Blood Red Moon

Tawny Fairweather’s heart dropped as she stared hard at the brick wall before her. She’d taken a wrong turn. How was that possible? She knew these streets like the back of her paw. And yet, here she was about to be trapped any second by a gang of wolves whose collective IQ couldn’t have been more than her shoe size. What they lacked in intelligence, however, they made up for tenfold with rage and a knack for violence. She’d fleeced their Beta for more money in one go than she made hustling the streets in a whole year. That had been three weeks ago and they had finally caught up with her when one of them spotted her coming out of a pawn shop nowhere near their territory’s boundary line. She certainly wasn’t stupid. Definitely not enough to be anywhere within the realm of coincidentally crossing paths with these rubes. Which meant they’d been looking for her. Which meant they had, in fact, not forgotten the 50,000 dollars she had taken right from under their noses. Or more realistically their mattresses. But come on, who still hides things under their mattress? It was practically begging to be taken and it might as well have been her who benefited. It appeared they may not have been as stupid as she had originally thought though because instead of outing themselves right then, they’d followed her. She’d been on her way back home from the grocery store with plans for dinner and a movie when she realized with a sinking feeling that she was being followed. Trying to calm her rapidly beating heart, knowing they would hear it if they got too close, she pulled out her phone and pretended to check her hair with the camera. The rest of her insides sank to her feet as she realized who it was who’d made her. These guys had a well earned reputation for brutality, even if they couldn’t spell the word. Picking up her pace just slightly, so as not to alert them to her fear, she made a series of quick turns down a side street and as soon as she was out of sight began sprinting. Light-footed as she was, the narrow walls echoed her footsteps and pretty soon echoed the running steps of her pursuers. Left and right and right again she ran, until suddenly, there she was with that damned brick wall staring hard back at her. This was it. There was no way out this time. Turning around, deciding quickly that if she was to meet her maker, damned if she wasn’t gonna take one or two of them with her. Extending the claws on both her hands and letting her fangs drop, Tawny turned around just as the six of them rounded the corner down the long alleyway. “Long time, no see, b***h. Where’s my money?” Their Alpha Graham seethed, “I’m still gonna beat your ass, but if you give it up and beg real nice I might just let you live.” “Over my dead body, nimrod.” He didn’t even have the brains to look insulted as he smiled, “Can do.” Her stomach tightened as they began advancing down the narrow space. “Well, Sam, lookit what we have here. I don’t recall inviting strays to do business in my city, do you?”