Pack Justice (Nature of the Beast Book 1) (21 page)

Time passed in bursts, speeding to a chaotic blur only to crash to a halt. Wolves morphed to people, people who had far too much interest in me for my liking.

When the hazy figures stole my female, I whined. The sound was as much cheetah as it was wolf. I wanted to follow her. I needed to, and while I couldn’t force myself to move, I choked out chirps, desperate for her return.

There were too many males nearby, and one of them was the black and yellow wolf who had harassed her.

Human hands seized my scruff and head, their fingers digging into my fur. A bright light shined in my eyes, and I panted my distress, forcing out a chirp between breaths. The humans gathered around me ignored my cries, and their voices were senseless buzzing in my ears.

I chirped again, and my female didn’t answer.

Time sped by in disconnected, dark blurs broken by flashes of light, the hum of conversation, and the sway of motion. I was aware of calling for my female, aware the intruding humans had stolen her from me.

When I could no longer voice a single cry, I despaired.

I expected the warmth of fur, but when I surfaced from the drug-induced haze, my thin human skin did nothing to ward away the cold. Shivers ran through me as my teeth chattered. When had I shifted from cheetah to human?

I was supposed to be hunting for something, but the memory escaped me.

The cold froze me in place, and my shivers strengthened to full body shudders. Heat radiated from my brow and spread down my cheek, accompanied by a warmth along my neck, which stretched down my back, awakening my nerves. I tensed in anticipation of pain.

“Sean?”

The shock of recognition swept through me, and I sucked in a breath. Andrea was murmuring my name in my ear. The warmth was her skin against mine, and as I fought my confusion, a few other facts came into focus.

While a soft blanket covered me, I was naked, as was Andrea. Nothing separated us, and she pressed her chest against my back. Her arm rested over mine as she stroked the side of her hand against my cheek.

“Relax, Sean. You’re fine. Take a few deep breaths.”

I had no idea how Andrea expected me to obey her; I was keenly aware of her skin soft and smooth against mine. With a little squirm that set my entire body on fire, she snuggled against me, making a pleased noise in her throat. My spirit beasts stirred enough to recognize who was with me before they sank back into slumber, content with the woman keeping me company.

Maybe my wretched beasts were happy with the situation, but I was torn between horror and desire. The sane, logical, and still-married part of me wanted to make a run for it as fast as I could shift to my cheetah form and hightail it out of the area.

Primitive lust, the kind I hadn’t experienced with Idette in almost a decade, washed through me, and I was tempted to roll over and claim the woman I had spent many a lonely night desiring. Andrea shifted against me again, and I shivered at the way her touch heated my blood.

“Andrea?” My voice was hoarse and forcing out her name hurt.

Her soft acknowledgment accompanied the warmth of her breath against my neck. I shivered.

I wanted Andrea, and I couldn’t even blame my spirit beasts for my desire. They slept, unable to influence me. They trusted the woman with me, leaving her to guard me when she needed to be on guard against me.

I closed my eyes and took deep breaths until the urge to roll over faded. Why would the woman who never had a smile for me want me in her bed?

It didn’t matter how much I desired her if she loathed my presence. I wouldn’t lay a single finger on her, no matter how much I wanted to.

“Ramirez was worried you’d give us the slip again, so I was told to keep you in bed by using my feminine charms,” Andrea whispered in my ear. “You’re my reward since you wiped the forest with James’s ass.”

I stiffened at the memory of the black and yellow wolf harassing the marbled female. Scents filled my nose, and my wolf woke enough to help me sort through them. He was amused by my desire, but he ignored the heat in my scent.

Andrea was the wolf the black and yellow male had been stalking.

My wolf’s disgust at my idiocy was the last thing I felt before he retreated, leaving me to deal with the female I had wanted as a wolf and a cheetah. While a hint of my desire remained, anger drowned most of it.

James, Andrea’s cop friend, had wanted to mate with her although she hadn’t wanted him.

“I wanted to kill him,” I growled through clenched teeth.

“He was my Alpha.” Something about Andrea’s tone warned me to tread carefully, but I echoed her displeasure with a soft growl.

“Was?”

“Was. You weren’t the only one pissed at him. Ramirez yanked me out of his pack as soon as you were sedated. You missed her ripping him a new ass over it. She was worried about what you’d if she acted while you were riled up and ready for a fight. Maybe you wanted to kill him, but she almost did. Her mate had to hold her back. As it is, James is sporting a black eye and a broken nose. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her dominate him. He’s a persistent rat bastard, that’s what James is.” Andrea huffed and rested her chin against my shoulder. “He knew I wouldn’t accept him, but with so many witnesses, he thought he’d try.”

I was getting so many mixed signals from the woman my head spun. I had always interpreted her scowls as dislike for me, but could someone who loathed me be comfortable holding me?

I was painfully aware of how her naked breasts pressed against my back.

Hope was a dangerous thing; I closed my eyes and took deep breaths to calm myself. I was missing something in her story, something to explain what had infuriated me about the tan and red wolf’s behavior. “I don’t understand.”

Andrea sighed, making me tremble at the feel of her breath on my neck. Idette had bitten my throat so many times over the years I flinched at the thought of teeth near my skin, but instead of biting, Andrea feathered her lips against me in gentle kisses. “You belong to me. I don’t want that miserable mutt. I picked you, and James hates he can’t have who he wants. He is not a patient wolf. I am, but I’m done with waiting, Mr. Scott.”

I sucked in a breath; the heat present in my scent was strong in hers. The tentative touch of her lips on my throat strengthened, and she scraped her teeth against my skin.

Instead of the expected pain jolting through me, pleasant shivers spread from my throat and every muscle in my body relaxed. She kissed and nipped her way to my jawline, and by the time she reached my cheek, I struggled to stay awake.

Andrea made a pleased sound in her throat. “You’re so sensitive. Get some sleep. We’ll explain everything in the morning. All you need to know right now is that you’re mine, and I’m yours. Everything else can wait.”

Andrea had a flexible definition of morning. The light streaming in through the window convinced me it was daytime. Squinting to focus my eyes made my head ache. The clock on the nightstand informed me it was either eight in the morning or three in the afternoon. Wiggling a bit closer to the clock helped me determine it was three. I groaned and rolled over to discover I wasn’t alone in bed.

Sitting with her back against the headboard, Andrea was focused on her tablet, but at my motion, she glanced in my direction. Her usual scowl was fixed firmly in place.

She wore a button-up shirt that looked suspiciously like one of mine.

“You look like hell.”

Instead of bothering with a coherent sentence, I grunted, grabbed the edge of the blanket, and pulled it over my head. I felt like hell but whining wouldn’t do me any good. I suffered from a mix of hunger and nausea, and my head started pounded in rhythm with my heartbeat. I expected Andrea’s scowl, although I remembered all too well the feel of her lips on my throat and her lithe body wiggling against my back.

Women, I decided, existed to confuse the hell out of me—especially Andrea.

Andrea waited in expectant silence.

“Tell my boss I retired, have decided to take up a career as a hermit, and moved to a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific,” I croaked. Thanks to Idette, I probably didn’t have a career left to retire from, but whining wouldn’t change the fact I had disappeared for at least several months.

I wasn’t sure of the date, and I wasn’t quite ready to ask.

“Your boss is currently in a screaming match with my boss over who gets to have you,” Andrea replied, her tone light with amusement. “The official story is that your wife, who will soon be your ex-wife, learned she was being served with divorce papers and assaulted you while you were out of town for a weekend. The current belief is that you were struck in the head with a rock and left for dead, but were found and taken to a private hospital in New York, where you were diagnosed with amnesia as a result of severe head trauma.”

I stiffened while a list of hundreds of loopholes and problems with the concocted story played through my head. The only bit of truth to Andrea’s proposal was the fact my wife had attacked me. “That won’t stand in court.”

“Bear with me, Mr. Scott,” Andrea murmured. I felt her shift on the bed beside me. “The hospital is a private facility with ties to the Fenerec. Arrangements have already been made to ensure it will stand in court. It’s a formality and nothing more. Should there be a trial, your involvement in it will be limited. A patient with amnesia can’t really answer many questions, now can he? Moving on, unless you have any other protests?”

I recognized a futile effort when I saw it. “Go on.”

“Three weeks after your disappearance, Douglass Roberts escaped during a prisoner transfer, aided by several individuals. Mrs. Scott, with her thorough knowledge of the prison system, numbered among the prime suspects, especially since there were eyewitness accounts claiming someone matching her description was at the scene of the crime. A week later, you were taken from the private hospital during the night. Security cameras picked up several dark-clad figures before the system was knocked out.”

The scenario sounded like something I expected to watch in a thriller. “I’m a hot commodity. Who knew?”

Andrea snorted. “Their motives for taking you alive are still unknown, but Idette Scott, Douglass Roberts, and several accomplices identified as men you had prosecuted were seen in Montana. The trail led to a national park, where you were discovered heavily drugged in serious but stable condition. Douglass Roberts was found, mauled by an animal—likely a mountain lion. The rest escaped and are considered armed and dangerous fugitives. The official word is that you’re recovering from a broken leg—thanks to circumstances, we even have x-rays proving the break—and head trauma at an undisclosed location.”

There were so many holes in the cover-up I didn’t even know where to begin. “No sane jury is going to buy that prosecution, Andrea. What about that other wolf I killed?”

“What about him? We don’t know who he is, nor do we have a way of finding out. We’ve already dealt with the body, so there’s nothing left to do. Anyway, you’re assuming we’re using a sane jury, Sean. We’re not. Idette Scott has broken Inquisition rules, and while there may be a public trial—assuming she lives long enough to face trial—the jury will be very carefully selected to ensure the defense’s failure. It’s not something the Inquisition does often, but considering the circumstances, they thought it was wise.”

I remembered someone mentioning the Inquisition before, likely Marcello, although my memories were a bit of a blur. “Inquisition?”

“Consider it the policing force of Fenerec and the other supernatural.”

“Other supernatural?”

“Witches, mostly, although there are other types.”

Accepting the fact there were other oddities in the world wasn’t too difficult; before I had been attacked by my werewolf wife, I had shifted into a cheetah on a frequent basis. I was in no position to judge anyone. “What, exactly, is a witch?”

“I suppose you’d consider them magic users who align with an element. Fire, water, earth, and air. And no, they don’t wear pointy hats, use cauldrons, or point wands at people to use their powers. You’d have to ask a witch for more details. I’m a Fenerec, like you—although it seems you’re something else, too.” Andrea’s tone put me on edge, and I didn’t know why.