“Make it a really big blanket. Geez, bears are huge.”
Frankie snorted. She’d been the one to half carry, half drag the guy to her car. She knew exactly how impressively he was built. He’d make a great ally, if she could get him on her side. If not, then she’d…what? Kill him per her father’s orders? She shuddered in horror at the thought. War or not, she was not going to kill anyone. She’d just have to convince Kennedy to help her all while keeping him off her pack’s radar.
By the time she got outside with the wheelchair and the largest blanket they owned, Hazel had maneuvered his legs out and was trying to wake the guy with none too subtle slaps on the face. “Come on, fuzz face, wakey wakey.” She turned to wink at Francesca. “’Cause he’s the fuzz.”
Francesca laughed at the old-fashioned term for cop. “You know the sixties were a really long time ago.”
“Not in my heart. Come on, Detective Fuzz.”
“Stop it,” Francesca said as Hazel was getting more aggressive with her face taps. “I can get him.” As the child of a shifter, she was slightly stronger than the average woman. As a newly formed hybrid, she was scary strong. She edged Hazel out of the way, braced Detective Kennedy against her, and hauled him out of the car.
“Don’t do that out here!” Hazel said in an urgent whisper as she held the wheelchair in place. “Someone could see that you’ve changed.”
Anyone with a good nose could tell. It was only because they’d been down in the sewers that Kennedy hadn’t realized she was the newest form of shifter monster. She set him down in the chair then they wheeled him inside, but she balked at climbing four flights of stairs with him as deadweight. She was strong, but no one was that strong.
“We’ll just have to wait until he wakes.”
“Put him in the back of the coat closet. It’s summer. No one goes there now.”
Francesca complied, though she worried about what he would think—and do—when he woke. Hazel peered over her shoulder.
“That’s fine. Shut the door and get ready for class.”
Francesca jolted. “Class? The city’s on lockdown. No one’s coming for class.”
Hazel pinned her with a heavy stare. “You’re here. I’m here. That means we have class.”
Frankie shook her head. “I need to talk to Noelle.” She was the only one who could convince Brady to go against Raoul. “Can you text her? Ask how she’s doing? Something innocuous that doesn’t reveal—”
“That you’re the one asking. Yeah, I got it.” Hazel pulled out her phone and whipped off a text. A moment later, she grunted as she got Noelle’s response. “Says she’s going to bed, and she’ll kill anyone who wakes her or the boys right now.”
“Yeah, the twins have the flu. Not the Detroit Flu, just the regular one.” Frankie did some mental calculations. “I’ll visit her in a couple hours and—”
“Excellent. You have time to train.”
“I’ve been running nonstop,” she said with a sigh. “Let’s skip, okay?” It was a vain hope. She knew Hazel’s answer long before it was spoken aloud.
“Your brother is stepping up his insanity. That means you train.”
“I’m not fighting him. That would be suicide.”
“You don’t have to fight, just—”
“Delay,” Francesca said the word with her. That was Hazel’s mantra. Don’t fight, delay. That meant getting in a surprise attack before getting the hell out of Dodge. It was the smart way to survive and had saved many of her students’ lives. But that kind of strategy only went so far, especially with wolf-shifters like her brother. Escape worked in the short term, but he always found a way to get even. Always.
Best option was not to fight him at all, just manipulate everyone else to keep him in check. Then she was just one of many, not one standing alone in a dark alley against the most vicious werewolf she’d ever known.
She consciously relaxed her shoulders. That image alone was enough to terrify her into practicing. Because deep inside her nightmares was the sure belief that one day she would have to face Raoul, and she would die.
Chapter 5
Save me!
Pain burned through Ryan’s ribs. His neck throbbed, his leg was on fire, and he was going to die. He knew that with a horror that choked him. Four hybrids were closing in on him. They were crazed and carrying a stench that made it impossible to breathe. Each sliced him with claws or teeth, their blows impossibly strong, and they never rested. Rabid animals sent to attack him by the one person who had sworn to protect him.
Save me!
He looked past his attackers to his alpha. Nanook stretched back against his chair with a bored expression on his face. Nanook was the Griz alpha and the person who’d promised to keep the Detroit bear-shifters safe. He was their leader and defender, and he alone had the mental power to control the crazed hybrids. But instead of pulling them away, Nanook had sent them to attack. Ryan’s alpha had given the orders to kill him.
