“Sure, I guess so.”
It definitely wasn’t a gushing acceptance, but I’d take what I could get.
Julian
Sincere apology or not, I was still more than a little miffed with Chuck when we arrived at the door to the bustling dining room. Declining his offer to bring me a plate, I followed him through the buffet line, filling my plate with little bits of this and that, nothing really appealing to me all that much. On our way to take our seats at the small corner table, Chuck was waylaid by an unfamiliar young man -one of many who I assumed were part of the Battle Ax Bunnies or whatever the heck he had told me they were called during the ride back to the compound earlier in the day.
Digging into my plate, I managed to choke my entire meal down before Chuck even finished the conversation that held him up. Then, dropping my dirty dishes in the tub by the door, I slipped back out into the hallway. Knowing that Chuck was just going to come find me in the room when he noticed I was gone, I headed out the door to the small, parklike green space bordered by the large field I’d seen the rabbits in earlier. I was wandering around the grounds with no actual plan or destination when an unpleasant and oddly chemical smell caught my attention.
I raised my nose to the slight breeze and drew in a deep breath, cringing a little when the acrid scent assaulted my nasal passages and tongue. There was no way in hell thatthatwas a natural wolf scent. Turning to face the direction the wind was coming from, a furtive movement over in the shadow of one of the outbuildings caught my attention.
Glancing around, I saw that the usual guards were in place but none of them seemed to have caught the shift in the shadows that I had. Or, I had to suppose, maybe they had but they didn’t see any threat? Stepping away from the tree I’d been leaning against, I waited until I’d caught the eye of the nearest guard and tilted my head toward the spot I’d seen the movement.
He arched a brow and tipped his head ever-so-slightly to the side. Then, he raised his nose to the air, and I could tell he had identified the same bizarre attempt at scent camouflage that I had. Instead of reacting, he lifted his hand to his ear and his lips moved.
Leaning back against my tree, I watched as the group of werewolves began to carefully shift their positions one step at a time, creating a circle that slowly tightened, trapping the mystery intruder in the center. When the young human realized he’d been spotted, he stumbled out into the waning light and raised his knife, but it was too late. The guard behind him simply plucked the weapon from his hand and tucked it into his own belt while two more hulking beings stepped up, one on each side to capture him by the arms. When they disappeared through the double doors, undoubtably taking the youngster in to explain his presence, I began down the path toward the woods to see what other adventure was to be had.
It was well on toward dusk, the time of day when most diurnal animals are tucking into their homes for the night, so, when I saw a rabbit hopping along through the underbrush, I paused. Then I saw another. And off to my left, I counted nearly a dozen others. Unlike when I had four legs, they seemed barely aware of my human form and simply went about their business with a level of singlemindedness I didn’t think I’d ever seen on, well, a rabbit, of all things.
With curious -ornosy,as my roommate tended to say- pretty much being my natural state, I slowed down to follow the spread-out line of rabbits. They approached the edge of the woods that bordered the humans’ camp, fanning further out to encircle it. When they’d reached what must have been pre-determined positions, the rabbits all froze and blended in near perfectly with the leaf litter on the ground.
While I watched, one rabbit moved out into the clearing where the camp was set up, the larger gray with the huge ears that I’d seen earlier. Up close, he was even bigger than I’d thought with muscular legs and sharp eyes. He moved to a position only feet in front of the gate that held the hound pen closed and stopped, waiting for...damned if I knew but he was definitely waiting for something as the hounds yapped and bayed, throwing their bodies against the slats of their cage in a desperate bid to get to him.
There was movement in the periphery of my vision and a short-eared buff rabbit that was much smaller than the gray and had unusual curly fur crept along the perimeter of the dog pen. When it reached the gate, it stretched up onto two legs to grip the leather thong tying the gate closed in its sharp teeth, easily slashing through the leather before dropping to the ground and scurrying silently back to the relative safety of the brush.
When the next hound threw its body against the gate, it gave way and the dog tumbled out the opening, tripping the next several animals that followed it through. The gray rabbit scratched at the ground, catching the attention of the confused hounds and then took off running, muscular legs propelling the rabbit into the meadow behind the lean-to camp with the hounds hot on its heels. When the dogs suddenly broke free, the ruckus brought the humans running, screeching and kicking up dust as they chased the pack and tried to catch the escaped animals.
As soon as the melee moved into the field, the remaining rabbits began to make their way into the camp, each stopping at a different one of the small structures and gnawing at the supports securing it to the ground. One by one, the haphazard structures began to collapse, wood groaning as they folded onto themselves and slumped to the ground.
Nearly a quarter of the camp was laying in piles of scrap wood and shredded ropes when the shouts and howling began to sound closer. The rabbits started to break away, easing back into the shadows as quietly as they’d arrived. I was still watching when the humans stumbled back into the camp, sweating and cursing as they stared at the ruins before them while a few wrestled the hounds back into the pen. The final dog in, one of the older men reached for the leather thong and cursed his disgust at finding it in two pieces.
“Get me some damn rope,” he hollered, leaning against the gate to keep it closed as the dogs returned to jumping against it. “Stupid mongrels chewed through the latch and then couldn’t even catch a fucking rabbit! How the fuck do ya think they’ll catch them damned shifter mongrels?”
Another man appeared beside him with a length of rope, tapping the bone handle of the knife in his belt. “Mutts don’t need to catch the fuckers,” he grunted with an evil grin. “Just need to pin’em long enough for me to rope and skin’em.”
The malice in his eyes sent an unpleasant shiver down my spine at the realization that Chuck had either been downplaying the threat that these pricks presented or, and this was the scarier thought, maybe he didn’t really know the extent of the danger that was lurking in the woods?
Either way, I thought as I began to pick my way back through the dim light to the ODI compound,Chuck and I definitely need to have a little talk.
ChapterFifteen
Chuck
Even though Jules had been honest about still being angry with me, I didn’t really expect him to inhale his dinner and make a break for freedom just to avoid having to eat with me. Instead of dwelling on it, I settled in with my own meal and was pleasantly surprised when Colby stopped by my table, his own plate in hand and gestured to the empty seat across from me.
“Mind if I join you?”
“Of course not,” I assured him, nudging the chair out with my foot. “Jules already finished up and headed out, so the seat’s free.”
“Jules?” Colby questioned, setting down his plate. “Have I met them?”
I shook my head. “Doubt it,” I said, slicing off a bite of my chicken breast and popping it into my mouth as something occurred to me. “Actually, you have,” I pondered. “Just not here. He was the director of that Christmas play that your little one was in and, in a bizarre coincidence, he’s also the Omega that Rafael asked me to shelter after the attack on the theater.”
Colby’s eyebrows pulled together. “I didn’t realize that they were the same person. Did we know that you two were an item when Rafe called?”
I laughed and shook my head. “Nobody did, including us,” I admitted as I scooped up some mashed potatoes. “I didn’t figure out it was him in the accident until the Brigade showed up with him. The rest of it all started when Kade and Jeremy decided I needed to take some time off to go see Leia in the play.”
By the time I finished filling Colby in on the circumstances that started with my meet-cute hookup and ended with me sitting alone at the table that night, we’d both finished eating and Colby was grinning widely.
