Chapter One
"You Angus?"
Angus
Murray, black wolf of the New Orleans Shiftertown and bouncer in
this New Orleans bar, made a show of looking around. Music thumped,
the darkness broken by swirling colored strobes and the small
white light above the front door. Angus stood in that light's
shadow.
"I don't know," he answered. "Am I?"
The man
addressing him was a suit-too clean-cut, every hair in place-but he
had the craggy face of a man who used to be a soldier. He'd traded
military for civilian in a big way, and was polished and slick,
way out of place in this Shifter-groupie bar.
"I'm recruiting you for a job," the suit said.
Angus looked down on him from his six-foot-five height and rubbed
away a bead of sweat before it could trickle into his close-cropped
beard.
"Already have a job." Angus gestured to the packed,
five-story bar with a staircase running up the center. Couples
snaked around each other on the dance floors or made out in dark
corners. Shifters and humans mixed-Shifters because they were
bored, humans because they were excited to be around Shifters. "I
make sure partying humans and Shifters don't hurt one another, and
themselves."
Case in point-a human male getting in a female
Shifter's face. He was drunk, waving his beer bottle at her, and
the next second, he hit her with it.
Female Shifters could
take care of themselves, so Angus didn't move until the female rose
in a snarl of rage and tried to tie the human into a knot. Her
Collar went off in an attempt to dampen her violence, but it didn't
stop her from hanging the man upside down by his heels.
Angus waded to her. "Put him down, love."
The woman, a Feline Shifter, had a bruise on her cheek and fire in
her eyes. "The dickhead hit me. Because I didn't want to go do
dirty things in the alley with him."
"I know. I saw. But you have to let him go."
Angus spoke sternly. He was supposed to keep Shifters from hurting
humans, no matter what the idiot humans did, so Shifters wouldn't
be arrested and executed. No violence against humans. That was the
rule. The Feline was from his Shiftertown, but Angus couldn't cut
her any slack.
The Feline gave Angus a sudden smile, her long
wildcat teeth showing. "Sure thing," she said, and dropped the man
on his head.
The man howled and scrambled around, trying to get
to his feet. The Feline dusted off her hands and disappeared back
into the crowd, to the cheers of her friends.
Angus helped the human to stand. "You should go."
The man jerked from Angus's grasp. "Don't touch me, freak. I want that bitch arrested. And I'm suing this place."
Angus gripped his shoulder. "Not a suggestion. Go."
He put just enough growl into it. Angus was large and strong, and
usually scowling, which helped. His cub, Ciaran, said it made him
look like a wolf with a toothache.
The man opened his mouth to
argue, got a good look at Angus's eyes, gulped, and spun away. He
slouched unhurriedly out of the bar, muttering that he was tired of
this place anyway.
The suit materialized from the shadow where he'd retreated. "I'm right. You're exactly who we're looking for."
That didn't sound good. "To do what?"
The man beckoned Angus to follow him and turned away.
Angus didn't like beckoners. The raised, curling finger was
annoying, the gesture saying the beckoner believed himself to be in
charge. This guy was clearly Shifter Bureau, because only one of
them would walk into a Shifter bar and order people around.
Angus followed the suit for two reasons. One, his shift was almost
over and another bouncer had arrived to take his place. Two, Angus
feared in the back of his mind that if he didn't make a show of
respecting Shifter Bureau agents, they'd use his son as leverage.
Ciaran was all Angus had. Ciaran's mum had gone to the Summerland,
dead and dust, but she'd been dead to Angus years before that. The
one love in Angus's life was the little wolf cub with the smart-ass
mouth.
The suit led him to the manager's office. It was empty; the manager rarely came in here.
As the man shut the door, Angus leaned against the desk, folded his arms, and crossed one booted foot over the other. Closing yourself off, Dad, Ciaran would say. You have to let other people in.
Other Shifters, sure. Not assholes who worked for Shifter Bureau.
"What's the favor?" Angus snarled the words. "You don't mean a job with pay."
The suit shook his head, unworried about being alone back here
with an irritated Lupine Shifter. His dark hair shone in the
office's light, his eyes sharp and blue. One edge of his suit coat
drifted back to show Angus the butt of a pistol in a holster. The
pistol looked odd-probably a tranquilizer or Taser. Whatever.
"No pay," the man confirmed. "But you'll do it. We need you."
"I'm touched." Angus stood up, wanting his full height advantage
when he told this dickwad what to do with himself. "I'm also busy."
"It's not a suggestion." The man echoed Angus's earlier words, another mannerism that annoyed him.
"Okay, look," Angus said. "I know you Bureau shits think you can
come and tell Shifters what to do, but you have rules too. I'm
working a job to keep my cub fed and clothed. I'm allowed to do
that, without interference. I don't have to drop everything to do
favors for Shifter Bureau whenever they want extra muscle."
The
suit reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a card and a small
manila envelope. He held out the card to Angus, and when Angus made
no move to take it, he dropped it on the desk.
"I'm Jayson
Haider, special operations. We're recruiting you because you're a
tracker, a good one, and we need you to track a particularly
evasive target."
Haider pulled a couple of grainy photos out of the envelope and slapped them on the desk.
The first photo showed, from a distance, a woman with long hair,
her face half turned from the viewer as though she had no idea she
had a telephoto lens on her. There was just enough resolution to
make out that she had a pointed face, a lot of hair, and a scowl
that could match Angus's for fierceness.
The second and third
photos were from even farther away, and showed an animal-no clue
what it was from that distance-running away.
"The subject is Tamsin Calloway. She's Collarless, on the run, and needs to be brought in."
Angus touched the photos, willing their blurriness to clarify, but they remained fuzzy and hard to discern.
"By me," Angus stated.
"By you."
"Why?" Angus shoved the photos away. "If you want to round up a
Collarless Shifter, I'm sure you have plenty of Shifters at your
beck and call to do that dirty work. I don't know this woman."
"No?" Haider actually looked surprised. Did he think all Shifters
were best friends with one another? What a dickbrain. "She knew
your brother."
All the air rushed out of Angus's lungs. By the
time he inhaled again, rage seared every inch of his body. "You
shut the fuck up about my brother."
Gavan, Angus's older
brother, was dead, killed years ago when he'd tried to break
Shifters out of captivity. He'd been the leader of a covert group
who'd tried first to negotiate with Shifter Bureau and the
governments of various countries to free Shifters, and then had
turned to violence.
Gavan had led marches and attacks against
Shifter Bureau offices, wanting to show the threat Shifters could
be if they chose. At least that's what Shifter Bureau claimed
they'd wanted. Angus hadn't seen Gavan since the night he and Gavan
had argued and then fought with teeth and claws about Angus
joining him.
Angus had thought the group was pointless and
stupid and would only get Shifters killed. Gavan had called him a
coward and an ass-licker. They'd parted in fury. The kicker was
that Angus's mate, April, had taken Ciaran and joined Gavan.
The next time Angus had seen Gavan was when he'd been dead, shot
and laid out next to the rest of his followers-including
April-waiting for the Guardian to send them to the Goddess. Angus
and his Shiftertown leader had insisted that Shifter Bureau let
their funeral be in the Shifter way-their souls released and their
bodies rendered to dust when the Guardian thrust his magical sword
through their hearts-rather than having them buried in a mass
grave. Shifters had a horror of burial. If Shifters' bodies weren't
reduced to dust, their souls could float free, easy pickings for
anyone magical, like the Fae, to enslave.
The New Orleans
Shiftertown's Guardian had dispatched first Gavan, then April and
the others, while Angus had shielded Ciaran from the sight.
If this woman in the photo had been one of Gavan's, why was she
still alive and roaming around when those who'd followed Gavan were
dead and gone? And how close to Gavan had she been?
Or was this
all bullshit on the part of Shifter Bureau? Angus wouldn't put it
past them to rile him up over his brother to get him to find this
woman for them for whatever reason. Maybe Angus's name had come up
when they'd drawn the who-should-we-be-a-pain-in-the-ass-to-today? lottery.
"I'm asking again," Angus said. "Why me? Don't you have other bloodhounds to round up Shifters for you?"
"She's been seen in the area," Haider said without changing
expression. "If she was close to your brother, she might trust
you."
"Doubt it. Why do you want her so bad? What can one fairly young female Shifter do to chafe the hide of Shifter Bureau?"
At last Haider showed some emotion-weariness, frustration, and
anger. "She stirs up other Shifters, sabotages Shifter Bureau
vehicles, breaks into offices and destroys records, and harasses
agents. It's a possibility that she killed two agents in Shreveport
a month ago. We need to bring her in."
"A possibility?" Angus
could sympathize with a Shifter who riled up the Bureau, but
Shifters weren't killers. Fighters, yes, but not murderers.
"Two agents were found cut to pieces," Haider answered in clipped tones. "A Shifter did it, all right."
"Let me get this straight. You want me to chase after a woman who might
have killed two humans, but you don't know, and all I have to go
on are these blurry photos? And she once upon a time knew my
brother?" Angus held up his hands. "Forget it. I'm not in love with
the Bureau enough to help you fix your screwups."
Haider's eyes narrowed. "You will do it, or we can revisit just how much you had to do with your brother's revolt."
Angus only gave him a tired look. "I was cleared of that years
ago. I'll be cleared of it again. I had nothing to do with it and
everyone knows it."
"All right." The man straightened up, his
mouth tightening in a grim line. "I didn't want to do this. I hoped
you'd cooperate, but you're forcing my hand."
"No offense,
Haider, but piss off. I'm clocking out and going home." Angus
moved to the computer on the desk to tap out his code to finish his
hours, but Haider spoke again.
"Your son. Ciaran."
Angus stilled, his fingers hovering above the touch screen. "What about him?"
"He isn't home. My agents have orders to look after him until you bring in Tamsin Calloway."
Angus didn't hear anything after the first few words. He launched
himself over the desk and into Haider, slamming the man against the
nearest wall.
"First rule," he snarled, his face changing to
the beast between his human form and his black wolf's. "Don't touch
the cubs."
"He won't be hurt," Haider said, calm for a man with a wolf's claws around his throat. "If you cooperate."
"Fuck you, dickhead-" Angus's words cut off in a crackle of
electricity and searing pain as his Collar and the Taser in
Haider's hand went off at the same time.
Two hours later, Angus
walked into an illegal gaming den down in the bayous, acting on a
tip HaiderÕs agents had received. For the last week or so, Tamsin
Calloway had been seen hanging out in the area of Houma and smaller
towns, coming and going, up to something-who knew what?
She'd been visiting this old plantation house that held card games
in one of its back rooms-the games were known to local police but
deliberately ignored. Someone along the line was probably getting a
kickback.
Angus drove from New Orleans in the car Haider had
lent him, a pathetic old station wagon from the last century. Angus
had taken one look at it and objected in disbelief, but Haider
said, "She won't notice you're Shifter in this. We need a quick
capture. Do everything right, and you and your cub will be going
home together tonight."
Angus only kept himself from
strangling Haider by reminding himself that Ciaran's life hung in
the balance. Shifter Bureau might not go so far as to kill a
cub-such an act would have repercussions, even for Shifter
Bureau-but they could take Ciaran away from him, foster him with a
Shifter family far away, forbid Angus to see him again.
Might as well send him to dust, Angus thought bitterly. He didn't
have much in his life anymore besides Ciaran. His son was his whole
world.
Angus parked the car in a closed-down gas station a
little way from the plantation house and proceeded on foot. He
reasoned he didn't want to come out dragging his quarry to find
himself hemmed in by other vehicles. Or maybe he just didn't want
to be laughed at, a big bad Shifter emerging from a faded,
wood-paneled station wagon.
Cars and motorcycles were
parked haphazardly in the dirt around the house, showing he'd been
right about the possibility of getting blocked in. Popular place.
Old plantation houses in this area either became tourist
attractions, if there was money to fix them up, or slowly fell
apart in the hands of private owners. This one looked to be in
better repair, its columns ghostly white in the fog, lights
flickering in its windows.
Angus moved stiffly, his nervous
system recovering from the multiple shocks from his Collar and the
Taser. Haider hadn't needed to tase him, but the man was a bastard.
Angus had known as soon as Haider mentioned Ciaran that he'd be
chasing down the Shifter woman. He'd attacked Haider to make him
understand what would happen to him if Ciaran was harmed in any
way. There was no need to subdue Angus to get him to obey.
A
guard stood inside the door of the plantation house, a human who was
almost as large as a Shifter. He gazed at Angus with narrow eyes until
Angus gave the password. Haider had known that too.
Again Angus
wondered why the hell Haider hadn’t simply sent in a bunch of Bureau
commandos with black fatigues and tranq rifles to grab her. The man
wasn’t telling Angus everything.
As Angus stepped inside the
dimly lit interior, he saw that this place was more than a backwoods
casino. To the right of the main hall was a large living room, lit with
darkly shaded lamps. People lounged on sofas together— very close
together. From the scents Angus caught, they were human and Shifter.
Humans
and Shifters were upstairs as well, from the scent of things.
Interesting. Was someone running a brothel or was this a house where
humans and Shifters could mingle without anyone getting in a twist about
it?
A black-skinned Shifter came down the stairs, the man almost
as tall as Angus but not as big, his muscles more ropy. Angus placed
himself in front of him.
“What are you doing here?” Angus asked
in a quiet voice. He didn’t say the Shifter’s name, though he’d known it
for years—Reginald McKee, currently second in command in his
Shiftertown. Names and ranks might not be a good thing to throw around
here.
Reg halted on the bottom step, looking, if anything, embarrassed. “Just hanging out. You?”
“Looking
for someone.” Angus kept his voice soft as a breath. Reg, being
Shifter, could hear him, but anything louder and every other Shifter
here would too. “Shifter female.”
Reg huffed a laugh. “Can you be more specific?”
Angus
leaned forward and whispered the name into Reg’s ear. Reg looked
thoughtful, then shook his head. “No idea, my friend. Sorry.”
“Help me look?”
Reg’s amusement died. “Why? Her mate pissed off at her or something?”
Angus rubbed his hand over his uncombed hair. “It’s complicated.”
Reg’s wildcat was mostly serval, a small creature, but wickedly fierce. His lack of bulk made him quick, canny, and cautious.
He
knew Angus was being evasive, but Angus couldn’t explain. Not when
Ciaran’s safety depended on it.“I’ll scout around,” Reg said. “What does
she look like?”
“Red hair, young—” Angus broke off in
frustration. That was all he knew, and Haider hadn’t even told him what
kind of Shifter she was. Maybe Haider didn’t know.
Reg raised his brows. “Right. If I see her, I’ll tell you. I won’t grab her myself.”
“Probably for the best,” Angus agreed. “Where’s the card room?”
“Back there.” Reg gave Angus another skeptical eye. “We’ll have to talk, my friend.”“Yep, we will.”
Reg
had taken over being second in command to the Shiftertown leader when
Angus had been forced to step down from the position because of Gavan.
Reg had felt bad about it, but Angus had never blamed him . . .
“Good luck.” Reg nodded and skimmed back up the stairs to start searching, the litheness of his wildcat evident.
Angus
took his plodding wolf self down the hall where Reg had pointed,
finding the card room after peeking intotwo other chambers. No guards
stood at the door— it seemed that anyone could walk in and throw his
money away on a poker game if he wanted.
This room, like the
others, was dim except for lights directly over the card tables. Smoky
too— no one had decided to ban cigarettes and cigars here. Ashtrays on
and next to the tables overflowed, the stench of used cigarettes
cloying.
Through the haze, Angus saw her.
Tamsin Calloway
looked younger than in her photo. She had a wave of bright red hair
flowing back from a broad forehead, her face narrowing to a somewhat
pointed chin. He couldn’t tell the color of her eyes from this distance,
but her skin was the pale hue of a true redhead, one from the northern
climes of Scotland. Angus had seen Fae inside Faerie with hair that
color.
She sat at a table that held seven other men, all human.
Her cards hung negligently in her hands while she leaned forward with a
little smile, as though eager for the next bet. They were playing Texas
Hold ’em. The cards showing on the table were two queens, a jack, and a
ten. Plenty of money sat in a pile in the middle. No chips, just cash.
As
Angus paused, trying to decide on his approach, one of the men at the
table glared at Tamsin. “I’ll raise you a hundred.” He shoved in a stack
of twenties.
“I’ll see that,” Tamsin said without losing her smile.
Four of the other men groaned and tossed down their cards. “Fold,” they each said, with one saying, “I’m toast.”
Three
men and Tamsin left. Two put in their money, leaving it to the man
who’d raised the last time. He plucked up two more twenties and a ten
and let them drop into the pile. “Another fifty.”
Tamsin shrugged and added her money. Another man threw his cards down in disgust. “I’m out.
”Now
it was Tamsin and the other two. One man looked at his cards, the ones
on the table, and the pot. He sighed and pushed his chair back. “Damn
it.”
The remaining man watched Tamsin. He hunched forward, anger
in every line of his body. If he didn’t win, things might go badly for
Tamsin.
“Call,” the man snarled.
Tamsin laid down her cards. “Two little ladies make four of a kind.”
A string of foul words came out of the man’s mouth. His cards fell from his hand, nowhere near anything to win.
“You cheating bitch!”
Tamsin
raked the money to her and rose. Ignoring the raging man and his
friends, who were telling him to suck it up, she looked across the room
and straight at Angus.
Angus froze in place, doing his best to be just another Shifter looking to relieve boredom in this backwoods casino.
Tamsin
wasn’t fooled. The eyes that met Angus’s told him she’d already seen
him, recognized him for Shifter, and knew why he was here. Her eyes were
a hazel shade, the light over the table showed him, almost golden, the
color of whisky. Her faint scent came to him over the stench of humans
and smoke— warm, like nutmeg.
Tamsin stuffed double handfuls of cash into her pockets, at the same time moving back from the table on quick feet.
“Gotta go, boys. Thanks for the game.”
Two more strides, a flash of a grin over her shoulder, and she faded into the shadows.
Angus
charged across the room after her. A heavy curtain hid the wall she’d
run toward, and Angus jerked it back to find a window, wide- open and
letting in the fog.
Angus scrambled through the window, jerking his bulk through the tight fit, and landed on the veranda that surrounded the house.
Mists flowed between him and the trees beyond, and there was no sound. Tamsin, her flame hair and nutmeg scent, had vanished.
Excerpted from Midnight Wolf
by Jennifer Ashley. Copyright © 2018 by Jennifer Ashley. All rights
reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without
permission in writing from the publisher.
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