, possibly watching him cough
up giant ass hairballs for the rest of eternity?

“That’s sweet of you to say, Vera, but there
aren’t enough allergy pills on this planet that would allow me to
live snot or itch free if I mated to one of those guys. Thanks for
thinking of me though.”

She left the crazy matchmaking grandma
dressed in slutty clothes at the bottom of the stairs and all but
ran up the steps to follow the guys. Really, how much weirder could
her life get these days?

Following the lingering scents of two male
tigers and one pissed off demon, she found them in one of the
fourth floor rooms with the door still open in invitation. The room
was larger than she would have guessed it to be from the outside,
and held the same odd mixture of ancient Roman design and sci-fi
futuristic techno club. Numerous sconces placed on the walls around
the room gave off intimate lighting in engaging shades of red and
amber, giving the room a sensual vibe. Columns that looked almost
as old as their neoclassical inspiration dotted the room, jutting
halfway out from the wall so that you could appreciate the
aesthetic effect of them, without them taking up actual space or
getting in the way. Instead of the columns running from floor to
ceiling, the tops stopped two-thirds way up the wall and were
adorned by Roman deity-looking statue heads.

Seating in the form of lounge furniture, such
as chaises made of metal and clear plastic, were padded with throw
pillows made of rich silk fabrics to bring an old world charm. All
of the seating faced a circular stage in the center of the room
that looked to be made of stone, but held piles of floor pillows on
it. The odd combination confused her. Why in the world would you
have a stage with mountains of floor pillows? As Jenna stepped
further into the room and closer to the stage, the answer came to
her in the form of a smell that caused her entire body to flush in
awareness and mortification.

Sex.

The room reeked of it. Casting a new eye
around, it hit her. It was the club’s version of Star Trek meets
Roman orgy. Her desire to sit on any chaise, or the stage,
immediately vanished. It would take at least a year’s worth of
sanitizing wipes scrubbed over every surface of this geeky Greek
lover’s throwback to dream lair of lechery before she would even
think
about sitting down somewhere. Nonchalantly strolling
over to one of the walls that held a one sided mirrored window in
her sight, she leaned against that instead, crossing her arms over
her chest.

Kent was sitting on a chaise and glaring
daggers in her direction. Alec was sprawled across his own chaise,
broadcasting vibes of confidence and lazy amusement. Gage sat on
his chaise, but had an air of readiness about him. To the casual
observer he might look relaxed, but to Jenna, every line of his
body radiated the knowledge that he could spring in a second if
necessary. Vera finally sauntered in and shut the door, causing all
sounds from the club to be silenced. Sound proof rooms. She would
have thought it was nifty it weren’t for the fact that she wasn’t
stupid. They were sound proofed because it didn’t matter if the
people in the rooms were boinking like bunnies or engaged in
dealings of the more nefarious nature, the club was oblivious to
what was going on in them.

Alec pillowed one of his arms behind his head
and watched her with interest. “So what’s so important we’ve got to
discuss it now instead of later, after Kent and I’ve had a little
fun?”

Kent shot her a look of ‘See? I’m not the
only one you’re cock blocking.’ Rolling her eyes at the perpetually
lascivious men, she chose to ignore her partner and answer the
tiger instead.

“I’m told you know a great deal about those
like us, in and around town. Have you been in contact with, or
heard about a group of shifters that came in to town looking for
trouble?”

Alec cocked an eyebrow, “I hear about a lot
of things, sweetheart. Doesn’t mean I’ll spill about it. Some
things are like poker, better to hold your cards close to your
chest till you’re ready to make a play. How about you tell me what
you’re looking for and I’ll let you know if it involves anything I
know about?”

Jenna glanced to Kent for his two cents on
the matter, but he just shrugged his shoulders in a ‘why not’
gesture.

Tigers were turning out to be more trouble
than they were worth. Looking back to Alec she huffed, “Did you see
that bit in the news about the hostage situation at the
restaurant?”

When he nodded, she continued, “Well the
group involved were shifters, all eight of them. The thing is, the
tattoos on their bodies tie them to a pack out of town, which has a
track record for sticking to the laws and immense wealth. So this
kind of scenario should have never happened. We’re trying to
understand their motive. Did they go rogue? Were they kicked out of
the pack? We need to know if they acted on their own or if this was
pack sanctioned and we should expect further problems. At the
moment, we’re trying to collect as much information as possible
before we contact their pack leader to come claim the bodies.”

Alec was no longer looking at her, but
examining his nails instead. His lackadaisical attitude could
quickly grate on her last nerve.

“Why would any information like that be
important to a lowly hybrid on a SWAT team?”

Jenna snarled, “I’d like to know how you and
your brother know I’m a hybrid without me telling you? I’ve never
met either one of you a day in my life, and I just moved to town,
so it can’t be that you know me personally. Where’d you get that
information?”

Both tiger brothers moved as if connected by
invisible strings, touching their fingertips to their noses, before
dropping their hands again. Alec remained quiet while Gage spoke
quietly, “We’ve met a couple of hybrid shifters in our travels. You
have a unique scent compared to full blooded shifters in the fact
that your smell is often understated. For someone who knows what
they’re looking for, hybrids are easy to spot. Lucky for you, most
don’t know what they’re looking for.”

She watched the two warily. It aggravated her
wolf to know that there were those who could tell what she was by
her smell. How many others would be able to know what she was so
easily? It sucked that her apprehension was so thick that even the
demon could pick up on it.

“I’ve known these men for a long time, Jenna.
I can guarantee that you don’t have to worry about them betraying
your secret. But if it would make you feel better, I’ll put it to
you like this: tell them who your Uncle is and I guaran-damn-tee
you that your identity will be as safe as if you’d had the
knowledge physically locked up at Fort Knox.”

Understanding dawned. It wasn’t something she
could spread far and wide yet, but the fact that her Uncle Owen was
Pack Master of the United States would make many people nervous to
cross her in fear of gaining her Uncle’s ire.

“Well, that will give you the answer to your
question then, tiger. This
lowly
SWAT officer is not the one
curious for the information. It’s my Uncle who’s sent me to find
out what I can. Pack Master Owen Davies. Now do you have anything
to share?”

When their facial expressions never even
moved, she had to hand it to them. Apparently both tigers were good
at what Alec called, ‘keeping their cards close to their vest’,
because not a single facial muscle moved but she could smell their
surprise. There was certainly no way around blocking that unless
you wore a gallon worth of cheap whore’s perfume or went running
around the room with one of those nasty smelling aerosol air
fresheners.

Alec started tapping a fingertip against his
bottom lip. After a pregnant pause he pursed his lips, his eyes
narrowing in calculation, “I do have something for him, but I’d
like to talk with him myself about it.” When Jenna opened her mouth
to object, he threw his hand up in the air to stop her
protestations, “Don’t take it personally, sweetheart. It’s not that
I think you can’t pass along a message, it’s more like this is
something that I think he should hear from me instead.”

Kent tsked, “It’s more like you want to
secure an IOU from the powerful Davies. Don’t bullshit a
bullshitter, Alec.”

Alec shrugged, “If Davies doesn’t deem the
information worthy of a favor, then he won’t grant one. I’d be
stupid not to try and bag something like that for a rainy day
though.”

There was no need to finagle with Alec. He
was unquestionably right. If Uncle Owen didn’t deem his information
worthy of an IOU, then he wouldn’t give him one. Pulling out her
cell phone, she called her Uncle, updated him on what she had, and
therefore what she didn’t have, and asked him how he would like to
proceed. When he stated that she and Kent should bring the two
tigers out to Adam’s house, Alec and Gage shot her decidedly smug
feline grins. They were definitely cat-with-the-cream looks, except
in their human forms it came across in panty-melting form
instead.

When she hung up her phone she couldn’t help
but ask, “Why do you two look so happy about heading out to pack
lands filled with nothing but wolves?”

Once again they became the connected with
strings, moving twin statues as they both held up their right hands
with two fingers sticking up on each.

Gage said, “Two reasons.”

Alec said, “One: We’ve never been to the
McPhee Pack lands, and well, we’re curious.”

Gage continued, “Two: She-wolves are some
lusty bitches. We’re hoping to snag some tail.”

Completely disgusted with the two, she
planted her hands on her hips and barked, “I’d tell you both that
you’re despicable, and that I hope your dicks fell off, but I think
I’ll hold out for a more likely possibility.”

The brothers said simultaneously, “What?”

Jenna gave them a feral grin, “For curiosity
to kill the cats.”

Chapter Ten

The
ride in Kent’s car to the McPhee Pack lands outside of Wilmington
was downright chilly. Not chilly because of the temperature drop
outside, it was a balmy 75 degrees outside on a beautiful June
night. No, the arctic blast was coming from her partner’s freeze
out. He hadn’t spoken a word to her since the club, and she doubted
he would even open his mouth to yell for help if she suddenly
combusted in flames. Jenna briefly wondered if she should apologize
for pulling him away from the attempt to contract Chlamydia, but
decided that if she started excusing his slutty behavior now then
he would try and use it as a free pass for all future attempts at
it, as well. He should get use to her being the walking, talking
version of the common sense he apparently lacked.