“Tops wants his money,” Chard said. “I want my part of it too. You’re putting us all in a tough spot, Lensy. I’m gonna have to break some bones.”
“Can’t you stand up to him? Aren’t you his lover? That’s what they’re saying downtown,” the wolf said and I almost flinched. He was taking a jab at the man with the crowbar.
Chard shrugged and thought about it for a minute still tapping the metal bar against his palm. “I don’t think FWBs really do each other those sorts of favors. Plus, I want my fucking money.”
He swung his bar low, aiming for the beta wolf’s knees and I pounced. Metal sparked as it slapped against the sidewalk and Chard’s forehead thumped against it. The wolf growled, his eyes squeezed shut.
“RUN!” I hissed at him and took a mock swipe to get him to move.
Chard struggled underneath me, letting out a string of curses that would’ve made my mother blush. He was strong for a rodent and bucked his hips like he was trying to hump the ground.
“His tail. He’s used to thumping his tail at opponents,”my cat said, chittering inside my thoughts as he poked at the back of Chard’s head with his curved teeth, trying to convince him to shift. We couldn’t claim a tail that wasn’t out. Chard rolled us over and we rolled with him, ending up on top again. He growled and cursed at me before grumbling that he thought Jon was full of shit. He wished Jon was full of shit.
“If you’re after a cut of the money, you have to talk to Tops! I’m not in charge!” he said, his words becoming frantic.
Inside my cat’s inner sanctum I laughed as his panicked scent spread out. He bucked one more time, kicking his feet and trying to twist around to bite my arm. Then his beaver had enough. Fur sprouted from his hands and his face. My cat movedfast making the world a blur of motion as our prey shrank down underneath him. He grabbed the tail by its fatty base with his claws and ripped. The beaver ran but his tail stayed with us. He squeaked and cried out like Death’s hunting hounds were on his heels. I sank back into the shadows, carrying the fatty beaver tail in my mouth. My cat wanted a nibble of his prize, but he wanted his mate more.
Chapter Five
Nic
Moonscale Memorial Hospital
It took me forever to fall asleep that night at the hospital but once I eventually passed out, I slept better than I ever imagined I would. I dreamt of big cats running underneath me as I flew above them, circling. We were hunting something together, but I didn’t know what. Was it Jon? Was I finally ready to take my vengeance? My mother always said vengeance was for people who had nothing left to lose and I had everything anyone could ever want. She was almost right. I had almost everything anyone could ever want but I didn’t have love.
Though, love wasn’t on any particular important list for my mother. She loved me. That was a given. She’d sat on my egg for almost a full year before I came out. I was important even if she had to pay someone to do all her laptop work while she kept me warm. Romantic love was another story. She didn’t take risks if she couldn’t figure out how to come out on top and unscathed. In my dream, she stood atop a mountain, waving Jon’s severed, spotted paw at me. She grinned as if offering me up a rare, exotic jewel.
I woke nuzzling my face against the cold side of the hospital pillow. Mum had left her purse or something leathery here. What was it? Was it one of her folk remedies? I sniffed the air, but she wasn’t here. Hadn’t been here in my hospital room since she went home the night before after making me promise not to sign myself out of the hospital before they finished observing me. Next came the coppery scent of blood. I blinked my eyes open. Had I pulled out one of my IVs? Had something on myface started bleeding again? It didn’t hurt. It didn’t even sting anymore.
Something brown and leathery lay on my pillow, cuddled under my cheek as if someone slipped it there to make me extra comfortable. I sniffed again and my head filled with the coppery blood of something rodent-ish. Had a rat crawled in bed and died with me? Had I rolled over on some emotional support rat that the hospital staff hadn’t told me about?
I sat up and blinked.
No.
NO.
NO!
A bloody beaver tail?
I jerked back away from the corpse of a tail and found myself on the floor, ripping out my IVs and stumbling over the cords, the sheets, and my own panicked limbs as every alarm in the room blared, beeping in my ears. I couldn’t yell for help. The sound caught in my throat. Who the fuck would do this? Was this some old timey folk medicine my mother insisted they try out?
Nurses rushed into the room all asking questions at once but I wasn’t stopping. I pushed my way through them, knocking one on her butt. Fuck this! Fuck that! Fuck them! I might’ve ran all the way home had I not ran nose first into Arrow’s chest.
“Dude!” Arrow said, caught off guard. “I can see your arse! What’s going on here?”
“Tail in – Beaver! Beaver tail in my bed!” I managed to choke out the words.
“What?” the medic blinked.
It seemed the whole of the hospital poured into the room I occupied seconds before and only Arrow stuck around to ensure I hadn’t lost my damn mind. He took me to the medic’s staff room and offered me a muffin and some tea. I couldn’t stomachanything with the coppery smell of blood still stuck to the inside of my nostrils.
Seconds passed like small eternities as I waited for my mother to arrive. Arrow said he gave her a call but when an hour of small eternities passed, I wondered if he lied about calling her to calm me down. The hospital was on lockdown because of course it was. That wasn’t any old beaver tail. The door to the medics’ breakroom had opened and shut often enough for me to hear snatches of the conversation.
“Belonged to that beaver brought in this morning.”
“The one bleeding his ass off.”
