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Chapter 3

Law-Dog

LENNOX

“ Y ou don’t know what you’re doing,” I mutter as I kick my shoes off, growling in annoyance as one of them lands in a puddle. The shoes were expensive. “Cease and desist.”

But my wolf’s not listening to reason.

I drag the rest of my clothes off while I look around for a convenient place to stash them. The rattle of a bottle on cement further down the alley catches my attention but quickly loses it. After several decades of living and working in New York, not much distracts me.

I shift into my wolf, gather up my clothes and shoes in my mouth, and jump on top of a dumpster. I make my way from there to a sturdy air conditioning unit to a sign announcing 50 cent wings at Lucky’s, and finally onto the roof.

I shove my clothes and shoes in a shadowy alcove before padding to the edge of the roof.

This is stupid , I tell my wolf, but he shakes my logic from his head, catches the scent he’s looking for and leaps off the building.

It’s impossible not to love a good run anywhere, anytime, but there’s something special about a wolf run through a place like Manhattan.

I chose New York as my playground because of the tall buildings and the challenge of hunting criminals in one of the largest human settlements on the planet. The adrenaline rushes as I leap from window ledge to window ledge, building to building. It’s exhilarating. Nothing beats the feeling of joy that surges through me each time I let my wolf have his way with the metal jungle.

At least, nothing beat the feeling until I met her . Charlie Lopez. Or Charlotte Theresa Lopez.

I looked her up as soon as I got back to the office, telling myself it was because I needed to know who my new partner was. Not because I’m suddenly obsessed with everything about the fast-talking, fire-inspecting Latina from Brooklyn.

The police database told me what I already knew. She’s 5’4”, 33 years old, and employed as a fire investigator. Social media was the true gold mine of information. It told me that Charlie is the third child of five.

Charlie’s mother is the descendant of Mexican immigrants while her father hails from Costa Rica. Both of her parents are alive as are all her grandparents. Among her siblings, two are married with a combined total of five children, six including Charlie’s boy. Charlie’s youngest sibling is single and studying mathematics at Yale.

Learning Charlie’s family history makes my chest ache in a way I haven’t felt since my parents were killed during the Human-Shifter War. I can see the love Charlie’s family feels for one another in each picture they share on social media. The beaming faces as the entire tribe attends birthday parties, graduations, weddings.

It’s the thought of those pictures that finally halts my wolf in his tracks. The thought of such a beautiful multi-generational family destroyed. ASHRA flashes through my mind and panic hits me so hard, I lose my footing and nearly slide off a window ledge.

Charlie is investigating the fire, which very much looks like it was set by ASHRA. For better or worse, Charlie is the mate of a shifter. She doesn’t know it, and if I have my way, she never will.

If ASHRA finds out who she is while she’s investigating them, things could get very dangerous for her.

The yearning my wolf feels for our mate is too much for me, and despite the reasons to stay away from her, I pick up her scent once more, following it to her building where I pad down the fire escape to the third floor.

Carefully, I peer over the window ledge and into an apartment. A quick glance tells me I’ve got the right one. Pictures of her family line every wall and shelf. My nose is never wrong.

An excited shout draws my attention “Mom!” I watch with interest as a human child barrels through the living room so fast, he’s practically a blur.

Charlie comes out of the kitchen, rubbing her hands on a dish cloth as the child cannons into her, pushing her back a few steps. She drops the cloth and catches him, her dimples flashing as she laughs, hugging him tight. “Luke!”

The child takes a few steps back, holding up what looks like a toy helicopter. Thanks to my excellent hearing, I catch every word of his excited chatter.

“… Amber’s dad flew the same one in California doing search and rescue during the fires last fall. I’m gonna fly one someday too… “

After a few minutes of patient listening, Charlie interrupts her son. “Have you had your bath?”

Luke wrinkles his nose. “Uncle Jorje says baths are for babies, that grownups take showers.”

Snorting, Charlie says, “Oh yeah? Maybe you should ask your uncle what his hot tub is if it’s not a giant bathtub.” With one hand on his back, Charlie guides Luke to the washroom. “You can take a shower if you want, but make sure you check the temperature before going in and you have to be careful to stand on the mat or you might fall. I’ll show you.”

“I’m not gonna fall….” The rest of his words are cut off as the door swings shut.

Sighing, I sit on my furry ass and wait for them to emerge.

This is bad.

I know it, yet I’m helpless against it. My mate, the person I’ve been pining over for the better part of seven hundred years, is only a few dozen feet away from me.

In ancient times, I would have had every right to bust through the window, gather her up and take her away to my den. But I’m not, nor have I ever been, at the mercy of my instincts.

Among my brothers, I have the most control over my wolf.

Or so I thought.

For some reason, I’m having a difficult time dealing with him. I’ve never had to leash him the way I’ve seen my brothers leash theirs. Now that I’ve found my mate, my wolf is determined to be heard.

The sound of the bathroom door opening again has me turning to peek through the window. I hope the shadows are enough to cover my big furry wolf face as I peer in at Charlie. She’s smiling and gently shaking her head as she snatches up the fallen dish cloth from the floor and tosses it in the direction of the kitchen.

She then collapses onto her couch, the back of it to the window where I can see her head and shoulders. The sound of the shower pattering in the background tells me the child is still washing.

Charlie leans forward and picks up a tablet. I straighten, pushing myself up as high in the window as I can to see what she’s looking at. My vision is much better than a human’s and I’m able to make out a series of photos that she quickly flicks through.

It’s the scene of our fire.

Flip, flip, flip.

She rejects them as quickly as they appear on her screen. What’s she looking for?

Then she stops, taps the screen and blows up a picture and stares at it. After a minute, she enlarges it more, tilting her head as she examines it.

Even through the window, I hear her gasp as she leaps off the couch, sending the tablet flying.

I drop below the window line where she won’t see me, and peek over the ledge. She’s not looking at the window though. Instead, she reaches for her purse, pulling a wallet out and rifling through it. When she finds what she’s looking for, a small white card, she sets it down and taps the digits into her phone.

I try to see the card, but it’s not at the right angle and the writing would be too small from this distance anyway. My eyes are good, but not that good.

She waits and waits, frustration clear on her face as the person on the other end doesn’t pick up. She huffs and drops her phone. “Dammit, Lennox, where are you?”

Oh Shit. She’s looking for me.

And my cell phone is in my jacket pocket on a roof several blocks away. I’m torn between wanting to race back to my phone to find out what she discovered and my desire to give my wolf his way and continue to spy on our mate.

Charlie’s son decides for us when his call from the washroom distracts his mother and she walks away from her phone.

I let out a breath, deciding to stay. She shouldn’t be working anyway. It’s after hours.

I ignore the persistent image of my own small apartment filled with paperwork from other cases. I’m not exactly one to talk about striking a healthy work-life balance.

I watch eagerly as Charlie leads her towel-clad son from the washroom into his bedroom. I can’t follow them as his bedroom is on the side of the building without a fire escape.

I’ll have to be content to listen to the soft cadence of their voices as they speak to each other, going through a nightly ritual of hug, book, and bedtime kiss. I search myself for jealousy, wondering why my wolf isn’t upset that our mate is paying attention to another.

Wolf shifters mate for life, though they can separate if they aren’t compatible. Even separated, the incompatible pair would need to live in proximity to each other so as not to disturb the mating instinct. A second mating is extremely rare; therefore, it would be unusual in the wolf shifter world to find a mate who already has offspring. It happens, but not often.

Now I wish I’d paid more attention to the mating habits of other species. They might inform my own actions and feelings toward a mate with a child from a previous relationship.

My feelings for the child are murky. I’m not jealous of the attention Charlie is giving him, but my wolf is dismissive of the boy, uncaring.

I catch sight of Charlie as she tiptoes silently from the child’s room. My heart hammers harder with anticipation. My paw pads dampen and my breathing grows shallower. Classic mating symptoms.

I want her. No, I need her. More than I need my next breath.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

I was supposed to be the logical brother, the one who avoided the curse by avoiding a mating.

Now… well… now I don’t need my wolf to tell me I’m fucked.

And if I’m correct, so is Charlie.

Why did I think I could escape the mating call when my species is well known for it?

I should run away. Leave. Disappear.

Charlie lets out a sigh of relief as she sinks onto her sofa, pulling a crocheted blanket over her legs and picking up her tablet once more.

One more peek before I leave.

She pulls up a browser window and types in ‘Detective Lennox Wolven-North’. A grin stretches my lips as I leap from the fire escape and back into the night.

When I’ve climbed back down to street level and put on my clothes, I dig out my cell phone and check my messages. Charlie’s voice fills my ear. “Lennox, meet me at my office as early as you can tomorrow. I need you to get me in to look at the body from our fire. I think I’ve found something.”