The Dom Unites Wolf and Panther [Unchained Love 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (5 page)

“When you’re my sub you will do as I say,” warned Curtis.

“But I haven’t agreed to be your sub, have I?”

“But you will agree. And soon,” he said.

Autumn shot him a look. Something else in the “no” box. First the wolf thing, now the Dom thing. “Don’t push me,” she warned him.

Nicholas jumped out of bed. “I may as well get dressed to drive you home then, otherwise I’ll have to lend you one of our trucks.”

Curtis nodded and threw the quilt to the floor.

After she was dressed, she retrieved her purse and dug through it for a hairbrush then neatly plaited her hair into a single braid.

“I like it out, but I like it like that, too,” said Curtis.

Autumn sniffed. Something smelled wrong. “Did you leave the grill on tonight?”

“Huh?” asked Curtis.

Like her, Nicholas had the extra-sensitive nose of a wild animal. “Fire!” he said, racing for the door to the building.

“Stay here,” ordered Curtis.

That instruction made sense to her, since she really didn’t know her way around the set and was likely to trip over bits of scenery or props and hurt herself or get in their way. She slung her purse over her shoulder and walked into a more central area so she could see both the back door to the sets, which was where Nicholas had gone, and the big roller door through which they’d driven the car, which was the way Curtis left, just opening it high enough for him to duck under it.

Autumn wished she had her extra-sensitive animal ears to listen for any unusual noises. But unless she transformed into her panther she couldn’t sharpen her senses anymore right now. Besides, likely someone had simply dropped a cigarette butt in a trash can somewhere which had finally caught alight or something easy and obvious like that.

The movie site was fenced, but the fence was nothing a fit person couldn’t climb over. It was more designed to prevent passersby from wandering onto a scene and ruining the filming than anything else. It wasn’t like there were things here worth stealing. The furniture was all inside the buildings and there were no genuine antiques or expensive artworks. Almost everything was designed to look good in the background of a shot, not to be inspected closely for flaws.

Autumn paced impatiently for a while, but the burning smell got no worse, and she couldn’t hear any worrying noises. Finally, she wandered over to the other living room scene, the one with the wooden floor, and stared at it carefully. The two armchairs and the couch were the real thing, but the painting on the wall, the bookshelf over to the side, complete with books, and the window on the back wall were all just painted onto wooden sets. She walked around behind them and the backs had different scenes painted on them, old stone walls, like part of a castle, with detachable triangular wooden bracing poles. It was actually quite fascinating as an example of an optical illusion, she supposed.

The roller door squealed and she turned suddenly, her purse banging into her thigh. Impatiently, she hitched it higher up her shoulder and stepped out of the set and into the open concrete-floored area to see which one had returned, Nicholas or Curtis. But it wasn’t either of them. It was a man she didn’t recognize. Likely, he was someone who worked here and had come to investigate the smell as well.

“Hi. I’m Autumn. Is everything outside all right?”

“I was going to say this whole evening has been a waste of time. There’s nothing here of value at all. But you’re one of those panthers, which means you’re of value. Drew and Charlie should pay me some big bucks to hand you over to them. Come over here, my pretty. We won’t wait for the others, because they may want to share you. I’m going to get me some nice money for you, oh yes, I surely am.”

“I don’t think so.” Autumn gripped her heavy purse firmly and waited for him to come closer. As soon as he got in range she’d be aiming for his head. Hitting his balls with her purse would hurt a lot more, but it was a much smaller target. Anywhere she hit his head should be enough to knock some sense into him. It was a damn shame she didn’t carry Mace or hairspray with her, but the sheer weight of the bag would do enough damage, she hoped.

“Come on, pretty one. You come to Jim now.”

The man was sidling up to her, trying to grab her unawares, but she wasn’t stupid enough to take her gaze off him for a moment.

Finally, he leaped forward and she swung her purse at his head with all her strength. He screamed and staggered backward, raising both arms to hold his head and therefore leaving his balls unprotected. She kicked up hard, slamming her foot into them, and when he dropped to his knees she belted him over the head again with her purse. Autumn ran to the bedroom set she and the men had used and quickly unhooked one of the sets of handcuffs then ran back and cuffed his hands in front of him. Back she went again for a second pair of handcuffs and secured his ankles. Then she moved well away from him as he was already stirring and swearing. When he found he couldn’t stand up he began screaming abuse at her.

“Hey, you were going to capture me. I captured you. Fair’s fair,” she said.

“They’ll put me back in jail, you bitch.”

“You should have thought of that before coming here, shouldn’t you?”

The man began shuffling on his bottom toward the roller door.

“Just keep doing that if you want me to knock you unconscious,” Autumn said, swinging her purse. He gave her a filthy look but stayed still.

Just as well. She’d already hit him as hard as she could twice and it’d only stopped him for a matter of seconds. And if she tried to hit him with some of the furniture she wondered if it may have been designed to come apart in a fight scene and therefore be totally useless as a weapon. Fortunately, he seemed prepared to sit there and sulk for the time being.

She heard a dragging sort of sound and swung around to the back door of the building. Nicholas opened the door and came in dragging two unconscious men.
Good heavens, he must be strong.
Of course, he was a wolf, but even so these weren’t small men and they were completely unaware of being dragged along the ground.

“What have you got there, Autumn?” Nicholas asked, frowning at her.

“This is Jim. He thought he’d like to sell me to Drew and Charlie, who I’m guessing are some of the rogue panthers. I simply turned the tables on him.”

“So I see. Well done. Could you go get me a few more pairs of handcuffs, please?”

Pushing her purse back over her shoulder, and grateful she always carried it with her everywhere, Autumn went back to the bedroom for the remaining two pairs of handcuffs, which she gave to Nicholas.

Efficiently, he cuffed the two unconscious men then said, “Stay here while I get some rope for their feet.”

Nodding and standing well away from the men in case any of them woke up again or Jim got rambunctious, Autumn waited patiently for Nicholas to return, looking from the roller door to the back door every few minutes and highly relieved when he did arrive back.

After the men’s legs were tied and the three of them were roped together, Autumn asked, “Was there a fire? Was anything damaged?”

“One of the wooden set pallets is scorched, but it didn’t catch alight. I don’t know whether they were trying to start a fire or not. Perhaps, Jim, you can answer that question?”

Jim just scowled at Nicholas.

“These two were busy breaking into one of the storage sheds, so they’ll be heading back to jail again. When Curtis gets back inside we’ll call 9-1-1. Will you be all right if I go out again and help him clean up the trash?”

“Of course. I have my secret weapon.” She hefted her purse and grinned at Nicholas.

He walked to one of the sets and came back with a gun. “Use this instead. Aim for their chests. That’s a nice big target you’re sure to hit.”

Autumn was just going to say she had no intention of shooting anyone when she realized the gun was fake. A prop. So she nodded and said, “Thanks, Nicholas. I’ll be fine here now.”

Jim took one look at her holding the gun and became still and quiet. She didn’t trust him at all, but for the moment he wasn’t going to cause her any trouble. But why had they come here to steal things anyway? It was a very small movie studio, not a bank or even a gas station or convenience store, where at least there’d be cash.

“Why did you come here? Why not rob a convenience store or a bank?” she asked.

“Banks have too much security and everywhere else we looked at had cameras. Since we’ve all done time our faces are on record, and wearing a balaclava is no protection as it can get pulled off if there’s a fight. This place looked like a nice easy target.”

“Because there’s nothing to steal. So you’ll be going back to jail for wasting your time instead of getting a job.”

“Only fools work a regular job.”

“But they do manage to stay out of jail.”

Jim didn’t reply. Autumn made sure to stay well away from him in case he realized the gun was a plastic replica. Time seemed to pass incredibly slowly, but finally, she heard Curtis’s voice.

“I recognized this one straightaway. Last time I saw him he had a broken nose. He was driving the truck that ram-raided the gates at Carnal Connections and the backseat passenger wasn’t wearing a seat belt. When the truck hit the gates the man in the backseat flew over the seat, kicking this man in the face and breaking his nose.”

“Oh yes, I remember that, too. The backseat man sliced his own head open by breaking the windshield, didn’t he?”

“Evidently, it didn’t knock any sense into them, since they came here the minute they got out of jail,” said Curtis.

“They won’t be here long. I’ve called 9-1-1. I’ll go to the front gate to meet them and bring them to the roller door.”

“Okay. I’ll just tie this man up while we wait for them to arrive.” Curtis had a man over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Nicholas had another one over his shoulder, who he dropped none too gently on the concrete by the two unconscious ones before he waved to Autumn and then went out the roller door, ready to meet the police.

This lot will soon be back in jail, but that still leaves Drew and Charlie. How many more of them are there, and why don’t they just give up and go somewhere else?

* * * *

In the end Autumn did text Ramona and tell her what was going on as the police seemed to want to ask the same questions over and over again even when it was more than obvious she’d had no idea what was happening. Finally, Omar arrived. The Alpha of the panthers was a huge man, well over six foot tall, and all of his bulk was solid muscle.

“You’ve gotten Autumn’s statement, you know her address, and you know she can give you no more information. I’m taking her home now,” said Omar firmly to the cops, grasping her arm and leading her out of the building.

Autumn hid a grin at the grumbling and muttering from the police as she was marched away. No one was bold enough to contradict the Alpha, though.

Neither Curtis nor Nicholas looked any more pleased than the police officers did, but Autumn knew her men would want her safe at home and the police had no intention of leaving the movie studio grounds anytime soon.

“Why do you think they tried to rob the movie studio, Omar? It makes absolutely no sense at all,” said Autumn as they drove home.

“Some people aren’t good at thinking for themselves or running their own lives. They need an Alpha, or a Dom, or just a wife or mother to tell them what to do. In my opinion these men fit that category. They needed money so decided to steal it. They convinced themselves some unguarded place would be the easiest target without working out that because it’s not guarded there’s likely not much of value in it. Rather like people who smash car windows because they see a pair of sunglasses inside. They’re lucky to get a few dollars for the sunglasses, and for that they risk jail time. At least robbing a bank makes sense in a lawless kind of way.”

“Yeah, you could retire on the proceeds of a bank robbery. And I suppose these people have no real job skills and would be working for minimum wage,” said Autumn.

“Well, they didn’t strike me as smart enough to get a job that requires too much brain input, but that’s no reason not to find work at all,” said Omar.

Autumn nodded then thanked Omar for driving her home and walked into the main building at Carnal Connections and up the stairs to her room. She supposed she ought to be grateful for her own job. She loved crafts and had found a job where she made things and got paid for it. “I am rather lucky, aren’t I? But I work hard, too. Some of the designs I make take hours and hours and hours of concentrated effort. But I enjoy it, so it’s all good.”

And what about being with Nicholas and Curtis tonight? Was that also “all good”?

Autumn sat down on her bed. Oh yes, it’d been good all right. Very, very good. The best orgasms, ever. Four of them. She’d never had so many in a single day before. But the basic problem still remained. Curtis was a human and a Dom. Nicholas was a werewolf. She was a half-panther. Mixing them together into a relationship was never going to work long term.
Dammit!

“We’ve never had a moment’s trouble with the people in this neighborhood. Many of them work for us as extras when we need a crowd scene for a movie we’re filming. I have no idea why these people decided to try to rob us. Or burn us down, or whatever bee was buzzing in their tiny little minds last night,” said Curtis, working hard to hold on to his temper.