Big Bad Bite Page 15

  Before she could ask the woman what was wrong, Vera turned to Gage and said, “I thought you said he was a whore of men. Why is he out of the making with her?”

  Alec and Gage both dropped their heads into their hands, looking like twin statues of frustration. Jenna giggled herself silly, “I think you meant to say making out, Vera. And being a man-whore doesn’t always mean you’re a whore for men. Sometimes it means you’re a man who would sleep with just about any kind of woman, no matter what she looked like, as long as she opens her legs for you. Kent definitely falls into that category. I’d bet half a year’s salary that if you got him drunk enough, he might accidentally be a man’s whore for the night though.”

  Gage dragged his hand down the front of his face as his eyes crossed in exasperation. “Okay Babushka, no more talk of man whores. Let’s get on to the real reason we came. It’s best if we grab a room and have this talk where others can’t hear us though. Who’s going to drag Kent away from the woman?”

  Jenna rubbed her hands together in maniacal glee. “I’d be happy to take care of that task, boys. You wait right here, and I’ll be back with my wayward partner.”

  Walking with renewed purpose, she made her way over to Kent who now had his back propped up against the wall, with the waitress’ mouth on his ear, presumably whispering things to him. One dainty hand was still clutched in his hair, but now the waitress’ other hand was rubbing Kent’s crotch like if she rubbed hard enough, and fast enough, she could start her own Kent sized campfire to warm herself with. His head was tilted backwards resting against the wall listening to whatever sleazy things the woman was saying, his eyes closed in ecstasy and his breathing pumping roughly in and out of his chest in amped up pants of sexual frenzy. Even though Jenna had never had an orgasm induced by someone other than herself, she could see the signs that Kent was seconds away from exploding. In his own freaking pants. The man truly was a slut of epic proportions.

  Stomping right up to the oblivious couple, Jenna grabbed the ear Kent had that was not occupied by the sexed-up employee and yanked brutally on it just as his body was starting to tremble with what she was guessing was the beginning of his release. Yeah, call her a bitch, but she was irritated at the fact that they’d come here to find information and her partner was once again obsessed with getting his rocks off. After they left here, she was going to find the first man equipped chastity belt and throw his skanky butt in it.

  Kent cried out in surprise and pain, as she started to drag him away from his fun toy. Jenna looked back at the startled woman who stood there not knowing what to do.

  “Sorry about that, but he’s got to work now. If he’s a good boy and gets all of his chores done I’ll let him come back out to play.”

  Jenna dragged Kent all the way to the stairs by his ear where the family of Ivanov tigers were waiting for them and laughing hysterically. Kent pulled out of her grasp to stomp ahead of her, shooting her a murderous look before following Gage and Alec up the stairs to the fourth floor. Vera waited for her at the bottom of the steps.

  “You are a kick of the ass woman. You’d make a good wife for a strong Russian man. You sure you do not want one of my grandsons as a mate?”

  Holy shit! The old woman was obviously twelve shades of nuts and that made Jenna totally nervous of what schemes she might come up with in her unconditionally addled brain. Now how could she convince the crazy sex pot that she wasn’t the least bit interested in being mated to a tiger, possibly watching him cough up giant ass hairballs for the rest of eternity?

  “That’s sweet of you to say, Vera, but there aren’t enough allergy pills on this planet that would allow me to live snot or itch free if I mated to one of those guys. Thanks for thinking of me though.”

  She left the crazy matchmaking grandma dressed in slutty clothes at the bottom of the stairs and all but ran up the steps to follow the guys. Really, how much weirder could her life get these days?

  Following the lingering scents of two male tigers and one pissed off demon, she found them in one of the fourth floor rooms with the door still open in invitation. The room was larger than she would have guessed it to be from the outside, and held the same odd mixture of ancient Roman design and sci-fi futuristic techno club. Numerous sconces placed on the walls around the room gave off intimate lighting in engaging shades of red and amber, giving the room a sensual vibe. Columns that looked almost as old as their neoclassical inspiration dotted the room, jutting halfway out from the wall so that you could appreciate the aesthetic effect of them, without them taking up actual space or getting in the way. Instead of the columns running from floor to ceiling, the tops stopped two-thirds way up the wall and were adorned by Roman deity-looking statue heads.

  Seating in the form of lounge furniture, such as chaises made of metal and clear plastic, were padded with throw pillows made of rich silk fabrics to bring an old world charm. All of the seating faced a circular stage in the center of the room that looked to be made of stone, but held piles of floor pillows on it. The odd combination confused her. Why in the world would you have a stage with mountains of floor pillows? As Jenna stepped further into the room and closer to the stage, the answer came to her in the form of a smell that caused her entire body to flush in awareness and mortification.

  Sex.

  The room reeked of it. Casting a new eye around, it hit her. It was the club’s version of Star Trek meets Roman orgy. Her desire to sit on any chaise, or the stage, immediately vanished. It would take at least a year’s worth of sanitizing wipes scrubbed over every surface of this geeky Greek lover’s throwback to dream lair of lechery before she would even think about sitting down somewhere. Nonchalantly strolling over to one of the walls that held a one sided mirrored window in her sight, she leaned against that instead, crossing her arms over her chest.

  Kent was sitting on a chaise and glaring daggers in her direction. Alec was sprawled across his own chaise, broadcasting vibes of confidence and lazy amusement. Gage sat on his chaise, but had an air of readiness about him. To the casual observer he might look relaxed, but to Jenna, every line of his body radiated the knowledge that he could spring in a second if necessary. Vera finally sauntered in and shut the door, causing all sounds from the club to be silenced. Sound proof rooms. She would have thought it was nifty it weren’t for the fact that she wasn’t stupid. They were sound proofed because it didn’t matter if the people in the rooms were boinking like bunnies or engaged in dealings of the more nefarious nature, the club was oblivious to what was going on in them.

  Alec pillowed one of his arms behind his head and watched her with interest. “So what’s so important we’ve got to discuss it now instead of later, after Kent and I’ve had a little fun?”

  Kent shot her a look of ‘See? I’m not the only one you’re cock blocking.’ Rolling her eyes at the perpetually lascivious men, she chose to ignore her partner and answer the tiger instead.

  “I’m told you know a great deal about those like us, in and around town. Have you been in contact with, or heard about a group of shifters that came in to town looking for trouble?”

  Alec cocked an eyebrow, “I hear about a lot of things, sweetheart. Doesn’t mean I’ll spill about it. Some things are like poker, better to hold your cards close to your chest till you’re ready to make a play. How about you tell me what you’re looking for and I’ll let you know if it involves anything I know about?”

  Jenna glanced to Kent for his two cents on the matter, but he just shrugged his shoulders in a ‘why not’ gesture.

  Tigers were turning out to be more trouble than they were worth. Looking back to Alec she huffed, “Did you see that bit in the news about the hostage situation at the restaurant?”

  When he nodded, she continued, “Well the group involved were shifters, all eight of them. The thing is, the tattoos on their bodies tie them to a pack out of town, which has a track record for sticking to the laws and immense wealth. So this kind of scenario should have never happened. We’re try
ing to understand their motive. Did they go rogue? Were they kicked out of the pack? We need to know if they acted on their own or if this was pack sanctioned and we should expect further problems. At the moment, we’re trying to collect as much information as possible before we contact their pack leader to come claim the bodies.”

  Alec was no longer looking at her, but examining his nails instead. His lackadaisical attitude could quickly grate on her last nerve.

  “Why would any information like that be important to a lowly hybrid on a SWAT team?”

  Jenna snarled, “I’d like to know how you and your brother know I’m a hybrid without me telling you? I’ve never met either one of you a day in my life, and I just moved to town, so it can’t be that you know me personally. Where’d you get that information?”

  Both tiger brothers moved as if connected by invisible strings, touching their fingertips to their noses, before dropping their hands again. Alec remained quiet while Gage spoke quietly, “We’ve met a couple of hybrid shifters in our travels. You have a unique scent compared to full blooded shifters in the fact that your smell is often understated. For someone who knows what they’re looking for, hybrids are easy to spot. Lucky for you, most don’t know what they’re looking for.”

  She watched the two warily. It aggravated her wolf to know that there were those who could tell what she was by her smell. How many others would be able to know what she was so easily? It sucked that her apprehension was so thick that even the demon could pick up on it.

  “I’ve known these men for a long time, Jenna. I can guarantee that you don’t have to worry about them betraying your secret. But if it would make you feel better, I’ll put it to you like this: tell them who your Uncle is and I guaran-damn-tee you that your identity will be as safe as if you’d had the knowledge physically locked up at Fort Knox.”

  Understanding dawned. It wasn’t something she could spread far and wide yet, but the fact that her Uncle Owen was Pack Master of the United States would make many people nervous to cross her in fear of gaining her Uncle’s ire.

  “Well, that will give you the answer to your question then, tiger. This lowly SWAT officer is not the one curious for the information. It’s my Uncle who’s sent me to find out what I can. Pack Master Owen Davies. Now do you have anything to share?”

  When their facial expressions never even moved, she had to hand it to them. Apparently both tigers were good at what Alec called, ‘keeping their cards close to their vest’, because not a single facial muscle moved but she could smell their surprise. There was certainly no way around blocking that unless you wore a gallon worth of cheap whore’s perfume or went running around the room with one of those nasty smelling aerosol air fresheners.

  Alec started tapping a fingertip against his bottom lip. After a pregnant pause he pursed his lips, his eyes narrowing in calculation, “I do have something for him, but I’d like to talk with him myself about it.” When Jenna opened her mouth to object, he threw his hand up in the air to stop her protestations, “Don’t take it personally, sweetheart. It’s not that I think you can’t pass along a message, it’s more like this is something that I think he should hear from me instead.”

  Kent tsked, “It’s more like you want to secure an IOU from the powerful Davies. Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, Alec.”

  Alec shrugged, “If Davies doesn’t deem the information worthy of a favor, then he won’t grant one. I’d be stupid not to try and bag something like that for a rainy day though.”

  There was no need to finagle with Alec. He was unquestionably right. If Uncle Owen didn’t deem his information worthy of an IOU, then he wouldn’t give him one. Pulling out her cell phone, she called her Uncle, updated him on what she had, and therefore what she didn’t have, and asked him how he would like to proceed. When he stated that she and Kent should bring the two tigers out to Adam’s house, Alec and Gage shot her decidedly smug feline grins. They were definitely cat-with-the-cream looks, except in their human forms it came across in panty-melting form instead.

  When she hung up her phone she couldn’t help but ask, “Why do you two look so happy about heading out to pack lands filled with nothing but wolves?”

  Once again they became the connected with strings, moving twin statues as they both held up their right hands with two fingers sticking up on each.

  Gage said, “Two reasons.”

  Alec said, “One: We’ve never been to the McPhee Pack lands, and well, we’re curious.”

  Gage continued, “Two: She-wolves are some lusty bitches. We’re hoping to snag some tail.”

  Completely disgusted with the two, she planted her hands on her hips and barked, “I’d tell you both that you’re despicable, and that I hope your dicks fell off, but I think I’ll hold out for a more likely possibility.”

  The brothers said simultaneously, “What?”

  Jenna gave them a feral grin, “For curiosity to kill the cats.”

  Chapter Ten

  The ride in Kent’s car to the McPhee Pack lands outside of Wilmington was downright chilly. Not chilly because of the temperature drop outside, it was a balmy 75 degrees outside on a beautiful June night. No, the arctic blast was coming from her partner’s freeze out. He hadn’t spoken a word to her since the club, and she doubted he would even open his mouth to yell for help if she suddenly combusted in flames. Jenna briefly wondered if she should apologize for pulling him away from the attempt to contract Chlamydia, but decided that if she started excusing his slutty behavior now then he would try and use it as a free pass for all future attempts at it, as well. He should get use to her being the walking, talking version of the common sense he apparently lacked.

  Kent parked in the driveway in front of Adam’s house, with the tigers parking their black Chevrolet Suburban behind them. As they all exited their respective vehicles the door to the house opened and Clay walked out with Amy, who looked down right excited about something. She thought it might be the hooker-esque outfit since Clay got an appreciative look on his face and an amused tilt to his mouth. Even Amy seemed to check out the tank top and mini skirt paired with her motorcycle boots in an envious manner. However, the level of enthusiasm Amy was emitting seemed to be pointed in her direction, not her clothes, which made Jenna nervous. The gorgeous red head was all but bouncing on the balls of her feet in glee, so something was certainly up. That realization made her sigh in resignation. Jenna didn’t need anything else to be up. In fact, she very much needed everything around her to start going in the opposite direction of up and be more down. Relaxed. Less hectic. One’s life could get turned upside down only so many times in one month before you flipped your internal crazy switch and went totally gun-totin’, put me in a strait jacket, homicidal bitch on the rampage on people.

  As they crossed the yard towards the pair waiting at the front door, a breeze blew past Jenna and towards the house’s direction. Almost immediately Amy’s eyes widened, she paled a bit, and Clay’s eyebrows snapped down in a semi-murderous look. By the time she was standing in front of them, Amy was nibbling on her bottom lip nervously, and Jenna was darn confused by their reactions.

  “Hey. Where’s Uncle Owen?”

  Clay motioned towards the house with his head, still scowling, “Follow me.”

  They went into the house and through the living room that she had stood half naked in just earlier that day, past the living room and up the stairs to the second floor that she’d yet to see. When they cleared the top stair, Jenna caught the scent of her Uncle nearby. She could have found him now on her own if she’d chosen to, but opted to stay behind Clay instead. Making their way through a hallway with cream colored walls and wooden trim to match the hard wood floors, she glanced at the family pictures hanging on the walls as they passed by them. There were numerous shots of a much younger Adam and Amy posing with two people she was guessing to be their parents, and tons of other individuals who were all probably distant family or pack members. All of the pictures were happy and quaint, and made this
seem more like a home instead some of the sterile houses she’d been in while on the job. Looking at all of these images, the way everything seemed lovingly decorated, you knew this was more than a roof and walls to the owners. It was their haven.

  At the second door to the end of the hallway, they stepped into a room with a long rectangular conference table, at which her Uncle sat at the head of, with her brother sitting to his right hand side. He motioned for Jenna to sit in the empty chair at his left. Jenna and Clay had been the first two through the entrance to the room, and as she made her way to the seat indicated by her Uncle, she watched his head snapped back towards the door so severely that it was a miracle he hadn’t given himself whiplash. Curious as to what caused him to react that way; she glanced back to the doorway just as Vera sauntered through it.

  In less than the blink of an eye, her Uncle was on his feet, across the room, and standing in front of Vera, bringing the back of her hand to his lips for a kiss. He moved so quickly that he had disturbed papers sitting on a desk just a few feet away from the table he’d been sitting at, and now they were floating towards the floor as if they were settling back down after a mini tornado.

  His voice was raspy after he kissed her skin, lingering longer than necessary, then he murmured, “My sweet, it has been too long since you’ve graced me with your presence.”

  Vera blushed. From the looks of shock on her grandson’s faces, this was not something she did often, if ever. She purred back to Owen, “Have you missed me, moy strong wolf?”

  Uncle Owen never let go of her hand. Instead, he used it to pull her closer to him so that they stood touching from toes to chests, his hand holding hers over his heart, their noses and mouths practically brushing each other’s. The scent of their lust permeated the room in such a cloying manner that Logan snorted in disgust and actually walked over to one of the windows, opening it to let in fresh air.