Wolf with Benefits

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

It was a farm somewhere in Upstate New York where they all headed. A cheap parcel of land the church had purchased and where they sent their converts when they were ready to move to the next level of mind control.

Funny thing was, they didn’t lock the small gate or secure the fence around the acres of property. So Ricky Lee just ambled on in. Just parked the SUV, and walked down the lane. As he walked, the cult members nodded at him, smiled, but didn’t stop him. He made sure to smile in return, but he kept moving. He kept his pace brisk, making sure to look like he knew where he was going. Most of the housing was cabins. One-floor deals made of unfinished wood with porta-potties sporadically placed. It wasn’t as bad looking as what the Manson gang had back in the day, but it wasn’t much better, either.

But he did finally see a large, finished building and he immediately knew that this was where they’d put their “Prophet” as he was called.

That’s where Ricky headed. He walked right up the stairs and into the building.

“Hey,” he said as he passed several members working on notebook computers.

“Uh . . . sir?”

Ricky kept walking, not stopping until he reached a large set of double doors. He pushed those open and walked inside, closing the doors behind him.

“Well hi there,” he said to the three men standing by the long mahogany table.

The one in the middle, looking just like a false prophet would with his worn jeans and sandals, shaggy hair, scraggly beard, and gold watch that probably cost somewhere in the twenty-grand range, smiled a little.

“How y’all doin’ today?” Ricky asked.

“You’ve come for the boy,” the prophet said.

Ricky nodded. “I’ve come for the boy.”

“Unfortunately I can’t help you.”

“And you’re gonna regret that decision.”

The cheap, wood fence surrounding the cult’s property was not exactly a challenge for Livy. She’d been trained at an early age to get around all sorts of fences, walls, armed guards . . . whatever might be between her and what she wanted. Yet Livy was under no illusion that this would be easy. Although she hadn’t discussed anything with Toni, Livy knew that Delilah just wanted money. Now that she was eighteen, she wasn’t about to spend her life playing second fiddle to the rest of her siblings. Nor would she allow herself to be ruled by Toni’s brilliant scheduling skills. She wanted her freedom, but unlike the rest of the world, she wasn’t about to do something like work to maintain her expensive lifestyle. So she’d come up with this ridiculous plan. Ridiculous because Delilah had to know that Toni wasn’t going to just let her run off with Freddy. Of all her siblings, he was the one that Toni would destroy the entire universe to get back. Not because Toni loved him any more than the others but because he was the one that needed her protection more than the others. He was the one whose soul was so pure and loving that they all knew just about anyone with a smile and a lollypop could get the boy involved in all sorts of crap.

Even the twins, at only three years old, had that predatory edge that would keep them generally safe. But Freddy was the puppy who would gleefully romp too far from his mother, and end up alone with a pride of lions or trampled by a herd of buffalo.

So they all felt an inherent need to protect the boy. Even Livy, who didn’t feel the need to protect anyone but herself. But there was something about the kid that warmed even Livy’s cold heart.

As Livy moved forward, sniffing the air every few minutes, trying to locate Freddy while avoiding any of the loser cult members—joining a cult? Really? Were people really that pathetic?—that might be nearby, it took her a surprisingly long time to realize that she wasn’t alone.

She stopped, spun around. Vic Barinov was behind her.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Following you.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re all pretty sure you’ll be the one to find Freddy.”

“Just stay out of my way.”

“How can I be in your way when I’ve been staying behind you?”

She was about to answer that when she realized it wasn’t worth the effort.

Turning, Livy headed deeper onto the farm, briefly stopping when she finally caught Freddy’s scent. That’s when she began running . . .

The group had split up, knowing they could cover more ground that way. Toni was trying to find Freddy’s scent but, deep down, she knew she was really looking for Delilah’s. This had been a long time coming. She knew it. Del knew it.

So when Toni did lock on her sister’s scent, she didn’t try to ignore it. Instead she followed it right to one of the few finished cabins. There were guards outside, but when Toni walked past them, they didn’t try to stop her.

She stepped into the cabin and took it all in. There were curtains over the windows, a large bed, a bathroom, fresh fruit on the table . . . everything a spoiled sociopath could need while everyone around her was probably starving.

“I knew you’d come yourself,” Delilah said as she stepped out of the bathroom. “You could have sent Dee-Ann or that big wolf you’ve been fucking. But I knew you’d come.”

She walked across the room until she stood in front of Toni. “But Freddy’s not here.”

“I know,” Toni said. Then she pulled her arm back and slapped her sister full in the face, knocking her to the floor. Once she had her there, she kicked her in the gut, sending her flipping over.

By the time Del landed, she’d begun to shift. Toni joined her, her limbs, torso, and head changing, her hands turning into claws, her fangs bursting from her gums. Just as she shook off her clothes, Delilah rammed into her with such force, they went flying across the room and out the open front door.

Vic watched the bungalow where he and Livy were sure little Freddy Jean-Louis Parker was being held. On the outside, he counted four guards. All male. All armed with knives. No guns that he could see, but the way they moved suggested they’d had some training. He doubted, though, any of them had been in the military, or were cops.

He did think, however, that they were fervent believers.

Believers worried Vic more than well-trained military personnel. Because there were no limits to what true believers would do to protect their belief system.

So he’d want to move carefully on this. He wouldn’t risk the safety of the boy.

With all that in mind, Vic turned to the female next to him but quickly discovered that he was standing alone.

Biting back an annoyed growl, he looked around until he finally found her—on the bungalow roof.

How she got up there, he didn’t want to know.

Livy looked at him, then pointed at the four guards outside the building. Vic briefly debated killing them but couldn’t. At least not yet. They hadn’t done anything to prove they were anything more than desperate full-humans in need of a messiah. So he decided to go with the tried-and-true misdirection.

“I know you think you’re doing the right thing,” the prophet told Ricky Lee. “By coming here for the child. But you don’t understand.”

“What don’t I understand? Explain it to me.”

“It’s true. Delilah did take him for financial gain. To help my church, because she loves me.”

Ricky Lee chuckled. “Son . . . that girl don’t love nobody.” The prophet’s eyes turned steely. “She loves me. She loves the god I represent. And she knows I’ve seen the future. The boy has to be here . . . because he is the ultimate darkness. He will bring the beginning of the end.”

Ricky Lee sighed. “Oh, Lord . . . I was hoping you were just a good ol’ fashioned con man. Trying to make money off the boy like Delilah. But you’re a true believer of your own bullshit, ain’t ya? And trust me when I say that’ll cost you. In tears. Because if you think that girl is going to give up cash so you can start the end of days . . . you’ve lost your damn mind.”

“I’m sorry you don’t understand.”

“I’m sorry you think I came alone.”

Panic raced across the man’s face. “Keep him here!” he ordered his men before running out of the building.

The two already in the room moved closer to Ricky Lee, and more full-human males walked in through the now-open doorway, surrounding him, all of them watching Ricky close. They were willing to follow their Prophet’s orders no matter what. Which, of course, was real unfortunate for them.

What with his big brother coming through that open window and unleashing his claws . . .

Livy waited until the hybrid had lured the guards away from the building. He was smart about it, too, luring them away with noises and possible sightings of something moving in the trees.

Once they were far enough away, Livy climbed her way up the brick of the bungalow’s chimney and inside. She worked quickly, easing her way down the flue until she was right over the fireplace. Thankfully it was summer and nothing was lit, because that would be damn uncomfortable.

Livy listened carefully and she heard nothing but humming. She smiled when she realized that the song being hummed was from the Dead Kennedys. A little trick Toni had taught Freddy. “Anytime you get nervous, hum ‘Man with the Dogs,’ instead of picking up a lighter.”

“Man with the Dogs” was one of Paul’s favorite Dead Kennedy songs from back in the day, so Livy now knew she was right where she needed to be.

Livy put her hands out and, shimmying down a little farther, rested them on the empty wood grate. She lifted her head and looked around the one-room bungalow. Although she scented the few people who’d been in and out of this room, she didn’t see or hear anything else, so she brought the rest of her body out of the chimney and slowly used her hands to crawl out of the fireplace and onto the hardwood floor.

Once she was completely out, she stood up and began to walk toward Freddy. He was busy with a coloring book. Although he wasn’t really coloring as much as blacking out, the black crayon he held no more than a stump as he blacked out each page of the book and continued to hum his father’s favorite song.

The poor kid was completely freaked out, completely panicked, and very close to losing it. In fact, the cult was lucky they didn’t have a fire going in the fireplace or the kid would have brought the entire farm down to the ground by now.

Livy, not wanting to say anything and possibly alert anyone outside the building, softly clicked her tongue against her teeth.

Freddy looked up at Livy and began to smile. But when it faded and his eyes suddenly looked past her, Livy knew someone was behind her.

A strong arm went around her shoulder, and before Livy could fight, a needle was jammed into the side of her throat and poison was forced into her veins. The effect was immediate, her body convulsing, her lungs stopping, her heart seizing. She only had a second to think, “Shit,” before whatever they’d given her, killed her.

The sisters rolled into the middle of the road, Toni stopping to shift back to human so she could punch Delilah in the face. It was so satisfying punching the little bitch.

By now, most of the cult members had run out to see what was going on, then stopped to watch, shocked and horrified. Unable to move.

Del shifted back, too. She punched Toni in the face, the stomach. Then they shifted to jackal once more and dug into each other’s throats with their fangs.

Freddy was still humming when that man named John walked away from Livy. She was lying on the floor, no longer moving, her body frozen. It looked like one of those shows Freddy saw his parents watch at night that had lots of cops staring at people on the ground and saying important things before tracking down the one who “did it.”

John stopped a bit away from Freddy and stared down at him.

“He says you’re the one to bring the ultimate darkness,” John said, although Freddy didn’t know what he meant. From what Freddy knew, Delilah jut wanted him to write out the contents of Miki’s very cool notebook. Something Freddy would not do. “He says you’re to be protected. So we’ll protect you. You’ll be safe here.”

Freddy would only be safe with his mom and dad and with Toni. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to go home.

But the way John was staring at him, Freddy was just starting to think that he might never go home. That he might be stuck here with these too-nice people that terrified him.

Then, behind John, he saw Livy twitch. First her hands, then her feet. Then she sat up straight, her eyes blinking open. Freddy’s heart began to race, but he tried not to show it.

Livy looked around a moment until her gaze locked on the back of John’s head. She abruptly hopped up, completely silent, until she was crouching on the balls of her feet. She looked at Freddy and with her forefinger, made a circling motion. Livy had done that before when she’d snuck into the window of his parents’ home back in Washington. Between them, it had always meant, “I don’t want you to see this so you have nothing to testify to in a court of law.” It was their little joke, but Freddy knew it was serious now.

So, without getting up, he turned his body around until he faced the wall and, when the screaming started, he began humming his daddy’s favorite song . . . “Man with the Dogs.”

Because that would keep him calm. Calm was important for him; otherwise he did things, like set fires and steal.

And, let’s be honest, it was stealing that had gotten him into all this.

Del, fed up with all this bullshit, shifted back to human and shoved her sister off her. By the time Toni landed a few feet away, she’d also turned back to her human form.

Bloody and bruised, the sisters got to their feet.

“You’ll regret what you did,” Del told her. “No one—”

“Shut up.” Toni looked at something over her shoulder. “Your Messiah’s here,” she whispered.

Barely able to not roll her eyes, Delilah slowly turned until she was face to face with Chris.

He gawked at her as if she sported horns and a tail. Then again, of course he would. Not because of what she was, but because he now understood she was what he wasn’t. Special. Different.

Powerful.

“What are you?”

“Chris—” she began.

“Kill her!” he ordered his followers. “Kill the insolent whore!”

But no one moved. No one followed his orders. So, panicking that it was all slipping away, Chris grabbed a knife from one of his bodyguards and, screaming, charged Delilah.

Del couldn’t even pretend to be interested by this new drama.

Ricky and his brother changed back to human, threw on their jeans, and charged outside, following the sounds of screaming. They weren’t Toni’s screams, though, so he wasn’t too concerned.

As they neared the crowd, the group parted and Ricky and Rory cut through. But the brothers had to quickly step apart as skin that—Ricky was guessing—had once been attached to the church’s great prophet, Chris, landed wetly on the ground near their feet.

Rory gaped down at the mess on the ground before telling his brother, “That’s just wrong.”

Yeah. Ricky already knew that.

Delilah stepped back so that she could keep her eye on both the brothers and Toni. She motioned to the cult followers and, like the tragic lemmings they were, they all stood behind the blood-soaked female who’d killed their messiah. And, it seemed, had taken his place.

Staring at them with those eyes that were so like Toni’s and yet so different because there was no life behind them, Delilah asked, “What am I going to do with you now, big sister?”

Toni chuckled at that and pointed at Delilah’s chest. The young woman looked down and saw the telltale red dot locked on her heart.

“I’ve heard,” Toni explained, “that Cella Malone can hit a target from more than a mile away.”

“Shit,” Delilah growled out.

A roar went out from somewhere in the distance and the cult members all trembled in fear as if hearing the word of God. But Ricky knew it was just the roar of a tiger-grizzly hybrid.

“Let’s move,” Ricky said to Toni.

She nodded and naked, she walked forward toward her sister. When they were only a few inches apart, Delilah asked, “Is this where you give me dire warnings, Toni? Tell me what you’ll do if I come near Freddy or the family again?”

“No,” Toni said. “This is where I say good-bye.” She leaned in and kissed her sister on the cheek.

“I love you,” Toni said simply and, for the first time, Ricky saw what Toni had been trying to tell him. Delilah had no idea what her sister was talking about. She didn’t understand why her sister wasn’t killing her, ordering the rest of them to shift and tear the cult apart. The threat of what Toni would do if Delilah came near the family again was there, unspoken. Not needing to be spoken. But the fact that Toni still loved her, even if she would never like her or trust her or want to see her again was beyond Delilah’s simple ability to reason.

Delilah would never understand love or affection or what it meant to be part of anything that meant more than one’s own life. She would never be part of a family or a good group of friends or a pack or pride.

And, Ricky had to admit, he kind of felt sorry for her. He couldn’t think of a more miserable way to live.

Toni had almost reached the spot where they’d left the SUVs when she saw Livy standing by one of the vehicles with Freddy in her arms.

Letting out a sob, Toni charged over to them and pulled her brother into her own arms, holding him tight against her. Neither cared that she was naked with a good amount of blood on her.

“Freddy, are you okay? Tell me you’re okay,” she begged.

“I’m fine.” His little arms were tight around her neck, his legs around her waist. “But you may want to check on Livy,” he whispered.

With her brother safe, Toni felt confident enough to now notice her best friend.

Livy did look a little under the weather. Pale, sweaty, shaking, and also covered in blood.

“God, Livy, what happened?”

She shrugged, coughed, and spit on the ground. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“Poison?” Toni asked. It was one of the coolest things about honey badgers—they were really fucking hard to kill.

“From the taste of it,” Livy replied, “snake-based.” She held up both her thumbs. “My favorite.”

Toni, still crying a little, grinned at her friend. Thank you, she mouthed.

“What else are people who don’t hate you for?”

“People who don’t hate you, Livy, are called friends.”

“Whatever.”

Ricky came up behind Toni, smiled at Freddy. “Hey, little man.”

“Hi, Ricky.”

“You ready to go home?”

“I really am. I’m relatively certain . . . this is too much excitement for a seven-year-old.”

Toni, now laughing and crying, hugged her brother even tighter. “You’re absolutely right, little brother. It is.”

“How’s your face?” the wolf asked Oriana while they sat at the kitchen table . . . waiting.

“It’s been better,” she admitted, her nose hurting as it worked to heal. All she knew was that the swelling had better be down before her next class or she would be absolutely livid!

“You know,” the wolf went on, “you’re kind of tough.”

It was a weird statement, but she couldn’t help feeling it was kind of a compliment.

“Thanks, uh . . .”

“Reece. Ricky Lee’s brother.”

“Right. Well, thanks, Reece.”

“Sure. You see, not everyone can take a hit like that to the head.”

“That’s because she has an exceptionally hard head.”

“Shut up, Kyle.”

“You shut up!”

“Both of you shut up,” Cooper warned.

“Have you thought about trying ice hockey?”

Surprised, Oriana, and everyone else at the table, looked at the wolf.

“No,” Oriana finally admitted when he kept staring at her as if expecting a serious answer to that ridiculous question.

“You should. I bet you’d make a mean little forward.”

“I will . . . strange, burly man.”

He grinned. “Darlin’, are you sweet on me?”

Oriana gawked. “No.”

“Don’t get your hopes up, though; you’re a little too young for me.”

Before Oriana could process any of that, Dennis ran into the kitchen. “Freddy’s home!” he cheered. “Freddy’s home!”

The siblings all stared at each other for a long moment. Then, as one, they bolted away from the table and ran out to greet their brother and welcome him home.