Chapter 9

THE NEXT DAY

( FUHAL)

Cian Foxwick wasn't a man to do things by half, and when he threw a party everyone stumbled into bed completely stoned at dawn,add that to the fact that everyone was a pack of nocturnal wolves, and no one stirred till 2:00pm the next day, by then Fuhal was halfway to LA and there was a note on his father's door, telling him he had gone on yet another one of his camping trips in the woods.

By the time, Segal and the other pack soldiers had finally found their way to the fields for the day's training, all six foot three, two hundred and forty pounds of Fuhal Kelman was sitting in a darkened bar, glaring daggers at the man sitting across from him.

" Cut the crap Dante." Fuhal says, leaning forward and forcing the other man to recoil. " You know exactly where she is, and you're going to tell me right now."

" I can't." The other man whimpered, picking up his glass and taking a long slurp of his drink.

" Ahhhh." Fuhal sighed, leaning back in his chair.

" Now we're getting somewhere, your story just keeps changing, doesn't it?" He quipped.

" Please," Dante pleaded, raising his hands in supplication. " I can't tell you anything, just let me leave."

Leaning forward again, Fuhal placed his elbows on the table and looked into the smaller man's eyes.

" Tell me where she is, Dante, all I'll be out of your hair." He said with more calm than he felt.

" I can't." Dante whimpered, his eyes glowing with unshed tears. " He's not a man I can cross." He added.

" He has friends in high places."

" So do I," Fuhal told him.

" Fine." Dante cried, raising his hands in capitulation.

Reaching across the table, he snatched Fuhal's drink out of his hands, poured it into his glass,

and guzzled it down before returning his attention to Fuhal.

" His name is Spence Robbins," he said in a low voice, glancing furtively around as he spoke. He sounded spooked, like a demon was going to come gobble up his soul if he spoke out loud.

" Some say his father was a demon, others say his mother was a witch." Dante continues.

" I don't know if either theories are true, but he sure can be scary when he chooses to." He finishes.

Fuhal takes a couple of minutes to digest before asking, " What does this Spence Robbins want with Shandy?

" He didn't give me a memo." Dante replies.

" I know this much though." He continues, raising a hand as he speaks.

" He's after the Foxwicks and he believes she'll lead him to them." He adds.

" But she hasn't been in contact with the Foxwicks for more than a decade.". Fuhal says confusedly.

"I assume he isn't aware of that," Dante quips.

"Take me to him." Fuhal demands.

Dante jumps so hard he nearly falls off his chair.

" I don't know where to find him." He says a little too hurriedly for it to be true. " Yes you do." Fuhal informs him in a deadly calm voice.

" And you'll take me to him," he added.

" You don't understand." Dante whimpers. " He'll kill me."

" Not if I kill you first," Fuhal tells him.

Dante sighs and raises his hand to signal for another drink.

SPENCE'S CABIN

( SPENCE)

Against his better judgement, Spence finds himself believing the woman.

No one can lie that well, not under pressure.

He's nearly convinced himself that she really is who she says she is.

" She's a Foxwick." The sceptical part of his brain insists on reminding him.

" They're probably taught the art of deception right from their cradles." It continues.

" She sounds too earnest to be lying," he mutters, neatly stacking the dishes he's been washing and wiping his hands on a dish toilet before picking up the bottle of beer he left on the counter and walking into the living area of the cabin.

Walking through the living area and the open front door to stand on the front porch. Raising the bottle to his lips, he took a large sip.... and froze.

Right in front of him, not more than ten paces from his front door, stood the largest wolf he had ever seen.

With fur as dark as midnight, it was easily half a dozen hands tall with a body as huge and thick as the back end of a car and legs that looked strong enough to bring down trees with a single kick, it was easily the strongest wolf he had ever met. With red eyes that glowed like little balls of fire in the darkness,it was a scary-looking beast that confronted Spence in his own front yard.

Another man, a normal man, would have taken to his heels by now, or at least gone back into the cabin and locked the door behind him.

Spence, however, had never considered himself a normal man, and rather take a run or lock himself in the cabin, he went down the steps to confront the wolf.

" What do you want?" He asked.

Even before the words were out of his mouth, the wolf had risen on his hind legs and shifted into a huge man with bulging biceps in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

" Bring the girl to me." He growled.

" What a big guy?'' Spence asked, deliberately slurring his words.

" Are you too drunk to notice you're at the wrong house?" He asked patronizingly.

" Do. Not. Make. Me. Repeat. Myself." Big Guy snarled at him.

Another man would have been cowering under the stare he levelled at him.

But Spence had never been one to give room to fear, or spinelessness, as he called it, even if the other guy was more than twice his size and looked like he ate frying pans for breakfast.

" I'm not here to banter with you, Robbins." Big guy snarled. " Bring me the girl and I just might let you live." He added.