Yager stayed slightly behind Didi as she moved toward their leader. Many of the Crows and Ravens were perched in the trees or on the roof of the house, silently watching. And he’d sent Tye and Mike to keep an eye on Neecy. He’d decided not to tell her and Didi agreed. No way would she stay out of it if she knew the Shifters were here. And with only one arm and her wings still unusable, she’d be more a liability than a help.
Didi walked up to a silver-‐and-‐black wolf. She braced her feet apart and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“So…what do you want?”
The wolf looked Didi over and Yager wondered what it would take to bash the shit out of him. Could he do it by grabbing this mutt’s tail and just going slap happy?
Man, I am in a shitty mood.
After a moment’s hesitation, the wolf shifted. Right before Yager’s eyes a wolf became a man. A big ‘ol naked man.
Didi, startled, glanced at Yager. She was doing her best not to laugh. Apparently being naked wasn’t that big a thing for the Shifters. Still…it was a little distracting.
“I’m Danny Lewis…you met with my father and baby brother a couple of weeks ago.”
Didi nodded as she tried to avoid staring at the man’s package. Not easy. Even Yager had to admit, the guy had nothing to be ashamed of.
“And you wiped my other brother from the face of the earth.”
Cool. Fight.
Neecy couldn’t believe she was crying. But she was. While watching some business show on CNN, no less. But she hadn’t been able to stop crying since she woke up from that dream. The dream where something hacked off both her wings.
When younger, Neecy used to have nightmares where all her hair fell out or all her teeth had been broken. Those had been horrible, scary dreams, but this dream…
She woke crying and hadn’t really been able to stop all day. Thankfully, Yager had been avoiding her. Not surprising since he kept getting up the night before to take cold showers. Because of her stitches that hadn’t been an option for her.
So, instead, she dreamed. At first they were her typical wet dreams about Yager, but then they became darker.
Neecy didn’t know why the dream still upset her so. She’d been awake for hours, why hadn’t she recovered yet? But, still, she kept crying. She’d hidden herself in Yager’s den most of the day, using his big desktop with the three hard drives and four monitors to catch up on email from her students and play computer games.
Eventually, she thought she had complete control of herself, so she’d gone into the living room. It was empty, which was good. Because a television ad for cars or something showed a bald eagle soaring through the blue sky and she started crying all over again.
Hearing footsteps heading her way, Neecy quickly wiped her eyes and did her best to stifle anymore pathetic-‐girl tears, as she liked to call it.
The footsteps stopped outside the living room entrance and she glanced up to see Tye and Mike staring at her from the archway.
She forced a smile and quickly went back to the fascinating world of stocks and bonds. She thought the men would leave. But, instead, Tye sat on the sofa next to hers and Mike sat down right by her side.
There was a moment of awkward silence, then Mike said, “So you’re a professor.”
Forcing her voice and herself to remain calm, Neecy said, “Yeah. Of history.”
“Cool.”
Yeah. Right. She really didn’t see Mike “I’m a proud liar” Molinski being that interested in history of any kind.
“The game we’re working on is set in the Middle Ages. Maybe you could take a look at our graphics, make sure the armor and weapons are right.”
Neecy shrugged, keeping her eyes on the television. “Sure.”
“You’d be amazed how crazy some of these geeks get about accuracy,” Tye added.
“Really?”
“Oh, yeah. Especially with RTS games.”
“RTS?”
“Real time strategy games. You know, where you create yourself a kingdom, an army, enemies, whatever. You create your entire world.”
Neecy nodded. “That actually sounds kinda cool.”
“It’s fun, I guess. I think Yager likes those more than we do. I like role playing and Mike likes to blow shit up.”
“I’m really good at that.”
Finally, Neecy smiled. “How shocking.”
“So…” Mike stretched his arm out over the back of the couch. “As a professor, I was wondering…”
Neecy looked at the arm behind her and back at Mike. “Wondering what?”
“Well, say I’m in your class. And I’m bad…” He grinned and Neecy understood immediately why so many females had fallen for this gorgeous, blond, butt head.
“How would you punish me?”
Laughing, Neecy looked at Tye who rolled his eyes and turned back to the television.
“I mean would you use corporal punishment to keep me in line, O’ Professor Lawrence? Because I’ve been feeling especially naughty lately.”
For the first time all day, Neecy completely forgot about her nightmares.
Didi opened the envelope one of the wolves dropped at her feet. She pulled out a thick sheaf of papers and pictures.
“My brother was a lot of things. But he wasn’t smart enough to take and successfully use what he had. Then I heard about your second in command.
That’s when I knew something was very wrong. Talked to some other Shifter breeds, found out that Waldgrave was active again…and now it seems he has some disciples.”
“Waldgrave? You mean this man?” Didi pointed at the picture of the older man with grey and blond hair.
“Karl Waldgrave. He’s very wealthy. Very dangerous. And he likes to hunt…shall we say, difficult game.”
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“But what truly pisses me off is that he used my brother to get to you guys.”
“And yet you’re just handing him over to us?”
“It was discussed between the Packs. About doing this ourselves. But we’re wolves. We’ll just go in and kill them.” Lewis smiled, if you could call it that.
“But the Crows and Ravens are much more…artful about this sort of thing.”
“Is that right?”
“Let’s just say, you guys really enjoy your job. But if we’re wrong, let us know.”
Lewis’ hand reached for the papers he’d given them, but Didi slapped her own hand down over them.
“We’ll take it.”
“Good.” Lewis motioned to his wolves with a flick of his head. Slowly, they began moving out. “And you’ll make sure they suffer, right?”
Didi looked at the man, her brown eyes cold. Nope. No mercy there. “Oh, yes.
They’ll suffer.”
The Shifter’s grin widened and you could see fangs moving out from his gums.
“Good.”
He stepped away from the table and followed after his Pack. As he moved, he shifted, and by the time he hit the trees, he was wolf again.
Then he was gone.
Didi pushed the papers to Delia. “Find out everything you can on this guy.”
“Got it.”
With that, Didi grabbed Yager’s arm and dragged him back into the house. Once in the hallway, she stopped and looked around. Once assured they were alone, Didi leaned in and whispered to Yager, “You can not go after Waldgrave yourself.”
“Why not?” He’d already begun building his team in his head. He planned to wipe them out that very evening and spend the rest of his time in bed with Neecy if Morgan gave her the go-‐ahead.
“Because their deaths don’t belong to you. They belong to Neecy.”
“They belong to Neecy? Why?” Didi didn’t answer and Yager felt cold fear grip him around the throat. He stepped away from her. “This? This is her Trial?”