Nature of the Beast Read online

  “It’s got to be somewhere in Brooklyn. I don’t think she’d risk the aftermath of everything in another pack’s territory, at the least.”

  “Why don’t we just call her? See if she wants to talk to us, I mean, I know she’s got her phone.” Addison piped up opening the passenger side door.

  “I doubt she’s in the mood for talking let alone, taking orders at the moment.” Booker said back at him. “I spoke to her just before this all went down and she had some kind of attitude on her then.”

  “Yeah, probably because we had a fight about all of this.” Paris replied. All eyes turned to him.

  “This all great and fantastic, but could we please leave the touchy feely Oprah stuff to another time, and focus on the problem at hand. Bg has Conall Wakely with her and is looking for revenge on him.” Bodil spoke up. “We need to find them, before she does anything to him.”

  “Is there somewhere they would go as a couple, a favorite haunt or location where they first met?” Paris asked Bodil. She shrugged her shoulders and sighed heavily.

  “I don’t know. Bg was always private about her relationship.” Paris nodded his head in understanding.

  “We’ll find her.” Booker said softly putting a hand on Bodil’s shoulder.

  “I hope so.” She replied looking back at him. “Um, let’s head to Brooklyn and we’ll put the word out to keep a look out for her, maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  “She’s in the suv, that’s how you guys tracked us back here, right?” Addison said as Bodil and Booker walked back to his El Comino nodding their heads. “I knew it!” Addison said sliding into the passenger seat.

  “And yet you let the bread crumbs be found.” Paris replied drying starting the Porsche up loudly. “Remind me again why I’m not going to reprimand you?”

  “Because I’m your best friend in the whole wide world?”

  “Hmmm.” Paris grumbled as Booker’s car pulled out and away from the curb. “We’ll see about that.” He said following suit.

  23

  Bg had driven the suv right up onto the front lawn of Conall Wakely’s house. So she didn’t have far to go, to get him into the house. She had her own key to Conall’s house, so getting in really wasn’t a problem. “Bet you forgot about giving me a key to your place.” She muttered lugging him, as he tried to use his legs to push himself into the front foyer, where he began to collapse.

  “Bet you’re mighty glad you gave it to me now huh? Who’d have thought you’re ex-girlfriend would be so kind and understanding? And come through for a worthless piece of shit like you?” Bg flung his arm off around her and dropped him to the ground.

  Conall fell with a thud. He didn’t even make as sound as his shoulder crunched first into the hard wood floor. Bg sighed and panted, looking down at his fairly lifeless body. “Either you’ve put weight on or that chain weighs a tone.” She remarked putting her hands on her hips and breathing heavily. Looking down at him, she wrinkled her nose up.

  The acrid smell of burnt human flesh and seared animal was still strong with her, having been in the confines of a car at such close vicinity to him, it had filled her nostrils till she thought she might dry wretch. She looked at the burn makes on his wrists, and along his arms, from where Paris and Addison, had wrapped the chains around his arms, so the silver not only restricted his movement, but held him place, like he was being crucified.

  Bg looked around them and started to laugh through her breathlessness.

  “Sssorry.” Conall muttered softly at her.

  “Oh now you’re sorry?” She asked him. “Now? After you’ve been manacled in silver for two days, had your ass handed to you on a platter by another pack, are you sorry? Do you even know what you’re apologizing for other than to try and save your own miserable, pathetic little life?”

  She watched as Conall, tried to move his head to look at her, but the weight of the chunky silver chains strangling his neck, made movement too difficult to handle. The silver weakened his strength the longer it was on him and having been held in it during lunar week, meant that the strength of its purity, would be like concentrated power on him.

  He’d barely have enough energy to wiggle his toe or bat an eye lid. A small part of Bg was okay with that concept. A small part. Bg Sommers was aware of that as she sat there, beside his collapsed figure in the hallway to his home, making no effort to find anything to free him from it.

  She lay down next to him, so she was at his eye level and within his reach on the floor, even though he could not move a muscle to touch her.

  “I want you to know something.” she stated softly, rolling onto her side and pulling her hair aside from the back of her neck. “You see that mark on my neck? Yeah, you see it, I know you do.” She said, turning back around to face him again as he tried to grunt at her.

  “That means last night, when you were being driven mad with the pain of not being able to shape shift. When the silver of these chains was probably at an all-time high, burning like a red hot knife, into your flesh, when you were missing out on some girly jockeying on your lap before midnight, or blowing your cock under a table at the club, in front of your friends, that I was giving up something that I never, ever gave to you.” Bg lifted her arm and waved it about near his nose, that was squashed against the cool wooden floor.

  “That I never once, in the whole time we were supposedly together, ever considered, offering to you. Can you smell that?” She asked him softly. “His scent, all along my skin. I can still feel it, what we did together, him and the movement of him, shifting with me. Claiming me.”

  Conall made a small noise. “In the whole time we were together, you never ever wanted me or made me feel even so much as my pinky’s finger nail, wanted as wholly by someone as he did last night.” She said resting down on the ground again and looking back at him.

  “Real men don’t hit women to say they love them with devotion. Real men, make love to their women like they are their sole existence for being.” She laid her head on her arm as she looked back at him.

  “But then maybe you’re not a real man, maybe a real man is an alpha. Like Paris. You only got to touch the surface of me. Which is nothing, anyone else couldn’t see already. In the years of our bullshit, on-off, manipulative, controlling relationship, you didn’t even crack the surface of me. So you hit me. Made me bleed. Not because cause I was breaking up with you. Hell, we’ve done that so many times in the past few years, that it’s become something of a joke between us.” Bg said, beginning to feel very calm.

  “It took me awhile to figure it out, but I realize now, you hit me because you were angry at yourself, for not getting past that surface, for not really getting a hook into me.” A small smile ghosted over her lips.

  “Because you knew, if you’d actually paid me proper attention and treated me like a real girlfriend in a real relationship, instead of regular fuck buddy, that you’d still be able to hold onto me. That you’d have been able to manipulate me for years to come, so no other guy could possible begin to obtain my interest in him.” Bg looked at Conall as he managed to tilt his head slightly up to meet her eye level. His mouth open and drooling on the floor.

  “Yeah, I bet you never thought I’d be brainy enough to figure that out about you Conall Wakely. But you weren’t smart enough to figure out, not to play games with my heart or my mind, or even, just me. You weren’t smart enough, to realize, all I wanted was your love, and a proper relationship between us. No, you had to have everything, at once, which means you got nothing, at all. Because you never wanted anything that much, as you never really wanted me. I was just a trophy, you won in the game of life. Something to laud over your friends and counter-parts, to show off and prove, you got what they all wanted. Well sunshine, I got your number.” She said smiling back at him confidently.

  “And you lose.”

  24

  Paris drove steadily, as much as he wanted to race, sticking to the speed limit, as he trailed Booker’s El Comino. But his heart poun
ded like a marching band on performance enhancing drugs in his chest. His exterior was a lot cool and calmer looking than he felt inside. Inside he was churning his way through a range of emotions.

  “Oh for the love of….” Addison muttered softly rolling his eyes skyward. “Would you stop with the macho male, brooding silence of doom. I’m in this car too you know. Just talk to me, or yell at me, one of the two.” He looked over at his friend’s face that seemed to be set in stone.

  “You know, I can live with myself, just, if Bg doesn’t ever want to speak to me again, or see me again. Can’t say it won’t sting like a bitch, after the week we’ve shared so far, and things we’ve done, that I haven’t done with any other woman, ever.”

  Addison looked at him raising his eyebrows in surprise. “Things you haven’t done with other women ever?” He asked surprised. “She really got to you huh? Got right up under your skin, this one.”

  Paris nodded his head back at his friend. “Have you felt like you could be fated to someone and then just felt a pull like the moon itself was calling you to them?” Paris asked Addison glancing across at his now dumb founded expression.

  “Uh no, can’t say I have.” Addison offered lamely.

  “Well, that’s what Bg feels like to me. And I’m not just in lunar week, of course its even stronger in lunar week. Damn near killed me when Conall turned up on the scene, first time I saw him go after her.”

  “Wakely.” Addison muttered with disgust.

  “A pup like him, doesn’t deserve someone like her.” Paris said watching the road.

  “I had the one on one interaction with her, it was like watching everything fall into place around me. Like the world was a whole different kind of place to me because I had her, on some level.”

  Addison chuckled at his friend. “Oh my dieu, who are you and what have you done with my friend Paris? Listen to yourself man, you’ve been whipped by the love bug. Or love wolf or do we even have a wolf god of love? Cause we should.” Addison commented. “Should look into getting one of those deity type things.” Paris looked at him strangely. “Continue on.” Addison said waving a hand at him.

  “So I can live off the happy memories of the brief bliss we spent together. I mean, it’ll pain me, like a self-inflected wound. But I’ll get by. But if she crosses over this line, from freedom fighter, or kidnapper to….”

  “Berserker?” Addison offered.

  “You know what I mean. Bodil’s right, it’s not a life she should lead. Her role in this world is not to become someone like me. She’s got so much warmth and light and compassion about her. She loves life,”

  “What and you don’t?” Addison asked him.

  “I do, but you know what I mean, she shouldn’t have to see the things I do, that I need to do to hold position in this pack. To carry on with the way things were before me and how they have always been.”

  Addison looked at his friend. “Are you abdicating your alpha status?” He asked in all seriousness.

  Paris turned his head and looked at him strangely again. “No, so step away from the big boys table, will you?” He said in a monotone voice at his friend.

  “Phew! Cause I figured, challenging you would be the only way to keep your ego on board with this whole ‘pack life’ thing we’ve got going on over at Manhattan Maen.” Addison joked making talking marks with his fingers.

  “I just mean to say, that what makes her so great, is she isn’t as ruthless as the alphas we know. She doesn’t have to go there and she should never have to. People like us, should be able to provide people like her, with the protection and justice they need.”

  Addison frowned deeply. “Hang on a minute, I’m confused, wasn’t that what we were doing by kidnapping Conall Wakely out of Breukelen Territory. Wasn’t that the whole point to the exercise in almost killing the pup? We were doing it for your girlfriend.”

  “Under the guise of false justice for Kingsley.” Paris commented turning a corner as Booker’s car disappeared around one in front of them. “It was dishonest to lie to her like that, to ourselves.”

  “So are you saying this whole thing, failed, the kidnapping and re-kidnapping because the alpha’s in the these two packs, the Manhattan Maen and Breukelen, cause let’s not leave them out of the blame sharing, failed to do their jobs?”

  “I’m saying we didn’t do our jobs correctly.” Paris commented. “We haven’t failed, yet, until Bg takes Conall Wakely’s life. If that happens, then not just the alpha’s but everyone involved in this lunar circus, failed her as well as themselves.”

  25

  “How’d I let this happen? The alpha would never have dropped the ball on something like this, not when it comes down to family.” Bodil said looking out the side window as Booker drove.

  “Hey, you haven’t dropped the ball and in case you haven’t noticed, there’s big some changes in your life lately.” Booker replied watching Bodil sigh.

  “I know, but that’s no excuse, my father, the alpha he could balance more crisis than I could ever managed to create, and still run the pack business and have time for his family. I just, I just don’t know how he did it. I mean, Askel and I have been jointly sharing responsibility for running the pack’s operations. Two of us, doing one man’s job and I still don’t feel like I’ve got a clue. I mean, Bg is my sister. My little sister, I should have been looking out for her, making sure none of this crap happened to her to begin with.”

  “Got a news flash for you Bo, she’s not weak. That girl can take care of herself. I mean, think about it. She managed to slip past the leading alpha of the Manhattan Maen, and then single handedly without weapons, or any fighting ability known to man-kind and werewolf alike, free a Breukelen prisoner from, essentially, if you want to look at this way, an enemy compound. By herself. She then got a ten minute head start on all of us, and we’re all playing catch up to her actions.” Booker said glancing over at her as they drove along.

  “Well, when you put it like that, kind of makes a big sister proud, to be called a Sommers Breukelen.” Bodil said a smile creeping up on her face.

  “At some point, you got to let her go and grow up by herself.”

  Bodil nodded her head lightly and sighed again. “Except, that’s not really where I was going. I mean, okay, I can’t be responsible for everything my sister does in her life.”

  “And you can’t protect her from everything either, try as you might.” Booker added on.

  “and you know I will try.” Bodil smirked looking at him.

  “Altijd.” He smiled back at her.

  “But there are some things I can do for her, that I should make sure happen for her in this lifetime, while I can help her. And ensuring she has a happy normal life, and dates a real guy who’s going to treat her to a proper relationship, rather than use her insecurities against her for years, is something I can do to help her. I mean, it’s not that big a task to be involved in her life more. I should have spoken to her more about Conall and her. Got to know things about them. Then maybe, I could’ve helped her see, gradually that she wasn’t in a real relationship with that guy. That she deserved better than he was letting her think she was getting. Ya know? I mean, it’s not rocket science to care about someone and I didn’t need a college degree to ensure she didn’t end up beaten within an inch of her life, at the hands of Conall Wakely.”

  “We do what we can Bo, you just got to remember that.”

  “Yeah, but did I do enough before today? Before I let my sister, challenge the laws of two New York werewolf packs? Did I do enough to instill in her, a bigger sense of worth than any one action, with the worst outcome and consequences imaginable can leave her with?”

  “Bo, I’m not trying to make excuses for anybody here, or rest in peace, insult anyone’s soul, but you aren’t her parent’s, you’re her family and that plays a different role in her life. I think we’ve got to believe that in letting go of the reigns of control around her, that Bg knows a thing or two about what she’s doing.
Addison said she spoke loudly in Dutch at Conall.”

  “Yelled at him angrily, I believe were the words.”

  “Well have you ever spoken a full sentence in Dutch Bo? I mean, I know the pack uses the words a little every now and then. Even I do, its habit. But have you heard the way the real Europeans speak? It’s all loud and angry sounding. It’s just how the dialect is, how it’s delivered. Nothing more.”

  Bodil watched the landscape change slightly as they crossed over into Brooklyn. “Do you honestly believe that?” She asked him. Booker shrugged his shoulders loosely. “Be honest with me.” Bodil remarked.

  Booker glanced at her and back at the road ahead and back at Bodil. “No, I don’t honestly believe that’s all there is to it, but I’d like you to, so you don’t lose faith in the world and so you don’t think poorly of your sister before there be a need to.”

  “You don’t think she’s got it in here to kill him?” Bodil asked curiously. “So why do I think she does?”

  “A reflection of self. Maybe you see something of yourself in her, a bit of the younger version of you, maybe you remember what it was like to be younger, naive and in love too and how much it hurt, when it didn’t work out.” Booker replied with a one-shoulder shrug.

  “Whatever the case maybe, I guess I’m just thinking of the worst case scenario to prepare myself, but hoping secretly for the best.” Bodil offered in return.

  “We both are Bo, we both are.” Booker replied as they drove up into Williamsburg.

  Bodil’s mobile rang loudly in the otherwise strained quiet of Booker’s El Comino. They had both decided tension and silence were the way this car journey would occur. Each lost in their own thoughts until the cell phones loud ring tone of Johnny Cash’s ‘rusty cage’ rang out.

  Booker heard jerked around as he looked at Bodil lift her backside off the car seat and reach into her back jeans pocket, pulling out the phone before sitting back down again. Bodil opened the flip-top. “Yeah, what have you got?”

  “There is a large suv parked right up on the front lawn of Conall Wakely’s home address.” Boden replied down the line at her.