Half Wolf (23 page)

Chapter 28

T
he wolf packs backtracked to the basement where Chavez had created his new domain. As before, the place was empty. The hope Michael and the other Weres held was that they had taken care of the small gang, and Chavez was on his own.

Adam was waiting on the steps when they came up for air. He got to his feet. “No use waiting this out until dark. No other Weres have returned here, so you must have done a good job in putting a kink in this party.”

Adam knew what had taken place in the park. He looked past them for Tory. Muttering “Damn it,” he kicked at a concrete step with his boot. “Lycans,” he added as if he’d uttered a curse, but he kept the reason for that to himself, and Michael understood why. Tory again wasn’t with them. The red-haired wolf was a wild card in the Were cop’s love life.

“We’ll scour the campus and set watch until dark,” Michael said, glad for the chance to get back to the portal, and relieved to hear about the current lack of beasts.

“There are nine of us,” he added. “Pretty good odds for hooking up with one monster and a few more rogues, don’t you think?”

“With luck on our side,” Adam said seriously. “Other rogues might have scattered for the time being.”

“I’ll take the area on the west side.” Michael’s comment garnered empathetic looks from more than one of the Weres in attendance. They all knew what he was waiting for, and what Kaitlin had done to help the cause.

“We’ll remain here,” Cade said, gesturing toward the building as he breezed in with Devlin in tow. “No sign of more monsters anywhere we checked. I’m positive they can’t be experts in camouflage.”

Michael nodded. “Cade, go with Dylan and whoever he wants with him. Rena, go with the rest. Dev, I’m taking you with me.”

“I figured as much,” Dev said affably. “I can feel the heat of that hot seat from here.”

They split up. After one more sweep of the campus and grounds, they’d have a few hours to wait out until darkness fell and the moon Michael already sensed hovering behind early-afternoon sunlight would render camouflage useless. Chavez would have to come out to play, and his foes would be waiting with new strengths of their own.

This sounded to him like a decent type of showdown. Wolf to wolves. Although a clawed hand wouldn’t be able to pull a trigger, and a spray of silver bullets had darkened every nightmare he’d had since he was a kid, silver in the hands of the good guys, used to take down a criminal like Chavez, would seem appropriate, and not quite so bad anymore.

He wasn’t certain Adam would feel the same way about a quick disposal, after what Chavez had put Adam through in the past.

In the meantime...

I’ll be waiting for you, Kate. Right on your blasted doorstep.

He was, in fact, already on his way.

* * *

Kaitlin opened her eyes without remembering why she had shut them. All was quiet. The bad wolves had not caught her, and she saw no hint of them in the circle of beings that were looking at her.

She was surrounded by Fey, and they weren’t speaking. The voice in her head that repeated a message on continual loop wasn’t theirs. That voice said,
Find me.

She would have given anything to have complied with that request.

“Thank you for your help,” she said to the gathering crowd. Without changing her mind about finding the Fey beautiful, a darker undertow passed through her that brought her to her feet.

“I’ll be going back now,” she said.

Her declaration was received in silence.

“I belong with my kind.” Hearing that always surprised her. She added a statement similar to what she had told them before. “I don’t know about you, or what I would have been if this was my world. I was never offered that choice.”

More silence. They seemed to be waiting.

“I would have liked to be like you.” She glanced down at a body that was very different from theirs. “Who could have predicted what this body hid?”

One of the circle of Fey finally spoke. Kaitlin recognized the voice.

“Payment is due, Kaitlin Davies, for services rendered to you this day.”

Chills shimmied up Kaitlin’s spine. “Was that in the fine print?”

“Because you’re of our line, our demands are simple.”

“And those demands are?”

“You stay.”

Kaitlin’s chills intensified. Michael’s voice resonated in every cell in her body.
Come back to me, Kate. Don’t hesitate.

“Out of the question,” she said, facing them all and refusing to back down.

“Payment is due,” the tall Fey repeated.

“Then choose another one. You get that I’m no longer like you. You can see that. One of the Weres said that you shun halflings, and that mating with another species is not allowed. My body has merged with a Lycan’s. Do you sense the blood in my veins?”

“Your family is powerful,” was the response. “And of our own kind. Kaitlin Davies began as Fey, not human. One of us did not mate with an outsider to produce you. We can overrule the wolf blood coursing through you. Your future can be altered.”

“What?” This news enhanced the chills, and sent them in all directions. “Are you saying that I don’t have to be a wolf, and that you can change that?”

The Fey all nodded in agreement. The tall spokeswoman said, “We can, and will.”

This was her choice. She was being given the opportunity to reverse the actions that had changed the direction of her life. But how was that payment for helping the Weres?

She asked that question.

“We take from those who ask for our help the thing they want most,” the tall Fey said.

“In Michael’s world, that’s me?”

Michael’s voice was more insistent.
Do not hesitate, my lover, my little wolf. My love.

She was what Michael wanted most. He had rescued her. He loved her. The Fey had come to help, and had arrived too late. Without Michael’s timely interference in a vampire attack on a person who looked human, but wasn’t, she wouldn’t have been standing here now, faced with such a choice.

Over her head, the stars twinkled, beaming another kind of message to whatever was embedded inside the part of her DNA that Michael’s nearness did not affect. However, that part had grown noticeably weaker. Whereas she might have, in the past, wanted to stay here and learn about her family’s heritage, she couldn’t recall a time when her family didn’t stress about being normal and never standing out from the crowd.

Were her body, her face and its features, controlled by a glamour such as the kind these Fey used to cloak themselves? Had her family purposefully chosen to live among humans, instead of with the rest of the Fey in a wonderland-like alternate realm? They had to have made that choice for a reason.

Maybe they assumed she’d never find out about the tweak in her genetics and live out her life among humans, ignorant and happy with the simplicity of human life. What about when she married, though? What would her children be like with diluted Fey blood that would no longer gain them access to what she was seeing right that minute?

Come back to me, Kate. Choose me, my love. Choose this world over any other.

Kaitlin’s spine snapped straight. There had to be reasons for all of this.

“I’m going back,” she said clearly, backing up as she spoke. “You’ll have to take a rain check on that payment, because I refuse to give it to you now.”

All they had to do was stop her. Surely if they could redirect her fate and remove the wolf from the veins, they could simply block her from using the door.

They didn’t try to do so.

“I will offer you a gift,” she said thoughtfully. “A werewolf so vicious that stopping him will halt the flow of wolf blood to many people, and possibly keep you from facing these same problems again.”

A murmur went through the Fey gathered there. Kaitlin felt the wave of their interest go through her, as well, as if she truly were one of them.

The tall Fey moved forward. Kaitlin had to look up to find the pale gray eyes looking back at her. “Deal,” that Fey declared. “For now.”

When Kaitlin smiled, she was again in the park, on the opposite side of that glimmering portal, surprised to see that stars shone here also, in a sky gleaming with the silver light of a huge round moon.

A werewolf moon.

She’d been gone a full day at least in the Fey time warp. Michael wasn’t there, waiting, as she had hoped. As the wolfishness coursing through her veins began to twist her into her alternate shape, Kaitlin howled.

Chapter 29

T
he entire pack had no further reason for guarding the building where Chavez had been. Without his full horde of beasts, this master had to search for replacements. He’d be flushed out of hiding tonight by the pull of the moon.

Michael acknowledged the others waiting with him with an inclination of his head. Beneath tree cover that was lacy and insufficient for stalling transformations, some of the pack had already shifted into the man-wolf hybrid combination of Were that walked on two feet and still wore their clothes.

He wasn’t like them. Neither was Tory, who stood a little apart from the others, still in human form, a feat that told Michael that like him, the red-haired wolf might also have a special ability that separated her from the rest.

He hadn’t been ready to leave his post at the portal, and had sent messages to Kaitlin until his mind was weary, hoping she’d hear him, receiving no replies. He had felt her nearness to that damn Fey doorway, and had held himself back from leaping through it to find out if he was right.

And still, she had not appeared.

And the damn portal had vanished, as if it had never been there in the first place, rendering his search for Kaitlin useless. Leaving him heartbroken.

It’s time
, Dylan said, looking as fair and formidable furred up as he had been in human form.

“Yes,” Michael agreed.

A rustle of accord went through the group. Above the din, he swore he heard Kaitlin speak a few words in the unfathomable language he’d heard her use once before.

Was she calling to him? In need of help? He couldn’t find out without the damn portal.

Had the entire world gone mad, or just him? Because he sensed her. Felt her, as if she was nearby and might appear at any moment.

And then he heard her howl. He hadn’t made that up. The others had also turned toward the sound in the distance.

Michael shouted, “Follow me. This way.” Excited, and with his heart in his throat, he followed the echo of that howl.

He ran like the wind, feet churning up the ground, senses flooding with hopeful thoughts. It didn’t take long to find her. God yes, Kaitlin was there, in the center of the old part of the college’s overgrown, grassy field, standing on all fours and as motionless as a statue. She was in a state of full transition, all wolfed up, her glossy fur shining in the moonlight. Her eyes tracked his approach, but she didn’t call out.

He wanted to reach her, hold her, thank his lucky stars for her return. Something in her stance stopped him from doing any of those things. She was waiting for something, and focused on whatever that was.

Several students passed her by, perhaps thinking her a dog waiting for its master. In truth, she had another agenda altogether. Kaitlin wasn’t waiting for him to find her. She had not planned on him coming in time. Kaitlin had someone else in mind to lure, and every Were with Michael knew who that was.

Suddenly he appeared. Chavez. The devil himself. Had to be. Tall, his body partially covered in dark hair, waking upright on two legs...and Lycan.

Holy hell...
The gaps in Michael’s mind filled in. All the dots lined up. Chavez wasn’t any old werewolf. He was a pure-blooded atrocity. A Lycan gone bad. That was where the monster’s power, strength and insight came from.

Michael saw no mask of madness on Chavez’s face. The beast had to realize that Michael and the others were there. Lycan senses were nothing short of miraculous. Yet Chavez didn’t appear to care about having an audience. His eyes were on Kaitlin, the Fey wolf with a power to lure most species, as she waited for him to make a move.

Her welcoming growl rolled to meet this monster maker. Her fur ruffled in the wind that was her particular calling card and proclaimed her secret of being something other than entirely wolf.

Mesmerized, Chavez moved toward her.

Michael inched forward. The pack at his back did the same.

Two more feet, and Chavez put out a hand, the way a person might do to allow a dog to determine if that person was friend or foe.

“Kate,” Michael whispered. “What game is this?”

She growled again, and backed up. Chavez followed with two more steps toward her. For Michael, that was two steps too many. He moved, breaking into a sprint. Kaitlin, in wolf form, and after who knew what else had happened to her behind the portal, had the faster reflexes.

She ran, virtually flying over the ground. Chavez, in full hunting mode that made chasing down prey a foregone conclusion, followed her. He might even have believed he was invincible. But there were far too many of his enemies here.

Kaitlin slid to a stop beside the building that housed Chavez’s ill-fated fight club.

“No!”
Michael shouted to her.
“Stop!”

Two more beasts ruled by Chavez appeared on the roof and began to climb down. Michael heard Cade growl. Rena seconded the sound, already heading for the wall to greet those monsters. Two Weres from Dylan’s pack followed.

A figure stepped into Michael’s sightline. In the shadows, and while under the cover of the roof’s overhang and out of the moon’s reach, Adam Scott was suddenly at Kaitlin’s side. There was a flash from the weapon Adam carried.
Silver bullets
, Michael chanted to himself.
Use them, Adam. Put an end to this.

Of course, that was too easy, was the unanimous thought that came from the group beside Michael. After successfully avoiding capture for so long, the mad beast could be bested by a bullet?

Kaitlin’s next howl split the silence. Loud, harrowing, her call seemed to herald the arrival of a much worse outcome than Adam’s bullet had promised.

Though Adam had a finger on the trigger, and Michael and the pack barreled forward, Kaitlin’s call was answered in a faster manner.

Clouds covered the moon, throwing the scene into darkness. A fierce wind whipped at them all, holding Michael and the others back with the force of a hurricane.

Adam’s back hit the brick wall behind him with a smack that had to have rattled his bones, but his gun was still aimed at Chavez. Michael could feel Adam’s finger begin to squeeze, as if his own finger was moving.

In the time it took for the gun to fire, a hole in the atmosphere opened up and a second blinding flash of light lit the area. The bullet sailed toward Chavez. He flailed, howled menacingly, and thrashed the air with his claws as hands nearly the same color and consistency of the light winking around them pulled him backward through a brand-new portal.

The two remaining beasts fought to go after their leader, and the good guys helped them along. The last thing Michael heard before the portal disappeared was the sound of Adam’s silver bullet striking its intended, if invisible mark. And then his eyes moved to Kaitlin, and found her looking back.

He could have sworn that she smiled.

* * *

Michael had said his goodbyes to some of Dylan’s friends. Tory and Adam, Dylan and Dana were camping out in his living room and making the best of it. He heard laughter and the recap of events, as well as the clink of glasses toasting Chavez’s defeat.

Kaitlin was nestled in his arms on his bed, and Michael didn’t wish himself anywhere else. He didn’t want for anything else, either, and imagined he never would.

His she-wolf was breathing softly against his neck. Despite what she had been through, she was still smiling. That smile alone could have done him in.

“You’ll tell me about it someday?” he asked her, rolling over to stretch out on top of her feverish body for the third time in less than an hour. “All of what you went through in that other place?”

“Is nothing scared?” she replied, lifting her arms over her head to take hold of the bedposts, bracing herself for what was coming next.

She had assimilated her Lycan blood and was game to indulge in the physicality of a passion that was likely to last all night, every night, if he had his way. Michael refused to think about the price the Fey had exacted from Kaitlin for letting her return to him. Someday, she would be able to talk about it.

“You are my drug,” he whispered to her, placing a trail of kisses on her forehead, her cheek, her nose, before landing on her lush, waiting mouth. “I can’t get enough.”

“It’s a Fey thing.” She accepted the pressure of his lips and moved her hips seductively against his hips.

“Maybe I’ll learn to like the Fey,” Michael teased, feeling every inch of her gleaming nakedness beneath him, from the raised pink buds of her breasts to her long, lean thighs. He’d had his mouth on all of those places tonight, and promised himself he would soon start all over again.

Right then, his patience had taken a hike.

In all honesty, though, patience had never been one of his best virtues.

He inched Kaitlin’s thighs apart with his own and settled his hard length between them, affirming again that he was not wolf-whipped, and that an Alpha had to maintain some dignity with which to command the respect of his pack. He’d use Kaitlin’s Fey lineage as an excuse for being unable to keep his hands off her. Hell, he wasn’t entirely sure that wasn’t part of the real reason he loved her so much, anyway. She certainly was like no other.

Kaitlin’s gray eyes bored into his. Her breath was warm and sweet, when she had proved herself to be anything but passive and sweet in the past few days, and in the hours since their return to his bedroom from the battlefield.

“I am the Alpha,” he reminded her as she nipped at his tattoos with her human teeth.

“Yes,” she said, grinning. “And I am no mere wolf.”

“Hell. You have that right.”

Michael matched her grin and eased himself inside her moist inferno. Her head hit the pillows. Her eyes closed. Maybe, he thought, he could take advantage of her weakened state.

“How did you do it? Get them to take Chavez off our hands?” he asked.

Kaitlin, withholding a groan of delight, said, “Payback.” As she wiggled her hips, she added, “It’s not over.”

“No. This is just the start,” he taunted, sliding further inside her and observing how tight her hold was on the bedposts.

“Vampires,” she whispered, gasping as he stroked her insides the way she liked it best, and as he returned to her mouth, determined to capture her next breath.

“I think our pal Chavez will have taken care of a fair share of the bloodsuckers, maybe even giving us a break for a while. He cleaned out two nests in those basements,” Michael said, pausing, drawing his hips back.

Kaitlin’s hands left the posts. She snaked her arms around him, letting her hands slide sensuously to his lower back, and then to his buttocks. With the force of her passion alone, she pulled him back, raised her hips, urged him on.

There was so much he needed to find out about Kaitlin, and about her family’s secrets. He had to know what had gone on behind that portal, and how she had solicited the help of a species that loathed mankind and included werewolves in that despicable roundup.

Because of her, Clement, and possibly other cities, had been saved from bite clubs. But Devlin had stressed that the Fey always demanded payback for a favor. An eye for an eye. So, what had Kaitlin promised them in return for their help with Chavez?

Would he ever realize the extent of things left unanswered? He wanted to ask her about it now. His form of payback would be one kiss in return for one answer. Or maybe something better than a kiss. After all, a long lifetime together lay ahead.

“I can hear you, you know,” Kaitlin said, blinking up at him.

And then...

Then...

The consummation of their love, their desire, their bonding, became all. As Michael pressed the evidence of his love deeper into Kaitlin, she muttered another stream of unintelligible Fey words that ended in a deep, rumbling growl.

And hell, he knew what to do with that.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from
TEMPTING THE DRAGON
by Karen Whiddon.

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