CHAPTER 17

I was being followed. I hadn't noted it before because I'd been focused on finding Bobby and because Central was full of all types, so a few wolves here and there didn't really spark any alarms. It was only once I left Sally's that I realized I recognized the scents. Micheal and Chase, two of the organizations best body guards. Anthony's easy acceptance of my demand to go home began to make a little more sense. I scanned the street and sure enough a dark blue civic sat idling along the curb. I bet they had quite the dilemma about whether to follow me into Sally's or not, but had chosen to remain unseen over the potential of me finding trouble.

They were about to get a run for their money.

I lifted my hand and wiggled my fingers at them before taking off down the street and around the corner. I heard a curse then and engine rev and laughed out loud. My wolf went stealth and we wound our way in and out of alleys and even buildings making sure they would be good and lost before hailing a taxi and making our way to the old Naval yard.

It was two in the morning by the time I got out of the cab. The driver almost taking off before my feet hit the ground. I guess he didn't like this part of town.

I slipped through the shadows over empty lots and past once abandoned buildings that now held several businesses. My wolf let her senses out. I wandered deeper into the yard, sticking to the shadows following the hint of wolf coming from the dry docks. But something was wrong, it wasn't just wolf we scented, it was blood, and decay.

My hopes flagged as we moved nearer, the stench of death overtaking all else. It seemed like someone had gotten to skillet before I did.

I found him in a small storage unit next to one of the dry docks, he'd been pinned to one of the walls with enormous iron spikes, then torn open and spread out like a science experiment. It took a lot to kill a wolf with brute force, our healing was too rapid, so it would have taken the poor guy a long time to die. The smell was terrible, bad enough that I figured he'd been dead for a day or two at least.

I got closer anyway, studying his wounds. The gashes on his skin could have been made by knives, but their placement, and the parallel pattern made me think of claws. Something like that werejaguar had possessed. We inhaled a deep breath, scenting nothing except Skillet and traces of sleek metal, that had once filled the space. Wary anxiety filled me. I hadn't scented the jaguar last time either. It didn't make sense for him to sit around with a dead body for days, but that didn't tame the irrational fear that he might jump out of nowhere.

The storage unit was empty now though, except one crate at the back that had been smashed at some point. I moved away from the body and toward it. The wood had splintered in several places, as if someone had taken their anger out on it, leaving chunks and slivers laying all over the ground. We inhaled again, blocking out the decay and focused on the wood. Metal, a hard steel that was probably used to make the cases the guns were shipped in, and...there. Ink.

I shuffled through the debris, shifting so that the small bit of light coming in from the open door could illuminate what I was doing. A scribble of writing, small enough to be easily missed, if you weren't looking, what looked to be a set of coordinates.

I committed them to memory. Finally, I had something to go on. I just had to find it.

*He's here again*. My wolf informed me, giving me the scent she'd caught.

Darius? What the hell?

*And your guards too.*

*Together?*

*No. The guards are coming from the front, he is coming from near the docks.*

I had what I needed, there was no reason to stick around, but I found myself hesitating anyway, leaving the storage unit and using a nearby pillar to vault onto the roof.

Micheal and Chase had gotten through the front, their senses weren't as strong as mine, but the body reeked. I gave myself less than ten minutes before they found me.

Darius appeared through the shadows, slinking along the docks and around various structures. His movements were smooth and graceful, the mark of a well honed body. When he neared the storage unit I ducked down, keeping silent.

A soft curse told me he'd found the body.

It took a few minutes but he came back out of the unit, the piece of wood with the address in his hand. I peeked over the edge of the roof.

"I'd be carefu..."

Fast as lightning his hand shot up, grabbing my wrist and pulling me downward. I fell toward him, too surprised to react at first, and hit the pavement hard, my breath whooshed out of my lungs. He was on top of me immediately pinning me down, a knife at my throat. Only then did he seem to realize who I was. He relaxed, but only slightly.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he demanded.

I didn't have the air to answer, but even if I did I wasn't sure I could. Two hundred pounds of pure muscle straddled my thighs, my wrist was still bound by his hand and he was leaning over me, breathing hard.

A hot thread of desire ran through my core and I shifted my hips instinctually.

His eyes glazed slightly and his hold became instantly more personal, still he held the knife at my throat. I wasn't concerned. A knife across the throat wouldn't kill me. Probably. Unless he took my head off with it...

"Raven, what are you doing here?" he asked again.

My lungs finally remembered their job and I gulped in air.

"Looking for answers," I threw the words he'd spoken the last time we met back toward him, "and trying to warn you."

And just why was I trying to warn him? He was a big boy, capable of figuring things out on his own. Yet the werejaguar had gotten the jump on me, if the pack hadn't been right on my heels I might have been done for. For some reason the thought of Darius facing that fate bothered me.

"The only thing I need warning about is you," he growled his face getting closer to mine. "Are you following me?"

I huffed, which shifted my chest enough that my breasts rubbed against his pecks, the friction purled my nipples immediately.

"I think you're forgetting I was here first."

"Did you kill this man?"

I spared him a look.

"Do I look like the type to filet a wolf like a fucking fish?"

Darius shook his head.

"I don't know what you're capable of. I don't know anything about you anymore, Raven, I don't think I ever did."

That hurt, given what he'd pulled on me.

"I'm not following you, and I didn't kill the wolf. I'm looking for answers and I stayed to warn you. There's something...else...involved in this. A werejaguar. He can hide his scent and muffle his sounds. He'll be on you before you even know he's there. He's strong as hell too."

Disbelief filled his face.

I took the opportunity to turn the tables. Until then I'd laid passively beneath him, but my guards were running now and it was time to leave. Fortunately I had incredible core strength and I bucked upward, tossing him sideways enough that I could pull my feet beneath myself. I pounced immediately knocking the knife from his hands, for no other reason than to show him I could. I was tempted to tackle him as he had me, but I wasn't certain I could, so I elected to dash out of his range instead.

"Believe me or don't," I told him. "Makes no difference to me, but don't say you weren't told."

And then I was gone.