Chapter 5
Jade flinched when she heard the sound of breaking glass and cracked her eyes open to thin slits. Expecting to see the cage she’d been locked in for the last month, she was confused for a moment finding herself on a small cot of some kind. She’d been drugged again… that much she knew. She still remembered the sting of the tranquilizer dart she had been shot with.
She slowly inhaled, testing the air for hints of her surroundings. The scents here were different… cleaner… not dirty like the warehouse she’d been in.
As the effects of the tranquilizer wore off and her vision started to clear, Jade noticed the bars were a different kind and seemed further away. Keeping very still so as not to give her alertness away, she moved her gaze just enough to see that she was right… she was in a jail cell rather than her normal cage. It wasn’t much of an improvement, but at least she could move far enough away from the bars if they came at her with that stupid cattle prod again.
She could hear muted voices in the distance and remained still, waiting on all of her senses to wake the rest of the way up so she could make out what they were saying. She recognized the scent of the human that had wanted to release her from her cage and felt comfort knowing he was near. There had been no faking the scent of concern and worry seeping from his pores.
She wrinkled her nose slightly when she caught the scent of one of the guards from the warehouse in close proximity but that paled in comparison to the undeniable scent of an Alpha. She swallowed her growl hating all Alpha’s with good reason… it had been the conceit of more than one Alpha that had landed her in this mess to begin with.
She watched through her thick lashes as one of the men… the Alpha obviously, stepped out of a room to the right and walked past her cell. She remembered him standing right beside the older werewolf that had shot her with the tranquilizer gun. Again, she had to stop herself from growling at his powerful scent. He’d probably given the order to have her drugged.
Not far behind him was the human male. She held her breath when the man stopped long enough to look at her and sigh before he moved on.
“Go on and get him out of here,” Titus instructed. “And make sure you don’t tangle with Damon if he is still over there. He and your sister have actually been a lot of help.
Jade waited as she heard movement and a new voice muttering about needing a vacation before footsteps started moving toward her cell. First she saw the feline… a strong looking male with dirty-blond hair and strange blue eyes walking with one of the guards from the warehouse.
Everything around her screamed law enforcement but here her torturer was walking around free and she was still locked in a cage. Unable to control her reaction, Jade leapt off the cot and charged at the bars separating them.
“No!” Tasuki cried out when he saw that the she-wolf was awake and beating herself against the bars to get at the bad guy turned pack mate. “Calm down,” Tasuki said and approached the cell carefully, “you’re going to hurt yourself.”
Jade continued to snarl and growl at her previous captor, trying to push herself between the bars. This was the bastard that had the sick fetish of continuously telling her what he was going to do to her once the hormones they’d injected her with kicked in. If she ever got the chance, he would lose the one part of his body he boasted the most about.
The guard froze and stared through the bars at the she-wolf feeling his new conscience kick in so hard that he almost felt sick for the way he’d treated her. He inhaled sharply and squared his shoulders, determined to help rescue the other girls to make up for what he’d done in the past.
“Come on,” Micah grumbled and continued forward, pulling the male werewolf behind him by the arm. He hoped that once they were out of the building the she-wolf would calm down a little.
“Control yourself,” Titus ordered with a growl, kneeling so he was eye to eye with the she-wolf. “This is a public place and you will adhere to the sacred rules that have kept our kind from being exposed.”
Jade growled and actually snapped her teeth at him but backed away from the bars feeling his power flare to the point of heating her skin. How dare he give her orders just because he was an Alpha? She didn’t know him and he still had her in a damn cage. She bared her teeth and continued a long growl in warning as she locked her angry eyes with his.
Titus narrowed his own gaze seeing the hate shining in her eyes and silently wondered if he’d been right about her being feral. If he let her out right now, she would only follow her animal instinct and attack someone. He couldn't let that happen… not within the city. The last thing they needed right now was more animal attacks in the morning paper. Already, gun sales in the city were through the roof due to the strangeness of the stories that had already leaked out because of the demons.
“I can only imagine what she’s thinking right now,” Tasuki said softly, wanting nothing more than to open the damned door for her… at least this cage had a door.
Titus looked over at Tasuki curiously, “What would you be thinking?”
Tasuki shrugged a shoulder watching the female closely, “I’d think we were letting one of my tormentors go and not taking into account what the other werewolf had done to me… or I’d think Lucca had finally got around to selling me and I was now looking at my newest enemy slash owner slash Alpha. Right now, I probably wouldn’t see any difference between you and Lucca.”
Jade couldn’t control her reaction and tilted her head to the side in curiosity as she swung her gaze toward the soft spoken man. Was this human one of the few that could understand another’s psyche? He was wrong about her thinking she’d been sold… stolen was more like it. This was just one Alpha robbing another… even if he was hiding behind a badge to do it.
“Can you shift into your human form for us?” Titus asked. He shook his head in disappointment when the wolf snapped her teeth at him again. “Guess not.”
“Titus, let me get this straight. When you shift into your animal form, you can still understand words... right?” Tasuki asked. “What I mean is… can she understand everything we say if we explain to her why she is still locked up?”
Titus knew what Tasuki was asking and gazed back at the she-wolf as he answered in Layman’s terms, “When we shift, we have to concentrate pretty hard to get past the beast we have become, but yes… we can hold on to our humanity if we are strong enough. The down side to that is, the longer we stay shifted the harder it becomes.”
Jade glared at him. Let the idiot think she was nothing more than a weakling simpleton running on her basic instincts. Maybe then he wouldn’t be so keen on holding on to her and just let her go.
“You could go ask the guard how long she’s been like this and give me a few minutes to try getting through to her,” Tasuki suggested.
Seeing the intelligent look slip into her eyes before she could hide it, Titus decided to test her understanding and see if it was just pure stubbornness he was up against. “Or… I could just force her to shift and get it over with.”
Jade snarled and started pacing back and forth. Lucca had tried to use his power of authority to make her shift and she’d withstood him even when he’d stunned her with the cattle prod. She growled at this new Alpha in front of her, daring him to try it.
Titus put his hands on the bars and leaned closer… his lips hinting at an agitated smile, “You just gave yourself away.” Standing to his full height, he looked over at Tasuki. “She can understand us just fine.”
Tasuki narrowed his eyes on Titus’ retreating back, “You can’t really force her to shift if she doesn’t want to… can you?”
“Yes I can. And if she continues to be stubborn… then she will have no one to blame but herself.” Titus let the threat stand and walked down the hall toward the back of the building. Slipping into his office, he sat down and glared at the security monitor that was coming from a cam facing the jail cells.
It was bad enough he had to play Alpha to a huge pack that was used to breaking the rules… not following them. Now he had to deal with a rouge female hell bent on being a distraction.
Bottom line was, she was going to have to shift into her human form whether she liked it or not. This was the middle of LA for crying out loud, not the wilderness. On top of the risk of humans seeing her, it was a really bad idea to have an unmated female werewolf locked up in a cell right across the road from a bunch of ex were-thugs.
He rubbed his temple wondering what the hell he was going to do with her after he forced her to shift. Between the demons, the mob, and his own pack, the girl didn’t stand a chance without a bodyguard or the protection of a jail cell. That’s when it dawned on him… she wasn’t a part of the LA pack so all he needed to do was find out where she was from and put her on a plane. Problem solved.
Titus turned the swivel chair around so he couldn't see her and started filling out his reports… one doctored for the law enforcement computers and one stating the truth for the PIT database.
Tasuki sighed and leaned against the bars of the cell ignoring the fact that the sharp claws of the wolf could rip him to shreds if she wanted to. He looked inside the small space and eyed the she-wolf sadly.
“I know you don’t like being in there,” he said after a moment before sliding to his knees so he was more on her level. “You’d be helping us out a great deal if you shifted back to your human form. One of our lady friends even brought you some clothes to put on and there is a shower in the back corner of the cell that would give you some privacy.”
Jade glared at the overnight bag for a moment then gave a fleeting glance toward the petitioned off shower before turning her head to look at Tasuki again.
“I’d let you out if I could,” Tasuki continued. “The problem is… I don’t have the key. And with the way I feel about you being in here, I probably won’t get one.” He smiled softly as the she-wolf sat down on her haunches and regarded him curiously. “You’re gonna think this is crazy, but I have my own reasons for not liking the fact that you’re in a cage.”
Jade liked the soft lull of his voice and felt the beast she hid inside of take a closer look at him. Sometimes, her animal side could detect the things her human form didn’t notice. To her amazement, his big brown eyes took on an amethyst hue and she could see echoes of him within her vision like he was more than one.
Tasuki didn’t stop the flashback from coming this time. He had finally found a reason to say the words out loud. Who better to tell secrets to than the ancestor of man’s best friend?
“You see… I’ve been having these dreams since I was twelve years old. Most of them are nightmares really… but not all of them. They revolve around a girl I used to know… her name was Kyoko. Her and her family vanished without a trace on her tenth birthday. That was the first time I had ever seen a demon… several of them were right there in her back yard.”
“Anyway, in one of the dreams, she’s in a cage with no door and she needs me to save her from… the monsters,” Tasuki stuck to the truth now that he was with a team of people who knew how to fight them.
“I keep trying to get her out but, like I said… there’s no door and I’m starting to panic. The next thing I know, something comes out of the darkness and grabs me… dragging me backwards… away from her.” Tasuki sighed at the feeling of hopelessness. “I don’t even have time to fight before it kills me.”
Jade felt herself go numb as the echoes of him slammed back together and the strange amethyst started to fade from his eyes. He reminded her of her best friend who was a psychic and in that moment, she knew the dreams that were plaguing him were not dreams at all. They were either memories of his echoes… or they were warnings of what was to come.
“I would do anything to save her… have her back with me again… but all I have left of her are these dreams.” Tasuki was so caught up in his musings that he flinched when he felt fur press against his fingers where he was holding onto one of the bars. He gazed at the wolf that was gently nuzzling his hand.
“I guess you can relate a little bit,” Tasuki mused. “I know you’re not Kyoko, but like her… you don’t belong in that cage. Truth is, you’ve already been saved… you just don’t realize it yet. I think Titus will let you out of here once you feel safe enough to shift back into your human form and talk to him.”
He sighed and closed his eyes in disappointment when she backed away from his hand. “We want to put a stop to what Lucca is doing, but the guy’s smart… you know. And it’s not like we can track him down and go in with guns blazing… we have to be able to save his victims at the same time. In order to do that, we need to know where the other cages are. Do you know anything that would help us find them?”
Knowing she couldn't answer him, Tasuki started to turn away when a human hand reached through the bars and gripped his arm in a firm hold.
He glanced back at her and his soft smile returned when he saw the naked woman inside the cage. Her hair was long and dark and her complexion was what some would call a California tan. Her human body was beautiful and Tasuki couldn’t control his blush at her nudity. First a beautiful angel on a rooftop… and now this.
“That wasn’t just a dream,” she said quietly.
Tasuki blinked, “What?”
“My best friend is a psychic and when I’m the wolf… I can see an echo around her when she is having visions. Just now, you had many echoes… not just one. She could help you understand them,” she whispered feeling the coldness of the bars press against her breasts. She knew she could trust this man and the fact that he was staring at her eyes and not her body only confirmed that.
“My name’s Tasuki… what’s yours?” Tasuki asked sidestepping her theory that his dreams were real. He was just glad she had shifted and Titus would have to let her out of the cell.
“Jade,” she breathed without thinking then bit her bottom lip wondering how smart it was to tell anyone her real name. As long as she never gave a last name… surely no one would be able to track her here.
“Hello Jade, it’s good to finally meet your human counterpart. Where do we find this friend of yours?” Tasuki asked with a soft smile. Maybe having her friend come to the station would make her feel a little safer.
“Lucca still has her. He was keeping me as a hostage to force her to use her psychic ability for him. If Sonia finds out that I’m no longer there…”
Titus looked over his shoulder at the surveillance monitor and felt like he’d been kicked in the gut seeing that she had shifted. She was on her knees gripping the bars and her face was mere inches from Tasuki’s as she talked to him. She had the flawless face of a seductress and he watched her full lips moving to form words.
His heated gaze slowly lowered down her body, seeing the long locks of her hair draping down to frame the ample swells of her breasts… one of them almost touching Tasuki’s fingers where he had his hand wrapped around the bars. His gaze slipped down to slightly parted thighs where her hair wasn’t long enough to cover.
Jade suddenly jerked her hand back inside the bars when a door from somewhere in the back of the department was flung open and they heard footsteps rapidly approaching. She quickly put a finger against her lips and gave him a pleading look. “Don’t tell the Alpha. Just get me out of here so I can find her.”
Tasuki glanced toward the sound realizing it was Titus she was frightened of. When he looked back, Jade was once again in her wolf form. He frowned not understanding what she was so scared of.
Titus gritted his teeth when he came around the corner only to find the wolf instead of the alluring female he had seen on the monitor. She’d heard him coming and changed back on purpose. He looked from her to Tasuki as jealousy flared.
“So we are playing games are we,” Titus glared toward the she-wolf now having a different face and body to pull up from his memory. “Why are you hiding from me and not him?” he thundered.
“Maybe because you’re yelling at her,” Tasuki informed him.
“I help save her and this is the gratitude I get?” Titus bit out between clenched teeth. “Did she tell you anything?”
Tasuki shrugged and stood up, “Nothing that you can’t find out on your own if you’ll just rein in that temper of yours.”
Titus sent him a glare, “What did she say?”
Tasuki shook his head and locked eyes with Jade, “I’m suddenly feeling a bit of amnesia coming on.”
“You are interfering with pack politics Tasuki,” Titus warned, unable to control the jealousy of seeing her treat Tasuki with more respect than the Alpha standing right here in front of her. He could protect her… not Tasuki.
“No!” Tasuki snapped making Titus blink at him in surprise. “We’re dealing with an ongoing investigation. If you want her cooperation, then you might want to consider treating her like a person rather than something you can put down in your report.”
Titus growled low in his throat but stopped when Tasuki’s eyes took on a glowing amethyst hue.
“Don’t even think about it.” Tasuki said quietly. “You might be stronger than me, but I won’t go down without a fight. If you want answers… then give her answers first so she will understand that you’re not her enemy. Trust breeds trust.”
Tasuki turned on his heel and stalked into the break room. Knowing this was the right thing to do, he grabbed his ripped jacket and the empty bottle of scent masking spritzer still sitting by the coffee maker before coming back out and stalking past Titus to the jail cell. Jade had backed away from the bars when Titus had approached… not that he blamed her right now.
Showing her the bottle in his hand, he hoped Titus would pay attention and learn a thing or two about how to treat a lady. “What’s in this bottle completely hides your scent… even the scent brought on by whatever was in those needles they were shooting you up with. Titus used the whole bottle on you because he was, and still is, trying to protect you. He isn’t your enemy and he’s actually a good guy when he isn’t busy being an ass.”
Slowly turning his head to stare at the bigger man Tasuki added, “So don’t be so hard on him. He’s our best chance at taking down Lucca and saving the people Lucca has put in harm’s way.”
Jade watched closely as Tasuki backed away from the bars and walked past Titus. She breathed a sigh seeing he was keeping her secrets… maybe he would even find the keys and help her slip away.
“I’m going to get some more of this because she is going to need it when she walks out of that cage,” Tasuki said curtly and slammed the door on his way out.
Titus rubbed his hand across his face then jerked his hand down to glare toward the she-wolf that had just gotten him a lecture from a newbie.
“Damn it,” he hissed then noticed the way her eyes narrow on him.
Striding up to the jail cell, he raised his hands and curled his fingers around the cold iron bars still remembering the sight of her ample breasts pressed against them. “Is that your plan… to persuade Tasuki into betraying us and sneaking you out of here? Do you really think I would let that happen?”
Knowing he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with her right now, Titus pushed away from the bars and went to the door Tasuki had just left through. Opening the door, he tapped Phillip on the shoulder nearly scaring the young werewolf.
“You can head back to the station now Phillip,” Titus said. “And let Boris know this place is completely off limits until I say otherwise.”
“Y-yes sir,” Phillip stuttered and actually ran across the street to the precinct.
Titus shook his head and closed the door, locking it and making the building completely secure. On his way back to his office, he detoured again toward the cell knowing it was a bad idea considering the mood he was in. Too bad he never took his own advice.
Putting his hands back on the bars, he squashed the urge to shake them in frustration. “I get it… you want out of this jail cell and you will have your wish within a couple hours. Either you willingly shift into your human form, take a shower, and get dressed while the building is locked down tight… or I’ll be back to do it for you. One way or the other… by the end of the night you will be free of your cage.”
‘I don’t think so,’ Jade thought with the low growl she gave him.
She watched the muscles under his shirt bunch and stretch with his movements as he turned and walked away from her. It reminded her of a wild wolf stalking his pray with fluid motions. As magnificent as he was to watch, everything about him screamed Alpha… right down to his blond haired, blue eyed, perfect physique.
Too bad she had decided that an Alpha was the last man on earth she would ever trust.
Titus slammed the office door behind him and glared toward the monitor waiting to see if she would obey him or test the limit of his patience. He needed to be out there doing his job, not locking down the whole detective department because of one stubborn female that thought she could out smart him. He could feel himself growing tenser as the minutes started to tick away.
Jade jumped up on the small mattress and stretched out, laying her head on her paws so she could keep watch. She’d had enough of an up close and personal experience dealing with Alpha males to last her a lifetime and would choose to go lone wolf over belonging to a pack any day.
Her brother Caleb was an Alpha and played god to a huge New York pack. Yeah, great Alpha he was… he only made decisions based on how much power he would gain from the outcome.
Just like LA, the New York werewolves were nothing but mobsters. Caleb had even attempted to force her to marry Danny, the Alpha of another New York pack to create a huge extension of his own mob ties, no matter that Danny’s pack was no more than a high profile city gang that loved making the papers on a weekly basis.
Caleb didn’t care if the man he was trying to mate her with scared the living hell out of her or not… and he hadn't cared when she’d tried to warn him not to trust Danny. She knew what Danny was up to… he intended to bind her to him and then put a hit out on Caleb. Being mated to Caleb's sister would give him automatic rights to take over their pack once their Alpha was dead.
No, Caleb hadn't wanted to hear anything negative about the man that would give him so much for such a small price… his little sister. Belonging to a pack was just another form of slave trade and she wanted her freedom from all of it.
With the help of her best friend Sonia and Sonia’s psychic abilities, they’d outsmarted both Alpha males and fled to LA. The plan had been to have the time of their lives living it up among the movie stars. They had lived it up alright. Two wonderful weeks of sightseeing and hitting the night clubs had flown by… only for them to fall right into the hateful hands of Lucca.
Yeah… the down side to Sonia's psychic abilities was that she couldn't foretell her own future in order to steer clear of danger. Her gift of sight only worked when it wanted to and then she would usually have to really try. Though on rare occasion, Sonia could accidentally touch a stranger and have a vision. Too bad it hadn't worked on the flirty guys that had bought them the drinks.
They’d been drugged at a night club called Night Light and woken up in a cage together. At first, her being a rare female shifter, they had been left untouched until the boss arrived to give orders of what was to become of them. It was when Lucca arrived that they had found themselves in real danger.
He already knew who both of them were and just who they were running from. Word always traveled fast in the mob circuit considering they have their hands in everything from the police to the FBI. Lucca had even taunted her by telling her the price she would fetch him for her quick return to her beloved brother and promised mate.
Thinking back on it now, she almost wished Lucca had went through with the deal but bless her heart, Sonia had tried to play the hero by offering her psychic services to Lucca if he would let her friend go without telling Caleb anything.
When Lucca scoffed at the idea not believing her, Sonia had reached through the bars and touched the closest man to her. As if a gift from God, she’d had a vision and informed Lucca that the man was skimming money off the top. She even gave the details of just how he was doing it.
Lucca’s attitude had changed immediately and he’d ordered the execution of the accused man. He flipped like a coin and was suddenly the perfect gentleman.
He’d agreed to Sonia’s deal and even let them both out of the cage. But the second he had touched Sonia, she’d started shaking and looked up at him in stark terror. When he’d asked what she’d seen, Sonia had tried to back out of the deal, adamantly agreeing that sending them back to Caleb was the best thing for everyone.
Seeing Sonia’s fear, she’d moved to put herself between Lucca and Sonia. One of Lucca's bodyguards grabbed her and placed a gun to her head. That’s when Sonia had looked Lucca directly in the eyes and told him that a demon was coming for him.
Lucca had then approached Sonia and gripped her chin, “Then you, my little psychic, will help me see this demon coming so that I can kill it.” He’d forced Sonia’s head in her direction before adding, “Because if you don’t… then your dear friend here will die.”
She’d seen Sonia several times since then, when Lucca would bring her by the warehouse and give her a reminder of why she should behave. She was actually glad Sonia was giving Lucca a hard time.
Sonia was clever and had been the master mind behind them escaping two Alphas… surely she could out smart this one too. There was one thing she had going for her from the start… there was no way that Lucca would kill her and lose his advantage over the attack Sonia had seen coming his way.
Jade listened to the silence of the building weighing her options. Sonia had helped her escape and now it was time for her to return that favor.
