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CHAPTER THREE: COLD MOON - PART TWO
“Yeah,” Freddy said with a shrug as he shuffled his feet in front of Russ’s door, “so that’s what happened. My mom said to come here before school and let you know. She’d have come, but she has work, you know?”
Russ’s brow furrowed. When the kid had showed up on his doorstep, he’d almost sent him away, almost told him he’d call his mother later. Garrett was on his way and Russ really didn’t have time for a talk, but then the kid had told him his story and Russ didn’t really give a shit about anything other than hearing it all out. “Tucker was following Dawn in the parking lot?”
“Yeah,” Freddy said again. “But not like following her; he was following her, you know. Like he was going to… do something.”
Russ felt something — his instincts, his temper — wrap its fist around his throat. “Do what?” The words sounded harsh even in his ears.
The teenage boy shrugged, taking a tentative half-step back. “I don’t know, but whatever it was, it didn’t look good.” He frowned. “It scared my mom. I think it scared Dawn too; she looked kinda shaky afterward.”
Russ bit back a growl as the memory of Dawn’s fear — sharp and shivering — offensively filled his head. He hadn’t realize just how much the sight and scent affected him until, after having finally faded away in real life, it flooded his thoughts now. He swallowed hard and nodded at the kid. “Thanks. I’ll deal with it.”
“Really?” The kid looked him up and down curiously. “What are you gonna do?”
Russ didn’t know. He knew what he wanted to do, but what he was actually going to do… he didn’t have that part figured out yet. “Don’t worry about it. Go to class. And tell your mom thanks.”
The kid nodded and headed out as Russ gripped his doorknob painfully and tried to breathe through the fury raging within him. Tucker had scared Dawn. Had followed her, fucking stalked her like she was prey.
Russ felt his claws and fangs begin to lengthen. Cracking his neck loudly, he forced his body to calm down, to hold onto whatever amount of control he could. Much as he might, in this moment, prefer to let his fangs speak for him, he needed human lips to talk to that goddamned grinning goon.
Slamming his door behind him, he made his way to Tucker’s apartment. He pounded his fist on the man’s door, fighting the need to break it the hell down. He winced when he heard the wood frame groan. Calm down.
But the minute he saw Tucker’s goofy-ass smirk, when he opened the door, Russ tensed his fists, letting the beginning of claws cut into his palms. “Hey, Russ, what’s up?”
Russ shut his eyes and let that small pain flow through him, let it center and focus him. He swallowed hard, finding his voice. “I just had a complaint; you need to watch yourself around the residents.”
Tucker’s face pinched. “A complaint! About me?” He scoffed. “For what? Everyone loves me.”
Breathe. Russ stiffened his shoulders and clenched his jaw. “It was for harassment.”
“Harassment! I don’t do that!” Tucker sputtered as Russ tried not to choke on the scent of the man’s indignation, affront, and… shame. “Who?”
Russ sniffed again. Yeah, after years of being ashamed of what he’d become, Russ knew that scent well, too well. He opened his eyes slowly and met Tucker’s gaze. “You. Know. Who.” The younger man’s gaze widened and instinctively flickered upward toward Dawn’s apartment. Yeah, he knew. “You’re scaring her. Stop.”
Tucker paled for a moment, before scrunching his face and shaking his head. “Are you fucking kidding me? You don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t scare her. I’m not who everyone’s afraid of. I’m not the one people complain to management about.” Under his breath, he muttered, “I’m not the goddamned monster.”
Russ inhaled sharply, trying to tamp down the urge — the need — to grab Tucker by the collar and shake him. But he straightened suddenly, his instincts roaring in his head. He breathed deeply again, smelling softness and light in the middle of the growing anger. Dawn?
He looked around, but she wasn’t here in the hallway. Could she be… He shook his head. After what Freddy had said, there was no fucking way she was inside this asshole’s apartment. Was there? Russ practically saw red at the thought.
Without thinking, he shoved Tucker backward and stepped into the man’s apartment. But her scent didn’t change, didn’t get stronger or fluctuate with feeling. It was just this faint, utterly illogical tease in his nose.
He glared at Tucker, trying to make it make sense, when he saw the flash of something shiny and brown in Tucker’s pocket. Quickly — so much swifter than a human could ever hope to be — he reached out and snatched the bit of shimmer from Tucker’s pocket.
He held it up and stared. The satiny scarf flowed down his palm, reminding him of something. He stared at it, thinking, until the memory of the candy wrapper Dawn had shoved in her pocket surfaced in his mind. He brought the scarf closer and sniffed. “This is Dawn’s.” Glaring at Tucker, he asked, “Why do you have this?”
Tucker grabbed it, yanking it back. “She gave it to me.”
Russ snarled and backed the man further into his living room. “Why the hell would she give that to you?”
Tucker paled and shrugged. “Well, you know…”
“No.” Russ loomed over the man. “I don’t.”
Tucker winced. “Okay, she didn’t so much give it to me as she…” He shrugged. “I found it.”
Russ’s teeth ground hard as he thought about Dawn digging in the dirt for it while Tucker stared at and touched her. “Found it where?” And when had he, exactly?
Tucker looked away. “She dropped it.”
“Where?”
Russ watched the man’s throat bob as he swallowed hard and sweated. “Around.”
“Where.” The word sounded less like language and more like a growl.
Tucker shrunk in on himself, but said nothing.
Russ leaned over him, pressing his face closer to the other man’s as he glared into his cringing eyes. “Give. It. Back. To. Her.” He stayed and stared, daring Tucker to argue, until the other man averted his gaze. Russ leaned back with a satisfied grunt. He shook his head and turned away, heading back to the hallway.
Tucker sniffed and grumbled under his breath, “Yeah, whatever you say. I’ll be sure to give it to her. Real good, boss.”
Russ let out a roar, his mind burning with the fucking implication lacing the acidic words. He grabbed Tucker by the collar of his shirt, lifting him up and bearing his teeth as the other man struggled and choked. “You will leave her the hell alone, do you hear me?”
“Russel!”
Instantly, at the sound of his alpha’s voice, Russ let the sputtering man go, dropping him on the floor at his feet. He watched Garrett stride through the now open door and into the apartment, his gaze never leaving Russ’s even though Russ knew he was also taking in the entire scene. Touching Russ’s shoulder, Garrett gave him a slight push. “Out.”
Even though a part of Russ bristled at the command, like he was some child being scolded by a parent, he did as he was bid. Lowering his head, he walked past Garrett, only to turn slightly, when he smelled Tucker’s amusement. Livid resentment rumbled in his throat like a threat.
“Now.”
Russ’s head snapped forward again at Garrett’s voice, the power of his alpha’s order too much to deny. Russ hated this shit. Hated feeling like he didn’t have a choice. Hated that it made him feel like the fucking monster when, for the first time in a long goddamned time, he was certain he wasn’t this time.
He heard Garrett sigh softly, more gently. “Wait for me outside.”
Russ grunted and left, slamming the door shut behind him. Garrett was right. Russ needed to get the hell out of here. He could feel the beast’s need to utterly, to completely, to thoroughly, tear the hallway apart, beam by fucking beam. He needed to get outside. To stare at the sky. To breathe the open air. So he stormed out of the building and paced outside on the walkway.
His eyes, as if pulled, looked up at Dawn’s window. Was she in there right now? Had she heard all that?
Shame and embarrassment for his loss of control filled him, threatened to crush him. What was he doing? Acting like some jealous boyfriend. Acting like she needed him to protect her. He choked out a humorless laugh at the thought of the big, bad wolf being anyone’s shining, white knight. What a joke. God, he was as bad as Tucker, wasn’t he? Worse. Like Tucker said, only one of them was an actual goddamned monster. Russ bit back a disgusted howl.
It felt like forever until Garrett finally walked out of the apartment doors. His spine stiff and his jaw tensed, he didn’t even so much as look at Russ. He just moved past him and called over his shoulder, “Follow me.”
Hanging his head, Russ did, all the way back to his apartment. Letting them both in, he waited while Garrett rummaged through his fridge, making them both sandwiches. Dutifully, Russ grabbed iced tea from his fridge and poured them both large glasses full of the dark, deeply steeped and sweetened drink. Setting the now stacked plates onto the table, Garret sat in one of the squeaky vinyl chairs and looked up at Russ expectantly. With pointless reluctance, Russ grabbed the glasses and took a seat next to him. Garrett took a sip and raised an eyebrow. “You need to work on your control.”
Russ grunted before taking his own big gulp. He knew that. Of course he did. After what he’d almost done — what he still really wanted to do — how could he not?
“I cannot allow you to stay here, on your own, if you can’t.”
Russ knew that too. Werewolves could not be allowed to go wild in the human world, for humanity’s sake as well as their own. Garrett had already had one do so under his care; he and his pack would not survive another doing so. The humans — with their overwhelming numbers, farther reaching governments, and superior technology and weapons — would never allow it. If they weren’t all careful, one slip could find them all collared, caged, or killed. “I know.”
Garrett stared at Russ, studying him — from Russ’s remorseful posture to his deferring tone to his guilty scent — and nodded before nudging Russ’s plate closer. “Eat.” He waited until Russ took a couple large bites of the massive sandwich before leaning back in his chair. He crossed his arms over his chest. “You want to explain to me what that was all about?”
Not particularly. Russ swallowed hard, the salty mix of bread, cheese, and deli meat suddenly less appetizing. But they both knew very well that questions from your alpha weren’t requests so much as orders. Russ huffed and rolled his tense shoulders before washing the bite down with his tea. “He’s been harassing a woman in the apartments.”
Garrett sniffed the air, smelling the hot, possessive rage choking Russ’s senses. He leaned in. “Harassing a woman or your woman?”
Russ shook his head with a disgusted grunt. He knew what he smelled like, knew the irrational emotions churning inside him. He wanted Dawn. In a way he hadn’t wanted a woman since before he’d changed. Maybe even before that. Not even a fool would miss the signs. But Russ had grown up human. Had loved and respected his fiercely independent mother and sister. He didn’t believe in possessing women. Refused to think of people as possessions that belong to him or anyone else.
Garrett huffed and picked up his own sandwich thoughtfully. “Well, if you’re not willing to claim her, then you should leave her alone.”
Russ stiffened, his nose wrinkling in disgust. “He’s harassing her; you’re telling me to just leave it alone. Leave her alone? Just let him do whatever he wants to her?” Never. Just fucking no. Even if it hadn’t been Dawn. But especially not when it was.
Garrett sighed and chewed as he studied Russ. “I’m saying, they — that man and this woman — make you lose control. And that cannot happen.” With a sympathetic sigh, he clasped Russ’s shoulder comfortingly. “I’m not saying it’s easy and I’m not saying you should do nothing, but you need to stay away from them. If you really think what that man is doing is wrong, report him to your superiors. Let management handle it. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?”
Russ grunted. They both knew Garrett was right.
“Then do that and no more.” Garrett squeezed his shoulder in support. “Before you end up doing something we all regret.”
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