"There's no reason to keep you in there until your vet visit," I said. "We're going to take it nice and slow, all right?"
The pup didn't answer. I slid the cloth from the top of the trap and opened the door. The pup sat staring at me for a few moments and I had to admire just how cute he was when he cocked his head a certain way.
All of a sudden, he raced out of the trap, scampered up my arm, and sank his teeth into my shoulder.
I screamed.
Chapter 2
Hudson
I paced the marble floor, my thousand-dollar shoes tap-smacking across the surface. As the world wound up to its first morning challenge, I stood still in the darkness of last night.
Somewhere in my mind, the moon still shone overhead. It was the last night of our Lady's cycle, the climax of all Her monthly returns. Three glorious nights each month, when we had to use the bodies She gave us in all Her wisdom. When we, as men, were truly free to become what we were inside, the sky presented Her in all Her full glory.
And I had lost my son during Her peak.
What kind of an alpha lost his son during the fucking full moon celebrations with his pack?
I'd known it was a bad idea, but I hadn't been able to find a sitter for the evening. The change would have placed me too close to typical humans, the temptation too great. Humans were scavengers that had risen beyond their natural order with tools and minds ever so impressive. Yet, their flesh yielded with little difficulty.
That was forbidden. An accident with a human had cost my pack most of its members long before I was born. No matter what else, it was the most dangerous incident known to wolf kind.
"Still nothing?"
I whirled on the alpha who had walked in on me. So much like me, he was tall with olive skin and dark eyes. His hair was longer than my own stiff, severe cut. His brushed his shoulders. Had I been in my true form, I would have wrinkled my muzzle at him. As it was, I settled for a sneer. "It's not like I can tell the cops."
"And you're stuck here because of meetings all day, so you can't go back out into the country and see what you can find?"
A pair of donuts and a cup of coffee blacker than night had appeared upon my desk. It was what family did for one another. I walked back to my chair, spun it around, and sat. Then I looked up at my assistant. "I can't go back out into the country because we killed those sheep last night and if I smell their blood again, I'll-"
He shook his head. "Eat your donuts and drink your coffee. I'll call their local animal control, see if he's turned up. It's not like he's going to shift back."
"But what if he does, Gabe?"
If my son revealed what we were, showed the world that we'd only gone underground instead of falling away to the distant memories of humankind, it would be a hellstorm. The government would test the boy, at best, and find out he was related to me. They'd hunt down my pack, perhaps use us to find the other packs spread around the United States. We'd be in for it, and it would be all my fault.
Just because I was a worthless father who couldn't keep an eye on his boy.
And that was to say nothing of what our own community would do to us for violating the Supernatural Secrecy Pact.
To his credit, Gabe rolled his eyes at me. "If he does, we'll pay the PR guys to explain it away. We're already all over those rags with Elvis sightings, anyway."
"Not us, personally. That was the Little River pack down in Louisiana and-"
He cut me off. "I know not us personally, but it could be in no time. All it takes is a game cam in the right neck of the woods, you know that. We bought all that property out there, but a few gates and no trespassing signs don't stop determined poachers."
My nails dug into the glossy wood of my desk, my jaw clenching. The idea of poachers on my land, my pack's soil, hunting our animals and befouling our earth? Fluffy white fur sprouted across the back of my left hand, creeping up my wrist and into the sleeve of a suit that-
Gabe slapped the spot beside the coffee and shoved it at me. I caught a whiff of his frustration, like burnt toast and mud, and wrinkled my too-human nose at him. Did he want a fight? In the middle of the office? Because if so, I was certainly in the mood to oblige him.
"Drink," he ordered. "Drink or I pour it down your throat when I call Leo and Xav in here. You're all worried about the kid and here you are, practically snarling at me in broad daylight."
I growled at him, but I took the coffee and swallowed half in one gulp. It scorched its way down my throat and into my guts, promising a revolt. The second sip was much more befitting a man of my dignity, a human who worked a comfortable couple-billion-a-year job and owned a few too many cars. I sat the mug down and let out a slow, healing sigh.
"Better?"
"Get fucked."
"All the time," Gabe promised. "Once I find a girl that can handle this."
He emphasized the last word with a thrust of his hips and the motion of his hands down his body. I
