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already know we exist but might have a skewed view of who we all are, I wanted
to give you the other side of the picture. Not all of us deserve to have a
target on our foreheads and we despise the profiling propaganda campaign that
the vampires so effectively launched after that recent war. But regardless of
how we've been depicted, we're not all monsters. Besides, what you'll need to
worry about is the rumor that your kind is trying to get their hands on
lab-created demon-infected toxin, so they can introduce it to a wider
audience."
What? And what did he mean by "your kind"? Did he mean people infected with
the virus? The military? Oh, shit&
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Shogun walked away and punched a huge section of brick out of the wall. "We
got the other demon-infected werewolf that escaped here, in the southlands.
But I'd swear on my mother the vampires had a hand in releasing the threat
years ago, as they might have now. I cannot prove it, but my gut tells me this
is so. It gives them an open hunting license against us each time a
demon-infected is spotted. And, as you can imagine, more than the one or two
escaped, infected werewolves get assassinated. It's the vampires' shrewd way
of controlling our numbers, culling our packs, and reducing our ranks with
full multientity sanction and that's why outright war broke out decades ago."
She didn't know if there was any way to get her trusted source inside the
military, Doc, to absorb all this, nor was she sure it was accurate. There'd
have to be more proof, even though it was one hell of a story. She needed
something more to go on before they draped this on the brass and asked the
entire Black Ops mission to stand down& something beyond Shogun's mere word.
But the fact that he'd transformed from clean shaven to not, right before her
eyes, but hadn't flipped into a nightmare, gave her some trust. Still, in the
preternatural world, just like the human one, nobody did anything without a
damned good reason. The key thing she needed to know now, after he'd shared
all this significant intel, was what was in it for him.
"What do you want from me?" she said, her tone earnest.
He stopped pacing and stared at her. "Short term or long term?"
"Both."
"Come inside," he said. His voice was raw and quiet. "The building is
deceptive& there's beautiful caverns beneath it, furnished by thousands of
years of Silk Road caravans. Be my guest for as long as you'd like& whatever
you'd like to eat can be procured."
There was no way in the freakin' world. "Long term," she said.
"An alliance," he murmured, clearly disappointed.
Sasha said nothing.
Shogun sighed. "I wish you would trust me for just a few hours, then, Sasha,"
he said in a quiet rumble. His intense gaze raked her in a hot sweep that
lingered on her mouth for a moment and then captured her eyes. He started down
the steps. "You cannot tell me you do not feel the moon's fullness still pent
up within you demanding release. Last night other matters prevailed for both
of us& we hunted but did not conclude the beauty of the moon's promise. I can
feel your wolf struggling& her breaths so shallow. Do not give that vampire
bastard credit for what is natural among our kind."
So he thought she was a natural-born werewolf. Interesting that he couldn't
sense otherwise.
Shogun reached the bottom of the stairs. He reached out and brushed the pad of
his thumb over her mouth.
Sasha stepped back. "Now, wait a min "
Suddenly he closed the gap between them, pulling her tight against him. He
nuzzled her hair as his hands slid down her shoulders and then lower and
lower.
Sasha was just about to flip him when a cold dash of water from somewhere
above solved her dilemma. She jumped back with a yelp, dripping water. Also
soaked, Shogun spun around and took one lunge and leapt up to the landing,
furious. A female was hanging out one of the upper windows gesturing violently
and shouting in Korean. Sasha didn't need to understand her to know that she
was cursing Shogun and his two-timing ways. Shogun shouted back at her in
Korean then turned to look down at her.
"Don't leave," he said, breathing in short bursts between his words. "It's not
what you think."
Sasha nodded. "It never is," she muttered, and then simply waited for him to
go inside to address his household issues before folding away into the
neighborhood fabric and disappearing.
CHAPTER 2
Somewhere along the border of Afghanistan&
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Nothing in all his twenty-two years of living had prepared Woods for what he
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