Moon Dance (6 page)

But Cole didn’t look that
way anymore. His hair was long, hanging past his shoulders. It
hadn’t been combed or washed in quite some time. It was tangled and
greasy. Cole also had a huge, bushy beard. He looked like a wild
man, and there was something in his manner that unnerved
Avery.

When he walked in, Cole’s
gaze darted over to him, and his body twitched. But it was the
twitch of an animal, not of a human. Cole’s muscles tensed and his
eyes narrowed. Avery had the distinct impression that Cole was
going to spring on him and rip out his throat.

But Cole was chained. His
hands were chained together. His feet were chained to the floor. He
wasn’t going anywhere.

Cole fixed his feral gaze on Avery,
baring his teeth. He uttered something that sounded like a
growl.

Avery swallowed, halting in
his tracks.

Ursula seemed unnerved by
Cole’s manner as well. She cleared her throat as she slowly
approached the table. “Mr. Randall?”

Cole looked at her instead,
moving like a predator again. “Yes?”

Oh, but there was Cole’s
voice, the voice that Avery remembered. Unaffected, sarcastic, even
a little amused.

Avery hated him all over
again. He stalked over to the table and sat down. “What do you know
about the attack on the west coast SF?”

Cole turned to him with
lithe grace and leaned across the table. “Where is she?”

In spite of himself, Avery
recoiled. There was something savage about Cole now, something
dangerous. He was a caged wolf, and Avery didn’t think he’d ever
seen a person behave that way.

“
Dana Gray doesn’t want to
see you,” said Ursula quietly.

Cole’s eyes flicked back and
forth between Avery and Ursula.

Avery’s breath caught in his
throat. He was seized again with the certainty that Cole was going
to lunge.

But Cole settled back in his
chair and put his chained hands in his lap. “Well, then, I won’t
tell you anything.”

Ursula pressed her lips
together. “But you know something?”

Cole stretched his neck. “I
know who did it. I know what their plans are. But I called Dana in
the first place. That’s the only person I want to talk
to.”

“
Too bad,” said Avery.
“You’re never going to see her.”

Cole eyed him. “Because you
won’t let her.”

“
No.” Avery’s voice was icy.
“Because she hates you.”

Cole smiled. At least maybe
he did. It was tough to see under all his facial hair. “Hates me so
badly that she’d risk the safety of the entire Sullivan Foundation?
I don’t think so. I think you’re just trying to keep your mate in
line. You’re afraid that if she sees me, it’ll be just like all the
other times she’s seen me.”

“
Well, you’re not much to
look at right now,” said Avery.

Ursula put her hand on his arm and gave
him a look.

Avery took a deep breath. He knew
better. Insulting a prisoner during interrogation was generally a
bad idea.

“
That’s an interesting
choice of words,” said Ursula. “Mate.”

Avery felt his whole body
grow cold. Damn it. Why hadn’t he remembered this part before he
brought Cole back to the SF? Everyone assumed that Dana’s alpha
bond to Cole had been broken because Cole died. No one knew that
Avery had mated with her instead. He and Dana had kept it a secret
because the organization was distrustful of werewolf bonds. They
weren’t sure if the SF would think they were unstable because of
it.

Ursula cocked her head. “Are
you and Ms. Gray still werewolf mated, Mr. Randall?”

Cole looked surprised by the
question. “Well, no, we’re not.” He looked back at Avery and
chuckled. “You didn’t tell them. Is it a big secret?”

Avery cleared his throat.
“We’re here to talk about what you know, not about—”

“
How did you break the
bond?” said Ursula. “If you’re not dead, then how do I know she
isn’t mated to you? And believe me, Mr. Randall, if that’s the
case, I’m not letting her near you.”

Cole scratched his beard.
“Why don’t you talk to Brooks about that?”

Ursula furrowed her brow. She gave
Avery another look, and he could see that she was putting all the
pieces together.

Damn it.

He looked back at Cole. “I
think you’re lying about all of it, anyway. I don’t see how you
could know anything about the attack out west. It was a group of
werewolf haters—a bunch of humans who don’t like wolves and want to
see us all dead. I don’t see what you would know about
that.”

“
Well,” said Max, who had
kept silent up until now, “he did kill werewolves. Cole Randall,
the wolf serial killer who kills his own.”

“
Yeah, but it wasn’t about
that,” said Avery.

Max looked around Ursula, eyebrows
raised.

“
He was trying to make a
pack,” said Avery. “He killed the ones he couldn’t make submit. The
killing was a side effect, not an intention. Technically, I suppose
he’s not even really a serial killer. He’s some kind of nut who
thinks werewolves are closer to nature and that we should all give
in to our animal instincts or something.”

Cole clasped his fingers
together. “You see? I’m not even dangerous.”

“
I didn’t say that,” said
Avery.

Cole sat forward again,
grinning at them viciously. “Here’s what I’m thinking. I’m thinking
that maybe I was selling myself short before.”

Avery’s nostrils flared. “If
you aren’t going to tell us—”

“
I want a pardon,” said
Cole.

“
Oh, no,” said Avery. “We
played this game before. If you think—”

“
I know more about it now,”
said Cole. “I want you to issue me the same document that’s issued
for every wolf who violently kills before going through your
training. You issue something that says they can never be held
accountable for their actions because they acted with impaired
mental capacity. And that’s what I want.”

Avery couldn’t believe this.
Of course, he had one of those documents on file. They were
referred to as DMC docs, which stood for “diminished mental
capacity.” Avery had killed his family and several neighbors the
night of his first shift, and those actions had been pardoned
officially. “Randall, you didn’t act with impaired mental capacity.
You knew what you were doing.”

“
Not really.” Cole scratched
his beard again. “You see, growing up in the manner that I did, I
was given a very shaky grasp of morality and the value of life. My
father punished me by using psychotropic poisons, which didn’t
really help with my development. Anyway, it was only six people.
Brooks here has killed more people than I have.”

“
And what about the Brockway
Massacre?” said Avery. “The number of people killed in that
gymnasium is staggering. And you’re responsible for
that.”

“
Am I?” Cole curled his lip.
“How do you propose to prove that? I was injured in the Brockway
Massacre, Brooks. Terrorized, really.”

“
You’re not getting a
pardon,” said Avery.

“
That’s my new price,” said
Cole. “I want a pardon. I want to go free. And I don’t want to talk
to anyone besides Dana Gray. Give me those things, and I’ll tell
you everything you want to know about the attack out
west.”

* * *

“
We just didn’t feel it was
anybody’s business,” Avery said. He was in Ursula’s office. After
giving his pronouncement, Cole had refused to say another word, so
eventually he was taken back to his cell. Ursula had asked Avery to
come with her for a chat. She immediately began asking him
questions about whether or not he was mated to Dana and why the two
of them had kept it a secret.

“
I guess I should have
realized,” said Ursula. “The two of you were always friendly
before, but you didn’t have a romantic connection. The fact that
you were suddenly so deeply in love should have set off red flags
for me, especially considering that she’d been mated to Randall
just days before. But I didn’t want to think about anything else
being wrong.”

He shook his head. “There’s
nothing
wrong
with
it, King.”

“
Well, obviously, you
wouldn’t think so,” she said. “You’re mated. You’ve got weird mojo
sending out sparks in your brain, manipulating your emotions or
something. Honestly, we don’t really understand how it
works.”

“
It’s not weird mojo,” said
Avery. “It’s no different than a human bond. It’s maybe a little
more intense. There’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“
Possibly there is,” she
said. “Possibly, this bond is interfering with our working with
Randall.”

“
No,” said Avery. “It’s
not.”

She pursed her lips. “You
swear to me that Gray is the one that didn’t want to see
Randall?”

“
Of course,” said Avery.
“She hates him. He tried to kill her.”

“
That never made her hate
him before,” said Ursula. “Of course, I have to admit I haven’t
seen her in a long time. I really don’t know where her head
is.”

“
That’s right. You don’t,”
said Avery. “But I see her every day. And so I know how she
feels.”

Ursula nodded slowly. Then
she gestured with her head. “Come here. I want to show you
something.”

Avery followed her over
behind her desk. She powered up her computer and then pulled up a
series of pictures.

They were of the attack out
west. The SF headquarters was built similarly to the one here on
the east coast—same design, but different color schemes and
slightly different placement. It was like looking at a twisted
vision of his own home. In this alternate universe, the whole of
headquarters was littered with dead bodies. People in their beds
with gaping holes in their heads. People in the hallways, lying
half inside their doorways, as if they’d tried to get free but been
killed before they could. There was blood everywhere, and Ursula
had so many pictures. She kept flipping through them, one after
another, each more horrifying than the last, until Avery thought he
might start screaming.

“
Stop,” he said in a hoarse
voice.

“
It was bad, Brooks,” she
whispered. “It was bad, and we don’t have a clue who did it.
Randall is our only lead.”

“
We’re not even supposed to
be investigating. These were humans. It’s not our
jurisdiction.”

“
You actually think the
humans are going to do anything about this? They couldn’t care less
about some dead werewolves. You brought this lead to our attention,
and now you’re mucking it up.”

“
Me?”

“
Randall might have spilled
everything to Gray. We all know that he behaves differently when it
comes to her. He even helped us back in Brockway, didn’t
he?”

“
No, he didn’t really.
Everything would have gone down exactly the same way—”

“
You don’t know that.” She
crossed her arms over her chest. “And I don’t know how things might
have gone if Gray had been there for his questioning. But I do know
that he’s become even more difficult now. He’s demanding a pardon,
and I can’t help but think that you’re the reason he’s even harder
to work with.”

Avery squeezed his eyes
shut. “He’s playing us, King. He doesn’t know anything about any of
it. How would he know about a human attack on werewolves? He made
it up to have a chance to talk to Dana.”

“
He made it up the night
before the attack? That’s quite a coincidence. Especially when he
hasn’t been in contact with her for years.”

Avery sighed. “You can’t
believe him.”

“
All I know, Brooks, is that
you’re not clear when it comes to him. And I can’t help but wonder
how much of that comes from this mating I didn’t even know
about.”

“
It’s got nothing to do
with—”

“
You said it’s a more
intense romantic bond,” said Ursula. “I don’t know what lengths
you’d go to in order to make sure Gray and Randall don’t mate
again. That would take her away from you, wouldn’t it? It would
shatter your alpha status and break the bond you have with your
child?”

Wow. Ursula hadn’t forgotten
a thing about werewolf packs, had she? “It isn’t about me,” he
said. “It’s about Dana. She said she didn’t want to see
him.”

“
You promise me that’s the
case?”

“
I swear to God.”

* * *

Dana tucked Piper into her little
bed.

“
I no wanna take nap.” Piper
stuck out her lower lip.

“
Yes, you do,” said Dana.
“You’re tired and cranky, and I can tell. You need a
nap.”

“
I not cranky.” Piper
screwed up her tiny face.

Dana sighed. “Okay, then.
Well, you don’t have to go to sleep. All you have to do is lie here
with your eyes closed until I come back for you, okay? You can stay
awake the whole time.”