“An hour.” I turned and stared down the omega. “Any funny business and I burn every building here down and call the council. I don’t play games.”
The calculation in the alpha’s sunken eyes froze behind thinning lashes as I shoved completely out and took a few running strides before leaping skyward in a shift, my form stretching, blossoming, and unfolding into my dark-scaled form. Six thousand five hundred dollars was so little compared to the joy I would get at seeing the male snuggled up on my hearth.
I had to move fast because Gordon wasn’t smart, and the longer I waited, the more balls he’d grow.
I just had to hope nobody stopped me on my way. Even I couldn’t explain what I was about to do.
Chapter Four
Whisper
I kept my head turned down until I heard wings and glanced up in time to see dark scales and wings disappearing into the night.
“Six-five?” Lenny, one of the enforcers in the clowder, laughed. “Rockies only offered you three. Boy, ain’t that dragon stupid as fuck.”
For my part, I only felt pride. A dragon thought I was worth all that money. I’d have to offer my ass to someone every night for almost a whole year just to get that much money. And that dragon wanted to pay that much all at once. All for me.
A pleasant blush burned my cheeks as I kept my head turned down. It didn’t last long, though, and Goober stomped over, grabbing my face to tilt up. “But that ain’t all we’re getting. Because dummy here’s gonna get us into a dragon hoard, isn’t he?”
I stilled, but Goober only made my head nod. For most of the clowder, a command from alpha was law, magic that bound. He thought I couldn’t disobey. I knew I could. I didn’t have to do what I was told because I couldn’t shift.
“Someone get shit-for-brains here a phone. We’ll stay in contact, and all our money problems gonna be over real soon.” He squeezed my cheeks and flicked my face away with a huff of disgust. “Stink like jizz and piss. Ain’t you gone to the lake and bathed recent?”
I shook my head and made a gesture of rubbing my arms.Too cold.
“Why? Dummy can’t even read so we can’t text.” Lenny dug through the cabinets in the shed before pulling out an old phonein one of those prepaid boxes. I’d seen them activate and throw away dozens of the things.
Goober opened the phone and turned it on before plugging it into the one outlet in the shed next to my alarm clock radio. He did something with his own phone and the new one, setting things up. “You can hear just fine, can’t ya, boy?”
I nodded. I could read and write just fine, thanks to my pa, before the drugs took him. Since I couldn’t go to human school with the other kids, he taught me all he could. I didn’t recognize him anymore. My alpha father the same. They still had it together enough to drive trucks, but they weren’t my parents anymore.
“Click your tongue once for yes, twice for no. I already got a buddy that works up that way.” Goober grabbed an old feed sack from a shelf and shoved the phone and charger in before kicking around the room, grabbing things he thought belonged to me.
A can of peach preserves. My alarm clock. Some dirty shirts and pants. Holey socks.
Lenny grabbed a coffee can off my shelf and tipped it over, pulling a handful of change and bills out with a snicker before shoving it in his pocket. I reached out toward it with a breath of protest, willing friction into my lame throat enough to make a rasp of noise.
“Look, I think he’s upset,” Lenny laughed, and Goober slapped him upside the back of his head.
“Give it back, shithead. He’s taken enough of your dicks to have earned it. Some money’s too dirty for us.” He huffed. “There ya go, Whisper.”
Lenny emptied his pocket; the crumpled twenty, a few fives, and a dozen coins fell onto my old quilt. I scrambled to gather them and waited. It’s all I could do. Minutes ticked by far too slowly, and my pathetic sack sat beside me as Lenny and Goobermade their big plans about what I’d be able to steal for them. What would they do, after all? Hurt my parents? My friends?
Everyone was too broken anymore. Nobody had stuck around for me, befriended me. The monster inside of me, the cat I couldn’t let out of the proverbial bag, snarled.Let them die.
And I would. I spoke to my beast, head down.Calm down, kitty. It’ll be okay. The dragons are supposed to be real nice. We can be warm there.
That dragon will keep us very warm. We will love his fire. We will bathe in it.The purr in my mind distracted me until the flap of wings drew my attention. He really had come back, and when he approached Gordon with a sneer, he held out an envelope fat with bills.
I’d gotten to watch TV sometimes when I was cleaning houses, and I knew from the gang movies and things that counting money in front of people was rude. It must have been real rude, because Marcus’s face twisted.
“It’s all there,” he said, his voice level. Goober didn’t even look up, kept fumbling numbers. After a long time, he glanced up and declared it all there.
“You sure you counted it right?” Marcus frowned and waited as Goober cleared his throat and reached in, pulling out a hundred-dollar bill. “It was, uh, a little over.”
Marcus sucked his teeth and huffed. “Keep it.”
He stared me down, eyes so dark and unreadable. “Why aren’t you packed?”
