from the pack your so gung-ho on exposing her to,” Micah explained. “You see, we’re not keeping her locked away just for the sake of keeping her prisoner. This is for her protection. An unmated female werewolf is a very valuable thing and Titus really doesn’t want to have to reprimand his pack for thinking with their nether regions… if you get my drift.”
“And to make matters worse… we found empty vials and syringes in the trashcan next to her cage after you’d walked off. The labels on the vials indicate that they were shooting her up with hormones.”
“Hormones?” Tasuki asked feeling like whatever Micah was pointing out went right over his head and kept going.
“They were trying to make her go into heat so they could breed her,” Titus supplied in a cold tone. “Over seventy percent of the wolves on the force are single and most married have human mates. It wouldn’t take much to start a riot. As far as I know… she’s probably the only female werewolf in the city that is of age and doesn’t have a mate. Our breed tends to start fighting over the females long before she becomes of age.”
Tasuki frowned now having a new perspective, “When you put it that way, I actually get it… but it still sucks.”
Micah clapped him on the shoulder, “No harm done… there’s still a lot you don’t know about shifters but you’re a quick learner. Before long, you’ll probably be able to read off our bylaws without batting an eyelash.”
“Great,” Tasuki grumbled, “more laws to learn.”
Titus climbed up and into the cage but when he bent down to take her up in his arms he caught her scent and cursed. The last time he’d been around a shifter in heat, he’d received a face full of fist via a jealous Sun God. If nothing else he was a fast learner.
“Hey Micah, do you still have that scent masker on you?”
He caught it in midair when the small spritzer bottle came sailing toward him. It took him a few minutes to empty the rest of the clear bottle before slipping it into his pocket. Lifting her gently in his arms he made his way out of the cage.
Tasuki couldn’t help but admire how beautiful she was as a wolf when Titus brought her out into the light of the building. Her fur was solid black and from the few moments she’d stared at him through the bars at the warehouse, he knew her eyes were a beautiful golden color with flecks of blue and green in them.
“I wonder how old she is,” Tasuki mused quietly, not wanting to wake her even though they’d said the tranquilizer would make her sleep for a while yet.
“Boris thinks she’s about twenty years old based on the size of her feet,” Micah answered with a frown. “It looks like she’s had a hard time of it in captivity though.”
Taking her into the empty holding cell, Titus gently placed the she-wolf down on the bed. He’d been listening to the conversation between Micah and Tasuki and took a closer look at her.
He had to silently agree about her treatment while in Lucca’s care. Her fur, while dark and beautiful, was dirty and matted in some places indicating that she had refused to shift back into her human form for quite a while. The pads of her feet were scratched and rough and a few burn marks from the cattle prod were visible as well.
He knew why she’d refused to shift and admired her stubbornness. If they’d caught her in her human form… that’s when they would have raped her. She’d used the only weapon she had against them… the fact that a female werewolf cannot become pregnant in her animal form. It showed not only her strong will but her intelligence as well.
Reining in his temper for the time being, Titus exited the cell and secured the door behind him. When she woke up she’d still be pissed off, but at least this jail cell was a far cry better than that cage they’d had her in.
“Shouldn’t we start questioning the guard that we have and see if he knows where they keep other hostages?” Tasuki asked as he started towards the observation room.
Titus was about to answer when one of the officers that missed the raid slipped in through the front door and started back toward the holding cells.
“Where the hell are you going Phillip?” Titus demanded.
The officer, one of the younger werewolves on the squad, froze and smiled sheepishly. “I missed the raid and wanted to see if she’d shifted to her human form yet.”
Micah elbowed Tasuki, “See what I mean?”
Tasuki scowled and crossed his arms over his chest, “Unfortunately.”
The officer’s reason for stopping by raised red flags in Tasuki’s mind, causing his anger to come back full force. If the she-wolf shifted back to her human form, she wouldn’t have any modesty left because she’d be naked right now. That fact made it very apparent that Micah’s warning about wolf instincts was correct.
“She’s a living being just like you are, not some damn peep show,” Tasuki growled at the officer before storming into the observation room.
“Kid’s got guts, I’ll give him that,” Micah muttered.
Titus arched an eyebrow at Phillip, “I think you have our answer. Until otherwise stated, everyone is to keep their distance from this department… got it? As a matter of fact, why don’t you guard the door and make sure no one else gets the same idea you did.”
“What do I tell them?” Phillip was dumb enough to ask then took several quick steps back when Titus started toward him.
“You tell them that I said the first idiot that sticks his head in that door is going to get it blown off,” Titus thundered. He glared at Phillip who practically tripped over his own feet as he hastily made his exit.
“Has anyone ever told you that you make one hell of an Alpha?” Micah laughed and patted Titus on the back.
Titus shook his head and added, “We might want to go around locking all of the damn doors and windows just in case we get a couple brave ones. I don’t want to get sidetracked once we start in on the idiot chained in the other room.”
“We might need to talk about rotating shifts so someone is always here to watch out for her,” Micah offered. “But right now, I think Tasuki might go all crazy on our man in there if we don’t follow him.”
Titus arched and eyebrow, “Good point.”
In the observation room, Tasuki gripped the back of the chair and glared at the werewolf on the other side of the two way mirror. He closed his eyes unable to stop the damned memory from coming back to haunt him. It was the last dream he’d had of her… but that had been the last time he had slept.
This time there had been a cage that loomed in the center of a massive cavern and Kyoko was tapped within its bars. But in the dream it had felt like she’d been stolen from him by a monster. He franticly circled the cage looking for the latch that would free her from the monster that had locked her up, but thick iron bars was all he found. He’d promised to save her… but how could he do that if the damned thing didn’t even have a door on it?
He’d glanced up and locked eyes with Kyoko just as hands came from the darkness and drug him backwards to his death… he remembered dying.
Tasuki opened his eyes
