Page 5

Chapter Five

I walked into the pool house to find it had been changed. The scent was the same, so someone had taken care not to have a smell as they put in shelves and stocked it with my yarn. Who had done that while I was floating in the pool all day?

When I checked the closet, some of my old clothes were there, but not many. The new pieces were all more expensive than I could afford. I couldn’t wear anything on the Senator’s dime. My red sheath dress wasn’t there. I grabbed a navy sheath that was the only appropriate option that wasn’t new and then took my time with my hair and makeup, making sure my brunette waves were as flattering as possible around my rosy cheeks. Did I want to accentuate the lush lips of my gnome heritage or lean into the large eyes of my Elven? Both?

I ended up with too much makeup, far more than I usually wore, almost like I was trying to match the Senator’s glam, even though I had no intention of actually being seen with him. I’d ride in his limo to the gates and then slip out and walk up. I did that sometimes when I took a cab.

Senator Silverton would need rules, apparently, because he had no sense when it came to his duty and public service. Or maybe he had no sense when it came to women. He never dated any woman more than once. Maybe it’s because he lost his head and bought them wardrobes when their lifestyles didn't live up to his.

I found Senator Silverton in the library at his desk, going through papers. He immediately rose and came to me with a polite smile. “You look beautiful.”

I gave him a look. “Are we exchanging compliments? You’re far more beautiful than I am.”

He held out his arm to me. Did I take it or not? I crossed my arms and took a slight step away from him. He raised a brow in question. “It is my place to compliment the beautiful woman.”

“Really? And your place as a man who buys beautiful women clothing? What kind of place is that? What do they call the mister to the mistress? Master?”

He gave me a full smile that was as effusive to an elf as someone else breaking out in loud laughter. “Miss Era, for a moment consider that our roles were reversed. You are in a position to help someone who is being stalked by a predator, chased out of their home by a brutal and revolting monster who marked most of the precious yarn and clothing. Would you not…”

I held up a hand while nausea roiled in my stomach. “What do you mean, he marked my yarn? The yarn in the pool house is only a fraction of the yarn I had in my stash. Hardly any of my cashmere collection is there.”

He gave me a small sigh. “He urinated on most of it. There’s nothing as potently noxious as werewolf…”

I grabbed his arm, digging my nails into the smooth silk-wool. Horror mixed with growing rage. Ridley went into my apartment and peed on my cashmere yarn? What kind of twisted, sick, vile creature would do something like that to harmless cashmere?

“Miss Era? Do you need to sit down?”

I gave him a bright smile while rage thrummed beneath my skin. This was going too far. Ridley wouldn’t ever be allowed to desecrate someone’s holy sanctuary of knitting ever again. “I’m just tired, no doubt from the sunburn. Thank you for saving what you could, or thank Libby for me. I’m fine. I’m going to slip out of the limo outside the gate, so no one links our names.”

“Are you sure you’re…” His words trailed off as I pulled him towards the front door.

No, I wasn’t fine. I was so angry, beyond angry. Werewolves didn’t handle anger well. I didn’t get angry often, because gnomes were notoriously jolly, and even elves didn’t usually bother sustaining negative emotions when it drained your magic and energy, but now, the anger of the werewolf combined with my own gnome-like disgust at the blatant disrespect. Even the elf in me thought the wolf needed to be seriously disciplined.

The party was productive. I got the necessary material for my article, and then I slipped out through the front gate like I’d come, waving at the security guys before I disappeared into the shadows.

I shifted into the small wolf and disappeared into the night, abandoning my navy sheath under a bush. I’d never really liked it, anyway.

I tracked Ridley to a human sports bar in the upper city, drinking and looking mean through the front window. When he finally got up and left, I stalked him from a block away as he headed towards my part of town. Was he going to burn my place down? He had a lighter in his hand, flicking it on and off. I’d light him on fire if he tried.

Two couples walked along, chatting easily, and one of the guys bumped into Ridley. The werewolf snarled and then one of the women pointed at him and squealed.

“It’s Ridley, the new pitcher! Are you really a werewolf?” She fluttered her lashes at him while admiration honeyed her words.

His snarl vanished as he smiled at her. “You can come with me if you’d like to find out. I never bite.”

She laughed like that was hysterical and grabbed her guy’s arm. “I wish. You could come with us to the party we’re going to! It’ll be a lot of fun. Everyone loved your last game.”

“Some other time,” Ridley said, then sauntered away like that had restored his enormous ego.

He walked down a dark alley. Instead of following him, I ran as fast as I could around the block to cut him off on the other side. I waited there, but he didn’t come out of the alley. Had he noticed me? Was he waiting to grab me?

I smiled my wolf smile and then crept into the alley, letting the smells of the night wash over my senses. Ridley was a subtle pulse out of the ebb of the evening, waiting behind a dumpster for me to come out.

He’d actually peed on my cashmere.

Rage fed my strength and speed as I lunged at him, ripping out his left Achilles tendon before I whirled away, out of reach of his swiping paws.

He grinned at me when he saw my adorable wolf, ignoring the wound I’d given him. One arm shifted into a massive paw and glittering claws. “Hello pretty, soft, sweet. I’m going to enjoy this.”

I bared my teeth in a smile. I was going to enjoy it much more than he would. Then I shifted, expanding, bubbling up in to the massive force of power and destruction that wasn’t cute. Not at all. My fur in this shape was patchy, my form more humanoid than canine, except for my head. That was all teeth and jaws. I drooled, because I didn’t have a lot of lip to keep back the hunger. And when I looked at him, I was hungry.

He stared at me, shock and horror replacing his contented smirk.

“Run,” I rumbled in my deep, low bass of noxious misery.

He turned and run, but sprawled when he put weight on his left leg. I leapt on him, landing on his back, knocking the air out of him. He tried to roll over and shift, but for a moment I held him, letting my massive weight crush his lungs before I leapt off and let him roll and shift into a trembling, wicked beast. His were form wasn’t anything like mine. He backed up while I slowly advanced.

“What happened to you?” he whined. “You’re disgusting.”

I narrowed my gleaming red eyes at him. That was the last thing he was going to say tonight. I lunged and ripped into him, his pretty fur flying. He fought back and left some good gashes, but the pain only made me hungrier. Werewolves don’t eat werewolves. But I was so hungry. And he’d heal. Eventually.

I left him in the alley, bleeding, because he was still alive. He’d heal, but he wouldn’t be assaulting any women, werewolf or not, for a long time.

I shifted back into my adorable wolf and headed home, clinging to shadows and feeling extremely satisfied. That lasted until I reached the yard. I leapt over the wall, landed, and then bright lights came on, blinding me, and there was Senator Silverton, crouching in front of me, a dark scowl on his beautiful face.

“You’re covered in blood! How badly are you hurt?” His hand brushed the deepest gash, and I whimpered and looked up at him with my big eyes like honey, really working the adorable angle. He sighed deeply and picked me up. I was so surprised that I let him. He took me right into the main house, to the kitchen, and started cleaning my wounds. It was the strangest thing to have someone touch me while I was in wolf form, either one of them. Not that he’d ever see my beast. My adorable little wolf was as much of my monster as he’d ever see.

“If you were going to exact vengeance, you should have asked me to come along,” he murmured.

His hands were so gentle, and to be honest, channeling the big bad wolf took a lot of energy. I relaxed on the towel on the kitchen counter and let him clean the blood out of my fur, the dirt out of my wounds, and, in general, take care of me. I dozed off, comfortable and content, until he picked me up and carried me to the bay window seat. He left me there while he cleaned the kitchen, then shut off the lights, and left me there. I was inside the house. I couldn’t open the doors unless I shifted into one or the other. But I’d heal more quickly in this form than the two-legged one.

That decided, I closed my eyes, and slept on the nicely padded window seat cushion. I woke up in the morning from Senator Silverton smacking a newspaper against the table, waking me up with a jerk.

“You killed him?” His voice was even, but his eyes were hard.

I peered at the paper, but I couldn’t focus on the fine print very well in this form. It would give me a headache. I dropped off the bench and padded to the living room, where a throw blanket dangled over the arm of a couch. Mm. Cashmere and silk blend. I pulled it down with my teeth, climbed underneath and then shifted. I straightened up, pulling the blanket around me. The Senator had followed me, still holding the newspaper.

“I didn’t kill him,” I muttered, taking the paper out of his hands, then flinching when I saw the mutilated body of Ridley. Had I done that? I’d done a lot of it, but not that huge gash across his neck that nearly severed his head, and not the gouges ripping out his kidneys, either. Had I? Maybe I’d lost control and my memories and…No. I hadn’t lost control like that, not ever.

“No? But you did attack him.”

I gave him a look. “I messed him up rather well, but I didn’t kill him.”

“You weren’t in that adorable wolf form. How big are your claws in your beast form?”

I stiffened up. “Why?”

“Because you’re going to have to prove that you didn’t kill him. I’m your lawyer, remember? You need to think about your defense when you assault someone. Things tend to escalate,” he said drily.

I backed away from him, feeling defensive, also incredibly underdressed, me in a blanket, him in his neat three-piece suit. “It was a fair fight between werewolves. Not murder. And you aren’t my lawyer. I can’t afford you.”

His violet eyes almost glowed with resolve. “I am absolutely your lawyer, and you can’t afford not to have me. I don’t care if you killed him or not, except insofar as it implicates you. We both know that he killed those missing girls in Golden City. You were next on his list. But he was well-connected, or his former crimes wouldn’t have been buried. So tell me every detail so that we can prepare a good defense.”

I sputtered for a moment. “I didn’t kill him! I left him breathing. I took some good chunks out of him, but not enough to kill him. I didn’t slice his throat, and I didn’t eviscerate him. Someone else finished him off, a wolf by the looks of it, but even larger than me.”

He raised a brow, implacable, immovable. “Show me. I need to document it if I’m going to prove your innocence.”

“I’m not exactly innocent. I mean, I did rip him apart, but I didn’t finish him off. I don’t want to shift.”

His eyes narrowed at me. “Do you have a problem demonstrating your beast?”

“I’m not in the mood.”

His jaw hardened, and then he straightened up, crossed his arms and looked as aloof and disinterested as an elf could look, which was very. “I beg your pardon. I didn’t take your mood into consideration. You do realize that I’m implicated by the behavior of my house guests, but if you don’t mind…” He turned and started walking out.

I sighed heavily as I stared at my arm. I could shift just my arm, right? “Wait. Just don’t scream, cry, or faint, okay?”

He slowly came back to me, but his arms were still crossed. “I will try to restrain myself,” he said drily.

Was I seriously going to show him my beast? He’d never look at me the same again. Even Ridley, a born werewolf, had called me disgusting. It was one thing to know I was a werewolf, and an entirely different thing to know that I could kill you without breaking a sweat. I took a deep breath and shifted my fingertips, nails stretching to curve over my hands, sinew pulling and splitting while purple veins popped up. Everyone loves purple veins. Patchy fur sprouted up my arms, towards my shoulder, and then the beast came out, full throttle, in a rush of high sensation that left me towering over the Senator, still clutching the blanket in one hand around me to protect my modesty. I really didn’t want him to see my patchy fur and bulging veins, and scaly skin. I wasn’t adorable, just monstrous.

Senator Silverton inhaled sharply as he looked up at me, but only he held out his hand. “Let me measure your claws.” His voice didn’t even shake.

I bent down and exhaled in his hair, sending it floating around before the strands settled once more around his serene, beautiful face. I flexed my claws right in front of that straight, noble nose, almost brushing the tip of it.

He grasped my hand and then held it against his own before snapping a few pictures for comparison. “Your beast is strong.”

“He deserved pain and humiliation, not death,” I rumbled in that scratchy growl. I didn’t hate him calling me strong. Much better than disgusting. And he was so pretty and would taste as good as he smelled.

“He deserved all three. You’re right. You definitely didn’t kill him. The monster who did had much bigger claws.” He finally looked up from my massive claws to my massive maw. “It isn’t the wolf who infected you, is it?”

I shrugged and pulled away, but he still had a grasp on my hand, the pads of my fingers against his. Something fluttered in my belly, something hungry, but not for flesh, at least not to eat. His soft skin would taste so nice. I wanted to press my nose against his throat and inhale his fear and sweetness. I wanted to follow him like Ridley followed pretty girls. I wanted to take advantage of his weakness and my strength.

I struggled with the beast, who was looking at Silverton as a different kind of prey. Finally, I pulled the wolf under my skin, trembling and weak-kneed from the effort. I sat down on the carpet, pulling the delicious throw around me and trying not to show my fear, once more in my gnome-elf skin.

Losing control to the wolf was my greatest fear. Assaulting the Senator like Ridley assaulted girls would make me a true monster. Maybe I should be locked up for Ridley’s murder if it kept me from acting out on those terrifying instincts. I’d never wanted to hunt for more than meat before. Maybe it was Ridley’s flesh, assimilating with mine, making me like him.

“Miss Era?” the Senator said, brushing my hair back from my face so he could look into my eyes. “I apologize for pushing you to shift when you weren’t ready.”

I looked up at him with a shaky smile. “You didn’t cry. I’m so impressed.”

“I was crying on the inside. Your beast is very…” His expression became particularly blank.

I laughed and managed to keep it out of sob territory as I patted his head. He was sitting next to me on the floor, like my wolf made his knees shaky too. “I know. I have the cutest, softest, fluffiest little wolf in the world, which is frustrating because werewolves never take me seriously, and then the beast comes out and then they’re past serious to terrified. That’s why I don’t shift around other werewolves. They can’t help not take me seriously until it’s too late.”

“Why would another werewolf kill Ridley?” he asked, leaning over his knees while he frowned in thought.

“Maybe he killed someone else’s girlfriend, and it’s a revenge strike.”

“Maybe. Or someone’s trying to frame you for his murder.”

I made a face at him. “Or a monster’s stalking me and doesn’t want anyone else to mark their territory on my cashmere.”

His eyes widened, then narrowed as he studied me. “Why would you say that?”

“Because it’s nonsense. We were saying nonsense, right? Why would anyone want to frame me for something that will probably get brushed off? No one cares when werewolves kill each other?”

“Are you aware how difficult it would be to find someone with larger claws than yours?”

I blinked at him. “I know my beast form is slightly larger than average.”

“Mm. With some training, you could be impossible to defeat.” The way he looked at me was appraising and intrigued.

My beast stirred in my belly, and I felt the press of claws against my nail beds. She’d love to show him how absolutely powerful she could be. I broke out in a cold sweat. The last thing I needed was for my beast to get a crush on an elven senator. That was the last thing he needed as well. I stood up and took two steps away from him while my stomach churned from raw nerves. “If you have the documentation you need, I’ll go get dressed.” And hide in the pool house for the rest of the day. Maybe for the rest of my life.

“Very well. You should expect to get papers served the next time you go out in public.”

“Perfect. My plan was to hide in the pool house indefinitely.”

“Now you’re going to hide?” He looked slightly put out.

I gave him a sheepish smile and edged away until I was out of the room, then I turned and darted for the back door as fast as I could go. All day, I couldn’t hold still, even to knit. My spells were as tangled as my yarn, and that night, I couldn’t sleep. Who had killed Ridley if I didn’t? I didn’t, did I? And what beast had bigger claws than mine? I looked at my nails while I lay in my bed in the moonlight, the civilized nail beds that hid the monster just waiting under my skin to claim me and the Senator. My mouth watered at the thought of his pretty eyes. That’s what worried me more than anything.

I couldn’t keep hiding here, because it put my host at risk. Of course not. My stalker was dead. My life wasn’t at risk. There was no reason for him to keep me here other than the Alta Manada nonsense. If I hurt someone who opened his home to me, I’d be a monster that truly deserved death. I’d leave first thing in the morning. Well, after I baked some cookies. I had to get on with my life and let the senator get on with his.

In the morning, I got up, showered, and dressed in my black skirt and vest that were a little tight, which is why they’d been in the back of my closet where Ridley’s mark hadn’t penetrated.

I was going to work and face reality, not hide in the Senator’s mansion and pretend I was on vacation. Monsters didn’t get vacations. I had to walk a few blocks away from the Senator’s street to get to a bus stop. I wasn’t nervous, just resigned to fate. I’d had a nice long run, but I never should have survived turning in the first place. Maybe the werewolves would execute me. Maybe they’d mate me to someone, and I’d kill him, and then I’d be executed. Either way, Senator Silverton wouldn’t need to worry about me. The senator didn’t need his name mixed with a werewolf who shouldn’t have gotten angry and ripped Ridley apart in the first place. A civilized person would have reported him, but I wasn’t civilized, however much I looked like it.

When I got to work, I went through security and then took the elevator up to the sixth floor, where Singer was located. The doors opened, and I went straight to my boss’s office.

“Come in, Delphi!” Nanette smiled and waved at me, dark eyes twinkling while her hair swirled around her even more magically than usual. With her mermaid blood, her hair was always glorious. Her extra cheer meant that she wanted me to take someone else’s assignment. Usually, I was game, but today was not one of those days.

“Hey. I need to—” I started, but she cut me off.

“You remember Moss.” Nanette gestured to the goblin girl in the corner who claimed to be fifteen so she could legally work four hours a day. I had my doubts. She was small, but wily.

“Of course. Hi Moss.” Her full name was Sludgemoss, but for some reason, it didn’t quite seem like the thing to call a young woman.

She flashed me a bright smile filled with sharp teeth.

Nanette continued. “I want the two of you to work as a team to cover for Loren while she’s out of town. She had a family emergency. I’m sure between the two of you, you can make short work of it.”

I stared at her. “Loren had a family emergency?” Loren covered sensational crime, such as a baseball star being found ripped apart in a back alley. She was extremely good at uncovering the shocking truth. She’d rather lose her right eye than a story like Ridley’s murder. She’d spin it and spin it for weeks.

“Yes, she left this morning in a rush. I believe she had to leave the country.” Nanette’s bright eyes beamed out of her warm skin, wavy hair reminding me of tentacles. She was like tentacles, wrapping around you and sucking you into whatever she needed you to do. That’s why the paper was such a success.

I took a step away from her. “I was actually going to ask for a leave of absence.”

Nanette laughed. “Oh, Delphi. Such a joker. Don’t worry, I have your vacation time scheduled for your sister’s wedding.”

“Brother.”

“Whatever. But right now, I need you on this investigation. I checked and your social calendar is scant this week. I need you to focus on this baseball player’s death. Find a new angle no one else has. Interview the wolves. They all love you. Everyone loves you.” She wrinkled her nose. “You actually smell like them.”

I winced and sniffed my arm. “From the baseball interview? They put their arms around my shoulders so their armpits…” I shuddered melodramatically and Moss giggled.

“Yeah, that stench will stay for weeks unless you soak in tomato juice or something. Werewolf sweat is worse than skunk spray.”

Which wasn’t true at all, but stories like that tended to stick. Werewolf urine was much worse than their sweat.

“Loren didn’t write up anything on the Ridley murder?” I asked.

Nanette grinned at me. “I love the way you immediately jumped to calling it murder. Sounds sensational. I don’t know. I imagine she called me from the airport and didn’t hear anything before that, because we both know that she would drop her family for a murder every day of the week. It’s good she’s taking time for family. Heaven knows she needs it, but right now, what we need is this story.”

I opened my mouth to say that I really wasn’t going to make it, but it was too weird for Loren to run off like that. “Do you have her home address? I’ll go over there and check for notes.”

Nanette grinned. “Sure. I’ll text it to you along with her email and password. Moss can open the door for you.”

Moss’s eyes widened. “Are you suggesting something?”

“Never. You probably won’t even have to pick locks, because Delphi will just look sweet and adorable, and the doorman will let her in.”

Moss sighed in disappointment. “That’s probably true. You’re too adorable.”

I wrinkled my brows. “Thanks?” Neither of them had seen my beast. And that’s how it was going to stay. Which is what I’d thought the very night I’d ended up showing my beast to my landlord. I nodded at the goblin. “Let’s go. We’ll go through her desk first to check her email and see if she left any notes before we hit her apartment.”

“Or you could go directly to the crime scene,” Nanette said.

I gave her a brief smile and left the room, Moss on my heels.