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The emotion in her voice was clear for anyone to hear, and hopefully it would help sway Jaxson in my favor.
He smacked a hand against the steering wheel as he growled low and muttered something under his breath.
“Fine. But, Cujo, you’re in lock-up until I can check out your information and get this Joaquin up here to collect your ass. I won’t have you roaming my territory unsupervised. And I’ll be calling him, not you.”
With a quick nod I sat back, trying to relax. A short time in lock-up. I hoped I could hold it together that long.
Hoped Joaquin would not only remember who the fuck I was, but would agree to take me in. Fuck, I hated when I had to rely on others for anything, especially when the stakes were this high. I much preferred to have to only rely on myself. After all, I was the only one I could fucking trust to not screw me over.
Lily-Rose
A loud bang had me jolting to attention. Surely my piece of shit father hadn’t come to bail me out already? Normally, he’d make me wait at least until the next morning. Moron thought it was making me suffer by leaving me here. Little did he know, I preferred a night in here to the alternative of being out in the world where he controlled every aspect of my life.
I hoped he never found out because he delighted in taking whatever it was away from me and crushing all of my dreams. Long ago, I learned to keep everything tightly locked down.
Deputy Jaxson Salvador entering the cell block before morning wouldn’t ordinarily have me coming to full attention, except the large wolf shifter was struggling to drag a man who had to be as big, if not bigger than him, into the cell next to mine. As soon as the deputy swung the man around so he faced me, our gazes locked and everything in me stilled. His eyes were unlike anything I’d ever seen before—ice blue with silver threads through the blue. The instant effect he had on me was as shocking as the time I’d snuck away and gone night swimming at the beach and a huge wave had come out of nowhere and crashed over me. Just like that night, this stranger’s mere presence took my breath away with a gasp.
He’d also stilled when our gazes clashed, and that allowed the deputy to finally wrangle him inside the cell. The clank of the door shutting had his eyes widening before he spun toward the sound. His skin rippled, revealing he was a shifter and was not coping well with being confined. By the time he slammed against the locked door, he was a giant wolf, larger than any other wolf shifter I’d ever seen. With a growl that had the hair on my body standing up, he continued to slam his huge form against the bars, rattling everything near him.
My own inner animal, an ocelot, wanted to reach out to him, to soothe the beast, but my self-preservation instincts were stronger than my ocelot’s need to calm whoever this guy was.
“Fuck. Guess you weren’t exaggerating what would happen, huh?” With a shake of his head, the deputy reached up to the wall and grabbed a tranq gun that sat there for just this situation. Without any hesitation, he pointed and shot two darts into the wolf, who was still going crazy trying to knock out the bars.
The deputy ignored the wolf and turned his focus to me. All the officers here were nice to me. They knew who held my leash and that he forced me into the prostitution that got me occasionally arrested. I think they’d worked out that I preferred a night here to out on the street, even if it got me a beating the next day in payment for screwing up and costing him money – both in lost revenue and the fine he’d have to pay to cut me loose. This deputy in particular, Jaxson Salvador, was a good man. Part of the Timber Cove Wolves MC, he was also a wolf shifter. His family ran the motorcycle shop here in town and early on, he’d tried to convince me to choose a different path for my life. Not that I ever had a choice in the matter. But I appreciated the gesture all the same.
“That should keep him out till at least morning. We’ll keep an eye on the cameras to make sure he doesn’t do anything that could endanger you.”
I nodded but stayed curled up on the far side of my cell, far away from the stranger who’d morphed from watching me calmly to a rampaging beast in seconds. They could tell me he was going to stay out cold all they liked, but I was still going to be cautious all the same. “Thanks, Deputy.”
With a small smile, he turned and left me alone with the beast. At the sound of my voice, the wolf turned from the door and staggered over toward the bars that separated our cells. He was obviously having trouble focusing as his gaze scanned my cell, searching for me. Just as he located me, his big body crashed to the floor and he let out a pitiful sounding whine. His tongue hung out the side of his mouth, making him almost appear friendly. The silver threaded through his ice blue irises was glowing now and they held me mesmerized as he watched me for a few moments before with another whine, his lids closed and his entire body relaxed into unconsciousness.
Lifting my right hand, I started chewing on the nail of my middle finger. It was a nervous habit I’d never been able to kick, and one that drove my father crazy because apparently my torn-up nails made me less marketable. I rolled my eyes at that thought. Like the Johns I was forced to entertain gave a fuck about my nails. They cared if I could fuck, that was all. Sure, most of them appreciated my long, white-blonde hair and my clear, steel-blue irises that were ringed in black. They certainly appreciated my agility and abilities… but not one of them had ever commented on my short nails or ragged skin around the cuticles from where I’d bitten at them constantly.
“Go to him. He needs us.”
Seemed like my ocelot had taken a liking to this beast of a shifter.
“He could hurt us,” I murmured back to her.
My cat shook her head. “He’ll protect us. He’s ours.”
She’d lost her damn mind. Why on earth would this stranger want to protect me? He seemed rather feral and maybe even deranged. After waiting a few minutes to be sure he was going to stay knocked out, I began to move from my position. Slowly, I crept across the cell toward where he was laying close to the bars. Thanks to the stupid, magic-infused leather bracelets my father had locked onto both my wrists, I couldn’t shift, but my ocelot was still within me, gifting me with her heightened senses.
Crouching down to get close to him, I inhaled and froze when, purring, my ocelot shook out her spotted coat before rolling over to expose her belly. What the hell was wrong with her? Tentatively, I reached through the bars and with a single finger, touched his fur. Sparks flew up my arm and I snatched my hand back. That reaction was definitely both unfamiliar and unexpected, but it hadn’t been entirely unpleasant.
After rubbing my arm to dispel the sparks, I moved to sit on the concrete near him. Something deep inside me wouldn’t allow me to pull away now that I was close. Was this a shifter thing? My mother was the only shifter I’d known well enough to ask questions, but she’d never spoken to me about our animal side. My asshole father had put the magical bracelets on her too, restricting both of us from being able to shift. The way my mother, Mary-Lou, chose to deal with it was to pretend that side of her didn’t exist, but I loved my ocelot. She was often my only friend and comfort, especially after Mom was gone. I hated how sad she became that she couldn’t come out and run free, but since I’d only ever shifted the one time when I was young, I barely remembered what it was like. I hoped she couldn’t remember either. That it made it easier for her to bear being stuck within my human body all the time.
“Touch him. Connect us.”
“Why?” I whispered the word, not wanting to risk disturbing the wolf.
“He’s our mate. We are meant to be connected.”
“Mate? Oh, hell no.”
“Oh, yes. He will free us. Keep us safe.”
She pranced around in a circle in my mind, her ears up and tail swishing in excitement, even as my heart began to pound within my chest. My human side did not share my cat’s enthusiasm. Nope, that part was freaking the fuck out. A mate? I knew nothing about what that meant. And he was huge, both as a man and wolf. He could crush me with barely a thought. This couldn’t be good.
