Howling Moon (14 page)

Raphael didn’t feel
much like cooking, so he decided to make the short drive up to Wolf’s Run. The bar was a pack business run by Larry Carmichael, a family member and biker, had an attitude, a sawed-off shotgun loaded with silver shot and a pair of silver knives. Raphael figured that the reason everybody was well behaved was they didn’t want to get shot and/or eighty-sixed from the only Sazi bar in two states.

Tonight was far enough after the moon that most of the crowd had as much control over their beasts as they ever would. He’d stopped by to say hi to Tatya, who sat with Mike at a table near the front of the room. She’d told him that Lucas had announced he was running late but was on his way up, and offered to let Raphael join them.

“No thanks,” he declined with a smile, choosing instead to take a seat at the end of the bar.

He was in the bathroom getting rid of his third and fourth beers when he thought he heard Ned’s voice, and Cat’s. He didn’t catch exactly what they said, but he heard Tatya’s response clear as a bell.

“You can’t do that! The pack has the right of first refusal.”

“Yes, and you refused. So I can, and will, sell my land to whomever else I damned well please.”

Shit!
Raphael dove out the door, zipping his trousers as he went. Someone got in his way, he didn’t look to see who. He shoved him blindly aside, trying to get across the room in time. Instead, he was still on the other side of the bar when Tatya took a swing at the human, only to have Cat protect him by stepping between them.

People were moving, shoving themselves back from the table as they prepared to support their Alpha Female in battle.

“No!”
Raphael shouted, throwing his power behind the word. He used his magic in a desperate attempt to freeze not only Tatya, but everyone in the room.

It worked.

Raphael stared, transfixed at the tableaux. Tatya’s fist was frozen in the instant of contact with Cat’s jaw, her entire body twisted into the punch, her face distorted and ugly with rage. Ned, leaned, off balance, steadying himself with one hand against the fireplace, Cat’s hand still pushing at his chest. All over the room, people were utterly motionless, even their throats stilled, so that the only sounds were harsh breathing, the hissing of food on the grill in the kitchen, and the blaring of Lynyrd Skynyrd on the jukebox.

Raphael walked over to where Mike was caught half-standing, an expression of utter horror on his face. Only his eyes moved. They followed Raphael’s every motion. It was a strange, disquieting thing to see, and Raphael had to suppress a shudder. It would ruin the threat to let them see how shocked he was – they might scent it, but some of them didn’t have particularly good noses, and the scent of burning food covered a multitude of sins.

Raphael caught Tatya’s gaze, felt the rage burning in those blue eyes shift to him. There was a silent
demand
to that look. A demand he deliberately ignored.

He kept his voice calm. He didn’t want anyone here to guess that he was as surprised as they were that he’d managed this. “Mike, I’m going to let you loose. I want you to call your father. Tell him to get his ass up here, that we have a situation.”

Raphael concentrated, very carefully, slowly letting the boy have his freedom. A shudder ran over Mike’s body as he stared, wide-eyed, at first one person then another.

“Mike, your dad?”

“Right.” He took out his cell phone and hit the speed dial. Raphael, meanwhile walked over to the bar. Reaching up, he took the shotgun from the hands of the bartender and set it gently on the bar top.

“Larry, I’m going to let you loose now. The alpha’s on his way up here to deal with this. I’m going to hold everybody in place, but I don’t want the bar to burn down because you can’t deal with the stuff in the kitchen.” He gave the other man a meaningful look. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Raphael released his grip slowly, watching to make sure the other man wouldn’t do anything… unfortunate. Larry was fully human, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat. He was a big man, strong and rangy. His bushy mustache was iron gray as was the hair he wore pulled back into a ponytail with multiple ties in the style favored by bikers. Tattoos covered the length of his arms that wasn’t covered by a skintight Harley-Davidson T-shirt. He might be human, but he was one tough mother, and everybody in the pack knew it. You did
not
give Larry Carmichael shit, and you did not cause a disturbance in his bar. Not if you wanted to stay healthy.

When he finally could move freely, he nodded in acknowledgment to Raphael. “Neat trick. Didn’t know you could do that.”

“Never had to before.” Raphael made his tone sound more casual than he felt.

Larry nodded again and walked through the swinging doors into the kitchen. Raphael could hear him bustling around back there. When he reappeared about ten minutes later, he was carrying two large platters. Both held massive porterhouse steaks, rare enough to still be bloody. He set the first one on the bar in front of Raphael. He placed the second in front of the stool beside him.

When Raphael raised an eyebrow in silent inquiry, Larry’s answer was simple. “Lucas is coming up. There’s trouble. He’s pissed. I’m human. I’m thinking feeding him, getting him a drink might not be such a bad thing.”

Raphael snorted with appreciation. When the bartender gestured toward the shotgun, Raphael nodded, giving tacit permission for him to put it back behind the bar where it belonged. “Probably better just get him a bottle. Put it on my tab.”

“You don’t have a tab tonight, Ramirez.”

“ ‘Scuse me?”

“I’m no fool. If you hadn’t hauled ass and gotten out here when you did they would’ve trashed the place. Tonight, your drinks are on me.”

“Thanks.”

Both men looked up at the crunch of gravel. Lucas had arrived. Michael disappeared through the bathroom door. Larry busied himself bussing tables around the living statues that littered the bar. Raphael sipped his beer, trying not to show his nerves, or the effort he was expending to hold the entire bar motionless. When Lucas walked in, Raphael was able to meet him with calm eyes.

Lucas stopped just inside the doorway, his hazel eyes taking in everything, from Tatiana’s raised fist to Cat’s snarling defiance. Every person was frozen in precisely the position he’d taken when Raphael had stepped out of the bathroom. Only their eyes moved, many showing far too much white as they panicked at not being able to control their own bodies.

He walked around a woman’s crouched form to make his way to the seat waiting for him at the bar. “Thank you, Larry,” Lucas murmured before picking up a tumbler of neat Scotch and raising it a salute directed at Raphael. “You have no idea how much I’ve been needing this.” He took a long pull from his drink and set about cutting into his steak.

“Uhm…
Lucas?”
Raphael made a vague gesture to the room.

He shrugged, as though he expected no less from Raphael. “Are you having any trouble holding them?”

“Not really,” Raphael answered.

“Are you hurting them?”

“No. A couple of them are a little panicked – and you can smell that most of them are pissed. But, no, I’m not hurting them.”

“Then,” Lucas bared his teeth in a vicious smile and turned toward the room so that everyone could see it, “they can
damned
well
wait
till I’ve had my dinner.”

The look Larry gave Raphael over Lucas’s head spoke volumes. Raphael waited in silence. When the Alpha was ready, he spoke.

“All right. Larry, correct me if I’m wrong. Judging from the positioning, Cat and Ned walk in and are heading to the empty table in the corner, with Cat in the lead.”

“Right,” Larry agreed.

“My wife stops them. They argue. Ned says something and Tatya takes a swing at him.”

“Right again.”

“But she
doesn’t
connect the punch because Cat steps in the way.”

“Yes,” Raphael answered this time.

“Mike said you were in the head when this all broke out. I take it that’s when you got back in the room?”

“Yes, sir.”

Lucas nodded. Raphael could almost see the gears turning inside the older man’s head as he tried to work out how best to clean up this mess. If Tatya had landed the punch, drawn blood from a human, it would be a Wolven matter. If Ned wasn’t wearing silver – she’d be put down. But she hadn’t connected the punch. That meant that while it was serious, it could be handled by internal pack discipline.

“All right.” Lucas spoke grimly. “Let them loose one at a time. Start with Cat and Ned. We’ll take their statements and get them the hell out of here before we release anybody else.”

“This could take awhile.” Raphael observed.

“Is that a problem, Alpha?” Lucas’s tone made it clear it had better not be.

“Alpha?”

Lucas sighed. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger as though a headache was forming. “Raphael, I’m acting head of Wolven. I have enemies on the council and Charles is breathing down my neck about Ms. Turner. We’re going to play this
exactly
by the book. We have a very serious matter that needs investigation. We’ll take care of it together so that
nobody
has a chance to complain.” He raised his voice until it could be heard over the jukebox. “Until you hear differently from me, Raphael, you
are
the Alpha Male of Boulder. And I want to make sure that
everyone
knows it!”

Raphael winced in sympathy. “Right. Ned first. Larry, can we use your office? We don’t want the statements getting muddied by everybody listening in.”

“No problem.” He tossed a ring of keys from across the room. Raphael caught them one-handed before standing up and walking through the swinging doors that led to the kitchen and the office beyond. It was going to be a long night.

Your turn sweetheart.

Cat felt the magical vise grip that had held her in place loosen. Her muscles
hurt
from being in one position for too long. She rubbed her hand under her jaw. It hurt from where the punch had begun to connect, but not nearly as bad as it would have if Raphael hadn’t stepped in before Tatya could follow through completely. The smaller woman not only had kick-ass strength, but she had put everything she had behind the blow. It could have broken Ned’s jaw – hell, it could have broken Ned’s
neck.
Cat felt a surge of anger. A part of her really wanted to do
something…
but no. No. She was supposed to go back into the kitchen and talk with the nice wolves. But Tatya had better not get out of this with just a slap on the wrist! If she did, Cat was going to be seriously pissed.

Cat strode past the bartender, bustling around, taking care of business as though everything were normal, and pushed her way through the swinging doors.

The kitchen was almost blindingly bright after the dim bar area. Fluorescent lighting shone off gleaming metal pans and walls painted stark white. The floor tiles were badly worn, but immaculately clean. Cat followed the sound of muted voices to a closed door in the back corner of the room.

The door opened as she approached, and Ned stepped out looking grim and determined. His face softened when he saw Cat.

“Before you go in there, thank you. If she’d connected that punch I’d have been in a world of hurt.” Ned shook his head.

“Hey, we’re family now. Remember?” Cat tried to lighten the mood.

“Only if Violet says yes.” Ned smiled, but there was a hint of nerves in his voice.

“Oh, I think she will. She loves you a lot, you know.” Cat patted his arm reassuringly.

“Yeah, but she’s pretty pissed about me keeping the whole ‘Sazi thing’ secret from her.”

Cat gave him a quick hug. “It’ll be fine. You’ll see.”

“Ms. Turner? If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep this moving.” The voice of the man that Raphael had called Lucas interrupted them from the next room. The words were courteous, but there was no mistaking the authority of the tone.

“See you later,” Cat said. Ned nodded, giving her a little shove toward the door as though to let her know not to keep the big dogs waiting. He, on the other hand, hurried out the back door of the kitchen, avoiding the front of the restaurant altogether.

Cat took a deep breath, gathered her courage, and put her hand on the doorknob. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Unfortunately, that didn’t make her any less nervous. Squaring her shoulders, she opened the door and stepped inside.

Raphael sat next to the door, across the room from Lucas. She hadn’t been able to see him clearly in the other room, so she took a moment to look over the man who was normally Alpha for this pack. He was broad-shouldered, wearing a business shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His short salt-and-pepper hair made his intense, fiercely intelligent brown eyes leap out at her. The power in those eyes told her a lot about him. He had the same penetrating gaze that her Uncle Chuck had. She wondered if they knew each other. Yes, they must.

Lucas sat, looking tense and serious, in a green vinyl office chair behind a battered metal desk. He was using a fountain pen to write notes on a lined pad. Raphael perched on the edge of the desktop, his hands gripping the lip of the surface next to his legs. Across from them, bare inches away, was an uncomfortable-looking straight-backed chair.

“Ms. Turner, have a seat.” Lucas’s voice was businesslike. “Please tell us what happened.”

Cat perched on the edge of the chair. She glanced up at Raphael for reassurance. There was none to be had. His expression was cold, his mind shielded so tightly she couldn’t guess at this thoughts.

“Start at the beginning please,” Lucas ordered. “Why were you up here?”

Cat pulled her gaze away from Raphael with difficulty and tried to lighten the mood with a smile. “God! I feel like a witness in a courtroom right now.”

“Excellent analogy, Ms. Turner,” Lucas replied calmly, but there was no laughter in his voice. “I’m Lucas Santiago. I’m a practicing attorney here in Boulder and a former prosecutor, as well as the present head of Wolven.”

“Oh.” She bit her lip in embarrassment. Taking a deep breath, she started her story without any more comments. “Well, Ned called this morning and asked me to meet with him. He wanted to talk. He planned on proposing to Violet, and wants to start their life together on an even footing. He was talking about my need to hunt, and he mentioned that he was selling his property. Since the pack didn’t want it, he asked if I would consider buying it.”

It took far longer than she would’ve expected for them to take her statement. Though there was none of the good cop/bad cop she was used to seeing on television and in the movies, it was obvious that the two men were professionals who were very used to working together. Each asked very probing questions, going over the same ground again and again. Not only did they ask what she’d seen, but just as important, what had she heard and scented. They went over it repeatedly until she was so exhausted her mind and butt were both numb, and her back ached from tension and sitting for so long in such an uncomfortable chair.

She almost wanted to cheer when Lucas told her, “All right then, I think that’s everything. If we come up with any more questions we know where to find you.”

Cat rose. She stretched to loosen her tight muscles, inadvertently brushing against Raphael when she did. That simple touch sent an invisible crackle of magic between them. He started, and she both felt and scented a quick burst of alarm from him before his shields once again slammed into place, locking her away.

Lucas turned quickly. Eyes narrowing, he looked from one to the other. Tilting his head back, he scented the air.

Raphael gave a discreet cough behind his hand. As if it were a signal between them, Lucas’s expression changed to one of amused indulgence. He shook his head and turned back to his notes.

“It’ll probably take a day or two before we hear back from the Chief Justice.”

She raised her brows in a question. “The Chief Justice?”

“Charles Wingate. I believe you know him.” Lucas gave a wry smile, and she noticed that it softened his whole face. She remembered that Raphael had said that Uncle Chuck was the most powerful Sazi, but
Chief Justice?

Lucas sighed, probably thinking she knew more than she did. She kept her mouth shut and let him continue. “Normally this would be a pack and Wolven matter. But I’m acting Chief of Wolven, and Raphael is acting Alpha of this pack. While we’ll be running the investigation, and Raphael will be conducting the discipline within the pack, our findings will have to be reported to the Chief Justice and the Sazi Council at their meeting in December. They’ll be watching us
very
closely.”

Cat could hear the worry in Lucas’s voice. It occurred to her the position the man was in. After all, his wife was the one who’d thrown the first punch. Lucas was managing a poker face, and she couldn’t scent what he was feeling, but she knew the fear had to be there just the same.

“If you’d be so kind as to send my son in here? We’ll talk to him next.”

It was a relief to leave. The tension and magic in the room had been thick enough to walk on, and powerful enough to set the fluorescent overhead lights buzzing and flickering.

Cat walked through the kitchen and back out into the bar proper. She couldn’t wait to get back to the house. What with everything that had happened, she was completely exhausted. All she wanted was a good meal, and a good night’s sleep, in that order.

She glanced around the room and shuddered. It was quiet enough that she could hear people drawing breath, and the wet slap of the cloth Larry was using to clean the bar. People were standing or sitting, frozen in midmotion. Only their eyes moved, and those eyes blazed with hatred.

“Mike, it’s your turn.”

The bar stool scraped against the floor as he rose. Pulling the wallet from his back pocket he dropped enough cash onto the bar to pay for his meal and started toward the swinging doors.

“Where’s Ned?”

“I told him I’d give you a ride back. He left.”

“Damn it!”

“I won’t be long.” Michael’s expression was serious. “And we need to talk.”

“I don’t want to talk. I want to eat and then go to bed,” Cat snarled.

He had the nerve to smirk! He’d planned this! “Well, Ned left. So you’re stuck waiting whether you like it or not.”

His tone of voice raised Cat’s hackles. He sounded smug, controlling, and more than a little condescending. If she had her purse with her she’d call a cab, and damn the expense. Unfortunately, since Ned had been driving, she hadn’t bothered to bring it. She was such an idiot. She was far too old to be making that kind of a stupid mistake. Well, she might be stuck with the situation tonight, but it would never happen again.

She lowered herself onto the wooden bar stool Mike had vacated. Larry appeared in front of her. “You’re hungry?”

“Yeah, but Ned was going to buy. I didn’t bring my purse,” she grumbled.

“S’right.” Larry tossed the bar towel casually over his shoulder and gave her a smile. “Ned’s a friend. He’ll pay me back. What do you want on your burger?”

“Burger?”

Larry grinned, showing a chipped tooth that, oddly, made him seem more approachable. “You’re not getting steak. Just in case he
doesn’t
pay me back.”

Cat’s laugh echoed strangely through the room and the scent of frustrated fury rose from more than one of the motionless wolves. She shivered. “Make it to go, would you?”

Larry nodded, his expression sympathetic. “No problem.”