Tara knew when she left work at the grocery store something was wrong. Her brother wasn’t there to walk her home. That was warning enough for Tara. He was one of those fly-by-night types, every time his latest job didn’t go well and would run from it. Sadly, she couldn’t rely on him for much more than eating what little food was in their small fridge and racking up her long-distance phone bill with 900-numbers. Tara loved him, truly she did. He was her only family. She’d raised him through his teen years while she wasn’t much more than a teen herself.
What worried her was he wasn’t answering his phone. He always answered his phone and he’d give her some lame excuse about why he wasn’t there. This time he wasn’t picking up and it was her seventh attempt. Hid voicemail was also full. The summer night was cool, and the streets wet from the rain which fell while she worked. At two in the morning, Tara watched cars drive past as she walked toward where she lived. It wasn’t home, they didn’t have one. A home was safe and stable. Where people loved you. Where they lived, it was none of those things.She walked twenty minutes to find the derelict motel her pack use. It wasn’t much with it peeling paint, water-stained ceilings, and rotten floors. They didn’t own the condemned fleabag. In fact, her pack owned nothing, not even territory. They were a lone pack, a pack of sad shifters that were a drain on society. They existed in the neutral zone between three established packs.Their pack was filled with rejects and unwanted wolves, who banded together under Alpha Elmwood out of desperation. The Elmwood Pack was almost nothing. Too small to have real influence or wealth.Was she happy? No.She didn’t have anything to offer another pack. They were stuck with the Elmwood Pack. If she left this pack, what would she do with her brother? His presence would get her an instant rejection from any sane Alpha. He’d steal the pack blind while wearing a charming smile. She loved him, but she wasn’t deluded about his failings. With little education or prospects, Tara Travers could only keep her head down to survive. “Come on, Eddie, pick up and tell me you aren’t dead.” She listened to his phone go to voicemail again. It wasn’t full now, that’s good. This time, she left a message. “Hey stupid, did you forget something? Or someone? Call me and you better have a good excuse. You know the number.” She disconnected the call and pocketed her old beat-up phone. Sure, she’s a shifter, but she’s a woman out alone in the wee morning hours. In the neutral zone, where there’s no telling what could happen, and the only law is the human one. A human one that knew nothing about the supernatural beings living among them. It was two-thirty when she reached their room. No, Eddie, or the flicker of the TV would be visible through the rotten drapes. Tara entered the darkened room. The pack somehow kept the lights on and sometimes there was hot water. Right now, she needed to put the food in her backpack in the tiny fridge and sleep. If all went well, she’d have two days off work, and she’d start it by sleeping. Then she’d attempt to pick up some day work as a road side flower vender. Tara hadn’t slept long when her phone rang. The people who used her number were few, her boss, brother, and Alpha Elmwood when he looked for Eddie, if he remembered she existed. Tara was happy her Alpha didn’t like her much. He saw her as necessary to keeping Eddie. Eddie was blindly loyal, and would do anything for him. “Hello? Is that you Eddie? Where are you?” Tara sat up in bed, the phone to her ear. “Tar, hon, no time. Listen to me. Get out of there. Leave the pack. I screwed up big time. Get out, save yourself. Everything’s gone sour.” “Leave the pack? Where do I go? Eddie, you aren’t making sense. What’s going on in the background? Where you are?” This wasn’t like her carefree, scheming brother. “What’s happening?” “Just leave. Pack what you can and leave. I don’t know when or if we’ll ever see each other again. I love you, and if you love me, you’ll do this.” The call ended. Of all the nerve, to guilt trip her. She’d give him a piece of her mind. Tara tried calling him, but the call wouldn’t connect. His phone was off. “Eddie, what have you done? Where do I go?” Tara said to no one in frustration. She expected him to call back and explain he was being overly dramatic. Tara was too tired to do much of anything. Where would she go at this hour without money? Everything was closed. She hated that he hadn’t explained things. Eddie kept too many secrets. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to protect her, or avoided her. It was just after dawn when she awoke rudely to an angry fist pounding on the door. Tara didn’t get to the flimsy door before it buckled under the force of the fist. “Really? You couldn’t wait for me to open it? What’s going on?” She regretted saying this because she was face-to-face with Alpha Elmwood, flanked by his Beta and a Delta, like he needed either with such a tiny pack. They might have numbered thirty years ago. Now, they barely filled ten rooms.“Alpha Elmwood? What’s wrong? What’s going on?” The old man looked like a crazed lunatic. With his angry glaring eyes, red face, messy grey hair, he breathed heavily, and his claws were visible. How he banged on the door was a marvel without injuring himself. This wasn’t a good look and it scared Tara to no end. She saw strangers behind him. They bore the same expression as him. She didn’t recognize them. Only saw them standing in the old crumbling parking lot. “Where’s your worthless brother?” Tara heard Alpha Elmwood growl, his fangs were on display in his aggressive display of anger. It was made more disturbing by the light coming from behind him. “I don’t know. I got a call from him about an hour or two ago and Eddie wouldn’t tell me where he was. I’m scared something’s wrong. He wasn’t making any sense. Do you know what’s happening?” Tara suspected the men outside were rogues. Why were they with Alpha Elmwood? That made no sense. “Your brother was supposed to do a simple job, and he screwed it up. Since, I can’t get him to fix this, you will.” Tara could see Alpha Elmwood was desperate to direct his anger and maybe embarrassment at someone. She was the closest target. She knew this wasn’t a situation for her. “What job? I don’t understand. How am I supposed to fix this?” “Your brother needed to pick up a payment for me and bring it back. Did he? No, he didn’t. The fool, thought he could make money with mine at the Wild Wolf. He’d hoped to turn it into a sizeable chunk of change. He lost it all.” “You’ve got to be kidding.” Tara knew where this went. Eddie saw himself as a consummate gambler. She believed Eddie would have gambled with the Alpha’s money and lost. It wasn’t his money, how did he have the nerve to do that? What was he thinking? “I won’t be screwed over by the likes of your brother. You’re going to go to the Wild Wolf and get my money back.” “How do I do that?” Tara had never been to the private shifter club. A shifter needed money to get into there and they needed to be pretty. Prerequisites Tara didn’t possess. The club’s reputation was it catered to the twisted cravings and vices of the elite shifters of Toronto. Whether it was food, music, gambling, or sex, the Wild Wolf had it. Tara couldn’t understand how her brother gained entry to the Wild Wolf let alone gamble there. “Lie, cheat, or steal it back, I don’t care. Just get it or don’t come back.” He tossed some papers and money on the unstable table beside the broken door. “Get it back and you save your brother’s life. Fail and you can look for a new home while finding a place to bury your brother.” He stormed out, leaving the door listing drunkenly on a hinge. How was she going to fix this? Where was Eddie? Now she was beyond the worrying stage and onto fearing she had lost the last person she’d ever call family.Tara knew enough about the Wild Wolf. If she could get in. The club lived up to its name. There was everything from gambling to a sex dungeon. She’d seen the women enter with their rich mates or lovers. They went there to get their rocks off. While the rabble, like Tara, worked themselves into an early grave. They didn’t get the luxury to be horny, only hungry.She didn’t have sexy clothes. Tara’s wardrobe included jeans, sweats, t-shirts, and a ratty winter coat. The money she saved would replace her coat became the money she used to buy a sexy outfit from a charity shop. She’d time to shop. The Wild Wolf opened at nine that evening. The papers Alpha Elmwood dropped off told her everything. Eddie hadn’t said he’d been skimming off the top and he’d gambled with it. Eddie used his winnings to cover his theft. This time, there were no winnings. He’d run before they caught him.Their daddy taught them to gamble, and Tara learned from his mistakes. Their father had died from a bul
People were walking around. Sure enough, no one was wearing much. A couple of people were even led by her with collars and leashes nothing more. Tara thought that was the floor show until she heard the crack of the whip again. She jumped in response and watched it land on the bare backside of a bound woman. The sounds brought her attention to a woman bent over a bench and restrained with chains. Tara’s body shivered with unfamiliar feelings she couldn't describe. Tara could see the woman’s face and she appeared to be enjoying this treatment. That this was the best thing ever that she’d experienced.As the floor show continued, Tara watched the crowd as the large dark-haired man plied the whip to the women’s flesh. His tanned bare chest gleamed in the club's lights, accenting his sculpted muscles and warrior’s body. His tattoos fascinated her. As she watched, his concentration never strayed from the woman. He ignored everyone else. To him, it was just the two of them. An intimate e
Cal entered the gambling floor and moved to table four. Everyone there was a regular, and they knew something was up when the owner sat at the table. With a smile to Tara, he was dealt in. A look crossed the table between the dealer and Cal. The dealer’s eyes shifted to a man standing to her right. A security guard sent to monitor her movements and how she played. He watched for counting cards, and other signs she was cheating. “You’re new here. Is this your first time?” Cal asked her as he assessed his cards. Discarded two and picked up two. “Yes.” Tara couldn’t believe it. The guy with the whip, the owner and Alpha, was sitting beside her, playing against her. She felt small beside him. Another alpha, how many were in this place? They must be on to her. There was no way she could look at him directly, and she was desperately trying to concentrate on her game with her mind wandered to the floor show. His tattoos were striking, and she tried not to stare. “What
Tara was stunned. This couldn’t be happening. She was supposed to get the money and leave. Or he was supposed to kick her out of his territory to suffer the consequences of failure. Or kill her outright. This wasn’t part of her plan. Tara didn’t know what to do. “Kneel!” Cal commanded loudly. Tara shook herself and slipped from the chair. She was now on autopilot from her fear. “This is what happens to people who cheat. Now, you aren’t a normal gambler, who sent you?” Tara couldn’t tell him. Alpha Elmwood would kill her along with Eddie. Either way, she’d die at an alpha’s hands. Tara couldn’t look at him. His anger now was like a raw force of nature pressing down on her. It was all she could do not to hyperventilate. “So, you won’t say anything. Fine, you can go into a cage for a while and think about where your loyalties should lie.” Cal pulled the door open, and the hulking wolf entered again. “You’ll crawl on all fours to your cage. Guy, take her to the stables
Tara didn’t know how long it’d been, but she was sure the club was closed. She’d fallen asleep there, curled up on the mat. She almost wished he’d left her leash. All of this could have ended with her. Eddie might miss her in passing, but she knew unlike her, her death would only make him stumble for the moment. She’d be devastated if he died.When Guy returned, Tara missed him entering the room and only noticed him when he was standing over her cage. “Eat.” “What?” Tara wasn’t someone who woke up easily, and she wasn’t a napping type of person. She needed a good eight to ten hours to be instantly awakened when woken like this. But she’d not had that in so long, she’d almost forgotten the pleasure of it. “Cal ordered me to make sure you eat, or it will be added to your punishment.” Guy didn’t look like he would budge on this, and she imagined them forcing a tube down her throat, then pouring something down the tube. Tara groaned and looked at the bowls of water
Cal notified the security of a medical emergency in the stables. The pack healer was needed. He hurried to the stables with several men who had emergency medical experience. As he entered, his phone pinged. “Healer en route. ETA two minutes.” Cal announced. His heart pounded still since he heard the panic in Guy’s voice. Cal didn’t have time to ask himself why it was imperative she not die. He knew he’d claimed responsibility for her and now… He’d no time to think beyond saving her and finding out how this happened. If he killed someone in his territory, it was his business, but his reputation would suffer. It also suffered for a murder or crime he didn’t investigate properly. His men rushed to her prone body, lying on the cold concrete floor. Guy knelt beside her, frantically trying to wake her. It wasn’t every day this happened. Cal watched the two men move and take over. “I got it from the fridge like I always do and put it in her cage. She rested and slowly a
“Alpha, we need to take her somewhere better. She’s stable enough to move to a bed. It’ll take time to remove the silver from her. They used powdered colloidal silver, they didn’t need much. I have someone testing all the food. I suspect they laced the sandwich.” “She’ll live?” “She’ll live, but she’ll be weak for several days. I can’t give you an exact time frame because of her low body weight. I’m unsure she can shift because of her weight. We’ll need the key to the chains. The shifter silver won’t help her recovery and throw off our tests.” Cal nodded and dug out the tiny key. He’d leave strict instructions to keep her locked until he collared her. He didn’t like it, but he hated all of this. The healer took the key and removed the chains. “I’ll say she’s not your usual type, Alpha.” “We caught her cheating tonight. We haven’t interrogated her. I’m aware she doesn’t fit with our usual troublemakers.” “So? What? You were scaring her a bit?” Cal didn’t r
“Alright, I’m going to start by saying. Yes, I suspect she’s like the other patsies and doesn’t understand what her stunt would cost us. We can’t be sure she’s not tied up in something with her brother. Tara claims he’s on the run from something. Which could be why she was attacked. Tara appeared unsure of what or if her brother did something wrong. Which leads me to suspect if that she’s a victim. Then we have a third scenario: they attacked her to prevent her from saying something. So she’s a patsy and expendable to whoever is doing this. Or we have someone finally who’s in deep enough to give us answers.” Cal hated most of those possibilities, and most of them didn’t sit right with his conscience. He tried to read the room as he spoke, and it was difficult. “Now, what do you have to say to me?” If nothing else, Cal listened to others before deciding, but he made it, good or bad. It was his to claim responsibility for along with the people and territory he protected. “Wel