10. Paul #2
It didn’t take me all that long to catch up to Cherry. When I did, rage clouded my vision. She was pinned up against the wall, the basilisk’s massive, clawed hand around her throat. Her feet kicked at his scaled chest.
I was so fucking sick of people trying to hurt those in my charge!
The howl I let out came straight from my soul, and it was possibly the most alpha sound I’d ever made.
Strange, I’d never really considered myself much of one, but now, I felt it coursing through my blood and dominating my thoughts like it had always been an integral part of me and not something I’d let fall to the wayside since I was the third alpha son in our family.
The massive, humanoid-lizard’s head jerked my way, his second set of arms rising for a fight. But that split-second of distraction had been enough. Cherry pulled that tiny metal tool out of her boot, then jammed it into the creature’s eye.
Resourceful.
Cherry might not have been a wolf, but she fought with teeth—thankfully not literally. The basilisk dropped her, and she kicked the creature hard in the shin.
Despite everything that had happened, I had to admire her for that.
The basilisk was far from down and out, and I didn’t want to waste the opportunity Cherry had carved out for the both of us. Charging forward, I slammed into his shoulders with my forelegs. He toppled back, his head slamming into cobblestone behind him.
Between that and the pit the witch had conjured, surely we’d gotten ourselves a decent gap between our pursuers.
Once the basilisk shuddered and went still, Cherry started running again.
I was able to catch my breath as I moved alongside her.
She was fast for a human—I had to give her that—but that wasn’t saying much since I was a wolf shifter.
I could have left her in the dust, and the Whisper would likely give up on getting to me if she had the faux psychic, but that wasn’t even an option in my mind.
We were both getting out, or neither of us was.
I couldn’t say why I had such strong feelings for a woman who was essentially a stranger and had confessed to lying to me. Yes, I’d been rather awed by her powers, but apparently those were fake. So, just what was motivating me and my wolf to defend her so fiercely?
I didn’t know. I promised myself I’d think about it once we got to a safe place. But right now, answering that question wouldn’t help either of us survive.
As we ran through the halls we had navigated so leisurely before, I couldn’t help but think how my family would feel if we succumbed to our pursuers.
I couldn’t imagine Penelope flying here to rein in Jackson, and Chris definitely wouldn’t be up to the task.
I also didn’t want to imagine how Jackson would react to losing another one of his siblings. It was bad all around, really.
So, we’ll just have to survive. It would be too inconvenient otherwise. Think of all the meetings I’d have to reschedule!
Obviously not a practical thought, but the levity helped combat the dire situation closing in on us, and the next thing I knew, Cherry and I reached the heavy door. And then we were back in the normal world.
I never thought I’d see you again, I thought to the stars above, happy to see them even without the moon.
If it had been full instead of absent, I probably would have been able to give the Whisper and her men more of a run for their money.
While we could take our animal forms independent of the moon, it did give us an amazing boost when it was at full power.
“What now?” Cherry asked. “They’re not gonna stay in there. Do we run for it? Call an Uber?”
My first instinct was, naturally, to run. With our headstart and my wolf speed and stamina, there was no way they could catch up. But a beat later, the more human side of my mind reminded me why that wouldn’t work for Cherry.
While I was large and an alpha, I wasn’t a fucking horse, so it wasn’t like she could ride me. So… what? Did I abandon her even though she’d come back for me? That grated against every ounce of honor I had.
I’d have to hold the line, stay and fight while she sprinted to the nearest public area.
Although I had no doubt the Whisper’s men wouldn’t mind pouring out into the streets to chase us down, I didn’t think they’d want to do something around hundreds of civilians when we magical folks were still on relatively thin ice with the humans.
But before I could figure out how to communicate any of that with Cherry, there was the guttural punch of an engine revving, then a light shining in our faces.
The peace was nice while it lasted.
I braced myself, readying to attack as the blinding illumination came closer. It veered to the side before it was in range, then came to a stop. I blinked a few times, then finally saw the shape of a motorcycle.
“Get on,” a gruff voice ordered before something sailed toward Cherry. She scrambled to catch it, and when my vision cleared completely, I saw it was the biker from before, his kitten friend’s head only barely visible above the collar of his jacket. “You, wolf, follow behind.”
A man of few words. I appreciated that.
Somewhat in disbelief, I waited for Cherry to jam the helmet onto her head, her pale pink hair sticking out almost comically, then she hopped onto the bike behind the gruff man, who was likely a contract killer. And just in time too, because the door behind us banged open.
“Thanks,” was all she said. She’d barely grabbed hold of the guy’s waist before they took off, the engine revving loudly.
It seemed particularly uncanny that several of the people she’d helped had turned right around to help her with no good reason, and once more I couldn’t help but wonder if she really was psychic.
But why would she lie and say she wasn’t?
That question would plague me until we got a chance to talk, so I might as well focus on surviving.
I was fast, but not as fast as the top speed of a motorcycle. Thankfully, the biker slowed down once we were a few blocks away, and I could keep pace with it.
It wasn’t until we were out of back alleys and the shady side of town that he fully slowed down, finally coming to a stop next to a subway entrance. I ducked behind a dumpster and shifted back into my human form.
It wasn’t unheard of for shifters to occasionally run through the city, but it certainly wasn’t par for the course, and I didn’t need to stick out more than I already did.
“Yeah, they’re great there. If you have any questions or worries, they’ll help you. They’re the ones who got me the right meds when I first found little Hudson.”
“Thanks. Maybe they can have a playdate,” the giant man said. I was surprised he’d found a helmet that could properly contain his cranium. Must have bought it from a Samoan shop. “Our little ones, that is.”
“Hudson is a bit of a princess, but sure. As long as there are enough treats, she’s down for anything. Drop me an email. HausDonmoue at businessmail dot com .”
I was surprised it wasn’t something like psychickgirlie5ever or funanimalfacts69 .
“Will do.” He looked over his shoulder at me, and for a moment I thought he was going to say something poignant. He didn’t. He gave me a slight nod, then roared off.
Cherry and I looked at each other, surrounded by people hustling to the subway exit to catch the four a.m. lines. There was so much to say, and yet we were utterly silent as we walked down the stairs together.
Tickets bought. Train arrived. Seats found. All of it was done without a single word exchanged.
Because what the hell was I going to say?
Cherry was a con artist—she’d confessed that much. She’d risked our lives in the bazaar, and we never found out anything. We had no idea who put the bounty out there, and no idea who had taken it, and absolutely no idea who was currently trying to hunt down Jackson.
Although, we did now know several very particular characters who hadn’t taken the contract, so that was… something?
Was it?
I didn’t know. My thoughts were fighting each other. At my core, I didn’t want to believe she’d deceived me. I did not want to believe that those incredible things I’d seen her do were somehow fake.
I really thought she saw me…
And that was the angry and hurt thought I kept coming back to. It weighed on me, and each time my mind walked around the spiral my brain insisted on spinning in, I grew a little more bitter, a little more closed off.
So, when we exited the subway and walked the short distance back to Cherry’s, my wolf wanted to come right back out. He was confused that I was upset with someone he considered part of his pack—and that was a whole other issue—which was leaking into my own swamp of feelings.
“That wasn’t exactly the most successful outing ever,” Cherry said as we approached her front door.
“But I think the two contacts I made will be a little more open to dishing on anything they know after I work on them a couple days. You don’t think the Whisper is gonna keep trying to find us, do you? It’s not exactly difficult to find me.”
I didn’t reply. I couldn’t. I stood there, wondering if she was really going to pretend that everything was all right.
“Paul? You okay?” she asked as she fished around in the bush next to her door and then pulled out a set of green keys. I stared at her for a long moment, and finally, I saw the weight of the moment on her features.
“So, not a psychic, huh?”