Lock caught her arm before she could walk off. “Because she’s your responsibility? I thought you had the night off with your mother still in Philly?”
Gwen leaned in and said, “You have your wild dog loyalties, and I have mine.” And Gwen wasn’t about to let Kristan do something she’d regret in the morning just to get even with Johnny. If she could stop even one girl going down that road, she would. “Now stay here and I better not find any more swarms of females around you when I get back.”
“I’m still not sure how that would be my fault.”
She snorted in reply, took Johnny’s hand, and went off into the crowd of partiers.
Ric watched Gwen disappear into the crowd before he turned back to his friend. “So are you going to be like your uncles and move your woman into your house to live in sin, or like you father and marry her in a proper wedding?”
Lock smiled like Ric hadn’t seen him smile in years. “I’m thinking a combination.”
“Always smart.”
“Just one problem.”
“Which is?”
Hands slammed down on the table in front of Lock. “Where’s my sister?”
Lock sighed. “Them.”
Ric stared up at the lion siblings. How Lock hadn’t killed them already, he didn’t know. If nothing else, Ric would have had them…managed by now. They’d be alive, but in Siberia.
“Where is she?” Mitch Shaw snapped again.
Lock shrugged.
“Aren’t you keeping an eye on her?”
“Because she suddenly can’t take care of herself?” the grizzly asked.
“No. Because my mother shaved McNelly’s head!”
The two friends stared at each other across the table and then both burst out laughing at the same time.
Ric wished his family was half this interesting.
“This isn’t funny,” Brendon Shaw said, shaking his big lion head. “Not funny.”
“It’s a little funny,” Lock argued.
“No. Not funny,” Mitch snapped. “Because Dee-Ann just told us she followed Donna McNelly and her Pack to this club, then lost ’em.”
Lock’s laughter cut off instantly and he peered up at Mitch. “When was that?”
“I don’t know. Sissy and Dee are trying to find out if they got in and I’m trying to find Gwen, because she doesn’t know that our insane mother shaved a woman’s head out of retaliation for Labor Day weekend!”
Ric stood up. “Everyone calm down. We’ll figure this out. Let’s just find Gwen and then…”
His words trailed off as he watched his friend slowly stand up, his head moving as he cast for a scent. Lock had always amazed Ric; he was able to pick up scents nearly twenty miles away.
Lock’s large body faced the direction Gwen had gone off, his head lowering, his breathing becoming heavy, and the air around him filling with a tension Ric had never been able to name but understood all too well.
Lock started moving and Mitch went to grab him, but Ric caught his arm. “Don’t get in front of him, don’t cut him off, and do not touch him. Follow and keep your mouth shut.”
When the brothers started to argue, Ric said, “Gentlemen, you need to trust me on this.”
Johnny stopped midway on the stairs that led to the basement and picked up the skate he found lying there.
“She probably fell down the stairs,” Gwen said behind him. “It takes a certain skill to learn to go down stairs in skates.”
She took the skate out of his hand and kept moving, Johnny following.
He couldn’t believe he’d been reduced to this. Most days Kristan Putowski made him crazy, but lately she’d been really getting on his nerves. To be honest, he couldn’t wait until he graduated in June and headed off to college. He needed to get away from her, her constant chatter, her annoying personality, and her goddamn scent! It was beginning to drive him insane, and it was getting harder and harder to resist her.
Nope. Distance was good. In fact, he might be able to manage distance a little sooner if he could get into the summer music program in Ohio. Three months of practice, classes, private concerts, and lectures. But most importantly…no Kristan.
“Don’t worry, kid,” Gwen said. “We’ll find her.”
Once they were in the basement, Gwen sniffed the air and headed to a door a short way down the hall. She had her hand on the doorknob but stopped. She leaned in, sniffed again, and that’s when she reached back.
She slammed her hand against Johnny’s chest and shoved him away. “Go get—”
From the other side, the door was torn open and a frighteningly large female reached out and grabbed Gwen by the hair, yanking her inside the room. A male came out and reached for Johnny, but he scrambled back and took off down the hallway, grateful he’d gone with one of the Roman soldier costumes rather than the more complicated and heavier medieval armor costume. The male was closing in behind him as Johnny made it up the stairs. He slammed his hands against the unlocked door, shoving it open. Hands grabbed his shoulders, pulling him back. An arm went around his chest and Johnny’s mouth was covered.
Desperate, he reached for the switchblade he’d had since he was twelve and living with a foster family that had made him extremely nervous. But before his hand could reach it, he looked up at a massive body wearing only a kilt…and rage. Forgetting his blade, he watched as the bear reached down and grabbed hold of the arm wrapped around Johnny. Lock took it and twisted until the arm snapped.
The wolf released Johnny and howled in pain as Lock dragged the unknown canine away, flinging him across the club.
When the bear looked back at him, Johnny pointed down the stairs and said, “They’ve got Gwen.”
She hit the ground, the wind briefly knocked out of her, poor Kristan’s skate flipping out of her hand and disappearing under one of the tables.
McNelly reached down and caught hold of her neck, lifting Gwen up. “Always the do-gooder, rushing down here to help the kid,” she said.
One of the males had hold of Kristan, his hand over her mouth, his arm around her waist. She was struggling, tears pooling at her feet. Poor kid. She was one of those protected pups, not used to this kind of attack. But Gwen and McNelly? They were more than used to it.
Gwen shoved McNelly off her. “Let the kid go. This is between you and me.”
“‘This is between you and me,’ “McNelly imitated back to her in a high-pitched voice. “You’re fucking pathetic. Just like the girl. She might as well get used to it now. Might as well realize she’ll always be a mixed-breed loser.” McNelly stepped in closer. “Alone and helpless…and a freak.”
And that’s when Gwen popped her in the mouth, the She-wolf stumbling to the side as her Pack came at Gwen.
Gwen unleashed her claws and lashed out, swiping at anything that got close to her, trying to work her way over to Kristan.
Someone grabbed her from behind, and Gwen lifted up her legs and kicked out at one of the wolves in front of her, sending him flying back. Then she brought her legs back down, keeping her knees tight. Her feet slammed into the femurs of whoever held her and she heard a scream of pain as bones in both legs broke and the wolf released her. More wolves came at her, so she dashed up onto the tables and shelves, knocking things off them as the wolves tried to get hold of her. She kept going until she landed in front of Kristan. That’s when she pulled out her razor and flicked it open.
She cut the face of the wolf holding Kristan and yanked the girl away.
She saw the open window that the wolves must have come in through and she pushed Kristan up on the table beneath it. “Go! Now!” Gwen yelled, spinning back around and lashing out with the razor, slicing someone’s hand and someone else’s jaw.